The Linux Cookbook

Tips and Techniques for Everyday Use

Michael Stutz

2nd Edition

Completely Revised and Expanded

San Francisco
The Linux Cookbook. Copyright

c 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by Michael Stutz
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
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No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press. Linux
is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Trademarked names are used throughout this book.
Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using
the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention
of infringement of the trademark.
Publisher: William Pollock
Managing Editor: Karol Jurado
Cover Design: Octopod Studios
Book Design: Michael Stutz
Technical Reviewer: John Mark Walker
Copyeditor: Andy Carroll
Proofreader: Mary Johnson
For information on book distribution or translations, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
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The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every
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alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it. Every effort has been
made to include only the best free software recipes for accomplishing tasks in the easiest and most
efficient manner, and they are believed to be correct. Suggestions, comments, and field reports are
always welcome; the author may be contacted by electronic mail at [email protected].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stutz, Michael.
Linux cookbook : tips and techniques for everyday use / Michael
Stutz.-- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-59327-031-3
1. Linux. 2. Operating systems (Computers) I. Title.
QA76.76.O63 S788 2004
005.4'32--dc22
2003021940
A note on the type
in which this book is set

The name of the font family used in this book is Computer Modern. These are
free fonts designed by Donald E. Knuth for his TEX typesetting system, and
are described in Volume E of the Computers & Typesetting series, Computer
Modern Typefaces (Addison–Wesley, 1986).

This book was written and produced using the free software tools it describes.
It was prepared with Texinfo, a documentation system that uses TEX to gener-
ate typeset output. The Texinfo input files were composed in gnu Emacs, and
the screen shots were taken and processed with the ImageMagick suite of tools.
The dvi output was converted to PostScript for printing using Tomas Rokicki’s
Dvips, gnu Ghostscript, and Angus Duggan’s PostScript Utilities. The sys-
tem was a 1,000 MHz 686 personal computer running Debian gnu/Linux 3.0.

Updates
Visit http://www.nostarch.com/lcbk2.htm for updates, errata, and other
information.

About the author

Michael Stutz was the first to apply the “open source” methodology of Linux
to non-software works, and was one of the first reporters to cover Linux and
the free software movement in the mainstream press. He has used Linux
exclusively for over a decade.
 v

Contents at a Glance
Preface to the Second, Revised Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxiii
I. WORKING WITH LINUX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 What Every Linux User Knows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3 The Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4 The X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
II. FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5 Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6 Sharing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
7 Finding Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8 Managing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
III. TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
9 Viewing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10 Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
11 Grammar and Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
12 Analyzing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
13 Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
14 Searching Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
15 Typesetting and Word Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
16 Using Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
IV. IMAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
17 Viewing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
18 Editing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
19 Importing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
20 PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
V. SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
21 Playing and Recording Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
22 Audio Compact Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
23 Editing Sound Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
VI. PRODUCTIVITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
24 Disk Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
25 Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
26 Cross-Platform Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
27 Reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
28 Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
vi The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

29 Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
30 Amusements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
VII. NETWORKING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
31 Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
32 Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
33 The World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
34 Other Internet Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Appendix A Administrative Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Appendix B Conventional File Name Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
Appendix C Setting Up Your Home Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
Appendix D References for Further Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Program Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Concept Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
 vii

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second, Revised Edition . . . . . . xxxiii

I. WORKING WITH LINUX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Recipe Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Preparation of Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.3 Format of Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Typographical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Who This Book Assumes You Are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 What This Book Won’t Show You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5 What to Try First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.6 If You Need More Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.7 Background and History of Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.7.1 Early Days of unix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.7.2 Genesis of the Free Software Movement . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.7.3 The Arrival of Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.7.4 Debian, Red Hat, and Other Linux Distributions . . 19
1.7.5 The Penguin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.7.6 Open Source, Free Content, and the Future . . . . . . . 20
1.7.7 unix and the Tools Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2. What Every Linux User Knows . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.1 Controlling Power to the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1.1 Powering Up the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1.2 Turning Off the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 Using Your Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.1 Logging In to the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.2 Logging Out of the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3 Using Consoles and Terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3.1 Getting the Virtual Console Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.2 Switching Between Consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.3 Scrolling Text in the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3.4 Clearing the Terminal Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3.5 Resetting the Terminal Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
viii The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2.4 Running a Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.4.1 Displaying a Tool’s Available Options . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.4.2 Displaying the Version of a Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.5 Changing Your Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6 Listing User Activity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.6.1 Displaying Your Username . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.6.2 Listing Who Is on the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.6.3 Listing Who Is on and What They’re Doing . . . . . . . 40
2.6.4 Listing the Last Time a User Logged In . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.7 Listing Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.7.1 Listing Your Current Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7.2 Listing All of a User’s Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7.3 Listing All Processes on the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7.4 Listing Processes by Name or Number . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.8 Using the Help Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.8.1 Finding the Right Tool for the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.8.2 Getting a Description of a Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.8.3 Listing the Usage of a Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.8.4 Reading a Page from the System Manual . . . . . . . . . 46
2.8.5 Reading an Info Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.8.6 Reading System Documentation and Help Files. . . . 50

3. The Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.1 Typing at the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.1.1 Using Basic Command Line Editing Keys . . . . . . . . . 54
3.1.2 Typing a Control Character. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.1.3 Quoting Reserved Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.1.4 Letting the Shell Complete What You Type . . . . . . . 61
3.1.5 Undoing a Mistake at the Command Line . . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.6 Repeating the Last Command You Typed. . . . . . . . . 62
3.1.7 Running a List of Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.1.8 Running One Command and Then Another . . . . . . . 64
3.1.9 Running One Command or Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.1.10 Automatically Answering a Command Prompt . . . 65
3.1.11 Specifying the Output of a Command as an
Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.1.12 Typing a Long Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
 ix

3.2 Redirecting Input and Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

3.2.1 Redirecting Input to a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2.2 Redirecting Output to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.2.3 Redirecting Error Messages to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.2.4 Redirecting Output to Another Command’s Input
.................................................. 69
3.2.5 Redirecting Output to More than One Place . . . . . . 69
3.2.6 Redirecting Something to Nowhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.3 Managing Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.3.1 Suspending a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.3.2 Putting a Job in the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.3.3 Putting a Job in the Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.3.4 Listing Your Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.3.5 Stopping a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.4 Using Your Command History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.4.1 Viewing Your Command History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.4.2 Searching Through Your Command History . . . . . . . 75
3.4.3 Specifying a Command from Your History . . . . . . . . 76
3.5 Using Shell Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5.1 Assigning a Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.5.2 Referencing a Variable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.5.3 Displaying the Contents of a Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.5.4 Removing a Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.5.5 Listing Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.5.6 Changing the Shell Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.5.7 Adding to Your Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.5.8 Controlling How the Shell Checks Your Mail . . . . . . 82
3.5.9 Seeing How Long Your Shell Has Been Running . . . 82
3.6 Using Alias Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.6.1 Calling a Command by Some Other Name . . . . . . . . 83
3.6.2 Listing Aliases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.6.3 Removing an Alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.7 Using Shell Scripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.7.1 Making a Shell Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.7.2 Running a Shell Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.7.3 Using Shell Startup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.8 Making a Typescript of a Shell Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
x The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

3.9 Running Shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.9.1 Starting a Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.9.2 Exiting a Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.9.3 Getting the Name of Your Current Shell . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.9.4 Changing Your Default Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.9.5 Using Other Shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

4. The X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

4.1 Running X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.1.1 Starting X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.1.2 Stopping X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2 Running a Program in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.2.1 Specifying X Window Size and Location . . . . . . . . . 102
4.2.2 Specifying X Window Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.2.3 Specifying X Window Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.2.4 Specifying X Window Border Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.2.5 Specifying X Window Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.2.6 Specifying Attributes in an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.3 Manipulating X Client Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.3.1 Moving an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.3.2 Resizing an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.3.3 Maximizing an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.3.4 Minimizing an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.3.5 Deiconifying an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.3.6 Getting Information About an X Window. . . . . . . . 107
4.3.7 Destroying an X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.4 Moving Around the Desktop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.5 Getting a Terminal Window in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.5.1 Changing the Default X Terminal Behavior . . . . . . 110
4.5.2 Running a Command in an X Window. . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.5.3 Using Other Terminal Emulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.6 Magnifying a Portion of the X Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.7 Configuring X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.7.1 Switching Between Video Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.7.2 Running X Clients Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.7.3 Changing the Root Window Parameters . . . . . . . . . 118
4.7.4 Controlling the System Bell in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.7.5 Using Other Window Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
 xi

II. FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5. Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

5.1 Naming Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.1.1 Making an Empty File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.1.2 Making a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.1.3 Making a Directory Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.1.4 Using a File with Spaces in Its Name . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.2 Changing Directories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.2.1 Changing to Your Home Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.2.2 Changing to the Last Directory You Visited . . . . . . 133
5.2.3 Getting the Name of the Current Directory . . . . . . 133
5.3 Listing Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.3.1 Listing Directories in Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.3.2 Listing File Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.3.3 Listing File Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.3.4 Listing Hidden Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.3.5 Listing Directories in Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.3.6 Listing Files in Sorted Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.3.7 Listing Subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.4 Copying Files and Directories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.4.1 Copying Files with Their Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.4.2 Copying Subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.4.3 Copying Files by a Unique Parent Directory . . . . . 143
5.5 Moving Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.5.1 Changing File Names to Lowercase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.5.2 Renaming Multiple Files with the Same Extension
................................................. 147
5.6 Removing Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.6.1 Removing a File with a Strange Name . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.6.2 Removing Files Interactively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
5.6.3 Removing Files without Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.7 Giving a File More Than One Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.8 Specifying File Names with Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.9 Listing Directory Tree Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5.10 Browsing Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
xii The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

6. Sharing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

6.1 Working in Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.1.1 Listing Available Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.1.2 Listing the Groups a User Belongs To . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.1.3 Listing the Members of a Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.2 Owning Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.2.1 Determining the Ownership of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.2.2 Changing the Ownership of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.3 Controlling Access to Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.3.1 Listing the Permissions of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
6.3.2 Changing the Permissions of a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
6.3.3 Write-Protecting a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.3.4 Making a File Private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.3.5 Making a File Public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
6.3.6 Making a File Executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

7. Finding Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

7.1 Finding All Files That Match a Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
7.2.1 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Name . . . . . . . 172
7.2.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Size. . . . . . . . . 174
7.2.3 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Access Time
................................................. 174
7.2.4 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Change Time
................................................. 175
7.2.5 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Modification
Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.2.6 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Owner . . . . . . 178
7.2.7 Running Commands on the Files You Find . . . . . . 178
7.2.8 Finding Files by Multiple Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.3 Finding Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.4 Finding Files in Directory Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.4.1 Finding the Largest Files in a Directory . . . . . . . . . 182
7.4.2 Finding the Smallest Files in a Directory . . . . . . . . 183
7.4.3 Finding the Smallest Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.4.4 Finding the Largest Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.4.5 Finding the Number of Files in a Listing . . . . . . . . . 184
7.5 Finding Where a Program Is Located . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
 xiii

8. Managing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

8.1 Getting Information About a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
8.1.1 Determining a File’s Type and Format. . . . . . . . . . . 187
8.1.2 Determining a Program’s Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8.1.3 Listing When a File Was Last Modified . . . . . . . . . . 188
8.1.4 Changing a File’s Modification Time . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8.2 Splitting a File into Smaller Ones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8.3 Comparing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.3.1 Determining Whether Two Files Differ . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.3.2 Determining Whether Two Directories Differ . . . . . 191
8.3.3 Finding the Differences Between Files . . . . . . . . . . . 192
8.3.4 Perusing the Differences in a Group of Files . . . . . . 193
8.3.5 Finding the Differences Between Directories . . . . . . 194
8.3.6 Finding the Percentage Two Files Differ By . . . . . . 195
8.3.7 Patching a File with a Difference Report . . . . . . . . . 196
8.4 Using File Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
8.4.1 Compressing a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
8.4.2 Decompressing a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
8.4.3 Seeing What’s in a Compressed File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.5 Managing File Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.5.1 Making a File Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
8.5.2 Listing the Contents of an Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.5.3 Extracting Files from an Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.6 Tracking Revisions to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.6.1 Checking In a File Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.6.2 Checking Out a File Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8.6.3 Viewing a File’s Revision Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
8.6.4 Checking In Many Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

III. TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

9. Viewing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

9.1 Perusing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
9.1.1 Perusing a Text File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
9.1.2 Perusing Text with a Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
9.1.3 Perusing a Text File from the Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . 214
9.1.4 Perusing Raw Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
9.1.5 Perusing Multiple Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
xiv The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

9.2 Displaying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

9.2.1 Displaying Non-Printing Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
9.2.2 Displaying the Beginning Part of Text . . . . . . . . . . . 218
9.2.3 Displaying the End Part of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
9.2.4 Displaying the Middle Part of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
9.2.5 Displaying the Text Between Strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
9.2.6 Displaying the Literal Characters of Text . . . . . . . . 221
9.2.7 Displaying the Hex Values of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
9.3 Viewing Special Types of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
9.3.1 Viewing html-Formatted Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
9.3.2 Viewing Nroff-Formatted Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
9.3.3 Viewing C Program Source Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
9.3.4 Viewing Lines of Sorted Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9.3.5 Viewing Underlined Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9.3.6 Listing Text in Binary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
9.3.7 Viewing a Character Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

10. Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

10.1 Using Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
10.1.1 Getting Acquainted with Emacs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
10.1.2 Running an Emacs Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.1.3 Using Basic Emacs Editing Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.1.4 Inserting Special Characters in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.1.5 Making Abbreviations in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
10.1.6 Recording and Running Macros in Emacs . . . . . . . 243
10.1.7 Viewing Multiple Emacs Buffers at Once . . . . . . . 244
10.2 Using Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
10.2.1 Getting Acquainted with Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.2.2 Running a Vi Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
10.2.3 Using Basic Vi Editing Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
10.2.4 Inserting Special Characters in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
10.2.5 Running a Command in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
10.2.6 Inserting Command Output in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
10.2.7 Customizing Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
10.3 Manipulating Selections of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
10.3.1 Cutting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
10.3.2 Pasting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
10.4 Using a Token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
10.5 Editing Streams of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
 xv

10.6 Concatenating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

10.6.1 Writing Text to Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
10.6.2 Appending Text to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
10.6.3 Inserting Text at the Beginning of a File . . . . . . . . 259
10.7 Including Text from Other Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
10.8 Using Other Text Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

11. Grammar and Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

11.1 Spell Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
11.1.1 Finding the Correct Spelling of a Word . . . . . . . . . 275
11.1.2 Listing the Misspellings in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
11.1.3 Keeping a Spelling Word List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
11.1.4 Interactive Spell Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
11.1.5 Spell Checking in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
11.2 Using Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
11.2.1 Listing Words That Match a Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . 283
11.2.2 Listing the Definitions of a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
11.2.3 Listing the Synonyms of a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
11.2.4 Listing the Antonyms of a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
11.2.5 Listing the Hypernyms of a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
11.2.6 Checking Online Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
11.3 Checking Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
11.3.1 Checking Text for Misused Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
11.3.2 Checking Text for Doubled Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
11.3.3 Checking Text for Readability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
11.3.4 Checking Text for Difficult Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . 289
11.3.5 Checking Text for Long Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
11.4 Using Reference Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
11.4.1 Consulting Word Lists and Helpful Files . . . . . . . . 290
11.4.2 Translating Common Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

12. Analyzing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

12.1 Counting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.1.1 Counting the Characters in a Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
12.1.2 Counting the Words in a Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
12.1.3 Counting the Lines in a Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
12.1.4 Counting the Occurrences of Something . . . . . . . . 295
12.1.5 Counting a Selection of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
xvi The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

12.2 Listing Words in Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

12.2.1 Listing All of the Words in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
12.2.2 Listing the Words in Text Sorted Alphabetically
................................................. 298
12.2.3 Listing Only the Unique Words in Text . . . . . . . . . 298
12.2.4 Counting Word Occurrences in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.2.5 Counting Selected Word Occurrences in Text . . . . 300
12.3 Finding Relevancies in Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
12.3.1 Finding Similar or Relevant Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
12.3.2 Listing Relevant Files in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

13. Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

13.1 Spacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
13.1.1 Eliminating Extra Spaces in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
13.1.2 Single-Spacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
13.1.3 Double-Spacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
13.1.4 Triple-Spacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
13.1.5 Adding Line Breaks to Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
13.1.6 Adding Margins to Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
13.1.7 Swapping Tab and Space Characters . . . . . . . . . . . 309
13.1.8 Removing or Replacing Newline Characters . . . . . 310
13.1.9 Removing Carriage Return Characters . . . . . . . . . . 310
13.2 Justifying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
13.2.1 Left-Justifying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
13.2.2 Right-Justifying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
13.2.3 Center-Justifying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
13.3 Paginating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
13.3.1 Paginating with a Custom Page Length . . . . . . . . . 313
13.3.2 Paginating with a Custom Page Width . . . . . . . . . 313
13.3.3 Paginating with Custom Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
13.3.4 Placing Text in Paginated Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
13.3.5 Paginating Only Part of Some Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
13.3.6 Paginating Text with Non-Printing Characters . . 315
13.3.7 Placing Formfeeds in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
13.4 Transposing Characters in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
13.4.1 Changing Characters in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
13.4.2 Squeezing Duplicate Characters in Text. . . . . . . . . 318
13.4.3 Deleting Characters in Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
13.5 Filtering Out Duplicate Lines of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
 xvii

13.6 Sorting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

13.6.1 Sorting Text Regardless of Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
13.6.2 Sorting Text Regardless of Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
13.6.3 Sorting Text in Numeric Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
13.6.4 Sorting Text in Directory Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
13.7 Columnating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
13.7.1 Pasting Columns of Text from Separate Files. . . . 322
13.7.2 Columnating Text from Separate Files . . . . . . . . . . 323
13.7.3 Columnating a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
13.7.4 Removing Columns from Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
13.8 Numbering Lines of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
13.9 Underlining Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
13.9.1 Placing Underlines in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
13.9.2 Converting Underlines in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
13.9.3 Removing Underlines from Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
13.10 Reversing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
13.10.1 Reversing Lines of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
13.10.2 Reversing the Characters on Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

14. Searching Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

14.1 Searching Text for a Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
14.2 Searching Text for a Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
14.3 Matching Patterns of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
14.3.1 Matching Lines of a Certain Length . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
14.3.2 Matching Lines That Contain Any of Some Regexps
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
14.3.3 Matching Lines That Contain All of Some Regexps
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
14.3.4 Matching Lines That Don’t Contain a Regexp. . . 340
14.3.5 Matching Lines That Only Contain Certain
Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
14.3.6 Using Popular Regexps for Common Situations . . 340
14.4 Finding Patterns in Certain Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
14.4.1 Matching Lines Beginning with Certain Text . . . . 343
14.4.2 Matching Lines Ending with Certain Text . . . . . . 343
14.4.3 Finding Phrases in Text Regardless of Spacing . . 343
14.4.4 Finding Patterns Only in Certain Positions . . . . . 344
xviii The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

14.5 Showing Matches in Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

14.5.1 Showing Matched Lines in Their Context . . . . . . . 345
14.5.2 Highlighting Matches on Their Lines . . . . . . . . . . . 345
14.5.3 Showing Only the Matched Patterns from Input
................................................. 347
14.5.4 Showing Which Files Contain Matching Lines . . . 347
14.6 Keeping a File of Patterns to Search For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
14.7 Searching More than Plain Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
14.7.1 Matching Lines in Many Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
14.7.2 Matching Lines in Compressed Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
14.7.3 Matching Lines in Web Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
14.7.4 Matching Lines in Binary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
14.8 Searching and Replacing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
14.9 Searching Text in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
14.9.1 Searching Incrementally in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
14.9.2 Searching for a Phrase in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
14.9.3 Searching for a Regexp in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
14.9.4 Searching and Replacing in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
14.10 Searching Text in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
14.11 Searching the Text You’re Perusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

15. Typesetting and Word Processing . . . . . . . . 357

15.1 Selecting the Typesetting System for a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
15.2 Outputting Text to PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
15.2.1 Outputting Text in a Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
15.2.2 Outputting Text in Custom Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
15.2.3 Outputting Text as a Poster or Sign . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
15.2.4 Outputting Text with Language Highlighting. . . . 365
15.2.5 Outputting Text with an Underlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
15.2.6 Outputting Text with Fancy Headers . . . . . . . . . . . 368
15.2.7 Outputting Text in Landscape Orientation . . . . . . 369
15.2.8 Outputting Text in Vertical Slices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
15.2.9 Outputting Text with Indentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
15.2.10 Outputting Multiple Copies of Text . . . . . . . . . . . 370
15.2.11 Outputting Text in Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
15.2.12 Outputting Selected Pages of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
15.2.13 Outputting Text Through a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
 xix

15.3 Using TEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

15.3.1 Distinguishing Between TEX and LaTEX Files . . . . 373
15.3.2 Processing a TEX File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
15.3.3 Processing a LaTEX File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
15.3.4 Getting Started with TEX and LaTEX . . . . . . . . . . . 375
15.3.5 Using TEX and LaTEX Document Templates . . . . . 376
15.4 Using LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
15.4.1 Getting Started with LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
15.4.2 Learning More About LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
15.5 Using groff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
15.5.1 Processing a groff File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
15.5.2 Determining the Command Line Options for a
Groff File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
15.5.3 Running a groff Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
15.5.4 Making a Chart or Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
15.6 Using sgml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
15.6.1 Writing an sgml Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
15.6.2 Checking sgml Document Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
15.6.3 Generating Output from sgml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
15.7 Using Other Word Processors and Typesetting Systems . . 391

16. Using Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

16.1 Using X Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
16.1.1 Selecting an X Font Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
16.1.2 Listing Available X Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
16.1.3 Displaying the Characters in an X Font . . . . . . . . . 398
16.1.4 Resizing the Xterm Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
16.2 Using TEX Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
16.2.1 Listing Available TEX Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
16.2.2 Viewing a Sample of a TEX Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
16.3 Using Console Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
16.3.1 Setting the Console Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
16.3.2 Displaying the Characters of a Console Font . . . . 400
16.4 Using Text Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
16.4.1 Outputting Horizontal Text Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
16.4.2 Outputting Text Banners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
16.5 Using Other Font Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

IV. IMAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

xx The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

17. Viewing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

17.1 Viewing an Image in X. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
17.1.1 Browsing Image Collections in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
17.1.2 Putting an Image in the Root Window . . . . . . . . . 410
17.2 Browsing Images in a Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
17.3 Viewing an Image in a Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
17.4 Previewing Print Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
17.4.1 Previewing a dvi File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
17.4.2 Previewing a PostScript File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
17.4.3 Previewing a Pdf File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
17.5 Browsing PhotoCD Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
17.6 Viewing an Animation or Slide Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
17.7 Using Other Image Viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

18. Editing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

18.1 Transforming Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
18.1.1 Changing the Size of an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
18.1.2 Rotating an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
18.1.3 Adjusting the Colors of an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
18.1.4 Annotating an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
18.1.5 Adding Borders to an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
18.1.6 Making an Image Montage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
18.1.7 Combining Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
18.1.8 Morphing Two Images Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
18.2 Converting Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
18.3 Using the gimp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
18.4 Using Other Image Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

19. Importing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

19.1 Taking Screen Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
19.1.1 Taking a Screen Shot in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
19.1.2 Taking a Screen Shot in a Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
19.2 Scanning Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
19.2.1 Listing Available Scanner Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
19.2.2 Testing a Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
19.2.3 Scanning an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
19.3 Extracting PhotoCD Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
19.3.1 Converting a PhotoCD Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
19.3.2 Removing PhotoCD Haze. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
 xxi

19.4 Turning Text into an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

19.5 Using Other Image Import Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

20. PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

20.1 Manipulating PostScript Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
20.1.1 Extracting dvi Pages to PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
20.1.2 Extracting Pages from a PostScript File . . . . . . . . 452
20.1.3 Combining PostScript Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
20.1.4 Arranging PostScript Pages in Signatures . . . . . . . 455
20.2 Manipulating PostScript Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
20.2.1 Resizing a PostScript Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
20.2.2 Combining PostScript Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
20.2.3 Arranging a PostScript Document in a Booklet . . 458
20.3 Converting PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
20.3.1 Converting PostScript to pdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
20.3.2 Converting PostScript to Plain Text . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

V. SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

21. Playing and Recording Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . 463

21.1 Adjusting the Audio Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
21.1.1 Listing the Current Audio Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
21.1.2 Changing the Volume Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
21.1.3 Muting an Audio Device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
21.1.4 Selecting an Audio Recording Source . . . . . . . . . . . 465
21.2 Playing a Sound File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
21.2.1 Playing an Ogg File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
21.2.2 Playing Streaming Ogg Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
21.2.3 Playing a midi File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
21.2.4 Playing a mod File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
21.2.5 Playing an mp3 File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
21.2.6 Playing Streaming mp3 Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
21.3 Displaying Information About a Sound File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
21.3.1 Displaying Information About an Ogg File . . . . . . 472
21.3.2 Displaying Information About an mp3 File . . . . . . 472
21.4 Recording a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
21.5 Using Other Sound Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
xxii The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

22. Audio Compact Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

22.1 Using Audio cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
22.1.1 Playing an Audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
22.1.2 Pausing an Audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
22.1.3 Stopping an Audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
22.1.4 Shuffling Audio cd Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
22.1.5 Displaying Information About an Audio cd . . . . . 479
22.1.6 Ejecting an Audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
22.2 Sampling from an Audio c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
22.3 Writing an Audio cd-r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
22.4 Using Other Audio Compact Disc Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

23. Editing Sound Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

23.1 Manipulating Selections from Sound Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
23.1.1 Cutting Out Part of a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
23.1.2 Pasting a Selection into a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . 488
23.1.3 Mixing Sound Files Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
23.2 Applying Sound Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
23.2.1 Changing the Amplitude of a Sound File. . . . . . . . 489
23.2.2 Changing the Sampling Rate of a Sound File . . . . 490
23.2.3 Adding Reverb to a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
23.2.4 Adding Echo to a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
23.2.5 Adding Flange to a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
23.2.6 Adding Phase to a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
23.2.7 Adding Chorus to a Sound File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
23.2.8 Adding Vibro-Champ Effects to a Sound File . . . 493
23.2.9 Reversing the Audio in a Sound File. . . . . . . . . . . . 493
23.3 Converting Sound Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
23.3.1 Converting an mp3 File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
23.3.2 Encoding an Ogg File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
23.3.3 Converting Ogg to Another Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
23.4 Using Other Sound Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

VI. PRODUCTIVITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

 xxiii

24. Disk Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

24.1 Listing a Disk’s Free Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
24.2 Listing a File’s Disk Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
24.3 Using Floppy Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
24.3.1 Formatting a Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
24.3.2 Mounting a Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
24.3.3 Unmounting a Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
24.4 Using Data cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
24.4.1 Mounting a Data cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
24.4.2 Unmounting a Data cd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

25. Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

25.1 Making and Managing Print Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
25.1.1 Sending a Print Job to the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
25.1.2 Printing Multiple Copies of a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
25.1.3 Listing Your Print Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
25.1.4 Canceling a Print Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
25.2 Other Things You Can Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
25.2.1 Printing a Printer Test Strip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
25.2.2 Printing Certain Pages of a PostScript File . . . . . 513
25.2.3 Printing an Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
25.2.4 Printing a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
25.2.5 Printing a dvi File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
25.2.6 Printing an Emacs Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
25.2.7 Printing an Info Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
25.2.8 Printing the Contents of a Terminal Window . . . . 518
25.3 Preparing Files for Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
25.3.1 Preparing a PostScript File for Printing . . . . . . . . 518
25.3.2 Preparing a dvi File for Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
25.3.3 Preparing a pdf File for Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
25.3.4 Preparing a Manual Page for Printing . . . . . . . . . . 522
25.3.5 Preparing Text for Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

26. Cross-Platform Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

26.1 Using dos and Windows Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
26.1.1 Listing the Contents of a dos Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
26.1.2 Copying Files to and from a dos Disk . . . . . . . . . . 526
26.1.3 Deleting Files on a dos Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
26.1.4 Formatting a dos Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
xxiv The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

26.2 Using Macintosh Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

26.2.1 Specifying the Macintosh Disk to Use. . . . . . . . . . . 527
26.2.2 Listing the Contents of a Macintosh Disk . . . . . . . 528
26.2.3 Copying Files to and from a Macintosh Disk . . . . 528
26.2.4 Deleting Files on a Macintosh Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
26.2.5 Formatting a Macintosh Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
26.3 Mounting Windows and nt partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
26.4 Converting Text Files Between dos and Linux . . . . . . . . . . . 530
26.5 Converting Microsoft Word Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
26.5.1 Converting Word to LaTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
26.5.2 Converting Word to Plain Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
26.6 Converting Text from Proprietary Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
26.7 Managing zip Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
26.7.1 Zipping Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
26.7.2 Unzipping Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
26.8 Using Other Cross-Platform Conversion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 535

27. Reminders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

27.1 Displaying the Date and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
27.1.1 Displaying the Day of the Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
27.1.2 Displaying the Minute of the Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
27.2 Playing an Audible Time Announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
27.3 Using Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
27.3.1 Displaying a Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
27.3.2 Displaying a Calendar in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
27.4 Managing Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
27.4.1 Making an Appointment File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
27.4.2 Including Holidays in Your Reminders . . . . . . . . . . 544
27.4.3 Automatic Appointment Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
27.5 Using Contact Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
27.5.1 Keeping a Free-Form Address List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
27.5.2 Keeping a Contact Manager Database . . . . . . . . . . 548
27.6 Reminding Yourself of Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
27.6.1 Reminding Yourself When You Have to Leave . . . 550
27.6.2 Sending Yourself Email Reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
27.7 Telling Others You Are Away . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
27.8 Reviewing What You Did Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
27.9 Using Other Reminder Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
 xxv

28. Scheduling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

28.1 Running a Command on a Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
28.2 Running a Command on a Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
28.2.1 Listing the Jobs Scheduled to Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
28.2.2 Deleting a Job Scheduled to Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
28.3 Scheduling Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
28.3.1 Adding a cron Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
28.3.2 Removing a cron Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
28.3.3 Listing Your cron Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
28.4 Watching a Command from Time to Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

29. Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

29.1 Calculating Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
29.1.1 Making a Quick Arithmetic Calculation. . . . . . . . . 561
29.1.2 Using a Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
29.2 Outputting a Random Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
29.3 Listing a Sequence of Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
29.4 Finding Prime Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
29.5 Converting Amounts and Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
29.5.1 Converting an Amount Between Units of
Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
29.5.2 Converting an Arabic Numeral to English . . . . . . . 568
29.6 Using rot13 Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
29.6.1 Encoding Text in rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
29.6.2 Decoding Text in rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
29.7 Using gpg Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
29.7.1 Encrypting Data with gpg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
29.7.2 Decrypting Data with gpg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
29.8 Plotting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
29.8.1 Making Graphs with a Single Data Set . . . . . . . . . 575
29.8.2 Making Graphs with Multiple Data Sets . . . . . . . . 577
29.9 Using Other Mathematics Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

30. Amusements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

30.1 Playing Classic unix Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
30.2 Filtering Text Through a Dialect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
30.3 Testing Your Typing Speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
30.4 Displaying Random Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
xxvi The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

30.5 Finding Matches for Word Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588

30.5.1 Finding Anagrams in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
30.5.2 Finding Palindromes in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
30.5.3 Finding Crossword Puzzle Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
30.6 Cuting Up Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
30.6.1 Making Simple Text Cut-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
30.6.2 Making Random Word Cut-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
30.6.3 Making Cut-Ups in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
30.7 Undergoing Psychoanalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

VII. NETWORKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

31. Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597

31.1 Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
31.1.1 Setting Up ppp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
31.1.2 Starting a ppp Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
31.1.3 Stopping a ppp Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
31.1.4 Viewing the ppp Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
31.2 Faxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
31.2.1 Sending a Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
31.2.2 Receiving a Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
31.2.3 Receiving Faxes Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
31.2.4 Converting to and from Fax Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
31.3 Calling Out on a Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
31.4 Using Other Communications Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

32. Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611

32.1 Sending Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
32.1.1 Mailing a User on the Same System . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
32.1.2 Mailing a File or the Output of a Command . . . . 613
32.1.3 Mailing a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
32.1.4 Mailing a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
32.1.5 Composing Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
32.2 Receiving Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
32.2.1 Showing a List of Mail Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
32.2.2 Deleting Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
32.2.3 Undeleting Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
32.2.4 Replying to Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
32.2.5 Saving Mail to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
 xxvii

32.3 Using a Remote Mail Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

32.3.1 Using Mozilla for Mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
32.3.2 Fetching pop Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
32.4 Managing Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
32.4.1 Viewing a Mail Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
32.4.2 Setting Notification for New Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
32.4.3 Counting How Many Messages You Have . . . . . . . 625
32.4.4 Seeing Who Your Mail Is From . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
32.4.5 Verifying an Email Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
32.4.6 Searching Mail Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
32.5 Using Mail Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
32.5.1 Reading a Mail Attachment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
32.5.2 Sending a Mail Attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
32.6 Using an Email Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
32.7 Using Other Mail User Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

33. The World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

33.1 Using Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
33.1.1 Getting Acquainted with Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
33.1.2 Using Basic Mozilla Browsing Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
33.1.3 Making a New Mozilla Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
33.1.4 Copying a Link to the Clipboard from Mozilla . . 642
33.1.5 Copying an Email Address to the Clipboard from
Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
33.1.6 Searching the Source of a Web Page in Mozilla . . 643
33.2 Using Lynx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
33.2.1 Using Basic Lynx Browsing Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
33.2.2 Saving a Web Page from Lynx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
33.2.3 Listing All the Links in a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
33.2.4 Sending Text from the Web to Standard Output
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
33.2.5 Viewing a Site that Requires Authorization . . . . . 647
33.2.6 Viewing an html Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
33.2.7 Specifying Key Bindings in Lynx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
33.2.8 Using Lynx with a Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
33.3 Accessing the Web in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
33.4 Viewing an Image from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
xxviii The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

33.5 Getting Files from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

33.5.1 Downloading an url . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
33.5.2 Archiving an Entire Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
33.5.3 Archiving Part of a Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
33.5.4 Reading the Headers of a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
33.6 Keeping a Browser History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
33.6.1 Viewing Your Browser History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
33.6.2 Searching Through Your Browser History . . . . . . . 657
33.7 Setting Up a Start Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
33.8 Listing the urls in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
33.9 Writing html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
33.9.1 Adding Parameters to Image Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
33.9.2 Converting html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
33.9.3 Validating html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
33.10 Analyzing Your Web Traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
33.11 Using Other Web Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667

34. Other Internet Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

34.1 Connecting to a Remote Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
34.1.1 Suspending a Connection with a Remote Host. . . 672
34.1.2 Terminating a Connetion with a Remote Host . . . 673
34.2 Transferring Files to and from a Remote Host . . . . . . . . . . . 673
34.2.1 Uploading a File to a Remote Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
34.2.2 Downloading a File from a Remote Host . . . . . . . . 676
34.3 Using Secure Internet Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676
34.3.1 Making a Secure Shell Connection to a Remote Host
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
34.3.2 Making a Secure File Copy to a Remote Host . . . 678
34.4 Reading Usenet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
34.4.1 Choosing a Newsreader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
34.4.2 Finding Newsgroups for a Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
34.5 Displaying Information About Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
34.5.1 Checking Whether a User Is Online . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
34.5.2 Listing Who Is Logged In to a System . . . . . . . . . . 684
34.6 Displaying Information About a Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684
34.6.1 Determining If a Host Is Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
34.6.2 Tracing the Path to Another Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
34.6.3 Getting the ip Address of a Hostname . . . . . . . . . . 686
34.6.4 Getting the Hostname of an ip Address . . . . . . . . . 687
34.6.5 Listing the Owner of a Domain Name . . . . . . . . . . 688
 xxix

34.7 Chatting with Other Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

34.7.1 Sending a Message to Another User’s Terminal . . 689
34.7.2 Denying Messages to Your Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
34.7.3 Chatting Directly with a User. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
34.7.4 Chatting on irc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
34.7.5 Chatting on icq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
34.7.6 Using im Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694

APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697

Appendix A. Administrative Issues . . . . . . . . . . 699

A.1 Setting Up Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
A.1.1 Determining Which Hardware Is Compatible . . . . 699
A.1.2 Setting the System Date and Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
A.1.3 Specifying Mount Points for Certain Devices. . . . . 701
A.1.4 Making a Boot Floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
A.1.5 Removing a Master Boot Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
A.1.6 Setting Up a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
A.2 Shutting Down the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
A.2.1 Shutting Down Immediately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
A.2.2 Shutting Down at a Certain Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
A.2.3 Canceling a Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
A.2.4 Going into Maintenance Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
A.3 Managing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
A.3.1 Getting and Installing a Linux Distribution . . . . . . 706
A.3.2 Installing Packages for Your Linux Distribution . . 707
A.3.3 Installing a Source Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
A.3.4 Installing a Shell Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708
A.4 Managing deb Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709
A.4.1 Listing deb Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
A.4.2 Installing a deb Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
A.4.3 Upgrading a deb Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
A.4.4 Removing a deb Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
A.4.5 Getting the Status of a deb Package . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
A.4.6 Listing All Files in a deb Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
A.4.7 Listing the deb Package a File Is a Part Of. . . . . . 714
A.4.8 Listing Dependences for a deb Package . . . . . . . . . 714
xxx The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

A.5 Managing rpm Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

A.5.1 Listing rpm Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
A.5.2 Installing an rpm Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
A.5.3 Upgrading an rpm Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
A.5.4 Removing an rpm Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
A.5.5 Getting the Status of an rpm Package . . . . . . . . . . 716
A.5.6 Listing All Files in an rpm Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
A.5.7 Listing the rpm Package a File Is a Part Of . . . . . 716
A.5.8 Listing Dependences for an rpm Package . . . . . . . . 717
A.6 Administrating Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
A.6.1 Making a User Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
A.6.2 Seeing Which Users Exist on the System . . . . . . . . 717
A.6.3 Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals . . . . . . 718
A.6.4 Letting Users Mount Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
A.7 Displaying Information About Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
A.7.1 Displaying How Long the System Has Been Up . . 719
A.7.2 Displaying cpu Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
A.7.3 Displaying Memory Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
A.7.4 Displaying the Linux Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
A.7.5 Displaying the Distribution Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Appendix B. Conventional File Name Extensions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Appendix C. Setting Up Your Home Directory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
C.1 Using a Directory for Personal Binaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
C.2 Using a Directory for Personal Lists and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
C.3 Using a Directory for Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
C.4 Using a Directory for Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
C.5 Using a Directory for Temporary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

Appendix D. References for Further Interest

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
D.1 Sources of Linux Software and Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
D.1.1 Linux Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
D.1.2 Archives of Linux and Related Software . . . . . . . . . 732
D.1.3 Hardware for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
 xxxi

D.2 Linux Books and Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

D.2.1 General Linux Guides and Instruction. . . . . . . . . . . 733
D.2.2 Linux Tool and Application Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
D.2.3 Unix and Linux History Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
D.3 Linux News and Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737

Program Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Concept Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

xxxii The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Preface to the Second, Revised Edition xxxiii

Preface to the Second, Revised Edition

This is a book about using computers to get your work done in the best and
most efficient manner possible. As with a culinary cookbook, it gives tested
recipes for the successful preparation or accomplishment of particular things.
In the preface to the first edition of this book, I explained it like this:
I know that Linux isn’t difficult to use, especially when compared
with other software and operating systems, but what was needed
was a guide to show people how to use it to get things done: “Oh,
you want to do that? Here, type this.”
That explains the premise of the book—it’s a hands-on guide to
getting things done on a Linux system, designed for the everyday
user who is not necessarily a computer programmer.
This new, revised edition of the Cookbook remains all of that and more.
Its coverage has been expanded, and every recipe has been refined.
Once again, it only got there with the assistance of some individuals whom
it is now my pleasure to thank—foremost being those at No Starch Press:
publisher William Pollock; Karol Jurado, under whose editorship this book
was prepared; John Mark Walker, for his technical review of the manuscript;
and, for their very helpful assistance that speeded production, Hillel Heinstein,
Riley Hoffman, and Leigh Sacks. On behalf of the Press, Andy Carroll and
Mary Johnson contributed valuable corrections and comments.
I also thank the following individuals for their critical comments and sug-
gestions: Ralph Amissah, Jiri Baum, Simon Bellwood, Conny Brunnkvist,
Ed Casas, John R. Daily, Herbert Martin Dietze, Eric Engberg, David Fabi-
ani, Nelson Correa de Toledo Ferraz, John Gilmore, Sven Grewe, V.T. Jones,
Donald E. Knuth, Rüdiger Kuhlmann, Adrian Lanning, Jonathan Nichol,
Miroslaw Osys, Fernando Perez, Alex Radsky, Mark Rahner, Rinaldo Rasa,
Roel Schroeven, Ken Stewart, Frank Wallingford, Rich Warren, and Albert
Witteveen.
Finally, I am happy to thank the usual suspects for their encouragement
and general presence: Jack Angelotta, Bradford W. Byron, Aldo P. Magi,
Steven Snedker, Mr. & Mrs. Walter V. Stutz, and—most of all—Marie R.
Stutz.
This book was printed in its first edition three years ago, and it was con-
ceived four years before that. Life moves on. And in its appearance, the Linux
system too is always changing; this outer shell moves with the fashions of the
season, it ages and becomes obsolete, and it fades away into the mists of time,
while the inner core does not.
xxxiv The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The core melds, picks up new features, refines or discards others, but some-
how it lingers and remains. In that sense it is the only part worth dwelling
on. In the 1970s, typing ls from a hardware terminal to list the files in a
directory worked much the same as it does today on Linux. This inner core is
the language of unix, and it is the foundation upon which the entire system
is laid.
It has always been my desire to clearly and completely teach that founda-
tion in the Cookbook, and I hope that the product you now hold may be of
more worth, and resonate longer, than something that only chases after the
sleek contours and momentary luster of the latest and already fading outer
shell, while leaving so much of the inner magic still a mystery.
And so here it is: A new edition that gives, to the reader, a book whose
substance was improved, its horizons broadened—and to the author, a chance
to do a second take, to trim and burnish, to attempt refinement of a work
once labored on. I hope you likewise find the journey sufficiently rewarding.

Michael Stutz
June, 2004
I. WORKING WITH LINUX 1

I. WORKING WITH LINUX

2 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 1: Introduction 3

1. Introduction
Before we start “cooking,” we’ll get some preliminaries out of the way in this
chapter, which explains both how the book is organized and the conventions
that are used throughout it. It also shows you where to begin if you’re new
to Linux, and how to get more help, should you need it. It concludes with a
short background history of the software that is the subject of the book.
The rest of the book is all recipes, which are categorized by the tasks they
perform or the objects they work on—such as text, files, images, and so forth.
This first part of the book explains the general techniques and methods for
working with Linux—including how to get the system ready for use, how to
run commands on the system, which commands every Linux user knows, and
how to use the interfaces that come with Linux.

1.1 Recipes
Recipes are methods for accomplishing a particular task on Linux. Recipes
are organized into chapters, which deal with one specific kind of task, such as
Viewing Text or Editing Images. Chapters are often concluded with a table
of hints identifying more applications or tools pertinent to the subject of that
chapter.

1.1.1 Recipe Numbers

Each recipe is referenced by its recipe number, which is constructed as follows:
the first figure in the recipe number always corresponds to the the chapter
number, and the second figure to the section or category of the recipe. So if
Chapter 3 is The Shell, then Recipe 3.5 is the fifth recipe on shells.
Sometimes a recipe number will contain a third figure. This is for subjects
that are so broad as to have more than one recipe that fits it. Recipe 3.4
[Using Your Command History], page 74, for example, is on the subject of
using command history in the shell, and is divided further into more recipes;
Recipe 3.4.2 [Searching Through Your Command History], page 75, is the
second recipe on command history.

1.1.2 Preparation of Recipes

Each recipe describes a method for completing a specific task on the system,
and these tasks require at least one software program. The software programs
or files a recipe calls for in its preparation are its ingredients.
4 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

You might not have all of these programs installed on your system and
ready for use, so recipes commence with a listing of the programs it uses and
the packages or urls where you can find them.
Ingredients that most everyone is sure to have on hand are omitted from
this listing. For example, the ls command for listing files in a directory will
be available on all systems, so its listing is always omitted.
The rule of measure for determining whether an ingredient is listed or not
comes from the Debian distribution, which classifies packages in varying levels
of importance, from the “Required” packages that all systems absolutely must
have in order to run, to “Optional” and “Extra” packages that you only install
if you want them. If it’s “Required” or “Important” to Debian, then it’s a
very common program no matter what your distribution, and I don’t need to
list it.

1.1.3 Format of Recipes

Recipes are structured in the following way:
1. Recipe number and title of the recipe.
2. General description of recipe and, optionally, the number of suggested
methods of preparation.
3. If a recipe has more than one suggested method to get the same results,
the method number will be given here and the remaining elements of the
recipe will be repeated for each method, each preceded by its method
number.
4. Special ingredients, if any.
The package name(s) and urls where the software can be obtained are
listed here.
Packages are listed in the two preeminent Linux formats: deb and rpm;
chances are your distribution uses one of them. The deb format origi-
nated with Debian and is used by other distributions, while rpm began
with Red Hat and has since been adopted by others.
To find the package for your hardware platform and distribution ver-
sion, look for this package base name in your Linux distribution cd-
roms or archive. You can also search for them online: deb packages
are available at Debian’s package site [http://packages.debian.org/],
and rpm packages can be searched for at the online rpm Database
[http://rpmfind.net/].
For example, if XFree86 is listed for the rpm package, the actual pack-
age for your particular rpm-based system might be XFree86-VGA16-
Chapter 1: Introduction 5

3.3.6-29.sparc.html which, according to the page for XFree86 on

rpmfind.net, is the package for vga16 video cards on the sparc plat-
form.
The sources and binaries for these programs are usually available unpack-
aged, too; the location from where they can be retrieved on the World
Wide Web is listed, if available. Use these sources for distributions that
use neither package format (Slackware is the prime example), or for those
odd cases where a deb or rpm doesn’t exist for some program. (Some-
times, the home page will contain the sources in one or both of these
package formats anyway.)
Web sites are transient; if you cannot find the source package for a
program, you can always obtain the sources from Debian’s package site
[http://packages.debian.org/], where each package has its own page
containing a link with a .tar.gz archive of its sources.
5. Special preparation or setup, if any. If you must be the superuser or
require special privileges to run the command, this is noted here. When
a configurable program is described, the standard setup as provided by
the Debian distribution is assumed, unless otherwise specified here.
6. “Cooking” method proper.
7. Remarks concerning the results and use.
8. At least one example of the method in a specific context, set off from the
text by an arrow. If the example takes several steps to perform, these
steps are then enumerated. Where multiple examples are given, each is
set off from the text by a bullet.
9. Variations on the standard preparation, with additional examples.
10. Extra commands or actions you might want to do next. Some programs
take a number of options that modify the way they work. Sometimes,
various options that a tool takes are listed in a table. These lists are
not always exhaustive; rather, they contain the most popular or useful
options, or those options that are relevant to the discussion at hand. Con-
sult the online manual page of a particular tool for the complete listing
(see Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).
11. Special notes of caution or interest.
12. Sources of further information.

Not all of these items will be present in every recipe.

6 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

1.2 Typographical Conventions

The display of computer interaction presents a special problem in a written
work. Here, the conventions used in this book are described.
A recipe will usually give at least one hands-on example that demonstrates
its use.
⇒ The text that introduces an example is offset from the text with an arrow,
like this.
• If there are multiple examples, then each individual example is bul-
leted like this.
• When several discrete steps are necessary, they are enumerated.
The names of documents or users in some recipes may not always reference
actual documents or users on your system, but are examples that demonstrate
the general principles involved. So when I show how to print a file called
resume, you might not necessarily have a file with that name on your system,
but you should understand from it how to print a file.
Sometimes, a terminal screen is shown to illustrate an interactive session:
 

$ Text that you actually type is displayed in a slanted font, like

this. If it is a command to be typed at a shell prompt, the command is
preceded by a $ character.

Text that denotes program output is displayed in a monospaced typewriter

font, like this. When there is such output, a shell prompt is also given
to denote program completion.

$


A border is also drawn around shell scripts and other program listings that
are to be typed in.
In examples where a shell prompt is displayed, the default current working
directory is omitted in the prompt, and a “$” is used on its own; when a
command outputs text and then exits, the last line of an example contains
a “$” character to denote the return to a shell prompt. Don’t worry if this
sounds strange to you now; all of this “shell” business is explained in Chapter 3
[The Shell], page 53.
Borders are not drawn around “one-liner” examples showing commands
that return to the shell prompt without giving any output, or commands
Chapter 1: Introduction 7

whose output is not particularly relevant to the example. The returning shell
prompt is omitted here, too.
The names of files or directories appear in the text as file; commands
appear as command, and strings of text are typeset like “some text”; options,
application modes and menu items, function names, and variable names are
all set in this same typewriter font.
Text you are intended to type is written like this, just as in the examples.
When you are meant to press a specific key on the keyboard, its conventional
name is given displayed in a key box. For example, Q
represents the Q key
on the keyboard, and RET
denotes the Return key on the keyboard for typing
a newline.1
So where I say, “To do this, type:” and then give a sample command line,
the text you actually type is presented like this and the text that is output
by the system is presented like this. Keys you are to press, as opposed to
characters you literally type, are given as a key box.
⇒ For example, pressing the F key is denoted by F
, while just typing an
uppercase “F” is denoted by F, and typing a lowercase “f” by f.
In examples where keys are meant to be pressed and held down together,
the keys are connected together with hyphens; the hyphens are not meant to
be literally pressed. For example, pressing the CTRL
, ALT
, and DEL
keys,
and holding them down at the same time, is a combination that has meaning
in some operating systems (including Linux, where this keystroke shuts down
the system and reboots the computer); it is represented like this:
CTRL
- ALT
- DEL

In the same way, keys that are meant to be pressed one after another are
separated by a space; the space is not to be literally typed. So for a keystrokes
such as this:
RET
RET

you would press the carriage return key, and then press the carriage return
key again, but do not type a space between them. The same goes for text
followed by a key—for example, a physical space appears in the book between
commands and the final RET
that ends a command line, and it should not
be literally typed (although there is often no consequence for actually typing
this space). Where explicitly pressing the space bar is called for, that key is
represented in examples as SPACEBAR
.
1
This key is labeled “Enter” on some keyboards, while still others have only an arrow
going downward and then pointing to the left like the old carriage return of typewriters.
8 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Excepting a few special three-key combinations, the CTRL
(“Control”)

key is always used in combination with one other key. First, the CTRL
key
is pressed, and, while it is still depressed, the second key is pressed; then,
both keys are released. This is a control-key combination. Control keys have
special meanings that are applicable in most programs. For example, the
“Control-C” combination, depressing the CTRL
key and then pressing C
, is
the “cancel” command, which cancels or breaks out of whatever command is
running.
There are three ways these control key combinations are denoted in writing.
The traditional way is with a caret (^) followed by the capital letter of the
second key in the combination. For example, to represent “Control-C” in this
way, one would write ^C. This is called hat notation.
The second way is to use C- (to represent the CTRL
key) followed by
the lowercase letter of the second key. So to represent the “Control-C” key
combination in this manner, one would write C-c. This notation is used by the
gnu Emacs editor and its corresponding gnu documentation (see Recipe 10.1
[Using Emacs], page 232), so I call it gnu notation.
The third way to represent control-key combinations is to show a literal
CTRL
key followed by a hyphen and the second key to press. So “Control-C”
would be written as CTRL
- C
. I call this key notation, and it is the notation
used throughout this book.
To type one of these combinations, press and hold CTRL
, press the second
key, and then release both keys.
⇒ For example, to type “Control-D,” which may be written as ^D, C-d or
CTRL
- D
, press and hold CTRL
, type the D
key, and then release both
keys.

In some applications, the META
key is used in the same way as CTRL
.
gnu Project programs and documentation denote META
key combinations
by M-x, where x is the second key in the combination. Most keyboards today
don’t have a META
key, of course; where you see reference to this key, just
use the ALT
key. Throughout this book, I’ll write these combinations in key
notation with ALT
instead of META
, since the former key is most often the
actual key in use.
⇒ So to type M-c, press and hold ALT
, press the C
key, and then release
both keys.
Chapter 1: Introduction 9

You can often get the same effect by pressing and releasing ESC
, and then
pressing the second key. Do this if your keyboard doesn’t have an ALT
key,
or if your ALT
isn’t set up as the META
key.2
⇒ To type M-c without using ALT
, press and release ESC
, and then press
and release the C
key.
Both CTRL
and ALT
sequences are not case-sensitive; that is, pressing a
capital C to make the last example is the same as pressing the lowercase c
(although c is certainly easier to type, if Caps Lock is off). In gnu notation,
the C- or M- prefix is always given as an uppercase letter, and the key that
follows is always given as a lowercase letter. The convention for hat notation
is to always use an uppercase letter for the control key.
Furthermore, some programs take commands that are a combination of key
combinations and sequences, and so the hyphen and space representations can
be combined. For instance, if a command is to press and hold CTRL
, press
X
and release both keys, and then type a lowercase letter “q,” this will be
denoted in the text as:
CTRL
- X
q
And finally, a remark on quoted punctuation. In the Internet age it has
become a trend, away from the American printing convention, to place trailing
punctuation outside of the quotation. The argument is that computers cannot
recognize the punctuation for what it is, and assume it is part of the literal
characters being quoted. We operators don’t want to confuse the machine, so
we keep this trailing punctuation outside the quotes. First it was adopted in
the computer programming languages (not a one, to my knowledge, accepts
text written in the American convention), and then in the technical manuals
and computer books, and it is now becoming widespread throughout other
literature, especially in online publications.
But we human beings understand punctuation, and it is for us that it
exists. We should make systems that work for us, and print words the way
we intend to write them—not bend our own expressions to fit the tooth of a
sprocket.

1.3 Who This Book Assumes You Are

There a few assumptions that this book makes about you, the reader, and
about your Linux system.
2
If your keyboard has a Windows key, then this key, and not ALT
, may be set up as
the META
key. You will have to experiment to see which combination works on your
system.
10 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The Cookbook assumes that you have at least minimal understanding of

your computer—you know that the hardware is the machinery itself, and the
software is the instructions that run on it. You don’t have to know how to take
your system apart or anything like that, but you ought to know how to operate
the mouse, where the power button is on your computer and monitor, how to
load paper in your printer, and so forth. If you need help with any of these
tasks or concepts, ask your dealer or the party who set up your computer.
This book also assumes that you already have Linux installed and properly
set up, and that you have your own user account set up on your system
(making a user account is described in Recipe A.6.1 [Making a User Account],
page 717; if you need help with installation and setup, please see Recipe 1.6
[If You Need More Help], page 13). No one distribution of Linux is assumed,
and any specialties for any one of them in the text are identified as such.
While this book can and should be used by the newcomer to Linux, I
like to think that I’ve presented broad enough coverage of the Linux-based
system, and have included enough interesting or obscure material, so that
gurus, hackers, and members of the Linux Cabal may find some of it new and
useful—and that any such user will not feel ashamed to have a copy of this
book on his desk or as part of his library.
There is another assumtion this book makes that is of importance only
to such gurus and old-timers. The Bash shell, as you gurus know, may be
thought of as the default shell of Linux; because this is so, it is the shell
assumed for all examples in this book. So if you have experience with another
shell, take note of the differences—you may find examples that do not work
in your favorite non-Bash shell (for example, the command locate *txt will
not work as intended in Csh).

1.4 What This Book Won’t Show You

The point of this book is to show people how to use Linux for all of their
everyday tasks. That is a broad subject, encompassing a great deal of material.
Topics that are outside of that scope do not appear in this book at all; a few
of these are worth mentioning up front.
This book won’t show you how to:
1. Install Linux. No book can do that and remain accurate for very long.
Books that say that they can tell you how are fibbing. As described later
in this chapter, Linux comes in many different “distributions,” and each
has its own install process. Distributions themselves come in different
versions, which change all the time. And then the vagaries of hardware
Chapter 1: Introduction 11

must be added to the equation: Dick will go through a different procedure

installing Linux on his Dell pc with usb that came with Windows 2000
pre-installed on it as Jane will installing Linux on her Apple iPOD.
If you are a computer beginner, and not technically proficient enough to
install an operating system and make the requisite hardware adjustments,
your best bets are the following:
a. Purchase a computer with Linux pre-installed.
b. Have a Linux-savvy friend install it for you.
c. Take your system to your local Linux User Group (lug) and have
them do it for you while you watch. They frequently run “In-
stallFests” for such purpose.

2. Use proprietary software. The very reason I use Linux and recommend
it to others is because it is not proprietary, but is published in such a way
so that anyone can examine the software, share it with others, and adapt
it to his needs. I don’t use proprietary software at all and don’t know
the first thing about it. Therefore, there will be no proprietary software
in this book.
3. Use experimental software. There are thousands of software programs
available for Linux, and I cover a good deal of the most popular and
important ones. What I omit are the software packages that are currently
in a “beta” or some other unstable release not yet intended for the general
public.
4. Secure your system. The specialized topic of security is sufficiently large
to warrant its own book.
5. Become a system administrator. The basic tasks of system administration
for the home user are described in Appendix A [Administrative Issues],
page 699, which is enough to get you going successfully; for more detail
than this, you will need a specialized book on the subject. I recommend
the Linux System Administrators’ Guide, which should be available right
on your system (for how to access it, see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System
Documentation and Help Files], page 50).
6. Administrate a network. There are too many kinds of networks, and
this is most often a technical and not user-based application. The Linux
Network Administrators Guide is recommended for this purpose (see Ap-
pendix D [References For Further Interest], page 731).
7. Use Linux in software development. Program development, compilation,
and software project management are out of this book’s scope. However,
12 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

the programmer will find much of the material in this book useful for his
task.
8. Use Linux in other specialized fields. Everything in this book should
be useful to you, whether you are a music composer, biochemist,
schoolteacher, secretary, or whatever. However, this book will have no
specific sections for “Using Linux for Music Composition,” “Using Linux
in Biochemistry Research,” “Using Linux in the Classroom,” or “A
Secretary’s Guide to Linux,” although Linux is used in such fields of
endeavor to great success. Reports, papers, Web sites and even books
have been written on the use of Linux in innumerable special fields, and
its applications are growing. In the Cookbook, I cover the basics of
using Linux as a general tool, regardless of your specific field or interest.
9. Use a non-Linux system. Most of the free software described in this
book has been ported to other systems, particularly to other flavors of
unix. The recipes in this book should more or less work on these systems.
However, this isn’t The UNIX Cookbook, and so any peculiarities of non-
Linux usage are not addresssed—Linux is always the assumed platform.

1.5 What to Try First

The first four chapters of this book contain all of the introductory matter you
need to begin working with Linux. These are the basics. Beginning Linux
users should start with the concepts described in these first chapters. Once
you’ve learned how to power up the system and log in, you should look over
the chapter on the shell, just enough so that you are familiar with typing at
the command prompt; then, look over the chapter on the graphical interface
called the X Window System, so that you can start X and run programs from
there if you like.
Once you know your way around X, you might want to skip ahead and read
the chapter on files and directories next, to get a sense of what the system
looks like and how to maneuver through it. Then, go on to learn how to view
text, and how to edit it in an editor (described in the chapters on viewing text
and editing text). After this, explore the rest of the book as your needs and
interests dictate.
⇒ To recapitulate, here is what I consider to be the essential material to
absorb in order to familiarize yourself with the basic usage of a Linux
system:
1. Chapter 1 [Introduction], page 3 (this chapter).
2. Chapter 2 [What Every Linux User Knows], page 27.
Chapter 1: Introduction 13

3. Chapter 3 [The Shell], page 53 (paying special attention to the main

portions of the first three sections, and ignoring the rest for now).
4. Chapter 4 [The X Window System], page 95 (ignoring the section on
configuration for now).
5. Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125.
6. Chapter 9 [Viewing Text], page 211 (mostly the first section on pe-
rusing text).
7. Chapter 10 [Editing Text], page 231 (enough to select a text editor
and begin using it).
If you have a question about a particular program name, function name,
or mode name, look it up in the program index ([Program Index], page 739).
The other index, listing recipe names, proper names, and the general concepts
involved, is called the concept index ([Concept Index], page 747).

1.6 If You Need More Help

If you need more help than this book can give, remember that you do have
other options. Try these steps for getting help:

1. Chances are good that you are not alone in your question, and that some-
one else has asked it before; therefore, the compendiums of “Frequently
Asked Questions” may have the answer you need. What follows are some
of the more popular faqs for Linux.

http://faqs.org/faqs/linux/faq/ The Linux faq.

http://tinyurl.com/fqe8 Linux faq for Windows

Users.

http://debian.org/doc/FAQ/ The Debian faq.

http://rhlufaq.synfin.net/ The Red Hat Linux User’s

faq.

http://faqs.org/ The Internet faq Archives;

contains hundreds of faqs
on a variety of subjects.
14 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2. The Linux Documentation Project [http://linuxdoc.org/] is the cen-

ter of the most complete and up-to-date Linux-related documentation
available; see if there is a document related to the topic you need help
with.
3. Usenet newsgroups are often an excellent place to discuss issues with
other Linux users, and to get technical help. (Usenet is described in
Recipe 34.4 [Reading Usenet], page 679). The following table lists some
newsgroups that may be of interest.

news:comp.os.linux.hardware Hardware help and support.

news:comp.os.linux.help General Linux help and support.
news:comp.os.linux.setup Linux installation assistance.
news:alt.os.linux Main Linux “alt” newsgroup for general
assistance (branches here include special
groups for Red Hat, Mandrake and other
distributions).
news:linux.debian.user Help for Debian users.

4. Find the Linux User Group (lug) nearest you—people involved with lugs
can be great sources of hands-on help, and it can be fun and rewarding to
get involved with other Linux and free-software enthusiasts in your local
area.

http://www.ssc.com:8080/glue/ glue (“Groups of Linux

Users Everywhere”)
http://lugww.counter.li.org/ Linux Users Groups World-
Wide
http://www.linux.org/groups/ Linux User Groups
5. Consider hiring a consultant. This may be a good option if you need
work done right away and are willing to pay for it. The Linux Con-
sultants HOWTO is a list of consultants around the world who provide
various support services for Linux and open source software in general.
A copy of it should be on your system (see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System
Documentation and Help Files], page 50). Consultants have various in-
terests and areas of expertise, and they are listed in that document with
contact information.
Chapter 1: Introduction 15

6. Finally, see the list of recommendations in Appendix D [References for

Further Interest], page 731, which includes books and Web sites that may
be of help.

1.7 Background and History of Linux

In order to understand what Linux is all about, it helps to know a bit about
how it all began—the history of Linux goes back well before 1991, when Linus
Torvalds famously began work on his free os. The following is a historical
overview, giving a concise background of the software that is the subject of
this book. You’ll find more information on this topic in the books listed in
Appendix D [References For Further Interest], page 731.
This history may explain the longevity of unix and why it may be around
in some form for time to come—today as Linux, and tomorrow as perhaps
something else.

1.7.1 Early Days of unix

unix, the original ancestor of Linux, is an operating system.3 Or at least it
was an operating system; the original system known as unix proper is not
the “unix” we know and use today; there are now many “flavors” of unix, of
which Linux has become the most popular.
A product of the 1960s, unix and its related software was invented by
Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Brian W. Kernighan, and other hackers4 at
Bell Labs in 1969; its name was a play on multics, another operating system
of the time.5
In the early days of unix, any interested party who had the hardware to
run it could get a tape of the software from Bell Labs, with printed manuals,
for a very nominal charge. (This was before the era of personal computing,
and in practice, mostly universities and research laboratories did this.) Local
sites played with the software’s source code (the instructions that formed the

3
The set of basic software tools that a computer needs so that you can operate it to any
success, including a means to run other programs.
4
While the term hacker has come to refer to a computer vandal or intruder, the original
computer meaning concerned a computer programmer or technician who finds obsessive
joy in programming and consequently is adept or inventive at it.
5
The name unix was first written as unics, which stood for “Uniplex Information and
Computing System.”
16 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

software work itself, written in a human-readable language),6 extending and

customizing the software to their needs and liking.
Beginning in the late 1970s, computer scientists at the University of Cal-
ifornia, Berkeley, a licensee of the unix source code, had been making their
own improvements and enhancements to the unix source during the course of
their research, and those improvements included the development of tcp/ip
Internet networking. Their work became known as the bsd (“Berkeley Sys-
tems Distribution”) flavor of unix.
The source code of their work was made publicly available under licensing
that permitted redistribution, with source or without, provided that Berkeley
was credited for its portion of the code. There are many modern variants of
the original bsd still actively developed today, and some of them—such as
netbsd, openbsd, and Apple’s Mac OS X—can run on personal computers.

1.7.2 Genesis of the Free Software Movement

Over the years, unix’s popularity grew. But after the divestiture of at&t in
1984, the tapes of the source code that Bell Labs provided became the basis for
a proprietary, commercial product: at&t unix. The uppercase word unix
became a trademark of at&t (since transferred to other organizations), to
identify its particular operating system.7 It was expensive, and didn’t come
with the source code that showed how it worked and let you fix, extend, or
improve it. Even if you paid extra for a copy of the sources, you couldn’t
share with your programmer colleagues any of the improvements, fixes, or
discoveries you made.
By the early 1980s, proprietary software development, by only-for-profit
corporations, was quickly becoming the norm—even at the universities. No
longer was software source code considered a work of technical literature to
be published for an educated public, but these written works were now kept
secret and hidden, and in their compiled forms they were put in boxes to be
sold as proprietary, commercial products that your system could execute but
that you could never read.

6
For a computer to make use of these written works, the source code must be run through
a compiler, which is a program that uses these writings to output a new file of machine
instructions. A software program in compiled form, not readable by man, is called a
binary or executable file. Binaries are the files you use when you run a program on the
system.
7
But today, when people say “unix,” they usually mean “a unix-like operating system,”
a generalization that includes Linux.
Chapter 1: Introduction 17

In 1984, while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, hacker Richard Stallman saw his colleagues gradually move
to this proprietary development model. But he could not accept the kind
of civilization such proprietism would offer: No sharing your findings with
your fellow man, no freedom for anyone to take a look “under the hood” of a
published work to understand it or to build upon it, and certainly no general
advance. There would not even be a way to improve or extend your own copy
of such works, or gain insight from the writings of other programmers. The
proprietary model would mean the end of computer software as literature.
Instead of following in the direction that most of computing had taken,
Stallman decided to start a project to build and assemble a new unix-like
operating system from scratch, and publish it in written (source code) form.
This was the gnu Project, whose name stands for itself (“gnu’s not unix”).8
Stallman had to devise a way to publish these writings so that others could
use them to advance the body of source-code literature, but so that no one
could use them as the secret instructions for a software “product.” He could
not place them in the public domain, because then he would forfeit all rights
given by copyright law, and could not stop others from using this source code
in products where the source code is kept secret.
Licensing was developed as a way to expressly give everyone the right to
copy, distribute, and modify his copy of the work, though under certain strict
terms and conditions. For the gnu Project, Stallman had the General Public
License, or gnu gpl,9 devised. It formalized through a legal contrivance
what had been the common, unspoken practice in the early days of unix:
Popularly called a copyleft, it permits anyone to copy, distribute, or modify a
so-licensed work, provided that all copies are released with the same license,
and all changes are documented. Even today it is the most widely used of all
such licenses.
This kind of software became known as free software. Stallman formed
the Free Software Foundation (fsf), a non-profit corporation, to advance this
concept and his gnu Project. The fsf also made copies of the gnu software
available for sale as it was developed; individuals and businesses may charge

8
No such “official gnu” operating system has yet been released in its entirety, but most
people today consider Linux-based free software systems to be the effective realization
of Stallman’s goals—hence his famous request for people to call the Linux-based system
“gnu/Linux” instead.
9
Originally the “Emacs Public License” when first published in 1985; the current gnu
gpl is on the Web at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt.
18 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

for copies of a free software work, but there are never any secret writings—with
free software, anyone can read the source code.

1.7.3 The Arrival of Linux

In the early 1990s, a new generation discovered the small but burgeoning
free software movement. Finnish computer science student Linus Torvalds
began hacking on Minix, a miniature unix-like operating system for personal
computers then used in college operating systems courses.10 He decided to
improve the main software component underlying Minix, called the kernel,
by writing his own. (The kernel is the central component of any unix-like
operating system.)
In late 1991, Torvalds published the first version of this kernel on the
Internet, calling it “Linux,” a play on both Minix and his own name.11
When Torvalds published Linux, he used the copyleft software license pub-
lished by the Free Software Foundation, the gnu gpl. Torvalds also invited
contributions from other programmers, and these contributions came—slowly
at first, but as the Internet grew, thousands of hackers and programmers from
around the globe contributed to his free software project.
This began the exciting period of development that throughout the 1990s
made Linux the talk of the computing world; the technical press ignored it at
first, while old-timers said they’d seen nothing like it since the beginning of
the pc revolution many years back—it gave every individual the opportunity
to work, and to make his contribution to the public good. In other words, as
expressed by many observers, it made computing fun again!
But even as the reputation of Linux rose during this time, it was not
always treated seriously by some unix folk and other skeptics. This may have
been due, in part, to the fact that Linux was running on home computers
with off-the-shelf components, whereas unix, like any “serious” os, ran on
minicomputers and powerful machinery out of reach of the average person.
Another reason may have been that, as an “official” unix, Linux wasn’t
quite there yet. posix (a registered trademark that is pronounced “pahz-
icks”), a published standard from the ieee,12 gives a specification for the
10
Presumably, they all use Linux now.
11
This was not the original name, however. Torvalds had originally called it freax, for
“ ‘free’ + ‘freak’ + the obligatory ‘-x’ ”; while the 1990s were fast becoming the “freaky”
alterna decade (at least in fashion), more people seemed to favor “Linux,” and the name
stuck.
12
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., although everybody just uses
the acronym, pronouncing it “I triple E.”
Chapter 1: Introduction 19

characteristics and features that a basic unix operating system should have.
When Linux began to meet these technical specifications, and then when it
finally became posix compliant, the efficacy of Linux as a viable flavor of unix
could not be denied, and it received acceptance in areas where there had been
marked resistance in the past.
Through these relatively few years of development, the Linux software has
been immensely extended and improved, so that the Linux-based system of
today is a complete, modern operating system that rivals anything else that
is currently available.

1.7.4 Debian, Red Hat, and Other Linux Distributions

It takes more than individual software programs to make something that we
can use on our computers—someone has to put it all together. It takes time
to assemble the pieces into a cohesive usable collection, test it all, and then
keep up to date with the new developments of each piece of software (a small
change in any one of which may introduce a new software dependency problem
or conflict with the rest). A Linux distribution is such an assemblage. You
can do it yourself, of course, and “roll your own” distribution—since it’s all
free software, anyone can add to it or remove from it and call the resulting
concoction his own. Most people, however, choose to leave the distribution
business to the experts.
There are scads of distributions, although not more than a half-dozen make
up the bulk of all Linux systems: Debian gnu/Linux, Fedora Linux, Man-
drakelinux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Slackware Linux, and SuSE. So when
people speak of Debian, Fedora, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSE and the
like in terms of Linux, they’re talking about the specific distribution of Linux
and related software, as assembled and repackaged by these companies or or-
ganizations. The core of the distributions are the same—they’re all the Linux
kernel, the gnu Project software, and many other free software packages—but
each distribution has its own packaging schemes, defaults, and configuration
methods. Unless otherwise noted, recipes in this book are general to Linux
and are not dependent on a specific distribution.
All of the major distributions today are reputable, and you should have
no serious problems with any of them. Each has its loyalists and adherents,
while some Linux users like to drift from distro to distro, trying them all.
Among the distributions Debian has special qualities worth noting. It is the
only one designed and assembled by volunteers in the same open manner that
the Linux kernel and most other free software is written. It is also robust (the
standard Debian cd-rom set comes with more software than any other, with
20 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2,500 different software packages), and is entirely committed to free software

by design (yes, there are distributions that are not). In Debian’s early days,
it was referred to as the “hacker’s distro” because it could be very difficult for
a Linux newbie13 to install and manage. However, that has changed.

1.7.5 The Penguin

You’ve surely seen the “Linux penguin” in advertisements and all over the
Web. Larry Ewing’s penguin drawing (made in the free-software gimp image
editor) has become a guaranteed sighting anywhere that Linux comes up, and
is the “official” Linux mascot. Yes, it has a name: Tux.
Many variations on the standard drawing now exist. Linus Tor-
valds’ favorite is actually distributed right along with the Linux kernel
sources now, so if your system has the Linux source code installed
(it’s kept in /usr/src/linux), you can see a copy for yourself at
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/logo.gif; it’ll look something like Figure
1-1.

Figure 1-1. Tux.

While it seems like he was always a part of Linux, Tux didn’t come to be
until about 1994. In the earliest days of Linux, the storm petrel was a popular
mascot, drawn by Peter Williams. This illustration shows the storm petrel in
flight, from a perspective where its left wing appears raised and right wing
sharply parallel to the view, so that its body forms an L shape.14

1.7.6 Open Source, Free Content, and the Future

The term open source was first introduced by some free software advocates
in 1998 as a marketing term for free software. They felt that some people
13
Slang for novice, from the English “new boy” at school.
14
You can still see this logo, on letterhead, by viewing the PostScript file letter.ps
in the package at http://www.funet.fi/pub/Linux/doc/logos/logo2u.tar.gz (see
Recipe 17.4.2 [Previewing a PostScript File], page 414).
Chapter 1: Introduction 21

unfamiliar with the free software movement—specifically, executives at certain

large corporations who’d suddenly taken an interest in the more than ten
years’ worth of work that had been put into this software—might be scared
off by the word “free.” They were concerned that said industry decision-
makers might confuse free software with unrelated concepts such as freeware,
which is software provided free of charge, but in in executable form only.15
The Open Source Initiative (osi) was founded to promote software that
conforms with its public “Open Source Definition,” which in turn was derived
from the “Debian Free Software Guidelines” (dfsg), originally written by
Bruce Perens as a set of software inclusion guidelines for Debian. All free
software—including software released under the terms of the gnu General
Public License—conforms with this definition.
But some free-software advocates and organizations, including the Free
Software Foundation, loudly criticized the term “open source,” believing that
it obscured the importance of “freedom” in this movement.
However, even “free software” is now much too limited, because the very
scope of the “movement” itself is a source of contention and debate. As long
ago as 1994, I pointed out that it took more than computer program source
code to make a complete and working operating system (non-software elements
such as documentation, graphic icons, audio samples, and databases would be
necessary), and in time groups were formed to advance the free copying and
modification of specific types of non-software works, such as audio recordings
of pop music.
New terms including “open content” and “free content” then became pop-
ular to differentiate these new works from free software. Eventually, even
software organizations began to recognize the role of non-software works in
achieving their stated goals, and some endorsed other kinds of works, such
software documentation, as deserving of free licensing.
Today, the surfeit of so many amateur “free” or “open” works, self-
published on the Web, shows that many people clearly want to share—but
the outcome may not be what they expected. With so many specialized li-
censes and conflicting methods for “free” publishing, these works all remain
incompatible with each other, enclosed in their own separate commons.
Other questions and concerns quickly arise: The goals of license makers are
not always identical to those of publishers who use such licenses; the promise
15
“Free software” means nothing of the sort, of course; the “free” has always referred to a
user’s freedom to read and use the software’s source code, and not the price he paid to
obtain it.
22 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

of “free” invites careless violation of license terms and conditions by casual

users and amateur publishers alike; enforcement is difficult if not impossi-
ble; assistance is nonexistent, since the practice occurs outside of traditional
publishing; what constitutes the open “source” for different works is heav-
ily debated; and, while the availabilty of works on the Internet is generally
transnational, it is unclear whether international law or the laws of sovereign
nations apply to these licensed works and their copies and derivatives.
Computers have made it possible for machine-readable works to be pub-
lished in such a way so that anyone can access, distribute, sample from or mod-
ify copies of these works, free of charge and without harm to the originals—but
this has yet been only demonstrated by individual publishers who released
their works under unique licenses that specified these permissions and the
terms under which they are given; there is yet no acknowledged universal
standard or commons for such works, and no clear economic model to replace
the old publication methods—so the future of this practice, and of all the
works already so published, is unclear.

1.7.7 unix and the Tools Philosophy

The fact that the unix operating system has survived for more than thirty
years should tell us something about the temerity of its design considerations.
One of these considerations—perhaps its most endearing—is the “tools” phi-
losophy.
A brief discussion of this philosophy will help clarify the role of this book
as “cookbook.” I will show you how tools are used to run commands on Linux,
and how specifying commands for the system to execute is a kind of language.
Most operating systems are designed with a concept of files, come with a
set of utility programs for handling these files, and then leave it to the large
applications to do the interesting work: a word processor, a spreadsheet, a
presentation designer, a Web browser. (When a few of these applications
recognize each other’s file formats or share a common interface, the group of
applications is called a “suite.”)
Each of these monolithic applications presumably has an “open file” com-
mand to read a file from disk and open it in the application; most of them,
too, come with commands for searching and replacing text, checking spelling,
printing the current document, and so on. The programming code for han-
dling all of these tasks must be included inside each application—taking up
extra space both in memory and on disk. This is the anti-unix approach.
In the case of proprietary software, all of the actual program source code
is kept from the public—so other programmers can’t use, build on, or learn
Chapter 1: Introduction 23

from any of it. This kind of closed-source software is presented to the world
as a kind of magic trick: If you buy a copy of the program, you may use it,
but you can never learn how the program actually works.16

The result of this is that the code to handle essentially the same function
inside all of these different applications must be developed by programmers
from scratch, separately and independently of the others each time—so the
progress of society as a whole is set back by the countless man-hours of time
and energy programmers must waste by inefficiently reinventing all the same
software functions to perform the same tasks, over and over again.

unix-like operating systems don’t put so much weight on application pro-

grams. Instead, they come with many small programs called tools. Each tool
is generally capable of performing a very simple, specific task, and performing
it well—one tool does nothing but output the file(s) or data passed to it, one
tool spools its input to the print queue, one tool sorts the lines of its input,
and so on.

Collective sets of tools, designed around a certain field or concept, were

called “workbenches” on older unix systems; for example, the tools for check-
ing the spelling, writing style, and grammar of text were part of the “Writer’s
Workbench” package (see Recipe 11.3 [Checking Grammar], page 286). While
the idea of “workbenches” is generally not part of the idiom of today’s unix-
based systems, tool collections are often distributed as toolkits, and the gnu
Project still publishes collections of tools under certain general themes such
as the “gnu text utilities” and “gnu file utilities.” The invention of new tools
and applications to fill new needs has been on the rise along with the increased
popularity of Linux-based systems; at the time of this writing, there were a
total of 1,631 tools and applications in the two primary program directories
(/bin and /usr/bin) on my Linux system.

An important early development in unix was the invention of “pipes,” a

way to pass the output of one tool to the input of another. By knowing what
the individual tools do and how they are combined, a user could now build
powerful “strings” of commands.

Just as the tensile strength of chrome-nickel steel is greater than the added
strength of its components, multiple tools could then be combined to perform

16
In fact, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (dmca), signed into law by President
Clinton on October 28, 1998, it is a federal crime for you to even try.
24 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

a task unpredicted by the function of the individual tools. This is the concept
of synergy, and it forms the basis of the unix tools philosophy.17
Here’s an example, using two tools. The first tool, called who, outputs a
list of all the users who are currently logged on to the system (see Recipe 2.6.2
[Listing Who Is on the System], page 39). The second tool is called wc, which
stands for “word count”; it outputs a count of the number of words (or lines or
characters) of the input you give it (see Recipe 12.1 [Counting Text], page 293).
By combining these two tools, giving the output of who to the wc command,
you can build a new command to list the number of users currently on the
system, as in Figure 1-2.
 

$ who | wc -l RET

4
$


Figure 1-2. Listing the number of users on the system.
The output of who, a list of all the users who are on the system right now,
is piped—via a “pipeline,” specified by the vertical bar—to the input of wc,
which through use of the -l option outputs the number of lines of its input.
In this example, the numeral 4 is output, indicating that four users are
currently logged on to the system.18
Another famous pipeline from the days before spell-check tools goes some-
thing like Figure 1-3.
 

$ tr -cs A-Za-z '\012' | tr A-Z a-z | sort -u |

comm -23 - /usr/dict/words RET



Figure 1-3. An early spelling checker.
This command (typed all on one long line) uses the tr, sort, and comm
tools to make a spelling checker—after you type this command, the lines of
text you type (until you interrupt it) are converted to a single-column list of
lowercase words with two calls of tr, are then sorted in alphabetical order
17
Because of this approach, and because of its licensing that gives access to all, I like to
call Linux a “synergetic” operating system, in honor of the late R. Buckminster Fuller,
who invented a new mathematical system based on these same principles.
18
Piping the output of who to wc in this fashion is a classic tools example. A.N. Walker
called it “the most quoted pipe in the world”—over twenty years ago! See his book in
Appendix D [References for Further Interest], page 731.
Chapter 1: Introduction 25

while ferreting out all duplicates, and the resultant list is then compared with
/usr/dict/words, which is the system “dictionary,” a list of properly spelled
words kept in alphabetical order (see Recipe 11.1 [Spell Checking], page 275).
The great bulk of this book details various combinations of tools you can
use to obtain the desired results for various common tasks. Some tasks will
require more than one command sequence; others need the fine, complex mo-
tions exercised through the large application programs. You’ll find that there’s
usually one tool or command sequence that works perfectly for a given task,
but sometimes a satisfactory or even identical result can be had from different
combinations of different tools—especially at the hands of a unix expert.19
This way of formulating commands to accomplish tasks, so different from
the wysiwyg20 systems where you “point and click” at graphic icons, is the
language of unix. In most everyday use, you’ll rarely use more than a vocab-
ulary of twenty words (tools) and a few inflections each (their options)—but
what can you express with them, and how quickly, in contrast to merely point-
ing at pictures!

19
Such an expert used to be called a wizard; a more colloquial expression is guru, and
then there’s the more generalized (and downright awful) computer geek of today.
20
“What You See Is What You Get.”
26 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 27

2. What Every Linux User Knows

This chapter concerns those concepts and commands that every Linux user
knows—how to start and stop the system, log in and out from it, change
your password, see what is happening on the system, and use the system help
facilities. Mastering these basic concepts is essential for using Linux with any
degree of success.
Some of these recipes make reference to files and directories; these concepts
are explained in Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125.

2.1 Controlling Power to the System

These recipes show how to start and stop power to the system—how to turn
it on and turn it off. It’s more than just pressing the button on the computer
chassis; in particular, there is a right way to turn off the system, and doing
it wrong can result in losing some of your work. Fortunately, there isn’t
any black magic involved, as you soon shall see—properly shutting down the
system is easy!

2.1.1 Powering Up the System

The first thing you do to begin using the system is start power to it. To power
up the system, just turn it on. This is called booting (or sometimes booting
up) the system.
As the Linux kernel boots there will be many messages on the screen. After
a while, the system will display a login: prompt. You can now log in. See
Recipe 2.2.1 [Logging In to the System], page 29.
Some systems are configured to start xdm at boot time (see Recipe 4.1.1
[Starting X], page 98). If your system is configured like this, instead of the
login: prompt, you’ll see a graphical screen with a box in the middle contain-
ing both login: and Password: prompts. Type CTRL
- ALT
- F1
to switch
to the first virtual console, where you can log in to the system in the usual
way (see Recipe 2.3 [Using Consoles and Terminals], page 32).

2.1.2 Turning Off the System

You can’t just flip the power switch when you are done using the computer, be-
cause Linux is constantly writing data to disk. (It also keeps data in memory,
even when it may have appeared to have written that data to disk.) Simply
28 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

turning off the power could result in the loss or corruption of some of your
work.
There is a special shutdown tool the system administrator can use to shut
down the computer, as described in Recipe A.2 [Shutting Down the System],
page 703. But you can always shut down your system from the console,
whether you are logged in or not, by using the special CTRL
- ALT
- DEL

keystroke (also known as the “three-finger salute,” a carry-over from the dos
days). This keystroke immediately begins the shutdown process, and then
reboots the system. If you cut power to the system before it reboots, you can
shut it down in this way.
⇒ To turn off a single user system even when you are not logged in as the
administrator, type CTRL
- ALT
- DEL
(press and hold these three keys
at once).1
When you do this, the system will display some messages to the screen as
it shuts down; when you see the line, “Rebooting...,” it’s safe to flip the
power switch.
NOTES: You don’t want to wait too long after you see this message; if left
untouched, the system will reboot and you’ll be back to the beginning!

2.2 Using Your Account

Linux is a multi-user system, meaning that many users can use one Linux
system simultaneously, from different terminals. So to avoid confusion (and
to maintain a semblance of privacy), each user’s workspace must be kept
separate from the others.
Even if a particular Linux system is a stand-alone personal computer with
no other terminals physically connected to it, it can be shared by different
people at different times, so the separation of user workspace is still a valid
issue.
This separation is accomplished by giving each individual user an account
on the system. You need an account in order to use the system; with an
account you are issued an individual workspace to use, and a unique username
that identifies you to the system and to other users. The username is the name
that the system (and those who use it) will then forever know you by; it’s a
single word, in all lowercase letters.
During the installation process, the system administrator should have cre-
ated an account for you. (The system administrator has a special account
1
If your keyboard has two ALT
and CTRL
keys, use the left set of these keys.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 29

whose username is root; this account has total access to the entire system, so
it is often called the superuser.)
Until the mid-1990s, it was common for usernames to be the first letter of
your first name followed by your entire surname, up to 12 characters total. So,
for example, user George Washington would have a username of gwashington
by this convention; this, however, is not a hard and fast rule, especially on
home systems where you may be the only user. Sometimes, a middle ini-
tial is added (“usgrant”), or sometimes even nicknames or initials are used
(“gipper,” “jfk”). But whatever username you pick for yourself, make sure
it’s one you can live with, and one you can stand being called by both the sys-
tem and other users (your username also becomes part of your email address,
as you’ll see in Chapter 32 [Email], page 611).
In addition to your username, you should also have a password that you
can keep secret so that only you can use your account. Good passwords are
strings of text that nobody else is likely to guess, (i.e., not obvious words like
“secret,” or identifying names like “Ruski,” if that happens to be your pet
cat). A good password is one that is so memorable to you that you don’t
ever have to write it down, but complex enough in construction so that no
one else could ever guess it. For example, ‘t39sAH’ might be a fine password
for someone whose first date was to see the movie The 39 Steps, directed by
Alfred Hitchcock.
NOTES: While usernames are always in lowercase, passwords are case sen-
sitive; the passwords “Secret,” “secret,” “SECReT,” and “SECRET” are all
considered different.

2.2.1 Logging In to the System

To begin a session on a Linux system, you need to log in. Do this by entering
your username at the login: prompt on your terminal, and then entering your
password when asked. Once you’ve entered your username and password, you
are logged in to the system. You can then use the system and run commands.
A typical login: prompt looks like Figure 2-1.
 

Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 bardo tty1

bardo login:


Figure 2-1. Typical Linux login: prompt.
30 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The login: prompt appears on the terminal after the system boots. If
your system is configured to start the X Window System at boot time, you’ll
be presented with an X login screen instead of the standard login prompt. If
that happens, press CTRL
- ALT
- F1
to switch to the text login screen; this is
explained further in Recipe 2.3 [Using Consoles and Terminals], page 32.
To log in to the system, type your username (followed by RET
) at the
login: prompt, and then type your password when asked (also followed by
RET
). For security purposes, nothing is displayed on the screen when you
type your password; if you make a mistake while typing it in, type CTRL
- U

to erase the line of input and start over.
⇒ To log in to the system with a username of “kurt” and a password of
“empathy,” type:
 

Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 bardo tty1

bardo login: kurt RET

Password: empathy RET

Linux bardo 2.4.18 #1 Sat Dec 6 16:05:52 EST 2003 i686 unknown

Copyright (C) 1993-1998 Software in the Public Interest, and others

Most of the programs included with the Debian Linux system are freely
redistributable; the exact distribution terms for each program are
described in the individual files in /usr/doc/*/copyright

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent

permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Tue Apr 5 12:03:47 on tty1.
No mail.
~ $

As soon as you log in, the system displays the contents of /etc/motd, the
“Message of the Day” file. The system then displays the time and date of
your last login, and reports whether or not you have mail waiting for you (see
Chapter 32 [Email], page 611). Finally, the system puts you in a shell—the
environment in which you interact with the system and give it commands. The
default shell on most Linux systems is Bash, and how you use it is discussed
in Chapter 3 [The Shell], page 53.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 31

The dollar sign ($) displayed to the left of the cursor is called the shell
prompt; it means that the system is ready and waiting for input. (You can
change this prompt to any text of your liking; to learn how, see Recipe 3.5.6
[Changing the Shell Prompt], page 80.) Many distributions are set up so that
the shell prompt includes the name of the current directory by default, which
it places to the left of the dollar sign. When you log in, you are in your home
directory, which the shell represents as the the tilde character (~). Directories
are explained in Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125.
NOTES: Every Linux system has its own name, called the system’s hostname;
a Linux system is sometimes called a host, and it identifies itself with its
hostname at the login: prompt. It’s important to name your system; like
a username for a user account, a hostname gives a name to the system you
are using (and it becomes especially important when putting the system on
a network). The system administrator usually names the system when it is
being initially configured (the hostname can always be changed later; its name
is kept in the file /etc/hostname).
Like usernames, hostnames are single words in all lowercase letters. People
usually give their systems a name they like, such as darkstar or shiva. In the
preceding examples, “bardo” is the hostname of this particular Linux system,
which happens to be running the Debian distribution.
The name of the terminal you are connecting from is displayed just after
the hostname. In this example, the terminal is tty1, which means that this is
the first terminal on this particular system. (Incidentally, “tty” is short for
“teletype,” which historically was the kind of terminal hardware that most
unix-based systems used by default.)

2.2.2 Logging Out of the System

Logging out of the system frees the terminal you were using—and ensures that
nobody can access your account from that terminal.
To end your session on the system, type logout at the shell prompt. This
command logs you out of the system, and a new login: prompt appears on
the terminal.
What works equally well as typing the logout command is to just type
CTRL
- D
(hold down CTRL
and press D
). You don’t even have to type
RET
afterwards. Many users prefer this quick shortcut.
32 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To log out of the system, type:

 

$ logout RET

Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 bardo tty1

bardo login:

NOTES: If you are the only person using your system and have just ended
a session by logging out, you might want to power down the system. See
Recipe 2.1.2 [Turning Off the System], page 27, earlier in this chapter.

2.3 Using Consoles and Terminals

A Linux terminal is a device for entering input and getting output from the
system. It can be a physical device with a keyboard and display,2 connected to
the system over network or serial line, or it can be a software program running
on a computer to mimic such a terminal, called a terminal emulator. There
are many terminal emulators available, especially for the graphical X Window
System (see Recipe 4.5 [Getting a Terminal Window in X], page 109).
When you access a Linux system with the keyboard and monitor that are
directly connected to it, using the built-in Linux facilities for emulating a text
terminal device, you are said to be using the console terminal.
Linux systems feature virtual consoles, which act as individual consoles
that can run their own login sessions simultaneously, but are accessed from the
same physical console terminal. Most Linux systems are configured to have
seven virtual consoles by default (up to sixty-three are currently possible).
When you are at the console terminal, you can switch between virtual consoles
at any time, and you can log in and use the system from several virtual consoles
at once. Virtual consoles are sometimes also called virtual terminals.
The following recipes explain the basic ways to operate virtual consoles,
and terminals in general.

2
Hardware built especially for this function are called dumb terminals because they have
no computing power of their own, but are just input and output facilities for interacting
with the actual computer they are connected to.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 33

2.3.1 Getting the Virtual Console Number

When you are not logged in, the number of the current virtual console is
displayed on the console screen. When you are logged in and in the shell,
use fgconsole to determine which virtual console you are in. It outputs the
number of the current virtual console.
⇒ To see which virtual console you are in, type:
 

$ fgconsole RET

3
$

In this example, fgconsole outputted the numeral 3, indicating that the

user is in the third virtual console.
NOTES: If you try running fgconsole from a terminal emulator in the X
Window System, you’ll see that it won’t output a number because you’re not
running it from a virtual console.

2.3.2 Switching Between Consoles

There are two methods to switch to a different virtual console; one uses a
special keystroke, and the other is a command.

METHOD #1
To switch to a different virtual console, press and hold ALT
plus the function
key whose number corresponds to the number of the console you would like
to switch to.
⇒ To switch to the fourth virtual console, press ALT
- F4
.
This command switches to the fourth virtual console, denoted by “tty4”:
 

Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 bardo tty4

bardo login:


You can also cycle through the different virtual consoles with the left and
right arrow keys. To switch to the next-lowest virtual console (or wrap around
34 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

to the highest virtual console, if you’re at the first virtual console), press ALT
-

. To switch to the next-highest virtual console, press ALT
- 
.
⇒ To switch from the fourth to the third virtual console, press:
ALT
- 

This keystroke switches to the third virtual console, ‘tty3’:

 

Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 bardo tty3

bardo login:


To switch back to the console you were last at, press ALT
- PrtScrn
.

The seventh virtual console is reserved for the X Window System. If X is

installed, this virtual terminal will never show a login: prompt, but when you
are using X, this is where your X session appears. If your system is configured
to start X immediately, this virtual console will show an X login screen.
You can switch to a virtual console from the X Window System using
CTRL
in conjunction with the usual ALT
and function keys. This is the only
console manipulation keystroke that works in X.
⇒ To switch from X to the first virtual console, press:
CTRL
- ALT
- F1

METHOD #2
Use chvt to change to a different virtual console. It takes as an argument the
number to change to.
⇒ To change to the seventh virtual console, type:
$ chvt 7 RET

NOTES: This method is useful for putting in scripts.

2.3.3 Scrolling Text in the Console

When you are logged in at a virtual console, new lines of text appear at the
bottom of the console screen, while older lines of text scroll off the top of the
screen. Use SHIFT
with PgUp
or PgDn
to scroll backward (“up”) or forward
(“down”) through scrolled text.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 35

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To view lines of text that have scrolled off the top of the screen, press
SHIFT
- PgUp
to scroll backward through it.

• Once you have scrolled back, press SHIFT
- PgDn
to scroll forward
through the text toward the more recent text.
The amount of text you can scroll back through depends on system
memory.
NOTES: This technique is for scrolling through text displayed in your shell
session (see Chapter 3 [The Shell], page 53). It does not work for scrolling
through text in a tool or application in the console. In other words, you can’t
use this technique to scroll through text that is displayed by a tool for perusing
text files. To scroll through text in an application, use its own facilities for
scrolling, if it has any.

2.3.4 Clearing the Terminal Screen

There are two methods to clear the terminal screen.

METHOD #1
Type clear to clear the screen of the terminal you are working in. The
screen will be redrawn with a new command line on the top line, and all other
contents on the screen will be erased.
⇒ To clear the terminal screen, type:
$ clear RET

This works in the console as well as in a terminal emulator in X. You can

put this command in scripts.

METHOD #2
To clear the terminal screen and redraw the current command line at the top,
type CTRL
- L
.
Unlike clear, which is a complete command you input at the command
line, you can type CTRL
- L
anywhere on a command line that contains some-
thing else you’re typing—it redraws the current command line you are at,
complete with everything on it, at the top of the screen.
⇒ To clear the terminal screen and redraw the current command line at the
top of the screen, type:
CTRL
- L

36 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: This keystroke works in the Bash shell, which is the subject of the
next chapter.

2.3.5 Resetting the Terminal Screen

To reset the terminal screen to its default settings, use reset. This is good
for when the contents of a binary file are accidentally displayed to the screen,
after which only garbage characters are printed when you type. Other times,
the terminal will simply stop clearing characters properly. This will fix it.
When this happens, type reset and then hit RET
, even though you will
not be able to read what you’re typing on the screen. This works both in the
console, and in terminals running in X.
⇒ To reset your terminal, type:
$ reset RET

NOTES: You can practice this so you know what it looks like when it really
happens. Do this by sending the output of a binary file to the terminal
screen—type cat /bin/ls and see what it does to the terminal; then type
reset to reset it.

2.4 Running a Command

A tool is a software program that performs a certain function—usually a spe-
cialized, simple task. For example, the hostname tool outputs the system’s
hostname, and the who tool outputs a listing of the users who are currently
logged in. An application is a larger, usually interactive, program for com-
pleting a broader kind of task—think of image editors and word processors.
A tool or application may take any number of options (sometimes called
“flags”), which specify a change in its default behavior. It may also take
arguments, which specify a file or some other text to operate on. Arguments
are usually specified after any options.
The term command refers to the name of a tool or application, along with
any specified options and arguments. Since typing the name of a tool itself
is often sufficient to accomplish a desired task, tools alone are often called
commands.
Commands are case-sensitive; the names of tools and applications are usu-
ally in all lowercase letters.
To run (or “execute”) a tool or application without giving any options or
arguments, type its name at a shell prompt, followed by RET
.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 37

⇒ To run the hostname tool, type:

 

$ hostname RET

camelot
$

The hostname of the system in the example is camelot.

Options always begin with a hyphen character (-), which is usually followed
by one alphanumeric character. To include an option in a command, follow
the name of the tool or application with the option. Always separate the
tool name, each option, and each argument from one another with a space
character.
Long-style options (sometimes called “gnu-style” options) begin with two
hyphen characters (--) and are usually one English word.
Sometimes an option itself may take an argument. For example, hostname
has an -F option, for specifying a file name to read the hostname from; it
takes as an argument the name of the file that hostname should read from.
⇒ To run hostname and specify that the file host.info is the file to read
from, type:
$ hostname -F host.info RET

2.4.1 Displaying a Tool’s Available Options

To get a list of available options and other help for a tool, use the --help
(long-style) or -h option.3 It usually outputs some information about a tool’s
usage, and lists its available options.
⇒ To list the available options for the hostname tool, type:
$ hostname --help RET

Sometimes the list of available options fills much more than a screen, so
you may want to pipe the output through less for perusal (see Recipe 9.1
[Perusing Text], page 211). Press Q
to stop perusal.
⇒ To peruse the available options for the lynx tool, type:
$ lynx -? | less RET

3
Some tools have neither option, in which case you should try the -? option.
38 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2.4.2 Displaying the Version of a Tool

Sometimes it is useful to know which version of a command you have on your
system. If an option or feature does not work as expected, it could be because
the command you have installed is an older version.
Use the --version (long-style) or the -v option to output the version
number of a particular tool.
⇒ To output the version of the hostname tool, type:
 

$ hostname --version RET

hostname 2.10
$

This command outputs the text “hostname 2.10,” indicating that this is
version 2.10 of the hostname tool.

2.5 Changing Your Password

To change your password, use the passwd tool. It prompts you for your current
password and a new password to replace it with. For security purposes, neither
the old nor the new password is displayed on the screen as you type it. To
make sure that you type the new password correctly, passwd prompts you for
your new password twice. You must type it exactly the same way both times,
or passwd will not change your password.
⇒ To change your password, type:
 

$ passwd RET

Changing password for kurt
Old password: your current password RET

Enter the new password (minimum of 5, maximum of 8 characters)
Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers.
New password: your new password RET

Re-enter new password: your new password RET

Password changed.
$

NOTES: Passwords can contain uppercase and lowercase letters, the digits
0 through 9, and punctuation marks; they should be between five and eight
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 39

characters long. See Recipe 2.2 [Using Your Account], page 28, for suggestions
on choosing a good password.

2.6 Listing User Activity

The recipes in this section describe some of the simple commands for finding
out who you are currently sharing the system with and what they are doing.

2.6.1 Displaying Your Username

Use whoami to output the username of the user that is logged in at your
terminal. This is not as inutile a command as one might first think—if you’re
at a shared terminal, it’s useful to determine whether or not it is your account
that you’re messing in, and for those with multiple accounts on a system, it’s
useful to see which of them you’re currently logged in with.
⇒ To output your username, type:
 

$ whoami RET

will
$


In this example, the username of the user logged in at this terminal is
“will.”

2.6.2 Listing Who Is on the System

Use who to output a list of all the users currently logged in to the system. It
outputs a minimum of three columns, listing the username, terminal location,
and time of login for all users on the system. A fourth column is displayed
if a user is using the X Window System; it lists the window location of the
user’s session (see Chapter 4 [The X Window System], page 95).
⇒ To see who is currently logged in, type:
 

$ who RET

murky tty1 Oct 20 20:09
dave tty2 Oct 21 14:37
kurt tty3 Oct 21 15:04
kurt ttyp1 Oct 21 15:04 (:0.0)
$


40 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The output in this example shows that the user murky is logged in on tty1
(the first virtual console on the system), and has been on since 20:09 on 20
October. The user dave is logged in on tty2 (the second virtual console), and
has been on since 14:37 on 21 October. The user kurt is logged in twice—on
tty3 (the third virtual console), and on ttyp1, which is an X session with a
window location of (:0.0).
NOTES: This command is for listing the users on the local system; to list the
users connected to a different system on the network, or to see more detailed
personal information that a user may have made public, see Recipe 34.5.1
[Checking Whether a User Is Online], page 683.

2.6.3 Listing Who Is on and What They’re Doing

The w tool is similar to who, but it displays more detail. It outputs a header
line that contains information about the current system status, including the
current time, the amount of time the system has been up and running, and the
number of users on the system. It then outputs a list of users currently logged
in to the system, giving eight columns of information for each. These columns
include username, terminal location, X session (if any), the time of login, the
amount of time the user has been idle, and what command the user is running.
(It also gives two columns showing the amount of time the system’s cpu has
spent on all of the user’s current jobs (jcpu) and foreground processes (pcpu);
processes are discussed in Recipe 2.7 [Listing Processes], page 41, and jobs in
Recipe 3.3 [Managing Jobs], page 70.)
⇒ To see who is currently logged in and what they are doing, type:
 

$ w RET

5:27pm up 17:53, 4 users, load average: 0.12, 0.06, 0.01
USER TTY FROM LOGIN IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
murky tty1 Oct 20 20:09 17:22m 0.32s 0.32s -bash
dave tty2 14:37 13.00s 2:35 0.07s less foo
kurt tty3 15:04 1:00m 0.41s 0.09s startx
kurt ttyp1 :0.0 15:04 0:00s 21.65s 20.96s emacs
$


In this example, the command’s output shows that the current system time
is 5:27 p.m., the system has been up for 17 hours and 53 minutes, and there
are four users currently logged in: murky is logged in at tty1, has been idle
for 17 hours and 22 minutes, and is at a Bash shell prompt; dave is logged
in at tty2, has been idle for 13 seconds, and is using less to peruse a file
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 41

named foo (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211); and kurt is logged
in at two terminals—tty3 and ttyp1, which is an X session. He ran the
startx command on tty3 to start his X session, and within his X session, he
is currently using Emacs.

2.6.4 Listing the Last Time a User Logged In

Use last to find out who has recently used the system, which terminals they
used, and when they logged in and out.
⇒ To output a list of recent system use, type:
$ last RET

To find out when a particular user last logged in to the system, give the
username as an argument.
⇒ To find out when user james last logged in, type:
$ last james RET

NOTES: The last tool gets its data from the system file /var/log/wtmp; the
last line of output tells how far this file goes back. Sometimes, the output will
go back for several weeks or more.

2.7 Listing Processes

When you run a command, you are starting a process on the system, which
is a program that is currently executing. Every process is given a unique
number, called its process id, or pid.
You can list the processes that are running on the system at any one time;
use ps to do so.
By default, ps outputs five columns of information about each process:
process id; the name of the terminal from which the process was started; the
current status of the process (including “S” for sleeping, meaning that it is on
hold at the moment, “R” meaning that it is running, and “Z” meaning that
it is a zombie process, or a process that has already died); the total amount
of time the cpu has spent on the process since the process began; and finally,
the name of the command being run.
The following recipes describe popular uses of ps; there will be more about
controlling the processes you run in the next chapter.
42 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2.7.1 Listing Your Current Processes

Type ps with no arguments to list the processes you have running in your
current shell session.
⇒ To list the processes in your current shell session, type:
 

$ ps RET

PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
193 1 S 0:01 -bash
204 1 S 0:00 ps
$

In this example, ps shows that two processes are running: the bash and
ps commands.

2.7.2 Listing All of a User’s Processes

To list all the processes of a specific user, use ps and give the username as an
argument to the -u option. While you can’t snoop on the actual activities of
other users, you can list the commands they are running at a given moment.
⇒ To list all the processes that user harry has running on the system, type:
$ ps -u harry RET

NOTES: This command is useful for listing all of your own processes, running
across all terminals and shell sessions; give your own username as an argument.

2.7.3 Listing All Processes on the System

For listing all of the processes running on the system, there are two methods
to know.

METHOD #1
To get a list of all processes being run by all users on the system, use ps with
the aux options.
⇒ To list all of the processes and give their usernames, type:
$ ps aux RET

NOTES: There could be a lot of output—even single-user Linux systems typ-

ically have forty or more processes running at one time—so you may want to
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 43

pipe the output of this command through less for perusal (see Recipe 9.1
[Perusing Text], page 211).

METHOD #2
Use top to show a chart of all processes on the system, sorted by their demands
on the system resources. The display is continually updated with current
process information; press Q
to stop the display and exit the program. This
tool also displays the information about system runtime and memory that can
be output with the uptime and free commands.
⇒ To see a continually updated display of the current system processes,
type:
$ top RET

2.7.4 Listing Processes by Name or Number

To list processes whose output contains a name or other specific text you want
to match, list all processes and pipe the output to grep. This is useful when
you want to see which users are running a particular program or command.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To list all the processes whose commands contain the string “sbin,”
type:
$ ps aux | grep sbin RET

• To list any processes whose process ids contain a 13, type:
$ ps aux | grep 13 RET

To list the process (if any) that corresponds to a particular process id, give
that pid as an argument to the -p option.
⇒ To list the process whose pid is 344, type:
$ ps -p 344 RET

2.8 Using the Help Facilities

Linux systems come with a lot of help facilities, including complete manuals
in etext form. In fact, the foremost trouble with Linux documentation isn’t
that there is not enough of it, but that you have to sift through the mounds
of it, trying to find the precise information you’re looking for!
I describe the various help facilities in the following sections; their relative
usefulness for the particular kind of information you’re looking for is noted.
If you find that you need more help, don’t panic—other options are avail-
able. They’re described in Recipe 1.6 [If You Need More Help], page 13.
44 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2.8.1 Finding the Right Tool for the Job

There are a few methods for finding tools by keyword. The first is the common
method and the last two are used by more intermediate users (in other words,
every Linux user doesn’t know them).

METHOD #1
When you know what a particular tool or application does but you can’t
remember its name, the first thing to do is use apropos. This tool takes a
keyword as an argument, and it outputs a list of installed software whose
one-line descriptions contain that keyword. It searches for the given text in
the names and short descriptions in the system manual, and it outputs a
list of the tools that match. This is also useful for finding software on your
system related to, say, “audio” or “sound” or “sort” or some other such general
concepts.
⇒ To output a list of programs that pertain to consoles, type:
$ apropos console RET

NOTES: The apropos tool matches lines that contain the keyword you give
exactly as typed, anywhere in the line. A search for the keyword “consoles”
might not list all the programs that a search for the keyword “console”
would yield; a search on “con” matches even more. Therefore, it’s better to
try singular forms, and then refine your terms if you need to. The trick to
getting good results from apropos is to know just which keywords are apt to
be used in the descriptions of the thing you’re looking for.
The apropos tool is an alias for man with the -k option (see Recipe 2.8.4
[Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).

METHOD #2
Dpkg
DEB: dpkg

On Debian systems, yet another way to find installed software by keyword

is to use dpkg, the Debian package tool. Use the -l option to list all of the
installed packages, which are each output on a line of its own with its package
name and a brief description.
You can output a list of packages that match a keyword by piping the
output to grep. Use the -i option with grep to match keywords regardless
of case (grep is discussed in Chapter 14 [Searching Text], page 333).
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 45

Additionally, you can directly peruse the file /var/lib/dpkg/available

with less (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211); this file lists all available
packages and gives a description of them.
⇒ Here are three ways to use this.
• To list all of the deb packages installed on the system, type:
$ dpkg -l RET

• To list all of the deb packages installed on the system whose name
contains the text “edit,” regardless of case, type:
$ dpkg -l | grep -i edit RET

• To peruse descriptions of all deb packages that are currently avail-
able, type:
$ less /var/lib/dpkg/available RET

NOTES: For more information on using dpkg, see Recipe A.4 [Managing deb
Packages], page 709.

METHOD #3
On rpm-based systems such as Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you
can find installed software by keyword using rpm, the package management
tool. Give the -qa option to output the names of all packages installed on
the system. To find specific packages, pipe the output to grep with the -i
option and a pattern to match (see Recipe 14.1 [Searching Text for a Word],
page 333). Pipe this to less for perusal.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To peruse a list of all rpm packages installed on the system, type:
$ rpm -qa | less RET

• To list all packages whose name or description includes the word
“edit,” regardless of case, type:
$ rpm -qa | grep -i edit RET

• To list all of the rpm packages installed on the system whose name
contains the text “1.2,” type:
$ rpm -qa | grep "1\.2" RET

NOTES: For more information on using rpm, see Recipe A.5 [Managing rpm
Packages], page 714.
46 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

2.8.2 Getting a Description of a Program

Use whatis to get a one-line description of a program. Give as an argument
the name of the tool or application you want described.
⇒ To get a description of the who tool, type:
$ whatis who RET

NOTES: The whatis tool gets its descriptions from the manual page of a given
program; manual pages are described later in this section, in Recipe 2.8.4
[Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46.

2.8.3 Listing the Usage of a Tool

Many tools have a long-style option, --help, that outputs usage information
about the tool, including the options and arguments the tool takes.
⇒ To list the possible options for whoami, type:
 

$ whoami --help RET

Usage: whoami [OPTION]...
Print the user name associated with the current effective user id.
Same as id -un.

--help display this help and exit

--version output version information and exit

Report bugs to <[email protected]>.

$

This command outputs some usage information about the whoami tool,
including a short description and a list of possible options.
NOTES: Not all tools take the --help option; some tools take a -h or -?
option instead, which performs the same function.

2.8.4 Reading a Page from the System Manual

In the olden days, the hardcopy reference manual that came with most unix
systems also existed electronically on the system itself; each software program
that came with the system had its own manual page (often called a “man
page”) that described it. This is still true on Linux-based systems today,
except they usually don’t come with a hardcopy manual.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 47

Use the man tool to view a page in the system manual. As an argument to
man, give the name of the program whose manual page you want to view (so
to view the manual page for man, you would type man man).
⇒ To view the manual page for w, type:
$ man w RET

This command displays the manual page for w, as in Figure 2-2.

 

Figure 2-2. Reading a man page.
Use the up and down arrow keys to move through the text. Press Q
to
stop viewing the manual page and exit man. Since man uses less to display the
text, you can use any of the less keyboard commands to peruse the manual
page (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211).
NOTES: Despite its name, a manual page does not always contain the com-
plete documentation for a program; it’s more like a quick reference card. It
usually has a short description of the program, and lists the options and argu-
ments it takes; some manual pages also include an example or a list of related
commands. (Sometimes, commands have very complete, extensive manual
pages, but more often, their complete documentation is found either in other
help files that come with it or in its Info documentation; these are the subjects
of the following two recipes.)
48 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

To prepare a man page for printing, see Recipe 25.3.4 [Preparing a Manual
Page for Printing], page 522.

2.8.5 Reading an Info Manual

The gnu Info System is an online hypertext reference system for documen-
tation prepared in the Info format. This documentation tends to be more
complete than a typical man page, and often, the Info documentation for a
given software package will be an entire book or manual. All of the manuals
published by the Free Software Foundation are released in Info format; these
manuals contain the same text (sans illustrations) as the paper manuals that
you can purchase directly from the Free Software Foundation.
There are different ways to peruse the Info documentation: You can use
the standalone info tool, read Info files in the Emacs editor (see Recipe 10.1
[Using Emacs], page 232), or use one of the other tools designed for this
purpose. Additionally, tools exist for converting Info documentation to html,
which you can read in a Web browser (see Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files and
Directories], page 157).
To read the Info manual for a tool or application with the info tool, give
its name as an argument. With no arguments, info opens your system’s ‘Top’
Info menu, which lists all of the manuals that are installed on the system.
⇒ To view all of the Info manuals on the system, type:
$ info RET

This command starts info at the system’s “Top” menu, which shows some
of the info key commands and displays a list of available manuals, as in Figure
2-3.
Use the arrow keys to move through each “page” of information, called
an Info node. Nodes are arranged hierarchically. Every Info document has a
“Top” node, which is like the frontmatter and table of contents of a printed
book; it usually contains the name of the document and an Info menu with
links to its various chapters. A chapter node will contain a menu with links
for its sections and so on. Links to other nodes may also appear in the text
of any node, as cross references.
Links look the same in both menu items and cross references: an asterisk
(*), the name of the node it links to, and either one or two colon characters
(: or ::). To follow a link to the node it points to, move the cursor over any
part of the node name in the link and press RET
.
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 49
 

Figure 2-3. Reading an Info node.
Press H
to run a tutorial that describes how to use info. Press Q
to
stop reading the documentation and exit the program. You can press these
buttons at any time you are in info.
To read Info documentation for a particular tool or application, give its
name as an argument to info; if no Info manual exists for that tool, info
displays the man page for that tool instead.
⇒ To read the Info documentation for the tar tool, type:
$ info tar RET

This command opens a copy of The GNU tar Manual in info.

To read the contents of a file written in Info format, give the name of
the file to read with the -f option. This is useful for reading an Info file
that you have obtained elsewhere, and that is not in the /usr/info directory
with the rest of the installed Info files. Info can automatically recognize and
expand Info files that are compressed and have a .gz file name extension (see
Recipe 8.4 [Compressed Files], page 196).
⇒ To read an Info file in the current directory named faq.info, type:
$ info -f faq.info RET

This command starts info and opens the Info file faq.info, beginning at
the top node in the file.
50 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

To read a specific node in an Info file, give the name of the node to display
in quotes as an argument to the -n option.
⇒ To read faq.info, an Info file in the current directory, beginning with
the node Text, type:
$ info -n 'Text' -f faq.info RET

NOTES: You can also read Info documentation directly from the Emacs editor;
type CTRL
- H
i while in Emacs to start the Emacs Info reader, and then
use the same commands as in the stand-alone info tool (see Recipe 10.1.1
[Getting Acquainted with Emacs], page 232).
The Emacs “incremental” search command, CTRL
- S
, also works in info;
it’s a very fast, efficient way to search for a word or phrase in an entire Info text
(like this entire book); see Recipe 14.9.1 [Searching Incrementally in Emacs],
page 352.
Some people use Info for everything; on Linux systems, Info is set up to
display a tool’s man page in Info, if the tool lacks Info documentation. So if a
foofoo tool doesn’t have any Info manual, typing info foofoo will give you
its man page.

2.8.6 Reading System Documentation and Help Files

The Linux Documentation Project HOWTOs
DEB: doc-linux-html
doc-linux-text
RPM: howto
WWW: http://tldp.org/

The /usr/doc directory is for miscellaneous documentation: howtos, faqs,

distribution-specific documentation files, and the documentation that comes
with commands.4 (To learn more about files and directories, see Chapter 5
[Files and Directories], page 125.) To peruse any of these files, use less,
described in full in Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211.
When a software package is installed, any additional documentation files
it might have beyond a manual page and Info manual are placed here, in a
4
On some systems, /usr/doc is superseded by the /usr/share/doc directory; still others
have both. So if a file is not where it should be, try looking in /usr/share/doc/. For
example, the user dictionary is famously at /usr/dict/words. In some distributions
now, it has been moved to /usr/share/dict/words, but if you want to restore it to the
classical location, you (as the superuser) can create a symbolic link from the former to
the latter (see Recipe 5.7 [Giving a File More Than One Name], page 152).
Chapter 2: What Every Linux User Knows 51

subdirectory with the name of that package. For example, additional docu-
mentation for the hostname package is in /usr/doc/hostname, and documen-
tation for the passwd package is in /usr/doc/passwd. Most packages have a
file called README that usually contains relevant information. Often this file is
compressed as README.gz, in which case you can use zless instead of less.
The Linux Documentation Project (ldp) has overseen the creation of more
than 100 howto files, each of which covers a particular aspect of the instal-
lation or use of Linux-based systems.
The ldp howtos are compressed text files stored in the /usr/doc/HOWTO
directory; to view them, use zless. The file /usr/doc/HOWTO/HOWTO-
Index.gz contains an annotated index of all the howto documents installed
on the system.5
The /usr/doc/FAQ directory contains a number of faq (“Frequently Asked
Questions”) files on various subjects.
Finally, some distributions also keep a directory in /usr/doc for their own
documentation; Debian, for example, uses /usr/doc/debian for documen-
tation relating to that distribution: the files that make up the Debian faq
are in the /usr/doc/debian/FAQ directory, available in both html format,
which you can view in a Web browser (see Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files and
Directories], page 157), and as a compressed text file, which you can view in
zless.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To view the html version of the Debian faq in the lynx Web
browser, type:
$ lynx /usr/doc/debian/FAQ/debian-faq.html RET

• To view the compressed text version of the Debian faq in zless,
type:
$ zless /usr/doc/debian/FAQ/debian-faq.txt.gz RET

NOTES: It’s often very useful to use a Web browser to browse through the
documentation files in these directories—see Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files and
Directories], page 157.

5
ldp documents are available in other formats as well, including html and dvi.
52 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 3: The Shell 53

3. The Shell
The subject of this chapter is the shell, the program that reads your command
input and runs the specified commands. It gets its name because it gives a
covering that protects you from the outer environment of the system, like the
hard protective encasements of the soft mollusks of the sea. The shell is the
intermediary between you and the system, and all interaction is done through
it; it is both your working environment and your interface. You are said to be
“in” a shell from the very moment you’ve successfully logged in to the system,
until right when you log out.
The “$” character preceding the cursor is called the shell prompt; it tells
you that the system is ready and waiting for input. On Debian systems,
the default shell prompt also includes the name of the current directory (see
Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125). A tilde character (~) denotes
your home directory, which is where you’ll find yourself when you log in.
For example, a typical user’s shell prompt, when in his home directory,
might look like Figure 3-1.
 

~ $


Figure 3-1. A Bash shell promt.
If your shell prompt shows a pound sign (#) instead of a “$,” this means
that you’re logged in with the superuser, or root, account. Beware: The root
account has complete control over the system; one wrong keystroke and you
might accidentally break it something awful. You need to have a different user
account for yourself, which you use for your regular activities (see Recipe A.6.1
[Making a User Account], page 717).
You may sometimes hear the shell called the “command shell,” because
you run commands through it, but the shell isn’t just a prompt where you
run other programs—it is also a programming language. Its built-in facilities
for writing programs is very powerful. In this chapter, I will show you the
basics to get you started, but you should know that many books have been
written on shell programming.
There are many shells available for Linux. Some may look similar to each
other, but they can behave quite differently. We’re going to cover the Bash
shell, which is the most commonly used shell on Linux systems and is almost
always the default Linux shell. (Its name stands for “Bourne again shell”—a
pun on the name of Steve Bourne, who was author of the traditional unix
shell, the Bourne shell.)
54 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

A list of other recommended shells is given at Recipe 3.9.5 [Using Other

Shells], page 92. For more information on using Bash beyond what this chapter
provides, consult the Info documentation for bash (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading
an Info Manual], page 48).

3.1 Typing at the Command Line

In Recipe 2.4 [Running a Command], page 36, you learned how to run com-
mands by typing them in at the shell prompt. The line where you type in a
command at a shell prompt is called the command line (it’s also called the
input line). The process of writing a command on the command line is called
command line editing.
The following sections describe some important features of command line
editing, such as quoting special characters and strings, letting the shell com-
plete your typing, re-running commands, and running multiple commands.

NOTES: For more information on Bash’s command line editing features, con-
sult the Info documentation for bash (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Man-
ual], page 48).

3.1.1 Using Basic Command Line Editing Keys

There are special keystrokes for moving about the input line and editing the
line you are typing; the following table describes them.

Typing Commands
text Insert text at the point where the cursor is; any text
already existing to the right of the cursor is shifted
further right to accommodate the new text.

RET
Send the command line to Bash for execution (in

other words, it runs the command typed at the shell
prompt). You don’t have to be at the far right end
of the command line to type RET
; you can type it
when the cursor is anywhere on the command line.
Cutting and Pasting
BKSP
or CTRL
- H
Delete the character to the left of the cursor.

DEL
or CTRL
- D
Delete the character the cursor is underneath.

Chapter 3: The Shell 55

(continued)
Cutting and Pasting
CTRL
- K
Kill, or “cut,” all text on the input line, from the
character the cursor is underneath to the end of the
line.

CTRL
- U
Kill everything on the input line to the left of the

cursor.

CTRL
- Y
Yank, or “paste,” the text that was last killed. Text
is inserted where the cursor is.
Movement
CTRL
- A
Move the cursor to the beginning of the input line.

CTRL
- E
Move the cursor to the end of the input line.


or CTRL
- F
Move the cursor to the right (“forward”) one char-

acter.


or CTRL
- B
Move the cursor to the left (“backward”) one char-

acter.

ALT
- F
Move the cursor forward one word.

ALT
- B
Move the cursor backward one word.

CTRL
- L
Clear the terminal screen, redrawing the current in-

put line at the top.

NOTES: These keyboard commands are the same as those used by the Emacs
editor (see Recipe 10.1 [Using Emacs], page 232). Many other Emacs keyboard
commands also work on the command line (see Recipe 10.1.3 [Using Basic
Emacs Editing Keys], page 237). And, for Vi aficionados, it is possible to
configure Bash to recognize Vi-style bindings instead (see Recipe 3.7.3 [Using
Shell Startup Files], page 86).

3.1.2 Typing a Control Character

Control characters can be typed on the input line by using CTRL
- V
, the
shell’s verbatim insert function, followed by the control character you want.
56 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To insert a formfeed character (“Control-L”) at the current location in

the input line, type:
CTRL
- V
CTRL
- L

3.1.3 Quoting Reserved Characters

Some characters are reserved and have special meaning to the shell on their
own, such as the dollar sign ($), single quote ('), double quote ("), exclamation
point (!), backslash (\), and the newline ( RET
) which sends what you have
typed on the command line to the shell for execution. Before you can pass
one of these characters as an argument to a command, you must quote it.
There are various ways to quote characters. Each is good for certain pur-
poses, so you should know the differences between them. Sometimes the var-
ious methods of quotation are combined in the same argument (see the last
example of Method #3 below).
To demonstrate quotation, the examples that follow will use echo, a sim-
ple tool that displays any text given to it as an argument (technically, this
command echoes its arguments to the standard output—see Recipe 3.2 [Redi-
recting Input and Output], page 67).

METHOD #1
To quote a reserved character, precede it with a backslash (\). The backslash
is Bash’s escape character; a character that immediately follows it will be
interpreted literally, and not for any reserved meaning. The one exception
to this rule is a newline character (see Recipe 3.1.12 [Typing a Long Line],
page 66).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To echo the string “Isn't this nice?,” type:
 

$ echo Isn\'t this nice? RET

Isn't this nice?
$


• To echo the string “"It isn't nice!",” type:
 

$ echo \"It isn\'t nice\!\" RET

"It isn't nice!"
$


Chapter 3: The Shell 57

• To echo the string “$HOSTNAME is nice!,” type:

 

$ echo \$HOSTNAME is nice\! RET

$HOSTNAME is nice!
$


• To echo the string “"$HOSTNAME" is nice!,” where $HOSTNAME is a
shell variable to be expanded, type:
 

$ echo \"$HOSTNAME\" is nice\! RET

"lucky" is nice!
$

The last two examples use the special Bash variable HOSTNAME, whose value
is always the name of the current host (see Recipe 3.5 [Using Shell Variables],
page 77). First, the text “$HOSTNAME” is displayed because its “$” is escaped,
and then second, the $HOSTNAME variable is expanded to the value it contains.
In this example, the system’s hostname is lucky.
NOTES: For only one reserved character, this is the simplest quoting method;
while you certainly can quote any complex quotation this way, it is cumber-
some to add all the backslashes.
When passing a phrase to a command that takes multiple arguments, you
will have to escape spaces, too. So the phrase in the first example becomes
“Isn'\t\ this\ nice?”

METHOD #2
Quote a literal phrase by enclosing it in single quote characters ('). All charac-
ters inside the quotes are taken literally, and not for any reserved meaning—so
there’s no way to expand variables in single-quoted text. You can even quote
newlines with this method. The only character you can’t pass in single quotes
is a single quote itself.
58 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To echo a backslash character, type:
 

$ echo '\' RET

\
$


• To echo the string “* ! " /,” type:
 

$ echo '* ! " /' RET

* ! " /
$


• To echo the string “"$HOSTNAME"
is nice!,” where there is a newline character after the second double
quote character, type:
 

$ echo '"$HOSTNAME" RET

> is nice!' RET

"$HOSTNAME"
is nice!
$

NOTES: This second method is one of the simpler methods of quoting.

METHOD #3
Quote a phrase by enclosing it in double quote characters (") to retain the spe-
cial meaning of some characters: the dollar sign ($), backtick (`), exclamation
point (!), and backslash (\).
This means that: Variables are expanded to their values (see Recipe 3.5
[Using Shell Variables], page 77), command output may be specified (see
Recipe 3.1.11 [Specifying the Output of a Command as an Argument],
page 65), command history may be referenced (see Recipe 3.4 [Using Your
Command History], page 74), and single characters may be escaped, as de-
scribed in Method #1 above.
You can pass single quote and newline characters; to pass double quotes,
dollar signs, backticks, or backslashes, escape them first with a backslash (\).
Pass an exclamation point by escaping it outside of the double quotes.
Chapter 3: The Shell 59

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To echo “Isn't it great?,” type:
 

$ echo "Isn't it great?" RET

Isn't it great?
$


• To echo “Isn't $HOSTNAME it?,” type:
 

$ echo "Isn't \$HOSTNAME it?" RET

Isn't $HOSTNAME it?
$


• To echo “Isn't this $HOSTNAME?,” where $HOSTNAME is a shell vari-
able to be expanded, type:
 

$ echo "Isn't this $HOSTNAME?" RET

Isn't this lucky?
$


• To echo “Wow!
This isn't "$HOSTNAME"!,” where there is a newline character after
the first exclamation point, type:
 

$ echo "Wow"\!" RET

> This isn't \"\$HOSTNAME\""\! RET

Wow!
This isn't "$HOSTNAME"!
$

In the second-last example, the system’s hostname is lucky. In the second

and the last examples, the text “$HOSTNAME” is quoted literally and is not
expanded as a variable; by omitting the backslash directly preceding the dollar
sign, the shell will expand the variable.

NOTES: You can sometimes get away with quoting an exclamation point in
double quotes, but because it’s reserved for referencing your Bash command
history, using it in the wrong context can have unexpected results. Unless
60 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

you’re only using the single quotes method, it’s safest to escape an exclamation
point outside of the double quotes.

METHOD #4
To pass special characters as a string, give them as $'string', where string is
the string of characters to be passed. This is called “ansi-c style” quoting.
Special backslash escape sequences for certain characters are commonly
included in a string, as listed in the following table.

\a Alert (rings the system bell).

\b Backspace.
\e Escape.
\f Form feed.
\n Newline.
\r Carriage return.
\t Horizontal tab.
\v Vertical tab.
\\ Backslash.
\NNN Character whose ascii code is NNN in octal
(base 8).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To echo the string “Hello” followed by two newline characters, type:
 

$ echo Hello$'\n\n' RET

Hello

$


Chapter 3: The Shell 61

• To echo a pilcrow sign character (octal character code 266), type:

 

$ echo $'\266' RET

¶
$


• To append a newline character and a pilcrow sign character (octal
character code 266) to the file draft, type:
$ echo $'\n\266' >> draft RET

3.1.4 Letting the Shell Complete What You Type

Completion is when Bash does its best to finish your typing for you. To use
it, press TAB
on the input line, and the shell will complete the word to the
left of the cursor to the best of its ability. Completion is one of those things
that, once you begin to use it, you will wonder how you ever managed to get
by without it.
Completion works on both file names and command names, depending on
the context of the cursor when you press the TAB
key.
When there is more than a single way to complete a word, the shell will
beep1 to alert you so; pressing TAB
again will display the possible options,
and then redraw your command line. If the options are many, the shell will
ask you at that point whether you would really like them all displayed.
⇒ To use completion to specify the /usr/lib/emacs/20.7/i386-debian-
linux-gnu/ directory as an argument to the ls command, type:
 

$ ls /usr/lib/ TAB
rings the bell TAB

Display all 767 possibilities? (y or n)n
$ ls /usr/lib/e TAB
rings the bell TAB

elm-me+ emacs emacsen-common entity-map
$ ls /usr/lib/em TAB
rings the bell
$ ls /usr/lib/emacs TAB
rings the bell
$ ls /usr/lib/emacs TAB

emacs emacsen-common
$ ls /usr/lib/emacs/ TAB
20.7/ TAB
i386-debian-linux-gnu/

1
The unix way of saying this is that the command “rings the system bell.”
62 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Notice how by typing only the letter “e” followed by TAB
twice brings up
a series of files, while “em” is completed to “emacs,” because all options in
this directory beginning with the letters “em” complete to at least that word.
The final two TAB
completions were made without ringing the bell, meaning
that the completions made were the only possibilities.
NOTES: Many applications also support command and/or file name comple-
tion; the most famous example of this is the Emacs text editor (see Recipe 10.1
[Using Emacs], page 232).

3.1.5 Undoing a Mistake at the Command Line

If you want to undo what you just typed on the input line, type CTRL
-
.
If you have been backspacing over things, the shell will remember what you
erased and will put it back on the input line. You can use this undo command
more than once in a row to return the line to even earlier conditions. If you
just typed a short line, then this command will erase it entirely.
You can also erase everything to the left of the cursor by typing CTRL
- U
.
Finally, you can transpose characters: use CTRL
- T
to transpose the two
characters before the cursor, and use ALT
- T
to transpose the two words
before the cursor. This is useful for correcting typos.
⇒ To transpose the letters “m” and “o” just before the cursor, type:
$ echo frmo CTRL
- T

This operation fixes the misspelled “frmo” with “from,” and so the input
line looks like this:
$ echo from
⇒ To transpose the words “bash” and “man,” type:
$ bash man ALT
- T

This operation correctly forms the command to view the bash manual
page:
$ man bash

3.1.6 Repeating the Last Command You Typed

Type 
to put the last command you typed back on the input line. You
can then type RET
to run the command again, or you can edit the command
first.
Chapter 3: The Shell 63

⇒ To repeat the last command entered, type:

$ 
RET

By typing 
more than once, you can go back to earlier commands

you’ve typed; this is a function of your command history, explained further
in Recipe 3.4 [Using Your Command History], page 74.
NOTES: You can also search through your command history to repeat a com-
mand you typed earlier; See Recipe 3.4.2 [Searching Through Your Command
History], page 75.

3.1.7 Running a List of Commands

There are two methods: One specifies the commands at the command line,
and the other gets its list from a file.

METHOD #1
To run more than one command on the input line, type each command in the
order you want them to run, separating each command from the next with a
semicolon (;). This is sometimes a quick way to run several non-interactive
commands in sequence.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To clear the screen and then log out of the system, type:
$ clear; logout RET

• To run the hostname command three times, type:
 

$ hostname; hostname; hostname RET

figaro
figaro
figaro
$

NOTES: There are many useful things you can do when combining commands
in this way. One popular use of this technique is to run sleep first and then
some other command next, to run that second command on a delay. This is
good for making screen shots in some other window (see Recipe 19.1.1 [Taking
a Screen Shot in X], page 441).
64 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #2
You can also run a list of commands by putting them in a file, one per line.
Use the special “.” command, and give the name of the file as an argument.
This runs, in the current shell, all of the commands that are in the file.
⇒ To run the commands in the file ~/lists/nightly, type:
$ . ~/lists/nightly RET

NOTES: This method is good for running many commands with long argu-
ments. For example, you might want to run a tool that takes an url as an
argument, and you have a long series of such urls to run it on. Use a text
editor to copy the urls into a file, one on each line, and then insert the name
of the tool at the beginning of each line.
The built-in source command is a synonym for the period; the act of
running commands from a file with this method is often called “sourcing” a
file.

3.1.8 Running One Command and Then Another

Just as you can string commands together with a semicolon to run them
all in a list, you can also specify that a command should run only if the
previous command ran successfully. To do this, use the special && control
operator to separate the commands. If the first command is successful, the
second command is run; if the first command is not successful—that is, if the
command does not exist, or if it returns an error or any exit status other than
zero—the second command is not run.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To run foo, and then run bar only if foo exists and successfully ran,
type:
$ foo && bar RET

• To search the file operations for the word “planning” regardless of
case, and then peruse operations only if that word was found in it,
type:
$ grep -i planning operations && less operations RET

3.1.9 Running One Command or Another

To specify that one or another command be run, use the special control op-
erator || to separate the two commands. If the first command exists, the
Chapter 3: The Shell 65

shell will run it and ignore the second command; if the first command doesn’t
exist, returns an error, or otherwise returns with a non-zero exit status, the
shell will run the second command.
⇒ To run either w or who, type:
$ w || who RET

In this example, if w exists and runs without errors, the shell will run it
and exit; otherwise, it will run who.

3.1.10 Automatically Answering a Command Prompt

It is sometimes desirable to answer an interactive command without having to
interact with the command directly. Use yes to do this; by default, it outputs
“y” followed by a newline character until it is killed. If you have a command
that asks for verification any number of times, and you want to automate the
answering process, you can pipe the output of yes to it.
⇒ To run a command barfoo and automatically answer y to all of its
prompts, type:
$ yes | barfoo RET

To output something instead of “y,” specify it as an argument. To specify

a certain number of times to output, pipe yes through head with the number
to output as an option.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To use mv to move all of the files ending in .sample in the current

directory to a directory called live, but answer no to overwriting
any existing files, type:
$ yes n | mv *.sample live RET

• To run a command farboo and automatically answer five prompts
with your username, type:
$ yes `whoami` | head -5 | farboo RET

3.1.11 Specifying the Output of a Command as an

Argument
You can have the shell replace a given command with its output. This is
called command substitution and is useful for specifying that the output of
some command should be used as an argument for some other command.
There are two ways to do it, as described in the following methods.
66 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: You can nest substitutions, putting one substitution inside another
one.

METHOD #1
To substitute a command’s output, give the command enclosed in parentheses
and preceded by a dollar sign ($).
⇒ To locate any files on the system containing your username somewhere
in its name, type:
$ locate $(whoami) RET

METHOD #2
To substitute a command’s output, give the command enclosed in backtick
characters (`).
⇒ To locate any files on the system containing your username somewhere
in its name, type:
$ locate `whoami` RET

NOTES: This is the old-fashioned way of doing it. The backticks enclosing
any nested substitutions must be each preceded with backslash characters (\);
also use backslash to specify dollar sign or literal backslash characters.

3.1.12 Typing a Long Line

When you are typing a long command and you want to keep the appearance
neat on the screen, use a backslash (\) followed by a newline ( RET
) to stop
the current line at that point, and continue it on the beginning of the next
line on the screen.
The shell will precede the new line with a special “>” prompt, so you know
that this line is a continuation from the previous line. Both the backslash and
the newline will be ignored by the shell, as if the text of the beginning line
and the line that follows were seamlessly connected as one long line.
It doesn’t matter where in a line you break, and you can extend over as
many lines as you like with this method.
Chapter 3: The Shell 67

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To echo the string ‘verylongword’ while typing it out over two screen
lines, type:
 

$ echo ver\ RET

> ylongword RET

verylongword
$


• To echo the string ‘verylongword’ while typing it out over four screen
lines, type:
 

$ ech\ RET

> o verylo\ RET

> ngwor\ RET

> d RET

verylongword
$

NOTES: It may not always look as tidy, but you can type a long command
without using this technique.

