Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two

Credits

About the Authors

Bill von Hagen has been a Unix system administrator for 20 years and a Linux fanatic since 1993. He has also worked as a systems programmer, product manager, writer, application developer, drummer, and content manager.

Bill has written or cowritten books on such topics as Linux filesystems, SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, GCC, SGML, Mac OS X, Linux system administration, and hacking the TiVo. He has written numerous articles on Linux, Unix, and open source topics for publications including Linux Magazine, Linux Journal, Linux Format, and Mac Format. An avid computer collector specializing in workstations, he owns more than 200 computer systems and wants more. You can reach him at [e-mail].

Brian K. Jones (Jonesy) has been a Unix and Linux system and network administrator for six years. He has also held positions and consulted in the capacity of database administrator, web developer, project manager, instructional speaker, technical writer and editor, and studio musician, for clients large and small.

In the past, Brian has written extensively on topics revolving around Linux and open source software for Linux.com, Newsforge, and Linux Magazine, and he has served as author and Editor-in-Chief of php|architect magazine. In his copious free time (right), Brian enjoys playing billiards and guitar, woodworking, and writing code. He has worked as a system and network administrator for the computer science department at Princeton University since 2001, and as a part-time infrastructure computing consultant since 2000. You can reach him at [e-mail].

Contributors

The following people contributed their writing, code, and inspiration to Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two:

• Jon Fox [ Hacks #33 and #62 ] ([e-mail]) is a Linux user and free software advocate. He’s been using Linux since 1996.

• Tom Limoncelli [Hack #45] has over 15 years of system administration experience and has been teaching workshops on time management at conferences since 2003. Tom has authored Time Management for System Administrators (O’Reilly) and The Practice of System and Network Administration (Addison Wesley). Outside of work, Tom has won awards for his activism in gay/bi/lesbian rights and now helps progressive causes to use technology to further their goals.

• Lance Tost has been a Linux user since the 0.98 kernel days, while he earned his B.S. in Computer Science. He has held programming, DBA, and, Unix administration positions. Lance is a Red Hat Certified Engineer as well as a Solaris Certified System Administrator. Lance contributed [ Hacks #29 , #41 , #48 , #59 , #63 , and #72 ].

• Brian Warshawsky is an enthusiastic proponent of all things Linux and open source. His main interests include security, wireless networking, and finding new applications for the Linux operating system. By day he is a professional Unix/Linux system administrator, and by night he’s a technical writer and avid mountain biker. He lives in Virginia with his soon-to-be wife Jennifer, his loyal dog Max, and his much less loyal cat Jackie. Brian contributed [ Hacks #19 , #55 , #64 , #66 , #67 , #73 , #75 , #76 , #79 , #85 , #86 , and #87 ].

• David Brickner [Hack #42] is not a Linux server administrator, but as a Gentoo user, he has learned a couple of things about compiling software. David believes Linux will be the dominant desktop operating system in the near future, and to encourage its adoption, he has written Test Driving Linux and Linux Desktop Pocket Guide, both from O’Reilly.

Acknowledgments

Bill: For my wife, Dorothy Fisher, without whom life wouldn’t be anywhere near as good or as much fun, and for Mike Bauer, Bill Gaussa, and Larry Weidman, who gave me many professional opportunities and encouraged me to expand my horizons. I’d also like to thank David Brickner, without whom I never would have finished this book (well, at least not this year) and for the opportunity to write for O’Reilly in general. Without David’s suggestions, comments, and general support, this would be a lesser book.

Finally, no book having to do with GNU/Linux would be complete without thanking Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and the open source community in general. I’d also like to thank my coauthor, Brian Jones, for making this book better than it would have been without him.

Brian: For my wife, Natasha, who has supported and encouraged me in all of my ambitions and goals, and has dealt with my nonsense while in pursuit of said ambitions and goals. Also for my siblings: Heather, for forcing me to pursue computing as a career; Jessica, for being almost sickeningly positive and encouraging; Jon, for keeping me on my toes; and Russell, without whom I might’ve self-destructed long ago.

A hearty thanks goes to David Brickner, who offered me the opportunity to write for O’Reilly, and whose even keel, firm hand, and sheer diligence have made this a wonderful experience. I’d also like to thank all the folks at OSTG, TriLUG, and php|architect, for being friends of mine; Matt Appio, for making me take occasional fishing breaks; and my coworkers at Princeton, for teaching me far more than I could ever list here.

To Linus Torvalds and the rest of the open source community: thank you so much for all your work.