Linux Cookbook

The Ultimate Unix Toolbox?

Unix Toolbox is not for newbies. It's the real stuff: command line commands that you need if you're doing real work with real systems. Want to set disk quotas? Change MySQL logins? Set file permission? Encrypt partitions? All those questions, and more, are answered here.

Warning: if you don't know what those things are (or even if you're not sure), Unix Toolbox probably isn't for you. If you want to know what those things are, check it out when you're ready to experiment.

Linux Directory Structure

Want to know more about the directory structure that Linux uses? Like, why it's that way, and how it works? Here's an article that might be worth starting with: Linux Directory Structure.

But definitely consider that a start, because the Linux directory structure can vary slightly (or more) from distribution to distribution. So read the article--and read the comments! Especially the suggestion to Google "Linux File Hierarchy Binh Nguyen", for  more comprehensive documentation of the directory structure.

And you can check out my previous post, Ever Wondered about the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy? on the same topic, more or less.

More about swap partitions...

Swap space is one of those things that you've never heard of if you use WIndows or OS X, but that you'll hear about the first time you try to install Linux. There are two approaches to swap space: simple and complicated. Read this article, All about Linux swap space, including the comments, if you want to know more about swap space, what it does, how it works, and what you should do about it.

Or just take the defaults when you install Linux and don't worry about it. That's what I do, mostly.

Ever Wondered about the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy?

The Linux filesystem hierarchy (link to Wikipedia/Filesystem Hierarchy Standard) can be confusing: just what is all that stuff, and how does it work? Making things even more confusing are the slight (or not so slight) variations in the hierarchy that you may encounter with different Linux distributions.

It's one of those things that just, apparently, are, and that don't seem to call for explanation. It's not often you come across any articles or discussions of them, in the normal course of things, but here's an article that got me started on thinking about it: /usr is flawed.

Even before getting into the details of the flaws, though, the author gives us two gifts: first, a rough summary of the major components of the Linux filesystem hierarchy, and a link to a specification for the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

No, I don't have any more to say about the question of whether or not /usr is flawed, but I do think it's worth spending some time studying up on just what the Linux filesystem hierarchy is.