Welcome to RedHat Linux

 RH033
 Hardware Requirements

Pentium Pro or better with 256 MB RAM

Or
64-bit Intel/AMD with 512 MB RAM
2-6 GB disk space
Bootable CD
Other processor architectures supported
Itanium 2, IBM Power, IBM Mainframe
 Lesson 1 Fundamentals of
Linux
Introduction
Linux is an open source operating system with
highly advanced features.

Topics
Brief History of Linux
Why is Linux?
Linux Distributions
 Brief History of Linux


Linux was originally developed by Linus
Torvald in 1991.


Linux is distributed under the GNU licenses.


GNU stands for Gnu Not UNIX, it is an open
source movement started by Richard
Stallman in the year 1984.


The main aim of GNU is to provide the O.S
and its source code freely.
 Why Linux?

Linux is an Open Source Software

Multi-user and multi-tasking

Supports most of modern PC hardware

Fully supported distribution

 Linux Distributions


To install Linux, choose a Linux Distribution


A distribution is the Linux kernel, plus an
installation program, plus some set of
applications


There are four general distributions
◦ RedHat
◦ SuSE
◦ Mandriva Linux
◦ Debian
 Linux Distributions
The Red Hat and SuSE distributions are produced by
companies by the same names.
They aim at providing an easy installation procedure, and
for a pleasant desktop experience. They are also good as
servers, sold in boxes, with an installation CD and printed
manual. Both can also be downloaded via the network.
Mandriva Linux (also known as Mandrake Linux) was
originated by Gael Duval.
Mandriva Linux is also notable for compiling its packages
with optimizations for Pentium-class and more advanced
processors which are incompatible with older CPU versions
such as 386 and 486.
 Linux Distributions


The Debian distribution is produced by a
volunteer organization.


Its installation is less easy: You have to
answer questions during the installation the
other distributions deduce automatically.
Nothing complicated as such, but requiring
understanding of and information about
hardware most PC users don't want to worry
about.


On the other hand, after installation, Debian
Logging In and General
Orientation
 Module 2 Logging In and
General Orientation

Introduction
In Linux, a terminal session starts by
logging in through the terminal. When the
user logs in for the first time, the user
account is set and provided with a
password.


Topics
◦ Typical terminal session
◦ Concept of Login and Logout
◦ Opening of Shell Prompt
◦ Command Line Format
◦ Basic commands
◦ vi Editor
 A Typical Terminal Session

Provides login prompt to the user

Linux has two modes of terminals

Graphical User Interface
Character User Interface

Linux has seven terminals by default (F1 – F6)

 Logging In and Out

A Graphical login screen Graphical Logout Session

 Opening a Shell Prompt

Snapshot
 Command Line Format


Pattern of issuing the command


The commands are separated with options
using spaces and symbols.


The options are usually prefixed with the
hyphen ( - )


Command line has three basic parts
◦ Command
◦ Options
◦ Arguments
 Shell Interpretation

Shell prompt accepts commands to perform various functions like:

Execute commands
Variable assignment
Variable substitution
Filename generation
I/O redirection
Pipelines
Command substitution
Interpretive Programming language
 Basic Commands


ls displays a list of files in current
working directory


clear clears the screen


date display the system time and date


mkdir creating a new directory


cd directory change directories


touch creates a new file with 0KB sizeContd…
 Basic Commands

vi opens a text editor

rm remove files

mv move or rename the files

cp copy the files

rmdir removes the directory

pwd display present working

exit or logout leave the session

man command Read man pages on command

 vi Editor


vi (visual) editor was written in 1976 by Bill
Joy at the University of California, Berkeley.


vi uses a small amount of memory, which
allows efficient operation when the network
is busy.


vi is the only editor which provides basic text
editing capabilities.


There are three modes of operation for vi.
They are:
◦ Command mode
 Usage of vi Editor

A text editor is a program used to edit files that

are composed of text which can be a
Simple regular text
The source code of a program or
Configuration file

The vi text editor

 Lab Exercises

Type vi editor and get the vi session

Navigating the File Systems
 Module 4 Navigating the
File Systems
Introduction
A file system is the methods and the data structures that an
operating system uses to keep track of files.

Topics
The Tree Structure
The File System Hierarchy
Path Names
Basic File System Commands
Create and Remove Directories
 The Tree Structure

Linux File Structure


Example:
/home/condron/source/xntp
 The File System Hierarchy
File System Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

The directories and files noted here are small subsets of those specified
by the FHS document.
The /dev/ Directory
The /etc/ Directory
The /lib/ Directory
The /mnt/ Directory
The /opt/ Directory
The /proc/ Directory
The /sbin/ Directory
 Path Names

A PATH is an environment variable that is a
list of directories that the operating system
looks in to find commands issued by the
user.

Example 1: # whereis ls

ls: /bin/ls /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz


There are two types of path names

◦ Relative Path Contd…

◦ Absolute Path
 Path Names

Absolute path

◦ Accessing a particular directory or file from the other

location, by typing the full details of path.
◦ Absolute path starts with the root (/) directory. It
includes all directories and sub-directories.
◦
A relative path starts in your present working directory.


