Tutorial of Unix/Linux

Cdric Notredame
(Adapted from NOMURA)

Outline
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Overview of Unix System

Basic Commands
Relative & Absolute Path
Redirect, Append and Pipe
Permission
Process Management
Install Software
Text Editor
Foreground and Background Jobs

Overview of Unix System

Kernel & Shell
Unix/Linux is operating system (OS).
Unix system is described as kernel & shell.
Kernel is a main program of Unix system. it

User

controls hard wares, CPU, memory, hard

disk, network card etc.

input

Shell

Shell is an interface between user and

kernel. Shell interprets your input as

commands and pass them to kernel.

Kernel

Unix Overview (cont.)

Multi-user & Multi-process
Many people can use one machine at the same time.
File & Process
Data, directory, process, hard disk etc (almost everything)
are expressed as a file.
Process is an running program identified by a unique id
(PID).

Unix Overview (cont.)

Directory Structure
Files are put in a directory.
All directories are in a hierarchical structure (tree

structure).
User can put and remove any directories on the tree.
Top directory is /, which is called slash or root.
Users have the own directory. (home directory)

Unix Overview (cont.)

Directory Structure

Unix Overview (cont.)

Important Directories
/bin

This contains files that are essential for correct

operation of the system. These are available for use by all
users.

/home This is where user home directories are stored.

/var

This directory is used to store files which change

frequently, and must be available to be written to.

/etc

Various system configuration files are stored here.

Unix Overview (cont.)

Important Directories
/dev This contains various devices as files, e.g. hard

disk, CD-ROM drive, etc.

/sbin

Binaries which are only expected to be used by

the super user.

/tmp

Temporary files.

Unix Overview (cont.)

Normal user and Super user
In Unix system, there is one special user for administrator, which can
do anything.
This special user is called root or superuser.
Case Sensitivity
Unix is case-sensitive.
MYFILE.doc, Myfile.doc, mYfiLe.Doc are different.
Online Manual
Unix has well-written online manuals.

Basic Commands
How to run commands

Finder => Application => Utilitaires => Terminal

When you log on Unix machine, you will see,

[someone]$
One command consists of three parts, i.e. command name,

options, arguments.
Example)
[someone~]$ command-name optionA optionB argument1 argument2

Basic Commands
How to run commands
Between command name, options and arguments, space is

necessary.
Opitions always start with -
Example:

cd ..
ls l .bashrc
mv fileA fileB

Basic Commands
Commands

ls
cd
cp
mv
rm
pwd
mkdir
rmdir
less, more, cat
man

show files in current position

change directory
copy file or directory
move file or directory
remove file or directory
show current position
create directory
remove directory
display file contents
display online manual

Basic Commands
Commands

su
passwd
useradd
userdel
mount
umount
df
shutdown

switch user
change password
create new user account
delete user account
mount file system
unmount file system
show disk space usage
reboot or turn off machine

Basic Commands
1. Type following command in
your directory.
ls
ls a
ls la
ls -Fa

3. In your home directory,

ls .bash_profile
cp .bash_profile sample.txt
less sample.txt (note: to quit less, press q)
rm sample.txt

4. check disk space usage

2. Make a directory

df
df -h

mkdir linux
pwd
cd linux
pwd
cd
pwd
rmdir linux

Relative & Absolute Path

Path means a position in the directory tree.
To express a path, you can use relative path or

absolute path.
In relative path expression, the path is not defined
uniquely, depends on your current path.
In absolute path expression, the path is defined
uniquely, does not depend on your current path.

Absolute Path
Address from the root

/home/linux/
~/linux
~: ~: Alt+N
Similar to:

Lausanne University/Lausanne/Canton de Vaud/

Switzerland/Europe/Earth/Solar System/

Relative Path
Relative to your current location

. : your current location

.. : one directory above your current location
pwd: gives you your current location
Example
ls ./linux : lists the content of the dir linux
ls ../../ : lists everything that is two dir higer
Similar to:

Go Left/turn right/take the TSOL/go

Relative & