Applied Bill Maltby's grammar patch. Changed $LFS to LFS where appropriate. Internal XML cleanup: removed double spacing where appropriate.

git-svn-id: http://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/LFS/trunk/BOOK@2138 4aa44e1e-78dd-0310-a6d2-fbcd4c07a689

33 files changed, 131 insertions, 132 deletions

diff --git a/appendixa/autoconf-desc.xml b/appendixa/autoconf-desc.xml
index e6a96c78c..d038efbed 100644
--- a/appendixa/autoconf-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/autoconf-desc.xml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ ifnames</para></sect3>
 <sect4><title>autoconf</title>
 <para>autoconf is a tool for producing shell scripts that automatically
 configure software source code packages to adapt to many kinds of
-Unix-like systems.  The configuration scripts produced by autoconf are
+Unix-like systems. The configuration scripts produced by autoconf are
 independent of autoconf when they are run, so their users do not need to
 have autoconf.</para></sect4>
 
@@ -24,18 +24,18 @@ statements for configure to use.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>autoreconf</title>
 <para>If there are a lot of autoconf-generated configure scripts, the
-autoreconf program can save some work.  It runs autoconf (and
-autoheader, where appropriate) repeatedly to remake the autoconf
+autoreconf program can save some work. It runs autoconf and
+autoheader (where appropriate) repeatedly to remake the autoconf
 configure scripts and configuration header templates in the directory
 tree rooted at the current directory.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>autoscan</title>
 <para>The autoscan program can help to create a configure.in file for
-a software package. autoscan examines source files in the directory
-tree rooted at a directory given as a command line argument, or the
-current directory if none is given.  It searches the source files for
-common portability problems and creates a file configure.scan which
-is a preliminary configure.in for that package.</para></sect4>
+a software package. autoscan examines the source files in a directory
+tree. If a directory is not specified on the command line, then the
+current working directory is used. The source files are searched for
+common portability problems and a configure.scan file is created to
+serve as the preliminary configure.in for that package.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>autoupdate</title>
 <para>The autoupdate program updates a configure.in file that calls
@@ -46,9 +46,9 @@ macro names.</para></sect4>
 <para>ifnames can help when writing a configure.in for a software
 package. It prints the identifiers that the package already uses in C
 preprocessor conditionals. If a package has already been set up to
-have some portability, this program can help to figure out what its
-configure needs to check for. It may help fill in some gaps in a
-configure.in generated by autoscan.</para></sect4>
+have some portability, this program can help to determine what configure
+needs to check. It may fill in some gaps in a configure.in file generated
+by autoscan.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/automake-desc.xml b/appendixa/automake-desc.xml
index 84791910c..7879172a4 100644
--- a/appendixa/automake-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/automake-desc.xml
@@ -14,19 +14,19 @@ mdate-sh, missing, mkinstalldirs, py-compile, ylwrap</para></sect3>
 
 <sect4><title>aclocal, aclocal-1.6</title>
 <para>automake includes a number of autoconf macros which can be used in
-packages; some of them are actually required by automake in certain
-situations. These macros must be defined in the aclocal.m4-file;
-otherwise they will not be seen by autoconf.</para>
+packages, some of which are needed by automake in certain
+situations. These macros must be defined in the aclocal.m4-file
+or they will not be seen by autoconf.</para>
 
 <para>The aclocal program will automatically generate aclocal.m4 files
-based on the contents of configure.in.  This provides a convenient
-way to get automake-provided macros, without having to search around.
+based on the contents of configure.in. This provides a convenient
+way to get automake-provided macros without having to search around.
 Also, the aclocal mechanism is extensible for use 
 by other packages.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>automake, automake-1.6</title>
 <para>To create all the Makefile.in's for a package, run the automake
-program in the top level directory, with no arguments.  automake will
+program in the top level directory, with no arguments. automake will
 automatically find each appropriate Makefile.am (by scanning
 configure.in) and generate the corresponding Makefile.in.</para></sect4>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/bash-desc.xml b/appendixa/bash-desc.xml
index 66890ef9d..cf96fc4f7 100644
--- a/appendixa/bash-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/bash-desc.xml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ program.</para></sect4>
 reports concerning bash in a standard format.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>sh</title>
-<para>sh is a symlink to the bash program.  When invoked as sh, bash 
+<para>sh is a symlink to the bash program. When invoked as sh, bash 
 tries to mimic the startup behavior of historical versions of sh as closely 
 as possible, while conforming to the POSIX standard as
 well.</para></sect4>
diff --git a/appendixa/bin86-desc.xml b/appendixa/bin86-desc.xml
index d3dceb291..8cc48c782 100644
--- a/appendixa/bin86-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/bin86-desc.xml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ into a C file prog.v to be included in or linked with programs like boot
 block installers.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>ld86</title>
-<para>ld86 understands only the object files produced by the as86 assembler, it 
+<para>ld86 understands only the object files produced by the as86 assembler. It 
 can link them into either an impure or a 
 separate I&amp;D executable.</para></sect4>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/binutils-desc.xml b/appendixa/binutils-desc.xml
index 1ab0ca206..5100f6b1f 100644
--- a/appendixa/binutils-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/binutils-desc.xml
@@ -11,14 +11,14 @@ ranlib, readelf, size, strings and strip</para></sect3>
 
