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

Running your own web server – httpd


There may come a time when you will want to run your own web server. In my career as a software engineer I have been often asked to run the department lab. The easiest way to keep my users informed as to what is going on is to put the notes and files on my own local website that I control. This may sound hard but it really isn't.

Getting ready

This assumes you have a Linux system available to try this out on. If not, you can still get a lot out of this section. This also assumes that httpd is not already installed. These steps were performed on my laptop running Fedora 18.

How to do it...

The following are the steps to install your own Apache httpd server on Fedora:

  1. First install httpd:

    yum install httpd
    
  2. Now change to the configuration directory:

    cd /etc/httpd/conf
    
  3. Make a backup copy of the file: cp httpd.conf /tmp/httpd.conf.orig. You may want to choose a more suitable backup directory.

  4. Edit the file with a text editor:

    vi httpd.conf
    
  5. This file contains almost...