Introduction to Linux

Since early 1970, Unix operating system has gone through many metamorphosis. As of now many variants of Unix systems are available and some of them are commercial whereas the others are freely available. As a result, many people are becoming Unix/Linux enthusiasts especially in India. Hundreds of books have been written in the past, which explores various facets of Unix. This book attempts to expose the reader to Linux Installations and Programming, and it is assumed that the reader has had some prior exposure to an operating system such as Windows, as well as C programming. The contents of the book have been presented by a team of ten faculty members to 100 teachers of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu in a short course conducted in NRCFOSS in June 2005, and the book itself is largely an edited version of the same. It is meant to serve the purpose of an introductory level text book on this topic, for a typical one semester course in an undergraduate program of CSE/IT

• Explains elementary Linux/Unix commands in a lucid manner and emphasizes shell and awk programming which are vital for system administration.


• Describes step by step how Linux is to be installed, how partitions including swap partition can be made and how to configure network, proxy server and web server.


• Network installation along with SLIP, PPP connections are explained.


• How web servers, email servers, print servers can be made running on a machine is explained in detail.


• A separate chapter is included for those who are new to networks, to enable them to install the networks.


• A chapter on System Logging is included so that the system administrators can monitor the activities/ processes in their system.


• A Chapter on X windows explores the architecture of X windows system.


• How GUI is developed under Linux is explained with Qt and Gtk libraries, along with live examples


• Python language is explained with concept oriented examples with special reference to Web enabled applications