3.2 Redirecting Input and Output

The shell moves text in designated “streams.” The standard output is where
the shell streams the text output of commands—the screen on your terminal,
by default. The standard input, typically the keyboard, is where you input
data for commands. When a command reads the standard input, it usually
keeps reading text until you type CTRL
- D
on a new line by itself.
When a command runs and exits with an error, the error message is usually
output to your screen, but it is a separate stream called the standard error.
You redirect these streams—to a file, or even another command—with
redirection. The following sections describe the shell redirection operators
that you can use to redirect them.

3.2.1 Redirecting Input to a File

To redirect standard input (sometimes called “stdin”), use the < operator.
To do so, follow a command with < and the name of the file it should take
68 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

input from. For example, instead of giving a list of keywords as arguments to

apropos (see Recipe 2.8.1 [Finding the Right Tool for the Job], page 44), you
can redirect standard input to a file containing a list of keywords to use.
⇒ To redirect standard input for apropos to a file named keywords, type:
$ apropos < keywords RET

3.2.2 Redirecting Output to a File

There are two operators for redirecting standard output (or “stdout”) to a
file. The > operator overwrites a file with output if the file already exists,
whereas the >> operator will append output to the file. If the specified file
does not exist, either operator will create it.
To use either operator, follow a command with the operator and the name
of the file the output should be written to.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To redirect standard output of the command apropos shell bash
to the file command.suggestions, overwriting this file if it already
exists, type:
$ apropos shell bash > command.suggestions RET

• To append the standard output of apropos shells to an existing
file command.suggestions, type:
$ apropos shells >> command.suggestions RET

3.2.3 Redirecting Error Messages to a File

To redirect the standard error stream (sometimes referred to as “stderr”), use
the 2> operator. Follow a command with this operator and the name of the
file the error stream should be written to.
⇒ To redirect the standard error of apropos shell bash to the file
command.error, type:
$ apropos shell bash 2> command.error RET

As with redirecting the standard output, there are two variations; 2>>
works just like 2> but it appends the standard error to a file, if the file already
exists.
⇒ To append the standard error of apropos shells to an existing file
command.error, type:
$ apropos shells 2>> command.error RET

Chapter 3: The Shell 69

To redirect both standard output and standard error to the same file, use
&> instead of the stdout and stderr operators.
⇒ To redirect the standard output and the standard error of apropos
shells to a file named commands, type:
$ apropos shells &> commands RET

NOTES: The &> operator overwrites pre-existing files; there is no &>> operator
for appending both stdin and stderr in such cases.

3.2.4 Redirecting Output to Another Command’s Input

Piping is when you connect the standard output of one command to the
standard input of another. You do this by specifying the two commands in
order, separated by a vertical bar character (|, sometimes called a “pipe”).
Commands built in this fashion are called pipelines.
Pipes are often used with a filter, which is any tool that takes its input,
changes it in some way, and sends the result to the standard output. You can
connect filters and tools together with pipelines, pushing each one’s output
onward to the input of the next. The pipe is so powerful as a means of applying
and combining filters that we might have a whole chapter on “filtering text”; as
it is, filters that change the formatting of text have their own special chapter,
and other filters are described elsewhere throughout the book.
It’s often useful to pipe commands that display a lot of text output to
less, a tool for perusing text (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211).
⇒ To pipe the output of apropos bash shell shells to less, type:
$ apropos bash shell shells | less RET

This redirects the standard output of the command apropos bash shell
shells to the standard input of the command less, which displays it on the
screen for perusal.

3.2.5 Redirecting Output to More than One Place

Use tee to redirect standard output to more than one place. tee was named
after those t-shaped plumbing connections that do the same thing with pipes.
When you use tee at the end of a pipeline, it redirects its input to both the
standard output and the file name you give as an argument.
70 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To write a copy of the output of apropos bash shell shells to a file

called shell.commands, and peruse the output with less at the same
time, type:
$ apropos bash shell shells | tee shell.commands | less RET

Use the -a option to append to the file, and not overwrite any existing
data.
To redirect to multiple files, string multiple tee commands together.
⇒ To write a copy of the output of apropos bash shell shells to a file
called shell.commands, append a copy of the output to a file named
command.suggestions, and peruse the output with less at the same
time, type (all on one line):
$ apropos bash shell shells | tee shell.commands | tee -a
command.suggestions | less RET

3.2.6 Redirecting Something to Nowhere

The file /dev/null is a special device file called the null device. It contains
nothing; think of it as a vast bottomless pit whose depths you can never reach
or see. If you try to display its contents, you’ll get nothing, and what you
send there will disappear into nothing and you will never get it back.
This is actually useful! Redirect anything to /dev/null that you don’t
want to see—the standard error, for example. You can also do the oppo-
site, and write the contents of /dev/null to something, which is good for
commands that ask for some kind of optional input and you want to run it
without giving any such input at all.
⇒ To run the command errant and direct any error messages to /dev/null,
type:
$ errant 2> /dev/null RET

NOTES: “Sending to /dev/null” is a common phrase. Now you know what

it means when people do this. Some people call it the “bit bucket.” Now you
know that, too.

3.3 Managing Jobs

The processes you have running in a particular shell are called your jobs.
You can have more than one job running from a shell at once; jobs that are
reading standard input and writing standard output are the foreground jobs,
while any other jobs are said to be running in the background.
Chapter 3: The Shell 71

The shell assigns each job a unique job number. You can use it as an
argument to specify the job to commands. Do this by preceding the job
number with a percent sign (%).
To find the job number of a job you have running, list your jobs (see
Recipe 3.3.4 [Listing Your Jobs], page 73).
The following sections describe the various commands for managing jobs.

3.3.1 Suspending a Job

Type CTRL
- Z
to suspend or stop the foreground job—useful for when you
want to do something else in the shell and return to the current job later. The
job stops until you either bring it back to the foreground or make it run in
the background (see Recipe 3.3.3 [Putting a Job in the Foreground], page 73
and see Recipe 3.3.2 [Putting a Job in the Background], page 72).
For example, if you are reading a document in info, typing CTRL
- Z
will
suspend the info program and return you to a shell prompt where you can
do something else (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48). The
shell outputs a line giving the job number (in brackets) of the suspended job,
the text “Stopped” to indicate that the job has stopped, and the command
line itself, as shown here:
[1]+ Stopped info -f manual.info

In this example, the job number is 1 and the command that has stopped
is “info -f manual.info.” The + character next to the job number indicates
that this is the most recent job.
If you have any stopped jobs when you log out, the shell will tell you this
instead of logging you out, as in Figure 3-2.
 

$ logout RET

There are stopped jobs.
$


Figure 3-2. Stopped jobs when logging out.
At this point, you can list your jobs (see Recipe 3.3.4 [Listing Your Jobs],
page 73), stop any jobs you have running (see Recipe 3.3.5 [Stopping a Job],
page 73), and then log out.
72 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

3.3.2 Putting a Job in the Background

New jobs run in the foreground unless you specify otherwise. To run a job in
the background, end the input line with an ampersand (&). This is useful for
running non-interactive programs that perform a lot of calculations.
⇒ To run the command apropos shell > shell-commands as a background
job, type:
 

$ apropos shell > shell-commands & RET

[1] 6575
$


The shell outputs the job number (in this case, 1) and process ID (in this
case, 6575), and then returns to a shell prompt. When the background job
finishes, the shell will list the job number, the command, and the text “Done,”
indicating that the job has completed successfully:
[1]+ Done apropos shell >shell-commands
To move a job from the foreground to the background, first suspend it
(see Recipe 3.3.1 [Suspending a Job], page 71) and then type bg (for “back-
ground”).
⇒ For example, to start the command apropos shell > shell-commands
in the foreground, suspend it, and then specify that it finish in the back-
ground, you would type:
 

$ apropos shell > shell-commands RET

CTRL
- Z

[1]+ Stopped apropos shell >shell-commands

$ bg RET

[1]+ apropos shell &
$


If you have suspended multiple jobs, specify the job to be put in the back-
ground by giving its job number as an argument.
⇒ To run job 4 in the background, type:
$ bg %4 RET

NOTES: Running a job in the background is sometimes called “background-

ing” or “amping off” a job.
Chapter 3: The Shell 73

3.3.3 Putting a Job in the Foreground

Type fg to move a background job to the foreground. By default, fg works
on the most recent background job.
⇒ To bring the most recent background job to the foreground, type:
$ fg RET

To move a specific job to the foreground when you have multiple jobs in
the background, specify the job number as an option to fg.
⇒ To bring job 3 to the foreground, type:
$ fg %3 RET

3.3.4 Listing Your Jobs

To list the jobs running in the current shell, type jobs.
⇒ To list your jobs, type:
 

$ jobs RET

[1]- Stopped apropos shell >shell-commands
[2]+ Stopped apropos bash >bash-commands
$

This example shows two jobs—apropos shell > shell-commands and

apropos bash > bash-commands. The + character next to a job number indi-
cates that it’s the most recent job, and the - character indicates that it’s the
job previous to the most recent job. If you have no current jobs, jobs returns
nothing.
To list all of the processes you have running on the system, use ps instead
of jobs—see Recipe 2.7 [Listing Processes], page 41.

3.3.5 Stopping a Job

Typing CTRL
- C
interrupts the foreground job before it completes, exiting
the program.
74 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To run the cat tool and then interrupt it while it is running in the
foreground, type:
 

$ cat RET

CTRL
- C
RET

$

Use kill to interrupt (or “kill”) a background job, specifying the job
number as an argument.
⇒ To kill job number 2, type:
$ kill %2 RET

3.4 Using Your Command History

Your command history is the sequential list of commands you have already
typed in both current and previous shell sessions. The commands in this
history list are called events.
By default, Bash remembers the last 500 events, but this number is con-
figurable (see Recipe 3.7.3 [Using Shell Startup Files], page 86).
Your command history is stored in a text file in your home directory called
.bash_history; you can view this file or edit it as you would any other text
file.
Two very useful abilities that having a command history gives you is to
repeat the last command you typed, and (as explained earlier in this chapter)
to do an incremental backwards search through your history.
The following sections explain how to view your history and specify events
from it on the command line. For more information on command history,
consult the Info documentation for bash (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info
Manual], page 48).

3.4.1 Viewing Your Command History

Use history to view your command history. It outputs a list of all events
in your .bash_history, one per line, beginning the oldest event. Events are
preceded with their event number and two space characters.
Chapter 3: The Shell 75

⇒ To view your command history, type:

 

$ history RET

1 who
2 apropos shell >shell-commands
3 apropos bash >bash-commands
4 history
$

This command shows the contents of your command history file, listing one
command per line, each prefaced by its event number. Use an event number
to specify that event in your history (see Recipe 3.4.3 [Specifying a Command
from Your History], page 76).
If your history is a long one, this list will scroll off the screen, in which
case you may want to pipe the output to less in order to peruse it. It’s
also common to search for a past command by piping the output to grep (see
Recipe 3.2.4 [Redirecting Output to Another Command’s Input], page 69, and
Recipe 14.1 [Searching Text for a Word], page 333).
⇒ To search your history for the text “apropos,” type:
 

$ history | grep apropos RET

2 apropos shell >shell-commands
3 apropos bash >bash-commands
5 history | grep apropos
$

This command will show the events from your history containing the text
“apropos.” (The last line of output is the command you just typed.)

3.4.2 Searching Through Your Command History

There are two methods for searching through your history.

METHOD #1
You can use the Bash reverse-incremental search feature, CTRL
- R
, to search,
in reverse, through your command history. You’ll find this useful if you re-
member typing a command line with “foo” in it recently, and you wish to
repeat the command without having to retype it. Type CTRL
- R
followed by
76 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

the text foo, and the last command you typed containing “foo” appears on
the input line.
Like the Emacs command of the same name (see Recipe 14.9.1 [Searching
Incrementally in Emacs], page 352), this is called an incremental search be-
cause it builds the search string in character increments as you type. Typing
the string “cat” will search for (and display) the last input line containing a
“c,” then “ca,” and finally “cat,” as you type the individual characters of the
search string. Typing CTRL
- R
again retrieves the next previous command
line that has a match for the search string.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To put the last command you entered containing the string “grep”
back on the input line, type:
$ CTRL
- R

(reverse-i-search)`': grep
• To put the third-to-last command you entered containing the string
“grep” back on the input line, type:
$ CTRL
- R

(reverse-i-search)`': grep
CTRL
- R
CTRL
- R

NOTES: When a command is displayed on the input line, type RET
to run
it. You can also edit the command line as usual.

METHOD #2
You can also pipe your history through grep to output lines that match a
pattern (see Recipe 14.2 [Searching Text for a Phrase], page 334). This does
not put anything on the input line, but will give all the matches at once. You
might also want to pipe this output to a text pager such as less so you can
peruse it (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211).
⇒ To peruse all the lines in your command history containing the text
“newfile,” type:
$ history | grep newfile | less RET

3.4.3 Specifying a Command from Your History

You can specify a past event from your history on the input line in order to
run it again.
The simplest way to specify a history event is to use the up and down
arrow keys at the shell prompt to browse your history. The up arrow key
Chapter 3: The Shell 77

( 
) takes you back through past events, and the down arrow key ( 
) moves
you forward to more recent events. When a history event is on the input line,
you can edit it as normal, and type RET
to run it as a command; it will then
become the newest event in your history.
⇒ To specify the second-to-last command in your history, type:
$ 


To specify a history event by its event number, enter an exclamation point

(!, sometimes called “bang”) followed by the event number. (Get the event
number by viewing your history; see Recipe 3.4.1 [Viewing Your Command
History], page 74).
⇒ To run history event number 1, type:
$ !1 RET

NOTES: The special event number “!” is the last event, so typing !! is another
way to run the last command you typed.

3.5 Using Shell Variables

A shell variable is a symbol that stores a value and has a unique name. When
its name is referenced, the value it contains is given. Variables are case sensi-
tive, so NAME, Name, and name are all different variables.
You can assign your own variables, but there are also many special built-in
variables that have special meaning for the shell. One is HOME, which contains
the name of your home directory. Variables are often used by scripts and
programs on the system.
For example, a convention is to use the EDITOR variable to hold the name
of your preferred text editor; programs that launch an editor often check to
see if this variable is set, and run that editor.
Variables are quite useful when used in shell scripts, which are described
later in this chapter.
The following recipes explain how to use variables, and show some of the
things you can do with some of Bash’s special built-in variables. For a com-
plete list of these built-ins, consult the bash manual page (see Recipe 2.8.4
[Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).
78 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

3.5.1 Assigning a Variable

To assign a new variable, type its name followed by an equals sign (=) and the
quoted string that should become the variable’s value. Be sure not to type
any space characters on either side of the equals sign.
⇒ To make a new variable called NAME and give it a value of “Mary Jones,”
type:
$ NAME='Mary Jones' RET

Values themselves may contain variables, which are then expanded when
the variable is assigned. You can use any quoting method to give the value,
and you can specify the output of a command (see Recipe 3.1.11 [Specifying
the Output of a Command as an Argument], page 65).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To give a variable called NAME a value of the contents of the
FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME variables, with a space between them, type:
$ NAME="$FIRSTNAME $LASTNAME" RET

• To give a variable called NAME a value of the output of the whoami
command, type:
$ NAME=`whoami` RET

To change the contents of an existing variable, just give its name as the
variable to use.
⇒ To assign a new value to an existing variable called NAME, type:
$ NAME="whoami" RET

This command assigns the value “whoami” to the variable NAME.

3.5.2 Referencing a Variable

Reference a variable in a command by preceding its name with a dollar sign
($). When the command is executed, the shell will first substitute the variable
word (and the dollar sign) with the value stored in that variable word. This
process is called expansion.
⇒ To execute the value of the NAME variable as a command, type:
 

$ $NAME RET

mary
$


Chapter 3: The Shell 79

If the value of the the NAME variable is “whoami,” referencing it as a com-

mand will run the whoami tool (see Recipe 2.6.1 [Displaying Your Username],
page 39). In this example, that’s what happened, and the username is mary.

3.5.3 Displaying the Contents of a Variable

When you want to look at the contents of a variable, use echo and reference
the variable as an argument.
⇒ To display the contents of the variable NAME, type:
 

$ echo $NAME RET

whoami
$

In this example, the variable NAME is shown to contain the string “whoami.”
When you want to output other characters immediately after the name of
a variable, enclose the variable name in curly braces ({}), with the dollar sign
on the outside and immediately preceding it.
⇒ To display the contents of the variable NAME followed by the string “now,”
type:
 

$ echo ${NAME}now RET

whoaminow
$

Without the curly braces, it would have looked to the shell as though you
were referencing a variable called NAMEnow.

3.5.4 Removing a Variable

There are two things about a variable you can remove: its contents, and the
variable itself. To remove the contents of an existing variable, assign it a new
value but give nothing for its contents. The variable will still exist, but it will
be assigned the null string (sometimes called the “empty string,” because its
value is nothing).
⇒ To give a variable called NAME the value of the null string, type:
$ NAME= RET

80 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

To remove a variable itself, regardless of the value it contains, use unset

and give the name of the variable.
⇒ To remove a variable called NAME, type:
$ unset NAME RET

3.5.5 Listing Variables

Use set with no options to display all of the variables in your current shell
and the values they contain.
⇒ To list all of the variables in your current shell, type:
$ set RET

3.5.6 Changing the Shell Prompt

The special variable PS1 is used for the text of the shell prompt. To change
the text of the shell prompt, change the contents of this variable.
⇒ To change your shell prompt to “Your wish is my command: ,” type:
 

$ PS1="Your wish is my command: " RET

Your wish is my command:

Since the replacement text has spaces in it, I’ve quoted it (see Recipe 3.1.3
[Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56).
You can put special characters in the prompt variable in order to output
special text. For example, the characters “\w” in the value of PS1 will list the
current working directory at that place in the shell prompt text.
⇒ To change your prompt to the default Bash prompt—the current working
directory followed by a “$” character—type:
 

$ PS1='\w $ ' RET

~ $

The following table lists some special characters and their text output at
the shell prompt.
Chapter 3: The Shell 81

\a An alert or “bell” character, which rings the system bell

(you can ring it yourself by typing CTRL
- G
).
\d The current date.
\h The hostname of the system.
\n A newline character.
\t The current system time, in 24-hour format.
\@ The current system time, in 12-hour a.m./p.m. format.
\w The current working directory.
\u Your username.
\! The history number of this command.
You can combine any number of these special characters with regular char-
acters when creating a value for PS1.
⇒ To change the prompt to the current date followed by a space character,
the hostname of the system in parentheses, and a greater-than character,
type:
 

$ PS1='\d (\h)>' RET

14 Dec 1999 (ithaca)>


In this example, the system’s hostname is ithaca.

3.5.7 Adding to Your Path

To add or remove a directory in your path, use a text editor to change the
shell variable PATH as it’s defined in the .bashrc file in your home directory
(see Chapter 10 [Editing Text], page 231).
For example, suppose the line that defines the PATH variable in your
.bashrc file looks like this:
PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games"
You can add the directory /home/nancy/bin to this path, by editing the
line like so:
PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/home/nancy/bin"

NOTES: See Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125, for a complete de-
scription of directories and the path.
82 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

3.5.8 Controlling How the Shell Checks Your Mail

When new mail arrives for you, the shell will notify you of this before it gives
you a new shell prompt. The interval between checks, in seconds, is kept in
the MAILCHECK variable. The default value is 60.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To have the shell check for mail every five minutes, type:
$ MAILCHECK=300 RET

• To have the shell check for mail every hour, type:
$ MAILCHECK=3600 RET

The MAIL variable contains the full pathname to your system mail file,
usually a directory in /var/spool/mail/ whose name is the same as your
username. This is where your incoming mail arrives on the system, and it is
the file that the shell checks to see if you have mail. When new messages are
written to this file, the shell will tell you, before giving you another input line,
that you have mail waiting. To turn off mail call, set MAIL to nothing.
⇒ To turn off mail call in the shell, type:
$ MAIL= RET

3.5.9 Seeing How Long Your Shell Has Been Running

The special variable SECONDS contains the current number of seconds that the
shell has been running.

⇒ To see how many seconds the current shell has been running, type:
$ echo $SECONDS RET

NOTES: To find out how long the shell has been running in minutes, hours,
or some other unit of time, you can convert the number of seconds output
with units (see Recipe 29.5.1 [Converting an Amount between Units of Mea-
surement], page 567).

3.6 Using Alias Words

An alias is a word that represents some other command or commands—
perhaps the name of a tool, a long command line, or whatever you like. Aliases
are useful for creating short command names for lengthy and frequently used
commands.
Chapter 3: The Shell 83

Once you see how an alias works, you might be tempted to make an alias
for everything. However, there are differences between aliases and scripts
(discussed in the next section) that you should know.
With an alias, the command you run will show up in your shell history
instead of the alias name you use to call it, whereas with a shell script, only
the name of the script will appear and not the commands in the script. Only
you can run an alias; a script, if it is put in a public bin directory, can be run
by everyone on the system.
Aliases are best for calling a tool, with or without options or arguments,
by another name. How to do that is shown below.

3.6.1 Calling a Command by Some Other Name

Use alias to assign an alias for a command; follow it with the name of the
alias, an equals sign (=), and the quoted string that the alias word should
represent.

⇒ To make “bye” an alias for the exit command, type:

$ alias bye="exit" RET

This command makes “bye” an alias for the exit tool in the current shell,
so typing bye would then run exit.
You can also include options and arguments in an alias. When you do, be
sure to enclose the entire alias in double quotes.

⇒ To make “ls” an alias for the command to list a directory in color on

terminals that allow color display, type:
$ alias ls="ls --color=auto" RET

This command makes “ls” an alias for the ls file listing tool with its --
color=auto option specified, which sets color when the output is directed to
a terminal that is capable of displaying it.
This is a common alias, and many Linux systems come preconfigured with
it in the default .bashrc file. It’s also common to make “l” an alias for ls
with the -l option (see Recipe 5.3.3 [Listing File Attributes], page 136).
When you have this alias defined you can still pass other options to ls just
by specifying them; so typing ls -l in this case will execute ls --color=auto
-l as the actual command.
Aliases are always expanded before the shell looks on your path, so to run
a tool or program whose name is also an alias, give the full path name of
84 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

the program to run (see Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125, for more
about the path).
⇒ To run the actual ls tool with the -l option when “ls” is already defined
as an alias for something, type:
$ /bin/ls -l RET

NOTES: When you define an alias, it only works in the current shell. To make
an alias work every time you run a shell, put it in your .bashrc startup file,
which is a hidden file in your home directory.

3.6.2 Listing Aliases

To list the aliases currently defined in your shell, simply use alias without
any arguments.
⇒ To list all aliases currently defined, type:
$ alias RET

3.6.3 Removing an Alias

To remove an alias, use unalias and give the name of the alias to remove as
an argument. It is removed for the duration of the shell session, unless you
make the word an alias again.
⇒ To remove the alias for “ls,” type:
$ unalias ls RET

NOTES: If you set an alias in your .bashrc or .bash_profile file, this will
remove it—but only for the current shell. To remove such an alias from all
future sessions, edit the file where it is defined, and remove that particular
alias line.

3.7 Using Shell Scripts

You know that the shell has a programming language; some of the commands
that make up the Bash programming language are the ones I have been dis-
cussing in this chapter. A shell program is simply a sequence of commands
for the shell to execute; a shell script is a text file that contains one. Scripts
are also executable, so you can run them by typing their name as a command
(see Recipe 6.3.6 [Making a File Executable], page 170).
The following recipes show how you make and run them, and how you can
run special scripts automatically when you start or stop running a shell.
Chapter 3: The Shell 85

3.7.1 Making a Shell Script

Since shell scripts are text files, you use a text editor to make one (see Chap-
ter 10 [Editing Text], page 231); then, make the file executable so that it can
be run. Scripts written for Bash all contain a first line written in one of two
ways:
#!/bin/bash
or
#!/bin/sh
The pound sign and exclamation point (#!) in both examples indicates to
the shell that the file contains commands to be executed; the full path name
that follows tells the shell which program to execute the commands with—
this can be the name of a shell, perl, sed, awk, or some other command
language.
The first example tells Bash that the file is to be executed by the bash
program itself (the executable file /bin/bash) and not some other program.
The second example tells Bash that the file is to be executed by /bin/sh,
which on modern systems is another name for the bash executable.2 sh used
to be the old Bourne shell, which Bash replaced. Bash can run any Bourne
shell script, and you’ll find that many people still write /bin/sh in their Bash
scripts.
⇒ To make a Bash shell script named hello that just outputs the text
“Hello, world” to the standard output, do the following:
1. Use a text editor to put the following in a file named hello:
 

#!/bin/sh
echo Hello, world


2. Use chmod to make the file executable:
$ chmod a+x hello RET

3.7.2 Running a Shell Script

You run (or “execute”) a shell script by giving its file name as a command, just
as you would any other program. The file must have executable permission
2
Technically, /bin/sh is a symbolic link to /bin/bash, done for purposes of backwards-
compatibility with older scripts (see Recipe 5.7 [Giving a File More Than One Name],
page 152).
86 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

set (see Recipe 6.3.6 [Making a File Executable], page 170). Scripts can take
arguments, just like other kinds of programs.
If a script is stored in a directory that’s on your path (see Recipe 3.5.7
[Adding to Your Path], page 81), just type the name of the script to run it.
Otherwise, give the path name of the script, either full or relative, to run it
(full and relative path names are discussed in Chapter 5 [Files and Directories],
page 125).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To run a script called hello that is kept in a directory on your path,
type:
$ hello RET

• To run a script called hello that is kept in the current directory but
isn’t on your path, type:
$ ./hello RET

• To run a script called hello that is kept in the directory
~/input/files/new, type:
$ ~/input/files/new/hello RET

NOTES: To keep things neat, and to avoid having to call scripts by full path
names, you should consider keeping them in your own directory for binaries,
as described in Recipe C.1 [Using a Directory for Personal Binaries], page 727.

3.7.3 Using Shell Startup Files

Whenever you log in, log out, or start a new shell, the Bash shell looks for
special script files in your home directory and runs the commands they contain.
These are called startup files because they are automatically run when you
start (or stop) a shell.
When you log in, Bash first checks to see if the file /etc/profile exists,
and if so, it executes the commands in this file. This is a generic, system-
wide startup file that is run for all users; only the system administrator can
add, delete, or change commands in this file. Next, Bash reads and executes
the commands in .bash_profile, a “hidden” file in your home directory (see
Recipe 5.3.4 [Listing Hidden Files], page 138). Thus, to make a command run
every time you log in, add the command to this file.
For all new shells you start after you’ve logged in (that is, for all but the
“login shell”), Bash reads and executes the commands in the .bashrc file
in your home directory. Commands in this file run whenever a new shell is
started except for the login shell.
Chapter 3: The Shell 87
 

# "Comment" lines in shell scripts begin with a # character.

# They are not executed by Bash, but exist so that you may
# document your file.

# You can insert blank lines in your file to increase

# readability; Bash will not mind.

# Generate a welcome message when you log in.

figlet 'Good day, '$USER'!'

# Now run the commands in .bashrc

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi


Figure 3-3. A simple .bash_profile.

# Alias to make color directory listings the default.

alias ls="ls --color=auto"

# Alias make "l" give a verbose directory listing.

alias l="ls -l"

# Set a custom path.

PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:~/bin:."

# Set a custom shell prompt.

PS1="[\w] $ "

# Set Vi-style editing mode as the default.

set -o vi

# Make a long history list and history file.

HISTSIZE=20000
HISTFILESIZE=20000

# Check mail every ten minutes.

MAILCHECK=600

# Export the path and prompt variables for all

# variables you define.
export HISTSIZE HISTFILESIZE MAILCHECK PATH PS1


Figure 3-4. A simple .bashrc.
88 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

There are separate configuration files for login and all other shells so that
you can put specific customizations in your .bash_profile that only run
when you first log in to the system. To avoid having to put commands in
both files when you want to run the same ones for all shells, append the
following to the end of your .bash_profile file:
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi
This makes Bash run the .bashrc file in your home directory when you
log in. In this way, you can put all of your customizations in your .bashrc
file, and they will be run both at log in and for all subsequent shells. Any
customizations before this line in .bash_profile run only when you log in.
For example, a simple .bash_profile might look like Figure 3-3, and a
simple .bashrc file, in turn, might look like Figure 3-4.
The .bash_profile in Figure 3-3 prints a welcome message with the
figlet text font tool (see Recipe 16.4.1 [Outputting Horizontal Text Fonts],
page 401), and then runs the user’s .bashrc file.
The .bashrc in Figure 3-4 sets a few useful command aliases and uses a
custom path and shell prompt whenever a new shell is run.
When you log out, Bash reads and executes the commands in the
.bash_logout file in your home directory, if it exists. To run commands
when you log out, put them in this file.
⇒ To clear the screen every time you log out, your .bash_logout should
contain the following line:
clear

This executes the clear command, which clears the screen of the current
terminal.
NOTES: Some distributions come with default shell startup files filled with all
kinds of interesting things. Debian users might want to look at the example
startup files in /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files.

3.8 Making a Typescript of a Shell Session

Use script to create a typescript, or “capture log,” of a shell session—it
writes a verbatim copy of your session to a file, including commands you type
and their output. This is useful to record all of your moves when you are doing
something big on the system—like installing or upgrading some software, or
changing a configuration. As even its manual page notes, programming in-
structors often request a “script” of students’ moves for compiling and running
a program when they turn in assignments.
Chapter 3: The Shell 89

The first and last lines of the file show the beginning and ending time and
date of the capture session. To stop recording the typescript, type exit at a
shell prompt. By default, typescripts are saved to a file called typescript in
the current directory; specify the file name as an argument.
⇒ To create a typescript of a shell session and save it to the file
log.19990525, type:
 

$ script log.19990525 RET

Script started, output file is log.19990525
$ hostname RET

erie
$ apropos bash > bash.commands RET

$ exit RET

exit
Script done, output file is log.19990525
$

In this example, the typescript records a shell session consisting of two

commands (hostname and apropos) to a file called log.19990525. The type-
script looks like Figure 3-5.
 

Script started on Tue May 25 14:21:52 1999

$ hostname
erie
$ apropos bash > bash.commands
$ exit
exit

Script done on Tue May 25 14:22:30 1999

Figure 3-5. A typescript of a shell session.
NOTES: You won’t be happy with the output if you record a session with
an interactive program such as Emacs or Vi. This is because such programs
control the display; all of their screen-manipulating sequences will be saved
to the typescript, where they will appear as junk characters to human eyes.
It’s possible, but usually not desirable, to run script from within another
script session. This usually happens when you’ve forgotten that you are
running it, and you run it again inside the current typescript, even multiple
90 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

times. As a result, you may end up with multiple sessions “nested” inside
each other like a set of Russian dolls.

3.9 Running Shells

It is sometimes desirable to start another shell. Do this if you are running one
kind of shell and you want to run another, or if you want to change some shell
settings before you run a command and then return to the previous settings
when you are done.
The following recipes deal with the running of shells.

3.9.1 Starting a Shell

There are different methods for starting a shell. One runs the shell inside your
current shell, and the other replaces your current shell with the new shell.

METHOD #1
To start another shell and return to your current shell later, just run the
new shell by giving the name of its command (the command to run Bash, for
example, is bash).
This will suspend your current shell and run the new shell; when you exit
the new shell, you will return to your old shell.
⇒ To run a new Bash shell, type:
$ bash RET

METHOD #2
To run a shell in place of your current shell, use exec. Give as an argument
the name of the command of the new shell you want to run. This stops your
current shell and replaces it with the new shell. If you run this command from
a login shell, then when you exit the new shell, you will be logged out.

⇒ To run Csh in place of your current shell, type:

$ exec csh RET

NOTES: You can use exec to run any command in place of the current shell,
not just another shell.
Chapter 3: The Shell 91

3.9.2 Exiting a Shell

Use exit to exit the current shell. This command is a Bash “built-in.”
⇒ To exit the current shell, type:
$ exit RET

You can also type CTRL
- D
at the shell prompt, which works as a shortcut
to the exit command.
⇒ To exit the current shell, type:
$ CTRL
- D

NOTES: Exiting your login shell will log you out of the system (see
Recipe 2.2.2 [Logging Out of the System], page 31).

3.9.3 Getting the Name of Your Current Shell

Here is a trick for displaying the name of the shell you are currently in. The
special shell variable 0 (zero) is always assigned the value of the name of the
shell or script that is currently running (see Recipe 3.5 [Using Shell Variables],
page 77). So at a shell prompt, the value of 0 is the name of the current shell—
use echo to show its value to determine what kind of shell you are currently
in.
⇒ To see which shell you are currently in, type:
 

$ echo $0 RET

ksh
$

In this example, ksh is the current shell.

NOTES: This will output the name of the current shell in most shells, but there
are rare exceptions. With the shell-like tclsh and wish programs, this will
output the following error message: “can't read "0": no such variable.”

3.9.4 Changing Your Default Shell

Use chsh to change your default login shell. When you run it, chsh asks
you for your password (for security reasons), and then asks what shell you’d
like your login shell to be replaced with. Your answer must be a shell that’s
92 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

installed on the system.3 If you have second thoughts, just hit RET
when it
asks—then, your login shell will not be changed.
⇒ To change your default shell to pdmenu, type:
 

$ chsh RET

Password: sesame RET

Changing the login shell for suzie
Enter the new value, or press return for the default
Login Shell [/bin/bash]: pdmenu RET

$


In this example, the user suzie with a password of “sesame” changed her
login shell to pdmenu, a shell described in the next recipe.

3.9.5 Using Other Shells

Everything in this chapter has been about Bash, which is “the Linux shell”
if there ever was one—more Linux systems come with Bash as the default
than any other shell. But there are many shells and, like text editors and
distributions, everyone has his favorite that can do it all. You have many to
choose from, and they all work differently, and have their own charms (and
annoyances).
Most regular users won’t have any reason to run anything other than Bash,
but if you are a programmer or are coming to Linux from some other unix
background, you might already have a favorite shell.
This table describes some of the alternatives.

Ash netbsd’s ash (the “Almquist shell”) is smaller

than Bash and has features similar to the original
Bourne shell. Useful for Linux-on-a-floppy and small
installations.
DEB: ash
RPM: ash
WWW: http://sources.isc.org/utils/shell/ash.txt

3
A list is kept at /etc/shells.
Chapter 3: The Shell 93

Csh The interface of the “sea shell” is like the C program-

ming language and, having originated on the bsd flavor
of unix, is popular on those systems.
DEB: csh
RPM: tcsh
WWW: http://tcshrc.sourceforge.net/
Esh The “easy shell” is a small shell that uses a Lisp-like
syntax as the primary means of interface.
DEB: esh
RPM: esh
WWW: http://olympus.het.brown.edu/doc/esh/esh.html
Eshell A complete Emacs command shell, using Emacs Lisp
as the interface.
DEB: eshell
WWW: http://www.emacswiki.org/johnw/EmacsShell.html
Lsh Inspired by old pc command interpreters, this is a shell
for novices who have had dos experience but are new
to unix.
DEB: lsh
Psh A shell that uses the syntax and features of the perl
programming language.
DEB: psh
RPM: psh
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/psh/
Pdksh at&t’s Korn shell, named after its author David Korn,
brought together the features of Csh and the original
shell; Pdksh is a public domain implementation of this
old unix standby.
DEB: pdksh
RPM: pdksh
WWW: http://web.cs.mun.ca/~michael/pdksh/
94 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Pdmenu This is a full-screen text menuing system, in color, in-

tended as a way for inexperienced users to select and
run programs.
DEB: pdmenu
RPM: pdmenu
WWW: http://kitenet.net/programs/pdmenu/
rc Based on the at&t Plan 9 shell, this is a fast shell with
a syntax similar to the C programming language.
DEB: rc
WWW: http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~tjg/rc/
Tcsh The tenex C shell is an enhanced version of Csh.
DEB: tcsh
RPM: tsch
WWW: http://www.tcsh.org/
Zsh Similar to the Korn shell, but with features like spelling
correction and scripting enhancements.
DEB: zsh
RPM: zsh
WWW: http://www.zsh.org/
Chapter 4: The X Window System 95

4. The X Window System

XFree86
DEB: xserver-common
RPM: XFree86
WWW: http://www.xfree86.org/

The X Window System, commonly called “X,”1 is a graphical windowing

interface that comes with all popular Linux distributions. X is available for
many unix-based operating systems; the version of X that runs on Linux
systems with x86-based cpus is called “XFree86.” The current version of X
is 11, Revision 6—or “X11R6.”
All the command line tools and most of the applications that you can run
in the console can run in X; numerous applications written specifically for X
are also available.
Usually, you run X from the console, but there are other ways to do it.
When you are running X on your system, it is possible to run some graphical
program from a remote system, and have it display on your screen; there are
also special terminals designed for X and wired into the main system. With
just a keyboard mouse and monitor but no processing power, these are like
dumb terminals (see Recipe 2.3 [Using Consoles and Terminals], page 32),
but they are designed for accessing the X Window System, and are called X
terminals.
This chapter shows you how to get around in X: how to start it and stop
it, run programs within it, manipulate windows, and customize X to your
liking. See The Linux XFree86 HOWTO for information on installing X (see
Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System Documentation and Help Files], page 50).

4.1 Running X
When you start X, you should see a mouse pointer appear on the screen as
a large, black “X.” If your X is configured to start any tools or applications,
they should each start and appear in individual windows. A very plain and
simple X session might look like Figure 4-1.
The root window is the background behind all of the other windows. It is
usually set to a color, but you can change it (see Recipe 4.7.3 [Changing the
1
Sometimes you might catch it being called “X Windows,” but this term is technically
incorrect.
96 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Root Window Parameters], page 118). Each program or application in X runs

in its own window. Each window has a decorative border around some or all
of its sides, called the window border; l-shaped corners, called frames; a top
window bar, called the title bar, which displays the name of the window; and
several title bar buttons on the left and right sides of the title bar (described
in Recipe 4.3 [Manipulating X Client Windows], page 105). Depending on the
window manager and its settings, any of these elements may be invisible.

Figure 4-1. A simple X session.

The entire visible work area, including the root window and any other
windows, is called the desktop. The box in the lower right-hand corner, called
the pager, allows you to move about a large desktop (see Recipe 4.4 [Moving
Around the Desktop], page 108).
A window manager is a program that controls the way windows look and
are displayed—the window dressing, as it were—and can provide some ad-
ditional menu or program-management capabilities. The window manager
starts as soon as you run X. There are many different window managers to
choose from, each with a variety of features and capabilities; part of the fun of
starting to use Linux is trying them all out to find a favorite. See Recipe 4.7.5
[Using Other Window Managers], page 120, for a list of some of the more
popular or interesting ones.
Chapter 4: The X Window System 97

Window managers typically allow you to customize the colors and borders
that are used to display a window, as well as the type and location of but-
tons that appear on the window (see Recipe 4.2 [Running a Program in X],
page 101). For example, in the image above, the clock itself is the oclock
program, while the title bar above it is drawn by the fvwm2 window man-
ager. With the AfterStep window manager, the title bar would look a little
different, as in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2. An oclock in AfterStep.

There are many window managers you can choose from, all different; in-
stead of describing only one, or describing all of them only superficially, this
chapter explains the basics of X, the fundamentals that everyone must know
to use X regardless of his particular setup, and that are common to all window
managers.
In recent years, desktop environments have also become popular. These
are application suites that run on top of the window manager (and X), with
the purpose of giving your X session a standardized “look and feel”; these
suites normally come with a few basic tools, such as clocks and file managers.
The two principal desktops are gnome (the gnu Project’s “gnu Network
Object Model Environment”) and kde (the “K Desktop Environment”).2
If you have a recent Linux distribution and chose the default install, chances
are good that you have either gnome or kde installed, with something like
Window Maker or fvwm2 assigned as the default window manager. (While
you can have more than one window manager installed on your system, you
can only run one at a time.)
2
Desktops are designed to be an intuitive and “user friendly” interface to X, so in this book
I explain the fundamentals of using X itself; learn more about these desktop environments
from their Web sites: http://gnome.org/ and http://kde.org/.
98 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

4.1.1 Starting X
There are two principal ways to start X. How you start it on your system will
depend on whether or not the X Display Manager is installed.

METHOD #1
Xdm
DEB: xdm
RPM: xdm
WWW: http://www.xfree86.org/

If the X Display Manager, xdm, is installed, use it to manage your X session.

Systems that have it installed are typically configured to go to the seventh
virtual console when the system boots, so you’ll see a graphical xdm login
screen right away. Some distributions customize this login screen—for exam-
ple, Fedora shows a “Fedora Core” logo and draws a box underneath it for
entering your username.
You can log in directly to an X session from this screen, typing your user-
name and password in the appropriate boxes.
When xdm is running but the system is not configured to go to the seventh
virtual console at boot time, switch to it so you can log in to an X session.
⇒ To switch to the seventh virtual console, type:
ALT
- F7

METHOD #2
On systems not running xdm, the virtual console reserved for X will be blank,
until you start X yourself by running startx in another virtual console. Mes-
sages from startx, including any error messages, are displayed in the console
you run it in, while X itself will run in the seventh virtual console.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To start X yourself from another virtual console, type:
$ startx RET

• To run startx and redirect both its standard output and standard
error to a log file, type:
$ startx &> ~/startx.log RET

Chapter 4: The X Window System 99

Both of these examples start X on the seventh virtual console, regardless of

which console you are at when you run the command—your console automat-
ically switches to X on the seventh console. You can always switch to another
console during your X session (see Recipe 2.3 [Using Consoles and Terminals],
page 32). The second example writes any error messages or output of startx
to a file called startx.log in your home directory.
When you start X, you can specify the color depth to use, which is the
number of bits used to render possible colors for each pixel on the display.3
It is specified in terms of power to two; therefore, 8-bit color means a pixel
can be 28 or any one of 256 possible colors, 16-bit color gives 65,536 possible
colors (216 ), and with 24-bit color (224 ), pixels can be any one of 16,777,216
colors (1-bit color, then, is exactly two colors). Color depth is limited by
display hardware. Depending on your system’s configuration and graphics
card, X may start with a default color depth anywhere from 8-bit to 24-bit.
You can specify another color depth by using startx with the special -bpp
option; follow it with a number indicating the color depth to use, and precede
the option with two hyphen characters (--), which tells startx to pass the
options that follow it to the X server itself.
⇒ To start X from a virtual console and specify 24-bit color depth, type:
$ startx -- -bpp 24 RET

NOTES: If your system runs xdm, you can always switch to the seventh virtual
console (or whichever console xdm is running on), and then log in at the xdm
login screen.

4.1.2 Stopping X
There are a few methods for stopping X.

METHOD #1
The normal way to end an X session is to do it through your window manager.
Most window managers have an Exit X menu option or something similar that
you can select with the mouse; others have keystroke commands for exiting X.

3
A bit is the computer’s smallest unit of information, and can be either a binary 0 or 1;
pixels are the individual colored dots that make up your display screen.
100 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To end your X session if you are running the fvwm2 window man-
ager, do the following:
1. Click the left mouse button anywhere in the root window to pull
up the start menu.
2. Choose Really quit? from the Exit Fvwm submenu.

• To end your X session if you are running the AfterStep window man-
ager, do the following:
1. Click the left mouse button anywhere in the root window to pull
up the start menu.
2. Choose Exit? from the Quit submenu.
3. Click Logout.

• To end your X session if you are running the Ion window manager,
do the following:
1. Press F12
.

2. Answer “y” in the Ion mode line:

Exit Ion (y/n)? y RET

If you started your X session with startx, these commands will return you
to a shell prompt in the virtual console where the command was typed. If,
on the other hand, you started your X session by logging in to xdm on the
seventh virtual console, you will be logged out of the X session and the xdm
login screen will appear; you can then switch to another virtual console or log
in to X again.

METHOD #2
To exit X immediately and terminate all X processes, press the CTRL
- ALT
-
BKSP
combination (if your keyboard has two ALT
and CTRL
keys, use the
left ones). You’ll lose any unsaved application data, but this is useful when
you cannot exit your X session normally—in the case of a system freeze or
other problem.
⇒ To exit X immediately, type:
CTRL
- ALT
- BKSP

Chapter 4: The X Window System 101

4.2 Running a Program in X

Programs running in an X session are called X clients. (The X Window System
itself is called the X server). To run a program in X, you start it as an X
client—either by selecting it from a menu, or by typing the command to run
in an xterm shell window (see Recipe 4.5 [Running a Shell in X], page 109),
as follows.

METHOD #1
Most window managers have a “start menu” of some kind; it’s usually accessed
by clicking the left mouse button anywhere on the root window. To run an X
client from the start menu, click the left mouse button to select the client’s
name from the submenus.
⇒ To start a square-shaped, analog-face clock from the start menu, do the
following:
1. Click the left mouse button on the root window to make the menu
appear.
2. Click the left mouse button through the application menus and onto
Xclock (analog).
This starts the xclock client, specifying the option that displays an analog
face, as in Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3. An analog xclock.

METHOD #2
You can also start a client by running it from a shell window—useful for
starting a client that isn’t on the menu, or for when you want to specify
options or arguments. When you run an X client from a shell window, the
102 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

client opens in its own window, but runs as a foreground job in that shell;
to use the shell window while the client is running, run the client in the
background (see Recipe 3.3.2 [Putting a Job in the Background], page 72).
⇒ To run a digital clock from a shell window, type:
$ xclock -digital & RET

This command runs xclock in the background from a shell window;

the‘digital option specifies a digital clock.
The following sections explain how to specify certain command line options
common to most X clients, such as window layout, colors, and fonts.

4.2.1 Specifying X Window Size and Location

Specify a window’s size and location by giving its window geometry with the
geometry option. Four fields control the width and height of the windows, and
the window’s distance (“offset”) from the edge of the screen. It is specified in
the form:
-geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF
The values in these four fields are usually given in pixels, although some
applications measure WIDTH and HEIGHT in characters. While you must give
these values in order, you can omit either pair. For example, to specify just
the size of the window, give values for WIDTH and HEIGHT only.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To start a small xclock, 48 pixels wide and 48 pixels high, type:

$ xclock -geometry 48x48 RET

• To start a large xclock, 480 pixels wide and 500 pixels high, type:
$ xclock -geometry 480x500 RET

• To start an xclock with a width of 48 pixels and the default height,
type:
$ xclock -geometry 48 RET

• To start an xclock with a height of 48 pixels and the default width,
type:
$ xclock -geometry x48 RET

You can give positive or negative numbers for the XOFF and YOFF fields.
Positive XOFF values specify a position from the left of the screen; negative
values specify a position from the right. If YOFF is positive, it specifies a
position from the top of the screen; if negative, it specifies a position from the
Chapter 4: The X Window System 103

bottom of the screen. When giving these offsets, you must specify values for
both XOFF and YOFF.
To place the window in one of the four corners of the desktop, use zeroes
for the appropriate XOFF and YOFF values, as follows:

+0+0 Upper left-hand corner.

+0-0 Lower left-hand corner.
-0+0 Upper right-hand corner.
-0-0 Lower right-hand corner.
⇒ To start a default size xclock in the lower left-hand corner, type:
$ xclock -geometry +0-0 RET

Or, to put it all together, you can specify the size and location of a window
with one geometry line that includes all four values.
⇒ To start an xclock with a width of 120 pixels, a height of 100 pixels, an
x-offset of 250 pixels from the right side of the screen, and a y-offset of
25 pixels from the top of the screen, type:
$ xclock -geometry 120x100-250+25 RET

Use the -iconic option to start a client as an icon, so that it appears as

an icon as soon as it is run. The client will start, but it will be displayed as a
small icon until you click on it (see Recipe 4.3.5 [Deiconifying an X Window],
page 107).
⇒ To start an xclock as an icon, but that will open in the upper right-hand
corner when you maximize it, type:
$ xclock -geometry -0+0 -iconic RET

4.2.2 Specifying X Window Colors

The window colors available in your X session depend on your display hard-
ware and the X server that is running. The xcolors tool will show all colors
available on your X server and the names used to specify them. (Color names
are not case-sensitive.)
⇒ To list the available colors, type:
$ xcolors RET

Press Q
to exit xcolors.

To specify a color to use for the window background, window border, and
text or graphics in the window itself, give the color name as an argument
104 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

to the appropriate option: -bg for background color, -bd for window border
color, and -fg for foreground color.
⇒ To start an xclock with a light blue window background, type:
$ xclock -bg lightblue RET

You can specify any combination of these attributes.

⇒ To start an xclock with a sea green window background and a turquoise
window foreground, type:
$ xclock -bg seagreen -fg turquoise RET

NOTES: The -bordercolor, -background, and -foreground options are syn-

onymous with -bd, -bg, and -fg.

4.2.3 Specifying X Window Font

To specify a font for use in a window, use the -fn option followed by the X
font name to use. (To get an X font name, use xfontsel; see Recipe 16.1
[Using X Fonts], page 395).
⇒ To start an xclock with a digital display, and specify that it use a 17-
point Helvetica font for text, type:
$ xclock -digital -fn -*-helvetica-*-r-*-*-17-*-*-*-*-*-*-* RET

This command starts an xclock that looks like Figure 4-4.

Figure 4-4. A digital xclock with Helvetica type.

NOTES: If you specify the font for a shell window, you can resize it after it’s
running, as described in Recipe 16.1.4 [Resizing the Xterm Font], page 398.
The -font option is synonymous with -fn.

4.2.4 Specifying X Window Border Width

To specify the width of the border of an X client, use -bw followed by the
desired width, in pixels.
⇒ To start an xclock with a border width of 30 pixels, type:
$ xclock -bw 30 RET

NOTES: The -borderwidth option is synonymous with -bw.

Chapter 4: The X Window System 105

4.2.5 Specifying X Window Title

To specify your own title for a client, use -title and follow it with a quoted
string for the window title. If you use a long title, you might have to specify
the client width to make sure the window is long enough.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To start an xclock with a title of “Time,” type:
$ xclock -title "Time" RET

• To start an xclock 225 pixels wide with a title of “As Time Goes
By,” type:
$ xclock -title "As Time Goes By" -geometry 225 RET

4.2.6 Specifying Attributes in an X Window

You can specify certain special attributes when an X client is already running
in a window.
X applications often have up to three special menus with options for chang-
ing certain attributes. To see these menus, press and hold CTRL
and then
click one of the three mouse buttons somewhere in the client’s window. (If
you have a mouse with only two buttons, click both buttons simultaneously
to emulate the middle button.)

⇒ To display an X client’s third menu, press and hold CTRL
, move the
mouse pointer to somewhere in the X client’s window, and click the third
mouse button.

4.3 Manipulating X Client Windows

Only one X client can accept keyboard and mouse input at a time, and that
client is called the active client. To make a client active, move the mouse over
the client’s window. When a client is the active client, it is said to be “in
focus.” Depending on the window manager, the shape of the mouse pointer
may change, or the window border and title bar of the active client may be
different (a common default is steel blue for the active client color and gray
for all other windows).
Each window has its own set of controls to manipulate that window. These
controls differ slightly between various window managers. Here’s how to per-
form basic window operations with the mouse.
106 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

4.3.1 Moving an X Window

Move X client windows by dragging the title bar with the mouse.
⇒ To move an X window, do the following:
1. Click and hold the left mouse button on the window’s title bar.
2. Drag its window outline to the desired position.
3. Release the left mouse button.

4.3.2 Resizing an X Window

Resize X client windows by dragging any of its frames.
⇒ To resize an X window, do the following:
1. Click and hold the left mouse button on any one of the window’s four
frames.
2. Move the mouse to shrink or grow the window outline as desired.
3. Release the left mouse button.

4.3.3 Maximizing an X Window

Sometimes you may want to resize an X client window so that the window is
as large as it can be, often filling the entire screen. This is called maximizing
a window.
⇒ The way to maximize a window depends on your window manager; usually
one or more of the following methods work:
• Double-click the left mouse button on the title bar (on a maximized
window, this sometimes has the effect of returning the window to its
smaller original size).
• Click the left mouse button on a square box button on the title bar.
• Click either the middle or right mouse button anywhere on the root
window to pull up a menu whose options include “maximize”; select
that option and then click on the title bar of the client window to
maximize.

NOTES: If the idea of maximizing all your X client windows appeals to you, I
suggest looking at Ion, a window manager with no real concept of “windows”
at all, but only clients running maximized to full-screen size (see Recipe 4.7.5
[Using Other Window Managers], page 120).
Chapter 4: The X Window System 107

4.3.4 Minimizing an X Window

You can minimize an X client window, so that it disappears and an icon
representing the running program is placed on the desktop, with the window’s
“_” button, usually in the upper right-hand corner of the title bar. This is
also called iconifying a window.
⇒ To minimize an X window, click the left mouse button on the window’s
“_” button.

NOTES: Some window managers may have slightly different variations on this
method, but the basic principle will be the same.

4.3.5 Deiconifying an X Window

Bringing a window back once it has been minimized is called deiconifying a
window. The icon that represents the window will disappear as the window
returns to its prior size and position.
⇒ The way to deiconify a window depends on your window manager, but
usually one or more of the following methods work:
• Double-click the left mouse button on the icon.
• Double-click the left mouse button on the icon name that is written
underneath it.
• Click either the middle or right mouse button anywhere on the root
window to pull up a menu whose options include any of the X client
windows in your session; select the name of the client to deiconify.

4.3.6 Getting Information About an X Window

Use xwininfo to output information on a client window. This is useful for
getting values you’d like to specify for a command—it lists the selected win-
dow’s geometry, colors, border width, color depth, and other values. Run
it in a terminal window (see Recipe 4.5 [Getting a Terminal Window in X],
page 109).
108 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To get information about a client window, do the following:

1. Run xwininfo in a terminal window:
 

$ xwininfo RET

xwininfo: Please select the window about which you

would like information by clicking the
mouse in that window.

2. Click the left mouse button anywhere in the window you’d like in-
formation on.
This command outputs, in the terminal window you typed it in, a list of
information on the client window you selected with the mouse.

4.3.7 Destroying an X Window

When you quit or exit an X client, the window is no longer displayed. You
can also destroy a window in X, where the client running in that window is
terminated and the window is no longer displayed.
To destroy a window, click the left mouse button on the “X” button in the
upper right-hand corner of the title bar. This is useful for when the program
running in the window has stopped responding, and you can’t quit it normally.

4.4 Moving Around the Desktop

Many window managers (including AfterStep and fvwm2) allow you to use
a virtual desktop, which lets you use more screen space than your monitor
can display at one time. A virtual desktop can be larger than the display, in
which case you can scroll though it with the mouse. The view that fills the
display is called the viewport. When you move the mouse off the screen in a
direction where the current (virtual) desktop extends, the view scrolls in that
direction. Virtual desktops are useful for running many clients full screen at
once, each in its own separate desktop.
Some configurations disallow scrolling between desktops; in that case,
switch between them with a pager, which shows a miniature view of your
virtual desktop, and allows you to switch between desktops. It is a sticky
window (it “sticks to the glass” above all other windows), and is always in
Chapter 4: The X Window System 109

the lower right-hand corner of your screen, even when you scroll across a vir-
tual desktop. Both your current desktop and active X client are highlighted
in the pager.
The default fvwm2 virtual desktop size is nine desktops in a 3x3 grid, as
in Figure 4-5.

Figure 4-5. An fvwm2 pager.

In the preceding illustration, the current desktop is the second one in the
top row. The first desktop contains two X client windows—a small one and
a large one—but there are no windows in any other desktops (including the
current one).
To switch to another desktop, click the left mouse button on its correspond-
ing view in the pager, or use a keyboard shortcut if your window manager
provides one.
⇒ In fvwm2, the default keys for switching between desktops are ALT
in
conjunction with the arrow keys; in AfterStep, use the CTRL
key in place
of ALT
.
• To switch to the desktop to the left of the current one while running
fvwm2, type ALT
- 
.
• To switch to the desktop directly to the left of the current one while
running AfterStep, type CTRL
- 
.

4.5 Getting a Terminal Window in X

Xterm
DEB: xterm
RPM: xterm
WWW: http://dickey.his.com/xterm/

A terminal emulator lets you run a shell in an X client window. The standard
terminal emulator for X on Linux systems is xterm, which emulates the dec
110 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

vt102/220 and Tektronix 4014 video terminals.4 You can run commands
in an xterm window just as you would in a virtual console; a shell in an
xterm acts the same as a shell in a virtual console (see Chapter 3 [The Shell],
page 53).
You can use all of the standard X client options with xterm (see Recipe 4.2
[Running a Program in X], page 101), but it also has many options of its own,
which are described in the next recipe.
⇒ To open a new window with a shell, setting the text font to Lucida Sans
Typewriter face at a body size of 18 pixels, type:
$ xterm -fn lucidasanstypewriter-18 RET

This example requires that you already have a terminal emulator running,
with a shell prompt you can type from. If you don’t have one, then you will
have to start an xterm by selecting it from an application menu, as provided
through your window manager.
⇒ To open a new window with a shell when using the Ion window manager,
setting the text font to Lucida Sans Typewriter face at a body size of 18
pixels, type:
F3

Run: xterm -fn lucidasanstypewriter-18 RET

You can cut and paste text from an xterm to another X client (see
Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of Text], page 253).
To scroll through text that has scrolled past the top of the screen, type
SHIFT
- PgUp
. The number of lines you can scroll back to depends on the
value of the scrollback buffer, specified with the -sl option; its default value
is 64.

4.5.1 Changing the Default X Terminal Behavior

There are many command line options for controlling xterm’s emulation char-
acteristics; the following table lists some of them.
Note that these options are a little idiosyncratic; sometimes a - option
turns a thing on, while other times the + option does. Default behavior is
noted, although some Linux distributions might change these defaults.

4
To see what the original hardware looks like, see the following:
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal/dec.html and
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal/various.html#tek.
Chapter 4: The X Window System 111

+ah Always highlights the cursor, even when the window

is no longer in focus.
-ah When the window is not in focus, makes the cursor
hollow (the default).
-aw Turns on auto-wraparound, so that text reaching
past the right margin is wrapped over to the next
line (the default).
+aw Turns off auto-wraparound; text reaching past the
right margin is deleted in such a way so that the last
character of a line is printed as the last character
before the margin.
-b pixels Specifies the size, in pixels, of the inner border (the
default is two).
-bdc Turns off display of bold characters in color, rather
than in bold (the default).
+bdc Displays bold characters in color.
-cm Disables recognition of ansi control sequences.
+cm Enables recognition of ansi control sequences (the
default).
-cr color Specifies the color to be used for the text cursor.
-fb font Specifies the font used for bold text (the default is
to overstrike the normal text font.) The value you
give must have the same height and width used for
normal text.
-hc color Sets the color used in the background of highlighted
or selected text (the default is to use a reverse of the
normal text colors).
-j Turns on jump scrolling, where quick-flowing text is
scrolled by jumping past many lines at once instead
of scrolling every line on the screen; recommended
for increasing speed when going through a lot of text
(the default).
112 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

+j Turns off jump scrolling.

-leftbar Places the scrollbar along the left margin of the win-
dow (the default), if also enabled with the -sb op-
tion.
-ls Uses a login shell for the shell (i.e., for Bash
users, this means that the .bash_profile is run
on startup; this is the default).
+ls Specifies not to use a login shell—uses a normal sub-
shell instead (i.e., for Bash users, this means that the
.bash_profile is not run).
-mb Turns on a margin bell, which rings when the cursor
approaches the right margin.
+mb Turns off the margin bell (the default).
-mc milliseconds Specifies the time, in milliseconds, between multiple
clicks when selecting text.
-ms color Specifies the color for the X mouse pointer, when it’s
in the xterm window (this is sometimes called the
pointer cursor; the value defaults to the foreground
color).
-nb color Specifies the number of characters, from the right
margin, at which point the margin bell should ring,
if used (the default is ten).
-nul Enables the display of underlining (the default).
+nul Disables the display of underlining.
-pc Enables pc-style bold colors (brighter color values;
the default).
+pc Disables pc-style bold colors.
-rightbar Place the scrollbar along the right margin of the
window, if also enabled with the -sb option.
Chapter 4: The X Window System 113

-rw Allows for reverse-wraparound, where the cursor

may back up from one line to the right margin of
the previous one, when editing long command lines
(the default).
+rw Does not allow reverse-wraparound.
-sb Enables a scrollbar so that lines scrolled off the top
of the window can be viewed by scrolling back on
the bar.
+sb Disables the scrollbar (the default).
-sk Specifies that when a key is pressed when using
the scrollbar to view previous text, the window dis-
play moves forward to the current input line (the
default).
+sk Specifies that when a key is pressed when using the
scrollbar to view previous text, the window display
does not move forward to the current input line.
-sl number Specifies the number of lines that scroll off the top
of the screen that should be saved, for viewing with
the scrollbar.
-ulc Specifies that underlined characters should not be
displayed in color (the default).
+ulc Specifies that underlined characters should be dis-
played in color instead of being underlined.
-vb Specifies that a visual bell is to be used rather than
an audible one (the window is quickly flashed).
+vb Disables any visual bell (the default).

There are even more options than this; consult the xterm man page for a
complete listing (see Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading a Page from the System Manual],
page 46).

4.5.2 Running a Command in an X Window

The xterm tools will run a shell by default, but you can use it to run any
interactive terminal program instead; do this with the -e option, and give
114 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

the name of the command to run as an argument. An xterm will open with
that command, and it will run in its own window; when that command exits,
the xterm window will close. This is handy for when you just want to run a
particular command in its own window, but don’t need a shell.
⇒ To run bc in its own X window, type:
$ xterm -e bc RET

When you exit the command, the shell will exit and the window will close.
You can also pass arguments to the command.
⇒ To run lynx with the url file:/usr/local/, type:
$ xterm -e lynx file:/usr/local/ RET

In this example, lynx opens the given url in its own window, and will
remain until you either kill the window or exit lynx.
NOTES: If calling xterm with other options, the -e option must be the last
option specified in the command line.

4.5.3 Using Other Terminal Emulators

While xterm is the standard Linux terminal emulator, it is certainly not the
only one; there are plenty to choose from, all with special features. The
following table lists some of the better ones.

AfterStep This color vt102 terminal emulator was made to work with
XVT the AfterStep window manager, but can also be used with oth-
ers; has many special effects such as tinting and shading, yet is
smaller than xterm—and uses less swap space, too.
DEB: aterm
RPM: aterm
WWW: http://aterm.sourceforge.net/
Enlightened This color vt102 terminal emulator was made to work with
Terminal the Enlightenment window manager, but can also be used with
Emulator others; supports themes and has many features to control its
appearance.
DEB: eterm
RPM: Eterm
WWW: http://www.eterm.org/
Chapter 4: The X Window System 115

Konsole This graphical terminal emulator for kde allows you to run
multiple terminals in a single window.
DEB: konsole
RPM: konsole
WWW: http://konsole.kde.org/
Multi This graphical terminal emulator for gnome features enhance-
Gnome ments inspired by Konsole, that allow for multiple terminals in
Terminal a single window.
DEB: multi-gnome-terminal
RPM: multi-gnome-terminal
WWW: http://multignometerm.sourceforge.net/
Multi As the name implies, this terminal emulator supports various
Lingual foreign language encodings.
TERMinal DEB: mlterm
RPM: mlterm
WWW: http://mlterm.sourceforge.net/
PowerShell This color terminal emulator allows multiple terminals in the
same window that you can switch between by clicking on “tab”
buttons.
DEB: powershell
RPM: powershell
WWW: http://powershell.sourceforge.net/
ouR XVT Known to everyone by its command name, rxvt, this is a color
vt102 terminal emulator designed to be a xterm replacement,
and is smaller and less memory-intensive as the latter, but with
less emulation options and configurability.
DEB: rxvt
RPM: rxvt
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/rxvt/
Unicode This is xterm with Unicode support.
DEB: xterm
RPM: xterm
WWW: http://dickey.his.com/xterm/
116 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Wterm This is based on ouR XVT, but optimized for the Window
Maker window manager. Its features include tranparency, tint-
ing, and background images.
DEB: wterm
RPM: wterm
WWW: http://largo.windowmaker.org/files.php#wterm

4.6 Magnifying a Portion of the X Desktop

Use xmag to magnify a portion of the X desktop. It will open a new window
displaying part of the desktop you select, magnified to a larger size.
When it runs, the X pointer will change to an upper left-hand corner tab.
There are two ways to select the region of the desktop to magnify: Clicking the
left mouse button once, anywhere on the screen, magnifies a region beginning
with where you click as the upper left-hand corner. You can also select a
specific region to magnify—do this by pressing and holding the middle mouse
button at the upper left-hand corner and dragging the pointer to the lower
right-hand corner of the region you want magnified.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To magnify a region of the desktop, do the following:
1. Start xmag:
$ xmag RET

2. Click the middle mouse button in the upper left-hand corner of
the region to magnify.
3. Move the pointer to the lower right-hand corner of the region,
and then release the middle mouse button.
• To run xmag on a three-second delay, to give you time to change to
another desktop window before it runs, type:
$ sleep 3; xmag RET

Click Close or type Q
to exit the program and close the magnified win-
dow.

4.7 Configuring X
There are some aspects of X that people usually want to configure right away.
This section discusses some of the most popular, including changing the video
mode, automatically running clients at startup, and choosing a window man-
ager. You’ll find more information on this subject in both The X Window
Chapter 4: The X Window System 117

User HOWTO and The Configuration HOWTO (for how to read them, see
Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System Documentation and Help Files], page 50).

4.7.1 Switching Between Video Modes

A video mode is a display resolution, given in pixels indicating the horizontal
and vertical values, such as 640x480. An X server can switch between the
video modes allowed by your hardware and set up by the administrator; it is
not uncommon for a machine running X to offer several video modes, so that
640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 display resolutions are possible.
To switch to another video mode, use the +
and 
keys on the numeric
keypad with the left CTRL
and ALT
keys. The +
key switches to the next
mode with a lower resolution, and the 
key switches to the next mode with
a higher resolution.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To switch to the next-lowest video mode, type:
CTRL
- ALT
- +

• To switch to the next-highest video mode, type:
CTRL
- ALT
- 

To cycle through all available modes, type either of these key combinations
repeatedly.
NOTES: For more information on video modes, see The XFree86 Video Tim-
ings HOWTO (see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System Documentation and Help
Files], page 50).

4.7.2 Running X Clients Automatically

The .xsession file, a hidden file in your home directory, specifies the clients
that are automatically run when your X session first starts (“hidden” files
are explained in Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125). It is just a shell
script, usually containing a list of clients to run. You can edit your .xsession
file in a text editor, and if this file doesn’t exist, you can create it.
Clients start in the order in which they are listed, and the last line should
specify the window manager to use. The following example .xsession file
starts an aterm with a black background, white text, brown cursor, and no
scrollbar, puts an asclock in the upper left-hand corner (AfterStep’s clock
inspired by the nextstep “tear-off” calendar clock), starts the Emacs text
editor, opening the file ~/TODO into a buffer of its own, and then starts the
AfterStep window manager:
118 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
 

#! /bin/sh
#
# A sample .xsession file.

aterm +sb -bg black -fg white -cr brown &

asclock -geometry +0+0 &
emacs ~/TODO &
exec /usr/bin/afterstep


All clients start as background jobs, with the exception of the window
manager on the last line, because when this file runs, the X session is running
in the foreground (see Recipe 3.3 [Managing Jobs], page 70). Always put an
ampersand (&) character at the end of any command line you put in your
.xsession file, except for the line giving the window manager on the last
line.

4.7.3 Changing the Root Window Parameters

By default, the root window background is painted gray with a woven pat-
tern. To draw these patterns, X tiles the root window with a bitmap, which
is a black-and-white image stored in a special file format. X comes with some
bitmaps installed in the /usr/X11R6/include/bitmaps/ directory; the de-
fault bitmap file is root_weave (you can make your own patterns with the
bitmap tool; see Recipe 18.4 [Using Other Image Editors], page 435).
Use xsetroot to change the color and bitmap pattern in the root window.
To change the color, use the -solid option, and give the name of the color
to use as an argument. (Use xcolors to get a list of possible color names, as
described in Recipe 4.2.2 [Specifying X Window Colors], page 103.)
⇒ To change the root window color to blue violet, type:
$ xsetroot -solid blueviolet RET

To change the root window pattern, use the -bitmap option, and give the
name of the bitmap file to use.
⇒ To tile the root window with a star pattern, type:
$ xsetroot -bitmap /usr/X11R6/include/bitmaps/star RET

When specifying a pattern, use the -fg and -bg options to specify the
foreground and background colors.
⇒ To tile the root window with a light slate gray star pattern on a black
background, type (all on one line):
$ xsetroot -fg slategray2 -bg black -bitmap
/usr/X11R6/include/bitmaps/star RET

Chapter 4: The X Window System 119

Use xsetroot with the special -gray option to change the root window to
a shade of gray designed to be easy on the eyes, with no pattern.
⇒ To make the root window a gray color with no pattern, type:
$ xsetroot -gray RET

NOTES: You can also put an image in the root window (although this con-
sumes memory that could be spared for a memory-hogging Web browser in-
stead; but see Recipe 17.1.2 [Putting an Image in the Root Window], page 410,
for how to do it).

4.7.4 Controlling the System Bell in X

X has a utility for controlling user preferences called xset, which you use to
control various aspects of the system—for instance, you can use it to control
screen-saver times, the way led lights are set, keyclick volume level, and so
forth.
To turn off ringing of the system bell, use xset and give off as an argument
to the b option.
⇒ To turn off the system bell in X, type:
$ xset b off RET

You can turn the bell back on with the on argument.

You can control the volume, pitch, and duration of the bell by giving three
numbers as arguments to the b option: The first is the volume as a percentage
of its maximum value, the second is the pitch in Hertz, and the third is the
duration in milliseconds. Running xset with the b option and no arguments
returns the bell to its defaults.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To set the bell for 75 percent of its maximum volume, ringing at
440 Hz for one second, type:
$ xset 75 440 1000 RET

• To return the system bell to its default values, type:
$ xset b RET

NOTES: To make an xset setting permanent, affecting every X session you

run, you will want to put the command in your .xsession file (see Recipe 4.7.2
[Running X Clients Automatically], page 117).
When you start a terminal emulator, you can use the -vb option to turn
off the audible bell in just that terminal window (see Recipe 4.5.1 [Changing
the Default X Terminal Behavior], page 110).
120 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

4.7.5 Using Other Window Managers

Yes, there are many window managers to choose from. Some people like the
flash of Enlightenment, running with kde or gnome, while others prefer the
spartan wm2 or anti-windowing approach of Ion, or a window manager that
emulates some other os environment—the choice is yours.
The following table describes some of the more popular window managers
currently available.

9wm 9wm is a simple window manager inspired by at&t’s Plan

9 window manager—it does not use title bars or icons. It
should appeal to those who like the Wily text editor (see
Recipe 10.8 [Using Other Text Editors], page 263).
DEB: 9wm
RPM: 9wm
WWW: http://www.plig.org/xwinman/archive/9wm/
Afterstep AfterStep is inspired by the look and feel of the nextstep
interface.
DEB: afterstep
RPM: AfterStep
WWW: http://www.afterstep.org/
BlackBox BlackBox is a fast, lightweight window manager with a con-
tempoary look and feel.
DEB: blackbox
RPM: blackbox
WWW: http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/
Enlightenment Enlightenment is a graphics-intensive window manager that
uses desktop “themes” for decorating the various controls of
the X session.
DEB: enlightenment
RPM: enlightenment
WWW: http://www.enlightenment.org/
Chapter 4: The X Window System 121

Fluxbox Fluxbox is based on BlackBox, adding new features includ-

ing window tabs, keyboard shortcuts, and an icon bar.
DEB: fluxbox
RPM: fluxbox
WWW: http://www.plig.org/xwinman/fluxbox.html
FVWM95 fvwm95 makes X look like a certain proprietary “desktop”
os from circa 1995.
DEB: fvwm95
WWW: ftp://ftp.plig.org/pub/fvwm95/
Ion Designed to be navigable by the keyboard, keeping applica-
tions and client windows in full-screen frames, Ion is becom-
ing a favorite for those who value speed and efficiency and
don’t particularly care for windowing systems in general.
DEB: ion
RPM: ion
WWW: http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/
TWM The Tab Window Manager is an older, simple window man-
ager that is available on almost every system. (It’s also
sometimes called Tom’s Window Manager, after its primary
author, Tom LaStrange.)
DEB: twm
RPM: twm
WWW: http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html
WM2 wm2 is a minimalist, configuration-free window manager.
DEB: wm2
RPM: wm2
WWW: http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/
Window Maker The window manager of choice for the gnu Project, Win-
dow Maker is configurable through easy menus, and is often
compared to nextstep.
DEB: wmaker
wmaker-data
RPM: wmaker
WWW: http://www.windowmaker.org/

To try one of these window managers out, select it from the application
menu as given by the current window manager. This will exit your window
122 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

manager and start the new one. If you find one you like and wish to make it the
default, edit your .xsession file so that its last line contains exec followed by
the full path name of the window manager to use (see Recipe 4.7.2 [Running
X Clients Automatically], page 117).
⇒ To make AfterStep your default window manager, put the following as
the last line in your .xsession file:
exec /usr/bin/X11/afterstep

NOTES: Some window managers (such as twm and wm2) do not have ap-
plication menus, so if you run such a window manager you won’t be able to
easily switch to another during that session—you’ll have to exit X and start
it again.
II. FILES 123

II. FILES
124 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 125

5. Files and Directories

This chapter discusses the basic tools for manipulating files and directories—
tools that are among the most essential on a Linux system.
A file is a collection of data that is stored on disk and that can be manip-
ulated as a single unit by its name.
A directory is a file that acts as a folder for other files. A directory can also
contain other directories (called subdirectories in this context); a directory
that contains another directory is called the parent directory of the child
directory it contains.
You might think of a regular file as a folder in a file cabinet drawer. The
folder has a name, it holds the information that is put into it, and that in-
formation can be rearranged; you can recall the file at any time, and you can
destroy it. The drawers of the the file cabinet then would be directories, and
every file must be kept in one.
There the metaphor ends. The folders can be copied identically, and phan-
tom folders can exist whose contents point to the contents of one of your
real folders, so that when you look inside the phantom you are looking in
the contents of a folder somewhere else. You can have as many directories as
you like, and unlike physical file cabinets, you can have drawers inside other
drawers, which in turn can have their own drawers on and on. In fact, there
is a “master” drawer, the root directory, which contains inside it all other
drawers—each drawer must in turn be kept inside some other drawer.
It is also helpful to think of the directories on a system like a tree with
all its branches, because directories form a branching hierarchy—and the tree
metaphor is used frequently to describe them: a directory tree includes a
directory and all of its files, including the contents of all subdirectories. (Each
directory is a “branch” in the “tree.”) A slash character alone (/) is the name
of the root directory at the base of the directory tree hierarchy; think of it
as forming the roots and trunk from which all other files or directories are
supported and from which they all inevitably branch out.
An abridged version of the root directory tree is shown in Figure 5-1.
To represent a directory’s place in the file hierarchy, specify all of the
directories between it and the root directory, using a slash (/) as the delimiter
to separate directories. So the directory dict as it appears in the preceding
illustration would be represented as /usr/dict.
126 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Each user has a branch in the /home directory for his own files, called
his home directory. The hierarchy in the previous illustration has two home
directories: joe and jon, both subdirectories of /home.

dict

bin

usr

jon

play

work

joe

home

bin

etc

(root)

Figure 5-1. The root directory tree.

When you are in a shell, you are always in some directory on the system,
and that directory is called the current working directory. When you first log
in to the system, your home directory is the current working directory.
Whenever specifying a file name as an argument to a tool or application,
you can give the slash-delimited path name relative to the current working
directory. For example, if /home/joe is the current working directory, you can
use “work” to specify the directory /home/joe/work, and “work/schedule”
to specify schedule, a file in the /home/joe/work directory.
Every directory has two special files whose names consist of one and two
periods: .. refers to the parent of the current working directory, and . refers
to the current working directory itself. If the current working directory is
/home/joe, you can use . to specify /home/joe and .. to specify /home.
Furthermore, you can specify the /home/jon directory as ../jon.
Another way to specify a file name is to specify a slash-delimited list of all
of the directory branches from the root directory (/) all the way down to the
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 127

file you want to specify. This unique, specific path from the root directory to
a file is called the file’s full path name. (When referring to a file that is not a
directory, this is sometimes called the absolute file name).
You can specify any file or directory on the system by giving its full path
name. A file can have the same name as other files in different directories
on the system, but no two files or directories can share a full path name.
For example, user joe can have a file schedule in his /home/joe/work di-
rectory and a file schedule in his /home/joe/play directory. While both
files have the same name (schedule), they are contained in different direc-
tories, so each has a unique full path name—/home/joe/work/schedule and
/home/joe/play/schedule.
However, you don’t have to type the full path name of a tool or application
in order to start it. The shell keeps a list of directories, called the path, where
it searches for programs. If a program is “in your path,” which means that it
is in one of these directories, you can run it simply by typing its name.
By default, the path includes /bin and /usr/bin. For example, the who
command is in the /usr/bin directory, so its full path name is /usr/bin/who.
Since the /usr/bin directory is in the path, you can type who to run
/usr/bin/who, no matter what the current working directory is.
The following table describes some of the standard directories on Linux
systems.

/ The ancestor of all directories on the system; all

other directories are subdirectories of this directory,
either directly or through other subdirectories.
/bin Essential tools and other programs (or binaries).
/dev Files representing the system’s various hardware de-
vices. For example, you use the file /dev/cdrom to
access the cd-rom drive.
/etc Miscellaneous system configuration files, startup
files, et cetera.
/home The home directories for all of the system’s users.
/lib Essential system library files used by tools in /bin.
/proc Files that give information about current system
processes.
128 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

/root The superuser’s home directory, whose username is

root. (In the past, the home directory for the su-
peruser was simply /; later, /root was adopted for
this purpose to reduce clutter in /.)
/sbin Essential system administrator tools, or system bi-
naries.
/tmp Temporary files.
/usr Subdirectories with files related to user tools and
applications.
/usr/X11R6 Files relating to the X Window System, including
those programs (in /usr/X11R6/bin) that run only
under X.
/usr/bin Tools and applications for users.
/usr/dict Dictionaries and word lists (slowly being outmoded
by /usr/share/dict).
/usr/doc Miscellaneous system documentation.
/usr/games Games and amusements.
/usr/info Files for the Gnu Info hypertext system (see
Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).
/usr/lib Libraries used by tools in /usr/bin.
/usr/local Local files—files unique to the individual system—
including local documentation (in /usr/local/doc)
and programs (in /usr/local/bin).
/usr/man The online manuals, which are read with the man
command (see Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading a Page from
the System Manual], page 46).
/usr/share Data for installed applications that is architecture-
independent and can be shared between systems.
A number of subdirectories with equivalents in
/usr also appear here, including /usr/share/doc,
/usr/share/info, and /usr/share/icons.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 129

/usr/src Program source code for software compiled on the

system.
/usr/tmp Another directory for temporary files.
/var Variable data files, such as spool queues and log
files.

For more information on the directory structure of Linux-based systems,

see the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard [http://www.pathname.com/fhs/].
On Debian systems, you can also view this information in the compressed
files in the /usr/doc/debian-policy/fsstnd/ directory (see Recipe 9.1 [Pe-
rusing Text], page 211).

5.1 Naming Files and Directories

File names can consist of any combination of upper- and lowercase letters,
numbers, periods (.), hyphens (-), and underscores (_).1 File names are also
case-sensitive—foo, Foo, and FOO are all different file names, and they can
all exist at the same time in a directory (files of identical name cannot). By
convention, file names are almost always all lowercase letters.
Linux does not force you to use file extensions, but it is convenient and
useful to give files proper extensions, since they will help you to identify file
types at a glance.
There is no special requirement for extensions; the dot is just an old
convention—you could use any system you like for any of your files:
Penny_Parker-20031103.letter
Files don’t have to have any extensions at all, like myfile, and you can have
files with multiple extensions, too, like long.file.with.many.extensions.
A jpeg-format image file, for example, does not have to have a .jpg or .jpeg
extension, and program files do not need a special extension to make them
work.
Extensions are particularly useful if you’re sending files to users on other
computers, particularly systems that require extensions—send a file in Mi-
crosoft Word format to a Windows user without giving it a .doc extension
first, and you’re likely to be told the file doesn’t work.

1
Technically, there are other characters that you can use—but doing so may get you into
trouble later on.
130 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The file name before any file extensions, but without the path, is called the
base file name. For example, the base file name of /home/lisa/house.jpeg
is house, without the dot or trailing jpeg, and without the path.
For a list of commonly used file extensions and their meanings, see Appen-
dix B [Conventional File Name Extensions], page 723.
The following sections show how to make new files. To rename an existing
file, just move it to a file with the new name—see Recipe 5.5 [Moving Files
and Directories], page 144.

5.1.1 Making an Empty File

You may sometimes want to create a new, empty file as a kind of “placeholder.”
To do so, give the name that you want to use for the file as an argument to
touch.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To create the file a_fresh_start in the current directory, type:
$ touch a_fresh_start RET

• To create the file another_empty_file in the work/completed sub-
directory of the current directory, type:
$ touch work/completed/another_empty_file RET

This tool “touches” the files you give as arguments. If a file does not exist,
it creates it; if the file already exists, it changes the modification timestamp
on the file to the current date and time, just as if you had used the file.
NOTES: Often, you make a file when you edit it, such as with a text or image
or sound editor; in that case, you don’t need to make the file first.

5.1.2 Making a Directory

Use mkdir (“make directory”) to make a new directory, giving the path name
of the new directory as an argument. Directory names follow the same con-
ventions as other files—that is, no spaces, slashes, or other unusual characters
are recommended.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To make a new directory called work in the current working directory,
type:
$ mkdir work RET

• To make a new directory called work in the /tmp directory, type:
$ mkdir /tmp/work RET

Chapter 5: Files and Directories 131

5.1.3 Making a Directory Tree

Use mkdir with the -p option to make a subdirectory and any of its parents
that do not already exist. This is useful when you want to make a fairly
complex directory tree from scratch and don’t want to have to make each
directory individually.
⇒ To make the work/completed/2001 directory—a subdirectory of the
completed directory, which in turn is a subdirectory of the work directory
in the current directory, type:
$ mkdir -p work/completed/2001 RET

This makes a 2001 subdirectory in the directory called completed, which

in turn is in a directory called work in the current directory; if the completed
or the work directories do not already exist, they are made as well. If you
know that work and completed both exist, the previous command works fine
without the -p option.

5.1.4 Using a File with Spaces in Its Name

While a space character is not forbidden in naming files, it does make them
difficult to use. Sometimes you might get one made on a system running
macos, where space characters are common in file names. If a directory or
file has a space in its name, there are two methods for specifying the name on
the command line.
To reference a file with a space character in its name, quote the name (see
Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56). The following methods
are variations on this.

METHOD #1
To use a file with space in its name, enclose the file in single-quote characters
(').
⇒ To list the contents of the directory named Top Secret, type:
$ ls 'Top Secret' RET

You can also use double quote characters (") to quote; if a file name con-
tains one kind of quote in its name, use the other.
⇒ To list the contents of the directory named McHale's Restuarant, type:
$ ls "McHale's Restaurant" RET

132 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #2
To use a file with space characters in its name, precede each space character
with a backslash character (\).
⇒ To change to the directory named Newspaper Photo Archive, type:
$ cd Newspaper\ Photo\ Archive RET

Use the backslash to precede other special characters, including quotes.

⇒ To remove a file named A "tough" one, type:
$ rm -i A\ \"tough\"\ one RET

In this example, rm was called with the -i option, which removes files
interactively, asking for confirmation before each remove takes place (see
Recipe 5.6.2 [Removing Files Interactively], page 150).
NOTES: If you don’t want spaces in a file, but you would like the words in
its name to be separated, you might change the spaces in the file name to
underscore characters (_). This is a common unix convention.

5.2 Changing Directories

Use cd to change the current working directory; give as an argument the
relative or full path name of the directory to change to.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To change the current working directory to work, a subdirectory in
the current directory, type:
$ cd work RET

• To change to the current directory’s parent directory, type:
$ cd .. RET

• To change the current working directory to /usr/doc, type:
$ cd /usr/doc RET

The following recipes show special ways of using cd.

5.2.1 Changing to Your Home Directory

With no arguments, cd makes your home directory the current working direc-
tory.
⇒ To make your home directory the current working directory, type:
$ cd RET

Chapter 5: Files and Directories 133

5.2.2 Changing to the Last Directory You Visited

To return to the last directory you were in, use cd and give - as the directory
name. For example, if you are in the /home/mrs/work/samples directory,
and you use cd to change to some other directory, then at any point while you
are in this other directory you can type cd - to return the current working
directory to /home/mrs/work/samples.
⇒ To return to the directory you were last in, type:
$ cd - RET

5.2.3 Getting the Name of the Current Directory

Most people have their shell prompt set up to display the name of the current
directory; this is the default setup in most Linux distributions. But you
can always get the name of the current directory with pwd (“print working
directory”), which lists the full path name of the current working directory.
⇒ To output the name of the current working directory, type:
 

$ pwd RET

/home/mrs
$


In this example, pwd output the text /home/mrs, indicating that the current
working directory is /home/mrs.

5.3 Listing Directories

Use ls to list the contents of a directory. It takes as arguments the names of
the directories to list. With no arguments, ls lists the contents of the current
working directory.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list the contents of the current working directory, type:
 

$ ls RET

apple cherry orange
$


134 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To list the contents of work, a subdirectory in the current directory,

type:
$ ls work RET

• To list the contents of the /usr/doc directory, type:
$ ls /usr/doc RET

In the first example, the current working directory contains three files:
apple, cherry, and orange.
The following subsections describe some commonly used options for con-
trolling which files ls lists, and what information about those files ls outputs.
You can combine these options to get their combined effects; the order in which
the options are specified does not matter. There are even more options than
what is given here; the Info documentation for ls is worth perusing. It is one
of the most often used file commands on unix-based systems.

NOTES: There are a few other common ways to list the contents of directories.
One that is common when in X, and when you want to peruse image files in
those directories, is to use Mozilla or some other Web browser as a local file
browser. Use the prefix2 file:/ to view local files. Alone, it opens a directory
listing of the root directory; file:/home/joe opens a directory listing of
user joe’s home directory, file:/usr/local/src opens the local source code
directory, and so on. Directory listings will be rendered in html on the fly
in almost all browsers, so you can click on subdirectories to traverse to them,
and click on files to open them in the browser. This and other methods for
browsing files are described in Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files and Directories],
page 157.

5.3.1 Listing Directories in Color

Use ls with the --color option to list the directory contents in color; files
appear in different colors depending on their content. Some of the default
color settings include displaying directory names in blue, text files in white,
executable files in green, and links in turquoise.
⇒ To list the files in the root directory in color, type:
$ ls --color / RET

This command lists the root directory in color, as in Figure 5-2. (While
this illustration is black and white, the actual directory listing is in color.)

2
Called a urn, or “Uniform Resource Name.”
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 135
 

Figure 5-2. A color directory listing.
NOTES: Many systems are set up to use this flag by default, so that using ls
with no options will list in color. If yours isn’t set up this way, and you’d like
it to be, you can always make ls a shell alias word for ls --color in your
.bashrc startup file (see Recipe 3.6.1 [Calling a Command by Some Other
Name], page 83 and see Recipe 3.7.3 [Using Shell Startup Files], page 86).

5.3.2 Listing File Types

To display the file type along with the name of a file, use ls with the -F option.
With this option set, regular files are displayed as usual, and ls appends an
indicator of the following type to other files:

/ File is a directory.
* File is executable.
@ File is a symbolic link (see Recipe 5.7 [Giving a File
More Than One Name], page 152).
| File is a fifo (also called a named pipe), a special
file that processes use for reading from and writing
to.
= File is a socket, a special file that provides a
connecting point through which processes may
communicate.
136 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To list the contents of the directory so that directories, executables, and

special files are distinguished from all other files, type:
 

$ ls -F RET

repeat* test1 test2 words/
$

In this example, the current directory contains an executable file named

repeat, a directory named words, and some other regular files named test1
and ‘test2.

5.3.3 Listing File Attributes

Use ls with the -l (“long”) option to output a more extensive directory
listing—one that contains each file’s size in bytes, last modification time, file
type, ownership, and permissions (see Recipe 6.2 [File Ownership], page 166).
⇒ To output a verbose listing of the /usr/share/doc/bash directory, type:
$ ls -l /usr/share/doc/bash RET

This command outputs a verbose listing of the files in

/usr/share/doc/bash, as in Figure 5-3.

Figure 5-3. A verbose directory listing.

The first line of output gives the total amount of disk space, in 1024-byte
blocks, that the files take up (in this example, 144). Each subsequent line
displays several columns of information about one file.
The first column displays the file’s type and permissions. The first char-
acter in this column specifies the file type; the hyphen (-) is the default and
means that the file is a regular file. Directories are denoted by d, and sym-
bolic links (see Recipe 5.7 [Giving a File More Than One Name], page 152)
are denoted by l. The remaining nine characters of the first column show the
file permissions (see Recipe 6.3 [Controlling Access to Files], page 167). The
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 137

second column lists the number of hard links to the file. The third and fourth
columns give the names of the user and group that the file belongs to. The
fifth column gives the size of the file in bytes, the sixth column gives the date
of last modification, and the last column gives the file name.
Other options change the defaults for the long-style output.
To change the modification date from the abbreviated month, day, and
then year output to show the full time and date (like the default of date, as
described in see Recipe 27.1 [Displaying the Date and Time], page 537), use
the special --full-time option.
⇒ To output a verbose listing of the /usr/share/doc/bash directory, giving
the full time and date of last modification, type:
$ ls -l --full-time /usr/share/doc/bash RET

This command outputs a verbose listing of the files in the
/usr/share/doc/bash directory, showing the full time and date of
last modification, as in Figure 5-4.

Figure 5-4. A verbose directory with modification time.

Figure 5-5. A verbose directory with human-readable numbers.

To specify that the numbers in the output should be in a “human readable”
form, instead of in blocks, use the -h option. When combined with -l, this
will give the total amount of disk space and size of each file in bytes, kilobytes
(followed by a k), or megabytes (followed by an M).
138 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output a verbose listing of the /usr/share/doc/bash directory, giving

all numbers in a human readable form, type:
$ ls -lh /usr/share/doc/bash RET

This command outputs a verbose listing of the files in the

/usr/share/doc/bash directory, giving all numbers in a human
readable form, as in Figure 5-5.

5.3.4 Listing Hidden Files

By default, ls does not output files that begin with a period character (.).
To reduce clutter, many applications “hide” configuration files in your home
directory by giving them names that begin with a period; these are called dot
files, or sometimes “hidden” files. As mentioned earlier, every directory has
two special dot files: .., the parent directory, and ., the directory itself.
To list all contents of a directory, including these dot files, use the -a
option.
⇒ To list all files in the current directory, type:
$ ls -a RET

Use the -A option to list almost all files in the directory: it lists all files,
including dot files—with the exception of the .. and . directory files.
⇒ To list all files in the current directory except for .. and ., type:
$ ls -A RET

5.3.5 Listing Directories in Columns

Use the -1 option to list a directory in a single column. Files will be listed
one to a line. This is good for cut and pasting.
⇒ To list the contents of /usr/bin in a single column, type:
$ ls -1 /usr/bin RET

When output from ls is piped to anywhere but the terminal, ls uses this
single-column format.
Normally, ls lists files in columns going vertically—first the leftmost col-
umn will be filled, and then the next column, all the way over toward the right
side of the screen. Use -x to make the columns list horizontally instead—so
that the first line across is filled with file names first, and then the next line,
until all files are listed.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 139

⇒ To list the contents of /usr/bin in columns printed horizontally, type:

$ ls -x /usr/bin RET

Use the -m option to output files not in columns at all, but in a single
horizontal line, separated by commas.
⇒ To output the contents of /usr/bin in a single line, with file names
separated by commas, type:
$ ls -m /usr/bin RET

5.3.6 Listing Files in Sorted Order

By default, the file listing output by ls is sorted alphabetically, in charac-
ter order—that is, files are listed from smallest to largest ascii code (see
Recipe 9.3.7 [Viewing a Character Set], page 228), so that, for example, files
beginning with uppercase letters are listed before files with lowercase letters.
There are several options for controlling the way the output is sorted; some
of them are given below.

METHOD #1
To sort files by size, use the -S option. Files are sorted with the largest first.
⇒ To list all of the files in the /usr/bin directory sorted by size, with the
largest first, type:
$ ls -S /usr/bin RET

METHOD #2
Use the -t option with ls to sort a directory listing by time, so that the files
are listed according to when they were last modified, with the most recently
modified listed first.
⇒ To list all of the files in the /usr/tmp directory sorted by their modifica-
tion time, with the mostly recently modified files first, type:
$ ls -t /usr/tmp RET

METHOD #3
To sort files by their extension, use the -X option. Files with no extension are
listed first.
⇒ To list all files in the current directory, sorted by extension, type:
$ ls -X RET

140 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #4
Use -v to give a version sort, where instead of sorting by character, the
file names are sorted by the way they are numbered, so that file-2 will
come between file-1 and file-10, and not after the two files as it would
in a normal character sort. This is useful for sorting files whose names are
numbered in some way, such as by versions, indices, or date.
⇒ To list all of the files in the current directory ending in .jpeg and sorted
by version, type:
$ ls -v *.jpeg RET

METHOD #5
Use -r to reverse the order of the sorted output. This works with all other
sort options.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list files in the current directory from highest ascii character
value to lowest, type:
$ ls -r RET

• To list all of the files in the /usr/bin directory sorted by their size,
with smallest files first, type:
$ ls -Sr /usr/bin RET

• To list all of the files in the current directory sorted by modification
date, with the most recently modified files last, type:
$ ls -tr RET

METHOD #6
Use the -U option to turn off all sorting and output files in unsorted order—the
order they appear on the disk.
⇒ To output all files in the current directory in the order they appear on
the disk, type:
$ ls -U RET

5.3.7 Listing Subdirectories

Normally when you list the contents of a directory, any subdirectories are just
listed by their name—their contents are not listed. To list the contents of
all subdirectories a directory may contain, use the -R option. This lists the
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 141

contents of a directory recursively, outputting a listing of that directory and

the contents of all of its subdirectories.
⇒ To output a recursive directory listing of the current directory, type:
 

$ ls -R RET

play work

play:
notes

work:
notes
$

In this example, the current working directory contains two subdirectories,

work and play, and no other files. Each subdirectory contains a file called
notes.
⇒ To list all of the files on the system, type:
$ ls -R / RET

This command recursively lists the contents of the root directory, /, and all
of its subdirectories. It is common to combine this with the attribute option,
-l, to output a verbose listing of all the files on the system:
$ ls -lR / RET

NOTES: You can’t list the contents of some directories on the system if you
don’t have permission to do so (see Recipe 6.3 [Controlling Access to Files],
page 167).

5.4 Copying Files and Directories

Use cp (“copy”) to copy files. It takes two arguments: the source file, which is
the existing file to copy, and the target file, which is the file name for the new
copy. The cp command then makes an identical copy of the source file, giving
it the specified target name. If a file with the target name already exists, cp
overwrites it. It does not alter the source file.
⇒ To copy the file my-copy to the file neighbor-copy, type:
$ cp my-copy neighbor-copy RET

142 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This command creates a new file called neighbor-copy that is identical to

my-copy in every respect except for its name, owner, group, and timestamp—
the new file has a timestamp that shows the time when it was copied. The
file my-copy is not altered.
Use the -v (“verbose”) option to list files as they are copied. This is useful
for large copies, where a lot of files are being copied, so you can monitor the
progress.
⇒ To copy all the files in the ~/workgroup/final directory to the
~/workgroup/backup directory, specifying verbose output so each file is
listed as it is copied, type:
$ cp -v ~/workgroup/final/* ~/workgroup/backup RET

5.4.1 Copying Files with Their Attributes

When you copy a file, the attributes such as timestamp and file ownership
will differ between the original and the copy. Use cp with the -p option to
preserve all of the attributes of the original, whenever possible, including its
timestamp, owner, group, and permissions.
⇒ To copy the file my-copy to the file neighbor-copy, preserving all of the
attributes of the source file in the target file, type:
$ cp -p my-copy neighbor-copy RET

This command copies the file my-copy to a new file called neighbor-copy
that is identical to my-copy in every respect except for its name.
While -p does not copy any subdirectories a directory may contain, you
can use the -a (“archive”) option instead, which preserves attributes when-
ever possible but also copies any subdirectories as well as symbolic links (see
Recipe 5.7 [Giving a File More than One Name], page 152). This is good for
making archival backups of one directory tree to another.
⇒ To make an archival copy of the contents of /cdrom to the current direc-
tory, type:
$ cp -a /cdrom . RET

This command makes a copy of /cdrom, including any subdirectories it

may contain, to the current directory. Original file attributes are preserved in
the copy.
NOTES: A snapshot is a copy of a directory tree that shows what it looked
like at a particular time. Snapshots are usually made in software development
projects upon each release—to “take a snapshot of the current version” means
to make an archival copy of the directory tree containing the sources.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 143

To make a snapshot of a directory tree, use cp with the -a option as just

described.

5.4.2 Copying Subdirectories

To copy a directory along with the files and subdirectories it contains, use the
-R option—it makes a recursive copy of the specified directory and its entire
contents.
⇒ To copy the directory public_html and all of its files and subdirectories
to a new directory called private_html, type:
$ cp -R public_html private_html RET

The -R option does not copy files that are symbolic links (see Recipe 5.7
[Giving a File More Than One Name], page 152), and it does not retain all
original permissions. To recursively copy a directory, including links, and
retain all of its permissions, use the -a (“archive”) option. This is useful for
making a backup copy of a large directory tree.
⇒ To make an archive copy of the directory tree public_html to the direc-
tory private_html, type:
$ cp -a public_html private_html RET

5.4.3 Copying Files by a Unique Parent Directory

Sometimes it is desirable to copy or rename a group of files, all of which have
a common name, so that the new names match the unique parent directory
that each original has. To do this, use basename to get the name each unique
path for the cp command. Loop through all the files, running this command
line on each of them, with Bash’s built-in for construct (see the Bash Info
documentation for more information on this built-in).
For example, suppose you have in your home directory a directory named
photographs, and in it you have a number of subdirectories, each named
with a unique number, and each one containing many directories, including
one named src, as in Figure 5-6.
Suppose you only want to copy the src directories and their contents, but
want the names of these copied directories to be the preceding unique paths
before src (01, 02, and so on). Use basename to pass the unique paths to cp.
144 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
 

~/photographs/01/
~/photographs/01/640x480
~/photographs/01/320x280
~/photographs/01/src
~/photographs/02
~/photographs/02/640x480
~/photographs/02/320x280
~/photographs/02/src
~/photographs/03
~/photographs/03/640x480
~/photographs/03/320x280
~/photographs/03/src
... continued ...


Figure 5-6. Subdirectories with a unique parent.
⇒ To copy all src directories to the /mnt directory, giving each of the files
the unique name of their parent directory in ~/photographs, type:
 

$ for i in ~/photographs/* RET

> { RET

> cp -a $i/src /mnt`basename $i` RET

> } RET

$

This command copies all of the src directories in ~/photographs,’ giv-

ing them the uniqe names of their parents—so that ~/photographs/01/src
becomes /mnt/01, ~/photographs/02/src becomes /mnt/02, and so on.
You can use the semicolon character (;) to run this all on one command
line as a single command (see Recipe 3.1.7 [Running a List of Commands],
page 63). The following command is equivalent to the preceding example:
for i in ~/photographs/*; { cp -a $i/src /mnt`basename $i`; }

NOTES: To rename files by this method, use mv instead of cp (see Recipe 5.5
[Moving Files and Directories], page 144).

5.5 Moving Files and Directories

Use the mv (“move”) tool to move, or rename, a file or directory to a different
location. It takes two arguments: the name of the file or directory to move
followed by the path name to move it to. If you move a file to a directory that
contains a file of the same name, the file is overwritten.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 145

⇒ To move the file notes in the current working directory to ../play, type:
$ mv notes ../play RET

This command moves the file notes in the current directory to play, a
subdirectory of the current working directory’s parent. If a file notes already
exists in play, that file is overwritten. If the subdirectory play does not exist,
this command moves the file notes from the current directory to its parent
directory, renaming the file play.
To move a file or directory that is not in the current directory, give its full
path name as an argument.
⇒ To move the file /usr/tmp/notes to the current working directory, type:
$ mv /usr/tmp/notes . RET

This command moves the file /usr/tmp/notes to the current working di-
rectory.
To move a directory, give the path name of the directory you want to move
and the path name to move it to as arguments.
⇒ To move the directory work in the current working directory to play,
type:
$ mv work play RET

This command moves the directory work in the current directory to the
directory play. If the directory play already exists, mv puts work inside
play—it does not overwrite directories.
Renaming a file is the same as moving it; just specify as arguments the file
to rename followed by the new file name.
⇒ To rename the file notes to notes.old, type:
$ mv notes notes.old RET

The following recipes describe other ways to move and rename files.

5.5.1 Changing File Names to Lowercase

There are two good methods to change uppercase letters in file names to
lowercase letters.

METHOD #1
Use the rename tool, which comes as a part of the perl programming lan-
guage, to rename groups of files. It takes two arguments: a quoted perl
expression describing the change to make, and the files to make the change
146 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

on. If a file already exists, rename will output a warning and will not rename
the file, but other files will be renamed.
To use rename to change uppercase letters in file names to lowercase, use
tr/A-Z/a-z/ as the expression.
⇒ To change the file names of all of the files in the current directory to
lowercase letters, type:
$ rename 'tr/A-Z/a-z/' * RET

You can specify which files to work on, and you can specify that only
certain parts of a filename are to be changed.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To rename all of the files in the current directory ending with .MP3
to files of the same names in lowercase letters, type:
$ rename 'tr/A-Z/a-z/' *.MP3 RET

• To rename all of the files in the current directory ending with .MP3
to files of the same names with extensions in lowercase letters, type:
$ rename 's/.MP3/.mp3/' *.MP3 RET

In the first example, a file with a name like Music-Recording.MP3
or ANOTHER-MUSIC-RECORDING.MP3 would be renamed to music-
recording.mp3 and another-music-recording.mp3, while in the second
example, these files would be renamed to Music-Recording.mp3 and
ANOTHER-MUSIC-RECORDING.mp3.

METHOD #2
To change the uppercase letters in a group of file names to lowercase, use mv
with the -i option to move the files interactively, deriving lowercase file names
by piping the old names through the tr filter (see Recipe 13.4 [Transposing
Characters in Text], page 316). Loop through all the files in the first extension,
running this command line on each of them, with Bash’s built-in for construct
(see the bash Info documentation for more information on this built-in).
⇒ To rename all of the files in the current directory to all lowercase letters,
type:
 

$ for i in * RET

> { RET

> mv -i $i `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'` RET

> } RET

$


Chapter 5: Files and Directories 147

You can use the semicolon character (;) to run this all on one command line
as a single command. The following command is equivalent to the preceding
example:
for i in *; { mv -i $i `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`; }
The -i option is used with mv because otherwise this command may in-
advertently remove files—if, for example, you have files named CAT, Cat, and
cat, this command without the -i will remove two of them.
Furthermore, for files that are not affected by the transformation to low-
ercase (for example, a file named dog), this command will do nothing, and a
message will be output indicating that the original file name and the new file
name are the same.
⇒ To lowercase all of the file names in the current directory that have a
.JPG extension, type:
$ for i in *.JPG; { mv -i $i `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`; } RET

You can use tr to perform any number of transformations on a group of

files, such as translating all lowercase letters to uppercase, or deleting certain
characters.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To uppercase all of the file names in the current directory that have
a .jpg extension, type (all on one line):
$ for i in *.jpg; { mv -i $i `echo $i |
tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'`; } RET

• To rename all of the files in the current directory that have 386
somewhere in their names, and delete the 386 from the name, type:
$ for i in *386*; { mv -i $i `echo $i | tr -d '386'`; } RET

5.5.2 Renaming Multiple Files with the Same Extension

There are three reliable methods for taking a group of files that have the same
extension, and renaming them all with some other extension. The first two
methods are the same as used in the preceding recipe.

METHOD #1
Use the rename tool, which comes as a part of the perl programming lan-
guage. It takes two arguments: a quoted perl expression describing the
change to make, and the files to make the change on.
148 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To rename all the files in the current directory ending in .JPG to files
ending in .jpeg, type:
$ rename 's/.JPG/.jpeg/' *.JPG RET

METHOD #2
Use mv to move the files, deriving the new file names with the basename tool.
Loop through all of the files, running this command line on each of them,
with Bash’s built-in for construct (see the bash Info documentation for more
information on this built-in).
⇒ To rename all the files in the current directory then end in .JPG to files
that end end in .jpeg, type:
 

$ for i in *.JPG RET

> { RET

> mv -i $i `basename $i JPG`jpeg RET

> } RET

$

You can use the semicolon character (;) to run these commands on one
command line. The following command is equivalent to the previous example:
for i in *.JPG; { mv -i $i `basename $i JPG`jpeg; }

METHOD #3
To rename a group of files from one extension to another, use mv with a for
loop, as with Method #2, but instead of using basename, specify the new
extension with the Bash shell parameter expansion feature.3
⇒ To rename all of the .jpg files in the current directory, so that they all
have a .jpeg file name extension instead, type:
 

$ for i in .jpg RET

> { RET

> mv $i "${i%.jpg}.jpeg" RET

> } RET

$

3
For more information on this feature, consult the Info documentation for bash (see
Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 149

NOTES: Renaming multiple files at once is a common request.

5.6 Removing Files and Directories

Use rm (“remove”) to delete a file and remove it from the system. Give the
name of the file to remove as an argument.
⇒ To remove the file notes in the current working directory, type:
$ rm notes RET

To remove a directory and all of the files and subdirectories it contains,

use the -R (“recursive”) option.
⇒ To remove the directory waste and all of its contents, type:
$ rm -R waste RET

To remove an empty directory, use rmdir; it removes the empty directories

you specify. If you specify a directory that contains files or subdirectories,
rmdir reports an error.
⇒ To remove the directory empty, type:
$ rmdir empty RET

5.6.1 Removing a File with a Strange Name

Files with strange characters in their names (such as white space, control
characters, and beginning hyphens) pose a problem when you want to remove
them. There are a few solutions to this problem.

METHOD #1
One way is to use tab completion to complete the name of the file (see
Recipe 3.1.4 [Letting the Shell Complete What You Type], page 61). This
works when the name of the file you want to remove has enough characters to
uniquely identify it so that completion can work.
⇒ To use tab completion to remove the file No Way in the current directory,
type:
$ rm No TAB
Way RET

In this example, once TAB
was typed, the shell filled in the rest of the file
name (“ Way”).
150 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #2
When a file name begins with a control character or other strange character,
you can specify the file name with a file name pattern that uniquely identifies
it (see Recipe 5.8 [Specifying File Names with Patterns], page 153, for tips on
building file name patterns). Use the -i option to verify the deletion first.
⇒ To delete the file ^Acat in a directory that also contains the files cat and
dog, type:
 

$ rm -i ?cat RET

rm: remove `^Acat'? y RET

$

In the preceding example, the expansion pattern “?cat” matches the file
^Acat and no other files in the directory. The -i option was used because,
in some cases, no unique pattern can be made for a file—for example, if this
directory also contained a file called 1cat, the preceding rm command in the
example would also attempt to remove it; with the -i option, you can answer
n to it.

METHOD #3
The two previous methods won’t work with a file that begins with a hyphen
character, because rm interprets such a file name as an option; to remove a
file like that, use the -- option—it specifies that what follows are arguments
and not options.
⇒ To remove the file -cat from the current directory, type:
$ rm -- -cat RET

5.6.2 Removing Files Interactively

Once a file is removed, it is permanently deleted and there is no command you
can use to restore it; you cannot “undelete” it. (However, if you can unmount
the filesystem that contained the file immediately after you delete the file, a
wizard might be able to help reconstruct the lost file by using grep to search
the filesystem device file.)
A safer way to remove files is to use rm with the -i option, which specifies
that rm run in interactive mode, where it will ask you to confirm the deletion
of each file.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 151

⇒ To interactively remove the files in the ~/tmp directory, type:

$ rm -i ~/tmp RET

In the preceding example, rm will prompt for confirmation before deleting

any file in ~/tmp.
You might consider making an alias word for rm with the -i option, such
as del, and get in the habit of using this word in place of rm (see Recipe 3.6.1
[Calling a Command by Some Other Name], page 83).
You can get the same effect as an alias by making the following two-line
shell script, which you might write to a file called del and put in your per-
sonal bin directory (see Recipe A.3.4 [Installing a Shell Script], page 708, and
Recipe C.1 [Using a Directory for Personal Binaries], page 727):
 

#!/bin/sh
/bin/rm -i $*

NOTES: Question 3.6 in the unix faq4 discusses this issue and gives a shell
script called can that you can use in place of rm—it puts files in a “trash-
can” directory instead of removing them; you then periodically empty out the
trashcan with rm.

5.6.3 Removing Files without Verification

If a file is write-protected, rm will always ask you to verify its removal first,
should you try to remove it. When you have a lot of files to remove, this is
cumbersome. In this case, use yes to pipe an automatic “y” answer to rm
with the -R option (see Recipe 3.1.10 [Automatically Answering a Command
Prompt], page 65).
⇒ To remove the scrap directory and all its contents, including any write-
protected files, type:
$ yes | rm -R scrap RET

NOTES: This is a dangerous operation! This command will permanently re-

move all files and directories you give it, so be certain you want them removed
before you run it!

4
See the file /usr/doc/FAQ/unix-faq-part3, or on the Web:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/faq/.
152 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

5.7 Giving a File More Than One Name

Links are special files that point to other files; when you act on a file that is
a link, you act on the file it points to. There are two kinds of links: symbolic
links and hard links.
A symbolic link (sometimes called a “symlink” or “soft link”) passes most
operations—such as reading and writing—to the file it points to. Symlinks are
identified in file listings with an “l” in the first character of the first column,
and, by default, are output as cyan in color listings.
If you remove a symlink, you remove only the symlink itself, and not the
original file. However, if you remove the original file, and replace it with some
other file, the symbolic link will point to the contents of the new file. You can
make a symlink of a directory, and you can make symlinks across filesystems
(see Chapter 24 [Disk Storage], page 501).
A hard link is another name for an existing file, and is indistinguishable
from the file it is linked from. If you alter a file, any hard links to it are also
altered; and conversely, altering any hard link will also alter the original file
plus any other hard links it may have. So if you make a hard link from file
foo to file bar, and then alter the file bar, file foo is equally altered.
So where a symlink points to the file it links to, a hard link is another
instance of the file. If you change the original file, all of the hard links are also
changed. If you change any of the hard links, the original file and all other
hard links are all changed. But if you remove the original file, any hard links
will still contain the contents that the original did.
Unlike symlinks, you cannot make a hard link to a directory, and you
cannot make a hard link across filesystems.
Each file on the system has at least one hard link, which is the original
file name itself. Directories always have at least two hard links—the directory
name itself (which appears in its parent directory) and the special file . inside
the directory. Likewise, when you make a new subdirectory, the parent direc-
tory gains a new hard link for the special file .. inside the new subdirectory.
If you remove a hard link, you will not remove the file it is linked to, nor
any other hard links that point to it; conversely, you will not remove any of a
file’s hard links by removing the file itself.

METHOD #1
Use ln (“link”) to make a link to a file. Give as arguments the name of the
existing file to link to and the name to use for the link. By default, ln makes
hard links.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 153

⇒ To create a hard link from seattle to emerald-city, type:

$ ln seattle emerald-city RET

This command makes a hard link from an existing file, seattle, to a new
file, emerald-city. You can read and edit the emerald-city file just as
you would seattle; any changes you make to emerald-city are also written
to seattle (and vice versa). But if you remove the emerald-city file, the
seattle file is not removed (and vice versa).

METHOD #2
To create a symbolic link, use ln with the -s option.
⇒ To create a symbolic link from seattle to emerald-city, type:
$ ln -s seattle emerald-city RET

This command makes a symbolic link from an existing file, seattle, to a

new file, emerald-city. If you remove the file emerald-city, the file seattle
will not be removed, but removing the seattle file, on the other hand, will
make emerald-city a broken link until some other file named seattle exists
in its place again—at which point emerald-city will point to that new file.
NOTES: This recipe might also be called “Linking a File to Another.”

5.8 Specifying File Names with Patterns

When you specify the name of a file or files in a command, you are giving a
file specification, which is often written as filespec for short.
These filespecs don’t need to be the literal names of specific files. The shell
provides a powerful way to construct patterns, called file name expansions,
that specify a group of pathnames and files. Specifying files in this manner is
called globbing in unix parlance.
You can use these patterns when specifying file and directory names as
arguments to any tool or application; the shell expands (or “globs”) your pat-
tern to the names of the files that fit the pattern, and it passes that expansion
to the tool or application. A given pattern is a glob expression.
The following table lists the various file-expansion characters and describes
their meaning in forming glob expressions.
154 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

* The asterisk matches a series of zero or more char-

acters, and is sometimes called the “wildcard” char-
acter. For example, “*” alone expands to all file
names in the given directory, ‘a*’ expands to all file
names that consist of an “a” character followed by
zero or more characters, and “a*b” expands to all
file names that begin with an “a” character and end
with a “b” character, with any (or no) characters in
between.
? The question mark matches exactly one character.
Therefore, “?” alone expands to all file names with
exactly one character, “??” expands to all file names
with exactly two characters, and “a?” expands to all
file names that begin with an “a” character and have
exactly one character following it.
{string1,string2,...} Curly brackets group a comma-delimited set of
strings, all of which are to be matched. So “{a,b}c”
expands to “ac” and “bc.”
[list] Square brackets match one character in list. For
example, “[ab]” matches exactly two file names:
“a” and “b.” The pattern “c[io]” matches “ci”
and “co,” but no other file names.
~ The tilde character expands to your home direc-
tory (the value of the HOME variable; see Recipe 3.5
[Using Shell Variables], page 77). For example, if
your username were mary and your home directory
were therefore /home/mary, then ~ would expand to
/home/mary. You can follow the tilde with a path to
specify a file in your home directory—for example,
~/work would expand to /home/mary/work.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 155

Brackets also have special meaning when used in conjunction with other
characters, as described in the following table.

- A hyphen as part of a bracketed list denotes a range

of characters to match—so “[a-m]” matches any
of the lowercase letters from “a” through “m.” To
match a literal hyphen character, use it as the first
or last character in the list. For example, “a[-b]c”
matches two files: a-c and abc.
! Put an exclamation point at the beginning of a
bracketed list to match all characters except those
listed. For example, “a[!b]c” matches all files that
begin with an “a” character, end with a “c” charac-
ter, and have any one character (except a “b” char-
acter) in between; it matches the files aac, a-c, adc,
and so on.
You can combine these special expansion characters in any combination,
and you can specify more than one pattern as multiple arguments.
⇒ The following examples show file expansion in action, using commands
described earlier in this chapter.
• To list all files in the /usr/bin directory that have the text “tex”
anywhere in their name, type:
$ ls /usr/bin/*tex* RET

• To copy all files whose names end with .txt, .text, .doc, or .info
to the doc subdirectory, type:
$ cp *.txt,text,doc,info doc RET

• To output a verbose listing of all files whose names end with a three-
character extension, sorting the list so that newer files are listed first,
type:
$ ls -lt *.??? RET

• To move all files in the /usr/tmp directory whose names consist of
the text “song” followed by an integer from 0 to 9 and a .cdda
extension, placing them in a directory music in your home directory,
type:
$ mv /usr/tmp/song[0-9].cdda ~/music RET

156 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To remove all files in the current working directory that begin with
a hyphen and have the text “out” somewhere else in their file name,
type:
$ rm -- -*out* RET

• To concatenate all files whose names consist of an “a” character
followed by two or more characters, type:
$ cat a??* RET

5.9 Listing Directory Tree Graphs

Tree
DEB: tree
RPM: tree
WWW: ftp://mama.indstate.edu/linux/tree/

Use tree to output an ascii text tree graph of a given directory tree.
⇒ To output a tree graph of the current directory and all its subdirectories,
type:
 

$ tree RET

.
|-- projects
| |-- current
| `-- old
| |-- 1
| `-- 2
`-- trip
`-- schedule.txt

4 directories, 3 files
$

In the preceding example, a tree graph is drawn showing the current di-
rectory, which contains the two directories projects and trip; the projects
directory in turn contains the directories current and old.
To output a tree graph of a specific directory tree, give the name of that
directory tree as an argument.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 157

⇒ To output a tree graph of your home directory and all its subdirectories,
type:
$ tree ~ RET

To output a graph of a directory tree containing directory names only,

use the -d option. This is useful for outputting a directory tree of the entire
system, or for getting a picture of a particular directory tree.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output a tree graph of the entire system to the file tree, type:
$ tree -d / > tree RET

• To peruse a tree graph of the /usr/local directory tree, type:
$ tree -d /usr/local | less RET

NOTES: Another tool for outputting directory trees is described in Recipe 24.2
[Listing a File’s Disk Usage], page 502.

5.10 Browsing Files and Directories

There are several methods for browsing the files on your system. Here are
three I recommend.

METHOD #1
Midnight Commander
DEB: mc-common
mc
RPM: mc
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/
The easiest method for browsing files on your system is to use a “file manager”
tool that was made for that purpose. There are at least a few on Linux, aside
from the file managers that are part of gnome and kde5 ; the most popular
stand-alone file manager is probably the venerable “Midnight Commander.”
Type mc to run it. Give as an argument the name of a directory to browse,
either relative to the current directory or with its full path name. If you give
none, mc will use the current working directory.
⇒ To browse the /usr/local/ directory with the Midnight Commander,
type:
$ mc /usr/local RET

5
Nautilus and Konqueror, respectively.
158 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

When browsing a directory, mc gives two display windows, called directory

panels. Use the mouse to access the pull-down menus on the top menu bar.
The function keys provide help and other menus; they are listed at the very
bottom of the screen. Above them is a Bash command line, which you can
use just as you normally do in the shell. Type F10
to exit mc and return to
the shell where you ran it.
An illustration of what the Midnight Commander looks like when browsing
the root directory of a typical system is given in Figure 5-7.

Figure 5-7. Browsing local files with the Midnight Commander.

METHOD #2
Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

You can view and peruse local files in a Web browser, such as the text-only
browser lynx or the graphical Mozilla browser for X.
The lynx tool is very good for browsing files on the system—give the name
of the directory to browse as an argument, and lynx will display a listing of
available files and directories in that directory.
Chapter 5: Files and Directories 159

You can use the cursor keys to browse and press RET
on a subdirectory
to traverse to that directory.6 You can use lynx to display plain text files,
compressed text files, and files written in html; it’s useful for browsing system
documentation in the /usr/doc and /usr/share/doc directories, where many
software packages come with help files and manuals written in html.
Use the -localhost option to disable any urls that point to remote hosts.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To browse the system documentation files in the /usr/doc directory,
disabling all links to other hosts, type:
$ lynx -localhost /usr/doc RET

• To browse the files and subdirectories in the current directory, type:
$ lynx . RET

An illustration of what Lynx looks like when browsing the root directory
of a typical system is given in Figure 5-8.

Figure 5-8. Browsing local files with Lynx.

NOTES: See Recipe 33.2 [Using Lynx], page 643, for more about using Lynx.

6
In X, you can also use the mouse; see Recipe 33.2.8 [Using Lynx with a Mouse], page 648.
160 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #3

Mozilla
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/

Use Mozilla to browse files much as with Lynx as described in Method #2,
giving a full path name as an argument.
⇒ To browse the system documentation files in the /usr/share/doc direc-
tory in Mozilla, type the following in Mozilla’s Location window, or give
it as an argument to mozilla:
/usr/share/doc

An illustration of what Mozilla looks like when browsing the root directory
of a typical system is given in Figure 5-9.

Figure 5-9. Browsing local files with Mozilla.

Chapter 5: Files and Directories 161

NOTES: Other Web browsers work in this way, too. For other recommended
browsers to use, see the table in Recipe 33.11 [Using Other Web Browsers],
page 667.
162 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 6: Sharing Files 163

6. Sharing Files
Groups, file ownership, and access permissions are Linux features that enable
users to share files with one another. But this topic is important to know even
if you don’t plan on ever sharing files with other users on the system; these are
concepts that will help you understand how file access and security work in
Linux, and enable you to control the way a file may be accessed. By changing
the access permissions to files, files can be placed into a state so that they
can’t be modified, copied, or even viewed by certain users—including you!

6.1 Working in Groups

A group is a set of users, created to share files and to facilitate collaboration.
All groups have a unique name, and are assigned a unique group id, called
a gid. Each member of a group can work with the group’s files and make
new files that belong to the group. The system administrator can add new
groups and give users membership to the different groups, according to the
users’ organizational needs. For example, a system used by the crew of a ship
might have special groups such as galley, deck, bridge, and crew; the user
captain might be a member of all the groups, but user steward might be a
member of only the galley and crew groups.
On a Linux system, you’re always a member of at least one group: your
login group. Its name is the same as your username, and you are its only
member.1
The following recipes show how to list groups and their members.

6.1.1 Listing Available Groups

The list of all groups that are available on the system is kept in the file
/etc/group, which is called the user group file. This is a text file containing
a list of groups, one per line, with fields delimited by a colon character (:):
group name, encrypted password (systems today employ what is called shadow
passwords, which means that the actual encrypted password is kept elsewhere,
and an “x” character appears here as a placeholder), gid, and a comma-
separated list of all users who are members of the group.
To list the available groups on the system, list the contents of this file.
1
This is the default on some systems, including the Debian distribution, but is not
standard across all distributions; in such matters, this chapter will assume the Debian
behavior.
164 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To list the contents of the file /etc/group, type:

$ cat /etc/group RET

This command uses the cat tool to output the entire contents of the file
(see Recipe 9.2 [Displaying Text], page 216), listing all fields. Use cut to
output only certain fields (see Recipe 13.7.4 [Removing Columns from Text],
page 324).
⇒ To output a list of all group names on the system, type:
$ cut -d : -f1 /etc/group RET

NOTES: For more information about the user group file, consult the group
man page.

6.1.2 Listing the Groups a User Belongs To

To list a user’s group memberships, use the groups tool. Give any number
of usernames as arguments, and groups will output a line for each containing
a list of all of the groups the user is a member of, preceded by the username
and a colon character (:). With no arguments, groups lists your own group
memberships.
⇒ To list your group memberships, type:
 

$ groups RET

steward galley crew
$

In this example, three groups are output: steward (the user’s login group),
galley, and crew.
⇒ To list the group memberships of user marlow, type:
 

$ groups marlow RET

marlow : marlow
$

In this example, the command outputs the given username, marlow, fol-
lowed by the name of one group, marlow, indicating that user marlow belongs
to only one group: his login group.
Chapter 6: Sharing Files 165

6.1.3 Listing the Members of a Group

There are two methods for listing the members of a particular group.

METHOD #1
Members
DEB: members

Use the members tool to list the members of a particular group. Give the
name of the particular group as an argument.
⇒ To output a list of the members of the galley group, type:
 

$ members galley RET

captain steward pete
$

In this example, three usernames are output, indicating that these three
users are the members of the galley group.

NOTES: The members tool is not yet widely available outside of the Debian
distribution; if you can’t locate a copy, you can always install the sources from
the Debian package (see Recipe 1.1.2 [Preparation of Recipes], page 3).

METHOD #2
On systems without members conveniently installed, the members of a partic-
ular group may be listed by using grep in conjunction with cut. First, use
grep to output the line in /etc/group whose first field matches the partic-
ular group name, and pipe the output to cut to output only the last field,
containing the list of users who belong to that group.
⇒ To list all members of the crew group, type:
$ grep ^crew: /etc/group | cut -d : -f 4 RET

NOTES: For more information on grep and cut, see Recipe 14.1 [Searching
Text for a Word], page 333 and Recipe 13.7.4 [Removing Columns from Text],
page 324, respectively.
166 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

6.2 Owning Files

Every file belongs to both a user and a group—usually to the user who created
it and to the group the user was working in at the time (which is almost always
the user’s login group). File ownership determines the type of access users have
to particular files (see Recipe 6.3 [Controlling Access to Files], page 167).

6.2.1 Determining the Ownership of a File

To find out which user and group own a particular file, use ls with the -l
option to list the file’s attributes (see Recipe 5.3.3 [Listing File Attributes],
page 136). The name of the user who owns the file appears in the third column
of the output, and the name of the group that owns the file appears in the
fourth column.
For example, suppose the verbose listing for a file called cruise looks like
this:
-rwxrw-r-- 1 captain crew 8,420 Jan 12 21:42 cruise
The user who owns this file is captain, and the group that owns it is crew.
NOTES: When you create a file, it normally belongs to you and to your login
group, but you can change its ownership, as described in the next recipe. You
normally own all of the files in your home directory.

6.2.2 Changing the Ownership of a File

You can’t give away a file to another user, but other users can make copies
of a file that belongs to you, provided they have read permission for that file
(see Recipe 6.3 [Controlling Access to Files], page 167). When you make a
copy of another user’s file, you own the copy.
You can also change the group ownership of any file you own. To do this,
use chgrp; it takes as arguments the name of the group to transfer ownership
to and the names of the files to work on. You must be a member of the group
you want to give ownership to.
⇒ To change the group ownership of file cruise to bridge, type:
$ chgrp bridge cruise RET

This command transfers group ownership of cruise to bridge; the file’s

group access permissions (as shown in the following recipe) now apply to the
members of the bridge group.
Use the -R option to recursively change the group ownership of directories
and all of their contents.
Chapter 6: Sharing Files 167

⇒ To give group ownership of the maps directory and all the files it contains
to the bridge group, type:
$ chgrp -R bridge maps RET

6.3 Controlling Access to Files

Each file has a set of permissions that specify what type of access that different
users have to the file. There are three kinds of permissions: read, write,
and execute. You need read permission for a file to read its contents, write
permission to write changes to or remove the file, and execute permission to
run the file as a program.
Normally, users have write permission only for files in their own home
directories. Only the superuser has write permission for the files in important
directories, such as /bin and /etc—so as a regular user, you never have to
worry about accidentally writing to or removing an important system file.
Permissions work differently for directories than for other kinds of files.
Read permission for a directory means that you can see the files in the di-
rectory; write permission lets you create, move, or remove files in the direc-
tory; and execute permission lets you use the directory name in a path (see
Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125).
If you have read permission but not execute permission for a directory, you
can only read the names of files in that directory—you can’t read their other
attributes, examine their contents, write to them, or execute them. With
execute but not read permission for a directory, you can read, write to, or
execute any file in the directory, provided that you know its name and that
you have the appropriate permissions for that file.
Each file has separate permissions for three categories of users: the user
who owns the file, all other members of the group that owns the file, and all
other users on the system. If you are a member of the group that owns a file,
the file’s group permissions apply to you (unless you are the owner of the file,
in which case the user permissions apply to you).
When you create a new file, it has a default set of permissions—usually
read and write for the user, and read for the group and all other users. (On
some systems, the default permissions are read and write for both the user
and group, and read for all other users.)
The file access permissions for a file are collectively called its access mode.
The following sections describe how to list and change file access modes, in-
cluding how to set the most commonly used access modes.
168 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: The superuser, root, can always access any file on the system, re-
gardless of its access permissions.
For more information on file permissions and access modes, see the
fileutils Info documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual],
page 48).

6.3.1 Listing the Permissions of a File

To list a file’s access permissions, use ls with the -l option (see Recipe 5.3.3
[Listing File Attributes], page 136). File access permissions appear in the first
column of the output, after the character for file type.
For example, consider the verbose listing of the file cruise:
-rwxrw-r-- 1 captain crew 8,420 Jan 12 21:42 cruise
The first character (“-”) is the file type; the next three characters (“rwx”)
specify permissions for the user who owns the file; and the next three (“rw-”)
specify permissions for all members of the group that owns the file except for
the user who owns it. The last three characters in the column (“r--”) specify
permissions for all other users on the system.
All three permissions sections have the same format, indicating, from left to
right, read, write, and execute permission with “r,” “w,” and “x” characters.
A hyphen (-) in place of one of these letters indicates that permission is not
given.
In this example, the listing indicates that the user who owns the file,
captain, has read, write, and execute permission, and the group that owns
the file, crew, has read and write permission. All other users on the system
have only read permission.

6.3.2 Changing the Permissions of a File

To change the access mode of any file you own, use the chmod (“change mode”)
tool. It takes two arguments: an operation, which specifies the permissions
to grant or revoke for certain users, and the names of the files to work on.
To build an operation, first specify the category or categories of users as a
combination of the following characters:

u The user who owns the file.

g All other members of the file’s group.
o All other users on the system.
Chapter 6: Sharing Files 169

a All users on the system; this is the same as ugo.

Follow this with the operator denoting the action to take:

+ Add permissions to the user’s existing permissions.

- Remove permissions from the user’s existing
permissions.
= Make these the only permissions the user has for
this file.
Finally, specify the permissions themselves with a special character:

r Set read permission.

w Set write permission.
x Set execute permission.

For example, use u+w to add write permission to the existing permissions
for the user who owns the file, and use a+rw to add both read and write
permissions to the existing permissions of all users. (You could also use ugo+rw
instead of a+rw.)

6.3.3 Write-Protecting a File

If you revoke users’ write permissions for a file, they can no longer write to or
remove the file. This effectively “write-protects” a file, preventing accidental
changes to it. A write-protected file is sometimes called a “read-only” file.
To write-protect a file so that no users other than yourself can write to it,
use chmod with go-w as the operation.
⇒ To write-protect the file cruise so that no other users can change it,
type:
$ chmod go-w cruise RET

6.3.4 Making a File Private

To make a file private from all other users on the system, use chmod with go=
as the operation. This revokes all group and other access permissions.
⇒ To make the file cruise private from all users but yourself, type:
$ chmod go= cruise RET

170 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

6.3.5 Making a File Public

To allow anyone with an account on the system to read and make changes
to a file, use chmod with a+rw as the operation. This grants read and write
permission to all users, making the file “public.” When a file has read per-
mission set for all users, it is called world readable, and when a file has write
permission set for all users, it is called world writable.
⇒ To make the file cruise both world readable and world writable, type:
$ chmod a+rw cruise RET

6.3.6 Making a File Executable

An executable file is a file that you can run as a program. To change the
permissions of a file so that all users can run it as a program, use chmod with
a+x as the operation.
⇒ To give execute permission to all users for the file myscript, type:
$ chmod a+x myscript RET

NOTES: Often, shell scripts that you obtain or write yourself do not have
execute permission set, and you’ll have to do this yourself.
Chapter 7: Finding Files 171

7. Finding Files
Sometimes you may want to locate files on the system that match given cri-
teria, such as a particular name or file size. This chapter will show you how
to find a file when you know only part of the file name, and how to find a file
whose name matches a given pattern. You will also learn how to list files and
directories by size and how to find the locations of commands.
These are not searches for matching the contents of files. That kind of
activity is described in Chapter 14 [Searching Text], page 333. A method
of searching the contents of files you find is given in Recipe 7.2.7 [Running
Commands on the Files You Find], page 178.
For more information on finding files, consult the find Info documentation
(see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).

7.1 Finding All Files That Match a Pattern

The simplest way to find files is with gnu locate. Use it when you want to
list all files on the system whose full path names match a particular pattern—
for example, all files containing a particular string somewhere in the full path
name, or all files ending with some extension. The locate tool outputs a list
of all files on the system that match the pattern you give as an argument,
listing each with its full path name and each on a line by itself.
When specifying a pattern, you can use any of the file name expansion
characters (see Recipe 5.8 [Specifying File Names with Patterns], page 153).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To find all the files on the system that have the text audio anywhere
in their full path name, type:
$ locate audio RET

• To find all the files on the system whose file names end with a .c
extension, type:
$ locate *.c RET

• To find all hidden “dot files” on the system, type:
$ locate /. RET

Sometimes, a locate search will generate a lot of output. Pipe the output
to less to peruse it (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211).
⇒ To peruse a list of all .cfg files on the system, type:
$ locate .cfg | less RET

172 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: Searches are case-sensitive. Thus, a search for *history* will

match ~/.bash_history and /usr/local/history_data/README, but not
~/History_of_a_nation.

7.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree

Use find to find specific files in a particular directory tree, outputting their
full path names to the standard output, one per line. First specify the name
of the directory tree to search, then give as options the criteria to match, and
if desired, the action to perform on the found files. (Unlike most other tools,
you must specify the directory tree argument before any other options.)
You can specify multiple search criteria in one command, and you can
format the output in various ways. The following sections include recipes for
the most commonly used find commands; see the Info documentation for a
complete treatment of the find tool’s many options.
Numeric arguments to the options described in the following recipes take
one of three forms: When the number is preceded by a plus sign (+), it matches
all files greater than the given number; when preceded by a hyphen or minus
sign (-), it matches all files less than the given number; and with neither
prefix, it matches all files whose number is exactly as specified.

7.2.1 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Name

To find files in a directory tree by name, use find, first giving the name of
the directory tree to search through, and then the -name option followed by
the name you want to find.
⇒ To list all files on the system whose file name is top, type:
$ find / -name top RET

This command will search all directories on the system to which you have
access; if you don’t have execute permission for a directory, find will report
that permission is denied to search the directory.
The -name option is case-sensitive; use the similar -iname option to find a
name regardless of case.
⇒ To list all files on the system whose file name is top, regardless of case,
type:
$ find / -iname top RET

This command would match any files whose name consisted of the letters
top, regardless of case—including Top, top, and TOP.
Chapter 7: Finding Files 173

Use file expansion characters (see Recipe 5.8 [Specifying File Names with
Patterns], page 153) to find files whose names match a pattern. Give these
file name patterns between single quotes.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list all files on the system whose names begin with the characters
top, type:
$ find / -name 'top*' RET

• To list all files whose names begin with the three characters top
followed by exactly three more characters, type:
$ find / -name 'top???' RET

• To list all files whose names begin with the three characters top
followed by five or more characters, type:
$ find / -name 'top?????*' RET

• To list all files in your home directory tree that end in .tex, regard-
less of case, type:
$ find ~ -iname '*.tex' RET

• To list all files in the /usr/share directory tree that end with .jpg
or .jpeg, regardless of case, type:1
$ find /usr/share -iname '*.jp*g' RET

• To list all files in the /usr/share directory tree with the text farm
somewhere in their name, type:
$ find /usr/share -name '*farm*' RET

Use -regex in place of -name to search for files whose full or relative path
names match a regular expression, a pattern describing a set of strings (see
Recipe 14.3 [Matching Patterns of Text], page 335).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To list all files in the current directory tree whose relative path names
have either the string net or comm anywhere in them, type:
$ find . -regex '.*\(net\|comm\).*' RET

• To list all files in the /usr/share directory tree that end only with
.jpg or .jpeg, regardless of case, type:
$ find /usr/share -iregex '.*\.\(jpg\|jpeg\)' RET

1
This pattern also matches files that contain any other character or characters in place
of the “e”—for example, .jpog or .jp123g. To match files ending only with .jpg or
.jpeg, use the -regex or -iregex search that is described next.
174 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The -regex option matches the whole path name, relative to the directory
tree you specify, and not just file names; for this reason, the regexps in the
previous examples began with “.*,” so that characters making up the path
were matched first. To only match file names in a search for a word or phrase,
exclude the forward slash character (/) after the string you’re searching for,
and exclude directory names with \! -type d (see Recipe 7.4.5 [Finding the
Number of Files in a Listing], page 184).
⇒ To list all files in the current directory tree whose names have either the
string net or comm anywhere in their file names, type:
$ find . -regex '.*\(net\|comm\).[^/]*' \! -type d RET

7.2.2 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Size

To find files of a certain size, use the -size option, following it with the file
size to match. The default unit is 512-byte blocks; follow the size with “k” to
denote kilobytes or “b” to denote bytes.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list all files in the /usr/local directory tree that are greater than
10,000 kilobytes in size, type:
$ find /usr/local -size +10000k RET

• To list all files in your home directory tree less than 300 bytes in size,
type:
$ find ~ -size -300b RET

• To list all files on the system whose size is exactly 42 512-byte blocks,
type:
$ find / -size 42 RET

Use the -empty option to find empty files—files whose size is 0 bytes. This
is useful for finding files that you might not need, and can remove.
⇒ To find all empty files in your home directory tree, type:
$ find ~ -empty RET

NOTES: To find the largest or smallest files in a given directory, output a

sorted listing of that directory (see Recipe 7.4 [Finding Files in Directory
Listings], page 182).

