A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux [With DVD]

“I have found this book to be a very useful classroom text, as well as a great Linux resource. It teaches Linux using a ground-up approach that gives students the chance to progress with their skills and grow into the Linux world. I have often pointed to this book when asked to recommend a solid Linux reference.”

— Eric Hartwell, Chair, School of Information Technology, ITT Technical Institute

Master All the Techniques You Need to Succeed with Fedora™ or Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®

• The #1 Fedora and RHEL resource—a tutorial AND on-the-job reference
• Master Linux administration and security using the command line, GUI tools, Python, systemd, and firewalld
• Set up key Internet servers, step by step, including Samba, Apache, MariaDB/MySQL, sendmail, OpenSSH, DNS, LDAP, and more
• Brand-new chapter on Virtual Machines and Cloud Computing!

In this comprehensive guide, one of the world’s leading Linux experts brings together all the knowledge and real-world insights you need to master and succeed with today’s versions of Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Best-selling author Mark Sobell explains Linux clearly and effectively, focusing on skills you’ll actually need as a user, programmer, or administrator.

Sobell assumes no prior Linux knowledge. He starts at the beginning and walks you through every topic and task that matters, using easy-to-understand examples. Step by step, you’ll learn how to install and configure Linux from the accompanying DVD, navigate its graphical user interface, provide file/printer sharing, configure network servers, secure Linux desktops and networks, work with the command line, administer Linux efficiently, and automate administration using Python and bash.

Mark Sobell has taught hundreds of thousands of Linux and UNIX professionals. He knows every Linux nook and cranny—and he never forgets what it’s like to be new to Linux. Whatever you want to do with Linux—now or in the future—you’ll find it in this book.

Compared with other Linux books, A Practical Guide to Fedora™and Red Hat®Enterprise Linux ®, Seventh Edition, delivers

• Complete, up-to-the-minute coverage of Fedora 19 and RHEL 7 (beta)
• New programming chapters that cover Python and MariaDB/MySQL, plus a new tutorial on using GnuPG to encrypt communications
• Information on state-of-the-art security: SELinux, ACLs, firewalld (firewall-config and firewall-cmd), iptables (system-config-firewall), GnuPG, and OpenSSH
• New chapter on VMs (virtual machines) and cloud computing, including VMware, QEMU/KVM, virt-manager, virsh, GNOME Boxes, and AWS (Amazon Web Services)
• Expanded command-line coverage, including a new chapter that details 32 important utilities
• Practical information on Internet server configuration, including Apache, sendmail, NFSv4, DNS/BIND, the new LDAP Dynamic Server, and IPv6
• Complete “meat-and-potatoes” information on system/network administration, now including GRUB 2, the XFS filesystem, the new Anaconda Installer, the systemd init daemon, firewalld, and NetworkManager
• Detailed instructions on keeping Linux systems up to date, finding software packages, and working with repositories using yum and rpm
• Full coverage of the LPI Linux Essentials exam objectives plus extensive coverage of the CompTIA Linux+ exam objectives; Appendix E provides a map from objectives to pages in the book
• New coverage of find, sort, xz (compression), free, xargs, and the nano editor
• And much more, including a 500+ term glossary and comprehensive indexes

Includes DVD! Get the full version of the Fedora 19 release!

Praise for Previous Editions of A Practical Guide to Fedora™ and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®

“Since I’m in an educational environment, I found the content of Sobell’s book to be right on target and very helpful for anyone managing Linux in the enterprise. His style of writing is very clear. He builds up to the chapter exercises, which I find to be relevant to real-world scenarios a user or admin would encounter. An IT/IS student would find this book a valuable complement to their education. The vast amount of information is extremely well balanced and Sobell manages to present the content without complicated asides and meandering prose. This is a ‘must have’ for anyone managing Linux systems in a networked environment or anyone running a Linux server. I would also highly recommend it to an experienced computer user who is moving to the Linux platform.”

