FOSS / LAMP

Revathi J
Bharathidasan University Technology Park (BUTP)
Bharathidasan University
Standard Files
• Linux provides three I/O channels to processes.
▫ Standard input, Standard output & Standard error.

Standard Input Standard Output

Keyboard
Program

Standard Error
Standard I/O and Pipes
• Linux supports shell redirection operators allow
standard I/O channels to be redirected to or from
a file.

• The following common redirection operators;

‘<’,
‘>’,
‘2>’,
‘|’.
Redirection Input : '<' command

• Commands are usually accept a filename or standard

input.

• Many linux commands, like cat will take their input from a
file if one is given as an argument.

Examples
$ cat test.txt
$ cat < test.txt
• Some commands are operate on standard input,
like tr command

tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' < /sample.txt

Redirecting output Command
• The "greater than" symbol '>' is used for save the
output.

Example :
$ ls -l > outputfile

• If you want to add or append the date to this

output file, use the command:
$ date >> outputfile

• with two "greater than" symbols (>>) we will add

or append to the file without erasing its contents.
Redirecting Standard Error
• The command 2> symbol is used for creating a
file for an error message that you may get.

• You can redirect the standard error into some file.

Example
$ find / -name resolv.conf 2> errorfile

To display the contents of the errorfile,

$ cat errorfile
Pipe | command
• This symbol is like two vertical slashes, one on top
of the other.

• That means that the pipe will separate two

commands so that they will be done one after the
other.

Example
$ ls -l /proc
$ ls -l /proc | more
• Scroll down with the ENTER key
$ ls -l /proc | less
• Scroll with arrows/pgup/pgdown
Tee command
• Lets you tee a pipe: redirect output to a file when
still piping it to another program.

Example
$ set | tee set.out | less
▫ The output from set is written to file set.out while
also piped to less

• Tee is useful to save the output at various stages

from a long sequence of pipes.

Example
$ <cmd> | tee file1.out | sort | tee file2.out
Cat Command
• Contents of the files are displayed sequentially
with no break.

• Files display “concatenated”.

Syntax
$ cat [options] [file...]

Example
$ cat /etc/profile
$ cat /etc/profile | /etc/passwd >> output.txt
$ cat /etc/profile | tee out.txt
The Linux Security Model
• Users and groups are used to control
access to file and resources.
• Users log in to the system by supplying
their user name and password.
• Every file on a Linux system is owned by a
user and associated with a group.
• Every process has an owner and group
affiliation, and can only access the
resources its owner or group can access
Users
• Every person that logs into the computer is
considered to be a user.
• Every user has a unique User ID number (the uid)

• User names and uids are stored in /etc/passwd file.

• User have full access to their home directories.

• Users can not change or even read each

other's files without being given permission.
Groups
• Users are assigned to groups with unique group ID
numbers (the gid). All users in a group can share files
that belongs to the group.
• A user’s primary group is defined in the
/etc/passwd file and secondary groups (gids) are
defined in the /etc/group file.
• Primary group can be changed using the newgrp
command:
▫ # newgroup othergroup
where othergroup is one of the user’s
secondary groups.
Root User

• The root user has special administrative

account
▫ sometimes called the superuser

▫ root has complete control over the system

▫ To protect the system from accidental

damage, it is important for system
administrators to use a normal user account
for as much work as possible.
Linux File Security
•Everyfile and directory has permissions set that
determine who can access it.
Permissions are set for :
Owner of the file
Group members
All others

Permissions that are set are called

Read,
write and
execute permissions.
Permission Types
Four symbols are used when displaying
permissions:
r permission to be read a file or
list a directory’s contents.

w permission to be write a file or

create & remove files from a directory.
x permission to be execute a program or
change into a directory and do a long
listing of the directory.

- no permission
Examining Permissions
• File permissions may be viewed using

▫ $ ls -l /bin/login
-rwxr-x-r-x 1 root root 19080 Apr 1 18:30 /bin/login

• Directories permissions may be viewed using

▫ $ ls -l /bin
drwxr-x-r-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 15 18:30 /bin

• File type and file access permissions are

symbolized by a 10 character string
Interpreting Permissions
drwxr-x-r-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 15 18:30 /bin

The 1 Character is used to distinguishes

directories (d) from regular fiels (-).
- regular file, d – directory, l – symbolic link, b
– block special file, c – character special file,
p – named pipe, s - socket
Characters 2,3 and 4 identify permissions for the
owner(u).

