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1.  Gentoo Documentation Resources

Available Languages

Our documentation is also available in the following languages:

Czech | English | French | German | Italian | Japanese | Polish | Simplified Chinese | Spanish

2.  Gentoo Linux Documentation

  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Installation Related Resources
    • Installation Guides
      • Gentoo Handbook
        The Gentoo Handbook is an effort to centralise documentation into a coherent handbook. This handbook contains the installation instructions for internet-based installation approaches and parts about working with Gentoo and Portage.
      • Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide
        The Quick Install guide covers the Gentoo install process in a non-verbose manner. Its purpose is to allow users to perform a stage3 install in no time. Users should already have prior experience with installing Gentoo Linux if they want to follow this guide.
      • Gentoo Linux x86 with Software Raid and LVM2 Quick Install Guide
        The Quick Install guide covers the Gentoo install process in a non-verbose manner. Its purpose is to allow users to perform a stage3 install with software RAID and LVM2 in no time. Users should already have prior experience with installing Gentoo Linux if they want to follow this guide.
      • A short guide to Gentoo/FreeBSD
        This document gives some general information on FreeBSD, as well as installation instructions for Gentoo/FreeBSD. It also includes some reference for people interested in helping out with development.
    • Other Installation Related Documentation
      • The Gentoo Linux alternative installation method HOWTO
        This HOWTO is meant to be a repository of alternative Gentoo installation methods, for those with special installation needs such as lack of a cdrom or a computer that can't boot cds.
      • Gentoo LVM2 installation
        This guide describes how to setup your Gentoo machine using the Logical Volume Manager version 2 (LVM2).
      • Gentoo/x86 Installation Tips & Tricks
        The Gentoo installation allows for very flexible approaches to the various installation methods. As it is almost impossible to insert every single tip or trick in the installation instructions this document tries to deal with all submitted tips and tricks for reference purposes.
      • Gentoo 1.4 Upgrade Guide
        A method for upgrading older Gentoo installations in place to Gentoo 1.4
      • Gentoo Upgrading Guide
        This document explains how new Gentoo releases affect existing installs.
      • The complete Gentoo Linux 2.6 migration guide
        This document will aid you in the process of migrating from Linux 2.4 to Linux 2.6, devfs to udev, OSS to ALSA, and LVM to LVM2.
      • Gentoo Linux Genkernel Guide
        This guide intends to provide a reference of all the functions provided by genkernel.
      • Gentoo/MIPS Linux Hardware Requirements
        This document provides an overview of the status of various MIPS-based systems for installing Gentoo Linux. If you find errors or omissions please email the maintainer or an editor.
      • Gentoo Grub Error Collection
        The objective of this error collection is to list the GRUB problems and errors people can be facing. All these solutions have been acquired through the cooperation of many users of the Gentoo Forums.
      • Gentoo Linux USB Guide
        This document helps a user setup USB on a Gentoo system and configure various USB devices as well.
      • Gentoo Linux LiveUSB HOWTO
        This HOWTO explains how to create a Gentoo Linux LiveUSB or, in other words, how to emulate an x86 or AMD64 Gentoo Linux LiveCD using a USB flash drive.
  • Gentoo Desktop Documentation Resources
    • Configuring your Desktop
      • Gentoo Linux Bluetooth Guide
        This guide will explain how to successfully install a host Bluetooth device, configure the kernel properly, explain all the possibilities that the Bluetooth interconnection offers and how to have some fun with Bluetooth.
      • Using UTF-8 with Gentoo
        This guide shows you how to set up and use the UTF-8 Unicode character set with your Gentoo Linux system, after explaining the benefits of Unicode and more specifically UTF-8.
      • Gentoo Printing Guide
        This document covers the installation and maintenance of printers using CUPS and Samba. It covers local installation and networked installations and you'll also find instructions on using shared printers from other operating systems.
      • Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide
        This document helps a user setup ALSA on Gentoo Linux.
      • Gentoo Java Guide
        This guide will introduce you to Java and explain how to use Java with Gentoo Linux.
      • Gentoo Linux Localization Guide
        This guide should help users localize their Gentoo Linux distribution to any European locale. It uses Germany as a case-study, since it is translated from the German doc. Includes configuration for use of the euro currency symbol.