7.2.3 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Access Time

To find files that were last accessed during a specified time, use find with
any of the -amin, -anewer, or -atime options. The argument you give with
Chapter 7: Finding Files 175

-amin specifies the number of minutes ago that the file was accessed; you can
also find files that were accessed more recently than the file name given as an
argument to -anewer was modified. Finally, -atime specifies the number of
24-hour periods ago when the file was last accessed.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To find all files in your home directory tree that were last accessed
one hour ago, type:
$ find ~ -amin 60 RET

• To find all files in your home directory tree that were last accessed
within the past sixty minutes, type:
$ find ~ -amin -60 RET

• To find all files in the /usr/share directory tree that were last ac-
cessed twenty-four hours ago, type:
$ find /usr/share -atime 1 RET

• To find all files in the /usr/share directory tree that were last ac-
cessed more recently than the file ~/template was modified, type:
$ find /usr/share -anewer ~/template RET

Include the -daystart option to measure time from the beginning of the
current day, instead of 24 hours ago. This option must precede the time
expression it works on.
⇒ To find all files in the /usr/share directory tree that were last accessed
two days ago, type:
$ find /usr/share -daystart -atime 2 RET

7.2.4 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Change Time

To find files whose status last changed at a specified time (that is, its per-
missions and not its contents), use find with the -ctime, -cmin, or -cnewer
options; the argument you give with -ctime specifies the number of 24-hour
periods, and with -cmin it specifies the number of minutes. A file name given
as an argument to -anewer specifies files whose status have changed more
recently than this particular file was modified.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To find all files in your home directory tree whose status has changed
within the last ten minutes, type:
$ find ~ -cmin -10 RET

176 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To find all the files on the system whose status has changed more
recently than the file /etc/inittab was modified, type:
$ find / -cnewer /etc/inittab RET

• To find all files in the current directory tree whose status last changed
exactly twenty-four hours ago, type:
$ find . -ctime 1 RET

• To find all files in the current directory tree whose status has changed
within the last twenty-four hours, type:
$ find . -ctime -1 RET

Include the -daystart option to measure time from the beginning of the
current day, instead of 24 hours ago. This option must precede the time
expression it works on.
⇒ To find all files in the current directory tree whose status last changed a
week ago, type:
$ find . -daystart -ctime 7 RET

7.2.5 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Modification

Time
To find files last modified at a specified time, use find with the -mtime or
-mmin options; the argument you give with -mtime specifies the number of
24-hour periods, and with -mmin it specifies the number of minutes.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list all the files in the current directory tree whose contents have
been modified within the last ten minutes, type:
$ find . -mmin -10 RET

• To list the files in the /usr/local directory tree that were modified
exactly 24 hours ago, type:
$ find /usr/local -mtime 1 RET

• To list the files in the /usr directory tree that were modified exactly
five minutes ago, type:
$ find /usr -mmin 5 RET

• To list the files in the /usr/local directory tree that were modified
within the past 24 hours, type:
$ find /usr/local -mtime -1 RET

Chapter 7: Finding Files 177

• To list the files in the /usr directory tree that were modified within
the past five minutes, type:
$ find /usr -mmin -5 RET

Include the -daystart option to measure time from the beginning of the
current day, instead of 24 hours ago. This option must precede the time
expression it works on.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list all of the files in your home directory tree that were modified
yesterday, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -mtime 1 RET

• To list all of the files in the /usr directory tree that were modified
one year or longer ago, type:
$ find /usr -daystart -mtime +365 RET

• To list all of the files in your home directory tree that were modified
from two to four days ago, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -daystart -mtime +2 -mtime -4 RET

In the preceding example, the combined options -mtime +2 and -mtime

-4, each prefaced by the -daystart option, matched files that were modified
between two and four days ago.
To find files newer than a given file, give the name of that file as an argu-
ment to the -newer option.
⇒ To find files in the /etc directory tree that are newer than the file
/etc/motd, type:
$ find /etc -newer /etc/motd RET

To find files newer than a given date, use the trick described in the find Info
documentation: Create a temporary file in /tmp with touch whose timestamp
is set to the date you want to search for, and then specify that temporary file
as the argument to -newer.
⇒ To list all files in your home directory tree that were modified after May
4 of the current year, type:
$ touch -t 05040000 /tmp/timestamp RET

$ find ~ -newer /tmp/timestamp RET

In this example, a temporary file called /tmp/timestamp is written; after

the search, you can remove it (see Recipe 5.6 [Removing Files and Directories],
page 149).
178 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: You can also find files that were last accessed a number of days after
they were modified by giving that number as an argument to the -used option.
This is useful for finding files that get little use—files matching -used +100,
say, were accessed 100 or more days after they were last modified.

7.2.6 Finding Files in a Directory Tree by Owner

To find files owned by a particular user, give the username to search for as an
argument to the -user option.
⇒ To list all files in the /usr/local/fonts directory tree owned by the user
warwick, type:
$ find /usr/local/fonts -user warwick RET

The -group option is similar, but it matches group ownership instead of

user ownership.
⇒ To list all files in the /dev directory tree owned by the audio group, type:
$ find /dev -group audio RET

7.2.7 Running Commands on the Files You Find

You can also use find to execute a command you specify on each found file,
by giving the command as an argument to the -exec option. If you use the
string “'{}'” in the command, this string is replaced with the file name of the
current found file when the command executes. Mark the end of the command
with a semicolon character enclosed in single quotes (;).
⇒ To find all files in the ~/html/ directory tree with an .html extension,
and then output lines from these files that contain the string “organic,”
type (all on one line):
$ find ~/html/ -name '*.html' -exec grep organic '{}'
';' RET

In this example, the command grep organic file is executed for each file
that find finds, with file being the name of each file in turn.
To have find pause and confirm execution for each file it finds, use -ok
instead of -exec.
⇒ To remove files from your home directory tree that were accessed more
than one year after they were last modified, pausing to confirm before
each removal, type:
$ find ~ -used +365 -ok rm '{}' ';' RET

Chapter 7: Finding Files 179

7.2.8 Finding Files by Multiple Criteria

You can combine many of find’s options to find files that match multiple
criteria.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To list files in your home directory tree whose names begin with the
string top, and that are newer than the file /etc/motd, type:
$ find ~ -name 'top*' -newer /etc/motd RET

• To compress all the files in your home directory tree that are two
megabytes or larger, and that are not already compressed with gzip
(having a .gz file name extension), type (all on one line):
$ find ~ -size +2000000c -regex '.*[^gz]' -exec
gzip '{}' ';' RET

As all options are combinable, you can use multiple calls of the same option.
So you can combine several of the same time options to get a range of times,
for instance.
⇒ To find all files in your home directory whose contents were modified
today, but at least 120 minutes ago, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -mtime 0 -mmin +120 RET

Use the special -o option (the or operator), to separate two options when
either of them are to be matched. For example, you can use it with multiple
-name options to find different file names in the same directory tree.
⇒ To find all files ending in .ps, .pdf, or .dvi in the current directory tree,
type (all on one line):
$ find . -name '*.ps' -o -name '*.pdf' -o -name
'*.dvi' RET

The following tables describe some of the many options you can use with
find. The first table lists and describes find’s general options for specifying
its behavior.

-daystart Use the beginning of today rather than 24 hours

previous for time criteria.
-depth Search the subdirectories before each directory.
-maxdepth levels Specifies the maximum number of directory levels
to descend in the specified directory tree.
-mount or -xdev Do not descend directories that have another disk
mounted on them.
180 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The following table lists and describes find’s options for specifying which
files to find.
Specify the numeric arguments to these options in one of three ways: pre-
ceded by a plus sign (+) to match values equal to or greater than the given
argument; preceded by a hyphen or minus sign (-) to match values equal to
or less than the given argument; or list the number alone to match exactly
that value.

-amin minutes Time in minutes since the file was last accessed.
-anewer file File was accessed more recently than file.
-atime days Time in days since the file was last accessed.
-cmin minutes Time in minutes since the file was last changed.
-cnewer file File was changed more recently than file.
-ctime days Days since the file was last changed.
-empty File is empty.
-group group Name of the group that owns file.
-iname pattern Case-insensitive file name pattern to match
(“report” matches the files Report, report,
REPORT, etc.).
-ipath pattern Full path name of file matches the pattern
pattern, regardless of case (“./r*rt” matches
./records/report and ./Record-Labels/ART.
-iregex regexp Path name of file, relative to specified directory tree,
matches the regular expression regexp, regardless of
case (“t?p” matches TIP and top).
-links links Number of links to the file (see Recipe 5.7 [Giving
a File More Than One Name], page 152).
-mmin minutes Number of minutes since the file’s data was last
changed.
-mtime days Number of days since the file’s data was last
changed.
-name pattern Base name of the file matches the pattern pattern.
Chapter 7: Finding Files 181

-newer file File was modified more recently than file.

-path pattern Full path name of file matches the pattern pattern
(“./r*rt” matches ./records/report).
-perm access mode File’s permissions are exactly access mode (see
Recipe 6.3 [Controlling Access to Files], page 167).
-regex regexp Path name of file, relative to specified directory tree,
matches the regular expression regexp.
-size size File uses size space, in 512-byte blocks. Append size
with “b” for bytes or “k” for kilobytes.
-type type File is type type, where type can be “d” for direc-
tory, “f” for regular file, or “l” for symbolic link.
-user user File is owned by user.

The following table lists and describes find’s options for specifying what
to do with the files it finds.

-exec commands Specifies commands, separated by semicolons, to be

executed on matching files. To specify the current
file name as an argument to a command, use “'{}'.”
-ok commands Like -exec, but prompts for confirmation before ex-
ecuting commands.
-print Outputs the name of found files to the standard out-
put, each followed by a newline character so that
each is displayed on a line of its own (the default).
-printf format Use “C-style” output (the same as used by the
printf function in the C programming language),
as specified by string format.
The following table describes the variables that may be used in the format
string used by the -printf option.

\a Rings the system bell (called the “alarm” on older

systems).
\b Outputs a backspace character.
\f Outputs a formfeed character.
182 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

\n Outputs a newline character.

\r Outputs a carriage return.
\t Outputs a horizontal tab character.
\\ Outputs a backslash character.
%% Outputs a percent sign character.
%b Outputs file’s size, rounded up in 512-byte blocks.
%f Outputs base file name.
%h Outputs the leading directories of file’s name.
%k Outputs file’s size, rounded up in 1 k blocks.
%s Outputs file’s size in bytes.

7.3 Finding Directories

To find directories that have a particular name, use find with the -
nameoption, giving the glob expression to match, and also giving the -type
option with the d argument, which specifies that directories are the only files
that should be searched for.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To find all of the directories in your home directory tree with a name
of audio, type:
$ find ~ -name audio -type d RET

• To find all of the directories in your home directory tree with the
string “audio” anywhere in their names, type:
$ find ~ -name *audio* -type d RET

7.4 Finding Files in Directory Listings

The following recipes show how to find the largest and smallest files and
directories in a given directory or tree by listing them by size. They also show
how to find the number of files in a given directory.

7.4.1 Finding the Largest Files in a Directory

To find the largest files in a given directory, list its contents using ls wtih
the -S option, which sorts files in descending order by their size (normally, ls
Chapter 7: Finding Files 183

outputs files sorted alphabetically). Include the -l option to output the size
and other file attributes.
⇒ To list the files in the current directory, with their attributes, sorted with
the largest files first, type:
$ ls -lS RET

NOTES: Pipe the output to less to peruse it (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text],
page 211).

7.4.2 Finding the Smallest Files in a Directory

To list the contents of a directory with the smallest files first, use ls with
both the -S and -r options, which reverses the sorting order of the listing.
⇒ To list the files in the current directory with their attributes, sorted from
smallest to largest, type:
$ ls -lSr RET

7.4.3 Finding the Smallest Directories

To output a list of directories sorted by their size—the size of all the files
they contain—use du and sort. The du tool outputs directories in ascending
order with the smallest first; the -S option puts the size in kilobytes of each
directory in the first column of output. Give the directory tree you want to
output as an option, and pipe the output to sort with the -n option, which
sorts the input numerically.
⇒ To output a list of the subdirectories of the current directory tree, sorted
in ascending order by size, type:
$ du -S . | sort -n RET

7.4.4 Finding the Largest Directories

Use the -r option with sort to reverse the listing and output the largest
directories first.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output a list of the subdirectories in the current directory tree,
sorted in descending order by size, type:
$ du -S . | sort -nr RET

• To output a list of the subdirectories in the /usr/local directory
tree, sorted in descending order by size, type:
$ du -S /usr/local | sort -nr RET

184 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

7.4.5 Finding the Number of Files in a Listing

To find the number of files in a directory, use ls and pipe the output to wc
-l, which outputs the number of lines in its input (see Recipe 12.1 [Counting
Text], page 293).
⇒ To output the number of files in the current directory, type:
 

$ ls | wc -l RET

19
$


In this example, the command outputs the numeral “19,” indicating that
there are 19 files in the current directory.
Since ls does not list hidden files by default (see Recipe 5.3.4 [Listing
Hidden Files], page 138), the preceding command does not count them. Use
ls’s -A option to count dot files as well.
⇒ To count the number of files—including dot files—in the current directory,
type:
 

$ ls -A | wc -l RET

81
$


This command outputs the numeral “81,” indicating that there are 81 files,
including hidden files, in the current directory.
To list the number of files in a given directory tree, and not just a single
directory, use find instead of ls, giving the special find predicate \! -type
d to exclude the listing (and therefore, the counting) of directories.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list the number of files in the /usr/share directory tree, type:
$ find /usr/share \! -type d | wc -l RET

• To list the number of files and directories in the /usr/share directory
tree, type:
$ find /usr/share | wc -l RET

• To list the number of directories in the /usr/share directory tree,
type:
$ find /usr/share \! -type f | wc -l RET

Chapter 7: Finding Files 185

7.5 Finding Where a Program Is Located

Use which to find the full path name of a tool or application from its base
file name; when you give the base file name as an option, which outputs the
absolute file name of the command that would have run had you typed it.
This is useful when you are not sure whether or not a particular command is
installed on the system.
⇒ To find out whether the perl program is installed on your system, and,
if so, where it resides, type:
 

$ which perl RET

/usr/bin/perl

In this example, which output “/usr/bin/perl,” indicating that the perl

binary is installed in the /usr/bin directory.
NOTES: This is also useful for determining “which” binary would execute,
should you type the name, because some systems may have different binaries
of the same file name located in different directories. In that case, you can
use which to find which one would execute.
186 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 8: Managing Files 187

8. Managing Files
File management tools include those for splitting, comparing, and compress-
ing files, making backup archives, and tracking file revisions. Other manage-
ment tools exist for determining the contents of a file, and for changing its
timestamp.

8.1 Getting Information About a File

The following recipes describe ways to get information about a file: how to de-
termine its file type and format, and how to display and change its timestamp.

8.1.1 Determining a File’s Type and Format

When we speak of a file’s type, we are referring to the kind of data it contains,
which may include text, executable commands, or some other data; this data
is organized in a particular way in the file, and this organization is called its
format. For example, an image file might contain data in the jpeg image
format, or a text file might contain unformatted text in the English language
or text formatted in the TEX markup language.
The file tool analyzes its input files, indicating their type and—if
known—the format of the data they contain. Supply the name of a file as
an argument to file, and it outputs the name of the file, followed by a de-
scription of its format and type.
⇒ To determine the format of the file /usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz, type:
 

$ file /usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz RET

/usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz: gzip compressed data, deflated, original
filename, last modified: Sun Apr 26 02:51:48 1998, os: Unix
$


This command reports that the file /usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz contains
data that has been compressed with the gzip tool.
To determine the original format of the data in a compressed file, use the
-z option.
188 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To determine the format of the compressed data contained in the file

/usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz, type:
 

$ file -z /usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz RET

/usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz: English text (gzip compressed data, deflated,
original filename, last modified: Sun Apr 26 02:51:48 1998, os: Unix)
$


This command reports that the data in /usr/doc/HOWTO/README.gz, a
compressed file, is English text.
NOTES: Currently, file differentiates among more than one hundred different
data formats, including several human languages, many sound and graphics
formats, and executable files for many different operating systems.
For more information on file formats, see Appendix B [Conventional File
Name Extensions], page 723.

8.1.2 Determining a Program’s Type

Use type, a built-in function of the Bash shell, to determine what type of
command a given program is: an alias word for some other command, a shell
keyword, a built-in function (such as type itself), or a regular file (such as
any tool stored in the /usr/bin directory). Give the name of the program as
an argument.
This is useful for determining whether or not a particular command is run-
ning a tool directly or is running an alias first. For example, the ls command
is frequently aliased to ls --color so that it runs in color mode by default.
⇒ To see whether the ls you type at the shell prompt is an alias or the tool
itself, type:
 

$ type ls RET

ls is aliased to `ls --color=auto'
$

8.1.3 Listing When a File Was Last Modified

To display the timestamp of a file, use date with the -r option, and give the
name of the file as an argument.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 189

⇒ To display the timestamp of file /vmlinuz, type:

$ date -r /vmlinuz RET

8.1.4 Changing a File’s Modification Time

Use touch to change a file’s timestamp without modifying its contents. Give
the name of the file to be changed as an argument. The default action is to
change the timestamp to the current time.
⇒ To change the timestamp of file pizzicato to the current date and time,
type:
$ touch pizzicato RET

To specify a timestamp other than the current system time, use the -d
option, followed by the date and time that should be used enclosed in quote
characters. You can specify just the date, just the time, or both.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To change the timestamp of file pizzicato to May 17, 1990 at 2:16
p.m., type:
$ touch -d '17 May 1990 14:16' pizzicato RET

• To change the timestamp of file pizzicato to May 17th of the current
year, type:
$ touch -d '17 May' pizzicato RET

• To change the timestamp of file pizzicato to 2:16 p.m. of the cur-
rent day, type:
$ touch -d ’14:16’ pizzicato RET

NOTES: When only the time is given, the date is set to the current date, and
when only the date is given, the time is set to “0:00.” When just a year is
given, the current day and month is used, and when a day and month but no
year is given, the current year is used.
For more information on date input formats, consult the Info documenta-
tion for date (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).

8.2 Splitting a File into Smaller Ones

It’s sometimes necessary to split one file into a number of smaller files. For
example, suppose you have a very large sound file in the near-cd-quality
190 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

mpeg2, level 3 (mp3) format. Your file, large.mp3, is 4,394,422 bytes in size,
and you want to transfer it from your desktop to your laptop, but your laptop
and desktop are not connected on a network—the only way to transfer files
between them is by floppy disk. Because this file is much too large to fit on
one floppy, you use split.1
The split tool copies a file, chopping up the copy into separate files of
a specified size. It takes as optional arguments the name of the input file
(using standard input if none is given) and the file name prefix to use when
writing the output files (using “x” if none is given). The output files’ names
will consist of the file prefix followed by a group of letters: aa, ab, ac, and so
on—the default output file names would be xaa, xab, and so on.
Specify the number of lines to put in each output file with the -l option,
or use the -b option to specify the number of bytes to put in each output file.
To specify the output files’ sizes in kilobytes or megabytes, use the -b option
and append “k” or “m,” respectively, to the value you supply. If neither -l
nor -b is used, split defaults to using 1,000 lines per output file.
⇒ To split large.mp3 into separate files of one megabyte each, whose names
begin with large.mp3., type:
$ split -b1m large.mp3 large.mp3. RET

This command creates five new files whose names begin with: large.mp3.
The first four files are one megabyte in size, while the last file is 200,118
bytes—the remaining portion of the original file. No alteration is made to
large.mp3.
You could then copy these five files onto four floppies (the last file fits on
a floppy with one of the larger files), copy them all to your laptop, and then
reconstruct the original file with cat (see Recipe 10.6 [Concatenating Text],
page 256).
⇒ To reconstruct the original file from the split files, type:
$ cat large.mp3.* > large.mp3 RET

$ rm large.mp3.* RET

In this example, the rm tool is used to delete all of the split files after the
original file has been reconstructed.

1
Another method for splitting files is to use gnu shar, the shell archiver, which bundles
files into archives made especially for transmission by email. It can split and compress
files as it archives them.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 191

8.3 Comparing Files

There are a number of tools for comparing the contents of files in different
ways; these recipes show how to use some of them. These tools are especially
useful for comparing passages of text in files, but that’s not the only way you
can use them.

8.3.1 Determining Whether Two Files Differ

Use cmp to determine whether or not two text files differ. It takes the names
of two files as arguments, and if the files contain the same data, cmp outputs
nothing. If, however, the files differ, cmp outputs the byte position and line
number in the files where the first difference occurs.
⇒ To determine whether the files master and backup differ, type:
$ cmp master backup RET

8.3.2 Determining Whether Two Directories Differ

There are two methods to determine whether two directories are different from
each other.

METHOD #1
Midnight Commander
DEB: mc-common
mc
RPM: mc
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/

The most quick and easy way to determine whether two entire directories
differ is to use mc, the Midnight Commander. By default, mc draws two
directory columns upon starting; select two directories, one in each column,
and then compare them with the directory compare command, CTRL
- X
d
(press CTRL
- X
and then type d).
There are three ways you can compare files in this manner: the quick
method, which just compares file size and date (if files have different con-
tents but identical sizes, they will still show up as not differing); a size-only
comparison; and the “thorough” method, which compares all files byte by
byte.
192 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To compare two directories with mc, do the following:

1. Use the cursor keys to select the first directory to compare in the
current column.
2. Type TAB
to move to the other column.
3. Use the cursor keys to select the second directory.
4. Type CTRL
- X
d to compare the two selected directories, and select
which method to use from the pop-up menu.
The number of bytes that differ, in the total number of differing files, is
displayed at the bottom of the first column; the number of bytes in the number
of files that are the same in both directories is displayed at the bottom of the
second column.

METHOD #2
The second method is to use cmp on all files in each of the directories. Loop
through all of the files, running this command on each of them, using the Bash
built-in for construct (see the bash Info documentation for more information
on this built-in).
⇒ To compare all of the files in the directory ~/site/current with all of
the files in the directory ~/development/latest, type:
$ for i in ~/site/current/*; { cmp $i ~/development/latest/$i; }

NOTES: This cmp method only works on directories that contain regular files;
if the directories contain subdirectories, this method will fail.

8.3.3 Finding the Differences Between Files

Use diff to compare two files and output a difference report (sometimes
called a “diff”) containing the text that differs between two files. The differ-
ence report is formatted so that other tools (namely, patch—see Recipe 8.3.7
[Patching a File with a Difference Report], page 196) can use it to make a file
identical to the one it was compared with.
To compare two files and output a difference report, give their names as
arguments to diff. The difference report is written to the standard output;
to save it to a file, redirect standard output.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To compare the files manuscript.old and manuscript.new, type:
$ diff manuscript.old manuscript.new RET

Chapter 8: Managing Files 193

• To compare the files manuscript.old and manuscript.new, writing

the difference report to a file named manuscript.diff, type:
$ diff manuscript.old manuscript.new > manuscript.diff RET

The difference report is meant to be used with commands such as patch,

in order to apply the differences to a file. For more information on diff and
the format of its output, consult its Info documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5
[Reading an Info Manual], page 48).
To better see the difference between two files, use sdiff instead of diff;
instead of giving a difference report, it outputs the files in two columns, side
by side, separated by spaces. Lines that differ in the files are separated by
a pipe character (|); lines that appear only in the first file are ended with a
less-than sign (<), and lines that appear only in the second file are preceded
with a greater-than sign (>).
⇒ To peruse the files laurel and hardy side by side on the screen, with any
differences indicated between columns, type:
$ sdiff laurel hardy | less RET

To output the difference between three separate files, use diff3.

⇒ To output a difference report for files larry, curly, and moe, and output
it in a file called stooges, type:
$ diff3 larry curly moe > stooges RET

8.3.4 Perusing the Differences in a Group of Files

To peruse the differences between two groups of files, use the shell for directive
to specify the files to compare with diff, and pipe the output to less.
⇒ To peruse the differences between all the .news files in the current direc-
tory and their counterparts in the ../archive directory, type:
 

$ for i in *.news RET

> { RET

> diff $i ../archive/$i | less RET

> } RET

In this example, the differences between each file in one directory and its
counterpart in the other directory are displayed in turn; press N
to move to
the next file, and P
to move to the previous one.
194 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

8.3.5 Finding the Differences Between Directories

You can use diff to compare two directories and all of their contents. This
is useful for making a patch of a directory of text files, such as a directory of
computer program source code, or a collection of writing. To do this, give the
names of the directories to compare as arguments to diff.
To examine the differences between whole directory trees, where each direc-
tory may contain subdirectories, use the -r option to search recursively, and
use the -N option to have diff write a whole new file in one directory where it
doesn’t exist (and have it delete whole files where a file exists only in the other
directory). Since a directory diff will tend to be large, use the -u option to
specify the unified patch format, which eliminates some redundancies and is
more compact than the normal patch format.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To make a patch to change the ~/apples directory to match the
~/oranges directory, specifying all files in ~/apples to be changed
to their equivalents in ~/oranges, and writing the patch to a file
called fruit-patch.diff in the current directory, type:
$ diff -N apples oranges > fruit-patch.diff RET

• To make a patch to change the ~/apples directory tree to match
the ~/oranges directory tree, specifying all files in ~/apples and its
subdirectories to be changed to their equivalents in the ~/oranges
tree, and writing the patch to a file in the current directory called
fruit-patch.diff in unified format, type:
$ diff -r -u -N apples oranges > fruit-patch.diff RET

To apply one of these patches, use patch with the -p1 option, which elim-
inates leading slashes in filenames. Put the patch file in the directory you
want to patch, and run the patch tool from that directory. Use the -s option
to work silently, omitting any output to the standard output.
⇒ To silently apply the patch file fruit-patch.diff to the ~/apples di-
rectory, type:
 

$ mv fruit-patch.diff ~/apples RET

$ cd ~/apples RET

$ patch -p1 -s < fruit-patch.diff RET



Chapter 8: Managing Files 195

8.3.6 Finding the Percentage Two Files Differ By

Wdiff
DEB: wdiff
RPM: wdiff
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/wdiff/wdiff.html

The wdiff tool is a front-end to diff. It finds and displays the differences
between words in the two text files you give as arguments. It outputs an
annotated version of the second file, showing the changes necessary to make it
identical to the first: Word deletions are marked like “[- this -],” additions
are marked like “[+ this +],” and changes are marked like “{+ this +}.”
⇒ To peruse an annotated copy of the file story_draft.1, showing the
changes necessary to make it identical to the file story_draft.2, type:
$ wdiff story_draft.2 story_draft.1 | less RET

To forgo the default annotations and instead make annotations good for
sending to a printer, use the -p option; deleted text is underlined and inserted
text is output in bold.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print an annotated copy of the file story_draft.1, showing the
changes necessary to make it identical to the file story_draft.2,
type:
$ wdiff -p story_draft.2 story_draft.1 | lpr RET

• To peruse an annotated copy of the file story_draft.1, showing
the changes necessary to make it identical to the file story_draft.2
with underlining and bold lettering, type:
$ wdiff -p story_draft.2 story_draft.1 | less RET

Use wdiff with the -s option to display a number of statistics about the
differences: the total number of words; the number of common words and the
percentage relative to the total; the number of words deleted or inserted, and
the percentage relative to the total; and the number of words changed, and
the percentage relative to the total. These statistics are output as two lines
at the end, after an annotation of the second file is output.
196 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To output the differences in words between files story_draft.1 and
story_draft.2, showing statistics about the differences, type:
$ wdiff -s story_draft.1 story_draft.2 RET

• To output the two lines of statistics about the differences in words
between files story_draft.1 and story_draft.2, type:
$ wdiff -s story_draft.1 story_draft.2 | tail -2 RET

NOTES: The wdiff command is not included with all Linux distributions.

8.3.7 Patching a File with a Difference Report

To apply the differences in a difference report to the original file compared in
the report, use patch. It takes as arguments the name of the file to be patched
and the name of the difference report file (or “patchfile”). It then applies the
changes specified in the patchfile to the original file. This is especially useful
for distributing different versions of a file—small patchfiles may be sent across
networks easier than large source files.
⇒ To update the original file manuscript.old with the patchfile
manuscript.diff, type:
$ patch manuscript.old manuscript.diff RET

8.4 Using File Compression

File compression is useful for storing or transferring large files. When you
compress a file, you shrink it and save disk space. File compression uses an
algorithm to change the data in the file and make it smaller; to use the data
that’s in a compressed file, you must first uncompress it to restore the original
data (and original file size).
The gzip compression tool has been the popular standard for many years,
but recently the newer bzip2 is seeing increased use. It uses a better com-
pression algorithm—in many cases it can compress files smaller than gzip
can—but it does this at the expense of taking a little longer to work, in both
the compressing and uncompressing processes. Files compressed with gzip
will uncompress more quickly than files compressed with bzip2 (but usually,
on modern computers, we are talking about a matter of tens of seconds).
The following recipes explain how to compress and uncompress files with
both gzip and bzip2, which work very similarly.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 197

8.4.1 Compressing a File

There are two methods for compressing files. Use gzip for speed and compat-
ibility, and use bzip2 when compression ratio is of the highest importance.

METHOD #1
Use the gzip (“gnu zip”) tool, giving as arguments the names of any files to
compress; it writes compressed versions of the specified files, appends a .gz
extension to their file names, and then deletes the original files.
⇒ To compress the file war-and-peace, type:
$ gzip war-and-peace RET

This command compresses the file ‘codewar-and-peace, putting it in a new

file named war-and-peace.gz; gzip then deletes the original file, war-and-
peace.
NOTES: The amount of compression to use can be specified by giving a num-
ber in the range from 1 to 9 as an option, with 1 being minimal compression
with the fastest compressing speed, and 9 being the best possible compression,
at the expense of taking the most amount of time to compress. The default
behavior is set to use a value of 6.
Specifying the ratio used is not necessary during uncompression; files un-
compress at the same speed regardless of the data’s compression ratio.
Special options -fast and -best are synonymous with -1 and -9, respec-
tively.

METHOD #2
Bzip2
DEB: bzip2
RPM: bzip2
WWW: http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/

Use the bzip2 tool, giving as arguments the names of any files to compress;
it writes compressed versions of the specified files, appends a .bz2 extension
to their file names, and then deletes the original files.
⇒ To compress the file war-and-peace, type:
$ bzip2 war-and-peace RET

This command compresses the file war-and-peace, putting it in a new file

named war-and-peace.bz2; the original file, war-and-peace, is then deleted.
198 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

8.4.2 Decompressing a File

There are two methods for decompressing a file, depending on the method
used to compress it. Files compressed with gzip will have, by default, a .gz
file name extension added to the file name, while files compressed with bzip2
will have a default extension of .bz2 added.

METHOD #1
To access the contents of a file compressed with gzip, use gunzip to uncom-
press (or “decompress”) it.
As with gzip, gunzip takes as an argument the name of the file or files to
work on. It expands the specified files, writing the output to new files without
the .gz extension, and then it deletes the compressed files.
⇒ To expand the file war-and-peace.gz, type:
$ gunzip war-and-peace.gz RET

This command expands the file war-and-peace.gz and puts it in a new

file called war-and-peace; gunzip then deletes the compressed file, war-and-
peace.gz.
NOTES: When uncompressing with gunzip, it is not necessary to specify the
.gz extension.
You can also view the contents of a file compressed with gzip without
uncompressing it first. This is useful when you want to view a compressed file
but do not want to write changes to it, and therefore do not need to compress
it. Do this either with zless, for gzip-compressed text files (see Recipe 9.1
[Perusing Text], page 211), or with see, which displays text and other files
that have been compressed with either gzip or bzip2 style compression (see
the following recipe).

METHOD #2
Bzip2
DEB: bzip2
RPM: bzip2
WWW: http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/

To access the contents of a file compressed with bzip2, use bunzip2 to un-
compress it.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 199

As with bzip2, bunzip2 takes as an argument the name of the file or files
to work on. It expands the specified files, writing the output to new files
without the .bz2 extension, and then it deletes the compressed files.
⇒ To expand the file war-and-peace.bz2, type:
$ bunzip2 war-and-peace.bz2 RET

This command expands the file war-and-peace.bz2 and puts it in a new

file called war-and-peace; bunzip2 then deletes the compressed file, war-
and-peace.bz2.

8.4.3 Seeing What’s in a Compressed File

Run-mailcap
DEB: mime-support

To see what’s in a compressed file without uncompressing the file on disk, use
see, giving the name of the file as an argument. This is handy when you want
to read or look at the contents of a compressed file, but you’d like to keep it
compressed after you’ve looked at it.
see can read files compressed by either gzip or bzip2; if it is a text file,
see uses less to display the file (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211); if
it is a dvi file, see shows it with xdvi; PostScript, eps, and pdf files are all
viewed in gv, if it is installed.
⇒ To view the contents of full_dossier.pdf.bz2, type:
$ see full_dossier.pdf.bz2 RET

NOTES: see will not work for compressed images; to view their contents
without uncompressing them, use display. It can view compressed image file
formats (see Recipe 17.1 [Viewing an Image in X], page 407).
The see command is not commonly included with some Linux distribu-
tions. You can install a copy from the sources on its Debian package page (see
Recipe A.4 [Managing deb Packages], page 709).

8.5 Managing File Archives

An archive is a single file that contains a collection of other files, and often
directories. Archives are usually used to transfer or make a backup copy of
a collection of files and directories—this way, you can work with only one
file instead of many. This single file can be easily compressed as explained
200 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

in the previous section, and the files in the archive retain the structure and
permissions of the original files.
Use the tar tool to create, list, and extract files from archives.2 Archives
made with tar are sometimes called “tar files,” “tar archives,” or—because
all the archived files are rolled into one big file—“tarballs.”
The following recipes show how to use tar to create an archive, list the
contents of an archive, and extract the files from an archive. Two common
options used with all three of these operations are -f and -v: to specify
the name of the archive file, use -f followed by the file name, and use the -v
(“verbose”) option to have tar output the names of files as they are processed.
While the -v option is not necessary, it lets you observe the progress of your
tar operation.

NOTES: The name of this tool comes from “tape archive,” because it was
originally made to write the archives directly to a magnetic tape device. It is
still used for this purpose, but today, archives are almost always saved to a
file on disk.
For more information about managing archives with tar, consult its Info
documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).

8.5.1 Making a File Archive

To create an archive with tar, use the -c (“create”) option and specify the
name of the archive file to create with the -f option. It’s common practice to
use a name with a .tar extension, such as my-backup.tar.
Give as arguments the names of the files to be archived; to create an
archive of a directory and all of the files and subdirectories it contains, give
the directory’s name as an argument.
⇒ To create an archive called project.tar from the contents of the project
directory, type:
$ tar -cvf project.tar project RET

This command creates an archive file called project.tar containing the

project directory and all of its contents. The original project directory
remains unchanged.
Use the -z option to compress the archive as it is being written. This
yields the same output as creating an uncompressed archive and then using
gzip to compress it, but it eliminates the extra step.
2
zip archives, popular on other operating systems, are discussed in Recipe 26.7 [Managing
zip Archives], page 533.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 201

⇒ To create a compressed archive called project.tar.gz from the contents

of the project directory, type:
$ tar -zcvf project.tar.gz project RET

This command creates a compressed archive file, project.tar.gz, con-

taining the project directory and all of its contents. The original project
directory remains unchanged.
NOTES: When you use the -z option, you should specify the archive name
with a .tar.gz extension and not a .tar extension, so the file name shows
that the archive is compressed. This is not a requirement, but it serves as a
reminder and is the standard practice.

8.5.2 Listing the Contents of an Archive

To list the contents of a tar archive without extracting them, use tar with
the -t option.
⇒ To list the contents of an archive called project.tar, type:
$ tar -tvf project.tar RET

This command lists the contents of the project.tar archive. Using the
‘code-v option along with the -t option causes tar to output the permissions
and modification time of each file, along with its file name—the same format
used by the ls command with the -l option (see Recipe 5.3.3 [Listing File
Attributes], page 136).
Include the -z option to list the contents of a compressed archive.
⇒ To list the contents of a compressed archive called project.tar.gz, type:
$ tar -ztvf project.tar.gz RET

8.5.3 Extracting Files from an Archive

To extract (or unpack ) the contents of a tar archive, use tar with the -x
(“extract”) option.
⇒ To extract the contents of an archive called project.tar, type:
$ tar -xvf project.tar RET

This command extracts the contents of the project.tar archive into the
current directory.
If an archive is compressed, which usually means it will have a .tar.gz or
.tgz extension, include the -z option.
202 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To extract the contents of a compressed archive called project.tar.gz,

type:
$ tar -zxvf project.tar.gz RET

NOTES: If there are files or subdirectories in the current directory with the
same name as any of those in the archive, those files will be overwritten
when the archive is extracted. If you don’t know what files are included in
an archive, consider listing the contents of the archive first as shown in the
preceding recipe.
Another reason to list the contents of an archive before extracting them
is to determine whether the files in the archive are contained in a directory.
If not, and the current directory contains many unrelated files, you might
confuse them with the files extracted from the archive.
To extract the files into a directory of their own, make a new directory,
move the archive to that directory, and change to that directory, where you
can then extract the files from the archive.

8.6 Tracking Revisions to a File

The Revision Control System (rcs) is a set of tools for managing multiple
revisions of a single file.
To store a revision of a file so that rcs can keep track of it, you check in
the file with rcs. This deposits the revision of the file in an rcs repository—a
file that rcs uses to store all changes to that file. rcs makes a repository file
with the same file name as the file you are checking in, but with a ,v extension
appended to the name. For example, checking in the file foo.text with rcs
creates a repository file called foo.text,v.
Each time you want rcs to remember a revision of a file, you run a com-
mand to check in the file, and rcs writes to that file’s rcs repository the
differences between the file and the last revision on record in the repository.
To access a revision of a file, you check out the revision from rcs. The
revision is obtained from the file’s repository and is written to the current
directory.
Although rcs is most often used with text files, you can also use it to keep
track of revisions made to other kinds of files, such as image files and sound
files.
Another revision control system, Concurrent Versions System (cvs), is
used for tracking collections of multiple files whose revisions are made con-
currently by multiple authors. While it is not as simple as rcs, it is very
Chapter 8: Managing Files 203

popular for managing free software projects on the Internet. For information
on using cvs, consult its Info documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an
Info Manual], page 48).

8.6.1 Checking In a File Revision

When you have a version of a file that you want to keep track of, use ci to
check in that file with rcs.
Type ci followed by the name of a file to deposit that file into the rcs
repository. If the file has never before been checked in, ci prompts for a
description to use for that file; each subsequent time the file is checked in, ci
prompts for text to include in the file’s revision log (see Recipe 8.6.3 [Viewing
a File’s Revision Log], page 205). Log messages may contain more than one
line of text; type a period (.) on a line by itself to end the entry.
For example, suppose you have a text file novel like the one in Figure 8-1.
 

This is a tale about many things, including a long voyage across

America.


Figure 8-1. First revision of novel.
⇒ To check in the file novel with rcs, type:
 

$ ci novel RET

novel,v <-- novel
enter description, terminated with single '.' or
end of file:
NOTE: This is NOT the log message!
>> The Great American Novel. RET

>> . RET

$


This command deposits the file in an rcs repository file called novel,v,
and the original file, novel, is removed. To edit or access the file again, you
must check out a revision of the file from rcs to work on (see the next recipe
for how to do this).
Whenever you have a new revision that you want to save, use ci again to
check in the file. This begins the process all over again.
204 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

For example, suppose you have checked out the first revision of novel and
changed the file so that it now looks like Figure 8-2.
 

This is a very long tale about a great many things, including my long
voyage across America, and back home again.


Figure 8-2. A new revision of novel.
⇒ To deposit this revision in rcs, type:
 

$ ci novel RET

novel,v <-- novel
new revision: 1.2; previous revision: 1.1
enter log message, terminated with single '.' or end of
file:
>> Second draft. RET

>> . RET

$


If you create a subdirectory called RCS (in all uppercase letters) in the
current directory, rcs recognizes this specially named directory instead of the
current directory as the place to store the ,v revision files. This helps reduce
clutter in your work directory.
If the file you are depositing is a text file, you can have rcs insert a line of
text in the file, every time the file is checked out, containing the name of the
file, the revision number, the date and time in utc (Coordinated Universal
Time), and the user id of the author. To do this, put the text “$Id$” at a
place in the file where you want this text to be written. You only need to do
this once; each time you check the file out, rcs replaces this string in the file
with the header text.
For example, this chapter was written to a file, managing-files.texinfo,
whose revisions were tracked with rcs; the “$Id$” string in this file currently
reads:
$Id: managing-files.texinfo,v 2.11 2004/07/03 18:54:01 m Exp m $

NOTES: You should always make your log message descriptive enough so that
later, you won’t be confused about what you had done to the file.

8.6.2 Checking Out a File Revision

Use co to check out a revision of a file from an rcs repository.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 205

To check out the latest revision of a file that you intend to edit (and to
check in later as a new revision), use the -l (for “lock”) option. Locking a
revision in this fashion prevents overlapping changes from being made to the
file, should another revision be accidentally checked out before this revision is
checked in.
⇒ To check out the latest revision of the file novel for editing, type:
$ co -l novel RET

This command checks out the latest revision of file novel from the novel,v
repository, writing it to a file called ‘novel’ in the current directory. (If a file
with that name already exists in the current directory, co asks whether or not
to overwrite the file.) You can make changes to this file and then check it in
as a new revision (see the previous recipe).
You can also check out a version of a file as read only, where changes cannot
be written to it. Do this to check out a version to view only and not to edit.
To check out the current version of a file for examination, type co followed
by the name of the file.
⇒ To check out the current revision of file novel, but not permit changes
to it, type:
$ co novel RET

This command checks out the latest revision of the file novel from the rcs
repository novel,v (either from the current directory or in a subdirectory
named RCS).
To check out a version other than the most recent version, specify the
version number to check out with the -r option. Again, use the -l option to
allow the revision to be edited.
⇒ To check out revision 1.14 of file novel, type:
$ co -l -r1.14 novel RET

NOTES: Before checking out an old revision of a file, remember to check in

the latest changes first, or they may be lost.
It is possible to make branching revisions; otherwise, your old revisions
with changes will be checked in as the newest revision on the main “branch”
(see the rcs man page for more information on branching in rcs).

8.6.3 Viewing a File’s Revision Log

Use rlog to view the rcs revision log for a file—type rlog followed by the
name of a file to list all of the revisions of that file.
206 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To view the revision log for file ‘novel,’ type:

 

$ rlog novel RET

RCS file: novel,v

Working file: novel
head: 1.2
branch:
locks: strict
access list:
symbolic names:
keyword substitution: kv
total revisions: 2; selected revisions: 2
description:
The Great American Novel.
----------------------------
revision 1.2
date: 1991/06/20 15:31:44; author: leo; state: Exp;
lines: +2 -2
Second draft.
----------------------------
revision 1.1
date: 1991/06/21 19:03:58; author: leo; state: Exp;
Initial revision
======================================================
$


This command outputs the revision log for the file novel; it lists informa-
tion about the rcs repository, including its name (novel,v) and the name of
the actual file (novel). It also shows that there are two revisions—the first,
which was checked in to rcs on 20 June 1991, and the second, which was
checked in to RCS the next day, on 21 June 1991.

8.6.4 Checking In Many Files

There are a few considerations when checking in lots of files at once.
Sometimes you may want to check in a group of files and specify a partic-
ular revision number to use. Do this by giving the revision number to use as
an argument to the -r option. The ci command does not take space char-
acters between an option and its argument, so be sure to follow the option
immediately with the revision number.
Chapter 8: Managing Files 207

If a file is unchanged, ci normally reverts to the last revision; to force a

check in, useful for when you want to give a particular revision number to a
group of files when some may be unchanged, use the -f option.
You can use the Bash for directive so that you can check in all of the files
at once, and not have to do them individually. Use the -m option to specify a
common message to all of them—give the quoted log message as an argument,
and again make sure there is no space between the option and the argument.
⇒ To check in all of the .html files in the current directory at once, giving
each file a log message of “Updated for new product release” and a
revision number of 3.0, even if the file is unchanged, and then checking
out and locking the latest version, type:
 

$ for i in *.html RET

> { RET

> ci -f -r3.0 -m"Updated for new product release" $i RET

> co -l $i RET

> }
... log messages ...
$

You could give the command in the preceding example on one long line,
like so:
for i in *.html; { ci -f -r3.0 -m"Updated for new product
release" $i; co -l $i; }
208 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
III. TEXT 209

III. TEXT
210 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 211

9. Viewing Text
Dealing with textual matter is the meat of Linux (and of most computing), so
there are going to be many chapters about the various aspects of text. This
first chapter in this part of the book shows how to view text on your display
screen.
Text files come in any number of formats, from formatted text in some par-
ticular language—such as English or the c programming language—to saved
email messages or html files. Plain text files don’t have to have a .txt or
.text file name extension, although they often do (see Appendix B [Conven-
tional File Name Extensions], page 723).
If you are not sure whether the content of a file is text or not, use file to
find out, as described in Recipe 8.1.1 [Determining a File’s Type and Format],
page 187.
A tool that just allows you to view text on the screen, but not edit it, is
called a pager. When most people view text without editing it, they use less,
which is described in the following recipes.
There are many ways to view or otherwise output text. For example, you
can view text as you browse files and their contents, as described in Recipe 5.10
[Browsing Files and Directories], page 157. When your intention is to edit the
text of a file, you should open it in a text editor, as described in Chapter 10
[Editing Text], page 231. The Vi editor comes with a special command, view,
to open a file in read-only mode with Vi, so that it can only be viewed—you
cannot, accidentally or intentionally, make any changes to the file while it is
open if you use this command.
Some kinds of files—such as PostScript, dvi, and pdf files—often contain
text in them, but they are technically not text files. These are image format
files, and I describe methods for viewing them in Recipe 17.4 [Previewing
Print Files], page 413.

9.1 Perusing Text

Use less to peruse text, viewing it one screen (or “page”) at a time. The
less tool works on either files or standard output—it is popularly used as
the last command on a pipeline so that you can page through the text output
of some commands. For an example, see Recipe 3.2.4 [Redirecting Output to
Another Command’s Input], page 69. The following recipes describe various
ways to use less.
212 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Another tool, zless, is identical to less, but you use it to view compressed
text files; it allows you to read a compressed text file’s contents without having
to uncompress the file first (see Recipe 8.4 [Using File Compression], page 196).
Most of the system documentation in the /usr/doc and /usr/share/doc
directories, for example, consists of compressed text files.
You may, on occasion, be confronted with a reference to a command for
paging text, called more. It was the standard tool for paging text until it gave
way to less in the early to mid 1990s; less comes with many more options—
its most notable advantage being the ability to scroll backward through a
file—but at the expense of being almost exactly three times the size of more.
Hence, there are two meanings to the saying, “less is more.”
The following table summarizes the most essential keyboard commands
for paging through text in less. It lists the keystrokes and describes the
commands.

Cursor Movement

Scroll back through the text (“up”) one line.


Scroll forward through the text (“down”) one line.


or 
Scroll horizontally (left or right) one tab stop; useful

for perusing files that contain long lines.

PgUp
or SPACEBAR
Scroll backward (“up”) through the text by one

screenful.

PgDn
Scroll forward (“down”) through the text by one

screenful.

<
Move to the beginning of the file.

>
Move to the end of the file.

Searching Text
/
pattern Search forward through the file for lines containing
pattern.

?
pattern Search backward through the file for lines containing

pattern.
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 213

Miscellaneous
R
or CTRL
- L
Redraw (or “repaint”) the screen.

H
Display a help screen.

V
Open the file in the Vi editor, so you can edit it.

(Then, when you write and save it with :wq or just
exit with :q, you will be back in less.)

Q
Quit viewing the file and exit less.

NOTES: less has many command line options as well as key commands to
be used while running, and there are all kinds of tricks you can do with it—
almost enough for a whole chapter. If this sort of thing interests you, it’s
worth reading through the less man page.

9.1.1 Perusing a Text File

To peruse or page through a text file, give the name of the file as an argument
to less.
⇒ To page through the text file README, type:
$ less README RET

This command starts less and displays the file README on the screen.
You can move forward through the document a line at a time by typing

, and you can move forward through the document a screenful at a time
by typing PgDn
. To move backward by a line, type 
, and type PgUp
to
move backward by a screenful.
You can also search through the text you are currently perusing—this is
described in Recipe 14.11 [Searching the Text You’re Perusing], page 354. To
stop viewing the file and exit less, press Q
.

9.1.2 Perusing Text with a Prompt

When you peruse a text file with less, it displays a default prompt at the
bottom of the screen with the name of the file in inverse video. As soon as
you touch a key, the prompt disappears.
Use the -M option to display a long prompt line, containing the file name,
the current and total lines, and the percentage into the file the current line is
at. This prompt remains as you move through the text.
214 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To peruse the file boardreport with a long prompt, type:

$ less -M boardreport RET

NOTES: You can make your own custom prompt, making use of a number
of variables that hold information about the file; see the less man page for
information on how to do this.

9.1.3 Perusing a Text File from the Bottom

Type F in less to move to the bottom of the text it is displaying, and to have
less keep reading from its input. This is useful when you are perusing a file
that is being written to from some other command, or when you have piped
the output of some command to less.
When you type F, less will attempt to keep reading from its input indef-
initely, and if any new text appears, less will display it. Type CTRL
- C
to
interrupt this command and have less stop reading from the bottom. Normal
perusal will resume.

9.1.4 Perusing Raw Text

By default, less displays non-printing control characters in hat notation
(thus, a CTRL
- L
combination in a file is displayed as “^L”), except for control
characters used to affect spacing, such as the tab character, which is CTRL
- I
.
But it is sometimes desirable to display the raw text, which is text un-
processed by other methods and unformatted for the screen. Displaying raw
text will show any non-printing or control characters, and not give the screen
format they represent instead.
So, for example, when the CTRL
- L
combination appears in the text, you
want a literal formfeed to be shown, and not the representation “^L.”
There are two methods to do this.

METHOD #1
To display raw control characters in text, run less with the -r option. This
may, of course, cause any number of problems with screen display, as the raw
characters may affect it.
⇒ To peruse the file live.transcript and display any raw control charac-
ters in it, type:
$ less -r live.transcript RET

Chapter 9: Viewing Text 215

METHOD #2
To display raw control characters in text, but try to keep the screen appear-
ance, use less with the -R option. This displays raw control characters, but
any disparities that may be caused by the control characters on the screen are
controlled, whenever possible.
⇒ To peruse the file live.transcript and display any raw control charac-
ters in it, but attempt to keep the screen in order, type:
$ less -R live.transcript RET

9.1.5 Perusing Multiple Text Files

There are two methods for perusing multiple text files.
 

Figure 9-1. Viewing multiple files in less.

METHOD #1
You can specify more than one file to page through with less, and you can
specify file patterns in order to open all of the files that match that pattern.
The files will be displayed in sequence—less displays each file in turn, be-
ginning with the first file you specify or the first file that matches the given
216 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

pattern. To move to the next file, press N
; to move to the previous file, press
P
.

⇒ To page through all of the unix faq files in /usr/doc/FAQ, type:

$ less /usr/doc/FAQ/unix-faq-part* RET

This command starts less, which then opens all of the files that match
the given pattern /usr/doc/FAQ/unix-faq-part*, and begins displaying the
first one, as in Figure 9-1.

METHOD #2
Another method is to use cat to concatenate all the files together, and pipe
that output to less. There will be no indicator to mark where one file ends
and another begins, but you can scroll through the entire text cleanly without
pressing buttons to move from file to file.
⇒ To page through all of the unix faq files in /usr/doc/FAQ all at once,
type:
$ cat /usr/doc/FAQ/unix-faq-part* | less RET

There is no indicator when one file ends and the next begins, but rather,
all are treated as one long file in the order given. (In this case, where the
wildcard character was used, they are displayed in the order in which the
shell expands the “*” to all of their names.)

9.2 Displaying Text

The simplest way to view text is to send it to the standard output. This is
useful for displaying part of a text, or for passing part of a text to other tools
in a command line.
Many people still use cat to view a text file, especially if it is a very small
file. To output all of a file’s contents on the screen, use cat and give the file
name as an argument.
⇒ To output the contents of the file notes, type:
$ cat notes RET

If you have a small text file that you want to look at, you just cat it to
the screen. It’s quick, it gets the job done, you don’t have to think about it.
But while it is useful for concatenating text (see Recipe 10.6 [Concatenating
Text], page 256), it isn’t always the best way to peruse or read text—a very
large text will scroll off the top of the screen, for example.
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 217

Sometimes, simple outputting of text is quite appropriate, such as when

you just want to display one line of a file, or when you want to display the
first or last part of a file.
This section describes the tools used for such purposes. These tools are
best used as filters, often at the end of a pipeline, taking their input from
the output of other commands. To display text in a font, first convert it to
PostScript and view that (see Recipe 15.2 [Outputting Text to PostScript],
page 359).

9.2.1 Displaying Non-Printing Characters

Use cat with the -v option to output non-printing characters, such as control
characters, in such a way that you can see them. With this option, cat outputs
those characters in hat notation, where they are represented by a caret (^)
and the letter or other character corresponding to the actual control character
(for example, a “Control-G” or bell character would be output as “^G”).
⇒ To output the file translation with all non-printing characters displayed
in hat notation, type:
$ cat -v translation RET

To visually display the end of each line, use the -E option; it specifies that a
“$” should be output after the end of each line. This is useful for determining
whether lines contain trailing space characters. (You can also use grep to
output lines containing trailing spaces.)
Also useful is the -T option, which outputs tab characters as their literal
control character, written in hat notation as “^I.”
The -A option combines all three of these options—it is the same as spec-
ifying -vET.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output the file translation with a “$” character displayed at
the end of every line, type:
$ cat -E translation RET

• To output the file translation with all tab characters written as
“^I” instead of literal tabs, type:
$ cat -T translation RET

• To output the file translation with non-printing characters, in-
cluding tabs, displayed in hat notation, and with a “$” character
displayed at the end of each line, type:
$ cat -A translation RET

218 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

9.2.2 Displaying the Beginning Part of Text

Use head to output the beginning of a text. By default, it outputs the first
ten lines of its input.
⇒ To output the first ten lines of file placement-list, type:
$ head placement-list RET

You can specify as a numeric option the number of lines to output. If you
specify more lines than a file contains, head just outputs the entire text.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the first line of file placement-list, type:
$ head -1 placement-list RET

• To output the first 66 lines of file placement-list, type:
$ head -66 placement-list RET

To output a given number of characters (bytes) instead of lines, give the

number of characters to output as an argument to the -c option.
⇒ To output the first character in the file placement-list, type:
$ head -c1 placement-list RET

NOTES: An old unix tool named line just output the first line of its input.
This tool does not exist for Linux, but you can make a pretty good imitation
with head by defining “line” as an alias for head -1 (for more information
on making aliases, see Recipe 3.6 [Using Alias Words], page 82).

9.2.3 Displaying the End Part of Text

The tail tool works like head, but it outputs the last part of its input. Like
head, it outputs ten lines by default.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output the last ten lines of file placement-list, type:
$ tail placement-list RET

• To output the last 14 lines of file placement-list, type:
$ tail -14 placement-list RET

• To output the last hundred characters of file placement-list, type:
$ tail -c 100 placement-list RET

To specify which part of the text to output by its relation to the beginning
of the text, precede the number with a plus sign (+).
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 219

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To output the end part of the file placement-list, beginning with
the third line, type:
$ tail +3 placement-list RET

• To output the end part of the file placement-list, beginning with
the hundredth character, type:
$ tail -c +100 placement-list RET

It is sometimes useful to view the end of a file on a continuing basis; this
can be useful for a “growing” file, a file that is being written to by another
process. To keep viewing the end of such a file, use tail with the -f (“follow”)
option. Type CTRL
- C
to stop viewing the file.
⇒ To follow the end of the file access_log, type:
$ tail -f access_log RET

NOTES: You can achieve the same result with less; to do this, type F while
perusing the text (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211).

9.2.4 Displaying the Middle Part of Text

There are a few ways to output only a middle portion of a text.

METHOD #1
To output a particular line of a file, use sed (see Recipe 10.5 [Editing Streams
of Text], page 255). Give the line number to output followed by !d as a quoted
argument to sed; give the filespec to output from as the second argument.
⇒ To output line 47 of file placement-list, type:
$ sed '47!d' placement-list RET

To output a region of more than one line, give the starting and ending line
numbers, separated by a comma.
⇒ To output lines 47 to 108 of file placement-list, type:
$ sed '47,108!d' placement-list RET

METHOD #2
To output the middle part of some text, you can also combine multiple head
or tail commands on a pipeline (see Recipe 3.2.4 [Redirecting Output to
Another Command’s Input], page 69).
220 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To output the tenth line in the file placement-list, type:
$ head placement-list | tail -1 RET

• To output the fifth and fourth lines from the bottom of file
placement-list, type:
$ tail -5 placement-list | head -2 RET

• To output the 500th character in placement-list, type:
$ head -c500 placement-list | tail -c1 RET

• To output the first character on the fifth line of the file placement-
list, type:
$ head -5 placement-list | tail -1 | head -c1 RET

In the preceding example, three commands were used: The first five lines
of file placement-list are passed to tail, which outputs the last line in the
output (the fifth line in the file); then, the last head command outputs the
first character in that last line, which achieves the desired result.

9.2.5 Displaying the Text Between Strings

Use sed to select lines of text between strings and output either just that
section of text, or all of the lines of text except that section. The strings can
be words or even regular expressions (see Recipe 14.3 [Matching Patterns of
Text], page 335).
Run sed with the -n option followed by '/first/,/last/p' to output just the
text between the strings first and last, inclusive. This is useful for outputting,
say, just one chapter or section of a text file when you know the text used to
begin the sections with.
⇒ To output all the text from file book-draft between “Chapter 3” and
“Chapter 4,” type:
$ sed -n '/Chapter 3/,/Chapter 4/p' book-draft RET

To output all of the lines of text except those between two patterns, omit
the -n option.
⇒ To output all the text from file book-draft, except that which lies be-
tween the text “Chapter 3” and “Chapter 4,” type:
$ sed '/Chapter 3/,/Chapter 4/p' book-draft RET

NOTES: For more on sed, see Recipe 10.5 [Editing Streams of Text], page 255.
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 221

9.2.6 Displaying the Literal Characters of Text

There are tools for displaying literal characters—text formatted so that you
can clearly and unambiguously see each character and its position in the file.
The following methods show how to use these tools.

METHOD #1
Use od, the “octal dump” tool, with the -c option to show the ascii characters
in some text. This outputs the characters grouped 16 per line, separated by
spaces and, when possible, giving backslash escapes for control characters. A
column is displayed on the left, containing the offset (the number of bytes into
the file) of the first character in that line. Use the -A option and give “d” as
an argument to output these numbers in decimal and not the default, which
is octal.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To display the literal characters in the file details, grouped 16 per
line, with each line prefaced by an offset number, type:
$ od -Ad -c details RET

• To output the literal characters in the last line of file details, type:
$ tail -1 details | od -Ad -c RET

METHOD #2
You can get the same effect as od with hexdump. Use the -c option, which
displays each byte in the file as the character it represents. As with Method
#1, 16 characters of the input is displayed on each line, separated by spaces,
and a column is written on the left-hand side showing the offset value of the
file, except in this case the offset is given in hexadecimal.
⇒ To display the literal characters in the file exam, grouped 16 per line, with
each line prefaced by an offset number in hexadecimal, type:
$ hexdump -c exam RET

9.2.7 Displaying the Hex Values of Text

All text characters are stored as numeric values on disk (see Recipe 9.3.7
[Viewing a Character Set], page 228). Sometimes you may want to display
the values of text characters instead of the characters these values represent.
This is good for examining the literal contents of a text file containing non-
printing characters, or for displaying the literal characters that make up a
binary file.
222 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

There are several methods for doing this, each with its own output format.
All of them are capable of outputting in hexadecimal (or “hex” for short);
these outputs are sometimes called hex dumps.

METHOD #1
The hexdump filter dumps its input in any one of a number of formats, showing
a number of characters from the file per line, and preceded with a number
indicating the location in the file of the first character in that line.
To display text in hex, first use the tr filter to eliminate carriage returns
from the input, and pass this text to hexdump with the -c option, which dis-
plays its input in hexadecimal, with one byte per character. 16 characters of
the input are displayed on each line, separated by spaces, and a column is
written on the left-hand side showing the offset value of the file, in hexadeci-
mal.
⇒ To peruse the contents of the file ‘tarpon’ in hexadecimal, type:
$ tr -d '\r' < tarpon | hexdump -c | less RET

METHOD #2
Use od, “octal dump,” to make a literal and unambiguous dump of some text.
It works as a filter or takes the name of a file as an argument, and can output
in octal, hexadecimal, or other formats
Use the -t option to specify the format type of the output, and give “x1”
as an argument to specify that the display should be in hexadecimal, with
one byte per integer (with an argument of “x2,” a hex integer is displayed for
every two bytes of input).
⇒ To peruse the contents of the file details in hex, type:
$ od -t x1 details | less RET

This command outputs the values of each literal character of the file
details in hexadecimal, 16 characters per line, separated by spaces. Each
line is preceded by an offset value (in octal) indicating the offset in the file
of the first character in that line. To change the offset display from octal to
decimal, use the -A option and give “d” as an argument (or give “x” if you
want hex).
To display the printable characters in a new column on the right-hand side
of the screen, add a “z” to the end of your argument to the -t option. Each
line of the column will be prefaced with a greater-than sign (>) and end with
a less-than sign (<).
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 223

⇒ To peruse the contents of the file details in hex, showing the file’s print-
able characters in its own column, type:
$ od -t x1z details | less RET

METHOD #3
Midnight Commander
DEB: mc-common
mc
RPM: mc
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/

When you view a file in mc, you can toggle the display of hex values. To do
this, type F3
on a file in the directory listing to view the file, and then type
F4
while viewing the file to toggle between viewing the ascii characters or
their hex values; type F10
to exit viewing the file, and type F10
again to
exit mc.

METHOD #4
To view a hex dump of a buffer in Emacs, use hexl-mode.
⇒ To view a hex dump of the current buffer, type:
ALT
- X
hexl-mode RET

NOTES: This mode is good for viewing and editing binary files in Emacs.

9.3 Viewing Special Types of Text

These are recipes for viewing text formatted in special ways or written in
certain languages.

9.3.1 Viewing html-Formatted Text

There are two general methods for viewing html-formatted text, depending
on whether you want to view the html source code (the formatted text itself),
or the rendered html (the text with the html formatting commands applied
to it).

METHOD #1
To view the html-formatted text itself, just view it with less as with any
text file, as described in Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text], page 211.
224 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To view the html-formatted text file homepage.html as html source

code, type:
$ less homepage.html RET

METHOD #2
To view an html-formatted text file with the html formatting applied to the
text, open the file in a Web browser as described in Methods #2 and #3 of
Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files and Directories], page 157.
⇒ To view the html-formatted text file homepage.html as rendered html,
type:
$ mozilla homepage.html RET

9.3.2 Viewing Nroff-Formatted Text

To view text written in nroff format, which is intended for use with the
troff or groff text processors, use man with the -l option. Give the name
of the file to view as an argument (use “-” as the file argument to view the
standard input). By default, man sends its output to less so you can peruse
it.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To view the nroff file program.1, type:
$ man -l program.1 RET

• To convert the nroff file program.1 to text, and write that text to
a new file program.txt, type:
$ man -l program.1 > program.txt RET

In this last example, the new file program.txt will contain overstrike char-
acters for boldface text. The original file program.1 is unaltered.
NOTES: All man pages are written in nroff format, hence the use of that
command to view it.

9.3.3 Viewing C Program Source Code

There are at least two methods for viewing C program source code.
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 225

METHOD #1
Cutils
DEB: cutils
WWW: http://www.sigala.it/sandro/software.html#cutils

Use the chilight filter, distributed as part of the Cutils package, to view
C program source code with language highlighting. Given the name of a file
as an argument (or the standard input if the file name is omitted), chilight
outputs the C program source code, highlighted in one of a number of formats.
Specify the highlighting format by giving one of the following as an argument
to the -f option; the default value is “tty.”

ansi_color ascii text with ansi color.

ansi_bold ascii text with ansi bold.
html_color html with color highlights.
html_font Monochrome html with bold and italic highlights.
roff troff input text.
tty ascii text with overstrikes (the default).

Since ansi highlights in text consist of non-printing control sequences, to

peruse such output use less with the -R option (see Recipe 9.1.4 [Perusing
Raw Text], page 214).
⇒ To peruse the C program source code in the file myprog.c with colorized
language highlighting, type:
$ chilight -f ansi_color myprog.c | less -R RET

By default, chilight sends its output to the standard output. To write to

a file instead, give the file name to write to as an argument to the -o option.
⇒ To format the C program source code in the file myprog.c as html with
color highlighting and write the output to the file myprog.html, type:
$ chilight -f color_html -o myprog.html myprog.c RET

METHOD #2
To view C program source code with highlighting, use enscript to “pretty-
print” it, as described in Recipe 15.2.4 [Outputting Text with Language High-
lighting], page 365.
226 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This method outputs the text in PostScript, which you then view or print.
It also works with many other languages and formats, and not just C—see
the table in the aforementioned recipe.

⇒ To display the C program source code in the file myprog.c as PostScript

with language highlighting, type:
$ enscript -Ec -o i myprog.c | gv - RET

In this example, the gv command was used to display the enscript output.

9.3.4 Viewing Lines of Sorted Text

Use look to display certain lines of a sorted text file. It performs a fast search
on a sorted file, so it is particularly useful for viewing lines from large, sorted
lists. Give as arguments the text to match at the beginning of lines, and the
name of the file to read from.
⇒ To display all lines of the sorted file catalog that begin with the text
“DOT,” type:
$ look DOT catalog RET

If the text to match contains spaces, quote it.

⇒ To display all lines of the sorted file parts-list that begin with the text
“Part No. 42,” type:
$ look "Part No. 42" parts-list RET

NOTES: Without a second argument, look uses the system dictionary. This
is described in Recipe 11.2.1 [Listing Words That Match a Pattern], page 283.

9.3.5 Viewing Underlined Text

Plain text can be underlined by inserting, after each character to be under-
lined, a backspace character (“Control-H”), followed by an underscore char-
acter (_). When sent to a printer, the printer will first print the original
character, then backspace over it and print an underscore beneath it. This
type of underlining is called overstrike-style underlining, or backspace under-
lining (see Recipe 13.9 [Underlining Text], page 327).
If you use a tool like cat to output such text to the standard output, you
will see the underscore characters on your display, but not the characters they
are meant to underline—the backspace characters will have already erased
them. (But if you pipe cat’s standard output to a file or some other command,
all characters in the original input are retained.)
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 227

There are a few methods for viewing text containing backspace underlines
in different ways.

METHOD #1
Use less to peruse text containing backspace underlines (see Recipe 9.1 [Pe-
rusing Text], page 211).
⇒ To peruse the file term-paper so that you can view any backspace un-
derlines it contains, type:
$ less term-paper RET

METHOD #2
Use the ul tool to output text containing backspace underlines, so that these
underlines are displayed correctly on your terminal.
⇒ To output the file term-paper so that you can view underlined text, type:
$ ul term-paper RET

This command converts any backspace underlines in term-paper to char-

acter sequences that your terminal can display; thus, if you have cat or some
other command further on a pipeline, the text will be displayed properly on
your screen.
⇒ To output the file term-paper with cat, showing any underlined text on
your terminal, type:
$ ul term-paper | cat RET

METHOD #3
Use colcrt to convert backspace underlining to dashing (a row of hyphen
characters, like “------”) drawn beneath the underlined text.
⇒ To output the file term-paper, with all backspace underlining converted
to dashing, type:
$ colcrt term-paper RET

Dashing inserts a new line in the text directly underneath any underlined
text, and this is not always desirable. Use the ‘-’ option to supress underlining
entirely, and display any underlined text as plain text.
⇒ To output the file term-paper, with all backspace underlining removed,
type:
$ colcrt - term-paper RET

228 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

9.3.6 Listing Text in Binary Files

Use strings to output any printable text contained in a binary file. Give the
name of the file to search as an argument, and all non-text strings are sent to
the standard output. Sometimes, filtering the text through fmt improves the
display.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To save any text strings in the file table.com to the file table.txt,
type:
$ strings table.com > table.txt RET

• To peruse any text strings in the file table.com, type:
$ strings table.com | less RET

• To peruse the formatted output of any text strings in the file
table.com, type:
$ strings table.com | fmt | less RET

9.3.7 Viewing a Character Set

A character set is a specification that shows the numeric coding that represents
each character in the set. ascii, the American Standard Code for Information
Interchange, is a character set that has been in use since 1968, and it is
still the standard character set used in computing. Other character sets are
also available. The default Linux character set, the iso 8859-1 (“Latin 1”)
character set, is a “dialect” of ascii, containing all of the standard ascii
character set plus an additional 128 characters. These additional characters
are sometimes called extended characters.
Several character sets have their own manual pages; to view one of these
character sets, view its corrsponding manual page (see Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading
a Page from the System Manual], page 46).
To view a chart listing all of the valid characters in the ascii character set
and the character codes to use to type them, view the ascii man page.
⇒ To view an ascii character set, type:
$ man ascii RET

This displays the values of each character in octal, decimal, and hexadec-
imal, and also displays their escape codes. These values can be useful for
quoting special characters.
The iso_8859_1 man page contains the entire iso 8859-1 character set,
including all extended characters above the standard 127 ascii characters.
Chapter 9: Viewing Text 229

⇒ To view the iso 8859-1 character set, type:

$ man iso_8859_1 RET

You can use this page to see all of the characters in this character set and
how to input them.
NOTES: There’s a special way to “quote” these characters in Emacs; this tech-
nique is described in Recipe 10.1.4 [Inserting Special Characters in Emacs],
page 239.
The miscfiles package also contains charts for these character sets, as
explained in Recipe 11.4 [Using Word Lists and Reference Files], page 289.
230 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 10: Editing Text 231

10. Editing Text

Editing text is one of the most fundamental activities of computing on Linux-
based systems, or most any computer for that matter. We edit text when
writing a document, sending email, making a Web page, posting an article for
Usenet, programming—and the list goes on.
Most editing of text is done in a text editor, which is an application that
generally opens a file containing some text and lets you rearrange, insert,
delete and otherwise edit that text. People spend a good deal of their com-
puting time editing text with a text editor application.
In this chapter, I give introductions to the two most popular text editors
out there. I also cover other essential or handy ways to edit text without an
editor, including concatenation, file inclusion, and cutting and pasting with
the mouse.
There are a lot of text editors to choose from, but everyone knows there are
really only two choices: Emacs and Vi. The majority of editors are found un-
der one of these two main branches; more programs may have been influenced
by Emacs than by any other application, and almost every unix system in
the world has some version of Vi installed. Most users prefer one or the other;
rarely is one adept at both. Many tools and applications have special modes
in which the keystroke commands of Emacs and Vi are recognized, including
the Bash shell (see Chapter 3 [The Shell], page 53).
Sections in this chapter are devoted to both. Newcomers, you’ll do well
to spend a half-hour with each of these editors, setting aside time to try the
built-in tutorials. Then, go with the one that resonates.
Emacs and Vi are not like the kind of program you are likely to be familiar
with, and some newcomers might seem baffled at first—but they’re really
not difficult to use, and the experience pays off greatly. Anyone who has
experience with either of them knows that one can do much more, and more
quickly, in such an editor than with any “word processors” that are out there
on other systems. If you run the tutorial for both Emacs and Vi, you can get a
feel for how they work, and see which might be good for you (the ways to run
them are explained in Recipe 10.1.2 [Running an Emacs Tutorial], page 237
and Recipe 10.2.2 [Running a Vi Tutorial], page 247) .
Of course, there are other editors, and many have their devout followers;
it is worth having a look at what is available. If you are accustomed to some
particular editor on some other system, the chances are great that a “clone”
of it exists for Linux. For example, there are editors that work similarly to the
edit program in dos, or the old WordStar word processor (there is a special
232 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

mode in Emacs, wordstar-mode, which emulates its key bindings). A list of

other recommended editors concludes the chapter.

10.1 Using Emacs

GNU Emacs
DEB: emacsen-common
emacs21
RPM: emacs
WWW: http://www.emacs.org/

To call Emacs but a text editor does not do it justice—it’s a large application
capable of performing many functions, including reading email and Usenet
news, browsing the World Wide Web, and even perfunctory psychoanalysis
(for proof, see Recipe 30.7 [Undergoing Psychoanalysis], page 594).
There are two major variants of Emacs, with a number of minor branches
and alternates. gnu Emacs is distributed by the fsf as part of its “gnu
system,” and is the original Emacs. XEmacs (formerly Lucid Emacs) is an
alternate version. It offers essentially the same features gnu Emacs does, but
also contains its own features for use with the X Window System (it also
behaves differently from Gnu Emacs in some minor ways).
Gnu Emacs and XEmacs are by far the most popular emacsen (as they
are referred to in number); other flavors include jed (see Recipe 10.8 [Us-
ing Other Text Editors], page 263) and Chet’s Emacs (ce), developed by a
programmer at Case Western Reserve University. gnu Emacs is the flavor of
Emacs assumed in the recipes that follow, but in principle they should work
with most any Emacs variant.
First is a brief introduction to using Emacs, interspersed with the necessary
Emacs jargon; that is followed by recipes that describe how to use some of
Emacs’s unique editing features.

10.1.1 Getting Acquainted with Emacs

The fastest way to get acquainted with Emacs is to start it and try to do some
basic editing.
You start Emacs in the usual way, either by choosing it from the menu
supplied by your window manager in X, or by typing its name (in lowercase
letters) at a shell prompt. Give the name of any files as arguments to open
them in Emacs for editing.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 233

⇒ Here are two ways to do this.

• To start gnu Emacs at a shell prompt, type:

$ emacs RET

• To start XEmacs at a shell prompt, opening a file named journal,
type:
$ xemacs journal RET

Upon startup in X, a typical gnu Emacs window looks like Figure 10-1
(the client window will differ depending on your window manager):

Figure 10-1. Emacs upon startup.

The welcome message appears when Emacs first starts, and it tells you,
among other things, how to run a tutorial (which we’ll look at in just a
minute). The bar running along the entire left-hand side of the window is
called the scroll bar. The X client window in which an Emacs session is dis-
played (or the terminal screen, when not running in an X window) is called the
frame. Notice that there is no border along the sides (if you look closely, you
can see that even the side with the scroll bar is lacking a border); that is be-
cause many of today’s window managers, including the one in the illustration,
only draw borders on the top and bottom sides of a window.
The top bar is called the menu bar, and you can pull down its menus with
the mouse by left-clicking a menu and then dragging it down. When you run
Emacs in a terminal, you can’t use the mouse to pull down the menus, but
234 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

you can access and choose the same menu items in a text menu window by
typing F10
.1
A file or other text open in Emacs is held in its own area called a buffer.
By default, the current buffer appears in the large area underneath the menu
bar. To write text in the buffer, simply type it. The place in the buffer where
the cursor sits is called point, and is referenced by many Emacs commands.
The filled-in area on the scroll bar represents the text that is displayed in
the window in relation to the rest of the buffer. Thus, the scroll bar will be
filled completely in a new, small, or empty buffer (as in the illustration), and
when you are near the bottom of a very large buffer, only a tiny portion near
the bottom of the scroll bar will be filled.
The horizontal bar near the bottom of the Emacs window and directly
underneath the current buffer is called the mode line; it gives information
about the current buffer, including its name, what percentage of the buffer
fits on the screen, what line point is on, and whether or not the buffer is saved
to a file.
The mode line also lists the modes active in the buffer. Emacs modes
are general states that control the way Emacs behaves—for example, when
overwrite-mode is set, the text you type overwrites the text at point; in
insert-mode (the default), the text you type is inserted at point. Usually,
either fundamental-mode (the default) or text-mode will be listed.
Just beneath the mode line is the echo area where Emacs writes brief status
messages, such as error messages; it is the last line in the Emacs window.
When you type a command that requires input, that input is requested in
this area (and when that happens, the place you type your input, in the echo
area, is then called the minibuffer). If you look closely, you can see that it
has its own scroll bar, too.
Emacs makes extensive use of CTRL
and ALT
key combinations. Because
Emacs is different in culture from the editors and approach of the Microsoft
Windows and Apple macos world, it has gotten a rather unfounded reputation
in those corners that it is odd and difficult to use. This is not so. The keyboard
commands to run its various functions are designed for ease of use and easy
recall—once you get used to this concept, you can type these key combinations
very quickly.
In Emacs notation, these keypresses are written a certain way. Many com-
mands are begun by typing CTRL
- X
, which is written “C-x” (the command
to exit Emacs, for example, is CTRL
- X
CTRL
- C
, and is written “C-x C-c.”)
1
The F10
key also works in X, where it behaves the same as in a terminal.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 235

Functions are prefaced by ALT
- X
, which in Emacs is written as “M-x.”2

You can toggle various modes on or off by functions.
For example, you can make the menu bar appear or disappear by toggling
menu-bar-mode. Typing F10
to activate the menu pull-downs works whether
menu-bar-mode is on or off; if it’s off, the menu choices will appear in a new
buffer window.
You can run any Emacs function by typing ALT
- X
followed by the func-
tion name and pressing RET
.
⇒ To run the menu-bar-mode function, thus turning off the top menu bar,
type:
ALT
- X
menu-bar-mode RET

(If the menu bar is already turned off, running this function will turn it
back on.)
Type CTRL
- G
in Emacs to quit a function or command that you are
typing; if you make a mistake when typing a command, this is useful for
canceling and aborting the keyboard input.
The find-file function prompts for the name of a file and opens a copy of
the file in a new buffer; its keyboard accelerator is CTRL
- X
CTRL
- F
(you
can keep CTRL
depressed while you press and release the X
and F
keys).
⇒ To run the find-file function, type:
ALT
- X
find-file RET

This command runs the find-file function, which prompts for the name
of a file and opens a copy of the file in a new buffer.
Emacs can have more than one buffer open at once. Any file names you
give as an argument to emacs will open in separate buffers:
$ emacs diary etc/todo etc/rolo RET

(You can also make new buffers and open files in buffers later, of course.)
Just as functions are prefaced by the ALT
- X
keystroke, many commands
are prefaced by the similar CTRL
- X
keystroke, particularly commands that
work on buffers, files, or have to do with exiting Emacs.
To switch between buffers, type CTRL
- X
CTRL
- B
. Then, give the name
of the buffer to switch to, followed by RET
; alternatively, type RET
without
a buffer name to switch to the last buffer you visited. (Viewing a buffer in
Emacs is called visiting the buffer.)
2
Technically, this refers to the META
key. Chances are that your keyboard has an ALT

key and no META
key, though, in which case you use ALT
to type it, so I’ve used
ALT
to notate this key (see Recipe 1.2 [Typographical Conventions], page 6).
236 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To switch to a buffer called todo, type:

CTRL
- X
CTRL
- B
todo RET

If a buffer does not exist, Emacs will make a new buffer with the name you
give.
When you start Emacs, a special buffer named *scratch* exists, which
you can use for writing notes and other things you don’t want to save; its
contents aren’t saved, and the next time you run Emacs the *scratch* buffer
will be empty again.
⇒ To switch to the *scratch* buffer, type:
CTRL
- X
CTRL
- B
*scratch* RET

To write some text in the current buffer, just type it. Text you type is
inserted at point.
⇒ To insert a line of text at point in the current buffer, type:
This is how to type in Emacs. RET

Close a buffer by killing it with the CTRL
- X
k command. Emacs asks

for the name of the buffer to kill in the minibuffer. The default is the current
buffer; just pressing RET
will kill it. If the contents of the buffer is from a file,
and the buffer contains unsaved work, Emacs will ask you to confirm killing
the buffer. If it’s the *scratch* buffer or a new buffer whose contents has
never been written to a file, C command will kill it without asking.
⇒ To kill *scratch* when it’s the current buffer, type:
CTRL
- X
k RET

Kill buffer: (default *scratch*) RET

Now that we have run through the essential Emacs terminology, I’ll show
you how to exit the program.
To kill Emacs, use CTRL
- X
CTRL
- C
which also gives you a chance to
save any unsaved buffers before Emacs is killed. You can also type CTRL
- Z

to suspend Emacs as a background job, so that you can return to it later (see
Recipe 3.3.3 [Putting a Job in the Foreground], page 73). In X, CTRL
- Z

does not suspend Emacs but rather it iconifies the Emacs window. Deiconify
it to bring it back (see Recipe 4.3.5 [Deiconifying an X Window], page 107).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To kill Emacs, with a chance to save any unsaved buffers first, type:
CTRL
- X
CTRL
- C
RET

• To suspend Emacs when you are running it in the console, type:
CTRL
- Z

Chapter 10: Editing Text 237

• To iconify Emacs when you are running it in X, type:

CTRL
- Z

10.1.2 Running an Emacs Tutorial

Emacs comes with an interactive, self-paced tutorial that teaches you how to
use the basics. In my experience, setting aside 25 minutes to go through the
tutorial is one of the best things you can do in your computing career. Even
if you decide that you don’t like Emacs very much, a great many other ap-
plications use Emacs-like keyboard commands and heuristics, so familiarizing
yourself with them will always pay off. At any time when you are in Emacs
you can use the CTRL
- H
t command to start the tutorial.
⇒ To start the Emacs tutorial, type:
CTRL
- H
t

This command opens the tutorial, a special read-only file, into its own
buffer.
NOTES: Incidentally, CTRL
- H
is the Emacs help key; all help-related com-
mands begin with this key. For example, to read the Emacs faq, type CTRL
-
H
F, and to run the Info documentation browser (which contains The gnu
Emacs Manual), type CTRL
- H
i.

10.1.3 Using Basic Emacs Editing Keys

Anything you type in Emacs is called a key sequence, and when you type a
sequence that is bound to a command, it runs that command.
The following table lists basic editing keys and describes their functions.
Where two common keystrokes are available for a function, both are given.

Moving Point

or CTRL
- P
Move point up to the previous line.


or CTRL
- N
Move point down to the next line.


or CTRL
- B
Move point back (to the left) through the buffer one
character.


or CTRL
- F
Move point forward (to the right) through the buffer
one character.

ALT
- F
Move point forward one word.

238 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

(continued)
Moving Point
ALT
- B
Move point backward one word.

ALT
- 
Move point back to the next start-of-paragraph.

ALT
- 
Move point forward to the next end-of-paragraph.

PgUp
or CTRL
- V
Move point forward through the buffer one screenful.

PgDn
or ALT
- V
Move point backward through the buffer one screen-
ful.

CTRL
- A
Move point to the beginning of the current line.

CTRL
- E
Move point to the end of the current line.

CTRL
- L
Re-center the text in the Emacs window, placing the

line where point is in the middle of the screen.
Inserting and Deleting
INS
Toggle overwrite-mode.

CTRL
- T
Transpose the character at point with the character

to the left of point.

ALT
- T
Transpose the word at point with the word to the

left of point.

BKSP
or CTRL
- H
Delete character to the left of point.

DEL
or CTRL
- D
Delete character to the right of point.

Cutting and Pasting
SHIFT
- INS
or Yank text in the kill ring at point (see Recipe 10.3.2
CTRL
- Y
[Pasting Text], page 254).

CTRL
- SPACEBAR
Set mark (see Recipe 10.3.1 [Cutting Text],

page 254).

CTRL
-
Undo the last action (control-underscore).

CTRL
- K
Kill text from point to end of line.

CTRL
- W
Kill text from mark to point.

Chapter 10: Editing Text 239

Getting Help
CTRL
- H
t Start the Emacs tutorial.

CTRL
- H
k keystroke Describe keystroke.

CTRL
- H
a function List all Emacs commands related to function.

RET

CTRL
- H
F Open a copy of the Emacs FAQ in a new buffer.

CTRL
- H
i Start Info.

Command Operations
CTRL
- G
Cancel the current command.

CTRL
- U
number Repeat the next command or keystroke you type

number times.
File Operations
CTRL
- X
CTRL
- C
Save all buffers open in Emacs, and then exit the
program.

CTRL
- X
CTRL
- F
Open file in a new buffer for editing. To create a

file RET
new file that does not yet exist, just specify the file
name you want to give it. To browse through your
files, type TAB
instead of a file name.
Special Menus
CTRL
-left-click Display a menu of all open buffers, sorted by major
mode (works in X only).

SHIFT
-left-click Display a font selection menu (works in X only).

10.1.4 Inserting Special Characters in Emacs

There are some characters that you cannot normally type into an Emacs
buffer. For example, in a text file, you can specify a page break by inserting
the formfeed character, ascii CTRL
- L
or octal code 014; when you print a
file with formfeeds, the current page is ejected at this character and printing
is resumed on a new page.
However, CTRL
- L
has meaning as an Emacs command. To insert a
character like this, use the quoted-insert function, CTRL
- Q
. It takes
either the literal keystroke of the character you want to insert, or the octal
code of that character. It inserts the character at point.
240 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To insert a formfeed character at point by specifying its actual
keystroke ( CTRL
- L
), type:
CTRL
- Q
CTRL
- L

• To insert a formfeed character at point by specifying its octal char-

acter code, type:
CTRL
- Q
014 RET

The preceding examples both do the same thing: They insert a formfeed
character at point.
An interesting use of CTRL
- Q
is to underline text. To do this, insert a
literal CTRL
- H
character followed by an underscore (_) after each character
you want to underline.
⇒ To underline the character before point, type:
CTRL
- Q
CTRL
- H
_

You can then use ul to output the text to the screen (see Recipe 13.9
[Underlining Text], page 327).
Another kind of special character insert you might want to make is for
accented characters and other characters used in various languages.
There are two methods for inserting them in a buffer.

METHOD #1
To insert an accented character, use iso-accents-mode. When this mode is
active, you can type a special accent character followed by the character to
be accented, and the proper accented character will be inserted at point.
The following table shows the special accent characters and the key com-
binations to use.

Prefix . . . Plus This Letter Yields This Result

" a ä
" e ë
" i ï
" o ö
" u ü
" s ß
' a á
' e é
Chapter 10: Editing Text 241

(continued)
Prefix . . . Plus This Letter Yields This Result
' i í
' o ó
' u ú
` a à
` e è
` i ì
` o ò
` u ù
~ a ã
~ c ç
~ d d̃
~ n ñ
~ t t̃
~ u ũ
~ < <<
~ > >>
~ ! ¡
~ ? ¿
^ a â
^ e ê
^ i î
^ o ô
^ u û
/ a å
/ e æ
/ o ø
⇒ To write the text “Emacs ist spaß!” at point in the current buffer, type:
ALT
- X
iso-accents-mode RET

Emacs ist spa"ss!
In the event that you want to type the literal key combinations that make
up an accented character in a buffer where you have iso-accents-mode on,
type the prefix character twice.
⇒ To type the text “'o” (and not the accent character ó) in a buffer while
iso-accents-mode is on, type:
''o
242 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #2
To insert accented characters and other special language characters in a buffer
without entering iso-accents-mode, use CTRL
- X
8
followed by the special
key combination of accent prefix and character, as described in the previous
table.
Non-letter characters do not require the accent prefix with this method.
⇒ To write the text ‘¡Hasta Ma~ nana!’ at point in the current buffer, type:
CTRL
- X
8
!
Hasta Ma CTRL
- X
8
~
nana!

NOTES: When a buffer contains accented characters, it can no longer be

saved as plain ascii text, but must instead be saved as text in the iso-8859-1
character set (see Recipe 9.3.7 [Viewing a Character Set], page 228). When
you save a buffer, Emacs will notify you that it must do this.
Recently, a number of internationalization functions have been added to
gnu Emacs. A complete discussion of their use is beyond the scope of this
book; for more information on this topic, consult the “International Character
Set Support” section of The gnu Emacs Manual.

10.1.5 Making Abbreviations in Emacs

An abbrev is a word that is an abbreviation of a (usually) longer word or
phrase. Abbrevs exist as a convenience to you—you can define abbrevs to
expand to a long phrase that is inconvenient to type, or you can define a
misspelling that you tend to make to expand to its correct spelling. Abbrevs
only expand when you have abbrev-mode enabled.
⇒ To turn on abbrev-mode, type:
ALT
- X
abbrev-mode RET

To define an abbrev, type the abbrev you want to use and then type CTRL
-
X
aig. Emacs will prompt in the minibuffer for the text you want the abbrev
to expand to; type that text and then type RET
.
• To define “ww” as an abbrev for ‘Walla Walla, Washington,’ do the fol-
lowing:
1. First, type the abbrev itself:
ww
2. Next, specify that this text is to be an abbrev; type:
CTRL
- X
aig
Chapter 10: Editing Text 243

3. Now type the text to expand it to:

Global expansion for "ww": Walla Walla, Washington RET

Now, whenever you type the text “ww” followed by a whitespace or punctu-
ation character in the current buffer, that text will expand to the text “Walla
Walla, Washington.”
To save the abbrevs you have defined so that you can use them later,
use the write-abbrev-file function. This saves all of the abbrevs currently
defined to a file that you can read in a future Emacs session. (You can also
open the file in a buffer and edit the abbrevs if you like.)
⇒ To save the abbrevs you have currently defined to the file ~/.abbrevs,
type:
ALT
- X
write-abbrev-file RET
~/.abbrevs RET

Then, in a future Emacs session, you can use the read-abbrev-file func-
tion to define those abbrevs for that session.
⇒ To read the abbrevs from the file ~/.abbrevs, and define them for the
current session, type:
ALT
- X
read-abbrev-file RET
~/.abbrevs RET

NOTES: Emacs mode commands are toggles. So to turn off abbrev-mode in

a buffer, just type ALT
- X
abbrev-mode RET
again. If you turn abbrev-
mode on in that buffer later on during the Emacs session, the abbrevs will be
remembered and will expand again.

10.1.6 Recording and Running Macros in Emacs

A macro is like a recording of a sequence of keystrokes—when you run a
macro, Emacs executes that key sequence as if you had typed it.
To begin recording a macro, type CTRL
- X
(. Then, everything you type
is recorded as the macro until you stop recording by typing CTRL
- X
).
After you have recorded a macro, you can play it back at any time during the
Emacs session by typing CTRL
- X
e. You can precede it with the universal-
argument command, CTRL
- U
, to specify a number of times to play it back.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To record a macro that capitalizes the first word of the current line
( ALT
- C
capitalizes the word to the right of point) and then ad-
vances to the next line, type:
CTRL
- X
( CTRL
- A
ALT
- C

CTRL
- N
CTRL
- X
)
244 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To play the macro back 20 times, type:

CTRL
- U
20 CTRL
- X
e

NOTES: Macros are fundamental to how Emacs works—in fact, the name
Emacs is derived from “Editing MACroS,” because the first version of Emacs
in 1976 was actually a collection of such macros written for another text editor.

10.1.7 Viewing Multiple Emacs Buffers at Once

You can divide an Emacs frame into multiple windows, each displaying its
own buffer. This is useful for viewing parts of more than one buffer at the
same time. It’s also useful when you have a long buffer, and you would like
to look at one part of it while you edit another—if you split the frame in two,
you can move to the text you want to view in one window, and edit a different
part of it in another.
Use CTRL
- X
2 to split the current frame into two windows, one on top
of the other, and use CTRL
- X
3 to split it vertically, making two windows
side-by-side. By default, the current buffer is displayed in both windows, but
you can always change the buffer displayed in any window. In X, use the
mouse to adjust the size of either window—left-click on the mode line of a
window, and drag it to adjust the size of that window.
Switch to different windows by either using the mouse pointer to posi-
tion point, and then left-clicking, or by typing CTRL
- X
o, which switches
to another window. This comes in handy when you need to repeatedly kill
selections of text from one part of a long file to another: Cut the text in
one window, and in the other, yank it into position. When you have many
selections to kill and yank, this method saves time.
Use CTRL
- X
1 to remove the multiple windows and make the frame one
single window again.

10.2 Using Vi
Nvi
DEB: nvi
RPM: nvi
WWW: http://www.bostic.com/vi/
WWW: http://vasc.ri.cmu.edu/old_help/Editors/Vi/

The following recipes work for the Vi editor. Its name, pronounced “vye,”
or sometimes “vee-eye,” is short for visual ; when it was first invented, it was
Chapter 10: Editing Text 245

among the first text editors to visually display the text on the entire screen
for interactive editing (other interactive editors of the time typically displayed
files line by line).
As with Emacs, there are many variants of Vi; a few of the more popular
ones today are Vim and Elvis, both newer implementations that have many
more features than the original Vi. This section will assume use of Nvi, a new
implementation of the original Vi for bsd that is commonly found on most
Linux systems today.

10.2.1 Getting Acquainted with Vi

As with Emacs, the way to get acquainted with Vi is to start it, and try some
basic editing.
You start Vi either by choosing it from the menu supplied by your window
manager in X, or by typing its name (in lowercase letters) at a shell prompt.
Give the name of a file to begin editing a file.
⇒ Here are two ways to do this.
• To start Vi at a shell prompt, type:
$ vi RET

• To open a file name journal for editing in Vi, type:
$ vi journal RET

Vi is a modal editor, where the meaning of text you type depends on the
current editing mode the editor is in. When you start, Vi is in command mode,
which means that the text you type is interpreted as literal Vi commands.
A typical Vi session, upon startup in command mode with a new file, looks
like Figure 10-2.
The cursor is positioned in the upper right-hand corner. Vi fills lines on
the screen after the end of the file with the tilde character (~); so when you
are in a new file, such as when you start Vi with no arguments, the screen is
filled with tildes because there is nothing yet in the file.
The bottom line of the screen is called the command line, and is where Vi
displays important messages and information about the file you are editing.
When Vi starts, the command line displays three things: First, the name of
the recovery file used for this file.3 Second, Vi displays the name of the file
3
Vi uses the /tmp directory to store temporary files for all files that you edit; it saves your
editing work so that you can recover it in the event of a crash, or if you accidentally exit
Vi before you save it.
246 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

being edited; in this case, the file doesn’t have a name yet, so “new file” is
written on the command line. The third thing displayed on the command line
is the line number of the file that the cursor is on.

Figure 10-2. Vi upon startup.

⇒ Type ZZ to exit Vi when you are in command mode.
• To exit Vi from command mode, type:
ZZ

To begin editing a particular file, give its name as an argument; if you

specify a file that doesn’t exist, Vi will begin editing a new file, and when you
write it to disk, it will be saved with the name you gave it.
⇒ To start Vi and open a file named planner, type:
$ vi planner RET

When in command mode, execute a command by typing it. To cancel a com-

mand you have begun typing, press ESC
. Some commands, particularly those
for writing files, are preceded by a colon character (:); technically, pressing
the colon brings you to a new mode, command line mode.
To change to insert mode, where text you type is inserted in the file you
are editing,4 you can use one of several commands; the i command enters
insert mode at the point where the cursor is currently located, and allows
you to insert text you type at that point. To exit insert mode and move to
command mode, type ESC
.

4
This is also called input mode.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 247

⇒ To insert a line of text in Vi and then move to command mode, type:

i Hello, world. RET

ESC

This moves from command mode to insert mode, inserts the text “Hello,
world.” and a newline character in the current file, where the cursor was, and
then brings Vi back to command mode.
The command to get help is :help, and to get a list of commands and
their usage, run the :viusage command.
⇒ To get a list of Vi commands and their usage, type:
:viusage RET

When you open a file in Vi, the content of the file is placed in its own
buffer, as with Emacs. Changes are not made to a file on disk until you write
them.
To write a buffer to a file, use :w and give the name of the file to write to.
Use :wq instead to write the file to disk and quit, and use :q! to abandon all
unsaved editing, and quit Vi.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To write the contents of the buffer to the file my_practice_file,
and then exit Vi, type:
:wq my_practice_file RET

• To abandon any unsaved editing and exit Vi, type:
:q! RET

NOTES: You can also type ZZ to write the changes to the current file and
exit.

10.2.2 Running a Vi Tutorial

The Vi editor comes with a hands-on, self-paced tutorial that you can run
through in under an hour. As with the Emacs tutorial, it’s simply a read-
only text file that is opened Vi. It’s designed to teach you how to use Vi by
showing you the various commands and their effects on the text. It’s stored as
a compressed file in the /usr/doc/nvi directory; copy this file to your home
directory, uncompress it, and open it with vi to start the tutorial.
248 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To run the vi tutorial, type the following from your home directory:
 

$ cp /usr/doc/nvi/vi.beginner.gz . RET

$ gunzip vi.beginner.gz RET

$ vi vi.beginner RET

NOTES: An advanced tutorial is also available in /usr/doc/nvi.

The vim editor has an interactive tutorial that you run as its own command,
vimtutor.

10.2.3 Using Basic Vi Editing Keys

Editing keys depend on the mode you are in. When in insert mode, any text
you type is inserted in the file until you type ESC
to switch back to command
mode.
The following table describes commands available when in command mode.

Cursor Movement
CTRL
- F
Scroll text down one full screen.

CTRL
- B
Scroll text up one full screen.

CTRL
- D
Scroll text down one half-screen.

CTRL
- U
Scroll text up one half-screen.


or j Move down one character.


or k Move up one character.


or h Move to the left one character.


or l Move to the right one character.

H Move to top of screen.
L Move to bottom of screen.
w Move forward one word.
b Move backward one word.
( Move forward one sentence.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 249

(continued)
Cursor Movement
) Move backward one sentence.
numberG Go to line number. (With no number preceding it,
G goes to the last line in the file.)
0 Go to beginning of line cursor is on.
$ Go to end of line cursor is on.
Cutting and Pasting
x Delete character cursor is on.
dd Delete line cursor is on.
D Delete everything from the cursor to the end of the
line.
J Join the line the cursor is on with the line that fol-
lows it (i.e., delete the newline character between
them).
p Paste, after the cursor, the last text that was
deleted.
P Paste, before the cursor, the last text that was
deleted.
number yy “Yank” current line. If preceded by a number, then
yank that number of lines.
u Undo last edit made.
. Redo last edit made.
Searching
/pattern RET
Search forward for pattern (if none given, then
search for the next forward occurrence of the last
pattern searched for). Searches wrap from end of
file to beginning.

?pattern RET
Search backward for pattern (if none given, then
search for the next backward occurrence of the last
pattern searched for). Searches wrap from beginning
of file to end.
250 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Moving to Insert Mode

a Appends text just after the cursor.
A Appends text at the end of the line the cursor is on.
i Inserts text just before the cursor.
I Inserts text at the beginning of the line that the
cursor is on.
o Opens a new line below the line the cursor is on,
and begins inserting text there.
O Opens a new line above the line the cursor is on, and
begins inserting text there.
r Replaces the character the cursor is over with one
you type.
R Replaces existing text with the text you type.
s Substitutes the character under the cursor with the
text you type, deleting that character and inserting
text at that point.
S Substitutes the line the cursor is on with the text
you type, deleting that line and inserting text at
that point.
Quitting Vi

:q RET
Quit Vi only if there are no unsaved edits.

:q! RET
Quit without saving, even if there have been changes
to the file.

:w name RET
Write file to disk; if name is given, write it to that

file name.

:wq name RET
Write file to disk and quit Vi; if name is given, write
it to that file name.
ZZ Write file and quit Vi.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 251

10.2.4 Inserting Special Characters in Vi

To insert a control character in Vi verbatim as typed, type CTRL
- V
in input

mode and then type the control character.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To insert a formfeed character (“Control-L”) before the cursor when
you are in command mode, type:
i CTRL
- V
CTRL
- L

• To insert a formfeed character (“Control-L”) before the cursor when
you are already in input mode, type:
CTRL
- V
CTRL
- L

10.2.5 Running a Command in Vi

To run a shell command in Vi, use :! while in command mode, and follow it
with the name of the command. The output is displayed on the screen while
your editing session is suspended; press RET
to go back to the editing session.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To run the date command from Vi while in command mode, type:

:!date RET

• To run the date command from Vi while in input mode, type:
ESC
:!date RET

NOTES: After this last example, you can return to input mode by typing a
command such as i.

10.2.6 Inserting Command Output in Vi

You can insert the output of a command into the file you are editing in Vi.
To do this, use :r! followed by the command. Output is inserted at the point
where the cursor is pointing.
⇒ To insert the current date and time in the current file in Vi, at the point
where the cursor is, type:
:r!date RET

252 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

10.2.7 Customizing Vi
There are a number of options you can set in Vi; use the set command
followed by the name of the option to set it. Given alone, set lists all of the
options that have changed from their defaults, and given with the all option,
set lists all options that are available.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To show all the options that have been changed from their default
behavior, type:
:set RET

• To show all available options, type:
:set all RET

The following table lists some of the set options and describes their actions.

autoindent Automatically indent new lines.

autowrite Automatically write files to disk when changing to
another file.
beautify Do not display control characters.
columns=number Set the number of columns (default 80, sometimes
larger in X).
flash Flash the screen instead of ringing the system bell
(the default).
leftright Allow for scrolling to the left and right.
lines=number Set number of lines shown on the screen at once
(default is 24, sometimes larger in X).
list Text is displayed unambiguously, so that tab char-
acters appear as “^I” instead of as eight spaces, and
a “$” is given at the end of every line.
nonumber Lines are not prefaced with line numbers (the de-
fault).
number Lines are prefaced with line numbers.
ruler Draw a “ruler” on the command line, showing the
current line number and column number.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 253

showmatch Note when closing parentheses or curly braces match

their opening partner.
showmode Show the name of the current editing mode on the
right side of the command line, and display an as-
terisk (*) when the file has been modified.
verbose Give verbose error messages.

NOTES: For the complete list of options, consult the vi man page.

10.3 Manipulating Selections of Text

You can perform “cut and paste” operations on text, in both X and in a
terminal.
In X, you can cut and paste text between different windows, including
Xterm and Emacs windows. The most recently selected text is called the X
selection.
In a terminal, you can cut and paste text in the same virtual console or
into a different virtual console. To do this, you need to have the gpm package
installed and set up for your mouse (this is a default on most systems).
The operations described in this section work the same both in X and in
virtual consoles. You cannot presently cut and paste text between X and a
virtual console.
Three buttons on the mouse are used for cutting and pasting. If you have
a two-button mouse, your administrator can set it to emulate three buttons,
where you then press the left and right buttons simultaneously to specify the
middle button.
Click the left mouse button and drag the mouse over text to select it. You
can also double-click the left mouse button on a word to select that word, or
triple-click the left mouse button on a line to select that line. Furthermore,
you can click the left mouse button at one end of a portion of text you want
to select, and then click the right mouse button at the other end to select all
of the text between the points.

NOTES: In an xterm window, when you’re running a tool or application

locally in a shell (such as the Lynx Web browser), the left mouse button alone
won’t work. When this happens, press and hold SHIFT
while using the mouse
to select text.
254 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

10.3.1 Cutting Text

You don’t have to select text to cut it. At a shell prompt or in Emacs, type
CTRL
- K
to cut the text from the cursor to the end of the line.

In Emacs parlance, cutting text is known as killing text.

⇒ Emacs has additional commands for killing text:
• When you have selected an area of text with the mouse as described
previously, you can type SHIFT
- DEL
to delete it.
• You can also click the left mouse button at one end of an area of
text, and then double-click the right mouse button at the other end
of the area, to kill the area of text.
• To kill a large portion of text in an Emacs buffer, set the mark at
one end of the text by moving point to that end and typing CTRL
-
SPACEBAR
. Then, move point to the other end of the text, and type
CTRL
- W
to kill it.

10.3.2 Pasting Text

XPaste
DEB: xpaste
RPM: xpaste
WWW: http://www.seindal.dk/rene/software/xpaste/

To paste the text that was last selected with the mouse, click the middle mouse
button at the place you want to paste to. You can also use the keyboard by
moving the cursor to where you want to paste and then typing SHIFT
- INS
.
These commands work both in X and in a terminal.
In X, to display the content of the X selection in its own window, run the
xpaste X client; its only purpose in life is to display this text in its window.
In Emacs, pasting text is called yanking the text. Emacs offers an addi-
tional keystroke, CTRL
- Y
(“yank”), to yank the text that was last selected
or killed. This key also works in the Bash shell, where it pastes the last text
that was killed with CTRL
- K
in that shell session, if any.

10.4 Using a Token

A handy but rarely discussed method for text editing involves the use of a
token. The token is nothing more than a little piece of text you put somewhere
that represents either a place-holder or some other text that is to come later.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 255

The utility of a token is that when you leave that part of the text, you can
quickly return to it later by searching for the token string.
The string you use for a token must be something unique that does not
appear in the text proper, and yet is something that you can recognize. Use
it to bookmark a point in a text you are editing, for when you need to move
elsewhere in the text to do some other thing, but have intend to come back to
this place later. It’s also handy for when you are editing a text and have to
keep a space blank for the time being, such as someone’s name that you will
add later, once it becomes known.
When you want to go back to the place you have marked with the token,
just search for the token using the editor’s search facilities. (In Vi, you can
use the m command to set a named mark in the file at the point where the
cursor is.)
My favorite token is “tk,” the printers’ mark. This two-letter combination
occurs rarely in English text, and it is very short, so it is a good one to use
for such purposes.5
Some people use a silly nonsense word that they can remember, and others
use “***” or “###” or some other thing.

10.5 Editing Streams of Text

Some of the recipes in this book for filtering text use sed, the “stream editor.”
It is not a text editor in the usual sense—you don’t open a file in sed and
interactively edit it; instead, it performs a given list of editing operations on
a stream of text sent to its standard input stream, and it writes the results
to the standard output stream. This is more like a filter than an editor; sed,
which has its own programming language, is a useful tool for formatting and
searching through text. It is often used as a filter in a pipline.
The command itself is called sed; it is usually run by giving as arguments
a set of sed commands and, optionally, the file specifications to work on.
Without filespec, the standard input is read from.
The simplest thing to do with sed is use it as a filter to edit the in-
put stream in some way, and send it to the output. For example, the
sed command to search for all instances of some pattern in the input
5
In printing, where this mark has its origin, it stands for “to kum,” meaning that the
text where this token was put is to come at some later time. Writers would intentionally
misspell this and other marks on the copy they submitted, so that the typesetters would
know that they were instructions to them, and not a literal part of the text to typeset.
256 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

stream and replace it with some other pattern in the output stream is
“s/searchpattern/replacepattern/g”; to filter the output of a command, you
can quote this command as an argument to sed and put it on a pipeline.

⇒ To output a calendar of the current month, with all “1” characters re-
placed with “l” characters, type:
$ cal | sed 's/1/l/g' RET

This example uses cal to display a calendar (see Recipe 27.3.1 [Displaying
a Calendar], page 539). The output of cal is edited by sed and then sent to
standard output.
You can also use sed to edit the contents of files by giving some filespec as
a second argument; the content of the files are sent to standard output with
the specified editing changes, and the original files are not altered.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the contents of the file remarks, replacing every instance
of the text “quite pleased;’ with “absolutely delighted,” type
(all on one line):
$ sed 's/quite pleased/absolutely delighted/g'
remarks RET

• To output the contents of all files in the current directory whose
file names end with remarks, replacing every instance of the text
“surprised” and “nearly shocked” with “utterly astounded,”
type (all on one line):
$ sed 's/surprised\|nearly shocked/utterly
astounded/g' *remarks RET

NOTES: See Appendix D [References for Further Interest], page 731, for more
information on sed.

10.6 Concatenating Text

The cat tool gets its name because it concatenates all of the text given to
it, outputting the combined result to the standard output. Think of it as a
way of chaining some block of text to some other block of text; you can make
chains of any length. This is useful for chaining files of text together into new
files.
For example, suppose you have two files, early and later. The file early
looks like Figure 10-3, and the file later looks like Figure 10-4.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 257
 

This Side of Paradise

The Beautiful and Damned


Figure 10-3. The early file.
 

The Great Gatsby

Tender Is the Night
The Love of the Last Tycoon


Figure 10-4. The later file.
⇒ To concatenate these files into a new file, novels, type:
$ cat early later > novels RET

This command redirects the standard output to a new file, novels, whose
contents would look like Figure 10-5. The files early and later are not
altered.
 

This Side of Paradise

The Beautiful and Damned
The Great Gatsby
Tender Is the Night
The Love of the Last Tycoon


Figure 10-5. The novels file.
Had you run cat later early > novels instead, the files would be con-
catenated in that reversed order instead, beginning with later; so the file
novels would look like Figure 10-6.
 

The Great Gatsby

Tender Is the Night
The Love of the Last Tycoon
This Side of Paradise
The Beautiful and Damned


Figure 10-6. The novels file reversed.
The following sections give other recipes for concatenating text.
NOTES: You can also use cat to concatenate files that are not text, but its
most popular usage is with text files. Another way to concatenate files of text
in an automated way is to use file inclusion—see Recipe 10.7 [Including Text
from Other Files], page 261.
A similar tool, zcat, works on the contents of compressed files.
258 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

10.6.1 Writing Text to Files

Sometimes, it’s too much trouble to call up a text editor for a particular job—
you just want to write a text file with two lines in it, say, or you just want
to append one line to a text file. There are good ways of doing these kind of
micro-editing jobs without a text editor.
To write a text file without using a text editor, redirect the standard output
of cat to the file to write. You can then type your text, typing CTRL
- D

on a line of its own to end the file. This is useful when you want to quickly
create a small text file, but that is about it; usually, you open or create a text
file in a text editor, as described in the previous sections in this chapter.

⇒ To make a file, novels, with some text in it, type:

 

$ cat > novels RET

This Side of Paradise RET

The Beautiful and Damned RET

The Great Gatsby RET

Tender Is the Night RET

CTRL
- D

$

In this example, the text file novels was created and contains four lines
of text (the last line with the CTRL
- D
is never part of the file).
Typing text like this without an editor will sometimes do in a pinch but, if
you make a mistake, there is not much recourse besides starting over—you can
type CTRL
- U
to erase the current line, and CTRL
- C
to abort the whole
thing and not write the text to a file at all, but that’s about it.

10.6.2 Appending Text to a File

To add text to a text file without opening the file in a text editor, use cat
with the append operator, >>. (Using > instead would overwrite the file.)
⇒ To add a line of text to the bottom of file novels, type:
 

$ cat >> novels RET

The Love of the Last Tycoon RET

CTRL
- D



Chapter 10: Editing Text 259

In this example, no files were specified to cat for input, so cat used the
standard input; then, one line of text was typed, and this text was appended
to file novels, the file used in the previous recipe. So now this file would look
like Figure 10-5.

10.6.3 Inserting Text at the Beginning of a File

Inserting text at the beginning of a text file without calling up a text editor
is a bit trickier than appending text to a file’s end—but it is possible. There
are several methods for doing this.

METHOD #1
The shell script given in Figure 10-7 will insert the lines you give it into the
file specified as an argument.
Put it in a file called ins, and install it as a shell script (see Recipe A.3.4
[Installing a Shell Script], page 708).
 

#!/bin/sh
/bin/ed $1 <<EOF
0a
`cat -`
.
w
q
EOF


Figure 10-7. The ins file.
To insert one or more lines of text at the beginning of a file, give the
name of the file into which the text should be inserted as an argument to ins;
ins will read lines of text from the standard input and insert them at the
beginning of the file. (It works by opening the file in ed, a simple line editor.)
Give the eof—that is, type CTRL
- D
on a line by itself—to signify the
end of the lines of text to insert.
260 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To insert several lines of text at the beginning of the file novels, type:
 

$ ins novels RET

The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald RET

--------------------------------- RET

CTRL
- D

$

This command inserts two lines of text at the beginning of novels, the file
used in the previous examples in this section. This file would now look like
Figure 10-8.
 

The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald

---------------------------------
This Side of Paradise
The Beautiful and Damned
The Great Gatsby
Tender Is the Night
The Love of the Last Tycoon


Figure 10-8. The novels file with a new beginning.

METHOD #2
To use cat to insert text at the beginning of a file, use cat to concatenate the
standard input and the file; redirect this to a new file name that will contain
the file with the inserted text at the beginning.
⇒ To insert several lines of text at the beginning of the file novels, type:
 

$ cat - novels > novels.tmp RET

The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald RET

--------------------------------- RET

CTRL
- D

$

This command writes a new file, novels.tmp, containing the lines you
typed and then the contents of novels. To keep the file with this inserted
text, move novels.tmp to novels.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 261

10.7 Including Text from Other Files

M4
DEB: m4
RPM: m4
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/m4.html

File inclusion is when the content of a file is included at a particular place

within some other file, just by specifying the file’s name at that place in the
other file.
This is useful if you want or need to frequently rearrange divisions or
sections of a document, if you need to keep a document in more than one
arrangement, or if you have some sections of text that you frequently insert
in more than one document. For these situations, you can keep each section
in a separate file and build an include file that contains the file names of the
various sections in the order you want for that file.
To include a file in a text file, specify the file to be included on a line of
its own, like this:
include(file)
When you process this file for inclusion, the line with the “include” state-
ment is replaced with the contents of the file file (whose path is relative to
the current directory of the include file).
Use the m4 tool, the gnu macro processor, to process an include file. It
takes as an argument the name of the include file, and it outputs the inclusion
to the standard output. You can use redirection to redirect the output to a
file.6
For example, suppose you have three files: soups as in Figure 10-9,
sandwiches as in Figure 10-10, and menu as in Figure 10-11.
 

Clam Chowder
Lobster Bisque
Vegetable


Figure 10-9. The soups file.

6
This is a fairly simple use of m4; it can do much more, including run commands, ma-
nipulate text, and run custom macros. Consult its Info documentation for more (see
Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).
262 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
 

BLT
Ham on Rye
Roast Beef


Figure 10-10. The sandwiches file.
 

Diner Menu for Today

Soups
-----

include(soups)

Sandwiches
----------

include(sandwiches)


Figure 10-11. The menu file.
⇒ To process the file and write it to the file monday.txt, type:
$ m4 menu > monday.txt RET

This command writes a new file, monday.txt, as in Figure 10-12.

 

Diner Menu for Today

Soups
-----

Clam Chowder
Lobster Bisque
Vegetable

Sandwiches
----------

BLT
Ham on Rye
Roast Beef


Figure 10-12. The monday.txt file.
Chapter 10: Editing Text 263

NOTES: You can write more than one include file that will use your files—and
these include files themselves can have inclusions of their own.

10.8 Using Other Text Editors

The following table describes some of the more popular or interesting text
editors available for Linux, and includes information about their special traits
and characteristics as well as a screen shot.

AEE The advanced easy editor has a pop-up menu interface and is meant
to be usable with no prior instruction; includes an interface for use
in X, xae.

DEB: aee
RPM: aee
WWW: http://mahon.cwx.net/

Figure 10-13. Advanced Easy Editor.

264 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Cooledit Cooledit is a popular, fast text editor for use in X; its features
include anti-aliased fonts, Unicode support, and extensibility via
the Python programming language. It’s based on the Midnight
Commander’s terminal editor, and it’s unique in that it is unlike
either Emacs or Vi.

DEB: cooledit
RPM: cooledit
WWW: http://cooledit.sourceforge.net/

Figure 10-14. Cooledit.

DEdit DEdit is a simple editor for use in X with gnome installed. It can
read compressed files and display Japanese characters.

DEB: dedit

Figure 10-15. DEdit.

Chapter 10: Editing Text 265

E3 A tiny editor (10 kb in size) with available keyboard bindings that

emulate Emacs, Vi, pico, Nedit, and WordStar.

DEB: e3
RPM: e3
WWW: http://www.sax.de/~adlibit/

Figure 10-16. E3.

EE Intended to be an editor that novices can begin using immediately,
the Easy Editor features pop-up menus and is based on aee, de-
scribed previously.

DEB: ee
WWW: http://mahon.cwx.net/

Figure 10-17. Easy Editor.

266 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Elvis Elvis is a modern implementation of Vi that comes with many new

features and extensions.

DEB: elvis
RPM: elvis
WWW: http://elvis.vi-editor.org/

Figure 10-18. Elvis.

Emacs Emacs is one of the two most popular text editors. A section
all about it located earlier in this chapter (see Recipe 10.1 [Using
Emacs], page 232).

DEB: emacsen-common
emacs21
RPM: emacs
WWW: http://www.emacs.org/

Figure 10-19. Emacs.

Chapter 10: Editing Text 267

Glimmer Intended for use with computer programming languages, it has

many features that appeal to programmers.

DEB: glimmer
RPM: glimmer
WWW: http://glimmer.sourceforge.net/

Figure 10-20. Glimmer.

JED John E. Davis’s editor offers many of the conveniences of Emacs
and is geared specifically toward programmers. Features unique
to it include drop-down menus that work in terminals; jed loads
quickly, and makes editing files at a shell prompt easy and fast.

DEB: jed
RPM: jed
WWW: http://www.jedsoft.org/jed/

Figure 10-21. JED.

268 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

JOE Joe’s Own Editor, joe, is a full-screen editor with a look and feel
reminiscent of the old dos text editors, such as edit.

DEB: joe
RPM: joe
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/joe-editor/

Figure 10-22. Joe’s Own Editor.

Le A multi-lingual editor for use in a terminal, with support for oper-
ating on rectangular blocks of text.

DEB: le
RPM: le
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/23325

Figure 10-23. Le.

Chapter 10: Editing Text 269

MCedit This is the full-screen terminal editor that comes with the Midnight
Commander.

DEB: mc-common
mc
RPM: mc
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/

Figure 10-24. Midnight Commanderx.

Nano Gnu Nano is a free software editor inspired by pico, the editor
that is included with the University of Washington’s proprietary
pine email program. It’s also faster than pico, and comes with
more features.

DEB: nano
RPM: nano
WWW: http://www.nano-editor.org/

Figure 10-25. Nano.

270 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Ted Ted is a wysiwyg, typewriter-like text editor for use in X. It reads

and writes rtf files (Microsoft’s “Rich Text Format”).

DEB: ted
RPM: Ted
WWW: http://www.nllgg.nl/Ted/

Figure 10-26. Ted.

THE The Hessling Editor (the) is a configurable editor that uses the
Rexx macro language. It was inspired by the xedit editor for
vm/cms and the Kedit editor for dos.

DEB: the
the-doc
RPM: THE
WWW: http://hessling-editor.sourceforge.net/

Figure 10-27. The Hessling Editor.

Chapter 10: Editing Text 271

Vi Vi is a visual, or full-screen, editor. It is probably the most popular

editor on Linux, and on unix-based systems in general. Touch
typists often find its keystroke commands enable very fast editing. A
section all about it is located earlier in this chapter (see Recipe 10.2
[Using Vi], page 244).

DEB: nvi
RPM: nvi
WWW: http://www.bostic.com/vi/

Figure 10-28. Vi.

Vim Like the Elvis editor, Vim (“Vi improved”) is a modern implemen-
tation of Vi; it has more commands and versatility, and new features
include syntax coloring, scrollbars and menus, mouse support, and
built-in help.

DEB: vim
RPM: vim
WWW: http://www.vim.org/

Figure 10-29. Vim.

272 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Wily Wily, an interesting mouse-centric editor, is inspired by the Acme

editor from at&t’s Plan 9 experimental operating system. Wily
commands consist of various combinations of the three mouse but-
tons, called chords.

DEB: wily
WWW: http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~oz/wily/

Figure 10-30. Wily.

Xcoral A mouse-centric text editor for X that uses multiple windows.

DEB: xcoral
RPM: xcoral
WWW: http://xcoral.free.fr/

Figure 10-31. Xcoral.

Chapter 10: Editing Text 273

Xedit Xedit is a simple text editor that comes with, and works in, X. It
lets you insert, delete, copy, and paste text as well as open and save
files—the very basics.

DEB: xbase-clients
RPM: XFree86
WWW: http://www.xfree86.org/

Figure 10-32. Xedit.

XEmacs XEmacs is a version of Emacs with advanced capabilities for use in
X, including the ability to display images.

DEB: emacsen-common
xemacs21
RPM: xemacs
WWW: http://www.xemacs.org/

Figure 10-33. XEmacs.

274 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 275

11. Grammar and Reference

The tools and resources for writing and editing on Linux-based systems include
spell checkers, dictionaries, and reference files. This chapter shows methods
for using them.

11.1 Spell Checking

There are several ways to spell-check text and files on Linux; the following
recipes show how to find the correct spellings of particular words and how to
perform batch, interactive, and Emacs-based spell checks.
The system dictionary file, /usr/dict/words,1 is nothing more than a
word list (albeit a very large one), sorted in alphabetical order and containing
one word per line. Words that are correct regardless of case2 appear in all
lowercase letters, and words that rely on some form of capitalization in order
to be correct (such as proper nouns) appear in that form. All of the Linux
spelling tools use this text file to check spelling; if a word does not appear in
the dictionary file, it is considered to be misspelled.
⇒ To find out how many words come in the user dictionary on your system,
type:
$ wc -l /usr/dict/words RET

NOTES: If you are using the wrong word to begin with, none of the computer-
ized spell-check tools will correct this error—for example, if you have “there”
when you mean “their,” the computer cannot catch it (yet!).

11.1.1 Finding the Correct Spelling of a Word

If you’re unsure whether or not you’re using the correct spelling of a word,
use spell to find out. spell reads from the standard input and outputs any
words not found in the system dictionary—so if a word is misspelled, it will
be echoed back on the screen after you type it.

1
On an increasing number of systems, this file is being replaced with
/usr/share/dict/words; administrators should make a symbolic link from
this to the shorter, preferred form.
2
In other words, they are correct whether they appear entirely in lowercase letters, capi-
talized, or entirely in uppercase letters.
276 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ For example, to check whether the word “occurance” is misspelled, type:

 

$ spell RET

occurance RET

occurance
CTRL
- D

$

In this example, spell echoed the word “occurance,” meaning that this
word was not in the system dictionary and therefore was quite likely a mis-
spelling. Then, CTRL
- D
was typed to exit spell.

11.1.2 Listing the Misspellings in Text

To output a list of misspelled words in a file, give the name of the file to check
as an argument to spell. Any misspelled words in the file are output, each
on a line of its own and in the order that they appear in the file.
⇒ To spell-check the file fall-lecture.draft, type:
 

$ spell fall-lecture.draft RET

occurance
willl
occurance
$

In this example, three words are output: “occurance,” “willl,” and

“occurance” again, meaning that these three words were found in fall-
lecture.draft, in that order, and were not in the system dictionary (and so
were probably misspelled). Note that the misspelling “occurance” appears
twice in the file.
To correct the misspellings, you could then open the file in your preferred
text editor and edit it. Later in this section, I’ll describe an interactive spell
checker that allows you to correct misspellings as they are found. Still another
option is to use a text editor with spell-checking facilities built in, such as
Emacs.
⇒ To spell-check the file fall-lecture.draft, and output any possibly
misspelled words to a file fall-lecture.spelling, type:
$ spell fall-lecture.draft > fall-lecture.spelling RET

Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 277

In this example, the standard output redirection operator (>) is used to

redirect the output to a file (see Recipe 3.2.2 [Redirecting Output to a File],
page 68).
To output an alphabetical list of the misspelled words, pipe the output to
sort; then pipe the sorted output to the uniq filter to remove duplicates from
the list (uniq removes duplicate adjacent lines from its input, outputting the
“unique” lines).
⇒ To output a sorted list of the misspelled words that are in the file fall-
lecture.draft, type:
$ spell fall-lecture.draft | sort | uniq RET

11.1.3 Keeping a Spelling Word List

The stock American English dictionary installed with Linux-based systems
includes over 45,000 words. However large that number may seem, a lot of
words are invariably left out—including slang, jargon, and some proper names.
You can view the system dictionary as you would any other text file, but
users never edit this file to add words to it.3 Instead, you add new words
to your own personal dictionary, a file in the same format as the system
dictionary, but kept in your home directory as the file ~/.ispell_default.4
A user can have his own personal dictionary; the spelling commands dis-
cussed in this chapter automatically use your personal dictionary, if you have
one, in addition to the system dictionary.
You build your personal dictionary using the i and u options of ispell,
which insert words into your personal dictionary. Use these options either
with the stand-alone tool or with the various ispell Emacs functions (see
Recipe 11.1.4 [Interactive Spell Checking], page 278, and Recipe 11.1.5 [Spell
Checking in Emacs], page 280).
⇒ To find out how many words you have in your personal dictionary, type:
$ wc -l .ispell_default RET

NOTES: You can also add (or remove) words by manually editing the file with
a text editor, but take care to keep the list in alphabetical order!

3
If a word is reasonably universal, you may, of course, contact the global maintainers of
wenglish or other appropriate packages, and try to convince them that said word ought
to be included.
4
On newer systems, this file is sometimes replaced by ~/aspell_default.
278 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Over time, personal dictionaries begin to look very personal, as a reflection

of their owners; Gregory Cosmo Haun made a work of conceptual art by pho-
tographing the portraits of a dozen users superimposed with listings of their
personal dictionaries [http://www.reed.edu/~cosmo/art/DictPort.html].

11.1.4 Interactive Spell Checking

GNU Aspell
DEB: aspell
RPM: aspell
WWW: http://aspell.net/
or
Ispell
DEB: ispell
RPM: ispell
WWW: http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/ispell.html

Use ispell to spell check a file interactively, so that every time a misspelling
is found, you’re given a chance to replace it then and there.5
⇒ To interactively spell-check fall-lecture.notes, type:
$ ispell fall-lecture.notes RET

When you type this, ispell begins checking the file. It stops at the first
misspelling it finds, as in Figure 11-1.
On the top line of the screen, ispell displays the misspelled word, fol-
lowed by the name of the file. Underneath this is the sentence in which the
misspelling appears, with the word in question highlighted. Following this is
a list of suggested words, each offset by a number—in this example, ispell
has only one suggestion: “lectures.”
To replace a misspelling with a suggested word, type the number that
corresponds to the suggested word (in this example, you would type 0 to
replace the misspelling with “lectures”). You only need to type the number
of your selection—a RET
is not required.

5
aspell is designed to be a drop-in replacement for ispell, with greatly improved sug-
gestion algorithms. If your system has aspell, use it instead; it otherwise works like
ispell.
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 279
 

Figure 11-1. A misspelling caught by ispell.
You can also type a correction yourself; this is useful when ispell either
offers no suggestions, or when it does and the word you want is not one of
them. To do this, type r (for “replace”) and then type the replacement word,
followed by RET
.
Sometimes, ispell will question a word that you may not want to count
as a misspelling, such as proper names and the like—words that don’t appear
in the system dictionary. There are a few things you can do in such cases, as
follows.
To accept a misspelled word as correct for the current ispell session only,
type a; from then on during the current session, this word will be considered
correct.
If, however, you want ispell (and spell, and all other tools that access
the system dictionary) to remember this word as being correct for this and
all future sessions, insert the word in your own personal dictionary. Type u
to insert a copy of the word uncapitalized, in all lowercase letters—this way,
even if the word is capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, the lowercase
version of the word is saved. From then on, in the current ispell session
and in future sessions, this word will be considered correct whether it appears
entirely in lowercase letters, capitalized, or entirely in uppercase letters.
When case is important to the spelling—for example, in a word that
is a proper name such as “Seattle,” or a word with mixed case, such as
“DeSalle”—type i to insert a copy of the word in your personal dictionary
with its case just as it appears; this way, words spelled with the same letters
but with different cases will be considered misspellings.
When ispell finishes spell-checking a file, it saves its changes to the file
and then exits. It also makes a copy of the original file, without the changes
280 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

applied; this file has the same name as the original but with .bak added to
the end—in our example, the backup file is called fall-lecture.notes.bak.
This is useful if you regret the changes you’ve made and want to restore the
file to how it was before you mucked it up—just remove the spell-checked file
and then rename the .bak file to its original name.
The following table is a reference to the ispell key commands, listing the
keys and describing their actions.

SPACEBAR
Accept misspelled word as correct, but only for this

particular instance.
number Replace misspelled word with the suggestion that
corresponds to the given number.
? Display a help screen.
a Accept misspelled word as correct for the remainder
of this ispell session.
i Accept misspelled word as correct and add it to your
private dictionary with the capitalization as it ap-
pears.
l Look up words in the system dictionary according
to a pattern you give.
q Quit checking and restore the file to how it was be-
fore this session.
r Replace misspelled word with a word you type.
u Accept misspelled word as correct and add it to your
private dictionary in all lowercase letters.
x Save changes made so far, and then stop checking
this file.

11.1.5 Spell Checking in Emacs

Emacs has several useful commands for spell-checking. The ispell-word,
ispell-region, and ispell-buffer functions, as you might guess from their
names, use the ispell command inside Emacs to check portions of the current
buffer.6
6
On many newer systems, aspell is used in ispell’s place.
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 281

The first command, ispell-word, checks the spelling of the word at point;
if there is no word at point, it checks the first word to the left of point. This
command has a keyboard shortcut, ALT
- $
. The second command, ispell-
region, checks the spelling of all words in the currently selected region of
text. The third command, ispell-buffer, checks the spelling of the entire
buffer.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To check the spelling of the word at point, type:
ALT
- X
ispell-word RET

• To check the spelling of all words in the currently selected region of

text, type:
ALT
- X
ispell-region RET

• To check the spelling of all words in the current buffer, type:

ALT
- X
ispell-buffer RET

Another useful Emacs spelling feature is flyspell-mode. When this mode

is set in a buffer, any misspelled words in the buffer are highlighted. This
mode is useful when you are writing a first draft, because it lets you catch
misspellings as you type them.
⇒ To turn on flyspell-mode in a buffer, type:
ALT
- X
flyspell-mode RET

NOTES: This mode is a toggle; run it again to turn it off.

To correct a word in flyspell-mode, click and release the middle mouse
button on the word to pull up a menu of suggestions; you then use the mouse
to select the replacement word or add it to your personal dictionary.
If there are words you frequently misspell, you can define abbrevs for them
(see Recipe 10.1.5 [Making Abbreviations in Emacs], page 242). Then, when
you type the misspelled word, Emacs will automatically replace it with the
correct spelling.
Finally, if you prefer the sparse, non-interactive interface of spell, you
can use the Emacs interfaces to that command instead: spell-word, spell-
region, and spell-buffer. When any of these functions find a misspelling,
they prompt for a replacement in the minibuffer but do not offer suggestions
or provide any of ispell’s other features.
282 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

11.2 Using Dictionaries

WordNet
DEB: wordnet
wordnet-base
WWW: http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/

The term dictionary on Linux systems generally refers to one of two things:
the traditional Unix-style dictionary, which is an alphabetically sorted word
list containing no actual definitions, and the newer database-style dictionary
that contains the headwords as well as their definitions. The latter is the
kind of thing most people mean when they talk about dictionaries. (When
most Unix folk talk about dictionaries, however, they almost always mean the
former.)
WordNet is a lexical reference system in the form of a database containing
thousands of words arranged in synonym sets. You can search the database
and output the results in text with the wn tool or the wnb X client (the
“WordNet browser”).
Use of the X client is fairly straightforward—type a word in the dialog box
near the top of the screen, followed by RET
, to get its definitions, which are
displayed in the large output window underneath the dialog box.
For example, when you do a search for the definition of the word “browse,”
the WordNet browser will look like Figure 11-2.

Figure 11-2. The WordNet browser.

Between the dialog box and the output window, there are menus for search-
ing for synonyms and other word senses. A separate menu is given for each
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 283

part of speech a word may have; in the preceding example, the word “browse”
can be either a noun or a verb, so two menus are shown.
To get a list of all word sense information available for a given word, run wn
with the word as an argument. This outputs a list of all word sense information
available for the word, with each possible sense preceded with the name of the
option to use to output it.
⇒ To output a list of word senses available for the word “browse,” type:
$ wn browse RET

The following sections show how to use wn on the command line.

NOTES: For more information on WordNet, consult the wnintro man page
(see Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).

11.2.1 Listing Words That Match a Pattern

There are several ways to search for and output words from the system dic-
tionary.
Use look to output a list of words in the system dictionary that begin with
a given string—this is useful for finding words that begin with a particular
phrase or prefix. Give the string as an argument; it is not case-sensitive.
⇒ To output a list of words from the dictionary that begin with the string
“homew,” type:
$ look homew RET

This command outputs words like “homeward” and “homework.”

Since the system dictionary is an ordinary text file, you can also use grep
to search it for words that match a given pattern or regular expression (see
Recipe 14.3 [Matching Patterns of Text], page 335).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list all words in the dictionary that contain the string “dont,”
regardless of case, type:
$ grep -i dont /usr/dict/words RET

• To list all words in the dictionary that end with “ing,” type:
$ grep ing^ /usr/dict/words RET

• To list all of the words that are composed only of vowels, type:
$ grep -i '^[aeiou]*$' /usr/dict/words RET

To find some words that rhyme with a given word, use grep to search
/usr/dict/words for words ending in the same last few characters as the
284 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

word they should rhyme with (see Recipe 14.4.2 [Matching Lines Ending with
Certain Text], page 343).
⇒ To output a list of words that rhyme with “friend,” search
/usr/dict/words for lines ending with “end”:
$ grep 'end$' /usr/dict/words RET

Finally, to do a search on the WordNet dictionary, use wn with one of the

-grep options. When you give some text to search for as an argument, this
command does the equivalent search as look, but only the particular kind of
word sense you specify is searched: -grepn searches nouns, -grepv searches
verbs, -grepa searches adjectives, and -grepr searches adverbs. You can
combine options to search multiple word senses.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To search the WordNet dictionary for nouns that begin with “homew,”
type:
$ wn homew -grepn RET

• To search the WordNet dictionary for both nouns and adjectives that
begin with “homew,” type:
$ wn homew -grepn -grepa RET

11.2.2 Listing the Definitions of a Word

To list the definitions of a word, give the word as an argument to wn, followed
by the -over option.
⇒ To list the definitions of the word “slope,” type:
$ wn slope -over RET

NOTES: If you look up dictionary definitions frequently enough, it is handy

to have an alias of “def” defined as wn $1 -over (see Recipe 3.6.1 [Calling a
Command by Some Other Name], page 83).

