RE: Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux

  • From: Øyvind Lode <oyvind.lode@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:17:53 +0200

And you don't need to worry that much about keeping apache, php, mysql up to
date.
Don't get me wrong though, it's very important to always have the latest
security updates installed.
But that's the nice thing about CentOS, Debian and so on because they all
provide security updates in binary packages ready for you to install.
The most common tool for red hat and then also centos is yum.

Yum is the default package management command on centos/rhel.
Ok, rpm is the package management tool, but yum is the high level tool.

So to keep your system up to date:

$ yum update

Or yum upgrade...

Please forgive me - it's quite some time since I used a Red Hat / RPM
system.

But read the Red Hat docs.
They will teach you all you need about rpm and yum.


-----Original Message-----
From: Øyvind Lode [mailto:oyvind.lode@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: 28. juli 2010 17:07
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux

Yep, the $ was just to indicate a command <smile>
SHELL is all capitals and all environment variables are in caps.
In bash at least.
But tcsh use lower case by default.
Yes, there is a env command and it will of cource list all environment
variables etc.

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Homme, James
Sent: 28. juli 2010 17:00
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux

Hi,
I'm thinking that I don't type in that first $. And is SHELL case sensitive?
Is it a constant? Does Unix have an env command the way DOS does? Sorry for
all the questions.

Jim

Jim Homme,
Usability Services,
Phone: 412-544-1810. Skype: jim.homme
Internal recipients,  Read my accessibility blog. Discuss accessibility
here. Accessibility Wiki: Breaking news and accessibility advice


-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Øyvind Lode
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 10:56 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux

$ echo $SHELL

Will give you the shell which is used.

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Martin Slack
Sent: 28. juli 2010 16:53
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux

  Hi Jim,

  Starting way down your list of questions, I think there is a command to 
say which shell is running, but I can't recall it right now.  I find that if

you enter an unrecognised command, the bash shell starts its error message 
with the word 'bash:'.  If you cat /etc/shells you should get a list of all 
the available shells on your system.  Start reading from there :-)

  hth

  Martin



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Homme, James" <james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 1:36 PM
Subject: Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux


Hi,
On the system I'm using, I don't have the authority to administrate the 
operating system, but I do have the authority, and need to, administrate the

other software on the box that doesn't come with it, so I need to come up to

speed yesterday. You know how that is.

I cracked open the book called Learning The Unix Operating System Fifth 
Edition and started using it to learn basic commands. Among other things, 
two things are tripping me up. First, I'm using Putty. I have it set up 
properly with JAWS, but I'm being driven crazy any time data needs to scroll

the screen because the whole screen is being spoken.

The second thing has to do with knowing what I need to learn. I'm just 
trying to learn what I need to know for now, and branching out from there. 
Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what all that entales. But fortunately, 
I do have some time, because we're just starting to use MySQL and PHP.

So I see three big tasks or things to learn.

* What's involved in administrating Apache, like not letting the logs get 
too big, possibly installing a friendly statistics package, or whatever.
* Setting up daily backups of the changed MySQL database or databases that 
we have.
* Whatever MySQL administration that I have no earthly idea I may need to 
do.
* I'll have to upgrade MySQL at some point.
* I'll have to upgrade PHP at some point.
* I pray that I never have to upgrade Apache.
* Possibly installing some nice, convenient packages like PHPMyAdmin. But 
I'm thinking that like the people who were advocating learning the dirty 
way, I think it's best to probably learn how to do it from command lines so 
that I have total control and really know what's going on.

But I'm starting with basic commands, but at the same time, trying to do my 
first Drupal installation, and I'm in real trouble because of course there's

this deadline.

Back to my UNIX book.

Specifically, I didn't see in the book two things. First, what permissions 
do files and directories automatically get when you create them? Second, I 
used to know a little more about some sort of file in my home directory that

I could put stuff in to customize the environment a little more. I know that

that file has a name that starts with a period. Yet another thing. I'm 
pretty sure that the shell I'm using is called the bash shell, but I don't 
know how to find out. And how does that affect how I work with the system? 
For example, if there's another shell that's better, what is it, what does 
better mean, and how to I turn it on.

Like I was thinking of making aliases for cp and rm that automatically run 
the -i option to keep myself from trashing stuff.

Someone please hold my hand and tell me it'll be all right. <grin>

Jim
Jim Homme,
Usability Services,
Phone: 412-544-1810. Skype: jim.homme
Internal recipients,  Read my accessibility 
blog<http://mysites.highmark.com/personal/lidikki/Blog/default.aspx>. 
Discuss accessibility 
here<http://collaborate.highmark.com/COP/technical/accessibility/default.asp
x>. 
Accessibility Wiki: Breaking news and accessibility 
advice<http://collaborate.highmark.com/COP/technical/accessibility/Accessibi
lity%20Wiki/Forms/AllPages.aspx>


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