      • Hardware 3D Acceleration Guide
        This document is a guide to getting 3D acceleration working using the DRM with Xorg in Gentoo Linux.
      • Power Management Guide
        In recent years, power management has become one of the differentiating features in the quest for finding the perfect laptop. Yet, the operating system must support the various power saving functionalities too. In this guide, we cover how to setup your Gentoo installation so it manages power-hungry resources in a flexible yet automated manner.
      • Using a Mouse within the Console
        This guide shows you how to set up and use GPM (the General Purpose Mouse server) from within a command line interface. This is especially useful for new Gentoo installations or for systems that cannot or do not use an X server.
      • Gentoo Linux Conky Howto
        This document describes how to install and configure the system monitor known as Conky.
    • Application Specific Documentation
      • Nano Basics Guide
        This guide is meant to be a simple introduction to nano. It will quickly help you to become familiar with its basic operation.
      • Learning vi -- the "cheatsheet" technique
        This guide will teach you how to use vi, using a cheat sheet method to accelerate the learning process. This will be the first guide for vi, catering to beginners.
      • GnuPG Gentoo User Guide
        This small guide will teach you the basics of using GnuPG, a tool for secure communication.
      • QuickStart Guide to Mutt E-Mail
        This guide shows you how to begin using the powerful command line e-mail client mutt.
      • Streaming Radio With SHOUTcast
        This guide will walk through the steps needed to setup a streaming radio server with SHOUTcast Server and SHOUTcast Trans.
      • Gentoo Linux VDR Guide
        This guide shows you how to prepare Gentoo Linux for DVB and VDR.
      • Gentoo Linux Keychain Guide
        This document describes how to use ssh shared keys along with the keychain program. It assumes basic knowledge of public key cryptography.
  • Upgrade Guides
  • Gentoo System Documentation
    • Portage and Related Documentation
      • A Portage Introduction
        This chapter explains the "simple" steps a user definitely needs to know to maintain the software on his system.
      • Portage Features
        Discover the features Portage has, such as support for distributed compiling, ccache and more.
      • Working with Portage
        "Working with Portage" provides an in-depth coverage of Portage, Gentoo's Software Management Tool.
      • USE flags
        USE flags are a very important aspect of Gentoo. In this chapter, you learn to work with USE flags and understand how USE flags interact with your system.
      • Gentoolkit
        Gentoolkit is a suite of tools to ease the administration of a Gentoo system. This document covers the basics of some of the tools present in Gentoolkit.
      • Portage-utils
        This guide covers some common uses of portage-utils, a set of fast Portage helper applications written in C.
      • Manually fixing broken portage installations
        This document attempts to help people to manually fix a broken sys-apps/portage installation.
      • Gentoo Overlays: Users' Guide
        This guide helps users understand how to use the Gentoo Overlays service.
    • Configuring Gentoo
      • Environment Variables
        With Gentoo you can easily manage the environment variables for your system. This chapter explains how you do that, and also describes frequently used variables.
      • Initscripts
        Gentoo uses a special initscript format which, amongst other features, allows dependency-driven decisions and virtual initscripts. This chapter explains all these aspects and explains how to deal with these scripts.
    • Gentoo Choices
  • System Administration Documentation
    • General System Administration
      • Using UTF-8 with Gentoo
        This guide shows you how to set up and use the UTF-8 Unicode character set with your Gentoo Linux system, after explaining the benefits of Unicode and more specifically UTF-8.
      • Gentoo Security Handbook
        This handbook is a step-by-step guide for hardening Gentoo Linux.
      • Gentoo Linux Prelink Guide
        This guide tells you how to make use of prelink support in Portage 2.0.46 and later.
      • Gentoo IPv6 Router Guide
        This guide shows how to setup IPv6 on a Gentoo system. This includes establishing a tunnel with a tunnel broker, some basic DNS configuration and configuring clients to use the system to connect to IPv6 addresses.
      • Gentoo Linux Developer's guide to system testing with User-Mode Linux
        This guide shows Gentoo Linux developers how to set up and use user-mode linux for testing potentially system-breaking changes.
      • Gentoo Linux Localization Guide
        This guide should help users localize their Gentoo Linux distribution to any European locale. It uses Germany as a case-study, since it is translated from the German doc. Includes configuration for use of the euro currency symbol.