Relative path

◦ Accessing a particular directory or file from same

location, by typing the file or directory name.
◦ In the case of relative path, the path does not start
with a slash.
 Basic File System Commands

pwd It displays the user’s present
working directory.


ls Lists the contents of the files
and directories


cd Changes and also opens the
directory.


cat It combines files and print on
the standard output


find Command The find command
 Create and Remove
Directories

Creating directories

◦ Use mkdir command to create a new directory

◦ Syntax
◦ # mkdir <new directory name>
◦ Example: mkdir dir1


Removing directories
◦ There are two commands you can use for removing
directories.
◦ rmdir
◦ rm -r
 Lab Exercise

How will you create a new directory?

Use rm –r to remove the existing directory.

Managing Files
 Module 5 Managing Files

Introduction
“On a Linux system, everything is a file;
if something is not a file, it is a process.”

Topics
What is a File?
File Characteristics
What can we do with Files?
 What is a File?

A file is a container for data or link to a
device.


Every file has a name and may hold data
that resides on a disk.


A file is a name and the associated data is
stored on a mass storage device. It is a
stream of data bytes.


The different types of files are:
◦ Regular files
◦ Can be text, data and drawings.
◦
Executable programs.
 File Characteristics

A file has several characteristics associated

with it. They can be displayed using the ls –l
command as shown below:
[root@localhost root]# ls -l
total 1872
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1134 Sep 28 12:31 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Oct 3 15:29 Desktop
drwx------ 8 root root 4096 Oct 3 15:15 evolution
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47186 Sep 28 12:30 install.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3436 Sep 28 12:30 install.log.syslog
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Oct 1 12:48 intro-linux
-rw------- 1 root root 1832960 Oct 1 12:42 intro-linux.html.tar
drwx------ 7 root root 4096 Oct 1 14:45 Mail
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 51 Oct 3 12:44 new.txt
[root@localhost root]#

Contd…
 File Characteristics

Example:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1134 Sep 28
12:31 anaconda-ks.cfg
0 1 2 3 4 5
6 7

The explanation of output is as follows:
◦ File Type
◦ – regular file
◦ d directory
◦ l link file
◦ c character special file
◦ b block special file
◦ p pseudo special file
◦ Permissions Contd…
◦ No. Of links to the File
 File Characteristics

Owner
Group
File Size Bytes
Time Stamp
File Name
 What can we do with Files?

A file is a collection of data, stored on disk
and that can be manipulated by listing the
contents in the directory, changing the
locations of files and directories, viewing
files, creating and editing files, moving,
copying and deleting files.


The user can also create directories, change
directories, delete directories and view PDF
files.


A directory is also a file that acts as a folder
for other files.
 Manipulating files and
directories
Copying files

Copying files and directories is done using the cp command. The

cp command is used to copy the files and directories from the specified
source to the specified destination. The user can copy a file into the
directory, but under a different name.

Syntax

cp <file name> <directory name>

Example: # cp file1 dir1

Removing files

The rm command is used to remove single files, rmdir to

remove empty directories (Use ls -a to check whether a directory is
empty or not). The rm command also has options for removing non-
empty directories with all their subdirectories, read the Info pages for
different options of rm command.
Contd…
 Manipulating files and
directories
Moving and Renaming files
The mv command is used to move a file from its source to any
location within the file structure.
Example of moving a file: # mv file1 /iiht/file1
Example of moving a file: # mv file1 /iiht/file1
The above example says, the file file1 is moved to a different directory iiht.

The mv command is also used to rename a file or a directory

Example of renaming a directory: # mv iiht dir1

Contd…
 Manipulating files and
directories
Linking files
A link is nothing more than a way of matching two or more file names to
the same set of file data. There are two ways to achieve this:
Hard link
Soft link

Hard link
Associates two or more file names with the same inode. Hard links share
the same data blocks on the hard disk, while they continue to behave as
independent files.

Soft link or symbolic link (or symlink)

Soft link is a small file that is a pointer to another file. A symbolic link
contains the path to the target file instead of a physical location on the hard disk.
Since inodes are not used in this system, soft links can span across partitions.
 Lab Exercise

Create a directory by name test and create

the files file1 file2 and file3, create
hardlink for file1 to new file data.

Differentiate deleting hard link files and soft

link files.
File Permission and Access
 Module 6 File Permission
and Access
 Introduction
Linux is a multi-user system where users can assign
different access permission to their files. Access permissions
can be set per file for owner, group and others on the basis
of read (r), write (w) and execute permissions (x).

Topics
◦ File Permissions and Access
◦ Types of Access
◦ Who has to Access to a File?
◦ Access Control Lists

Contd…
 File Permissions and Access
 Every file is owned by a particular user.

File
permissions specifies who has the access to file and
what type of access the user has.

On a Linux system, there is typically more than one user

that provides a mechanism known as file permissions
(rwx), which protect user files from accessing by other
users.

Types of permissions
◦ r – read
◦ w –write
◦ x –execute
Contd…
 File Permissions and Access
 read permission
The read permission lets a user read the contents of the file.
For directories, read permission lets the user list the contents of
the directory (using ls).

write permisison
The write permission lets the user write and modify the file.
For directories, write permission lets the user create new files or
delete files within the directory.

execute permission
The execute permission lets the user run the file as a program
or shell script (if the file is a program or shell script). For
directories, execute permission lets the user open the directory.
 Types of Access
 InLinux, every file or folder has access
permissions. There are three types of permissions.
◦ read access
◦ write access
◦ execute access

 Permissions are defined for three types of users:

◦ owner of the file
◦ group that the owner belongs to
◦ other users

Contd…
 Types of Access
 Default file permissions
By default, the Linux system assigns certain permissions to a
newly created file. The maximum permissions that we can set for an
ordinary file is 666 and for directories and an executable files is 777.

