The Staying Updated mini-HOWTO
 Kjetil Bakkeskaug, Kjell Sundby and Stein Gjoen,
 [email protected]
 v0.22, 19 September 1999

 This document describes how to stay updated and abreast of the devel
 opment that takes place in the Linux world of development.  Although
 most of this text is Linux specific there is also a lot of general
 information on searching efficiently for specific information that can
 be useful for a wider audience.
 ______________________________________________________________________

 Table of Contents


 1. Introduction

    1.1 Copyright
    1.2 Disclaimer
    1.3 News
    1.4 Credits

 2. Documentation Installed on Your Hard Disk

 3. Subscription

    3.1 Usenet News
    3.2 Mailing Lists
    3.3 Magazines

 4. Meetings

 5. Searching

 6. Conclusion

 ______________________________________________________________________

 1.  Introduction

 Development in the world of Linux takes place at an incredible speed
 and it can be difficult to keep abreast with the latest development.
 This HOWTO gives you a few guidelines on how to get the information
 you need, fast and efficiently. Most are quite familiar with using the
 World Wide Web (WWW) and Usenet News but as will be shown here there
 are many other methods that can be as good or even better.

 A Polish translation
 <http://www.ict.pwr.wroc.pl/jtz/Html/mini/Update.pl.html> is
 available.

 1.1.  Copyright

 This HOWTO is copyrighted 1998 Kjell Sundby, Kjetil Bakkeskaug and
 Stein Gjoen.

 Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by
 their respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and
 distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic,
 as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial
 redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would
 like to be notified of any such distributions.
 All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating
 any Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice.
 That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose
 additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules
 may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux
 HOWTO coordinator at the address given below.

 In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through
 as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright
 on the HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to
 redistribute the HOWTOs.

 If you have questions, please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator, at
 [email protected] via email.


 1.2.  Disclaimer

 Use the information in this document at your own risk. We disavow any
 potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
 concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
 at your own risk.

 All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
 otherwise.  Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
 affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

 Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as
 endorsements.

 You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
 major installation and backups at regular intervals.


 1.3.  News

 Added more information on the workings of mailing lists. Also proper
 indexing is now added.

 Renamed Dejanews to Deja and one chapter title. Also added note on
 translation now underway. Minor typos fixed.

 Added link to Polish translation


 1.4.  Credits

      Tomasz Sienicki | tsca <[email protected]>

 2.  Documentation Installed on Your Hard Disk


 When you start out with a Linux installation you will normally get
 quite a bit of information along, not just the installation pamphlet
 but also substantial online help and information files as well as
 HOWTO files. This gives you a good starting point but after a while
 you will find yourself interested in knowing more, updating your
 system and basically staying informed. For simplicity this kind of
 information is here divided into several types, the type you subscribe
 to, information you search for as well as a bit on getting more
 specific help efficiently.

 Even if you don't get printed information of some kind with your Linux
 packages you will along with any self respecting distribution get a
 number of directories with documentation of some kind, ranging from
 the tersest README files for most software packages to the more in
 depth HOWTOs, of which this is one.

 Have a look in the document archive <file:///usr/doc> where most
 packages store their main documentation and README files etc.  Also
 you will here find the HOWTO archive <file:///usr/doc/HOWTO> of ready
 formatted HOWTOs and also the mini-HOWTO archive
 <file:///usr/doc/HOWTO/mini> of plain text documents.

 The kernel source <file:///usr/src/linux> is, of course, the ultimate
 documentation. In other words, use the source, Luke.  It should also
 be pointed out that the kernel comes not only with source code which
 is even commented (well, partially at least) but also an informative
 documentation directory <file:///usr/src/linux/Documentation>.  If you
 are about to ask any questions about the kernel you should read this
 first, it will save you and many others a lot of time and possibly
 embarrassment.

 The online documentation is excellent for browsing and searching but
 don't dismiss the printed version altogether; if you cannot even get
 the machine to boot, how are you going to be able to read that piece
 of information you need to get the system going again?

 3.  Subscription

 This basically means you set up a subscription of some sort and then
 follow the news as they come in. Be careful not to bite over more than
 you can chew, information overload is more than a buzzword. There is
 also rather more junk out there than is just annoying, it is a real
 problem these days. Read critically and be prepared to unsubscribe.

 There are two distinct medias for getting continuous updates: news and
 mailing lists, though sometimes news is gatewayed to mail and vice
 versa. In general news is a larger volume, larger noise source
 compared to mailing lists. Trying to follow too many newsgroups is
 like drinking from a fire hose.


 3.1.  Usenet News

 Getting access to Usenet News is outside the scope of this HOWTO,
 there are others that will help you with getting and reading News
 directly from a Linux system. If you have never used News before you
 should be careful to read the introductory information thoroughly. In
 spite of looking like an anarchy it does have its own distinct
 culture, follow a newsgroup for some time before posting yourself.
 Most importantly, look out for postings called Frequently Asked
 Questions or FAQ as they will show you the ropes for the group it is
 posted to, and most likely give you the answer to what you are looking
 for. Asking an FAQ will earn you severe negative credibility points as
 well as a place in many killfiles.

 FAQs should be posted regularly but if you cannot find it you can
 always find it at the main FAQ archive <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu> at MIT.


 These are also available as web pages <http://www.cis.ohio-
 state.edu/hypertext/faq/>.


 Still, there is a lot of noise, spam and junk in News and this is
 where killfiles come in. You will need a news reader with killfile
 capability and when properly set up it will scan through a newsgroup
 according to a search key of your own design and mark all flagged
 postings as already read so you don't have to be bothered by the
 noise. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio and lets you
 concentrate on the important parts. Similarly, if you make noise in
 News others will killfile you so if you later were to ask for help
 they will never see your post.

 Now to business: the following is a list of useful newsgroups:

   announcements <news:comp.os.linux.announce>

   answers <news:comp.os.linux.answers>

   development of applications <news:comp.os.linux.development.apps>

   development of the system <news:comp.os.linux.development.sys>

   hardware <news:comp.os.linux.hardware>

   misc <news:comp.os.linux.misc>

   networking <news:comp.os.linux.networking>

   setting up linux <news:comp.os.linux.setup>

   X11 on linux <news:comp.os.linux.x>

 Many national hierarchies also have Linux groups, such as the
 Norwegian <news:no.linux> Linux groups. If you cannot find your
 national or local group you might be able to use Deja
 <http://www.deja.com> to find the names for you.

 3.2.  Mailing Lists

 Unlike Usenet News a mailing list is centralised, someone sends a mail
 to the server and the server in return mails everyone that is
 subscribed to that particular list. These lists are generally low
 volume but also very low noise. Any breaches of the charter will be
 looked harshly upon. Equally seriously it will delay the development
 or the project that the list is dedicated to. When you subscribe you
 will normally get an introductory mail describing the charter, again
 you are strongly recommended to read this very carefully.

 There are many types of mail servers that can handle a list and you
 will need some information on how and where you can subscribe.

 One of the most common list servers is Majordomo which is what the
 list server at vger.rutgers.edu <mailto:[email protected]> is
 running. To learn how it works you send a mail message with the word
 help in the body. If you send it something it cannot parse you will
 get this help message anyway.  If you instead mail it the word lists
 you will be returned a list of all mailing lists it serves, and that
 can be a considerable number.

 Other mailing lists use several addresses, one where you send your
 requests such as subscribe and unsubscribe, and one where you send
 your contributions to the list which is usually also the address from
 which the list is also redistributed to you.  Again, sending it the
 message help or something it cannot parse will give you the help
 information.  An example: you send the word subscribe to the address
 [email protected] and then you get mail from and
 contribute to the list address  [email protected]
 until you unsubscribe.

 A few tips before you start sending in to mailing lists:

   Do not send subscribe etc. to the list itself, only to the server
    address, otherwise you will look silly and you will annoy people.
    There can be several thousand subscribers to a list and if such
    errors were to pour in the noise would be too much.

   When you subscribe you will often get an introductory message sent
    to you automatically. Read it carefully as this should answer most
    of the initial questions.

   Do not gateway mailing lists to news without asking first as this
    can cause mailing loops as well as spam.