      • Gentoo Linux Cron Guide
        This guide describes how to setup and use cron.
      • Gentoo Linux Kernel Upgrade Guide
        This document describes the process of upgrading your kernel from one release to another.
      • Gentoo Sudo(ers) Guide
        When you want some people to perform certain administrative steps on your system without granting them total root access, using sudo is your best option. With sudo you can control who can do what. This guide offers you a small introduction to this wonderful tool.
      • Gentoo Man Guide
        This guide shows how to navigate man pages using man.
      • Gentoo Info Guide
        This guide is meant to show how to navigate info pages using the info command.
      • Gentoo Linux Initial RAM File System Guide
        More and more systems require an initramfs to boot up properly. In this guide, we tackle the concepts of the initramfs as well as how to properly create and manage initramfs instances.
      • Gentoo Linux Kernel Configuration Guide
        This document aims to introduce the concepts of manual kernel configuration, and to detail some of the most common configuration pitfalls.
      • zsh Configuration and Installation Guide
        This guide shows how to install and configure zsh quickly. After reading this document you will be able use many zsh features such as advanced tab-completion, command correction and prompt management.
    • Specific Administration Guides
      • MySQL Startup Guide
        This document helps a user set up and use MySQL.
      • PostgreSQL Quick Start Guide
        This is a quick start guide to PostgreSQL. It covers emerging PostgreSQL and configuring it. This is complementary to the official documentation, but does not supplant it.
      • Diskless Nodes with Gentoo
        This HOWTO will help you create setup diskless nodes with Gentoo Linux.
      • Gentoo Distcc Documentation
        This document serves as a HOWTO for using distcc with Gentoo.
      • DistCC Cross-compiling Guide
        This guide shows you how to set up distcc for cross-compiling across different processor architectures.
      • Device File System Guide
        In this document you'll find information on what devfs is really about and how to work with it.
      • Gentoo udev Guide
        This document explains what udev is and how you can use udev to fit your needs.
      • Gentoo Printing Guide
        This document covers the installation and maintenance of printers using CUPS and Samba. It covers local installation and networked installations and you'll also find instructions on using shared printers from other operating systems.
      • Gentoo Linux OpenAFS Guide
        This guide shows you how to install an OpenAFS server and client on Gentoo Linux.
      • Virtual Mailhosting System with Postfix Guide
        This document details how to create a virtual mailhosting system based upon postfix, mysql, courier-imap, and cyrus-sasl.
      • Gentoo mailfiltering gateway guide
        This guide is step-by-step guide for installing spam fighting technologies for Postfix. Among them Amavisd-new using Spamassassin and ClamAV, greylisting and SPF.
      • netqmail/vpopmail Virtual Mail Hosting System Guide
        This document details how to create a mail hosting system based upon netqmail, vpopmail, courier-imap, mysql, and horde's imp.
      • Gentoo Linux based Netboot HOWTO
        Guide for setting up a netboot server for use with the Gentoo/SPARC netboot installation images.
      • OpenBoot PROM (OBP) Reference
        The OpenBoot PROM (OBP) Reference provides a list of useful OBP commands that can help when booting, configuring and performing diagnostics upon Sun SPARC hardware and clones.
      • Gentoo Samba3/CUPS HOWTO
        Setup, install and configure a Samba server under Gentoo that shares files and printers without the need to install drivers.
      • Home Router Guide
        This document details how to turn an old Gentoo machine into a router for connecting your home network to the internet.
      • Compilation Optimization Guide
        This guide provides an introduction to optimizing compiled code using safe, sane CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS. It also as describes the theory behind optimizing in general.
      • Gentoo Linux-VServer Howto
        In this Howto you will learn to setup a basic virtual server using the Linux-VServer Technology
      • Gentoo Java Guide
        This guide will introduce you to Java and explain how to use Java with Gentoo Linux.
      • Baselayout and OpenRC Migration Guide
        This guide shows you how to migrate from baselayout-1 to baselayout-2 and OpenRC.
      • Multipathing for Gentoo
        This document teaches you how to set up multipathing services for data storage.
      • Gentoo BIND Guide
        This guide will teach you how install and configure BIND for your domain and your local network.
