Not CentOS specific, a fantastic resource is Rute User's Tutorial and 
Exposition [0]. It has a little of everything, and will certainly help 
lead you in the right direction if you need to find something. It's the 
closest thing to a Linux manual I could ever find.

-David

[0] http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

Alex Dean wrote:
> keith smith wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm a web programmer and from time to time I am tasked to do some work 
>> on a server.  While I have been using and playing with Linux for about 
>> 8 years I have really not spent too much time working with it in the 
>> real world until recently.
>>
>> I personally run Fedora and the webservers I work on run CentOS or RHEL.
>>
>> I am looking for a reference that will list the things I might need to 
>> know to manage a (web) server from the command line.  Is there such a 
>> thing or is it a crazy question?
>>
> 
> Hi Keith.  I feel your pain.  There are lots of things to know, and it 
> would be great to have it all in one place.  The diversity/variety of 
> free software means there usually isn't a single 'manual' for how to do 
> things.
> 
> For CentOs specifically, try http://www.centos.org/docs/.
> 
> The trouble, though, is that the set of 'what I need to know' and 'what 
> you need to know' and 'what generic hacker/admin needs to know' are 
> never the same sets of stuff.
> 
> I think the best advice is to start a collection of useful bookmarks (or 
> a wiki page or whatever other medium suits you) for documentation for 
> the set of technologies that comprise your application stack.
>  * You've mentioned you're a PHP developer in other posts, so of course 
> you know about php.net.
>  * httpd.apache.org/docs is first-rate documentation for Apache (and 
> could help you with the htpasswd confusion).
>  * MySQL, Postgres, and other RDBMSs have great online docs.
>  * For ssh questions, try http://www.openssh.com/manual.html.
>  * You might also want to collect information SEO or interface design. 
>  That wouldn't be relevant to lots of programmers, but makes a ton of 
> sense for web stuff.
> 
> The point is that there's tons of information out there, but given the 
> great variety of possible combinations of software, it's unlikely 
> someone shares your identical stack and documentation needs.
> 
> I'd say a wiki could work quite well.  (It has for me.)  Not only can 
> you collect links that are useful, but you can also write your own 
> HOWTOs (tailored to your situation).  Making it public means that others 
> can benefit from your reasearch, and even add to what you've collected.
> 
> The trick is often identifying which organization/web site will have 
> documentation for the specific issue you're working out.  Knowing that 
> openssh.org will have info on /usr/bin/ssh isn't obvious to everyone.  I 
> usually start with 'man whatever' for an unfamiliar program, and use the 
> man page to check for references to URLs.  I scan the man pages for 
> keywords or organization names that can form the basis for better web 
> searches.  Also try looking in /usr/share or /usr/doc.  Config files in 
> /etc often have piles of comments that can point you in a useful 
> direction.  Keep in mind that man pages aren't limited to binaries. 'man 
> ssh_config' gives more details about that specific config file. Really, 
> trying 'man <anything>' is worth a shot.
> 
> On RPM-based distros like RHEL/Centos, you can use the RPM database to 
> get more information.  'rpm -qf /usr/bin/ssh' will tell you which 
> package /usr/bin/ssh belongs to.  then feed that package name into 'rpm 
> -ql <packagename>' to find all files that are part of that package. This 
> can often turn up documentation files in odd places you wouldn't have 
> thought to look in.  I know there are equivalent commands for 
> Debian/dpkg, but i don't know them offhand.
> 
> I hope that helps.
> 
> alex
> 
> 
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