 As mentioned above, vger.rutgers.edu
 <mailto:[email protected]>.  is one of the main mailing list
 servers and here is an abbreviated index of what is available for the
 Linux community:


   linux-8086

   linux-admin

   linux-alpha

   linux-apps

   linux-arm

   linux-bbs

   linux-c-programming

   linux-config

   linux-console

   linux-diald

   linux-doc

   linux-fido

   linux-fsf

   linux-ftp

   linux-gcc

   linux-gcc-digest

   linux-hams           Amateur Radio and Linux discussions

   linux-hppa

   linux-ibcs2


   linux-ipx

   linux-isdn

   linux-japanese

   linux-kernel

   linux-kernel-announce

   linux-kernel-digest

   linux-kernel-patch

   linux-laptop

   linux-linuxss

   linux-lugnuts

   linux-mca

   linux-mips

   linux-msdos

   linux-msdos-devel

   linux-msdos-digest

   linux-net

   linux-new-lists

   linux-newbie

   linux-newbiew

   linux-nys

   linux-oasg

   linux-oi

   linux-opengl

   linux-pkg

   linux-ppp

   linux-pro

   linux-qag

   linux-raid

   linux-scsi

   linux-serial

   linux-seyon

   linux-smp

   linux-sound

   linux-standards

   linux-svgalib

   linux-tape

   linux-term

   linux-userfs

   linux-word

   linux-x11

   linux-x25

   sparclinux

   ultralinux

 There are of course a number of other lists on other server. As this
 is in a constant state of flux there is little point in naming all but
 the most important here. Instead you could check out a web page that
 maintains such a list of lists
 <http://summer.snu.ac.kr/~djshin/linux/mail-list/index.shtml> on
 various servers of interest to Linux users. It also offers an user
 friendly interface to subscribe or unsubscribe to the various lists
 directly.

 There is also a web page listing a huge number of lists concerning
 much more than Linux at list index
 <http://www.NeoSoft.com/internet/paml/>.

 3.3.  Magazines

 Many have been disappointed at the lack of information on Linux in the
 trade press. This is probably because certain commercial products
 would not stand up for any comparison and the advertisers would not
 stand it at all. Fortunately there is one Linux specific journal,
 called the Linux Journal. More information on subscription etc. can be
 found at the SSC <http://www.ssc.com> home page. A table of contents
 is usually also available online.

 Some popular e-zines are Linux Gazette <http://www.linuxgazette.com>.
 and Linux focus <http://www.linuxfocus.com> and probably a few others
 as new ones seem to pop quite frequently.  Check out LinuxHQ
 <http://www.linuxhq.com> for up to date information on current news
 services.

 New web pages with literally daily news on linux are popping up
 everywhere, many are quite professional in layout as well as in scope.
 One of the bigger ones is Freshmeat <http://freshmeat.net> which
 serves out news daily.

 For those who cannot afford the time to follow the net on an hourly
 basis yet need the important news quickly there is the Linux Weekly
 News <http://lwn.net>, which gives you a weekly update of important
 news, including securities alerts and also announcements of new and
 updated software.

 One the other extreme there are the those who practically live on the
 net and who might like to watch all sorts of news as they are reported
 on Slashdot <http://slashdot.org>, on a minute by minute basis using
 the ticker service or web interface.
 There are also a number of more hardware oriented web sites worth
 visiting, such as Toms Hardware <http://www.tomshardware.com>,
 Anandtech <http://www.Anandtech.com> and Storage review
 <http://www.storagereview.com>.

 4.  Meetings

 Linux has been created through a massive networked effort, mostly by
 heavy use of the Internet. Still, there is the chance of meeting real
 people, face to face, in Linux user groups (LUG) that are all over the
 world. Search the lists that are published regularly, there could be
 one near you.

 Conferences, install fests, creating new user groups and more is
 regularly announced on Usenet News announcements
 <news:comp.os.linux.announce>.  Such events are excellent venues for
 staying on top of events and also for getting help.

 5.  Searching

 There are many avenues open when searching for something particular.
 Remember you can also use the web search engines and that some, like

   Altavista <http://www.altavista.digital.com>

   Excite <http://www.excite.com>

   Hotbot <http://www.hotbot.com>

    can also search Usenet news.