◦ The default file permission for an ordinary user is 664 and for
root it is 644.

Displaying the umask

◦ The default umask file permissions for ordinary users are 002
and for root it is 022.
◦ where,
◦ 002 imply masking write permission for others and
◦ 022 implies masking write permission for the group and others.

Contd…
 Types of Access

 Displaying the umask

◦ To display the default mask use the umask

command.
◦ Example
◦ # umask

Displaying the default umask value

Contd…
 Types of Access

Changing the umask

◦ To change the default umask use the command

◦ Syntax
◦ # umask <umask value>
◦ Example: umask 004
 Who has to Access a File?

The owner and the root have the main

access rights over a file.
Example
◦ First column gives the access permissions to the
user, group and others.
◦ Second column shows the user or owner of the
file.
◦ Third column shows the group to which the file
belongs.

Contd…
Access permission user(owner) group
 Who has to Access a File?

Changing permissions

◦ chmod command
◦ chmod changes the access permissions according
to the options for directories and files.

Syntax
# chmod o+w <filename>

Contd…
 Who has to Access a File?
 Thechmod command can be used with
alphanumeric or numeric options.
◦ Example of symbolic method
◦ chmod u+rw,g-rwx,o-rwx file1
◦ The above example, adds the read and write permission to the
user (owner) removes the read, write and execute permission
from the group to which the file belongs and removes the read,
write and execute permissions for others.
◦ Example of numeric method
◦ # chmod 600 file1
◦ 6 indicates user (owner), 0 indicates group and the last number
0 indicates others.

Contd…
 Who has to Access a File?

 Changing ownership

◦ chown command
◦ chown changes the owner and group of the file and
directory.

◦ Syntax
◦ # chown <username> <filename>

◦ Example
◦ # chown user1 file1.txt

Contd…
 Who has to Access a File?
Special File Permissions

◦ There are three types of special file permissions

set user identity (SUID)

set group identity (SGID)

sticky bit

Contd…
 Who has to Access a File?
 SUID or setuid

◦ It is represented by the character ‘s’ in the user permission

field.
◦ When this mode is set on an executable file, the other users
can login and run the executable file.

◦ The root’s id is set to the process.

◦ Syntax
◦ #chmod u+s <program name>
where,
u – user
s - suid

Contd…
 Who has to Access a File?
 SGID or setgid

◦ It is also represented by the character ‘s’ in the group permission field.

◦ The sgid permission for the user’s own directory is set by the user.

◦ When any other user creates a new file, the file gets the group
membership to which the directory belongs to and not to the primary
group of the user.
◦ Syntax
◦ chmod g+s <directory name>
where,
g – group
s – suid

Example: $ chmod g+s test

Contd…
 Who has to Access a File?
 Sticky bit
◦ If the sticky bit is set on directory, even others can read and
write the data to the file, but can not delete the file except the
owner.

Syntax
#chmod o+t <directory name>
where,
o – others
t - sticky bit

Example: # chmod o+t /tmp

Contd…
 Access Control Lists (ACLs)
 ACLis an object associated with a file and contains entries
specifying the access that individual users or groups of
users have to the file.

It provides a simple way of granting or denying access for a

specified user or groups of users on single file at the same
time.

Using the chmod command the user can set permissions to

owner, group or others.

Using ACL, the owner can set the different permissions on a

single file for different users.

Contd…
 Access Control Lists (ACLs)

 Setting ACL using Setfacl

◦ setfacl - set file access control lists

◦ Syntax
◦ setfacl – <option> u:<username>:<permissions>
<filename>

Contd…
 Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Getting ACL using getfacl

◦ The getfacl displays the file name, owner, the
group, and the Access Control List (ACL).

◦ Syntax
◦ # getfacl <filename>

Contd…
 Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Copying ACL
◦ The acl’s can be copied to any files, for which the
files get the same acl permissions from its source
file.
◦ Syntax
getfacl <acl filename> | setfacl --set-file= -
<filename>
where,
--set-file options set the acl of a file or a directory

Contd…
 Lab Exercise

Change the permission of the following file

using chmod command.
-rwx-rw-r-- file2.txt

From the following example change the

permissions to

◦ User – read, write, execute

◦ Group – read and execute
◦ Others - only execute
Shell Basics
 Module 7 Shell Basics
 Introduction
The use of a program that serves as an interface between
user and operating system is called the shell. The shell is a kind
of interpreter on the text console after the login session. This is
called the login shell.

Topic
◦ What is a Shell?
◦ Aliasing
◦ File Name Completion
◦ Command History
◦ User profiles
◦ What Happens At Login
◦ Variables
 What is a Shell?

A shell manages the interaction between the

system and its users.
A shell is a program which takes user input
(e.g. commands which you type) and
translates them into instructions that the
operating system can understand.
The shell allows the user to handle a system
in a very flexible way.

Contd…
 What is a Shell?
 Shell Features
◦ Command history
◦ The command history buffer stores the commands you enter and
let you display them at any time.

◦ Command aliases
◦ The command aliases feature lets you abbreviate long command
lines or rename commands.

◦ File name completion

◦ The file name completion feature saves typing by allowing you to
enter a portion of the file name. When you press the tab/esc key,
the shell will complete the file name for you.

◦ Command line editing

◦ This allows you to retrieve a previously entered command and edit
Contd…
it.
 What is a Shell?
 Types of shells
◦ sh or Bourne Shell
◦ This is the basic shell, a small program with few features. This
shell does not support any of the shell features such as
history, command line completion, command line editing.

