/etc

This directory and its subdirectories hold many of the Linux configuration files. These files are usually text, and they can be edited to change the system’s configuration (if you know what you’re doing!).

Summary

You should now feel more comfortable working in Linux. Understanding and being able to navigate the Linux file system is very important because Linux simply consists of some files organized in a fairly standard way.

You still may find yourself stumped by certain file or directory problems. Remember that the online man pages can assist you. Linux gives you a lot of flexibility in creating files, specifying absolute or relative names, and setting permissions. Don’t be afraid to experiment (as an ordinary user, in your home directory). There are too many different ways to perform tasks to list or exhaustively describe here. Don’t cling to rigid recipes written on a piece of paper. You learn by trying!

Check out Chapters 9, “File and Directory Permissions,” and 10, “GNU Project Utilities,” through Chapter 13, “tcsh,” especially if you want to create programs or macros from system command files or to learn more about the built-in user interface features in Linux shells. Chapter 16 also has very useful information about editing text files.

After you are familiar with shells and get some practice manipulating files and directories, you can move on to the advanced topics in Part III, “Editing, Typesetting, and More,” through Part VIII, “Advanced Programming Topics,” of this book. If you are interested in other subjects, you can jump to them from here:

Working with the editors that come with Linux is discussed in Chapter 16, “Text Editors: vi and emacs.”

Configuring X so you can use a GUI is discussed in Chapter 22, “Installing and Configuring XFree86.”

Administering your Linux system is discussed in Part VI, starting with Chapter 32, “System Administration Basics.”