–Mary Norbury, IT Director, Barbara Davis Center, University of Colorado at Denver, from a review posted on slashdot.org

“I had the chance to use your UNIX books when I when was in college years ago at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA. I have to say that your books are among the best! They’re quality books that teach the theoretical aspects and applications of the operating system.”

–Benton Chan, IS Engineer

“The book has more than lived up to my expectations from the many reviews I read, even though it targets FC2. I have found something very rare with your book: It doesn’t read like the standard technical text, it reads more like a story. It’s a pleasure to read and hard to put down. Did I say that?! :-)”

–David Hopkins, Business Process Architect

“Thanks for your work and for the book you wrote. There are really few books that can help people to become more efficient administrators of different workstations. We hope (in Russia) that you will continue bringing us a new level of understanding of Linux/UNIX systems.”

–Anton Petukhov

“Mark Sobell has written a book as approachable as it is authoritative.”

–Jeffrey Bianchine, Advocate, Author, Journalist

“Excellent reference book, well suited for the sysadmin of a Linux cluster, or the owner of a PC contemplating installing a recent stable Linux. Don’t be put off by the daunting heft of the book. Sobell has striven to be as inclusive as possible, in trying to anticipate your system administration needs.”

–Wes Boudville, Inventor

“A Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux® is a brilliant book. Thank you, Mark Sobell.”

–C. Pozrikidis, University of California at San Diego

“This book presents the best overview of the Linux operating system that I have found. . . . [It] should be very helpful and understandable no matter what the reader’s background: traditional UNIX user, new Linux devotee, or even Windows user. Each topic is presented in a clear, complete fashion and very few assumptions are made about what the reader knows. . . . The book is extremely useful as a reference, as it contains a 70-page glossary of terms and is very well indexed. It is organized in such a way that the reader can focus on simple tasks without having to wade through more advanced topics until they are ready.”

–Cam Marshall, Marshall Information Service LLC, Member of Front Range UNIX Users Group [FRUUG], Boulder, Colorado

“Conclusively, this is THE book to get if you are a new Linux user and you just got into RH/Fedora world. There’s no other book that discusses so many different topics and in such depth.”

–Eugenia Loli-Queru, Editor in Chief, OSNews.com

Praise for Other Books by Mark G. Sobell

“This book is a very useful tool for anyone who wants to ‘look under the hood’ so to speak, and really start putting the power of Linux to work. What I find particularly frustrating about man pages is that they never include examples. Sobell, on the other hand, outlines very clearly what the command does and then gives several common, easy-to-understand examples that make it a breeze to start shell programming on one’s own. As with Sobell’s other works, this is simple, straightforward, and easy to read. It’s a great book and will stay on the shelf at easy arm’s reach for a long time.”

–Ray Bartlett, Travel Writer

“Overall I found this book to be quite excellent, and it has earned a spot on the very front of my bookshelf. It covers the real ‘guts’ of Linux–the command line and its utilities–and does so very well. Its strongest points are the outstanding use of examples, and the Command Reference section. Highly recommended for Linux users of all skill levels. Well done to Mark Sobell and Prentice Hall for this outstanding book!”

–Dan Clough, Electronics Engineer and Slackware Linux User

“Totally unlike most Linux books, this book avoids discussing everything via GUI and jumps right into making the power of the command line your friend.”

–Bjorn Tipling, Software Engineer, ask.com

“This book is the best distro-agnostic, foundational Linux reference I’ve ever seen, out of dozens of Linux-related books I’ve read. Finding this book was a real stroke of luck. If you want to really understand how to get things done at the command line, where the power and flexibility of free UNIX-like OSes really live, this book is among the best tools you’ll find toward that end.”

–Chad Perrin, Writer, TechRepublic

“I currently own one of your books, A Practical Guide to Linux®. I believe this book is one of the most comprehensive and, as the title says, practical guides to Linux I have ever read. I consider myself a novice and I come back to this book over and over again.”

–Albert J. Nguyen

“Thank you for writing a book to help me get away from Windows XP and to never touch Windows Vista. The book is great; I am learning a lot of new concepts and commands. Linux is definitely getting easier to use.”

