Lab # 1

Objectives
• To Familiarize with the Linux command line interpreter
• To be able to execute and interpret Linux basic commands
Pre-Lab Theory:
There are 2 ways to use the command
1. Absolute mode
2. Symbolic mode
Absolute(Numeric) Mode in
Linux
In this mode, file permissions are not represented as characters but a three-digit
octal umber.
The table below gives numbers for all permissions types.

Number Permission Type Symbol

0 No Permission —
1 Execute –x
2 Write -w-
3 Execute + Write -wx
4 Read r–
5 Read + Execute r-x
6 Read +Write rw-
7 Read + Write rwx
+Execute

The categories of people's access:

• a all users
• u the owner user
• g the owner group
• o others (neither u, nor g)
The format for permissions is:
chmod {a,u,g,o} {+,-} {r,w,x} files
The plus ("+") sign indicates give permission. The minus ("-") sign indicates
remove permission.
Permission examples:
• chmod a+r files are readable by all
1
 • chmod a-r files cancels the ability for all to read the file
• chmod a-rwx cancels all access for all
• chmod g+rw files give the group read and write permission
• chmod u+rwx files give the owner all permissions
• chmod og+rw files give the world and the group read and write permission
a. PATH:
a. Absolute Path
. From root directory
/root/home/. .
b. From current directory
mydirectory
b. .(dot) and ..(dot dot)
.(dot) refers to current directory
..(dot dot) refers to one level up directory
In-Lab Tasks
Linux Commands:
1. Present Working Directory:
$pwd
Task: write the output

2. Files and Subdirectories:

a. $ls
b. $ls -l

2
Task: Explain all the columns in the output Also interpret the first character of the first
column values Possible characters (-, d, l, p, s, b, c)

Running ls -l displays a list of files and directories with columns:

First Column:
The first character represents the type (- for file, d for directory, l for symlink, etc.).
Permissions (Columns 2-10):
3 characters for owner, group, and others (r=read, w=write, x=execute, - = no
permission).
Hard Links Count (Column 11):
Number of hard links to the item.
Owner (Column 12):
Name of the owner.
Group (Column 13):
Name of the group.
File Size (Column 14):
Size of the file in bytes.
Modification Date (Columns 15-17):
Date and time of last modification.
Name (Last Column):
Name of the file or directory.
The first character in the first column represents the item's type: - (file), d (directory), l
(symlink), p (named pipe), s (socket), b (block device), or c (character device).

a. Display the Hidden files

$ls -a
Task:Write the Output of the task:

3
 c. Metacharacters/wild card
i. $ls ch*.doc

Task: First execute ls and then list some files through wild card and write output

3. Change Directory:

$cd ../
Change the directory to one level up
Task: execute ‘pwd’ first then ‘cd ../’ and write the output

Task: First execute ls and then list some files through wild card and write output

4
 4. Creating Subdirectories:
$mkdir <subdirectory path>
Task: write the command to create subdirectory Lab1 in pwd

$mkdir -p <subdirectory path with parent directories> Parent

directories will be created if not exist

Task: write the command to create directories with the following hierarchy
/Linux_Commands/Lab_Tasks

5. Removing Subdirectories
$rmdir
Task: write the command to create a subdirectory Temp in the current directory and
then write the command to remove it

c. Copy Files

5
 $cp <source file path> <destination file path>
Task: create and edit a file temp.dat using gedit with some text and save the
file in the Lab1 directory.
Write the command to copy temp.dat to subdirectory Lab_Tasks created in the
previous task

6. Renaming the file

$mv <file to rename> <renamed file>
Task: write a command to rename a file ‘temp.dat’ to ‘myfile.dat’ and execute ‘ls’ to
verify it.

7. Removing/Deleting the file

$rm <filename>
Task: write a command to remove the file temp.dat from the Lab Tasks subdi- rectory

8. Display the Contents of the file on the screen:

$cat <file path>
Task: create a file using $gedit xyz.dat type something, save the file, and exit Write a
command to display the xyz.dat file contents

6
 9. Changing the permissions of the file
$chmod <nnn> <filename>
$chmod 777 xyz.txt
Task1: execute ls and write the permissions

Task2: write the command chmod 640 xyz.txt using symbolic mode

10. Display the word count of the file:

$wc <filename>
Task: write the command to diplay the word count of any file and Interpret the output
values

11. Display the PATH environment variable

$echo $PATH
Task: write the output

Redirection Operator (>)

Task1: Execute $ls -l > xyz.dat and explain the behavior

Behavior:

7
The command $ls -l lists detailed information about files and directories
in the current directory, including permissions, owner, group, and more.
Using > xyz.dat redirects this information to a file called xyz.dat instead
of displaying it on the screen.

Task2: Append some contents in the existing file ‘xyz.dat’ Write the
command string used to achieve the above task

12. Top Command:

$top
Task: Execute top command and interpret the output. Explain all the columns

Columns:
PID (Process ID): This column shows the unique identification number assigned to
each running process. It's a way to uniquely identify and reference processes.
USER: Displays the username of the user who started the process. Each process is
associated with a user.
PR (Priority): Indicates the priority of the process. Lower values generally indicate
higher priority. However, this column is not always used or accurate on all systems.

NI (Nice Value): Represents the "niceness" of the process, which is a way to

influence a process's priority. Processes with higher nice values have lower priority.
VIRT (Virtual Memory): Shows the total virtual memory used by the process. This
includes both physical RAM and swap space.
RES (Resident Memory): Displays the resident memory, which is the portion of
8
virtual memory that is currently in physical RAM.

SHR (Shared Memory): Indicates the amount of shared memory used by the
process. Shared memory is memory that can be used by multiple processes
simultaneously.
S (Status): Shows the current status of the process. Common statuses include:
R: Running
S: Sleeping
D: Disk sleep
Z: Zombie (terminated but not reaped by its parent process)
T: Stopped
%CPU (CPU Usage): Displays the percentage of CPU time used by the process
since the last screen refresh. This column helps identify CPU-intensive processes.
%MEM (Memory Usage): Shows the percentage of physical RAM used by the
process. It's a measure of how much memory the process is consuming.
TIME+ (Total CPU Time): Represents the total accumulated CPU time used by the
process since it started. It's an indicator of how much CPU resources the process has
consumed.
COMMAND: This column displays the name of the command or program associated
with the process

1. Listing the processes

$ps
Task: write and interpret the output

The ps command provides a list of currently running processes, showing their unique Process IDs
(PID), associated terminal type (TTY), CPU time usage, and the associated command or program
(CMD). It's a quick way to see what processes are running on a Unix-like system.

1. $gedit myfile.dat &

Task: Execute the above command and explain the behavior and importance of &

Importance of &:
Running a command with & makes it run in the background, freeing up your terminal for
other tasks. This is essential for multitasking, allowing you to work on other tasks while
9
one runs. It's particularly useful for long-running processes and when working on remote
servers.

1
0
1
1