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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the current unstable version of Debian system was used as the basis for writining this, some contents may be already outdated by the time you read this.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 in the Unix style manual page (aka. manpage), in the GNU style info page, in [http://tldp.org/ the HOWTOs from The Linux Documentation Project] (TLDP), in [http://www.unix.org/ The Single UNIX Specification from the Open Group's The UNIX System Home Page], in [http://wikipedia.org/ the free encyclopedia from Wikipedia] or 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.)
You should also seek help by reading:
documentation available at /usr/share/doc/<package_name>,
[http://www.debian.org/doc/ Debian Documentation], and
[http://wiki.debian.org/ Debian Wiki].
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 unstable release). The reported size is in KiB (unit for 1024 bytes).
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 from the Debian mailing list
Here are some interesting quotes from the Debian mailing list 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>