◦ bash or Bourne Again shell

◦ The standard GNU shell, intuitive and flexible. bash is the
standard shell for common users. This shell is a so-called
superset of the Bourne shell. This means that the Bourne
Again shell is compatible with the Bourne shell: commands
that work in sh, also work in bash.

Contd…
 What is a Shell?
 Types of shells
◦ csh or C shell:
◦ This shell has a syntax that resembles that of the highly popular C
programming language and thus preferred by programmers.

◦ tcsh or Turbo C shell

◦ This shell is based on csh but also has programmable filename
completion, command-line editing, a history mechanism and other
features lacking in csh.

◦ ksh or the Korn shell:

◦ This shell is a superset of sh. It also features built-in arithmetic
evaluation and advanced scripting capabilities similar to those found
in powerful programming languages such as awk, sed and perl.
 Aliasing
 The
command aliases allow the user to abbreviate long
command lines with small names easy to use and type.

Creating Aliases
◦ To create aliases, use the alias command. The format of the alias
command is:
◦ Syntax
◦ alias aliasname=command

◦ The aliasname entry specifies the name you want to use.

◦ The alias helps for alternate names for complicated commands.

◦ Example:
◦ [root@localhost root]# alias cls=clear
◦ [root@localhost root]# cls

Contd…
 Aliasing

 Display Aliases
◦ To display alias definitions, enter the following
command:
◦ # alias

Remove Aliases
◦ To remove an alias for the current login session,
use the unalias command.
◦ The general format of the unalias command is the
following:
◦ unalias <aliasname>
 File Name Completion
 File
name completion is one of the most useful features of
the Linux command line.

The shell lets you enter a portion of a file name or

pathname at the shell prompt and the shell automatically
will match and complete the name.
◦ Example
◦ # vi us<tab> Press Enter

Then the entire file name will be completed as follows if it

is unique name,

# vi user123.filnename.txt
 Command History
 The command history buffer [root@localhost root]# history 10
stores the commands you enter 1 ls *.xml
and let you display them at any 2 mv Getting\ Help\ HOWTO.xml linux-help-how-to/
3 cls
time. 4 ls
5 cd linux-help-how-to/
6 ls
◦ As a result, you can select a 7 history
previous command, or parts of 8 history
previous commands, and then 9 ls
reexecute them. 10 history 10

◦ This feature may save time because

it lets you reuse long commands
instead of reentering them.
◦ To see the contents of the history
buffer, use the history command.
 User profiles
 Theuser profile is a personalized settings of the user
and the shell script and gets executed whenever the
user logins.

The profile can be classified into:

◦ System wide
◦ The changes to system wide profile will effect the work
environment of all users. These files are available in /etc.

◦ User Specific
◦ User specific profiles effect the work environment of only
that particular user and it stores in the home directory of each user.
 What Happens At Login

 When a user logs into a system it executes the

start up scripts in the following sequence:
◦ /etc/profile – sets the environmental variables and
settings for all users.
◦ /etc/profile.d. – runs the login script for all users.
◦ ~/.bash_profile - sets the environmental variables and
settings for particular user.
◦ ~/.bashrc - runs the login script for particular user.
◦ /etc/bashrc - sets the environmental variables for bash
shell.
 Variables
A variable is a label that has a value.

Variables are used to configure the shell.

To set a variable in the shell, use an equal sign to

assign it a value. If the variable does not already exist,
it is created.

Example
◦ A new variable is defined as follows:
◦ $ MYVARIABLE=hello

Todisplay the value of a variable, prefix the variables

name with a ‘$’ symbol.

Contd…
 Variables

Types of Variables
◦ There are two types of variables
◦ Shell variables or local variables
◦ Environment variables
Shell variables or local variables are available only to the current
shell which is used to configure shell.

 Environment variables are available to all shells and used to

configure other commands. e keyboard arrows. To move up and
down in the history command shell. It helps to change the main
variables like prompt settings, color settings by changing within the
profile to make effect for the entire settings.

Contd…
 Variables

 Display variable
◦ set command is used to display the local and
environment variables in a system.
◦ env command is used to display only
environmental variable.

◦ There are two commonly used Variables

◦ Local variables
◦ Environment variables

Contd…
 Variables
 Local variables
◦ HISTFILESIZE - specifies the number of commands of
history to be saved when the shell exit.
◦ COLUMNS- sets the width of the terminal.
◦ LINES- sets the height of the terminal.

Environment variables
◦ HOME- path to the user home directory.
◦ LANG- sets default language.
◦ PWD- present working directory.
◦ PATH- the path for the command locations.
◦ These variables are stored in the profile file (.bashrc).
 Lab Exercise

Create an alias for date command as d.

Check and remove the alias.

Check the history command and get back

some command and check the history file.
Shell Advanced Features
 Module 8 Shell Advanced
Features
Introduction
In Linux systems, the shells are often referred
to as command line interfaces. The shell capabilities
provide a configurable environment allowing the users
to modify commands and prompts.

Topics
◦ Shell Substitution Capabilities
◦ Setting Shell Variables
◦ Quoting Characters
◦ File Name Generationss
 Shell Substitution Capabilities

Substitution
capabilities are used to speed
up command line typing and execution.

