[AuckLUG] HELP!!- whats this Linux thing all about

[Trevor van Bremen]

Straight from the 'scary but true' bucket...
I just had to do a 'man apropos' and I've been using *nix (not ONLY linux)
since ... Well ... FOREVER!!

Anyway, here's an extra $0.02 worth...
1:
My general rule of thumb for a *nix newbie is to begin with the basics...
There's a bunch of basic commands that you'll use the most in a command
shell...
Strange as it may seem, the most frequently used are the shortest to type
(specifically, all the 2-letter commands)
ls, mv, cp, rm, ln, du, df, vi, dd, wc, pg, su to name but a few
(You'll spend a long time [years] learning vi...  After > 20 years, I'm
still learning new tricks.  But don't fret though, you'll learn the
essentials on day#1)
Other 2-letter commands do exist, but they're a little more 'specific' such
as cc, ar, as, ld, nm, cu, ci, co, sz, m4 etc.  Worry about them as and when
needed.
I'd recommend taking a while to go through the man pages on grep (egrep /
fgrep), awk and sed.  These tools will prove invaluable over time.
Something else that's worth throwing into the mix is stdin, stdout, stderr
and the whole concept of redirection... (<, >, >>, | etc)
Also, keep in mind that (unlike that redmond virus) you aren't tied to using
a single commandline interpreter... (COMMAND.COM).  Take a look at sh, csh,
tcsh, bash, zsh, ksh etc
ENJOY yourself, and, when stuck, drop us a line here as we're a strange but
helpful bunch.
2:
Setting up a mailserver isn't really that hard.
However, doing it PROPERLY will take some time.  There's a million different
ways to achieve the goal and each has its drawbacks and benefits.
Like most things though, it's very beneficial to learn from our mistakes.
If the second email server you setup is identical to your first, you
probably haven't learnt enough yet... (Hehe)

-----Original Message-----
From: Nevyn [mailto:nevynh at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, 19 October 2007 11:50 a.m.
To: Auckland Linux User Group mailing list
Subject: Re: [AuckLUG] HELP!!- whats this Linux thing all about

*lol* despite touting it, I don't think I've ever used it.

On 10/18/07, Robert <razza at razza.org> wrote:
> You know I can never remember that darn apropos command...always have 
> to refer to my handy hints file :)
>
> Nevyn wrote:
> > Hi John,
> >
> > I for one don't mind answering questions.
> >
> > I get the feeling though that you're diving in head first without 
> > checking to see if there's any water in the pool. I say this only 
> > because setting up a mail server is a task and a half even when you 
> > do understand the terminology (I've never attempted it myself).
> >
> > So you probably want to have a look at a book or two before 
> > attempting this - just to get a few basic commandline hints. Things 
> > like autocomplete (tab key), less, grep, cat, ls, lsof piping, 
> > redirection etc. make life hellishly easy once you've figured them 
> > out. Probably the first commands you're going to want are man, info and
appropos.
> >
> > man [command] - shows you the manual pages for a command.
> > info [command] - shows you the info pages for a command.
> > apropos [description] - gives you a list of commands based upon 
> > description you've given it
> >
> > Once you've got the basics down, you're probably going to want to 
> > look at package management for your chosen distribution:- yum and 
> > rpm for Fedora.
> > dpkg and apt-get for Debian.
> > No idea what SME uses.
> >
> > Anyway, that's enough babbling for now. Feel free to drop me an 
> > email if you need some one on one help with the basics (like I said 
> > previously, can't really help you with the email server stuff).
> >
> > Regards,
> > Nevyn.
> >
> > On 10/18/07, B.E.R. <ber at xtra.co.nz> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I've heard about Linux for many years buit have never really looked 
> >> into what all the buzz is all about, recently I've downloaded and 
> >> some of the
> >> distro- Fedora and SME and Debian. Ive moved into dabling with 
> >> servers- Email and Terminal. The features described are powerful 
> >> and without the outrageous tinysoft licensing costs  etc..wow!
> >> Having played around with some of the distro's I've quickly 
> >> realized that I need some basic text/commens training to fully 
> >> utilize and appreciate Linux.
> >> Im basically self taught with PC's and have been raised on a diet 
> >> of GUI's most of my geeky life.
> >> Can anyone advise with regards to training or groups that I can 
> >> participate in to get some hands on traning or even see how its 
> >> done and discuss with some of the more advanced users. I've trawled 
> >> google with regards to help but feel that Ive hit the wall and need 
> >> to see it and handle it being done.
> >> An overall understanding of Linux would be helpful and the 
> >> terminology gets me lost.
> >> Even if I was to oversee a email server and terminal server setup 
> >> would be appreciated.
> >>
> >> If anyone is able to Help Thanks in advance.
> >>
> >> John Henry
> >>
> >> ber at xtra.co.nz
> >>
> >> --
> >> Business Equipment Resources
> >> Ph 64-9-8185757 Fax 64-9-8184857
> >> Email: ber at xtra.co.nz
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
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