Characters 5,6 and 7 identify permissions for the

group(g).

Characters 8,9 and 10 identify permissions for all

others(o).
Linux Process Security
• When a process accesses a file, the user and group
of the process are compared with the user and
group of the file.
▫ If the user matches the user permission apply.

▫ If the group matches, but the user doesn't, the

group permissions apply.
▫ If neither match, the other permissions apply.
Changing Permissions
• The permission instruction can be issued either
symbolically or numerically.
• The chmod command changes permission of files
and directories.
Who may be chosen from Operator may be Permission may be
chosen from chosen from

u owner of the file + Set permission r read

g group - Unset permission w write
o others = Assign a permission x execute
a all three categories s set user ID bit or
group ID bit
t sticky bit
(for directory)
Symbolic Method
• Examples

# chmod u+w,go-w txtfile

// grants write access to owner but denies to group
and others.
# chmod u=rw txtfile
// Sets user permissions to read and write, with execute
turned off, regardless of the current permission.
# chmod +r txtfile
// Makes the file world-readable.
Numeric Method
• To change the permission on a file the numeric
method is easier than the symbolic method.
• Uses a three digit mode number

first digit specifies owner permission

second digit specifies group permission

third digit specifies others permission

• Permissions are calculated by adding:


4 read

2 write

1 execute

0 no permission
Numeric Method - Examples
• # chmod 664 file
// Read and write set for owner and group, read-only for others.
• # chmod 660 file
// Read and write set for owner and group, no permission for
others.
• # chmod 444 file
// Read-only permission set for all.

•With directory permissions:

• # chmod 755 dir
// Full permission set for owner, read and execute set
for group and others.
• # chmod 770 dir
// Full permission set for owner and group, no
permission others.
• # chmod 555 dir
// Read and execute permission set for all.
Advanced Topics in Users, Groups & Permissions

• All authentication is stored in plain text files:

/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group

• The /etc/passwd file contains seven fields. User

name, password, uid, gid, GECOS field, home
directory, and shell to be run when a user logs in.
• root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
• The /etc/shadow file is referenced when someone
logs in: the file contains a mapping of a user name
to a password.
• The /etc/shadow file contains user name,
password encryption, days from linux started,
minimum days, maximum days, warning days.
• root:!!:13326:0:99999:7:::
!! - refers password lock.
• The /etc/group file contains four fields:
▫ group name, group password, gid, comma
separated list of group members.

• sysadmin:x:601:user1,user2
Changing your identity
• The su command is used to change identities.

• To start a new shell as a different user:

# su <username>
# su - <username>
• Lets suppose jack has bob permission to read his
email. He can temporarily assume jack user id:
$ su – bob
password:
$ whoami
bob
User Information Commands
• The information commands provide the
information about the users.

Example,

Find out who you are

whoami

Find out what groups you belong to

groups, id

Find out who is logged in

users, who, w

Find login/reboot history

last
Default permissions and Umask

Default permission for files is 666

Default permission for directories is 777

umask is subtractor from default to determine new
file/directory permissions

non-privileged user’s umask is 002

files will have permissions of 664

directories will have permissions of 775

root’s umask is 022
Special permissions
• A fourth permission set (in addition to
user/group/other)
• Applicable in four cases:
▫ Set user ID or suid for an executable
▫ Set group ID or sgid for an executable
▫ Set group ID or sgid for a directory
▫ Sticky bit for a directory
• Use the chmod command, preceding the usual
three digits with a digit representing the
special permission :
▫ 4 for suid, 2 for sgid, 1 for the sticky bit.
• Example:
# chmod 3775 groupdir
Special Permissions for Executables
• The Set UID Permission

• Suid : Command run with permissions of

the owner of the command, not exexcutor
of the command
• In long listing, the suid permission is
displayed as a lower case “s” where the “x”
would otherwise be located for the user
permission.