The shell substitutions are of three types:

◦ Variable Substitution
◦ Command substitution
◦ Tilde Substitution

Contd…
 Shell Substitution Capabilities

Variable Substitution
◦ Variable substitution is assigning the absolute path
of a file or directory to any variable. This allows
the user to access the directory or file from
anywhere in the file hierarchy.

Syntax: <new variable>=$<system variable>

<arguments>
Example: myfile=$HOME/file1

Contd…
 Shell Substitution Capabilities

Command substitution
◦ Command substitution is the mechanism used to
replace a command with its output, within the
same command line.

Syntax: <new variable>=$(command)

Example: mydir=$ (pwd)

Contd…
 Shell Substitution Capabilities

Tilde Substitution

A tilde is replaced for the quick reference of

home directory.
Syntax: <command> ~
Example: ls ~
 Setting Shell Variables
 The new variable can be created and assigned to an
existing environmental variable such as path.

The new value replaces the old value in the

environment and the same can be displayed by
using the display value commands.
Syntax
<variable name>=<arguments>
Example
myfile_name=/root/file1

Contd…
 Setting Shell Variables

Displaying variable values

◦ The variables can be displayed by using $

<variable>.
◦ It can be local variable (assigned by the user) or
environmental variable (default variable).
◦ All setting variables can be displayed by using the
command set.
 Quoting Characters
 Thereare some characters in the Unix system and
each has the meaning for the shell and is called as
special characters. The special characters are:
◦ -
◦ $
◦ #
◦ *
◦ <>

Quoting removes the special meaning of the above

characters. The quoting characters are:
◦ \ Backslash
◦ ‘ ’ Single quotes
◦ “ ” Double quotes Contd…
 Quoting Characters

Backslash (\)
Backslash removes the special meaning of the
character immediately following the backslash.

Contd…
 Quoting Characters

Single quotes ( ‘ ’)

The single quote is used to preserve the literal

value of special character enclosed within the quotes.

Contd…
 Quoting Characters

Double quotes ( “ ” )

Double quotes removes the special meaning of

all the characters except \ , $ (variable name), $
(command).
 File Name Generation
 The file name generation has the timesaving feature for
typing the filenames. This feature is called file name
generation or filename expansion.

◦ Advantages of file name generation

◦ File name generating characters are interpreted by the shell.
◦ The command operates on the generated file names.
◦ The shell will generate file names that satisfy the requested pattern.
◦ File name generation is done before the command is executed.

The special characters that are interpreted by the shell for

file name generation are:
◦? Matches any single character except a leading dot
◦* Matches zero or more characters except a leading dot
Contd…
 File Name Generation

Usage of the special character ‘?’

Contd…
 File Name Generation

Usage of the special character ‘*’

 Lab Exercise

Giveone example on usage of single quotes

command with the variable substitution

Display the files which has 9 characters and

with the extension .jpg
Input and Output Redirection
 Module 9 Input and Output
Redirection
 Introduction
One important thing you have to know to understand I/O
redirection is file descriptors. There are three types of I/O, called
a file descriptor. They are standard input, standard output,
standard error.

Topics
◦ Input Redirection
◦ Output Redirection
◦ Error Redirection
◦ Filter
◦ Pipes
 Input Redirection
 Thestandard input (stdin) by default is any text
entered from the keyboard.

Standard input can be redirected through the use of

command line argument and redirection operators (like
<) so that it becomes a source other than the
keyboard argument.

The input redirection is generally useful if you have a

data file and a command that expects input from
standard input.

Contd…
 Input Redirection

 Example of input redirection

 Output Redirection
The default standard output (stdout) is the display
screen.

The command line programs automatically send their

output to the screen.

Standard
output can be redirected through the use of
command line argument and redirection operators (like
>).

The standard output can be redirected from the screen

to any file or to the printer.

Contd…
 Output Redirection

Example of output redirection

# ls > list.file

◦ Syntax
# command > (file name
 Error Redirection
 By default the standard error (stderr) displays on
the terminal and can be redirected into a file,
printer and any other program.

 Standard error can be redirected with the

standard error redirection operator (i.e 2>, 2>>).

The error messages can be redirected to any file,

so that the error messages will not appear on the
screen and it is written to the file.

Contd…
 Error Redirection

Example of error redirection

# ll myfile 2>error_message

◦ Syntax
command (filename) 2> (filename)
 Common Redirection
Operators
 There are two common redirection operators

◦ >
◦ >>

◦ > operator sends the input of command or file to the

other file as standard input, overwriting the existing
file.

◦ > > operator sends the input of command or file to the

other file as standard input, appending text to an
existing file, instead of overwriting the file.

Contd…
 Common Redirection
Operators
Usage of > operator

◦ Syntax
# cat > (filename)

Contd…
 Common Redirection
Operators
Usage of the >> operator

Contd…
 Filters
 Filters take standard input and perform an operation upon it and
send the results to standard output.

◦ Example for filters: grep root /etc/passwd

◦ The grep command is used to filter the root user from the /etc/passwd
file.
 Pipes
A pipe is a mechanism for interprocess communication.

The data written to the pipe by one process can be read

by another process. It is handled in a first-in, first-out
(FIFO) order.

Pipes ( | ) let you redirected output from one command

to become input to another command.

◦ Example: simple pipe with “more”

ls -l | more

Contd…
 Pipes
 The tee command

◦ The tee command copies the standard input to standard output

and also to any files given with an argument.

◦ This is useful when you want not only to send some data down a
pipe, but also to save a copy.

◦ If a file being written which does not already exist, it is created.

◦ If a file being written which already exists, the data contained is

overwritten unless the -a option (appends the standard input to
the given files rather than overwriting)

Contd…
 Pipes

 Example of tee command

◦ Syntax
◦ tee <option> <file name>
 Lab Exercise

Filter
and display the word blue from the file
my_sortfile

Sortand redirect the data from one file to

another
Networking in Linux
 Networking in Linux
 Introduction
A computer network is defined as a number of systems that
are connected to each other and exchange information across the
network connection. The system network is configured by setting
the IP address which is assigned by the system administrator.
The IP address provides base services for transmitting data
between networks in TCP/IP (Transmission control
protocol/Internet protocol).

Topics
◦ Network Connectivity
◦ IP address
◦ Accessing Remote system
◦ Transferring files
◦ Internet configuration
 Networking in Linux
 The Linux system can be connected to the network with the help
of network hardware.

Network hardware can be LAN (Local area network) card, cables,

hub/switch or router. To configure the network for the system,
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) address
is required from the system administrator.

The IP address can also be obtained from the DHCP (Dynamic

host configuration protocol) server configured by the system
administrator.

When the system is connected to the network, the resources can

be shared and data can be transferred among the systems.

The LAN services (telnet, SSH - Secure Shell, FTP – File transfer
protocol) enables the file transfer and remote login to the system.
 IP Address
 An IP address is a 32 bit binary number usually
represented as 4 decimal values, each representing 8
bits, in the range 0 to 255 (known as octets) separated
by decimal points.

Every system in network is assigned a unique

identifying number called IP address.

It is used in order to identify and communicate with

different systems present in the network.

The data is sent across the network and contains a

source and destination IP address.

◦ Example:
◦ 10.10.1.240
◦ 130.130.1.10
◦ 192.168.1.200
 IP Address

Configuring IP address
The system can be a part of network by
configuring the IP address. The IP address can be set
by two options in CUI mode and GUI mode.

◦ Static IP

◦ Dynamic IP (DHCP)
 IP Address
 Static IP: A static IP address is configured manually by
physically entering the IP address in configuration dialog
box and it does not change until altered manually. The
static IP is assigned by the system administrator.

Dynamic IP: In a large computer network, the process of

assigning IP address is simplified using a DHCP server. A
DHCP server is used to automatically assign the IP address
to the computers that are configured as a DHCP client.

The following commands are used to configure and verify

the IP address from the command line prompt.

◦ netconfig
◦ service network restart
◦ ifconfig
◦ ping
 IP Address

Static IP address in CUI mode

Configuration of the static IP address

◦ Syntax
Type the command # netconfig (Press Enter
key) at the command prompt in the terminal window.
 IP Address

network service

◦ Syntax
# service network restart
 IP Address

# ifconfig
 IP Address

# ping <IP address>

 IP Address

Dynamic IP address in CUI mode

Configuration of the dynamic IP address

◦ Syntax
# netconfig (Press Enter key)
 IP Address

Static IP address in GUI mode

Network configuration in static IP

 IP Address

Dynamic IP address in GUI mode

DHCP settings
 IP Address
 Host Name
A hostname is the unique name assigned to each host
on the network. The hostname is used to identify a particular
IP address. Hostnames are used by various naming systems
like telnet, ssh, FTP, GFTP, NIS and DNS.

◦ There are three ways to resolve host names to IP

addresses on a Linux system:
◦ /etc/hosts
◦ DNS (Domain name service)
◦ NIS (Network information service)

Contd…
 IP Address
 etc/hostsis a configuration file maintained locally on each host
to resolve hostnames to IP addresses. On a small network, it is
easy to maintain the name resolution of hostnames to
addresses. When adding or removing hosts, or reassigning IP
addresses, the user have to update the /etc/hosts file.

DNS (Domain name service) will resolve the host names into
IP addresses in a large network.

NIS (Network information service) provides a central point of

administration for common configuration files like /etc/passwd,
/etc/hosts. It preserves the consistency of the configuration
files across all the systems on the network. It simplifies
configuration file updates considerably.
 Accessing Remote System
 Systems in the network can be accessed remotely with
help of network connectivity and using IP addresses in
two ways:

◦ Telnet
◦ SSH

◦ Telnet
◦ Telnet is a terminal program for TCP/IP networks such as the Internet.

◦ The telnet program runs on your computer and connects your system to
the other system present in the network.

◦ To start a telnet session, you must log in to other system by entering a

valid username and password of the other system.

Contd…
 Accessing Remote System

 telnet session

◦ Syntax
# telnet <destination IP address>

Contd…
 Accessing Remote System
 SSH
SSH is a program for logging into a remote machine and
for executing commands on a remote machine

◦ The root user can login through SSH and execute the
system administrative command.
ssh command

◦ Syntax
ssh <destination IP address>
 Transferring files
 Files
can be transferred among various systems in
the network by using FTP, GFTP and SCP (secure
copy).
◦ FTP
◦ FTP (File transfer protocol) is a program that allows you to
transfer the files between computers present in the network. It
can also transfer the files among different operating systems.
◦ Example: Linux to Linux, Linux to Windows, Windows to Linux.
◦ Syntax
 # lftp <destination IP address>
 Transferring files

GFTP
GFTP (Graphical file transfer protocol) is the tool
used for uploading and downloading the files in a
graphical mode.