      • Gentoo Linux Keychain Guide
        This document describes how to use ssh shared keys along with the keychain program. It assumes basic knowledge of public key cryptography.
      • High Performance Computing on Gentoo Linux
        This document was written by people at the Adelie Linux R&D Center <http://www.adelielinux.com> as a step-by-step guide to turn a Gentoo System into a High Performance Computing (HPC) system.
      • Troubleshooting Apache
        This document covers a number of ways to figure out how to fix your Apache installation when things are not working correctly.
      • Upgrading Apache
        This document describes the procedure end-users should follow to safely upgrade their apache installation.
      • Upgrade guide to MySQL 4.* or 5.0.*
        The MySQL herd is proud to announce that MySQL 5.0 will soon be found in Gentoo's stable tree. This document describes how to upgrade to MySQL 4.* and to 5.0.*.
      • "Unslotting" a slotted MySQL Installation
        This document describes how to go back to an unslotted MySQL.
      • Gentoo GCC Upgrade Guide
        This document will guide the user through the process of upgrading GCC.
      • Changing the CHOST variable
        This document explains how to change the CHOST variable of an existing system.
      • Jffnms Installation and Setup Guide
        This guide shows you how to proceed with the post installation setup of Jffnms, a network management and monitoring system, and how to monitor your systems with it.
      • Gentoo vpnc HOWTO
        This document details how to connect your workstation to a Cisco VPN concentrator utilizing vpnc to manage the connection.
      • How to get meaningful backtraces in Gentoo
        This guide is meant to provide users with a simple explanation of why a default Gentoo installation does not provide meaningful backtraces and how to set it up to get them.
      • Configuring Gentoo with Xen
        This guide describes how to start using Xen on your Gentoo system
      • Logcheck Guide
        This guide shows you how to analyze system logs with logcheck.
  • Gentoo Development Documentation
    • Development Related Documentation
      • Gentoo Devmanual
        The Gentoo Devmanual is a technical manual for developers which covers topics such as writing ebuilds and eclasses, and also covers policies that developers should be abiding by.
      • Gentoo Developer Handbook
        This is the Gentoo Developer Handbook, a continuing effort to centralize development policies across Gentoo and to also outline Gentoo's development systems and procedures.
      • Contributing Ebuilds
        This guide explains how to submit ebuild packages through the Bugzilla tracking system.
      • Gentoo GuideXML Guide
        This guide shows you how to compose web documentation using the new lightweight Gentoo GuideXML syntax. This syntax is the official format for Gentoo documentation, and this document itself was created using GuideXML. This guide assumes a basic working knowledge of XML and HTML.
      • Documentation Development Tips & Tricks
        Some tips & tricks that make the life for a Gentoo Documentation Developer easier
      • Handbook Release Guide
        This guide details the process for updating the handbooks and related documentation for each new Gentoo Linux release.
      • How to Install Gorg
        This guide describes how to install and configure gorg.
      • Gentoo Linux CVS Tutorial
        This tutorial introduces readers to CVS, the Concurrent Versions System, used by developers around the world to develop software in a flexible and collaborative manner. Intended for those new to CVS, this tutorial will get both general users and new developers up to speed quickly. Whether you'd like to use CVS to "check out" the latest sources of a particular software package, or whether you'd like to begin using CVS as a full-fledged developer, this tutorial is for you.
      • Apache Developer Documentation
        This document provides details about the eclasses available for developers of packages that relate to the Apache webserver.
      • Porting to Modular X HOWTO
        This guide shows you how to port packages to use the new modular X.Org.
      • How to fix autotools failures
        This guide aim to describe the common situations which makes autotools fail to run in an ebuild, giving advices on how to fix those.
      • Automagic dependencies, what they are and how to fix them
        This guide aim to describe the problem of "automagic dependencies", describing the reason why they are problematic and how to handle them in most common cases.
  • Project Specific Documentation
    • Base Project Documentation
      • Gentoo/AMD64 Howtos
        Here, you can find the Gentoo/AMD64 Howtos.
      • Gentoo Network Appliance (GNAP) User Guide
        This document describes how to use GNAP, a tool to produce Network Appliance systems based on Gentoo.
