CTS 2106 - Supplemental Reading Online

Here are some links to a variety of online articles and sample textbook chapters that you may find helpful in developing a broader understanding of course content. You are also encouraged to regularly review the web sites listed on the course page entitled Linux Resources on the Internet. If you consider yourself a Linux novice, read the document entitled Linux Fundamentals.

Many Web documents are stored as Adobe® PDF files. If you are familiar with PDF files and would like to view or print one of them, click the sample chapter title in the table below. If you would like more information about the retrieval and printing of a PDF file, click the link at the end of the first sentence above.

I have listed the supplemental reading items in the order we will cover the chapters in our textbook and grouped them based on the course assessments. As excerpts from other works, they may seem a bit disjointed, but they will also help to fill in some gaps that our author may have left in our textbook. You will have to decide for yourself how far you care to go in following related links on each item. Some of the links connect to entire sites. In this case, you should simply browse the site to get a feeling for what is available there.

Most links ( indicated by [brackets] ) will open their own browser windows. When you are through reading those, just close the new window and resume from this page.

Supplemental Reading for Quiz 1

Chapter 1: Welcome to Linux

[Unix (Linux) Philosophy]
[Control-Escape.Com Linux Guide] (Overall resource - just browse it).
[The Fedora Project Site] (Overall resource - just browse it, particilarly the [Fedora Objectives]).
[The DistroWatch Site] (Overall resource - just browse it).

Supplemental Reading for Quiz 2

Chapter 5: Linux Utilities

[Linux Basics]
[Rute User's Tutorial - Basic Commands]
[Learn UNIX in 10 minutes]
[File management]
[Manipulating Files] (Perhaps a bit beyond our current scope)
[Linux Metacharacters]
and review Linux Keystroke Shortcuts

Appendix A: Regular Expressions

[Regular Expressions and the grep Commands]

Chapter 6: The Linux Filesystem

[Filesystems]
[The Linux (Virtual) File System]
[The Linux File System Hierarchy]
[Overview of the Directory Tree]
[Symbolic and Hard Links]
[How file ownership and permissions work]
[File security]

Chapter 12: Files, Directories, and Filesystem

[The Real Nature of Files: Hard Links and Inode]s
[Partitions, File Systems, Formatting, Mounting]
[Filesystems HOWTO] (Mostly reference information)
[An fstab Overview]
[How to edit and understand /etc/fstab]

Supplemental Reading for Quiz 3

Chapter 7: The Shell

A brief answer to the question "[What's a Shell?]"
To merge a lot of prior content with Chapter 7, read [Learning the shell] (but not the section "Writing shell scripts") at [LinuxCommand.Org]
[The Meaning of Quotes in Bash]
REVIEW: [Linux Metacharacters] and review Linux Keystroke Shortcuts
[Linux Tips on IO Redirection]
There is an excellent overall [Bash Reference Manual on the GNU.Org site]. It covers more than Chapters 7 and 9, but is the best and most straight-forward overall reference on Bash that I have found to date. It is definately worth a browse and should be bookmarked.

Chapter 9: The Bourne Again Shell (bash)

[Bash Guide for Beginners]
[The Linux Terminal - a Beginners' Bash]
[Bash Reference Manual from FAQS.Org]
The ENTIRE [Bash Manual from LowFatLinux.Com] (just browse it)
[Bash Commands - Quick Reference]
[Processes and Environment Variables]
Positional Parameters in bash

Chapter 27: Programming the Bourne Again Shell

[Writing shell scripts] from [LinuxCommand.Org] - a thorough overview
[Bash Shell Programming in Linux] - a brief summary overview
[UNIX / Linux Bourne / Bash Shell Scripting Tutorial] - a step-by-step tutorial
[Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial - A Beginner's handbook] (actually gets a bit deep)
[The Linux Shell] (a summary sheet)

Supplemental Reading for Quiz 4

Chapter 13: Downloading and Installing Software

[Upgrading Software and the Kernel] (includes codex and RPM)

Fedora/RedHat Systems:

Ubuntu/Debian Systems:

Chapter 14: Printing with CUPS

[Traditional UNIX/Linux Printing]
[Linux Printing HOWTO]
[Common UNIX Printing System]
[The Linux Print2Win mini-HOWTO]
Also browse some of the [Samba site] about Integration with Windows:

Chapter 16: Administration Tasks

[Linux System Administration and Configuration]
[Managing User Accounts] and [some additional user management commands]
[System Backup]
[Automated (scheduled) Tasks - using at and cron]
[Log Files and Linux]

Supplemental Reading for Quiz 5

Chapter 10: Networking and the Internet

I have some tutorial Internet web-handouts that you might find useful for general background on Internet and its services that is not specifically related to Linux.
Also read (web) pages 1-4, 8 and 9 of the [Red Hat Linux: Networking and the Internet]

[Linux Network Administrator's Guide] chapters:

[Linux Newbie Administrator FAQ (About Networking)]
[Linux Email Basics] and [More Email Details]