–James Moritz

“I am so impressed by how Mark Sobell can approach a complex topic in such an understandable manner. His command examples are especially useful in providing a novice (or even an advanced) administrator with a cookbook on how to accomplish real-world tasks on Linux. He is truly an inspired technical writer!”

–George Vish II, Senior Education Consultant, Hewlett-Packard Company

“Overall, I think it’s a great, comprehensive Ubuntu book that’ll be a valuable resource for people of all technical levels.”

–John Dong, Ubuntu Forum Council Member, Backports Team Leader

“The JumpStart sections really offer a quick way to get things up and running, allowing you to dig into the details of the book later.”

–Scott Mann, Aztek Networks

“I would so love to be able to use this book to teach a class about not just Ubuntu or Linux but about computers in general. It is thorough and well written with good illustrations that explain important concepts for computer usage.”

–Nathan Eckenrode, New York Local Community Team

“Ubuntu is gaining popularity at the rate alcohol did during Prohibition, and it’s great to see a well-known author write a book on the latest and greatest version. Not only does it contain Ubuntu-specific information, but it also touches on general computer-related topics, which will help the average computer user to better understand what’s going on in the background. Great work, Mark!”

–Daniel R. Arfsten, Pro/ENGINEER Drafter/Designer

“I read a lot of Linux technical information every day, but I’m rarely impressed by tech books. I usually prefer online information sources instead. Mark Sobell’s books are a notable exception. They’re clearly written, technically accurate, comprehensive, and actually enjoyable to read.”

–Matthew Miller, Senior Systems Analyst/Administrator, BU Linux Project, Boston University Officeof Information Technology

“This is well written, clear, comprehensive information for the Linux user of any type, whether trying Ubuntu on for the first time and wanting to know a little about it, or using the book as a very good reference when doing something more complicated like setting up a server. This book’s value goes well beyond its purchase price and it’ll make a great addition to the Linux section of your bookshelf.”

–Linc Fessenden, Host of The LinuxLink TechShow, tllts.org

“The author has done a very good job at clarifying such a detail-oriented operating system. I have extensive Unix and Windows experience and this text does an excellent job at bridging the gaps between Linux, Windows, and Unix. I highly recommend this book to both ‘newbs’ and experienced users. Great job!”

–Mark Polczynski, Information Technology Consultant

“When I first started working with Linux just a short 10 years or so ago, it was a little more difficult than now to get going. . . . Now, someone new to the community has a vast array of resources available on the web, or if they are inclined to begin with Ubuntu, they can literally find almost every single thing they will need in the single volume of Mark Sobell’s A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux®. 

“I’m sure this sounds a bit like hyperbole. Everything a person would need to know? Obviously not everything, but this book, weighing in at just under 1200 pages, covers so much so thoroughly that there won’t be much left out. From install to admin, networking, security, shell scripting, package management, and a host of other topics, it is all there. GUI and command line tools are covered. There is not really any wasted space or fluff, just a huge amount of information. There are screen shots when appropriate but they do not take up an inordinate amount of space. This book is information-dense.”

–JR Peck, Editor, GeekBook.org

“I have been wanting to make the jump to Linux but did not have the guts to do so–until I saw your familiarly titled A Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux® at the bookstore. I picked up a copy and am eagerly looking forward to regaining my freedom.”

–Carmine Stoffo, Machine and Process Designer to pharmaceutical industry

“I am currently reading A Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux® and am finally understanding the true power of the command line. I am new to Linux and your book is a treasure.”

–Juan Gonzalez

“Overall, A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux® by Mark G. Sobell provides all of the information a beginner to intermediate user of Linux would need to be productive. The inclusion of the Live DVD of the Gutsy Gibbon release of Ubuntu makes it easy for the user to test-drive Linux without affecting his installed OS. I have no doubts that you will consider this book money well spent.”