11.2.3 Listing the Synonyms of a Word

A synonym of a word is a different word with a similar meaning that can be
used in place of the first word in some context. To output synonyms for a
word with wn, give the word as an argument, followed by one of the following
options: -synsn for nouns, -synsv for verbs, -synsa for adjectives, or -sysnr
for adverbs.
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 285

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To output all of the synonyms for the noun “break,” type:
$ wn break -synsn RET

• To output all of the synonyms for the verb “break,” type:
$ wn break -synsv RET

11.2.4 Listing the Antonyms of a Word

An antonym of a word is a different word that has the opposite meaning of
the first in some context. To output antonyms for a word with wn, give the
word as an argument, followed by one the following options: -antsv for verbs,
-antsa for adjectives, or -antsr for adverbs.
⇒ To output all of the antonyms for the adjective “sad,” type:
$ wn sad -antsa RET

11.2.5 Listing the Hypernyms of a Word

A hypernym of a word is a related term whose meaning is more general than
the given word. (For example, the words “mammal” and “animal” are hyper-
nyms of the word “cat.”)
To output hypernyms for a word with wn, use one of the following options:
-hypen for nouns or -hypev for verbs.
⇒ To output all of the hypernyms for the noun “cat,” type:
$ wn cat -hypen RET

11.2.6 Checking Online Dictionaries

Dict
DEB: dict
RPM: dict
WWW: http://www.dict.org/

The dict Development Group has a number of free dictionaries on its Web site
[http://www.dict.org/]. On that page, you can look up words (including
using a thesaurus and other searches) from a dictionary that contains over
300,000 headwords, or you can make a copy of its dictionary for use on your
own system. A dict client exists for accessing dict servers and outputting
definitions locally; this tool is available in the dict package.
286 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

There are a number of specialized dictionaries available from the dict

Development Group as well. These dictionaries are plain text files. One such
dictionary is called file, The Free Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia. It is
an effort to build a free, open source collection of modern-word, idiom, and
jargon dictionaries. file is a volunteer effort and depends on the support of
scholars and lexicographers; the dict pages contain information on how to
help contribute to this worthy project.

11.3 Checking Grammar

Diction
DEB: diction
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/diction/diction.html

Two venerable unix tools for checking writing have recently been made avail-
able for Linux-based systems: style and diction.
Old-timers probably remember these names—the originals came with
at&t unix as part of the much-loved “Writer’s Workbench” (wwb) suite
of tools back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.7
at&t “unbundled” the Writer’s Workbench from its unix Version 7 prod-
uct, and as the many flavors of unix blossomed over the years, these tools
were lost by the wayside—eventually becoming the stuff of unix lore.
In 1997, Michael Haardt wrote new Linux versions of these tools from
scratch. They support both the English and German languages, and they’re
now part of the gnu Project.
Two additional commands that were part of the Writer’s Workbench have
long been standard on Linux: look and spell, described previously in this
chapter.
The following are recipes that use either diction or style.

11.3.1 Checking Text for Misused Phrases

Use diction to check for wordy, trite, clichéd, or misused phrases in a text.
It checks for all the kind of expressions William Strunk warned us about in
his Elements of Style [http://www.bartleby.com/141/].
7
There was also a set of tools for formatting text called the “Documenter’s Workbench”
(dwb), and there was a planned “Reader’s Workbench”; today, we can only guess at
what that might have been.
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 287

According to The UNIX Environment (see Appendix D [References for

Further Interest], page 731), the diction tool that came with the old Writer’s
Workbench just found the phrases, and a separate command called suggest
would output suggestions. In the gnu version that works for Linux systems,
both functions have been combined in the single diction command.
In gnu diction, the words or phrases are enclosed in brackets “[like
this].” If diction has any suggested replacements, it gives them preceded
by a right arrow, “-> like this.”
When checking more than just a screenful of text, you’ll want to pipe
the output to less so that you can peruse it on the screen (see Recipe 9.1
[Perusing Text], page 211), or pipe the output to a file for later examination.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To check the file dissertation for clichés or other misused phrases,
type:
$ diction dissertation | less RET

• To check the file dissertation for clichés or other misused phrases,
and write the output to a file called dissertation.diction, type:
$ diction dissertation > dissertation.diction RET

If you don’t specify a file name, diction reads text from the standard
input until you type CTRL
- D
on a line by itself. This is especially useful
when you want to check a single sentence, as in Figure 11-3.
 

$ diction RET

Let us ask the question we wish to state. RET

(stdin):1: Let us [ask the question -> ask]
[we wish to state -> (cliche, avoid)].
CTRL
- D

$


Figure 11-3. Checking a sentence with diction.
To check the text of a Web page, use lynx with the -dump and -nolist
options to output the plain text of a given url, and pipe this output to
diction. (If you expect there to be a lot of output, add another pipe at the
end to less so you can peruse it.)
To peruse the url http://www.westegg.com/cliche/random.cgi with
markings for possible wordy and misused phrases, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -nolist http://www.westegg.com/cliche/random.cgi |
diction | less RET

288 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: To check text for overused words, use the method described in
Recipe 12.2.4 [Counting Word Occurrences in Text], page 299.

11.3.2 Checking Text for Doubled Words

One of the things that diction looks for is doubled words—words repeated
twice in a row. If it finds such a sequence, it encloses the second member of
the doubled pair in brackets, followed by a right arrow and the text “Double
word,” like “this [<i>this -> Double word.].”
To check a text file for doubled words only, and not for any of the other
things diction checks, use grep to find only those lines in diction’s output
that contain the text “Double word,” if any.
⇒ To output all lines containing double words in the file dissertation,
type:
$ diction dissertation | grep 'Double word' RET

11.3.3 Checking Text for Readability

The style command analyzes the writing style of a given text. It performs
a number of readability tests on the text and outputs their results, and it
gives some statistical information about the sentences of the text. Give as an
argument the name of the text file to check.
⇒ To check the readability of the file dissertation, type:
$ style dissertation RET

Like diction, style reads text from the standard input if no text is
given—this is useful for the end of a pipeline, or for checking the writing
style of a particular sentence or other text you type.
The sentence characteristics of the text that style outputs are as follows:
• Number of characters
• Number of words, their average length, and their average number of syl-
lables
• Number of sentences and average length in words
• Number of short and long sentences
• Number of paragraphs and average length in sentences
• Number of questions and imperatives
The various readability formulas that style uses and outputs are as fol-
lows:
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 289

• Kincaid formula, originally developed for Navy training manuals; a good

readability test for technical documentation
• Automated Readability Index (ari)
• Coleman-Liau formula
• Flesch Reading Ease Score, which gives an approximation of readability
from 0 (difficult) to 100 (easy)
• Fog Index, which gives a school-grade reading level
• wstf Index, a readability indicator for German documents
• Wheeler-Smith Index, Lix formula, and smog-Grading tests, all readabil-
ity indicators that give a school-grade reading level

11.3.4 Checking Text for Difficult Sentences

To output just the “difficult” sentences of a text, use style with the -r
option followed by a number; style will output only those sentences whose
Automated Readability Index (ari) is greater than the number you give.8
⇒ To output all sentences in the file dissertation whose ari is greater
than a value of 20, type:
$ style -r 20 dissertation RET

11.3.5 Checking Text for Long Sentences

Use style to output sentences longer than a certain length by giving the
number of words as an argument to the -l option.
⇒ To output all sentences longer than 14 words in the file dissertation,
type:
$ style -l 14 dissertation RET

11.4 Using Reference Files

There are reference works and other informative text files that you can install
on your system; the following recipes describe some of the more interesting
and useful ones that are readily available.

8
To get an idea how the ari ranks text, see its rankings for various popular Web sites at
http://www.readability.info/commonscores.shtml.
290 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

11.4.1 Consulting Word Lists and Helpful Files

Miscfiles
DEB: miscfiles
WWW: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/miscfiles/miscfiles-1.1.tar.gz

The gnu Miscfiles collection is a group of text files containing various facts
and reference material, such as common abbreviations, telephone area codes,
and English connective phrases.
The files are stored in the /usr/share/misc directory, and they are
all compressed; use zless to peruse them (see Recipe 9.1 [Perusing Text],
page 211).
The following table lists the files as they appear in /usr/share/misc and
describes their contents.

GNU-manifesto.gz The gnu Manifesto.

abbrevs.talk.gz Collections of common abbreviations used in elec-
abbrevs.gen.gz tronic communication. (This is the place to look to
find the secrets of ttyl and lol.)
airport.gz List of three-letter city codes for some of the ma-
jor airports. The city code is useful for querying
the National Weather Service computers to get the
latest weather report for your region.
ascii.gz A chart of the ascii character set.
birthtoken.gz The traditional stone and flower tokens for each
month.
cities.dat.gz The population, political coordinates (nation, re-
gion), and geographic coordinates (latitude, longi-
tude) of many major cities.
inter.phone.gz International country and city telephone codes.
languages.gz Two-letter codes for languages, from iso 639.
latin1.gz A chart of the extended ascii character set, also
known as the iso 8859 (“Latin-1”) character set.
mailinglists.gz Description of all the public gnu Project mailing
lists.
Chapter 11: Grammar and Reference 291

na.phone.gz North American (+1) telephone area codes.

operator.gz Precedence table for operators in the c program-
ming language.
postal.codes.gz Postal codes for U.S. and Mexican states and Cana-
dian provinces.
us-constitution.gz The Constitution of the United States of America
and its twenty-seven Amendments (the first ten are
the Bill of Rights). On Debian systems, this file is
placed in a directory named /usr/share/state.
us-declaration.gz The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen
Colonies. On Debian systems, this file is placed in
a directory named /usr/share/state.
rfc-index.txt Indexes of Internet standardization Request For
Comments (rfc) documents. On Debian systems,
this file is placed in /usr/share/rfc.
zipcodes.gz U.S. five-digit Zip Codes.

But miscfiles is not the only reference package available for Linux; other
related packages include the following:

doc-iana Internet protocol parameter registry documents, as

published by the Internet Assigned Numbers Au-
thority.
DEB: doc-iana
Jargon File The “Jargon File” is the definitive dictionary of
hacker slang, and goes back decades. Might be
considered somewhat dated today; is no longer dis-
tributed as a single file.
DEB: jargon-text
RPM: jargon
WWW: http://www.jargon.org/
V.E.R.A. Extensive list of computer acronyms.
DEB: vera
RPM: vera
WWW: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/vera/
292 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: The official gnu miscfiles distribution also includes the Jargon
File and the /usr/dict/words dictionary file, which are available in separate
packages for Debian, and are removed from the Debian miscfiles distribu-
tion. On Debian systems, /usr/dict/words is part of the standard spelling
packages, and the Jargon File comes in the optional jargon package and in-
stalls in /usr/share/jargon.

11.4.2 Translating Common Acronyms

Bsdgames
DEB: bsdgames
RPM: bsd-games
WWW: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/games/

Use wtf to see what an acronym stands for. This is useful for decoding the
kind of acronyms commonly used in Usenet chatter and other online chat
forums. If it doesn’t know the answer, it checks with whatis before giving
up (see Recipe 2.8.2 [Getting a Description of a Program], page 46), so it will
also tell you what any tool or program installed on the system is.
Give the acronym to translate as an argument to wtf, optionally preceded
by “is.”
⇒ To translate the acronym “lol,” type:
$ wtf lol RET

Typing wtf is lol produces an identical result.

NOTES: While wtf is useful for decoding the acronyms of online writing, it
doesn’t know anything outside of this scope. So it can’t tell you, for instance,
what laser stands for (but the WordNet dictionary can—see Recipe 11.2
[Using Dictionaries], page 282), although it will tell you all about how ymmv
even when you do rtfb, so you see it is nbd.
Other collections of acronyms are available with the miscfiles collection
(see Recipe 11.4.1 [Consulting Word Lists and Helpful Files], page 290).
Chapter 12: Analyzing Text 293

12. Analyzing Text

There are many ways to use command line tools to analyze text in various
ways, such as finding word frequencies, making word lists from a text, and
determining which texts may be similar or otherwise relevant to a given text.
This chapter covers all of these topics. Two important subjects of textual
analysis are described elsewhere: the way to determine the format of a given
text is given in Recipe 8.1.1 [Determining a File’s Type and Format], page 187,
and for how to compare texts to see if (and optionally where) they differ, see
Recipe 8.3 [Comparing Files], page 191.

12.1 Counting Text

Use the “word count” tool, wc, to count the characters, words, and lines in
text.
Give the name of a file as an argument; if none is given, wc works on
standard input. By default, wc outputs three columns, displaying the counts
for lines, words, and characters in the text.
⇒ To output the number of lines, words, and characters in file outline,
type:
$ wc outline RET

When you specify more than one file, wc lists counts for each of the files
and then gives total counts for all of them.
⇒ To output the number of lines, words, and characters for all the files with
a .txt file name extension in the current directory, type:
$ wc -w *.txt RET

To only output a combined count for several files, first concatenate the files
with cat, and then pipe the output to wc (for more about concatenating with
cat, see Recipe 10.6 [Concatenating Text], page 256).
⇒ To output the combined number lines, words, and characters for all the
files with a .txt file name extension in the current directory, type:
$ cat *.txt | wc -w RET

Most of the following recipes for counting text use wc.

NOTES: You can get a count of how many different words are in a text, too—
use the method described in Recipe 12.2.3 [Listing Only the Unique Words
in Text of a Text], page 298, and pipe the output to wc. To count the aver-
age length of words, sentences, and paragraphs, use style (see Recipe 11.3.3
[Checking Text for Readability], page 288).
294 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

12.1.1 Counting the Characters in a Text

Use wc with the ‘-c’ option to specify that just the number of characters be
counted and output.
⇒ To output the number of characters in file ‘classified.ad,’ type:
$ wc -c classified.ad RET

12.1.2 Counting the Words in a Text

Use wc with the -w option to specify that just the number of words be counted
and output.
⇒ To output the number of words in the file story, type:
$ wc -w story RET

NOTES: This counts the number of words in a text; to count the number of
times a word occurs, see Recipe 12.2 [Listing Words in Text], page 297.

12.1.3 Counting the Lines in a Text

There are two methods; the first uses wc to count the lines in an entire text,
while the second uses Emacs to count the lines on an individual page of a text.

METHOD #1
Use wc with the -l option to specify that just the number of lines be counted
and output.
⇒ To output the number of lines in the file outline, type:
$ wc -l outline RET

METHOD #2
The count-lines-page function in Emacs outputs in the minibuffer the num-
ber of lines on the current page (as delimited by pagebreak characters, if
any—see Recipe 13.3 [Paginating Text], page 312), followed by the number
of lines in the buffer before the line that point is on, and then the number of
lines in the buffer after point.
⇒ To count the number of lines per page in the current buffer in Emacs,
type:
CTRL
- X
l
Chapter 12: Analyzing Text 295

Emacs outputs the number of lines per page of the current buffer in the
echo area.
For example, suppose the output in the minibuffer is this:
Page has 351 lines (69 + 283)
This means that the current page contains 351 lines, and point is on line
number 70—there are 69 lines before this line and 283 lines after it.

12.1.4 Counting the Occurrences of Something

To find the number of occurrences of a text string or pattern in a file or files,
use grep to search the file(s) for the text string, and pipe the output to wc
with the -l option.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To find the number of lines in the file outline that contain the string
“chapter,” type:
$ grep chapter outline | wc -l RET

• To find the number of lines in all of the files with a .txt exten-
sion in the /usr/share/doc/ directory tree that contain the string
“chapter,” regardless of case, type:
$ grep -r -i chapter /usr/share/doc/ | wc -l RET

NOTES: This method is quick and easy, but it will not count more than one
occurrence on the same line, and it won’t find occurrences that are broken by
the end of a line.
For more recipes for searching text, and more about grep, see Chapter 14
[Searching Text], page 333.

12.1.5 Counting a Selection of Text

A useful trick for counting how many words are in some text you see displayed
in some window or terminal—say, displayed in a Web browser—is to select the
text (see Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of Text], page 253), and then
count it as follows: run wc in another terminal, paste the text selection into
this terminal, and then type CTRL
- D
to end the input. It will give a count
for the selection.
296 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To count the number of characters, lines and words in a selection of
text in the first virtual console, do the following:
1. Switch to the second virtual console:
ALT
- F2

2. Log in to this console, and start wc at the shell prompt:

$ wc RET

3. Switch back to the first virtual console:
ALT
- F1

4. Select the text to be counted by moving the mouse pointer to

the beginning of it, pressing and holding the left button and
dragging the pointer to the end of the text, and then letting go
of the mouse button.
5. Switch back to the second virtual console:
ALT
- F2

6. Click the middle mouse button.

7. Type CTRL
- D
to stop inputting text to wc.

• To count the words in a selection of text on a Web page when you

are in X, do the following:
1. Start wc in a terminal window:
$ wc -w RET

2. Select the text to be counted by moving the mouse pointer to
the beginning of it in the browser window, pressing and holding
the left button and dragging the pointer to the end of the text,
and then letting go of the mouse button.
3. Move the mouse pointer to where the cursor is in the terminal
window, and click the middle mouse button. (If you do not have
a three-button mouse, click both the left and right buttons at
the same time.)
4. Type CTRL
- D
in the terminal window.
Chapter 12: Analyzing Text 297

12.2 Listing Words in Text

When analyzing text, a “word” can be any grouping of characters that are
separated from other words by either blank spaces or newlines. They can be
English words, numbers, symbols, and so on.
Making a listing of the words that appear in some text—either a file or
standard input—is a simple matter when you use a popular combination of
tr, sort, and uniq, all tools for formatting text that are discussed in the next
chapter (see Chapter 13 [Formatting Text], page 305).
You can sort these lists alphabetically, remove any duplicate words, and
list the frequency each word appears in the original text. These alphabetical
word-frequency lists are similar to a concordance, which is an index of all the
words in a text, along with their contexts.
Since tr is a filter, these recipes use redirection to send files to tr’s standard
input (see Recipe 3.2.1 [Redirecting Input to a File], page 67). The output is
usually piped to less for perusal. If you want to print or peruse the output of
these recipes, I recommend you pipe them to pr to paginate the output and
place it in columns (see Recipe 13.3 [Paginating Text], page 312). A further
refinement is to use enscript to print them in a nice font (see Recipe 15.2.1
[Outputting Text in a Font], page 361).

12.2.1 Listing All of the Words in Text

To output a list of all of the words as they appear in some text, use the tr
filter to translate all horizontal whitespace (such as tab and space characters)
to newline characters, and squeeze out blank lines.
⇒ To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book as they
appear in the text, type:
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | less RET

To remove all of the punctuation from the listed words, pipe the output to
another tr that deletes it.
⇒ To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book as they
appear in the text, but with punctuation removed, type:
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]' | less RET

Dashes are not removed with punctuation. If the text to filter contains
em dashes consisting of two hyphens (--) with no spaces between the words
on either side of the dashes, first filter them out by with sed, replacing them
with a space character (see Recipe 10.5 [Editing Streams of Text], page 255).
Then pass that filtered text to tr.
298 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book as they
appear in the text, but with punctuation removed, type (all on one line):
$ sed 's/--/ /g' book | tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' |
tr -d '[:punct:]' | less RET

NOTES: If there is any whitespace before the first word in the input, this
method inserts a newline character at the beginning of the output. To remove
it, add tail +2 to the end of the pipeline but before you peruse or print it
(see Recipe 9.2.3 [Displaying the End Part of Text], page 218).

12.2.2 Listing the Words in Text Sorted Alphabetically

To output a sorted list of the words of some text, use the method as described
in the previous recipe and pipe the output to sort (see Recipe 13.6 [Sorting
Text], page 320).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book
with punctuation removed, sorted alphabetically, type (all on one
line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | less RET

• To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book
sorted numerically, type:
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | sort -n | less RET

This method is case-sensitive. To sort words regardless of case, first con-
vert all uppercase letters to lowercase by piping to tr again before sort (see
Recipe 13.4.1 [Changing Characters in Text], page 317).
⇒ To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book with
punctuation removed, sorted alphabetically regardless of case, type (all
on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]' | tr
'[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sort | less RET

12.2.3 Listing Only the Unique Words in Text

To list the words in some text, omitting any multiple occurrences of a word,
use the method as described in the previous recipe and pipe the output to
uniq (see Recipe 13.5 [Filtering Out Duplicate Lines of Text], page 319).
Chapter 12: Analyzing Text 299

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book
with punctuation removed, sorted alphabetically with duplicates re-
moved, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq | less RET

• To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book
with punctuation removed, sorted alphabetically regardless of case,
and with duplicates removed, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sort | uniq | less RET

• To peruse a list containing all of the words from the text file book
sorted numerically, but with all duplicates removed, type (all on one
line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | sort -n | uniq |
less RET

12.2.4 Counting Word Occurrences in Text

There are two methods of counting word occurrences in text. One outputs a
count of each unique word in the input text, and the other outputs a total
count of all unique words in the input text.

METHOD #1
To get a word-frequency count of words in some text, use the method as
described in the previous recipe but give the -c option to uniq, which will
precede each line with its count (the number of times it occurs in the text).
Then pipe the output to sort with the -n option to sort numerically and -r
to reverse the order.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To peruse a listing of all the words from the text file book with
punctuation removed, sorted by their frequency, listed with their
number of occurrences and beginning with the most frequent, type
(all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq -c | sort -n -r | less RET

300 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To peruse a listing of all the words from the text file book with
punctuation removed, sorted by their frequency regardless of case,
listed with their number of occurrences and beginning with the most
frequent, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sort | uniq -c |
sort -n -r | less RET

METHOD #2
To get the total number of different words in a text, use the method for listing
unique words as described in the previous recipe, and pipe the output to wc
with the -l option. This counts all the lines of its input—which in this case
will be the list of unique words, one per line.
⇒ To output a total count of the number of unique words in the text file
book, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]' |
sort | uniq | wc -l RET

12.2.5 Counting Selected Word Occurrences in Text

To get a frequency count of only selected words from some text, use Method
#1 as described in the previous recipe and pipe the output to grep, searching
for the particular word or words you want (see Recipe 14.1 [Searching Text
for a Word], page 333).
⇒ Here are some ways to do this.
• To list the frequency of the word “chapter” as it appears in the text
file book with punctuation removed, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq -c | sort -n -r | grep chapter RET

• To list the frequency of the words “contents” and “index” as they
appear in the text file book with punctuation removed, type (all on
one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq -c | sort -n -r | grep
'contents\|index' RET

• To list the frequency of the words ending in “ing” as they appear in
the text file book with punctuation removed, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq -c | sort -n -r | grep 'ing$' RET

Chapter 12: Analyzing Text 301

To search on the number of occurrences, grep for numbers that occur at

the beginning of the line after any number of space characters and followed by
a tab character (quote a tab to grep as CTRL
- V
; see Recipe 3.1.2 [Typing a
Control Character], page 55).
⇒ Here are two ways to do this.
• To list the words that occur ten times in the text file book with
punctuation removed, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq -c | sort -n -r | grep '^[ ]*10 CTRL
- Q

CTRL
- V
' RET

• To list the words that occur between eighty and eighty-five times in
the text file book with punctuation removed, type (all on one line):
$ tr -s '[:blank:]' '\n' < book | tr -d '[:punct:]'
| sort | uniq -c | sort -n -r | grep '^[ ]*8[0-5]
CTRL
- Q
CTRL
- V
' RET

12.3 Finding Relevancies in Texts

The following recipes show how to analyze a given text for its similarity or
relevance to some other text, either to given keywords or to whole files of text.
You can also use the diff family of tools to analyze differences between
texts; those tools are especially good for comparing different revisions of the
same file (see Recipe 8.3 [Comparing Files], page 191).

12.3.1 Finding Similar or Relevant Text

Compare
WWW: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Computing/compare.html

It is sometimes desirable to compare two texts for relevancies—that is, to

search for text that is identical or even just similar. Jack Lynch’s compare
does this.
Given two files as arguments, compare will show lines of text that occur
anywhere in both files that are similar to each other, even if these lines contain
stylistic or formatting differences. Seventeen common English words, includ-
ing “the,” “a,” and “of,” are considered noise words and are not compared.
By default, compare uses a similarity threshold of fifty, on a scale from
0 (whre the two texts contain no similarities at all) to 100 (where the texts
302 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

consist entirely of exactly identical lines). To specify the threshold value, give
a number from 0 to 100 as an option after the two file names.
To ignore exact duplicates, give a fourth option. This can be any value or
character, so long as it’s there.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output a list of any lines in the files invitations and addresses
that are similar to each other, type:
$ compare invitations addresses RET

• To output a list of any lines in the files weddings and parties that
match with a threshold level of 85 percent similarity, type:
$ compare weddings parties 85 RET

• To output a list of any lines in the files invitations and addresses
that are similar to each other, but not output exact duplicates, type:
$ compare invitations addresses 50 1 RET

NOTES: This tool has many handy uses. Use it whenever you might search
for close similarities, but not necessarily identical strings, in two samples of
text. For example, comparing catalog or sale lists with collector wish lists;
detecting plagiarism and authorship; and comparing reading lists. Its author
uses it to find and identify allusions in works of literature.

12.3.2 Listing Relevant Files in Emacs

Remembrance Agent
DEB: remembrance-agent
RPM: remem
WWW: http://www.remem.org/

The purpose of the special remembrance-agent mode in Emacs is to analyze

the text you type and, in the background, find similar or relevant passages of
text within your other files. It then outputs, in a smaller window, a list of
suggestions—those files that it has found, which you can open in a new buffer.
When installing remembrance-agent mode, you create three databases of
files to use when making relevance suggestions; when remembrance-agent
mode is running, it searches these three databases in parallel, looking for
relevant text. You could create, for example, one database of saved email, one
of your own writings, and one of saved documents.
⇒ To toggle remembrance-agent mode in the current buffer, type:
CTRL
- C
r t
Chapter 12: Analyzing Text 303

When remembrance-agent is running, suggested buffers will be displayed

in the small *Remembrance* buffer at the bottom of the screen. To open a
suggestion in a new buffer, type CTRL
- C
r number, where number is the
number of the suggestion.
⇒ To open the second suggested file in a new buffer, type:
CTRL
- C
r 2
304 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 305

13. Formatting Text

Methods and tools for changing the arrangement or presentation of text are
often useful when preparing text for printing. This chapter discusses ways of
changing the spacing of text and setting up pages, of underlining and sorting
and reversing text, and of numbering lines of text.
Most of these tools are filters (see Recipe 3.2.4 [Redirecting Output to
Another Command’s Input], page 69).

13.1 Spacing Text

These recipes are for changing the spacing of text—the whitespace that exists
between words, lines, and paragraphs.
The filters described in this section send output to standard output by
default; to save their output to a file, use shell redirection (see Recipe 3.2.2
[Redirecting Output to a File], page 68).

13.1.1 Eliminating Extra Spaces in Text

There are a few methods for doing this. To eliminate extra whitespaces within
lines of text, use the fmt filter; to eliminate extra whitespace between lines of
text, use cat.

METHOD #1
Use fmt with the -u option to output text with “uniform spacing,” where the
space between words is reduced to one space character and the space between
sentences is reduced to two space characters.
⇒ To output the file term-paper with uniform spacing, type:
$ fmt -u term-paper RET

METHOD #2
Use cat with the -s option to “squeeze” multiple adjacent blank lines into
one.
⇒ To output the file term-paper with multiple blank lines output as only
one blank line, type:
$ cat -s term-paper RET

306 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #3
You can combine both of these commands to output text with multiple adja-
cent lines removed and with uniform spacing between words. The following
example sends the output of the combined commands to less so that it can
be perused on the screen.
⇒ To peruse the text file term-paper with multiple blank lines removed and
giving the text uniform spacing between words, type:
$ cat -s term-paper | fmt -u | less RET

Notice that in this example, both fmt and less worked on their standard
input instead of on a file—the standard output of cat (the contents of term-
paper with extra blank lines squeezed out) was passed to the standard input of
fmt; its standard output (the space-squeezed term-paper, now with uniform
spacing) was sent to the standard input of less, which displayed it on the
screen.

13.1.2 Single-Spacing Text

There are many methods for single-spacing text. These are my favorites.

METHOD #1
To remove all empty lines from text output, use grep with the regular expres-
sion “.” to match any character, and will therefore match any line that isn’t
empty (see Recipe 14.3 [Matching Patterns of Text], page 335). You can then
redirect this output to a file, or pipe it to other commands. The original file
is not altered.
⇒ To output all non-empty lines from the file term-paper, type:
$ grep . term-paper RET

This command outputs all lines that are not empty—so lines containing
only non-printing characters, such as spaces and tabs, will still be output.

METHOD #2
To remove from the output all empty lines, and all lines that consist of only
space characters, use grep with “[^ ].” as the regexp to search for.
⇒ To output only the lines from the file term-paper that contain more than
just space characters, type:
$ grep '[^ ].' term-paper RET

Chapter 13: Formatting Text 307

NOTES: This regexp will still output lines that contain only tab characters.

METHOD #3
To remove from the output all empty lines, and lines that contain only a
combination of tab or space characters, use grep with “[^[:space:]].” as
the regexp to search for. It uses the special predefined “[:space:]” regexp
class, which matches any kind of space character at all, including tabs.
⇒ To output only the lines from the file term-paper that contain more than
just space or tab characters, type:
$ grep '[^[:space:]].' term-paper RET

METHOD #4
If a file is double-spaced, where all even lines are blank, you can remove those
lines from the output by using sed with the “n;d” expression.
⇒ To output only the odd lines from file term-paper, type:
$ sed 'n;d' term-paper RET

13.1.3 Double-Spacing Text

To double-space text, where one blank line is inserted between each line in
the original text, use the pr tool with the -d option. By default, pr paginates
text and puts a header at the top of each page with the current date, time,
and page number; use the -t option to omit this header.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To double-space the file term-paper and write the output to the file
term-paper.print, type:
$ pr -d -t term-paper > term-paper.print RET

• To double-space the file term-paper and send the output directly to
the printer for printing, type:
$ pr -d -t term-paper | lpr RET

NOTES: The pr (“print”) tool is a text pre-formatter, often used to paginate

and otherwise prepare text files for printing; more discussion on the use of
this tool is in Recipe 13.3 [Paginating Text], page 312.

13.1.4 Triple-Spacing Text

To triple-space text, where two blank lines are inserted between each line of
the original text, use sed with the “G;G” expression.
308 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To triple-space the file term-paper and write the output to the file term-
paper.print, type:
$ sed 'G;G' term-paper > term-paper.print RET

The “G” expression appends one blank line to each line of sed’s output;
using “;” you can specify more than one blank line to append (but you must
quote this command, because the semicolon (;) has meaning to the shell—see
Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56). You can use multiple
“G” characters to output text with more than double or triple spaces.
⇒ To quadruple-space the file term-paper, and write the output to the file
term-paper.print, type:
$ sed 'G;G;G' term-paper > term-paper.print RET

NOTES: sed is described in Recipe 10.5 [Editing Streams of Text], page 255.

13.1.5 Adding Line Breaks to Text

Sometimes a file will not have a line break at the end of each line (this com-
monly happens during file conversions between operating systems). To add
line breaks to a file that does not have them, use the text formatter fmt.
It outputs text with lines arranged up to a specified width; if no width is
specified, it formats text up to a width of 75 characters per line.
⇒ To output the file term-paper with lines up to 75 characters long, type:
$ fmt term-paper RET

Use the -w option to specify the maximum line width, in characters.

⇒ To output the file term-paper with lines up to 80 characters long, type:
$ fmt -w 80 term-paper RET

13.1.6 Adding Margins to Text

Giving text a larger left margin is especially good when you want to print a
copy and punch holes in it for use with a three-ring binder.
To output a text file with a larger left margin, use pr with the file name as
an argument; give the -t option (to disable headers and footers), and, as an
argument to the -o option, give the number of spaces to offset the text. Add
the number of spaces to the page width (whose default is 72) and specify this
new width as an argument to the -w option.
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 309

⇒ To output the file owners-manual with a 5-space (or 5-column) margin

to a new file, owners-manual.pr, type:
$ pr -t -o 5 -w 77 owners-manual > owners-manual.pr RET

This command is almost always used for printing, so the output is usually
just piped to lpr instead of being saved to a file. Many text documents have
a width of 80 and not 72 columns; if you are printing such a document and
need to keep the 80 columns across the page, specify a new width of 85. If
your printer can only print 80 columns of text, specify a width of 80; the text
will be reformatted to 75 columns after the 5-column margin.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print the file owners-manual with a 5-column margin and 80
columns of text, type:
$ pr -t -o 5 -w 85 owners-manual | lpr RET

• To print the file ‘owners-manual’ with a 5-column margin and 75
columns of text, type:
$ pr -t -o 5 -w 80 owners-manual | lpr RET

13.1.7 Swapping Tab and Space Characters

Use the expand and unexpand tools to swap tab characters for space charac-
ters, and to swap space characters with tabs, respectively.
Both tools take a file name as an argument and write changes to the stan-
dard output; if no files are specified, they work on the standard input.
To convert tab characters to spaces, use expand. To convert only the initial
or leading tabs on each line, give the -i option; the default action is to convert
all tabs.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To convert all tab characters to spaces in file list, and write the
output to list2, type:
$ expand list > list2 RET

• To convert only initial tab characters to spaces in file list, and write
the output to the standard output, type:
$ expand -i list RET

To convert multiple space characters to tabs, use unexpand. By default, it

only converts leading spaces into tabs, counting eight space characters for each
tab. Use the -a option to specify that all instances of eight space characters
be converted to tabs.
310 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To convert every eight leading space characters to tabs in file list2,
and write the output to list, type:
$ unexpand list2 > list RET

• To convert all occurrences of eight space characters to tabs in file
list2, and write the output to the standard output, type:
$ unexpand -a list2 RET

To specify the number of spaces to convert to a tab, give that number as

an argument to the -t option.
⇒ To convert every leading space character to a tab character in list2, and
write the output to the standard output, type:
$ unexpand -t 1 list2 RET

NOTES: You can also use col with the -x option to turn all tabs in its input
to spaces.

13.1.8 Removing or Replacing Newline Characters

The newline character, represented by many commands as the “\n” backslash
escape sequence, is the character that terminates every line. Use tr to remove
it or replace it with something else.
To remove newlines, use the -d option and give the newline as the quoted
set to delete.
⇒ To take the text in the file many and remove any newline characters from
it, then write it to a file single, type:
$ tr -d '\n' < many > single RET

To replace the newline character with some other character, use tr, giving
the newline character as the first quoted set, and the character to replace it
with as the second.
⇒ To take the text in the file many and replace any newlines with a formfeed,
and then send the output to the printer, type:
$ tr '\n' '\f' < many | lpr RET

13.1.9 Removing Carriage Return Characters

In Linux, as with all unices, lines in a text file end with just a newline charac-
ter, represented as “\n” (so when you press the RET
key, it is this character
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 311

that is typed); in some operating systems, lines end with both a newline char-
acter and a carriage return character (represented by “\m”). This shows up
as “^M” in a file. Remove them with col.
⇒ To process a file named operating_plan.txt, filtering out any carriage
returns from the text, and writing this filtered text to a new file called
operating_plan, type:
$ col < operating_plan.txt > operating_plan RET

You can then view the literal characters of both the raw and the processed
files to see that the carriage returns, displayed as “\r” in the raw file, are
gone—see Recipe 9.2.6 [Displaying the Literal Characters of Text], page 221.

13.2 Justifying Text

Probably the best way to justify text is in a text editor. Two that have
functions to justify text in all three positions (left, center, and right) are
Emacs and Vim.
The following recipes describe command line methods for justifying text
in various ways.

13.2.1 Left-Justifying Text

To left-justify text, use sed with “s/^[ TAB
]*//” as a command option.
Given the name of a file as an argument, or piped to the standard input, this
sed command outputs the text left-justified.
⇒ To left-justify the text in the file draft.1, writing it to a file draft.2,
type:
$ sed 's/^[ CTRL
- V
TAB
]*//' draft.1 > draft.2 RET

NOTES: The brackets contain two characters: a space and a tab. In order to
pass the literal tab to this command, you do a verbatim insert by first typing
CTRL
- V
and then the key you want—in this case, TAB
.

13.2.2 Right-Justifying Text

To right-justify some text, first pass it to col with the -x option to convert
any tabs to literal space characters, and then use a sed one-liner.
⇒ To right-justify the text in file new-items, and write it to a new file
display-items, type (all on one line):
$ col -x < new-items | sed -e :a -e
's/^.\{1,78\}$/ &/;ta' > display-items RET

312 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

13.2.3 Center-Justifying Text

Use fold to center-justify text, giving the column width as an argument to
the -w option. You can also use tr to remove any linefeeds in the text, and
then pipe the output to fold.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To center-justify the text in the file log using forty columns, and
peruse it on the screen, type:
$ fold -w40 log | less RET

• To center-justify the text in the file log using eighty columns, and
write it to a new file called log2, type:
$ tr -d '\n' < log | fold -w80 > log2 RET

NOTES: This method breaks words across lines.

13.3 Paginating Text

A page break in a text file is simply a formfeed character (“Control-L,” or
octal code 014) that you can insert with a text editor at the point in the file
where you want one page to end and another to begin. When you send text
with a formfeed character to the printer, the current page being printed is
ejected and a new page begins—thus, you can paginate a text file by inserting
formfeed characters wherever you want a page break to occur.
You can similarly paginate text in a text editor by manually inserting form-
feed characters, but there are also tools that do this automatically, inserting
formfeeds throughout the text at set increments, optionally processing the file
in other ways to give it pages.
The pr filter is one such tool. It’s a general-purpose page formatter and
print-preparation utility. By default, it paginates for a length of 66 lines per
page, putting a header and footer on each page. The header contains a line
with the date, file name, and current page, with two blank lines before and
after it; the footer consists of three blank lines to separate the pages. Thus,
56 lines of input text are on each page by default, and the other lines are the
header and footer. Any formfeeds in the text will force a page break at that
point, in addition to the regular page breaks just described.
⇒ To print the file duchess with the default pr preparation, type:
$ pr duchess | lpr RET

There are many options that you can use to customize the output of text
you paginate.
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 313

NOTES: It’s also common to use pr to change the spacing of text (see
Recipe 13.1 [Spacing Text], page 305).

13.3.1 Paginating with a Custom Page Length

By default, pr outputs pages of 66 lines each. You can specify the page length
as an argument to the -l option. If you give a value of 10 or less, no headers
or footers are printed, and any formfeeds in the file are ignored.
⇒ To paginate the file listings with 43-line pages, and write the output
to a file called listings.page, type:
$ pr -f -h "" -l 43 listings > listings.page RET

NOTES: If a page has more lines than a printer can fit on a physical sheet of
paper, it will automatically break the text at that line as well as at the places
in the text where there are formfeed characters.

13.3.2 Paginating with a Custom Page Width

By default, pr outputs text with a width of 72 characters per line. To specify
a different width, use -w and give the new width as an argument.
⇒ To paginate the text in the file miscellania and output it at a width of
80 characters per line, type:
$ pr -w 80 miscellania RET

13.3.3 Paginating with Custom Headers

You can change the default pr headers, and you can eliminate them entirely.
Use the -f option to omit the footer and separate pages of output with
the formfeed character. Use the -h option to give a new title for the middle
part of the header band; quote it as an argument to the option, making sure
to keep a space between it and the option. To specify a header with no title,
put nothing between the quotes.
⇒ To paginate the file listings and write the output to a file called
listings.page, type:
$ pr -f -h "" listings > listings.page RET

Use the -t option to omit the header and footer on each page entirely, and
use -T to omit the header, footer, and any formfeed characters that are in the
file.
314 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To paginate the text in the file listings with no headers or footers, but
retaining any existing formfeeds, type:
$ pr -t listings RET

NOTES: There is currently no pr option to place headers on all but the first
page, so if you need to format text in this common convention, first use pr to
output to a file without headers, then use pr to output to another file with the
headers you want for the remaining pages. Then, use a text editor to combine
the first page of the former with the remaining pages of the latter.

13.3.4 Placing Text in Paginated Columns

You can also use pr to put text in columns—give the number of columns to
output as an argument. Use the -t option to omit the printing of the default
headers and footers.
⇒ To print the file news.update in four columns with no headers or footers,
type:
$ pr -4 -t news.update | lpr RET

To paginate columns from multiple files, use -m. The contents of the files
given as arguments are output together, each in its own column.
⇒ To output the text in col.1, col.2, and col.3 in paginated columns
with no headers, and with pages separated by formfeeds, outputting to a
file called comparisons, type:
$ pr -t -f -m col.1 col.2 col.3 > comparisons RET

Columns are made to fit pages of 72-character line widths; the columns are
truncated to fit this size unless you give the -J option, which makes columns
big enough to fit the text, regardless of line width.
⇒ To print the file results.data in six columns and not truncating long
lines, type:
$ pr -6 -t -J results.data | lpr RET

To fit the columns on a line width that is between 72 and 79 characters,

first calculate the character length of an individual column by dividing the
line width by the number of columns to use. Format the entire text for that
length using fmt, giving the column length you calculated as an argument to
the -w option. Pipe the output of that command to pr.
⇒ To print the contents of the file editorial in two columns to fit on 72-
character lines, type:
$ fmt -w 36 editorial | pr -2 | lpr RET

Chapter 13: Formatting Text 315

Use the -a option to output in rows (columns running across the page)
instead of columns running down.
⇒ To output the text in col.1, col.2, and col.3 in paginated columns
going across, outputting to a file called comparisons, type:
$ pr -a -m col.1 col.2 col.3 > comparisons RET

13.3.5 Paginating Only Part of Some Text

To paginate only part of the text input, give as an option “+first:last,” where
first represents the first page to output, and last represents the last page.
Omit last if you want to print from first to the end of the text.
⇒ Here are two ways to do this.
• To output to the printer only pages 7 through 14 of the input file
sales.feb, type:
$ pr +7:14 sales.feb | lpr RET

• To output to the printer the paginated contents of the file sales.feb,
beginning at page 80, and with a header containing the text “DRAFT
COPY,” type:
$ pr +80 -h "DRAFT COPY" sales.feb | lpr RET

NOTES: You can also use head or tail to display only a certain part of the
text, such as an ending or a middle part, and pipe that to pr for pagination
(see Recipe 9.2 [Displaying Text], page 216).

13.3.6 Paginating Text with Non-Printing Characters

Two of pr’s options control the way that non-printing characters can be rep-
resented in the output.
Use -v to output all non-printing characters in octal backslash notation,
where a backslash is printed, followed by the character’s ascii character code,
in octal.
Use -c to output control characters in hat notation, and otherwise output
all other non-printing characters in octal backslash.
⇒ Here are two ways to do this.
• To paginate figures with all non-printing characters in octal nota-
tion, type:
$ pr -v figures RET

316 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To paginate figures with control characters in hat notation and all

non-printing characters in octal notation, type:
$ pr -c figures RET

13.3.7 Placing Formfeeds in Text

You can place your own formfeeds in some text. Insert them with a text editor
that lets you quote special characters, such as Emacs or Vi. Wherever you
place a formfeed in the text, a page break will happen when you print it.
It may be useful to convert other characters in some text to formfeeds.
This may come up when you are working on a file that you want to print in
a certain way. To do this, use sed to convert the character to the CTRL
- L

character.
⇒ To convert three consecutive linefeeds in a file design to a single formfeed
character, and write the output to a file named design.paged, type (all
on one line):
$ sed -ne '/./{x;/./{s///;s/...*/ CTRL
- V

CTRL
- L
/;p;s/.*//;}' -e 'x;p;d;}'
-e H design > design.paged RET

13.4 Transposing Characters in Text

Use tr, the transpose filter, to change some characters of its input text, either
deleting them, squeezing duplicate characters, or transposing some specified
characters into others. There are no file arguments; tr takes its standard
input, makes these changes, and then writes the changed text to its standard
output—tr is the classic text filter (see Recipe 3.2.4 [Redirecting Output to
Another Command’s Input], page 69).
You specify a set to work on as an argument, which is just a quoted list of
characters. For example, when using tr to delete characters, any characters
in the given set is filtered out of its input.
Use a hyphen character (-) in a set to denote a range of characters—for
example, “A-Z” means the uppercase letters “A” through “Z.” To give a literal
hyphen character, specify it last in the set.
Remember that tr only works on characters, and not on strings—so “cat”
specifies the three letters “c,” “a,” and “t,” not the name of the animal.
Specify control characters or reserved shell characters with backslash
notation—but if you do so, be sure to quote the set.
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 317

A set can be a character class, which is a predefined set of characters, as

described in the following table. To specify a character class in a set, use
“[:class:],” where class is the name of the class.

alnum All letters and digits.

alpha All letters.
blank Blank spaces—tab and space characters.
cntrl Control characters.
digit Digits.
graph All printing characters, excepting blank space.
lower All lowercase letters.
print All printing characters, including blank space.
punct Punctuation marks.
space Blank space.
upper All uppercase letters.
xdigit All hexadecimal digits.

There are many examples of tr elsewhere in this chapter and throughout

this book, and there are many ways tr can be used in conjunction with other
tools. The following recipes describe its basic functions.

13.4.1 Changing Characters in Text

To change a set of characters in some text to another given set, use tr and
give the two sets as arguments.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output the contents of the file scanner-copy, translating all cap-
ital “O” characters to zeroes (0) in the output, type:
$ tr O 0 < scanner-copy RET

• To output the contents of the file CAPS, translating all uppercase
letters to their lowercase equivalents, type:
$ tr A-Z a-z < CAPS RET

318 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To output the contents of the file CAPS, translating all uppercase

letters to their lowercase equivalents, type:1
$ tr [:upper:] [:lower:] < CAPS RET

• To output the contents of the file CAPS, translating all uppercase
letters from M to S as hyphen characters, type:
$ tr M-S - < CAPS RET

• To output the contents of the file transmission, translating all new-
line characters to a forward slash character (/) and all “Control-G”
characters to an asterisk character (*), type:
$ tr "\n\a" "/\*" < transmission RET

13.4.2 Squeezing Duplicate Characters in Text

Use tr with the -s option to squeeze repeated characters, where any sequence
of repeated characters is replaced by exactly one instance of that character.
⇒ To output the contents of the file moo, with all repeated uppercase and
lowercase letters squeezed, type:
$ tr -s A-Za-z < moo RET

In this example, only one set is given; any characters in that set that repeat
are squeezed into a single instance of the character.
Use two sets to replace a set of repeated characters with some other set.
⇒ To output the contents of the file moo, with all repeated “o” and “O”
characters replaced by one instance of “e” or “E,” type:
$ tr -s oO eE < moo RET

In the preceding example, any repeated characters other than “o” and “O”
are untouched, as are any “o” and “O” characters that are not repeated.

13.4.3 Deleting Characters in Text

To delete certain characters in some text, use tr with the -d option, and give
the set of characters to delete.
⇒ To output the contents of the file CAPS, with all lowercase letters deleted,
type:
$ tr -d [:lower:] < CAPS RET

1
This example is equivalent to the previous example; one specifies text with a range and
another with a character class, but both produce the same result.
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 319

13.5 Filtering Out Duplicate Lines of Text

There are two methods for filtering out duplicate lines of text.

METHOD #1
The uniq tool outputs only the unique lines of its input—any lines occurring
more than once are only output once. The input must be sorted; that is,
duplicate lines must be neighboring (see Recipe 13.6 [Sorting Text], page 320).
⇒ To output the contents of the file options, with all duplicate lines filtered
out, type:
$ uniq options RET

Use the -i option to ignore case when making comparisons.

⇒ To output the contents of the file options, with all duplicate lines filtered
out, regardless of case, type:
$ uniq -i options RET

To output only the lines that have duplicates, use the -d option. To output
only the lines that have duplicates, plus every instance of each duplicate line,
use -D instead.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output only the lines in the file options that have duplicates, but
not the duplicates themselves, type:
$ uniq -d options RET

• To output all of the lines in the file options that have duplicates,
and all the duplicates themselves, type:
$ uniq -D options RET

To output lines preceded by a count telling how many instances exist of

that line, use the -c option.
⇒ To output all of the lines in the file options, each preceded by a count
of the number of instances of that line, type:
$ uniq -c options RET

METHOD #2
To filter out unique lines in some unsorted text, use sort with the -u option.
This sorts the input lines alphabetically and runs uniq on them.
320 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output only unique lines in the unsorted file points-of-interest,

type:
$ sort -u points-of-interest RET

NOTES: The sort tool is described in the next recipe.

13.6 Sorting Text

You can sort a list, kept in a file or taken from standard input, with sort.
By default, it outputs text in ascending alphabetical order; use the -r
option to reverse the sort and output text in descending alphabetical order.
For example, suppose you have a file, provinces, that looks like Figure
13-1.
 

Shantung
Honan
Szechwan
Hunan
Kiangsu
Kwangtung
Fukien


Figure 13-1. The provinces file.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To sort the file provinces and output all lines in ascending order,
type:
 

$ sort provinces RET

Fukien
Honan
Hunan
Kiangsu
Kwangtung
Shantung
Szechwan
$


Chapter 13: Formatting Text 321

• To sort the file provinces and output all lines in descending order,
type:
 

$ sort -r provinces RET

Szechwan
Shantung
Kwangtung
Kiangsu
Hunan
Honan
Fukien
$

To write the output to a file, give the file name as an argument to the -o
option.
⇒ To sort the file provinces and write all lines in descending order to the
file provinces.sorted, type:
$ sort -r -o provinces.sorted provinces RET

The following recipes show special ways to use sort.

13.6.1 Sorting Text Regardless of Spacing

To sort and ignore leading blanks on any lines, use sort with the -b option.
⇒ To sort the text in file orders, ignoring any preceding blank spaces in
the sort, type:
$ sort -b orders RET

Use the -i option to ignore all spaces and all non-printing characters.
⇒ To sort the text in file orders, ignoring any preceding blank spaces and
non-printing characters, type:
$ sort -i orders RET

13.6.2 Sorting Text Regardless of Case

To sort text regardless of case, use sort with the -f option. This option spec-
ifies that lowercase letters should be folded into their uppercase equivalents
for the purpose of sorting, so that differences in case are ignored.
⇒ To sort the text in the file playlist regardless of case, type:
$ sort -f playlist RET

322 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

13.6.3 Sorting Text in Numeric Order

To sort by numeric order instead of by the ascii value of each character, use
sort with the -n option. With this sort, non-numeric text assumes a value of
zero.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To sort the text in the file answers in ascending numeric order, type:
$ sort -n answers RET

• To sort the text in the file answers in descending numeric order,
type:
$ sort -r -n answers RET

13.6.4 Sorting Text in Directory Order

To sort lines of text so that only letters, digits, and blanks are sorted, use
the -d option. This is sometimes called sorting in “phone directory order,”
because this sort order is the same way names in the telephone book are listed.
⇒ To sort the lines in the file contacts in directory order, type:
$ sort -d contacts RET

13.7 Columnating Text

The following recipes show ways to place text in and out of columns.
For a way to place text in columns when you are paginating that text, see
Recipe 13.3.4 [Placing Text in Paginated Columns], page 314.

13.7.1 Pasting Columns of Text from Separate Files

Use paste to paste columns of text together from separate files. Given some
files as arguments, paste outputs the contents of each file in separate columns,
so that each line of output consists of one line of input from each file, delimited
by a TAB
character. Use “-” to specify the standard input.
⇒ To paste the contents of causes and effects together in columns, writing
to a new file called table, type:
$ paste causes effects > table RET

To specify a different delimiter, give it as an argument to the -d option.

⇒ To paste the contents of the files bases and reactants together in
columns, separated by a plus sign (+), type:
$ paste -d "+" bases reactants RET

Chapter 13: Formatting Text 323

13.7.2 Columnating Text from Separate Files

To combine sorted text from two files based on a similar column (called a
field), use join and give the names of the files as input, using “-” for the
standard input.
For each line, join outputs the field common to both files (called the join
field), and then outputs the remaining contents of the line from the first file,
and then the remaining contents of the line from the second file. If there is
no common field, nothing is output for that line.
⇒ To output the contents of the sorted files march.stats and april.stats,
joining by the first column in each, type:
$ join march.stats april.stats RET

By default, the first field is used in both files. To specify the field for
the first file, use the -1 option and give the number of the field to use as an
argument; to specify the field for the second file, use -2.
⇒ To output the contents of the sorted files march.stats and april.stats,
joining by the third column in the first file and the second column in the
second file, type:
$ join -1 3 -2 2 march.stats april.stats RET

13.7.3 Columnating a List

Use column to output a list in columns. This is sometimes useful for colum-
nating a list and sending it to a line printer. By default, column formats for
80 characters wide (to fit the size of a standard terminal window), writing its
input with as many columns as can be made.
⇒ To write the contents of the file years.list to a file called years, written
in columns of lines not longer than 80 characters, type:
$ column years.list > years RET

Columns are filled before rows. That is, the input lines run down the first
column, and then down the next, and so on. To have the input lines fill across
the rows instead, use the -x option.2

2
Some versions have documentation stating the opposite of this effect, but the program
works this way in practice.
324 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To write the contents of the file years.list to a file called years, written
in columns of lines not longer than 80 characters and filling each row
before advancing to the next, type:
$ column -x years.list > years RET

To specify the number of characters to put in each line, give it as an
argument to the -c option.
⇒ To columnate the text in the file YearEnd.Financials with a line length
of 120 characters, and output it to the printer named finance, type:
$ column -c120 < YearEnd.Financials | lpr -Pfinance RET

13.7.4 Removing Columns from Text

There are two methods for removing columns. One extracts selected columns,
and the other outputs text with a column or character range extracted from
it. The first is much more versatile and is likely to be the method you will
use most of the time.

METHOD #1
Use cut to output selected columns (called fields) from text. Give the fields
to output as arguments to the -f option. You can specify multiple fields by
delimiting them with commas, and you can specify a range of fields with a
hyphen character (-).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output only the first field from the file bank-statement, type:
$ cut -f1 bank-statement RET

• To output the second and fourth fields from the file bank-statement,
type:
$ cut -f2,4 bank-statement RET

• To output the first and the third through fifth fields from the file
bank-statement, type:
$ cut -f1,3-5 bank-statement RET

Fields are output from lowest to highest, no matter which order you specify
them. If you specify a field out of range for the input text, cut outputs a blank
line for each line of input, and if cut can find no field at all in an input line,
it outputs the entire line. Use -s to suppress the printing of lines that do not
contain the selected field.
By default, cut counts fields as delimited by a tab character. To specify
some other delimiter, give it as an argument to the -d option.
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 325

⇒ To output only the second field from the file bank-statement, where
fields are delimited by a space character, and suppress output of lines not
containing this field, type:
$ cut -d " " -f2 bank-statement RET

Fields are output with the same delimiter used in the input. To specify
a different delimiter for the output, give it as an argument to the long-style
option --output-delimiter.
⇒ To take the third through fifth fields from the file ‘bank-statement,’
where fields are delimited by a space character, and output them delim-
ited by tab characters, type:
$ cut -d " " -f3-5 --output-delimiter CTRL
- V
TAB

bank-statement RET

To specify bytes or characters in place of fields, use the -b and -c options,

respectively.
⇒ To output the first, third, fifth, and seventh characters from each line in
the file bank-statement, type:
$ cut -c1,3,5,7 bank-statement RET

METHOD #2
Use colrm to remove columns in text by their character positions. Given a
number as an argument, colrm will remove all text on each line, beginning at
that character position.
⇒ To output only the first two characters on each line of the file
percentages, type:
$ colrm 3 < percentages RET

If you give an ending column as a second argument, colrm removes all

columns from the first to the second arguments, inclusive. The columns to
the right of the ending column are brought over to join the column preceding
the first argument.
⇒ To output the contents of the file amounts, removing the tenth through
sixtieth characters on each line of text, and writing to a file called
markdown, type:
$ colrm 10 60 < amounts > markdown RET

326 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

13.8 Numbering Lines of Text

There are several ways to put numbers on lines of text. Here are two of the
best.

METHOD #1
One way to number text is to use the nl (“number lines”) tool. Its default
action is to write its input (either the file names given as an argument, or
the standard input) to the standard output, with an indentation and all non-
empty lines preceded with line numbers.
⇒ To peruse the file report with each line of the file preceded by line num-
bers, type:
$ nl report | less RET

You can set the numbering style with the -b option followed by an ar-
gument. The following table lists the possible arguments and describes the
numbering style they select.

a Number all lines.

t Number only non-blank lines. (This is the default.)
n Do not number lines.
pregexp Only number lines that contain the regular expres-
sion regexp (see Recipe 14.3 [Matching Patterns of
Text], page 335).
The default is for line numbers to start with 1 and increment by 1. Set
the initial line number by giving an argument to the -v option, and set the
increment by giving an argument to the -i option.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the file review with each line of the file preceded by line
numbers, starting with the number 2 and counting by 4, type:
$ nl -v 2 -i 4 review RET

• To number only the lines of the file cantos that begin with a period
(.), starting numbering at 0 and using a numbering increment of 5,
and writing the output to cantos.numbered, type:
$ nl -i 5 -v 0 -b p'^\.' cantos > cantos.numbered RET

Chapter 13: Formatting Text 327

METHOD #2
The other way to number lines is to use cat with one of the following two
options: The -n option numbers each line of its input text, while the -b option
only numbers non-blank lines.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To peruse the text file citations with each line of the file numbered,
type:
$ cat -n citations | less RET

• To peruse the text file citations with each non-blank line of the file
numbered, type:
$ cat -b citations | less RET

In the preceding examples, output from cat is piped to less for perusal;
the original file is not altered.
To take an input file, number its lines, and then write the line-numbered
version to a new file, send the standard output of the cat command to the
new file to write.
⇒ To write a line-numbered version of file report to file report.lines,
type:
$ cat -n report > report.lines RET

13.9 Underlining Text

In the days of typewriters, text that was meant to be set in an italicized
font was denoted by underlining the text with underscore characters. Today,
it’s common practice to denote an italicized word in plain text by typing
an underscore character (_) just before and after a word in a text file, like
“_this_.”3 I call this etext-style underlining.4
Another method of underlining text is overstrike-style or backspace un-
derlining, where each character to underline is immediately followed by a
backspace character (“Control-H”) and an underscore character (_).
Special ways to view underlined text are described in Recipe 9.3.5 [Viewing
Underlined Text], page 226.
3
A method for printing files with this markup is described in Recipe 25.3.5 [Preparing
Text for Printing], page 522.
4
Another variation, though much less popular, is to use forward-slash characters, like
“/this/.”
328 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The following recipes are for placing, converting, or removing these differ-
ent types of underlines in text.

13.9.1 Placing Underlines in Text

There are different methods of placing underlines in text, depending on
whether they are etext-style or overstrike-style underlines.

METHOD #1
To place “_etext-style_” underlines in text, you just type an underscore
character before and after the text to be underlined. (Another variation is
to use the underscore for any space characters within the underlined text,
“_just_like_this_.”)

METHOD #2
To place an overstrike-style underline in some text, you need to insert a literal
backspace character (“Control-H”) immediately after a character you want to
underline, and follow that with an underscore character (_).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To write the word “END” with overstrike-style underlines in an Emacs

buffer, type (all on one line):
E CTRL
- Q
CTRL
- H
_N CTRL
- Q

CTRL
- H
_D CTRL
- Q
CTRL
- H
_

• To write the word “stress” with overstrike-style underlines when

you are in input mode in Vi, type (all on one line):
E CTRL
- V
CTRL
- H
_N CTRL
- V

CTRL
- H
_D CTRL
- V
CTRL
- H
_

NOTES: For more information on inserting control characters in Emacs and

Vi, see Recipe 10.1.4 [Inserting Special Characters in Emacs], page 239 and
Recipe 10.2.4 [Inserting Special Characters in Vi], page 251, respectively.

13.9.2 Converting Underlines in Text

Text markup languages use different methods for denoting italics; for example,
in TEX or LaTEX files, italicized text is often denoted with brackets and the \it
command, like “{\it this}.” (LaTEX files use the same format, but \emph is
often used in place of \it.)
Chapter 13: Formatting Text 329

You can convert one form to the other by using the Emacs replace-
regular-expression function and specifying the text to be replaced as
a regexp (see Recipe 14.3 [Regular Expressions—Matching Text Patterns],
page 335).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To replace plaintext-style italics with TEX \it commands, type:
ALT
- X
replace-regular-expression RET

_\([^_]+\)_ RET

\{\\it \1} RET

• To replace TEX-style italics with etext style underscores , type:
ALT
- X
replace-regular-expression RET

\{\\it \{\([^\}]+\)\} RET

_\1_ RET

Both of these examples use the special regexp symbol “\1,” which matches
the same text matched by the first “\( ... \)” construct in the previous
regexp.
NOTES: For more information on regexp syntax in Emacs, consult its Info
documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).

13.9.3 Removing Underlines from Text

There are two methods to remove underlines from text—the first removes the
underlining, and the second removes the characters to be underlined, but not
the underlines themselves.

METHOD #1
To remove backspace underlining from text, use colcrt with the - option, as
described in Method #3 of Recipe 9.3.5 [Viewing Underlined Text], page 226.
⇒ To output a file containing backspace underlining called
zim.bibliography, writing to a new file called zimbib.txt
with no underlines at all, type:
$ colcrt - zim.bibliography > zimbib.txt RET

METHOD #2
To remove any text that is marked with underlines and not remove the under-
lines themselves, send the text to col with the -b option. This removes all of
the characters to be underlined, and the backspace character (“Control-H”)
that follows each one. The underline characters (_) are kept.
330 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output the file zim.bibliography with all underlined characters re-

moved but all underlines kept, type:
$ col -b < zim.bibliography RET

NOTES: This is also good for removing overstrikes from text, where a char-
acter such as “X” is used in place of an underline.

13.10 Reversing Text

These recipes show ways to reverse the order of lines of text, and to reverse
the order of characters on each line.

13.10.1 Reversing Lines of Text

The tac command is similar to cat, but it outputs text in reverse order. That
is, it outputs the last line of its input first, and the first line of its input last.
There is another difference—tac works on records, sections of text with
separator strings, instead of lines of text. Its default separator string is the
linebreak character, so by default tac outputs files in line-for-line reverse
order.
⇒ To output the file prizes in line-for-line reverse order, type:
$ tac prizes RET

Specify a different separator with the -s option. This is often useful when
specifying non-printing characters, such as formfeeds. To specify such a char-
acter, use the ansi-c method of quoting (see Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved
Characters], page 56).
⇒ To output prizes in page-for-page reverse order, type:
$ tac -s $'\f' prizes RET

The preceding example uses the formfeed, or page break, character as the
delimiter, so it outputs the file prizes in page-for-page reverse order, with
the last page output first.
Use the -r option to use a regular expression for the separator string (see
Recipe 14.3 [Regular Expressions—Matching Patterns of Text], page 335).
You can build regular expressions to output text in word-for-word and
character-for-character reverse order:
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output prizes in word-for-word reverse order, type:
$ tac -r -s '[^a-zA-z0-9\-]' prizes RET

Chapter 13: Formatting Text 331

• To output prizes in character-for-character reverse order, type:

$ tac -r -s '.\| RET

' prizes RET

13.10.2 Reversing the Characters on Lines

To reverse the order of characters on each line, use rev. It takes as input the
name of the file to reverse, and it writes to the standard output. With no
options, it reads from standard input.
⇒ To output prizes with the characters on each line reversed, type:
$ rev prizes RET

332 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 14: Searching Text 333

14. Searching Text

It’s quite common to search through text for a given sequence of characters
(such as a word or phrase), called a string, or even for a pattern describing a
set of such strings; this chapter contains recipes for doing these kind of things.

14.1 Searching Text for a Word

The primary tool used for searching through text is grep, whose frog-like
name is often used as a verb to describe the process of searching through text,
as in “Did you grep the list for his name?”1 It outputs lines of its input that
contain a given string or pattern.
To search for a word, give that word as the first argument. By default,
grep searches standard input; give the name of a file to search as the second
argument.
⇒ To output lines in the file catalog containing the word “CD,” type:
$ grep CD catalog RET

Use the -i option to ignore the case when looking for matches.
⇒ To output lines in the file catalog containing “cd,” regardless of case,
type:
$ grep -i cd catalog RET

This search matches any lines in catalog where the pattern “cd” is found,
regardless of case. So it will match lines containing “CD” and “cd,” as well as
any other variation in case, like “Cd.”
However, this search also matches lines containing, say, the word
“anecdote,” as well as words like “CDROM” or “CDR,” because grep matches
patterns wherever they occur on a line.
To specify that only whole words should count as matches, use grep with
the -w option. This ignores matches that occur in the middle of a word. Only
entire words will count as a pattern match, which means the pattern’s location
must match two criteria: One, it must be either at the beginning of the line,
or be directly preceded by non-letters and non-digits; and two, it must either
be directly followed by non-letters or non-digits, or be at the end of the line.
⇒ To output lines in the file catalog containing the word “CD,” type:
$ grep -w CD catalog RET

1
The origin of its name is explained in Recipe 14.3 [Regular Expressions—Matching Pat-
terns of Text], page 335, where its advanced usage is discussed.
334 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

In this example, only lines containing the word “CD” are printed; lines with
words such as “CDROM” or “anecdote” are not printed unless they contain the
word “CD.”2

14.2 Searching Text for a Phrase

To search some text for a phrase, specify it in quotes.
⇒ To output lines in the file catalog containing the word “Compact Disc,”
type:
$ grep 'Compact Disc' catalog RET

The preceding example outputs all lines in the file catalog that contain
the exact string “Compact Disc”; it will not match, however, lines containing
“compact disc” or any other variation on the case of letters in the search
pattern. Use the -i option to specify that matches are to be made regardless
of case.
⇒ To output lines in the file catalog containing the string “compact disc”
regardless of the case of the letters, type:
$ grep -i 'compact disc' catalog RET

This command outputs lines in the file catalog containing any variation
on the pattern “compact disc,” including “Compact Disc,” “COMPACT DISC,”
and “comPact dIsC.”
One thing to keep in mind is that grep only matches patterns that appear
on a single line, so in the preceding example, if one line in catalog ends with
the word “compact” and the next begins with “disc,” this command will not
match either line. There is a way around this with grep (see Recipe 14.4.3
[Finding Phrases Regardless of Spacing], page 343), and there is a way to do
it in Emacs (see Recipe 14.9.2 [Searching for a Phrase in Emacs], page 353).
A search string may contain tab characters as well as space characters. To
type a tab character in a quoted string, first type CTRL
- V
and then type
TAB
(see Recipe 3.1.2 [Typing a Control Character], page 55).
⇒ To output lines in screenplay containing the text “In the beginning,”
only when directly preceded by a tab character, type:
$ grep ' CTRL
- V
TAB
In the beginning' screenplay RET

Some special characters have reserved meanings, and to search for them
you must specify them in special ways, as described in the next recipe. The
2
However, the word “CD-ROM” would count as a match; grep considers the hyphen char-
acter to be a word separator, and thus sees “CD-ROM” as two words.
Chapter 14: Searching Text 335

period character (.) is one such character. When searching for just strings,
though, you can use the -F option to specify that the pattern you give is a
fixed string, with no special characters in it at all.
fgrep is equivalent to grep with the -F option. It is one of two variations
of grep assigned to perform a special purpose (the other is discussed below).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To search the file screenplay for the phrase “the end.,” regardless
of case, type:
$ grep -F 'the end.' screenplay RET

• To search the file screenplay for the phrase “the end.,” regardless
of case, type:
$ fgrep 'the end.' screenplay RET

The results of the two preceding examples are identical.
To search for a string containing double quote characters, use single quotes
to quote it, and vice versa. When the text you search for contains both kinds
of quote characters, don’t quote the string at all, but precede every quote and
space character in the string with a backslash character (\).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output all lines in the file screenplay that contain the string
“"Frankly, Scarlett," he said,” type:
$ grep '"Frankly, Scarlett," he said' screenplay RET

• To output all lines in the file screenplay that contain the string “I
don’t give,” type:
$ grep "I don’t give" screenplay RET

• To output all lines in the file screenplay that contains the string
“Don't say "Goodbye",” type:
$ grep Don\'t\ say\ \"Goodbye\" screenplay RET

14.3 Matching Patterns of Text

In addition to word and phrase searches, you can grep for complex text pat-
terns. Called a regular expression (or “regexp” for short), this is a text string
that specifies a set of patterns to match. Regexps are a fundamental concept
in the unix world, and they are the most powerful way to search for text with
a computer.
Technically speaking, the word or phrase patterns described in the previous
recipes are regular expressions—just very simple ones. They specify the given
word or phrase as the set of patterns to match.
336 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

In a regular expression, most characters—including letters and numbers—

only represent themselves. For example, the regexp pattern “1” matches the
string “1” and nothing else; the pattern “bee” matches the string “bee” and
nothing else. The pattern “” lacks any characters at all and is called the
empty set; it matches nothing.3 Each of these are regexps that specify a set
of one precise pattern to match.
There are, however, a number of reserved characters, called metacharacters,
that don’t represent themselves in a regular expression. Instead, they have
special meanings that are used to build complex patterns. These metachar-
acters are:
. * [ ] ^ $ \
To avoid trouble with shell expansion, you should quote regexps that con-
tain any of these metacharacters.
To specify one of these literal characters in a regular expression, precede
the character with a “\.”4
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output lines in the file catalog that contain a literal “$” charac-
ter, type:
$ grep '\$' catalog RET

• To output lines in the file catalog that contain the string “$1.99,”
type:
$ grep '\$1\.99' catalog RET

• To output lines in the file catalog that contain a “\” character,
type:
$ grep '\\' catalog RET

The following table describes the special meanings of the metacharacters

and gives examples of their use.

. Matches any one character, with the exception of

the newline character. For example, “.” matches
“a,” “1,” “?,” “.” (a literal period character), and
so forth.

3
Since “nothing” can be found in the space between any two characters, the empty set
matches every line of its input, which can be useful in some scenarios.
4
You could also use fgrep to search, as described in See Recipe 14.2 [Searching Text for
a Phrase], page 334, but then your regexps would have to contain no metacharacters at
all.
Chapter 14: Searching Text 337

* Matches the preceding regexp at least zero but as

many times as possible. For example, “-*” matches
at least “” (the empty set), but preferably “-,” “--
,” “---,” “----,” “-----,” and so forth, continuing
the match as much as possible.
[] Encloses a character set, and matches any mem-
ber of the set—for example, “[abc]” matches ei-
ther “a,” “b,” or “c.” In addition, the hyphen (-)
and caret (^) characters have special meanings when
used inside brackets:
- The hyphen specifies a range of characters, ordered
according to their ascii values (see Recipe 9.3.7
[Viewing a Character Set], page 228). For exam-
ple, “[0-9]” is synonymous with “[0123456789]”;
“[A-Za-z]” matches one uppercase or lowercase let-
ter. To include a literal “-” in a list, specify it as the
last character in a list: so “[0-9-]” matches either
a single digit character or a “-.”
^ As the first character of a list, the caret means
that any character except those in the list should be
matched. For example, “[^a]” matches any charac-
ter except “a,” and “[^0-9]” matches any character
except a numeric digit.
^ Matches the beginning of the line. So “^a” matches
“a” only when it is the first character on a line.
$ Matches the end of the line. So “a$” matches “a”
only when it is the last character on a line.
\ Use “\” before a metacharacter when you want to
specify that literal character. So “\$” matches a
dollar sign character ($), and “\\” matches a single
backslash character (\).
In addition, use \ to build new extended metachar-
acters, by using it before a number of other charac-
ters:
338 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

\| Called the alternation operator, it matches either

regexp it is between—use it to join two separate reg-
exps to match either of them. For example, “a\|b”
matches either “a” or “b.”
\+ Matches the preceding regexp as many times as pos-
sible, but at least once. So “a\+” matches one or
more adjacent “a” characters, such as “aaa,” “aa,”
and “a.”
\? Matches the regexp preceding it either zero or one
times. So “a\?” matches either “a,” or the empty
set—which matches every line.
\{number\} Matches the previous regexp (one specified to the
left of this construction) that number of times—so
“a\{4\}” matches “aaaa.” Use “\{number,\}” to
match the preceding regexp number or more times,
“\{,number\}” to match the preceding regexp zero
to number times, and “\{number1,number2\}” to
match the preceding regexp from number1 to num-
ber2 times.
\(regexp\) Group regexp together for an alternative, which is
useful for combination regexps. For example, while
“moo\?” matches only “mo” or “moo,” “\(moo\)\?”
matches only “moo” or the empty set.

NOTES: The name “grep” derives from a command in the now-obsolete unix
ed line editor tool. The ed command for searching globally through a file for a
regular expression, and then printing on the screen those lines that contained a
match, was g/re/p, where re was the regular expression you’d use. Eventually,
the grep command was written to do this search on a file when not using ed.5
The grep variant egrep, “extended grep,” recognizes all of the extended
metacharacters without the preceding “\.” You can get the same effect in
plain grep by using the -E option.
The following sections describe some regexp recipes for commonly searched-
for patterns.
5
The ed command is still available on virtually all unices, Linux included, and the old
‘g/re/p’ still works. Perhaps an oft-used function, available only in one application
today, might become one of the new tools of tomorrow.
Chapter 14: Searching Text 339

14.3.1 Matching Lines of a Certain Length

To match lines of a particular length, use that number of “.” characters
between “^” and “$”—for example, to match all lines that are two characters
(or columns) wide, use “^..$” as the regexp to search for.
⇒ To output all lines in /usr/dict/words that are exactly two characters
wide, type:
$ grep '^..$' /usr/dict/words RET

For longer lines, where you don’t want to have to be counting periods, it
is more useful to use a different construct: “^.\{number\}$,” where number
is the number of lines to match. Use “,” to specify a range of numbers.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output all lines in /usr/dict/words that are exactly 17 charac-
ters wide, type:
$ grep '^.\{17\}$' /usr/dict/words RET

• To output all lines in /usr/dict/words that are 25 or more charac-
ters wide, type:
$ grep '^.\{25,\}$' /usr/dict/words RET

14.3.2 Matching Lines That Contain Any of Some

Regexps
To match lines that contain any of a number of regexps, specify each of the
regexps to search for between alternation operators (\|) as the regexp to
search for. Lines containing any of the given regexps will be output.
⇒ To output all lines in playlist that contain either the pattern “the sea”
or “cake,” type:
$ grep 'the sea\|cake' playlist RET

This command outputs any lines in “playlist” that match the pattern
“the sea” or “cake,” including lines matching both patterns.

14.3.3 Matching Lines That Contain All of Some

Regexps
To output lines that match all of a number of regexps, use grep to output
lines containing the first regexp you want to match, and pipe the output to a
grep with the second regexp as an argument. Continue adding pipes to grep
searches for all the regexps you want to search for.
340 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output all lines in playlist that contain both patterns “the sea”
and “cake,” regardless of case, type:
$ grep -i 'the sea' playlist | grep -i cake RET

NOTES: To match lines containing some regexps in a particular order, see

Recipe 14.3.6 [Using Popular Regexps for Common Situations], below.

14.3.4 Matching Lines That Don’t Contain a Regexp

To output all lines in a text that don’t contain a given pattern, use grep
with the -v option—this option reverses the sense of matching, selecting all
non-matching lines.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output all lines in /usr/dict/words that are not three characters
wide, type:
$ grep -v '^...$' RET

• To output all lines in access_log that do not contain the string
“http,” type:
$ grep -v http access_log RET

14.3.5 Matching Lines That Only Contain Certain

Characters
To match lines that only contain certain characters, use the regexp “^[char-
acters]*$,” where characters lists the ones to match.
⇒ To output lines in /usr/dict/words that only contain vowels, type:
$ grep -i '^[aeiou]*$' /usr/dict/words RET

The -i option matches characters regardless of case; so, in this example,

all vowel characters are matched regardless of case.

14.3.6 Using Popular Regexps for Common Situations

The following table lists sample regexps and describes the lines that they
match. Use these regexps as boilerplate when building your own regular ex-
pressions for searching text. Remember to type regexps all on one line, and
to quote them (see Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56).
Chapter 14: Searching Text 341

To Match . . . Use This Regexp

Any number [0-9]
Lines not containing any number ^[^0-9]*$
At least three uppercase letters together [A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]
Nine zeroes in a row, anywhere in a line 0\{9\}
Lines exactly four characters long ^....$ or ^.\{4\}$
Lines exactly 70 characters long ^.\{70\}$
Lines beginning with an asterisk character ^\*
Lines beginning with “tow” and ending ^tow.*ing$
with “ing”
Either “.txt” or “.text” on a line \.te\?xt
“cat” then “gory” in the same word cat\.\+gory
“cat” then “gory” cat\.\+\?gory
“cat” except when followed by an “e” cat[^e]
A “q” not followed by a “u” q[^u]
“N,” “T,” and “K,” with zero or more characters N.*T.*K
between each

Any ftp://, gopher://, or http:// urls \(ftp\|gopher\|http\|\)://.*\..*

A year from 1991 through 1995 199[1-5]
A year from 1957 through 1969 \(195[7-9]\)\|\(196[0-
9]\)
A date in any one of these formats: [A-Za-z]\{3,10\}\.\?
MONTH, DAY YEAR [0-9]\{1,2\}, \([0-
MON. DAY, YEAR 9]\{4\}\|'[0-9]\{2\}\)
MON. DAY, ’YY
(Quote in double quotes)
342 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

(continued)
To Match . . . Use This Regexp
An ip address [0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-
9]\{1,3\}\.[0-
9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}
A Social Security number [0-9]\{3\}-\?[0-
9]\{2\}-\?[0-9]\{4\}
A United States telephone number \(1\+\)\?\(\(\?[0-
9]\{3\}\)\?\)\?\(-
\)\?[0-9]\{3\}\(-
\)\?[0-9]\{4\}

The following table shows how some of the preceding searches are simplified
with egrep.

To Match . . . Use This Regexp

Any ftp://, gopher://, or http:// urls (ftp|gopher|http|)://\.*.\.*
A year from 1957 through 1969 (195[7-9])|(196[0-9])
A date in any one of these formats: [A-Za-z]{3,10}\.?
MONTH, DAY YEAR [0-9]{1,2}, ([0-
MON. DAY, YEAR 9]{4}|'[0-9]{2})
MON. DAY, ’YY
(Quote in double quotes)

An ip address [0-9]{1,3}\.[0-
9]{1,3}\.[0-
9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}
A Social Security number [0-9]{3}-?[0-
9]{2}-?[0-9]{4}
A United States telephone number (1+)?((?[0-9]{3})?)?(-
)?[0-9]{3}(-)?[0-9]{4}

14.4 Finding Patterns in Certain Places

These recipes describe ways to find patterns only when they appear in par-
ticular places—depending on where in the text the pattern is, it may or may
not constitute a match.
Chapter 14: Searching Text 343

14.4.1 Matching Lines Beginning with Certain Text

Use “^” in a regexp to denote the beginning of a line.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output all lines in /usr/dict/words beginning with “pre,” type:
$ grep '^pre' /usr/dict/words RET

• To output all lines in the file book that begin with the text “in the
beginning,” regardless of case, type:
$ grep -i '^in the beginning' book RET

NOTES: These regexps were quoted with single-quote characters; this is be-
cause some shells otherwise treat the “^” character as a special “metacharac-
ter” (see Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56).

14.4.2 Matching Lines Ending with Certain Text

Use “$” as the last character of quoted text to match that text only at the
end of a line.
⇒ To output lines in the file sayings ending with an exclamation point,
type:
$ grep '!$' sayings RET

NOTES: To use “$” in a regexp to find words that rhyme with a given word,
see Recipe 11.2.1 [Listing Words That Match a Pattern], page 283.

14.4.3 Finding Phrases in Text Regardless of Spacing

One way to search for a phrase that might occur with extra spaces between
words, or across a line or page break, is to remove all linefeeds and extra
spaces from the input, and then grep that.
To do this, pipe the input6 to tr with “\r\n:\>\|-” as an argument to
the -d option (removing all linebreaks from the input); pipe that to the fmt
filter with the -u option (outputting the text with uniform spacing); and pipe
that to grep with the pattern to search for.
⇒ To search across line breaks for the string “at the same time as” in the
file notes, type (all on one line):
$ cat notes | tr -d '\r\n:\>\|-' | fmt -u | grep
'at the same time as' RET

6
If the input is a file, use cat to do this, as in the example.
344 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: The Emacs editor has its own special search for doing this—see
Recipe 14.9.2 [Searching for a Phrase in Emacs], page 353.

14.4.4 Finding Patterns Only in Certain Positions

To find patterns or strings only at certain positions on a line, use grep with
the pattern “^.\number\pattern,” where number is the number of characters
in a line to skip over, and pattern is the pattern to search for.
You can use the same pattern with egrep—just omit the slashes before
the curly braces.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To find an X at the 50th character on a line in the file treasure,
type:
$ grep '^.\{49\}X' treasure RET

• To find an X at the 50th character on a line in the file treasure,
type:
$ egrep '^.{49}X' treasure RET

Both of the preceding examples are equivalent.

14.5 Showing Matches in Context

To search for a pattern that only occurs in a particular context, grep for the
context in which it should occur, and pipe the output to another grep to
search for the actual pattern.
For example, this can be useful to search for a given pattern only when it
is quoted with a greater-than sign (>) in an email message.
⇒ To list lines from the file email-archive that contain the word
“narrative” only when it is quoted, type:
$ grep '^>' email-archive | grep narrative RET

You can also reverse the order and use the -v option to output all lines
containing a given pattern that are not in a given context.
⇒ To list lines from the file email-archive that contain the word
“narrative,” but not when it is quoted, type:
$ grep narrative email-archive | grep -v '^>' RET

The following recipes show how to output matches in various contexts.

Chapter 14: Searching Text 345

14.5.1 Showing Matched Lines in Their Context

It is sometimes useful to see a matched line in its context in the file—that is,
to see some of the lines that surround it.
Use the -C option with grep to output results in context—it outputs
matched lines with two lines of “context” both before and after each match.
To specify the number of context lines output both before and after matched
lines, use that number as an option instead of -C.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To search /usr/dict/words for lines matching “tsch” and output
two lines of context before and after each line of output, type:
$ grep -C tsch /usr/dict/words RET

• To search /usr/dict/words for lines matching “tsch” and output
six lines of context before and after each line of output, type:
$ grep -6 tsch /usr/dict/words RET

To output matches and the two lines before them, use -B; to output matches
and the two lines after them, use -A. Give a numeric value with either of these
options to specify that number of context lines instead of the default.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To search /usr/dict/words for lines matching “tsch” and output
two lines of context before each line of output, type:
$ grep -B tsch /usr/dict/words RET

• To search /usr/dict/words for lines matching “tsch” and output
six lines of context after each line of output, type:
$ grep -A6 tsch /usr/dict/words RET

• To search /usr/dict/words for lines matching “tsch” and output
ten lines of context before and three lines of context after each line
of output, type:
$ grep -B10 -A3 tsch /usr/dict/words RET

14.5.2 Highlighting Matches on Their Lines

Highlighting the matches on their lines is useful for learning to make your own
regexps, and for perusing the input text with the matched patterns highlighted
in context. There are a few methods, none of which use grep to do the
searching.
346 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
When you search for a regexp in less, all matches are highlighted by default.
This is useful for perusing a file containing lines you are searching for, such
as a mail archive or Web log file.
⇒ To highlight the subject lines of all mail messages in the file you are
perusing in less, type:
/^Subject:.*$ RET

NOTES: To highlight seareches in vim, type :set hls when in command mode.

METHOD #2
You can use sed to output lines that match a regexp (see Recipe 10.5 [Edit-
ing Streams of Text], page 255). sed’s search and replace functions make it
possible to search for a regexp and surround it with the ansi escape sequences
necessary to display text in colors. This method works on color terminals.
⇒ To search the file itinerary for the pattern “Paris,” and output the
contents of the file with that pattern in red, type (all on one line):
$ sed 's/Paris/ CTRL
- V
ESC
[31m& CTRL
- V

ESC
[37m/g' < itinerary RET

The color for the highlighted text is specified by the number in the first
escape sequence. In the preceding example, that number is 31 (the second
number resets the text color to white, using number 37, for the text following
the match). The following table lists available numbers and the colors they
set.

30 Black
31 Red
32 Green
33 Yellow
34 Blue
35 Purple
36 Cyan
37 White

NOTES: If you want to pipe the output to a pager for perusal, you should
use either less with the -R option or use more, because control characters
by default are not “escaped” in less (see Recipe 9.1.4 [Perusing Raw Text],
page 214).
Chapter 14: Searching Text 347

14.5.3 Showing Only the Matched Patterns from Input

Showing only the matches, and not the entire lines they are part of, is very
useful for collecting patterns from text, for saving to a file or piping to other
tools, and for learning regexps. There are two methods of doing this.

METHOD #1
Use grep with the -o option to show only the matches, and not the entire
line containing the match.
⇒ To output all of the ip addresses contained in the file access.log, type
(all on one line):
$ grep -o
'[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}'
access.log RET

NOTES: This option is new for grep, beginning in gnu grep version 2.5.

METHOD #2
You can also use sed to output only the matched patterns you search for,
and not the lines they are contained in. To do this, run sed with the -n
option and the expression “s/.*\(PATTERN \).*/\1/p,” where PATTERN
is the pattern to search for. Finally, give the name of the file to search as an
argument.
⇒ To output the contents of all double quotations (including the quotation
marks themselves), contained in the file dialogue, type:
$ sed -n 's/.*\(".*"\).*/\1/p' dialogue RET

14.5.4 Showing Which Files Contain Matching Lines

To show which files contain matches for a search, use grep with the -l option.
It does not output the lines that match the pattern, but only lists the files
that contain matches. This is useful for searching a group of files to see which
ones contain some string or pattern.
⇒ To output a list of all files in the current directory that contain the string
RECALL, type:
$ grep -l RECALL * RET

348 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

14.6 Keeping a File of Patterns to Search For

You can keep a list of regexps in a file and use grep to search text for any of
those patterns. To do this, specify the name of the file containing the regexps
to search for as an argument to the -f option.
This can be useful, for example, if you need to search a given text for a
number of words—keep each word on its own line in the regexp file.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output all lines in /usr/dict/words containing any of the words
listed in the file forbidden-words, type:
$ grep -f forbidden-words /usr/dict/words RET

• To output all lines in /usr/dict/words that do not contain any of
the words listed in forbidden-words, regardless of case, type:
$ grep -v -i -f forbidden-words /usr/dict/words RET

14.7 Searching More than Plain Text Files

The following recipes are for searching for text in places other than in a plain
text file.

14.7.1 Matching Lines in Many Files

You can use grep to search more than just a single file; any file name expansion
you specify will be globbed by the shell, and that list of files will be passed to
grep (see Recipe 5.8 [Specifying File Names with Patterns], page 153).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To search all files in the current directory for the pattern “peaches,”
type:
$ grep peaches * RET

• To search all files in the current directory with either “produce” or
“inventory” anywhere in part of their names, type:
$ grep peaches *produce,inventory* RET

When you search multiple files, each match that grep outputs is preceded
by the name of the file it’s in; suppress this with the -h option.
Chapter 14: Searching Text 349

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To output lines in all of the files in the current directory containing
the word “CD,” type:
$ grep CD * RET

• To output lines in all of the .txt files in the ~/doc directory con-
taining the word “CD,” suppressing the listing of file names in the
output, type:
$ grep -h CD ~/doc/*.txt RET

Use the -r option to search a given directory recursively, searching all

subdirectories it contains.
⇒ To output lines containing the word “CD” in all of the .txt files in the
~/doc directory and in all of its subdirectories, type:
$ grep -r CD ~/doc/*.txt RET

14.7.2 Matching Lines in Compressed Files

Use zgrep to search through text in files that are compressed with the gzip
compression tool. These files usually have a .gz file name extension, and
they can’t be searched or otherwise read by other tools without uncompress-
ing the file first (for more about compressed files, see Recipe 8.4 [Using File
Compression], page 196).
The zgrep tool works just like grep, except it can search through the text
of compressed files (it searches uncompressed files, too). It outputs matches
to the given pattern as if you’d searched through normal, uncompressed files.
It leaves the files compressed when it exits.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To search through the compressed file README.gz for the text
“Linux,” type:
$ zgrep Linux README.gz RET

• To search through all files in the current directory, either compressed
or uncompressed, for the text “Linux,” type:
$ zgrep Linux * RET

• To recursively search through all files in the current directory tree,
either compressed or uncompressed, for the text “Linux,” type:
$ zgrep -r Linux * RET

350 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

14.7.3 Matching Lines in Web Pages

Depending on the method used, you can match lines in either the contents of
a Web page (the text it displays) or in the source of the page—its contents
plus html formatting codes.

METHOD #1
Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

You can grep the contents of a Web page or other url by giving the url to
lynx with the -dump and -nolist options, and piping the output to grep.
⇒ To search the contents of the url http://example.com/bingo for lines
containing the text “bango” or “bongo,” type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -nolist http://example.com/bingo |
grep b[ao]ngo RET

METHOD #2
Wget
DEB: wget
RPM: wget
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

To grep the actual html source of the Web page, use wget and give “-” as
an argument to the -O option, piping the output to grep.
⇒ To search the html sources of the url http://example.com/bingo for
five sequential digits, type (all on one line):
$ wget -O- http://example.com/bingo | grep
'[0-9]\{5\}' RET

14.7.4 Matching Lines in Binary Files

The strings tool outputs all of the text strings in a binary file. To search
such a file for some text, pipe the output of strings to a grep.
⇒ To output all the lines of text containing the string “http” in the binary
file netrun, type:
$ strings netrun | grep http RET

Chapter 14: Searching Text 351

14.8 Searching and Replacing Text

There are a few methods for replacing the text you are searching for with
some other text. None use grep, because that tool only outputs the matches.
You can also search and replace text in most text editors, including Emacs;
see Recipe 14.9.4 [Searching and Replacing in Emacs], page 353.

METHOD #1
A quick way to search and replace some text in a file is to use the following
one-line perl command:
perl -pi -e "s/oldstring/newstring/g;" filespec RET

In this command, oldstring is the string to search for, newstring is the string
to replace it with, and filespec is the name of the file or files to work on. You
can use this for more than one file.
⇒ To replace the string “helpless” with the string “helpful” in all files in
the current directory that end with a three-character file extension, type:
$ perl -pi -e "s/helpless/helpful/g;" *.??? RET

METHOD #2
You can use sed to search for and replace text, as described in Recipe 10.5
[Editing Streams of Text], page 255.
⇒ To output the contents of the file marketing, replacing the text
“television,” capitalized or not, with “Internet,” type:
$ sed 's/[Tt]elevision/Internet/g' marketing RET

You can also specify that replacement is to occur only when

lines contain some other text by using the expression “/other-
text/s/searchtext/replacetext/g.”
⇒ To output the contents of the file marketing replacing the text
“television,” capitalized or not, with “Internet,” but only on lines
that contain a digit character, type:
$ sed '/[0-9]/s/[Tt]elevision/Internet/g' marketing RET

Finally, to specify that replacement is to occur only when lines

do not contain some other text, use sed with the expression “/other-
text/!s/searchtext/replacetext/g.”
352 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output the contents of the file marketing replacing the text

“television,” capitalized or not, with “Internet,” but not on lines
that contain the text “radio,” type:
$ sed '/radio/!s/[Tt]elevision/Internet/g' marketing RET

14.9 Searching Text in Emacs

The following recipes show ways of searching for text in Emacs—incrementally,
for a word or phrase, or for a pattern—and for searching and then replacing
text.

14.9.1 Searching Incrementally in Emacs

Type CTRL
- S
to use the Emacs incremental search function. It takes text as
input in the minibuffer, and it searches for that text from point toward the end
of the current buffer. Type CTRL
- S
again to search for the next occurrence
of the text you’re searching for; this works until no more matches occur. Then
Emacs reports “Failing I-search” in the minibuffer; type CTRL
- S
again
to wrap to the beginning of the buffer and continue the search from there.
It gets its name “incremental” because it begins searching immediately
when you start to type text, so it builds a search string in increments. For
example, if you want to search for the word “sunflower” in the current buffer,
you start to type:
CTRL
- S
s
At that point, Emacs searches forward through the buffer from point to the
first “s” character and highlights it. Then, as you type u, it searches forward
to the first “su” in the buffer and highlights that (if a “u” appears immediately
after the “s” it first stopped at, it stays there and highlights the “s” and the
“u”). It continues to do this as long as you type and as long as there is a
match in the current buffer. As soon as what you type does not appear in the
buffer, Emacs beeps and a message appears in the minibuffer stating that the
search has failed.
To search for the next instance of the last string you gave, type CTRL
- S

again; if you keep CTRL
held down, then every time you press the S
key
Emacs will advance to the next match in the buffer.
This is generally the fastest and most common type of search you will use
in Emacs.
You can also do an incremental search through the buffer in reverse—that
is, from point to the beginning of the buffer—with the isearch-backward
function, CTRL
- R
.
Chapter 14: Searching Text 353

⇒ To search for the text “moon” in the current buffer from point in reverse
to the beginning of the buffer, type:
CTRL
- R
moon

14.9.2 Searching for a Phrase in Emacs

Like grep, the Emacs incremental search only works on lines of text, so it
only finds phrases on a single line. If you search for “hello, world” with the
incremental search, and the text “hello,” appears at the end of a line and
the text “world” appears at the beginning of the next line, it won’t find it.
To find a multi-word phrase across line breaks, use the word-search-
forward function. It searches for a phrase or words regardless of punctuation
or spacing.
⇒ To search forward through the current buffer for the phrase “join me,”
type:
ALT
- X
word-search-forward RET
join me RET

NOTES: The word-search-backward function does the same as word-

search-forward, except it searches backward through the buffer, from point
to the beginning of the buffer.

14.9.3 Searching for a Regexp in Emacs

Use the search-forward-regexp function to search for a regular expression
from point to the end of the current buffer.
⇒ To search forward through the current buffer for the regexp “@.*\.org,”
type:
ALT
- X
search-forward-regexp RET
@.*\.org RET

The keyboard accelerator for this command is ALT
- CTRL
- S
. To repeat
the last regexp search you made, type ALT
- CTRL
- S
CTRL
- S
; then, as
long as you have CTRL
held down, you can keep typing s to advance to the
next match, just as you would with an incremental search.

NOTES: There is a search-backward-regexp function that is identical but

searches backward, from point to the top of the buffer.

14.9.4 Searching and Replacing in Emacs

You can also search for and replace text in an Emacs buffer; to do this, use the
replace-regexp function and give both the expression to search for and the
354 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

expression to replace it with. Regexps are matched from point to the end of
the buffer; to search and replace all occurrences in a buffer, run this function
when point is at the beginning of the buffer.
⇒ To replace the text “day” with the text “night” in the current buffer,
type:
 

ALT
- X
replace-regexp RET

Replace regexp: day RET

Replace regexp day with: night RET

Replaced 7 occurrences

In the preceding example, the regexp “day” was found (and replaced by
the regexp “night”) seven times from point to the end of the buffer.
This function is especially useful for replacing control characters with text,
or for replacing text with control characters, which you can specify with
CTRL
- Q
, the quoted-insert function (see Recipe 10.1.4 [Inserting Special
Characters in Emacs], page 239).
⇒ To replace all the “Control-M” characters in the current buffer with reg-
ular linefeeds, type:
 

ALT
- X
replace-regexp RET

Replace regexp: CTRL
- Q
CTRL
- M
RET

Replace regexp ^M with: CTRL
- Q
012 RET
RET

Replaced 101 occurrences

In this example, 101 “Control-M” characters were found (and replaced)

from point to the end of the buffer.

14.10 Searching Text in Vi

To search for text in Vi, use the same method for searching text in less,
which is given in the next recipe.

14.11 Searching the Text You’re Perusing

You can search text while you peruse it with less. There are two useful
commands in less for searching through text: / and ?. To search forward
Chapter 14: Searching Text 355

through the text, type / followed by a regexp to search for; to search backward
through the text, use ?.
When you do a search, the word or other regexp you search for appears
highlighted throughout the text. Typing a / or ? with no search string will
search either forward or backward for the previous string or regexp.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To search forward through the text you are perusing for the word
“cat,” type:
/cat RET

• To search forward for the next instance of “cat,” type:
/ RET

• To search backward for the previous instance of “cat,” type:
? RET

• To search backward through the text you are perusing for the regexp
“[ch]at,” type:
?[ch]at RET

NOTES: In Vi, whose search facility works identically to less, the matches
are not highlighted by default.
356 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 357

15. Typesetting and Word Processing

If you’re coming to Linux with a Microsoft Windows or Apple Macintosh
background, or from some other non-unix computing environment, you are
likely used to one approach to “word processing.” In these environments, most
writing is done in word processors—large programs that offer a vast array of
formatting options and that store their output in proprietary file formats.
Most people use word processors no matter where the intended output will go
(even if it’s just a shopping list or secret diary).
Word processors, from complete suites like StarOffice to commercial fa-
vorites like WordPerfect, are available for Linux and have been for years.
However, the standard personal-computing paradigm known as “word pro-
cessing” has never really taken off on Linux—or, for that matter, on unix-like
operating systems in general. With Linux, most writing is done in a text
editor, and files are kept in plain text.
As it turns out, this approach is advantageous to the user for many rea-
sons. When you keep a file in plain text, you can use command line tools to
format the pages and paragraphs, to add page numbers and headers, check
the spelling, style, and usage, to count the lines, words, and characters it con-
tains, to convert it to html and other formats, and even to print the text in
a font of your choosing—all actions that are described in the recipes in this
book. The text can be formatted, analyzed, cut, chopped, sliced, diced, and
otherwise processed by the vast array of Linux command line tools that work
on text—over 750 in an average installation.
This approach may almost seem primitive at first—especially to those
weaned in a computing environment that dictates that all writing must be
set in a typeface from the moment of creation—but the word-processing ap-
proach can be excessive and time-wasting compared to the facilities that Linux
provides for text. You can, if you like, easily view or print plain text in a
font—which is what 90 percent of people want to do with a word processor 90
percent of the time, anyway; to do this with a single command, see Recipe 15.2
[Outputting Text to PostScript], page 359.
I contend that word processing is not a forward-thinking direction for the
handling of text, especially on Linux systems and especially now that text is
not always destined for printed output: Text can end up on a Web page, in an
“eBook,”1 in an email message, or possibly in print. The best common source
for these formats is plain text. Word-processing programs, and the special
1
This is the term now popularly used for files whose content happens to be a book,
whether in plain text or some other, often proprietary, format.
358 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

file formats they generate, are anathema to the generalized, tools-based, and
plain-text philosophy of unix and Linux (see Recipe 1.7.7 [unix and the Tools
Philosophy], page 22). “Word processing” itself may be an obsolete idea of the
1980s personal computing environment, and it may no longer be a necessity
in the age of the Internet—a medium in which plain text data is fluid and
natural, being a native format and accessible on all machines.
If you do need to design a special layout for hardcopy printing, you can
typeset the text. One could write a book on the subject of Linux typesetting;
unfortunately, no such book has yet been written. However, this chapter
contains recipes to get you started producing typeset output. These recipes
were selected as being the easiest to prepare or most effective for their purpose.
For a list of other popular tools avilable for Linux, including traditional
word processors, see Recipe 15.7 [Using Other Word Processors and Type-
setting Systems], page 391, and for more information on this subject, I
recommend Christopher B. Browne’s overview, “Linux Word Processing”
[http://www.cbbrowne.com/info/wp.html].

15.1 Selecting the Typesetting System for a Job

Choosing the proper typesetting system to use when you are about to begin a
project can be daunting. Each has its own drawbacks and abilities, and to the
less experienced, it may not be immediately clear which is most appropriate
for a particular document or project.
If you really don’t need to typeset a document, then don’t bother! Just
keep it as a plain text file, and use a text editor to edit it (see Chapter 10
[Editing Text], page 231). Do this for notes, journals, email messages, Web
pages, Usenet articles, and so forth. If you ever do need to typeset such a
document later, you will still be able to do so. And you can, if you like, view
or print plain text in nice fonts (see Recipe 15.2.1 [Outputting Text in a Font],
page 361).
Sometimes it is best to write a document in plain text, and when you need
to typeset it for some purpose, make a copy of the file and import it into the
typesetter or otherwise convert the copy into the typesetting language you
want to use.
The following table can help you determine which typesetting system is
best for a particular task. There isn’t just one way of doing such things,
of course—these are only my recommendations. The first column lists the
kind of output you want to create, the second gives examples of the kind of
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 359

documents, and the third suggests the typesetting system(s) to use. These
systems are described in the remaining sections of this chapter.

Output Format Examples System to Use

Printed, typeset output Internet faq, white paper, Enscript, LaTEX,
and electronic html or dissertation Texinfo, Linuxdoc-
text file Tools
Printed, typeset output man page, command refer- groff
and text file ence card
Printed, typeset output Letter or other corre- LaTEX, LyX, TEX
spondence, report, book
manuscript
Printed, typeset output Brochure or newsletter LyX, TEX
with multiple columns and
images
Printed, typeset output Envelope, mailing label, TEX
or other specialized
document
Printed, typeset output Chart or table gnuplot, Tbl
or text file
Printed text output in a Grocery list, saved email Enscript
font message, to-do list
Printed, typeset output Poster, sign Enscript, html,
LyX, TEX
Large printed text out- Birthday party banner Banner
put suitable for display

15.2 Outputting Text to PostScript

Enscript
DEB: enscript
RPM: enscript
WWW: http://www.iki.fi/~mtr/genscript/

The simplest way to typeset plain text is to convert it to PostScript. This is

often done to prepare text for printing; the original source text file remains
360 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

as unformatted text, but the text of the printed output is formatted in basic
ways, such as being set in a font. You can also use PostScript previewers such
as gv or ghostview to view it on the screen. Additionally, you can convert
the PostScript to pdf or other image formats, like a jpeg image file. In fact,
once you make a PostScript file from text input, you can use any of the tools
to format this new PostScript file, including rearranging and resizing its pages
(see Chapter 20 [PostScript], page 451).
There are several methods for converting text to PostScript output, but
the best is to use enscript. This is a quick, effective way to make presentable
output from plain text. It converts the text file that is specified as an argument
into PostScript, making any number of formatting changes in between. It’s
great for quickly making nice output from a plain text file—you can use it to
do things such as output text in a font of your choosing, or paginate text with
graphical headers at the top of each page.
By default, enscript paginates its input, outputs it in a 10-point Courier
font, and puts a simple header at the top of each page containing the file
name, date and time, and page number in bold. Use the -B option to omit
this header.
If you have a PostScript printer connected to your system, enscript can
be set up to spool its output right to the printer. You can check whether
your system is set up this way by looking at the enscript configuration file,
/etc/enscript.cfg. The line
DefaultOutputMethod: printer
specifies that output is spooled directly to the printer. Changing “printer”
to “stdout” sends the output to the standard output instead.
Even if your default printer does not natively understand PostScript, it may
be able to take enscript output, anyway. Most Linux installations these days
have print filters set up so that PostScript spooled for printing is automatically
converted to a format the printer understands. If your system doesn’t have
this setup for some reason, convert the PostScript to a format recognized by
your printer with the gs tool, and then print that—see Recipe 20.3 [Converting
PostScript], page 459.
⇒ To convert the text file saved-mail to PostScript, with default format-
ting, and spool the output right to the printer, type:
$ enscript saved-mail RET

To select a specific printer to send to, follow the -d option with its name.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 361

⇒ To convert the text file memo to PostScript, and send it to the printer
named salesroom, type:
$ enscript -dsalesroom memo RET

To write the output to a file instead of spooling it, give the name of the file
you want to output as an argument to the -p option. This is useful when you
don’t have a PostScript printer and you need to convert the output first, or
for when you just want to make a PostScript image file from some text, or for
previewing the output before you print it. In the latter case, you can view it
on the display screen with a PostScript viewer application such as ghostview
(see Recipe 17.4.2 [Previewing a PostScript File], page 414).
⇒ To write the text file saved-mail to a PostScript file, saved-mail.ps,
and then preview it in X, type:
$ enscript -p report.ps saved-mail RET

$ ghostview saved-mail.ps RET

To send it to the standard output, specify “-” as the file; this is good for
passing the PostScript along on a pipeline to some other commands, without
writing it to a file at all.
⇒ To preview the text file saved-mail as a PostScript file in the gv viewer,
type:
$ enscript -p - saved-mail | gv - RET

The following recipes show how to use enscript to output text with dif-
ferent effects and properties. You can combine these options, and some of the
recipes will demonstrate that.

15.2.1 Outputting Text in a Font

To output text in a particular PostScript font, use enscript and give the
name of the font you want to use as a quoted argument to the -f option.
Specify both the font family and size in points: Give the capitalized name
of the font family (with hyphens to indicate spaces between words) followed
by the size in points. For example, “Courier14” outputs text in the Courier
font at 14 points, and “Times-Roman12.2” outputs text in the Times Roman
font at 12.2 points. Some of the available font names are listed in the file
/usr/share/enscript/afm/font.map; the enscript man page describes how
to use additional fonts that might be installed on your system.
362 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To print the contents of the text file saved-mail on a PostScript
printer, with text set in the Helvetica font at 12 points, type:
$ enscript -B -f "Helvetica12" saved-mail RET

• To make a PostScript file called saved-mail.ps containing the con-
tents of the text file saved-mail, with text set in the Helvetica font
at 12 points, type (all on one line):
$ enscript -B -f "Helvetica12" -p saved-mail.ps saved-mail RET

The -B option was used in the preceding examples to omit the output of
a header on each page. When headers are used, they’re normally output in
10-point Courier Bold; to specify a different font for the text in the header,
give its name as an argument to the -F option.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print the contents of the text file saved-mail to a PostScript
printer, with text set in 10-point Times Roman and header text set
in 18-point Times Bold, type (all on one line):
$ enscript -f "Times-Roman10" -F "Times-Bold18" saved-mail RET

• To make a PostScript file called saved-mail.ps containing the con-
tents of the text file saved-mail, with text and headers both set in
16-point Palatino Roman, type (all on one line):
$ enscript -f "Palatino-Roman16" -F "Palatino-Roman16"
-p saved-mail.ps saved-mail RET

NOTES: A list of available Adobe Type 1 fonts, and the names used to specify
them, can be found at /usr/share/enscript/afm/font.map.
If you want to output a visual image of a text file, showing the way the
text looks as a whole but set at a font too small to read, use a small font size,
such as from 1 to 5.

15.2.2 Outputting Text in Custom Pages

You can specify the number of lines per page that enscript writes by giving
that number as an argument to the -L option.
⇒ To convert the contents of the file maxims to PostScript, using a page size
of 10 lines and writing to the file maxims.ps, type:
$ enscript -L10 -p maxims.ps maxims RET

By default, enscript wraps long lines over to the next, which does not
always look nice. Give the -c option to truncate long lines, or output the
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 363

text in vertical slices (see Recipe 15.2.8 [Outputting Text in Vertical Slices],
page 369).
⇒ To write the file program.output to the default printer, with long lines
truncated, type:
$ enscript -c program.output RET

Specify the margins with “--margins=LEFT:RIGHT:TOP:BOTTOM ,”

where LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, and BOTTOM are the values for the stated
margins. These values are given in PostScript points, which are 1/72 of an
inch. You can omit any of them.
⇒ To print the file sci.article to the default printer, with a custom bot-
tom margin of 50 PostScript points, type:
$ enscript --margins=:::50 sci.article RET

You can even print several pages on one page. To specify the number of
logical pages to print on every output page, give the number as an argument
to the -U option.
⇒ To print the file tipsheet to the default printer, with text set in 24-point
Times Roman and writing four logical pages to each printed page, type:
$ enscript -U4 -f "Times-Roman24" tipsheet RET

15.2.3 Outputting Text as a Poster or Sign

You can output any text you type directly to the printer (or to a PostScript
file) by omitting the name of the input file; enscript will read the text on
the standard input until you type CTRL
- D
on a new line.
This is especially useful as a quick-and-dirty method for printing a sign or
poster—to do this, specify a large font for the text, such as Helvetica Bold at
72 points, and omit the display of default headers. Use blank lines to space
out the text.
364 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To print a sign in 72-point Helvetica Bold type to a PostScript printer,

type:
 

$ enscript -B -f "Helvetica-Bold72" RET

RET

RET

CAUTION RET

RET

RET

WET PAINT RET

CTRL
- D

Use the -j option to draw a border around the page.

⇒ To print a sign in 72-point Helvetica Bold type to a PostScript printer,
type:
 

$ enscript -B -j -f "Helvetica-Bold72" RET

RET

RET

CAUTION RET

RET

RET

WET PAINT RET

CTRL
- D

The text in this example was preceded by a few space characters, to set it
off from the border.
Because 72-point type is very large, you may want to use the --word-
wrap option with longer lines of text to wrap lines at word boundaries. You
might need this option because at these larger font sizes, you run the risk
of making lines that are longer than could fit on the page. You can also
use the -r option to print the text in landscape orientation, as described in
Recipe 15.2.7 [Outputting Text in Landscape Orientation], page 369.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 365

⇒ To print a sign in 63-point Helvetica Bold across the long side of the page,
type:
 

$ enscript -B -r --word-wrap -f "Helvetica-Bold63" RET

RET

RET

CAUTION -- WET PAINT RET

CTRL
- D

NOTES: To make a snazzier or more detailed message or sign, create a file in

a text editor and justify the words on each line in the file as you want them
to print, with blank lines where necessary. If you’re getting that ambitious, it
would also be wise to use the -p option once to output to a file, and preview
the file before printing it (see Recipe 17.4.2 [Previewing a PostScript File],
page 414).

15.2.4 Outputting Text with Language Highlighting

The enscript tool currently recognizes the formatting of more than forty
languages and formats, from the perl and C programming languages to html,
email, and Usenet news articles; enscript can highlight portions of the text
based on its syntax. In unix-speak, this is called pretty-printing.
The following table lists the names of some of the language filters that are
available at the time of this writing and describes the formats or languages
they’re used for.

ada Ada95 programming language

asm Assembler listings
awk awk programming language
bash Bash shell programming language
c C programming language
changelog ChangeLog files
cpp C++ programming language
csh Csh script language
366 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

delphi Delphi programming language

diff Normal “difference reports” made from diff
diffu Unified “difference reports” made from diff
elisp Emacs Lisp programming language
fortran fortran 77 programming language
haskell Haskell programming language
html HyperText Markup Language (html)
idl idl (corba Interface Definition Language)
java Java programming language
javascript Javascript programming language
ksh Ksh programming language
(continued) Filter Format or Language
Name
m4 m4 macro processor programming language
mail Electronic mail and Usenet news articles
makefile Rule files for make
nroff Manual pages formatted with nroff
objc Objective-C programming language
pascal Pascal programming language
perl perl programming language
postscript PostScript programming language
python Python programming language
scheme Scheme programming language
sh Bourne shell programming language
skill Cadence Design Systems Lisp-like language
sql Sybase 11 sql
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 367

states Definition files for states

synopsys Synopsys dc shell scripting language
tcl tcl programming language
tcsh Tcsh shell script language
vba Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications language
verilog Verilog hardware description language
vhdl vhsic Hardware Description Language (vhdl)
vrml Virtual Reality Modeling Language (vrml97)
zsh Zsh programming language

To pretty-print a file, give the name of the filter to use as an argument to

the -E option, without any whitespace between the option and argument.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To pretty-print the html file index.html, type:
$ enscript -Ehtml index.html RET

• To pretty-print an email message saved to the file important-mail,
and output it with no headers to a file named important-mail.ps,
type:
$ enscript -B -Email -p important-mail.ps important-mail RET

• To pretty-print an email message saved to the file important-mail,
and print it on the default printer with fancy headers, type:
$ enscript -G -Email important-mail RET

Use the special --help-pretty-print option to list the languages sup-

ported by the copy of enscript you have.
⇒ To peruse a list of currently supported languages, type:
$ enscript --help-pretty-print | less RET

15.2.5 Outputting Text with an Underlay

You can specify a text underlay, which is a kind of printed watermark, to
appear on the pages of text. To do this, give the text as an argument to the
-u option, making sure not to skip any space between the option and the text.
If the text is more than a word, quote it.
368 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To print the file intelligence.report with the default enscript for-

matting and an underlay of “TOP SECRET,” type:
$ enscript -u"TOP SECRET" intelligence.report RET

There are a number of options used to specify the properties of the under-
lay, as described in the following table.

--ul-angle=angle Specifies angle, in degrees, of the underlay (default

is the arc tangent of two variables: the negative page
height and its width).
--ul-font=name Specifies font and point size of the underlay (default
is Times Roman at 200 points).
--ul-gray=number Specifies the value of gray to use in coloring the
underlay as a value between 0 and 1 (default is 0.8).
--ul- Specifies starting position of underlay, in PostScript
position=position coordinates. The x position is given, preceded by
either a “+” or “-,” followed by the y position, which
is given in the same way (for example, the upper
left-hand corner is “+0-0”).
--ul-style=style Specifies style of text, either “outline” where only
the character outline is printed (the default) or
“filled,” where characters are filled with gray.

15.2.6 Outputting Text with Fancy Headers

To output text with fancy graphic headers, where the header text is set in
blocks of various shades of gray, use enscript with the -G option.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print the contents of the text file saved-mail with fancy headers
on a PostScript printer, type:
$ enscript -G saved-mail RET

• To make a PostScript file called saved-mail.ps containing the con-
tents of the text file saved-mail, with fancy headers, type:
$ enscript -G -p saved-mail.ps saved-mail RET

Without the -G option, enscript outputs text with a plain header in bold
text, printing the file name and the time it was last modified. The -B option,
as described earlier, omits all headers.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 369

You can customize the header text by quoting the text you want to use
as an argument to the -b option. Use the special symbol “$%” to specify the
current page number in the header text.
⇒ To print the contents of the text file saved-mail with a custom header
label containing the current page number, type (all on one line):
$ enscript -b "Page $% of the saved email archive" saved-mail RET

NOTES: There is currently no option to place headers on all but the first
page, so if you need to format text in this common way, first use enscript
to output to a file without headers, then use enscript to output another file
with headers, and use psselect to combine the first page of the former with
the remaining pages of the latter (see Recipe 20.1.2 [Extracting Pages from a
PostScript File], page 452).
You can create your own custom fancy headers, too—this is described in
the “CUSTOMIZATION” section of the enscript man page.

15.2.7 Outputting Text in Landscape Orientation

To output text in landscape orientation, where text is rotated 90 degrees
counter-clockwise, use the -r option.
⇒ To print the contents of the text file saved-mail to a PostScript printer,
with text set in 28-point Times Roman and in landscape orientation,
type:
$ enscript -f "Times-Roman28" -r saved-mail RET

The -r option is useful for making horizontal banners by passing output

of the figlet tool to enscript (see Recipe 16.4.1 [Horizontal Text Fonts],
page 401).
⇒ To output the text “Quite a long banner” in a figlet font and write it
to the default printer with text set at 18-point Courier and in landscape
orientation, type:
$ figlet "Quite a long banner" | enscript -B -r -f "Courier18" RET

15.2.8 Outputting Text in Vertical Slices

When text runs past the right margin, enscript wraps it to the next line
unless you use the -c option to specify that it be truncated at the right
margin. You can also specify which vertical region to output; these regions
are called slices, and each runs the length from the left to the right margin
of the page, at which point the next slice of the page begins. Use --slice=
370 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

followed by a number to specify that slice; slices are numbered beginning with
1.
⇒ To print the second slice from the file annual-report.txt, type:
$ enscript --slice=2 annual-report.txt RET

15.2.9 Outputting Text with Indentation

To indent text you process with enscript, give the number of characters to
indent as an argument to -i, being careful not to leave a space between the
option and its argument. To specify a unit other than characters, follow the
number by one of the following: “i” for inches, “c” for centimeters, or “p” for
PostScript points.
⇒ To print the contents of the file installment.007 to the default printer,
with the enscript defaults, and indenting lines by a half an inch, type:
$ enscript -i.5i installment.007 RET

15.2.10 Outputting Multiple Copies of Text

To output multiple copies of text when sending it to the printer with enscript,
give the number as an argument to the -# option. This option doesn’t
work when sending to a file, but note that lpr takes the same option (see
Recipe 25.1.2 [Printing Multiple Copies of a Job], page 510).
⇒ To print three copies of the text file saved-mail to a PostScript printer
with the default enscript headers, type:
$ enscript -#3 saved-mail RET

15.2.11 Outputting Text in Columns

To specify that text should be output in columns, give the number of columns
as an argument to the -columns= option.
⇒ To send the file payroll-data to the default printer with the default
enscript processing, setting the text in four columns per page, type:
$ enscript -columns=4 payroll-data RET

If the number of columns is either one or two, you can also give the number
itself as an option. Use the -j option to place borders around each column.
⇒ To send the file payroll-data to the default printer with the default
enscript processing, setting the text in two columns per page, each with
a border drawn around it, type:
$ enscript -j -2 payroll-data RET

Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 371

NOTES: You can also place text in paginated columns with pr, and then
send it to enscript (see Recipe 13.3.4 [Placing Text in Paginated Columns],
page 314).

15.2.12 Outputting Selected Pages of Text

To specify which pages of a text are output with enscript, give the range of
page number(s) as an argument to the -a option. You can specify individual
pages by their numbers, specify a list of pages delinated by commas, and
specify a range of pages by giving the first and last page numbers in the
range, separated by a hyphen (-).
⇒ To print pages 2 through 10 of file saved-mail with the default enscript
headers, type:
$ enscript -a2-10 saved-mail RET

To print just the odd or even pages, use the special “odd” and “even”
arguments. This is good for printing double-sided pages: First print the odd-
numbered pages, and then feed the output pages back into the printer and
print the even-numbered pages.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print the odd-numbered pages of the file saved-mail with the
default headers, type:
$ enscript -a odd saved-mail RET

• To print the even-numbered pages of the file saved-mail with the
default headers, type:
$ enscript -a even saved-mail RET

15.2.13 Outputting Text Through a Filter

You can pass the input text through an external filter before enscript con-
verts it to PostScript. This filter can be a tool or quoted command. Give the
filter as an argument to the -I option, being sure not to leave a space between
the option and its argument.

⇒ To print the file sensitivity_training to the default filter, using the

default enscript settings, but first passing the input text through the
newspeak filter, type:
$ enscript -Inewspeak sensitivity_training RET

372 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

15.3 Using TEX

teTeX
DEB: tetex-base
tetex-bin
tetex-doc
tetex-extra
RPM: tetex
WWW: http://www.tug.org/teTeX/

The most capable typesetting tool for use on Linux-based systems is the TEX
typesetting system and related software. It is the premier computer typeset-
ting system—its output surpasses or rivals all other systems to date. The
advanced line and paragraph breaking, hyphenation, kerning, and other font-
characteristic policies and algorithms it can perform, and the precision with
which it can do them, have yet to be matched in word processors.
The TEX system itself—not a word processor or single program, but a
large collection of files and data—is packaged in distributions; teTEX is the
TEX distribution designed for Linux.
TEX input documents are plain text files written in the TEX typesetting
language, which the TEX tools can process and write to output files for print-
ing or viewing. This approach has great benefits for the writer: The plain text
input files can be written with and exchanged between many different com-
puter systems regardless of operating system or editing software, and these
input files do not become obsolete or unusable with new versions of the TEX
software.
Donald E. Knuth, the world’s foremost authority on algorithms, wrote
TEX in 19842 as a way to typeset his books3 , because he wasn’t satisfied with
the quality of available systems. Since its first release, many extensions to
the TEX formatting language have been made—the most notable being Leslie
Lamport’s LaTEX, which is a collection of sophisticated macros written in the
TEX formatting language, designed to facilitate the typesetting of structured

2
This is the year that Knuth’s definitive book on the subject, The TEXbook, was pub-
lished, but the system was technically operational before this time—version 1.0 was
released on December 3, 1983, the initial design for the system occurred in 1977, and
the first books typeset with early TEX were published by 1979.
3
See http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 373

documents. (LaTEX probably gets more day-to-day use than the plain TEX
format, but in my experience, each is useful for different situations.)
“TEX” isn’t pronounced like the name of a cowboy, nor “LaTEX” like a kind
of paint: the letters “T,” “E,” and “X” represent the Greek characters tau,
epsilon, and chi (from the Greek techne, meaning “art and science”). So the
last sound in “TEX” is like the last sound in “Bach,” and “LaTEX,” depending
on local dialect, is pronounced either “lay-teck” or “lah-teck.” Those who
become highly adept at using the system Knuth calls TEXnicians.
The collective family of TEX and related programs (including Metafont;
see Recipe 16.5 [Using Other Font Tools], page 403) are sometimes called
“TEX and friends,” and they are always kept in a directory named texmf. For
example, the supplementary files included with the bare TEX system are kept
in the /usr/lib/texmf directory tree.
The following recipes describe how to begin writing input for TEX and how
to process these files for viewing and printing. While not everyone wants or
even needs to write documents with TEX and LaTEX, these formats are widely
used—especially on Linux systems—so every Linux user has the potential to
encounter one of these files, and ought to know how to process them.

15.3.1 Distinguishing Between TEX and LaTEX Files

There are separate commands for processing TEX and LaTEX files, and they’re
not interchangeable, so when you want to process a TEX or LaTEX input file,
you should first determine its format.
By convention, TEX files always have a .tex file name extension. LaTEX in-
put files sometimes have a .latex or .ltx file name extension instead, but not
always—one way to tell if a .tex file is actually in the LaTEX format is to use
grep to search the file for the text “\document,” which every LaTEX (and not
TEX) document will have. So if the search outputs any lines that match, you
have a LaTEX file. (The regular expression to use with grep is “\\document,”
because backslash characters must be specified with two backslashes.)
⇒ To determine whether the file smith.tex is a TEX or LaTEX file, type:
 

$ grep '\\document' smith.tex RET

\documentclassletter
$


374 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

In this example, grep returned a match, so it’s safe to assume that

smith.tex is a LaTEX file (of the “letter” document class) and not a TEX
file.
NOTES: For more on regular expressions and searching with grep, see
Recipe 14.3 [Regular Expressions—Matching Text Patterns], page 335.

15.3.2 Processing a TEX File

Use tex to process TEX files. It takes as an argument the name of the TEX
source file to process, and it writes an output file in dvi (“DeVice Indepen-
dent”) format, with the same base file name as the source file, but with a .dvi
extension.
⇒ To process the file gentle.tex, type:
$ tex gentle.tex RET

Once you have produced a dvi output file with this method, you can do
any of the following with it:

• Preview it on the screen with xdvi; see Recipe 17.4.1 [Previewing a dvi
File], page 413.
• Print it with dvips or lpr; see Recipe 25.2.5 [Printing a dvi File],
page 515.
• Convert it to PostScript with dvips; see Recipe 25.3.2 [Preparing a dvi
File for Printing], page 520; then, you can also convert the PostScript
output to pdf or plain text.

15.3.3 Processing a LaTEX File

The latex tool works just like tex, but it is used to process LaTEX files.
⇒ To process the LaTEX file lshort.tex, type:
$ latex lshort.tex RET

This command writes a dvi output file called lshort.dvi.

You may need to run latex on a file several times consecutively. LaTEX
documents sometimes have indices and cross references, which, because of
the way that LaTEX works, take two (and, in rare cases, three or more) runs
through latex to be fully processed. Should you need to run a file through
latex more than once in order to generate the proper references, you’ll see a
message in the latex processing output instructing you to process it again.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 375

⇒ To ensure that all of the cross references in lshort.tex have been gen-
erated properly, run the input file through latex once more:
$ latex lshort.tex RET

The lshort.dvi file will be rewritten with an updated version containing

the proper page numbers in the cross reference and index entries. You can
then view, print, or convert this dvi file as described in the previous recipe
for processing TEX files.

15.3.4 Getting Started with TEX and LaTEX

To create a document with TEX or LaTEX, you generally use your favorite text
editor to write an input file containing the text in TEX or LaTEX formatting.
Then, you process this TEX or LaTEX input file to create an output file in the
dvi format, which you can preview, convert, or print.
It’s an old tradition among programmers introducing a programming lan-
guage to give a simple program that just outputs the text “Hello, world”
to the screen; such a program is usually just detailed enough to give those
unfamiliar with the language a feel for its basic syntax.
We can do the same with document-processing languages like TEX and
LaTEX. Figure 15-1 contains the “Hello, world” for a TEX document.
 

Hello, world
\end


Figure 15-1. A TEX “Hello, world.”
If you processed the input file shown in Figure 15-1 with tex, it would
output a dvi file that displayed the text “Hello, world” in the default TEX
font, on a default page size, and with default margins.
Figure 15-2 contains the same “Hello, world,” but for LaTEX.
 

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Hello, world
\end{document}


Figure 15-2. A LaTEX “Hello, world.”
Even though the TEX example in Figure 15-1 is much simpler than the
L TEX example, LaTEX is generally easier to use “fresh out of the box” for
a
376 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

writing certain kinds of structured documents—such as correspondence and

articles—because it comes with predefined document classes, which control
the markup for the structural elements the document contains.4 Plain TEX,
on the other hand, is better suited for less casual publishing projects, including
custom layouts and specialized documents.
The TEX and LaTEX markup languages are worth a book each, and pro-
viding an introduction to their use is well out of the scope of this text. To
learn how to write input for them, I suggest two beginning tutorials: Michael
Doob’s A Gentle Introduction to TEX, and Tobias Oetiker’s The Not So Short
Introduction to LaTEX. Both are available on the Web at the urls listed in
Appendix D [References for Further Interest], page 731. These tutorials are
each in the format they describe; in order to read them, you must process
them first, as described in the two previous recipes.
Good LaTEX documentation in html format can be found installed on
many Linux systems in the /usr/share/texmf/doc/latex/latex2e-html/
directory; browse these files at your leisure (see Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files
and Directories], page 157).
Some other typesetting systems, such as LyX, Linuxdoc-Tools, and Texinfo
(all described elsewhere in this chapter), write TEX or LaTEX output, too—so
you can use those systems to produce said output without actually learning
the TEX and LaTEX input formats. (This book was written in Emacs in Texinfo
format, and the typeset output was later generated by TEX.)
NOTES: The Oetiker text consists of several separate LaTEX files in the lshort
directory; download and save all of these files.

15.3.5 Using TEX and LaTEX Document Templates

Templates for TEX and LaTEX
WWW: http://dsl.org/comp/templates/

A collection of sample templates for typesetting certain kinds of documents

in TEX and LaTEX can be found at the url listed above. These templates
include those for creating letters and correspondence, articles and term papers,
envelopes and mailing labels,5 and fax cover sheets. If you’re interested in
making typeset output with TEX and LaTEX, these templates are well worth
exploring.
4
LyX, being in essence a graphical front-end to LaTEX, uses these same document classes.
5
In addition, a more advanced LaTEX style for printing many different kinds of shipping
and package labels is normally installed at /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/labels/.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 377

To write a document with a template, insert the contents of the template

file into a new file that has a .tex or .ltx extension, and write your document
by making changes to that file. (Use your favorite text editor to do this.)
To make sure that you don’t accidentally overwrite the actual template
files, you can write-protect them (see Recipe 6.3.3 [Write-Protecting a File],
page 169):
$ chmod a-w template-file-names RET

In the templates themselves, the bracketed, uppercase text explains what

kind of text belongs there; fill in these lines with your own text and delete the
lines you don’t need. Then, process your new file with either latex or tex as
appropriate, and you’ve got a great-looking document!
The following table lists the file names of the TEX templates, and describes
their use. Use tex to process files you make with these templates (see the
preceding recipe).

fax.tex A cover sheet for sending fax messages.

envelope.tex A No. 10 mailing envelope.
label.tex A single mailing label for printing on standard 15-up
sheets.
The following table lists the file names of the LaTEX templates, and de-
scribes their use.6 Use latex to process files you make with these templates
(see Recipe 15.3.3 [Processing a LaTEX File], page 374).

letter.ltx A letter or other correspondence.

article.ltx An article or a research or term paper.
manuscript.ltx A book manuscript.

There are more complex template packages available on the net that you
might want to look at:

• The largest listing of LaTEX and TeX templates and style files (and other
related software and documentation) on the Internet is the searchable
TEX Catalogue Online
[http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/hier.html].
6
The manuscript template requires that your system has the LaTEX style
file called manuscript.sty; most TEX distributions have this installed at
/usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/misc/manuscript.sty.
378 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• Rob Rutten has assembled a very nice collection of LaTEX templates

[http://www.astro.uu.nl/~rutten/rrtex/templates/].
• A collection of plain TEX macros for printing booklets, bulk letters, and
outlines worth exploring is the Midnight Macros
[http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/generic/midnight/]
• A set of TEX templates for various kinds of documents, mostly academic
and instructional, are available courtesy of the Duke Mathematics Depart-
ment [http://www.math.duke.edu/computing/tex/templates.html].

15.4 Using LyX

LyX
DEB: lyx
RPM: lyx
WWW: http://www.lyx.org/

LyX is a relative newcomer to the typesetting and word-processing arena,

and it is one of the most genuinely fresh ideas in the field: It’s a kind of word
processor for writing LaTEX input (see Recipe 15.3 [Using TEX], page 372). It is
for those who want the benefits of TEX and LaTEX, but want to compose their
documents in a word-processor-style application. This means it’s a visual,
graphic editor for X, but it doesn’t emulate the printed output directly on
the display screen. In contrast to specifying exactly how each character in
the document will look (“make this word Helvetica Bold at 18 points,” for
example), you specify the structure of the text you write (“make this word a
chapter heading”). And, in contrast to the wysiwyg paradigm, its authors
call the new approach wysiwym—“What you see is what you mean.”
LyX comes with many document classes already defined—such as
“letter,” “article,” “report,” and “book”—containing definitions for the
elements these document types may contain. You can change the look of
each element and the look of the document as a whole, and you can change
the look of individual selections of text, but with these elements available,
it’s rarely necessary.
Since LyX uses LaTEX as a back-end to do the actual typesetting, and
because LyX is capable of exporting documents to LaTEX input format, you
can think of LyX as a way to write LaTEX input files in a gui without having
to know the LaTEX language commands.
However, even those who do use LaTEX and related typesetting languages
can get some use out of LyX: many people find it quick and easy to create some
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 379

documents in LyX that are much harder to do in LaTEX, such as multi-column

newsletter layouts with illustrations.
You can also import your LaTEX files (and plain text) into LyX for further
layout or manipulation.
The following recipes show how to get started using LyX, and where to go
to learn more about it.
When editing in LyX, you’ll see that it has all of the commands you’d expect
from a word processor—for example, some of the commands found on the
Edit menu include Cut, Copy, Paste, Find and Replace, and Spell Check.
Here are some of its major features:
• Automatic generation of table of contents, nested lists, and numbering of
section headings.
• Easy insertion of PostScript figures and illustrations, which can be ro-
tated, scaled, and captioned.
• wysiwyg construction of tables.
• Ability to undo and redo any operation or sequence of operations.
• All LyX functions available from both keyboard commands and pull-down
menus.
• All keypresses used for commands are configurable.

15.4.1 Getting Started with LyX

LyX runs under X, and you start it in the usual way—either by choosing it
from the applications menu provided by your window manager, or by typ-
ing lyx in an xterm window. (For more about starting programs in X, see
Recipe 4.2 [Running a Program in X], page 101).
To start a new document from scratch, choose New from the File menu.
You can also make a document from one of the many templates included with
LyX, which have the basic layout and settings for particular kind of documents
all set up for you—just fill in the elements for your actual document. To make
a new document from a template, choose New from template from the File
menu, and then select the name of the template to use.
The following table lists the names of some of the included templates and
the kind of documents they’re usually used for.
380 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

aapaper.lyx Format suitable for papers submitted to Astronomy

and Astrophysics.
dinbrief.lyx Format for letters typeset according to German con-
ventions.
docbook_ Format for documents written in the sgml DocBook
template.lyx dtd.
hollywood.lyx Format for movie scripts as they are formatted in
the U.S. film industry.
iletter.lyx Format for letters typeset according to Italian con-
ventions.
latex8.lyx Format suitable for article submissions to ieee con-
ferences.
letter.lyx Basic format for letters and correspondence.
linuxdoctemplate.lyx Format for documents written in the sgml Linux-
Doc dtd, as formerly used by the Linux Documen-
tation Project.
revtex.lyx Article format suitable for submission to publica-
tions of the American Physical Society (aps), Amer-
ican Institute of Physics (aip), and Optical Society
of America (osa).
slides.lyx Format for producing slides and transparencies.

To view how the document will look when you print it, choose View DVI
from the File menu. This command starts the xdvi tool, which previews the
output on the screen. (For more on using xdvi, see Recipe 17.4.1 [Previewing
a DVI File], page 413).

To print the document, choose Print from the File menu. You can also
export it to LaTEX, PostScript, dvi, or plain text formats; to do this, choose
Export from the File menu and then select the format to export to.

NOTES: If you plan on editing the document again in LyX, be sure to save
the actual .lyx document file.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 381

15.4.2 Learning More About LyX

The LyX Documentation Project has overseen the creation of a great deal of
free documentation for LyX, including hands-on tutorials, user manuals, and
example documents.
The LyX Graphical Tour7 is a Web-based tutorial that shows you how to
create and edit a simple LyX file.
LyX has a comprehensive set of built-in manuals, which you can read inside
the LyX editor like any LyX document, or you can print them out. All of the
manuals are available from the Help menu.
⇒ To run LyX’s built-in tutorial, choose Tutorial from the Help menu.
This command opens the LyX tutorial, which you can then read on the
screen or print out by selecting Print from the File menu.
The following table lists the names of the available manuals as they appear
on the Help menu, and describes what each contains:

Introduction An introduction to using the LyX manuals, describ-

ing their contents and how to view and print them.
Tutorial A hands-on tutorial to writing documents with LyX.
User’s Guide The main LyX usage manual, describing all of the
commonly used commands, options, and features.
Extended Features “Part II” of the User’s Guide, describing advanced
features such as bibliographies, indices, documents
with multiple files, and techniques used in special-
case situations, such as fax support, SGML-Tools
support, and using version control with LyX docu-
ments.
Customization An explanation of the elements of LyX that can be
customized, and how to do so.
Reference Manual A description of all the menu entries and internal
functions.
Known Bugs A list of bugs. LyX is in active development, and as
with any large application, bugs have been found.