$ chmod 4551 passwd

$ ls -l passwd
-r-s- -x- -x 1 root root 15367 May 20 2007 passwd
Set gid command
• sgid : command runs with group affiliation of the
group of the command:

$ chmod 2551 passwd

$ ls -l passwd
-r-xr-s- -x 1 root john 30899 Aug 18 passwd
Special Permissions for Directories
• Sticky Bit
▫ Files and directories with the sticky bit set can only
be removed by the owner and root, regardless of the
write permissions of the directory

$ chmod 1777 /tmp

$ ls –ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 30 root root 7089 Mar 9 10:28 /tmp
• sgid : files created in directories with the sgid bit
set have group affiliations of the group of the
directory.
• This is commonly used on group directories:

$ chmod 2770
$ ls –l groupdir
drwxrws- - - 2 john eric 4089 Mar 9 10:20 groupdir

• Often both the sticky bit and the sgid permission

will be set on a group directory
Vi Editor
• vi : the 'visual editor', standard Linux and Unix editor.

• Let's make a text file. Type: vi textfile

• Three modes in vi editor,


Command mode
Cursor movement
Change, delete, yank, put and search

Insert mode
Type in new text
Return to command mode with <Esc>

Ex mode
Configuring, exiting, saving
Search and Replace
▫ To enter ex mode, type “:” while in command mode
Common vi editor command list
For this Purpose Use this vi Command Syntax
To insert new text ESC +i
To save file ESC +: +w
To save file with file nameESC +: +w  "filename"
(save as)
To quit without saving ESC +: +q!

To save and quit vi editor ESC +: +wq

To search for specified word inESC +/word
forward direction
To continue with search  n
Command list continued....
For this Purpose Use this vi Command Syntax
To search for specified word in ESC +?word
backward direction
To copy the line where cursor is ESC +yy
located ESC +4yy
If
Toyou want
paste thetotext
copyjust
n lines (i.e.or4 ESC +p
deleted
lines)
copied at the cursor
To delete entire line where cursor is ESC +dd
located ESC +4dd
If
Toyou want
delete to from
word delete n lines
cursor (i.e. 4 ESC +dw
position
lines)
To undo ESC +u
To redo <ctrl –r>
Partitions and Filesystems
• In Linux,hard disk drives are divided into
partitions.
• These partitions are formatted with
filesystems, and these filesystems are allow
user to store data and access files.
• There are different Filesystem types are
available, the default Filesystem is ext3.
Other common filesystems are ext2,msdos
and iso9660.
Symbolic (or Soft) links
• A symbolic link points to another file

• ls –l displays the link name and the

referenced file
• To create a symbolic link
$ ln -s /etc/passwd password

$ ls - li password /etc/passwd
30338 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1729 Aug 24 11:43 /etc/passwd
30376 lrwxrwxrwx 1 ram ram 11 Aug 24 10:43 password  /etc/passwd
Hard links
• One physical file on the filesystem

• File is present in the filesystem as long as at least

one link remains.
• To create an hard link to an existing file, use the
ln command:
$ ln txtfile new
$ ls -li txtfile new
24567 -rw-rw-rw- 1 ram ram 29 Aug 24 11:43 txtfile
24567 -rw-rw-rw- 1 ram ram 29 Aug 24 11:43 new
Checking free space
• df – reports disk space usage
▫ Reports total kilobytes, kilobytes used, kilobytes
free per file system
▫ - h displays sizes in easier to read units
• $ df /opt
Filesytem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7 15685 51234 10244 20% /opt

• $ df -h /opt
Filesytem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7 16G 4.9G 11G 20% /opt
du command
• du – reports disk space usage
▫ Reports kilobytes used per directory
▫ Includes subtotals for each subdirectory
▫ -s option only reports single directory summay
▫ Also takes -h option
Example :
$ du -s /dev
11630 /dev
Removable media
• “Mounting” means making a foreign filesystem
look like part of the main tree
• Before accessing, media must be mounted.

• Before removing, media must be unmounted.

• Mountpoints are usually under /media.

Mounting CDs and DVDs
• When using X Window System, inserting a CD
into the drive automatically mounts the CD
and adds an icon to the desktop.
• Otherwise, must be manually mounted,

CD/DVD Reader
$ mount /media/cdrom
$ umount /media/cdrom

CD/DVD Writer
$ mount /media/cdrecorder
$ umount /media/cdrecorder
• If you want to eject the CD out, you have to
execute the eject command.
Mounting USB Media
• When using X Window System, automatically
mounted in Gnome/KDE and icon created in
computer window.
• USB disks are treated as SCSI devices, thus they
are referenced as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc.
• If you want to mount manually,
$ mount /media/<lable>
$ umount /media/<lable>
Archive Files
• Archiving places many files into one target file.
▫ Easier to back up, store and transfer

• Tar – standard linux archiving command

Example
# tar -cvf /tmp/work.tar /tmp
c - create a new archive
v - produces verbose messages
f - archive_name is name of new file

# tar -tf /tmp/work.tar

t - used to list the content inside the directory.

