linux manual

When you read this manual, certain words are represented in different fonts, typefaces, sizes, and
weights. This highlighting is systematic; different words are represented in the same style to indicate
their inclusion in a speci c category. The types of words that are represented this way include the
following:

command
Linux commands (and other operating system commands, when used) are represented this way.
This style should indicate to you that you can type the word or phrase on the command line
and press [Enter] to invoke a command. Sometimes a command contains words that would be
displayed in a different style on their own (such as le names). In these cases, they are considered
to be part of the command, so the entire phrase is displayed as a command. For example:
Use the cat testfile command to view the contents of a le, named testfile, in the current
working directory.

file name
File names, directory names, paths, and RPM package names are represented this way. This style
should indicate that a particular le or directory exists by that name on your system. Examples:
The .bashrc le in your home directory contains bash shell de nitions and aliases for your own
use.
The /etc/fstab le contains information about different system devices and le systems.
Install the webalizer RPM if you want to use a Web server log le analysis program.

application
This style indicates that the program is an end-user application (as opposed to system software).
For example:
Use Mozilla to browse the Web.

[key]
A key on the keyboard is shown in this style. For example:
To use [Tab] completion, type in a character and then press the [Tab] key. Your terminal displays
the list of les in the directory that start with that letter.

[key]-[combination]
A combination of keystrokes is represented in this way. For example:
The [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Backspace] key combination exits your graphical session and return you to the
graphical login screen or the console.

text found on a GUI interface
A title, word, or phrase found on a GUI interface screen or window is shown in this style. Text
shown in this style is being used to identify a particular GUI screen or an element on a GUI
screen (such as text associated with a checkbox or eld). Example:
Select the Require Password checkbox if you would like your screensaver to require a password
before stopping.

top level of a menu on a GUI screen or window
A word in this style indicates that the word is the top level of a pulldown menu. If you click on
the word on the GUI screen, the rest of the menu should appear. For example:
Under File on a GNOME terminal, the New Tab option allows you to open multiple shell
prompts in the same window.
If you need to type in a sequence of commands from a GUI menu, they are shown like the
following example:
Go to Main Menu Button (on the Panel) => Programming => Emacs to start the Emacs text
editor.
button on a GUI screen or window
This style indicates that the text can be found on a clickable button on a GUI screen. For example:
Click on the Back button to return to the webpage you last viewed.

computer output
Text in this style indicates text displayed to a shell prompt such as error messages and responses
to commands. For example:
The ls command displays the contents of a directory. For example:
Desktop about.html logs paulwesterberg.png
Mail backupfiles mail reports
The output returned in response to the command (in this case, the contents of the directory) is
shown in this style.

prompt
A prompt, which is a computer's way of signifying that it is ready for you to input something, is
shown in this style. Examples:
$
#
[stephen@maturin stephen]$
leopard login:

user input
Text that the user has to type, either on the command line, or into a text box on a GUI screen, is
displayed in this style. In the following example, text is displayed in this style:
To boot your system into the text based installation program, you must type in the text command
at the boot: prompt.

replaceable
Text used for examples, which is meant to be replaced with data provided by the user, is displayed
in this style. In the following example, <version-number> is displayed in this style:

      The directory for the kernel source is /usr/src/<version-number>/, where
<version-number> is the version of the kernel installed on this system.
Additionally, we use several different strategies to draw your attention to certain pieces of information.
In order of how critical the information is to your system, these items are marked as a note, tip,
important, caution, or warning. For example:

Note
Remember that Linux is case sensitive. In other words, a rose is not a ROSE is not a rOsE.

Tip
The directory /usr/share/doc/ contains additional documentation for packages installed on your
system.

Important
If you modify the DHCP con guration le, the changes do not take effect until you restart the DHCP
daemon.

Caution
Do not perform routine tasks as root — use a regular user account unless you need to use the root
account for system administration tasks.

Warning
Be careful to remove only the necessary Red Hat Enterprise Linux partitions. Removing other partitions
could result in data loss or a corrupted system environment.