 <sect4><title>addr2line</title>
 <para>addr2line translates program addresses into file names and line numbers. 
-Given an address and an executable, it uses the  debugging information in 
+Given an address and an executable, it uses the debugging information in 
 the executable to figure out which file name and line number are associated 
 with a given address.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>ar</title>
 <para>The ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. An archive 
 is a single file holding a collection of other files in a structure that makes 
-it  possible to retrieve the original individual files (called members of 
+it possible to retrieve the original individual files (called members of 
 the archive).</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>as</title>
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ the archive).</para></sect4>
 <para>gprof displays call graph profile data.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>ld</title>
-<para>ld combines a number of object and archive files,  relocates  their data 
+<para>ld combines a number of object and archive files, relocates their data 
 and ties up symbol references. Often the last step in building a new compiled 
 program to run is a call to ld.</para></sect4>
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ programmers who just want their program to compile and work.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>ranlib</title>
 <para>ranlib generates an index to the contents of an archive, and stores it in 
-the archive.  The index lists each symbol defined by a member of an archive 
+the archive. The index lists each symbol defined by an archive member
 that is a relocatable object file.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>readelf</title>
@@ -65,8 +65,8 @@ object files in its argument list. By default, one line of output is
 generated for each object file or each module in an archive.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>strings</title>
-<para>For each  file  given, strings prints the printable character sequences 
-that are at least  4  characters  long (or the number specified with an
+<para>For each file given, strings prints the printable character sequences 
+that are at least 4 characters long (or the number specified with an
 option to the program) and are followed by an unprintable character. By 
 default, it only prints the strings from the initialized and loaded 
 sections of object files. For other types of files, it prints the strings 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ modified copies under different names.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>libopcodes</title>
 <para>libopcodes is a native library for dealing with opcodes and is
-used in the course of building utilities such as objdump.  Opcodes are
+used in the course of building utilities such as objdump. Opcodes are
 actually "readable text" versions of instructions for the 
 processor.</para></sect4>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/bison-desc.xml b/appendixa/bison-desc.xml
index 5c5fa1070..77b0432b7 100644
--- a/appendixa/bison-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/bison-desc.xml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Another Compiler Compiler. What is bison then? It is a program that
 generates a program that analyzes the structure of a text file. Instead of
 writing the actual program a user specifies how things should be connected
 and with those rules a program is constructed that analyzes the 
-text file.  There are a lot of examples where structure is needed and 
+text file. There are a lot of examples where structure is needed and 
 one of them is the calculator.</para>
 
 <para>Given the string :</para>
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ to the compiler:</para>
 multiplies 2 and 3. The result of that multiplication is remembered and
 the next thing that the computer sees is the result of 2*3 and the
 number 1 which are joined by the add symbol. Adding 1 to the previous
-result makes 7. In calculating the most complex calculations can be
+result makes 7. In calculating, the most complex calculations can be
 broken down in this tree format and the computer just starts at the
 bottom and works its way up to the top and comes with the correct
 answer. Of course, bison isn't only used for calculators
diff --git a/appendixa/bzip2-desc.xml b/appendixa/bzip2-desc.xml
index 333a4f066..106a195a3 100644
--- a/appendixa/bzip2-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/bzip2-desc.xml
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@ bzip2 compressed files.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>bzip2</title>
 <para>bzip2 compresses files using the Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text 
-compression algorithm, and Huffman coding. Compression is generally 
-considerably  better than that achieved by more conventional LZ77/LZ78-based 
-compressors, and approaches the performance of the PPM family of statistical 
+compression algorithm and Huffman coding. Compression is generally 
+considerably better than that achieved by more conventional LZ77/LZ78-based 
+compressors and approaches the performance of the PPM family of statistical 
 compressors.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>bzip2recover</title>
@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ compressors.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>bzless</title>
 <para>bzless is a filter which allows examination of compressed
-or plain text files one screenful at a time on a soft-copy
+or plain text files, one screenful at a time on a soft-copy
 terminal, like less.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>bzmore</title>
 <para>bzmore is a filter which allows examination of compressed
-or plain text files one screenful at a time on a soft-copy
+or plain text files, one screenful at a time on a soft-copy
 terminal, like more.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ libbz2.so.1.0.2) and libbz2.so.1.0.2</para>
 
 <sect4><title>libbz2</title>
 <para>libbz2 is the library for implementing lossless, block-sorting data
-compression using the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm.</para></sect4>
+compression, using the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/e2fsprogs-desc.xml b/appendixa/e2fsprogs-desc.xml
index f92a1b408..cd20916c5 100644
--- a/appendixa/e2fsprogs-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/e2fsprogs-desc.xml
@@ -20,12 +20,12 @@ partition).</para></sect4>
 system.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>compile_et</title>
-<para>compile_et is used to convert a table listing error-code names
-and associated messages into a C source file suitable for use with the 
-com_err library.</para></sect4>
+<para>compile_et is used to convert a table, listing error-code names
+and associated messages, into a C source file that is suitable for use
+with the com_err library.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>debugfs</title>
-<para>The debugfs program is a file system debugger. It can be used  to examine 
+<para>The debugfs program is a file system debugger. It can be used to examine 
 and change the state of an ext2 file system.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>dumpe2fs</title>
@@ -33,11 +33,11 @@ and change the state of an ext2 file system.</para></sect4>
 filesystem present on a specified device.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>e2fsck and fsck.ext2</title>
-<para>e2fsck is used to check and optionally repair Linux second
-extended filesystems. fsck.ext2 does the same as e2fsck.</para></sect4>
+<para>e2fsck and fsck.ext2 are used to check, and optionally repair, Linux
+second extended filesystems.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>e2image</title>
-<para>e2image is used to save critical ext2 filesystem data to 
+<para>e2image is used to save critical ext2 filesystem data to
 a file.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>e2label</title>
@@ -45,11 +45,11 @@ a file.</para></sect4>
 filesystem located on the specified device.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>fsck</title>
-<para>fsck is used to check and optionally repair a Linux 
-file system.</para></sect4>
+<para>fsck is used to check, and optionally repair, a Linux file
+system.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>fsck.ext3</title>
-<para>fsck.ext3 is used to check and optionally repair a Linux ext3 
+<para>fsck.ext3 is used to check, and optionally repair, a Linux ext3 
 filesystems.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>lsattr</title>
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ file system.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>mk_cmds</title>
 <para>The mk_cmds utility takes a command table file as input and produces
-a C source file as output which is intended to be used with the subsystem
+a C source file as output, which is intended to be used with the subsystem
 library, libss.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>mke2fs and mkfs.ext2</title>
@@ -84,8 +84,8 @@ filesystem.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>uuidgen</title>
 <para>The uuidgen program creates a new universally unique identifier (UUID) 
 using the libuuid library. The new UUID can reasonably be considered unique 
-among all UUIDs created on the local system, and among UUIDs created on other
-systems in the past and in the future.</para></sect4>
+among all UUIDs created, on the local system and on other
+systems, in the past and in the future.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/ed-desc.xml b/appendixa/ed-desc.xml
index ad2759cdd..9d5de8589 100644
--- a/appendixa/ed-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/ed-desc.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 <sect3><title>Description</title>
 
 <sect4><title>ed</title>
-<para>ed is a line-oriented text editor.  It is used to create, display,
+<para>ed is a line-oriented text editor. It is used to create, display,
 modify and otherwise manipulate text files.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>red</title>
diff --git a/appendixa/file-desc.xml b/appendixa/file-desc.xml
index ec891d92b..a528fee4e 100644
--- a/appendixa/file-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/file-desc.xml
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
 
 <sect4><title>file</title>
 <para>file tests each specified file in an attempt to classify it. There are
-three sets  of  tests,  performed in this order: filesystem tests, 
-magic number tests, and language tests. The first test that succeeds 
+three sets of tests, performed in this order: filesystem tests, 
+magic number tests and language tests. The first test that succeeds 
 causes the file type to be printed.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
diff --git a/appendixa/fileutils-desc.xml b/appendixa/fileutils-desc.xml
index f25533d1a..1db269027 100644
--- a/appendixa/fileutils-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/fileutils-desc.xml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ which can be either a group name or a numeric group ID.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>chmod</title>
 <para>chmod changes the permissions of each given file according to mode, which 
-can be either a symbolic representation of changes to make, or an octal 
+can be either a symbolic representation of changes to make or an octal 
 number representing the bit pattern for the new permissions.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>chown</title>
@@ -38,20 +38,20 @@ available on all currently mounted filesystems is shown.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>dir, ls and vdir</title>
 <para>dir and vdir are versions of ls with different default output formats. 
 These programs list each given file or directory name. Directory contents 
-are sorted alphabetically.  For ls, files are by default listed in columns, 
-sorted  vertically, if the standard output is a terminal; otherwise they 
-are listed one per  line. For dir, files are by default listed in columns,
-sorted vertically. For vdir, files are by default listed in 
+are sorted alphabetically. For ls, files are, by default, listed in columns 
+sorted vertically if the standard output is a terminal; otherwise they 
+are listed one per line. For dir, files are, by default, listed in columns
+sorted vertically. For vdir, files are, by default, listed in 
 long format.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>dircolors</title>
-<para>dircolors  outputs commands to set the LS_COLOR environment variable.
+<para>dircolors outputs commands to set the LS_COLOR environment variable.
 The LS_COLOR variable is use to change the default color scheme used by
 ls and related utilities.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>du</title>
-<para>du displays the amount of disk space used by each argument and for each 
-subdirectory of directory arguments.</para></sect4>
+<para>du displays the amount of disk space used by each file or directory
+listed on the command-line and by each of their subdirectories.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>install</title>
 <para>install copies files and sets their permission modes and, if possible, 
diff --git a/appendixa/flex-desc.xml b/appendixa/flex-desc.xml
index 313a41bb7..02b2e88eb 100644
--- a/appendixa/flex-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/flex-desc.xml
@@ -9,12 +9,11 @@
 