      • Gentoo Embedded Handbook
        The Gentoo Embedded Handbook is the center point for all Embedded work done with Gentoo. It aims to cover just about all aspects of the process -- from theory to design to practice.
      • A short guide to Gentoo/FreeBSD
        This document gives some general information on FreeBSD, as well as installation instructions for Gentoo/FreeBSD. It also includes some reference for people interested in helping out with development.
      • Gentoo x86 Arch Tester's FAQ
        This document is the x86 Arch Tester's bible.
    • Developer Relations Documentation
    • Documentation Project Documentation
      • Gentoo Linux Documentation Policy
        This document contains the Gentoo Documentation Policy, which is the base document which all Gentoo Documentation developers and Contributors should know and exercise.
      • Documentation Development Tips & Tricks
        Some tips & tricks that make the life for a Gentoo Documentation Developer easier
      • Handbook Release Guide
        This guide details the process for updating the handbooks and related documentation for each new Gentoo Linux release.
      • How to Install Gorg
        This guide describes how to install and configure gorg.
      • Translators Howto for Gentoo Documentation
        A frequently asked question is how to become a translator and what actions should be performed both to become one and to act as one. This document tries to explain all this.
      • Gentoo Metadoc XML Guide
        This guide informs developers how to use the Metadoc XML format that allows the Gentoo Documentation Project to keep its documentation in a hierarchical manner and allow more information to be stored about each document.
    • Metastructure Project Documentation
      • Gentoo ProjectXML Guide
        This guide shows you how to create an official GuideXML page for a Gentoo Linux Project. The guide assumes a basic knowledge of the GuideXML format.
    • Public Relations Project Documentation
  • Published Articles
    • Gentoo Articles
      • Making the distribution, Part 1
        Each of us has a story to tell about our experiences with Linux. This is Daniel Robbins' Linux story. In this first of three articles, he talks about how he became a Stampede Linux developer, and why he eventually left Stampede to start his own distribution called Enoch.
      • Making the distribution, Part 2
        In his previous article, Daniel Robbins told the story of how he became a Stampede Linux developer and why he eventually left Stampede to start the Enoch Linux distribution. In this go-round he lets you in on the strange events that happened after the Enoch development team discovered a little-known, blazingly fast compiler.
      • Making the distribution, Part 3
        This article concludes his story -- about how he ended up creating his own distribution called Gentoo Linux. He wraps up the series by telling how he left the Linux world to move to FreeBSD, and then came back to the Linux world, restarting Gentoo Linux development with a fresh perspective. In addition to comparing Linux and FreeBSD in a number of areas, he also describe current Gentoo Linux development progress and share a future vision for the distribution.
    • Learning Linux Articles
      • Bash by example, Part 1
        By learning how to program in the bash scripting language, your day-to-day interaction with Linux will become more fun and productive, and you'll be able to build upon those standard UNIX constructs (like pipelines and redirection) that you already know and love. In this three-part series, Daniel Robbins will teach you how to program in bash by example. He'll cover the absolute basics (making this an excellent series for beginners) and bring in more advanced features as the series proceeds.
      • Bash by example, Part 2
        In his introductory article on bash, Daniel Robbins walked you through some of the scripting language's basic elements and reasons for using bash. In this, the second installment, Daniel picks up where he left off and looks at bash's basic constructs like conditional (if-then) statements, looping, and more.
      • Bash by example, Part 3
        In his final Bash by example article, Daniel Robbins takes a good look at the Gentoo Linux ebuild system, an excellent example of the power of bash. Step by step, he shows you how the ebuild system was implemented, and touches on many handy bash techniques and design strategies. By the end of the article, you'll have a good grasp of what's involved in producing a full-blown bash-based application, as well as a start at coding your own auto-build system.
      • LPI certification 101 (release 2) exam prep, Part 1
        In this tutorial, we'll introduce you to bash (the standard Linux shell), show you how to take full advantage of standard Linux commands like ls, cp, and mv, explain inodes and hard and symbolic links, and much more. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a solid grounding in Linux fundamentals and will even be ready to begin learning some basic Linux system administration tasks.
