The following list offers a brief overview (listed as either a default package or an optional package).
| Utility/Package | What It Does |
| Default Packages | |
| conman | Provides connectivity with other remote consoles. See http://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix_commands/conman.htm for additional information. |
| mgetty | Allows connectivity with modems. See http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/mgetty8.html for additional information. |
| mkbootdisk | Creates a boot disk for starting the system. See http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/mkbootdisk8.html for additional information. |
| net-snmp-libs | Contains the libraries used for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-related tasks. |
| nmap | Performs detailed network mapping tasks. See https://nmap.org/ for additional information. |
| ntp | Synchronizes the clocks of the systems within a given network with a master time source (ultimately allowing synchronization with an Internet source, such as time.nist.gov). See http://www.ntp.org/ for additional information. |
| openldap-clients | Contains the libraries used for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)-related tasks. |
| quota | Manages disk quotas for both users and groups. See http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Quota.html for additional information. |
| rng-tools (includes: rngd and rngtest) | Performs testing and configuration of the random number-generation capabilities of a system. Because a virtual machine can't access the underlying hardware, this set of utilities isn't useful when working with AWS. |
| screen | Allows use of multiple shell windows when working with SSH. See https://www.rackaid.com/blog/linux-screen-tutorial-and-how-to/ for additional information. |
| xdelta | Performs delta compression on C libraries to make them smaller. See http://xdelta.org/ for additional information. |
| zisofs-tools (includes: mkzftree) | Contains the tools needed to work with compressed disks. See http://freecode.com/projects/zisofs-tools for additional information. |
| zsh | Provides access to a shell used for interactive and scripted command-line tasks. See http://zsh.sourceforge.net/ for additional information. |
| Optional Packages | |
| adjtimex | Displays and sets the Linux kernel time variables. See http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/adjtimex8.html for additional information. |
| amanda-client | Contains the tools required to implement the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver (AMANDA). These tools are designed for use with Windows, so they won't work with your free-tier Linux installation. See http://www.amanda.org/ for additional information. |
| arptables_jf | Contains the tools required to work with the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). See http://kb.linuxvirtualserver.org/wiki/Using_arptables_to_disable_ARP for additional information. |
| arpwatch | Tracks Ethernet and IP address pairings. See http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/arpwatch8.html for additional information. |
| audit (includes: augenrules, aureport, ausearch, and autrace) | Contains the tools required to perform audits of processes. See https://linux-audit.com/tag/autrace/ and https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-the-linux-auditing-system-on-centos-7 for additional information. |
| avahi-tools | Contains the tools used to implement the Avahi zero-configuration networking system. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/avahi for additional information. |
| createrepo | Provides the means for working with RPM-metadata (repodata). See http://createrepo.baseurl.org/ for additional information. |
| gnutls-utils (includes: certtool, gnutls-cli, gnutls-cli-debug, gnutls-serv, and psktool) | Contains utilities for working with the GNU Transport Layer Security (TLS) features of AWS. See http://www.gnutls.org/ for additional information. |
| iptraf | Performs IP monitoring tasks. See http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/iptraf8.html for additional information. |
| ktune | Performs kernel-tuning tasks. Because a virtual machine can't access the underlying operating system, this utility isn't useful when working with AWS. |
| lslk | Lists local locks on files. This utility is outdated. See http://linux.die.net/man/8/lslk for additional information. |
| lsscsi | Obtains information about Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) drives attached to the local system. Because a virtual machine can't access the underlying hardware, this utility isn't useful when working with AWS. See http://sg.danny.cz/scsi/lsscsi.html for additional information. |
| mc | Provides the means to manage files on disk using the Midnight Commander utility. See https://www.midnight-commander.org/ for additional information. |
| mrtg | Tracks the activities of any routers attached to the system using the Mult-Router Traffic Grabber. See http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/ for additional information. |
| net-snmp-utils (includes: encode_keychange, snmpbulkget, snmpbulkwalk, snmpdelta, snmpdf, snmpget, snmpgetnext, snmpinform, snmpnetstat, snmpset, snmpstatus, snmptable, snmptest, snmptranslate, snmptrap, snmpusm, snmpvacm, and snmpwalk) | Contains a number of tools for performing SNMP-related tasks. See http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net/ for additional information. |
| pinentry | Displays dialog boxes used to enter Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) and other security information. See https://www.gnupg.org/related_software/pinentry/index.en.html for additional details. |
| uuidd | Generates Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) to ensure that apps and other system processes can recognize unique instances of any object. See http://linux.die.net/man/8/uuidd for additional information. |
| vlock | Locks a virtual console, enabling you to save your current session. See http://linux.die.net/man/1/vlock for additional information. |
| watchdog | Performs tests to ensure that the system hasn't frozen because of an errant process. See http://linux.die.net/man/8/watchdog for additional information. |
Linux offers a wealth of other group packages not found in this chapter that you might find helpful. For example, you might find that you need the tau-epsilon-chi (TeX) editor support provided by Linux, which means installing the TeX Support group package. (TeX is a typesetting system originally created by Donald Knuth.)