ADMIN - Explore the new world of system administration! Special introductory offer! Order by September 30th to save 10% off the regular subscription price! Each issue delivers technical solutions to the real-world problems you face every day. Learn the latest techniques for better:
network security
system management
troubleshooting
performance tuning
virtualization
cloud computing
on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and popular varieties of Unix.
Unix systems organize files in a hierarchical filesystem tree. A system of naming conventions defined in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) helps admins find their way around.
Even a minimal Linux installation writes thousands of files and directories to disk. The rise of different Unix dialects led to a number of completely different designs for organizing files in a meaningful way on disk. For example, some admins named their users’ home directories /usr/home/Name, whereas others preferred /Users/Name. A mailbox might be /usr/mail/Name on one machine but /var/spool/mail/Name on another. In this case, diversity was a drawback. In contrast to Windows, for example, Unix’s modular design requires administrators to select a single program for each task from a choice of many possible options and to replace this program with a backwards-compatible upgrade if a new version becomes available. For example, if an admin needs to replace the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), the new version should be capable of locating and handling existing messages.
Stop by Rikki's Open Source Exchange for dispatches from the world of women in open source.
Rikki Kite examines the experience of women across the spectrum of open source – the people, projects, organizations, events, articles, issues, and news.
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