      • LPI certification 101 (release 2) exam prep, Part 2
        In this tutorial, you will learn how to use regular expressions to search files for text patterns, how to locate files on your system, and how to take full control of Linux processes. You'll even get a whirlwind introduction to shell pipelines, redirection, and text processing commands. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a solid grounding in basic Linux administration and will be ready to begin learning more advanced Linux system administration skills in the follow-on tutorial.
      • LPI certification 101 (release 2) exam prep, Part 3
        In this tutorial we'll introduce you the Linux system documentation. We will teach you how to change permissions and how to manage with Linux accounts. At the end you'll learn how to tune your enviroment.
      • LPI certification 101 (release 2) exam prep, Part 4
        In this tutorial, we'll introduce all popular filesystem on Linux. We'll teach you how to mount and unmount devices. In next chapter you'll know how to boot the system and how to work with runlevels. In next section of this tutorial, we'll introduce filesystem quotas, we will teach you how to set them and how to configure them. By the end of this tutorial you'll know a system logs.
      • Partitioning in action, Part 1
        In this new series of tips, Daniel Robbins shows you how to change partition layout on a running system. He'll also cover several tricks of the trade to minimize downtime and avoid making costly mistakes. In this particular tip, he'll show you how to move /home to another partition.
      • Partitioning in action, Part 2
        In this second tip on changing partition layout on a running system, Daniel Robbins shows you how to move /tmp and /var to their own shared partition. He also covers several tricks of the trade to minimize downtime and avoid making costly mistakes.
      • Partition planning tips
        Organizing your partitions correctly can be fun and rewarding. This collection of tips will help you to use those sectors wisely.
      • Maximum swappage
        Learn how to improve the swap performance on your Linux server by several orders of magnitude. Author Daniel Robbins takes you through this quick tip on getting the most from your server.
      • Learning Linux LVM, Part 1
        In this article, Daniel introduces you to the concepts behind Linux LVM (Logical Volume Management) and shows you how to get the latest kernel patches and tools installed on your system. LVM allows you to create logical volumes out of the physical storage resources on your machine. However, unlike physical volumes, the logical volumes can be expanded and shrunk while the system is still running, providing Linux system administrators with the storage flexibility that they've until now only dreamed of.
      • Learning Linux LVM, Part 2
        In this article, Daniel shares his experiences converting cvs.gentoo.org's /home filesystem to an LVM logical volume. After the transition, we get to see the benefits of LVM when cvs.gentoo.org's /home partition is dynamically resized in real-time, without rebooting, unmounting /home, or even dropping to runlevel 1. All processes continue to work without any interruption. Daniel's step-by-step details of the conversion will help anyone interested in peforming a similar transition on their own machine.
      • Software RAID in the new Linux 2.4 kernel, Part 1
        In his two-part series on the Linux 2.4 Software RAID, Daniel Robbins introduces the new technology that's used to increase disk performance and reliability by distributing data over multiple disks. This first installment covers Software RAID setup (kernel and tools installation) and shows you how to create linear and RAID-0 volumes.
      • Software RAID in the new Linux 2.4 kernel, Part 2
        In this two-part series, Daniel Robbins introduces you to Linux 2.4 Software RAID, a technology used to increase disk performance and reliability by distributing data over multiple disks. In this article, Daniel explains what software RAID-1, 4, and 5 can and cannot do for you and how you should approach the implementation of these RAID levels in a production environment. In the second half of the article, Daniel walks you through the simulation of a RAID-1 failed drive replacement.
      • Compiling the Linux kernel
        Daniel Robbins introduces the Linux kernel, and then walks you through locating and downloading sources, configuring the kernel, compiling and installing the kernel, and boot configuration.
      • Prompt magic
        Why stick with the standard boring shell prompt when you can easily make it colorful and more informative? In this tip, Daniel Robbins will show you how to get your shell prompt just the way you like it, as well as how to dynamically update your X terminal's title bar.
      • OpenSSH key management, Part 1
        In this series, you'll learn how RSA and DSA authentication work, and see how to set up passwordless authentication the right way. In the first article of the series, Daniel Robbins focuses on introducing the RSA and DSA authentication protocols and showing you how to get them working over the network.
