[techtalk] Learning more about Linux ...

[Amanda Owens]

Whoever's working on the Techtalk FAQ (Jenn?), this looks like a
*marvelous* template for a newbie section! Anyway, here's my attempt.

On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, jennyw wrote:

> Hi, all!  I'm just starting to get into Linux.  I've installed it on a few
> computers, but now want to learn more about what happens behind the scenes.
> Hopefully I can find some answers here! Specifically, I'm interested in
> knowing  ...
> 
> What are typical directory structures and file locations?  I know these
> differ from distribution to distribution (and from computer to computer),
> but some patterns probably exist.
> 

Someone (I can't remember who) just sent a really nice directory structure
to the list today. I'll forward that to you - I saved it because even
though I've been adminning Red Hat for a couple years now, I thought it
looked very useful!

> What happens on bootup?  For example, what are the boot files, what order do
> they get loaded in, and how do you find them?
>

Most of the files run at boot up are either in /boot or the /etc/rc.d/
directory structure. The rc.d directories are run according to what
runlevel you're in (ie, rc3.d is for runlevel 3), and within those
directories, the scripts to start/stop services are run in numerical order
(ie, S01kerneld starts (S) kerneld before S10network is run - 1 comes
before 10). 
 
> What good resources are there that describe things like the above?  Are
> there any books that anyone can recommend?
> 

A couple of really great books are Running Linux and the Linux Network
Administrator's Guide (both titles I'm reading off the shelf above my
monitor). They're both O'Reilley books. There's also the Linux System
Administrator's Guide (I think by Olaf Kirch) which is available on the
web. Another great place to look is the LDP project - check out
www.metalab.unc.edu for some How-Tos and other online documentation.

> Thanks!
> 
> Jen
> 

Hope this helps!
Mur!