7
See http://www.lyx.org/about/lgt-1.0/lgt.html.
382 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

LaTEX Configuration An inventory of your LaTEX configuration, including

the version of LaTEX in use, available fonts, available
document classes, and other related packages that
may be installed on your system. This document is
automatically generated by LyX when it is installed
on your system.
Finally, LyX includes some example documents in the
/usr/X11R6/share/lyx/examples directory. Here’s a partial listing
of these files with a description of what each contains:

Foils.lyx Description of how to make foils—slides or overhead

transparencies—with the FoilTEX package.
ItemizeBullets.lyx Examples of the various bullet styles for itemized
lists.
Literate.lyx An example of using LyX as a composition environ-
ment for “literate programming.”
MathLabeling.lyx Techniques for numbering and labeling equations.
Math_macros.lyx Explanation of how to make macros in Math mode.
Minipage.lyx Explanation of how to write two-column bilingual
documents.
TableExamples.lyx Examples of using tables in LyX.
aa_head.lyx
aa_paper.lyx Files discussing and showing the use of LyX in the
aas_sample.lyx field of astronomy.
amsart-test.lyx Examples of documents written in the format used
amsbook-test.lyx by the American Mathematical Society.
docbook_example.lyx Example of a DocBook document.
multicol.lyx Example of a multi-column format.
scriptone.lyx Example of a Hollywood script.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 383

15.5 Using groff

Groff
DEB: groff
RPM: groff
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/groff.html

gnu troff (also known as groff) is the latest in a line of phototypesetting

systems that have been available on unix-based systems for years; the original
in this line was roff (“runoff,” meaning that it permitted files to be run off
to the printer). groff is used in the typesetting of man pages, but it’s possible
to use it to typeset many kinds of documents. It produces very high-quality
output and has a healthy following of staunch adherents.
Like TEX, groff is a typesetting system where input is written in plain
text files, using a special formatting language. So groff shares the benefits
of TEX in this regard—documents written in groff a quarter-century ago
can still be read on every computer today that reads plain text, and they can
be processed on any system that has a groff implementation (which, as with
TEX, is just about every computer and os in use today).
The source files you use with groff typically have .ms or (when the me
macros are used) .me file name extensions.

15.5.1 Processing a groff File

Use groff to process groff source files. Given the name of a source file as
an argument, groff makes typeset output from it, writing it, by default, in
PostScript to the standard output.
⇒ To preview the contents of the groff file doc.ms in the PostScript reader
gv, type:
$ groff doc.ms | gv - RET

There are several output formats groff can write to. To specify a format,
give it as an argument to the -T option. The following table lists the arguments
and describes the formats they specify.

ps PostScript
dvi dvi (“DeVice Independent”) format
X75 dvi preview in X at 75 dpi (no output file necessary)
384 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

X100 dvi preview in X at 100 dpi (no output file neces-

sary)
ascii Plain text
latin1 Plain text in the iso Latin-1 character set (extended
ascii)
lj4 pcl5 printer format, for hp LaserJet 4 printers and
compatibles
html html

By default, groff writes to the standard output; to save it to a file, redirect

the output.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To preview the contents of the groff file doc.ms in a new X window
at 100 dpi, type:
$ groff -T X100 doc.ms RET

• To process the groff file doc.ms and send the output to an hp
LaserJet 4 printer named frontoffice, type:
$ groff -T lj4 doc.ms | lpr -Pfrontoffice RET

• To display the first 20 lines of the document contained in the groff
file doc.ms, ignoring any error messages, type:
$ groff -T ascii doc.ms 2> /dev/null | head -20 RET

• To mail the contents of the groff file doc.ms as plain text to the
email address [email protected], type:
$ groff -T ascii doc.ms | mail [email protected] RET

15.5.2 Determining the Command Line Options for a

Groff File
Some groff input files require command line options to be passed to groff
when you process them. These options set various preprocessing flags and
otherwise control how groff will typeset the document.
To determine which command line options should be used with a particular
groff file, give the name of the file as an argument to grog, the “groff
option generator.” This tool is part of the groff system, and its purpose
is to determine and output the correct groff command line to use for a
particular file.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 385

⇒ To see which options should be used with groff on the file meintro.me,
type:
$ grog meintro.me RET

15.5.3 Running a groff Tutorial

A tutorial on using groff is included with its distribution, a compressed groff
file called meintro.me.gz in the /usr/doc/groff directory. Since this file is
itself a groff file, it must be processed by groff to get an output file.
⇒ To output the tutorial file included with the groff distribution to a dvi
file called intro.dvi, type (all on one line):
$ zcat /usr/doc/groff/me-intro.me.gz | groff -me -T
dvi > intro.dvi RET

In this example, the uncompressed content of the file was sent to the stan-
dard output via zcat (see Recipe 10.6 [Concatenating Text], page 256). You
can use xdvi to preview the resultant dvi output, or dvips to print it.
The command options used for this file were determined by grog (as de-
scribed in the previous recipe).
NOTES: Two additional groff documentation files included in the same di-
rectory are a complete reference manual, meref.me.gz, and a guide to making
box-and-arrow diagrams with the pic extension, pic.ms.gz.
More recommended resources for learning groff can be found in See Ap-
pendix D [References for Further Interest], page 731.

15.5.4 Making a Chart or Table

There are facilities in groff for making tables and charts of all kinds. Once
you learn the minimal formatting commands, it is easy to typeset professional
tables. The data for a table is kept in a plain text file with the groff
commands that specify how to format it; use tbl to process such a file. It
takes as input a text file with groff formatting for a table, and outputs
PostScript by default.
Each table is written in its own file, beginning with a .TS command (“table
start”) on the first line. This is followed by the formatting commands used
to typeset the table, the data itself, and finally a .TE command (“table end”)
on the last line of the file.
For example, suppose you have a file named zones, as in Figure 15-3.
386 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
 
.TS
allbox;
c s s
c c c
n n l.
Plant Hardiness Zones
Zone Min. Temp. Example Cities
1 Below -50 F Fairbanks, Alaska; Resolute, Northwest Territories (Canada)
2a -50 to -45 F Prudhoe Bay, Alaska; Flin Flon, Manitoba (Canada)
2b -45 to -40 F Unalakleet, Alaska; Pinecreek, Minnesota
3a -40 to -35 F International Falls, Minnesota; St. Michael, Alaska
3b -35 to -30 F Tomahawk, Wisconsin; Sidney, Montana
4a -30 to -25 F Minneapolis/St.Paul, Minnesota; Lewistown, Montana
4b -25 to -20 F Northwood, Iowa; Nebraska
5a -20 to -15 F Des Moines, Iowa; Illinois
5b -15 to -10 F Columbia, Missouri; Mansfield, Pennsylvania
6a -10 to -5 F St. Louis, Missouri; Lebanon, Pennsylvania
6b -5 to 0 F McMinnville, Tennessee; Branson, Missouri
7a 0 to 5 F Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; South Boston, Virginia
7b 5 to 10 F Little Rock, Arkansas; Griffin, Georgia
8a 10 to 15 F Tifton, Georgia; Dallas, Texas
8b 15 to 20 F Austin, Texas; Gainesville, Florida
9a 20 to 25 F Houston, Texas; St. Augustine, Florida
9b 25 to 30 F Brownsville, Texas; Fort Pierce, Florida
10a 30 to 35 F Naples, Florida; Victorville, California
10b 35 to 40 F Miami, Florida; Coral Gables, Florida
11 above 40 F Honolulu, Hawaii; Mazatlan, Mexico
.TE

Figure 15-3. The zones file.
To make a table from such a groff input file, use tbl and give the name
of the file as an argument. This command outputs the raw input text that
groff uses to typeset the table; to view it or save it to a file, pipe the output
to groff with the right argument to the -T option for the output format you
want, as described in Recipe 15.5.1 [Processing a groff File], page 383.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To preview the typeset table made from the file zones in a new X
window at 100 dpi, type:
$ tbl zones | groff -TX100 RET

• To output the typeset table made from the file zones in a PostScript
file called zones.ps, type:
$ tbl zones | groff -Tps > zones.ps RET

Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 387

The previous example text will produce a table that looks like Figure 15-4.

Figure 15-4. Table made from the zones file.

Using the ascii option with groff will output a nice ascii character table,
and the html option will output a png-format image file plus an html file
that has an image tag for that file.
NOTES: For more information on using tbl, see Appendix D [References for
Further Interest], page 731.
You can make nice tables with LaTEX, too. For a good tutorial, consult
Chapter 5 of The LaTEX Environment (see Appendix D [References for Further
Interest], page 731).
388 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

15.6 Using sgml

Linuxdoc-Tools
DEB: linuxdoc-tools
linuxdoc-tools-info
linuxdoc-tools-latex
linuxdoc-tools-text
RPM: linuxdoc

Standard Generalized Markup Language, or sgml, is not an actual format, but

a specification for writing markup languages; the markup language “formats”
themselves are called dtds (“Document Type Definitions”). When you write
a document in an sgml dtd, you write input as a plain text file with markup
tags.
The various sgml packages on Linux are currently in a state of transition,
and have been for some time.
The original sgml-Tools package (known as LinuxDoc-sgml in another
life; then sgmltools v1) is no longer being developed. However, the newer
sgmltools v2 (a.k.a. “sgmltools Next Generation” and “sgmltools ’98”) was
alpha software at the time of this book’s first edition, as was sgmltools-lite,
another new subset of sgmltools. The old Linuxdoc-Tools package with the
original (and easy to work with) dtd is still around, and it appears to be
getting continued use.8
If you want to dive in and get started making documents with the LinuxDoc
dtd, it’s not hard to do. While the newer DocBook dtd has become very
popular for producing technical books and related projects, the LinuxDoc dtd
still works fine for smaller documents written by individual authors, such as
a multi-part essay, faq, or white paper.
With the Linuxdoc-Tools package, you can write documents and generate
output in many different kinds of formats—including html, plain text, pdf,
and PostScript—all from the same plain text input file.
The package gets its name from the old Linux Documentation Project,
which used this format in its documentation. In their heyday, the Linux
howtos and larger guides were written in LinuxDoc.
The Linuxdoc-Tools User’s Guide comes installed with the
linuxdoc-tools package, and it is available in several formats in
the /usr/share/doc/linuxdoc-tools directory. These files are compressed;
8
If you can’t locate a copy, you can always install the sources from the Debian package
(see Recipe 1.1 [Format of Recipes], page 3).
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 389

if you want to print or convert them, you have to uncompress them first (see
Recipe 8.4 [Using File Compression], page 196).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To peruse the compressed text version of the Linuxdoc-Tools guide,
type:
$ zless /usr/share/doc/linuxdoc-tools/guide.txt.gz RET

• To print a copy of the PostScript version of the Linuxdoc-Tools guide
to the default printer, type:
$ zcat /usr/share/doc/linuxdoc-tools/guide.ps.gz | lpr RET

The following recipes use the Linuxdoc-Tools package and demonstrate its
use with documents written in the LinuxDoc dtd.

15.6.1 Writing an sgml Document

A document written in an sgml dtd looks a lot like html, which is no
coincidence, since html is a subset of sgml. A very simple “Hello, world”
example in the LinuxDoc dtd might look like Figure 15-5.
 

<!doctype linuxdoc system>

<article>
<title>An Example Document
<author>Ann Author
<date>4 May 2000
<abstract>
This is an example LinuxDoc document.
</abstract>

<sect>Introduction

<p>Hello, world.

</article>


Figure 15-5. A LinuxDoc “Hello, world.”

NOTES: The Linuxdoc-Tools package also comes with a simple example

file, example.sgml.gz, which is installed in the /usr/share/doc/linuxdoc-
tools/example directory.
390 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

15.6.2 Checking sgml Document Syntax

To make sure the syntax of an sgml document is correct, use linuxdoc and
give “check” as the argument to the -B option. This outputs any errors it
finds in the document that is specified as an argument.
⇒ To check the sgml file myfile.sgml, type:
$ linuxdoc -B check myfile.sgml RET

15.6.3 Generating Output from sgml

Use linuxdoc to make typeset output from an sgml source file.
Specify the format of output to generate as an argument to the -B option.
These commands write a new file with the same base file name as the sgml
file you give as an argument, but with the file name extension of their output
format.
The following table lists the various format arguments and describes the
kind of output they generate.

html Generates html files.

info Generates a gnu Info file.
lyx Generates a LyX input file.
latex Generates a LaTEX input file (useful for printing;
first process as in Recipe 15.3.3 [Processing a LaTEX
File], page 374, and then print the resultant dvi or
PostScript output file).
rtf Generates a file in Microsoft’s “Rich Text Format.”
txt Generates plain text.
⇒ To make a plain text file from myfile.sgml, type:
$ linuxdoc -B txt myfile.sgml RET

This command writes a plain text file called myfile.txt.

To make a PostScript or pdf file from an sgml file, first generate a LaTEX
input file, run it through latex to make a dvi output file, and then process
that with dvips to make the final output.
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 391

⇒ To make a PostScript file from myfile.sgml, type:

 

$ linuxdoc -B latex myfile.sgml RET

$ latex myfile.latex RET

$ dvips -t letter -o myfile.ps myfile.dvi RET

$

In this example, linuxdoc writes a LaTEX input file from the sgml source
file, and then the latex tool processes the LaTEX file to make dvi output,
which is processed with dvips to get the final output: a PostScript file called
myfile.ps with a paper size of “U.S. letter” (8.5 inx11 in).
To make a pdf file from the PostScript file, you need to take one more
step and use ps2pdf, part of the gs (Ghostscript) package; this converts the
PostScript to pdf.
⇒ To make a pdf file from the PostScript file myfile.ps, type:
$ ps2pdf myfile.ps myfile.pdf RET

15.7 Using Other Word Processors and

Typesetting Systems
The following table describes other suggested word processors and typesetting
tools available for Linux.

AbiWord A graphical, wysiwyg-style word processor for Linux sys-

tems. It can read Microsoft Word files and is reportedly
similar to that famous word processor in some ways.
DEB: abiword-common
RPM: abiword
WWW: http://www.abisource.com/
ImPress Full-featured, wysiwyg layout and desktop publishing
system.
DEB: impress
RPM: impress
WWW: http://www.ntlug.org/~ccox/impress/index.html
392 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

LilyPond A system for typesetting sheet music.

DEB: lilypond
RPM: lilypond
WWW: http://lilypond.org/web/
Maxwell A graphical word processor for use in X.
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/maxwellwp
OpenOffice.org A graphical, window-based “office suite” that includes a
word processor called WRITER (along with spreadsheet, pre-
sentation, diagram, and database applications).
DEB: openoffice
RPM: openoffice
WWW: http://www.openoffice.org/
PostScript The PostScript language itself. PostScript is generally con-
sidered to be a format generated by software, but some peo-
ple write straight PostScript! Recipe 15.2 [Outputting Text
to PostScript], page 359, has recipes on creating PostScript
output from text, including outputting text in a particular
font. People have also written PostScript template files for
creating all kinds of documents—from desktop calendars to
mandalas for meditation. The Debian cdlabelgen and cd-
circleprint packages contain tools for writing labels for
compact discs. Also of interest are the following templates
for printing label inserts for video and audio tapes; edit the
files in a text editor and then view or print them as you
would any PostScript file.
WWW: http://www.jwz.org/hacks/audio-tape.ps
WWW: http://www.jwz.org/hacks/video-tape.ps
Scribus A simple layout and desktop publishing system that uses
Type 1 fonts.
DEB: scribus
RPM: scribus
WWW: http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/
Chapter 15: Typesetting and Word Processing 393

Texinfo Texinfo is the gnu Project’s documentation system, and it

is excellent for writing certain kinds of technical manuals.
While not extensible enough out-of-the-box for production
of serious non-technical publications, it does allow for the
inclusion of in-line eps images and can produce TEX-based,
html, and Info output. Use it if this matches your needs.
DEB: tetex-base
RPM: texinfo
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/
Txt2tex A script that converts plain text to LaTEX.
WWW: http://www.tex.ac.uk/CTAN/support/txt2tex/
394 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 16: Using Fonts 395

16. Using Fonts

A font is a collection of characters for displaying text, normally in a common
typeface and with a common size, boldness, and slant.
This chapter discusses the most popular kinds of fonts used on Linux sys-
tems: display fonts for use in the X Window System, TEX fonts, fonts for
use in terminals, and the “fonts” often seen in Usenet and email composed
entirely of ascii characters.
To just print a text file in a font, see Recipe 15.2.1 [Outputting Text in a
Font], page 361.
For more information on fonts and the tools for using them, see the Font
HOWTO (see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System Documentation and Help Files],
page 50).

16.1 Using X Fonts

You can specify a font as an option to most X clients, so that any text in
the client is displayed in the given font. The way to do this is described in
Recipe 4.2.3 [Specifying X Window Font], page 104.
When you specify a font as an option, you have to give the X font name,
which is the exact name used to specify a specific font in X. (An easy way to
get the X font name is described in the first recipe in this section.) X font
names consist of 14 fields, delimited by (and beginning with) a hyphen. All
fields must be specified, and empty fields are permitted:
-fndry-fmly-wght-slant-swdth-adstyl-pxlsz
-ptsz-resx-resy-spc-avgwdth-rgstry-encdng
The preceding line was split because of its length, but X font names are
always given on one line.
The following table describes the meaning of each field.

fndry The type foundry that digitized and supplied the

font data.
fmly The name of the typographic style (for example,
“courier”).
wght The weight of the font, or its nominal blackness,
the degree of boldness or thickness of its charac-
ters. Values include “heavy,” “bold,” “medium,”
“light,” and “thin.”
396 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

slant The posture of the font, usually “r” (for roman,

or upright),“i” (italic, slanted upward to the right
and differing in shape from the roman counterpart),
or “o” (oblique, slanted but with the shape of the
roman counterpart).
swdth The proportionate width of the characters in the
font, or its nominal width, such as “normal,”
“condensed,” “extended,” “narrow,” and “wide.”
adstyl Any additional style descriptions the particular font
takes, such as “serif” (fonts that have small strokes
drawn on the ends of each line in the character) or
“sans serif” (fonts that omit serifs).
pxlsz The height, in pixels, of the type. Also called body
size.
ptsz The height, in points, of the type.
resx The horizontal screen resolution the font was de-
signed for, in dpi (“dots per inch”).
resy The vertical screen resolution the font was designed
for, in dpi.
spc The kind of spacing used by the font (its escapement
class); either “p” (a proportional font containing
characters with varied spacing), “m” (a monospaced
font containing characters with constant spacing),
or “c” (a character cell font containing characters
with constant spacing and constant height).
avgwdth The average width of the characters used in the font,
in 1/10th pixel units.
rgstry The international standards body, or registry, that
owns the encoding.
encdng The registered name of this character set, or its
encoding.

NOTES: For more information on using fonts in X, see the XFree86 Font De-
uglification howto (see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System Documentation and
Help Files], page 50).
Chapter 16: Using Fonts 397

16.1.1 Selecting an X Font Name

X font names can be long and difficult to type; to make it easier, use the
xfontsel client, an interactive tool for picking X fonts and getting their X
font names.
When you start xfontsel, it looks like Figure 16-1 (the window frame will
differ depending on your window manager).

Figure 16-1. Starting xfontsel.

The row of buttons are pull-down menus containing options available on
your system for each field in the X font name. Use the mouse to select items
from each menu, and the X font you have selected is shown in the main
window. Above it is written its X font name.
⇒ To make the X font name the X selection, click the mouse on the button
labeled select.
This example makes the X font name the X selection, which permits you
to paste the X font name on a command line or into another window (see
Recipe 10.3.2 [Pasting Text], page 254).

16.1.2 Listing Available X Fonts

Use xlsfonts to list the X font families, sizes, and weights available on your
system. Supply a pattern in quotes as an argument, and it outputs the names
of all X fonts installed on the system that match that pattern; by default, it
lists all fonts.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list all the X fonts on the system, type:
$ xlsfonts RET

398 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To list all the X fonts on the system whose names contain the text
“rea,” type:
$ xlsfonts '*rea*' RET

• To list all the bold X fonts on the system, type:
$ xlsfonts '*bold*' RET

NOTES: This is not a way to display the characters in a font; for that, use
xfd, described next. Furthermore, to browse through available X fonts, you
want to use xfontsel, as in the previous recipe.

16.1.3 Displaying the Characters in an X Font

Use the xfd (“X font display”) tool to display all of the characters in a given
X font. Give the X font name you want to display in quotes as an argument
to the -fn option.
⇒ To display the characters in a medium Courier X font, type:
$ xfd -fn '-*-courier-medium-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1' RET

16.1.4 Resizing the Xterm Font

See Recipe 4.2.3 [Specifying X Window Font], page 104, for information on
specifying the font for X client windows. One of the tools it is most useful to
specify a font for is xterm, which is usually used to run a shell while in X;
many people like to specify which font is used for this window (see Recipe 4.5
[Getting a Terminal Window in X], page 109).
To resize the current font when the xterm is running, press and hold CTRL

and right-click anywhere in the xterm window. A menu will appear that gives
you the size options, from Unreadable and Tiny to Huge. To resize the font
to its original size, choose Default.

16.2 Using TEX Fonts

The following recipes pertain to TEX fonts in particular.

16.2.1 Listing Available TEX Fonts

A popular question among new TEX users is how to list all of the TEX fonts
installed on the system—most installations come with a lot of them, and it
would be helpful to easily list and display them all. Unfortunately, there
is no uniform and surefire way to do it. You can use many types of fonts
Chapter 16: Using Fonts 399

with TEX, and the precise fonts installed will differ from system to sys-
tem. TEX fonts are typically stored in the /usr/share/texmf/fonts/ and
/usr/local/share/texmf/fonts/ directory trees.
To get a list of TEX fonts on your system, use locate to list files with a
.tfm extension. These are TEX font metric files. Not all of the TEX fonts have
a .tfm file, and not all of the .tfm files are usable fonts, but you can get a
good idea of the TEX fonts installed on your system with this method.
⇒ To list the available .tfm fonts on your system, type:
$ locate .tfm RET

NOTES: You may want to redirect the output to a file, or peruse it with less
in a terminal window of its own, while you use this output to display samples
of the fonts as described in the next recipe.

16.2.2 Viewing a Sample of a TEX Font

The file /usr/share/texmf/tex/plain/base/testfont.tex, included with
TEX, is a special TEX file you can use to display a sample of any .tfm font.
When you process this file, it asks for the name of a font to display. Give
the base file name—that is, omit both its path and extension. Then type
\sample and \end, each on lines of their own, TEX commands that first print
the sample and then end the TEX file. This command will create a dvi file
in the current directory named textfont.dvi that contains a sample of the
letterset for the given font.
⇒ To view a sample of the plu10 font, type:
 

$ tex /usr/share/texmf/tex/plain/base/testfont.tex RET

This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/plain/base/testfont.tex
Name of the font to test = plu10 RET

Now type a test command (\help for help):)
* \sample RET

[1]
* \bye RET

[2]
Output written on testfont.dvi (2 pages, 12344 bytes).
Transcript written on testfont.log.
$ xdvi testfont.dvi RET



400 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

16.3 Using Console Fonts

Console fonts are screen fonts for displaying text on the Linux console (and
not in the X Window System).
Console fonts are stored in the /usr/share/consolefonts directory as
compressed files; to install new console fonts, have the system administrator
make a /usr/local/share/consolefonts directory and put the font files in
there.
These recipes show how to set the console font, and how to display a table
containing all of the characters in the current font.

16.3.1 Setting the Console Font

Use consolechars to set the current console font; give the base file name of
a console font as an argument to the -f option.
⇒ To set the console font to the scrawl_w font, type:
$ consolechars -f scrawl_w RET

Some font files contain more than one height (or size) of the font. If a font
contains more than one encoding for different heights, give the height to use
as an argument to the -H option. (If you try to specify such a font without
the height option, consolechars will output a list of available sizes.)
Common console font heights include 8 (for 8x8 fonts), 14 (for 8x14 fonts),
and 16 (for 8x16 fonts).
⇒ To set the console font to the 8x8 size sc font, type:
$ consolechars -H 8 -f sc RET

16.3.2 Displaying the Characters of a Console Font

Use showcfont to display all of the characters in the current console font.
⇒ To list all of the characters in the current console font, type:
$ showcfont RET

16.4 Using Text Fonts

Text fonts are fonts created from the arrangement of ascii characters on the
screen; they are often seen in Usenet articles and email messages, included as
decorative or title elements in text files, and used for printing simple banners
or posters on a printer.
Chapter 16: Using Fonts 401

The making of “fonts” (and even pictures) from the arrangement of ascii
characters is known as ascii art. The following recipes describe methods of
outputting text in these kinds of fonts.

16.4.1 Outputting Horizontal Text Fonts

Figlet
DEB: figlet
RPM: figlet
WWW: http://www.figlet.org/

The figlet filter outputs text in a given text font. Give the text to out-
put as an argument, quoting any text containing shell metacharacters (see
Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56).
⇒ To output the text “news alert” in the default figlet font, type:
$ figlet news alert RET

This command outputs the text in an ascii text font, as in Figure 16-2.
 

_ _
_ __ _____ _____ __ _| | ___ _ __| |_
| ’_ \ / _ \ \ /\ / / __| / _‘ | |/ _ \ ’__| __|
| | | | __/\ V V /\__ \ | (_| | | __/ | | |_
|_| |_|\___| \_/\_/ |___/ \__,_|_|\___|_| \__|


Figure 16-2. Output from figlet.
Fonts for figlet are kept in the /usr/lib/figlet directory; use the -
f option followed by the base name of the font file (without the path or
extension) to use that font.
To output the contents of a text file with a figlet font, use cat to output
the contents of a file and pipe the output to figlet.
⇒ To output the text of the file poster in the figlet bubble font, type:
$ cat poster | figlet -f bubble RET

NOTES: The bubble font is installed at /usr/lib/figlet/bubble.flf.

402 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

16.4.2 Outputting Text Banners

Bsd-games
DEB: bsdmainutils
RPM: bsd-games
WWW: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/games/

The easiest way to print a long, vertical banner of text on a Linux system is
with the old unix banner tool.
Quote a text message as an argument, and banner sends a large, vertical
“banner” of the message to the standard output. The message itself is output
in a “font” composed of ascii text characters, similar to those used by figlet,
except that the message is output vertically for printing, and you can’t change
the font. To send the output of banner to the printer, pipe it to lpr.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To make a banner saying “Happy Birthday Susan,” type:
$ banner 'Happy Birthday Susan' RET

• To print a banner saying “Happy Birthday Susan” to the default
printer, type:
$ banner 'Happy Birthday Susan' | lpr RET

Unfortunately, the breadth of characters that banner understands is a bit

limited—the following characters can’t be used in a banner message:
< > [ ] \ ^ _ { } | ~
To make a banner of the contents of a text file, send its contents to banner
by redirecting standard input (see Recipe 3.2.1 [Redirecting Input to a File],
page 67).
To make a banner of the contents of the file /etc/hostname, type:
$ banner < /etc/hostname RET

The default width of a banner is 132 text columns; you can specify a
different width by specifying the width to use as an argument to the -w option.
If you give the -w option without a number, banner outputs at 80 text columns.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To make a banner containing the text “Happy Birthday Susan” at
a width of 23 text columns, type:
$ banner -w 23 'Happy Birthday Susan' RET

Chapter 16: Using Fonts 403

• To make a banner containing the text “Happy Birthday Susan” at

a width of 80 text columns, type:
$ banner -w 'Happy Birthday Susan' RET

NOTES: A method of making a horizontal text banner with figlet is

described in Recipe 15.2.7 [Outputting Text in Landscape Orientation],
page 369.

16.5 Using Other Font Tools

The following table describes some of the other font tools available for Linux.

Console Font Editor The Linux Console Font Editor (cse), an older console
font tool for editing font characters on-screen.
DEB: cfe
RPM: cfe
WWW: http://lrn.ru/~osgene/
Debian Font A tool for configuring fonts on a Debian system.
Manager DEB: defoma
defoma-doc
psfontmgr
Fonter A console font editor.
DEB: fonter
WWW: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/misc/
FontForge A font editor that recognizes many formats, including
PostScript, TrueType, and OpenType.
DEB: fontforge
RPM: fontforge
WWW: http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/
Font Viewer A tool for viewing Adobe Type 1 and TrueType fonts.
DEB: gfontview
RPM: gfontview
WWW: http://gfontview.sourceforge.net/
404 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Gozer A tool that renders text given as an argument into an

anti-aliased TrueType font.
DEB: gozer
WWW: http://www.linuxbrit.co.uk/gozer/
Metafont Donald E. Knuth’s language for designing fonts and lo-
gos (distributed with TEX).
DEB: tetex-base
tetex-bin
tetex-doc
tetex-extra
RPM: tetex
WWW: http://www.tug.org/teTeX/
PkTrace A tool that converts fonts made with Metafont into
Type 1 fonts.
DEB: pktrace
RPM: mftrace
IV. IMAGES 405

IV. IMAGES
406 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 17: Viewing Images 407

17. Viewing Images

There are many tools for viewing images, and as with text, there are both
tools for viewing and editing images. This chapter describes some of the best
methods for viewing images; the editing of images is discussed in the next
chapter. While you can view an image with an image editor, it is safer (and
faster!) to view with a viewer when you do not intend to edit it.

17.1 Viewing an Image in X

ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

To view an image in X, use display, which is part of the ImageMagick suite of

tools. It can recognize many image formats, including FlashPix, gif/gif87,
Group 3 faxes, jpeg, pbm/pnm/ppm, PhotoCD, tga, tiff, TransFig, and
xbm. It can also view images compressed with gzip or bzip2 without you
having to uncompress them, and it also offers rudimentary editing facilities.
The display tool takes as an argument the file name of the image to be
viewed, and it displays the image in a new window of its own.
⇒ To view the file sailboat.jpeg, type:
$ display sailboat.jpeg RET

This command displays the image file in a new window, as in Figure 17-1.

Figure 17-1. An image in display.

408 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The mouse buttons have special meaning in display. Left-click on the

image window to open the display command menu in a new window. The
display command menu looks like Figure 17-2.

Figure 17-2. The display command menu.

The menu items let you change how the image is displayed (but they don’t
change the actual image file unless you save your changes to it). You can
change the image size, apply effects, and otherwise change or transform the
image display. Choose Overview from the Help menu for an explanation of
the various commands that are available.

Figure 17-3. Image magnification in display.

Middle-click on the image to open a new window with a magnified view
of the image centered where you click. For example, middle-clicking on the
previous sailboat image will open a new window that looks like Figure 17-3.
Chapter 17: Viewing Images 409

Finally, right-click on the image window for a pop-up menu containing a few
of the most frequently-used commands; to choose one of these commands, drag
the mouse pointer over the command and release the right button. Commands
in the pop-up menu include Quit, which exits display, and Image Info, which
displays information about the image file itself, including the number of colors,
image depth, and resolution.
The following table describes some of the keyboard commands that can be
used when displaying an image in display.

SPACEBAR
Display next image specified on the command line.

BKSP
Display previous image specified on the command

line.

CTRL
- Q
Quit displaying image and exit display.

CTRL
- S
Write image to a file.

< Halve image size.
> Double image size.
- Return image to its original size.
/ Rotate image 90 degrees clockwise.
\ Rotate image 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
? Open a new window with image information, includ-
ing resolution, color depth, format, and comments,
if any.
h Toggle a horizontal mirror image.
v Toggle a vertical mirror image.

The following recipes describe some special uses of display. It can also
be used to view images on the Web—see Recipe 33.4 [Viewing an Image from
the Web], page 651.

17.1.1 Browsing Image Collections in X

The display tool offers a feature for browsing a collection of images—give
“vid:” as the file argument, followed by the file names or pattern to match
410 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

them in quotes. display makes thumbnails of the specified images, and dis-
plays them in a new window, which it calls a visual image directory.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To browse through the image files that have a .gif extension and
are in the /usr/doc/imagemagick/examples directory, type:
$ display 'vid:/usr/doc/imagemagick/examples/*.gif' RET

• To browse through all image files in the current directory, type:
$ display 'vid:*' RET

In the preceding example, only those files with image formats supported
by display are read and displayed.
NOTES: If the title bar indicates that there is more than one page to the
visual image directory, press SPACEBAR
to advance to the next one (pressing
SPACEBAR
on the last page wraps back to the beginning).

To open an image at its normal size, right-click the image and choose
Load; the thumbnail will be replaced by its full-size image. To return to the
thumbnail directory, press SPACEBAR
.

17.1.2 Putting an Image in the Root Window

One way to put an image in the root window (the background behind all other
windows) is to use display and give ‘root’ as an argument to the -window
option.
⇒ To put the image tetra.jpeg in the root window, type:
$ display -window root tetra.jpeg RET

17.2 Browsing Images in a Console

Zgv
DEB: zgv
RPM: zgv
WWW: http://freshmeat.net/projects/zgv/

Use zgv to view images in a virtual console (not in X). You can use zgv to
browse through the filesystem and select images to view, or you can give the
names of specific image files to view as arguments. It recognizes many image
formats, including gif, jpeg, png, pbm/pnm/ppm, tga, and pcx; one of its
nicest features is that it fills the entire screen with an image.
Chapter 17: Viewing Images 411

When you run zgv with no options, it displays image icons of any images
in the current directory, showing any subdirectories as folder icons. You can
also give the name of a directory as an argument in order to browse the images
in that directory.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To browse the images in the current directory, type:
$ zgv RET

• To browse the images in the /usr/share/gimp/scripts directory,
type:
$ zgv /usr/share/gimp/scripts RET

Use the arrow keys to navigate through the file display; the red border
around an image or directory icon indicates which image or subdirectory is
selected. Type RET
to view the selected image or to change to the selected
directory.
You can manipulate the images you view in a number of ways—zoom the
image magnification in and out, change the brightness and color, and even
make automatic “slide shows” of images. The following table describes some
of zgv’s command line options.

-c Toggle image centering. Images are centered on the

screen by default; specifying this option turns off
centering.
-i Ignore errors due to corrupted files, and display
whatever portion of the file is displayable.
-l Start zgv in slide-show mode, where it loops through
all images specified as arguments, continuously, un-
til you interrupt it.
-M Toggle mouse support. Mouse support is off by de-
fault; this option turns it on.
-r integer Reread and redisplay every image after every integer
seconds. Useful for viewing webcam images or other
image files that are continuously changing.
412 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

17.3 Viewing an Image in a Web Browser

Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/
or
Mozilla
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/

Browsers are good for perusing files and directories, and they are equally good
at displaying images. You can browse local images in a Web browser running
in X just as you would browse any files (see Recipe 5.10 [Browsing Files and
Directories], page 157). If you want to view an image file while you are in X,
and you have a Web browser running, it can be a quick and easy way to do
it.
You can view images in this way using either a graphical browser (such as
Mozilla), or in a terminal window with the text-based browser Lynx, in which
case the image is displayed in a new window with a “helper” application.1
Exiting the helper application will bring you back to Lynx.
To view an image file in Mozilla or another graphical Web browser, specify
the full path name of the image file in the Location field of the browser. To
view an image file in Lynx, just give the full or relative path name of the
image as an argument, or type g while in Lynx to get a prompt where you
can then type the full path name.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To start Mozilla with the file /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/
base/pic.png, type:
mozilla /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/pic.png RET

• To view the file /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/pic.png in
Mozilla, type the following in its Location field:
/usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/pic.png RET

1
The display tool is usually the default application set up for viewing images.
Chapter 17: Viewing Images 413

• To start Lynx with the file /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/

pic.png, type:
lynx /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/pic.png RET

• To view the file /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/pic.png in
Lynx, type:
 

URL to open: /usr/share/doc/texmf/pdftex/base/pic.png RET

NOTES: The file: url given to Mozilla only has one preceding slash (point-
ing to the root directory) and not two, as in any http:// url.

17.4 Previewing Print Files

The dvi (“DeVice Independent”), PostScript, and pdf (“Portable Document
Format”) file formats can be generated by a number of applications. They are
graphical image formats commonly used for printing; methods for previewing
these files on the display screen are discussed in the following recipes.

NOTES: If the file you want to preview is compressed and has either a .gz or
.bz2 file name extension, you can still preview it with see (see Recipe 8.4.3
[Seeing What’s in a Compressed File], page 199).

17.4.1 Previewing a dvi File

Use the xdvi tool to preview a dvi file in X. Give the name of the file to
preview as an argument. xdvi will show how the document will look when
printed, and you can view it at different magnifications.
⇒ To preview the file gentle.dvi, type:
$ xdvi gentle.dvi RET

To magnify the view of the document, left-click any of the buttons labeled
with a percentage, such as 17%; they magnify the view by that percentage.
⇒ To magnify the view by 33%, left-click the button marked 33%.
414 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The following table lists the most important keystoke commands to use
while previewing with xdvi.

Q
Exit xdvi and stop previewing the file.

N
or F
Advance forward to the next page.

P
or B
Move backward to the previous page.

CTRL
- C
Same as Q
.

CTRL
- D
Same as Q
.

SPACEBAR
Scroll forward down the page, or advance forward

to the next page if already near the bottom of the
page.

CTRL
- L
Redisplay the current page.

R
Re-read the dvi file.

17.4.2 Previewing a PostScript File

Ghostview
DEB: ghostview
RPM: ghostview
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html
or
GV
DEB: gv
RPM: gv
WWW: http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/

To preview a PostScript or eps image file in X, use either ghostview or gv.

Both take a file name as an argument, and they preview the contents of the
file in a window, starting with its first page.
⇒ To preview the file /usr/doc/gs/examples/tiger.ps, type:
$ gv /usr/doc/gs/examples/tiger.ps RET

Press SPACEBAR
to scroll down the page (and then advance to the next
one, if there is one), O
to open a new file, and Q
to exit.
Chapter 17: Viewing Images 415

NOTES: The keys just described work for either ghostview or gv, but today
many people prefer to use the newer gv, which was based on ghostview, but
has a better interface and can preview pdf files, too.

17.4.3 Previewing a Pdf File

Xpdf
DEB: xpdf-common
xpdf-reader
RPM: xpdf
WWW: http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/

Use xpdf to preview a pdf file. Give the name of the pdf file to preview as
an argument.
⇒ To preview the pdf file flyer.pdf, type:
$ xpdf flyer.pdf RET

To exit xpdf, press Q
; use the two magnifying-glass buttons to zoom the
view closer in (+) or further out (-), and click on the left and right arrow
buttons to move to the previous and next pages, if any. You can also select
text with the mouse by clicking the first mouse button and dragging over the
block of text to select; this becomes plain ascii text in the X selection, which
you may paste into another window (like a text editor, for instance, or in an
xterm shell where you are using cat to redirect standard input to a file).

NOTES: You can also use gv to preview pdf files (see preceding recipe).

17.5 Browsing PhotoCD Archives

There are two methods for browsing Kodak PhotoCD archives.

METHOD #1
Xpcd
DEB: xpcd
xpcd-gimp
RPM: xpcd
WWW: http://bytesex.org/xpcd.html
416 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The xpcd tool is an X client for viewing and browsing collections of Kodak
PhotoCD images. To browse the images on a Kodak PhotoCD, mount the
cd-rom (see Recipe 24.4.1 [Mounting a Data cd], page 506), and then give
the mount point as an argument to xpcd.
⇒ To browse the images on the PhotoCD disc mounted on /cdrom, type:
$ xpcd /cdrom RET

The preceding example will open two new windows—a small xpcd com-
mand bar window, and a larger window containing thumbnails of all PhotoCD
images on the disc.
To open a copy of an image in a new window, left-click its thumbnail image.
When you do, xpcd will open the image at the second-smallest PhotoCD
resolution, 256x384; to view it at another size, right-click the image and choose
the size to view. Once the new window is drawn, you can right-click on this
new image to save it as a jpeg, ppm, or tiff format image.
To view an individual .pcd file with xpcd, give the name of the file as an
argument.
⇒ To view the PhotoCD file hawaii-001.pcd, type:
$ xpcd hawaii-001.pcd RET

NOTES: While development has been halted on xpcd, it is still a useful viewer,
and comes packaged with pcdtoppm, a PhotoCD conversion tool.
See Recipe 19.3 [Extracting PhotoCD images], page 445 for another recipe
for extracting PhotoCD images.

METHOD #2
To browse a PhotoCD archive, use display to view the overview.pcd file
associated with that archive, which is kept in the top directory of the archive
(for how to use display, see Recipe 17.1 [Viewing an Image in X], page 407).
⇒ To browse the images on the PhotoCD disc mounted on /cdrom, type:
$ display /cdrom/overview.pcd RET

To view a particular image in a PhotoCD archive, give the file name asso-
ciated with that image as an argument to display.
⇒ To view the twelfth image on the PhotoCD disc mounted on /cdrom,
type:
$ display /cdrom/images/img0012.pcd RET

Chapter 17: Viewing Images 417

17.6 Viewing an Animation or Slide Show

ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

Use animate, part of the ImageMagick suite, to view animations and to view
or make slide shows.
To view an animated image file, give the name of the file as an argument.
⇒ To view the animated image earth.gif, type:
$ animate earth.gif RET

To make a slide show of several images, give the number of hundredths

of a second to display each image (the default is 6/100th of a second) as an
argument to the -delay option, and give the names of all the image files as
arguments.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To display a slide show of all files in the
~/photos/vacation2003/roll1/640 directory, displaying
each image for ten seconds before moving to the next, type:
$ animate -delay 1000 ~/photos/vacation2003/roll1/640 RET

• To display an animation of four files named sample.jpg, 120.tif,
sampleb.jpg, and 122.tif, displaying each image for 1/5th of a
second, type:
$ animate -delay 20 sample.jpg 120.tif sampleb.jpg 122.tif RET

When animate is through displaying all of the given images, it loops back
to the beginning. To set the amount of time to pause before starting over,
give a second argument to -delay, specified as “xnumber,” where number is
the number of seconds to pause before looping again.
⇒ To display a slide show of all the .jpeg files in the current directory,
displaying each image for the default 6/100ths of a second, and pausing
for one second before repeating, type:
$ animate -delay x1 *.jpeg RET

Use -backdrop to display the animation asa full-screen backdrop.

418 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To display a full-screen backdrop slide show of all the files in the our-
hawaii-vacation directory, displaying each image for thirty seconds, and
pausing for one minute before repeating all over again, type:
$ animate -backdrop -delay 30000x60 our-hawaii-vacation/* RET

NOTES: As with all ImageMagick tools, CTRL
- Q
exits.

To make your own animated image files, use convert, which is also part
of ImageMagick (see Recipe 18.2 [Converting Image Files], page 432).

17.7 Using Other Image Viewers

The following table lists other tools for viewing images.

Aview Displays graphics as “ascii art.” This tool can read any
image format supported by the pbmplus utility suite, and
has fluid zoom in/out, along with all the rendering options
you’d expect from a world-class viewer.
DEB: aview
RPM: aview
WWW: http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/aview/
Aatv Displays television tuner output in any text terminal as
ascii characters.
DEB: aatv
WWW: http://n00n.free.fr/aatv/
ChBg Changes the X background image. Allows for slide shows
and other effects.
DEB: chbg
RPM: chbg
WWW: http://chbg.sourceforge.net/
Fbi Displays images on Linux framebuffer consoles.
DEB: fbi
RPM: fbi
WWW: http://bytesex.org/fbi/
Chapter 17: Viewing Images 419

Fbtv Displays tv tuner images on Linux framebuffer consoles.

DEB: fbtv
RPM: xawtv
WWW: http://bytesex.org/xawtv/
Feh Fast image viewer with many features, including the ability
to show changing webcam images.
DEB: feh
WWW: http://www.linuxbrit.co.uk/feh/
Ida Image viewer, browser, and simple editor, noted for its speed
and small size.
DEB: ida
WWW: http://bytesex.org/ida/
Ogle Displays dvds. Includes dvd menu support.
DEB: ogle
RPM: ogle
WWW: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/
Quick Displays images in X; specializes in fast load times.
Image DEB: qiv
Viewer RPM: qiv
WWW: http://www.klografx.net/qiv/
ShowImg Displays images in X with a full-screen mode and many
options.
DEB: showimg
RPM: showimg
Showpicture Displays images in email attachments; requires xloadimage
and only works in X.
DEB: metamail
RPM: metamail
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/323w7
VideoLAN Plays mpeg, mpeg2, and dvd video from a network source.
DEB: vlc
RPM: vlc
WWW: http://www.videolan.org/
420 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Xli Displays images in X.

DEB: xli
RPM: xli
WWW: http://pantransit.reptiles.org/prog/
Xloadimage Displays images in X; can place images in the root window.
DEB: xloadimage
RPM: xloadimage
WWW: http://world.std.com/~jimf/xloadimage.html
Xwud Displays files in the special X Window Dump file format, as
created by xwd.
DEB: xbase-clients
RPM: XFree86-progs
WWW: http://www.xfree86.org/
Chapter 18: Editing Images 421

18. Editing Images

When you take an image file—such as one containing a digitized photograph
or a picture drawn with a graphics program—and you make changes to it, you
are editing an image.
This chapter contains recipes for editing and modifying images, including
converting between image file formats. It also gives an overview of other
image-related applications you might find useful, including the featuresome
gimp image editor.

18.1 Transforming Images

ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

Many Linux tools can be used to transform or manipulate images in various

ways. Described here is the ImageMagick suite of imaging tools, of which the
mogrify tool is particularly useful for performing fast command line image
transforms; use it to change the size of, to rotate, or to reduce the colors in
an image.
The mogrify tool always takes the name of the file to work on as an
argument, and it writes its changes to that file. Use a hyphen (-) to specify
the standard input, in which case mogrify writes its output to the standard
output.

Figure 18-1. The phoenix.jpeg image.

422 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

I’ll use the image phoenix.jpeg, shown in Figure 18-1, in the examples
that follow to give you an understanding of how to use mogrify.
NOTES: You can also perform many of the image transformations described
in the following sections interactively with the gimp (see Recipe 18.3 [Editing
Images with the Gimp], page 434); another very useful package for both trans-
forming images and converting between image formats is the netpbm suite of
utilities (see Recipe 19.2 [Scanning Images], page 443).

Figure 18-2. The phoenix.jpeg image scaled to approximately 480x320pixels.

18.1.1 Changing the Size of an Image

There are three good methods for resizing an image with mogrify, as follows.
NOTES: Images scaled to a larger size will appear blocky or fuzzy.
Chapter 18: Editing Images 423

To view an image at a particular scale without modifying the file, use

display; when you resize its window, you resize the image on the screen
only, unless you choose to save it (see Recipe 4.3.2 [Resizing an X Window],
page 106).

Figure 18-3. The phoenix.jpeg image scaled to exactly 640x480 pixels.

METHOD #1
To resize an image but maintain its aspect ratio, so that the ratio between
the width and height stays the same, use mogrify with the -geometry option,
and give the ideal width and height values, in pixels, as an argument.
⇒ To resize phoenix.jpeg to 480x320 pixels, type:
$ mogrify -geometry 480x320 phoenix.jpeg RET

424 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg file to an image sized

as close to 480x320 pixels as possible while retaining its original aspect ratio,
as in Figure 18-2.

METHOD #2
To resize an image to a particular image size without necessarily preserving
its aspect ratio, use mogrify with the -geometry option, and append the
geometry values you give as an argument with a trailing exclamation point
(!).
⇒ To resize phoenix.jpeg to exactly 640x480 pixels, regardless of aspect
ratio, type:
$ mogrify -geometry 640x480! phoenix.jpeg RET

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg to an image sized at

exactly 640x480 pixels, without attempting to preserve the aspect ratio of the
original, as in Figure 18-3.

Figure 18-4. The phoenix.jpeg image scaled by percentage.

METHOD #3
You can also scale an image by specifying the width or height by percentage
with mogrify. To decrease by a percentage, give the value followed by a
percent sign (%). To increase by a percentage, give the value plus 100 followed
by a percent sign. For example, to increase by 25 percent, give “125%.”
Chapter 18: Editing Images 425

⇒ To increase the height of phoenix.jpeg by 25 percent and decrease its

width by 50 percent, type:
$ mogrify -geometry 125%x50% phoenix.jpeg RET

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg to an image whose

height was increased by 25 percent and width increased by 50 percent, as in
Figure 18-4.

18.1.2 Rotating an Image

To rotate an image, use mogrify with the -rotate’option followed by the
number of degrees to rotate by. If the image width exceeds its height, follow
this number with a “>,” and if the height exceeds its width, follow it with
a “<.” (Because both < and > are shell redirection operators, enclose this
argument in quotes, omitting either if the image height and width are the
same.)
⇒ To rotate phoenix.jpeg, whose height exceeds its width, by 90 degrees,
type:
$ mogrify -rotate '90<' phoenix.jpeg RET

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg so that it is rotated

by 90 degrees, as in Figure 18-5.

Figure 18-5. The phoenix.jpeg image rotated.

NOTES: After this command, the width of phoenix.jpeg now exceeds its
height, so to rotate it again use “>” instead of “<.”

18.1.3 Adjusting the Colors of an Image

You can use mogrify to make a number of adjustments in the color of an
image. To reduce the number of colors in an image, use the -colors option,
followed by the number of colors to use.
426 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To reduce the colors in phoenix.jpeg to two, type:

$ mogrify -colors 2 phoenix.jpeg RET

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg to a black and white

image, as in Figure 18-6.

Figure 18-6. The phoenix.jpeg image in black and white.

Figure 18-7. The phoenix.jpeg image in dithered black and white.

Use the -dither option to reduce the colors with Floyd-Steinberg error
diffusion, a popular algorithm for improving image quality during color re-
duction.
⇒ To reduce the colors in phoenix.jpeg to four and apply Floyd-Steinberg
error diffusion, type:
$ mogrify -colors 4 -dither phoenix.jpeg RET

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg to a dithered black

and white image, as in Figure 18-7.
Chapter 18: Editing Images 427

Use the -map option with a second file name as an argument to read the
color map (the set of colors) from the second image and use them in the first
image.
⇒ To change the colors in the file rainbow.jpeg to those used in the file
prism.jpeg, type:
$ mogrify -map prism.jpeg rainbow.jpeg RET

Use the -monochrome option to make a color image black and white.
⇒ To make the color image rainbow.jpeg black and white, type:
$ mogrify -monochrome rainbow.jpeg RET

If you have a ppm file, use ppmquant to quantize, or reduce to a specified

quantity, the colors in the image—see the ppmquant man page for details (see
Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).
Because of differences in display hardware, the brightness of an image may
vary from one computer system to another. For example, images created on
a Macintosh usually appear darker on other systems. When you adjust the
brightness of an image, it is called gamma correction.
To adjust the brightness of an image, give the numeric level of correction to
apply as an argument to the -gamma option. Most pc displays have a gamma
value of 2.5, while Macintosh displays have a lower gamma value of 1.4.
⇒ To set the gamma correction of the image rainbow.jpeg to .8, type:
$ mogrify -gamma .8 rainbow.jpeg RET

18.1.4 Annotating an Image

Independent JPEG Group’s JPEG software
DEB: libjpeg-progs
RPM: libjpeg-progs
WWW: http://www.ijg.org/

There are a few methods for reading and writing annotations in an image
file. This practice is useful for adding a copyright statement to an image
or for annotating an image file with a url. Not all image formats support
annotations; jpeg is the most popular.
You won’t see the annotation when you view an image; it is added to the
image header in the file. You can, however, read image annotations with tools
that display information about an image file, such as display or the gimp.
Another method for outputting the annotation text is described below.
428 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
Use wrjpgcom to write a comment in a jpeg file. Quote the comment as an
argument to the -comment option, and give the name of the input file as an
argument. The default is to write a new jpeg file to the standard output.
⇒ To annotate an image in the file map.jpeg with the text “Map not drawn
to full scale” and write it to a file warnmap.jpeg, type (all on one
line):
$ wrjpgcom -comment "Map not drawn to full scale"
map.jpeg > warnmap.jpeg RET

Use a Bash for loop to make the same annotation in a group of files (see
the Bash Info documentation for more information on this built-in).
⇒ To annotate all of the .jpg files in the current directory with the comment
“Image courtesy Rick Blaine,” writing to a new file with the same base
name but a .jpeg extension, type:
 

$ for i in *.jpg RET

> { RET

> wrjpgcom -comment "Image courtesy Rick Blaine" $i `basename $i
jpg`jpeg RET

> } RET

$

The previous example could also have been written on a single input line,
omitting the for loop, as follows:
for i in *.jpg; { wrjpgcom -comment "Image courtesy Rick
Blaine" $i `basename $i jpg`jpeg; } RET

METHOD #2
Use mogrify with the -comment option to annotate image files with a com-
ment. Give the comment in quotes as an argument to the option.
⇒ To annotate the image file phoenix.jpeg, type (all on one line):
$ mogrify -comment "If you can read this,
you're too close!" phoenix.jpeg RET

Chapter 18: Editing Images 429

METHOD #3
To read annotations in jpeg files, use the rdjpgcom tool—it outputs any
comments in the jpeg file whose file name is given as an argument.
⇒ To read any comments made in the image file phoenix.jpeg, type:
 

$ rdjpgcom phoenix.jpeg RET

If you can read this, you're too close!
$

18.1.5 Adding Borders to an Image

To draw a border around an image, use mogrify with the -border option
followed by the width and height, in pixels, of the border to use.
⇒ To add a border two pixels wide and four pixels high to phoenix.jpeg,
type:
$ mogrify -border 2x4 phoenix.jpeg RET

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg to an image with a

2x4 pixel border, as in Figure 18-8.

Figure 18-8. The phoenix.jpeg image with a border.

The -frame option works like -border, but it adds a more decorative
border to an image.
⇒ To add a decorative frame eight pixels wide and eight pixels high to
phoenix.jpeg, type:
$ mogrify -frame 8x8 phoenix.jpeg RET

430 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This command transforms the original phoenix.jpeg to an image with an

8x8 decorative frame, as in Figure 18-9.

Figure 18-9. The phoenix.jpeg image with adecorative frame.

NOTES: The border or frame is added to the outside of the existing image;
the image is not cropped or reduced in size to add the border.

18.1.6 Making an Image Montage

To make a montage of several images, use montage. It takes as arguments the
names of the images to use followed by the name of the output file to write
the montage image to.
The montage image is made by scaling all of the input images to fit the
largest size possible, up to 120x120 pixels, and tiling these images in rows of
five and columns of four.
⇒ To create a montage from the files owl.jpeg, thrush.jpeg, and
warbler.jpeg and write it to ohio-birds.png, type:
$ montage owl.jpeg thrush.jpeg warbler.jpeg ohio-birds.png RET

NOTES: In this example, three jpegs were read and output to a png file; to
specify the format to use in the output, give the appropriate file extension in
the output file name.

18.1.7 Combining Images

Use composite to combine two images into one new image—give the names of
the two source image files and the new file to write to as arguments. Without
any options, composite makes a new image file by overlaying the smaller of
Chapter 18: Editing Images 431

the two images on top of the larger, starting in the top left corner; if both
images are the same size, only the second image is visible.
⇒ To combine two images, ashes.jpeg and phoenix.jpeg, into a new file
picture.jpeg, type:
$ composite ashes.jpeg phoenix.jpeg picture.jpeg RET

You can specify the percentage by which to blend the two images with the
-dissolve option. Give the percentage to “dissolve” the first image into the
second as an argument to the option.
⇒ To combine the image files ashes.jpeg and phoenix.jpeg so that the
new image contains 70 percent of the first image dissolved into the second,
type:
$ composite -dissolve 70 ashes.jpeg phoenix.jpeg picture.jpeg RET

This command combines the two images and writes a new image file,
picture.jpeg, whose contents contain 70 percent of the first image.
NOTES: Use -dissolve 50 to blend the two source files equally.

18.1.8 Morphing Two Images Together

Morphing is a computer-imaging method for finding the difference between
the shapes in two images; it’s often used in special effects to combine aspects
of two creatures, such as the faces of a human and an animal.
You can use convert to get a morph-like effect with two files by using the
-morph option. Give as an argument to the option the number of in-between
sequence frames to use in the transformation between the two files.
When two input images and an output file are specified, this command
takes the difference between corresponding pixels in the two images. The
effect is like a “morphed” image.
If you specify a file format that supports animation, such as miff, the
output will be written to a single animated image file. Otherwise, output is
written to a series of files, each with its number in the series appended to its
name.
You can also specify the delay to use in displaying each frame of the an-
imated image; to do this, use the -delay option and give the time, in hun-
dredths of a second.
⇒ To morph the files ashes.jpeg and phoenix.jpeg, making a sequence of
three images whose names begin with morph.png, type:
$ convert -morph 3 ashes.jpeg phoenix.jpeg morph.png RET

432 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This command writes five new png-format files: morph.png.0, which is

identical to ashes.jpeg; morph.png.4, which is identical to phoenix.jpeg;
and morph.png.1, morph.png.2, and morph.png.3, which contain transfor-
mations between the first and the last images.
⇒ To morph the files ashes.jpeg and phoenix.jpeg, making a new file
called morph.miff containing an animated sequence of 25 transformative
steps, with each frame in the sequence being displayed for a fifth of a
second, type:
$ convert -morph 25 -delay 20 ashes.jpeg phoenix.jpeg morph.miff RET

This command makes a new file, morph.miff, which contains an animated

sequence of 27 images. Each image in the sequence is displayed for a fifth of
a second. When the sequence is finished, it repeats. Use a tool like animate
to view it (see Recipe 17.6 [Viewing an Animation or Slide Show], page 417).
NOTES: Another tool, xmorph, is a special X application for morphing images;
see Recipe 18.4 [Using Other Image Editors], page 435.

18.2 Converting Image Files

ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

Use convert (also part of the ImageMagick suite of tools described in

Recipe 18.1 [Transforming Images], page 421) to convert the file format of
an image. Give the name of the file to convert as the first argument and the
destination file as the second argument. When you convert a file, the original
is not altered.
To specify the file type to convert to, use that file type’s standard file
extension in the file name of the converted file.
⇒ To convert the jpeg file phoenix.jpeg to a png image, type:
$ convert phoenix.jpeg phoenix.png RET

This command converts the jpeg image phoenix.jpeg to png format and
writes it to a new file, phoenix.png.
When converting a file to jpeg format, be sure to use the -interlace
NONE option to make sure the resultant jpeg image is non-interlaced—unless,
of course, you want an interlaced image. An interlaced image is drawn in
multiple passes, and is often used on the Web where a reader may view the
Chapter 18: Editing Images 433

low-resolution image consisting of early passes before the entire image is down-
loaded. A non-interlaced image is drawn in one single pass.
⇒ To convert the pnm file pike.pnm to non-interlaced jpeg, while sharpen-
ing the image by 50 percent and adding both a 2x2 border and a copyright
comment, type (all on one line):
$ convert -interlace NONE -sharpen 50 -border 2x2
-comment 'Copyright 2008 Toby Smith' pike.pnm pike.jpeg RET

This command writes its output to the file pike.jpeg. Notice that the
options -border and -comment were previously described for the mogrify
tool. Some ImageMagick tools share common options, which is useful if you
are making multiple changes to an image file at once; only one tool is needed
for the job.
You can convert to and from any of the image formats recognized by Im-
ageMagick, including animations. To make an animation, give as arguments
the names of the files for the individual frames, in the sequence you want them
to appear, and give the name of the new file as the final argument. Formats
that support animations include miff and gif.
Use the -delay option to specify the delay, in hundredths of a second,
between frames.
⇒ To make an animated miff file, driving.miff, out of all the files
drive1.jpg, drive2.jpg, drive3.jpg, drive4.jpg, and drive5.jpg,
with a delay of a fifth of a second between frames, type (all on one line):
$ convert -delay 20 drive1.jpg drive2.jpg drive3.jpg
drive4.jpg drive5.jpg driving.miff RET

NOTES: Some image formats are lossy, which means some image information
is lost when you convert to it. For example, the jpeg format is a lossy format
that is usually used for photographic images. If you convert a file from its
source pnm format to jpeg and then back to pnm, the resultant pnm will not
be identical to the original source pnm.
To convert image files interactively, open the image in the gimp, and then
choose Save as from the File menu, and select the file type to use; see the
following recipe for more information.
434 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

18.3 Using the gimp

GIMP
DEB: gimp1.2
gimp-manual
RPM: gimp
WWW: http://www.gimp.org/

If you plan on doing even the slightest or most occasional image editing, such
as applying filters or effects to an image or touching up, resizing, or cropping
digital photographs, you will want to take some time to familiarize yourself
with the gimp (“gnu Image Manipulation Program”).
It is the flagship image editor for Linux-based systems, an all-encompassing
image manipulation program that you can use to paint, draw, create, and edit
images in complex ways. You can also use it to convert image files, retouch
and edit photographic images, and browse collections of images.
The gimp comes pre-installed with hundreds of tools, filters, fonts, and
other goodies. Here is a partial list of its essential features:
• Contains a full suite of painting tools, including Brush, Pencil,
Airbrush, and Clone.
• Supports custom brushes and patterns.
• Includes a full suite of image selection, transformation, and manipulation
tools, including a gradient editor, color blending, and special effects.
• Includes animation support.
• Permits the use of layers and channels.
• Allows for large images, with their size being limited only by available
disk space.
• Provides high-quality font anti-aliasing.
• Offers full alpha-channel support.
• Supports command scripting.
• Permits multiple undo and redo, limited only by available disk space.
• Allows multiple images to be open simultaneously.
• Supports all popular image file formats, including jpeg, png, xpm, tiff,
tga, mpeg, ps, pdf, pcx, and bmp.
• Allows the easy addition of more than 100 plug-ins for new file formats
and new effect filters.
Chapter 18: Editing Images 435

The gimp runs under X and is started by running gimp or choosing it from
your window manager’s menu. Give the names of any image files to open as
arguments.
⇒ To start the gimp in the background from a shell prompt, type:
$ gimp & RET

When started, any image files you give as arguments are opened in their
own windows. The main gimp panel will open in a window of its own, as in
Figure 18-10.

Figure 18-10. The main gimp panel.

NOTES: To learn the basics of using the gimp, consult The GIMP User’s
Manual and the other documentation and resources available from the gimp
Web site [http://www.gimp.org/]. You can also install the manual on your
system; on Debian systems, it comes separately in the gimp-manual package.

18.4 Using Other Image Editors

There are all kinds of image-editing applications available for Linux—and
there are as many ways to make and edit an image as there are tools to do it
with.
The following table lists some other popular tools and applications for
making and editing images that you may want to explore. It is not exhaustive.
436 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Aa3d Generates “ascii art” stereograms.

DEB: aa3d
RPM: aa3d
WWW: http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/aa3d/
AutoTrace Converts bitmap images to vector graphics format.
DEB: autotrace
RPM: autotrace
WWW: http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/
Barcode Makes barcode images; recognizes all of the commercial
standards.
DEB: barcode
RPM: barcode
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/36s28
Bitmap Editor for bitmap files, which are used for icons and tile pat-
terns in the X Window System (see Recipe 4.7.3 [Changing
the Root Window Parameters], page 118).
DEB: xbase-clients
RPM: XFree86-progs
WWW: http://www.xfree86.org/
Blender Hugely popular 3d modeling, rendering, animation and
game design software.
DEB: blender
RPM: blender
WWW: http://www.blender.org/
CADUBI Draws “ascii art.”
DEB: cadubi
WWW: http://langworth.com/CadubiProject
Drgenius Two related tools for drawing interactive geometric figures.
Drgeo DEB: drgenius
RPM: drgenius
WWW: http://ofset.sourceforge.net/drgenius/
WWW: http://ofset.sourceforge.net/drgeo/
Chapter 18: Editing Images 437

Dia Drawing tool for simple charts and diagrams. Exports files
to eps (see Chapter 20 [PostScript], page 451).
DEB: dia
dia-common
RPM: dia
WWW: http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/
Effectv Processes tv input through various special effects.
DEB: effectv
Electric cad system for designing images of electric circuits,
schematics, and the like.
DEB: electric
RPM: electric
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/3yzbf
Figurine Vector graphics editor, intended to be easier to pick up than
the classic Xfig (listed below), yet remaining compatible
with Xfig’s file format.
DEB: figurine
RPM: figurine
WWW: http://figurine.sourceforge.net/
Findimagedupes Performs a “visual diff” on two image files; given a set of
files, it finds similar or duplicate images.
DEB: findimagedupes
WWW: http://www.kudla.org/raindog/perl/
Gnuplot Robust, non-interactive function-plotting tool. Generates
charts and graphs from a data file and a formula (see
Recipe 29.8 [Plotting Data], page 575).
DEB: gnuplot
RPM: gnuplot
WWW: http://www.gnuplot.info/
Innovation3d 3d modeling program.
DEB: innovation3d
innovation3d-plugins
WWW: http://innovation3d.sourceforge.net/
438 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Ivtools Suite of drawing editors, including idraw, a vector graphics

editor.
DEB: ivtools-bin
RPM: ivtools
WWW: http://www.ivtools.org/ivtools/
Kali Tool for drawing patterns and tilings, including frieze pat-
terns and infinite or recursive tiles in the spirit of M.C.
Escher.
DEB: kali
Kino Digital video editor that also has facilities to import from
digital movie cameras.
DEB: kino
RPM: kino
WWW: http://kino.schirmacher.de/
LignumCAD 3d cad system for designing furniture.
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/ysl5o
Moonlight3d Formerly the Moonlight Creator, this tool is an X client for
modeling, illuminating, and rendering 3d scenes.
WWW: http://moonlight3d.net/
QCad Professional 2d cad system that saves its files in the indus-
try dxf format.
DEB: qcad
RPM: qcad
WWW: http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html
Sced Tool for creating 3d scenes.
DEB: sced
RPM: sced
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/2g4oy
Skencil Full-featued vector drawing program (formerly Sketch) that
supports Bézier curves, gradients, blending, and all the
other features you would expect from such an application.
DEB: sketch
RPM: sketch
WWW: http://sketch.sourceforge.net/
Chapter 18: Editing Images 439

Sodipodi Powerful vector drawing program that uses svg format.

DEB: sodipodi
RPM: sodipodi
WWW: http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/
Tgif Interactive 2d drawing tool for X.
DEB: tgif
RPM: tgif
WWW: http://bourbon.usc.edu:8001/tgif/
TKpaint Tool for drawing figures like those used in graphs, diagrams,
and presentations.
DEB: tkpaint
RPM: Tkpaint
WWW: http://mars.netanya.ac.il/~samy/tkpaint.html
Xfig Venerable application used for drawing figures—complex
graphs, floor plans, maps, flow charts, and so forth. It saves
files in its own format (giving them a .fig extension by de-
fault); the usual thing to do is export to eps format.
DEB: xfig
RPM: xfig
WWW: http://xfig.org/
Xmorph Morphs two images together (sometimes referred to as
“warping”), making a new image in the process. The in-
put images must be in TrueVision Targa file format, and
have the same size, shape, and number of pixels in each file.
(For a quick and easy way to morph two images using the
ImageMagick suite, see Recipe 18.1.8 [Morphing Two Im-
ages Together], page 431.)
DEB: xmorph
WWW: http://xmorph.sourceforge.net/
Xpaint Simple color “paint” tool that predates the gimp. It con-
tains all of the basic features that you would expect from an
archetypal computer paint program. If you don’t need the
gimp’s advanced capabilities, consider running the smaller
xpaint instead.
DEB: xpaint
RPM: xpaint
WWW: http://sf-xpaint.sourceforge.net/
440 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 19: Importing Images 441

19. Importing Images

While you can always make your own images, you may sometimes want to
import and use existing images from other sources. In this chapter, I’ll show
you how to import images from scanners and Kodak PhotoCD discs. We’ll
begin with recipes for taking screen shots.

19.1 Taking Screen Shots

A screen shot is a picture of all or part of the display screen. The following
recipes show you how to take screen shots in X and in the console.

19.1.1 Taking a Screen Shot in X

ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

Use import, part of the ImageMagick suite, to take a screen shot in X. import
can capture the entire screen, a single window, or an arbitrary rectangular
area, taking as an argument the name of the file to save to. As with other
ImageMagick tools, the image format of the output file depends on the file
extension you specify: .eps for eps, .tiff for tiff, .jpeg for jpeg, and so
on. (For a complete list, see Recipe 18.2 [Converting Image Files], page 432).
After you give the command, the mouse pointer changes to a cross-hairs
pointer. You then use the mouse to specify which window to take the shot of,
as follows:
• Left-click on a window to capture its contents.
• Left-click on the root window to capture the entire screen.
• Left-click and drag the mouse across an area of the screen to form a
rectangular selection outline; release the mouse button to capture the
selected area.
When you specify a window, import captures only the window’s contents;
use the -frame option to include the window manager frame in the image.
442 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To capture a particular window, including its window manager frame,

and write it to a png-format file, do the following:
1. Run import:
$ import -frame session-1.png RET

2. Left-click on the window you want to capture.
In this example, the screen shot is saved to a file called session-1.png.
If the window or area you would like to capture is in another X desktop,
or is otherwise removed somewhat from the terminal window where you are
running the import command, you can use sleep first to delay the command
for a few seconds while you position the mouse pointer.
⇒ To run import to make an eps screen capture in five seconds to a file
called historic_moment.eps, type:
$ sleep 5; import historic_moment.eps RET

This command will run import five seconds after you type RET
, which
should give you time to get the mouse pointer where you want it.
NOTES: The system bell rings once when the screen capture starts, and twice
when the captures finishes.

19.1.2 Taking a Screen Shot in a Console

To take screen shots in a virtual console, use cat to save the contents of the
device file corresponding to that virtual console; these files are in the /dev
directory and are in the format “vcsnumber,” where number is the number
of the virtual console.
For example, if the target console is the first virtual console (which you
would see by typing ALT
- F1
), the device to cat is /dev/vcs1.
⇒ To take a screen shot of the fourth virtual console and save it to a file
called screenshot, type:
$ cat /dev/vcs4 > screenshot RET

NOTES: You must have superuser privileges to access these files (see Appen-
dix A [Administrative Issues], page 699).
Take the screen shot from a virtual console other than the one you want to
take a shot of; if you try to take it from the same console you want to capture,
the command line you give will be included in the shot! (Kind of like having
your thumb in front of the lens while taking a photograph.)
Chapter 19: Importing Images 443

Screenshots taken of virtual consoles, as shown in this recipe, are saved as

text files; you can’t take screen shots of virtual consoles when graphics are
displayed.

19.2 Scanning Images

SANE
DEB: sane
RPM: sane
WWW: http://www.sane-project.org/

sane, “Scanner Access Now Easy,” is the de facto Linux scanner interface;
use it to scan an image with a scanner and save it to a file.
sane works with a wide array of scanning hardware, but
make sure the scanning hardware you want to use is compatible
by checking for it in the Linux Hardware Compatibility howto
[http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/] and in sane’s own list of
supported scanners [http://www.sane-project.org/sane-backends.html].
Once you have sane running, you can scan images with sane-aware ap-
plications like the gimp (see Recipe 18.3 [Using the gimp], page 434).
The following recipes describe the use of the command line scanimage tool
that comes with the sane package.
NOTES: As the acronym implies, getting a scanner to work on a Linux sys-
tem hasn’t always been smooth going. The sane interface is completely open,
and its developers are making sure that it is generalized enough to be imple-
mentable on any hardware or operating system.

19.2.1 Listing Available Scanner Devices

Before you can use a scanner, you need to know its device name. To get this
name, use scanimage with the --list-devices option.
⇒ To list available scanner devices, type:
 

$ scanimage --list-devices RET

device `umax:/dev/sgb' is a UMAX Astra 1220S flatbed scanner
$


444 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

In this example, there’s one scanning device on this system, a umax

brand scanner that can be specified to scanimage by giving its device name,
umax:/dev/sgb, as an argument to the -d option.
To list the available resolutions and options supported by a particular
device, use the --help option along with the -d option followed by the device
name.
⇒ To list available options supported by the device listed in the previous
example, type:
$ scanimage --help -d 'umax:/dev/sgb' RET

NOTES: For all scanimage commands, specify the scanner device you want
to use by including the -d option with the device name.

19.2.2 Testing a Scanner

To run diagnostic tests on a scanner to make sure that it can be properly read
from, use scanimage with the --test option.
⇒ To test the umax scanner listed previously, type:
$ scanimage --test -d 'umax:/dev/sgb' RET

19.2.3 Scanning an Image

Netpbm
DEB: netpbm
RPM: netpbm
WWW: http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/

Use scanimage to scan an image. Most scanners let you specify the x and y
values, in pixels, for the image size to scan, starting from the top-left corner
of the scanner bed. Give these coordinates as arguments to the -x and -y
options. Also, use the --resolution option to specify the scan resolution,
with the argument given in dpi (“dots per inch”). Common resolution values
include 72, 120, 204, 300, and 600 dpi; 72 dpi is the most popular resolution
for use on the Web or for viewing on screen, and 204 dpi is often used for
images that you want to send on a fax machine.
Scanned output is sent to standard output, so to scan an image to a file,
redirect the standard output.
scanimage outputs images in the pnm (“portable anymap”) formats, so
make sure that you have the netpbm package (installed on most Linux systems
Chapter 19: Importing Images 445

by default); it’s a useful collection of tools for converting and manipulating

these common formats. The three pnm formats output by scanimage are as
follows:

PPM Color images

PBM Black and white images
PGM Grayscale images

Use the code–mode option to specify the format of the output, followed
by one of the following arguments: “color” for color ppm, “gray” for pgm
grayscale, or “lineart” for black and white pbm. Each scanner has a default
mode; for most color scanners, the default mode will be “color.”
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To make a 72 dpi scan of a color image 200 pixels wide and 100 pixels
tall, using the umax scanner from previous examples, and writing to
a file called scan.ppm, type (all on one line):
$ scanimage -d umax:/dev/sgb --resolution 72 -x 200 -y 100 >
scan.ppm RET

• To make a 300 dpi scan of a black and white image 180 pixels wide
and 225 pixels tall, using the umax scanner from previous examples,
and writing to a file called scan.pbm, type (all on one line):
$ scanimage -d umax:/dev/sgb --resolution 300 --mode lineart
-x 180 -y 225 > scan.pbm RET

NOTES: The command lines in this recipe are split across two lines because
they’re too long to fit on one, but type these commands on one long line.
Once the image has been scanned and written to a file, you can edit it just
as you would any image.

19.3 Extracting PhotoCD Images

Xpcd
DEB: xpcd
xpcd-gimp
RPM: xpcd
WWW: http://bytesex.org/xpcd.html

There are two methods to extract an image from a Kodak PhotoCD format
446 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

file1 (also known as pcd). If you are browsing the PhotoCD files with the
xpcd tool, then choose an image, extract a copy at the desired resolution, and
save it to a file as described in Recipe 17.5 [Browsing PhotoCD Archives],
page 415.
You can also use pcdtoppm on a pcd file directly to extract an image at
a given resolution and save it to a file in ppm format.2 Use the -r option to
specify the resolution to extract, given as a numeric argument from 1 (lowest
resolution) to 5 (highest); if this option is omitted, a value of 3 is assumed.
Also give as arguments the name of the pcd file to read from and the name
of the ppm file to write to.
⇒ To extract the highest resolution image from the file sharp.pcd and save
it to a pnm file named sharp.ppm, type:
$ pcdtoppm -r5 sharp.pcd sharp.ppm RET

19.3.1 Converting a PhotoCD Image

Once you extract a PhotoCD image and write it to a ppm format file, use
convert to convert it to another format and adjust or improve the image (see
Recipe 18.2 [Converting Image Files], page 432).
To improve the image while you convert it to jpeg format, specify no
interlacing with the -interlace option, 50 percent image sharpening with the
-sharpen option, and add an optional border and annotation to the image
with the -border and -comment options.
⇒ To convert the file sharp.ppm to non-interlaced jpeg, sharpen the image,
add a two-pixel by two-pixel border, and annotate the image, type (all
on one line):
$ convert -interlace NONE -sharpen 50 -border 2x2 -comment
'This is a sharper image' sharp.ppm sharp.jpeg RET

19.3.2 Removing PhotoCD Haze

GIMP
DEB: gimp1.2
RPM: gimp
WWW: http://www.gimp.org/

1
This is a proprietary scanned-image format from Kodak, and it is currently a standard
for scanning film images to digital format.
2
On some systems, the command is hpcdtoppm, not pcdtoppm.
Chapter 19: Importing Images 447

Extracted PhotoCD images are sometimes known to have a kind of “green

haze” over them; to remove it, open the image in the gimp and adjust the
color levels with the Auto Levels function. This technique works well for
improving any scanned or imported image.
⇒ To remove the green haze from a PhotoCD image, do the following:
1. Open the extracted image in the gimp (see Recipe 18.3 [Using the
gimp], page 434).
2. Click through the Image menu to the Colors submenu and then to
the Levels submenu, and choose Auto Levels.
3. Click OK in the Levels window to accept the changes.

19.4 Turning Text into an Image

Sometimes you might like an image file of some text—for example, to use as
a header on a Web page. You can always make the text image in an image
editor, but there are several other quick and easy ways to go about doing this,
such as using convert, or import, or the pbmtext filter, all methods described
here. Another tool for making images from plain text is Gozer, mentioned in
Recipe 16.5 [Using Other Font Tools], page 403.

METHOD #1
Enscript
DEB: enscript
RPM: enscript
WWW: http://www.iki.fi/~mtr/genscript/

ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

One way to make an image from some text is to convert the text to PostScript
(see Recipe 15.2 [Outputting Text to PostScript], page 359), and then use
convert to convert the PostScript to the image format of your choosing,
where you can crop and edit it as desired.
448 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

You can use echo to send the text to enscript, and pipe the output right
to convert. Use “0x0” as an argument to the -crop option to automatically
trim this image around the text.
⇒ To make a png image of the text “Amateur Radio History Page” in the
Times Roman Bold font at 42 points, type (all on one line):
$ echo "Amateur Radio History Page" | enscript -o - -B -f
"Times-Bold42" | convert -crop 0x0 - arhp.png RET

This command makes a png image file, arhp.png, as in Figure 19-1.

Figure 19-1. An image made from text.

Use the -border and -bordercolor options to draw a border (given as
an argument to the first option of “widthxheight”) in any color (given as an
argument to the second option).
⇒ To make a png image of the text “Amateur Radio History Page,” in the
Times Roman Bold font at 42 points and with a blue border five pixels
wide and five pixels high, type (all on one line):
$ echo "Amateur Radio History Page" | enscript -o - -B -f
"Times-Bold42" | convert -crop 0x0 -border 5x5
-bordercolor blue - newarhp.png RET

This command makes a png image file, newarhp.png, as in Figure 19-2.
(While the printed illustration is in black and white, the actual image created
from this command has a blue colored border.)

Figure 19-2. A bordered image made from text.

NOTES: This method is also good for turning groff table output into images.

METHOD #2
If the text is displayed on the screen in X, use import to capture it as an
image, as described in Recipe 19.1.1 [Taking a Screen Shot in X], page 441.

METHOD #3
To make a bitmap image from some text, use the pbmtext filter. It takes any
text sent to it as input, and it outputs an image file in pbm format.
Chapter 19: Importing Images 449

⇒ To make a pbm image out of the text “Recommended Reading,” writing

the new file to header.pbm, type:
$ pbmtext Recommended Reading > header.pbm RET

This is useful for making image files of large texts, for purposes such as
including that text as an illustration. To send a compressed file to pbmtext,
use zcat (otherwise, the < redirection operator works fine).
⇒ To make a jpeg image containing the contents of the compressed
file /usr/share/state/us-constitution.gz, writing to a file named
constitution.jpeg, type (all on one line):
$ zcat /usr/share/state/us-constitution.gz | pbmtext |
convert - constitution.jpeg RET

19.5 Using Other Image Import Tools

There are many other tools for importing images from various sources. This
field is changing all the time, with the introduction of new hardware devices
and new tools to import from them. The following table describes some of
the tools currently in popular use.

Camediaplay Downloads images from any digital cameras with Sanyo

firmware, including the Olympus Camedia series.
DEB: camediaplay
RPM: camediaplay
Cqcam Captures images from Color QuickCams.
DEB: cqcam
RPM: cqcam
WWW: http://www.cs.duke.edu/~reynolds/cqcam/
Dvgrab Captures audio and video from those digital camcorders that use
a ieee1394 link (also known as FireWire), writing the output
as an avi file.
DEB: dvgrab
RPM: dvgrab
WWW: http://kino.schirmacher.de
Fuji Imports images from (and otherwise manipulates) Fuji digital
cameras.
DEB: fujiplay
450 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

GOCR Command line ocr tool that outputs plain text from scanned
images.
DEB: gocr
RPM: gocr
WWW: http://jocr.sourceforge.net/
gPhoto Imports images from digital cameras.
DEB: gphoto
RPM: gphoto
WWW: http://www.gphoto.org/
Grunch Merges partial scans together to form larger images.
DEB: grunch
WWW: http://www.radagast.org/~dplatt/
Gsumi Imports black-and-white images from pressure-sensitive input
devices, such as drawing tablets.
DEB: gsumi
Pencam Imports images from digital cameras that use the stv0680b-
001 chip.
DEB: pencam
WWW: http://stv0680-usb.sourceforge.net/
Streamer Captures images from video4linux devices.
DEB: streamer
RPM: xawtv-streamer
WWW: http://bytesex.org/xawtv/
Chapter 20: PostScript 451

20. PostScript
The PostScript programming language, designed and implemented in the early
1980s by John Warnock of Adobe Systems, is used to describe the way a
“page” should look. Pages are usually a physical sheet of paper (PostScript
is commonly used for sending documents to printer hardware), but they can
be any kind of output display.1 PostScript files are text files containing the
PostScript language commands for drawing images to be printed on pages.
Like plain text files, PostScript files are commonly found on the Internet
(and are used by commercial printers) because, as with plain text, they can be
shared across platforms and hardware without difficulty. The same PostScript
file can be output on a high-end display or printed on a low-end printer, to
the best of that hardware’s capability. PostScript is a compact and elegant
format.
While it’s possible to write directly in the PostScript language (and some
people have become adept at programming PostScript), so many tools and
applications convert files to and from PostScript that you don’t have to write
it yourself. See Recipe 15.2 [Outputting Text to PostScript], page 359, for a
way to convert plain text into PostScript.
gnu Ghostscript is a free interpreter of the PostScript language.2 It
comes with gs, a tool that is used to convert files from PostScript or pdf
to other formats. It’s usually used for printing to a non-PostScript printer
(see Recipe 25.3.1 [Preparing a PostScript File for Printing], page 518).
The ghostview tool is used to preview PostScript files on the screen (see
Recipe 17.4.2 [Previewing a PostScript File], page 414).
eps, or Encapsulated PostScript, is a file format that describes the contents
of a box within a page. eps files can be embedded in the page of a PostScript
file, and they are therefore commonly used when inserting an illustration into
a document (for example, all of the illustrations printed in the Cookbook
are eps format files). You can view and print eps files just as you would
PostScript files.
This chapter includes recipes for formatting and manipulating PostScript
files. Recipes are separated according to whether they work on the individual,
logical pages in a PostScript file (the numbered pages in the file that are not
necessarily the physical pages of output), and those that work on the entire
file as a whole.
1
PostScript was originally designed for the Apple LaserWriter printer; news was an old
unix windowing system by Sun Microsystems that used PostScript to draw the display.
2
It is also an interpreter of Adobe’s Portable Document Format (pdf) language.
452 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Many of the tools used in this chapter come as part of Angus Duggan’s
psutils (“PostScript Utilities”) package. These tools can be used for other
purposes than those described in this chapter; see their respective man pages
for more details.

20.1 Manipulating PostScript Pages

These recipes work on individual pages of PostScript files, and not the entire
file itself.

20.1.1 Extracting dvi Pages to PostScript

DVIPS
DEB: tetex-bin
RPM: tetex-dvips
WWW: http://www.radicaleye.com/dvips.html

To extract specific pages of a dvi (“DeVice Independent”) file to PostScript,

use dvips and give the page or hyphenated page range to output with the
-pp option.
⇒ To extract only the first page from the file abstract.dvi and send the
PostScript output to the printer, type:
$ dvips -pp1 abstract.dvi RET

By default, dvips will output to the printer; to save the PostScript output
to a file, specify the file name to be used for output as an argument to the -o
option.
⇒ To output as PostScript the pages 137 to 146 of the file abstract.dvi,
and write them to the file abstract.ps, type:
$ dvips -pp137-146 -o abstract.ps abstract.dvi RET

20.1.2 Extracting Pages from a PostScript File

PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/

Use psselect to select pages from a PostScript file; when you give an input
file, it outputs a new PostScript file containing the specified pages. Output is
sent to the standard output or to a file specified as a second argument.
Chapter 20: PostScript 453

Give the pages to select as arguments to the -p option; you can list single
pages and ranges of pages separated by commas. Give ranges as two numbers
separated by a hyphen; thus, “4-6” specifies pages four through six, inclusive.
If you omit the first number in a pair, the first page is assumed, and if you
omit the last number, the last page is assumed. Pages are written to the new
file in the order they are specified.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To select page 47 from the PostScript file newsletter.ps and output
it to the file selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p47 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

• To select the first ten pages, page 104, pages 23 through 28, and
page 2 from the file newsletter.ps and write them to the file
selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p1-10,104,23-28,2 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

• To select page 47 from the PostScript file newsletter.ps and output
it to the file selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p47 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

(In the second example above, page 2 is selected twice—first in the selection
of pages 1-10, and then later on its own.)
You can specify reverse ranges, with the higher page listed first in the
range, to output pages running backwards from that page toward the lower
page. You can also specify pages by their position relative to the last page in
the document. Do this by prefixing a number with an underscore (_), which
indicates that the given page number is counting backwards toward the first
page.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To select pages 30 to 25 from the PostScript file newsletter.ps and
output them to the file selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p30-25 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

• To select the last page from the PostScript file newsletter.ps and
output it to the file end-notes.ps, type:
$ psselect -p_1 newsletter.ps end-notes.ps RET

• To select the second-to-last through the tenth-to-last pages from
the PostScript file newsletter.ps and output them to the file
selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p_2-_10 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

454 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To select the second-to-last through the tenth pages from the

PostScript file newsletter.ps and output them to the file
selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p_2-10 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

If the file newsletter.ps in the last example contained only 12 pages, the
example is equivalent to running psselect with -p12-10.
Use the -e option to select all even-numbered pages, and use the -o option
to select all odd-numbered pages.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To select all of the even pages in the file newsletter.ps and write
them to a new file, even.ps, type:
$ psselect -e newsletter.ps even.ps RET

• To select all of the odd pages in the file newsletter.ps and write
them to a new file, odd.ps, type:
$ psselect -o newsletter.ps odd.ps RET

Use an underscore (_) alone to insert a blank page, and use -r to output
pages in reverse order.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To select the last ten pages of file newsletter.ps, followed by a
blank page, followed by the first ten pages, and output them to a
new file, selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p_1-_10,_,1-10 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

• To select the pages 59, 79, and 99 in the file newsletter.ps, and
output them in reverse order (with the 99th page first) to a new file,
selection.ps, type:
$ psselect -p59,79,99 -r newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

The same result as the last example could have been gotten by omitting
the -r option and just listing the three pages in the reverse order, like so:
$ psselect -p99,79,59 newsletter.ps selection.ps RET

20.1.3 Combining PostScript Pages

PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/
Chapter 20: PostScript 455

Use psnup to print multiple PostScript pages on a single sheet of paper; give
as an option the number of pages to be combined (or put “up”) on each sheet.
⇒ To make a new PostScript file, double.ps, putting two pages from the
file single.ps on each page, type:
$ psnup -2 single.ps double.ps RET

To specify the paper size, give the name of a standard paper size as an
argument to the -p option: a3, a4, a5, b5, letter, legal, tabloid, statement,
executive, folio, quarto, or 10x14. You can also specify any height and width
with the -h and -w options; units can be specified in centimeters (followed by
“cm”) or inches (followed by “in”). If no size is specified, psnup assumes a
paper size of a4.
Use the -l option when pages are in landscape orientation (rotated 90
degrees counterclockwise from portrait orientation), and -r when pages are in
seascape orientation (rotated 90 degrees clockwise from portrait orientation).
Pages are placed in “row-major” layout in the output file, where logical
pages are placed in rows across the page. Use the -c option to specify a
“column-major” layout, where logical pages are placed in columns down the
page. Scale the size of the pages by giving a percentage to multiply the page
size by as an argument to the -s option; for example, -s .5 scales pages to
50 percent of their original size.
To draw a border around each page, specify the border’s width in points as
an argument to the -d option (if no width is specified, a value of 1 is assumed).

20.1.4 Arranging PostScript Pages in Signatures

PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/

A signature is a group of pages in a document corresponding to sheets of

paper folded and bound; these pages are normally not in sequential order in
a document (for example, in a document with eight-page signatures, page 8
and page 1 might both be printed on the same sheet of paper).
To rearrange the pages of a PostScript file by signature—usually for print-
ing the file as a book or booklet—use psbook. Give as arguments the name
of the PostScript file to read from and the name to use for the output file;
456 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

psbook reads the contents of the first, rearranges the pages, and then writes
the PostScript output to the second file.
⇒ To rearrange the pages of file newsletter.ps into a signature and write
it to the file newsletter.bound.ps, type:
$ psbook newsletter.ps newsletter.bound.ps RET

By default, psbook uses one signature for the entire file. If the file doesn’t
contain a multiple of four pages, it adds blank pages to the end.
To specify the size of the signature to use—in other words, the number
of pages that will appear on a single piece of paper—give the number as an
argument to the -s option. Signature size is always a multiple of four.
⇒ To rearrange the pages of file newsletter.ps into an eight-sided signature
and write it to newsletter.bound.ps, type:
$ psbook -s8 newsletter.ps newsletter.bound.ps RET

20.2 Manipulating PostScript Documents

These recipes work on a PostScript document as a whole.

20.2.1 Resizing a PostScript Document

PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/

Use psresize to resize a PostScript document. It takes as arguments the file

to resize and the output file to write to; otherwise, it reads from standard
input and writes to standard output. If you give the name of an output file,
you must also specify the page size to use, written in the same format as with
the psnup tool: use -p or -h and -w to specify the size of the output file,
and use -P to specify the size of the input file (see Recipe 20.1.3 [Combining
PostScript Pages], page 454).
⇒ To resize the PostScript file double.ps to U.S. letter-sized paper, writing
output to a new file, doublet.ps, type:
$ psresize -pletter double.ps doublet.ps RET

Chapter 20: PostScript 457

20.2.2 Combining PostScript Documents

There are two methods worth mentioning for concatenating and merging mul-
tiple PostScript files into a single file. One is a more robust solution, and the
other is easier to type. I’ll begin with the preferred method, which I discovered
while combining the PostScript pages of this book.

METHOD #1
Ghostscript
DEB: gs-common
gs
RPM: ghostscript
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

You can combine many PostScript files into one with gs. Use the -q,
-dNOPAUSE, and -dBATCH flags so that it works quietly and without pause,
and use “pswrite” as the device to write to, giving it as an argument to
the -sDEVICE= option.3 Specify the name of the output file with the special
-sOutputFile= option, and finally, specify the files to combine in the order
you want them combined.
⇒ To combine the PostScript files part1.ps, part2.ps, and part3.ps in
that order, writing to a new PostScript file program.ps, type (all on one
line):
$ gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pswrite
-sOutputFile=program.ps part1.ps part2.ps part3.ps RET

NOTES: If you plan on doing a lot of this, you can simplify things by putting
the following in a shell script (see Recipe 3.7 [Using Shell Scripts], page 84),
that you might call pscat:
 

#!/bin/sh
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pswrite -sOutputFile=$*


Then, call the script with the name of the file to write to as the first
argument, and following that, give the names of the files to combine in the
order you wish them to be combined.

3
To work on pdf files instead, use “pdfwrite” as the option.
458 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #2
PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/

Use psmerge to combine PostScript files into one. Give the names of the
files to be merged as arguments, and psmerge outputs them to the standard
output in the order given. You can also specify an output file name with the
-o option (don’t put any spaces between the file name and the option).
⇒ To merge the files slide1.ps, slide2.ps, and slide3.ps into a new
PostScript file, slideshow.ps, type:
$ psmerge -oslideshow.ps slide1.ps slide2.ps slide3.ps RET

NOTES: The gs method is really preferable; psmerge only works with

PostScript files that were made with the same application. For example,
psmerge would allow you to merge multiple files made with TEX, or multiple
files made with Xfig, but not a combination of the two.

20.2.3 Arranging a PostScript Document in a Booklet

PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/

To arrange the pages in a PostScript file to make booklets, rearrange the file
in a signature with psbook, use psnup to arrange the pages (two to a printed
page in landscape mode), and then use pstops to output first the odd and
then the even pages.
The trick to doing this properly is to first determine exactly what you need
to do, and then to calculate the proper measurements for use with pstops.
⇒ To make a booklet from the file newsletter.ps, do the following:
1. Rearrange the pages into a signature:
$ psbook newsletter.ps newsletter.signature.ps RET

Chapter 20: PostScript 459

2. Put the pages two to a page in landscape orientation, at 70 percent

of their original size (typed all on one line):
$ psnup -l -pletter -2 -s.7 newsletter.signature.ps >
newsletter.2up.ps RET

3. Output the odd pages:
$ pstops "2:0(1in,0in)" newsletter.2up.ps > odd.ps RET

4. Output the even pages:
$ pstops "2:-1(1in,0in)" newsletter.2up.ps > even.ps RET

Then, to print the booklet, send odd.ps to the printer, reload the printed
pages in the manual feed tray, and then send even.ps to the printer. This
prints the odd and even pages on opposite sides of the sheets.
⇒ To make a double-sized booklet on letter-sized paper in landscape orien-
tation from a file using letter-sized portrait orientation, type:
 

$ psbook input.ps > temp1.ps RET

...processing messages...
$ psnup -l -pletter -2 -s.7 temp1.ps > temp2.ps RET

...processing messages...
$ pstops "2:0(1in,0in)" temp2.ps > odd.ps RET

...processing messages...
$ pstops "2:-1(1in,0in)" temp2.ps > even.ps RET

...processing messages...
$

NOTES: If you will be doing a lot of this, you may want to have a look at the
ps2book utility, which is a script that aids in making booklets with psutils
[http://www.kis.uni-freiburg.de/~dobler/utils/ps2book.html].

20.3 Converting PostScript

These recipes show how to convert PostScript files to other formats. See also
the recipes for preparing PostScript files for printing, Recipe 25.3.1 [Preparing
a PostScript File for Printing], page 518.
460 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

20.3.1 Converting PostScript to pdf

Ghostscript
DEB: gs-common gs
RPM: ghostscript
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

To convert a PostScript file to pdf, use ps2pdf, which comes as part of the
Ghostscript package. Give as arguments the name of the PostScript file to
read from and the name of the pdf file to write to.
⇒ To write a pdf file sutra.pdf from the input file sutra.ps, type:
$ ps2pdf sutra.ps sutra.pdf RET

This command writes a new file in pdf format called sutra.pdf. The
original file, sutra.ps, is not altered.
NOTES: To make proper pdf conversions, make sure that you have
Ghostscript version 6.01 or higher installed; use the -v option with gs to
output the installed version.

20.3.2 Converting PostScript to Plain Text

Ghostscript
DEB: gs-common gs
RPM: ghostscript
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

To convert a PostScript file to plain text, use ps2ascii, which comes as part
of the Ghostscript package. Give as arguments the name of the PostScript file
to read from and the name of the text file to write to.
⇒ To make a text file, sutra.txt, from the input file sutra.ps, type:
$ ps2ascii sutra.ps sutra.txt RET

This command writes a text file called sutra.txt. The original file,
sutra.ps, is not altered.
V. SOUND 461

V. SOUND
462 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 463

21. Playing and Recording Sound

This chapter covers the basic control of the Linux sound system, including
how to adjust the audio mixer and how to play and record sound files using
basic tools. You can also play and record audio with Snd (see Chapter 23
[Editing Sound Files], page 487) and many other sound applications.
In order to have sound working on your system, you need to have a sound
driver installed and configured for your sound card. This is the software that
controls your sound card, and is in turn part of the Linux sound system.
For some years, the independent alsa (the “Advanced Linux Sound Ar-
chitecture”) had been the popular choice for sound system among audio afi-
cionados, over the older oss/Free (Open Sound System) that came with the
Linux kernel.
As of the 2.6 kernel, alsa is now included with Linux. If your version of
the Linux kernel is older than that, you will have to have your administrator
install alsa, or just use the older oss/Free drivers.
Most systems come configured so that you must be the superuser to be able
to use sound devices, including audio cds. If this is the case on your system,
ask your administrator to give you access to these devices, typically by adding
you to the audio group (see Recipe 6.1 [Working in Groups], page 163).

21.1 Adjusting the Audio Controls

ALSA Utilities
DEB: alsa-utils
RPM: alsa-utils
WWW: http://www.alsa-project.org/

A mixer program is used to adjust various audio settings such as volume and
recording levels, and it is also used for turning on or muting the microphone
or other input devices. You must use a mixer to adjust your audio settings
before you play or record sound.
Before recording, be sure to mute all channels but your input source—but
then don’t forget you’ve got them muted later, when you want to hear sound
from them!
alsa’s default mixer is called amixer, and the following recipes will show
its use. There are other mixers, and some of them are much easier to use
than amixer. My recommendation is to install aumix. See the end of this
chapter for other recommendations, including graphical mixers for use in X,
in Recipe 21.5 [Using Other Sound Tools], page 474.
464 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

21.1.1 Listing the Current Audio Settings

To list all audio input and output devices and their settings, type amixer with
no options.
Your sound card’s components are organized in groups, from the Master
group containing the master left and right volume settings, to the individual
groups for audio compact discs and digital sound files. (These groups have
nothing to do with the file access groups described in Recipe 6.1 [Working in
Groups], page 163.)
⇒ To peruse the current mixer settings, type:
$ amixer | less RET

The following table describes some of the important sound groups that
amixer lists.

Master Master volume settings.

PCM Digital audio for playing sound files; the first chan-
nel is group PCM,0 and the second is PCM,1.
CD Audio compact disc player (a cable must be con-
nected from the cd drive to the sound card).
Synth Synthesizer device for midi.
Line Sound input device (the jack on the back of the
sound card is usually labeled line in).
MIC Microphone device (the jack on the back of the
sound card is usually labeled mic).

To list the settings for only one group, use the ‘get’ option followed by
the name of the group you want to list. Group names are case sensitive—so
giving MIC specifies the microphone group, while Mic and mic are not valid
groups at all.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the microphone settings, type:
$ amixer get MIC RET

• To output the settings of the second pcm device, type:
$ amixer get PCM,1 RET

Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 465

21.1.2 Changing the Volume Level

To change a mixer setting, give the amixer set command as an option, fol-
lowed by both the group and setting to change as arguments. To change the
volume level for a device, give either a numeric value or a percentage for the
volume level.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To set the master volume to 75 percent, type:
$ amixer set Master 75% RET

• To set the pcm device volume to 30, type:
$ amixer set PCM 30 RET

21.1.3 Muting an Audio Device

The special “mute” and “unmute” arguments are used for muting the volume of
a given device. Before you can record something, you must unmute the input
device you want to record from. Remember to also mute the microphone after
you have finished recording to avoid feedback when you turn up your speakers.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To unmute the microphone and turn it on for recording, type:
$ amixer set MIC unmute capture RET

• To mute the microphone, type:
$ amixer set MIC mute RET

• To unmute the master volume and set it to 80 percent volume, type:
$ amixer set Master 80% unmute RET

21.1.4 Selecting an Audio Recording Source

To select a device for recording, use set followed by the name of the device
and the “capture” argument, which designates the specified group as the one
to capture sound from for recording.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To select the line in jack as the recording source, type:
$ amixer set Line capture RET

• To select the microphone jack as the recording source, type:
$ amixer set MIC capture RET

466 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: You can have only one group selected for capture at a time, and when
you select a group as an input source for recording, you are simply turning
the microphone or other input on; recording does not occur until you use a
recording tool.

21.2 Playing a Sound File

SOund eXchange
DEB: sox
RPM: sox
WWW: http://sox.sourceforge.net/

The play tool distributed with “SOund eXchange” (a sound file translation
tool) can recognize and play many audio formats, including ogg, wav, voc,
au, aiff, and snd format files, as well as audio cd-format files and various raw
binary formats. Just about the only common audio formats it can’t handle
are midi and mp3, which are discussed in the sections to follow. Give the
name of a file as an argument to play.
⇒ To play the file sousa.aiff, type:
$ play sousa.aiff RET

NOTES: Before you begin playing sound, make sure you’ve set the master
and pcm volume levels with the mixer (see Recipe 21.1 [Adjusting the Audio
Controls], page 463). The most common reason for no sound being produced
when you try to play sound is not having the volume turned up!
alsa comes with aplay, a tool for playing sound files that is similar to
play but does not recognize as many formats.

21.2.1 Playing an Ogg File

Ogg123
DEB: vorbis-tools
RPM: vorbis-tools
WWW: http://www.vorbis.com/

Use ogg123 to play Ogg Vorbis files, giving the name of the file as an argument.
⇒ To play the file track1.ogg, type:
$ ogg123 track1.ogg RET

Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 467

By default, ogg123 sends to the standard sound device. You can specify a
sound device—useful on systems that have more than one device installed—
by using the -d option, followed by a special argument as described in the
following table.

null Null driver, used for testing purposes.

oss Open Sound System (oss/free) driver.
alsa Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (alsa) driver.
esd Enlightened Sound Daemon driver.
wav wav format audio output.
⇒ To play the file archive.ogg using the oss driver, type:
$ ogg123 -d oss archive.ogg RET

Use the -k option to skip part of the beginning of the recording. Give the
number of seconds to skip as an argument to the option.
⇒ To play the file archive.ogg, beginning exactly one minute into the
recording and using the alsa driver, type:
$ ogg123 -k 60 -d alsa archive.ogg RET

To play files in random order, give the -z option. This is useful for when
you want to shuffle the tracks of an audio archive.
⇒ To play all of the .ogg audio files in the ~/audio/incoming directory,
shuffling the order of the tracks, type:
$ ogg123 -z ~/audio/incoming/*.ogg RET

21.2.2 Playing Streaming Ogg Audio

To play “streaming” Ogg Vorbis audio, such as an Ogg file accessed directly
from the Internet, give the url of the file as an argument to ogg123.
⇒ To play the Ogg stream at http://auggie.wclv.com/lo.ogg, type:
$ ogg123 http://auggie.wclv.com/lo.ogg RET

21.2.3 Playing a midi File

There are two general methods for playing a midi file. The method you should
use depends on whether or not your sound card has a built-in midi sequencer.
468 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
Playmidi
DEB: playmidi
RPM: playmidi
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/playmidi/

If your sound card has a midi sequencer, use playmidi to play midi files; give
the name of the midi file to play as an argument.
⇒ To play the midi file copacabana.mid, type:
$ playmidi copacabana.mid RET

METHOD #2
Playmidi
DEB: playmidi
RPM: playmidi
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/playmidi/
or
TiMidity++
DEB: timidity
RPM: timidity
WWW: http://www.onicos.com/staff/iz/timidity/

If you have a non-midi sound card, you can still play midi files by using
timidity, which converts the midi format into wav format, and then plays
it.
⇒ To play the midi file copacabana.mid on a non-midi sound card by con-
verting it to wav format, type:
$ timidity copa-cabana.mid RET

On some systems with non-midi sound cards, you can also use playmidi
with the -f option. This specifies that midi output is to be sent to the fm
synthesizer on the sound card, which in turn plays it using fm patches that
come with the playmidi distribution.
⇒ To play the midi file copacabana.mid on a non-midi sound card using
fm patches, type:
$ playmidi -f copacabana.mid RET

Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 469

21.2.4 Playing a mod File

MikMod
DEB: mikmod
RPM: mikmod
WWW: http://www.tfn.net/~amstpi/mikmod.html

mod (“module”) files are tracked music files made by music software called
“trackers.” Popular trackers include SoundTracker and Impulse Tracker; use
mikmod to play audio files made with them. Supported formats include it,
mod, mtm, stm, s3m, ult, uni, and xm.
⇒ To play the mod file demo.it, type:
$ mikmod demo.it RET

When mikmod is playing, press F1
to show the help panel, or press Q
to
exit.

21.2.5 Playing an mp3 File

Mpg321
DEB: mpg321
RPM: mpg321
WWW: http://mpg321.sourceforge.net/

There are many tools for playing mp3 files; some are listed at the end of this
chapter (see Recipe 21.5 [Using Other Sound Tools], page 474).
One such tool is mpg321; to use it to play an mp3 file, give the name of the
file as an argument.
⇒ To play the mp3 file lili-marleen.mp3, type:
$ mpg321 lili-marleen.mp3 RET

To “buffer” the audio, useful for when the system is running many processes
or otherwise has a lot of activity, give a buffer size, in kilobytes, as an argument
to the -b option. The default is 0 (no buffer); if you need this option, use a
size of at least 1024 kb (which is 1 mb), or about six seconds of mp3 audio.
NOTES: The mpg321 tool is a free software replacement of mpg123, another
command line mp3 player that is not free software.
The use of the mp3 format is waning now with the rise of Ogg Vorbis,
a format that has better audio quality, smaller files, and most importantly
470 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

of all is not patented, as the mp3 format is. Even outside the Linux world,
where mp3 still enjoys popularity, support for Ogg Vorbis is growing among
hardware vendors, radio stations, and audiophiles.

21.2.6 Playing Streaming mp3 Audio

There are several ways to play “streaming” mp3 audio, such as an mp3 file
accessed directly from the Internet, or an mpeg audio stream accessible at
some url.

METHOD #1
Mpg321
DEB: mpg321
RPM: mpg321
WWW: http://mpg321.sourceforge.net/

To use mpg321 to play “streaming” mp3 audio from the Web, just give the
url of the mp3 stream as an argument.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To play http://example.net/broadcast/live.mp3 as an mp3
stream, type:
$ mpg321 http://example.net/broadcast/live.mp3 RET

• To play http://example.net/broadcast/live.mp3 as an mp3
stream with a 2 mb audio buffer, type:
$ mpg321 -b 2048 http://example.net/broadcast/live.mp3 RET

METHOD #2
Splay
DEB: splay
RPM: splay
WWW: http://splay.sourceforge.net/
Wget
DEB: wget
RPM: wget
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

To play streaming mpeg audio with an mp3 player that doesn’t take urls as
an option, first get the stream with wget using -O- to send it to the standard
output, and pipe this output to an mp3 player. Make sure the mp3 player is
Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 471

set to read mpeg audio from standard input—with splay, this means giving
the special -M option to read from standard input and not a file.
⇒ To play the streaming mpeg audio that is broadcast at
http://vox.wclv.com/cgi-bin/swsend/tmp/source3, type (all on one
line):
$ wget -O- http://vox.wclv.com/cgi-bin/swsend/tmp/source3 | splay
-M RET

To save a copy of the audio to a file and listen to it while it’s being down-
loaded, just branch the pipeline with tee (see Recipe 3.2.5 [Redirecting Out-
put to More than One Place], page 69).
⇒ To to play the streaming mpeg audio that is broadcast at
http://voc.wclv.com/cgi-bin/swsend/tmp/source3, and save a copy
of the audio in a file named wclv.20051220.mp3, type (all on one line):
$ wget -O- http://voc.wclv.com/cgi-bin/swsend/tmp/source3 | tee
wclv.20051220.mp3 | splay -M RET

NOTES: Often when streaming mpeg audio is offered by a site, a link to a file
with an .m3u extension will be given as the address to use for listening. This
is actually not a link to the streaming audio itself, but to a file that contains
the url to which the actual streaming audio is being broadcast. To use this
link, first output the contents of this file to the standard output with wget
-O- followed by the url, and then select that url with the mouse so you can
paste it in the wget command that you pipe to splay, as demonstrated above
(see also Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of Text], page 253).

21.3 Displaying Information About a Sound File

Use file to get information about most sound files, as described in
Recipe 8.1.1 [Determining a File’s Type and Format], page 187. It will
output the sound file’s format and version, and often other details such as
sampling rate and whether the recording is monaural or in stereo.
Additionally, methods exist for getting more information about certain
kinds of sound files. They follow here.
472 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

21.3.1 Displaying Information About an Ogg File

Ogginfo
DEB: vorbis-tools
RPM: vorbis-tools
WWW: http://www.vorbis.com/

Use ogginfo to output information about Ogg Vorbis audio files. Give the
filespec of the files in question as arguments. For each file, it outputs the file
name, title, artist, album, track number, length in total seconds, and play
time in minutes and seconds.
⇒ To output information about the Ogg Vorbis audio file mystery.ogg,
type:
$ ogginfo mystery.ogg RET

21.3.2 Displaying Information About an mp3 File

MP3Info
DEB: mp3info
RPM: mp3info
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/mp3info/

Use mp3info to get information about an mp3 file, including title and artist.
Give the name of the file as an argument.
⇒ To output information on the mp3 file concerto.mp3, type:
$ mp3info concerto.mp3 RET

21.4 Recording a Sound File

SOund eXchange
DEB: sox
RPM: sox
WWW: http://sox.sourceforge.net/

To record sound, first select an input device as a source for recording. Sound
cards may have mic and line in jacks, as well as connections to the cd drive,
all of which are sound inputs that can be used as recording sources. When
you select a device for capture, your recording will come from this source.
Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 473

Recording occurs from the currently active input, if any, which must be set
with the mixer; unmute it and set its volume level before you begin recording.
(Be sure to turn the volume on your speakers all the way off, or you’ll get
feedback.)
To record audio to a file, use the rec tool. It can write many audio file
formats, either to a format you specify with the -t option, or by determining
the format to use based on the file name extension you give the output file (see
Appendix B [Conventional File Name Extensions], page 723). Type CTRL
- C

to stop recording.
Give the name of the sound file to record as an argument; if a .wav file is
specified, it records a simple monaural, low-fidelity sound sample by default.
⇒ To record a simple wav sample from the microphone and save it to a file
called hello.wav, type:
$ rec hello.wav RET

This command begins an 8,000 Hz, monaural, 8-bit wav recording to the
file hello.wav, and it keeps recording until you interrupt it with CTRL
- C
.
While the default is to make a low-fidelity recording—8,000 Hz, monaural,
8-bit samples—you can specify that a high-fidelity recording be made. (Keep
in mind that high-fidelity recordings take up much more disk space.)
To make a stereo recording, use the -c option to specify the number of
channels, giving 2 as the argument. To make a 16-bit recording, give “w”
(“wide”) as the argument to the -s (“sample size”) option.
Set the recording sample rate by giving the samples per second to use as an
argument to the -r option. For cd-quality audio at 44,100 Hz, use -r 44100.
Finally, to record a file in a particular format, either give the name of the
format as an argument to the -f option, or use the traditional file name ex-
tension for that format in the output file name (see Appendix B [Conventional
File Name Extensions], page 723).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To make a high-fidelity recording from the microphone and save it
to a wav format file called goodbye.wav, type:
$ rec -s w -c 2 -r 44100 goodbye.wav RET

• To make a sound recording in the cd audio format and write the
output to a file called goodbye.cdr, type:
$ rec goodbye.cdr RET

NOTES: When you’re not recording sound, keep the inputs muted (see
Recipe 21.1.3 [Muting an Audio Device], page 465); this way, you can have a
474 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

microphone plugged in without having feedback when playing sounds. Also,

make sure the volume levels are not set too high or too low when recording;
getting the right level for your microphone or other input device may take
some initial adjustment.
Like play, rec is part of the “SOund eXchange” toolkit.
More advanced options exist. Use GramoFile, described in the next recipe,
to record high-quality audio with a menu interface.

21.5 Using Other Sound Tools

There are many mixer, playback, and recording tools available. The following
table lists some of the better ones.

Aumix Straightforward audio mixer tool that can be used interac-

tively in a terminal, as well as on the command line and in
scripts—use this if you are too frustrated by amixer. The
standard mixer on many systems.
DEB: aumix
RPM: aumix
WWW: http://www.jpj.net/~trevor/aumix.html
GramoFile Transfers sound from vinyl records to cd-quality audio files,
and can also record from the microphone and other inputs.
Especially useful are its processing filters for improving the
audio taken off vinyl, filtering out pops, hisses, and other
surface noise. GramoFile can automatically detect and
split each track on a record side into its own wav file, a
feature that is also good for processing or recording long
sessions of spoken word or live music in the same manner.
DEB: gramofile
RPM: gramofile
WWW: http://panic.et.tudelft.nl/~costar/gramofile/
Krecord Simple wav file player and recorder for the kde environ-
ment.
DEB: krecord
RPM: krecord
WWW: http://bytesex.org/krecord.html
Chapter 21: Playing and Recording Sound 475

Splay Command line mp3 player that can decode and play mpeg-
1 layer 1,2,3 and mpeg-2 layer 3 recorded audio. Based on
the older Maplay.
DEB: splay
RPM: splay
WWW: http://splay.sourceforge.net/
Xawtv-Tools Toolkit that includes tools for interactive recording of cd-
quality audio in a terminal, dumping the current mixer set-
tings to the standard output, and displaying the structure
of riff format files (both avi and wav).
DEB: xawtv-tools
RPM: xawtv
WWW: http://bytesex.org/misc.html
http://bytesex.org/xawtv/
XMMS Popular, comprehensive audio player for X, featuring dozens
of plug-ins, support for many sound formats (including Ogg
and mp3), and “skins” to change its look and feel; it can
use FreeAmp themes as well—see listing for zinf below.
Inspired by Winamp.
DEB: xmms
RPM: xmms
WWW: http://www.xmms.org/
Zinf Popular audio file player for X that can play Ogg and mp3
formats, and its graphical appearance can be changed with
“themes.” Formerly known as FreeAmp (the “Free Audio
Music Player”).
DEB: zinf
RPM: zinf
WWW: http://www.zinf.org/
476 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 22: Audio Compact Discs 477

22. Audio Compact Discs

Audio compact discs can be played on systems that have a cd drive1 and
sound card installed. You can control playback of an audio cd in all the
ways you can with a traditional cd player, except that on a Linux system
you control playback with software tools on the command line. There are also
tools for reading the audio data from a cd and writing it to a file (which you
can later write to a cd-r disc or convert to Ogg format).
If you get silence when playing audio cds, make sure that the CD setting
is on “REC” in the mixer (this unmutes it).
Tools and techniques for manipulating data cds are given in Recipe 24.4
[Using Data Cds], page 506.

22.1 Using Audio cds

CDTOOL
DEB: cdtool
RPM: cdtool
WWW: http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/CDTOOL/

These recipes describe various ways to manipulate audio cds using the ele-
gant collection of command line tools found in cdtool toolkit. All of these
tools are actually symbolic links to a single program, cdtool; its functionality
depends on the name it is run with. Other cd audio tools, including X clients,
are listed in Recipe 22.4 [Using Other Audio Compact Disc Tools], page 484.

22.1.1 Playing an Audio cd

Use cdplay to play an audio cd in the cd drive; the sound is output through
the speakers connected to the line out jack on your sound card. (You may
need to use the audio mixer to adjust the volume level and other settings; see
Recipe 21.1 [Adjusting the Audio Controls], page 463.)
⇒ To play an audio cd, type:
$ cdplay RET

To begin with a particular track, give the number of the track as an argu-
ment.
1
Any drive that is capable of playing audio compact discs—a dvd drive, cd-rom drive,
or cdr or cdrw drive.
478 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To play an audio cd, beginning with the third track, type:

$ cdplay 3 RET

To end with a particular track, give the number of the track as a second
argument.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To play an audio cd, beginning with the first track and ending with
the fourth track, type:
$ cdplay 1 4 RET

• To play only the third track of an audio cd, type:
$ cdplay 3 3 RET

To play a special order of selections, combine multiple cdplay commands

with the Bash semicolon (;) directive (see Recipe 3.1.7 [Running a List of
Commands], page 63).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To play tracks 3 through 7, track 1, and track 12 from the audio cd
in the cd drive, type:
$ cdplay 3 7; cdplay 1 1; cdplay 12 12 RET

• To play track 1 from the audio cd in the cd drive three times, then
play the entire cd from the beginning, type:
$ cdplay 1 1; cdplay 1 1; cdplay 1 1; cdplay RET

22.1.2 Pausing an Audio cd

Use cdpause to pause audio cd playback.
⇒ To pause the current cd playback, type:
$ cdpause RET

Use cdplay to start playback at the point where it was paused; to restart
the playback from the beginning, use cdplay with ‘x’ as an argument.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To restart a paused cd, type:
$ cdplay RET

• To restart a paused cd from the beginning, type:
$ cdplay x RET

Chapter 22: Audio Compact Discs 479

22.1.3 Stopping an Audio cd

To stop playback of an audio cd, use cdstop.
⇒ To stop the current cd playback, type:
$ cdstop RET

22.1.4 Shuffling Audio cd Tracks

Use cdplay with the “shuffle” argument to play the cd tracks in random
order.
⇒ To shuffle cd playback, type:
$ cdplay shuffle RET

22.1.5 Displaying Information About an Audio cd

There are a few methods for displaying information about an audio cd.

METHOD #1
Use cdinfo to display information about an audio cd, including its play status
and track times. With no options, it outputs the play status: “play” if the cd
is currently playing; “paused” if the cd is currently on pause; “no-status”
if the cd is not playing; and “nodisc” if no disc is in the drive.
⇒ For the current status of the audio cd in the cd drive, type:
$ cdinfo RET

In addition, cdinfo recognizes the following options:

-a Output the absolute disc time.

-r Output the relative track time.
-s Output the play status (the default action).
-t Output the current track.
-v Output all available information: absolute disc time,
relative track time, play status, and current track.

METHOD #2
To show the lengths of all tracks on an audio cd in a directory-like format,
use cdir. This tool will also show titles and artist names, if known, but for
this to work, you must set up an audio cd database (see the cdtool man page
for details—Recipe 2.8.4 [Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).
480 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To show a list of tracks, type:

 

$ cdir RET

unknown cd - 43:14 in 8 tracks
5:15.00 1
5:50.40 2
5:29.08 3
3:50.70 4
4:17.00 5
5:56.15 6
7:13.40 7
5:19.22 8
$

In this example, the cd contains eight tracks, with a total of 43 minutes

and 14 seconds of play time.

22.1.6 Ejecting an Audio cd

Use cdeject to eject the disc in the cd drive. If the disc is currently playing,
play will stop and the disc will eject.
⇒ To eject a cd, type:
$ cdeject RET

NOTES: This command will also eject a data cd, if the data cd is not currently
mounted (see Recipe 24.4 [Using Data cds], page 506).

22.2 Sampling from an Audio c

Cdda2wav
DEB: cdda2wav
RPM: cdda2wav
WWW: http://www.escape.de/users/colossus/cdda2wav.html
or
Cdparanoia
DEB cdparanoia
RPM: cdparanoia
WWW: http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/

Two tools used for sampling (sometimes called “ripping”) data from an audio
Chapter 22: Audio Compact Discs 481

cd are cdda2wav and cdparanoia. Both can sample single tracks or entire
disks. cdda2wav is the archetypal cd audio-sampling tool for Linux, and it
should be used when speed is more important than sound quality. cdparanoia
does various extra checks for the paranoid, and it should be used when an
absolutely perfect copy is necessary (at the expense of speed). cdda2wav is
perfectly capable of creating a digitally perfect audio sample under normal
conditions; cdparanoia is useful when your original cd has scratches (its
scratch-detection capability can attempt to “hold sync” across the scratch),
or when you are using a less-than-optimal-quality cd drive.
With cdda2wav, you specify the track number to be retrieved as an argu-
ment to the -t option; use the -x option to specify a cd-quality retrieval, and
give the name of the cd device with the -D option—unless you have multiple
cd drives installed, this is almost certainly going to be /dev/cdrom.
By default, files are written as wav format files; use the -O option followed
by “cdr” to write the files in cd audio format. cd audio format files are
useful for burning an audio cd containing the files as tracks (discussed in
the following section), and .wav files are useful for converting to Ogg format
(see Recipe 23.3.2 [Encoding an Ogg File], page 495). You can convert either
format to the other at a later time with sox—see Recipe 23.3 [Converting
Sound Files], page 493.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To copy track seven of an audio cd to a cd-quality wav file in the
current directory, type:
$ cdda2wav -t7 -d0 -x -D /dev/cdrom RET

• To copy all tracks on an audio cd to separate cd audio format files,
type:
$ cdda2wav -D /dev/cdrom -x -O cdr -d0 -B RET

For more reliable sampling, use cdparanoia. Give the range of audio tracks
to sample as an argument, from the first track to sample to the last; if you
give no arguments, it samples the entire disc. Use the -w option to specify
wav format output.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To sample the first through third tracks from a scratched audio cd
in the default cd drive using “paranoid” data verification, and write
the output as a raw audio-format file in the current directory, type:
$ cdparanoia 1-3 RET

482 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To sample only the third track of the audio cd using “paranoid” data
verification, and write the output to a wav format file in the current
directory, type:
$ cdparanoia -w 3-3 RET

• To sample the entire audio cd using “paranoid” data verification,
type:
$ cdparanoia -w -B RET

• To sample the entire audio cd using less-than-maximum “paranoid”
data verification, without checking for scratches, and saving each
song as a separate raw audio-format file in the current directory,
type:
$ cdparanoia -B -Y -X RET

NOTES: Sampling an entire audio cd can use a lot of disk space; most people
delete the .cdr or .wav files as soon as they make Oggs or burn an audio
cd-r from the data.

22.3 Writing an Audio cd-r

Cdrecord
DEB: cdrecord
RPM: cdrecord
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/2s6a

Use cdrecord to write (or “burn”) audio files to a blank cd-r disc. You will
need a cd-r drive2 and the audio files must be in cd-da cd audio format
(they usually have a .cdda or .cdr file name extension).
Specify the cd-r drive with the special “dev” argument, which is given in
this form:
dev=scsibus,target,lun
where scsibus is the number of the scsi bus (0 for the primary bus), target is
the scsi target id (usually a number from 1 to 6), and lun is its lun number
(almost always 0).
Use the speed argument to set the speed factor for writing data: give
“speed=2” to specify double speed or “speed=4” to specify quad speed.
Use the -dummy option to run with the drive laser turned off, so no actual
burning takes place; this is useful when you are first using a cd-r drive and
2
You can also use this tool with a cd-rw drive and write to a cd-rw disc.
Chapter 22: Audio Compact Discs 483

need to test your configuration to make sure you’ve got it right. Another
useful option is -v, which gives a more verbose message output.
Give the names of the audio files to burn, in the order that they should
appear on the disc, as arguments to the -audio option. The files are written
in cd-da cd audio format, and they should contain 16-bit stereo at 44,100
samples per second (the .cdr or x.cdda files meet this criterion).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To burn the file symphony.cdr to the disc in the cd-r drive whose
target id is 2 on the primary scsi bus, type:
$ cdrecord dev=0,2,0 -audio symphony.cdr RET

• To burn all the files in the current directory ending with a .cdr
extension at double speed to the cd-r drive whose target id is 2 on
the primary scsi bus, and give verbose output, type:
$ cdrecord dev=0,2,0 speed=2 -v -audio *.cdr RET

• To run a test burn of the file symphony.cdr to the disc in the cd-r
drive whose target id is 6 (lun 1) on the primary scsi bus, type:
$ cdrecord dev=0,6,1 -dummy -audio symphony.cdr RET

When you use wildcards for files, as in the second example above, the
shell expands the files in alphabetical order. To write a group of tracks in a
particular order without specifying all of their names as arguments, rename
them so that their names begin with numbers corresponding to the order
you want to write them in (see Recipe 5.5 [Moving Files and Directories],
page 144).
For example, if you have the three files morning-song.cdr, midday-
song.cdr, and evening-song.cdr, and you want to write them in that or-
der, rename the files to 01-morning-song.cdr, 02-midday-song.cdr, and
03-evening-song.cdr. Otherwise, if you specify them as *.cdr, the shell
will sort their names so that they will be written to cd-r in the order of
evening-song.cdr, midday-song.cdr, and morning-song.cdr—exactly the
opposite of what was intended!
To write a disc containing both data and audio tracks, first specify the file
for the data track (it should contain a filesystem image in either iso 9660 or
Rock Ridge format), and then follow it with the -audio option and the names
of the audio tracks to use. The resulting cd-r will be both mountable as a
data cd and playable on audio cd players (the first track on the disc, the data
track, will be skipped when playing the audio).
484 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To burn the data track band-info, plus all the audio tracks in the current
directory that have a .cdda extension, to the cd-r drive whose target id
is 2 on the primary scsi bus, type:
$ cdrecord dev=0,2,0 band-info -audio *.cdda RET

NOTES: When writing an audio cd, you should have as few processes run-
ning as possible. If cdrecord has to pause even momentarily to let the system
shuffle other processes, the cd-r could be ruined! For this reason, it is ad-
visable to avoid switching between consoles—or between windows, if running
X—during the cd-r burning process.

22.4 Using Other Audio Compact Disc Tools

The following table lists some of the other available tools and applications
that work on audio compact discs.

Cdcd Plays cds from the command line.

DEB: cdcd
RPM: cdcd
WWW: http://cdcd.undergrid.net/
Cdinfo Displays information about an audio cd.
WWW: http://bytesex.org/misc.html
CDlabelgen Generates labels and front insert cards for compact discs.
DEB: cdlabelgen
RPM: cdlabelgen
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/3bty3
Cdp Plays audio cds in a terminal; it includes both command line
and full-screen console modes.
RPM: cdp
WWW: http://cdp.sourceforge.net/
Groovy Plays audio cds with a panel of display numbers that are so
CD Player round and “groovy,” it instantly appeals to those who think
back fondly on 70s popular culture.
DEB: groovycd
Chapter 22: Audio Compact Discs 485

Player Console cd player that can read either WorkMan or cddb

databases and output PostScript cd audio covers.
WWW: http://bytesex.org/misc.html
WorkBone Plays audio cds in a terminal and allows you to skip forward
and backward through tracks as they are playing.
DEB: workbone
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/2ul7j
WorkMan Plays audio cds in X with a graphical interface that mimics the
front panel of a physical cd player.
DEB: workman
RPM: workman
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/26eof
XCDRoast Graphical front-end to the cdrecord tool, for use in X.
DEB: xcdroast
RPM: xcdroast
WWW: http://www.xcdroast.org/
486 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 23: Editing Sound Files 487

23. Editing Sound Files

All kinds of tools and applications exist to edit sound files. This chapter
describes some of those tools, and gives methods for cutting and pasting sound
files, applying effects and filters, and converting sound files between formats.

23.1 Manipulating Selections from Sound Files

Snd
DEB: snd
RPM: snd
WWW: http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/software/snd/

Snd is a sound-file editing environment for X, and it aims to be for sound

what Emacs is to text. (It also uses Emacs-style key bindings.)
You’ll find a complete manual for it in the /usr/doc/snd directory; this
section explains how to use Snd to work with selections from sound files.
To open a sound file in Snd, give the name of the file to be opened as an
argument to snd.
⇒ To open the sound file mixdown.wav in Snd, type:
$ snd mixdown.wav RET

Figure 23-1. Snd with a file loaded.

This command starts Snd with a wav file called mixdown.wav, as in Figure
23-1.
488 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Selecting a section of a sound file in Snd is similar to selecting text in

Emacs; you can mark a section of a sound file or recording you’ve made in
Snd by left-clicking and dragging across the area with the mouse. The area
you drag across becomes shaded and is called the selection. Once you select a
portion of the sound, any effect you choose works on that selection. You can
also cut and paste selections of the sound you are editing into other sound
buffers.
The xwave tool (and many others, no doubt) have similar capabilities and
functions (see Recipe 23.4 [Using Other Sound Editors], page 496).

23.1.1 Cutting Out Part of a Sound File

To cut out a portion of a sound file you are editing in Snd, first select that
portion by left-clicking and dragging, and then choose Cut from the Edit
menu, somewhat like cropping an image file.

23.1.2 Pasting a Selection into a Sound File

Paste a cut sound selection into a different sound buffer in Snd by opening the
new buffer, left-clicking in the target buffer, and then choosing Paste from
the Edit menu. Your most recent selection will be pasted at the point where
you clicked in the sound buffer.

23.1.3 Mixing Sound Files Together

To mix different audio files together as multiple tracks in Snd, choose Mix
from the File menu and specify the files to use as the individual tracks.

23.2 Applying Sound Effects

SOund eXchange
DEB: sox
RPM: sox
WWW: http://sox.sourceforge.net/

The “Sound eXchange” tool, sox, is a sound sample translator. It reads sound
as files or standard input, and outputs the sound either to a file or standard
output, while translating in between. You can use sox to convert sound files
from one format to another or to process sounds with special effects. This
section describes some of the special effects you can apply to sound files with
sox.
Chapter 23: Editing Sound Files 489

When applying an effect, the original file is never altered. You must specify
an output file, or use a hyphen character (-) to indicate the standard output.
Specify the output format as an argument to the -t option. You can only
apply one effect with each sox command; thus, to add both echo and reverb
to a sound file, you would need to issue two sox commands.
The amount and levels applied for each effect will vary with every situation.
As such, consider the following recipes as guidelines only for using the options;
you will probably end up experimenting a bit to achieve your intended effect
for any particular sound file.
Almost all of the sound effects are applied by specifying the input and
output file arguments, followed by the name of the effect to use and any options
the effect takes (with notable exceptions, like the -v option for changing the
amplitude of a file).
NOTES: For more information on the sound effects sox can apply, see the
various files in /usr/doc/sox/, and read the sox man page (see Recipe 2.8.4
[Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).

23.2.1 Changing the Amplitude of a Sound File

To change the volume or amplitude of a sound file, use sox with the -v option,
giving the volume level as an argument. Levels below 1.0 lower the amplitude,
and higher numbers raise it.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To raise the volume of file old.wav twofold and write the output to
new.wav, type:
$ sox -v3 old.wav new.wav RET

• To lower the volume of file old.wav by half and write the output to
new.wav, type:
$ sox -v.5 old.wav new.wav RET

Use sox with the stat option and -v to determine the largest possible value
that can be used before distortion or clipping occurs (it performs a statistical
analysis on the file and outputs a numeric value). This value comes in handy
when you want to raise a file’s volume as high as possible without ruining its
fidelity.
490 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To raise the volume of the file quiet.cdr as high as possible without

distortion, type:
 

$ sox quiet.cdr loud.cdr stat -v RET

3.125
$ sox -v 3.125 quiet.cdr loud.cdr RET

$

The preceding example writes a new file, loud.cdr.

23.2.2 Changing the Sampling Rate of a Sound File

To change the sampling rate of a sound file, use the -r option followed by the
sample rate to use, in Hertz. Like the -v option, specify this option before
giving the name of the output file.
⇒ To change the sampling rate of file old.wav to 7,000 Hz and write the
output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav -r 7000 new.wav RET

You can use this effect to raise or lower the pitch of a sound file. To do
this, specify the desired pitch as the argument to the -r option, and give this
option for the input file; then, specify the original sampling rate for the output
file as an argument to -r.
⇒ To slow the pitch of the sound in bell.wav, sampled at 44,100 Hz, and
write it to a new file called slowbell.wav, also at 44,100 Hz, type:
$ sox -r 30000 bell.wav -r 44100 slowbell.wav RET

In this example, the sound in bell.wav, sampled at 44,100 Hz, was played
at the slower 30,000 Hz. This was then resampled to the output file back to
the 44,100 Hz sampling rate, but the pitch now differs from the original.

23.2.3 Adding Reverb to a Sound File

To add reverb to a sound file, use the “reverb” effect. “reverb” takes three
arguments: the volume of the output (its “gain-out”); the time (in millisec-
onds) of reverb; and the length (in milliseconds) of delay. You can specify
more than one delay; the more you specify, the more of an overlapping echo
the reverb will have.
Chapter 23: Editing Sound Files 491

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To add a basic reverb to file old.wav and write the output to file
new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav reverb .5 1000 100 RET

• To add a spacey, echoing reverb to file old.wav and write the output
to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav reverb 1 1000 333 333 333 333 RET

NOTES: This last example makes a sound similar to some of the recordings
of the band Flying Saucer Attack. (You know who they are, don’t you?)

23.2.4 Adding Echo to a Sound File

To add echo to a sound file, use the “echo” effect. It takes as arguments the
“gain-in” and “gain-out” volume levels, as well as the delay and decay, both
in milliseconds.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To add a 100-millisecond echo to the sound file old.wav and write
output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav echo .5 .5 100 .5 RET

• To add a one-second echo to the sound file old.wav and write output
to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav echo .5 .5 1000 .5 RET

• To add a “tin-can” echo effect to old.wav and write the output to
new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav echo 1 .5 5 .5 RET

NOTES: The ‘echos’ effect works like ‘echo,’ but adds a sequence of echos to
the sound file.

23.2.5 Adding Flange to a Sound File

The “flanger” effect adds flange to a sound file. It takes as arguments the
“gain-in” and “gain-out” volume levels, as well as the delay and decay in mil-
liseconds, and the speed of the flange in Hertz. Specify the type of modulation
with either -s (for sinodial) or -t (for triangular).
492 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To add an “underwater” flange to the file old.wav and write the
output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav flanger .5 .5 4 .5 1 -t RET

• To add flange that sounds somewhat like a “wah-wah” effects pedal
to the file old.wav and write the output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav flanger .5 .5 .5 1 2 -t RET

23.2.6 Adding Phase to a Sound File

The “phaser” effect adds phase to a sound file. It takes the same arguments
as the “flanger” effect.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To add a heavy phase to the file old.wav and write the output to
new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav phaser 1 .5 4 .5 1 -s RET

• To add a phased “breathing” effect to the file old.wav and write the
output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav phaser .5 .5 .5 .9 .5 -t RET

NOTES: Using a decay greater than .5 may result in feedback.

23.2.7 Adding Chorus to a Sound File

To add a chorus effect to a sound file, use “chorus.” Its options are the
“gain-in” and “gain-out” of the volume, the delay and decay in milliseconds,
the speed in Hertz, and the depth of the chorus in milliseconds. Specify either
-s or -t for sinodial or triangular modulation.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To add a 100 millisecond chorus to the file old.wav and write the
output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav chorus 1 .5 100 1 1 1 -t RET

• To add a deep, “alien-sounding” chorus to the file old.wav and write
the output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav chorus 1 .5 100 1 5 9 -t RET

Chapter 23: Editing Sound Files 493

23.2.8 Adding Vibro-Champ Effects to a Sound File

The “vibro” effect imitates the effect of the old Fender Vibro-Champ am-
plifier. Give the speed in Hertz (30 maximum) as an option, and specify an
optional depth value between 0 and 1 (the default is .5).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To add a subtle Vibro-Champ effect to the file old.wav and write
the output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav vibro 1 RET

• To add an effect of a maxed-out Vibro-Champ to the file old.wav
and write the output to new.wav, type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav vibro 30 1 RET

23.2.9 Reversing the Audio in a Sound File

Use the “reverse” effect to reverse the sound in a sound file.
⇒ To reverse the sound in the file old.wav and write the output to new.wav,
type:
$ sox old.wav new.wav reverse RET

23.3 Converting Sound Files

SOund eXchange
DEB: sox
RPM: sox
WWW: http://sox.sourceforge.net/

Use sox for most sound-file conversions. Give as arguments the name of the
input file and the name of the output file to write to; use a file name extension
specifying the sound format for the output file (see Appendix B [Conventional
File Name Extensions], page 723).
⇒ To convert the file new.wav to an audio cd format file, type:
$ sox new.wav new.cdr RET

This command writes a new file, new.cdr, in the audio cd format; the
original file, new.wav, is not altered.
You may sometimes need to specify additional options, such as with raw
audio files where the sampling rate and other properties must be specified.
494 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To convert all of the raw audio files in the current directory to audio CD
format files, type:
$ for i in *.raw RET

{ RET

sox -s -w -c2 -r 44100 $i -x $i.cdr RET

} RET

This command writes all of the .raw files to new files of the same name
but with a .cdr extension. You could then use cdrecord to burn an audio
cd with the .cdr files (see Recipe 22.3 [Writing an Audio Cd-r], page 482).
To convert a file to a particular format without using the standard exten-
sion, specify the format to write to with the -t option.
⇒ To convert the file new.wav to the audio cd format and write output to
a file named cd-single, type:
$ sox new.wav -t cdr cd-single RET

23.3.1 Converting an mp3 File

SOund eXchange
DEB: sox
RPM: sox
WWW: http://sox.sourceforge.net/

Mpg123
DEB: mpg321
RPM: mpg321
WWW: http://mpg321.sourceforge.net/

To convert an mp3 file to another format, use mpg321 (or another command
line mp3 player) to play the file to the standard output, and then use sox to
read the resultant raw audio and write it to another file with a specified input
format.
⇒ To convert the mp3 file remix.mp3d’ to a wav file remix.wav, type (all
on one line):
$ mpg321 -b 10000 -s remix.mp3 | sox -t raw -r 44100
-s -w -c 2 - remix.wav RET

NOTES: The process of making an mp3 file from a raw audio or wav format
audio file is called encoding (or sometimes “ripping”) an mp3 file; programs
Chapter 23: Editing Sound Files 495

that do this are mp3 encoders. This is not so much a recording process as it
is a conversion process: Existing audio is converted to mpeg audio format.
Unfortunately, the algorithm for encoding mp3s is patented, and all software
that uses it must pay a license fee. This restriction means that it is against
the law to write a software program to encode mp3 without licensing it. That
is the main reason why mp3 is now losing its popularity in favor of the Ogg
Vorbis audio format. As with many computing trends, this one has found its
early adopters in the Linux world.

