Differences between revisions 27 and 28
Revision 27 as of 2008-02-16 15:44:48
Size: 7248
Editor: ?timrichardson
Comment:
Revision 28 as of 2008-02-24 12:44:09
Size: 7494
Editor: OsamuAoki
Comment: Untill I get exact source of dpkg statement, I need to keep it hidden.
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
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For the sake of brevity, in this document Debian GNU/Linux is usually referred to as simply Debian. Therefore, we hereby acknowledge and thank the tremendous contribution of the Linux kernel deveopment community, and the GNU community for providing most of the tools documented here. ## The reason behind "Debian Reference" was : Debian may be KFreeBSD.
## It has many BSD and other contribution.
## This really document "Debian" things such as packaging and its network configuration middle layers.
## I as the lead auther do not wish to make any political statement here either.
## Thus followings are commented out.
## For the sake of brevity, in this document Debian GNU/Linux is usually referred to as simply Debian. ...
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Please treat this document as the secondary reference. You are advised to check the pertinent documentation available under the {{{/usr/share/doc/<package_name>/}}} directory for each package and pertinent bug reports[http://bugs.debian.org]. For detailed documentation, you may need to install the corresponding documentation package named with "{{{-doc}}}" as its suffix. Please treat this document as the secondary reference. You are advised to check the pertinent documentation available under the {{{/usr/share/doc/<package_name>/}}} directory for each package and pertinent bug reports available at [http://bugs.debian.org]. For detailed documentation, you may need to install the corresponding documentation package named with "{{{-doc}}}" as its suffix.
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## deleted extraneous etc. If we are gathering information from sources other than old system installations, we should list them.
## Otherwise, for readability, I would vote for "and other sources" over "etc" without a second example.
## If you check popcon data, you see some old version of ubunts etc. sending data to Debian popcon system.
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 * "Confucius says important unix lessons are (1) Don't change the permissions, (2) back up your data, (3) keep it simple, stupid, (4) read the fricking manual, (5) don't mess 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> ## * "Confucius says important unix lessons are (1) Don't change the permissions, (2) back up your data, (3) keep it simple, stupid, (4) read the fricking manual, (5) don't mess 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>
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## OA: Although interesting, I do not know who created above thus reluctant to include here. I agree with grammer correction. Please tell me where to find it. I am not much of IRC user.

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 Debian system administration as a post-installation user 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, making documentation difficult to be always correct. Although the current unstable version of Debian system was used as the basis for writing this, some contents may be already outdated by the time you read this.

Please treat this document as the secondary reference. You are advised to check the pertinent documentation available under the /usr/share/doc/<package_name>/ directory for each package and pertinent bug reports available at [http://bugs.debian.org]. 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. The author and contributors do not take responsibility for consequences of errors, omissions or unclarity in this document.

Documentation policy

Guiding rules

The following guiding rules were followed while compiling this document:

  • don't explain in details what is well documented elsewhere (in the judgment of the author)
  • 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 wheel. (Use pointers to the existing references)

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

I assume and recommend you seek help from (in approximate order of importance, starting with the most important sources):

  • 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 to some command names followed by the number in parenthesis , 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.

(!) 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 the popularity of 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.

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 KB (unit for 1024 bytes).

(!) A package with a small numerical package size may indicate that the package in the unstable release has a dummy package which installs other packages with significant contents by the dependency. The dummy package enables a 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.

Some 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>