GFTP (Graphical file transfer protocol)

session

Contd…
 Transferring files

SCP (secure copy)

◦ The scp command is used to copy the files from
other system present in network.

◦ Syntax
# scp <filename> <destination IP> :
<destination path>

◦ Example: scp file1 192.168.1.171:/root

 Internet configuration

In Linux, internet can be browsed both in

GUI mode as well as CUI mode. The internet
can be configured after the network
connectivity.

◦ Configuring internet in GUI mode

◦ Step 1: Web browser (Mozilla)

 Internet configuration

Step 2: Proxy configuration

Contd…
 Internet configuration

Step3: Setting the proxy IP and the port

number

Contd…
 Internet configuration

Step 4: Verifying the Internet connectivity

Contd…
 Internet configuration

Modem

◦ Modem (stands for modulator-demodulator) is a

device that enables a system to transmit data over
telephone lines for internet connectivity.

◦ It converts digital computer signals into analog

format for transmission of data.
 Internet configuration

Connection to internet through modem

 Lab Exercise
How to configure the IP address in CUI mode? Assume
that your system administrator or lab in-charge has given
you the IP Address as 192.168.1.60?

Checkyour system to be a part of network and

communicate with other systems present in the work

Configure your system with Dynamic IP Address using

DHCP

Name the command to copy the files among the system

in the network with out using ftp?

Name the command to copy the files among the system

in the network with out using ftp?
Process Control
 Module 11 Process Control
 Introduction
◦ A process is a running occurrence of a program,
including all variables and other conditions. It is an
executing program.
◦ Each process contains a system wide unique process
number (PID- Process Identification).

Topics
◦ Identifying Process
◦ Managing Process
◦ Background Processing
◦ Putting Jobs in Background
 Identifying Process
 Theoperating system will execute the processes by
default and the user can also create a process.

The process can be identified which is in execution

along with its PID (process identification number).

Process creation

Processes are created with the fork system call (the

operation of creating a new process is called forking).

◦ Example: vi

Contd…
 Identifying Process

 Viewing the process origin

◦ The pstree command is used to display the
process origin.

Contd…
 Identifying Process

Viewing the current process

The ps command is one of the tools for visualizing
processes. It displays the current working shell. Since
ps command does not give detailed information about
the process, the grep command in a pipe is used to
select a particular process out of the list of all
processes.
 Managing Process

 The bg command is used to check and

move a job to background

Contd…
 Managing Process

Example for foreground

Contd…
 Managing Process
 Process Scheduling
◦ The Linux kernel uses a process scheduler to decide which process
has to be executed first. It is done by using process priority.

Scheduling Priorities
◦ Every process has a scheduling priority. The operating system
determines the priority of a process based on nice value method.
To calculate this priority is difficult, but users can affect the priority
by setting the nice value. The niceness value is the number
ranging from -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest priority) It has a
default value of zero. Process with a high priority gets to run more
often, while the low priority background tasks, run less frequently.

Contd…
 Managing Process
 Priorities for programs
◦ The nice values of active processes can be viewed using
the ps command with the –l or –f option for long output.

Example for nice command:

◦ The nice command is used to modify the default niceness
value. To set the niceness value to a different value, use
the –n option:

Example:

Contd…
 Managing Process

Showing priorities of different process

Contd…
 Managing Process

Usage of top command

◦ The top program displays all the system and user’s

process priorities running in all the terminals.
◦ The process running on your system is updated once in
every five seconds.
◦ A process in the running state is highlighted.

Contd…
 Managing Process

Altering priorities of running programs

◦ The users can reduce the priority of currently

running jobs using the renice command. Only the
superuser is permitted to move up the priority of
currently running processes.

◦ Example of renice command

Contd…
 Managing Process

Terminating the process

◦ The process is terminated when it receives a

signal.
◦ There are multiple signals that the user can send
to a process.
◦ The kill command is used to send a signal to a
process.
◦ The command kill -l shows a list of signals which
the user wants to terminate.

Contd…
 Managing Process

killall
command will perform an orderly
shutdown of the process.

Contd…
 Managing Process

 killing a process
 Background Processing
A background process is the child of the process.

Itrefers to processes that are run with a relatively low priority,

require little or no input, and produce a minimum of output.

Thebackground is also used for long tasks that require

massive amount of computation and thus CPU time.

Daemon (Disk and execution Monitor)

A daemon is a background process that is considered to run

independently, with little or no user interference.

Example: Apache web server http daemon (httpd)

 Putting Jobs in Background
 The shell offers a feature called job control which allows
easy handling of multiple processes. This mechanism
switches processes between the foreground and the
background. Using this system, programs can also be
started in the background immediately.

putting jobs in background

jobs command is used to verify the background process

Contd…
 Putting Jobs in Background

Suspending a process
◦ A process can be suspended temporarily without
being killed. Suppose that ‘&’ symbol is missed out
by mistake, use ^z and the process will be
suspended.

◦ The process still exists but is idling. To resume the

process in the background type the bg command
(background).
 Lab Exercise
 Createa process vi with filename and send the process to
background and check background process

Check the background running process and bring it to the foreground

How to send running process to the background and bring it back to

the foreground?

Start a Process using find command with the priority of -18

Display and manage the priorities with the single command

Offline File Storage
 Module 12 Offline File
Storage
Introduction
Backup is usually done by first collecting all the
data in a single archive file, which can be compressed
using the compression tools.

Topic
◦ Storing files to Media
 Storage files to Media
 Backingup of a system is the most major task to be
performed by a system administrator.