23.3.2 Encoding an Ogg File

Oggenc
DEB: vorbis-tools
RPM: vorbis-tools
WWW: http://www.vorbis.com/

Use oggenc to encode an Ogg Vorbis audio file. It takes an audio file as
an argument and writes a new file with the same base file name and an .ogg
extension. To specify a different file name, give the name to use as an argument
to the -o option.
⇒ To make an Ogg Vorbis file from the wav file interview.wav, type:
$ oggenc interview.wav RET

This command makes a new file, interview.ogg.

23.3.3 Converting Ogg to Another Format

To convert an Ogg Vorbis audio file to another format, use ogg123 and specify
the “wav” driver with the -d option. The Ogg Vorbis file you give as an
argument to this command will be written to a wav-format file (in the current
directory) with the name of output.wav.
⇒ To convert the Ogg Vorbis file bobhopehour.ogg to wav format, type:
$ ogg123 -d wav bobhopehour.ogg RET

This command writes a new file, output.wav, in the current directory.

Specify the file to output by giving it as an argument to the -o option.
⇒ To convert the Ogg Vorbis file bobhopehour.ogg to wav format, writing
to a file named hope1.wav, type:
$ ogg123 -d wav -o hope1.wav bobhopehour.ogg RET

496 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: The wav output can be further converted into other formats using
the traditional methods (for examples, see the previous recipe).
If you want to listen to the file as it’s being converted, you may do so by
giving an additional -d option for the audio system driver you have.

23.4 Using Other Sound Editors

Sound software in Linux is a fast-moving target, and it is impossible for a
printed volume to keep up with it; you can stay abreast of the latest develop-
ments by checking out Dave Phillips’s “Sound & midi Software for Linux.” It
has the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of Linux-related sound soft-
ware available (see Appendix D [References for Further Interest], page 731).
As with text editors, there are all manner of sound editors, ranging from
simple editors to advanced environments. The following table lists a few of
the most popular ones.

Audacity Audio editor with spectrogram display. Known for its

speed.
DEB: audacity
RPM: audacity
WWW: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Brahms Graphical music editor for kde whose features include both
score and piano-roll notation.
DEB: brahms
RPM: brahms
WWW: http://brahms.sourceforge.net/
DAP Graphical tool for editing sound files.
RPM: dap
WWW: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~richardk/
Festival Speech-synthesis system that reads English (British and
American), Spanish, and Welsh plain text input, and out-
puts speech as sound.
DEB: festival
RPM: festival
WWW: http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/
Chapter 23: Editing Sound Files 497

Freebirth Sequencer, bass synthesizer, and sample player.

DEB: freebirth
RPM: freebirth
WWW: http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Freebirth/
GLAME Audio editor described as “the gimp of audio.” glame is
an acronym for “gnu/Linux Audio Mechanics.”
DEB: glame
RPM: glame
WWW: http://glame.sourceforge.net/
Pure Data Powerful system for programming real-time audio.
DEB: pd
WWW: http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html
Rosegarden midi sequencer, music notation (score) editor, and music
composition editor.
DEB: rosegarden
RPM: rosegarden
WWW: http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
Tapiir Graphical, real-time audio effects processor inspired by old
magnetic-tape delay effects.
DEB: tapiir
WWW: http://www.iua.upf.es/~mdeboer/projects/tapiir/
XWave A simple sound editor that performs the basic functions
you would expect in a wav file editor.
DEB: xwave
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/apps/sound/editors/
498 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
VI. PRODUCTIVITY 499

VI. PRODUCTIVITY
500 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 24: Disk Storage 501

24. Disk Storage

All files and directories on a Linux-based system are stored on a Linux filesys-
tem, which is a disk device (such as a hard drive) that is formatted to store a
directory tree (see Chapter 5 [Files and Directories], page 125).
There are two kinds of disk storage on a Linux system: fixed and remov-
able. Fixed storage refers to a disk that is firmly attached to the computer
system and is not intended for casual removal (except when upgrading). Your
hard drive (sometimes called a “hard disk” or “fixed disk”), which stores the
operating system, application software, and user data, is the prime example
of fixed storage.
The second kind of disk storage is removable storage, which are disks that
are intended to be removed for archiving or transfer to another system. Com-
mon examples of removable storage are floppy disks (or “diskettes”) and cd-
roms—you typically remove the storage media from its drive bay when you’re
done using it.
On Linux systems, disks are used by mounting them to a directory, which
makes the directory tree the disk contains available at that given directory
mount point. Disks can be mounted on any directory on the system, but any
divisions between disks are transparent. This means that a system that has
separate physical hard disks for the /home, /usr, and /usr/local directory
trees will look and feel no different from a system that only has one physical
hard disk.
System administrators often mount high-capacity drives on directory trees
that will contain a lot of data (such as a /home directory tree on a system
with a lot of users), and for purposes of fault tolerance, administrators often
use several physical hard disks on one system—if there is a disk failure, only
the data on that one disk is lost (though ideally it can be recovered from a
backup).
This chapter describes tools and techniques for manipulating disks and
storage media.

24.1 Listing a Disk’s Free Space

To see how much free space is left on a disk, use df. Without any options, df
outputs a list of all mounted filesystems. Six columns are output, displaying
information about each disk: the name of its device file in /dev; the number of
1024-byte blocks the system uses; the number of blocks in use; the number of
502 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

blocks available; the percent of the device used; and the name of the directory
tree the device is mounted on.
⇒ To see how much free space is left on the system’s disks, type:
 

$ df RET

Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda1 195167 43405 141684 23% /
/dev/hda2 2783807 688916 1950949 26% /usr
/dev/hdb1 2039559 1675652 258472 87% /home/webb
$

This example shows that three filesystems are mounted on the system—the
filesystem mounted on / is at 23 percent capacity, the filesystem mounted on
/usr is at 26 percent capacity, and the filesystem mounted on /home/webb, a
home directory, is at 87 percent capacity.

24.2 Listing a File’s Disk Usage

Use du to list the amount of space on a disk used by files. To specify a partic-
ular file name or directory tree, give it as an argument. With no arguments,
du works on the current directory.
It outputs a line for each subdirectory in the tree, listing the space used
and the subdirectory name; the last line lists the total amount of space used
for the entire directory tree.
⇒ To output the disk usage for the directory tree whose root is the current
directory, type:
 

$ du RET

8 ./projects/documentation
12 ./projects/source
4 ./projects/etc
24 ./projects
3 ./tmp
27 .
$

This example shows two subdirectories in the directory tree: projects and
tmp. The projects subdirectory contains three additional directories. The
Chapter 24: Disk Storage 503

amount of disk space used by the individual directories is the total on the last
line, 27 kb.
By default, output is in 1 kb blocks, but you can specify another unit to
use as an option: -k for kilobytes and -m for megabytes.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the disk usage, in kilobytes, of the /usr/local directory
tree, type:
$ du -k /usr/local RET

• To show the number of megabytes used by the file /tmp/cache, type:
$ du -m /tmp/cache RET

Use the -s option (“summarize”) to output only the last line containing the
total for the entire directory tree. This is useful when you are only interested
in the total disk usage of a directory tree.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output only the total disk usage of the /usr/local directory tree,
type:
$ du -s /usr/local RET

• To output only the total disk usage, in kilobytes, of the /usr/local
directory tree, type:
$ du -s -k /usr/local RET

24.3 Using Floppy Disks

Before you can use a floppy disk for the first time, it must be formatted, which
creates an empty filesystem on the disk.
To read or write files to a formatted disk, you mount the floppy on an empty
directory, making its filesystem available in the specified directory. Usually,
Linux systems have an empty /floppy directory for this purpose. (Another
general-purpose directory for mounting filesystems is the /mnt directory.)
While you cannot mount a filesystem on a directory containing other files,
you can always create a new directory somewhere to mount a filesystem.
When you mount a disk on a directory, that directory contains all the files
and directories of the disk’s filesystem; when you later unmount the disk, that
directory will be empty—all the files and directories on the disk are still on
the disk’s filesystem, but the filesystem is no longer mounted.
When you’re done using a floppy, you must unmount it before you remove
it from the drive. If you don’t, you risk corrupting or deleting some of the
504 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

files on it—Linux may still be using the mounted files when you remove the
disk (see Recipe 2.1.2 [Turning Off the System], page 27).
The following sections show you how to format, mount, and unmount flop-
pies. On many systems, you need superuser privileges to do any of these
actions.
NOTES: For recipes describing the use of ms-dos (and Microsoft Windows)
formatted disks under Linux, see Recipe 26.1 [Using dos and Windows Disks],
page 525.

24.3.1 Formatting a Floppy Disk

You can use fdformat to do a low-level format on a floppy disk device that
you give as an argument. To format a 1.44 mb floppy in the first floppy drive,
use the /dev/fd0H1440 device as the argument to use.
⇒ To perform a low-level format on a 1.44 mb floppy disk in the first remov-
able floppy drive, type:
$ fdformat /dev/fd0H1440 RET

This will erase all the information on the disk.

Once a disk is formatted, you need to make a Linux filesystem on the disk.1
Use mke2fs to do this. Give the name of the device file of the floppy drive as
an argument—usually the first removable disk drive, /dev/fd0. The floppy
disk must be in the drive when you give this command, and any data already
on it will be lost.
⇒ To make a Linux filesystem on the floppy disk in the first removable floppy
drive, type:
$ mke2fs /dev/fd0 RET

NOTES: You can make 2 mb high-capacity formats with superformat. This

formats a floppy disk beyond its normal carrying capacity; it is a lengthy
process, but if you need to store extra data on your disk, you might consider
it.

24.3.2 Mounting a Floppy Disk

To mount a floppy disk, use mount with the /floppy option.2
1
Technically, this filesystem is a second extended file system (e2fs), the native filesystem
currently used with Linux.
2
This works if your administrator has set up the floppy drive filesystem for user access—
see Recipe A.6.3 [Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals], page 718.
Chapter 24: Disk Storage 505

⇒ To mount a floppy, type:

$ mount /floppy RET

To mount a floppy disk to a specific directory, use mount and give as

arguments the device name of the floppy drive (usually /dev/fd0 for one-
floppy systems) and the name of the directory to mount to.
⇒ To mount the floppy in the first floppy drive to ~/tmp, type:
$ mount /dev/fd0 ~/tmp RET

Once you have mounted a floppy, its contents appear in the directory you
specify, and you can use any file command on them.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To list the contents of the base directory of the floppy mounted on
/floppy, type:
$ ls /floppy RET

• To list the contents of the entire directory tree on the floppy mounted
on /floppy, type:
$ ls -lR /floppy RET

NOTES: You can copy files to and from the directory tree that the floppy is
mounted on, make and remove directories, and do anything else you could on
any other directory tree. But remember, before you remove it, you must first
unmount it.

24.3.3 Unmounting a Floppy Disk

Use umount to unmount a floppy disk, using the name of the directory it is
mounted on as an argument.
⇒ To unmount the floppy that is mounted on /floppy, type:
$ umount /floppy RET

NOTES: You can’t unmount a disk if your current working directory, the
directory you are in, is somewhere in that disk’s directory tree.3 In this case,
trying to unmount the disk will give the error that the /floppy filesystem is
in use; change to a different directory that isn’t in the /floppy directory tree,
and then you can unmount the disk.
Sometimes when you unmount a floppy, the light on the floppy drive will
go on and remain on for a few seconds after it has been unmounted. This
3
This is sometimes called being “under the mount point” of the disk.
506 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

is because Linux sometimes keeps changes to files in memory before it writes

them to disk; it’s making sure that the files on the floppy are up-to-date.
Simply wait until the light goes off before you remove the floppy from the
drive.

24.4 Using Data cds

As with a floppy disk, before you can use a data cd (“compact disc”) on your
system, you must first mount it on an empty directory. You then unmount
it from the directory before you can eject the cd from the cd drive (you can
also eject the disc using software—see Recipe 22.1.6 [Ejecting an Audio cd],
page 480).
NOTES: To use audio cds, see Chapter 22 [Audio Compact Discs], page 477.

24.4.1 Mounting a Data cd

To mount a data cd on the system, use mount with the /cdrom option.4
⇒ To mount a data cd on the system, type:
$ mount /cdrom RET

This command makes the contents of the data cd available from the /cdrom
directory tree. You can use any Linux file command on the files and directories
on a data cd, but you can only write to one if it is a cdrw disc.
Like the /floppy directory, the use of the /cdrom directory is a standard
practice and convenient, but not necessary—you can mount disks in whatever
empty directory you like. (You could even, for example, mount discs from
the cd drive to /floppy and mount floppy disks to /cdrom, but why would
anyone do that!)
To mount a data cd to a specific directory, use mount and give as arguments
the name of the device file in ‘/dev’ corresponding to the cd drive, and the
name of the directory to mount to. This directory must already exist on the
filesystem, and it must be empty. If it doesn’t exist, use mkdir to create it
first (see Recipe 5.1.2 [Making a Directory], page 130).
Most Linux systems are set up so that the device file of the first cd drive
is /dev/cdrom, but the name of the device file may be different, especially if
you have a scsi cd-rom drive.
4
This works if your administrator has set up the cd drive filesystem for user access—see
Recipe A.6.3 [Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals], page 718.
Chapter 24: Disk Storage 507

⇒ To mount the disc in the cd drive to the /usr/local/share/clipart

directory, type:
$ mount /dev/cdrom /usr/local/share/clipart RET

The contents of the disc in the cd drive will then be available in the
/usr/local/share/clipart directory tree, and you can then use the files
and directories on the data cd as you would any other files.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To peruse a directory tree graph of the data cd’s contents, type:
$ tree /usr/local/share/clipart | less RET

• To change to the root directory on the data cd, type:
$ cd /usr/local/share/clipart RET

• To list the contents of the root directory on the data cd, type:
$ ls /usr/local/share/clipart RET

24.4.2 Unmounting a Data cd

Use umount to unmount a data cd; give as an argument the name of the
directory it’s mounted on.
⇒ To unmount the disc in the cd drive mounted on /cdrom, type:
$ umount /cdrom RET

NOTES: As with unmounting any kind of filesystem, make sure that none of
the files on the disc are in use, or else you won’t be able to unmount it. For
example, if the current working directory in a shell is somewhere inside the
/cdrom directory tree, you won’t be able to unmount the data cd until you
change to a different directory.
508 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 25: Printing 509

25. Printing
The usual way to print on a Linux system is to send a print job to the printer
with lpr, as described in Recipe 25.1.1 [Sending a Print Job to the Printer],
page 510.
But you won’t always send a file straight to the printer—sometimes you
may want to add special things to it before you print, such as headers or
graphic trim. Or you might want to split a text file into pages and add a
header to the top of each page containing the file name and page number; all
of this is described in Chapter 13 [Formatting Text], page 305.
Sometimes you may need to convert or otherwise prepare a file so that it
can be printed on your particular printer, since not all print hardware can
print the same kinds of file formats. Recipes in this chapter show how to do
this, such as how to convert PostScript files so that they will print properly
on a non-PostScript printer (see Recipe 25.3 [Preparing Files for Printing],
page 518).
This chapter also shows how to format PostScript files for printing. To
convert plain text to PostScript and enhance it for printing, by adding fonts,
graphic headers, and the like, see Recipe 15.2 [Outputting Text to PostScript],
page 359.
This chapter isn’t in the files section of the book because you can print
things that aren’t in a file—for example, you can pipe the output of another
tool or series of tools to lpr, and it will spool that command output to the
printer. This usage is actually very common.

25.1 Making and Managing Print Jobs

The traditional way to print on Linux-based systems is to send a print job
for the file or data you want to print to the spool queue for the printer in
question. The spool queue contains all of the print jobs sent to it by all users;
these jobs are released in turn to the printer device as it becomes available.
In this way, Linux can handle multiple print jobs going to the same printer at
once.
The following recipes show how to make and manage print jobs. In practice,
you will probably send print jobs all the time—since this is the way most
printing is done in Linux—and use the tools for listing or canceling print jobs
rarely. But sometimes things do go wrong, and it helps to know what to do
when that happens.
510 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

25.1.1 Sending a Print Job to the Printer

Use lpr to send a print job to the printer—give the name of the file to print
as an argument. (You can also pipe the output of a command to lpr.)
lpr writes a copy of the specified file or text to the spool queue of the
specified printer, to be sent to the printer when the printer becomes available.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To print the file invoice, type:
$ lpr invoice RET

• To type a message with banner and send it to the printer, type:
$ banner "Bon voyage!" | lpr RET

• To print a verbose, recursive listing of the /usr/doc/HOWTO directory,
type:
$ ls -lR /usr/doc/HOWTO | lpr RET

If you have more than one printer connected to your system, specify the
printer to send to as an argument to the -P option. (Printers have names just
as user accounts and hosts do, and it is the administrator’s privilege to name
them; the default printer is usually called lp, for “line printer.”)
⇒ To send the file nightly-report to the printer called statomatic, type:
$ lpr -P statomatic nightly-report RET

NOTES: The name of the lpr tool comes from “line printer,” which was the
kind of printer hardware in popular use back when this program was first
developed.

25.1.2 Printing Multiple Copies of a Job

To print more than one copy of a print job, give the number of copies to print
as an argument to the -# option of lpr.
⇒ To print a dozen copies of the file nightly-report, type:
$ lpr -#12 nightly-report RET

25.1.3 Listing Your Print Jobs

To list your print jobs, use lpq, the “line printer queue” tool. It outputs a
list of all print jobs currently in the default printer’s spool queue, each on a
line of its own, giving its rank in the queue, the username that sent the job,
the print job number, the file names in the job, and the size of the data to be
printed, in bytes.
Chapter 25: Printing 511

⇒ To view the spool queue for the default printer, type:

 

$ lpq RET

lp is ready and printing
Rank Owner Job Files Total Size
active groucho 83 cigar.ps 1739030 bytes
1st harpo 84 harp.ps 499 bytes
2nd chico 85 love.ps 45576 bytes
$

In this example, there are three jobs queued for the default printer—one by
user groucho, for the file cigar.ps, one by user harpo, for the file harp.ps,
and one by user chico, who has printed a file called love.ps.
The job by user groucho is the active job; this is the job that is currently
printing on the printer. The other jobs must wait until this file is finished
printing, and then they print in rank order.
As with lpr, you can specify the name of a printer as an argument to the
-P option.
⇒ To view the spool queue for the printer called statomatic, type:
$ lpq -P statomatic RET

To only list the jobs for a particular user, give the name of the user as an
argument.
⇒ To list the print jobs for user harpo, type:
$ lpq harpo RET

NOTES: When there are no print jobs, lpq outputs the text “no entries.”

25.1.4 Canceling a Print Job

To cancel a print job and remove it from the spool queue, use lprm, the “line
printer remove” tool. If you accidentally sent something to the printer (or,
in some application, accidentally hit a “print” button), you can stop it from
printing by just running lprm with no options. This removes your active job.
⇒ To cancel your current print job, type:
$ lprm RET

When lprm cancels a job, it outputs the names of any print files that have
been dequeued and removed (a single print job is usually listed in two lines).
If you don’t have a print job to cancel, lprm will report nothing.
512 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

You can also cancel a print job by its job number. To do this, give as an
argument the number of the print job to remove.
⇒ To cancel print job 83, type:
$ lprm 83 RET

To cancel all of your print jobs in the spool queue, use a hyphen instead
of the number of a print job. This is good for when you’ve sent several jobs
to the printer but you want to cancel them.
⇒ To cancel all of your print jobs, type:
$ lprm - RET

NOTES: If you try to cancel an active job—one that has already been spooled
to the printer—don’t be alarmed if some pages still print; the printer probably
has some of the job in its internal print buffer. To stop the printing in a case
like this, take the printer offline, reset it, and then put it back online again
(the printer will usually have buttons for these commands on its front control
panel).

25.2 Other Things You Can Print

Another way of printing, besides making a print job, is to print from within
an application.
Not all applications have print controls, but some of them do, including
Emacs and LyX (see Recipe 15.4 [Using LyX], page 378). Their print com-
mands essentially send the print job to the printer via lpr, after possibly
formatting or otherwise preparing the data to print. If you are working in
such an application and want to print your work, it can be more convenient
to use the built-in print control than going to a shell to run lpr.
For example, to print the current document in the LyX document-
processing application, choose Print from the File menu; it creates the
proper output for your printer and makes a print job containing this output
(see Recipe 15.4 [Using LyX], page 378).
Some tools, such as dvips and enscript (see Recipe 15.2 [Outputting Text
to PostScript], page 359), are also configured to spool output to the printer.
You can view these print jobs in the spool queue and you can cancel them,
just as you could any print job.
Chapter 25: Printing 513

25.2.1 Printing a Printer Test Strip

It is sometimes useful to test your printer setup, both the configuration of
the print system and the printer hardware itself. Use lptest to do this. It
generates a traditional printer test pattern consisting of all 96 printable ascii
characters, on lines of 79 characters wide. The pattern is repeated over 200
lines, and in such a way so that the characters are staggered by one space
from line to line. The effect is like a wave or banded ripple, and so it’s called
a ripple pattern.
By default, lptest outputs to the standard output. It’s a good idea to
run it once to see the output it generates, so you’ll know what to expect from
the printer.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To see the ripple pattern output by lptest, type:
$ lptest RET

• To send a test pattern to the default printer, type:
$ lptest | lpr RET

• To send a test pattern to the printer named production, type:
$ lptest | lpr -Pproduction RET

To specify the line width, give the new width as an argument.

⇒ To send a test pattern printing at 120 characters per line to the printer
named machine_room, type:
$ lptest 120 | lpr -Pmachine_room RET

You can also specify the number of lines to output; do this by giving the
new number as a second argument. This is useful for writing some “dummy”
data to a file, when you need some.
⇒ To write a ripple pattern ten lines long, with 25 characters per line, to
the file testing, type:
$ lptest 25 10 > testing RET

25.2.2 Printing Certain Pages of a PostScript File

PSUtils
DEB: psutils
RPM: psutils
WWW: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/psutils/

To print only certain pages of a PostScript file, specify those pages with
514 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

psselect and pipe the output to lpr (see Recipe 20.1.2 [Extracting Pages
from a PostScript File], page 452). This is useful for when you have a very
large file to print and you want to send it to the printer in sections.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print pages 1 through 100 from the file input.ps, type:
$ psselect -p1-100 input.ps | lpr RET

• To print four copies of pages 1 through 100 from the file input.ps,
type:
$ psselect -p1-100 input.ps | lpr -#4 RET

25.2.3 Printing an Image

The most surefire way to print an image file is to view the file in the gimp and
select Print, an option on the File menu. This gives you the most control in
printing: You can adjust the page size and orientation, brightness, and other
options. You can also print it to a file (see Recipe 18.3 [Using the gimp],
page 434).

25.2.4 Printing a Web Page

There are a few nice methods for printing Web pages.

METHOD #1
Printing a Web page is usually done with Mozilla or another graphical Web
browser.
In Mozilla, select Print from the File menu, or type ALT
- P
while
Mozilla is displaying the page you want to print. You can choose paper size,
color, page order, and margins; you can also select the printer device, or print
the page to a PostScript file (see Recipe 33.1 [Using Mozilla], page 638).
This is the common method.

METHOD #2
To print the contents of a Web page with lpr, use lynx with the -dump
option to pass the contents directly to lpr, or optionally through other filters
or commands.
Chapter 25: Printing 515

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To print the url http://chem.example.edu/polymer99.ps, which
is a PostScript file, type:
$ lynx -dump http://chem.example.edu/polymer99.ps | lpr RET

• To print the url http://chem.example.edu/info.txt, which is a
text file, type:
$ lynx -dump http://chem.example.edu/info.txt | lpr RET

• To print url http://chem.example.edu/schedule.txt, a text file,
in Palatino bold text 20 points wide and ten points high, type (all
on one line):
$ lynx -dump http://chem.example.edu/schedule.txt | enscript
-B -f Palatino-Bold@20/10 -o - | lpr RET

NOTES: This is also a good method for sending the contents of a Web page
through any number of filters or pipelines in general.

METHOD #3
When in lynx, press P
when on the page you want to print. This will bring
up a new page, giving the url of the page you were viewing and telling you the
number of lines it contains and the number of physical pages it makes when
printed. You will also be given four options: Save to a local file, Mail the
file, Print to the screen, and Print out on a printer attached to your
vt100 terminal. The last option will send it to the printer.
If you save to a local file, a plain text file will be written to the current
directory with the name you specify. You can then process and print that file.

25.2.5 Printing a dvi File

DVIPS
DEB: tetex-bin
RPM: tetex-dvips
WWW: http://www.radicaleye.com/dvips.html

You can print a dvi file directly with the dvips tool—omit the -o option
that is used to specify an output file, and it will send the PostScript output
directly to the spool queue of the default printer.
⇒ To print the dvi file list.dvi, type:
$ dvips list.dvi RET

516 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The following table lists some of dvips’s options for controlling print out-
put.

-A Print only odd-numbered pages (dvi file must have

been generated by TEX for this option).
-B Print only even-numbered pages (dvi file must have
been generated by TEX for this option).
-b copies Specify the number of copies to print—useful for
printing multiple copies of flyers, posters, signs, and
the like.
-k Print crop marks.
-l last Specify the last page number to print.
-m Use the manual feed tray.
-p first Specify the first page to begin printing from.
-r Reverse the order of the pages.
-t format Specify paper size and format; valid options in-
clude “letter,” “legal,” “a4,” and “landscape.”
(You can use this option twice, say to specify both
“legal” and “landscape”.)
Using the -m option, and specifying landscape as the paper format with
the -t option, is very useful for printing on envelopes.
⇒ To print the file envelope.dvi on an envelope loaded in the manual feed
tray of the default printer, type:
$ dvips -m -t landscape envelope.dvi RET

NOTES: You can also print dvi files with lpr using the -d option.

25.2.6 Printing an Emacs Buffer

You can print a buffer from within Emacs, printing either the entire buffer or
just the region. There are several methods.

METHOD #1
To print the current buffer in Emacs, choose Print Buffer from the Print
submenu, found on the Tools menu on the menu bar. Another option on
Chapter 25: Printing 517

the print submenu is Print Region, which just prints the text between point
and the mark (see Recipe 10.1.1 [Getting Acquainted with Emacs], page 232).
Both commands print the hardcopy output separated into pages, with headers
at the top of each page showing the file name and current page number.

METHOD #2
To generate and print a PostScript image of the buffer, use the ps-print-
buffer function, which is also available on the Print submenu. A related
function, ps-print-region, prints a PostScript image of the region. These
commands are useful for sending the text of a buffer to a PostScript printer.
⇒ To send the current Emacs buffer to the default printer as a PostScript
file, type:
ALT
- X
ps-print-buffer RET

METHOD #3
You can also run any of the aforementioned print functions by specifying them
with the ALT
- X
command. Additionally, the lpr-buffer and lpr-region
functions send the buffer and region to lpr without paginating the text or
inserting headers.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To print the current buffer with page numbers and headers, type:
ALT
- X
print-buffer RET

• To print the current buffer with no additional print formatting done

to the text, type:
ALT
- X
lpr-buffer RET

• To print a PostScript image of the current buffer, type:

ALT
- X
ps-print-buffer RET

25.2.7 Printing an Info Node

When you are running info, the hypertext Info viewer, you can print the
current node by running the print-node function.
⇒ To print the current node in Info, type:
ALT
- X
print-node RET

518 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

25.2.8 Printing the Contents of a Terminal Window

To print the contents of an xterm window in X, press and hold CTRL
and left-
click anywhere inside the window, and then choose the Print Window option.
This command will send a copy of all the text in the current window to the
default printer.

25.3 Preparing Files for Printing

Strictly speaking, these are file conversions, but they are most often used for
printing to certain devices. Not all printers recognize all output formats, so
it’s sometimes necessary to convert files before you print them.
Normally, you can print plain text on any printer. However, most graph-
ics or image files must be converted to PostScript or eps (“Encapsulated
PostScript”). Some applications, such as TEX, produce dvi output; in this
case, you should convert that to PostScript for printing.
If you have a PostScript printer, you can print PostScript files directly to
it. If not, you’ll need to convert the PostScript output to a format your printer
uses. Filter programs like magicfilter make the conversion easier by doing
this work for you, but they’re not a panacea, since your system may use one
of many print filters. Hence, the need for the following recipes.

25.3.1 Preparing a PostScript File for Printing

Ghostscript
DEB: gs-common
gs
RPM: ghostscript
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

If you don’t have a PostScript printer, you can use Ghostscript, gs, to convert
PostScript to an output format that your printer understands.
Use the -? option to list the printers that the version of gs installed on
your system can write output for.
Chapter 25: Printing 519

⇒ To list the available printer formats, type:

 

$ gs -? RET

GNU Ghostscript 5.10 (1998-12-17)
...more output messages...
Input formats: PostScript PostScriptLevel1 PostScriptLevel2 PDF
Available devices:
x11 x11alpha x11cmyk x11gray2 x11mono lvga256 vgalib
t4693d8 tek4696 appledmp ccr lp2563 lbp8 lips3 m8510
oki182 okiibm la50 la70 la75 la75plus sxlcrt deskjet
djet500 laserjet ljetplus ljet2p ljet3 ljet4 declj250
cdeskjet cdjcolor cdjmono cdj550 cdj500 djet500c
hpdj uniprint epson eps9mid eps9high epsonc lq850
ap3250 ibmpro bj10e bj200 bjc600 bjc800 ljet3d faxg3
faxg32d faxg4 dfaxhigh dfaxlow pcxmono pcxgray pbm
pbmraw pgm pgmraw pgnm pgnmraw pnm pnmraw ppm ppmraw
pkm pkmraw tiffcrle tiffg3 tiffg32d tiffg4 psmono
psgray jpeg
...more output messages...
$

A typical gs installation can write to more than 100 different print devices,
including hp LaserJet 4 printers (“ljet4”), hp Color Deskjets (‘cdeskjet’),
and Group 4 fax (“tiffg4”). Newer versions of gs will have better support
for newer printers, so make sure that you have a recent version installed if you
have a new model printer.
gs takes the file to convert as an argument; give the device to write output
for as an argument to the -sDEVICE= option, and give the name of the file to
write to as an argument to the -sOutputFile= option.
Two additional options are commonly used: -dSAFER, which prevents the
accidental deleting or overwriting of files, and -dNOPAUSE, which turns off the
pause between pages.
When the conversion is complete, you will be at the gs prompt; type quit
to exit.
⇒ To convert the file tiger.ps to a format suitable for printing on an hp
Color Deskjet 500 printer, type (all on one line):
$ gs -sDEVICE=cdj500 -sOutputFile=tiger.dj -dSAFER
-dNOPAUSE tiger.ps < /dev/null RET

520 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This command writes the output to a file, tiger.dj, which you can spool
as a print job with lpr to print it.

25.3.2 Preparing a dvi File for Printing

DVIPS
DEB: tetex-bin
RPM: tetex-dvips
WWW: http://www.radicaleye.com/dvips.html

To convert a file from dvi format to PostScript, use dvips. It takes the file
to convert as an argument; give the name of the PostScript file to write to as
an argument to the -o option.
⇒ To convert the file abstract.dvi to PostScript, type:
$ dvips -o abstract.ps abstract.dvi RET

This command reads the dvi file abstract.dvi and writes a PostScript
version of it to the file abstract.ps; the original file is not altered.
To write only certain pages of a dvi file to the PostScript output, give the
page or pages as arguments to the -pp option.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output only pages 14 and 36 from file abstract.dvi to a
PostScript file, ‘codeabstract.ps, type:
$ dvips -pp14,36 -o abstract.ps abstract.dvi RET

• To output pages 2 through 100 from file abstract.dvi to a
PostScript file, abstract.ps, type:
$ dvips -pp2-100 -o abstract.ps abstract.dvi RET

• To output page 1 and pages 5 through 20 from file abstract.dvi to
a PostScript file, abstract.ps, type:
$ dvips -pp1,5-20 -o abstract.ps abstract.dvi RET

To specify an output paper size, give it as an argument to the -t option;

if you have a PostScript printer, you can also send the output directly to the
printer (see Recipe 25.2.5 [Printing a dvi File], page 515).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the file abstract.dvi as a PostScript file, abstract.ps,
with a paper size of “legal,” type:
$ dvips -t legal -o abstract.ps abstract.dvi RET

Chapter 25: Printing 521

• To print the file abstract.dvi to the default printer in landscape

mode, type:
$ dvips -t landscape abstract.dvi RET

Use the -P option with dvips to specify the printer name to write output
to—use this option to make output for non-PostScript printers. For exam-
ple, to convert TEX and LaTEX files to pdf, use dvips and give “pdf” as an
argument to the -P option.
⇒ To generate a pdf file from the dvi file abstract.dvi, type:
$ dvips -Ppdf -o abstract.pdf abstract.dvi RET

This command writes a new file, abstract.pdf, in pdf format.

NOTES: This type of conversion is not only useful for print preparation. Once
the dvi file is converted to PostScript, you can then convert the PostScript
to other formats, such as plain text or pdf—see Recipe 20.3 [Converting
PostScript], page 459.

25.3.3 Preparing a pdf File for Printing

Xpdf
DEB: xpdf-common
xpdf-reader
RPM: xpdf
WWW: http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/

Ghostscript
DEB: gs-common
gs
RPM: ghostscript
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

There are at least two ways to convert and print a file that’s in Adobe’s
Portable Document Format (pdf), usually marked with a .pdf file name
extension.
The first way is to view the file in xpdf (the pdf file viewer), and then
left-click the printer icon. This won’t actually send the file to the printer, but
it writes a PostScript file in the same directory, with the same base file name
as the pdf file but with a .ps extension. You can then print this file with
lpr or convert it to another format (see Recipe 25.3.1 [Preparing a PostScript
File for Printing], page 518).
522 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The second way is to use pdf2ps, part of the ‘gs’ package, to convert
the pdf file to PostScript (to then print the PostScript output as described
for xpdf above). pdf2ps takes two arguments: the name of the pdf file to
convert, and the name of the PostScript file to write to.
⇒ To convert the pdf file pricelist.pdf, type:
$ pdf2ps pricelist.pdf pricelist.ps RET

This command writes a PostScript file pricelist.ps in the current direc-

tory.

25.3.4 Preparing a Manual Page for Printing

To convert a man page to output that is suitable for printing, use man with
the -T option, giving “ps” as an argument to output PostScript. Either pipe
the output to lpr (if you have a PostScript printer), or save it to a file that
you can then convert for your printer.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To print the man page for convert to a PostScript printer, type:
$ man -Tps convert | lpr RET

• To print the man page for convert to a PostScript printer, type:
$ man -Tps convert | lpr RET

• To preview the man page for convert as PostScript, type:
$ man -Tps convert | gv - RET

• To output the man page for psbook to the file psbook.ps, type:
$ man -Tps psbook > psbook.ps RET

In the last example, you can then use gs to convert the file to a format your
non-PostScript printer understands (see Recipe 25.3.1 [Preparing a PostScript
File for Printing], page 518).
NOTES: A manual “page” can actually contain more than one physical page;
the output will have as many pages as necessary to print it.

25.3.5 Preparing Text for Printing

There are many ways to prepare text for printing. You can paginate text
and control other formatting, as described in Chapter 13 [Formatting Text],
page 305. Then you can use enscript to convert the text to PostScript, and
print that. This is good for printing text in a font; you can also select certain
pages to print, including a range of pages or just even- or odd-numbered pages.
Chapter 25: Printing 523

There are two methods worth noting for preparing etexts for printing.

METHOD #1
Etext filter
WWW: http://dsl.org/comp/enscript/

Use the “etext” filter for enscript to convert an etext to PostScript. This
takes a plain text file written with etext conventions, including etext-style
italics (see Recipe 13.9 [Underlining Text], page 327), converts the italics, and
writes a PostScript file as output.
⇒ To convert the etext youth.txt to PostScript, type:
$ enscript -Eetext -B -f "Times-Roman12" -o youth.ps youth.txt RET

METHOD #2
Txt2html
DEB: txt2html
RPM: txt2html
WWW: http://txt2html.sourceforge.net/

To convert plain text to PostScript for printing—whether the text is written

with etext conventions or not—first use txt2html to convert the text to html,
and then print the text from a Web browser, as described in Recipe 25.2.4
[Printing a Web Page], page 514.
⇒ To prepare the file essays for printing, type:
$ txt2html essays > essays.html RET

This command writes a new file, essays.html, that you can then print
with a Web browser.
NOTES: You could also convert the text to LaTEX with txt2tex (see
Recipe 15.7 [Using Other Word Processors and Typesetting Systems],
page 391).
524 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 26: Cross-Platform Conversions 525

26. Cross-Platform Conversions

Sometimes, it’s inevitable—through no choice of your own, you must deal
with a disk from another operating system, or a file with data stored in a
proprietary format from one of those systems.
The recipes in this chapter are about converting data from other
platforms—reading disks from dos, Windows, and macos systems, and
converting dos text and Microsoft Word files.
To convert image files between formats, see Recipe 18.2 [Converting Image
Files], page 432, and to convert audio files between formats, see Recipe 23.3
[Converting Sound Files], page 493.

26.1 Using dos and Windows Disks

Mtools
DEB: mtools
RPM: mtools
WWW: http://mtools.linux.lu/

The mtools package package provides a collection of tools to facilitate the

manipulation of ms-dos files. These tools allow you to use and manipulate
ms-dos disks (usually floppies, but Jaz and Zip drives are supported, too)
without mounting them; they can handle the extensions to the ms-dos format
that are used by the different Microsoft Windows operating systems, including
Windows nt.
The following recipes describe how to use some of the tools in this package
to get directory listings of ms-dos disks, copy files to and from them, delete
files on them, and even format them. They’re similar in use and syntax to the
equivalent ms-dos commands.
You can also mount dos and Windows disks (see Recipe 26.3 [Mounting
Windows and nt partitions], page 529).

26.1.1 Listing the Contents of a dos Disk

Use mdir to get a directory listing of a dos disk. Give as an argument the
“drive letter” of the disk to read, as used by dos. For example, to specify the
primary floppy drive, use “A:” as the drive to read, and use “B:” to specify
the secondary floppy drive.
526 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To get a directory listing of the dos disk currently in the primary floppy
drive, type:
$ mdir a: RET

26.1.2 Copying Files to and from a dos Disk

Use mcopy to copy files to and from a dos disk.
To copy a file to a dos disk, give as arguments the name of the source file
to copy and the “drive letter” of the disk to copy it to.
⇒ To copy the file readme.txt to the dos disk in the primary floppy drive,
type:
$ mcopy readme.txt a: RET

To copy a file from a dos disk, give the “drive letter” of the disk to copy
from, followed by the file name to copy, and no other arguments; mcopy will
copy the specified file to the current directory.
⇒ To copy the file resume.doc from the dos disk in the secondary floppy
drive to the current directory, type:
$ mcopy b:resume.doc RET

To copy all files from a dos disk, just give the “drive letter” without any
file names.
⇒ To copy all of the files and directories from the dos disk in the primary
floppy drive to the current directory, type:
$ mcopy a: RET

26.1.3 Deleting Files on a dos Disk

Use mdel to delete a file on a dos disk. Give as an argument the name of the
file to delete preceded by the “drive letter” of the disk to delete from.
⇒ To delete the file resume.doc on the dos disk in the primary floppy drive,
type:
$ mdel a:resume.doc RET

26.1.4 Formatting a dos Disk

To format a floppy disk for dos, writing an empty ms-dos filesystem to the
disk in the process, use mformat. Give as an argument the “drive letter” of the
disk to format. (Remember, when you format a disk, any existing information
contained on the disk is lost.)
Chapter 26: Cross-Platform Conversions 527

⇒ To format the floppy disk in the primary floppy drive so that it can be
used with ms-dos, type:
$ mformat a: RET

NOTES: If you want to use a floppy disk with your Linux system and don’t
need dos compatibility, don’t bother using this ms-dos format—the native
Linux format is much more efficient (see Recipe 24.3.1 [Formatting a Floppy
Disk], page 504). If you know how long a dos format takes, you’ll be amazed
at how much faster the Linux formatting is—it will be done so fast you’ll think
it didn’t even work!

26.2 Using Macintosh Disks

Hfsutils
DEB: hfsutils
RPM: hfsutils
WWW: http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/hfs/

Apple Macintosh computers use a filesystem called the “Hierarchical File Sys-
tem,” or hfs. If your kernel has support for the hfs filesystem, you can mount
disks from these systems by using mount and specifying “hfs” as an argument
to the -t option (see Recipe 24.3.2 [Mounting a Floppy Disk], page 504).
You can also use these disks with the hfsutils package, which contains
a set of tools for reading from and writing to hfs filesystems. The following
recipes describe the use of the individual tools in this package.

26.2.1 Specifying the Macintosh Disk to Use

To use a Macintosh disk with any of the hfsutils commands, you must first
use hmount to specify the location of the hfs filesystem. Give as an argument
the name of the Linux device file where the hfs filesystem exists; this virtually
“mounts” the disk for use with the other commands described in this section.
The device file for the first floppy drive is /dev/fd0, and for the second
drive, /dev/fd1. Any valid device name, such as a scsi device or Zip disk,
may be given.
⇒ To introduce the floppy disk in the first floppy drive as an hfs volume
for the hfsutils, type:
$ hmount /dev/fd0 RET

After you run this command, the other tools in the hfsutils package will
work on the Macintosh disk in the first floppy drive.
528 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

26.2.2 Listing the Contents of a Macintosh Disk

Use hls to get a directory listing of the Macintosh disk currently specified
with hmount (see the preceding recipe).
⇒ To get a directory listing of the currently specified Macintosh disk, type:
$ hls RET

Give the name of a directory as a quoted argument to list just that direc-
tory.
⇒ To get a directory listing of the Desktop Folder directory in the currently
specified Macintosh disk, type:
$ hls 'Desktop Folder' RET

26.2.3 Copying Files to and from a Macintosh Disk

Use hcopy to copy files to and from the Macintosh disk currently specified with
hmount (see Recipe 26.2.1 [Specifying the Macintosh Disk to Use], page 527).
To copy a file to a Macintosh disk, give as arguments the name of the source
file to copy and the quoted name of the target directory on the Macintosh disk.
⇒ To copy the file readme.txt to the Desktop Folder directory in the cur-
rent Macintosh disk, type:
$ hcopy readme.txt 'Desktop Folder' RET

To copy a file from a Macintosh disk, give two arguments: the name of
the directory and the file to copy as a quoted argument, and the name of
the Linux target directory to copy to. Remember that macos uses the colon
character (:) as the separator on the path.
⇒ To copy the file Desktop Folder:Readme from the current Mac disk to
the current directory, type:
$ hcopy 'Desktop Folder:Readme' . RET

26.2.4 Deleting Files on a Macintosh Disk

Use hdel to delete a file on the Macintosh disk currently specified with hmount
(see Recipe 26.2.1 [Specifying the Macintosh Disk to Use], page 527). Give
as a quoted argument the path name of the file to delete. It deletes both the
resource fork and the data fork of the files you specify.
⇒ To delete the file Desktop Folder:Readme on the current Macintosh disk,
type:
$ hdel 'Desktop Folder:Readme' RET

Chapter 26: Cross-Platform Conversions 529

26.2.5 Formatting a Macintosh Disk

To format a disk for the Macintosh, writing an empty hfs filesystem to the
disk, use hformat. Give as an argument the Linux device file of the disk
drive; for example, the device file for the first floppy drive is /dev/fd0, and
the second drive is /dev/fd1.
⇒ To format the disk in the first floppy drive with a Macintosh hfs filesys-
tem, type:
$ hformat /dev/fd0 RET

If the disk currently has a partition on it, this command won’t work; use
the -f option to force the format, thus erasing any existing partition and data
the disk contains.
Give a label for the drive as a quoted argument to the -l option. The label
name can’t contain a colon character (:).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To format the disk in the first floppy drive with a Macintosh hfs
filesystem, overwriting any existing Macintosh filesystem, type:
$ hformat -f /dev/fd0 RET

• To format the disk in the second floppy drive with a Macintosh hfs
filesystem, giving it a volume label of “Work Disk,” type:
$ hformat -l 'Work Disk' /dev/fd1 RET

When a disk has multiple partitions, give the number of the partition to
format as an additional argument. To format the entire medium, give “0” as
the partition to use.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To format the second partition of the scsi disk at /dev/sd2 with a
Macintosh hfs filesystem, type:
$ hformat /dev/sd2 2 RET

• To format the entire scsi disk at /dev/sd2 with a Macintosh hfs
filesystem, overwriting any existing Macintosh filesystem and giving
it a label of “Joe's Work Disk,” type:
$ hformat -f -l "Joe's Work Disk" /dev/sd2 0 RET

26.3 Mounting Windows and nt partitions

Windows partitions can be mounted if your Linux kernel has support for the
vfat filesystem, and nt partitions can be mounted (read-only) if your kernel
has support for the ntfs filesystem.
530 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To mount the Windows partition at the /dev/hdd1 device on

/home/roger/mywin, type:
$ mount -t vfat /dev/hdd1 /home/roger/mywin RET

The command in the preceding example makes the Windows partition at

/dev/hdd1 available to Linux in the /home/roger/mywin directory.
⇒ To mount the Windows nt partition at the /dev/hea1 device on /mnt,
type:
$ mount -t ntfs /dev/hea1 /mnt RET

The command in the preceding example makes the Windows nt partition

at /dev/hea1 available to Linux as a read-only filesystem in the /mnt directory.

26.4 Converting Text Files Between dos and Linux

In all versions of dos (and all subsequent versions of Microsoft Windows),
text files are normally written with both a carriage return character and a
newline, both “invisible” control characters, to signify the end of each line. In
Linux and other unices, text files have only the newline character.
In either of these operating systems, text files that originated from the
other may display irregularly—in dos and Windows, the lines of a Linux text
file may appear to run together; in Linux, a dos or Windows text file may
have “^M” carriage return characters at the end of each line.
There are several methods for converting text between these two systems.

METHOD #1
Tofrodos
DEB: sysutils
RPM: tofrodos
WWW: http://www.uni-kassel.de/hrz/server/Software/dos2unix/

The fromdos and todos tools allow you to convert text files between dos and
Linux.
To convert a text file from dos to Linux, removing the “^M” newline char-
acters in the file, use fromdos. It converts the file you give as an argument,
removing the newline characters from the ends of all its lines.
To convert a text file from Linux to the convention used by dos and Win-
dows, use todos. It adds newline characters to the ends of all lines in the file
you give as an argument.
Chapter 26: Cross-Platform Conversions 531

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To remove the newline characters from the text file autoexec.bat,
type:
$ fromdos autoexec.bat RET

• To add newline characters to all of the text files with a .tex extension
in the current directory, type:
$ todos *.tex RET

NOTES: Both commands write directly to the files you specify. To make a
backup of the original file, use the -b option; before the conversion, this writes
a copy of each specified file with a .bak file name extension.

METHOD #2
Use the col filter to filter out carriage returns from text, as described in
Recipe 13.1.9 [Removing Carriage Return Characters], page 310.
⇒ To filter out the carriage returns from the file README.TXT, writing to a
new file called readme.txt, type:
$ col < README.TXT > readme.txt RET

METHOD #3
Another way to convert text from dos is to use the tr filter to delete the
carriage returns (see Recipe 13.4 [Transposing Characters in Text], page 316).
⇒ To filter out the carriage returns from the file dos-version.txt, writing
to the new file unix-version.txt, type:
$ tr -d '\r' < dos-version.txt > unix-version.txt RET

NOTES: To do the reverse of this—to convert text from unix to dos—I have
been told that simply opening the file in the dos text editor program called
edit, and then saving the file and exiting, will work. This will automatically
add the requisite carriage returns to the end of each line.

26.5 Converting Microsoft Word Files

word2x
DEB: word2x
RPM: word2x
WWW: http://word2x.sourceforge.net/
532 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Use word2x to convert Microsoft Word files to a format you can read. It can
convert files to two different formats: LaTEX and plain text.
Convert to LaTEX when the layout of the original document, including its
formatting and font characteristics, is important. When you just need the
complete text of the document, convert it to plain text. word2x can send its
output to the standard output, so the latter conversion is useful for adding to
a pipeline.
Word files usually have a .doc or .DOC extension, which you don’t have
to specify. For example, if the Word file you want to convert is called
resume.doc, you can simply give resume as the source file. (But if there exists
another file named resume in the same directory, this trick won’t work).
If you don’t specify an output file, word2x writes its output to a file with the
same base file name and an appropriate extension for the output format. This
is useful for converting a lot of Word files in the same directory—specifying a
wildcard such as *.doc as the input and giving no output name will convert
them all.
You can also set the maximum line width to be used in the output file;
specify the width as an argument to the -w option.
The following recipes describe how to use word2x to convert Word files to
LaTEX and plain text format.
NOTES: While word2x does a pretty good job of conversion, it won’t convert
any pictures embedded in Word documents.
There are other ways to read or convert Word files; see Recipe 26.8 [Using
Other Cross-Platform Conversion Tools], page 535, for a list of other tools
you can use for this purpose.

26.5.1 Converting Word to LaTEX

To convert a Word file to LaTEX format, use word2x and give “latex” as an
argument to the -f option.
⇒ To convert the Word file resume.doc to LaTEX, type:
$ word2x -f latex resume.doc RET

This command writes a new file, resume.ltx, in the LaTEX format. You
can then view, print, or convert the file to other formats—see Recipe 15.3.3
[Processing a LaTEX File], page 374. The original resume.doc file is unaltered.
Chapter 26: Cross-Platform Conversions 533

⇒ To convert all of the .DOC Word files in the current directory to LaTEX
files with maximum line widths of 40 characters, type:
$ word2x -f latex -w 40 *.DOC RET

26.5.2 Converting Word to Plain Text

To convert a Word file to plain text, use word2x and give “text” as an argu-
ment to the -format option.
⇒ To convert the Word file resume.doc to a plain text file called resume,
type:
$ word2x -f text resume.doc resume RET

To send a conversion to the standard output, give a hyphen character (-)

as the output file to use. This is useful for piping the plain text conversion
to other tools that work on text, such as grep, a tool for searching text (see
Recipe 14.1 [Searching Text for a Word], page 333).
⇒ To search the text of the Word file resume.doc for the string “linux,”
regardless of case, type:
$ word2x resume.doc - | grep -i linux RET

These commands convert the Word file resume.doc to text and output all
lines of that text, if any, that contain the string “linux” regardless of case.
The original resume.doc file is unaltered.

26.6 Converting Text from Proprietary Formats

Use Recipe 9.3.6 [Listing Text in Binary Files], page 228, to output any text
strings saved in a file with a proprietary format. This does not always work
because not all proprietary formats keep text in ascii strings, but it’s usually
worth trying.
⇒ To peruse all of the ascii strings in the file HCX1010A.BIN, type:
$ strings HCX1010A.BIN | less RET

26.7 Managing zip Archives

Unzip
DEB: unzip
RPM: unzip
WWW: http://www.info-zip.org/
534 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

zip file compression takes one or more files and compresses them into a single
new file with a .zip extension. This is what most people new to Linux or unix
in general think of when they think of “file archives.” But in the unix world,
file archives and compression are separate tools, even though they usually go
hand in hand. We make compressed tar archives (see Recipe 8.5 [Manag-
ing File Archives], page 199). And then we can compress these archives, or
any other file, with gzip or bzip2 (see Recipe 8.4 [Using File Compression],
page 196).
When sending and receiving groups of files with people who use other
operating systems, the zip archive format is usually used. The zip and unzip
tools make and extract zip archives as done by the popular pkzip tools for
other operating systems.
The following recipes show how to use these tools.

26.7.1 Zipping Files

Use zip to make a zip archive of a file or group of files. It takes as arguments
the name of the zip archive to create and the filespec to put in the archive.
Giving the .zip extension for the archive name is optional; if the archive
already exists, the given files will be added to the archive.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To make a zip archive file, zippy.zip, containing all of the .png files
in the current directory, type:
$ zip zippy *.png RET

• To add all of the .tiff files in the current directory to an existing
zip archive file, zippy.zip, type:
$ zip zippy *.tiff RET

When specifying a directory, if you give just the directory name, only that
directory (and not its contents) will be included in the archive. Specifying a
wildcard in a directory will include the files it contains and any subdirectory
names, but it will not travel into those subdirectories to include any files that
may be contained there. Use the ‘-r’ option to travel recursively into any
specified directories, thus including its entire contents.
⇒ To make a zip archive zippy.zip containing all files in the current direc-
tory, type:
$ zip zippy * RET

Chapter 26: Cross-Platform Conversions 535

If the current directory contains any directories, those directory names are
included in the zip archive, but not any of their contents.
⇒ To make a zip archive zippy.zip containing all files in the current direc-
tory, as well as all files in the addons directory, type:
$ zip zippy * addons/* RET

This command puts all files in the current directory in an archive called
zippy.zip, to which it also adds all files in the addons directory, but it does
not add the contents of any subdirectories that addons may contain.
⇒ To make a zip archive zippy.zip containing the entire addons directory
tree, type:
$ zip zippy -r addons/* RET

26.7.2 Unzipping Files

Use unzip to unzip files stored in zip archives. Given the name of an archive
as an argument, it extracts all the files that archive contains. As with zip,
giving the .zip extension is optional.
⇒ To unzip all the files in the zip archive blueprints.zip, type:
$ unzip blueprints.zip RET

It is sometimes a good idea to take a look inside the zip archive first, to see
what you are getting into by unzipping—if a zip archive contains a hundred
files and you are not expecting them, it could be inconvenient to just unzip it
first.
That’s where the -t option comes in handy, and I use it all the time
before unzipping an archive for real. This just tests the files contained in the
archive to make sure that the archive file has not become corrupt. As unzip
runs through the tests, it lists each file in the archive. None of the files are
unzipped with this command.
⇒ To test the zip archive blueprints.zip for errors, thus listing all the
files it contains, type:
$ unzip -t blueprints.zip RET

26.8 Using Other Cross-Platform Conversion Tools

There are more tools for converting files from other platforms into formats
that you can use on Linux; the following table describes some of them.
536 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

AbiWord wysiwyg-style word processor that can read, display, and

convert files from proprietary word processors, including Mi-
crosoft Word.
DEB: abiword-common
RPM: abiword
WWW: http://www.abisource.com/
Antiword Converts Microsoft Word files into something usable.
DEB: antiword
RPM: antiword
WWW: http://www.winfield.demon.nl/
catdoc Outputs text from Microsoft Word files. Includes xls2csv,
a tool to output data from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets as
comma-delimited text.
DEB: catdoc
RPM: catdoc
WWW: http://www.45.free.net/~vitus/ice/catdoc/
ppthtml Converts Microsoft PowerPoint files to html.
DEB: ppthtml
RPM: xlhtml
GNU Unrtf Converts Microsoft’s Rich Text Format (rtf) to something
usable.
DEB: unrtf
RPM: unrtf
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/unrtf/unrtf.html
wp2x Converts WordPerfect files to something usable.
DEB: wp2x
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/2lzcq
wvWare Converts and previews Microsoft Word files.
DEB: wv
RPM: wv
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wvware
Chapter 27: Reminders 537

27. Reminders
When you spend a lot of time working on the system, it can be very useful to be
reminded when you should be doing something else. You can have the system
do this for you, and this chapter tells you how. It describes software tools
that provide reminders of various kinds—clocks, calendars, address books,
and tools for tracking appointments.

27.1 Displaying the Date and Time

Use date to output the current system date and time.
⇒ To output the current system date and time, type:
 

$ date RET

Thu Jul 1 10:09:57 EDT 2004
$


The default format of the output is to display the day of the week; the
month name; the day of the month; the 24-hour time in hours, minutes, and
seconds; the time zone; and the year.
Use the -u option to output the current date and time in gmt (“Greenwich
Mean Time,” also known today as “Coordinated Universal Time”, or utc).
⇒ To output the current date and time in utc, type:
 

$ date -u RET

Thu, 1 Jul 2004 10:09:57 -0400
$

Use the -R option to output the date in the format described in rfc822
(see Recipe 11.4 [Word Lists and Reference Files], page 289): day of week
followed by day of month, month name, year, time, and time zone in numeric
format. This is the date format used in email messages.
⇒ To output the current date and time in rfc822 format, type:
 

$ date -R RET

Fri, 11 May 2001 11:10:29 -0400
$


538 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

You can also use the -d option to specify the precise fields to output, and
the order in which to output them. One useful example is given in the next
recipe; for more information, consult the date man page (see Recipe 2.8.4
[Reading a Page from the System Manual], page 46).
The date tool has many parameters for formatting the output, all of which
are preceded with +. They are sometimes useful for putting into scripts. The
following recipes describe a few.

NOTES: To ensure that the time on your system clock remains as accurate
as possible, your system administrator should install the chrony package; it
periodically adjusts the time on the system clock according to measurements
obtained from time service servers on the Internet via “Network Time Proto-
col.”

27.1.1 Displaying the Day of the Year

Use date with the %j format parameter to output the day of the year.
⇒ To display the current day of the year, type:
$ date +'%j' RET

To output the number of days a particular date is into the year, use -d
with “'DD MMM ' +%j,” where DD is the day of the month and MMM is
the name of the month.
⇒ To output the numeric day of the year that 21 June falls on in the current
year, type:
 

$ date -d '21 Jun' +%j RET

172
$

This command outputs the number 172, which indicates that June 21st of
the current year is the 172nd day of the current calendar year.

27.1.2 Displaying the Minute of the Hour

To output the minute of the hour, use date with the “%M” format parameter.
⇒ To output the minute of the hour, type:
$ date +'%M' RET

Chapter 27: Reminders 539

27.2 Playing an Audible Time Announcement

Saytime
DEB: saytime
WWW: http://www.acme.com/software/saytime/

Use the saytime command to output the current system time in an audible
message in a male voice. You must have a sound card installed on your system,
and it must be set up with speakers or some other output mechanism at an
appropriate volume level in order for you to hear it (see Recipe 21.1 [Adjusting
the Audio Controls], page 463).
⇒ To hear the current system time, type:
$ saytime RET

NOTES: If you’re feeling adventurous, you can record another voice—like your
own—and use that voice instead of the default voice; the sound files used are
Sun .au files, and they are kept in the /usr/share/saytime directory.

27.3 Using Calendars

The following recipes describe a few of the basic tools for displaying calendars
in Linux.

27.3.1 Displaying a Calendar

The cal tool outputs a calendar to the standard output. By default, it outputs
a calendar of the current month.
⇒ To output a calendar for the current month, type:
$ cal RET

Use the -y option to output a calendar for the current year.

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output a calendar for the current year, type:
$ cal -y RET

• To print a calendar for the current year to the default printer, type:
cal -y | lpr RET

To output a calendar for a specific year, give just the year as an option.
540 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output a calendar for the year 2012, type:

 

$ cal 2012 RET

2012

January February March

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
29 30 31 26 27 28 29 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

April May June

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 1 2
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
29 30 27 28 29 30 31 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

July August September

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
29 30 31 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
October November December
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 1
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
28 29 30 31 25 26 27 28 29 30 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
$

The -j option displays Julian dates, numbered consecutively though the

year, from January 1.
Chapter 27: Reminders 541

⇒ To output a calendar for the current month with Julian dates, type:
$ cal -j RET

To output a calendar for a specific month, give both the numeric month
and year as arguments.
⇒ To output a calendar for the month of April 1945, type:
 

$ cal 04 1945 RET

April 1945
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30

27.3.2 Displaying a Calendar in Emacs

Emacs comes with its own calendar service. The calendar function displays
a three-month calendar in a new buffer—it gives the current, previous, and
next months, and it puts point on the current date. To select the month and
year to display, preface the calendar function with the universal-argument
command, CTRL
- U
.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• While in Emacs, to display a three-month calendar for the current
month and year, type:
$ ALT
- X
calendar RET

• While in Emacs, to display a three-month calendar for the month of
August 2000, type:
 

CTRL
- U
ALT
- X
calendar RET

Year (>0): 2010 BKSP
BKSP
00 RET

Month name: Aug RET

542 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: When you display a calendar for a specific month and year, Emacs
fills in the current year in the minibuffer. In the previous example, the current
year was 2010, and BKSP
was typed twice to erase the last two digits, which
were replaced with “00” to make it the year 2000.

27.4 Managing Appointments

The calendar tool is a reminder service that you can use to manage your
appointments. It reads a calendar file, which is a text file in the current
directory containing a list of appointments and reminders; then it outputs
those entries from the file that have today’s or tomorrow’s date. (On a Friday,
it outputs entries for that weekend and for the following Monday.)
For example, if today is Friday, June 16, and you run calendar in the same
directory as your calendar file, typical output might look like Figure 27-1.
 

$ calendar RET

6/16 Finish draft of book
Party at Jack's
Fri Lunch with Kim and Jim, 12:30
Mon Book manuscript due
$


Figure 27-1. Typical calendar output.
The following are recipes for writing your calendar files, including other
calendar files in your own calendar file, and for automating the delivery of
your reminders.

NOTES: The calendar tool was a one-time staple of unix systems, and re-
portedly first appeared in Version 7 of at&t unix. It was rewritten early
on for the bsd family of unix. Although this bsd derivative is a standard
inclusion on Debian systems, calendar isn’t yet standard on all Linux distri-
butions, and a source or binary of the tool can be difficult for users of other
distributions to locate. I advise those users to download the source files for
the Debian bsdmainutils package and to install calendar from there.
Emacs has its own equivalent to this tool, which it calls the “Diary.” For
more information on this feature, see the Emacs Info documentation (see
Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).
Chapter 27: Reminders 543

27.4.1 Making an Appointment File

To begin using calendar, you need to make a “calendar file” where you can
enter your appointments. It’s just a plain text file, and it can be called either
calendar or .calendar; the latter makes it a “hidden” file, as described in
Recipe 5.3.4 [Listing Hidden Files], page 138.
Write each appointment or calendar entry on a line by itself; blank lines
in the file are ignored. When an appointment is over, remove its entry from
this file. The format of a calendar entry is as follows:
date tab or spaces text of reminder itself

Just about every common date style is recognized. For example, Figure
27-2 shows a listing of valid dates for the fourth of July.
 

7/4
July 4
4 July
Jul. 4
Jul 4
4 Jul.
4 Jul


Figure 27-2. Valid dates for the fourth of July.
Entries aren’t constrained to a single day, either; you can have entries for a
day of the week or for a certain month—“Mon” or “Monday” for every Monday;
“Jun” or “June” for the first day of every June. You can use an asterisk as
a wildcard: “*/13” reminds you of something on the 13th of every month.
When the date is omitted on a line, the date of the preceding appointment is
assumed.
For example, suppose you have a file called calendar in your home direc-
tory that looks like Figure 27-3.
 

6/16 Finish draft of book

Party at Jack's
6/20 Gallery reading
Fri Lunch with Kim and Jim, 12:30
Mon Book manuscript due


Figure 27-3. Typical calendar file.
544 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

If the current date is 16 June, a Friday, and you run calendar in your
home directory, you’ll get the same output as in Figure 27-1.
NOTES: In the preceding example, the entry for the party doesn’t have a date
on it—it used the date of the preceding entry, “6/16.”

27.4.2 Including Holidays in Your Reminders

The calendar package comes with a collection of prepared calendar files for
many kinds of holidays and other occasions, which you can reference in your
own calendar file to include their entries in your own reminders. These pre-
pared files are stored in /usr/share/calendar. The following table gives the
name of each calendar file and describes its contents.

calendar.birthday Births and deaths of famous people

calendar.christian Christian holidays
calendar.computer Significant dates in the history of computing
calendar.history Dates of U.S. historical events
calendar.holiday Standard and obscure holidays
calendar.judaic Jewish holidays
calendar.music Dates related to music, almost entirely rock and roll
of the Baby Boomer generation
calendar.usholiday U.S. holidays
calendar.hindu Hindu holidays

To have calendar output dates from one of these files along with your
usual appointments, put the following line in your calendar file, where file is
the name of the particular calendar file you want to include:
#include <file>

These are called includes.

 

#include <calendar.usholiday>
#include <calendar.birthday>


Figure 27-4. Includes for calendar.
Chapter 27: Reminders 545

For example, to output both U.S. holidays and famous births and deaths
when you run calendar, your calendar file would include the two lines given
in Figure 27-4.
NOTES: You can, of course, share your own calendar files with other users;
this is useful for making special calendars for a group or organization. If the
calendar file is in the current directory or /usr/share/calendar, you can just
give the file name; otherwise, give its full path name in the include statement.

27.4.3 Automatic Appointment Delivery

You can automate your appointment service so that your appointments and
reminders are delivered each time you log in or start a new shell, or you can
have the day’s reminders emailed to you each morning.
Add calendar to your .bashrc file to output the day’s appointments and
reminders every time you log in or start a new shell (see Recipe 3.7.3 [Using
Shell Startup Files], page 86).
If you keep your calendar file in a directory other than your home directory,
make sure that calendar (the tool) is called from that directory. For example,
if your calendar file is in your ~/doc/etc directory, you’d put the following
line in your .bashrc file:
cd ~/doc/etc; calendar; cd
To have the system send you the day’s appointments in email, use crontab
to schedule a daily cron job that runs calendar and, if there is any output,
mails it to you with mail (see Recipe 28.3 [Scheduling Commands], page 557).
To do this, add the following line to your crontab file (if you don’t have
one, just put this line in a text file called crontab somewhere in your home
directory tree):
45 05 * * 1-5 calendar | mail -s 'Your Appointments' [email protected]
The “45 05 * * 1-5” specifies that these commands be run at 5:45 a.m.
on every weekday. The rest of the line is the series of actual commands that
are run: The calendar tool is run on your personal calendar file, and if there
is any output, it’s mailed to [email protected] (replace that with your actual
email address, or with your username on your local system if you check mail
there).
Add this new entry to the schedule by running the crontab tool with the
name of your crontab file as an argument.
546 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To add to the cron schedule any new entries that are in the file crontab,
type:
$ crontab crontab RET

NOTES: The name of the command, crontab, is the same as the file it uses,
crontab.

27.5 Using Contact Managers

Loosely put, a contact manager is a piece of software that helps you keep
track of information about people you may need to contact in the future.
In the past, people often called the physical embodiment of these things a
“rolodex,” which incidentally is a trademarked brand name for the Cadillac
of such contact managers, the circular Rolodex that sat atop the desk of every
successful 20th century businessman. I hear that many people use them even
today.
There are many contact manager programs available; the following recipes
show two of the best and easiest methods of managing contact information
with Linux.

27.5.1 Keeping a Free-Form Address List

The simplest way to keep names and addresses in Linux is to keep them in a
text file as a free-form address list; to find an entry, use the search capabilities
of tools like grep, less, and Emacs.
This method is useful when you need to keep track of name and address
information for many parties, but you don’t always keep the same kind of in-
formation for each—maybe sometimes a name and phone number, sometimes
just a mailing address, sometimes a name and email address. With a free-form
address list, each entry contains whatever information you have in the format
you want. Separate the entries with a delimiter line of your preference. I
happen to use “###,” but you can use whatever characters you’re comfortable
with—just make it a combination that won’t appear in the text for any of the
entries themselves.
For example, suppose you have a text file, rolo, containing three entries,
as in Figure 27-5.
Notice that each entry contains varied information, and is in no particular
format. That’s the benefit of a free-form list—you don’t have to type the
entries in any particular order, and you’re not bound by a particular set of
Chapter 27: Reminders 547

“fields”; you can even cut and paste text into it from email, the Web, or other
windows (see Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of Text], page 253).
 
Mary Smith
14 Elm St
Centerville, New York

###

Susan Jones - 602 555 1803

(don't call after eight)

###

Prof. Jenkins, 25 College St, Uptown, New York

555-2011 [email protected]

Figure 27-5. The rolo file.
There are several ways to find text in such a file. Suppose, for example,
you want to contact your friend Susan, and you need her telephone number.
⇒ To output the line in the file containing the text “susan,” regardless of
case, type:
 

$ grep -i susan rolo RET

Susan Jones - 602 555 1803
$

This works nicely when the information you need is on the same line as
the information you search for—here, the name Susan is on the same line as
the telephone number; however, the output did not show the warning that
appears on the next line in the file. And what about when the term you
search for and the information you need are on adjacent lines?
Use the -C option with grep to output several lines of context before and
after matched lines.
548 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output the several lines around the line matching the text “Jenkins,”
type:
 

$ grep -C Jenkins rolo RET

Prof. Jenkins, 25 College St, Uptown, New York

(914) 555-2011 [email protected]
$

Another way to search such a file is to open it as a buffer in Emacs and

use any of the Emacs searches. The Emacs incremental-search function,
CTRL
- S
, is very useful for such files—even for very large ones. If you do such
a search on a large file, and the first result doesn’t turn up the right record,
just keep typing CTRL
- S
until the right one appears. If you type the letters
to search for in all lowercase, Emacs matches those letters regardless of case.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To search through the current buffer in Emacs for the first entry
containing the text “New York,” regardless of case, type:
CTRL
- S
new york

• To search for the next entry containing the text “New York,” regard-
less of case, type:
CTRL
- S

You can repeat this keystroke as many times as you wish to show all entries
in the entire buffer with the text “New York” in them. Once you reach the
end of the buffer, type CTRL
- S
again to loop around to the beginning of the
buffer and continue the search from there. (The minibuffer will tell you when
you’ve reached the end of the buffer, and will remind you to type this if you
want to loop the search.)

NOTES: It’s also useful to peruse and search through these kinds of files with
less—see Recipe 14.11 [Searching the Text You’re Perusing], page 354.

27.5.2 Keeping a Contact Manager Database

BBDb
DEB: bbdb
RPM: bbdb
WWW: http://bbdb.sourceforge.net/
Chapter 27: Reminders 549

The Insidious Big Brother Database is a contact manager tool for use with
Emacs. You can use it with Emacs email and news readers; it stores contact
information in records and allows you to search for records that match a
regular expression, as well as records whose particular fields match a regular
expression (see Recipe 14.3 [Matching Patterns of Text], page 335).
There are several ways to add a record to the database. Use the bbdb-
create function to manually add a record. (When you run this command,
bbdb prompts you to enter the relevant information for each field.) When in a
mail reader inside Emacs, type a colon (:) to display the record for the author
of the current message; if there is none, bbdb asks whether or not one should
be created.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To create a new bbdb record from scratch, type:
ALT
- X
bbdb-create RET

• To add a new bbdb record for the author of the current email message,
type:
:

Use the bbdb function to search for records—it takes as an argument the
pattern or regexp to search for.
⇒ To output records containing the text “scott” anywhere in the record,
type:
ALT
- X
bbdb RET
scott RET

There are additional functions that let you narrow your search to a par-
ticular field: bbdb-name, bbdb-company, bbdb-net, and bbdb-notes, which
respectively search the name, company, email address, and notes fields.
⇒ To output records matching the regexp “*\.edu” in the email address,
type:
ALT
- X
bbdb-net RET
*\.edu RET

27.6 Reminding Yourself of Things

Sometimes it’s useful to make a reminder for yourself that you’ll see either
later in your current login session, or the next time you log in. These recipes
describe the best ways to do this.
NOTES: When you want to give yourself a reminder for a future appointment,
use calendar (see Recipe 27.4 [Managing Appointments], page 542).
550 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

27.6.1 Reminding Yourself When You Have to Leave

Leave
DEB: leave
RPM: leave
WWW: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/src/usr.bin/

Use the leave tool to remind yourself when you have to leave. Give as an
argument the time when you have to go, using the format of hhmm, where hh
is hours in 24-hour format and mm is minutes.
⇒ To remind yourself to leave at 8:05 p.m., type:
$ leave 2005 RET

When you run leave with no arguments, it prompts you to enter a time;
if you just type RET
, leave exits without setting the reminder. This method
is good for adding leave to scripts or to your .bashrc, so that you can inter-
actively give a time to leave, if desired, when the script runs (see Recipe 3.7.3
[Using Shell Startup Files], page 86).
NOTES: leave will output a reminder on the terminal screen five minutes
before the given time, one minute before the time, at the time itself, and then
every minute subsequently until the user logs off.

27.6.2 Sending Yourself Email Reminders

Sending yourself a short email message is often effective for reminding yourself
to do something during your next workday or next time you read mail; keeping
a message in your inbox works as a constant reminder to get something done—
provided you don’t abuse it and fill your inbox with lots of these “urgent”
mails!
To quickly send an email reminder, give your email address (or just your
username on your local system, if you check mail there) as an argument to
the mail tool. You’ll be prompted to give a subject for the message, and if
that isn’t enough space for the reminder, you can write as many lines as you
need below it as the message body text. Type CTRL
- D
on a line by itself
to send the mail.
Chapter 27: Reminders 551

⇒ For example, if your username on your local system is joe, to send yourself
an email reminder, you’d type:
 

$ mail joe RET

Subject: Bring files to meeting RET

CTRL
- D

Cc: RET

Null message body; hope that's ok
$

NOTES: For more about using the mail tool, see Recipe 32.1 [Sending Mail],
page 612.

27.7 Telling Others You Are Away

If you are on a system that is connected directly to the Internet, you can set
up an automatic reply message to incoming email when you are away, so that
people know you are not around.
To do this, use the vacation tool. Write the message you want to
send, complete with “From:” and “Subject:” lines, in a hidden file called
.vacation.msg in your home directory. For example, if your email address
is [email protected], your ~/vacation.msg might contain something
like Figure 27-6.
 

From: Dr. Constance Peterson <[email protected]>

Subject: Regarding your message to Dr. Peterson
Precedence: bulk

I am away from the University for the first week of February. I will
return on February 8th and will address your mail then. If your business
is urgent, please address Dr. Edwards, at [email protected].


Figure 27-6. The .vacation.msg file.
Then, edit another hidden file in your home directory called .forward, and
put the following line in it:
\cpeterson, "|/usr/bin/vacation cpeterson"
This will save a copy of all incoming mail in your inbox, and it will use
vacation to reply to any mails addressed to the username cpeterson; the
reply mail will be the one you wrote in .vacation.msg.
552 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Then, when you return from vacation, just move the .forward file to
something else.
⇒ To move your .forward to .forward.not, type
$ mv .forward .forward.not RET

NOTES: You can leave the .vacation.msg file where it is, and edit it as
needed next time you are about to go away.
If you run vacation, it is a good idea to unsubscribe yourself from any
mailing lists before your absence. That way, you will avoid the embarrassment
of sending your message out to all the subscribers of a list whenever someone
posts a message to it.

27.8 Reviewing What You Did Today

To help remember what you’ve done recently, you can use find to get a list
of files that you looked at and files that you modified in the past day (see
Recipe 7.2 [Finding Files in a Directory Tree], page 172).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To list all the files in your home directory tree, excluding directories,
that were accessed today, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -atime -1 \! -type d RET

• To list all the files in your home directory tree, excluding directories,
that were modified today, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -mtime -1 \! -type d RET

You can make variations on this recipe to see what you did at other times.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To list all the files in your home directory tree, excluding directories,
that were accessed between now and two days ago, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -atime -2 \! -type d RET

• To list all the files in your home directory tree, excluding directories,
that were modified exactly two days ago, type:
$ find ~ -daystart -mtime 2 \! -type d RET

To measure not by numbers of days ago, but to find files accessed or
changed on a specific date, use touch to touch two temporary files: one with
the date you are looking for, and one with the day after. Then use find to
find files newer than the first, but not newer than the second.
Chapter 27: Reminders 553

⇒ To find out what you did on September 11, 2001, type:

 

$ touch -d "Sep 11 2001" /tmp/911 RET

$ touch -d "Sep 12 2001" /tmp/912 RET

$ find ~ -daystart -newer /tmp/911 \! -daystart -newer /tmp/912 RET

This lists all the files that were last modified on September 11, 2001. Use
-anewer to list files were last accessed that day, and -cnewer to list files
that were last changed that day. Two temporary files are made with special
timestamps, /tmp/911 and /tmp/912.

27.9 Using Other Reminder Tools

The following table lists additional tools that can be used to generate re-
minders, including calendars and appointment managers.

Ccal Replacement for cal that outputs calendars in color.

DEB: ccal
Evolution “Groupware” suite that includes calendar and address facil-
ities.
DEB: evolution
RPM: evolution
WWW: http://ximian.com/products/evolution/
Gcal Outputs many types of calendars, including astronomical
ones.
DEB: gcal
RPM: gcal
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/gcal/gcal.html
KOrganizer Appointment manager for kde, with built-in calendar and
scheduler; uses vCalendar file format.
DEB: korganizer
RPM: korganizer
WWW: http://www.kde.org/
554 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Jpilot Keeps names and addresses on a Palm desktop, and includes

date book, address book, to-do list, and a facility for making
memorandums; extensive plug-ins have been developed for
it.
DEB: jpilot
RPM: jpilot
WWW: http://jpilot.org/
ouR CLOCK Analog clock for X that inverses its colors when you have
new mail waiting; has built-in appointment facility.
DEB: rxvt
RPM: rxvt
WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/rxvt/
Plan Graphical schedule planner.
DEB: plan
RPM: plan
WWW: http://me.in-berlin.de/~bitrot/plan.html
QuickList Keep track of any sort of thing you can put in a list.
DEB: quicklist
RPM: quicklist
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/2a9d5
Remind Reminder service with www facilities.
DEB: remind
Wmdate Prints calendar in the “docking bar” of window managers,
such as Window Maker.
DEB: wmdate
RPM: wmdate
Xwrits Reminds you to take a break from typing.
DEB: xwrits
Xcal The original graphical calendar for X. Has programmable
alarms and an appointment and memo facility.
DEB: xcal
Chapter 28: Scheduling 555

28. Scheduling
Sometimes it is useful to specify a command or set of commands so that they
run not immediately, but at some other time. This chapter describes tech-
niques for handling this sort of function, as well as techniques for monitoring
commands that are currently running.

28.1 Running a Command on a Delay

The sleep tool does nothing but wait (or “sleep”) for the number of seconds
specified as an argument. This is useful for ringing the system bell, playing
a sound file, or running some other command at your terminal after a short
delay.
To do this, give the number of seconds to “sleep” as an argument to sleep,
followed by a semicolon character (;)1 and the commands to run. This runs
the given commands only after sleep waits for the given number of seconds.
Since the shell where you type this command will be unusable until the
commands you give are executed (or until you interrupt the whole thing), type
this command in an xterm or virtual console window (see Recipe 2.3 [Using
Consoles and Terminals], page 32) other than the one you are working in.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To ring the bell in five seconds, type:
$ sleep 5; echo -e '\a' RET

• To announce the time in 30 seconds, type:
$ sleep 30; saytime RET

You can also give the time in minutes, hours, or days. To do this, follow
the argument with a unit, as listed in the following table.

s Seconds
m Minutes
h Hours
d Days
⇒ To announce the time in exactly five minutes, type:
$ sleep 5m; saytime & RET

1
The shell command separator; see Recipe 3.1.7 [Running a List of Commands], page 63.
556 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

28.2 Running a Command on a Timer

Use at to run commands on a timer. It takes as an argument the exact time
you want to run a command, and then it reads commands from the standard
input, starting from the “at>” prompt and ending when you type CTRL
- D

on a line by itself. It schedules a job for the commands you give, and it runs
them at the specified time (see Recipe 3.3 [Managing Jobs], page 70). The
commands are executed by /bin/sh, the default shell; as a reminder, at warns
you about this fact when you specify the commands.
⇒ To mail yourself a reminder at five minutes after 5 p.m. today, type:
 

$ at 17:05 RET

warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
at> mail chuck -s "IT'S TIME TO GO!" < /dev/null RET

at> CTRL
- D
<EOT>
job 5 at 2003-08-09 17:05
$

In this example, the username is chuck and the job number scheduled by
at is 5.
The at tool understands many time formats, from the month, day, and
year to the hour and minute (optionally given in military time, or followed
by “AM” or “PM”), and the special words “midnight,” “noon,” and “teatime”
(the last of which translates to 4 p.m.). You can use the suffixes “today”
or “tomorrow,” and you can use a “+” after a time followed by a number of
minutes, hours, days, or weeks—for example, “8pm + 2 days” means to run
two days from 8 p.m. tonight. So to run a command at a week from midnight,
use “midnight + 1 week.”
⇒ To schedule ~/bin/clean and ~/bin/tidy to run at 9 p.m. tomorrow,
type:
 

$ at 9pm tomorrow RET

warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
at> ~/bin/clean RET

at> ~/bin/tidy RET

at> CTRL
- D
<EOT>
job 6 at 2003-08-09 17:10
$


Chapter 28: Scheduling 557

Instead of giving the commands from the standard input, you can specify
a list of commands to run from a file. To do this, give the name of the file as
an argument to the -f option.
⇒ To have the system run the commands in the file extra.work at midnight
tonight, type:
$ at -f extra.work midnight RET

NOTES: This method is not for running a command in your current shell, or
running a command at your terminal; to do either of these, see Recipe 28.1
[Delay Command], page 555.
If you want to run a job at some regular interval, use cron instead (see
Recipe 28.3 [Scheduling Commands], below).

28.2.1 Listing the Jobs Scheduled to Run

To list the jobs in the at queue, type atq. For each job, it gives the job
number, date, hour, and job class.
⇒ To list all pending jobs, type:
$ atq RET

28.2.2 Deleting a Job Scheduled to Run

To delete a job that’s scheduled to run, use atrm, giving the job number as
an argument.
⇒ To delete job number 3, type:
atrm 3 RET

28.3 Scheduling Commands

You can schedule commands to run at regular intervals with the system cron
facility (“Command Run On”).
Each command that you have scheduled to run is called a cron job. A
listing of all of your cron jobs is kept in your “cron table,” which in turn
is read from your crontab file; this is a plain text file, often named crontab,
containing all of your cron jobs, one per line, arranged in the following format:
minute hour day of month month day of week command
Hours are given in military time; months and days of week are given either
numerically or with their three-letter abbreviations. The time and date fields
may contain the value of an asterisk character (*), which means the first
558 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

possible value to the last possible value of the field, inclusive. Time and date
fields may also contain ranges of numbers, and individual numbers may be
given separated by commas.
To write comments in your crontab file, begin a lines with a hash sign (#);
the line will be ignored by the system. Blank lines are also ignored.
For example, a simple crontab file might look like Figure 28-1.
 

# This is my sample crontab file.

# Runs the 'foo' command at noon every single day.

0 12 * * * foo

# Runs the 'bar' command at 1:23 in the morning on every day in June.
23 1 * Jun * bar

# Runs the 'foobar' command at half-past four and five p.m. every Monday
# through Wednesday whose day of the month is between 1 and 14.
30 16,17 1-14 * Mon-Wed foobar


Figure 28-1. A simple crontab file.
The following recipes show how to manage cron jobs.

28.3.1 Adding a cron Job

To add or change a cron job, make the appropriate changes to your crontab
file, and then run crontab with the name of this file as an argument. This
command replaces your existing cron table with the one contained in your
crontab file.
⇒ To add a new cron job contained in your crontab file cron.txt, type:
$ crontab cron.txt RET

28.3.2 Removing a cron Job

You remove jobs from cron by removing your cron table. Do this by running
crontab with the -r option.
⇒ To remove your cron table, type:
$ crontab -r RET

NOTES: To remove only some of your cron jobs, or to change your cron
jobs, just revise your crontab file, deleting or revising the entries you want to,
and then add your cron table (as described in the previous recipe).
Chapter 28: Scheduling 559

28.3.3 Listing Your cron Jobs

To list all of the cron jobs you have scheduled, use crontab with the -l
option.
⇒ To list your cron jobs, type:
$ crontab -l RET

28.4 Watching a Command from Time to Time

Use watch to observe the output of a command and watch it run from time
to time. It runs the command you give as an argument, repeatedly, every two
seconds, until it is interrupted. Each time the command is run, the display is
updated with the new results. This is particularly useful for when you want
to closely watch some files in a directory and note the changes as they occur.
⇒ To watch the detailed contents of the current directory, type:
$ watch ls -l RET

This command will display the contents of the current directory in the
terminal you run it in, and it will continually update every two seconds. To
change the interval, give it as an argument to the -n option.
⇒ To watch the detailed contents of the current directory, updating by the
second, type:
$ watch -n 1 ls -l RET

Use the -d flag to highlight the differences in the updates.

⇒ To watch the detailed contents of the current directory, updating every
ten seconds, and highlighting all the differences, type:
$ watch -d -n 10 ls -l RET

NOTES: Sometimes you might find it nice to run your watch session in a
little xterm of its own. If you’re not in X, you might want to devote a console
terminal to it.
560 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 29: Mathematics 561

29. Mathematics
Tools and techniques for dealing with numbers are the subject of this chapter:
listing them in sequence or randomly, calculating arithmetic, cryptography,
and converting between units. Larger applications, such as spreadsheets and
plotting tools, are also mentioned.

29.1 Calculating Arithmetic

As you might expect, there are many tools for making arithmetic calculations
in Linux. The following recipes describe how to use two of them for two
common scenarios; a list of other calculator tools, including a visual calculator,
appears at the end of this chapter (see Recipe 29.9 [Using Other Mathematics
Tools], page 579).

29.1.1 Making a Quick Arithmetic Calculation

To do a quick calculation that requires only addition, subtraction, multiplica-
tion, or division, you can use Bash’s built-in arithmetic evaluation feature to
perform the calculation right at the shell prompt. It makes it even easier if
you make a shell script named calc, as in Figure 29-1.
 

#!/bin/sh
echo $(( expression = $ ))


Figure 29-1. The calc script.
Once you install this script (see Recipe A.3.4 [Installing a Shell Script],
page 708), you can use it at the shell prompt to get the results of any simple
arithmetic calculation.
To do this, give the expression to evaluate as an argument to calc. Use an
asterisk (*) for a multiplication sign and a forward slash (/) for division; to
output the remainder, use a percent sign (%) instead of a slash. You can use
parentheses to group expressions—but when you do, be sure to quote them
(see Recipe 3.1.3 [Quoting Reserved Characters], page 56).
562 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To output the result of 50 times 10, type:
 

$ calc 50*10 RET

500
$


• To output the result of 100 times the sum of 4 plus 420, type:
 

$ calc '100*(4+420)' RET

42400
$


• To output the remainder of 10 divided by 3, type:
 

$ calc 10%3 RET

1
$

NOTES: This is a method for speed. It’s useful for quickly computing a simple
arithmetic equation at the shell prompt, but it has several drawbacks: It only
outputs whole integers; its operators are limited; and complex expressions
must be quoted. Still, if you’re at a shell prompt and need to know the
product of 12,342 and 587, I don’t think there’s a faster way. But for doing
anything more than the very simplest operations, see the next recipe, which
describes bc.

29.1.2 Using a Calculator

bc
DEB: bc
RPM: bc
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/bc/

There are a great many calculators, for X or any terminal. One of the more
Chapter 29: Mathematics 563

venerable standbys is bc, a calculation language that supports arbitrary-

precision numbers, scripts, variables, functions, and algebraic statements. Use
it when you have a lot of calculations to make, or when you must compute
numbers with decimals.
Type bc to start it; you can then perform arithmetic operations interac-
tively, just as you would with a desktop calculator or adding machine.
When you are running bc, you type each statement to be evaluated on a
line by itself, typing RET
at the end of the statement; the evaluation of what
you type is output on the following line. Each line you type will be evaluated
by bc as an arithmetic expression. To exit, type quit on a line by itself.
⇒ To multiply 42 by 17 with bc, type:
 

$ bc RET

bc 1.06
Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
42 * 17 RET

714
quit RET

$

In this example, bc output its version number and warranty information

when it started; then, the statement “42 * 17” was typed by the user, bc
output the result (“714”), and then the user typed quit to exit bc.
By default, digits to the right of the decimal point are truncated from the
output—so dividing 10 by 3 would output “3” as a result, and outputting
the remainder from this operation by typing “10%3” would output “1.” But
since bc is an arbitrary-precision calculator, you can give the number of digits
to use after the decimal point. Do this by specifying the value of the scale
variable; its default value is 0.
564 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To use bc to compute the result of 10 divided by 3, using 20 digits after

the decimal point, type:
 

$ bc RET

bc 1.06
Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
scale=20 RET

10 / 3 RET

3.33333333333333333333
quit RET

$


Use the -l option to start bc with a scale of 20, and with a number of
math functions loaded, as described in the following table.

s (x) Outputs sine of x (x is given in radians).

c (x) Outputs cosine of x (x is given in radians).
a (x) Outputs arctangent of x, in radians.
l (x) Outputs the logarithm of x.
e (x) Outputs the exponential function of e to the xth power.
j (n,x) Outputs the Bessel function of integer order n of x.

The following table describes the symbols you can use to specify mathe-
matical operations.

expression + expression Add: Output the sum of the two expres-

sions.
expression - expression Subtract: Output the difference of the two
expressions.
expression * expression Multiply: Output the product of the two
expressions.
expression / expression Divide: Output the quotient of the two ex-
pressions.
Chapter 29: Mathematics 565

expression % expression Remainder: Output the remainder resulting

from dividing the two expressions.
expression ^ expression Power: Raise the first expression to the
power of the second expression.
(expressions) Group an expression or expressions to-
gether, altering the standard precedence of
performing operations.
sqrt(expression) Output the square root of expression.

The -q option is nice—it suppresses the copyright and warranty message

at start-up. Starting bc with both this and the -l option is a good way to
run it, and you might want to make an alias for bc with these two options
(see Recipe 3.6 [Using Alias Words], page 82):
alias bc='/usr/bin/bc -ql'

29.2 Outputting a Random Number

To get a random number, display the contents of the RANDOM variable. It is a
special shell variable that outputs a random integer between 0 and 32,767.
⇒ To output a random number, type:
$ echo $RANDOM RET

To output a random number in a range starting from zero but under a

certain number, use RANDOM with the Bash arithmetic evaluation expression
“$(( $RANDOM % number )),” where number is the integer that the output
should be under.
⇒ To output a random number from 0 to 9, type:
$ echo $(( $RANDOM % 10 )) RET

29.3 Listing a Sequence of Numbers

Use seq to print a sequence of numbers. This is very useful for getting a
listing of numbers to use as arguments, or for otherwise passing sequences of
numbers to commands.
To output the sequence from 1 to any number, give that number as an
argument.
566 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To output the sequence of numbers from 1 to 7, type:
$ seq 7 RET

• To output the sequence of numbers from 1 to -7, type:
$ seq -7 RET

To output the sequence from any one number to another, give those num-
bers as arguments.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the sequence of numbers from 9 to 0, type:
$ seq 9 0 RET

• To output the sequence of numbers from -1 to -20, type:
$ seq -1 -20 RET

To specify an increment other than one, give it as the second argument,

between the starting and ending number.
⇒ To output the sequence of numbers from -1 to 14, incrementing by 3,
type:
$ seq -1 3 14 RET

Use the -w option to pad numbers with leading zeros so that they’re all
output with the same width.
Specify a separator string to be output between numbers as an argument to
the -s option; the default is a newline character, which outputs each number
in the sequence on its own line.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the sequence of numbers from 9 to 999, incrementing by
23, with numbers padded with zeros so that they’re all of equal width,
type:
$ seq -w 9 23 999 RET

• To output the sequence of numbers from 1 to 23, with a space char-
acter between each, type:
$ seq -s ' ' 1 23 RET

To pass a sequence of numbers as arguments to a command, pipe the

output of seq using a space character as a separator.
⇒ To concatenate all the files in the current directory, whose names are
numbers from 25 through 75, into a new file called selected-mail, type:
$ cat `seq -s " " 25 75` > selected-mail RET

Chapter 29: Mathematics 567

The preceding example substitutes the output of seq as an argument to

cat (see Recipe 3.1.11 [Specifying the Output of a Command as an Argument],
page 65).

29.4 Finding Prime Factors

The factor tool calculates and outputs the prime factors of numbers passed
as arguments.
⇒ To output the prime factors of 2000, type:
 

$ factor 2000 RET

2000: 2 2 2 2 5 5 5
$

NOTES: If no number is given, factor reads numbers from standard input;

numbers should be separated by space, tab, or newline characters.

29.5 Converting Amounts and Numbers

The following recipes are for converting numbers in various ways.

29.5.1 Converting an Amount Between Units of

Measurement
Units
DEB: units
RPM: units
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/units/

Use the units tool to convert a measurement from one measurement scale to
another. Give two quoted arguments: the value and the name of the units
you have, and the name of the units to convert to. It outputs two values: the
converted value in the new units, and how much of the original measurement
is equivalent to one of the new units.
568 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output the number of ounces in 50 grams, type:

 

$ units '50 grams' 'ounces' RET

* 1.7636981
/ 0.56699046
$

In this example, the output indicates that there are about 1.7636981 ounces
in 50 grams, and that conversely, one ounce is about 0.56699046 times 50
grams.
The units tool understands a great many different kinds of units—from
Celsius and Fahrenheit to pounds, hectares, the speed of light, and a “baker’s
dozen.” All understood units are kept in a text file database; use the -V option
to output the location of this database on your system, and then peruse or
search through it to see which units your version supports.
⇒ To determine the location of the units database, type:
 

$ units -V RET

units version 1.55 with readline, units database in
/usr/share/misc/units.dat
$

In this example, the units database is located in the file

/usr/share/misc/units.dat, which is the file to peruse to list all
of the units data.
NOTES: With no arguments, units runs interactively, asking you first what
you have, and then second what you want.
More units of measurement can be found in A Dictionary of Units of Mea-
surement [http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/].

29.5.2 Converting an Arabic Numeral to English

Bsd-games
DEB: bsdgames
RPM: bsd-games
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/

Use number to convert Arabic numerals to English text. Give a numeral as

Chapter 29: Mathematics 569

an argument; with no argument, number reads a numeral from the standard

input.
⇒ To output the English text equivalent of 100,000, type:
$ number 100000 RET

29.6 Using rot13 Encryption

You may, from time to time, come across mention of rot13. Or you may
come across a message—especially on Usenet, or in old email archives—that
ybbxf yvxr guvf.
This is text encoded in rot13 encryption, so named because each letter in
the alphabet is rotated thirteen places over, so that (in a 26-letter alphabet)
the first thirteen letters are substituted for the last thirteen, and vice versa.
Therefore, in rot13, “A” (the first letter of the alphabet) becomes “N” (the
13th letter of the alphabet), “B” becomes “O,” “C” becomes “P,” and so on all
the way through:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
becomes
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M
This type of cipher, where letters are substituted by rotating the entire
alphabet according to some offset, is known today as Julius Caesar’s cipher,
named after its most famous adopter.1
There are two primary methods, both using filters, for encoding and de-
coding text in and out of rot13. One, the traditional method, is to use tr
to transpose the characters, giving a set of the first and last 13 letters to
transpose from, and a set of the last and first 13 letters to transpose to.
The second method automates this process with a tool called rot13, part
of the bsd-games package. This package also includes caesar, a tool for
decoding Caesar ciphers in general via statistical analysis of input.
rot13 is not intended as a method for general encryption—it’s much too
easy to figure out—but it’s good for when you want to temporarily obscure
some text, such as the punch line of a joke or the “spoiler” portion of a movie
review. To encode some text, make it a selection in X and then send it through
one of the two filters for encoding it, or just type it as input to either filter. To
decode some lines of rot13 in text, do the same thing: make a selection of the
encoded text, and then pass it through either of the filters (see Recipe 10.3
[Manipulating Selections of Text], page 253); press CTRL
- D
to terminate
and exit the filter.
1
According to Suetonius, Caesar’s cipher had an offset of 4.
570 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

29.6.1 Encoding Text in rot13

There are a few good methods for encoding text in rot13.

METHOD #1
Use tr to encode some text in rot13, giving as arguments the set containing
the first 13 letters, in both uppercase and lowercase, and then as the second
set, the last 13 letters in both uppercase and lowercase.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To encode the contents of the file script in rot13, and output it to
the file secret.script, type:
$ tr [a-mn-zA-MN-Z] [n-za-mN-ZA-M] < script > secret.script RET

• To type some text and encode it in rot13, type:
 

$ tr [a-mn-zA-MN-Z] [n-za-mN-ZA-M] RET

Hello, world. RET

Uryyb, jbeyq.
CTRL
- D



• To encode the current text selection using the keyboard, type:
 

$ tr [a-mn-zA-MN-Z] [n-za-mN-ZA-M] RET

SHIFT
- INS
RET

This is a secret message. RET

Guvf vf n frperg zrffntr.
CTRL
- D



In the last example above, the text “This is a secret message.” was the
current text selection.

METHOD #2
Bsd-games
DEB: bsdgames
RPM: bsd-games
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/

Use the rot13 filter to encode text in rot13. It works in the same way as
tr, described previously.
Chapter 29: Mathematics 571

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To encode the text in message in rot13, and output it to a new file
called secret_message, type:
$ rot13 < message > secret_message RET

• To type some text and encode it in rot13, type:
 

$ rot13 RET

Hello, world. RET

Uryyb, jbeyq.
CTRL
- D



• To encode the current text selection in rot13, type:
 

$ rot13 RET

SHIFT
- INS
RET

This is a secret message. RET

Guvf vf n frperg zrffntr.
CTRL
- D

NOTES: To insert the text selection with the mouse, press the middle mouse
button instead of SHIFT
- INS
.

29.6.2 Decoding Text in rot13

The methods for decoding text in rot13 are identical to the methods for
encoding in it, for the transformation is exactly the same either way.

METHOD #1
Use the same tr filter method to decode text encoded in rot13 that you
would use to encode in rot13.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To decode the rot13-encoded text in secret_message, sending the
decoded text to the standard output, type:
$ tr [a-mn-zA-MN-Z] [n-za-mN-ZA-M] < secret_message RET

• To decode the rot13-encoded text in secret.script, writing the
decoded text to a file named script, type:
$ tr [a-mn-zA-MN-Z] [n-za-mN-ZA-M] < secret.script > script RET

572 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To decode the rot13-encoded text selection, type:

 

$ tr [a-mn-zA-MN-Z] [n-za-mN-ZA-M] RET

SHIFT
- INS
RET

Guvf vf n frperg zrffntr. RET

This is a secret message.
CTRL
- D

METHOD #2
Bsd-games
DEB: bsdgames
RPM: bsd-games
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/

Use the rot13 filter to decode text encoded in rot13.

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To decode the rot13-encoded text in secret_message, sending the
decoded text to the standard output, type:
$ rot13 < secret_message RET

• To decode the rot13-encoded text in secret_message, writing the
decoded text to a file named message, type:
$ rot13 < secret_message > message RET

• To decode the rot13-encoded text selection, type:
 

$ rot13 RET

SHIFT
- INS
RET

Guvf vf n frperg zrffntr. RET

This is a secret message.
CTRL
- D

29.7 Using gpg Encryption

GnuPG
DEB: gnupg
RPM: gnupg
WWW: http://www.gnupg.org/
Chapter 29: Mathematics 573

gnu Privacy Guard (gpg) is a public key encryption system. It is a free and
open replacement for pgp, “Pretty Good Privacy,”2 and is mostly compatible
with newer pgp versions.
Public key encryption works like this. Everyone who uses it first runs
the program in such a way as to get his own set of keys, which are strings of
numbers generated by a particular mathematical function built into the public
key encryption system. Two keys are made: a public key, which you make
public to anyone you want to send your encrypted data to, and a private key,
which only you have access to. Both are unique series of data, and they are
generated by a passphrase that you type when making the keys.
When the public key is processed by the gpg tool, it will output a unique
function and encode its input data in such a way that it cannot be decrypted,
except when gpg is called with the private key. People who use gpg make
their public keys available, so that anyone else who uses gpg can encrypt
some data for a particular person by using that person’s public key. Once
encrypted, nobody but the recipient—not even the sender—can decrypt the
data. Only by using the private key corresponding to a particular public key
can the text be decrypted.
So to begin using gpg, you must first generate your own set of keys. Do
this by running gpg with the special --gen-key option.
⇒ To generate your own set of keys, type:
$ gpg --gen-key RET

When you run this command, you will be asked to specify some things:
the algorithm used (dsa/ElGamal is recommended), the key length (longer
keys give more security at the expense of taking longer to compute; many
recommend no fewer than 2,048 bits, while an older standard is 1,024 bits),
some names and email addresses of individuals you would like to exchange
encrypted data with (you can always add more later), and finally a special
passphrase. This passphrase is what turns your private key in the encryption
lock: You will use it every time you wish to unlock anything encrypted for
you with your public key.
The passphrase ought to be at least 32 characters long, varied in its char-
acters (using numerals, symbols, and both uppercase and lowercase letters),
and it should be something that nobody else will be able to guess.

2
pgp, popularized in the early 1990s Internet rush, uses patented algorithms and thus
cannot be free software; gpg carries no such restrictions.
574 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

The keys will take some time to generate. To make your key available for
others, export it to an ascii file with both the -a and --export options.
⇒ To export your public key to a file named alice.key, type:
$ gpg -a --export > alice.key RET

You can make this data available to anyone you’d like to communicate with
via gpg—you can send it to someone via email, put it on a Web site, and so
on.
To begin to communicate securely with someone else via gpg, you will also
need to import his public key. Do this by using gpg with the --import option,
and giving as an argument a file containing his public key.
⇒ To import the public key for your friend Bill, which you have put in the
file bill.key, type:
$ gpg --import bill.key RET

This command puts your friend Bill on your keyring, which is the list of
recipients that gpg knows about and can encrypt for. Use the --list-keys
option to list the people on your keyring.
⇒ To list the keys gpg knows about, type:
$ gpg --list-keys RET

29.7.1 Encrypting Data with gpg

To encrypt a file with gpg, give the email address of the recipient as an ar-
gument to the -e option, and send the contents of the file to its standard
input.
⇒ To encrypt the contents of mission for your associate Bill, whose email
is [email protected], type:
$ gpg -e [email protected] < mission RET

This command writes an encrypted binary file named mission.gpg, which

can be decrypted only by Bill.
Use the --armor option to make an armored file, or one that only uses
7-bit ascii characters. The file will be longer in length, but it will be easy to
transmit in the body of an email message, or via other means not possible for
a binary file.
⇒ To encrypt the contents of mission for your associate Bill, and output
an armored text file, type:
$ gpg --armor -e [email protected] < mission RET

Chapter 29: Mathematics 575

29.7.2 Decrypting Data with gpg

Use gpg with the -d option to decrypt data that was encrypted with your
public key. Send the data to gpg’s standard input; the decryption is written
to the standard output.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To decode the data in the file secret.and.urgent to the standard
output, type:
$ gpg -d < secret.and.urgent RET

• To decode the data in the file message.gpg and write it to a new
file, message.txt, type:
$ gpg -d < message.gpg > message.txt RET

29.8 Plotting Data

Gnuplot
DEB: gnuplot
RPM: gnuplot
WWW: http://www.gnuplot.info/

The gnuplot tool is a versatile program that can be used for data visualization,
making 2d and 3d graphs, and for plotting contours, surfaces, and functions.
It takes input in the form of a set of commands, either in a file or typed at the
gnuplot command prompt, and it outputs a plot for those commands. It can
read data from external text files and either display output in a new window
or write it to a PostScript file. Output styles are highly configurable.
This is a large program with many features that we won’t get into; the
following recipes will demonstrate a few ways to use gnuplot to plot simple
graphs. For more information on using gnuplot to plot data, consult its Info
documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual], page 48).

29.8.1 Making Graphs with a Single Data Set

To plot a single data set as a graph, give the values of the x and y axes in a
data file, and run gnuplot with the plot command in this fashion:
plot "inputfile" using 1:2 with plotstyle
where inputfile is the name of the input file, and plotstyle specifies the drawing
style to be used for the plot. Preface the plot command with any number of
set commands to change the default settings; these commands may be typed
576 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

interactively after running gnuplot, or they may be written to a file and called
as an argument.
For example, suppose you have a file temperature.data containing two
columns of text, delimited by tab characters, as in Figure 29-2.
 

January 68.9
February 68.7
March 69.0
April 70.2
May 72.0
June 73.4
July 74.3
August 75.8
September 74.6
October 73.8
November 71.8
December 70.1


Figure 29-2. The temperature.data file.
 

set title "Mean Monthly Temperatures for Hawaii, 1905-1938"

set xlabel "Month"
set ylabel "Temperature"
set nokey
set xdata time
set timefmt "%B"
set format x "%b"
set nomxtics
set terminal postscript color
set output "temps.ps"
plot "temperature.data" using 1:2 with linespoints


Figure 29-3. The temperature.gnuplot file.
And suppose you also have a file temperature.gnuplot, as in Figure 29-3,
containing a set of gnuplot commands to plot a graph. It contains several
lines of settings that affect or change the default behavior, including setting
the title of the graph and labels for the x and y axes.
The last line in the file contains the command to do the actual plotting.
It reads the plot data from the file temperature.data, using the first column
Chapter 29: Mathematics 577

as month data for the graph’s x axis, and the second column as the data to
plot along the y axis, using the linespoints style.
⇒ To process the commands in temperature.gnuplot, type:
$ gnuplot temperature.gnuplot RET

This command starts gnuplot and runs the commands in the file
temperature.gnuplot. A new PostScript file, temps.ps, is written, which
looks like Figure 29-4. (While the printed illustration is in black and white,
the actual image created from this command has a red plot.)

Figure 29-4. The temps.ps file.

29.8.2 Making Graphs with Multiple Data Sets

To plot multiple data sets on a graph, the method is the same as with the
single data set, but for this exception: Give the values of the x axis and the
multiple values of the plots along the y axes in a data file, running gnuplot
with the plot command in this fashion:
plot "inputfile" using 1:plot title titlename with plotstyle
where inputfile is the name of the input file and, for each plot, plot is the
number of the column containing the plot, titlename is the name for its title
in the key, and plotstyle is the drawing style to be used. Each using statement
may be followed by a comma and the using statement for the next plot until
all are specified.
578 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

For example, suppose you have a file temperature2.data, as in Figure

29-5.
 

#Month Honolulu Tampa New York

January 73 60 32
February 73 61 33
March 74 66 41
April 76 72 53
May 78 77 62
June 79 81 71
July 80 82 77
August 81 82 75
September 81 81 68
October 80 74 58
November 77 67 47
December 74 61 36


Figure 29-5. The temperature2.data file.
This file contains four columns of text, delimited by tab characters. The
first line is a comment—any lines beginning with a pound-sign character (#),
in either input data or gnuplot command files, are considered comments and
are ignored by gnuplot.
Now suppose you also have a file temperature2.gnuplot, as in Figure
29-6.
 

set title "Mean Monthly Temperatures for Company Locations"

set xlabel "Month"
set ylabel "Temperature"
set xdata time
set timefmt "%B"
set format x "%b"
set nomxtics
set terminal postscript landscape color
set output "temps2.ps"
plot "temperature2.data" using 1:2 title "Honolulu" with linespoints,
"" using 1:3 title "Tampa" with linespoints, "" using 1:4 title
"New York" with linespoints


Figure 29-6. The temperature2.gnuplot file.
Chapter 29: Mathematics 579

This is very similar to the command file in the previous example, except
for the following differences: The title is changed; the command to turn off
the key is not printed; the name of the output file differs; and in the long
last plot line, columns two through three are each plotted against the first
column (the month names) in the input file, each with the linespoints style
as before, but each with its own label for the key.
⇒ To process the commands in temperature2.gnuplot, type:
$ gnuplot temperature.gnuplot RET

This command starts gnuplot and runs the commands in the file
temperature2.gnuplot. A new PostScript file, temps2.ps, is written, which
looks like Figure 29-7. (While the printed illustration is in black and white,
the actual image created from this command has colored plots.)

Figure 29-7. The temps2.ps file.

29.9 Using Other Mathematics Tools

The following table lists some of the other more popular mathematics-related
tools available for Linux.
580 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Calc Scientific calculator tool for Emacs.

DEB: calc
RPM: calc
WWW: http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/calc/
Desk Calculator Arbitrary-precision calculator that reads from standard in-
put and writes to standard output. dc is a reverse-polish
calculator; that is, numbers are pushed on a last-in first-
out (lifo) list called a stack. When you give an arithmetic
operation symbol, dc pops numbers off the stack for their
operands, and then it pushes the evaluation on the stack.
Very useful for getting evaluations in scripts and at the com-
mand line.
DEB: dc
WWW: http://www.cypherspace.org/~adam/rsa/dc.html
Dome Calculates the properties of a geodesic dome—chord factors,
spherical vertex coordinates, and so on. Supports “Bucky-
ball” formations and elliptical geodesics, and generates plain
text output as well as formats for spreadsheets, cad, and
ray-tracing tools.
DEB: dome
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/2p5b4
GnuCash Intuitive personal finance application, used for managing
finances (including bank accounts, stocks, income, and ex-
penses); it’s “based on professional accounting principles”
to ensure accuracy in computation and reporting.
DEB: gnucash
RPM: gnucash
WWW: http://www.gnucash.org/
Gnumeric Powerful spreadsheet application for gnome that is some-
what reminiscent of Excel.
DEB: gnumeric
RPM: gnumeric
WWW: http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/
Chapter 29: Mathematics 581

Oleo Small gnu spreadsheet application that can run in both an

X window and in terminals, has Emacs-like key bindings,
and can generate PostScript output.
DEB: oleo
RPM: oleo
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/oleo/
Piechart Facilitates making graphical pie charts with the gnu plot-
ting utilities (below).
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/jdi6
Plotutils Package of gnu programs for plotting data, including gnu
replacements for the old unix standbys of graph, plot, and
spline.
DEB: plotutils
RPM: plotutils
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/3eygd
Sc Spreadsheet tool that runs in the console; even smaller
than Oleo, it provides formulas and other basic features you
would expect from a minimal spreadsheet.
DEB: sc
Sieb Fast C program for computing prime numbers.
WWW: http://bytesex.org/misc.html
Xcalc Visual scientific calculator for the X Window System—it
draws a calculator on the screen, and you can use the mouse
or keyboard to use it. It is capable of emulating the ti-30
and hp-10c calculators.
DEB: xbase-clients
RPM: XFree86-tools
Xspread X client front-end to sc.
RPM: xspread
582 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 30: Amusements 583

30. Amusements

What’s productivity without a section on how to manage extra time?

The recipes in this chapter describe those classic games and whimsies that
were traditionally found on unix systems, and are now available for Linux.
It also includes recipes for solving word games with your system and other
amusements sure to keep you occupied.

30.1 Playing Classic unix Games

Bsd-games
DEB: bsdgames
RPM: bsd-games
WWW: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/games/

This is a collection of venerable card games, action and adventure games,

board games, and screen amusements.
By contemporary standards, they offer little in terms of sensory stimu-
lation. But they are classics that in olden days were mainstays on college
campuses and computer labs everywhere, and they can still be played on any
terminal. They may amuse children and old-timers alike.
The following table lists the various games and programs included in this
package, giving their system names and descriptions.

adventure Text-based simulation game based on an actual

cave in Kentucky called Colossal Cave. Writ-
ten by William Crowther and Don Woods in the
1970s, it predates the pc era zork. More infor-
mation on the history of this game is online at
http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/.
arithmetic Quizzes you on a set of elementary addition and sub-
traction problems and times your speed of answer.
atc Air Traffic Controller simulation.
backgammon One- or two-player backgammon game, with rules.
584 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

banner Outputs text in a long vertical text font, good for

printing large banners. (see Recipe 16.4.2 [Out-
putting Text Banners], page 402. On Debian sys-
tems, banner is included in the bsdmainutils pack-
age instead.)
battlestar Text-based adventure game with a fantasy theme.
Written by David Riggle in 1979.
bcd Filters text into paper punch card output.
boggle Popular word game.
caesar Decrypts Julius Caesar’s cipher (see Recipe 29.6
[Using rot13 Encryption], page 569).
canfield Variant of solitaire.
cfscores Displays your canfield scores.
countmail Tells you how much mail you have, but in a “rather
obnoxious” manner.
cribbage The card game of cribbage.
fish The children’s card game of Go Fish.
gomoku Two-player game of Five in a Row.
hangman The classic “guess the word” game.
hunt Multi-player network game whose object is to hunt
and kill all other players.
mille Mille Bornes, a two-handed card game.
monop Monopoly, a property management game similar to
the famous board game.
morse Filters text into Morse code. Writes the words “dit”
and “daw” by default; use -s to output dots and
dashes instead of words. To decode Morse code into
plain text, use the -d option.
Chapter 30: Amusements 585

number Converts Arabic numerals to English (see

Recipe 29.5.2 [Converting an Arabic Numeral to
English], page 568).
phantasia A role-playing fantasy game.
pig Filters text into Pig Latin. No reverse filter is cur-
rently available.
pom Tells you the current phase of the Moon.
ppt Filters text into paper tape ribbon output.
primes Outputs prime numbers, beginning at 0 and stop-
ping at 4,294,967,295 or a number given in standard
input; you can also give start and stop values as ar-
guments. For example, to output the prime numbers
between one and ten, primes 1 10 is the command
to run.
quiz Quizzes you on facts and trivia from a variety of
subjects.
rot13 Encrypts and decrypts rot13 ciphers (see
Recipe 29.6 [Using rot13 Encryption], page 569).
rain Displays an animation of raindrops falling on the
screen. Control the delay by giving a value, in mil-
liseconds, as an argument to the -d option. For
example, rain -d 160 is a good setting to try.
random Outputs random lines from its input.
robots Shoot-’em-up game where you battle killer robots.
sail Role-playing game of an old-fashioned sea battle.
snake Avoid the snake while collecting money.
snscore Displays the high scores of snake.
teachgammon Instructions for the game of backgammon.
tetris-bsd The famous Russian video game of Tetris.
trek Space adventure game.
586 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

wargames The game of Global Thermonuclear War, as inspired

by the film WarGames: “Shall we play a game?”
worm The “growing worm” game.
worms Displays an animations of worms squirming over the
display screen.
wtf Explains acronyms used in online communication.
It isn’t very advanced (for instance, it doesn’t even
know what faqs are), but it does know what lol
is. If it doesn’t know the acronym, it looks to see if
whatis can give any help (see Recipe 11.4.2 [Trans-
lating Common Acronyms], page 292).
wump The adventure game of “Hunt the Wumpus,” per-
haps the most famous of classic computer games.

NOTES: In the deb package, a list of original authors for all of the included
programs is at usr/share/doc/bsdgames/AUTHORS.

30.2 Filtering Text Through a Dialect

Talk Filters
DEB: filters
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/directory/games/GNUTalkFilters.html

Generally speaking, a filter is a tool that works on standard input, changing

it in some way, and then passing it to standard output.
There are all kinds of tools that work as filters on text; this recipe describes
a specific group of filters—those that filter their standard input to give the
text an accent or dialect and are intended to be humorous. They are collected
in a package called the Gnu Talk Filters.
⇒ To apply the kraut filter to the text in the file /etc/motd, type:
$ kraut < /etc/motd RET

This command passes the contents of the file /etc/motd to the kraut filter,
whose output is then sent to standard output. The contents of /etc/motd are
not changed.

NOTES: Some of the dialect filters available include nyc, which gives a “New
Yawker” dialect to text, and newspeak, which translates what is really said
Chapter 30: Amusements 587

into the approved, politically correct language of the thought police, as de-
scribed in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. War Is Peace! Freedom Is Slavery!
Some sample text and the way it appears through the various filters is kept
in the file /usr/share/doc/filters/SAMPLES.
While all of the given filters are humorous, it is possible to write your own
filters to change patterns of text in its input for some serious purpose, such
as filtering text for a publication’s “house style.”

30.3 Testing Your Typing Speed

You can test your typing speed by combining a few tools. To test your typing
speed at the shell prompt, run cat and type some text, piping the output to
wc to get the word count of what you type. Run date immediately before
and after the test by running all of these commands in a list (see Recipe 3.1.7
[Running a List of Commands], page 63).
⇒ To test your typing speed, type:
 

$ date; cat | wc -w; date RET

Mon Aug 11 15:14:06 EDT 2003
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. RET

CTRL
- D

9
Mon Aug 11 15:14:12 EDT 2003
$

In this example, “9” was output indicating that the user typed nine words
(in a real typing test, you want to type for longer than that—at least a few
hundred words to get an accurate count). The dates listed before and after
the typing show that it took the user six seconds to type these nine words.
Use bc or any other calculator to divide the number of words by the time
in minutes (or seconds) it took to type them.

NOTES: You can test your typing in Emacs by running the time function
before and after your typing; then select the text that was typed and send it
to wc to get the number of words.

30.4 Displaying Random Quotations

There are at least two ways to get a random quotation in Linux.
588 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
Fortune
DEB: fortune-mod
fortune-min
RPM: fortune-mod
WWW: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/amusements/fortune/

Use fortune to output a “fortune cookie” to the standard output.

⇒ To get a fortune, type:
$ fortune RET

NOTES: This venerable program has been on unix systems for a long time,
and several types of specialized fortune databases are available. You can even
make your own fortune files, containing quotations of your own choosing—
these are made with the strfile command.

METHOD #2
In Emacs, you can get random quotations from Zippy the Pinhead, the comic
strip character. When you run the yow function, a Zippy quote is written to
the minibuffer.
⇒ To get a line from Zippy, type:
ALT
- X
yow RET

30.5 Finding Matches for Word Games

The following recipes describe ways to use various tools for finding words you
might use for word games: anagrams, palindromes, and words for crossword
puzzles.

30.5.1 Finding Anagrams in Text

An
DEB: an

An anagram is a word or phrase whose characters consist entirely of all the

characters of another given word or phrase—for example, “stop” and “tops”
are both anagrams of “pots.”
Use an to find and output anagrams. Give as an argument the word or
quoted phrase to use; an writes its results to the standard output.
Chapter 30: Amusements 589

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To output all anagrams of the word “lake,” type:
$ an lake RET

• To output all anagrams of the phrase “lakes and oceans,” type:
$ an 'lakes and oceans' RET

To limit the anagrams that are output to those containing a given string,
specify that string with the -c option.
⇒ To output only anagrams of the phrase “lakes and oceans” that contain
the string “seas,” type:
$ an -c seas 'lakes and oceans' RET

To print all of the words that can be made with some or all of the letters
in a given word or phrase, use the -w option. This outputs words that are not
anagrams, because anagrams must contain all of the letters of the other word
or phrase.
⇒ To output all of the words that can be made from the letters of the word
“seas,” type:
$ an -w seas RET

This command outputs all of the words that can be formed from all or
some of the characters in “seas,” including “see” and “as.”
NOTES: There are other tools for finding anagrams, but this one is the best.
Unfortunately, it isn’t widely available outside of the Debian distribution; if
you can’t locate a copy, you can always install the sources from the Debian
package (see Recipe 1.1.2 [Preparation of Recipes], page 3).

30.5.2 Finding Palindromes in Text

A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same both forwards and
backwards; for example, “Mom,” “nun,” and “Madam, I’m Adam” are all
palindromes.
Here are a few perl “one-liners” for finding palindromes.

METHOD #1
To output all lines in a file that are palindromes, use this simple perl one-
liner, and substitute the name of the file to check for file:
perl -lne 'map { print if $_ eq reverse } split' file
590 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This outputs all lines in file that are palindromes. To check for palindromes
in the standard input, specify - as the file name to check. This is useful at
the end of a pipeline.
⇒ To output all of the palindromes in the system dictionary, type:
$ perl -lne 'print if $_ eq reverse' /usr/dict/words RET

METHOD #2
To output all lines in a file that are palindromes, regardless of whitespace,
punctuation, and case, use the following one-liner instead of the one given in
Method #1:
perl -lne '{ $_ = lc; $_ =~ s/\W//g; $_ = reverse; print if $_ eq
reverse }' file
This outputs all lines in file that are palindromes (all whitespace and punc-
tuation will be removed, and all letters will be converted to lowercase).
⇒ To output all of the lines in the file riddles that are palindromes regard-
less of whitespace, punctuation, and case, type (all on one line):
$ perl -lne '{ $_ = lc; $_ =~ s/\W//g; $_ = reverse; print if $_
eq reverse }' riddles RET

30.5.3 Finding Crossword Puzzle Words

There are a few things you can do with a Linux system to help solve a cross-
word puzzle.

METHOD #1
One method for finding crossword puzzle words is to peruse the system
dictionary file, /usr/dict/words, for words you are looking for. Use less
with the -p option to begin perusing at a certain point—such as a letter or a
word prefix.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To peruse the system dictionary, beginning at the first match for the
pattern “dog,” type:
$ less -pdog /usr/dict/words RET

• To peruse the system dictionary, starting at the word “cat,” type:
$ less -p"^cat" /usr/dict/words RET

In the last example, the system dictionary will load and begin at the word
“cat,” and that string will be highlighted in the text.
Chapter 30: Amusements 591

You can also use look to output all words that begin with a given string
(see Recipe 11.2.1 [Listing Words That Match a Pattern], page 283).
⇒ To list all words that begin with “anti,” type:
$ look anti RET

METHOD #2
Another method you can try for finding crossword puzzle words is grep the
dictionary for the pattern you need—if you know a word is so many characters
long, or has characters in certain positions, you can search for all words that
fit the pattern. Use the -i option to do a case-insensitive search.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output all words in the system dictionary that are four characters
long, begin with the letter “z,” and end with an “a,” regardless of
case, type:
$ grep -i ’^z..a$’ /usr/dict/words RET

• To output all words in the system dictionary that are six characters
long, have the letter “e” in the second position, and have either an
“s” or an “o” in the fourth position, type:
$ grep -i '^.e.[so]..$' /usr/dict/words RET

NOTES: These methods are also good for Scrabble and other word games.
On some systems, /usr/share/dict/words is where the the system dic-
tionary is kept.

30.6 Cuting Up Text

A cut-up is a random rearrangement of a physical layout of text, made with
the intention of finding unique or interesting phrases in the rearrangement.
Software for rearranging text in random ways has existed since the earliest
text-processing tools; the popularity of these tools will never die.
The cut-up technique in literature was discovered by painter Brion Gysin
and American writer William S. Burroughs in 1959; they believed it brought
the montage technique of painting to the written word.
“All writing is in fact cut-ups,” Burroughs wrote.1 “A collage of words
read heard overheard . . . [u]se of scissors renders the process explicit and
subject to extension and variation.”
These recipes describe a few of the common ways to make text cut-ups.
1
In The Third Mind, by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin (Viking Press, 1978).
592 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

30.6.1 Making Simple Text Cut-Ups

You can make a shell script to perform a simple cut-up of a text. It demon-
strates the combined use of head, tail, and paste. Make a shell script called
cutup, as in Figure 30-1 (see Recipe 3.7 [Using Shell Scripts], page 84).
 

#!/bin/sh
count=`wc -l < $1`
half=`expr $count / 2`
middle=`awk ' if (length($0) > max) max = length($0)
END OFMT = "%.0f"
print max / 2' $1`
end=`expr $middle + 1`
head -$half $1|cut -b0-$middle > $1.1
tail -$half $1|cut -b0-$middle > $1.3
head -$half $1|cut -b$end-80 > $1.2
tail -$half $1|cut -b$end-80 > $1.4
paste -d "" $1.4 $1.3
paste -d "" $1.2 $1.1
rm $1.1 $1.2 $1.3 $1.4


Figure 30-1. The cutup file.
This script takes the name of a file as input and cuts it both horizontally
and vertically along the middle, rearranges the four sections to their diagonally
opposite corners, and then writes that cut-up to the standard output. The
original file is not modified.
⇒ To make a cut-up from a file called nova, type:
$ cutup nova RET

30.6.2 Making Random Word Cut-Ups

Dadadodo
DEB: dadadodo
RPM: dadadodo
WWW: http://www.jwz.org/dadadodo/

No simple cut-up filter, Jamie Zawinski’s dadadodo uses the computer to

go one step beyond—it generates passages of random text whose structure
and characters are similar to the text input you give it. The program works
better on larger texts, where more subtleties can be analyzed and hence more
realistic-looking text is output.
Chapter 30: Amusements 593

Give as an argument the name of the text file to be used; by default,

dadadodo outputs text to standard output until you interrupt it by typing
CTRL
- C
.

⇒ To output random text based on the text in the file nova, type:
$ dadadodo nova RET

This command will output passages of random text based on the text in
the file nova until it is interrupted by the user.
You can analyze a text and save the analysis to a file of compiled data; this
analysis can then be used to generate random text when the original input
text is not present. The following table describes this and other dadadodo
options.

-c integer Generate integer sentences (default is 0, meaning

“generate an infinite amount until interrupted”).
-l filename Load compiled data in file and use it to generate
text.
-o filename Output compiled data to file for later use.
-p integer Pause for integer seconds between paragraphs.

30.6.3 Making Cut-Ups in Emacs

The dissociated-press function in Emacs makes random cut-ups of the cur-
rent buffer in a new buffer called *Dissociation*; the original buffer is not
modified. The text in the new buffer is generated by combining random por-
tions of the buffer by overlapping characters or words, thus (usually) creating
plausible-sounding sentences. It pauses occasionally and asks whether or not
you want to continue the dissociation.
⇒ To generate a Dissociated Press cut-up from the current buffer, type:
ALT
- X
dissociated-press RET

Give a positive argument to the dissociated-press function to specify

the number of characters to use for overlap; give a negative argument to
specify the number of words for overlap.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To generate a Dissociated Press cut-up from the current buffer, al-
ways overlapping by three characters, type:
CTRL
- U
3 ALT
- X
dissociated-press RET

594 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To generate a Dissociated Press cut-up from the current buffer, al-

ways overlapping by one word, type:
CTRL
- U
-1 ALT
- X
dissociated-press RET

30.7 Undergoing Psychoanalysis

Emacs has a special mode called doctor, which is an implementation of the
famous eliza program. As with “real” psychoanalysis, you talk out your
troubles and the doctor asks you for more—only in this case it doesn’t cost
as much, and sessions last as long as you like. And since the “session” is an
Emacs buffer, you can save it to a file for posterity.
⇒ To begin a session of psychoanalysis in Emacs, type:
ALT
- X
doctor RET

VII. NETWORKING 595

VII. NETWORKING
596 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 31: Communications 597

31. Communications
You will almost certainly want to go online or otherwise communicate with
other computer systems. Most systems today are sold with the necessary
hardware to connect to other systems, such as a modem or a network card.
You connect this hardware to the outside world via a telephone line or network
connection.
This chapter includes recipes for connecting your Linux system to the In-
ternet with an isp, using fax services, and making serial connections with a
modem.
For more information on this subject, see The Linux Network Administra-
tor’s Guide [http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/LDP/nag/nag.html].

31.1 Connecting to the Internet

PPP
DEB: ppp
RPM: ppp
WWW: ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/

There are several ways to connect a Linux box1 to the Internet. Digital
Subscriber Line (dsl) service, cable modems, and dial-up connections with
isdn or analog modems are currently the most popular methods. Each of
these services has its own hardware and software requirements. Generally, you
get these services by subscribing to them from an Internet Service Provider,
or isp.
For up-to-date, detailed instructions for using these services on Linux-based
systems, the relevant howtos published by the Linux Documentation Project
[http://xtldp.org/] remain the definitive guides (see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading
System Documentation and Help Files], page 50):

• ISP Hookup HOWTO, by Egil Kvaleberg

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html
• DSL HOWTO for Linux, by David Fannin et al.
http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/DSL-HOWTO/
1
A computer is sometimes called a box, particularly when one aspect of it is being de-
scribed; therefore when you hear talk about a “Linux box” you know it’s just a computer
that is running Linux. This slang is particularly popular among users of unix flavors,
but people do talk of Windows boxes.
598 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• Cable Modem Providers HOWTO, by Vladimir Vuksan

http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Cable-Modem/

The following recipes show how to set up and use a ppp (“Point-to-Point
Protocol”) dial-up connection, long the de facto means of connecting a com-
puter to the Internet over a dial-up line.

31.1.1 Setting Up ppp

To configure ppp for a regular dial-up connection, where your system is as-
signed a dynamic ip address (the norm for home Internet access), you need
to be root (the superuser) to edit the ppp configuration files, and you’ll need
the standard connection information from your isp: the dial-up number to
use, the ip addresses for its nameservers, and a username and password.
Use this information to customize the file /etc/chatscripts/provider,
as in Figure 31-1.
 

ABORT BUSY
ABORT "NO CARRIER"
ABORT VOICE
ABORT "NO DIALTONE"
"" "\p\p+++\p\p"
"" "at"
"" "at"
OK "ath0"
"" atdt5551010,,
ost ppp
ogin smith
word \qsecret\q


Figure 31-1. A sample /etc/chatscripts/provider file.
In Figure 31-1, after eight lines of modem initialization strings, the modem
is instructed to dial the isp dial-up number, 555-1010. Some systems need one
or two commas after the number to signify pauses for the modem; only do
this if you can’t get a good connection with just the telephone number in this
space.
Next come the lines which show the prompts your isp is expected to send,
and the strings to give in response to them. Traditionally, only partial strings
are shown to match the prompts, in part because case for the various prompts
differs between systems. This is why the file has “ost,” “ogin,” and “word,”
Chapter 31: Communications 599

and not “host:,” “login:,” and “Password:,” which are typically the full
prompts you might expect.
The “host:” prompt is optional, and is used by some isps whose connection
line contains a choice of services from which you must make a selection before
entering your username and password (some isps offer slip and shell access
along with the standard ppp, for example). Customize this and the following
lines as instructed by your isp. If your isp does not have a “host” prompt,
then remove this line.
In this example, the username smith is sent as a response to the “login:”
prompt, and then the password of “secret” is sent for a password. The
password appears between two “\q” strings in this file, which—for security
purposes—instruct ppp to display question mark characters (?) instead of the
actual password in system log files or other places where an intruder might
see it.
Next, edit the file /etc/ppp/peers/provider so that it looks like Figure
31-2.
 

connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/provider"

defaultroute /dev/modem 115200 persist


Figure 31-2. The /etc/ppp/peers/provider file.
The last line in this file2 should include the device name of the modem you
are using and the maximum connect speed to try; Figure 31-2 uses /dev/modem
as the device name of the modem, and 115,200 bps as the maximum connect
speed, which is a good value for a typical 56 k modem (a rule of thumb is to
use the highest connect speed your modem supports; you can always go lower
when a connection is made, but you can never raise the speed above what is
given here).
Finally, edit the file /etc/resolv.conf so that it looks like Figure 31-3,
using the two nameserver ip addresses given to you by your isp.
 

search .
nameserver nameserver address 1
nameserver nameserver address 2


Figure 31-3. The /etc/resolv.conf file.
2
On some newer ppp implementations, each of these words are not all on a single line,
but are each given on a line of their own.
600 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

For the two nameserver address values, use the ip address of the nameserver
machines, as given to you by your isp. The second is optional—most isps have
more than one designated nameserver as a backup in the event that the first
system becomes unavailable.
Make sure that your user account has membership to the dialout group;
otherwise, the superuser account will have to start and stop ppp, which is not
recommended (see Recipe A.6.3 [Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals],
page 718).
Once you’ve done these things, you should be able to start and stop ppp
connections to the Internet. Complete documentation for setting up ppp is in
the /usr/share/doc/ppp directory.

31.1.2 Starting a ppp Connection

Once ppp has been installed and configured, use the pon tool to start a ppp
connection to the Internet. It calls the number of your isp with your modem,
sends the appropriate login information, and starts the ppp connection.
After a ppp connection has been established, you can access the www or
other network services, as described in the following chapters.
⇒ To start a ppp connection, type:
$ pon RET

NOTES: To make ppp automatically start when the system first boots, rename
the file /etc/ppp/no_ppp_on_boot to /etc/ppp/ppp_on_boot. (You must be
root, the superuser, to do this.)

31.1.3 Stopping a ppp Connection

Use the poff tool to stop a ppp connection. It disconnects your computer
from your isp and hangs up the modem.
⇒ To stop a ppp connection, type:
$ poff RET

If you ever accidentally run pon when a ppp connection is already estab-
lished (it happens), poff will not work as expected because there are multiple
ppp connections running. Use the -a option to stop all ppp connections.
⇒ To stop all ppp connections, type:
$ poff -a RET

Chapter 31: Communications 601

31.1.4 Viewing the ppp Log

Use plog to output the last few lines of the ppp log file. This is useful for
checking the progress of your ppp connection when it first dials.
⇒ To view the latest entries in the ppp log file, type:
$ plog RET

NOTES: You need to be a member of the adm group in order to view the log
file (see Recipe A.6.3 [Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals], page 718).

31.2 Faxing
Efax
DEB: efax
RPM: efax
WWW: http://www.cce.com/efax/

If you have a Class 1 or 2 fax modem, you can send and receive fax (“fac-
simile”) messages with your Linux system. The following recipes show how
to do this with the efax package, which is designed for single user systems or
relatively simple fax configurations (more complicated tools for faxing exist,
but they are beyond the scope of this book).
To set up efax for faxing, edit the file /etc/efax.rc (you must be root to
do this). The important things to specify in this file are the value for “DEV,”
which is the device name in /dev of the fax or modem device (this should
almost always be “modem”), and the values for “FROM” and “NAME”—the fax
number and organization name to appear on outgoing faxes.
NOTES: Unless you have membership to the dialout group, you must ask
your system administrator for access to the modem hardware before you
can use it (see Recipe A.6.3 [Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals],
page 718).
More information on faxing is contained in the Fax Server mini-HOWTO
(see Recipe 2.8.6 [Reading System Documentation and Help Files], page 50).

