<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Introduction" HREF="intro.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="article" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="ARTICLE" ><DIV CLASS="TITLEPAGE" ><H1 CLASS="title" ><A NAME="AEN2" ></A >The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO</H1 ><H3 CLASS="author" ><A NAME="AEN4" >Eric Raymond</A ></H3 ><DIV CLASS="affiliation" ><DIV CLASS="address" ><P CLASS="address" ><br> <TT CLASS="email" ><<A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com" >esr@thyrsus.com</A >></TT ><br> </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="revhistory" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" ><TR ><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN="3" ><B >Revision History</B ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 2.10</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >2007-11-28</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: esr</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Minor updates.</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revision 1.0</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >1998-10-29</TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" >Revised by: esr</TD ></TR ><TR ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" COLSPAN="3" >Initial revision.</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ><DIV ><DIV CLASS="abstract" ><A NAME="AEN21" ></A ><P ></P ><P > This document describes the working basics of PC-class computers, Unix-like operating systems, and the Internet in non-technical language. </P ><P ></P ></DIV ></DIV ><HR></DIV ><DIV CLASS="TOC" ><DL ><DT ><B >Table of Contents</B ></DT ><DT >1. <A HREF="intro.html" >Introduction</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >1.1. <A HREF="intro.html#purpose" >Purpose of this document</A ></DT ><DT >1.2. <A HREF="intro.html#newversions" >New versions of this document</A ></DT ><DT >1.3. <A HREF="intro.html#feedback" >Feedback and corrections</A ></DT ><DT >1.4. <A HREF="intro.html#resources" >Related resources</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >2. <A HREF="anatomy.html" >Basic anatomy of your computer</A ></DT ><DT >3. <A HREF="bootup.html" >What happens when you switch on a computer?</A ></DT ><DT >4. <A HREF="login.html" >What happens when you log in?</A ></DT ><DT >5. <A HREF="running-programs.html" >What happens when you run programs from the shell?</A ></DT ><DT >6. <A HREF="devices.html" >How do input devices and interrupts work?</A ></DT ><DT >7. <A HREF="multitasking.html" >How does my computer do several things at once?</A ></DT ><DT >8. <A HREF="memory-management.html" >How does my computer keep processes from stepping on each other?</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >8.1. <A HREF="memory-management.html#vm-simple" >Virtual memory: the simple version</A ></DT ><DT >8.2. <A HREF="memory-management.html#vm-details" >Virtual memory: the detailed version</A ></DT ><DT >8.3. <A HREF="memory-management.html#mmu" >The Memory Management Unit</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >9. <A HREF="core-formats.html" >How does my computer store things in memory?</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >9.1. <A HREF="core-formats.html#numbers" >Numbers</A ></DT ><DT >9.2. <A HREF="core-formats.html#characters" >Characters</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >10. <A HREF="disk-layout.html" >How does my computer store things on disk?</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >10.1. <A HREF="disk-layout.html#disk-lowlevel" >Low-level disk and file system structure</A ></DT ><DT >10.2. <A HREF="disk-layout.html#filestructure" >File names and directories</A ></DT ><DT >10.3. <A HREF="disk-layout.html#mount-points" >Mount points</A ></DT ><DT >10.4. <A HREF="disk-layout.html#iname" >How a file gets looked up</A ></DT ><DT >10.5. <A HREF="disk-layout.html#permissions" >File ownership, permissions and security</A ></DT ><DT >10.6. <A HREF="disk-layout.html#fsck" >How things can go wrong</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >11. <A HREF="languages.html" >How do computer languages work?</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >11.1. <A HREF="languages.html#compilers" >Compiled languages</A ></DT ><DT >11.2. <A HREF="languages.html#interpreters" >Interpreted languages</A ></DT ><DT >11.3. <A HREF="languages.html#pcode" >P-code languages</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >12. <A HREF="internet.html" >How does the Internet work?</A ></DT ><DD ><DL ><DT >12.1. <A HREF="internet.html#dns" >Names and locations</A ></DT ><DT >12.2. <A HREF="internet.html#domains" >The Domain Name System</A ></DT ><DT >12.3. <A HREF="internet.html#transport" >Packets and routers</A ></DT ><DT >12.4. <A HREF="internet.html#TCP-IP" >TCP and IP</A ></DT ><DT >12.5. <A HREF="internet.html#HTTP" >HTTP, an application protocol</A ></DT ></DL ></DD ><DT >13. <A HREF="more.html" >To Learn More</A ></DT ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="intro.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Introduction</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >