About This Guide

The QNX Neutrino User's Guide is intended for all users of a QNX Neutrino system, from system administrators to end users.

This guide tells you how to:

Use the QNX Neutrino runtime environment, regardless of the kind of computer it's running on (embedded system or desktop). Think of this guide as the companion how-to doc for the Utilities Reference. Assuming there's a Neutrino system prompt waiting for input, this guide is intended to help you learn how to interact with that prompt.
Perform such traditional system administration topics as setting up user accounts, security, starting up a Neutrino machine, etc.

The Neutrino User's Guide is intended for programmers who develop Neutrino-based applications, as well as OEMs and other "resellers" of the OS, who may want to pass this guide on to their end users as a way to provide documentation for the OS component of their product.

The following table may help you find information quickly:

To find out about:	Go to:
How Neutrino compares to other operating systems	Getting to Know the OS
Starting and ending a session, and turning off a Neutrino system	Logging In, Logging Out, and Shutting Down
Adding users to the system, managing passwords, etc.	Managing User Accounts
The basics of using the keyboard, command line, and shell (command interpreter)	Using the Command Line
Files, directories, and permissions	Working with Files
How to edit files	Using Editors
Configuring what your machine does when it boots	Controlling How Neutrino Starts
Customizing your shell, setting the time, etc.	Configuring Your Environment
Creating your own commands	Writing Shell Scripts
The filesystems that Neutrino supports	Working with Filesystems
Accessing other machines with Neutrino's native networking	Using Qnet for Transparent Distributed Processing
Setting up TCP/IP	TCP/IP Networking
Adding USB devices, terminals, video cards, and other hardware to your system	Connecting Hardware
Keeping track of changes to your software and other files	Using CVS
Backing up and restoring your files	Backing Up and Recovering Data
Making your Neutrino system more secure	Securing Your System
Analyzing and improving your machine's performance	Fine-Tuning Your System
How many processes, files, etc. your system can support	Understanding System Limits
How to get help	Technical Support
Samples of buildfiles, profiles, etc.	Examples
Terms used in this document	Glossary

For information about programming in Neutrino, see Getting Started with QNX Neutrino: A Guide for Realtime Programmers and the QNX Neutrino Programmer's Guide.