31.2.1 Sending a Fax

Use efax to send a fax. It dials the telephone number you give and faxes the
contents of the file or files you specify. You can send plain text files or files in
tiff Group 3 format as they are. You can also send files in other formats, but
602 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

you must convert them to tiffg3 format first—see Recipe 31.2.4 [Converting
to and from Fax Format], page 604.
Use the -d option to specify the full path name of the fax device (usually
/dev/modem if you are using the modem connected to your system), and use
the -t option followed by a telephone number to specify the number to send
the fax to. To specify dtmf tone dialing, precede the phone number with
a “T”; specify pauses in the dialing sequence with a comma character (,)—
particularly useful for dialing out from a pbx or office phone system.
⇒ To fax a copy of the file resume.txt to the number 555-9099, using dtmf
tone dialing, type:
$ efax -d /dev/modem -t T555-9099 resume.txt RET

To send more than one file, specify them as arguments in the order they
are to be sent. You can also specify them with a wildcard character, but be
careful—they are sent in the order in which the shell expands the file names,
which is alphabetical order. If you have a lot of files that should be sent in
a particular order, rename them so their file names begin with the number
of the page they correspond to. But be sure to number them with the same
number of digits for each file—for example, if you have 11 files to fax, don’t
name them 1.fax, 2.fax, and so on, to 10.fax and 11.fax, because the shell
will expand them in the order of 1.fax, 10.fax, 11.fax, 2.fax, 3.fax, and
so on up to 9.fax. In this case, you would number them as 01.fax, 02.fax,
and so on, so that files 1 through 9 contain the same number of digits in their
names as do 10.fax and 11.fax.
⇒ To fax all of the files with the .fax extension in the current directory to
the number 555-9099, using dtmf tone dialing, type:
$ efax -d /dev/modem -t T555-9099 *.fax RET

Another way to do this is to make a text file containing the list of files
to fax, one file name per line, in the order you want them sent. If the files
you want to send are not in the current directory, be sure to write the file
names with path names relative to the current directory—so for example, if
you want to send the file header.fax, which is in your home directory, and
the current directory is ~/documents/faxes, the file should be specified as
~/header.fax.
⇒ To fax all of the files listed in the file fax.list to the number 555-9099,
dialing a 9 first to obtain an outside line, and using dtmf tone dialing,
type:
$ efax -d /dev/modem -t T9,555-9099 $(cat fax.list) RET

NOTES: The efax tool doesn’t delete the files it faxes.

Chapter 31: Communications 603

31.2.2 Receiving a Fax

To receive a fax, use efax with the -w option. You may also have to use
-iSO=1 to send an S0=1 command to the modem to set it to auto answer, and
use -kZ to send an ‘ATZ’ reset request to the modem after efax exits.
As with sending a fax, specify the full path name of the device file to use
with the -d option.
By default, efax outputs a “session log” to the standard error, containing
information on the status of the fax messages received; use redirection to
redirect it to a file (see Recipe 3.2.3 [Redirecting Error Messages to a File],
page 68).
⇒ To set up efax to receive an incoming fax, saving the session log to a file,
faxlog, type:
$ efax -d /dev/modem -kZ -w -iS0=1 2>&1 >> faxlog RET

This command starts efax and sets up the modem to wait for an incoming
fax. After a fax is received, efax exits. You can stop efax before it receives a
fax by typing CTRL
- C
or by killing the efax job (see Recipe 3.3.5 [Stopping
a Job], page 73).
When a fax is received, it is written to a file in the current directory whose
base name consists of the current numeric date and a session number generated
by efax; each page is written to a separate file whose three-digit file extension
is the page number. The received fax files are in tiff Group 3 fax format; use
display to view them (see Recipe 17.1 [Viewing an Image in X], page 407), or
convert them to PostScript or another format for printing (see Recipe 31.2.4
[Converting to and from Fax Format], page 604).

31.2.3 Receiving Faxes Automatically

The command described in the previous recipe can only receive one fax; once
the fax is received, efax exits. To run efax so that you automatically receive
all incoming fax messages, use a Bash while loop so that after a fax is received,
efax is started again and continues until you interrupt it (see the Bash Info
documentation for more information on this built-in).
604 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To automatically receive any incoming fax messages, type:

 

$ while true ; do efax answer ; done RET

efax: Wed Feb 24 08:38:52 1999 efax v 0.8a (Debian release 08a-6)
Copyright 1996 Ed Casas
efax: 38:52 opened /dev/modem
efax: 38:53 waiting for activity

This command uses all of the default settings for the efax package, which
you can configure. Old spool files are deleted and any recieved faxes are mailed
to you.
If you need to set more switches on efax and don’t wish to type this every
time you want to set up the fax machine, you can write a shell script to do more
and save it in a file called faxon, as in Figure 31-4. Put it in your personal bin
directory (see Recipe C.1 [Using a Directory for Personal Binaries], page 727).
Each time a fax is received and then saved, efax restarts, waiting for another
fax. A session log is written to the file faxlog in your home directory.
 

#!/bin/sh
while :
do
trap break 2;
efax -d /dev/modem -kZ -w -iS0=1 2>&1 >> ~/faxlog;
done


Figure 31-4. The faxon file.
Should an incoming facsimile message arrive, efax will receive it and write
the message in files in the current directory, with a file name convention as
described previously; then efax restarts, ready to receive another fax. Type
CTRL
- C
to stop the script and exit efax.

31.2.4 Converting to and from Fax Format

In order to view or print a received fax, or to fax a file that you have, you
must first convert the file to or from the tiff Group 3 (tiffg3) fax format,
which is the standard format for sending fax files. (You can, however, view
tiffg3 files with the gimp, or with display—see Recipe 17.1 [Viewing an
Image in X], page 407). Consequently, files you receive via fax will be in this
format, which you might want to convert to some other format.
Chapter 31: Communications 605

There are several ways to do this.

METHOD #1
Use efix to convert (or “fix”) files for faxing; it will convert a file you want
to fax to the tiffg3 format. You can also use it to convert received fax files
to another format that you can view or print. The efix tool writes to the
standard output, but you can redirect its output to a file to save it.
To convert a file for faxing, type efix followed by the name of the file to
convert, and redirect standard output to the file you want to contain your fax
image. efix can read plain text, pbm, and tiff files.
⇒ To convert the file chart.pbm for faxing, type:
$ efix -i pbm chart.pbm > chart.fax RET

This command converts a copy of the file chart.pbm to the tiffg3 fax
format, writing it to a file called chart.fax. The original pbm file is not
altered.

METHOD #2
To convert a received fax file to a PostScript file that you can then pre-
view (see Recipe 17.4.2 [Previewing a PostScript File], page 414) or print (see
Recipe 25.1.1 [Sending a Print Job to the Printer], page 510), use efix with
the -o ps option.
⇒ To convert 19990325.001, a received fax file, to a PostScript file, type:
$ efix -o ps 19990325.001 > received.ps RET

This command converts the fax file into PostScript, and writes the output
to a file called received.ps. The original fax file is not altered.

METHOD #3
Ghostscript
DEB: gs-common gs
RPM: ghostscript
WWW: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

To convert a PostScript file to fax format, use gs and specify “tiffg3” as the
output device to write to.
606 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To convert the PostScript file resume.ps to fax format, type (all on one
line):
$ gs -q -sDEVICE=tiffg3 -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE
-sOutputFile=resume.fax resume.ps < /dev/null RET

This command writes a copy of the file resume.ps to the file resume.fax
in tiffg3 format, which you can then send as a fax. The original PostScript
file is not altered.
NOTES: For more on using gs, see Recipe 25.3.1 [Preparing a PostScript File
for Printing], page 518.

METHOD #4
teTeX
DEB: tetex-base
tetex-bin
tetex-doc
tetex-extra
RPM: tetex
WWW: http://www.tug.org/teTeX/

Use dvi2fax to convert a dvi file made from TEX into ‘tiffg3’ format for
faxing.
It takes as options either ‘-hi’ for high resolution, outputting at 204x196
dpi (the default), or ‘-lo’ for low resolution, outputting at 204x98 dpi.
Give as an argument the name of the dvi file to convert; giving the ‘.dvi’
extension is optional.
⇒ To convert the file ‘proposal.let.dvi’ to low resolution fax-format files,
type:
$ dvi2fax -lo proposal.let RET

Each page of input is written to its own file, numbered in order and with
a ‘.fax’ extension.

31.3 Calling Out on a Modem

Minicom
DEB: minicom
RPM: minicom
Chapter 31: Communications 607

Use Minicom to dial out with the modem and connect with another system,
such as when you want to connect to a bbs (“Bulletin Board System”). It’s
a serial communications tool for X or the console; it resembles some of the
communications tools of the dos world, such as Telix and Procomm.
Type minicom to run Minicom. When Minicom starts, you will be given a
connection screen, which looks like Figure 31-5.
 

Figure 31-5. The minicom connection screen.
The bottom line contains a status bar showing a message describing how to
get help, the current modem settings (in this case, 57,600 bps, 8 data bits, no
parity, one stop bit), whether or not cursor keys work (the mysterious “NOR”
message), the version of the program (“1.82”), the kind of terminal emulation
currently set (“VT102”), and whether or not an online connection is currently
established.
To get a help menu, type CTRL
- A
z while in the connection screen; from
the help menu, you can press P
to set the communications parameters, T
to
set the terminal settings, O
to configure minicom, or D
to enter the dialing
directory.
To dial a number from the connection screen, type ATDT followed by the
number to dial.
608 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To dial the number 368-2208,x type:

ATDT3682208 RET

When you type RET
, Minicom will begin dialing the number; type any key
to interrupt the dialing and hang up the line. Once connected, type CTRL
- A

h to hang up the line, or type CTRL
- A
x to hang up the line and exit the
program.
NOTES: Minicom isn’t really a way to connect your system to the Internet;
to do that, you normally start a ppp connection, as described earlier in this
chapter.3

31.4 Using Other Communications Tools

The following table describes other tools for communications that you might
find handy.

DTMFdial Generates dual-tone multi-frequency (“Touch Tone”), and

can be used for automatic dialing from address books.
DEB: dtmfdial
HylaFAX Popular client-server software suite for sending and receiv-
ing faxes as well as sending pages.
DEB: hylafax-client
DEB: hylafax-server
DEB: hylafax-doc
RPM: hylafax
WWW: http://www.hylafax.org/

3
Technically, you can use Minicom to dial a computer that is connected to the Internet,
like a local Free-Net system, but your access to the net will be restricted within this
Minicom window; with a traditional Internet connection such as ppp, your whole system
has direct access to the net, including your Web browsers, email software, and other
networking tools.
Chapter 31: Communications 609

Lrzsz Offers the Xmodem, Ymodem, and Zmodem protocols for

file transfer over serial lines; based on the old rzsz package
for unix systems.
DEB: lrzsz
RPM: lrzsz
WWW: http://www.ohse.de/uwe/software/lrzsz.html
Seyon Old-time telecommunications tool for X, similar to Mini-
com, with Zmodem protocol support and scripting capabil-
ities.
DEB: seyon
WWW: ftp://sipb.mit.edu/pub/seyon/
610 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 32: Email 611

32. Email

The primary means of sending plain-text messages (or binaries in attachment

files) between users across computer networks is called electronic mail, or
email (and more often than not these days, just “mail”).
Mail is sent and received in a special application called a mail user agent,
or mua.1
Most of them operate by the same general principle: When you start it, a
list of all your incoming mail is displayed like a kind of stack, in the order in
which they were received, with one numbered line representing each message,
and on it is the author’s name, the subject, and the date. Selecting a number
will display its contents on the screen, and offer a means of replying to it with
a mail of your own, as well as a facility to write new mail.
The number of these email applications available for Linux is large, and
you could spend many hours exploring the details of all of them. Instead of
beginning with such an exhibit, this chapter does three things: provide a brief
introduction to using the default mail agent; show how you can use other tools
on the system to manipulate your email, regardless of the mua you use; and
give an overview of the most popular and well-supported mail agents, with
pointers on where to go for more information.
The default mail agent on Linux, as with other unix-based systems, is the
mail tool.2 This is the tool we will use in this chapter for showing how to
send and receive mail.
It comes without many bells and whistles that are standard on most of the
newer muas, and any user who sends and receives email more than occasionally
will certainly want to learn a more advanced system (see Recipe 32.7 [Using
Other Mail User Agents], page 631).
However, mail is available on almost all unix-based systems, it’s capable
of a few powerful tricks that you can’t do with the other applications, and
it always works in a pinch—by learning to use it, you can always send and
receive email on any Linux- or unix-based system you ever encounter.

1
Everyone outside of the unix world probably calls one of these an “email app” or email
program.
2
On many Linux systems, Mail is a synonymous name for this tool. And on some unix
systems such as aix, the name of the tool is mailx; Linux provides that name as an
additional synonym.
612 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

32.1 Sending Mail

To send an email message with mail, give as arguments the email addresses to
which you are sending the message, and then type the subject and the body
of the message when prompted; type CTRL
- D
on a line by itself to signify
the end of the message body and send the message.
⇒ To send an email message to [email protected], type:
 

$ mail [email protected] RET

Subject: Hello RET

Hi there, long time no talk! I'm just learning how to use RET

Linux and thought I'd show you how easy it is to send email! RET

CTRL
- D

Cc: RET

The text you type on the Subject: line is displayed as the subject of your
email message, and the lines of text you type after that are the body text
of the message. Various styles for sending email exist; some mimic paper
correspondence, with a salutation, closing, and signature, whole others give
just a signature, and still others omit all three. Email isn’t always for proper
letters; sometimes it isn’t elevated beyond the telegram or memo pad, used
only for the rapid transmission of brief informal messages.
Various commands available when composing email are described in
Recipe 32.1.5 [Composing a Mail], page 616.
Type CTRL
- D
on a line alone to end the message. Then, mail prompts
for Cc: addresses—a “carbon copy” of the email message is sent to any ad-
dresses you give here, if any. Separate multiple addresses with commas, or
just type RET
if there are none.
When you type, mail just reads the standard input like any other com-
mand line tool, so there’s little direct editing capability in this basic email
service—use CTRL
- U
to erase the current line, and CTRL
- C
CTRL
- C

(that is, CTRL
- C
pressed twice) to cancel your input and abort the message
altogether.
That’s it! No bells, no whistles—but no time-wasting excess, either.
Chapter 32: Email 613

32.1.1 Mailing a User on the Same System

To send an email message to another user on the same system, give their
username on the system instead of an email address.3
⇒ To send an email message to user mrs on your local system, type:
 

$ mail mrs RET

Subject: Are you going to the party tonight? RET

CTRL
- D

Cc: RET

Null message body; hope that's ok
$

This command sends an email message to the user mrs on the local system.
The email message itself is empty, but the subject is a short note asking
whether user mrs will be attending a party.
NOTES: Besides being good for sending mail to users that you might share
your system with, mail is useful for sending yourself mail, as a way to give
yourself a reminder at your terminal (see Recipe 27.6.2 [Sending Yourself
Email Reminders], page 550).

32.1.2 Mailing a File or the Output of a Command

The mail tool is also useful for mailing the contents of a text file or the text
output of a command. To do this, give the email addresses you want to send
to as arguments to mail, and use the standard input redirection operators
to redirect the text to use as the message body (see Recipe 3.2 [Redirecting
Input and Output], page 67).
⇒ To mail the contents of the text file traderoutes to the email address
[email protected], type:
$ mail [email protected] < traderoutes RET

32.1.3 Mailing a Directory

There are a few different methods for sending a directory of files in email.

3
Technically, you still are giving the email address, since email addresses take the form
of username@hostname; when hostname is omitted, the localhost is assumed.
614 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
To send a directory of files with a mua, you can put a copy of the directory
in an archive (see Recipe 8.5 [Managing File Archives], page 199), gzip the
archives, and then mail that compressed archive file as an attachment. This
is how it’s normally done.

METHOD #2
GNU Shar Utilities
DEB: sharutils
RPM: sharutils
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/sharutils/sharutils.html

You can also create a long pipeline to send the directory through the mail:
Put a copy of the directory in a compressed archive with tar, and pipe the
output of tar to uuencode, which encodes binary files into ascii text that
can be transmitted over mail in a plaintext message. Then, pipe that encoded
text to mail.
⇒ To mail a copy of the ~/proj/latest directory tree to
[email protected], type (all on one line):
$ tar -czf - ~/proj/latest | uuencode latest.tar.gz |
mail -s "Here is the latest" [email protected] RET

This command will mail the directory tree as a uuencoded compressed

tar file in the body of the message. When it is received, [email protected]
should write the contents of the mail to a file, and run uudecode on it. It
takes as an argument a uuencoded file, and it writes the decoded files to the
current directory.
⇒ To decode the contents of latest.uu, type:
$ uudecode latest.uu RET

This command will write a compressed tar file, latest.tar.gz, in the

current directory; to uncompress it, you would run tar zxvf latest.tar.gz.

32.1.4 Mailing a Web Page

A variation on the previous recipe is to use mail and shell redirection to
send the output of some command to some address via email. The following
methods show how to use this technique to mail a Web page as either rendered
text or html source.
Chapter 32: Email 615

METHOD #1
Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

To send a Web page as an annotated text file, pipe the output of the Lynx
Web browser with the -dump option to mail (see Recipe 33.2 [Using Lynx],
page 643). Since the output is plain text, you don’t have to encode it before
you mail it.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To send a mail to the address [email protected] with the contents
of http://gutenberg.net/etext98/rmnis10.txt, type (all on one
line):
$ lynx -dump http://gutenberg.net/etext98/rmnis10.txt | mail
[email protected] RET

• To send a mail to the address [email protected] with the con-
tents of http://gutenberg.net/etext98/rmnis10.txt and with a
subject of “Some Reminiscences,” type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump http://gutenberg.net/etext98/rmnis10.txt |
mail -s "Some Reminiscences" [email protected] RET

METHOD #2
Wget
DEB: wget
RPM: wget
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

To send the html source of a Web page, use wget to retrieve the source, using
the -q option to suppress messages and sending to the standard output by
giving “-” as an argument to the -O option; pipe this to mail (see Recipe 33.5
[Getting Files from the Web], page 653).
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To send a mail to the address [email protected] with the contents
of http://gutenberg.net/etext98/, type (all on one line):
$ wget -q -O - http://gutenberg.net/etext98/ |
mail [email protected] RET

616 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To send a mail to the address [email protected] with the con-

tents of http://gutenberg.net/etext98/ and with a subject of
“Directory Listing,” type (all on one line):
$ wget -q -O - http://gutenberg.net/etext98/ |
mail -s "Directory Listing" [email protected] RET

32.1.5 Composing Mail

When composing a mail message, there are a number of special keystrokes

available. The following table lists them, and describes their functions.

CTRL
- C
CTRL
- C
Abort the current message and exit mail without
sending it.

. RET
or CTRL
- D
On a blank line, either of these commands will send

the message and then exit mail.

CTRL
- U
Erase the current line and move the cursor to the
beginning of the line.

There are also a few special commands that you may use while composing
the body of the message. They’re known as tilde escapes because you specify
them by typing a tilde character (~).

The following table lists some of these commands and describes their func-
tions.

~!command Run command in a shell.

~|filter Pipe the body of the mail text through filter.
~baddress Send a blind carbon copy to the usernames or email
addresses given, delimited by commas.
~d Copy the file dead.letter from your home direc-
tory into the body of the message.
~e Edit the message in the default text editor program.
(When you exit the text editor, you are returned to
mail.)
Chapter 32: Email 617

~fnumber Insert copies of the specified received messages into

the message body. Messages are specified by number
or a range (for example, “2-4” inserts messages two
through four inclusive); if no number is given, the
current received message is inserted.
~F Same as ~f, but reads in the messages with full head-
ers.
~rfile Insert a copy of the file file into the message.
~wfile Write a copy of the body text into the file file.

These commands should each be typed on a line by itself.

⇒ To insert a copy of the current received message into the body of the
message you are writing, and then open the message in the default text
editor, type:
~f RET

~e RET

32.2 Receiving Mail

On Linux-based systems, the inbox is a text file on the system where your
incoming mail is written to. Its location is always given by $MAIL, a special
shell variable (see Recipe 3.5.6 [Changing the Shell Prompt], page 80).
⇒ To output the location of your inbox, type:
$ echo $MAIL RET

Usually, the inbox location is in the /var/spool/mail directory, and it

has the same name as your username—so if your username is mrs, your inbox
is likely /var/spool/mail/mrs. You shouldn’t directly edit this file, because
doing so can inadvertently cause you to lose incoming mail.
Run mail to read any new mail waiting in your inbox. If your inbox doesn’t
have any new mail, mail will indicate this and exit; if you do have new mail
waiting, mail outputs a list of message headers, one line per message, each
containing the status of the message (“N” for new messages, blank for previ-
ously read messages), the message number, the name of the sender, the date
and time the message was received, and the number of lines and characters in
the message.
618 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To see if you have mail, type:

 

$ mail RET

Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help.
"/var/spool/mail/m": 3 messages 3 new
>N 1 mrs Mon Sep 6 17:29 13/345 "Re: A modest proposal"
N 2 Ray Tue Sep 7 04:20 15/694 "Latest news"
N 3 lisa@example Tue Sep 7 09:35 19/869 "Re: Hello"
&


In this example, the user has three messages waiting—one from mrs, one
from Ray, and one from [email protected].
The mail prompt is an ampersand character (&); from there, you can read,
delete, reply to, and save messages.
When you type RET
at the “&” prompt, mail outputs the next unread
message to the screen. You can also type a number to output that message.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To read the next unread message in mail, type:
& RET

• To read message number three in mail, type:
& 3 RET

There are two ways to exit mail: Type q to exit mail and apply the
deletion commands you have given, if any, to your inbox; type x to exit mail
and revert the state of your inbox to how it was before you ran mail.
⇒ To exit mail and revert your inbox to its state before you started mail,
type:
& x RET

You can always get help by typing ? at the prompt; it gives a list of available
mail commands. The following recipes describe some of them.
NOTES: By default, only you (and, as always, the superuser) have access to
read your inbox. While there are tools available (such as mail, and the other
muas) to read this file in special ways, you can also view this file like any
other text file (see Chapter 9 [Viewing Text], page 211).

32.2.1 Showing a List of Mail Headers

Use the headers command (or just h) to output a list of headers of your mail
messages. By default, it lists 18 messages, beginning with the current message.
Chapter 32: Email 619

You can specify a range of messages or the particular message number to start
with; give - or + to display the previous or next 18 messages, respectively.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To list the headers of 18 messages, beginning with the current mes-
sage, type:
& headers RET

• To list the headers of the next 18 messages, type:
& h + RET

• To list the headers of messages 101 through 200, type:
& h 101-200 RET

32.2.2 Deleting Mail

To delete a message in mail, use the delete command (or just d for short).
With no arguments, it deletes the last message displayed; you can also specify
a message by giving its number as an argument, or you can delete a range of
messages.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To delete the message you just read, type:
& d RET

• To delete message three, type:
& d 3 RET

• To delete messages 10 through 14, type:
& d 10-14 RET

32.2.3 Undeleting Mail

Use the undelete (or just u) command to undelete a message that was previ-
ously marked for deletion. This will remove the deletion flag that is displayed
when you list the message headers. Like delete, you can give a single num-
ber or a range to undelete specific messages; otherwise, it will work on the
message you last read.
⇒ To undelete the last message read, type:
u RET

NOTES: This command only works for messages marked for deletion in the
current mail session. Once you exit mail, any mail marked for deletion is
permanently removed and cannot be undeleted.
620 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

32.2.4 Replying to Mail

Use reply (or just r) to reply to a message. This makes a new mail message,
sent from you to the sender and all recipients of a mail in your inbox. With
no arguments, it replies to the current message, such as the last message you
read; you can also give a message number as an argument to reply to that
message number.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To reply to the current message, type:
& reply RET

• To reply to message number 14, type:
& r 14 RET

When you reply to a mail, use the keyboard commands for composing your
message as described in Recipe 32.1.5 [Composing Mail], page 616.

32.2.5 Saving Mail to a File

Use save (or just s) to save a message to a file. By default, it works on the
current message, but you can specify a number or a range, as well. Give the
name of the file to save to as an argument; if the file exists, the mail will be
appended.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To save the current message to a new file called saved-mail, type:
& s saved-mail RET

• To save messages 18 through 24 to a new file called conference-
reflections.2004, type:
& save 18-24 conference-reflections.2004 RET

• To save messages two through seven to a new file called
correspondence, type:
& save 2-7 correspondence RET

• To save the current message to a new file called conference-ideas,
type:
& save conference-ideas RET

• To append message 214 to an existing file called saved-mail, type:
& save 214 saved-mail RET

Chapter 32: Email 621

32.3 Using a Remote Mail Host

Most people with a home system are connected to the Internet via an isp, and
they use that system to send and receive personal mail.
If you have email via an isp, you probably have a remote mail host. In this
case, incoming mail isn’t sent directly to your system, but to the isp’s mail
host; your system, then, must be configured to retrieve mail from that host
and store it in the expected place on your system.
This arrangement is called pop mail, which stands for “Post Office Proto-
col”; it is the protocol used to transfer your incoming mail, in bulk, from your
isp’s mail host to your local machine. Your isp will give you the information
needed to configure your local system for pop mail: the name and ip address
of its mail server and your username on that server, your isp email address,
and your isp password.4
If you are using a system on a network, on the other hand—such as in
an office, school, or some other organizational facility—you probably have a
network administrator who has set up your Internet connection, and all of
this happens “automagically.”
The following recipes describe methods for using a remote mail host to
read mail.

32.3.1 Using Mozilla for Mail

Mozilla
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/

It is easy to set up Mozilla to retrieve email messages on a remote mail host.

To do this, choose Mail from the Tasks menu bar, and give your isp settings
for your isp email account and server. (There is an option for this, Mail/News
Account Settings, on the Edit menu bar.)
Then, to get mail from your mail host, click the Get button in the main mail
window. It will ask you to enter your isp password, and then any messages
waiting at the mail host will be downloaded.
4
For sending mail through your isp, you will also need to know the name or ip address of
your isp’s smtp server, which processes and sends all outgoing mail. This too is set up
locally, either in your Web browser or via your local mta (Mail Transport Agent), such
as Sendmail.
622 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

32.3.2 Fetching pop Mail

Fetchmail
DEB: fetchmail
fetchmail-common
fetchmailconf
RPM: fetchmail
fetchmailconf
WWW: http://catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/

Rather than use a Web browser to read mail, if you’d like to run a mua
(including the mail tool) and use it to read Internet email, then you will want
to run fetchmail. It fetches your mail from your isp’s pop server, and puts it
where it belongs in your local mail spool directory, right in your inbox. Then
you can read your mail from a local mua.
Configuration is done via .fetchmailrc, a hidden file in your home di-
rectory. Then you just need to set up fetchmail so that it runs, with the
proper options, whenever your Internet connection is started, and that it stops
running whenever your Internet connection is stopped. (With ppp, this is fa-
cilitated by placing shell scripts in the /etc/ppp/ip-up.d and /etc/ppp/ip-
down.d directories.)
You can use fetchmailconf, bundled in a separate package, to help con-
figure your setup as described above.
⇒ To configure fetchmail, type:
$ fetchmailconf RET

32.4 Managing Mail

The tools and techniques described in this section are useful for managing or
otherwise manipulating your mail, no matter what your mua. This is because
a mail folder is simply a text file whose contents consist of saved mail messages;
any tool that works on text can be used on a mail folder.
The following recipes describe some of the common ways to manage and
otherwise modify your saved mail.

32.4.1 Viewing a Mail Folder

Aside from viewing a mail folder in your mua, there are several other ways
to view it and read its contents. Some methods allow for editing or otherwise
altering it.
Chapter 32: Email 623

METHOD #1
You can view your mail folders in less or edit them in a text editor, although
the folder will appear as one long scroll containing all of the messages the
folder contains.
⇒ To view the mail folder ~/Mail/rachel in less, type:
$ less ~/Mail/rachel RET

METHOD #2
You can view a mail folder in mail by specifying it as an argument to the -f
option; it will appear the way your inbox would appear when running mail
with no options.
⇒ To view the mail folder ~/Mail/rachel in mail, type:
$ mail -f ~/Mail/rachel RET

METHOD #3
Elm
RPM: elm
WWW: http://www.instinct.org/elm/

You can view a mail folder in elm (see Recipe 32.7 [Using Other Mail User
Agents], page 631) by giving its name as an argument to the -f option. As
with mail, the folder will appear the usual way your inbox appears in elm.
⇒ To view the mail folder ~/Mail/rachel in elm, type:
$ elm -f ~/Mail/rachel RET

If you save your mail messages in a lot of separate folders, you can view a
sorted list of all messages from all files by using cat in conjunction with elm.
Concatenate all the folders into one with cat, and then view that file in elm
as you would view any folder.
⇒ To view the contents of all of the email folders in your ~/Mail directory,
type:
$ cat ~/Mail/* > allmessages RET

$ elm -f allmessages RET

These commands write a new file, allmessages, in the current directory,

containing the contents of all email folders in ~/Mail; then, that file is viewed
in elm.
624 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: To view a list showing who all the messages in a folder are from, use
frm; see Recipe 32.4.4 [Seeing Who Your Mail Is From], page 626.

32.4.2 Setting Notification for New Mail

Biff
DEB: biff
RPM: biff
WWW: ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/mail/

The biff tool notifies you when new mail arrives by printing the header and
first few lines of a mail message.
To turn biff on, use y as an option. To turn biff off, so that you stop
being notified when new mail arrives, use n as an option. Unlike most tools,
biff options don’t take a hyphen.
⇒ To turn biff on, type:
$ biff y RET

Some people put the preceding line in their .bashrc file so that biff
is always set on in all of their shells (see Recipe 3.5.6 [Changing the Shell
Prompt], page 80).
Typing biff alone with no options will tell you whether biff is set to y
or n.
⇒ To see what biff is set to, type:
$ biff RET

A companion tool, xbiff, works only in the X Window System (you can
use the regular biff in X, too).
When you start xbiff, it draws a window containing a mailbox that looks
like Figure 32-1. When mail arrives, xbiff rings the system bell, the window
icon reverses color, and the mailbox flag goes up, as in Figure 32-25
NOTES: The original version of biff was named after a dog. In the early
1980s at a uc Berkeley computer lab, a girl would bring her dog, Biff, in
with her when she went to use the computers. Biff was known for barking at
the mailman whenever he came to deliver the day’s mail. Biff was also very
popular with all of the bsd unix hackers at Berkeley, and when one of them
5
Noah Friedman has an alternate set of “Spam” images you can use, available from
http://www.splode.com/~friedman/software/packages/index.html.
Chapter 32: Email 625

wrote a mail notification tool, he thought of Biff and the mailman—hence the
name. (Biff, the dog, died in August 1993.)

Figure 32-1. An xbiff window.

Figure 32-2. An xbiff window when mail is waiting.

32.4.3 Counting How Many Messages You Have

Elm
DEB: mailutils
RPM: elm
WWW: http://www.instinct.org/elm/

Use the messages tool, distributed with Elm,6 to count the number of mail
messages in a folder or file. Give the name of a mail folder as an argument;
with no arguments, it counts the mail you have waiting in your inbox.

6
On Debian systems, messages comes with the gnu Mailutils package.
626 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To see how many email messages you have waiting, type:
$ messages RET

• To count the number of email messages in the mail folder
~/email/saved, type:
$ messages ~/email/saved RET

32.4.4 Seeing Who Your Mail Is From

There are two methods for seeing who mail is from, and they use two different
tools of similar name.

METHOD #1
Elm
DEB: mailutils
RPM: elm
WWW: http://www.instinct.org/elm/

Use frm, distributed with Elm,7 to output a list of sender names and subjects
for your mail. Give the name of a mail folder as an option; with no options,
frm reads your inbox.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output a list showing sender names and subjects of your incoming
mail, type:
$ frm RET

• To output a list showing sender names and subjects of the mail in
the file ~/email/saved, type:
$ frm ~/email/saved RET

If you have no mail, frm tells you so.

METHOD #2
The from tool works in similar fashion to frm, but it does not output subject
lines; instead, it outputs the names of senders and the time that messages
were received.

7
On Debian systems, from comes with the gnu Mailutils package.
Chapter 32: Email 627

⇒ To output a list of your incoming mail messages, showing sender names

and the time and date received, type:
$ from RET

If you have no mail, from outputs nothing.

32.4.5 Verifying an Email Address

vrfy
DEB: vrfy
RPM: vrfy

Use vrfy to determine whether or not a given email address works. This is
useful when you are unsure of whether or not you have the right email address
for someone. If the address works, vrfy outputs a message indicating that
the recipient exists; if the address is not valid, vrfy outputs a message saying
that the user is unknown.
⇒ To verify that the email address [email protected] is valid, type:
$ vrfy [email protected] RET

Use the -f option to specify a text file containing email addresses; vrfy
attempts to verify all email addresses contained in the file.
⇒ To verify all of the email addresses contained in the file net-legends-faq,
type:
$ vrfy -f net-legends-faq RET

NOTES: vrfy relies on the remote system to get this information; in these
days of the heavily corporatized Internet, an increasing number of sites no
longer supply this kind of information to the general public. However, it’s
still useful enough to be worth mentioning.

32.4.6 Searching Mail Archives

You can search the contents of a mail archive just like any text file: outputting
lines matching a pattern with grep, or perusing the archive in a text viewer
or editor and showing the searched-for text in context.

METHOD #1
To search the text of a mail archive, use grep in the usual way (see Chapter 14
[Searching Text], page 333).
628 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To output all lines in ~/Mail/emily containing the text “password,”

regardless of case, type:
$ grep -i password ~/Mail/emily RET

METHOD #2
Use a text viewer or editor to peruse mail archives and search for text, as
described in Chapter 9 [Viewing Text], page 211, and Chapter 10 [Editing
Text], page 231.
A good way to search through mail archives is by subject; the less tool is
particularly useful because search terms are highlighted.
⇒ To highlight all of the subject lines in the current file you are perusing in
less, and move the cursor to the next one, type:
/^Subject:.* RET

32.5 Using Mail Attachments

mime (“Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions”) is an Internet standard for
encoding and attaching files to mail messages. It’s used when sending image,
audio, or other non-plain-text data via email.
Normally, you read and send mime mail with your mua. The following
recipes, which show ways to send and receive mime mail on the command line,
are useful for when you just use the mail tool to read and send occasional mail
with an attachment, but the built-in methods for manipulating mime mail in
any reasonable mua will invariably be easier and more convenient than the
techniques described here (see Recipe 32.7 [Using Other Mail User Agents],
page 631).

32.5.1 Reading a Mail Attachment

There are two methods for reading attachments, outside of using your mua.

METHOD #1
Metamail
DEB: metamail
RPM: metamail
WWW: http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~trey/emacs/metamail.html

To read a mail attachment, write the message to a file and then run metamail
Chapter 32: Email 629

with the file name as an argument. metamail lists each attachment and
prompts you to decide whether it should display the attachment, write it to
a file, or skip it.
To read a mail attachment, type:
 

$ mail RET

Mail version 8.1 6/6/93. Type ? for help.
"/var/spool/mail/m": 1 messages 1 new
>N 1 Photo Dept. Mon Feb 12 14:37 231/10980 "New Images"
& w1 image.mail RET

"image.mail" [New file]
& x RET

$ metamail image.mail RET

In this example, the mail tool was used to open the inbox and write the
message to a file called image.mail; then, metamail was run with the file
name as an argument.

METHOD #2
Nmh
DEB: nmh
RPM: nmh
WWW: http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/

Use mhshow to view the contents of an email message with mime attachments.
Give the name of the file containing the message as an argument to the -
file option. This command shows first the headers of the mail, and then
all remaining parts of the message in turn. For any portion that cannot be
displayed on the screen, you will be given an option to write it to a file.
⇒ To view the contents of the multipart mail message stored in the file
~/Mail/inbox/1, type:
$ mhshow -file ~/Mail/inbox/1 RET

32.5.2 Sending a Mail Attachment

Metamail
DEB: metamail
RPM: metamail
WWW: http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~trey/emacs/metamail.html
630 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

To send a file as an email attachment, use metasend. It prompts for the values
to use in the To:, Subject:, and CC: header fields, plus the following for each
mime attachment: its Content-type:, which describes the kind of data the
attachment contains; the file name; and the type of encoding to use, if any
(usually one is recommended).
⇒ To mail the jpeg file dream.jpeg in the current directory to the address
[email protected], type:
 

$ metasend RET

To: [email protected] RET

Subject: The image you requested RET

CC: RET

Content-type: image/jpeg RET

Name of file containing image/gif data: dream.jpeg RET

Do you want to encode this data for sending through the mail?
1 -- No, it is already in 7 bit ASCII
2 -- Yes, encode in base64 (most efficient)
3 -- Yes, encode in quoted-printable (less efficient, more readable)
4 -- Yes, encode it using uuencode (not standard, being phased out)
2 RET

Do you want to include another file too (y/n) [n] ? n RET

Delivering mail, please wait... Mail delivery apparently succeeded.
$

The following table lists values to use in the mime Content-type: field for
various kinds of files.

application/gzip File compressed with gzip

application/zip File compressed with zip
application/postscript PostScript file
image/jpeg jpeg image file
image/png png image file
audio/basic Audio file
Chapter 32: Email 631

audio/mpeg3 mp3 audio file

audio/ogg Ogg Vorbis audio file
audio/wav wav audio file

32.6 Using an Email Signature

Sigrot
DEB: sigrot
WWW: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail/misc/

A signature file (often pronounced “dot sig,” and written as .sig) is a text
file containing text that you want to appear at the end of email messages and
other online postings. They are generally unfashionable now, but this will
explain how to use one anyway.
Sometimes, people put their name, email address, and a small quote, or a
piece of ascii art (such as text written in a figlet font—see Recipe 16.4.1
[Outputting Horizontal Text Fonts], page 401) in the file. Once the World
Wide Web became popular, many people started including the url of their
home page in their ‘.sig.’
You create your signature file in a text editor, just like any other text file.
Name the file ‘.signature’ or ‘.sig,’ and keep it in your home directory.
Be sure to keep your .sig at most four lines in length—to use any more
is considered very bad form. A first line consisting only of two hyphens and
a space character (-- ) is sometimes used; many applications recognize this
string as the beginning of a .sig when processing messages.
If you want to use more than one signature, use sigrot to “rotate” your
various signatures—every time you run sigrot, it selects one of the signature
files you keep in your .sigrot directory and writes it to .signature. To
change your .signature every time you log in, you would run sigrot in your
.bash_login file (see Chapter 3 [The Shell], page 53).

32.7 Using Other Mail User Agents

Some people use the built-in mail facility provided by a Web browser such as
Mozilla, and leave it at that. Others may not send much mail, or have a need
for anything beyond mail. But there are many muas to choose from.
The following table lists some of the more popular muas available for Linux,
describing their special features.
632 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Balsa Graphical email client that works in X with gnome in-

stalled; its interface is inspired somewhat by the proprietary
Eudora.

Figure 32-3. Balsa.

DEB: balsa
RPM: balsa
WWW: http://www.balsa.net/
Elm Menu-driven mua that was popular in the early 1990s
among experienced users—it has some interesting features,
including ways to send mail in batch mode to many ad-
dresses at once, and comes with a tool to send memoran-
dums as email messages. Interest in Elm has waned consid-
erably over the years, and most novices are advised to try
Mutt instead.

Figure 32-4. Elm.

RPM: elm
WWW: http://www.instinct.org/elm/
Chapter 32: Email 633

Gnus Emacs newsreader (pre-installed with XEmacs) that can

also be used to read and send mail. It has many features
and should appeal to Emacs lovers—but a warning: Some
find it daunting!

Figure 32-5. Gnus.

DEB: gnus
RPM: gnus
WWW: http://gnus.org/
MEW Emacs mail and news facility developed in Japan, “Messag-
ing in the Emacs World” has many features for handling
mail in complex ways.

Figure 32-6. mew.

DEB: mew
RPM: mew
WWW: http://www.mew.org/
634 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

MH-E Emacs front-end to nmh. Powerful, yet easy to use.

Figure 32-7. mh-e.

DEB: emacsen-common
RPM: emacs-21
WWW: http://www.emacs.org/
Mozilla Mail Familiar email interface of this popular Web browser. Works
in the X Window System and is favored by newbies.

Figure 32-8. Mozilla Mail.

DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/
Chapter 32: Email 635

Mutt mua currently in favor among many Vi users, and is one of

the most popular muas for Linux today.

Figure 32-9. Mutt.

DEB: mutt
RPM: mutt
WWW: http://www.mutt.org/
Nmh Rand Mail Handling system, mh; not a single application for
mail, but a collection of small tools for manipulating mail
folders and messages, installed in /usr/bin/mh. It should
appeal to those who excel at building complex commands
from combinations of simple tools and operators. nmh is
the new “Mail Handling” system, containing rewrites and
improved versions of the mh tools. Most Linux systems will
install this over the old mh.

Figure 32-10. nmh.

DEB: nmh
RPM: nmh
WWW: http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/
636 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

VM “View Mail” is an older mua for Emacs that is very config-

urable.

Figure 32-11. vm.

DEB: vm
RPM: vm
WWW: http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/
Wanderlust mua for Emacs designed to facilitate reading your mail on
multiple computers.

Figure 32-12. Wanderlust.

DEB: wl
RPM: wl
WWW: http://www.gohome.org/wl/
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 637

33. The World Wide Web

Next to email, the most useful service on the Internet is the World Wide Web
(www, or most often just the “Web”). You certainly know about it; it is a
giant network of hypertext documents and services, made available through
the HyperText Transfer Protocol (http). Anyone can publish to the Web,
and anyone with an Internet-connected computer can read almost anything
that’s on the Web. For more than ten years, it has been growing by the
instant. It is the new mass media, and it could well be the world’s largest
public repository of information.
What everybody does on the Web is “browse” it, which means to use a Web
browser to access files published somewhere on the Web. Text files written
in html (“HyperText Markup Language”), the native file format of the Web,
are called pages; these Web pages have hypertext links in them that reference
another file, Web page, or position in a Web page elsewhere on the Web;
when you click a link, your browser will then retrieve and display the file it
references. Some years ago the overused catchphrase du jour was to “surf”
the Web, which means the same thing as browsing.
The unique address that specifies a particular document is called a uni-
form resource locator, or url.1 urls can specify Web pages, local files, and
documents available via other Internet services such as ftp.
When specifying a url as an argument, unless the url is very simple,
be sure to quote it! urls sometimes have characters in them that the shell
reserves, such as ampersand characters (&). If the & is unquoted, Bash will
interpret it as the end of the command, the & meaning to run the input line
up to that point in the background; any text following the & will be run in
the foreground as the next command—neither having the intended effect.
Of browsers, Mozilla is the most popular, and is arguably the “king” of
them all. Lynx is a fast, text-only browser that is arguably the most powerful
at the command line. This chapter shows how to use both of them, and then
describes other handy tools for accessing and using the Web, including tools
for writing Web pages in html.

1
Some people pronounce it as “earl,” while others insist that it can only be “yoo-are-ell.”
638 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

33.1 Using Mozilla

Mozilla
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/

When most people think of browsing or surfing the Web, they think of doing
it graphically—and the mental image they conjure is usually that of the fa-
mous Netscape browser. Most Web sites today make heavy use of graphic im-
ages, and commercial Web sites are usually optimized for Netscape-compatible
browsers—many of them are not even accessible with other browsers. That
means you’ll want to use this application for browsing this kind of Web site.
The version of Netscape’s Navigator browser that was released as free,
open source software in 1998 to much fanfare is called Mozilla.2 It includes
a browser (Mozilla Navigator), mua and newsgroup reader (Mozilla Mail),
Web page editor (Mozilla Composer), and contact manager (Mozilla Address
Book). When first released, the Mozilla application was a “developer’s only”
release, but it has long reached a state where it is ready for general use.
The following recipes will help you get the most out of using Mozilla.

33.1.1 Getting Acquainted with Mozilla

Once Mozilla has been installed, run Mozilla Navigator in X either by typing
mozilla in a shell, or by selecting it from a menu in the usual fashion, as
dictated by your window manager.
You can, optionally, give a url as an argument to start Mozilla with that
url; otherwise, Mozilla will load a pre-determined start page,3 which you can
also customize—see Recipe 33.7 [Setting Up a Start Page], page 658.

2
Netscape’s browsers, from its earliest Navigator release to its later Communicator series,
were always referred to internally at the company as Mozilla; this was a slangy pun on
the name Mosaic, which had been the first popular graphical Web browser in the early
1990s—Netscape’s goal had been to make a “Mosaic killer.”
3
This term is mine. Mozilla calls it a home page, but this is confusing because that term
chiefly refers to the main page of a person or organization’s published Web site.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 639

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To start Mozilla with your default start page, type:
$ mozilla RET

• To start Mozilla with the url http://gutenberg.net/, type:
$ mozilla http://gutenberg.net/ RET

A typical Mozilla window looks like Figure 33-1, in which the home page
of the Library of Congress [http://www.loc.gov/] is loaded.

Figure 33-1. Mozilla.

The title of the Web page and the name Mozilla is written in the Mozilla
window’s title bar.
The top bar inside the Mozilla window is called the Menu Bar, and con-
tains pull-down menus for accessing all of its major functions. The bar beneath
that is called the Navigation Bar, and contains buttons for controlling page
navigation. The Location box, in the middle of the Navigation Bar, con-
tains the url of the currently-loaded page. It also has buttons for searching,
printing, and the stylized blue M, which takes you to the Mozilla home page
[http://www.mozilla.org/].
Beneath that, the largest area of the window is for the Web page itself.
At the bottom is the Status Bar, which tells you (among other things),
the status of the current Web page or document. In the example, the status
is Done, meaning that the entire page has successfully loaded.
Like most graphical Web browsers, its use is fairly self-explanatory. Type
a url in the Location dialog box to open that url, and left-click on a link to
640 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

follow it, replacing the main contents of the browser window with the contents
of that link.
The right mouse button opens a special options menu, whose contents de-
pend on the context of the mouse pointer. If you right-click when the pointer
is on a link, you will be presented with several options for handling the link,
including opening it in a new window, bookmarking it, and displaying its
properties. If you right-click when the pointer is on an image, you will be pre-
sented with options for handling the image, including viewing it (the browser
display the image as its own “page”), saving it to a file, and bookmarking it.
If you right-click when the pointer is on whitespace, plain text, or somewhere
else on the page, you will be presented with options for handling the current
page, including bookmarking it, viewing its html source or page information,
reloading it, and saving it.

33.1.2 Using Basic Mozilla Browsing Keys

The following table lists basic navigation keys in Mozilla.

Navigation
ALT
- 
Go back to the last url you visited

ALT
- 
Go forward to the next url in your history.

CTRL
- H
Open your browser history.

ALT
- HOME
Go to your pre-defined Mozilla start (or “home”)

page.

SHIFT
- CTRL
- L
Open a url.

Bookmarks
CTRL
- B
Open your bookmarks file in a new window.

CTRL
- D
Add page with current properties to the bottom of

your bookmarks file.

SHIFT
- CTRL
- D
Add page to a particular place in your bookmarks

file while optionally editing its properties.
Window Operations
CTRL
- N
Open a new Mozilla window (see the following
recipe).
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 641

(continued)
Window Operations
CTRL
- W
Close current Mozilla window.

CTRL
- Q
Quit and exit Mozilla.

Viewing Pages
ESC
Stop loading current page.

CTRL
- R
Reload current page.

CTRL
- U
View html source of current page.

CTRL
- I
View file and server information of current page.

CTRL
- 
Decrease size of text.

CTRL
- +
Increase size of text.

CTRL
- E
Edit current page.

CTRL
- P
Print current page.

Text Selections
CTRL
- A
Select all text on page.

CTRL
- X
Cut text selection.

CTRL
- C
Copy text selection.

CTRL
- V
Paste text selection.

DEL
Delete text selection.

CTRL
- Z
Undo last text operation.

CTRL
- Y
Redo last text operation.

File Operations
CTRL
- O
Open a file for viewing.

CTRL
- S
Save current page as a file.

NOTES: These keys may not have the desired effect in some window managers;
if they don’t work for you, try using the CTRL
key instead of the ALT
key.
642 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

One nice feature for Emacs fans is that you can use Emacs-style keystrokes
for cursor movement in Mozilla’s dialog boxes (see Recipe 10.1.3 [Using Basic
Emacs Editing Keys], page 237).

33.1.3 Making a New Mozilla Window

It’s often useful to have several Mozilla windows open at once—this way,
multiple Web pages can be displayed simultaneously. There are two methods
for doing this: One makes a new window with the contents of a link, and
another makes one with your Mozilla start page.

METHOD #1
To open a link in a new Mozilla window, middle-click the link. Opening
multiple links in their own windows saves time when you are doing a lot of
“power browsing.”

METHOD #2
To open a new Mozilla window whose contents will be your Mozilla start page,
type CTRL
- N
.

33.1.4 Copying a Link to the Clipboard from Mozilla

To copy a link to the clipboard in Mozilla, right-click on the link and then
select Copy Link Location.
Then you can paste the link somewhere else, including another X client win-
dow, by clicking the middle mouse button when the pointer is in the place you
want to paste (see Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of Text], page 253).
NOTES: To copy an url, such as the url displayed in the Location dialog
box, left-click on either side of the url and drag the mouse across it. You can
then paste the url somewhere else.

33.1.5 Copying an Email Address to the Clipboard from

Mozilla
To copy an email address to the clipboard in Mozilla, right-click on the address
and choose Copy Email Address.
Then you can paste the email address somwhere else, including another X
client window, by clicking the middle mouse button when the pointer is in the
place you want to paste (see Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of Text],
page 253).
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 643

33.1.6 Searching the Source of a Web Page in Mozilla

The Find in This Page command (see Recipe 33.1.2 [Using Basic Mozilla
Browsing Keys], page 640) works on any page that is displayed in Mozilla,
including html source views. This is useful for searching the html source for
links or other text not visible in the rendered display.
⇒ To search the source of a Web page, do the following:
1. Type CTRL
- U
on the Web page to view its source.
2. Use the mouse pointer to move to the page source window.
3. Type CTRL
- F
to find text in the source.
4. Enter the text to search for and type RET
.
5. Type CTRL
- G
to repeat the search.

33.2 Using Lynx

Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

As of this writing, the venerable Lynx is still the standard Web browser for use
on many Linux systems; it was also one of the first Web browsers available for
general use.4 It doesn’t display graphics, but it’s a good interface for reading
hypertext.
Type lynx to start it. If a start page is defined, it will load (see Recipe 33.7
[Setting Up a Start Page], page 658.
To open a url, give it as an argument.
⇒ To view the contents of the url http://www.whitehouse.gov/, type:
$ lynx http://www.whitehouse.gov/ RET

The following Lynx recipes include tips and hints for using Lynx in various
ways.

33.2.1 Using Basic Lynx Browsing Keys

The following table describes some of the keyboard commands that work in
Lynx.
4
Like many of my generation, it was through Lynx that I had my first view of the Web.
644 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Navigation within a
Document

Move up (backward) through links in the current
document.


Move down (forward) through links in the current

document.

CTRL
- N
Move down to the next line in the current document.

CTRL
- P
Move up to the previous line in the current docu-

ment.

PgDn
or CTRL
- F
or Scroll down (forward ) to the next screen in the cur-
SPACEBAR
or +
rent document.

PgUp
or CTRL
- B
or Scroll up (backward ) to the previous screen in the


current document.

CTRL
- A
Move to the head (top) of the current document.

CTRL
- E
Move to the bottom (end) of the current document.

Navigation Between
Documents
g Go to a url; Lynx will prompt you for the url to
go to. Type 
to insert on this line the last url
that was visited; once inserted, you can edit it.
G Go to a url, by editing the current url; Lynx will
display the current url and let you edit it.


or RET
Follow the hyperlink currently selected by the cur-

sor.


Go back to the last document.

DEL
View a history of all documents visited during this

session.

Z
Stop downloading current page.

Information and Help
H
or ? Display the Lynx help files.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 645

(continued)
Information and Help
K
Display a complete list of keystroke commands.
= Display information about the current document
(like all documents displayed in Lynx, type 
to
go back to the previous document).
\ Toggle between rendered html and source display
of current page.

BKSP
Display history of links visited in current session.

Exiting Lynx
! Escape temporarily to a shell ( CTRL
- D
returns).
q Quit browsing and exit the program; Lynx will ask
to verify this action.

Q or CTRL
- D
Quit browsing and exit the program without

verification.

33.2.2 Saving a Web Page from Lynx

Use the Print to local file option to save either the rendered content or
the html source file of a Web page in Lynx.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To save the rendered content of the Web page displayed in Lynx, do
the following:
1. Type P
(the print option) to open the print options page.
2. Select Print to local file and press RET
.

• To save the html source of the Web page displayed in Lynx, do the
following:
1. Type \ to view the source.
2. Type p to open the print options page.
3. Select Print to local file.
646 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

33.2.3 Listing All the Links in a Page

When you want to browse a hypertext list of all links a page contains, num-
bered and in html format so that each member of the list is a hotlink, use
the list references command when viewing the page in Lynx.
⇒ To view a list of all links from the current page, press L
.

When you type this command, Lynx loads a new page containing a list of
all links (called references) contained in the page you were viewing. This list,
reminiscent of the old Internet Gopher service, is good for viewing the links
on pages that contain “hidden” links, such as some image links. It’s also good
for making an html annotated list of links that a page contains; do this by
saving the link page, as described in the previous recipe.

33.2.4 Sending Text from the Web to Standard Output

To output the rendered text of an url, use lynx with the -dump option. This
dumps the text of the given url to the standard output, and you can pipe
this to less for perusal or use redirection to save it to a file. This is good for
many things, including perusing or formatting text from the Web.
⇒ To get the text of http://sc.edu/fitzgerald/winterd/winter.html
and peruse it, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/winterd/winter.html |
less RET

It’s an old net convention for italicized words to be displayed in an etext

inside underscores like _this_; use the -underscore option to output any
italicized text in this manner.
By default, lynx annotates all the hyperlinks and produces a list of foot-
noted links at the bottom of the screen.5 If you don’t want them, add the
-nolist option and just the “pure text” will be returned.
⇒ To output the pure text of the previous url, with underscores, and save
it to the file winter_dreams, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -nolist -underscore
http://sc.edu/fitzgerald/winterd/winter.html > winter_dreams RET

To specify a line width for the dump, in characters, give it with the -
width= option. The default is 80. You can do other things with the pure text,
like pipe it to enscript for setting it in a font for printing.
5
These links are controlled by the -number_links option; you can give this option to turn
on annotations and footnotes in normal browsing too.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 647

⇒ To print the pure text of the previous url in a Times Roman font, with
underscores translated into italics and a line width of 40 characters type
(all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -width=40 -nolist -underscore
http://sc.edu/fitzgerald/winterd/winter.html | enscript -B
-Eetext -f "Times-Roman12" RET

NOTES: To peruse the plain text of a url with its html tags removed and no
formatting done to the text, see Recipe 33.9.2 [Converting html], page 663.
You can also use the -dump option to print a Web page (see Recipe 25.2.4
[Printing a Web Page], page 514), or to pass some file from the Web to another
command, such as passing a wav audio file to the sox audio processing tool.

33.2.5 Viewing a Site that Requires Authorization

To view a site or Web page that requires registration, use lynx with the
-auth option, giving as arguments the username and password to use for
authorization, separating them by a colon character (:).
⇒ To view the url http://www.example.com/archive/ with a username
and password of “guest,” type:
$ lynx -auth=guest:guest http://www.example.com/archive/ RET

It’s common to combine this with the options for saving to a file, so that
you can retrieve an annotated text copy of a file from a site that normally
requires registration.
⇒ To save the url http://www.example.com/archive/ as an annotated
text file, mynews, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -number_links -auth=guest:guest
http://www.example.com/archive/ > mynews RET

NOTES: The username and password argument you give on the command line
will be recorded in your shell history log (see Recipe 3.4 [Using Your Command
History], page 74), and it will be visible to other users on the system should
they look to see what processes you’re running (see Recipe 2.7.2 [Listing All
of a User’s Processes], page 42).

33.2.6 Viewing an html Selection

To view a selection of html source code rendered in Lynx, select the source
code and then use lynx with the -stdin option to read its start page from
the standard input. Then, paste the selection to lynx’s standard input.
648 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

If you have friends who send you mail in html format that you cannot
conveniently read with your mua, this little-known tip will make you happy.
⇒ To view a selection of html source code as rendered text, do the following:
1. Select the source code to render by left-clicking and dragging the
mouse pointer over it (see Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of
Text], page 253).
2. Start Lynx in a terminal so that it reads from standard input:
$ lynx -stdin RET

3. Paste the text in the terminal that is running Lynx, by clicking the
middle mouse button in that terminal.
4. End the input to Lynx by typing CTRL
- D
in that terminal.
When you do this, Lynx will render and display the html code.
NOTES: Lynx will still be running after it displays the code, and you will
then have to type Q to quit and exit Lynx. Alternately, include the -dump
option to have Lynx display the rendered html to its standard output and
then immediately exit.
Whenever you have html code coming out of a stream, you can pipe it to
lynx -stdin -dump to display the rendered code to the standard output.
This technique is also good for testing out arbitrary selections of html
code.

33.2.7 Specifying Key Bindings in Lynx

You can specify special key bindings in Lynx, so that the movement commands
work just like in your favorite editor: use the -emacskeys option to enable
Emacs-style key bindings, and use the -vikeys option to enable Vi-style key
bindings.
⇒ To start Lynx with the url http://nostarch.com/, using Vi-style key
bindings for movement, type:
$ lynx -vikeys http://nostarch.com/ RET

33.2.8 Using Lynx with a Mouse

To use Lynx with the mouse, give the -use_mouse option to lynx. If your
version of Lynx has mouse support enabled, giving this option will let you
follow a link by just clicking on it with the left mouse button; right-click the
mouse anywhere in the window to move back to the last page you visited.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 649

⇒ To browse the files in the /usr/share/doc directory with lynx, using the
mouse, type:
$ lynx -use_mouse /usr/share/doc RET

33.3 Accessing the Web in Emacs

W3
DEB: w3-el-e21
RPM: w3
WWW: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/elisp/w3/docs.html

You can get the Web in Emacs. Currently it’s quite slow, but it may have
its uses. To do this, use w3-mode. Its features are many—just about the
only things you may miss are ssl support (although this may be coming) and
JavaScript and Java support (well, you may not miss it, but it will make some
sites a bit hard to use). It can handle frames, tables, stylesheets, and many
other html features.
 

Figure 33-2. w3-mode in Emacs.
⇒ To load w3-mode in Emacs, type:
ALT
- X
w3 RET

To open a url in a new buffer, type CTRL
- O
and, in the minibuffer, give
the url to open (leaving this blank opens the w3-mode home page). Middle-
click a link to follow it, opening the url in a new buffer.
650 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To open the url http://emacs.org/, type:
CTRL
- O
http://emacs.org/ RET

• To open the url of the w3-mode home page, type:

CTRL
- O
RET

The last example opens the w3-mode home page in a buffer of its own, as
in Figure 33-2.

The following table describes some of the special commands for use when
in w3-mode.

RET
Follow the link at point.

SPACEBAR
Scroll down in the current buffer.

BKSP
Scroll up in the current buffer.

ALT
- TAB
Insert the url of the current document into another
buffer.

ALT
- S
Save a document to the local disk (you can choose

from HTML Source, Formatted Text, LaTEX Source,
or Binary).

CTRL
- O
Open an url.

B Move backward in the history stack of visited urls.
F Move forward in the history stack of visited urls.
i View information about the document in the current
buffer (the information opens in new buffer called
Document Information).
I View information about the link at point in the
current buffer (the information opens in new buffer
called Document Information).
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 651

k Put the url of the document in the current buffer

in the kill ring, and make it the X selection (useful
for copying and pasting the url into another buffer
or to another application; see Recipe 10.3 [Manipu-
lating Selections of Text], page 253).
K Put the url of the link at point in the kill ring and
make it the X selection (useful for copying and past-
ing the url into another buffer or to another appli-
cation; see Recipe 10.3 [Manipulating Selections of
Text], page 253).
l Move to the last visited buffer.
o Open a local file.
q Quit w3-mode, kill the current buffer, and go to the
last visited buffer.
r Reload the current document.
s View the html source of the document in the cur-
rent buffer (it opens in a new buffer with the url
as its name).
S View the html source of the link at point in the
current buffer (it opens in a new buffer with the
url as its name).
v Show the url of the current document (the url is
shown in the minibuffer).
V Show the url of the link at point in the current
buffer (the url is shown in the minibuffer).

33.4 Viewing an Image from the Web

Typically, you view images on the Web by opening them in the browser you
are using, but you can view Web images without browsing, too—methods to
do so follow.
652 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

You can view an image on the Web by giving the url of the image as an
argument to lynx (see Recipe 33.2 [Using Lynx], page 643). The image will
be displayed with whatever “helper” application is set up to show images via
lynx.
⇒ To view the image at the url ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/garbo-
gifs/garbo01.gif, type:
$ lynx ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/garbo-gifs/garbo01.gif RET

NOTES: This method only works in X.

You could also give the url for the image as an argument in this way
to some other browser, such as Mozilla (see Recipe 33.1 [Using Mozilla],
page 638).

METHOD #2
ImageMagick
DEB: imagemagick
RPM: ImageMagick
WWW: http://www.imagemagick.org/

Libwww-perl
DEB: libwww-perl
RPM: perl-libwww
WWW: http://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/websoft/libwww-perl/

If you just want to view an image file from the Web, you don’t have to use a
Web browser at all—instead, you can use display, giving the url you want to
view as an argument. It uses GET (sometimes get), part of the libwww-perl
package, to fetch the url.
This method is especially nice for viewing your favorite webcam image, for
viewing images on ftp sites, or for putting in scripts—you don’t have to start
a browser, log in, or type any other commands at all.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 653

⇒ To view the image at the url

http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/coralcam/ccam.jpg, type:
$ display http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/coralcam/ccam.jpg RET

The -remote option opens the image in a display window that’s already
running; you can use this method to view an image that changes often—such
as a webcam image—and automatically refresh the display with the latest
image. To do this, first run display in the background, and then run watch
(see Recipe 28.4 [Watching a Command from Time to Time], page 559). Give
the number of seconds between reloads as an argument to the -n option,
and give display with the -remote option and the image url as a quoted
argument as the command to be watched.
⇒ To view the image at the url
http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/coralcam/ccam.jpg, updating
it with the latest image from the webcam every 30 seconds, type:
 

$ display http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/coralcam/ccam.jpg & RET

[3] 29621
$ watch -n 30 'display -remote
http://waquarium.otted.hawaii.edu/coralcam/ccam.jpg' RET



In this example, the first display command was run in the background,
as that shell’s third job, with a process number of 29621. To stop viewing,
type CTRL
- C
in the terminal that contains the watch command, and then
kill the first display job (see Recipe 3.3.5 [Stopping a Job], page 73).
NOTES: When viewing the image, you can use all of the image-manipulation
commands that display supports, including resizing and changing the mag-
nification of the image. For more information about display, see Recipe 17.1
[Viewing an Image in X], page 407.

33.5 Getting Files from the Web

Wget
DEB: wget
RPM: wget
WWW: http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/wget.html

Use wget, “Web get,” to download files from the World Wide Web. It can
retrieve files from http or ftp urls. It keeps the file’s original timestamp, it’s
654 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

smaller and faster to use than a browser, and it shows a visual display of the
download progress.
To retrieve an html file from the Web and save it as rendered text, use
Lynx instead—see Recipe 33.2.4 [Sending Text from the Web to Standard
Output], page 646.
The following subsections contain recipes for using wget to retrieve infor-
mation from the Web. For more examples of things you can do with wget,
consult its Info documentation (see Recipe 2.8.5 [Reading an Info Manual],
page 48).

33.5.1 Downloading an url

To download a single file from the Web, give the url of the file as an argument
to wget.
⇒ To download ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/garbo-gifs/garbo20.gif to a
file, type:
$ wget ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/garbo-gifs/garbo20.gif RET

This command downloads a given url, writing to a file in the current

working directory with the same name as the original url, garbo20.gif.
If you interrupt a download before it’s finished, the contents of the file you
were retrieving will contain only the portion of the file wget retrieved before
it was interrupted. Use wget with the -c option to resume the download from
the point it left off.
⇒ To resume a download of the url from the previous example, type:
$ wget -c ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/garbo-gifs/garbo20.gif RET

NOTES: In order for the -c option to have the desired effect, you should run
wget from the same directory as it was run previously, where that partially-
retrieved file should still exist.

33.5.2 Archiving an Entire Web Site

To archive a single Web site, use wget with the -m (“mirror”) option, which
saves files with the exact timestamp of the original, if possible, and sets the
“recursive retrieval” option to download everything. To specify the number
of retries to use when an error occurs in retrieval, use the -t option with a
numeric argument—-t3 is usually good for safely retrieving across the net;
use -t0 to specify an infinite number of retries, good for when a network
connection is really bad but you really want to archive something, regardless
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 655

of how long it takes. Finally, use the -o option with a file name as an argument
to write a progress log to the file—examining it can be useful in the event
that something goes wrong during the archiving; once the archival process is
complete and you’ve determined that it was successful, you can delete the log
file.
⇒ To mirror the Web site at http://www.example.org/, giving up to three
retries for retrieving files and putting error messages in a log file called
mirror.log, type:
$ wget -m -t3 http://www.example.org/ -o mirror.log RET

This command makes an archive of the Web site at

http://www.example.org/ in a subdirectory called www.example.org in the
current directory. Log messages are written to a file in the current directory
called mirror.log.
To continue an archive that you’ve left off, use the -nc (“no clobber”)
option; it doesn’t retrieve files that have already been downloaded. For this
option to work the way you want it to, be sure that you are in the same
directory that you were in when you originally began archiving the site.
⇒ To continue an interrupted mirror of the Web site at
http://www.example.org/ and make sure that existing files are
not downloaded, giving up to three retries for retrieval of files, and
putting error messages in a log file called mirror.log, type:
$ wget -nc -m -t3 http://www.example.org/ -o mirror.log RET

33.5.3 Archiving Part of a Web Site

To archive only part of a Web site—such as, say, a user’s home page—use the
-I option followed by a list of the absolute path names of the directories to
archive; all other directories on the site are ignored.
⇒ To archive the Web site at http://example.edu/~jim/, only archiving
the /~jim directory, and writing log messages to a file called jim.log,
type:
$ wget -m -t3 -I /~jim http://example.edu/~jim/ -o jim.log RET

This command archives all files on the http://example.edu/~jim/ Web

site whose directory names begin with /~jim.
To only get files in a given directory, use the -r and -l options (the -l
option takes as an argument the number of levels to descend from the given
level). To only download files in a given directory, combine these options with
the --no-parent option, which specifies not to ascend to the parent directory.
656 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Use the -A option to specify the exact file name extensions to accept—
for example, use -A txt,text,tex to only download files whose names end
with .txt, .text, and .tex extensions. The -R option works similarly, but
specifies the file extensions to reject and not download.
⇒ To download only the files ending in a .gz extension and only in the given
directory /~jim/papers/ at example.org, type (all on one line):
$ wget -m -r -l1 --no-parent -A.gz
http://www.example.org/~jim/papers/ RET

33.5.4 Reading the Headers of a Web Page

All Web servers output special headers at the beginning of page requests, but
you normally don’t see them when you retrieve a url with a Web browser.
These headers contain information such as the current system date of the Web
server host and the name and version of the Web server and operating system
software.
Use the -S option with wget to output these headers when retrieving files;
headers are output to standard output, or to the log file, if used.
⇒ To retrieve the file at http://google.com/ and output the headers, type:
$ wget -S http://google.com/ RET

This command writes the server response headers to standard output and
saves the contents of http://google.com/ to a file in the current directory
whose name is the same as the original file.

33.6 Keeping a Browser History

browser-history
DEB: browser-history
RPM: browser-history
WWW: http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/browser-history/

Many Web browsers have a “history” function that keeps a listing of the sites
you visit, and the time and date of your visit, but none are as good as the
browser-history tool. If you presently keep a weblog (or “blog”) in order to
remember good links you find, you won’t have to do that anymore, once you
install this tool.
Use browser-history to maintain a history log of all the Web sites you
visit.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 657

You start it in the background, and each time you visit a url in a Web
browser (as of this writing, it works with the Netscape, Arena, and Amaya
browsers, but not Mozilla), it writes the name and url to its current history
log, which you can view at any time.
⇒ To start browser-history every time you start X, put the following line
in your .xsession file:
browser-history &

The following recipes show ways to use your history logs.

33.6.1 Viewing Your Browser History

The browser history logs are kept in a hidden directory called .browser-
history inside your home directory. The history log for the current week is
always called history-log.html; it’s an html file that you can view in a
Web browser.
⇒ To view the current history log with lynx, type:
$ lynx ~/.browser-history/history-log.html RET

Past history logs have the year, month, and week appended to their file
name, and they are compressed (see Recipe 8.4 [Using File Compression],
page 196). If you are viewing them in a browser, you should just be able
to give the file name as an argument without uncompressing them—most
browsers handle this automagically.
NOTES: If you have a start page, you’ll find it useful to add a link on it to
your current history log file, ‘~/.browser-history/history-log.html’ (see
Recipe 33.7 [Setting Up a Start Page], on the next page).

33.6.2 Searching Through Your Browser History

You can also use zgrep to search through your old browser history logs. The
logs keep the url and title of each site you visit, so you can search for either—
then when someone asks, “Remember that good article about such-and-such?”
you can do a zgrep on the files in your ~/.browser-history directory to find
it.
⇒ To find any urls from the list of those you visited in the year 2000 whose
titles contain the word “Confessions,” type:
$ zgrep Confessions ~/.browser-history/history-log-2000* RET

This command searches all your logs from the year 2000 for the text
“Confessions” in it, and outputs those lines.
658 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NOTES: For more about zgrep, see Recipe 14.7.2 [Matching Lines in Com-
pressed Files], page 349.

33.7 Setting Up a Start Page

A start page is the Web page that a browser automatically loads whenever it
is started without an url as an argument. It is also the page that loads when
you click the browser’s Home button, if it has one.
You can define your browser’s start page. Some people set it to the url of
their favorite news source or publication, while other people even write their
own start page with a list of frequently-visited links, forms for search engines,
and whatnot.
To make your own, just write it as an html file; you can either keep it
somewhere in your home directory and give its full path name or, if you are
running a Web server on your local system, you can put it somewhere in the
server’s html directory tree and access it with an http url instead.
The following are methods for defining a start page in Mozilla and Lynx.

METHOD #1
Mozilla
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/

To define a start page in Mozilla, define the Home Page in the Mozilla
Preferences... menu.
⇒ To change the default start page in Mozilla to your own start page at
http://localhost/start/, do the following:
1. Choose Preferences... from the Edit menu on the menu bar.
2. Left-click in the Location box.
3. Replace its contents with the start page you want:
http://localhost/start
4. Left-click the OK button.

NOTES: In Mozilla, the start page loads whenever you start it with no argu-
ments, click on the Home button, or type ALT
- HOME
.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 659

METHOD #2
Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

The Lynx start page is defined as STARTFILE in /etc/lynx.cfg, and it can

be any url, including a file:// url pointing to a local file on the system.
You need superuser privileges to edit this file.
• To change the Lynx start page to the url http://localhost/start/,
edit /etc/lynx.cfg with a text editor so that it contains the following
line:
STARTFILE:http://localhost/start/

NOTES: Linux distributions often predefine the Lynx start page to the home
page of the distribution. On Debian systems, for example, the start file comes
defined as the Debian home page [http://www.debian.org/].

33.8 Listing the urls in Text

Use one of these two methods to list the urls in text—the html source of a
Web page, the text of a Web page, or any text file.
To list the urls in some Web page source code, first use wget with the -q
and -O options to dump the source to the standard output (see Recipe 33.5
[Getting Files from the Web], page 653), and then pipe that to one of the
methods.
To list the urls in the text of a Web page, and not its source, first use
lynx with the -dump option to dump the contents of the page to the standard
output, and then pipe that to one of the methods.
To make sure that no duplicate urls are listed, pass the output to sort
to output only unique lines (see Method #2 in See Recipe 13.5 [Filtering Out
Duplicate Lines of Text], page 319).
One method uses grep and the other sed, both with the same regular
expression for finding a url. This regexp is rather long, and it contains two
literal space and two literal tab characters; if you use either one of these
methods often, you will certainly want to put the command to run it in a
script (see Recipe 3.7 [Using Shell Scripts], page 84).
660 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #1
To output a list of urls in text, one per line, use grep with the -o option,6
and give as an argument the regular expression to match urls. To search a
text file, give the name of the file as the second argument.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output a list of all the urls contained in the file /etc/lynx.cfg,
type (all on one line):
$ grep -o
'\(\(\(http\(s\)\?\|ftp\|gopher\|telnet\|news\):\/\/\|mailto:\).[^
SPACEBAR
,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]*[^ SPACEBAR

.,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]\)' /etc/lynx.cfg RET

• To output a list of all the urls contained in the text of the url
http://news.example.com/, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -nolist http://news.example.com/ | grep -o
'\(\(\(http\(s\)\?\|ftp\|gopher\|telnet\|news\):\/\/\|mailto:\).[^
SPACEBAR
,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]*[^ SPACEBAR

.,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]\)' RET

• To output a list of the urls contained in the html source file of
http://news.example.com/, type (all on one line):
$ wget -q -O - http://news.example.com/ | grep -o
'\(\(\(http\(s\)\?\|ftp\|gopher\|telnet\|news\):\/\/\|mailto:\).[^
SPACEBAR
,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]*[^ SPACEBAR

.,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]\)' RET

METHOD #2
To output a list of urls in text, one per line, use sed with the following
command line. To search a text file, give the name of the file as an argument.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To output a list of all the urls contained in the file /etc/lynx.cfg,
type (all on one line):
$ sed -n
's/.*\(\(\(http\(s\)\?\|ftp\|gopher\|telnet\|news\):\/\/\|
mailto:\).[^ SPACEBAR
,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]*[^
SPACEBAR
.,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]\).*/\1/p' /etc/lynx.cfg RET

6
Available in gnu grep version 2.5 and newer.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 661

• To output a list of all the urls contained in the text of the url
http://news.example.com/, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -nolist http://news.example.com/ | sed -n
's/.*\(\(\(http\(s\)\?\|ftp\|gopher\|telnet\|news\):\/\/\|
mailto:\).[^ SPACEBAR
,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]*[^
SPACEBAR
.,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]\).*/\1/p' RET

• To output a list of the urls contained in the html source file of

http://news.example.com/, type (all on one line):
$ wget -q -O - http://news.example.com/ | sed -n
's/.*\(\(\(http\(s\)\?\|ftp\|gopher\|telnet\|news\):\/\/\|
mailto:\).[^ SPACEBAR
,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]*[^
SPACEBAR
.,; CTRL
- V
TAB
<">]\).*/\1/p' RET

NOTES: The regexp used in these methods, although complex, is not

exhaustive—it won’t find every possible url, but it will do a perfect job
in most instances.
The perl regexp that can match all possible urls is described in Regex
for urls [http://www.foad.org/~abigail/Perl/url2.html], and it can be
seen here: http://www.foad.org/~abigail/Perl/url.regexp.

33.9 Writing html

HyperText Markup Language (html) is the markup language of the Web;
html files are just plain text files written in this markup language. You can
edit html files in any text editor, no different from other kinds of text files
(see Chapter 10 [Editing Text], page 231).
The following are some special methods for this task.

METHOD #1
Mozilla
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://www.mozilla.org/

Use Mozilla Composer to write html. It is one of the most popular wysiwyg
html editors. You can launch Composer while in Mozilla by selecting it from
the Window menu or by typing CTRL
- 4
.
662 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To start Mozilla Composer, do the following:

1. Start Mozilla (see Recipe 33.1.1 [Getting Acquainted with Mozilla],
page 638):
$ mozilla RET

2. Press CTRL
- 4
.

METHOD #2
Bluefish
DEB: bluefish
RPM: bluefish
WWW: http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/

Many people swear by Bluefish, a full-featured, user-friendly html editor for

X. It has syntax highlighting and can have over 500 documents open at a time.
⇒ To start Bluefish, type:
$ bluefish RET

METHOD #3
GNU Emacs
DEB: emacsen-common
emacs21
RPM: emacs
WWW: http://www.emacs.org/

Emacs (see Recipe 10.1 [Using Emacs], page 232) has a major mode to facili-
tate the editing of html files called html-mode.
⇒ To start html-mode in a buffer, type:
ALT
- X
html-mode RET

The features of html-mode include the insertion of “skeleton” constructs.

The Emacs help text for the html-mode function includes a very short html
authoring tutorial—view the documentation on this function to display the
tutorial.
⇒ To read a short html tutorial in Emacs, type:
CTRL
- H
f html-mode RET

NOTES: When you’re editing an html file in an Emacs buffer, you can open
the same file in a Web browser in another window—Web browsers only read
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 663

and don’t write the html files they open, so you can view the rendered doc-
ument in the browser as you create it in Emacs. When you make and save a
change in the Emacs buffer, reload the file in the browser to see your changes
take effect immediately.

33.9.1 Adding Parameters to Image Tags

Imgsizer
DEB: imgsizer
WWW: http://www.catb.org/~esr/imgsizer/

For usability, html image source tags should have HEIGHT and WIDTH pa-
rameters, which specify the dimensions of the image the tag describes. By
specifying these parameters in all the image tags on a page, the text in that
page will display in the browser window before the images are loaded. Without
them, the browser must load all the images before any of the text on the page
is displayed.
Use imgsizer to automatically determine the proper values and insert
them into an html file. Give the name of the html file to fix as an argument.
⇒ To add HEIGHT and WIDTH parameters to the file index.html, type:
$ imgsizer index.html RET

33.9.2 Converting html

There are several ways to convert html files to other formats. You can convert
the html to plain text for reading, processing, or conversion to still other
formats; you can also convert the html to PostScript, which you can view,
print, or also convert to other formats, including pdf.

METHOD #1
Unhtml
DEB: unhtml
WWW: http://linux.maruhn.com/sec/unhtml.html

To simply remove the html formatting from text, use unhtml. It reads from
the standard input (or a specified file name), and it writes its output to
standard output.
664 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To peruse the file index.html with its html tags removed, type:
$ unhtml index.html | less RET

• To remove the html tags from the file index.html and write the
output to a file called index.txt, type:
$ unhtml index.html > index.txt RET

NOTES: When you remove the html tags from a file with unhtml, no further
formatting is done to the text. Furthermore, it only works on files, and not
on urls themselves.

METHOD #2
Lynx
DEB: lynx
RPM: lynx
WWW: http://lynx.browser.org/

Use lynx to save an html file or a url as a formatted text file, so that
the resultant text looks like the original html when viewed in lynx. It can
also preserve italics and hyperlink information in the original html. See
Recipe 33.2.4 [Sending Text from the Web to Standard Output], page 646.
One thing you can do with this lynx output is pipe it to tools for spacing
text, and then send that to enscript for setting in a font. This is useful
for printing a Web page in typescript “manuscript” form, with images and
graphics removed and text set double-spaced in a Courier font.
⇒ To print a copy of the url http://example.com/essay/ in typescript
manuscript form, type (all on one line):
$ lynx -dump -underscore -nolist http://example.com/essay/ | pr -d
| enscript -B RET

NOTES: In some cases, you might want to edit the file before you print it,
such as when a Web page contains text navigation bars or other text that
you’d want to remove before you turn it into a manuscript. In such a case,
you’d pipe the lynx output to a file, edit the file, and then use pr on the file
and pipe that output to enscript for printing.
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 665

METHOD #3
Html2ps
DEB: html2ps
RPM: html2ps
WWW: http://www.tdb.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html

Use html2ps to convert an html file to PostScript; this is useful when you
want to print a Web page with all its graphics and images, or when you want
to convert all or part of a Web site into pdf. Give the urls or file names
of the html files to convert as options. Use the -u option to underline the
anchor text of hypertext links; specify a file name to write to as an argument
to the -o option. The defaults are to not underline links and to write to the
standard output.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To print a PostScript copy of the document at the url
http://example.com/essay/ to the default printer, type:
$ html2ps http://example.com/essay/ | lpr RET

• To write a copy of the document at the url
http://example.com/essay/ to a PostScript file submission.ps
with all hypertext links underlined, type:
$ html2ps -u -o submission.ps http://example.com/essay/ RET

33.9.3 Validating html

Weblint
DEB: weblint
RPM: weblint
WWW: http://www.webmaster.bham.ac.uk/weblint/

Use weblint to validate the basic structure and syntax of an html file. Give
the name of the file to be checked as an argument, and weblint outputs any
complaints it has about the file to standard output, such as whether or not IMG
elements are missing ALT descriptions, or whether nested elements overlap.
⇒ To validate the html in the file index.html, type:
$ weblint index.html RET

666 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

33.10 Analyzing Your Web Traffic

If you have a Web site, you will undoubtedly have some interest in analyzing
your Web traffic: knowing which pages are popular, who is looking at them,
when they are looking and where they are coming from. Do this by retrieving
the Web logs from the server that hosts your site—these are plain text files
written by the server containing data for every access of your site, one per
line. Tools exist to analyze these logs; here are the two easiest methods for
doing this.

METHOD #1
Analog
DEB: analog
RPM: analog
WWW: http://www.analog.cx/

The most popular tool in use for analyzing Web logs is analog, which produces
a comprehensive set of reports, including the following:
• The top words people used in search engines to find your site.
• The referrers, which are pages with links that the requesting computers
followed to get to your pages.
• The top organizations of the computers that requested your pages.
• The operating systems of the computers that requested your pages.
• The most popular directories on your site.
• The most popular files on your site.
Give the filespec for the log files to analyze as an argument to analog.
This command reads the log file you give and it outputs the reports to the
standard output. Output is in html format; either pipe it to the standard
input of a Web browser to view it or redirect it to a file to save it. Log files
have to be in a log format that analog can recognize, such as the format used
by the popular Apache Web server; they can also be compressed.
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To view an analysis of ~/web/logs/2005/www.20050408.gz, a Web
log file, type:
$ analog ~/web/logs/2005/www.20050408.gz | lynx -stdin RET

Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 667

• To save an analysis of all the Web log files in the ~/web/logs/2005/

directory to an html file in the current directory named
analog.html, type:
$ analog ~/web/logs/2005/* > analog.html RET

METHOD #2
You can also grep your log files. If the log files follow a standard format, you
can use cut to cut out fields you are not interested in, thus outputting the
desired fields. This is useful in doing things like finding the number of unique
domains that have visited a certain directory or page of yours, which you pass
to cut via grep.
⇒ To list the number of unique domains that have visited your reviews
page, based on your logs in the ~/private_html/logs/2006 directory,
type (all on one line):
$ grep reviews ~/private_html/logs/2006/* | cut -f2 -d':' |
cut -f1 -d' ' | sort -u | wc -l RET

NOTES: If any of the log files are compressed, use zgrep or use grep with
the -z option.

33.11 Using Other Web Browsers

Surprisingly, there are not nearly as many Web browsers for Linux as there
are text editors—or even text viewers. This is true for any operating system,
and I have often pondered why this is; perhaps “browsing the Web,” a fairly
recent activity in itself, may soon be obsoleted by Web readers and other
tools. In any event, the following table lists other browsers that are currently
available for Linux systems.

Amaya Developed by the World Wide Web Consor-

tium; both a graphical Web browser and a
wysiwyg editor for writing html.
DEB: amaya
RPM: amaya
WWW: http://www.w3.org/Amaya/
668 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Arena Developed by the World Wide Web Consor-

tium; a very compact, html 3.0-compliant
Web browser for X.
RPM: arena
WWW: http://www.w3.org/Arena/
Dillo Very fast, and small, yet graphical, Web
browser.
DEB: dillo
RPM: dillo
WWW: http://www.dillo.org/
Express Small browser that works in X with gnome
installed.
WWW: http://tinyurl.com/32p4d
Galeon gnome browser based on Mozilla.
DEB: galeon-common
galeon
RPM: galeon
WWW: http://galeon.sourceforge.net/
Gzilla Graphical browser for X, currently in an
early stage of development.
RPM: gzilla
WWW: http://www.levien.com/gzilla/
Links Newer, text-only browser that some prefer
over Lynx.
DEB: links
RPM: links
WWW:
http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links/
Skipstone Graphical browser based on Mozilla, but
with many excess components removed.
RPM: skipstone
WWW: http://www.muhri.net/skipstone/
Chapter 33: The World Wide Web 669

W3m Newer, text-only browser whose features in-

clude table support and an interesting free-
form cursor control.
DEB: w3m
RPM: w3m
WWW: http://w3m.sourceforge.net/
670 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 671

34. Other Internet Services

There are many Internet services other than email and the Web; this chapter
describes how to use many of the other popular (and less popular) services,
including telnet, ftp, and finger.

34.1 Connecting to a Remote Host

Use telnet to connect to a remote system. Give the name of the system to
connect to as an argument, specifying either its name or numeric ip address.
If that system is reachable, you will be connected to it and presented with
a login: or other connection prompt (the network is not exclusive to Linux
systems) just as if you were seated at a terminal connected to that system. If
you have an account on that system, you can then log in to it (see Recipe 2.2.1
[Logging In to the System], page 29).
⇒ To connect to the system lab1.example.edu, type:
 

$ telnet lab1.example.edu RET

Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to lab1.example.edu.
Escape character is '^]'.

Welcome to the Chemistry Department Computer Lab!

login:

In this example, the user connected to the remote system at

lab1.example.edu; the login: prompt displayed is from that system.
At this point, entering a username and password that is valid for
lab1.example.edu will log you in to that system; you will be given a shell
prompt and you can run commands on that system through your terminal
just as if you were logged in at that system’s console.1
1
It’s possible (although not often desirable) to “nest” multiple layers of telnet sessions
on top of each other by running telnet from one system to the next, to the next, and so
on, without disconnecting from the previous system. To avoid this, make sure you know
which host you’re leaving when you’re about to telnet off to another; the hostname tool
is useful for this (see Recipe 2.2.1 [Logging In to the System], page 29).
672 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

To disconnect from the system, follow the normal procedures for logging
out from the system you are connected to (for how to do that on a Linux
system, see Recipe 2.2.2 [Logging Out of the System], page 31).
⇒ To disconnect from a remote Linux system, type:
 

$ CTRL
- D

Connection closed.

In the preceding example, the first shell prompt was on the remote system,
and the second prompt was on the local system; coincidentally, the prompts
were the default on both systems—a dollar sign ($).
Once you are connected to a remote system with telnet, everything you
type in the terminal is sent to the remote system until you are disconnected
from that system. It is sometimes useful to temporarily escape back to the
local shell on your local system, and you can do that by typing the escape
character, which is a key sequence that is interpreted by telnet before it
reaches the remote system. The default escape character is the sequence
CTRL
- [
.

When you type that, you are brought to the telnet command prompt,
where you can do a number of useful things, including temporarily suspend the
connection or terminate the connection entirely—both of which are described
in the following recipes.

34.1.1 Suspending a Connection with a Remote Host

To suspend the connection with the remote host temporarily, type the escape
character and then give the z command at the telnet command prompt.
⇒ To temporarily return to a local shell prompt, type:
 

faraway-system$ CTRL
- [

telnet> z RET

[2]+ Stopped telnet
$

To return to the remote system, bring the telnet job back into the fore-
ground (see Recipe 3.3.3 [Putting a Job in the Foreground], page 73).
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 673

⇒ To return to the remote system, type:

 

$ fg RET

faraway-system$

In the two preceding examples, the shell prompt of the remote system is
“faraway-system$.” (You don’t have to type the escape character at a shell
prompt, though; you can type it regardless of what program is running on the
remote system.)

34.1.2 Terminating a Connetion with a Remote Host

To terminate a connection with the remote host and exit telnet, type the es-
cape character and then give the q command at the telnet command prompt.
This is useful for when the remote host has stopped responding for one reason
or another (bad network connection, the computer froze up, whatever) and
you cannot terminate the connection normally.
⇒ To terminate a connection with a remote system, type:
 

faraway-system$ CTRL
- [

telnet> q RET

Connection closed.
$

34.2 Transferring Files to and from a Remote Host

File Transfer Protocol (ftp) is a way to exchange files across systems. Use
the ftp tool to connect to another system using this protocol, giving the name
or numeric ip address of the system you want to connect to as an argument.
Once connected, you will be prompted to log in with a username and password
(if you have one on that system).
Many systems are set up to accept anonymous ftp connections, where files
are available for downloading by the general public. To access such reposito-
ries, log in with a username of anonymous, and give your email address for a
password.
674 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To make an anonymous ftp connection to ftp.example.org, type:

 

$ ftp ftp.example.org RET

Connected to ftp.example.org.
220-Welcome to EXAMPLE.ORG.
220-See file README for more information about this archive.
220-
220 FTP server example.org ready.
Name (ftp.example.org:tom): anonymous RET

331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password.
Password: [email protected] RET

230-
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>

Once connected and logged in, use the cd and ls commands to change
directories and to list files on the remote system.
It is standard practice for public systems to have a /pub directory on their
ftp host that contains all the files and goodies available to the general public.
⇒ To change to the /pub directory on the remote system and look at the
files that are there, type:
 

ftp> cd /pub RET

250 Directory changed to /pub.
ftp> ls RET

ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII connection for file (918 bytes)
total 52048
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ftpadmin ftpadmin 1095772 Sep 28 06:32 INDEX.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ftpadmin ftpadmin 9521446 Sep 28 06:42 ls-lR.gz
drwxr-xr-x 2 ftpadmin ftpadmin 512 Sep 17 18:23 rec
drwxr-xr-x 3 ftpadmin ftpadmin 512 Sep 17 18:23 sci
drwxr-xr-x 5 ftpadmin ftpadmin 512 Sep 17 18:23 text
226 Transfer completed with 918 Bytes/s.
ftp>


Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 675

In this example, the /pub directory contained three subdirectories (rec,

sci, and text) and two files (INDEX.gz and ls-lR.gz); many public systems
have files similar to these in their /pub directories—INDEX.gz is a listing of
all files on their ftp site, with descriptions, and ls-lR.gz is the output of the
command ls -lR run on the directory tree of their ftp server.
The following subsections describe how to upload and download files. Use
the quit command to exit ftp and close the connection to the remote system.

34.2.1 Uploading a File to a Remote Host

Use the put command to upload a file; give the name of the file as an argument.
put takes that file in the current directory of the local system and puts a copy
of it in the current directory of the remote system.
⇒ To upload a copy of the file latest.rcp from the current directory on
the local system to the current directory of the remote system, type:
ftp> put latest.rcp RET

The current directory of the local system is, by default, the directory where
you ran the ftp command. To change directories on your local system, use
lcd; it works just like the cd command, but it changes the local directory.
⇒ To change to the parent directory of the current directory on the local
system, type:
 

ftp> lcd .. RET

Local directory now /home/james/demos
ftp>

In this example, the local current directory is now /home/james/demos.

There are other important commands for downloading files—use i to spec-
ify that files be transferred as binary; normally, the transfer is set up for text
files. When you want to transfer programs, archives, compressed files, or any
other non-text file, set the transfer type to i first.
In recent years, most public systems have added a security measure for-
bidding the upload by anonymous users to anywhere but the /incoming or
/pub/incoming directories.
The mput command works like put, but it allows you to specify wildcards.
By default, mput asks you, for each file, whether to upload the file or not; to
turn off this file prompting, type prompt before giving the mput command.
676 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

This command is a toggle—type prompt again to turn file prompting back on

for your session.

34.2.2 Downloading a File from a Remote Host

The get command works like put, but in reverse—specify a file on the remote
system, and get saves a copy to the current directory on the local system.
Again, use i first when downloading non-text files. (You can also download
text files with i, so it is good practice to always set it before you transfer
files; most Linux systems are configured to set the type to i immediately
upon connection).
⇒ To download the file INDEX.gz in the current directory on the remote
system, saving it to your ~/tmp directory, type:
 

ftp> lcd ~/tmp RET

Local directory now /home/james/tmp
ftp get INDEX.gz RET

local: INDEX.gz remote: INDEX.gz
Transferred 10942767 bytes
ftp>

NOTES: The mget command works like get but allows wildcards; as with
mput, you will be prompted to verify each file unless you use the prompt
command first to turn this off.

34.3 Using Secure Internet Services

OpenSSH
DEB: ssh
RPM: openssh
WWW: http://www.openssh.com/

These newer methods involving secure, encrypted connections replace the

older methods in the recipes described previously for connecting to a remote
system and for transferring files to and from a remote system. Use them in
place of telnet and ftp when enhanced security is desired, or required.
You can still use the old ways, and they may be fine for local networks,
but on the Internet the secure variants have become the standard in most
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 677

places—the Net is not the safe haven it was a decade ago, and in practice, few
sites allow telnet access anymore.
The following recipes describe how to use the openssh implementation of
the famous ssh (“Secure Shell”) protocol. openssh includes the contemporary
replacements for older rlogin, rsh, and rcp secure-connection tools.
NOTES: The first time you use one of these tools to connect with a remote
system, you may get a message telling you that the “host key” was not found
in the list of known hosts, and asking whether or not to continue with the
connection—answer “yes.”

34.3.1 Making a Secure Shell Connection to a Remote

Host
Use ssh to connect securely to a remote system. It opens a login connection
on a remote system whose hostname you give as an argument.
⇒ To open a secure connection to arctic.example.org, type:
 

$ ssh arctic.example.org RET

[email protected]'s password: snowshoe RET

Last login: Wed Aug 13 11:39:29 EDT 2003

Welcome to arctic.example.org!

[ernie@arctic ~]

In this example, the username ernie made a ssh connection to the system
arctic.example.org, on which his password is “snowshoe.” The “~ $” is the
shell prompt on that system, where he can run commands until he exits by
either running the exit command or by typing CTRL
- D
at a shell prompt.
If your username on the remote system differs from your username on your
local system, use the -l option to specify a different username.
678 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To open a secure connection to arctic.example.org with a remote user-

name of scout, type:
 

$ ssh -l scout arctic.example.org RET

[email protected]'s password: igloo RET

Last login: Wed Aug 13 13:14:53 EDT 2003

Welcome to arctic.example.org!

You have new mail.

[scout@arctic ~]


In this example, the user logged into arctic.example.org with a user-
name on that system of scout, whose password was “igloo.”

34.3.2 Making a Secure File Copy to a Remote Host

Use scp to make secure file copies between your local system and a remote
host. It takes as arguments the name of the file to copy from and the name
of the file to copy to. For the file on the local system, just give the file name
as usual; specify the file name on the remote system in this format:
user@remote:filename
For user, give the name of your username on the remote system (if it’s the
same as the local system, omit both it and the trailing at sign (@). For remote,
give the hostname of the remote system to connect to, and for filename give
the name of the file as it should appear in the home directory of user.
⇒ To copy the file index.html from your local_html directory
to the public_html directory in your account on the system
arctic.example.org, type (all on one line):
 

$ scp local_html/index.html
arctic.example.com:public_html/index.html RET

[email protected]'s password: snowshoe RET

index.html 100% |*****************************| 2365 00:00
$


In this example, the user has a username of ernie on both systems; the
progress of the copy is displayed on the screen before scp exits.
Use the -r option to copy an entire directory tree.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 679

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To copy the local_html directory tree, making it the public_html
directory in your account on the system arctic.example.org, type:
 

$ scp -r local_html arctic.example.com:public_html RET

[email protected]'s password: snowshoe RET

public_html 100% |*****************************| 4096 00:00
$


• To copy the file log.txt from the user scout’s public_html direc-
tory on the system arctic.example.org, placing it in the current
directory on your local system, type:
 

$ scp [email protected]:public_html/log.txt log.txt RET

[email protected]'s password: igloo RET

access_log 100% |*****************************| 12655 00:00
$

In the last example, the user’s local username on arctic differed from his
username on scout.
NOTES: Use the -v option for a verbose display; this will display information
about the file transfer process as it happens.

34.4 Reading Usenet

Usenet is a famous, vast collection of world-around discussion boards called
newsgroups, where messages (called articles) can be posted, read, and publicly
responded to.
With thousands of such newsgroups—on topics like home repair, cook-
ing, collecting, home brewing, local jobs, and setting up hardware running
on Linux—Usenet is always good for getting the answer to a technical ques-
tion,2 but expect few Platonic dialogues; the discussion rarely rises above
water-cooler talk, and the seeker won’t find much more than that. Searchable
archives exist online,3 containing most of it—20 years of chit-chat and opinion.
2
Always be prepared to be flamed, or have your question or purposes mocked, by some
bellicose individual who wishes to display his vast knowledge.
3
http://groups.google.com/
680 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Newsgroups are named and organized by hierarchies, which can have any
number of branches. Each branch is delineated by a period character (.); for
example, the comp.os.linux newsgroup is part of the comp.os branch of the
comp hierarchy.
The following table lists the “Big Eight” Usenet hierarchies and gives ex-
amples of some newsgroups in each one.

comp Computing
news:comp.os.linux.advocacy,
news:comp.text.tex
humanities Humanities
news:humanities.music.composers.wagner
misc Miscellaneous
news:misc.consumers.frugal-living
news Newsgroups relating to Usenet itself
news.newusers.questions
rec Recreation
news:rec.music.marketplace.vinyl,
news:rec.food.cooking
sci Science
news:sci.math, news:sci.cognitive
soc Social groups and cultures
news:soc.culture.usa,
news:soc.college
talk Talk and chit-chat
news:talk.environment,
news:talk.politics.guns

There are many other hierarchies, but these eight are technically the only
newsgroups considered to be part of Usenet proper. While netnews is the term
for the collection of all newsgroups including those in Usenet, these terms are
often used interchangeably.
The “alternative” hierarchy, alt, is perhaps the most popular hierarchy
of all—just about every subject you might want to discuss (and a good deal
that you probably wouldn’t) has an appropriate newsgroup here. It even has
a place for non sequiturs.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 681

There are also hierarchies for topics concerning certain geographical ar-
eas: For example, the cmh. hierarchy is for topics pertaining to the greater
Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area; seattle is for the city of Seattle, Wash-
ington. So, while cmh.forsale pertains to items posted for sale in the greater
Columbus area, seattle.forsale is for items posted for sale in and around
Seattle. Hierarchies can exist also for certain organizations; for example, the
gnu hierarchy is for newsgroups concerning the gnu Project, and bit is for
newsgroup redistributions of the popular Bitnet listserv mailing lists.
The following recipes describe tools for reading and posting articles to
netnews.

34.4.1 Choosing a Newsreader

An application that lets you read and post articles to newsgroups is called a
newsreader. Here are some of the best newsreaders available for Linux-based
systems.

Gnus Very powerful and feature-full newsreader for use in Emacs; can be
used to read mail, too.
DEB: gnus
RPM: gnus
WWW: http://gnus.org/
Knews Graphical newsreader for use in X whose features include the display
of article threads in a graphical tree and options for reading news
over slow connections.
DEB: knews
RPM: knews
WWW: http://www.matematik.su.se/~kjj/
Mozilla Newsreader built into the Mozilla browser (historically, commercial
News Web browsers had mail and newsreaders built into them, and that
capability remains in the Mozilla browser.)
DEB: mozilla-browser
RPM: mozilla
WWW: http://mozilla.org/
682 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

NN Older (and very popular) newsreader that was designed for reading
the most news in the minimal amount of time; its motto is “No
News is good news, but nn is better.”
DEB: nn
RPM: nn
WWW: http://www.nndev.org/
PAN gnome newsreader designed for speed and is meant to be easy for
beginners.
DEB: pan
RPM: pan
WWW: http://pan.rebelbase.com/
News Suite of small tools for use in X that facilitates the reading and com-
Peruser posing of news articles when you’re offline, by downloading batches
of news when your system is online.
DEB: peruser
WWW: http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/news/readers/
SLRN Optimized for use over slow connections (like home dial-up connec-
tions). Based on rn, one of the oldest newsreaders.
DEB: slrn
RPM: slrn
WWW: http://www.slrn.org/

34.4.2 Finding Newsgroups for a Topic

NN
DEB: nn
RPM: nn
WWW: http://www.nndev.org/

Use nngrep to find newsgroup names that match a pattern. This is useful for
finding groups on a particular topic.
⇒ To output a list of all newsgroups that match the pattern “society,”
type:
$ nngrep society RET

Use the -u option to only search through unsubscribed groups. This is

useful if you are subscribed to a number of groups, and you are looking only
for groups you aren’t subscribed to yet.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 683

⇒ To output a list of all unsubscribed-to newsgroups that match the pattern

“society,” type:
$ nngrep society RET

In the previous example, if you were already subscribed to the group

alt.society.neutopia, that group will not be displayed, but other groups
matching the pattern “society” that you are not subscribed to would be
listed.
NOTES: nngrep uses your ~/.newsrc file to get the list of groups you are
subscribed to.

34.5 Displaying Information About Users

The following tools are used to list the activity of other users and systems on
the Internet, showing whether or not they are currently online and perhaps
displaying a little more information about them.

34.5.1 Checking Whether a User Is Online

Use finger to check whether or not a given user is online. Give as an argument
the username of the given user (if on the local system) or his email address
(if on a remote system).
If the system he is using has finger enabled (most unix-based systems
should, but are often forced to turn it off today because of security concerns),
the command will tell you the following: the date and time when he last
logged in; whether or not he is currently logged in; his full name; his office
room and telephone number; the full path name of his home directory; what
shell he uses; whether or not he has mail waiting; the last time he read mail;
and, finally, his “plan,” as described below.
⇒ To finger the user [email protected], type:
 

$ finger [email protected] RET

[home.example.org]
Login: joe Name: Joe Smith
Directory: /sp1/joe Shell: /bin/tcsh
Last login Fri Jan 20 16:38 1989 (PST) on ttypb from work.example.com
No mail.
No plan.
$


684 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

In this example, the user joe on the system at home.example.org is not

currently logged in, logged in last on January 20, and uses the tsch shell.

NOTES: On unix-based systems, you can put information in a hidden file in

your home directory called .plan, and that text will be output when someone
fingers you. Some people put elaborate information in their .plan files; in
the early 1990s, it was very much in vogue to have long, rambling .plans.
Sometimes, people put information in their .plan file for special events—for
example, someone who is having a party next weekend might put directions
to his house in his .plan file.

34.5.2 Listing Who Is Logged In to a System

To get a listing of all users who are currently logged in to a given system, use
finger and specify the name (or numeric ip address) of the system, preceded
with an at sign (@).
This gives a listing of all the users who are currently logged in on that
system. It doesn’t give out each person’s .plans, but the output includes how
long each user has been idle, where he is connected from, and (sometimes)
what command he is running. (The particular information that is output
depends on the operating system and configuration of the remote system.)
⇒ To output the users who are currently logged in to the system
ap.example.org, type:
 

$ finger @ap.example.org RET

[ap.example.org]
Login Name Tty Idle Login Time Office
joe Joe Smith *q2 16:23 Sep 27 17:22 (work.example.com)
gopherd Gopher Client *r4 1:01 Sep 28 08:29 (gopherd)
friday Hildy Johnson *r1 14 Sep 28 09:35 (ap.example.org)
sysop Admin Account t2 2 Sep 28 08:42 (console)
$

34.6 Displaying Information About a Host

These are all methods for displaying information about a host connected to
the Internet.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 685

34.6.1 Determining If a Host Is Online

Use ping to determine whether a particular system is currently connected to
the Internet. It tells the time it takes for an ip packet to travel from your
system to the other one, and back.
Type ping followed by the hostname or numeric ip address of the system
you want to check; if your system is online and the system to be checked is
also online, ping should continually output lines telling how long the latency,
in milliseconds, is between the two systems. Type CTRL
- C
to interrupt it
and stop pinging.
⇒ To ping the host bfi.org, type:
 

$ ping bfi.org RET

PING bfi.org (209.196.135.250): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 209.196.135.250: icmp_seq=0 ttl=63 time=190.0 ms
64 bytes from 209.196.135.250: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=159.9 ms
64 bytes from 209.196.135.250: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=160.5 ms
CTRL
- C

--- bfi.org ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 159.9/170.1/190.0 ms
$

In this example, the host bfi.org was pinged and a total of three pings
were sent and received before the user typed CTRL
- C
to interrupt it. As
long as these ping lines are output, you know that the other machine is
connected to the Internet (or at least to the same network that your localhost
is connected to).
You really don’t need to analyze the information on each line of a ping
message—the only useful information is the number at the end of the line,
which tells you how many milliseconds it took to go out to the Internet, touch
or “ping” that host, and come back.4 The quicker the better—pings that are
four or five digits long (or greater) mean a slow connection between the two
machines. When you interrupt the ping, some statistics are output, including
the minimum, average, and maximum number of milliseconds it took to ping

4
“I named it after the sound that a sonar makes, inspired by the whole principle of
echo-location,” said the original author of ping, Mike Muss. He died in an automobile
accident in November 2000.
686 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

the given host. In the previous example, the high was 190 and the low was
159.9 milliseconds, with an average of 170.1 milliseconds to make the trip.
NOTES: If your own system is not online, ping will report that either the
network is unreachable or that the host isn’t found.

34.6.2 Tracing the Path to Another Host

Use traceroute to trace the path from your host to another. Give the name
of the remote host as an argument, and traceroute will show a list of all the
systems connected between yours and that host. This is good for checking
what isp or type of connectivity a particular host has, for checking the route
traveled between you and the host, and for seeing if a host is online at all.
⇒ To trace the path between your host and whitehouse.gov, type:
$ traceroute whitehouse.gov RET

NOTES: On some systems, traceroute is kept in /usr/sbin/. When so, it’s

not on the path of regular users, although such users can still run it—just
specify the full path name when you run it, such as /usr/sbin/traceroute.

34.6.3 Getting the ip Address of a Hostname

When you know the name of a particular host, and you want to find the ip
address that corresponds to it, there are a few things you can do.

METHOD #1
To get the ip address of a host, ping the host in question; this will output the
ip address of the host in parentheses (see Recipe 34.6.1 [Determining Whether
a Host is Online], page 685).

METHOD #2
Use host to get the ip address of the host whose name you give as an argument.
⇒ To get the ip address of linart.net, type:
$ host linart.net RET

NOTES: Depending on how the remote host is set up, this method may not
work.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 687

METHOD #3
Use dig, the “domain information groper” tool, to get the ip address of a
host. Give a hostname as an argument to output information about that
host, including its ip address, in a section labeled ANSWER SECTION.
⇒ To find the ip address of the host linart.net, type:
 

$ dig linart.net RET

...output messages...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
linart.net. 1D IN A 64.240.156.195
...output messages...
$

In this example, dig output the ip address of 64.240.156.195 as the ip

address for the host linart.net.

34.6.4 Getting the Hostname of an ip Address

When you know the ip address of a system, you can determine its full network
name, or fqdn (“fully qualified domain name”). There are a few methods for
this.

METHOD #1
Use host to get the hostname of the system whose ip address you give as an
argument.
⇒ To get the hostname of 127.0.0.1, type:
$ host 127.0.0.1 RET

NOTES: Depending on how the remote host is set up, this method may not
work.

METHOD #2
To find the hostname for a given ip address, use dig with the -x option.
Give an ip address as an argument to output information about that address,
including its hostname in a section labeled ANSWER SECTION.
688 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To find the hostname that corresponds to the ip address 152.2.210.81,

type:
 

$ dig -x 152.2.210.81 RET

...output messages...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
81.210.2.152.in-addr.arpa. 1D IN PTR metalab.unc.edu.
...output messages...
$

In this example, dig output that the fqdn corresponding to the given ip
address was metalab.unc.edu.

34.6.5 Listing the Owner of a Domain Name

An Internet domain name’s domain record contains contact information for
the organization or individual that has registered that domain. Use the whois
command to view the domain records for the common .com, .org, .net, and
.edu top-level domains.
With only a domain name as an argument, whois outputs the name of
the “Whois Server” that has that particular domain record. To output the
domain record, specify the Whois Server to use as an argument to the -h
option.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the name of the Whois Server for columbia.edu, type:
$ whois columbia.edu RET

• To view the domain record for columbia.edu, using the
whois.educause.net Whois Server, type:
$ whois -h whois.educause.net columbia.edu RET

NOTES: This command also outputs the names of the nameservers that han-
dle the given domain—this is useful to get an idea of where a particular Web
site is hosted.

34.7 Chatting with Other Users

There are several ways to interactively chat with other users on the Inter-
net, regardless of their platforms or operating systems. The following recipes
describe the most popular tools and methods for doing this.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 689

34.7.1 Sending a Message to Another User’s Terminal

There are a few ways to do this, depending on whether you are sending to a
particular user or to all users.

METHOD #1
Use write to write a message to the terminal of another user. Give the
username you want to write to as an argument. This command writes the
message you give, preceded with a header line indicating that the following is
a message from you, and giving the current system time. It also rings the bell
on the user’s terminal.
⇒ To send the message “Wake up!” to the terminal where user sleepy is
logged in, type:
 

$ write sleepy RET

Wake up!
CTRL
- D

$

The other user can reply to you by running write and giving your username
as an argument. Traditionally, a user ended a write message with -o, which
indicated that what he was saying was “over” and that it was now the other
person’s turn to talk. When a user believed that a conversation was completed,
he would end a line with “oo,” meaning that he was “over and out.”

METHOD #2
A similar command, wall, writes a text message to all other users on the local
system. It takes a text file as an argument and outputs the contents of that
file; with no argument, it outputs what you type until you type CTRL
- D
on
a line by itself. It precedes the message with the text “Broadcast message
from username” (where username is your username) followed by the current
system time, and it rings the bell on all terminals it broadcasts to.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To output the contents of /etc/motd to all logged-in terminals, type:
$ wall /etc/motd RET

690 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

• To output the text “Who wants to go out for Chinese food?” to all
logged-in terminals, type:
$ wall RET

Who wants to go out for Chinese food? RET

CTRL
- D

34.7.2 Denying Messages to Your Terminal

You can control write access to your terminal for commands like write and
wall, so that you aren’t interrupted. Do this with mesg. It works like biff
(see Recipe 32.4.2 [Setting Notification for New Mail], page 624): With no
arguments, it outputs whether or not it is set; with y as an argument, it
allows messages to be sent to your terminal; and with n as an argument, it
disallows them.
The default for all users is to allow messages to be written to their termi-
nals; antisocial people usually put the line mesg n in their .bashrc file (see
Recipe 3.7.3 [Using Shell Startup Files], page 86).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To disallow messages to be written to your terminal, type:
$ mesg n RET

• To output the current access state of your terminal, type:
 

$ mesg RET

is n
$

In the preceding example, mesg indicated that messages are currently dis-
allowed to be written to your terminal.

34.7.3 Chatting Directly with a User

Ytalk
DEB: ytalk
RPM: ytalk
WWW: http://www.iagora.com/~espel/ytalk/ytalk.html

Use talk to interactively chat in realtime with another user. Give the user-
name (or email address) of the user you want to chat with as an argument;
a message will be sent to that user’s terminal, indicating that a connection
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 691

is requested. If that person then runs talk, giving your username as an ar-
gument, you will both be connected in a talk session—the screen will clear,
and then what you type will appear on the top of the screen; what the other
user types will appear at the bottom of the screen.
⇒ To request a chat with the user [email protected], type:
$ talk [email protected] RET

This command sends a connection request to the user

[email protected]. If the user is not logged on or is refusing
messages, talk will output a message indicating such; but if that user is
available, talk will send a message to that user asking to complete the
connection, and it will tell you that it is ringing your party.
If that user isn’t logged on, you will be told so and then talk will exit. If
the user is logged on and then types talk [email protected] (if, in
this example, that’s what your email address is), the talk connection will be
established between you. At this point, your screen will clear and look like
Figure 34-1.
 

Figure 34-1. Beginning a talk session.
You can then type, and what you type will appear on both your screen
and that user’s screen; that user, in turn, can also type—even while you are
typing—and what that user types appears on the other half of both screens,
as in Figure 34-2.
692 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
 

Figure 34-2. A talk session in progress.
It is convention to indicate that you are done saying something by typing
RET
RET
, thus bringing the cursor down past a blank line on your half of
the screen. Some users, once they have typed down to the bottom of their
part of the screen during the course of the conversation, type RET
repeatedly
to “clear” their half of the screen, thus bringing the cursor back to the top of
a blank half.
Type CTRL
- C
to end a talk session.
When you type, both users see the characters appear in realtime; my first
demonstration of the interactive nature of the Internet, back in 1991, was
when I had a live, real-time chat with a user in Australia, on the other side of
the globe from me—the magic felt that day still remains whenever I run this
command!
NOTES: A similar command, ytalk, allows simultaneous connection between
multiple users, and it contains other features as well; it is generally considered
to be the superior successor of talk, but it is not yet available or standard on
all unix-based systems.

34.7.4 Chatting on irc

Internet Relay Chat (irc) is a global chat system, probably the oldest and
largest on the Internet. irc is a great way to meet and talk to people, live on
the Internet; it has historically been very popular with Linux users.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 693

There are several irc networks, each with its own servers and tens of
thousands of users; to “go on” irc, you use an irc client program to connect
with an irc server. Like cb radio, irc networks have channels, usually based
on a particular topic, which you join to chat with other users in that channel
(you can also send private messages to other users).
The following table lists some of the irc clients available for Linux.

BitchX irc client whose features include ansi color escapes,

so it can display all of the character escape codes
that are popularly used on irc for special effects.
Despite what you might gather from its name, it
actually doesn’t require X in order to run.
DEB: bitchx
RPM: BitchX
WWW: http://www.bitchx.org/
EPIC Large, feature-filled irc client.
DEB: epic
RPM: epic
WWW: http://www.epicsol.org/
Irssi Modular irc client; note that some versions can only
be run in X with gnome.
DEB: irssi-common
RPM: irssi
WWW: http://irssi.org/
Xchat Graphical irc chat client for use in X.
DEB: xchat
RPM: xchat
WWW: http://www.xchat.org/
ZenIRC Minimalist and no-frills (yet fully extensible) irc
mode for Emacs.
DEB: zenirc
WWW: http://www.zenirc.org/

34.7.5 Chatting on icq

In the late 1990s, a company called Mirabilis released a proprietary program
for pcs called icq (“I Seek You”), which was used to send text messages to
694 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

other users in realtime. Since then, many free software chat tools have been
written that use the icq protocol.
One nice feature of icq is that you can maintain a “buddy list” of email
addresses, and when you have an icq client running, it will tell you whether
or not any of your buddies are online. But unlike talk, you can’t watch the
other user type in realtime—messages are displayed in the other user’s icq
client only when you send them.
The following table lists some of the free software icq clients currently
available.

LICQ icq client for use in X.

DEB: licq
RPM: licq
WWW: http://www.licq.org/
MICQ “Matt’s icq clone,” an easy-to-use icq client that
can be used in a shell.
DEB: micq
RPM: micq
WWW: http://www.micq.org/
ZICQ micq with a modified user interface.
RPM: zicq

34.7.6 Using im Services

aol’s Instant Messenger (aim) is similar to write, made to work over the
Internet—it sends a message to the terminal of a user, and with the “buddy
list” feature, it tells you whether or not your friends are online. Initially, aim
and similar services had proprietary formats, but now there are various free
software tools to use with aim (though you still must register with aol’s aim
site to use them), and there other new im services too.
The following table describes some of the various im tools now available
for Linux.
Chapter 34: Other Internet Services 695

Everybuddy im client (now called “Ayttm”) that recognizes the

protocols used with aim, icq, Yahoo, and msn.
DEB: everybuddy
RPM: everybuddy
WWW: http://ayttm.sourceforge.net/
Gaim Popular message client that recognizes the protocols
used with many im networks, including aim, icq,
Yahoo, msn, irc, and Jabber.
DEB: gaim
RPM: gaim
WWW: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
Jabber Free im system using an xml-based protocol, popu-
lar in the Linux world.
DEB: jabber
RPM: jabber
WWW: http://www.jabber.org/
Tik tcl/tk client for aim.
DEB: tik
RPM: tik
WWW: http://tik.sourceforge.net/
696 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
APPENDICES 697

APPENDICES
698 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 699

Appendix A. Administrative Issues

Every Linux system has an administrator—someone who installs the hard-
ware and software, maintains the system, and generally keeps things running
smoothly. A single-user home Linux system, once installed and running, needs
little administration—but the occasional upgrade or maintenance task is nec-
essary.
This appendix exists as a reference for those users who will also be per-
forming the administrative duties on their systems. While a complete admin-
istrative guide is out of the scope of this book, the goal of this appendix is to
point the new Linux administrator in the right direction, giving tips on how
to choose the computer you’ll use for Linux, install Linux on it, and get it
ready for use.
Unlike the rest of this book, this chapter contains recipes describing com-
mands to be run by root, the superuser account. Many of these commands
cannot be run by an ordinary user. Instead of the normal “$” shell prompt
used for examples throughout the rest of the book, the examples in these
recipes use a pound sign (#), which is the default prompt for the root ac-
count.
If you’re new to Linux administration, you may want to consult the help
resources listed in Recipe 1.6 [If You Need More Help], page 13.

A.1 Setting Up Hardware

In days gone by, Linux enthusiasts had to piece together computer systems
from individual components, since the salesmen at computer stores had never
even heard of Linux or the free software movement. But no more. Today, many
dealers sell complete systems with Linux pre-installed, including corporations
like Dell Computers and ibm.1

A.1.1 Determining Which Hardware Is Compatible

Since Linux runs on many different computers and supports a wide range of
hardware, and because everyone has different needs, I won’t make too many
recommendations as to which specific hardware to buy. (Systems change too
fast for such a list to ever be useful, anyway.)
Before you make a hardware purchase, though, make sure that it’s com-
patible with Linux—that bargain video-capture board will be worthless if it
1
For a complete list, see http://www.linux.org/hardware/.
700 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

has a proprietary interface that only works with a certain non-free operating
system.
To find out whether your hardware will work under Linux, try the following:
1. Read the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO (see Recipe 2.8.6
[Reading System Documentation and Help Files], page 50), an up-to-date
list of hardware that is compatible with Linux.
2. Search for it on the two sites that provide reviews and information about
hardware that works with Linux, http://www.linuxhardware.net/ and
http://www.linuxhardware.org/.
3. Search the Internet—particularly Usenet news and the linux.com site—
for information on the hardware you intend to buy. Read any trouble
reports people may have written about getting it to work with Linux, so
that you won’t be writing the next one about it.

A.1.2 Setting the System Date and Time

There are a few methods for setting the system date and time. The first is
simple and works on all systems, but it relies on the operator to input an
accurate, correct time; if you need or want a greater degree of accuracy, use
one of the tools described in the second method.

METHOD #1
Use date with the -s option to set the system date. Give as an argument
the time and date to use—the system date is set to this date the moment the
command is run. Quote long-format dates.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To set the system date to noon on March 4, 1994, type:
# date -s "Mar 4 12:00 1994" RET

• To set the system date to 4:15 p.m., type:
# date -s 16:15 RET

In the second example above, the day, month, and year are not set, and
remain at the value they had before this command was run.

METHOD #2
Use one of the following tools to set the system date and time to that given
by remote hosts on the Internet. This is good for keeping your time adjusted
with various public time servers, such as the ones run by the United States
Navy.
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 701

Chrony Sets the date according to time servers available on

the Internet, and adjusts for “drift” by periodically
readjusting the system time from these servers.
DEB: chrony
RPM: chrony
WWW: http://chrony.sunsite.dk/index.php
Rdate Sets the system date to the time and date given by
a remote host.
DEB: rdate
RPM: rdate

A.1.3 Specifying Mount Points for Certain Devices

It is sometimes nice to set up a special mount point for a device, such as a
cd or floppy drive you use all the time, so that when you specify that mount
point as an argument to mount, that device is automatically mounted.
To do this, edit /etc/fstab so that the particular mount point has an
entry, and so the name of the device is given in the first column. For example,
you might want to have a variation on the two lines given in Figure A-1
somewhere in your /etc/inittab.
 

/dev/fd0 /floppy auto defaults,user,noauto 0 0

/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0


Figure A-1. User-mountable devices in /etc/inittab.
This would mean that whenever any user (since both of these mount
points have user access) typed mount /floppy, the disk corresponding to the
/dev/fd0 device (the first floppy drive) would be mounted on /floppy, and
its filesystem type would be detected automatically. If a user were to type
mount /cdrom, the data cd in the drive corresponding to the /dev/cdrom
device would be mounted on /cdrom as an iso 9660 filesystem.
NOTES: If you do specify a particular mount point for a device already in
your /etc/fstab, that device will be mounted at the point you specify—this
method doesn’t limit your mount point to only the device specified in the file.
702 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

A.1.4 Making a Boot Floppy

A boot floppy is a floppy disk with a bootable Linux kernel on it. It is useful
to have a boot floppy in case your root partition—that is, the partition of
your hard drive containing the bootable Linux kernel—should ever become
corrupted. In an emergency, you can boot your system from the floppy, and
then mount your other partitions. If you didn’t have a boot floppy, you would
be stuck. This is why a boot floppy is sometimes called a “rescue disk.”
To make a boot floppy, you first need to find the file on your system
containing the Linux kernel image that you want the floppy to have. Often
there is a vmlinuz compressed kernel boot image file kept in /boot. You can
also obtain a boot image from your distribution.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• For Debian systems, you can always get a rescue image for the latest
x86 release from the following url (given all on one line):
ftp://debian.crosslink.net/debian/dists/stable/
main/disks-i386/current/images-1.44/rescue.bin
• For Red Hat systems, x86 boot images are available via ftp
(see Recipe 34.2 [Transferring Files to and from a Remote Host],
page 673), from the host ftp.redhat.com. It’s kept in a di-
rectory named ‘/pub/redhat/linux/version/en/os/i386/images,’
where version is your Red Hat version number, and the file is called
either boot.img (on older versions) or bootdisk.img.
To make a boot floppy from a Linux kernel image, use dd, giving the name
of the kernel image as the input file and the name of the floppy device as the
output file.
⇒ To make the floppy in the first floppy drive a boot disk, containing the
boot image file bootdisk.img, type:
# dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0 RET

A.1.5 Removing a Master Boot Record

To remove the master boot record (mbr) of a disk, use dd to write the contents
of /dev/zero over the first 512 bytes of the disk.
⇒ To remove the master boot record of /dev/hda, type:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 RET

NOTES: Use caution with this command. If you erase the mbr on a disk that
you rely on for booting, you won’t be able to boot with it until you write a
new, bootable image on that mbr.
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 703

A.1.6 Setting Up a Printer

Magicfilter
DEB: magicfilter
RPM: magicfilter
WWW: http://www.pell.portland.or.us/~orc/Code/magicfilter/

When a printer is properly configured on Linux, it is a pleasure to use, but a

misconfigured printer can lead to all kinds of trouble—including the dreaded
“staircase effect,” where a text file prints with each subsequent line of output
offset to the right by the length of the previous line.
If print services haven’t been configured yet on your system, I strongly
recommend that the ‘magicfilter’ package be installed; it includes filters for
the automatic detection of file types—when you print a file, it automatically
converts it to the proper format for your printer.
Comprehensive details on the setup of printer resources can be found in
both the Printing HOWTO and the Printing Usage HOWTO (see Recipe 2.8.6
[Reading System Documentation and Help Files], page 50). More information
on printing in Linux is available from the http://linuxprinting.org/ site.

A.2 Shutting Down the System

The most proper way to shut down a system is to use shutdown, which only
root can do. This command notifies all users and processes of the impending
shutdown, blocks new logins, and brings the system down cleanly. Options
allow you to halt the system upon shutdown, or reboot it and begin again.
To halt the system once the shutdown is complete, use the -h option; to
reboot the system after shutdown, use -r instead.
The following recipes describe ways of using shutdown to do useful things.
NOTES: You can also bring the system down and then reboot it by typing
CTRL
- ALT
- DEL
from the console terminal; the shutdown process starts
immediately when you press this key combination (see Recipe 2.1.2 [Turning
Off the System], page 27).

A.2.1 Shutting Down Immediately

Normally, you order the system shutdown by giving the time to do it as an
argument; use the special now argument to begin the process immediately.
704 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are two ways to use this.

• To immediately shut down and halt the system, type:
# shutdown -h now RET

• To immediately shut down the system, and then reboot, type:
# shutdown -r now RET

You can follow the now argument with a quoted message that will be dis-
played on all terminals of all users currently logged in.
⇒ To immediately shut down and halt the system, and send a warning
message to all users, type:
# shutdown -h now "The system is being shut down now!" RET

A.2.2 Shutting Down at a Certain Time

To shut down the system at a certain time, give that time (in 24-hour format)
as an argument.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To shut down and then reboot the system at 4:23 a.m., type:
# shutdown -r 4:23 RET

• To shut down and halt the system at 8:00 p.m., type:
# shutdown -h 20:00 RET

To shut down the system in a certain number of minutes, give that number
of minutes prefaced by a plus sign (+).
⇒ To shut down and halt the system in five minutes, type:
# shutdown -h +5 RET

Follow the time with a quoted message to be displayed on the terminals of

all logged-in users.
⇒ To shut down and halt the system at midnight, and give a warning mes-
sage to all logged-in users, type (all on one line):
# shutdown -h 00:00 "The system is going down for maintenance at
midnight" RET

A.2.3 Canceling a Shutdown

If you have given shutdown orders and decide that you don’t actually want to
shut the system down after all, run shutdown again with the -c option. This
command stops any shutdowns in progress.
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 705

⇒ To cancel any pending shutdown, type:

# shutdown -c RET

As with a normal system shutdown, you can send out an explanatory

message with the cancel to be shown to all users.
⇒ To cancel any pending shutdown and send an explanatory message to all
logged-in users, type:
# shutdown -c "Sorry, I hit the wrong key!" RET

This command cancels any pending system shutdown and displays the mes-
sage, “Sorry, I hit the wrong key!” on all the terminals of anyone logged
in.
NOTES: If the shutdown process has advanced to the point where all terminals
are stopped, you won’t be able to run this command.

A.2.4 Going into Maintenance Mode

Sometimes it is useful to go into single-user maintenance mode—maybe for
running e2fsck on a hard drive partition or for performing some other system
diagnostic. Do this by shutting the system down, and then give the root
password to enter maintenance mode.
⇒ To go into maintenance mode, type:
 

# shutdown now RET

... shutdown messages ...
Give root password for maintenance: abracadabra RET

#

This command will put you in a root shell on the console, where you can
run e2fsck or do whatever it is you intended to do. In the example, the root
user has the simple password of “abracadabra.”
To exit the shell, type CTRL
- D
; depending on what you did, you may
wish to reboot again with CTRL
- ALT
- DEL
.

A.3 Managing Software

All Linux distributions come with a multitude of software programs (also
called binaries, because programs are usually contained in a binary file that
is executable).
706 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

People are constantly contributing to the free software movement, publish-

ing their work online. This means that new software programs are constantly
being added to Linux distributions, and current software programs are contin-
ually being improved—new features to match new hardware, faster program
execution, security updates, and so forth. A Linux system, therefore, needs
to be kept up to date in order to reap the benefits of the latest free software.
And sooner or later, you will want to install more programs, or you will want
to upgrade your existing software when newer versions are available with some
feature you desire.
The following recipes are for installing software on your system.

A.3.1 Getting and Installing a Linux Distribution

You can get a copy of Linux on cd-rom from local or online vendors, or
from a friend. Some distributions also allow for download off the Internet
(recommended only if you have a fast Internet connection, of course). A
list of Linux distributions is in Appendix D [References for Further Interest],
page 731.
Wherever you get your copy of Linux, be sure you get the most recent
version of a reputable distribution. If you are offered only an older version,
you might pass on it: The software might not work with your brand-new
hardware!
If you’d rather buy a copy online, a recommended source is Cheap*Bytes
[http://www.cheapbytes.com/]. There you can find various Linux distribu-
tions on cd-rom for sale at affordable prices.
Installation procedures vary from distribution to distribution, and the
specifics for installing any one distribution and version is outside this book’s
scope. However, the process usually involves making a Linux “boot disk”
from a tool provided on cd-rom, or starting Linux on your system. The hard
drives are partitioned and formatted, and the Linux software is loaded onto
them. Many users then recompile a Linux kernel that is customized for their
needs and hardware. If you find this difficult, or need assistance, you should
find your local Linux User Group and bring your computer there—there are
always some lug members who are especially happy to help install Linux on
a first-timer’s computer, and many lugs have regular “InstallFests” for this
purpose, where participation is always free of charge (see Recipe 1.6 [If You
Need More Help], page 13).
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 707

A.3.2 Installing Packages for Your Linux Distribution

Linux distributions place software programs in packages, which are single files,
usually compressed, that contain an archive of all of the files necessary for that
particular program. Distributions have a software management system for in-
stalling and maintaining packages; upon installation, a package is first checked
for other packages it might depend on to function correctly (its dependencies).
In this way, you can be assured that the software you have installed on your
system will function correctly.
There are two primary package formats in the Linux world: the Debian
deb format, and Red Hat’s Package Manager format, rpm. The former is used
by the Debian and Knoppix distributions; the latter, by Red Hat, Mandrake,
SuSE, and others. Still other distributions may not use packages at all, or
may use source packages (see the following recipe).
Most of the software that you need for your system will be in the package
format of your distribution, but you are not limited to even that. You can
always install source packages, and even software that is packaged in another
distribution’s format: Debian has long been able to read and install rpm
packages through special software, and the distributions that default to rpm
(including Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise) equally have tools to use deb.
I am a bit old-fashioned in that I don’t like to mix packaging systems with
distributions, but some people may need to do so.
Management of these package formats is described in later sections of this
appendix: Recipe A.4 [Managing deb Packages], page 709 and Recipe A.5
[Managing epm Packages], page 714.

A.3.3 Installing a Source Package

Usually a source package is distributed in a compressed tar archive as a single
file with a .tar.gz or .tgz file name extension.2 This collection of files is
often called the sources of a computer program.
These files are usually placed in /usr/local/src and are uncompressed
into their own directories. If they are source distributions, the software will
have to be compiled. Usually a file named INSTALL or README in the package
directory will instruct you how to do that. Many source packages come with
a script named configure that is run to configure the compilation routine for
2
This is, like any file name, just convention. Nothing but convention (and common sense)
is to stop you from giving a compressed tar file an .EXE extension, or a Debian deb
format file an .rpm, or from omitting file extensions altogether.
708 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

your system, and then make is run with either install or all as an argument,
depending on what the package’s particular documentation instructs.
⇒ To compile and install a software package from its source directory, you
generally type:
 

# ./configure RET

... configuration messages ...
# make install RET

... compilation messages ...
... installation messages ...
#

When you install source packages on your system, you are said to be in-
stalling local software—the files are kept in the /usr/local directory tree.
Binaries are placed in /usr/local/bin, libraries in /usr/local/lib, man
pages in /usr/local/man, and documentation in either /usr/local/doc or
/usr/local/share/doc.

A.3.4 Installing a Shell Script

When you have a shell script that you want to install on the system, you first
make sure that the script file is executable (see Recipe 6.3.6 [Making a File
Executable], page 170).
Generally, the administrator installs new shell scripts in the
/usr/local/bin directory. If you are on a multi-user system and you are
the only user liable to run a particular script, you can put it in a special
directory in your home directory tree—the ~/bin directory is the standard
recommendation here—and then add that directory to your path (see
Recipe 3.5.7 [Adding to Your Path], page 81).
Not all executable script files are shell scripts. The first line of a script
contains the full path name of the shell or other program that is to interpret
and execute the script; sometimes the path may differ on your system from
the one the script was written on, so you may have to change this line.
For example, a script may start with the following line:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
This line means that the script is written in the perl language; the text
after the “#!” is the full path name of the perl program, which in this case
is /usr/local/bin/perl. If the location for a tool here in the first line of
the script is different from the location on your system, it will not work (see
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 709

Recipe 7.5 [Finding Where a Program Is Located], page 185). For example, if
perl is located on your system at /usr/bin/perl, you will have to edit the
first line in this script so that it matches that actual location.
If you try to execute this script, and the system reports an error finding
the file, you’ll have to change that first line to correspond to the location of
the perl binary on your system. The which tool will output this location.
⇒ To find out where perl is installed on your system, type:
# which perl RET

If this command returns /usr/bin/perl or some path name other than

/usr/local/bin/perl, you’ll have to change the location in the first line of
the script to the path name given:
#!/usr/bin/perl

NOTES: If the output of the which command returns nothing, that means
that the perl program is not installed on your system at all; in that case, you
should install the perl software in order to run the script.

A.4 Managing deb Packages

Dpkg
DEB: dpkg
or
Apt
DEB: apt

deb is the native package format on Debian systems. These packages are
available on the Web from http://packages.debian.org/.
There are a number of tools available for deb package management. Tra-
ditionally, dselect, where you select packages from a menu, was the tool for
installing and removing software from the system. Its interface is unique, it
so requires study. Proper usage is, unfortunately, an acquired skill.3 Admin-
istrators who are installing a new system are urged to run through dselect
and reboot at least a few times, so that all essential packages and their de-
pendencies are installed.
The dpkg tool is Debian’s primary command line package manager tool
(in fact, dselect is just a front-end interface to it), and it can be used on
3
Even its man page makes note of this: “The dselect package selection interface is con-
fusing or even alarming to the new user.”
710 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

its own at the command line. This is what will be described in the following
recipes. Methods using the newer apt-get tool, part of Debian’s “Advanced
Package Tool” system, will also be described; apt-get is preferred by most
experienced users.

NOTES: All of the following actions can also be done with the dselect ap-
plication, but that method will not be described.

A.4.1 Listing deb Packages

Use dpkg with the -l option to list installed deb packages. Alone, it lists all
packages presently installed on the system and describes their status; you can
give a quoted glob expression as an argument to list packages that match that
pattern (see Recipe 5.8 [Specifying File Names with Patterns], page 153).
⇒ Here are some ways to use this.
• To peruse all deb packages on the system, type:
# dpkg -l | less RET

• To list all known deb packages whose name begins with “gimp,”
type:
# dpkg -l gimp* RET

• To list all deb packages on the system whose name has “gimp” any-
where in it, type:
# dpkg -l '*gimp*' RET

To list a particular package, give its name. To search for a pattern among
installed packages, pipe the output of dpkg -l to grep.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To determine whether or not the gimp package is installed, type:
# dpkg -l gimp RET

• To list all installed deb packages with “gimp” in their names, type:
# dpkg -l | grep gimp RET

You can also get a summary of a particular deb package by giving it as an

argument to apt-cache with the show option.
⇒ To get a summary of the gimp package, type:
# apt-cache show gimp RET

Appendix A: Administrative Issues 711

A.4.2 Installing a deb Package

There are two methods for installing a deb package.

METHOD #1
To install a deb package with dpkg, give the name of the package file to install
as an argument with the -i option.
⇒ To install the deb file gimp1.2_1.2.3-2_i386.deb, type:
# dpkg -i gimp1.2_1.2.3-2_i386.deb RET

NOTES: Any conflicts or dependencies will have to be resolved by you before

the package is installed. If a problem is detected, dpkg will report it and exit
without installing the package.
You can also combine -i with the --no-act flag, to test the installation.
This will go through all the motions of installation, but will not actually install
any files.

