SUSELinuxTOOLBOX

1000+ Commands for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise

Christopher NegusFranois Caen

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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SUSELinuxTOOLBOX

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SUSELinuxTOOLBOX

1000+ Commands for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise

Christopher NegusFranois Caen

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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SUSE Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for openSUSE and SUSE Linux EnterprisePublished byWiley Publishing, Inc.10475 Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46256www.wiley.com

Copyright 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-08292-8Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the publisher.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted underSections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of thePublisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center,222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permis-sion should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis,IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warrantieswith respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties,including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created orextended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable forevery situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal,accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent pro-fessional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising here-from. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source offurther information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization orWebsite may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websiteslisted in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Departmentwithin the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission.SUSE and openSUSE are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated withany product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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www.wiley.com

As always, I dedicate my work on this book to my wife, Sheree.

Christopher Negus

I dedicate this book to the UnderLUG crew.

Franois Caen

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About the AuthorsChristopher Negus is the author of the best-selling Fedora and Red Hat Linux Bibles,Linux Toys, Linux Troubleshooting Bible, and Linux Bible 2007 Edition. He is a member ofthe Madison Linux Users Group. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Chris servedfor eight years on development teams for the Unix operating system at AT&T, whereUnix was created and developed. He also worked with Novell on Unix developmentand Caldera Linux.

Franois Caen, through his company Turbosphere LLC, hosts and manages businessapplication infrastructures, with 95 percent running on Linux systems. As an opensource advocate, he has lectured on OSS network management and Internet services,and served as president of the Tacoma Linux User Group. Franois is a Red HatCertified Engineer (RHCE). In his spare time, Franois enjoys managing enterpriseCisco networks.

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CreditsAcquisitions EditorJenny Watson

Development EditorSara Shlaer

Technical EditorThomas Blader

Copy EditorMichael Koch

Editorial ManagerMary Beth Wakefield

Production ManagerTim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group PublisherRichard Swadley

Vice President and Executive PublisherJoseph B. Wikert

Project Coordinator, CoverLynsey Osborn

CompositorLaurie Stewart, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

ProofreaderKathryn Duggan

IndexerMelanie Belkin

Anniversary Logo DesignRichard Pacifico

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Contents at a GlanceChapter 1: Starting with SUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1Chapter 2: Installing openSUSE and Adding Software . . . . . . . .11Chapter 3: Using the Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41Chapter 4: Working with Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59Chapter 5: Manipulating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79Chapter 6: Playing with Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97Chapter 7: Administering File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111Chapter 8: Backups and Removable Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139Chapter 9: Checking and Managing Running Processes . . . . . .155Chapter 10: Managing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173Chapter 11: Managing Network Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . .195Chapter 12: Accessing Network Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215Chapter 13: Doing Remote System Administration . . . . . . . . .235Chapter 14: Locking Down Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251Appendix A: Using vi or Vim Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265Appendix B: Shell Special Characters and Variables . . . . . . . .273Appendix C: Getting Information from /proc . . . . . . . . . . . . . .277Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283

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Contents

Acknowledgments xixIntroduction xxi

Chapter 1: Starting with SUSE 1

About SUSE, Novell, and Linux 2Comparing SUSE to Other Linux Versions 2Finding SUSE Resources 3

Focusing on Linux Commands 4Finding Commands 5Command Reference Information in SUSE 6

Summary 10

Chapter 2: Installing openSUSE and Adding Software 11

Installing openSUSE 11Preparing to Install 12Choosing Installation Options 12Answering Installation Questions 15

Working with Software Packages 18Getting Software Packages with YaST 19Adding and Updating Software with YaST 20Using zypper to Manage Software 23

Working with zypper Repositories 24Searching for Software with zypper 27Installing and Removing Software with zypper 31

Managing Software with RPM 33Installing a Package with rpm 34Upgrading a Package with rpm 34Removing a Package with rpm 35Querying Information about RPM Packages 35Verifying Installed Packages with rpm 38Building RPMs from SRPMs 39Extracting Files from RPMs 40

Summary 40

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Contents

Chapter 3: Using the Shell 41

Terminal Windows and Shell Access 41Using Terminal Windows 41Using Virtual Terminals 43

Using the Shell 44Using Bash History 44Using Command Line Completion 45Redirecting stdin and stdout 46Using alias 49Watching Commands 50Watching Files 50

Acquiring Superuser Power 50Using the su Command 50Delegating Power with sudo 51

Using Environment Variables 52Creating Simple Shell Scripts 54

Editing and Running a Script 54Adding Content to Your Script 54

Summary 58

Chapter 4: Working with Files 59

Understanding File Types 59Using Regular Files 59Using Directories 61Using Symbolic and Hard Links 61Using Device Files 62Using Named Pipes and Sockets 63

Setting File and Directory Permissions 63Changing Permissions with chmod 64Setting the umask 66Changing Ownership 66

Traversing the File System 67Copying Files 68Changing File Attributes 70Searching for Files 71

Finding Files with locate 72Locating Files with find 72

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Contents

Using Other Commands to Find Files 75Finding Out More About Files 75

Listing Files 75Verifying Files 76

Summary 78

Chapter 5: Manipulating Text 79

Matching Text with Regular Expressions 79Editing Text Files 80

Using the JOE Editor 81Using the Pico and nano Editors 84Graphical Text Editors 86

Listing, Sorting, and Changing Text 86Listing Text Files 87Paging Through Text 88Paginating Text Files with pr 88Searching for Text with grep 89Replacing Text with sed 91Translating or Removing Characters with tr 92Checking Differences Between Two Files with diff 93Using awk and cut to Process Columns 95Converting Text Files to Different Formats 96

Summary 96

Chapter 6: Playing with Multimedia 97

Working with Audio 97Playing Music 97Adjusting Audio Levels 99Ripping CD Music 100Encoding Music 101Streaming Music 103Converting Audio Files 105

Transforming Images 106Getting Information about Images 106Converting Images 107Converting Images in Batches 109

Summary 109

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