 Also remember that Deja <http://www.deja.com> is a dedicated news
 searcher that keeps a news spool from early 1995 and onwards.

 Even though more and more things take place of the web these days, do
 not forget that there is a lot of information available on the various
 ftp servers around the world. Some web search engines also index ftp
 servers but the tool of choice is still the Archie servers, systems
 that regularly scan major ftp servers around the world and keep lists
 of files. These can be accessed in many ways, either by Archie clients
 like archie or the X11 version xarchie which should be available on
 any well maintained linux system. Failing that you can access archie
 servers using telnet to any of the servers listed


   Australia <telnet://archie.au>

   Austria <telnet://archie.univie.ac.at>

   Belgium <telnet://archie.belnet.be>

   Finland <telnet://archie.funet.fi>

   Germany <telnet://archie.th-darmstadt.de>

   Korea <telnet://archie.kornet.nm.kr>

   Italy <telnet://archie.unipi.it>

   Japan <telnet://archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp>


   Poland <telnet://archie.icm.edu.pl>

   Sweden <telnet://archie.luth.se>

   Spain <telnet://archie.rediris.es>

   United Kingdom <telnet://archie.doc.ic.ac.uk>

   United States <telnet://archie.bunyip.com>

   United States <telnet://archie.internic.net>


 Of course you should try to use the server closest to you, and to see
 the list of current server you can either start the Archie client with
 no arguments or, if telnetting, by querying the server. Online help is
 available. Unfortunately not all servers are synchronised, so you
 might have to search a few before finding what you are looking for.

 Recently a more user friendly ftp index server entered the net, the
 ftpsearch <http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no> engine, featuring many options
 and with a rather stark interface, in the best Unix tradition.

 Most of these offer help on efficient searching techniques, reading
 this can speed up your searches enormously. Investing a little time
 here will pay off in the long run.

 If you have trouble getting onto the Internet but have mail then you
 should have a look at the access via mail FAQ. Naturally you can get
 it over e-mail using the US, Canada and South America server
 <mailto:[email protected]> entering only this line in the BODY
 of the note:

 send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email

 or Europe, Asia etc server <mailto:[email protected]> entering
 only this line in the BODY of the note:

 send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt

 or look through your news spool if you have one locally in
 news.answers newsgroup <news:news.answers>.

 Finally, you might wish to get more information from a person, say an
 author of a software package. usually you can find the e-mail address
 in the accompanying documentation which normally would be in the
 documentation subdirectory <file:///usr/doc/> but failing that and
 also if the given address is no longer valid you could find help in
 the FAQ for finding e-mail addresses
 <http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/finding.html>.

 6.  Conclusion

 Finding information fast and efficiently is more of an art than a
 science and we still have not touched on the really difficult part:
 how do you determine the actual quality of the information? It is
 outside the scope of this HOWTO to tell you that but it is still
 something you should keep in mind. You should at least check the
 information is recent enough to be current to your problem.

 As a bare minimum you should ensure a minimum of validity of the
 documentation to avoid misleading or malicious advice. A surprising
 number of people suggests things like rm -rf /  as a solution for a
 given problem. Some see it as an obvious prank, the unaware can end up
 destroying his or her setup. Just to avoid such things you should
 check out a few things before rushing ahead:


   Is there a name attached to the document? If people are serious
    about what they write it should not be anonymous.

   Is it dated? Documents tend to evolve as the technology advances.
    Be sure you are reading the latest version. Internet search engines
    can help you here.

   Are there any followups? Be sure to check any followups or comments
    to what you read, otherwise you might miss a warning or a
    correction.

 If you keep this in mind you should not fall for too many of the scams
 that circulate on the net, from get well-cards for Craig Shergold,
 chain letters to the more recent problems of Trojans for Linux that
 tries to trick you into mailing off your password.

 There is a number of FAQs available that deals with more serious
 research method topics and you can also see a comprehensive on-line
 version <http://cn.net.au>.

 Quoted from someone's signature:

 Be alert! The world needs more lerts.

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