      • OpenSSH key management, Part 2
        Many developers use the excellent OpenSSH as a secure, encrypted replacement for the venerable telnet and rsh commands. One of OpenSSH's more intriguing features is its ability to authenticate users using the RSA and DSA authentication protocols, which are based upon a pair of complementary numerical "keys". One of the main appeals of RSA and DSA authentication is the promise of being able to establish connections to remote systems without supplying a password. In this second article, Daniel introduces ssh-agent (a private key cache) and keychain, a special bash script designed to make key-based authentication incredibly convenient and flexible.
      • OpenSSH key management, Part 3
        In this third article in a series, Daniel Robbins shows you how to take advantage of OpenSSH agent connection forwarding to enhance security. He also shares recent improvements to the keychain shell script.
      • Advanced filesystem implementor's guide, Part 8
        With the 2.4 release of Linux come many new filesystem possibilities, including Reiserfs, XFS, GFS, and others. These filesystems sound cool, but what exactly can they do, what are they good at, and exactly how do you go about safely using them in a production Linux environment? Daniel Robbins answers these questions by showing you how to set up these new advanced filesystems under Linux 2.4. In this installment, Daniel continues his look at ext3, a new improved version of ext2 with journaling capabilities. He reveals all the inside information on ext3, and demonstrates some shockingly good ext3 data=journal interactive performance numbers.
    • DeveloperWorks Common Threads
      • Dynamic iptables firewalls
        Firewalls are good and fun, but what do you do when you need to make rapid, complex changes to your firewall rules? Easy. Use Daniel Robbins' dynamic firewall scripts that are demonstrated in this article. You can use these scripts to increase your network security and responsiveness, and to inspire your own creative designs.
      • Sed by example, Part 1
        In this series of articles, Daniel Robbins will show you how to use the very powerful (but often forgotten) UNIX stream editor, sed. Sed is an ideal tool for batch-editing files or for creating shell scripts to modify existing files in powerful ways.
      • Sed by example, Part 2
        Sed is a very powerful and compact text stream editor. In this article, the second in the series, Daniel shows you how to use sed to perform string substitution; create larger sed scripts; and use sed's append, insert, and change line commands.
      • Sed by example, Part 3
        In this conclusion of the sed series, Daniel Robbins gives you a true taste of the power of sed. After introducing a handful of essential sed scripts, he'll demonstrate some radical sed scripting by converting a Quicken .QIF file into a text-readable format. This conversion script is not only functional, it also serves as en excellent example of sed scripting power.
      • Awk by example, Part 1
        Awk is a very nice language with a very strange name. In this first article of a three-part series, Daniel Robbins will quickly get your awk programming skills up to speed. As the series progresses, more advanced topics will be covered, culminating with an advanced real-world awk application demo.
      • Awk by example, Part 2
        In this sequel to his previous intro to awk, Daniel Robbins continues to explore awk, a great language with a strange name. Daniel will show you how to handle multi-line records, use looping constructs, and create and use awk arrays. By the end of this article, you'll be well versed in a wide range of awk features, and you'll be ready to write your own powerful awk scripts.
      • Awk by example, Part 3
        In this conclusion to the awk series, Daniel introduces you to awk's important string functions, and then shows you how to write a complete checkbook-balancing program from scratch. Along the way, you'll learn how to write your own functions and use awk's multidimensional arrays. By the end of this article, you'll have even more awk experience, allowing you to create more powerful scripts.
      • POSIX threads explained, part 1
        POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) threads are a great way to increase the responsiveness and performance of your code. In this series, Daniel Robbins shows you exactly how to use threads in your code. A lot of behind-the-scenes details are covered, so by the end of this series you'll really be ready to create your own multithreaded programs.
      • POSIX threads explained, part 2
        POSIX threads are a great way to increase the responsiveness and performance of your code. In this second article of a three-part series, Daniel Robbins shows you how to protect the integrity of shared data structures in your threaded code by using nifty little things called mutexes.
      • POSIX threads explained, part 3
        In this article, the last of a three-part series on POSIX threads, Daniel takes a good look at how to use condition variables. Condition variables are POSIX thread structures that allow you to "wake up" threads when certain conditions are met. You can think of them as a thread-safe form of signalling. Daniel wraps up the article by using all that you've learned so far to implement a multi-threaded work crew application.
      • Linux 2.4 stateful firewall design
        This tutorial shows you how to use netfilter to set up a powerful Linux stateful firewall.