–Ray Lodato, Slashdot contributor, www.slashdot.org

Mark Sobell's books have earned a reputation as the most thorough and up-to-date guides to installing, configuring, and working with Linux. They've become legendary for their versatility as both tutorials and references, making them ideal for both entry-level and more advanced readers. As always, Sobell teaches both the "hows" and the "whys" - and readers will find answers and solutions faster than ever, thanks to this edition's completely revamped index system.

Now fully updated for both Fedora Core 19 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Sobell's new edition of A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux walks readers through every essential feature and technique they'll need now and for years to come.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Linux 1

The History of UNIX and GNU–Linux 2

Overview of Linux 11

Choosing an Operating System 19

Chapter Summary 21

Exercises 21

Part I: Installing Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 23

Chapter 2: Installation Overview 25

Conventions Used in This Book 26

LPI and CompTIA Certification Icons 28

More Information 28

Planning the Installation 29

The Installation Process 44

Downloading an Installation Image File and Writing to/Burning the Installation

Medium 46

Gathering Information About the System 50

Chapter Summary 52

Exercises 53

Advanced Exercises 53

Chapter 3: Step-by-Step Installation 55

The New Anaconda Installer 56

Running a Fedora Live Session 56

Installing Fedora/RHEL 59

Installation Tasks 69

Chapter Summary 86

Exercises 86

Advanced Exercises 86

Part II: Using Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 87

Chapter 4: Introduction to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 89