# tar -xvf /tmp/work.tar

x - extract the directory
Compression Utilities
• gzip, gunzip
▫ Standard linux compression utility
▫ Up to 75% compression for text files

# gzip –v file
# gunzip file.gz

• bzip2, bunzip2
▫ newer Linux compression utility
▫ Generally archieves better compression than gzip.
# bzip2 -v file
# bunzip2 file.bz2
String Processing - head
• The head command displays first few lines of the
text in a file. (i.e) it display from top of the file.

Example:
# head –n 3 /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:
• -n or --lines specifies the number of lines to
display.
tail
• The tail command displays last few lines of the
text in a file. (i.e) it display from bottom of the
file.

Example:
# tail -n 2 /etc/passwd
ntp:x:38:38: :/etc/ntp:/sbin/nologin
gdm:x:42:42: :/var/gdm:/sbin/nologin
• -n or --lines specifies the number of lines to
display.
wc
• wc - word count is used to count lines and
characters.

Example:
# wc text.txt
20 200 1500 text.txt
l - for line count
w - for word count
c - for character count
grep
• grep – general regular expression processor,
displays the lines in a file that match a pattern. It
can also process standard input.

# grep ‘eric’ /etc/passwd

eric:x:501:501:eric:/home/eric:/bin/bash

# ls | grep d*
# grep ‘[Dd]og’ testfile
-it displays either the string “Dog” or
the string “dog” from the file testfile.
find
• Finds one or more files assuming that you know
their approximate filenames.
• Syntax:
$ find <location> -name <filename>

Examples:
$ find / -name 'myhome.html'
In the above command the system would search for
any file named myhome.html in the current
directory and any subdirectory
Investigating and Managing Processes
• Process :
It is an executing program with several components and
properties.
• pstree shows the process ancestry for all process
running on the system.
# pstree
• ps – displays processes information
Viewing Processes
• ps – displays processes information

• # ps -[option]

ps -a  processes by all users

ps -x  processes from all terminals
ps -u  show process owners
ps -w  include command arguments
ps -f  show process ancestry
ps -l  long listing
ps -A  to see all the process
Scheduling the process
• Commands will be executed at the time indicated.
The output is mailed to the user.
• Syntax:

# at <time>
• Example

# at 8:30pm July 10
> ls –l
<ctrl –d>
# atq // list the current at jobs
pending.
# atrm [jobID] // used to remove pending
at jobs
To see the job result,
• # mail // used to view the executed
jobs
Scheduling Periodic Processes
• cron

• The cron mechanism allow processes to be invoked

periodically.
Syntax:
# crontab [-u user] file
# crontab [-l | -r | -e] [username]
l - used to display the crontab file
r - used to remove the crontab file
e - used to edit the crontab file
• A user’s crontab may look like the following:

# crontab -eu root

#Min Hour DoM Month DoW Command
0 4 * * * find / -name passwd
0 0 31 10 * echo “Welcome to BUTP”
*/1 11 * * * ls
: wq

For activate the crontab,

# service crond restart
# chkconfig crond on
Installing Application
• Most of the linux application that you want to install
are available in RPM format.
• To install an RPM archive file with the rpm command,
use the following syntax;
# rpm –i [option] package
• The options:-
-v - to get more verbose feedback, along with
some of the output.
-h - Prints 50 hash marks(#) as the package is
unpacked.
Querying packages