 <sect4><title>flex</title>
 <para>flex is a tool for generating programs which recognize 
-patterns in text.  Pattern recognition is very useful in many applications. 
-A user sets up rules 
-what to look for and flex will make a program that looks for those
-patterns. The reason people use flex is that it is much easier to set up 
-rules for what to look for than to write the actual program which finds 
-the text.</para></sect4>
+patterns in text. Pattern recognition is very useful in many applications. 
+A user sets up rules about what to look for and flex will make a program
+that looks for those patterns. The reason people use flex is that it is
+much easier to set up rules for what to look for than to write the actual
+program which finds the text.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>flex++</title>
 <para>flex++ invokes a version of flex which is used exclusively for 
diff --git a/appendixa/gcc-desc.xml b/appendixa/gcc-desc.xml
index f2408b4de..8848a5120 100644
--- a/appendixa/gcc-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/gcc-desc.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ g++, gcc, gccbug, gcov and tradcpp0</para></sect3>
 <sect3><title>Descriptions</title>
 
 <sect4><title>cc, cc1, cc1plus, gcc</title>
-<para>These are the C compiler.  A compiler translates source code in
+<para>These are the C compiler. A compiler translates source code in
 text format to a format that a computer understands. After a source code 
 file is compiled into an object file, a linker will create an executable 
 file from one or more of these compiler generated object files.</para></sect4>
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ gcc etc.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>c++filt</title>
 <para>The C++ language provides function overloading, which means that it is
 possible to write many functions with the same name (providing each takes
-parameters of different types).  All C++ function names are encoded into
+parameters of different types). All C++ function names are encoded into
 a low-level assembly label (this process is known as mangling). The c++filt
 program does the inverse mapping: it decodes (demangles) low-level names
 into user-level names so that the linker can keep these overloaded functions
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ libsupc++.a</para></sect3>
 programs including getopt, obstack, strerror, strtol and strtoul.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>libstdc++</title>
-<para>libstdc++ is the C++ library.  It is used by C++ programs and contains
+<para>libstdc++ is the C++ library. It is used by C++ programs and contains
 functions that are frequently used in C++ programs. This way the
 programmer doesn't have to write certain functions (such as writing a
 string of text to the screen) from scratch every time he creates a
diff --git a/appendixa/gettext-desc.xml b/appendixa/gettext-desc.xml
index c4b6af7c6..df3587379 100644
--- a/appendixa/gettext-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/gettext-desc.xml
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@ team-address, trigger, urlget, user-email and xgettext</para></sect3>
 <sect3><title>Descriptions</title>
 
 <sect4><title>config.charset</title>
-<para>The config.charset script outputs a system dependent table of
+<para>The config.charset script outputs a system-dependent table of
 character encoding aliases.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>config.rpath</title>
-<para>The config.rpath script outputs a system dependent set of variables,
+<para>The config.rpath script outputs a system-dependent set of variables,
 describing how to set the run time search path of shared libraries in an
 executable.</para></sect4>
 
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ executable.</para></sect4>
 <para>The gettext package is used for internationalization (also known as
 i18n) and for localization (also known as l10n). Programs can be
 compiled with Native Language Support (NLS) which enable them to output
-messages in the users native language rather than in the default English
+messages in the user's native language rather than in the default English
 language.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>gettextize</title>
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ forms.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>msgattrib</title>
 <para>The msgattrib program filters the messages of a translation catalog
-according to their attributes, and manipulates the attributes.</para></sect4>
+according to their attributes and manipulates the attributes.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>msgcat</title>
 <para>The msgcat program finds messages which are common in several raw
diff --git a/appendixa/glibc-desc.xml b/appendixa/glibc-desc.xml
index 37f849aaa..3597c7622 100644
--- a/appendixa/glibc-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/glibc-desc.xml
@@ -72,8 +72,8 @@ PC profiling.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>pt_chown</title>
 <para>pt_chown sets the owner, group and access permission of the
 slave pseudo terminal corresponding to the master pseudo terminal passed 
-on file descriptor `3'.  This is the helper program for the `grantpt' 
-function.  It is not intended to be run directly from the command
+on file descriptor `3'. This is the helper program for the `grantpt' 
+function. It is not intended to be run directly from the command
 line.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>rpcgen</title>
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ line.</para></sect4>
 <para>rpcinfo makes an RPC call to an RPC server.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>sln</title>
-<para>sln symbolically links dest to source.  It is statically linked,
-needing no dynamic linking at all.  Thus sln is useful to make symbolic 
+<para>sln symbolically links dest to source. It is statically linked,
+needing no dynamic linking at all. Thus sln is useful to make symbolic 
 links to dynamic libraries if the dynamic linking system for some reason 
 is nonfunctional.</para></sect4>
 
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ segfaults.</para></sect4>
 programs in Linux.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>libc, libc_nonshared, libc_p</title>
-<para>These files constitute the main C library.  The C library is a
+<para>These files constitute the main C library. The C library is a
 collection of commonly used functions in programs.
 This way a programmer doesn't need to create his own functions for every
 single task. The most common things like writing a string to the screen
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ are already present and at the disposal of the programmer.</para>
 a dynamic and a static one. In short, when a program uses a static C
 library, the code from the C library is copied into the executable file.
 When a program uses a dynamic library, the executable will not
-contain the code from the C library, but  instead a routine that loads
+contain the code from the C library, but instead a routine that loads
 the functions from the library at the time the program is run. This
 means a significant decrease in the file size of a program. The
 documentation that comes with the C library describes this in more
diff --git a/appendixa/groff-desc.xml b/appendixa/groff-desc.xml
index de1db0b9c..5a29c1ab1 100644
--- a/appendixa/groff-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/groff-desc.xml
@@ -53,13 +53,13 @@ for an HP Laserjet 4 printer.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>grotty</title>
 <para>grotty translates the output of GNU troff into a form suitable for 
-typewriter-like  devices.</para></sect4>
+typewriter-like devices.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>gtbl</title>
 <para>gtbl is the GNU implementation of tbl.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>hpftodit</title>
-<para>hpftodit creates a font file for use with groff -Tlj4 from an  HP
+<para>hpftodit creates a font file for use with groff -Tlj4 from an HP
 tagged font metric file.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>indxbib</title>
@@ -74,9 +74,9 @@ standard output.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>lookbib</title>
 <para>lookbib prints a prompt on the standard error (unless the standard input 
 is not a terminal), reads from the standard input a line containing a set 
-of keywords, searches the bibliographic databases in a specified file for  
+of keywords, searches the bibliographic databases in a specified file for
 references containing those keywords, prints any references found on the
-standard output, and repeats this process until the end of input.</para></sect4>
+standard output and repeats this process until the end of input.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>mmroff</title>
 <para>mmroff is a simple preprocessor for groff.</para></sect4>
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ to ASCII.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>pic</title>
 <para>pic compiles descriptions of pictures embedded within troff or TeX input 
-files into commands that are understood by TeX or  troff.</para></sect4>
+files into commands that are understood by TeX or troff.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>pre-grohtml and post-grohtml</title>
 <para>pre- and post-grohtml translate the output of GNU troff 
@@ -102,17 +102,17 @@ to html.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>refer</title>
 <para>refer copies the contents of a file to the standard output, except that 
 lines between .[ and .] are interpreted as citations, and lines between .R1 
-and  .R2  are  interpreted as commands about how citations are to be 
+and .R2 are interpreted as commands about how citations are to be 
 processed.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>soelim</title>
 <para>soelim reads files and replaces lines of the form 
-<emphasis>.so file</emphasis> by  the  contents of
+<emphasis>.so file</emphasis> by the contents of
 <emphasis>file</emphasis>.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>tbl</title>
 <para>tbl compiles descriptions of tables embedded within troff input files 
-into commands that are understood  by  troff.</para></sect4>
+into commands that are understood by troff.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>tfmtodit</title>
 <para>tfmtodit creates a font file for use with <userinput>groff
diff --git a/appendixa/gzip-desc.xml b/appendixa/gzip-desc.xml
index e2d168386..3faab5899 100644
--- a/appendixa/gzip-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/gzip-desc.xml
@@ -23,9 +23,8 @@ performance).</para></sect4>
 Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77).</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>zcat</title>
-<para>zcat uncompresses either a list of files on the command line or a
-file being read from its standard input. Then, that uncompressed data is
-written to standard output.</para></sect4>
+<para>zcat uncompresses, and writes to standard output, either a list of files
+on the command line or a file being read from standard input.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>zcmp</title>
 <para>zcmp invokes the cmp program on compressed files.</para></sect4>
@@ -35,7 +34,7 @@ written to standard output.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>zforce</title>
 <para>zforce forces a .gz extension on all gzip files so that gzip will not 
-compress them twice.  This can be useful for files with names truncated 
+compress them twice. This can be useful for files with names truncated 
 after a file transfer.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>zgrep</title>
@@ -43,7 +42,7 @@ after a file transfer.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>zmore</title>
 <para>zmore is a filter which allows examination of compressed or plain text 
-files one screen at a time on a soft-copy terminal (similar to the
+files, one screen at a time on a soft-copy terminal (similar to the
 more program).</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>znew</title>
diff --git a/appendixa/introduction.xml b/appendixa/introduction.xml
index c5c231042..972a9eb98 100644
--- a/appendixa/introduction.xml
+++ b/appendixa/introduction.xml
@@ -28,11 +28,11 @@ please refer to its man page or info page.</para>
 than others, because we just happen to know more about certain
 packages than about others. If you think anything should be added to the
 following descriptions, please don't hesitate to email the mailing
-lists.  We intend that the list should contain an in-depth description 
+lists. We intend that the list should contain an in-depth description 
 of every package installed, but we can't do it without help.</para>
 