Curbing Your Power (Superuser/root Privileges) 90

Logging In on the System 90

The GNOME 3 Standard and Classic Desktops 91

Working with the Desktop 97

Using the Nautilus File Manager 102

The Settings Window 107

Getting Help 113

Updating, Installing, and Removing Software Packages 116

Working from the Command Line 119

More About Logging In and Passwords 135

Chapter Summary 138

Exercises 139

Advanced Exercises 140

Chapter 5: The Shell 141

Special Characters 142

Ordinary Files and Directory Files 143

The Command Line 144

Standard Input and Standard Output 151

Running a Command in the Background 163

Filename Generation/Pathname Expansion 165

Builtins 170

Chapter Summary 170

Exercises 171

Advanced Exercises 173

Chapter 6: The Linux Filesystem 175

The Hierarchical Filesystem 176

Ordinary Files and Directory Files 177

Pathnames 181

Working with Directories 183

Access Permissions 191

ACLs: Access Control Lists 198

Links 203

Chapter Summary 209

Exercises 211

Advanced Exercises 212

Chapter 7: The Linux Utilities 215

Basic Utilities 216

Working with Files 224

Compressing and Archiving Files 245

Displaying User and System Information 252

Miscellaneous Utilities 255

Editing Files 262

Chapter Summary 273

Exercises 275

Advanced Exercises 276

Chapter 8: Networking and the Internet 279

Introduction to Networking 280

Types of Networks and How They Work 282

Communicate over a Network 301

Network Utilities 302

Distributed Computing 309

WWW: World Wide Web 319

Chapter Summary 321

Exercises 322

Advanced Exercises 322

Part III: System Administration 325

Chapter 9: The Bourne Again Shell (bash) 327

Background 328

Startup Files 329

Commands That Are Symbols 333

Redirecting Standard Error 333

Writing and Executing a Shell Script 336

Control Operators: Separate and Group Commands 341

Job Control 346

Manipulating the Directory Stack 349

Parameters and Variables 352

Special Characters 366

Locale 368

Time 371

Processes 373

History 376

Aliases 392

Functions 396

Controlling bash: Features and Options 398

Processing the Command Line 403

Chapter Summary 414

Exercises 415

Advanced Exercises 417

Chapter 10: System Administration: Core Concepts 419

Running Commands with root Privileges 422

The systemd init Daemon 438

SysVinit (rc) Scripts: Start and Stop System Services 448

System Operation 448

System Administration Tools 464

Setting Up a Server 481

DHCP: Configures Network Interfaces 491

nsswitch.conf: Which Service to Look at First 495

Getting Help 498

Chapter Summary 498

Exercises 499

Advanced Exercises 500

Chapter 11: Files, Directories, and Filesystems 501

Important Files and Directories 502

File Types 514

Filesystems 519

The XFS Filesystem 527

Chapter Summary 529

Exercises 530

Advanced Exercises 530

Chapter 12: Finding, Downloading, and Installing Software 531

Introduction 532

JumpStart: Installing and Removing Software Packages Using yum 534

Finding the Package That Holds an Application or File You Need 536

yum: Keeps the System Up-to-Date 538

BitTorrent 543

RPM: The RPM Package Manager 546

Installing Non-rpm Software 550

Keeping Software Up-to-Date 552

curl: Downloads Files Noninteractively 553

Chapter Summary 553

Exercises 554

Advanced Exercises 554

Chapter 13: Printing with CUPS 555

Introduction 556

The System Configures a Local Printer Automatically 558

JumpStart I: Configuring a Printer Using system-config-printer 558

JumpStart II: Setting Up a Local or Remote Printer 560

Working with the CUPS Web Interface 565

Configuring Printers 566

Traditional UNIX Printing 573

Printing from Windows 574

Printing to Windows 576

Chapter Summary 577

Exercises 577

Advanced Exercises 578

Chapter 14: Building a Linux Kernel 579

Downloading, Installing, and Prepping the Kernel Source Code 581

Configuring and Compiling the Linux Kernel 584

Installing the Kernel, Modules, and Associated Files 589

GRUB: The Linux Boot Loader 590

dmesg: Displays Kernel Messages 595

Chapter Summary 595

Exercises 596

Advanced Exercises 596

Chapter 15: Administration Tasks 597

Configuring User and Group Accounts 598

Backing Up Files 602

Scheduling Tasks 607

System Reports 611

Maintaining the System 613

Chapter Summary 629

Exercises 630

Advanced Exercises 630

Chapter 16: Configuring and Monitoring a LAN 631

More Information 632

Setting Up the Hardware 632

Configuring the Systems 636

NetworkManager: Configures Network Connections 637

Setting Up Servers 643

Introduction to Cacti 645

Chapter Summary 656

Exercises 656

Advanced Exercises 657

Chapter 17: Setting Up Virtual Machines Locally and in the Cloud 659

VMs (Virtual Machines) 660

QEMU/KVM 663

VMware Player: Installing Fedora on VMware 671

Cloud Computing 676

Chapter Summary 681

Exercises 682

Advanced Exercises 682

Part IV: Using Clients and Setting Up Servers 683

Chapter 18: OpenSSH: Secure Network Communication 685

