Linux Cookbook

by Carla Schroder

This unique and valuable collection of tips, tools, and scripts provides clear, concise, hands-on solutions that can be applied to the challenges facing anyone running a network of Linux servers from small networks to large data centers in the practical and popular problem-solution-discussion O'Reilly cookbook format.

The Linux Cookbook covers everything you'd expect: backups, new users, and the like. But it also covers the non-obvious...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596006403
• ISBN13: 9780596006402
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 553 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Perfect binding keeps the book open at the desired page

... which comes in real handy considering how often I reference it. Chapter 10 (Patching, Customizing, and Upgrading Kernels) and Chapter 12 (Managing the Bootloader and Multi-Booting) helped me recompile my kernel for the first time. Not only are the instructions clear, but the author also made sure to explain each step so I knew why I was typing a certain command. There's even a section on how to create an initrd image for SCSI drive users, which I had a hard time finding on the web. This book does an excellent job covering all the basics, and it's worth spending the time to read it from beginning to end. I certainly see myself getting a lot of mileage from it.

It was perfect to get me moving on LINUX

I wanted to become more experienced with UNIX so I had the Ubuntu distribution installed in my computer. I spent six months having a hard time getting simple things done until I came accross this book. It is organized in such a way that it is easy to get to do what you want/need and, what's better, the explanations provided give you insights on how UNIX works. After a while, you will find yourself doing new stuff on your own. If you want to get into UNIX but knows little about it my advice for you is: get this book and jump into LINUX - it is worth it!

Great book for command-line administration

First off, this book focuses on RPM-based and Debian-based distributions. This doesnt, by any means, make it useless for those that don't, but some of the "recipes" are specific to either of these. I am not even sure where to begin with my praise of this book, it's got over a dozen sticky notes marking key sections that I find useful. I guess I can start by saying that the author is deeply involved with doing system administration via the command line, which is fantastic news for me! There are plenty of decent GUI tools out there, but when x dies and you're stuck at a command line, using them isn't an option. I feel that if you don't have the knowledge to fix things yourself, at least have a book by your side that offers you some tips, and that is what this book is for. And some people just prefer doing administration via the command line all the time, myself included. The time I most often pull out this book, however, is not when I run into a problem, but when I'm setting up a new system. I don't reinstall often, but when I do there are little things that I often forget how to do, since I do them so infrequently. Things like setting up ssh keys, setting up users and groups, setting up NTP, setting up new fstab. I also found this book useful when I wanted a quick and clean explaination of different filesystems and more information about command line options for CD burning. Also I got some good ideas for backups and local file transfer methods from the chapter on Backup and Recover. Best of all, this book contains a great chapter on kernels. So many books and online how-tos I've seen give you the steps of compiling a kernel, but don't explain what is going on. This always left me feeling like I had no clue what I was doing, and if there was an error I'd have no idea where I'd begin fixing it, since I didn't really know what "make mrproper," for instance, means (side note, she even quickly explains "according to Linux lore" the reasoning behind the name Mr. Proper, a delightful bit of trivia). Now that I've read this chapter on kernels I'm much more comfortable recompiling and customizing my own. She also talks about patching a kernel, which is something I had trouble with for a while, since so much documentation I found and people I asked said "just use patch" which meant nothing to me. An excellent book for the linux user who wants to move away from the GUI and learn more about core, command-line administration. I love it.

Buy two copies and lend one to your friends

Linux Cookbook by Carla Schroder (O'Reilly) I have already lost my copy of this excellent book to my coworkers. This is another great entry to O'Reilly's "Cookbook" series. I have been running and administering Linux for 10 years and I didn't expect too much from this book. I was wrong. It is packed full of useful recipes that are the kind of thing I can never remember and spend ages digging out of documentation when I need them. Two of my favourites so far are how to use Grub to boot your machine when you have toasted your Master Boot Record, and a script to create a "phantom rpm package" that reflects all those libraries on your system that you have compiled and installed from source so that RPM knows about them. The author has clearly had to make some hard decisions about what information to include in here and she has done a great job. The recipes cover the full spectrum of common administrative tasks that have details which are hard to remember. They include tasks such as configuring Samba, Apache, NTP, DNS, printing, mail servers, backups, and user accounts. There is information on installing software for both Debian and RPM based systems, and on rebuilding the kernel and how to patch it. The list goes on; you'll just have to read the book. In short, there are lots of great tips in here that are easy to find and use. Keep this book at hand for all those times when you are asking yourself, "now how do I ... ?"

Terrific Linux Admin Book

Carla Schroder's Linux Cookbook (O'Reilly) is an extremely dense volume packed with valuable information. The author writes with precision and detail and with a conversational style that handles the topic with a wry humor making this book a pleasure to read. The Linux Cookbook is command-line based so some familiarity with a Linux system, the inherent power of using the command-line and the dangers of using root are necessary. The O'Reilly Cookbook series uses a problem/solution/discussion layout to deliver content in a "recipe" format. Schroder provides an extremely thorough compendium of practical solutions to common problems found in the Debian and RPM-based Linux environments. Intended for the beginner to intermediate user, this book also has lots of good nuggets for the advanced Linux systems administrator. The table of contents generously lists each topic covered with enough detail for the reader to quickly pinpoint specific problems of interest. Briefly, topics covered: documentation (man pages, changelogs, etc.); installing and managing software on RPM-based systems and Debian-based systems; detecting hardware; JOE and Vim editors; runlevels and starting and stopping X; managing users and groups; managing files and partitions; patching, customizing and upgrading kernals; CD and DVD recording; managing the bootloader and multi-booting; Knoppix; CUPS; configuring video and managing X Windows; using rsync and Mondo Rescue for backups and creating restore discs; remote access; CVS; ntp; Postfix; Apache; Samba and DNS. O'Reilly is well known for producing high quality books that are beautifully bound and well designed. The layout of this book is simply presented with clear typography with chapter and topic headings easily discernible and command-line sections cleanly delineated. The book opens and stays open to selected pages for ease of use (no "cracking" of bindings allowed or necessary!); most of us like to follow along with a book splayed open next to our keyboard or laptop so it's nice not to have to balance our mug of coffee on one side of the book to prop it open. The Linux Cookbook by Carla Schroder is extremely easy to navigate and very readable thanks to the author's sensible and practical topic selection, clarity of writing and humor. In providing solutions to common problems, Schroder has also managed to disperse valuable advice along the way. Her common sense approach to Linux systems management and administration shines through. The reader gets the benefit of the author's experience in this clearly written and valuable resource to Linux. A bonus is the author's enthusiasm for her topic. This translates into a pleasurable read. Much of this information is scattered across a large number of Websites but having a single competent resource to have at hand makes this book worth owning.