LIS 525 - Linuxconf
What is Linuxconf?
Rather than using raw Linux commands
or editing configuration files directly,
you may be able to perform many common administrative tasks
on a Linux server
through a utility.
One such utility, which is freeware,
is Linuxconf.
It lets a superuser manage various aspects of the server:
- boot and boot services;
- date & time;
- DNS (where to look for domain names);
- email (sendmail);
- file systems and file services
(disk quotas, partitions, etc.);
- firewalls;
- network connectivity;
- user accounts.
Linuxconf is composed of a large number of modules.
The core distribution includes many of these,
among them one for the most important features
of Apache,
one for Samba,
and one for FTP (wu-ftpd).
Linuxconf can be set up to provide a Web interface to allow
the administrator to configure the server
and other users to change their passwords,
although this feature is disabled by default.
Instead, the administrator
must either use telnet or physically access the server machine
and then use command lines or a menu interface.
To enable the Web interface,
the administrator can select
"Config|Networking|Misc|Linuxconf network access"
from the menus.
The administrator limits Web access to configuration
not only by user password
but also to specific hosts or networks.
Apache Features Accessible Via Linuxconf
- Administrator email.
- Server name.
For example, if this is not the same as the official host name.
- Server aliases, if any.
- Document root:
the directory from which most of Web pages will be served.
- Locations of log files.
- Script alias,
which maps a CGI directory in a URL
to the actual directory on the server.
- CGI user and group.
Usually set to "nobody",
a user/group with limited privileges,
for security reasons.
- Listen on port.
Usually 80,
but could be set to something else for special purposes.
- Add virtual domains.
- Add specifics for particular subdirectories.
For More Information
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Last updated October 14, 2005.
This page maintained by
Prof. Tim Craven
E-mail (text/plain only): craven@uwo.ca
Faculty of Information and
Media Studies
University of Western
Ontario,
London, Ontario
Canada, N6A 5B7