Computers have the major advantage of storing the

data, which makes it significant.

Backups are important because of the possibility of

loss of data.

The possibility of data loss can be by:

◦ File system corruption
◦ Accidental removal of files
◦ Hardware failures
◦ System crash
Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Backup Media
◦ The following are some of the methods of back up through
media
◦ floppy disks
◦ Tapes
◦ removable hard disks
◦ rewritable CD-ROMs

Backup tools
◦ tar
◦ dd
◦ Dump
◦ cpio

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Backup using tar command
An archiving program designed to store and extract files from an
archive file known as a tarfile. The tar is the most commonly used
command for the backup.

◦ tar options
◦ tar –cvf (creating the tar file)
◦ tar –tvf (listing the contents of tar file)
◦ tar –xvf (extracting the contents of tar file)
where,
 c – create
 t – list
 x – extract
 v – verbose
 f – file
Contd…
 Storage files to Media
Backup using dd command

dd copies a file from source to destination. It copies an

input file (if) file and sends the result to the output file (of) which
converts and formats according to the options.

◦ Syntax
# dd if=<source name> of=<destination name>

◦ Example
dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0

Contd…
 Storage files to Media

 Backup using dump/restore command

◦ dump and restore commands are the two different
programs that are included in the dump package.
◦ These files are copied to the given disk, tape or
other storage medium for protection.

◦ Syntax
dump - <dump levels> - <options>
<destination name> <source name>

Contd…
 Storage files to Media

Example:
dump -0 –f /home_dumps/mydumps /home
◦ where,
-0 - dump level (full backup)
-f - write a backup to file

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
Backup using restore command

◦ The restore command is used to view and restore the dump

file.
◦ Syntax:
# restore - <options> <file name>

◦ Example: restore –if mydumps

where,
-i is interactive restoration
-f is read backup from file

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Backup using cpio command

◦ The cpio command is a tool for creating and extracting

archives, or copying files from one place to another,
which contains other files and information about them,
such as their file name, owner, timestamps, and access
permissions.

◦ It handles a number of cpio formats as well as reading

and writing tar files. The archive can be another file on
the disk, a magnetic tape, or a pipe.

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 cpio has three operating modes.

◦ copy-out mode, cpio copies files into an archive.

◦ copy-in mode, cpio copies files out of an archive or lists

the archive contents.

◦ copy-pass mode, cpio copies files from one directory

tree to another, combining the copy-out and copy-in
steps without actually using an archive.

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Syntax for creating the cpio file
◦ find (source file name) | cpio –(options) > (target file name)
◦ Example:
◦ find file1 | cpio -o > file1_back.cpio
◦ Syntax for extracting the cpio file
◦ cat <source file name> | cpio –(options)
◦ Example:
◦ cat file1_back.cpio | cpio –idvm

◦ where,
◦ d – make directories
◦ i – extract
◦ m – modification time
◦ o – create
◦ v – verbose Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Compression tools

◦ Zip
zip is a compression and file packaging utility. The program is
useful for packaging a set of files for distribution, archiving files and
saving disk space by temporarily compressing unused files or
directories. The zip program puts one or more compressed files into a
single zip archive, along with information about the files. An entire
directory structure can be packed into a zip archive with a single
command.
◦ Syntax
zip <new file> <source file>
◦ Example:
zip install install.log

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 unzip
◦ unzip will list, test, or extract files from a zip archive,
commonly found on MS-DOS systems. The default behavior
(with no options) is to extract into the current directory and
subdirectories all files from the specified zip archive.

◦ Syntax
unzip <zipfile>

◦ Example:
unzip install.zip

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Gzip
By default, gzip keeps the original file name and
timestamp in the compressed file. These are used when
decompressing the file with the –N option. The main
advantage of gzip over compress is it has a better
compression capacity than other compression tools.

◦ Syntax
gzip <filename>

◦ Example
gzip install.log

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Gunzip
gunzip decompress the files created by gzip. It takes a list
of files on its command line and replaces each file ending with
.gz, -gz, .z, -z, _z or .Z and which begins with the correct
number with an uncompressed file without the original
extension. gunzip also recognizes the special extensions .tgz and
.taz as shortcuts for .tar.gz and .tar.Z respectively.

Syntax
◦ gunzip <filename.gz>

Example:
◦ gunzip install.log.gz

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
 Bzip2
bzip2 is a block-sorting file compressor. It expects a list of file
names to accompany the command-line tools. Each file is replaced
by a compressed version of itself, with the name
‘original_name.bz2’. Each compressed file has the same modification
date, permissions and when possible ownership as the corresponding
original, so that these properties can be correctly restored at
decompression time.

◦ Syntax
bzip2 <filename>

◦ Example:
bzip2 install.log

Contd…
 Storage files to Media
Bunzip2
bunzip2 (or bzip2 -d) decompresses all specified files. bzip2
attempts to guess the filename for the decompressed file from that of
the compressed file. If the file does not end in one of the recognized
endings, .bz2, .bz, .tbz2 or .tbz, bzip2 gives an error message that it
cannot guess the name of the original file, and uses the original name
with .out.

◦ Syntax
bunzip <filename.bz2>

◦ Example:
bunzip install.log.bz2
 Lab Exercise
 Backup any desired directory using tar command

Compress the file mydata from the data directory

and uncompress into a new directory by name
backup using zip and unzip commands

Backup the /tmp directory into a new directory by

name tmp_backup using dump command