Introduction to OpenSSH 686

Running the ssh, scp, and sftp OpenSSH Clients 689

Setting Up an OpenSSH Server (sshd) 700

Troubleshooting 706

Tunneling/Port Forwarding 707

Chapter Summary 710

Exercises 710

Advanced Exercises 711

Chapter 19: FTP: Transferring Files Across a Network 713

Introduction to FTP 714

Running the ftp and sftp FTP Clients 716

Setting Up an FTP Server (vsftpd) 724

Chapter Summary 737

Exercises 738

Advanced Exercises 738

Chapter 20: sendmail: Setting Up Mail Servers, Clients, and More 739

Introduction to sendmail 740

Setting Up a sendmail Mail Server 742

JumpStart I: Configuring sendmail on a Client 743

JumpStart II: Configuring sendmail on a Server 744

Working with sendmail Messages 745

Configuring sendmail 748

SpamAssassin 753

Additional Email Tools 758

Authenticated Relaying 764

Chapter Summary 766

Exercises 766

Advanced Exercises 767

Chapter 21: NIS and LDAP 769

Introduction to NIS 770

Running an NIS Client 773

Setting Up an NIS Server 779

LDAP 786

Setting Up an LDAP Server 789

Tools for Working with LDAP 795

Chapter Summary 798

Exercises 799

Advanced Exercises 799

Chapter 22: NFS: Sharing Directory Hierarchies 801

Introduction to NFS 803

Running an NFS Client 805

Setting Up an NFS Server 811

automount: Mounts Directory Hierarchies on Demand 821

Chapter Summary 824

Exercises 824

Advanced Exercises 825

Chapter 23: Samba: Linux and Windows File and Printer Sharing 827

Introduction to Samba 828

Running Samba Clients 832

Setting Up a Samba Server 836

Troubleshooting 846

Chapter Summary 848

Exercises 849

Advanced Exercises 849

Chapter 24: DNS/BIND: Tracking Domain Names and Addresses 851

Introduction to DNS 852

Setting Up a DNS Server 864

Configuring a DNS Server 872

Setting Up Different Types of DNS Servers 885

Chapter Summary 895

Exercises 896

Advanced Exercises 896

Chapter 25: firewalld and iptables: Setting Up a Firewall 897

The firewalld Service 898

JumpStart: Building a Firewall Using firewall-config 900

firewall-config: The Firewall Configuration Window 902

firewall-cmd: Controlling firewalld from the Command Line 906

Introduction to iptables 908

Building a Set of Rules Using iptables 916

Copying Rules to and from the Kernel 922

system-config-firewall: Generates a Set of Rules 923

Sharing an Internet Connection Using NAT 924

Chapter Summary 928

Exercises 929

Advanced Exercises 929

Chapter 26: Apache (httpd): Setting Up a Web Server 931

Introduction 932

Running an Apache Web Server 935

Filesystem Layout 938

Configuration Directives 939

Advanced Configuration 962

Troubleshooting 967

Modules 968

webalizer: Analyzes Web Traffic 975

MRTG: Monitors Traffic Loads 975

Error Codes 975

Chapter Summary 976

Exercises 977

Advanced Exercises 977

Part V: Programming Tools 979

Chapter 27: Programming the Bourne Again Shell (bash) 981

Control Structures 982

File Descriptors 1016

Parameters 1022

Variables 1031

Builtin Commands 1040

Expressions 1056

Implicit Command-Line Continuation 1063

Shell Programs 1064

Chapter Summary 1074

Exercises 1076

Advanced Exercises 1078

Chapter 28: The Python Programming Language 1081

Introduction 1082

Scalar Variables, Lists, and Dictionaries 1086

Control Structures 1092

Reading from and Writing to Files 1097

Regular Expressions 1101

Defining a Function 1102

Using Libraries 1103

Lambda Functions 1107

List Comprehensions 1108

Chapter Summary 1109

Exercises 1110

Advanced Exercises 1110

Chapter 29: The MariaDB SQL Database Management System 1113

History 1114

Notes 1114

Installing a MariaDB Server and Client 1118

Setting Up MariaDB 1119

Examples 1123

Chapter Summary 1135

Exercises 1135

Advanced Exercises 1135

Part VI: Appendixes 1137

Appendix A: Regular Expressions 1139

Characters 1140

Delimiters 1140

Simple Strings 1140

Special Characters 1140

Rules 1143

Bracketing Expressions 1144

The Replacement String 1144

Extended Regular Expressions 1145

Appendix Summary 1147

Appendix B: Help 1149

Solving a Problem 1150

Finding Linux-Related Information 1151

Specifying a Terminal 1153

Appendix C: Security Including GPG 1155

Encryption 1156

File Security 1161

Email Security 1161

Network Security 1162

Host Security 1165

Tutorial: Using GPG to Secure a File 1169

Security Resources 1180

Appendix Summary 1182

Appendix D: Keeping the System Up-to-Date Using apt-get 1183

Using apt-get to Install, Remove, and Update Packages 1184

Using apt-get to Upgrade the System 1185

Other apt-get Commands 1186

Repositories 1186

sources.list: Specifies Repositories for apt-get to Search 1187

Appendix E: LPI and CompTIA Certification 1189

More Information 1190

Linux Essentials 1190

Certification Exam 1 Objectives: LX0-101 1204

Certification Exam 2 Objectives: LX0-102 1220

Glossary 1235

JumpStart Index 1283

File Tree Index 1285

Utility Index 1289

Main Index 1295