2. Objective 1.108.2 2 1.108.2 Find Linux documentation on the Internet [3] 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues [1] 1.108.2 Find Linux documentation on the Internet Weight 3 Linux Professional Institute Certification — 102 2 Objective Description of Objective Candidates should be able to find and use Linux documentation. This objective includes using Linux documentation at sources such as the Linux Documentation Project (LDP), vendor and third-party websites, newsgroups, newsgroup archives, and mailing lists. Key files, terms, and utilities include: not applicable Nick Urbanik nicku@nicku.org This document Licensed under GPL—see section 8 2005 July 3 Outline Main Internet Sources • The Linux Documentation Project: http://tldp.org/ provides these documents in many formats: Main Internet Sources Contents 1 2 3 4 5 Context Objective Main Internet Sources Usenet Mailing Lists 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 HOWTOs about a large number of topics – Of variable quality and currency Guides: free online books FAQs: frequently asked questions, with answers • Search using Google: http://www.google.com/ • Google Groups in http://groups.google.com/, and • Usenet: news://comp.os.linux.* – Free 1 GB/month feed currently available from http://yottanews.com/ 6 Asking Questions on a Mailing List 7 8 Online Magazines License of this Document 4 Usenet • Can browse these from http://groups.google.com.au/groups/dir?lnk= gh&hl=en&sel=33583540 • Can use a newsreader like Pan or Gnus (in Emacs) to browse a news server comp.os.linux.* Usenet groups 1 Context Topic 108 Documentation [8] 1.108.1 Use and manage local system documentation [4] 5. Mailing Lists • comp.os.linux • comp.os.linux.admin • comp.os.linux.advocacy • comp.os.linux.alpha • comp.os.linux.announce • comp.os.linux.answers • comp.os.linux.development • comp.os.linux.embedded • comp.os.linux.hardware • comp.os.linux.help • comp.os.linux.m68k Distribution Documentation 1.108.2 • comp.os.linux.misc • comp.os.linux.network • comp.os.linux.networking • comp.os.linux.portable • comp.os.linux.powerpc • comp.os.linux.questions • comp.os.linux.redhat • comp.os.linux.security • comp.os.linux.setup • comp.os.linux.x • comp.os.linux.xbox 3 6. Asking Questions on a Mailing List 1.108.2 4 – Mostly have a narrow technical focus – a great way to get help from an expert on the subject. • You subscribe to a mailing list by: – Send email to the list server, or fill in a simple web form – The list server sends you an email – You reply to that email • Any subscribed user can send an email to the list – All subscribed users will receive that email – Set one mail folder for each list – Set your email software to filter all list email into the right folder, to keep list email separate from your personal email. Mailing Lists — Examples • Red Hat and Fedora lists: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo • the Apache lists: http://httpd.apache.org/lists.html • the Samba lists: http://lists.samba.org/, plus many others (I subscribe to about 40!) • Red Hat provides plenty of very high quality online books and documentation. These URLs are current 26 Oct 2005: http://www.redhat.com/docs/, http:// www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/. After you have read the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step by Step Guide, I particularly recommend the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Introduction to System Administration, and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide. Reading previous versions of these provided enough background for me to earn my RHCE. • Ubuntu: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/ • Debian volunteers have created much useful documentation at http://www.au. debian.org/doc/ – Read http://www.au.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ about APT • Gentoo has some great documentation: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ 6 Asking Questions on a Mailing List Asking Questions on a Mailing List Before sending questions to a mailing list, read Eric Raymond’s How To Ask Questions The Smart Way: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions. html. Summary: • Write in clear, grammatical, correctly• Choose your forum carefully spelled language • Web and IRC forums directed towards newbies often give the quickest re• Send questions in formats that are easy sponse to understand • As a second step, use project mailing lists • Use meaningful, specific subject headers • Make it easy to reply • Be precise and informative about your problem • Volume is not precision • Don’t claim that you have found a bug 5 Mailing Lists • A mailing list is a discussion group over email Mailing Lists 7. Online Magazines 1.108.2 5 • Be explicit about the question you have • Don’t post homework questions • Prune pointless queries • Don’t flag your question as Urgent, even if it is for you • Courtesy never hurts, and sometimes helps • Follow up with a brief note on the solution 8. License of this Document 1.108.2 6 • Grovelling is not a substitute for doing your homework • Describe the problem’s symptoms, not your guesses • Describe your problem’s symptoms in chronological order • Describe the goal, not the step • Don’t ask people to reply by private email Slashdot: /. Slashdot.org: http://slashdot.org/: “News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.” • A new news story posted about every hour or two • Read the story • I usually read the front page of Slashdot every day or two • Don’t waste too much time reading the comments, unless you have a spare lifetime. – There are a lot of adolescents with a lot of time on their hands who contribute thousands of not-very useful comment here. – Welcome to the troll wars! – The moderation system ensures that mainly the early posters get moderated highly, and not necessarily for the merit of what they say! – a vast number of readers/posters. 7 Online Magazines Online Magazines Some online magazines include: • LWN.net: http://lwn.net/ Run by Jon Corbet, co-author of the O’Reilly book, Linux Device Drivers. LWN.net is, together with the Linux Kernel Mailing List, the best source of information relating to the kernel. • Alan Cox’s Portaloo: http://www.linux.org.uk/Portaloo.cs This site is surprisingly useful; it collects the headlines from about 25 web sites with technical news, so that you can review the headlines from all the sites, and click on any headline that looks interesting. This takes you directly to the story. It saves me a lot of time. • Apache Week: http://www.apacheweek.com/ • NewsForge: http://www.newsforge.com/ • LinuxGazette: http://linuxgazette.net/ – note that the staff have moved from their original site at http://linuxgazette. com/ • Linux Magazine: http://www.linux-mag.com/ • Linux Today: http://linuxtoday.com/ 8 License of this Document License Of This Document Copyright c 2005 Nick Urbanik . Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies or modified versions of this document provided that this copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation—either version 2 of the License or (at your option) any later version.