METHOD #2
To obtain and install a package with apt-get, use the install option and
give the base name of the package as an argument.
Make sure your Debian distribution is ready when you run this command.
If you are installing from cd-rom, put the first Debian cd-rom disc in your
cd drive; if installing via Internet, make sure that your system is online.
⇒ To obtain and install the proper file for the hello deb package, type:
# apt-get install hello RET

NOTES: Should there be any dependences, or should the package conflict with
others already installed, an action will be presented to fix this, and you will
be prompted to confirm or abort the operation.

A.4.3 Upgrading a deb Package

To upgrade a deb package, just install the newer package file. There are two
methods for doing this, based on the package tool you use.

METHOD #1
To upgrade a deb package with dpkg, just install it again with the -i option; if
the package file you are installing is newer, Debian will automatically upgrade;
if it is older, it will automatically downgrade.
712 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To upgrade the gimp1.2 package with the deb file gimp1.2_1.2.4_

i386.deb, type:
# dpkg -i gimp1.2_1.2.4_i386.deb RET

METHOD #2
Use apt-get to upgrade either single packages or the entire system.
To upgrade a single package with apt-get, just install it again with the
install option, and follow that with the name of the package to upgrade.
⇒ To upgrade the hello package, type:
# apt-get install hello RET

This command will upgrade the hello package to the most current version
available on your Debian distribution source, if there is one greater than the
version already installed on your system. If additional packages must be up-
graded first, in order for this new package upgrade to function properly, this
command will fetch and upgrade those packages, too. Before downloading
any packages, apt-get will show the list of packages that will be installed,
replaced, or otherwise changed, and it will wait for confirmation first.
To bring your entire Debian system up to date, use the apt-get tool with
the following command arguments. First, use the update argument to update
your system’s list of available software packages. Then run apt-get again,
using either the upgrade argument to upgrade all of the installed packages
to their most recently available versions, or use the dist-upgrade argument
when a new version of the Debian system is announced, to upgrade to that
new version.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To upgrade all of the software on your system to their most recent
versions, type:
 

# apt-get update RET

...processing messages...
# apt-get upgrade RET

...processing messages...
#


Appendix A: Administrative Issues 713

• To upgrade your Debian system to the most recent release, type:

 

# apt-get update RET

...processing messages...
# apt-get dist-upgrade RET

...processing messages...
#

A.4.4 Removing a deb Package

To remove a deb package, use dpkg with the -r option, and give the name of
the package (not the package file) to remove.
⇒ To remove the gimp1.2 package, type:
# dpkg -r gimp1.2 RET

This removes the package but keeps any configuration files. Use the
--purge option to completely eliminate everything related to a package, in-
cluding all configuration and setup files.
⇒ To purge the gimp1.2 package, type:
# dpkg --purge gimp1.2 RET

NOTES: If purging a package will break dependencies, dpkg will not let you
do it. You can force it, though; to get a list of “force” options, run dpkg with
the ‘--force-help’ option.

A.4.5 Getting the Status of a deb Package

To get the status of a deb package, use dpkg with the -s option, and give the
name of the package (not its file name) as an argument.
This tells you the package name, installation status, Debian “priority”
level, and section. If the package is installed, dpkg will also give a description
and other information.
⇒ To output the status of the gimp1.2 package, type:
# dpkg -s gimp1.2 RET

A.4.6 Listing All Files in a deb Package

Use dpkg with the -L option to list all of the files on the system that come
with a particular package you have installed. Give the package name (not its
file name) as an argument.
714 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ To peruse all of the files that are part of the gimp1.2 package, type:
# dpkg -L gimp1.2 RET

NOTES: If a package is not installed, dpkg will say so.

A.4.7 Listing the deb Package a File Is a Part Of

To determine which package a file belongs to, give the file as an argument to
dpkg with the -S option.
⇒ To list the name of the package that the file /bin/ls belongs to, type:
# dpkg -S /bin/ls RET

A.4.8 Listing Dependences for a deb Package

To find out what dependencies a deb package has, use dpkg with the -s
option, and give the package name as an argument. Then use grep to show
the line containing “Depends.” This will output a list of other packages that
the given package depends on in order to work.
⇒ To list the dependencies for the gimp-1.2 package, type:
# dpkg -s gimp-1.2 |grep Depends RET

A.5 Managing rpm Packages

RPM Package Manager
RPM: rpm
WWW: http://www.rpm.org/

rpm, the rpm Package Manager,4 is the native package format of the Red
Hat distribution, as well as many other popular Linux distributions, including
Mandrake and SuSE.
You can obtain rpm packages on the Web from http://rpmfind.net/ and
http://freshrpms.net/, both searchable package databases.
Management of rpm packages is done with the command line rpm tool; the
following recipes describe its use.

4
Like gnu, this is a recursive acronym.
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 715

A.5.1 Listing rpm Packages

Use rpm with the -qa option to list all rpm packages installed on the system.
You can pipe this output to grep to search for particular package names.
⇒ Here are two ways to use this.
• To peruse all rpm packages installed on the system, type:
# rpm -qa | less RET

• To list all rpm packages with the string “gimp” in their names, re-
gardless of case, type:
# rpm -qa | grep -i gimp RET

To list a particular package, use rpm with the -q option, and give the
package name.
⇒ To see if the gimp package is installed, type:
# rpm -q gimp RET

A.5.2 Installing an rpm Package

To install an rpm package, use rpm with the -i option, and give the name of
the package to install.
⇒ To install the gimp-1.2.3-9.i386.rpm package, type:
# rpm -i gimp-1.2.3-9.i386.rpm RET

If a package has unmet dependencies, rpm will not install it; it also won’t in-
stall a package if a current or newer version is installed. Use -i in conjunction
with the --nodeps flag to install a package even if it has unmet dependencies.
⇒ To install the gimp-1.2.3-9.i386.rpm package, regardless of unmet de-
pendencies, type:
# rpm -i --nodeps gimp-1.2.3-9.i386.rpm RET

A.5.3 Upgrading an rpm Package

To upgrade an rpm package, use the -U option, and give the name of the
newer package file to install.
⇒ To upgrade to the gimp-1.2.3-10.i386.rpm package, type:
# rpm -U gimp-1.2.3-10.i386.rpm RET

716 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

A.5.4 Removing an rpm Package

To remove an rpm package that is currently installed, use the -e (“erase”)
option, and give the name of the package (not the file name) as an argument.
⇒ To remove the gimp package, type:
# rpm -e gimp RET

If other packages depend on the package, rpm won’t erase it; use --nodeps
to override this behavior.
⇒ To remove the gimp package, regardless of any dependencies, type:
# rpm -e --nodeps gimp RET

A.5.5 Getting the Status of an rpm Package

Use rpm with the -q option to see if an rpm package is installed. Give as
an argument the name of the package, not the file name. This displays the
version number of an installed package.
⇒ To determine whether or not the gimp package is installed, type:
# rpm -q gimp RET

To get some basic information about a package, including a brief descrip-

tion, use rpm with the -qi option, and give as an argument the package name.
⇒ To display some information about the gimp package, type:
# rpm -qi gimp RET

A.5.6 Listing All Files in an rpm Package

Use rpm with the -ql option to list the files that are part of an rpm package.
Give as an argument the package name.
⇒ To list all of the files contained in the gimp package, type:
# rpm -ql gimp RET

A.5.7 Listing the rpm Package a File Is a Part Of

To determine which package a particular file belongs to, give the file name as
an argument to rpm with the -qf option.
⇒ To list the package that the file /bin/ls belongs to, type:
# rpm -qf /bin/ls RET

Appendix A: Administrative Issues 717

A.5.8 Listing Dependences for an rpm Package

Use rpm with the -qR option to list the dependencies of a particular rpm
package. Give the name of the package as an argument.
⇒ To list the dependencies of the gimp package, type:
# rpm -qR gimp RET

A.6 Administrating Users

This section describes some of the things the system administrator will have
to do in administrating the system’s users. All of these commands must be
run by the superuser, using the root account—these commands edit system
files.

A.6.1 Making a User Account

To make a new user account, use adduser. It takes as an argument the user-
name to use for the new account. It will prompt for default setup information,
including the user’s full name and an initial password to use.
⇒ To create a new user with a username of mary, type:
# adduser mary RET

NOTES: By default, the name of the user’s home directory will be the same
as the username. So, for example, the user mary will have a home directory
of /home/mary.

A.6.2 Seeing Which Users Exist on the System

The /etc/passwd file contains a list of all users on the system, including
“special” users such as daemons, which are system programs that run as a
background process and don’t correspond to normal login accounts.
The information in this file is written with one user per line, and each line
consists of several fields delimited by a colon character (:). The fields are as
follows: the username; the encrypted password (or, more often than not, an
“x” to indicate that a shadow password file is used on the system for added
security); the user id (uid); the group id (gid); the full user name; the home
directory; and the shell or interpreter that runs at login.
To output just the list of usernames, filter it through cut, giving the colon
character as a field delimiter, and specifying that only the first field be output.
718 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

⇒ Here are some ways to use this.

• To get a list of all usernames on the system, type:
# cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd RET

• To get a list of all full user names on the system, type:
# cut -d: -f5 /etc/passwd RET

• To output your own full user name, type:
grep `id -u` /etc/passwd | cut -d ':' -f5 | cut -d "," -f1 RET

NOTES: These examples are good to use in shell scripts.

A.6.3 Letting Users Access Hardware Peripherals

Certain hardware peripherals, like cd drives and sound cards, normally require
superuser privileges in order to access them. These devices also have groups
of their own, so a regular user can also access them by having membership in
their groups (see Recipe 6.1 [Working in Groups], page 163).
The groups that regular users might want to be part of include floppy (the
floppy disk drive), audio (the sound card), and dialout and dip (modem
dial-out privileges).
Use addgroup to add a user to the group associated with a hardware device.
Give as arguments the username to add and the name of the group to add to.
⇒ To add the user doug to the audio group, type:
# addgroup doug audio RET

A.6.4 Letting Users Mount Drives

The /etc/fstab file specifies the details about the filesystems in use on a
system, including those that may be mounted by floppy or cd drive. In
order to let users mount disks on these drives, make sure that there is a line
in /etc/fstab for both the floppy and cd drives, each containing the user
flag, as in Figure A-1 (see Recipe A.1.3 [Specifying Mount Points for Certain
Devices], page 701).

A.7 Displaying Information About Your System

The following recipes describe ways of displaying information about the system
you are running.
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 719

A.7.1 Displaying How Long the System Has Been Up

To find out how long the system has been running, use the uptime tool. When
you run it as a command, it outputs the current time, how long the system
has been running, how many users are logged on, and what the system “load
averages” have been for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes.
⇒ To find out how long the system has been up, type:
 

# uptime RET

3:34pm up 4:31, 4 users, load average: 0.01, 0.05, 0.07
#

To get a list of the times and dates when the system was recently rebooted,
give ‘reboot’ as an argument to last (see Recipe 2.6.4 [Listing the Last Time
a User Logged In], page 41).
⇒ To output a list of times when the system was rebooted, type:
# last reboot RET

NOTES: An operating system capable of running constantly for a long time

without crashes or freeze-ups is a good one, so having a high uptime value is a
matter of pride for many Linux users. It is not uncommon to hear of systems
that have been running for months and sometimes even years non-stop—one
Linux administrator reported on the Internet about one of his work systems,
which had been running continuously without reboot for three years!

A.7.2 Displaying cpu Type

There are a few methods for displaying the cpu type.

METHOD #1
The file /proc/cpuinfo contains information about the central processing
unit of the system, including its make and model, and its speed in MHz. Use
cat to output the contents of this file.
⇒ To display information about the system’s cpu, type:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo RET

NOTES: This requires that the special /proc filesystem is installed, but this
has been a Linux standard for some time.
720 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

METHOD #2
You can also use gnu uname to output the cpu processor type of the system
(such as i686, powerpc, etc.); specify this with the -m option.
⇒ To output the cpu processor type of the system, type:
# uname -m RET

A.7.3 Displaying Memory Usage

Use free to display system memory usage. It displays both physical memory
and swap memory, giving values for total memory available on the system,
amount used, and amount free. The output is displayed in kilobytes; use -b
to display in bytes, and -m to display in megabytes. The -t switch will also
display a list of totals for all of the types of memory on the system.
⇒ To output a report on current system memory usage, in megabytes, and
with a line of calculated total values, type:
# free -m -t RET

A.7.4 Displaying the Linux Version

Use the gnu uname tool to see what version of Linux you are running. By
default, it outputs the name of the operating system.
⇒ To output the name of the operating system, type:
# uname RET

Use the -r option to output the operating system release number.

⇒ To output the release number of the operating system, type:
# uname -r RET

The -a option is useful; it outputs all information about the system that
it can, including os name and release number, cpu type, plus the version date
and number of the operating system and the machine’s hostname.
⇒ To output all of the uname information for the system you are on, type:
# uname -a RET

A.7.5 Displaying the Distribution Version

The version of the installed distribution is kept in a particular file in /etc,
whose name depends on the distribution. These are listed in the following
table. Use cat to display the contents of this file.
Appendix A: Administrative Issues 721

/etc/debian-version Debian
/etc/fedora-release Fedora
/etc/mandrake-release Mandrake
/etc/redhat-release Red Hat
/etc/SuSE-release SuSE
/etc/slackware-version Slackware
⇒ To output the distribution version on a Fedora system, type:
# cat /etc/fedora-release RET

722 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Appendix B: Conventional File Name Extensions 723

Appendix B. Conventional File Name

Extensions

File types indicate the type of data in the file, generally one of text, image,
audio, or binary. You can always use file to determine what kind of data a file
contains (see Recipe 8.1.1 [Determining a File’s Type and Format], page 187).
The following table lists typical file name extensions (the part of the file
name following the last dot) used for certain file types, identifies what type of
file the extension is used for, and describes the particular format.

.aiff audio Apple Macintosh audio file.

.au audio Sun Microsystems audio file (8,000 Hz, u-law
compression).
.bmp image Microsoft Windows bitmap image.
.bz binary A file compressed with (obsolete) bzip compression.
.bz2 binary A file compressed with bzip2 compression.
.cdda audio Audio compact disc format, used for burning audio
.cdr cd-rs and cd-rws (44.1 KHz raw stereo).
.cgm image Computer Graphics Metafile format.
.cmyk image Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black bytes.
.eps image Adobe Encapsulated PostScript.
.fax image Group 3 fax format.
.fig image TransFig image format.
.flc image ascii art animation.
.fli

.fpx image FlashPix format.

.gif image CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format, version
GIF89a (usually pronounced “giff,” rhyming with
“biff”).
.gpg data gnu Privacy Guard encrypted data.
.gray image Raw gray bytes.
724 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

.gsm audio Global System for Mobile Communications (gsm)

speech file format, used in some voice-mail
applications.
.gz binary A file compressed with gzip compression.
.htm text html (“HyperText Markup Language”) format.
.html

.it audio Impulse Tracker mod file.

.jpeg image Joint Photographic Experts Group (jpeg) File
.jpg Interchange Format (jfif) format (usually
pronounced “jay-peg”).
.latex text LaTEX document.
.ltx

.me text Troff input file.

.mid audio Standard extensions for midi files.
.midi

.miff image ImageMagick miff (Magick Image Format File)

format.
.mod audio mod (tracker “module”) file.
.mp3 audio mpeg-1 or -2, layer 3 file.
.ms text Troff input file.
.mtm audio mod file.
.ogg audio Ogg Vorbis file.
.pbm image Black and white portable bitmap format.
.pcd image Kodak PhotoCD format, 512x768 pixels maximum
resolution.
.pcl image Page Control Language format.
.pcx image ZSoft ibm pc Paintbrush format.
.pdf image Adobe Portable Document Format.
Appendix B: Conventional File Name Extensions 725

.pict image Apple Macintosh QuickDraw format.

.png image Portable Network Graphics format (usually
pronounced “ping”).
.pnm image Portable “anymap” format.
.ppm image Color portable pixmap format.
.ps image Adobe PostScript format.
.ra audio RealAudio file.
.raw audio Raw audio data.
.rgb image Raw red, green, and blue bytes.
.s3m audio mod file.
.sf audio ircam SoundFile format, used by some music
composition software, such as CSound and
MiXViews.
.sgml text sgml (“Standardized General Markup Language”)
format.
.stm audio mod file.
.tex text TEX or LaTEX document.
.text text Plain, unformatted text.
.tga image TrueVision Targa image format.
.tif image Tagged Image File Format.
.tiff

.txt text Plain, unformatted text.

.ult audio mod file.
.uni audio mod file.
.voc audio SoundBlaster voc file.
.wav audio Microsoft riff format (aka wav).
.xbm image X Window System bitmap format.
726 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

.xm audio mod file.

.xml text xml (“Extended Markup Language”) format.
.xpm image Color X Window System pixmap format.
.xwd image Color X Window System window “dump” file
format.
Appendix C: Setting Up Your Home Directory 727

Appendix C. Setting Up Your Home

Directory
Your home directory is the place where you keep your own files. Good orga-
nizational skills and some foresight will help keep your “home” in order. This
appendix is all about giving hints for organizing your home directory.
You’ll find that the home directory as outlined here mirrors, in many ways,
the /usr/local directory tree, which itself somewhat mirrors the system root
directory, /; this is no coincidence. The Linux directory tree structure is well-
organized and lends itself to this purpose; I’ve found that the home directory,
and directories for any particular project or “thing,” usually have some similar
directories and files: bin, doc, etc, src, tmp, THANKS, passwd, and so on.
You can configure your home directory any way you like, and you can
change it at any time, of course. There is no rule that says, “You must store
this kind of file in a directory here,” “You must have an etc,” or anything
like that. Here is what I do.

C.1 Using a Directory for Personal Binaries

A directory for binaries is simply a directory where you store executable files.
To make the shell recognize it, add this directory to your path variable, as
defined in your ~/.bashrc file. The directory can have any name. I prefer
sticking with the bin convention and putting it right in the home directory:
~/bin.
⇒ To make your own bin directory and add it to your path, do the following:
1. Use mkdir to make a bin directory in your home directory:
$ mkdir ~/bin RET

2. Use a text editor to edit your .bashrc, and change the path to
include ~/bin (see Recipe 3.5.7 [Adding to Your Path], page 81). It
is a quoted, comma-delimited list. For example:
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:~/bin:."

In your own bin, you can put scripts and tools of your own devising.
They will be executable by you, but by no other users on the system. To
make a file executable by all users, the superuser will have to put the file in
/usr/local/bin, the system-wide local directory for binaries.
NOTES: The current shell won’t recognize any changes you make in your
.bashrc; you’ll have to run it by hand the first time, or just exit and start a
new shell.
728 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

C.2 Using a Directory for Personal Lists and Data

Everybody has his own set of personal files containing lists, data, and other
“configurations,” such as passwords, accounts and pass-phrases, account in-
formation, addresses, and so on. These are good things to put in a directory
named etc. Some people might like using personal or per for this instead,
but regardless of the name, I find that having a directory for expressly this
purpose is very handy.
This is a good place to keep the kinds of files listed in the following table.

address or addr Address book (see Recipe 27.5.1 [Keeping a Free-

or contacts Form Address List], page 546).
appointments or To-do list. Uppercase file names are sorted first in
todo or TODO directory listings.
birthdays List of birthdays.
calendar Personal calendar file. You can keep spe-
cialized calendars for your interests, such as
calendar.birthdays or calendar.wwii.
crontab Personal cron table file (see Recipe 28.3 [Scheduling
Commands], page 557).
passwd or Personal password file. Be sure to change its per-
passwords missions so that nobody else can look at it (see
Recipe 6.3.4 [Making a File Private], page 169).
quotes Favorite quotations.

C.3 Using a Directory for Mail

You will probably want a directory to keep all your email correspondence,
including both incoming and outgoing mail. Most people use either Mail or
mail as the name of this directory; many email applications use one name or
the other as the default for storing messages. You can build subdirectories in
here to store messages away in neater folders, such as outgoing for outgoing
mail, family for family correspondence, and projects for project mail.
Appendix C: Setting Up Your Home Directory 729

C.4 Using a Directory for Projects

It is sometimes desirable to keep a group of files together when working on a
project of some sort. Depending on your work and enterprise, you might like
to make a directory for your projects—say, jobs, projects, work, drafts, or
research, depending on what you do, and make subdirectories in it for any
particular project or job you are working on.
Programmers usually have a src directory for computer program source
code; other common directories for special work that you may want to con-
sider include photos or photographs, art or images, books, and music or
recordings. Hobbyists might keep scrapbook or craft directories.
These main categories may, in turn, contain directories for particular
projects, and those project directories may contain their own src directory
for source files, doc for documentation, a THANKS file for acknowledgements,
and so on.

C.5 Using a Directory for Temporary Files

You might like to have a directory that you use as a kind of “holding pen”
to bring in new files that perhaps should be processed soon, but not right at
the moment. I don’t like to clutter up my home directory, so having a ~/tmp
directory to put these things in keeps it clean and tidy.
You can, of course, save files in the system-wide temporary directory, /tmp,
but that directory is cleared out periodically by the system, and if you are on
a multi-user system, you might want to have a private temp directory anyway
(all users normally have read and write access to /tmp).
730 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Appendix D: References for Further Interest 731

Appendix D. References for Further

Interest
This appendix lists important sources of Linux software and information that
you should know about.

D.1 Sources of Linux Software and Hardware

These are sources for obtaining software, including entire Linux distributions,
as well as information on hardware that works with Linux.

D.1.1 Linux Distributions

The following are among the most popular Linux distributions. A larger list
may be found online at DistroWatch [http://www.distrowatch.com/], which
has a chart that compares their features.
Debian Gnu/Linux is developed by volunteers committed to the idea of free
software. [http://debian.org/]
Fedora Core is one of two contemporary descendants of the old Red
Hat Linux distribution (the other is Red Hat Enterprise Linux).
[http://fedora.redhat.com/]
Gentoo Linux, unlike other distributions, is distributed only in source form—
all binaries are compiled for the host system, affording the highest possible
efficiency. [http://www.gentoo.org/]
KNOPPIX is a German distribution on bootable cd-rom. It uses deb as a
package format. [http://www.knoppix.com/]
Mandrakelinux boasts a simple installation and lets you keep your pre-existing
os on a partition of the hard disk. [http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/]
muLinux is a small distribution, designed for old computers.
[http://mulinux.sunsite.dk/]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is Red Hat, Inc.’s successor to its popular and
well-established distribution. [http://redhat.com/]
Run Up to date Linux Everywhere (rule) is designed for users who need
modern Linux, but cannot afford a modern computer. It is based on the very
latest Fedora Core, but it can run on systems with low memory and small
cpus. [http://www.rule-project.org/]
Slackware Linux is the oldest Linux distribution still publishing.
[http://slackware.com/]
732 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

SuSE Linux is German-designed, is now owned by Novell, and is popular in

Europe. [http://suse.com/]
Turbolinux, a variation on the UnitedLinux distribution, is the most popular
distribution in China. [http://www.turbolinux.com/]
Yellow Dog Linux is made specially for powerpc computers, such as some
Apple Macintoshes (Debian and other distributions have such versions too).
[http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/]

D.1.2 Archives of Linux and Related Software

These are online sources of free software for Linux, and entire Linux distribu-
tions.
Freshmeat contains searchable descriptions and links to thousands of free soft-
ware packages. It includes a repository of gui “themes” for your desktop.
[http://freshmeat.net/ and http://themes.freshmeat.net/]
FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory is a large directory of packages, sorted
by category. [http://www.gnu.org/directory/]
Ibiblio Linux Archive (formerly sunsite) is a very large archive of
Linux software, and it may be the oldest in continuous operation.
It includes a public archive of complete distributions for download.
[http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/]
Savannah hosts software packages that are not part of the Gnu Project, yet
are still free software. [http://savannah.nongnu.org/]
Scientific Applications on Linux (sal) is an authoritative listing of sci-
entific software that runs on Linux-based systems. [http://ftp.llp.fu-
berlin.de/lsoft/]
Sound and MIDI Software for Linux is a comprehensive guide to sound and
audio for Linux-based systems. [http://linux-sound.org/]
SourceForge is the Internet’s largest community for developers of
free software; it gives free resources to developers of free software.
[http://sourceforge.net/]
Sweetcode tracks free software that is innovative—not just the latest free clone
of some old proprietary application that wasn’t all that interesting to begin
with. [http://sweetcode.org/]

D.1.3 Hardware for Linux

These online resources will help you pick out and obtain hardware that works
with Linux.
Appendix D: References for Further Interest 733

LinuxHardware.net is a user-contributed database of hardware that works

with Linux. [http://www.linuxhardware.net/]
LinuxHardware.org has hardware news and reviews components that work
with Linux. [http://linuxhardware.org/]
Linux on Laptops has an up-to-date database of laptop and notebook com-
puter models and the extent of their support for Linux. [http://www.linux-
laptop.net/]
ResellerRatings is a consumer database of hardware resellers, with ratings
and comments. [http://resellerratings.com/]
Price Watch is an up-to-the-minute database of reseller stock and their
prices. Search by component or brand to get current listings for sale.
[http://pricewatch.com/]

D.2 Linux Books and Guides

These are complete guides to a particular subject, often full-length books.

D.2.1 General Linux Guides and Instruction

These books and online resources are for learning about using the Linux sys-
tem in general.

Kirch, Olaf, and Terry Dawson, Linux Network Administrators’ Gui-

de, Second Edition, Linux Documentation Project, 2000. A
classic early-90s text on administrating a Linux network, revised
by O’Reilly & Associates in 2000. [http://tldp.org/LDP/nag2/]
Linux Gazette. A monthly webzine devoted to “making Linux just a little
more fun,” it has been published by ssc for years. Its “More
2-Cent Tips” column is famous. [http://linuxgazette.com/]
Linux HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs, The Linux Documentation Project.
A collection of famous documents on every aspect of using Linux.
The ldp also hosts a number of larger, book-length Guides.
[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/]
Merrill, David C., The Linux FAQ, 2003. Contains the answers to the most
frequently-asked questions about Linux.
[http://tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/]
Sheer, Paul, Linux: Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition, Prentice
Hall PTR, 2001. A complete guide to Linux, including much tech-
nical material on programming and networking. Like the Cook-
734 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

book, it is typeset with TEX on a Linux system (cd-rom in-

cluded). [http://rute.sourceforge.net/]
Wirzenius, Lars, et al., Linux System Administrator’s Guide, Linux
Documentation Project, 1993. A classic text on administrating a
Linux system. [http://tldp.org/LDP/sag/]

D.2.2 Linux Tool and Application Guides

These documents describe particular software programs.

AWK

Robbins, Arnold D., The gnu Awk User’s Guide, Free Software Founda-
tion, 1997. [http://gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/]

Dselect

Bortzmeyer, Stéphane, Dselect Documentation for Beginners, Debian

Documentation Project, 1999. Recommended for first-time users
of dselect.
[http://debian.org/releases/2.1/i386/dselect-
beginner.en.html]

GROFF

My Groff resources, Web site, 2002. A collection of documents and

links. [http://www.neverland.ch/groff/]
Corderoy, Ralph, The Text Processor for Typesetters, Web site,
2001. [http://troff.org/]
Collver, Ben, Online Groff Resources, Web site, undated. A large list of
documentation. [http://tylx.tripod.com/groff-
resources.html]
Lesk, M.E., Tbl—A Program to Format Tables, Bell Laboratories,
1976. An invaluable introduction to using tbl.
[http://www.neverland.ch/groff/tbl.ps.gz]
Provins, Dean Allen, The Groff and Friends HOWTO. An introduction
to using groff. [http://www.neverland.ch/groff/
TheGroffFriendsHowto.ps.gz]
Appendix D: References for Further Interest 735

IRC

Caraballo, David, and Joseph Lo, The IRC Prelude, Web site, 2000.
Excellent introduction to irc for first-timers.
[http://irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html]

PERL

Kuhn, Bradley M., Picking Up Perl, Web site, 2002. A good but unfin-
ished perl tutorial. [http://www.ebb.org/PickingUpPerl/]

PostScript

Capella Archive Publications, Capella Archive, Web site, 2001. Hands-

on tutorials and reference library for programming in PostScript.
[http://www.cappella.demon.co.uk/]

SED

Bonzini, Paolo, The seder’s Grab-Bag, Web site, 2002. A useful collec-
tion of sed information including a faq and many example scripts.
[http://sed.sourceforge.net/grabbag/]
Pement, Eric, Handy One-Liners for sed, Web site, 2003. A single page
listing many useful commands for editing and processing text.
[http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/sed/
sed1line.txt]
Pizzini, Ken, sed, a Stream Editor, Free Software Foundation, 1998.
[http://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html]

TEX and Friends

Doob, Michael, A Gentle Introduction to TEX, Web page, 1993. A

recommended introduction to using plain TEX.
[ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/documentation/gentle/]
Grandsire, Christophe, The Metafont and TEX/LaTEX Resource Page,
Web site, 2003. Gives an introductory tutorial to using meta-
font. [http://metafont.latex.free.fr/]
736 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Hahn, Jane, LaTEX for Everyone, PTR Prentice-Hall Inc., 1993. A won-
derful book for those who want to use the power of TEX for type-
setting correspondence, papers, articles, and reports.
Knuth, Donald E., The TEXbook, Addison-Wesley, 1984. The original TEX
book, written by the author of TEX.
Oetiker, Tobias, et al., The Not So Short Introduction to LaTEX, Web
site, 1999. A recommended introduction to using LaTEX.
[ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/documentation/lshort/]
Robbins, Arnold, “What’s GNU: Texinfo,” Linux Journal, issue 6, Octo-
ber 1994. An introductory tutorial.
[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2840]
Underwood, Rebecca, et al., LaTEX and BibTEX Tutorials and Assign-
ment, Web site, 1996. A good LaTEX tutorial that shows
how to typeset an article. Available online in dvi format.
[http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/80k/latex-tutorial-
new.dvi]

D.2.3 Unix and Linux History Books

These are books about the history of the system and its software.

Finseth, Craig A., The Craft of Text Editing, Springer-Verlag and Co.,
1991. The theory of text editing; a technical description of the
technology of text editors.
[http://www.finseth.com/~fin/craft]
Hauben, Michael and Ronda Hauben, Netizens: On the History and
Impact of the Net, ieee Computer Society
Press, 1997. A thorough social history of the net,
with much material on unix history throughout.
[http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/]
Kernighan, Brian W. and Rob Pike, The Unix Programming Environ-
ment, Prentice Hall Computer Books, 1984. Describes the
tools philosophy of unix and what it affords programmers.
[http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/upe/]
Salus, Peter H., A Quarter Century of UNIX, Addison-Wesley, 1994. A
complete history of the unix operating system.
Walker, A.N., The UNIX Environment, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., 1984.
A pleasant tour of the system; the fact that it is taken on such
dated equipment only demonstrates the tenacity of the tools.
Appendix D: References for Further Interest 737

D.3 Linux News and Commentary

These are the essential sources of news and opinion on Linux and free software.
The Free Software Foundation’s Web site is a source for both philosophical
readings and news about the gnu Project, its free software operating system.
[http://gnu.org/]
Linux.Com provides feature stories, links, and a database of Linux User
Groups (lugs). [http://linux.com/]
Linux Journal is the oldest print magazine devoted to Linux. Monthly.
[http://linuxjournal.com/]
Linux Today aggregates and publishes “Linux News on Internet Time.”
[http://linuxtoday.com/]
Linux Weekly News has covered Linux and the free software movement since
1998. [http://lwn.net/]
Slashdot is a popular news and discussion site for enthusiasts of Linux
and free software; newshounds usually check Slashdot several times daily.
[http://slashdot.org/]
738 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Program Index 739

Program Index

atrm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 audacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
& . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72, 118 aumix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
&& . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 aview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
&> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 98
; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63, 144 B
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 backgammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
|| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 balsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68, 258, 276 banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402, 583
>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68, 258 basename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143, 148
< . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67, 449 bash . . . . 42, 53, 54, 62, 74, 77, 85, 90, 148,
2> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 343
9wm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 battlestar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
bbdb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
bc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114, 562
A bcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
abbrev-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 bg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
abiword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 biff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624, 690
addgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718 bitchx. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
adduser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118, 436
adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 blackbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
aee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
afterstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117, 120 bluefish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 84, 87 boggle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
amaya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667 browser-history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
amixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463, 474 bunzip2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 bye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
analog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666 bzip2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196, 197, 198, 407
animate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
antiword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
aplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 C
apropos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44, 67, 68, 69, 72 caesar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569, 584
apt-get. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709, 711, 712 cal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256, 539
arena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667 calc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 calendar. . . . . . . . . . 541, 542, 543, 544, 545
ascii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
asclock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 canfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 cat . . . . . 153, 163, 190, 216, 217, 226, 256,
aspell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278, 280 260, 294, 305, 327, 343, 401, 442, 566,
at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556 586, 587, 719, 720
atc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 catdoc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
aterm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114, 117 ccal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
atq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132, 133
740 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

cdcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164, 324, 667, 717

cdda2wav . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 cutup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
cdeject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 cvs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
cdinfo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
cdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
cdparanoia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 D
cdpause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 dadadodo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
cdplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477, 479 date . . . . . . . . . 137, 188, 251, 537, 587, 700
cdrecord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482, 485 dc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367, 580
cdstop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 dd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
cdtool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 dedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 def . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
cfscores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 del . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
chbg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 df . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
chcase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 dia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
chgrp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 diction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286, 288
chilight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 diff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192, 301, 366
chmod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 168, 169, 170 diff3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
chrony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538, 701 dig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
chsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 dillo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
chvt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
display . . 407, 412, 416, 427, 603, 604, 651
ci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
dissociated-press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63, 88
doctor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
cmp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191, 192
dome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
dpkg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44, 709, 711, 713
col . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310, 311, 329, 531
du . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183, 502
colcrt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227, 329
dvi2fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
colrm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
dvips . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374, 390, 452, 512, 515
column. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
comm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
command mode . . . . . . . . . . 245, 248, 251, 346
compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
E
composite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 e2fsck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
consolechars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 e3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
convert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431, 432, 446, 447 echo . . . . . . . . . 56, 79, 82, 91, 146, 447, 617
cooledit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259, 338
count-lines-page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 ee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
countmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 efax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
cp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141, 143, 153 efix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
cribbage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 egrep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338, 342
cron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 elm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622, 632
crontab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545, 558, 559 elvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
cse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232, 233, 266, 280, 542
csh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90, 92 enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Program Index 741

enscript . . . . 225, 297, 359, 361, 363, 368, fundamental-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

369, 370, 371, 447, 512, 523, 646, 663 fvwm95. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
esh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
eshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
eterm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 G
everybuddy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694 gaim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 gcal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
exec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90, 118, 121 ghostview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359, 414, 451
exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 91 gimp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434, 446
expand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 glame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 glimmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
gnumeric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
gnuplot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437, 575
F gnus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632, 681
factor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 gomoku. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
faxon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604 gpg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572, 574
fdformat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 gpm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
feh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 gramofile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
fetchmail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 grep . . . . 43, 44, 45, 75, 150, 171, 178, 283,
fg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 288, 295, 300, 306, 307, 333, 335, 343,
fgconsole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 344, 347, 348, 350, 373, 533, 546, 591,
fgrep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335, 336 627, 659, 667
figlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86, 369, 401, 402 groff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383, 385
file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187, 211, 471 grog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172, 179, 182, 184, 552 grunch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
find-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 gs . . . 391, 451, 457, 460, 518, 521, 522, 605
finger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683, 684 gunzip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 gv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226, 359, 383, 414, 415
fluxbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 gzip . . . . . 179, 196, 197, 198, 349, 407, 614
flyspell-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
fmt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228, 305, 308, 343
fold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 H
fonter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 hangman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
for . . . . . . 143, 146, 148, 192, 193, 207, 428 hcopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
fortune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 hdel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
freax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65, 218, 219, 592
free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 720 hello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
freebirth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 hexdump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221, 222
frm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626 hexl-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62, 626 hformat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
fromdos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 hfsutils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
ftp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
742 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

hls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 L
hmount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527, 528 last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41, 719
host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686, 687 latex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374, 377, 390
hostname . . . . . . . . . . 36, 37, 38, 54, 63, 671 le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
hpcdtoppm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446 leave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
html-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662 less . . . . . 44, 45, 50, 69, 75, 183, 193, 211,
html2ps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665 218, 222, 223, 227, 228, 287, 297, 306,
327, 346, 354, 399, 464, 546, 548, 590,
hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
622, 628, 646, 663
licq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
I links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
idraw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
imgsizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663 linuxdoc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
ln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441, 447, 448
locate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 171, 399
info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48, 517
logout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, 63
input mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246, 328 look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226, 283, 286, 590
ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 lpq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
insert mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246, 248 lpr . . . . . 195, 309, 370, 374, 510, 512, 513,
insert-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 514, 515, 517, 521, 522
ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 lpr-buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
isearch-backward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 lpr-region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
iso-accents-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 lprm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
ispell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277, 278, 280 lptest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
ls . . . . . 36, 83, 84, 133, 136, 140, 153, 166,
168, 182, 184, 504
lsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
J lynx . . . . . 37, 114, 158, 287, 350, 412, 514,
jabber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695 515, 615, 643, 659, 663, 666
lyx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378, 379
jed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232, 267
LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
joe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 M
m4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
magicfilter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518, 703
K mail . . . . 545, 550, 611, 612, 613, 614, 616,
617, 619, 622
kill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
konsole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 mailx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
korganizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44, 46, 62, 228, 358, 522
kraut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 mc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157, 191, 223
ksh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 mcedit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Program Index 743

mcopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 O
mdel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 oclock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
mdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 od . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221, 222
members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 ogg123 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466, 467, 495
menu-bar-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 oggenc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
mesg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690 ogginfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625 oleo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
metamail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628 overwrite-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234, 238
metasend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
mf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
mformat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 P
mhshow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
micq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694 passwd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
mikmod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322, 592
mille . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192, 196
minicom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 pbmtext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447, 448
miscfiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 pcdtoppm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416, 445
mkdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 131, 727 pd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
mkisofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 pdf2ps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
mlterm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 pdksh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
mogrify . . . . . . . . . . . 421, 422, 425, 427, 429 pdmenu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91, 93
monop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 perl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351, 589
montage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 phantasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211, 346 pig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
morse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 ping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685, 686
mount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504, 506, 529 plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . 160, 224, 412, 638, 661 play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
mp3info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 player. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
mpg321 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469, 470, 494 playmidi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
mtools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 plog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
multi-gnome-terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
mutt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634 poff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
mv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65, 144, 146, 148, 153 pom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
pon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
powershell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
N ppmquant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
nano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 ppt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
netpbm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 pr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297, 307, 308, 312, 663
newspeak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371, 586 primes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
nl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 print-node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
nn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 ps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41, 42, 73
nngrep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682 ps-print-buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568, 584 ps-print-region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
nyc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 ps2book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
744 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

ps2pdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391, 460 rzsz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

psbook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
pscat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
psh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 S
psmerge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 sail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
psnup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454 saytime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539, 555
psresize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456 sc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
psselect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452, 513 scanimage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443, 444
pstoascii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 scp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
pwd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132, 133 script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
sdiff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
search-backward-regexp . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Q search-forward-regexp . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 sed . . . . . 219, 220, 255, 307, 311, 316, 346,
quoted-insert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 347, 351, 660
see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198, 199, 413
seq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
R set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80, 87, 252
rain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 seyon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
random. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 sh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
rc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 shar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
rclock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 showcfont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
rcp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677 showimg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
rcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 showpicture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
rdate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701 shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 703, 704
rdjpgcom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 sigrot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
rec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 sleep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442, 555
remembrance-agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 slrn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
rename . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145, 147 snake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
replace-regexp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 snd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
replace-regular-expression . . . . . . . . 328 snscore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 sort . . 24, 183, 277, 297, 298, 299, 319, 320
rev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 sox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466, 481, 488, 493, 494
rlog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275, 281, 286
rlogin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677 splay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470, 474
rm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149, 153, 178, 190 spline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
rmdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
rn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682 ssh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
robots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 startx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
rosegarden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 states. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569, 585 strfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
rpm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45, 714 strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228, 350, 533
rsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677 style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286, 288, 289, 293
rxvt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 suggest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Program Index 745

superformat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 unhtml. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

uniq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277, 297, 298, 299, 319
units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82, 567
T universal-argument . . . . . . . . . . . . 243, 541
tac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 unset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
tail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218, 219, 298, 592 unzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533, 535
talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690, 694 uptime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43, 719
tapiir. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 uuencode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
tar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199, 614 uxterm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
tbl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
tclsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
tcsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
V
teachgammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 vacation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Ted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245, 247
tee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 471 Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671, 672 view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
tetris-bsd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 vim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248, 346
tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372, 374, 375, 377, 399 vimtutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
text-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 vrfy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
tik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 W
timidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40, 64
todos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 w3-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 w3m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130, 176, 189 wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689, 690
tr . . . 24, 146, 222, 297, 310, 312, 316, 343, wargames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
531, 569 watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559, 653
traceroute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686 wc . . . . 24, 184, 275, 293, 294, 295, 300, 587
tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 wdiff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
trek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 weblint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
trivia games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 wenglish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
twm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 wget . . . . 350, 470, 615, 653, 654, 655, 656,
txt2html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523 659
txt2tex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 whatis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46, 586
type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 which . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185, 708
while . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 36, 39, 64
U whoami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, 46, 65, 78, 79
ul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 whois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
umount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505, 507 wily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
unalias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 wish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
uname . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720 wm2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
unexpand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 wmaker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
746 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

wmdate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 Xfig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

wn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282, 284 xfontsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104, 397
wnb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 xli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
wnintro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 xloadimage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419, 420
word-search-backward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 xls2csv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
word-search-forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 xlsfonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
word2x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531, 532, 533 xmag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
wordstar-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 xmms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
workbone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 xpaint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
workman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 xpaste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
worm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 xpcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415, 445
worms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 xpdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415, 521
wp2x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 xset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689, 690, 694 xsetroot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
WRITER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 xspread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
wrjpgcom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 xterm . . . . 101, 109, 295, 398, 518, 555, 559
wterm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 xwave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
wtf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 xwd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
wump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 xwud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
wv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

X Y
yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65, 151
X11R6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
yow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
xae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
ytalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690
xbiff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
xcal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
xcalc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
xcdroast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Z
xclock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101, 102, 105 zcat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257, 385, 449
xcolors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103, 118 zgrep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349, 656, 657
xcoral. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 zgv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
xdm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 98 zicq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
xdvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374, 399, 413 zinf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
xedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533, 534
xemacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233, 273 zless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50, 198, 211
xfd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 zsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Concept Index 747

Concept Index

adding echo to a sound file . . . . . . . . . . . 491

# . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 adding flange to a sound file . . . . . . . . . . 491
#! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 adding line breaks to text . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
### . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 adding margins to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 adding members to a group . . . . . . . . . . 718
$0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 adding parameters to image tags . . . . . . 663
$1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 adding phase to a sound file . . . . . . . . . . 492
$Id$ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 adding reverb to a sound file . . . . . . . . . 490
*** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 adding to your path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
*scratch* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 adding Vibro-Champ effects to a sound file
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126, 138 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126, 138 Address Book, Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
.bash_history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 adjusting the audio controls . . . . . . . . . . 463
.bash_logout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 adjusting the colors of an image . . . . . . 425
.bash_profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 86, 112 administrating a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
.bashrc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 84, 86, 550 administrating users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
.forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551 administrative issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
.newsrc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683 Adobe Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
.xsession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117, 656 Adobe Type 1 fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362, 403
[:space:] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Advanced Easy Editor (aee) . . . . . . . . . 263
1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
39 Steps, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 (alsa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463, 467
9wm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Advanced Package Tool (apt) . . . . . . . . 709
aee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
AfterStep . . . . . . . . . . 96, 100, 108, 117, 120
A AfterStep xvt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Aa3d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 aim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Aatv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 aip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
abbreviations, a list of common . . . . . . . 290 Air Traffic Controller simulation . . . . . . 583
abbreviations, making in Emacs . . . . . . 242 airport city codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
AbiWord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391, 535 aix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
absolute file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 alias words, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
accent characters, inserting in Emacs . . 239 alias, removing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
access mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 aliases, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
accessing the Web in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . 649 Almquist shell (Ash) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 alsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463, 467
Acme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 alternation operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
acronyms, translating common. . . . . . . . 292 alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
active client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Amaya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656, 667
active job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510 America On-Line Instant Messenger (aim)
Ada95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
adding a cron job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 American Institute of Physics (aip) . . . 380
adding borders to an image. . . . . . . . . . . 429 American Mathematical Society (ams)
adding chorus to a sound file . . . . . . . . . 492 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
748 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

American Physical Society (aps) . . . . . . 380 ari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

American Standard Code for Information arithmetic calculation, making a quick
Interchange (ascii) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
amounts, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 arithmetic, calculating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
amplitude of a sound file, changing . . . . 489 armored file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
ams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 arranging PostScript pages in signatures
amusements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
anagrams, finding in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 articles, Usenet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Analog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666 ascii art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400, 435, 436
analyzing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 ascii art, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
analyzing your Web traffic . . . . . . . . . . . 666 ascii character set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
animation, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 ascii character set, viewing . . . . . . . . . . 228
annotating an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
anonymous ftp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 aspect ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
ansi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 assembler listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
ansi control sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 assigning a variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
ansi-c quoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Astronomy and Astrophysics . . . . . . . . . 380
Antiword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 at&t. . . . . . . . . . . 16, 93, 120, 271, 286, 542
antonyms, of words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 atlases, online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Apache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666 attributes, listing file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697 attributes, specifying in an X window . . 105
appending text to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Audacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Apple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Apple LaserWriter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 audio cd tracks, shuffling. . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Apple Macintosh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357, 732 audio cd, displaying information about an
application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
application, finding the location of a . . 185 audio cd, ejecting an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 audio cd, pausing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
applications, guides for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734 audio cd, playing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
applying sound effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 audio cd, sampling from an . . . . . . . . . . 480
appointment file, making . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 audio cd, stopping an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
appointments, automatic delivery of . . . 545 audio cd-r, writing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
appointments, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 audio cds, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
aps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 audio compact discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
archive, listing the contents of an . . . . . 201 audio compact discs, using other tools for
archive, making a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
archive, managing file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 audio controls, adjusting the. . . . . . . . . . 463
archives of Linux and related software audio devices, muting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 audio recording source, selecting an . . . 465
archives, extracting files from . . . . . . . . . 201 audio settings, listing the current . . . . . 464
archiving an entire Web site . . . . . . . . . . 654 aumix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
archiving part of a Web site . . . . . . . . . . 655 Aumix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Arena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656, 667 authorization, viewing a site that requires
arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
Concept Index 749

Automated Readability Index (ari) . . . 289 binary files, matching lines in . . . . . . . . . 350
automatic appointment delivery . . . . . . 545 bindings, key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
automatically answering a command bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 bit bucket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
AutoTrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 BitchX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Aview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 Bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
awk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 365, 734 bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Ayttm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694 Bitnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
black and white, transforming color images
to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
B BlackBox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
backgammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 Blender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
background and history of linux . . . . . . . 15 blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
background jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Bluefish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
background, putting a job in the . . . . . . . 72 body size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
backspace underlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Boggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
backspace underlining . . . . . . . . . . . 226, 327 Bonzini, Paolo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
backups, making. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 booklet, arranging a PostScript document
Balsa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632 in a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
bang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 booklets, printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358 books and guides, Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
banners, outputting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 books, unix and Linux history . . . . . . . . 736
Barcode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 boot disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
base file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 boot floppy, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
Bash . . . . 10, 30, 36, 53, 112, 143, 146, 148, booting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
188, 192, 207, 231, 254, 365, 428, 478, borders, adding to images . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
561, 565, 603 Bortzmeyer, Stéphane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
basic commands and concepts . . . . . . . . . 27 Bourne shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53, 85, 92
bass, adjusting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Bourne, Steve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Battlestar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 Brahms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
bbs, connecting to a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 Browne, Christopher B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
bell character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 browser history, keeping a . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Bell Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 16 browser history, searching through your
bell, margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
bell, visual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 browser history, viewing your . . . . . . . . . 657
Berkeley Systems Distribution . . . . . . . . . 16 browsing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Biff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624 browsing image collections in X . . . . . . . 409
Big Eight hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680 browsing images in a console . . . . . . . . . 410
Bill of Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 browsing PhotoCD archives . . . . . . . . . . 415
binaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705 browsing the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
binaries, using a directory for personal bsd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 92, 245, 542
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727 Buckyballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
binary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 buddy list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
binary files, listing text in . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
750 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

buffer, killing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 case, sorting text regardless of . . . . . . . . 321

buffer, visiting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Casear, Julias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
buffers, viewing multiple at once . . . . . . 244 Ccal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Bulletin Board System (bbs) . . . . . . . . . 606 cd drives, letting users mount . . . . . . . . 718
burning audio to cd-r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 cd, mounting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Burroughs, William S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 cd-rom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
cd-rom drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Cdcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
C Cdinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92, 94, 291, 365 CDlabelgen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
C program source code, viewing . . . . . . 224 Cdp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 cdr drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Cable Modem Providers HOWTO . . . . 597 cdrw drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
cable modem, using a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 cds, using data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
CADUBI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 cdtool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Caesar, Julius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 center-justifying text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Calc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579 ChangeLog files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
calculating arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 changing a file’s modification time . . . . 189
calculator, using a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562 changing characters in text . . . . . . . . . . . 317
calendar clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 changing directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
calendar file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 changing file names to lowercase . . . . . . 145
calendar file, making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 changing the amplitude of a sound file
calendar files, including . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
calendar, displaying a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 changing the default X terminal behavior
calendar, displaying in Emacs . . . . . . . . 541 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
calendars, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 changing the ownership of a file . . . . . . . 166
calling a command by some other name changing the permissions of a file . . . . . 168
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 changing the root window parameters
calling out on a modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Camediaplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 changing the sampling rate of a sound file
cameras, downloading images from . . . . 449 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
cancel command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 changing the shell prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
canceling a print job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 changing the size of an image . . . . . . . . . 422
canceling a shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704 changing the volume level . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
canfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 changing to the last directory you visited
Capella Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
capture logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 changing to your home directory . . . . . . 132
Caraballo, David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 changing your default shell . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
carbon copies, sending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612 changing your password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
caret, in regexps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
carriage return characters, removing . . 310 character cell font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
carriage returns, replacing with linefeeds character class. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 character set, viewing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Case Western Reserve University . . . . . 232 characters, changing in text . . . . . . . . . . 317
Concept Index 751

characters, counting in a text . . . . . . . . . 294 Collver, Ben. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

characters, deleting in text . . . . . . . . . . . 318 color depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
characters, extended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 color directory listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
characters, quoting reserved . . . . . . . . . . . 56 color map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
characters, reversing on lines . . . . . . . . . 331 Color QuickCams, capturing images from
characters, squeezing duplicates in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 color reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
characters, transposing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 colors, window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
characters, transposing in text . . . . . . . . 316 Colossal Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
chart, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 columnating a list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
chatting directly with a user . . . . . . . . . . 690 columnating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
chatting on icq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 columnating text from separate files . . . 323
chatting with other users . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688 columns of text, pasting from separate files
chatting with users on irc . . . . . . . . . . . . 692 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
ChBg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 columns, listing directories in . . . . . . . . . 138
Cheap*Bytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 columns, outputting text in . . . . . . . . . . 370
check in. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 columns, placing text in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
check out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 columns, removing from text . . . . . . . . . 324
checking grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 combining images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
checking in a file revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 combining PostScript documents . . . . . . 457
checking in many files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 combining PostScript pages . . . . . . . . . . 454
checking online dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . 285 command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
checking out a file revision . . . . . . . . . . . 204 command line editing, keys for . . . . . . . . . 54
checking sgml document syntax . . . . . . 390 command line mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
checking text for difficult sentences. . . . 289 command line, in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
checking text for doubled words . . . . . . 288 command line, typing at the . . . . . . . . . . . 54
checking text for long sentences . . . . . . . 289 command line, undoing a mistake at the
checking text for misused phrases . . . . . 286 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
checking text for readability . . . . . . . . . . 288 command line, using basic editing keys
checking whether a user is online . . . . . 683 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Chet’s Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 command output, inserting in Vi . . . . . 251
child directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 command prompt, automatically answering
choosing a newsreader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
chords, mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Command Run On (cron) . . . . . . . . . . . 557
chorus, adding to a sound file. . . . . . . . . 492 command shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chrony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701 command substitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
classes, document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 command, calling by some other name . . 83
clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 command, mailing the output of a . . . . 613
clearing the screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54, 86 command, repeating the last. . . . . . . . . . . 62
clearing the terminal screen . . . . . . . . . . . 35 command, running a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
clients, X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 command, running in an X window . . . 113
Clinton, William Jefferson . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 command, running in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
clock, calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 command, running on a delay . . . . . . . . 555
Coleman-Liau formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 command, running on a timer . . . . . . . . 556
752 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

command, watching one from time to time consoles, virtual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559 Constitution of the United States of
commands, listing usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 America, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
commands, piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 consulting word lists and helpful files . . 290
commands, running a list of . . . . . . . . . . . 63 contact manager database, keeping a . . 548
commands, running on the files you find contact managers, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 context, showing matched lines in their
commands, running one and then another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 context, showing matches in . . . . . . . . . . 344
commands, running one or another . . . . . 64 control character, typing a . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
commands, scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 control characters, displaying . . . . . . . . . 217
commands, specifying from your history control characters, inserting in Emacs
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 control characters, inserting in Vi . . . . . 251
communications tools, using other . . . . 608 control keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
compact discs, audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 controlling access to files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
comparing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 controlling how the shell checks your mail
compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
completion, tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61, 149 controlling power to the system . . . . . . . . 27
Composer, Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638, 661 controlling the system bell in X . . . . . . . 119
composing mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616 conventional file name extensions . . . . . 723
compressed file, seeing what’s in a . . . . 199 conventions, typographical . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
compressed files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 conversions, cross-platform . . . . . . . . . . . 525
compressed files, matching lines in . . . . 349 converting a PhotoCD image . . . . . . . . . 446
compressing a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 converting amounts and numbers . . . . . 567
compression speed, specifying . . . . . . . . . 197 converting an amount between units of
computer geek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
concatenating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 converting an Arabic numeral to English
Concurrent Versions System (cvs) . . . . 202 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
configuring X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 converting an mp3 file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
connecting to a remote host . . . . . . . . . . 671 converting html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 converting image files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 converting Microsoft Word files . . . . . . . 531
Console Font Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 converting ogg to another format . . . . . 495
console font, displaying the characters in a converting PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 converting PostScript to pdf . . . . . . . . . 460
console font, setting the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 converting PostScript to plain text . . . . 460
console fonts, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 converting sound files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
console number, getting the . . . . . . . . . . . 33 converting text files between dos and
console, browsing images in a . . . . . . . . . 410 Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
console, emulating in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 converting text from proprietary formats
console, scrolling text in the . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
consoles and terminals, using . . . . . . . . . . 32 converting to and from fax format . . . . 604
consoles, switching between. . . . . . . . . . . . 33 converting underlines in text . . . . . . . . . 328
Concept Index 753

converting Word to LaTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 cross-platform conversion, using other tools

converting Word to plain text . . . . . . . . 533 for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
Cooledit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 cross-platform conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Coordinated Universal Time (utc) . . . 204, crossword puzzle words, finding . . . . . . . 590
537 Crowther, William . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
copying a link to the clipboard from Csh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 92, 365
Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642 current directory, getting the name of the
copying an email address to the clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
from Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642 current shell, getting the name of your . . 91
copying files and directories . . . . . . . . . . 141 current working directory . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
copying files by a unique parent directory custom headers, paginating with . . . . . . 313
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 custom page length, paginating with a
copying files to and from a dos disk . . . 526 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
copying files to and from a Macintosh disk custom page width, paginating with a
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
copying files with their attributes . . . . . 142 customizing Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
copying subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 cut and paste operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
copyleft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 cut-ups, making in emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
corba Interface Definition Language (idl) cut-ups, making random word . . . . . . . . 592
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 cut-ups, making simple text . . . . . . . . . . 592
Corderoy, Ralph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734 cut-ups, text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
counting a selection of text . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Cutils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
counting how many messages you have
cutting out part of a sound file . . . . . . . 488
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584, 625
cutting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
counting lines per page in Emacs . . . . . 294
cvs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
counting selected word occurrences in text
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
counting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 D
counting the characters in a text . . . . . . 294
counting the lines in a text . . . . . . . . . . . 294 daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
counting the occurrences of something dap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 dashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
counting the words in a text . . . . . . . . . . 294 data cd, unmounting a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
counting word occurrences in text . . . . . 299 data cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
cpu type, displaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719 data, plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Cqcam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 date, displaying the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Craft of Text Editing, The . . . . . . . . . . . 736 date, setting the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
cribbage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 Davis, John E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
cron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 Dawson, Terry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
cron job, adding a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 day of the year, displaying the . . . . . . . . 538
cron job, removing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 dc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
cron jobs, listing your . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559 deb package, getting the status of a . . . 713
cron table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 deb package, installing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
crontab file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 deb package, listing all files in a . . . . . . 713
754 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

deb package, listing dependences for a determining if a host is online . . . . . . . . 685

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714 determining the command line options for
deb package, listing the one a file is a part a groff file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714 determining the ownership of a file . . . . 166
deb package, removing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713 determining whether two directories differ
deb package, upgrading a . . . . . . . . . . . . 711 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
deb packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 707 determining whether two files differ . . . 191
deb packages, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710 determining which hardware is compatible
deb packages, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 19, 542, 731 dfsg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Debian Font Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Dia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Debian Free Software Guidelines (dfsg) dialects, outputting text in . . . . . . . . . . . 586
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Debian, Red Hat, and other Linux dict Development Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 diction, checking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
dec vt102/220 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 dictionaries, checking online . . . . . . . . . . 285
Declaration of Independence of the dictionaries, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Thirteen Colonies, The . . . . . . . . . . 291 dictionary, personal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
decoding text in rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571 dictionary, searching for words in the . . 283
decompressing a file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 difference report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192, 366
decrypting data with gpg . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 difference report, patching a file with a
DEdit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
default shell, changing your . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 diffs, visual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
definitions, of words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Digital Audio Processor (dap) . . . . . . . . 496
deiconifying an X window . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 digital cameras, downloading images from
delay, running a command on a . . . . . . . 555 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
deleting a job scheduled to run . . . . . . . 557 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (dmca)
deleting characters in text . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
deleting files and directories . . . . . . . . . . 149 Digital Subscriber Line (dsl) . . . . . . . . . 597
deleting files on a dos disk . . . . . . . . . . . 526 Dillo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
deleting files on a Macintosh disk . . . . . 528 directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
deleting mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 directories, changing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Dell Computer Corporation . . . . . . . . . . 699 directories, copying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Delphi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 directories, determining whether two differ
denying messages to your terminal . . . . 690 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Desk Calculator (dc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580 directories, finding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 directories, finding the differences between
desktop environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
desktop themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 directories, finding the largest . . . . . . . . 183
desktop, magnifying a portion of the . . 116 directories, finding the smallest . . . . . . . 183
desktop, moving around the . . . . . . . . . . 108 directories, listing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
destroying an X window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 directories, listing hidden . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
determining a program’s type. . . . . . . . . 188 directories, listing in color . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
determining file type and format . . . . . . 187 directories, listing in columns . . . . . . . . . 138
Concept Index 755

directories, listing tree graphs of . . . . . . 156 displaying random quotations. . . . . . . . . 587

directories, making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 displaying text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
directories, moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 displaying the beginning part of text . . 218
directories, naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 displaying the characters in a console font
directories, removing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
directories, renaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 displaying the characters in an X font
directory listings, finding files in . . . . . . 182 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
directory order, sorting text in . . . . . . . . 322 displaying the contents of a variable . . . . 79
directory panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 displaying the date and time . . . . . . . . . 537
directory tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 displaying the day of the year . . . . . . . . 538
directory tree, finding files in a . . . . . . . 172 displaying the distribution version . . . . 720
directory tree, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 displaying the end part of text . . . . . . . . 218
directory, changing to the last one you displaying the hex values of text . . . . . . 221
visited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 displaying the Linux version . . . . . . . . . . 720
directory, finding the largest files in a . . 182 displaying the literal characters of text
directory, finding the smallest files in a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 displaying the middle part of text . . . . . 219
directory, mailing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 displaying the minute of the hour . . . . . 538
disk storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 displaying the text between strings . . . . 220
disk usage, listing a file’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502 displaying the version of a tool . . . . . . . . 38
disk, listing the free space on a . . . . . . . 501 displaying your username. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
diskette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 distinguishing between TEX and LaTEX files
diskettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
disks, floppy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503 distribution, displaying the version . . . . 720
displaying a calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 distribution, installing packages for your
displaying a calendar in Emacs . . . . . . . 541 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
displaying a tool’s available options . . . . 37 distributions of Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
displaying cpu type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719 distributions, Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
displaying how long the system has been DistroWatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719 dmca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
displaying information about a host . . . 684 DocBook dtd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380, 382
displaying information about a sound file document classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 Document Type Definition (dtd) . . . . . 388
displaying information about an audio cd documentation, system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 Documenter’s Workbench (dwb) . . . . . . 286
displaying information about an mp3 file domain name, listing the owner of a . . . 688
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 domain record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
displaying information about an ogg file Dome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 Doob, Michael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376, 735
displaying information about the system dos . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 93, 231, 267, 270, 525
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718 dos disk, copying files to and from a . . 526
displaying information about users . . . . 683 dos disk, deleting files on a. . . . . . . . . . . 526
displaying memory usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720 dos disk, formatting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
displaying non-printing characters . . . . 217 dos disk, listing the contents of a . . . . . 525
756 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

dos disk, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 early days of unix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

dos text files, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 Easy Editor (ee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
dot files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 easy shell (Esh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
dots per inch (dpi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396, 444 eBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
double-spacing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 echo area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
doubled words, checking text for . . . . . . 288 echo, adding to a sound file. . . . . . . . . . . 491
downloading a file from a remote host edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231, 267, 531
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676 editing images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
downloading an url . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654 Editing MACroS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
dpi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396, 444 editing sound files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
drawing tablets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 editing streams of text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Drgenius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 editing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Drgeo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
drive letters for dos disks . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 ee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
driver, null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 effects, sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
driver, sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Effectv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
drives, letting users mount . . . . . . . . . . . 718 ejecting an audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
dsa/ElGamal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573 Electric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
dselect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 electronic mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Dselect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734 Elements of Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Dselect Documentation for Beginners . . 734 eliminating extra spaces in text . . . . . . . 305
dsl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 eliza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
DSL HOWTO for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 Elm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
dtd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 Elvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245, 265
DTMFdial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 em dashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Duggan, Angus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 Emacs . . 8, 54, 93, 223, 231, 247, 253, 264,
dumb terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 266, 311, 328, 487, 542, 546, 579, 648,
dumb terminals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 662
dummy data, writing to a file . . . . . . . . . 513 Emacs buffer, printing an . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
duplicate lines of text, filtering out . . . . 319 Emacs buffers, viewing multiple at once
dvd drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
dvds, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 Emacs diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Dvgrab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 Emacs Lisp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93, 366
dvi file, preparing for printing . . . . . . . . 520 Emacs Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
dvi file, previewing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 Emacs tutorial, running an . . . . . . . . . . . 237
dvi file, printing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Emacs, accessing the Web in . . . . . . . . . 649
dvi pages, extracting to PostScript . . . . 452 Emacs, counting lines per page in . . . . . 294
dwb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Emacs, displaying a calendar in . . . . . . . 541
dxf format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 Emacs, getting acquainted with . . . . . . . 232
Emacs, inserting special characters in . . 239
Emacs, listing relevant files in . . . . . . . . 302
E Emacs, Lucid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
e2fs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 Emacs, making abbreviations in . . . . . . 242
E3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Emacs, making cut-ups in . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Concept Index 757

Emacs, recording and running macros in Eudora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 event number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Emacs, searching and replacing in. . . . . 353 events, history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Emacs, searching for a phrase in . . . . . . 353 Everybuddy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Emacs, searching for a regexp in . . . . . . 353 Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Emacs, searching incrementally in. . . . . 352 Ewing, Larry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Emacs, searching text in . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Emacs, spell checking in. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Excel, Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Emacs, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 exclamation point, quoting . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Emacs, using basic editing keys . . . . . . . 237 executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 execute permission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
email address, copying to the clipboard executing a command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
from Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642 exiting a shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
email addresses, verifying . . . . . . . . . . . . 627 expansion, variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
email reminders, sending yourself . . . . . 550 expansions, file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
email signature, making an . . . . . . . . . . . 631 Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
empty file, making an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 extended characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
empty files, finding in a directory tree extensions, conventional file name . . . . . 723
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 extracting dvi pages to PostScript . . . . 452
empty set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335, 336 extracting files from an archive . . . . . . . 201
empty string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 extracting pages from a PostScript file
Encapsulated PostScript (eps) . . . . . . . . 451 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 extracting PhotoCD images . . . . . . . . . . 445
encoding an ogg file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
encoding mp3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
encoding text in rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570 F
encrypting data with gpg . . . . . . . . . . . . 574 fancy headers, outputting text with . . . 368
end of file (eof) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Fannin, David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
Enlightened Sound Daemon . . . . . . . . . . 467 faq. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Enlightened Terminal Emulator . . . . . . . 114 faqs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 faqs, linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Enscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358 fax format, converting to and from . . . . 604
envelopes, printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 fax, receiving a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
eof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 fax, sending a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
EPIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 faxes, receiving automatically . . . . . . . . . 603
eps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 faxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
eps file, previewing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 Fbi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
error messages, redirecting to a file . . . . . 68 Fbtv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
escape character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56, 672 Fedora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 98, 731
escapement class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 Feh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Escher, M.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 Fender Vibro-Champ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Esh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Eshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 fetching pop mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
etext-style underlining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 fields, text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323, 324
758 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

fifo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123, 125

Figurine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 files and directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 files, archiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
file archive, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 files, browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
file archives, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 files, checking in many . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
file attributes, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 files, columnating text from separate . . 323
file compression, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 files, comparing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723 files, compressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
file modification time, changing . . . . . . . 189 files, controlling access to. . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
file name extensions, conventional . . . . . 723 files, converting Microsoft Word . . . . . . 531
file names, changing to lowercase . . . . . 145 files, copying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
file names, specifying with patterns . . . 153 files, copying by a unique parent directory
file permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
file revision, checking in a . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 files, copying with their attributes . . . . 142
file revision, checking out a . . . . . . . . . . . 204 files, creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
file specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 files, decompressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
File Transfer Protocol (ftp) . . . . . . . . . . 673 files, determining type and format of . . 187
file types, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 files, determining whether two differ . . . 191
file, appending text to a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 files, dot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
file, armored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574 files, executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
file, changing the ownership of a . . . . . . 166 files, finding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
file, changing the permissions of a . . . . . 168 files, finding all that match a pattern . . 171
file, determining the ownership of a . . . 166 files, finding in a directory tree . . . . . . . 172
file, getting information about a . . . . . . 187 files, finding in a directory tree by access
file, inserting text at the beginning of a time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 files, finding in a directory tree by change
file, keeping one of patterns to search for time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 files, finding in a directory tree by
file, listing disk usage of a . . . . . . . . . . . . 502 modification time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
file, listing the permissions of a . . . . . . . 168 files, finding in a directory tree by name
file, listing when it was last modified . . 188 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
file, mailing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 files, finding in a directory tree by owner
file, making executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
file, making private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 files, finding in a directory tree by size
file, making public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
file, perusing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 files, finding in listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
file, redirecting error messages to a . . . . . 68 files, finding the differences between . . . 192
file, redirecting input to a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 files, finding the largest in a directory . . 182
file, redirecting output to a . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 files, finding the number of in a listing
file, saving mail to a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
file, source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 files, finding the percentage two differ by
file, target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
file, using one with spaces in its name files, finding the smallest . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 files, finding words in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Concept Index 759

files, getting from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . 653 files, writing text to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
files, giving more than one name . . . . . . 152 files, zipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
files, hidden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 filespec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
files, including text from other . . . . . . . . 261 filesystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
files, linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Filesystem Hierarchy Standard . . . . . . . 129
files, listing in sorted order . . . . . . . . . . . 139 filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
files, listing recursively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 filter, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
files, listing the misspellings in . . . . . . . . 276 filter, outputting text through ax . . . . . 371
files, making empty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 filtering out duplicate lines of text . . . . 319
files, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 finances, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
files, matching lines in many . . . . . . . . . . 348 Findimagedupes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
files, moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 finding all files that match a pattern . . 171
files, naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 finding anagrams in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
files, owning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 finding crossword puzzle words . . . . . . . 590
files, pasting columns of text from separate finding directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 finding files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
files, perusing multiple text . . . . . . . . . . . 215 finding files by multiple criteria . . . . . . . 179
files, perusing the differences in a group of finding files in a directory tree . . . . . . . . 172
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 finding files in a directory tree by access
files, preparing for printing . . . . . . . . . . . 518 time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
files, previewing print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 finding files in a directory tree by change
files, printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509 time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
files, read-only. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 finding files in a directory tree by
files, reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 modification time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
files, removing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 finding files in a directory tree by name
files, removing interactively . . . . . . . . . . . 150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
files, removing those with strange names finding files in a directory tree by owner
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
files, removing without verification . . . . 151 finding files in a directory tree by size . . 174
files, renaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 finding files in directory listings . . . . . . . 182
files, renaming multiple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 finding matches for word games . . . . . . . 588
files, searching more than plain text . . . 348 finding newsgroups for a topic . . . . . . . . 682
files, sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 finding palindromes in text . . . . . . . . . . . 589
files, showing which contain matching lines finding patterns in certain places. . . . . . 342
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 finding patterns only in certain positions
files, splitting into smaller . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
files, touching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 finding phrases in text regardless of spacing
files, tracking revisions to . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
files, transferring large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 finding prime factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
files, undeleting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 finding relevancies in texts . . . . . . . . . . . 301
files, unzipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 finding similar or relevant text . . . . . . . . 301
files, world readable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 finding the correct spelling of a word . . 275
files, world writable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 finding the differences between directories
files, write-protecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
760 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

finding the differences between files . . . 192 fonts, console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

finding the largest directories . . . . . . . . . 183 fonts, text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
finding the largest files in a directory . . 182 fonts, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
finding the number of files in a listing . . 184 foreground jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
finding the percentage two files differ by foreground, putting a job in the . . . . . . . . 73
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 format of recipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
finding the right tool for the job . . . . . . . 44 format, determining file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
finding the smallest directories . . . . . . . . 183 formats, file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
finding the smallest files in a directory formatting a dos disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 formatting a floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
finding where a program is located . . . . 185 formatting a Macintosh disk . . . . . . . . . . 529
Finseth, Craig A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 formatting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
FireWire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 formfeed character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Five in a Row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 formfeeds, inserting in a text file . . . . . . 239
fixed disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 formfeeds, placing in text . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
fixed storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 Fortran 77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 fortune cookie, getting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
flame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679 fqdn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
flange, adding to a sound file . . . . . . . . . 491 frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
FlashPix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 frames, splitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Flesch Reading Ease Score . . . . . . . . . . . 289 frames, window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95, 106
floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 Free Audio Music Player (FreeAmp) . . 475
floppy disk, formatting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 free content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
floppy disk, mounting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 Free Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia
floppy disk, unmounting a . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 (file) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
floppy disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503 free software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 20
floppy drives, letting users mount . . . . . 718 Free Software Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
floppy, permitting user access to . . . . . . 718 Free Software Foundation (fsf) . . . . 17, 18,
Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion . . . . . . . . 426 21, 48, 232
Fluxbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 free software movement, genesis of the . . 16
Flying Saucer Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 free-form address list, keeping a . . . . . . . 546
focus, window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Free-Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Fog Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 FreeAmp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
foils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 Freebirth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
FoilTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 freeware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
following links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 frequently asked questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
font tools, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 frequently asked questions (faq) . . . . . . . 13
Font Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Freshmeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
font, outputting text in a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Friedmen, Noah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
font, resizing in an xterm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 fsf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 21, 48, 232
font, selecting in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 fsf/unesco Free Software Directory . . 732
font, window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 ftp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Fonter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 ftp, anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
FontForge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Fuji digital cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Concept Index 761

full path name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 getting the status of an rpm package . . 716
Fuller, R.Buckminster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 getting the virtual console number . . . . . 33
fully qualified domain name (fqdn) . . . 687 Ghostscript . . . . . . . 391, 451, 457, 460, 605
functions, Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 gid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163, 717
furniture, designing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 gimp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 427, 433, 446, 514
fvwm2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 100, 108 gimp, using the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
fvwm95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 giving a file more than one name. . . . . . 152
glame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Glimmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
G glob expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Gaim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695 Global System for Mobile Communications
Galeon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 (gsm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
games, finding matches for word . . . . . . 588 Global Thermonuclear War . . . . . . . . . . . 585
gamma correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 globbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Gcal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 glue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
geek, computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 gmt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
general Linux guides and instruction . . 733 gnome . . . 97, 115, 157, 264, 580, 632, 638,
General Public License (gnu gpl) . . . . . 17 668, 682
generating output from sgml . . . . . . . . . 390 GNU Awk User’s Guide, The . . . . . . . . . 734
genesis of the free software movement . . 16 gnu Emacs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Gentle Introduction to TEX, A . . . 376, 735 gnu file utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Gentoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731 gnu General Public License (gnu gpl)
geodesic domes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 21
geometry, window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 gnu gpl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 21
getting a description of a program . . . . . 46 gnu Image Manipulation Program (gimp)
getting a terminal window in X . . . . . . . 109 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
getting acquainted with Emacs . . . . . . . 232 gnu Manifesto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
getting acquainted with Mozilla . . . . . . . 638 gnu Network Object Model Environment
getting acquainted with Vi . . . . . . . . . . . 245 (gnome) . . . . . . . 97, 580, 632, 668, 682
getting and installing a Linux distribution gnu notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 gnu Privacy Guard (gpg) . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
getting files from the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . 653 gnu Project . . 17, 19, 97, 121, 286, 680, 737
getting information about a file . . . . . . . 187 gnu text utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
getting information about an X window gnu-style options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 gnu/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
getting started with LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 GnuCash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
getting started with TEX and LaTEX . . . 375 Gnumeric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
getting the hostname of an ip address Gnuplot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687 Gnus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632, 681
getting the ip address of a hostname . . 686 Go Fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
getting the name of the current directory gocr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 going into maintenance mode . . . . . . . . . 705
getting the name of your current shell . . 91 Google Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
getting the status of a deb package . . . 713 Gopher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
762 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Gozer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403, 447 H

gpg encryption, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572 Haardt, Michael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
gpg, decrypting data with . . . . . . . . . . . 575 hacker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
gpg, encrypting data with . . . . . . . . . . . 574 Hahn, Jane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
gPhoto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 Handy One-Liners for SED . . . . . . . . . . . 735
gpl, gnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 21 Hangman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
grammar and reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
hard links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
grammar, checking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
GramoFile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 hardware for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Grandsire, Christophe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 hardware peripherals, letting users access
graphic files, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
graphs, making with a single data set . . 575 hardware, determining which is compatible
graphs, making with multiple data sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577 hardware, setting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Greenwich Mean Time gmt . . . . . . . . . . 537 hardware, sources of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
grep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Haskell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
hat notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 214, 217
groff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358, 448, 734
Hauben, Michael . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
GROFF and Friends HOWTO, The . . . 734 Hauben, Ronda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
groff file, determining the command line Haun, Gregory Cosmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
options for a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 headers of a Web page, reading the . . . 656
groff file, processing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 help facilities, using the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
groff tutorial, running a . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 help files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
groff, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 help files, reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Groovy CD Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 help, if you need more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
group id (gid) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163, 717 Hessling Editor, The (the) . . . . . . . . . . . 270
hex dump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
group, listing the members of a . . . . . . . 165
hex values of text, displaying the . . . . . 221
group, login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
hfs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Groups of Linux Users Everywhere (glue) hidden files, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 hidden links, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
groups, adding members to . . . . . . . . . . . 718 Hierarchical File System (hfs) . . . . . . . . 527
groups, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 highlighting matches on their lines . . . . 345
groups, listing a user’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 HISTFILESIZE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
groups, working in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
groupware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 history of visited Web sites, keeping a
Grunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
history, of Linux and free software . . . . . 15
gsm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
history, searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Gsumi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 history, specifying a command from your
guru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Gysin, Brion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 history, using command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Gzilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 history, viewing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Concept Index 763

HISTSIZE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Ida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Hitchcock, Alfred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 idl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
holidays, including in your reminders . . 544 ieee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 380
Hollywood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 ieee1394 link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
HOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 154 if you need more help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
home directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 im services, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
home directory, changing to your . . . . . 132 image editors, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
home directory, setting up your . . . . . . . 727 image files, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
home page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 image tags, adding parameters to . . . . . 663
horizontal text fonts, outputting . . . . . . 401 image viewers, using other. . . . . . . . . . . . 418
host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 image, printing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
host key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677 image, scanning an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
host, determining if one is online . . . . . . 685 image, turning text into an . . . . . . . . . . . 447
host, displaying information about a . . 684 ImageMagick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407, 421, 724
host, tracing the path to another . . . . . 686 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
hostname . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 images, adding borders to . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
HOSTNAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 images, adjusting colors of. . . . . . . . . . . . 425
hostname, getting the ip address of a . . 686 images, annotating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
house style, filtering text for . . . . . . . . . . 587 images, browsing in X. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
howtos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 images, changing the size of . . . . . . . . . . 422
hp-10c calculator, emulating the. . . . . . 581 images, combining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358, 366, 637 images, combining in montages . . . . . . . 430
html selection, viewing an . . . . . . . . . . . 647 images, editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
html source code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 images, importing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
html, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663 images, lossy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
html, validating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665 images, morphing two together . . . . . . . 431
html, writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661 images, quantizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
html-formatted text, viewing . . . . . . . . 223 images, rotating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
http . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 images, scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Hunt the Wumpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 images, transforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
HylaFAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 images, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
hypernyms, of words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 images, viewing in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
HyperText Markup Language (html) importing images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366, 637, 661 importing images, using other tools for
HyperText Transfer Protocol (http) . . 637 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
ImPress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Impulse Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
I inbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
I Seek You (icq). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 inbox, locating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
iana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 include file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Ibiblio Linux Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 includes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
Ibm Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699 including holidays in your reminders . . 544
icq, chatting on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 including text from other files . . . . . . . . 261
id, group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 inclusion, file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
764 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

indentation, outputting text with . . . . . 370 IRC Prelude, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237, 390 irc, chatting with users on . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Info manual, reading an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Irssi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Info node, printing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517 isdn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
ingredients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 iso 639 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Innovation3d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 iso 8859-1 character set, viewing . . . . . 228
input devices, pressure-sensitive. . . . . . . 450 iso 9660 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
input file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 isp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
input levels, setting for audio . . . . . . . . . 463 ISP Hookup HOWTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
input line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 italic font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
input, redirecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Ivtools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
input, redirecting output to another
command’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
inserting command output in Vi . . . . . . 251 J
inserting special characters in Emacs . . 239 Jabber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
inserting special characters in Vi . . . . . . 251 Japanese characters, displaying . . . . . . . 264
inserting text at the beginning of a file Jargon File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
InstallFests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 706 Javascript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
installing a deb package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711 Jaz drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
installing a shell script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708 jed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
installing a source package . . . . . . . . . . . 707 jfif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
installing an rpm package . . . . . . . . . . . . 715 job number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
installing packages for your Linux job, deleting one scheduled to run . . . . . 557
distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707 job, printing multiple copies of a . . . . . . 510
Instant Messenger, America On-Line . . 694 jobs, background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Institute of Electrical and Electronics jobs, cron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Engineers, Inc. (ieee) . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 jobs, foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Integrated Services Digital Network (isdn) jobs, killing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 jobs, listing those scheduled to run . . . . 557
interactive spell checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 jobs, listing your . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
interlaced image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432 jobs, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 jobs, suspending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority joe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
(iana) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Joe’s Own Editor (joe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Internet Relay Chat (irc) . . . . . . . . . . . . 692 John E.Davis’ editor (jed) . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Internet Service Provider (isp) . . . . . . . . 597 join field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
internet services, other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671 Joint Photographic Experts Group (jpeg)
Internet, connecting to the . . . . . . . . . . . 597 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Joy, Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
Ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100, 106, 121 jpeg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
ip address, getting the hostname of an Jpilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687 Julias Casear’s cipher . . . . . . . . . . . 569, 584
irc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692, 735 jump scrolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Concept Index 765

justifying text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 L

Lamport, Leslie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
landscape orientation, outputting text in
K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
K Desktop Environment (kde) . . . 97, 474, landscape orientation, PostScript pages in
496, 553 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Kali . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 language highlighting, outputting text with
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
kde . . . . . . . . . . . 97, 114, 157, 474, 496, 553
laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Kedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
last-in first-out (lifo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
keeping a browser history . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
LaStrange, Tom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
keeping a contact manager database . . 548
LaTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328, 358, 372, 387
keeping a file of patterns to search for
LaTEX and BibTEX Tutorials and
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
keeping a free-form address list . . . . . . . 546 LaTEX document templates, using . . . . . 376
keeping a spelling word list . . . . . . . . . . . 277 LaTEX Environment, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
kernel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 LaTEX file, determining format of a . . . . 373
Kernighan, Brian W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 736 LaTEX file, processing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
key notation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 LaTEX for Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
key sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 LaTEX, converting plain text to . . . . . . . 393
keyring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574 LaTEX, getting started with . . . . . . . . . . . 375
keys for command line editing . . . . . . . . . 54 ldp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 50, 380, 733
keys, encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573 Le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
killing a job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 learning more about LyX. . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
killing buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 leave, reminding yourself when you have to
killing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Kincaid formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 left-justifying text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Kino. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 Lesk, M.E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Kirch, Olaf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Knews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 less, searching text in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
letting the shell complete what you type
KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Knuth, Donald E. . . . . . . . . . . 372, 404, 736
letting users access hardware peripherals
Kodak PhotoCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Kodak PhotoCD (pcd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 letting users mount drives . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Konqueror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 lexicons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Konsole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 licq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
KOrganizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 lifo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Korn, David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 LignumCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Krecord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 LilyPond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Ksh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 line breaks, adding to text. . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Kuhn, Bradley M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 line printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Kvaleberg, Egil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 line, typing a long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
766 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

lines beginning with certain text, matching Linux tool and application guides . . . . . 734
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 Linux User Group (lug) . . . . . . . . . . 11, 737
lines ending with certain text, matching Linux User Groups (lugs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 Linux Weekly News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
lines of a certain length, matching . . . . 339 Linux, background and history of . . . . . . 15
lines of sorted text, viewing . . . . . . . . . . 226 Linux, displaying the version . . . . . . . . . 720
lines per page, counting in Emacs . . . . . 294 Linux, distributions of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
lines, counting in a text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Linux, hardware for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
lines, matching that only contain certain Linux, in specialized fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 Linux, installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
lines, outputting random . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 Linux, the arrival of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
lines, showing the ends of . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Linux.Com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
link, copying to the clipboard from Mozilla Linux: Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
link, opening in a new window . . . . . . . . 642 LinuxDoc dtd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Linuxdoc-Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358, 376, 388
Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 LinuxHardware.net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700, 732
links, following . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 LinuxHardware.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700, 733
links, listing all in a page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 Lisp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
links, viewing hidding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 list, columnating a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Linux and related software, archives of listing a disk’s free space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 listing a file’s disk usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Linux books and guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 listing a sequence of numbers . . . . . . . . . 565
Linux distribution, getting and installing a listing aliases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 listing all files in a deb package . . . . . . . 713
Linux distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731 listing all files in an rpm package . . . . . 716
Linux Documentation Project (ldp) . . . 13, listing all of a user’s processes . . . . . . . . . 42
50, 380, 733 listing all of the words in text . . . . . . . . 297
Linux FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 listing all processes on the system . . . . . . 42
Linux Gazette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 listing all the links in a page . . . . . . . . . . 646
Linux guides and instruction, general . . 733 listing available groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Linux Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737 listing available scanner devices . . . . . . . 443
Linux Network Administrator’s Guide, The listing available TEX fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 listing available X fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Linux Network Administrators Guide . . 11 listing deb packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Linux Network Administrators’ Guide, listing dependences for a deb package
Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Linux news and commentary . . . . . . . . . 737 listing dependences for an rpm package
Linux on Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Linux software and hardware, sources of listing directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731 listing directories in color . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Linux System Administrator’s Guide . . 11, listing directories in columns . . . . . . . . . 138
734 listing directory tree graphs . . . . . . . . . . 156
Linux Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737 listing file attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Concept Index 767

listing file types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 listing your cron jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

listing files in sorted order . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 listing your current processes . . . . . . . . . . 42
listing hidden files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 listing your jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
listing only the unique words in text . . 298 listing your print jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
listing processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
lists and data, using a directory for
listing processes by name or number . . . 43
personal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
listing relevant files in Emacs . . . . . . . . . 302
listserv mailing lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
listing rpm packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
listing subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 literal characters of text, displaying the
listing system activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
listing text in binary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 literate programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
listing the antonyms of a word . . . . . . . . 285 Lix formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
listing the contents of a dos disk. . . . . . 525 Lo, Joseph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
listing the contents of a Macintosh disk logging in to the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 logging out of the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
listing the contents of an archive . . . . . . 201 logical pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
listing the current audio settings . . . . . . 464 login group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
listing the deb package a file is a part of
logs, Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
listing the definitions of a word . . . . . . . 284 lol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290, 292, 586
listing the groups a user belongs to . . . 164 long line, typing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
listing the hypernyms of a word. . . . . . . 285 long-style options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
listing the jobs scheduled to run . . . . . . 557 lossy image formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
listing the last time a user logged in . . . . 41 lp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
listing the members of a group . . . . . . . . 165 Lrzsz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
listing the Misspellings in text . . . . . . . . 276 Lsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
listing the owner of a domain name . . . 688 Lucid Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
listing the permissions of a file . . . . . . . . 168
lug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 737
listing the rpm package a file is a part of
lugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
listing the synonyms of a word . . . . . . . . 284 Lynch, Jack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
listing the urls in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Lynx . . . . . . . . . 158, 253, 615, 637, 654, 658
listing the usage of a tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Lynx, basic browsing keys for . . . . . . . . . 643
listing the words in text sorted Lynx, saving a Web page from . . . . . . . . 645
alphabetically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Lynx, specifying key bindings in . . . . . . 648
listing user activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Lynx, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
listing variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Lynx, using with a mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
listing when a file was last modified . . . 188
LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358, 375, 376, 390
listing who is logged in to a system . . . 684
LyX Documentation Project . . . . . . . . . . 381
listing who is on and what they’re doing
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 LyX Graphical Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
listing who is on the system . . . . . . . . . . . 39 LyX, getting started with . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
listing words in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 LyX, learning more about . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
listing words that match a pattern . . . . 283 LyX, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
768 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

M mail, using a directory for . . . . . . . . . . . . 728

m4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 mail, using mozilla for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 MAILCHECK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82, 87
Macintosh disk, copying files to and from a mailing a directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 mailing a user on the same system . . . . 613
Macintosh disk, deleting files on a. . . . . 528 mailing a Web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Macintosh disk, formatting a . . . . . . . . . 529 mailing files or the output of commands
Macintosh disk, listing the contents of a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 maintaining a list of visited Web sites
Macintosh disk, specifying . . . . . . . . . . . . 527 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Macintosh disks, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527 maintenance mode, going into . . . . . . . . 705
macos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131, 234, 525 make, rule files for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
macros, recording and running in Emacs making a boot floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 making a chart or table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Magick Image Format File (miff) . . . . . 724 making a directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
magnifying a portion of the X desktop making a directory tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 making a file archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
MAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82, 617 making a file executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Mail and News, Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 making a file private . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
mail archives, searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627 making a file public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
mail attachment, reading a . . . . . . . . . . . 628 making a new Mozilla window . . . . . . . . 642
mail attachment, sending a . . . . . . . . . . . 629 making a quick arithmetic calculation
mail attachments, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
mail folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 making a secure file copy to a remote host
mail folder, viewing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
mail headers, showing a list of . . . . . . . . 618 making a secure shell connection to a
mail host, using a remote . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 remote host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
mail notification, setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624 making a shell script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Mail Transport Agent (mta) . . . . . . . . . 621 making a typescript of a shell session . . . 88
mail user agent (mua) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 making a user account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
mail user agents, using other . . . . . . . . . 631 making abbreviations in Emacs . . . . . . . 242
mail, composing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616 making an appointment file. . . . . . . . . . . 543
mail, controlling how the shell checks . . . 82 making an email signature . . . . . . . . . . . 631
mail, counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584, 625 making an empty file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
mail, deleting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 making an image montage . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
mail, electronic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 making and managing print jobs . . . . . . 509
mail, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 making cut-ups in Emacs. . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Mail, Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634 making graphs with a single data set . . 575
mail, receiving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617 making graphs with multiple data sets
mail, replying to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
mail, saving to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 making random word cut-ups . . . . . . . . . 592
mail, seeing who yours is from . . . . . . . . 626 making simple text cut-ups . . . . . . . . . . . 592
mail, sending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612 man page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
mail, undeleting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 man page, preparing for printing . . . . . . 522
Concept Index 769

managing appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 matching lines that don’t contain a regexp

managing deb packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
managing file archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 matching lines that only contain certain
managing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
managing jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 matching lines, showing which files contain
managing mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
managing rpm packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714 matching patterns of text . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
managing software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705 mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
managing zip archives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 mathematics tools, using other . . . . . . . 579
Mandrake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 731 Matt’s icq clone (micq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
manipulating PostScript documents . . . 456 maximizing an X window . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
manipulating PostScript pages . . . . . . . . 452 Maxwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
manipulating selections from sound files mbr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 mcedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
manipulating selections of text. . . . . . . . 253 measurement, converting an amount
manipulating X client windows . . . . . . . 105 between units of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
manual feed tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 members of a group, listing . . . . . . . . . . . 165
manual pages, reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 memory usage, displaying . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
manual pages, searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Maplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 menu bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
margin bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Merrill, David C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
margins, adding to text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 message of the day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 messages, counting how many you have
Massachusetts Institute of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584, 625
(mit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 messages, denying to your terminal . . . 690
master boot record, removing a . . . . . . . 702 messages, sending to another user’s
matched lines, showing in their context terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Messaging in the Emacs World (mew)
matched patterns, showing only the . . . 347 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
matches, highlighting on their lines . . . 345 meta keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
matches, showing in context . . . . . . . . . . 344 metafont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
matching lines beginning with certain text Metafont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373, 404
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 Metafont and TEX/LaTEX Resource Page,
matching lines ending with certain text The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 mew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
matching lines in binary files . . . . . . . . . 350 mh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
matching lines in compressed files . . . . . 349 mh-e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
matching lines in many files . . . . . . . . . . 348 micq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
matching lines in Web pages . . . . . . . . . . 350 micro-editing, text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
matching lines of a certain length . . . . . 339 microphone, selecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
matching lines that contain all of some Microsoft Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
regexps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 Microsoft PowerPoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
matching lines that contain any of some Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . 129, 234, 357
regexps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 Microsoft Word . . . . . . . . 129, 391, 525, 535
770 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Microsoft Word files, converting . . . . . . 531 mounting disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

midi file, playing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 mounting Windows and nt partitions
Midnight Commander . . 157, 191, 223, 263, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
268 mouse pointer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Midnight Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 mouse, using Lynx with a . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
miff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724 mouse, using Mozilla with the . . . . . . . . 640
Mille Bornes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 movie cameras, importing from . . . . . . . 438
mime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628 movie scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
minibuffer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 moving an X window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Minicom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 moving around the desktop . . . . . . . . . . . 108
minimizing an X window . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 moving files and directories . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Minix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Mozilla . . . . . . . 160, 412, 514, 656, 658, 668
minute of the hour, displaying the . . . . 538 Mozilla Composer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Mirabilis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693 Mozilla Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
mirroring an entire Web site . . . . . . . . . . 654 Mozilla News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
mistake, undoing at the command line . . 62 Mozilla, copying a link to the clipboard
mit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
mixers, audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Mozilla, copying an email address to the
mixing sound files together . . . . . . . . . . . 488 clipboard from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
mod file, playing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 Mozilla, getting acquainted with . . . . . . 638
modal editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Mozilla, making a new window . . . . . . . 642
mode line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Mozilla, searching the source of a Web page
modem, calling out on a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
modem, permitting user access to . . . . . 718 Mozilla, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
modes, Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Mozilla, using basic browsing keys with
monochrome, transforming color images to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Mozilla, using for mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Monopoly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 mp3 encoders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
monospaced font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 mp3 file, converting an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
montages, making image . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 mp3 file, displaying information about an
Moon, getting the current phase of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 mp3 file, playing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Moonlight Creator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 mp3, playing streaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Moonlight3d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 mpeg video, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
More 2-Cent Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 mta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
morphing two images together . . . . . . . . 431 mua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Morse code, filtering text into . . . . . . . . 584 muLinux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Mosaic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 Multi Gnome Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
motd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Multi Lingual TERMinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
mount point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 multics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
mount points, specifying for certain devices Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701 (mime) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
mounting a data cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 multisession cd-rs, burning . . . . . . . . . . 482
mounting a floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 Muss, Mike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Concept Index 771

muting an audio device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 non-printing characters, paginating text

Mutt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634 with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
My GROFF Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734 Not So Short Introduction to LaTEX, The
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376, 736
notification for new mail, setting . . . . . . 624
N Novell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
named pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 nroff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
naming files and directories . . . . . . . . . . . 129 nroff-formatted text, viewing. . . . . . . . 224
Nano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 nt partitions, mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
National Weather Service, city codes for ntfs filesystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 null device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Nautilus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 null driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Navigator, Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 null string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Navy, United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288, 700 numbering lines of text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
nbd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 numbers, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Nedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 numbers, listing a sequence of . . . . . . . . 565
netbsd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 92 numbers, recipe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Netizens: On the History and Impact of numeral, converting an Arabic to English
the Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
netnews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680 numeric order, sorting text in . . . . . . . . . 322
Netscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638, 656 Nvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
network administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Network Time Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595 O
New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 O’Reilly & Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
newbie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Object Chracter Recognition (ocr) . . . 449
newline characters, removing or replacing Objective-C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 oblique font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 occurrences of something, counting the
news and commentary, Linux . . . . . . . . . 737 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
News Peruser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682 ocr, tools for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
News, Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 Oetiker, Tobias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376, 736
newsgroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679 offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
newsgroups, finding for a topic . . . . . . . 682 ogg audio, playing streaming . . . . . . . . . 467
newsreader, choosing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 ogg file, displaying information about an
nextstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117, 120, 121 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
nmh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 ogg file, encoding an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
nn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 Ogg file, playing an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 ogg, converting to another format . . . . . 495
noise words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Ogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
nominal blackness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 Oleo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
nominal width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 Olympus Camedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
non-interlaced image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432 online dictionaries, checking . . . . . . . . . . 285
non-printing characters, displaying . . . . 217 Online GROFF Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
772 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

online, going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597 outputting text with fancy headers . . . . 368

open content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 outputting text with indentation . . . . . . 370
Open Sound System (oss/free) . . 463, 467 outputting text with language highlighting
open source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Open Source Initiative (osi) . . . . . . . . . . . 21 overstrike-style underlining. . . . . . . 226, 327
open source, free content and the future overstriked text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 owner, finding files in a directory tree by
openbsd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
OpenOffice.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 ownership of a file, changing the . . . . . . 166
openssh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676 ownership of a file, determining the . . . 166
OpenType . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 owning files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Optical Society of America (osa) . . . . . 380 P
options, displaying a tool’s available . . . . 37 packages, deb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
options, long-style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 packages, installing for your Linux
Orwell, George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
osa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 packages, rpm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
osi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 page breaks, in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
oss/free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 page breaks, inserting in a text file . . . . 239
oss/Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 page, listing all the links in a . . . . . . . . . 646
other internet services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671 pager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96, 108, 211
other things you can print . . . . . . . . . . . . 512 pages, extracting from a PostScript file
ouR CLOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
ouR XVT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 pages, logical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
output, redirecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 pages, outputting selected . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
output, redirecting to more than one place pages, outputting text in custom . . . . . . 362
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 pages, Web. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
outputting a random number . . . . . . . . . 565 paginated columns, placing text in . . . . 314
outputting horizontal text fonts . . . . . . . 401 paginating only part of some text . . . . . 315
outputting multiple copies of text . . . . . 370 paginating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
outputting selected pages of text . . . . . . 371 paginating text with non-printing
outputting text as a poster or sign . . . . 363 characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
outputting text banners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 paginating with a custom page length
outputting text in a dialect . . . . . . . . . . . 586 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
outputting text in a font . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 paginating with a custom page width . . 313
outputting text in columns . . . . . . . . . . . 370 paginating with custom headers . . . . . . 313
outputting text in custom pages . . . . . . 362 paging through a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
outputting text in landscape orientation paging through multiple files . . . . . . . . . 215
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 palindromes, finding in text . . . . . . . . . . 589
outputting text in vertical slices . . . . . . 369 Palm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
outputting text through a filter . . . . . . . 371 PAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
outputting text to PostScript . . . . . . . . . 359 panels, directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
outputting text with an underlay . . . . . 367 paper punch cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Concept Index 773

paper tape ribbons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 personal dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

parent directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 perusing a text file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
parent directory, copying files by a unique perusing a text file from the bottom . . 214
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 perusing multiple text files . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Pascal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 perusing raw text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
password, changing your . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 perusing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
password, choosing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 perusing text with a prompt . . . . . . . . . . 213
password, shadow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 perusing the differences in a group of files
pasting a selection into a sound file . . . 488 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
pasting columns of text from separate files pgp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 Phantasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
pasting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 phase of the Moon, getting the current
patching a file with a difference report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 phase, adding to a sound file . . . . . . . . . 492
path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Phillips, Dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
PATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 87 PhotoCD archives, browsing . . . . . . . . . . 415
path name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 PhotoCD image, converting a . . . . . . . . . 446
path, adding to your . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 PhotoCD image, removing haze from . . 446
pattern, finding all files that match a . . 171 PhotoCD images, extracting . . . . . . . . . . 445
patterns of text, matching . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 PhotoCD, Kodak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
patterns, file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 phrase, searching text for a . . . . . . . . . . . 334
patterns, finding in certain places . . . . . 342 phrases, checking text for misused . . . . 286
patterns, finding only in certain positions phrases, finding in text regardless of
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
patterns, keeping a file of. . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 piano-roll notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
pausing an audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 Picking Up Perl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
pcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 pico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264, 269
pdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 pid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
pdf file, preparing for printing . . . . . . . . 521 Piechart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
pdf file, previewing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 Pig Latin, filtering text into . . . . . . . . . . 585
pdf, converting from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 Pike, Rob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
pdf, converting to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 pine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
pdf, from PostScript input . . . . . . . . . . . 460 pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Pdksh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Pdmenu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 pipelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Pement, Eric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 pixel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Pencam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 Pizzini, Ken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
penguin, the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 PkTrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
penguin, the Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 placing formfeeds in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Perens, Bruce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 placing text in paginated columns . . . . . 314
perl . . . . . . . 85, 93, 145, 147, 366, 589, 735 placing underlines in text . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
permissions, changing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 plain text files, searching more than . . . 348
permissions, file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 plain text, converting Word to . . . . . . . . 533
permissions, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
774 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Plan 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94, 120, 271 PostScript pages, combining . . . . . . . . . . 454

plans, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683 PostScript pages, extracting from dvi
Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
playing a midi file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 PostScript pages, manipulating . . . . . . . 452
playing a mod file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 PostScript points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
playing a sound file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 PostScript Utilities (psutils) . . . . . . . . . . 451
playing an audible time announcement PostScript, converting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 PostScript, converting to pdf . . . . . . . . . 460
playing an audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 PostScript, converting to plain text . . . 460
playing an mp3 file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 PostScript, extracting pages . . . . . . . . . . 452
playing an Ogg file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 PostScript, outputting text to . . . . . . . . 359
playing and recording sound . . . . . . . . . . 463 power, controlling to the system . . . . . . . 27
playing classic unix games . . . . . . . . . . . 583 powering up the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
playing streaming mp3 audio . . . . . . . . . 470 powerpc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720, 732
playing streaming ogg audio . . . . . . . . . . 467 PowerPoint, Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
plotting data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 PowerShell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Plotutils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 ppp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
pnm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 ppp connection, starting a . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 ppp connection, stopping a . . . . . . . . . . . 600
Point-to-Point Protocol (ppp) . . . . . . . . 598 ppp log, viewing the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
pointer cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 ppp, setting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
points, PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363 preparation of recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
pop mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 preparing a dvi file for printing . . . . . . . 520
pop mail, fetching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 preparing a manual page for printing . . 522
portable anymap (pnm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 preparing a pdf file for printing . . . . . . 521
Portable Document Format (pdf) . . . . . 451 preparing a PostScript file for printing
posix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Post Office Protocol (pop) . . . . . . . . . . . 621 preparing files for printing . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
postal codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 preparing text for printing . . . . . . . . . . . 522
posters, outputting from text . . . . . . . . . 363 pressure-sensitive input devices . . . . . . . 450
PostScript. . . . . . . . . 366, 392, 403, 451, 735 Pretty Good Privacy (pgp) . . . . . . . . . . . 572
PostScript document, arranging in a pretty-printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225, 365
booklet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 previewing a dvi file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
PostScript document, resizing a . . . . . . . 456 previewing a pdf file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
PostScript documents, combining . . . . . 457 previewing a PostScript file . . . . . . . . . . . 414
PostScript documents, manipulating . . 456 previewing print files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
PostScript file, converting to fax format Price Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605 prime factors, finding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
PostScript file, preparing for printing . . 518 prime numbers, outputting . . . . . . . . . . . 585
PostScript file, previewing a . . . . . . . . . . 414 print files, previewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
PostScript file, printing certain pages of a print job, canceling a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513 print job, sending to the printer . . . . . . 510
PostScript pages, arranging in signatures print jobs, listing your . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 print jobs, making and managing . . . . . 509
Concept Index 775

printer test strip, printing a . . . . . . . . . . 513 Provins, Dean Allen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

printer, setting up a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703 PS1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80, 87
printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509, 510 Psh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
printing a dvi file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 psutils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451, 459
printing a printer test strip . . . . . . . . . . . 513 psychoanalysis, undergoing . . . . . . . . . . . 594
printing a Web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 public domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
printing an Emacs buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 public key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
printing an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 punctuation, quoting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
printing an Info node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517 Pure Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
printing certain pages of a PostScript file putting a job in the background . . . . . . . 72
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513 putting a job in the foreground . . . . . . . . 73
printing multiple copies of a job . . . . . . 510 putting an image in the root window . . 410
printing the contents of a terminal window Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263, 366
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
printing, more recipes for. . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
printing, preparing files for . . . . . . . . . . . 518 Q
private key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573 QCad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
privileges, user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 quantizing images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
process id (pid) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Quarter Century of UNIX, A . . . . . . . . . 736
process, sleeping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Quick Image Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
process, zombie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 QuickList . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 quiz games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
processes, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 quotations, displaying random . . . . . . . . 587
processes, listing all of a user’s . . . . . . . . . 42 quotes, in file names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
processes, listing all on the system . . . . . 42 quoting reserved characters . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
processes, listing by name or number . . . 43 quoting, ansi-c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
processes, listing your current. . . . . . . . . . 42
processing a groff file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
processing a LaTEX file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 R
processing a TEX file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Rand Mail Handling system (mh) . . . . . 635
Procomm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 RANDOM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 random lines, outputting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
program, determining type of . . . . . . . . . 188 random number, outputting a . . . . . . . . 565
program, finding the location of a . . . . . 185 range, character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
program, getting a description of a . . . . . 46 raw text, perusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
programs, starting in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 rcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
projects, using a directory for. . . . . . . . . 729 Rdate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
prompt, perusing text with a . . . . . . . . . 213 read permission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
proportional font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 read-abbrev-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
proprietary formats, converting data from readability, checking text for . . . . . . . . . . 288
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 Reader’s Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
proprietary formats, converting text from reading a mail attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 reading a page from the system manual
proprietary software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
776 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

reading an Info manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 regexps, popular ones for common

reading system documentation and help situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
reading the headers of a Web page . . . . 656 regular expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
reading Usenet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679 relevancies, finding in texts . . . . . . . . . . . 301
receiving a fax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603 Remembrance Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
receiving faxes automatically . . . . . . . . . 603 Remind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
receiving mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617 reminder tools, using other . . . . . . . . . . . 553
recipe numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 reminders, including holidays in your . . 544
recipes, format of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 reminding yourself of things . . . . . . . . . . 549
recipes, preparation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 reminding yourself when you have to leave
recording a shell session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
recording a sound file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 remote host, connecting to a. . . . . . . . . . 671
recording and running macros in Emacs remote host, downloading a file from a
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676
recording sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 remote host, making a secure file copy to a
recording source, selecting an audio . . . 465 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
records, text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 remote host, making a secure shell
records, vinyl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 connection to a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
Red Hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 19, 731 remote host, suspending a connection with
redirecting error messages to a file . . . . . 68 a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
redirecting input and output . . . . . . . . . . 67 remote host, terminating a connetion with
redirecting input to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
redirecting output to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 remote host, transferring files to and from
redirecting output to another command’s a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 remote host, uploading a file to a . . . . . 675
redirecting output to more than one place removable storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 removing a cron job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
redirecting something to nowhere . . . . . . 70 removing a deb package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
reference files, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 removing a file with a strange name . . . 149
reference, tools for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 removing a master boot record . . . . . . . 702
references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 removing a variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
references for further interest . . . . . . . . . 731 removing an alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
referencing a variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 removing an rpm package . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
referrers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666 removing carriage return characters . . . 310
regexp, matching lines that don’t contain a removing columns from text . . . . . . . . . . 324
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 removing files and directories . . . . . . . . . 149
regexp, searching for in Emacs . . . . . . . . 353 removing files interactively . . . . . . . . . . . 150
regexps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 removing files without verification . . . . 151
regexps, matching lines that contain all of removing or replacing newline characters
some . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
regexps, matching lines that contain any of removing PhotoCD haze . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
some . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 removing underlines from text . . . . . . . . 329
Concept Index 777

renaming files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Rolodex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

renaming multiple files with the same roman font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 root . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 167, 703, 717
rendered html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 root account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
repeated words, checking text for . . . . . 288 root directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
repeating the last command you typed . . 62 root partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
replacing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 root prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
replying to mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 root window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
repository, rcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 root window parameters, changing the
Request For Comments (rfc) . . . . . . . . 291 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
rescue disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702 root window, putting an image in the . . 410
ResellerRatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 Rosegarden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
resetting the terminal screen . . . . . . . . . . . 36 rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
resizing a PostScript document . . . . . . . 456 rot13 encryption, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
resizing an X window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 rot13, decoding text in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
resizing the xterm font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 rot13, encoding text in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
reverb, adding to a sound file . . . . . . . . . 490 rotating an image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
reverse incremental search . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 rpm package, getting the status of an . . 716
reverse-polish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580 rpm package, installing an. . . . . . . . . . . . 715
reverse-wraparound, in an xterm . . . . . . 112 rpm package, listing all files in an . . . . . 716
reversing lines of text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 rpm package, listing dependences for an
reversing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
reversing the audio in a sound file . . . . . 493 rpm package, listing the one a file is a part
reversing the characters on lines . . . . . . 331 of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
reviewing what you did today . . . . . . . . 552 rpm package, removing an. . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Revision Control System (rcs) . . . . . . . 202 rpm package, upgrading an . . . . . . . . . . . 715
revision log, viewing a file’s . . . . . . . . . . . 205 rpm packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 707
revisions, tracking to a file . . . . . . . . . . . 202 rpm packages, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Rexx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 rpm packages, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
rfc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 rtf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269, 390, 536
rfc822 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 rtfb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
rhyme, listing words that . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Rich Text Format (rtf) . . . . . 269, 390, 536 Run Up to date Linux Everywhere (rule)
Riggle, David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
right-justifying text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 running a command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
ripping data from an audio cd . . . . . . . . 480 running a command in an X window . . 113
ripping mp3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494 running a command in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
ripple pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513 running a command on a delay . . . . . . . 555
Ritchie, Dennis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 running a command on a timer . . . . . . . 556
rn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682 running a groff tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Robbins, Arnold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 running a list of commands . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Robbins, Arnold D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734 running a program in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Rock Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 running a shell in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
roff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 running a shell script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
778 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

running a Vi tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 screen, resetting the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

running an Emacs tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Scribus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
running commands on the files you find scripts, movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 scripts, shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
running one command and then another scroll bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 scrolling text in the console . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
running one command or another . . . . . . 64 searching and replacing in Emacs . . . . . 353
running shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 searching and replacing text . . . . . . . . . . 351
running X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 searching for a phrase in Emacs . . . . . . . 353
running x clients automatically . . . . . . . 117 searching for a regexp in Emacs. . . . . . . 353
rute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 searching incrementally in Emacs . . . . . 352
Rutten, Rob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 searching mail archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
searching more than plain text files . . . 348
searching text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
S searching text for a phrase . . . . . . . . . . . 334
sal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 searching text for a word . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Salus, Peter H. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 searching text in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
sampling from an audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . 480 searching text in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
sampling rate of a sound file, changing the searching the source of a Web page in
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
sane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 searching the text you’re perusing. . . . . 354
Sanyo firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 searching through your browser history
Savannah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
saving a Web page from Lynx . . . . . . . . 645 searching through your command history
saving mail to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Sc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 seascape orientation, PostScript pages in
scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
scaling image size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422 second extended file system (e2fs) . . . . 504
Scanner Access Now Easy (sane) . . . . . 443 SECONDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
scanner devices, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 secure internet services, using . . . . . . . . . 676
scanner, testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
scanning an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 sed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 255, 297, 316, 346
scanning images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 SED, a Stream Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Sced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 SEDer’s Grab-Bag, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 seeing how long your shell has been
scheduling commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557 running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 seeing what’s in a compressed file . . . . . 199
Scientific Applications on Linux (sal) seeing which users exist on the system
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Scrabble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 seeing who your mail is from . . . . . . . . . 626
screen shot, taking in a console . . . . . . . 442 selecting an audio recording source . . . . 465
screen shots, in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 selecting an X font name . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
screen shots, taking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 selecting the typesetting system for a job
screen, clearing the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35, 54 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Concept Index 779

selections of text, manipulating . . . . . . . 253 shell session, making a typescript of a . . 88

sending a fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601 shell variables, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
sending a mail attachment . . . . . . . . . . . 629 shell, changing your default . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
sending a message to another user’s shell, defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 shell, exiting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
sending a print job to the printer . . . . . 510 shell, getting the name of your current . . 91
sending mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612 shell, running in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
sending mail to a user on the same system shell, seeing how long it has been running
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
sending text from the Web to standard shell, starting a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 shell, the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
sending yourself email reminders . . . . . . 550 shells, running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Sendmail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 shells, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
sentences, checking text for difficult . . . 289 ShowImg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
sentences, checking text for long . . . . . . 289 showing a list of mail headers . . . . . . . . . 618
sequence, key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 showing matched lines in their context
sequencer, audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
session, recording a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 showing matches in context . . . . . . . . . . 344
setting notification for new mail . . . . . . 624 showing only the matched patterns from
setting the console font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
setting the system date and time . . . . . 700 showing which files contain matching lines
setting up a printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
setting up a start page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658 Showpicture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
setting up hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699 shuffling audio cd tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
setting up ppp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598 shutdown, canceling a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
setting up your home directory . . . . . . . 727 shutting down at a certain time . . . . . . . 704
Seyon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 shutting down immediately . . . . . . . . . . . 703
sgml document syntax, checking. . . . . . 390 shutting down the system . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
sgml document, writing an . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Sieb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
sgml, generating output from . . . . . . . . 390 signature file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
sgml, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 signatures, PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
shadow password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 signs, outputting from text . . . . . . . . . . . 363
shadow passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 simulation, Air Traffic Controller . . . . . 583
sharing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 single-spacing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Sheer, Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 Skencil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
sheet music, typesetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
shell prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 53, 54 Skipstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
shell prompt, changing the . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Slackware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 19, 731
shell redirection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Slashdot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
shell script, installing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708 sleeping process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
shell script, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 slices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
shell script, running a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 slide show, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
shell scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
shell scripts, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 slrn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
780 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

smog-Grading tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 source code, html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 source file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Snd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463, 487 source package, installing a . . . . . . . . . . . 707
socket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 SourceForge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Sodipodi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
soft links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 sources of Linux software and hardware
software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
software development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 space and tab characters, swapping . . . 309
software, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705 space, typing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
software, proprietary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16 spaces, eliminating extra in text . . . . . . 305
software, sources of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731 spaces, in a file name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
solitaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 spacing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
something, redirecting to nowhere . . . . . . 70 spacing, finding phrases in text regardless
sorted order, listing files in . . . . . . . . . . . 139 of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
sorted text, viewing lines of . . . . . . . . . . 226 spacing, sorting text regardless of . . . . . 321
sorting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
sorting text in directory order . . . . . . . . 322 Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
sorting text in numeric order . . . . . . . . . 322 special characters, inserting in Emacs . . 239
sorting text regardless of case . . . . . . . . . 321 special characters, inserting in Vi . . . . . 251
sorting text regardless of spacing. . . . . . 321 special characters, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 specialized fields, using Linux with . . . . . 12
Sound and MIDI Software for Linux . . 732 specifying a command from your history
sound driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
sound editors, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 specifying attributes in an X window . . 105
sound effects, applying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 specifying file names with patterns . . . . 153
SOund eXchange . . . . . . . 466, 472, 488, 493 specifying key bindings in Lynx . . . . . . . 648
sound file, cutting out part of a . . . . . . . 488 specifying mount points for certain devices
sound file, displaying information about a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 specifying the Macintosh disk to use . . 527
sound file, pasting a selection into a . . . 488 specifying the output of a command as an
sound file, playing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
sound file, recording a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 specifying window font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
sound file, reversing the audio in a . . . . 493 specifying window size and location . . . 102
sound files, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493 specifying X window border width . . . . 104
sound files, editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 specifying X window colors . . . . . . . . . . . 103
sound files, manipulating selections from specifying X window font. . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 specifying X window title . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
sound files, mixing together . . . . . . . . . . 488 speech synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
sound tools, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 spell checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
sound, playing and recording . . . . . . . . . 463 spell checking files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
soundcard, permitting user access to . . 718 spell checking in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
SoundTracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 spell checking, interactive . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 spelling, keeping a word list for . . . . . . . 277
source code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Splay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Concept Index 781

splitting a file into smaller ones . . . . . . . 189 subdirectories, copying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

spool queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509 substitution, command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
spreadsheets, converting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 Suetonius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
sql . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
squeezing duplicate characters in text Sun Microsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 sunsite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
ssc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733 superuser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 167
stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580 superuser account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
staircase effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703 superuser prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Stallman, Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 surfing the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
standard error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 SuSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Standard Generalized Markup Language SuSE Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
(sgml) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 suspending a connection with a remote
standard input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
standard output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67, 68 suspending a job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
StarOffice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 svg format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
start menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 swapping tab and space characters . . . . 309
start page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638, 643 Sweetcode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
start page, setting up a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658 switching between consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
STARTFILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 switching between video modes . . . . . . . 117
starting a ppp connection . . . . . . . . . . . . 600 symbolic link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
starting a shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 symbolic links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
starting X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 symlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
startup files, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 synergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
states, definition files for . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 synonyms, of words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
stereograms, ascii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 Synopsys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Stettner, Heidi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624 system activity, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
sticky windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 system bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
stopping a job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 system bell, controlling in X . . . . . . . . . . 119
stopping a ppp connection . . . . . . . . . . . . 600 system dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
stopping an audio cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 system manual, reading a page from the
stopping X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
storage, disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 system, controlling power to the . . . . . . . 27
storm petrel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 system, displaying how long it has been up
Streamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
streaming mp3, playing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 system, displaying information about the
streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
streams, text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 system, listing who is logged in to a . . . 684
strings, displaying the text between . . . 220 system, listing who is on the . . . . . . . . . . . 39
strings, text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 system, logging in to the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Strunk, William . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 system, logging out of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
stv0680b-001 chip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 system, powering up the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
style, checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 system, shutting down immediately . . . 703
subdirectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 system, shutting down the . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
782 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

system, turning off the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 terminating a connetion with a remote host

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
testing a scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
T testing your typing speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
tab and space characters, swapping . . . 309 Tetris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
tab characters, showing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 TEX . . . . . . . . . . 328, 358, 372, 458, 733, 735
tab completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61, 149 TEX and LaTEX files, distinguishing
between . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Tab Window Manager (twm) . . . . . . . . 121
TEX Catalogue Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
table, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
TEX document templates, using. . . . . . . 376
taking a screen shot in a console . . . . . . 442
TEX file, determining format of a . . . . . 373
taking a screen shot in x . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
TEX file, processing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
taking screen shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
TEX font, viewing a sample of a . . . . . . 399
Talk Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
TEX fonts, listing available . . . . . . . . . . . 398
tape archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
TEX fonts, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Tapiir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
TEX, getting started with . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
tarballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
TEX, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
target file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
TEXbook, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372, 736
Tbl—A Program to Format Tables . . . . 734
TEXnicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
tcl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358, 376, 392
tcp/ip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Tcsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94, 367 text banners, outputting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
techne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 text between strings, displaying the . . . 220
Ted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 text cut-ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Tektronix 4014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 text cut-ups, making simple . . . . . . . . . . 592
telephone codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 text editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
teletype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 text editors, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
television tuner output, viewing as ascii text file, perusing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 text file, perusing from the bottom . . . . 214
Telix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606 text files, converting between dos and
telling others you are away . . . . . . . . . . . 551 Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
temporary files, using a directory for . . 729 text files, including . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
tenex C shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 text files, perusing multiple . . . . . . . . . . . 215
terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 text fonts, outputting horizontal . . . . . . 401
terminal emulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 text fonts, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
terminal emulators, using other . . . . . . . 114 Text Processor for Typesetters, The . . 734
terminal screen, clearing the . . . . . . . . . . . 35 text, adding line breaks to. . . . . . . . . . . . 308
terminal screen, resetting the . . . . . . . . . . 36 text, adding margins to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
terminal window, getting in X . . . . . . . . 109 text, analyzing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
terminal window, printing the contents of a text, appending to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518 text, center-justifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
terminal, clearing the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 text, changing characters in . . . . . . . . . . 317
terminal, denying messages to your . . . 690 text, checking for difficult sentences . . . 289
terminals, virtual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 text, checking for doubled words . . . . . . 288
Concept Index 783

text, checking for long sentences . . . . . . 289 text, inserting at the beginning of a file
text, checking for misused phrases . . . . 286 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
text, checking for readability . . . . . . . . . 288 text, justifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
text, columnating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 text, left-justifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
text, columnating from separate files . . 323 text, listing all of the words in . . . . . . . . 297
text, concatenating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 text, listing in binary files . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
text, converting from proprietary formats text, listing only the unique words in . . 298
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 text, listing the Misspellings in . . . . . . . 276
text, converting to LaTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 text, listing the urls in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
text, converting underlines in . . . . . . . . . 328 text, listing words in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
text, counting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 text, listing words sorted alphabetically
text, counting a selection of . . . . . . . . . . 295 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
text, counting selected word occurrences in text, manipulating selections of . . . . . . . 253
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 text, matching lines beginning with certain
text, counting the characters in a . . . . . 294 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
text, counting the lines in a . . . . . . . . . . 294 text, matching lines ending with certain
text, counting the words in a . . . . . . . . . 294 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
text, counting word occurrences in . . . . 299 text, matching patterns of . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
text, cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 text, numbering lines of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
text, decoding in rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571 text, outputting a visual image of . . . . . 362
text, deleting characters in . . . . . . . . . . . 318 text, outputting in a dialect . . . . . . . . . . 586
text, determining if two differ . . . . . . . . . 191 text, outputting in a font. . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
text, displaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 text, outputting in columns . . . . . . . . . . 370
text, displaying non-printing characters in text, outputting in custom pages . . . . . . 362
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 text, outputting in landscape orientation
text, displaying the beginning part of . . 218 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
text, displaying the end part of . . . . . . . 218 text, outputting in vertical slices . . . . . . 369
text, displaying the hex values of . . . . . 221 text, outputting multiple copies of . . . . 370
text, displaying the literal characters of text, outputting selected pages of . . . . . 371
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 text, outputting through a filter . . . . . . 371
text, displaying the middle part of . . . . 219 text, outputting to PostScript . . . . . . . . 359
text, double-spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 text, outputting with an underlay . . . . . 367
text, editing streams of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 text, outputting with fancy headers . . . 368
text, eliminating extra spaces in . . . . . . 305 text, outputting with indentation . . . . . 370
text, encoding in rot13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570 text, outputting with language highlighting
text, filtering into Morse code . . . . . . . . 584 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
text, filtering into Pig Latin . . . . . . . . . . 585 text, overstriked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
text, filtering out duplicate lines of . . . . 319 text, paginating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
text, finding anagrams in . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 text, paginating only part of some . . . . 315
text, finding palindromes in . . . . . . . . . . 589 text, paginating with non-printing
text, finding relevancies in . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
text, finding similar or relevant . . . . . . . 301 text, pasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
text, formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 text, perusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
text, from PostScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 text, perusing raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
784 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

text, placing formfeeds in . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 three-finger salute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

text, placing in paginated columns . . . . 314 ti-30 calculator, emulating the . . . . . . . 581
text, placing underlines in . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 tiffg3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
text, preparing for printing . . . . . . . . . . . 522 Tik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
text, removing columns from . . . . . . . . . 324 tilde escapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
text, removing underlines from . . . . . . . 329 time, audible output of the . . . . . . . . . . . 539
text, reversing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 time, displaying the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
text, reversing lines of. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 time, managing extra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
text, right-justifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 time, setting the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
text, scrolling in the console . . . . . . . . . . . 34 time, shutting down at a certain . . . . . . 704
text, searching and replacing . . . . . . . . . 351 timer, running a command on a. . . . . . . 556
text, searching for a phrase in . . . . . . . . 334 timestamp, displaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
text, searching in Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 timestamps, file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
text, searching through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 title bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95, 106, 108
text, sending from the Web to standard tk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 Tkpaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
text, single-spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 token, using a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
text, sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Tom’s Window Manager (twm) . . . . . . 121
text, sorting in directory order . . . . . . . . 322 tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
text, sorting in numeric order . . . . . . . . . 322 tool, displaying available options of a . . . 37
text, sorting regardless of case . . . . . . . . 321 tool, displaying the version of a . . . . . . . . 38
text, sorting regardless of spacing . . . . . 321 tool, finding the location of a . . . . . . . . . 185
text, spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 tool, finding the right one . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
text, squeezing duplicate characters in tool, listing the usage of a . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
text, transposing characters in . . . . . . . . 316 tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
text, triple-spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 tools philosophy, unix and the . . . . . . . . . 22
text, underlining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 tools, guides for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
text, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 top node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
text, viewing html-formatted . . . . . . . . 223 Torvalds, Linus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 20
text, viewing nroff-formatted. . . . . . . . 224 Touch Tones, generating . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
text, viewing special types of . . . . . . . . . 223 tracing the path to another host . . . . . . 686
text, viewing underlined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 tracking revisions to a file . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
text, writing to files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 tracks, splitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
texts, finding the differences between . . 192 transferring files to and from a remote host
Tgif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 transforming images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
the arrival of Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 translating common acronyms . . . . . . . . 292
the penguin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 transparencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
the shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 transposing characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
the World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 transposing characters in text . . . . . . . . 316
themes, desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 trashcan directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Third Mind, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 treble, adjusting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Thompson, Ken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 tree graphs, of directories . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Concept Index 785

triple-spacing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Unicode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115, 263

troff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 unics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
TrueType fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 uniform resource locator (url). . . . . . . . 637
tty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 uniform resource name (urn) . . . . . . . . . 134
ttyl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Uniplex Information and Computing
Turbolinux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 System (unics). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
turning off the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 United States Navy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288, 700
turning text into an image . . . . . . . . . . . 447 UnitedLinux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Tux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 units of measurement, converting an
twm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 amount between . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
type, determining a program’s . . . . . . . . 188 University of Southern California-Berkeley
type, determining file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 624
typescript, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 University of Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
typescripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 unix . . . . . 16, 18, 92, 93, 286, 338, 357, 542
typesetting and word processing . . . . . . 357 unix and Linux history books . . . . . . . . 736
typesetting sheet music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 unix and the tools philosophy . . . . . . . . . 22
typesetting system, selecting. . . . . . . . . . 358 UNIX Environment, The . . . . . . . . 286, 736
typesetting systems, using other . . . . . . 391 unix games, playing classic . . . . . . . . . . . 583
typing a control character . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 UNIX Programming Environment, The
typing a long line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
typing at the command line . . . . . . . . . . . 54 unix, early days of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
typing speed, testing your . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 unmounting a data cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 unmounting a floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Unrtf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
unused files, finding in a directory tree
U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
uid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 unzipping files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
umax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 upgrading a deb package . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
undeleting files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 upgrading an rpm package . . . . . . . . . . . 715
undeleting mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 uploading a file to a remote host . . . . . . 675
undergoing psychoanalysis . . . . . . . . . . . . 594 url . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
underlay, outputting text with an . . . . . 367 url, downloading an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
underlined text, viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 urls, listing in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
underlines, converting in text . . . . . . . . . 328 urn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
underlines, placing in text . . . . . . . . . . . . 328 Usenet, reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
underlines, removing from text . . . . . . . 329 user account, making a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
underlining text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239, 327 user accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
underlining, backspace . . . . . . . . . . . 226, 327 user activity, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
underlining, etext-style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 user group file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
underlining, overstrike-style . . . . . . 226, 327 user groups, for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
underscores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 user id (uid) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Underwood, Rebecca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 user privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
undoing a mistake at the command line user, chatting directly with a . . . . . . . . . 690
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 user, checking whether one is online . . . 683
786 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

username . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 using Lynx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

username, displaying your . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 using Lynx with a mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
users, administrating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 using LyX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
users, chatting with on irc . . . . . . . . . . . 692 using Macintosh disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
users, chatting with other . . . . . . . . . . . . 688 using mail attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
users, displaying information about . . . 683 using Mozilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
users, listing those online . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684 using mozilla for mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
users, listing what they are doing . . . . . . 40 using other audio compact disc tools . . 484
users, listing when they last logged in . . 41 using other communications tools . . . . . 608
users, listing which are on . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 using other cross-platform conversion tools
users, seeing which exist on the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717 using other font tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
using a calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562 using other image editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
using a directory for mail . . . . . . . . . . . . 728 using other image import tools . . . . . . . 449
using a directory for personal binaries using other image viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727 using other mail user agents . . . . . . . . . . 631
using a directory for personal lists and data using other mathematics tools . . . . . . . . 579
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728 using other reminder tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
using a directory for projects . . . . . . . . . 729 using other shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
using a directory for temporary files . . . 729 using other sound editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
using a file with spaces in its name . . . . 131 using other sound tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
using a remote mail host . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 using other terminal emulators . . . . . . . 114
using a token . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 using other text editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
using alias words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 using other Web browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
using audio cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 using other window managers. . . . . . . . . 120
using basic command line editing keys . . 54 using other word processors and
using basic Emacs editing keys . . . . . . . 237 typesetting systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
using basic Lynx browsing keys . . . . . . . 643 using popular regexps for common
using basic Mozilla browsing keys . . . . . 640 situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
using basic Vi editing keys . . . . . . . . . . . 248 using reference files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
using calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 using rot13 encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
using command history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 using secure internet services . . . . . . . . . 676
using console fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 using sgml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
using consoles and terminals . . . . . . . . . . . 32 using shell scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
using contact managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546 using shell startup files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
using data cds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 using shell variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
using dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 using TEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
using dos and Windows disks . . . . . . . . 525 using TEX and LaTEX document templates
using Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
using file compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 using TEX fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
using fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 using text fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
using gpg encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572 using the gimp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
using groff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 using the help facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
using im services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694 using Vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Concept Index 787

using X fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395 viewing a mail folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

using your account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 viewing a sample of a TEX font . . . . . . . 399
utc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204, 537 viewing a site that requires authorization
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
viewing an animation or slide show . . . 417
V viewing an html selection . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
V.E.R.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 viewing an image from the Web. . . . . . . 651
validating html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665 viewing an image in a Web browser . . . 412
variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 viewing an image in X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
variable, assigning a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 viewing C program source code . . . . . . . 224
variable, displaying the contents of a . . . 79 viewing html-formatted text . . . . . . . . . 223
variable, referencing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 viewing images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
variable, removing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 viewing lines of sorted text . . . . . . . . . . . 226
variables, listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 viewing multiple Emacs buffers at once
variables, shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
vector graphics, convert bitmaps to . . . 436 viewing nroff-formatted text . . . . . . . . 224
verifying an email address . . . . . . . . . . . . 627 viewing special types of text . . . . . . . . . . 223
Verilog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 viewing text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
version of a tool, displaying. . . . . . . . . . . . 38 viewing the ppp log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
vertical slices, outputting text in . . . . . . 369 viewing underlined text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
vfat filesystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529 viewing your browser history . . . . . . . . . 657
vhdl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 viewing your command history . . . . . . . . 74
vhsic Hardware Description Language
viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
(vhdl) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
vim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Vi . . . . 54, 211, 213, 231, 264, 328, 634, 648
Vim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271, 311
Vi, customizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
vinyl records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Vi, getting acquainted with . . . . . . . . . . . 245
virtual console number, getting the . . . . 33
Vi, inserting command output in . . . . . 251
virtual consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Vi, inserting special characters in . . . . . 251
Vi, running a command in. . . . . . . . . . . . 251 virtual desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Vi, running a tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Virtual Reality Modeling Language
Vi, searching text in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 (vrml97) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Vi, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 virtual terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Vi, using basic editing keys . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Visual Basic for Applications . . . . . . . . . 367
Vibro-Champ effect, adding to a sound file visual bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493 visual image directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
video editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 vm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
video modes, switching between . . . . . . 117 vm/cms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
video4linux devices, capturing images volume level, changing the. . . . . . . . . . . . 465
from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 volume of a sound file, changing . . . . . . 489
VideoLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 volume, adjusting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
View Mail (vm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 vrml97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
viewing a character set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 vt102/220 terminal emulation . . . . . . . 109
viewing a file’s revision log . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Vuksan, Vladimir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
788 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

W window border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95, 105

W3m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 window border width, specifying . . . . . . 104
Walker, A.N. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24, 736 window colors, specifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Wanderlust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636 window font, specifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
WarGames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 window geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Warnock, John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 Window Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115, 121, 554
warping images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 window manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Washington, George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 window managers, using other . . . . . . . . 120
watching a command from time to time window outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559 window size and location, specifying . . 102
Web browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 window title, specifying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Web browser, viewing an image in a . . 412 window, deiconifying a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Web browsers, using other . . . . . . . . . . . . 667 window, destroying a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Web logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666 window, getting information about a . . 107
Web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 window, iconifying a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Web page, mailing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 window, maximizing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Web page, printing a. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 window, minimizing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Web page, reading the headers of a . . . 656 window, moving a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Web page, saving from Lynx . . . . . . . . . 645 window, resizing a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Web page, searching the source of a . . . 643 window, specifying attributes in . . . . . . 105
Web pages, matching lines in . . . . . . . . . 350 Windows disk, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Web site, archiving an entire . . . . . . . . . 654 Windows key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Web site, archiving part of a . . . . . . . . . 655 Windows partitions, mounting . . . . . . . . 529
Web site, mirroring an entire . . . . . . . . . 654 windows, in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Web sites, maintaining a history list of windows, manipulating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 Windows, Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129, 357
Web traffic, analyzing your . . . . . . . . . . . 666 windows, sticky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Web, accessing in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Wirzenius, Lars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Web, getting files from the . . . . . . . . . . . 653 wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Web, the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 wm2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Web, viewing an image from the . . . . . . 651 Wmdate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
weblog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 Woods, Don . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
what every Linux user knows . . . . . . . . . . 27 word games, finding matches for . . . . . . 588
what this book won’t show you . . . . . . . . 10 word lists and helpful files, consulting
what to try first . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
What You See Is What You Get word lists, for spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
(wysiwyg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 word processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
What’s GNU: Texinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 word processors, using other . . . . . . . . . . 391
Wheeler-Smith Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 word search, in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
who this book assumes you are . . . . . . . . . 9 Word Wide Web Consortium . . . . . . . . . 667
wildcard character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Word, converting to LaTEX . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Williams, Peter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Word, converting to plain text . . . . . . . . 533
Wily . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120, 271 word, finding the correct spelling of a . . 275
Winamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 word, listing the antonyms of a . . . . . . . 285
Concept Index 789

word, listing the definitions of a . . . . . . 284 X

word, listing the hypernyms of a . . . . . . 285 X client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
word, listing the synonyms of a . . . . . . . 284 X clients, manipulating windows of . . . 105
Word, Microsoft . . . 129, 391, 525, 531, 535 X clients, running automatically . . . . . . 117
word, searching text for a . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 X desktop, magnifying a portion of the
WordNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
WordPerfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357, 536 X Display Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
X font name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
words, counting in a text . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
X font name, selecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
words, listing all in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
X font, displaying the characters in an
words, listing in text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
words, listing in text sorted alphabetically X fonts, listing available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 X fonts, using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
words, listing only the unique in text . . 298 X MultiMedia System (xmms) . . . . . . . . 475
words, listing that match a pattern . . . 283 X selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
WordStar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231, 264 X server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 X terminal behavior, changing the default
WorkBone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
X terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
working in groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
X Window Dump files, viewing . . . . . . . 420
working with linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 X Window System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
WorkMan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 X, configuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
world readable files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 X, running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
World Wide Web (www) . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 X, running a program in . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
world writable files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 X, starting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
wraparound, in an xterm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 X, stopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
write permission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Xawtv-Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Xcal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
write protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Xcalc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
write-abbrev-file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
XCDRoast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
write-protecting a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Xchat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Writer’s Workbench (wwb) . . . . . . . 23, 286 Xcoral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
writing an audio cd-r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 xedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
writing an sgml document . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Xedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
writing html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661 XEmacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232, 273, 632, 649
writing text to files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Xfig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
wstf Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 XFree86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Xli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
wtf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Xloadimage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
wvWare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
wwb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 286 xmms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
www . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Xmodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
wysiwyg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 391 Xmorph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
wysiwym . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 Xpaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
790 The Linux Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Xspread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 Z
Xterm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Zawinski, Jamie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
xterm font, resizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 ZenIRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
XWave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 zicq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Xwrits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554 Zinf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Xwud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 zip archives, managing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Zip codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Zip drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Y zipping files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Zippy the Pinhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
yanking text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Zmodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Yellow Dog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 zombie process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
ymmv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 zork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Ymodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 Zsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94, 367