% "@(#)sag:$Id$"        
%--------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter*{Introduction to the ALPHA Versions}
%--------------------------------------------------------------------

        \begin{raggedleft}
        \it
        In the beginning, the file was without form, and void; and \\
        emptiness was upon the face of the bits.  And the Fingers of \\
        the Author moved upon the face of the keyboard.  And the Author \\
        said, Let there be words, and there were words. \\
        \end{raggedleft}
        \vspace{2em}

        \noindent
	This is an ALPHA version of the Linux System
	Administrators' Guide.  That means that I don't even pretend
	it contains anything useful, or that anything contained within
	it is factually correct.  In fact, if you believe anything
	that I say in this version, and you are hurt because of it, I
	will cruelly laugh at your face if you complain.

	Well, almost.  I won't laugh, but I also will not consider
	myself responsible for anything.

	The purpose of an ALPHA version is to get the stuff out so
	that other people can look at it and comment on it.  The
	latter part is the important one: Unless the author gets
	feedback, the ALPHA version isn't doing anything good.
	Therefore, if you read this `book', please, {\em please}, {\bf
	please} let me hear your opinion about it.  I don't care
	whether you think it is good or bad, I want you to tell me
	about it.

	If at all possible, you should mail your comments directly to
	me, otherwise there is a largish chance I will miss them.  If
	you want to discuss things in public (on one of the {\tt
	comp.os.linux} newsgroups or the mailing list), that is ok by
	me, but please send a copy via mail directly to me as well.

	I do not much care about the format in which you send your
	comments, but it is essential that you clearly indicate what
	part of my text you are commenting on.

	I can be contacted at the following e-mail addresses:
%
	\begin{quote}
		{\tt lars.wirzenius@helsinki.fi}	\\
		{\tt wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi}		\\
		{\tt wirzeniu@cs.helsinki.fi}		\\
		{\tt wirzeniu@kruuna.helsinki.fi}	\\
		{\tt wirzeniu@hydra.helsinki.fi}	\\
	\end{quote}
%
	(they're all actually the same account, but I give all these,
	just in case there is some weird problem). 

	\vbox{}

	\noindent This text contains a lot of notes that I have
	inserted as notes to myself.  They are identified with
	``\meta''.  They indicate things that need to be worked on, that
	are missing, that are wrong, or something like that.  They are
	mostly for my own benefit and for your amusement, they are not
	things that I am hoping someone else will write for me.

	If you think that this version of the manual is missing a lot,
	you are right.  I am including only those chapters that are at
	least half finished.  New chapters will be released as they
	are written.

	\vbox{}

\input{rhyme}

%--------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{Introduction}
%--------------------------------------------------------------------

        \begin{raggedleft}
        \it
        I pride myself on the fact that my work has \\
	no socially redeeming value. \\
        (John Waters) \\
        \end{raggedleft}
        \vspace{2em}

        \noindent
	This manual, the Linux System Administrators' Guide,
	describes the system administration aspects of using Linux.
	It is intended for people who know next to nothing about
	system administration (as in ``what is it?''), but who have already
	mastered at least the basics of normal usage, which means
	roughly the material covered by the
	Linux Users' Guide.  This manual also doesn't tell you how
	to install Linux; that is described in the Installation and
	Getting Started
	document.  There is some overlap between all the Linux
	Documentation Project manuals,
	but they all look at things from slightly different angles.
	See below for more information about Linux manuals.

	What, then, is system administration?  It is all the things
	that one has to do to keep a computer system in a useable
	shape.  Things like backing up files (and restoring them if
	necessary), installing new programs, creating accounts for
	users (and deleting them when no longer needed), making
	certain that the filesystem is not corrupted, and so on.  If a
	computer were, say, a house, system administration would be
	called maintenance, and would include cleaning, fixing broken
	windows, and other such things.  System administration is not
	called maintenance, because that would be too simple.
%%%%%%%%
	\footnote{ There are some people who {\em do} call it that,
	but that's just because they have never read this manual, poor
	things. }
%%%%%%%%

	The structure of this manual is such that many of the chapters
	should be usable independently, so that if you need
	information about, say, backups, you can read just that
	chapter.\footnote{If you happen to be reading a version that
	has a chapter on backups, that is.}
	This hopefully makes the book easier to use as a
	reference manual, and makes it possible to read just a small
	part when needed, instead of having to read everything.  
	% I have tried to create a good index as well, to make it easier
	% to find things.
	However, this manual is first and foremost a
	tutorial, and a reference manual only as a lucky coincidence.

	This manual is not intended to be used completely by itself.
	Plenty of the rest of the Linux documentation is also
	important for system administrators.  After all, a system
	administrator is just a user with special privileges and
	duties.  A very important resource is the man pages, which
	should always be consulted when a command is not familiar.