 <para>Please note that currently only what a package does is described and not
-why it needs to be installed.  This may be added later.</para>
+why it needs to be installed. This may be added later.</para>
 
 <para>Also listed are all of the installation dependencies for all the
 packages that are installed in this book. The listings will include
diff --git a/appendixa/kbd-desc.xml b/appendixa/kbd-desc.xml
index 2a86f5a4a..c1347f5b2 100644
--- a/appendixa/kbd-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/kbd-desc.xml
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ table entries.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>setleds</title>
 <para>setleds sets the keyboard LEDs. Many people find it useful to have numlock
-enabled by default, and it is by using this program that you can 
+enabled by default and, by using this program, you can 
 achieve this.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>setlogcons</title>
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ achieve this.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>showfont</title>
 <para>showfont displays data about a font. The information shown includes font
-information, font properties, character metrics, and 
+information, font properties, character metrics and 
 character bitmaps.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>showkey</title>
diff --git a/appendixa/kernel-desc.xml b/appendixa/kernel-desc.xml
index 5067cbdd3..9f27de941 100644
--- a/appendixa/kernel-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/kernel-desc.xml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ software can run.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>linux kernel headers</title>
 <para>These are the files we copy to
-<filename>/usr/include/{linux,asm}</filename> in Chapter 5.  They should
+<filename>/usr/include/{linux,asm}</filename> in Chapter 5. They should
 match those which glibc was compiled against and therefore should
 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be replaced when upgrading the kernel. They are
 essential for compiling many programs.</para></sect4>
diff --git a/appendixa/less-desc.xml b/appendixa/less-desc.xml
index 4d37639e1..0bffaa836 100644
--- a/appendixa/less-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/less-desc.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 <sect4><title>less</title>
 <para>The less program is a file pager (or text viewer). It 
-displays the contents of a file with the ability to scroll. Less is an 
+displays the contents of a file and has the ability to scroll. Less is an 
 improvement on the common pager called <quote>more</quote>. Less has 
 the ability to scroll backwards through files as well and it doesn't need 
 to read the entire file when it starts, which makes it faster when reading 
diff --git a/appendixa/libtool-desc.xml b/appendixa/libtool-desc.xml
index cdd98b294..a64ef9c15 100644
--- a/appendixa/libtool-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/libtool-desc.xml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ package.</para></sect4>
 <sect3><title>Descriptions</title>
 
 <sect4><title>libltdl, libltdl.so.3, libltdl.so.3.1.0</title>
-<para>A small library that aims at hiding from programmers
+<para>A small library that aims at hiding, from programmers,
 the various difficulties of dlopening libraries.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
diff --git a/appendixa/m4-desc.xml b/appendixa/m4-desc.xml
index 96fe480c4..6367b267b 100644
--- a/appendixa/m4-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/m4-desc.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 <sect3><title>Descriptions</title>
 
 <sect4><title>m4</title>
-<para>m4 is a macro processor. It copies input to output expanding macros as it
+<para>m4 is a macro processor. It copies input to output, expanding macros as it
 goes. Macros are either built-in or user-defined and can take any number
 of arguments. Besides just doing macro expansion, m4 has built-in functions
 for including named files, running Unix commands, doing integer arithmetic,
diff --git a/appendixa/man-desc.xml b/appendixa/man-desc.xml
index 5793bd445..c8ac702b6 100644
--- a/appendixa/man-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/man-desc.xml
@@ -9,16 +9,16 @@ whatis</para></sect3>
 <sect3><title>Descriptions</title>
 