      • Advanced Filesystem Implementor's Guide : Introducing ext3
        With the 2.4 release of Linux come a host of new filesystem possibilities, including Reiserfs, XFS, GFS, and others. These filesystems sound cool, but what exactly can they do, what are they good at, and exactly how do you go about safely using them in a production Linux environment? Daniel Robbins answers these questions by showing you how to set up these new advanced filesystems under Linux 2.4. In this installment, Daniel takes a look at ext3, a new improved version of ext2 with journaling capabilities.
      • Introduction to Samba, Part 1
        Samba is an incredible tool for anyone who uses both Unix and Windows. By implementing the SMB/CIFS protocol for Unix, Samba allows Unix systems to share their resources with standard Windows clients. In this introductory article, Daniel Robbins introduces you to what Samba can do. The focus will be on key concepts. (He'll step you through the setup process in his next article.) By the end of this article, you'll have a good understanding of what Samba does, and how it goes about doing it.
      • Introduction to Samba, Part 2
        In his previous article, Daniel introduced you to what Samba can do. Now it's time to get it running on your system. In this article, he'll walk you through the process of compiling, installing, and initially configuring Samba (version 2.0.7) so that it works in your environment.
      • Introduction to Samba, Part 3
        In his previous article, Daniel Robbins guided you through the process of setting up Samba for the first time. Now it's time to configure Samba so that it does everything that you want it to do.
      • The gentoo.org redesign, Part 1: A site reborn
        Have you ever woken up one morning and suddenly realized that your cute little personal development Web site isn't really that great? If so, you're in good company. In this series, Daniel Robbins shares his experiences as he redesigns the www.gentoo.org Web site using technologies like XML, XSLT, and Python. Along the way, you may find some excellent approaches to use for your next Web site redesign. In this article, Daniel creates a user-centric action plan and introduces pytext, an embedded Python interpreter.
      • The gentoo.org redesign, Part 2: A site reborn
        Have you ever woken up in the morning to the realization that your personal development Web site isn't really that great? If so, you're in good company. In this series, Daniel Robbins shares his experiences as he redesigns the www.gentoo.org Web site using technologies like XML, XSLT, and Python. Along the way, you may find some excellent approaches to use in your next Web site redesign. In this, the second installment, Daniel shows off the new documentation system and sets up a daily CVS-log mailing list.
      • The gentoo.org redesign, Part 3: A site reborn
        Have you ever woken up one morning and suddenly realized that your cute little personal development Web site isn't really that great? If so, you're in good company. In this series, Daniel Robbins shares his experiences as he redesigns the www.gentoo.org Web site using technologies like XML, XSLT, and Python. Along the way, you may find some excellent approaches to use for your next Web site redesign. In this installment, Daniel creates a new look for the site as a whole.
      • The gentoo.org redesign, Part 4: A site reborn
        Have you ever woken up one morning and suddenly realized that your cute little personal development Web site isn't really that great? If so, you're in good company. In this series, Daniel Robbins shares his experiences as he redesigns the Gentoo Linux Web site using technologies like XML, XSLT, and Python. This article: Daniel completes the conversion to XML/XSLT, fixes a host of Netscape 4.x browser compatibility bugs, and adds an auto-generated XML Changelog to the site.
    • Miscellaneous Articles
      • Best practices with autotools
        This article covers some of the most common errors people make when using autotools and ways to achieve better results.
      • Linux hardware stability guide, Part 1
        In this article, Daniel Robbins shows you how to diagnose and fix CPU flakiness, as well as how to test your RAM for defects. By the end of this article, you'll have the skills to ensure that your Linux system is as stable as it possibly can be.
      • Linux hardware stability guide, Part 2
        In this article, Daniel Robbins shares his experiences in getting his NVIDIA TNT graphics card working under Linux using NVIDIA's accelerated drivers. As he does, he'll show you how to diagnose and fix IRQ and PCI latency timer issues -- techniques you can use to ensure that your systems don't experience lock-ups, inconsistent behavior, or data loss.
  • Other Documentation

The contents of this document, unless otherwise expressly stated, are licensed under the CC-BY-SA-2.5 license. The Gentoo Name and Logo Usage Guidelines apply.


Page updated June 20, 2013

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