Book Image

Linux Utilities Cookbook

By : James Kent Lewis
Book Image

Linux Utilities Cookbook

By: James Kent Lewis

Overview of this book

<p>Linux is a stable, reliable and extremely powerful operating system. It has been around for many years, however, most people still don't know what it can do and the ways it is superior to other operating systems. Many people want to get started with Linux for greater control and security, but getting started can be time consuming and complicated. <br /><br />A practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear step-by-step examples to help you solve many of the questions that crop up when using an operating system you may not be familiar with.</p> <p>Presenting solutions to the most common Linux problems in a clear and concise way, this helpful guide starts with spicing up the terminal sessions by command retrieval and line editing, and shell prompt variables. We will then get to know the different desktops (GUIs) available for Linux systems and which is the best fit for you. We will then explore the world of managing files and directories, connectivity, and what to do when it goes wrong. We will also learn a range of skills, from creating and managing user accounts to securing your system, managing and limiting processes, and letting information flow from one process to another using pipes. Later, we will master disk management, working with scripts and automating tasks quickly, and finally, understand the need for a custom kernel and tips on how to build one.</p> <p><br />Based on the author's extensive experience, there is a section on best practices that every Linux user should be familiar with.</p>
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Linux Utilities Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Copying files to another machine – FTP and SCP


Not counting email, the two most common ways to copy files to another machine are FTP (File Transfer Protocol)and SCP (Secure copy). Here we will discuss both.

FTP has been around for many years and is still used quite a lot today. However, standard FTP does have a serious drawback. The data is sent in what is called "clear text". This means a knowledgeable person could obtain the data under the right conditions. We will talk about this a bit later.

Getting ready

We will assume an FTP server has already been set up and is available for this exercise. Normally you would use ftp command from one machine (the client) to another (the server). However, for this example I am using just one machine. The command to start an FTP session is ftp server-name where server-name can be a host name known on your network, or a numeric IP address. For this example, I have created a file in /tmp named f1.txt and a file in /home/jklewis named f5.txt.

Most Linux distributions...