 <sect4><title>apropos</title>
-<para>apropos searches a set of database files containing short descriptions 
-of system commands for keywords and  displays the result on the standard 
+<para>apropos searches for keywords in a set of database files, containing
+short descriptions of system commands, and displays the result on the standard 
 output.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>makewhatis</title>
 <para>makewhatis reads all the manual pages contained in given sections of 
 manpath or the pre-formatted pages contained in the given sections of 
-catpath. For  each  page, it writes a line in the whatis database; each 
-line consists of the name of the page  and  a  short  description, 
-separated  by a dash. The description is extracted using the content of 
+catpath. For each page, it writes a line in the whatis database. Each 
+line consists of the name of the page and a short description, 
+separated by a dash. The description is extracted using the content of 
 the NAME section of the manual page.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>man</title>
@@ -31,8 +31,9 @@ the NAME section of the manual page.</para></sect4>
 <para>man2html converts a manual page into html.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>whatis</title>
-<para>whatis searches a set of database files containing short descriptions 
-of system commands for keywords and displays the result on the standard 
+<para>
+whatis searches for keywords in a set of database files, containing short
+descriptions of system commands, and displays the result on the standard 
 output. Only complete word matches are displayed.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
diff --git a/appendixa/modutils-desc.xml b/appendixa/modutils-desc.xml
index 8f6dd46a3..749bd78d4 100644
--- a/appendixa/modutils-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/modutils-desc.xml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ modinfo, modprobe (link to insmod) and rmmod (link to insmod)</para></sect3>
 kernel modules.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>genksyms</title>
-<para>genksyms reads (on standard input) the output from gcc  -E source.c 
+<para>genksyms reads (on standard input) the output from gcc -E source.c 
 and generates a file containing version information.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>insmod</title>
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ running kernel.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>modinfo</title>
 <para>modinfo examines an object file associated with a kernel module and 
-displays any  information that it can glean.</para></sect4>
+displays any information that it can glean.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>modprobe</title>
 <para>modprobe uses a Makefile-like dependency file, created by depmod,
diff --git a/appendixa/ncurses-desc.xml b/appendixa/ncurses-desc.xml
index 6cde000c0..d9e30ef7e 100644
--- a/appendixa/ncurses-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/ncurses-desc.xml
@@ -13,15 +13,15 @@ reset (link to tset), tack, tic, toe, tput and tset.</para></sect3>
 description.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>clear</title>
-<para>clear clears the screen if this is possible.  It looks in
+<para>clear clears the screen if this is possible. It looks in
 the environment for the terminal type and then in the terminfo database
 to figure out how to clear the screen.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>infocmp</title>
 <para>infocmp can be used to compare a binary terminfo entry with
 other terminfo entries, rewrite a terminfo description to 
-take advantage of the use=  terminfo field, or print  out  a  
-terminfo  description  from the binary file (term) in a variety of 
+take advantage of the use= terminfo field, or print out a
+terminfo description from the binary file (term) in a variety of 
 formats (the opposite of what tic does).</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>infotocap</title>
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ description.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>reset</title>
 <para>reset sets cooked and echo modes, turns off cbreak and raw modes, 
-turns on new-line translation  and resets any unset special characters to
+turns on new-line translation and resets any unset special characters to
 their default values before doing terminal initialization the same way
 as tset.</para></sect4>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/nettools-desc.xml b/appendixa/nettools-desc.xml
index 9505ff56d..5c0ce5eb9 100644
--- a/appendixa/nettools-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/nettools-desc.xml
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ addresses.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>netstat</title>
 <para>netstat is a multi-purpose tool used to print the network connections, 
-routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast 
+routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections and multicast 
 memberships.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>nisdomainname</title>
diff --git a/appendixa/perl-desc.xml b/appendixa/perl-desc.xml
index e3b6b92b1..57197a31b 100644
--- a/appendixa/perl-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/perl-desc.xml
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@ pod2usage, podchecker, podselect, pstruct, s2p and splain</para></sect3>
 <para>h2xs converts .h C header files to Perl extensions.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>perl, perl5.6.1</title>
-<para>perl is the Practical Extraction and Report Language.  It combines
-some of the best features of C, sed, awk, and sh into one powerful
+<para>perl is the Practical Extraction and Report Language. It combines
+some of the best features of C, sed, awk and sh into one powerful
 language.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>perlbug</title>
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ modules that come with it, and mail them.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>perldoc</title>
 <para>perldoc looks up a piece of documentation in .pod format that is
-embedded in the perl installation tree or in a perl script, and displays it 
+embedded in the perl installation tree or in a perl script and displays it 
 via "pod2man | nroff -man | $PAGER".</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>pl2pm</title>
diff --git a/appendixa/shadowpwd-desc.xml b/appendixa/shadowpwd-desc.xml
index 9f289fa82..3ca19acfd 100644
--- a/appendixa/shadowpwd-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/shadowpwd-desc.xml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 <sect3><title>Program Files</title>
 <para>chage, chfn, chpasswd, chsh, dpasswd, expiry, faillog, gpasswd, 
 groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, groups, grpck, grpconv, grpunconv, lastlog,
-login,  logoutd, mkpasswd, newgrp, newusers, passwd, pwck, pwconv, pwunconv,
+login, logoutd, mkpasswd, newgrp, newusers, passwd, pwck, pwconv, pwunconv,
 sg (link to newgrp), useradd, userdel, usermod, vigr (link to vipw) and
 vipw</para></sect3>
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ input and uses this information to update a group of
 existing users.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>chsh</title>
-<para>chsh  changes the user login shell.</para></sect4>
+<para>chsh changes the user login shell.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>dpasswd</title>
 <para>dpasswd adds, deletes, and updates dial-up passwords for 
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ are specified on the command line.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>vipw and vigr</title>
 <para>vipw and vigr will edit the files /etc/passwd and /etc/group, 
 respectively. With the -s flag, they will edit the shadow versions of 
-those files, /etc/shadow  and /etc/gshadow,  respectively.</para></sect4>
+those files, /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow, respectively.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>
 