Querying Packages
• Using the query options (-q) of rpm, you can get
information about RMP package.
# rpm -qa
list all the installed packages
Thank You
Command list continued ....
For this Purpose Use this vi command Syntax
Go to the first line in the file ESC +g
Go to the last line in the file ESC +G
Go to first line in file(any number can be given ESC +1G or H
and cursor will jump to that line)
Go to middle line on screen ESC +M
Go to last line on screen ESC +L
Go forward one full screen <Ctrl –f>
Go back one full screen <Ctrl –b>
Go down half a screen <Ctrl –d>
Go up half a screen <Ctrl –u>
To Find all occurrence of given word and ESC +:$s/word-to-find/word-to-replace/g
Replace then globally without confirmation 
To Find all occurrence of given word and ESC +:$s/word-to-find/word-to-replace/cg
Replace then globally with confirmation
To run shell command like ls, cp or date etcESC +:!shell-command For e.g. :!pwd
within vi
Inodes
• An inode table contains a list of all files in an ext2
or ext3 filesystem.
• An inode (index node) is an entry in the
table, containing information about a file
(the meta data), including :
▫ File type, permissions, link count, UID, GID
▫ The file's size and various time stamps
▫ Pointers to the file's data blocks on disk
▫ Other data about the file
Inode - example
• $ ls -il
80777 -rw-r----- 1 ram ram 5120 Sep 11 12:50 txtfile
59907 drwxrw---- 2 ram ram 4098 Sep 11 12:50 data
80787 -rw-r----- 1 ram ram 1500 Sep 11 12:52 file

• The inode value is showed in the first column

cp and inode
• When a file is copied to a new name in the same
directory, the directory and the inode table get a
new entry.

Example:
$ ls - li txtfile
24567 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ram ram 26 Sep 25 20:16 txtfile

$ cp txtfile new
24567 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ram ram 26 Sep 25 20:16 txtfile
24568 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ram ram 26 Sep 25 20:16 new
mv and inode
• When a file is moved, the inode number remains
the same.
• The data on the file system is not moved.

Example:
$ ls - li txtfile
24568 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ram ram 26 Sep 25 20:16 txtfile
$ mv txtfile new
$ ls - li txtfile new
24568 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ram ram 26 Sep 25 20:16 new
rm and inodes
• The rm command :
▫ Decrements the link count, thus freeing the inode
number to be reused
▫ Places data blocks on the free list
▫ Removes the directory entry

• Data is not removed, but will be overwritten when

the data blocks are used by another file
cut
• cut is used to “cut” fields or columns of text from
a file and display it to standard output.

Example:
# cut -f3 -d: /etc/passwd
Will display a list of uids from /etc/passwd,
because uids are stored in field three and “:” is
used as a delimiter.

# cut -c2 -5 /etc/passwd

It will display character starting from 2 nd
and
ending with 5 character.
th
paste
• paste combines files “horizontally”. It takes a line
from each file and “paste” them together to
standard output, separated by a tab.
• Use the –d option to change the output delimiter.
# paste -d: test1 test2 > mergefile
• It takes the line from each file (test1 and test2)
and put it into the output file.
• The uniq “removes” duplicate lines from a file.
uniq
Example
# vi uniqfile
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Sunday
Friday
Monday

# uniq uniqfile
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Friday
Sort
• Sorts text to stdout – original file unchanged
• By default sort sorts the file in ascending order using
the entire line as a sorting key.
Syntax:
# sort [option] filename
-r reverses sort
-n numeric sort
-u unique (remove duplicate lines in output)
tr
• tr is used to translate characters; that is given two
ranges of characters, any time a character in
range 1 is found, it is translated into the
equivalent character in range 2.

# tr ‘a-z’ ‘A-Z’ < testfile

• The translated output is stored into testfile.
diff
• Diff is used to compare the contents of two files
for differences.

# diff test1 test2

< This is test file // first file test1
-------
> Welcome // second file test2
Specll check
• aspell is an interactive spell checker. It offers
suggestions for corrections via a simple menu-
driven interface.

# aspell check testfile

• aspell -l will non-interactively list the misspelled
words in a file read from standard input.

# aspell -l < stdfile

look
• A quick spelling dictionary lookup can be
performed with look.
• It comes in handy when you need the spelling of a
word of which you know the first few letters.

# look le
Leave
Letter
Lead
Least
….
Regular Expressions
• Regular expressions are pattern matching engine
• sed - stream editor. It will perform a search and
replace on all lines in the file, sending the modified
data to standard output; that is, it does not actually
modity the existing file.

# sed [sting] <filename>

Example:
# sed ‘s/cat/dog/’ pets
// cat being replaced by dog string.
# sed ‘s/cat/dog/g’ pets
// entire cat string being replaced by dog string.