	While this manual is targeted at Linux, a general principle
	has been that it should be useful with other UNIX based
	operating systems as well.  Unfortunately, since there is so
	much variance between different versions of UNIX in
	general, and in system administration in particular, there is
	little hope to cover all variants.  Even covering all
	possibilities for Linux is difficult, due to the nature of
	its development.  There is no one official Linux
	distribution, so different people have different setups, many
	people have a setup they have built up themselves.  When
	possible, I have tried to point out differences, and explain
	several alternatives.  In order
	to cater to the hackers and DIY types that form the driving
	force behind Linux development, I have tried to describe
	how things work, rather than just listing ``five easy steps''
	for each task.  This means that there is much information here
	that is not necessary for everyone, but those parts are marked
	as such and can be skipped if you use a preconfigured system.
	Reading everything will, naturally, increase your
	understanding of the system and should make using and
	administering it more pleasant.

	\vbox{}

	\noindent
	Like all other Linux related development, the
	work was done on a volunteer basis: I did it because I
	thought it might be fun and because I felt it should be
	done.  However, like all volunteer work, there is a limit to
	how much effort I have been able to spend, and
	also on how much knowledge and experience I have.  This means
	that the manual is not necessarily as good as it would be if a
	wizard had been paid handsomely to write it and had spent a
	few years to perfect it.  I think, of course, that it is
	pretty nice, but be warned.  
	% Also, on the general principle
	% that {\em no} single source of information is enough, I have
	% compiled a short bibliography of books, magazines, and papers
	% related to UNIX system administration.

	One particular point where I have cut corners 
	is that I have not covered very thoroughly many
	things that are already well documented in other freely
	available manuals.  This applies especially to program
	specific documentation, such as all the details of using
	\cmd{mkfs(8)}.  I only describe the purpose of the program,
	and as much of its usage as is necessary for the purposes of
	this manual.  For further information, I refer the gentle
	reader to these other manuals.  Usually, all of the referred
	to documentation is part of the full Linux documentation
	set.

	While I have tried to make this manual as good as possible,
	I would really like to hear from you if you have any ideas on
	how to make it better.  Bad language, factual errors, ideas
	for new areas to cover, rewritten sections, information about
	how various UNIX versions do things, I am interested in
	all of it.
	You can contact me via electronic mail with the Internet
	domain address {\tt lars.wirzenius@helsinki.fi}, or by
	traditional paper mail using the address
%%%%%%%%%
	\begin{quote}
	Lars Wirzenius / Linux docs \\
	Hernesaarentie 15 A 2 \\
	00150 Helsinki \\
	Finland
	\end{quote}
%%%%%%%%%

	\noindent
	Many people have helped me with this book, directly or indirectly.
	I would like to especially thank Matt Welsh for inspiration and
	LDP leadership, Andy Oram for igniting
	an almost dead spark again with much-valued feedback, Olaf Kirch
	for showing me that it can be done, and Adam Richter at Yggdrasil
	and others for showing me that other people can find it interesting
	as well.

	H.~Peter Anvin, R\'emy Card, Theodore Ts'o, and Stephen Tweedie
	have let me borrow their work (and thus make the book look thicker
	and much more impressive).  I am most grateful for
	this, and very apologetic for the earlier versions that sometimes
	lacked proper attribution.  Stephen Tweedie also let me borrow
	his comparison of the xia and ext2 filesystems, but that has
	since been dropped, since xia is no longer very popular.

	In addition, I would like to thank Mark Komarinski for sending his
	material in 1993 and the many system administration columns
	in Linux Journal.  They are quite informative.

	Thanks to Erik Troan at Red Hat, for promising to make a
	plain text version of this book available.\footnote{Erik, you
	can color yourself pressurized.}

	A minor accusation goes to Linus Torvalds for writing the
	damn system to write about in the first place.  That applies
	for the rest of \fn{/usr/src/linux/CREDITS} as well.  Be ashamed,
	be ver ashamed.

	Many useful comments have been sent by a large number of people.
	My miniature black hole of an archive doesn't let me find all
	their names, but some of them are in alphabetical order:
	Paul Caprioli, Ales Cepek, Marie-France Declerfayt, Olaf Flebbe,
	Helmut Geyer, Larry Greenfield and his father, Stephen Harris,
	Jyrki Havia, Jim Haynes, York Lam, Timothy Andrew Lister, Jim
	Lynch, Dan Poirier, Daniel Quinlan, Philippe Steindl.  My apologies
	to anyone I have forgotten.

%--------------------------------------------------------------------
%\input{convntns}
\input{blurb}
% \input{copyright}
%--------------------------------------------------------------------
