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== The quotes from the Debian mailing list == == The quotes for new users ==

Do not use Edit(GUI) button.

?TableOfContents(4)

Copyright 2007 Osamu Aoki GPL, (Please agree to GPL, GPL2, and any version of GPL which is compatible with DSFG if you update any part of wiki page)

Preface

This [http://people.debian.org/~osamu/pub/getwiki/html/index.en.html Debian Reference (v2)] (@@@build-date@@@) is intended to provide a broad overview of the Debian system administration as a post-installation user's guide.

The target reader is someone who is willing to learn shell scripts but who is not ready to read all the C sources to figure out how the GNU/Linux system works.

Disclaimer

All warranties are disclaimed. All trademarks are property of their respective trademark owners.

The Debian system itself is a moving target for me to document. Although the current unstable version of Debian system was used as the basis for writining this, some contents may be already outdated by the time you read this.

Please treat this document as the secondary reference and do not blame me if your system breaks by following this. You are advised to check the pertinent documentation available under the /usr/share/doc/<package_name>/ directory for each package and pertinent [http://bugs.debian.org bug reports]. For detailed documentation, you may need to install the corresponding documentation package named with "-doc" as its suffix.

This document does not replace any authoritative guides.

Documentation policy

Guiding rules

I made a conscious decision not to explain everything in detail if it is documented elsewhere.

Following guiding rules were followed while compiling this document:

  • Provide overview and skip corner cases (Big Picture)

  • Keep It Short and Simple. (KISS)

  • Focus on non-GUI tools and consoles. (Use shell examples)

  • Do not reinvent the wheels. (Use pointers to the existing references)

  • Be objective. (Use [http://popcon.debian.org/ popcon] etc.)

I assumed you to seek pertinent help from:

  • the Debian site at http://www.debian.org/ for the general information,

  • the documentation under the /usr/share/doc/<package_name> directory,

  • the Unix style manual page (aka. manpage),

  • the GNU style info page,

  • the Debian Wiki at http://wiki.debian.org/ for the moving and specific topics,

  • the HOWTOs from The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP) at http://tldp.org/ ,

  • the Single UNIX Specification from the Open Group's The UNIX System Home Page at http://www.unix.org/ , and

  • the free encyclopedia from Wikipedia at http://wikipedia.org/.

Conventions

This document refers some command names followed by the number in parenthes , such as bash(1). This means that you are encouraged to obtain information from the manpage by typing the following on the shell command prompt:

$ man 1 bash 

This document provides information through short bash(1) shell command examples. I will use the following simplified shell prompt for the sake of readability of the examples:

# <command_in_root_account>
$ <command_in_user_account>
  • description_of_action

These shell prompts correspond to PS1='\$' and PS2=' ' environment variables. The # prompt can be considered as a short form of $ sudo, if you have configured sudo(8) as above.

(!) See the meaning of the PS1 and PS2 environment variables in the manpage of bash command.

The popcon

The [http://popcon.debian.org/ popcon] data was presented as the objective measure for each package. It was downloaded on @@@pop-date@@@ and contains the total submission of @@@pop-submissions@@@ reports over @@@pop-packages@@@ binary packages and @@@pop-architectures@@@ architectures.

(!) Please note that the @@@arch@@@ unstable archive contains only @@@all-packages@@@ packages currently. The popcon data contains reports from many old system installations etc.

The popcon number preceded with "V:" for "votes" is calculated by 100 * (the popcon submissions for the package executed recently on the PC)/(the total popcon submissions).

The popcon number preceded with "I:" for "installs" is calculated by 100 * (the popcon submissions for the package installed on the PC)/(the total popcon submissions).

The package size

The package size data was also presented as the objective measure for each package. It is based on the "Installed-Size:" reported by "apt-cache show " command (currently on @@@arch@@@ architecture for the unstable release). The reported size is in KiB (unit for 1024 bytes).

(!) A package with very small number for the package size may indicate that the package in the unstable release is a dummy package which installs other packages with significant contents by the dependency. The dummy package enables smooth transition or split of the package.

The bugs

Please file bug reports on debian-reference2 package (once released) or write me (osamu at debian.org) if you find any issues. You may alternatively edit the source text available as [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianReference/ the Debian Reference wiki page] and tell me to update the document.

The quotes for new users

Here are some interesting quotes from the Debian mailing list and IRC which may help enlighten new users:

  • "This is Unix. It gives you enough rope to hang yourself." --- Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>

  • "Unix IS user friendly... It's just selective about who its friends are." --- Tollef Fog Heen <tollef@add.no>

  • "somebody said unix lessons was (1) Don't change the permissions, (2) back up your data, (3) keep it simple, stupid, (4) read the fscking manual, (5) don't fsck with package management, (6) don't type anything you don't understand, (7) always have a boot floppy or CD, (8) read your log files, (9) the FIRST error is the one that counts, (10) don't leave your root shell until you TEST your changes, (11) don't be root when you don't have to be" --- The IRC bot of #debian, <dpkg>