diff --git a/appendixa/shellutils-desc.xml b/appendixa/shellutils-desc.xml
index 0029dd845..02cd024a1 100644
--- a/appendixa/shellutils-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/shellutils-desc.xml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ integer numbers.</para></sect4>
 <para>false always exits with a status code indicating failure.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>groups</title>
-<para>groups prints the groups a user is in.</para></sect4>
+<para>groups prints a user's group memberships.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>hostid</title>
 <para>hostid prints the numeric identifier (in hexadecimal) for the current 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ user or a given user.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>nohup</title>
 <para>nohup runs a command immune to hangups, with output to a 
-non-tty.</para></sect4>
+log file.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>pathchk</title>
 <para>pathchk checks whether file names are valid or portable.</para></sect4>
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ a certain user.</para></sect4>
 <para>printenv prints all or part of the environment.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>printf</title>
-<para>printf formats and prints data (the same as the printf C 
+<para>printf formats and prints data (the same as the C printf 
 function).</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>pwd</title>
diff --git a/appendixa/sysvinit-desc.xml b/appendixa/sysvinit-desc.xml
index 100507248..d43f98e9d 100644
--- a/appendixa/sysvinit-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/sysvinit-desc.xml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ the flag -h or -r).</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>init</title>
 <para>init is the parent of all processes. Its primary role is to create 
-processes from  a  script  stored  in  the  file /etc/inittab. This  
+processes from a script stored in the file /etc/inittab. This
 file usually has entries which cause init to spawn gettys on each line that
 users can log in. It also controls autonomous processes required by any 
 particular system.</para></sect4>
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ shell that is running the script it was called from.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>last</title>
 <para>last searches back through the file /var/log/wtmp (or the file designated 
-by the -f flag) and displays a list of all users logged in (and  out) 
+by the -f flag) and displays a list of all users logged in (and out) 
 since that file was created.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>lastb</title>
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ the computer.</para></sect4>
 <sect4><title>runlevel</title>
 <para>runlevel reads the system utmp file (typically /var/run/utmp) to locate 
 the runlevel record, and then prints the previous and current system 
-runlevel on its standard  output, separated by a single space.</para></sect4>
+runlevel on its standard output, separated by a single space.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>shutdown</title>
 <para>shutdown brings the system down in a secure way. All logged-in users are 
diff --git a/appendixa/texinfo-desc.xml b/appendixa/texinfo-desc.xml
index 76ae79f04..a36351fcf 100644
--- a/appendixa/texinfo-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/texinfo-desc.xml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ texindex</para></sect3>
 <sect4><title>info</title>
 <para>The info program reads Info documents, usually contained in the 
 /usr/share/info directory. Info documents are like man(ual) pages, but
-they tend to be more in depth than just explaining the options to a
+they tend to go deeper than just explaining the options to a
 program.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>infokey</title>
@@ -22,14 +22,14 @@ a binary format.</para></sect4>
 <para>The install-info program updates the info entries. When the info
 program is run, a list with available topics (ie: available info documents)
 will be presented. The install-info program is used to maintain this list of
-available topics. If info files are removed manually, it is also necessary
-to delete the topic in the index file as well. This program is used for
+available topics. If info files are removed manually, you must also delete
+the topic in the index file. This program is used for
 that. It also works the other way around when info documents are 
 added.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>makeinfo</title>
 <para>The makeinfo program translates Texinfo source documents into various 
-formats.  Available formats are: info files, plain text and HTML.</para></sect4>
+formats. Available formats are: info files, plain text and HTML.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>texi2dvi</title>
 <para>The texi2dvi program prints Texinfo documents.</para></sect4>
diff --git a/appendixa/textutils-desc.xml b/appendixa/textutils-desc.xml
index fa7e0df6a..68d961a05 100644
--- a/appendixa/textutils-desc.xml
+++ b/appendixa/textutils-desc.xml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ file.</para></sect4>
 <para>comm compares two sorted files line by line.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>csplit</title>
-<para>csplit outputs pieces of a file separated  by (a) pattern(s) to files
+<para>csplit outputs pieces of a file separated by (a) pattern(s) to files
 xx01, xx02, ..., and outputs byte counts of each piece to standard 
 output.</para></sect4>
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ output.</para></sect4>
 output.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>expand</title>
-<para>expand converts  tabs in files to spaces, writing to standard 
+<para>expand converts tabs in files to spaces, writing to standard 
 output.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>fmt</title>
@@ -106,8 +106,8 @@ output.</para></sect4>
 <para>uniq removes duplicate lines from a sorted file.</para></sect4>
 
 <sect4><title>wc</title>
-<para>wc prints line, word, and byte counts for each specified file, and a
-total line if more than one file is specified.</para></sect4>
+<para>wc prints line, word and byte counts for each specified file and a
+total line, if more than one file is specified.</para></sect4>
 
 </sect3>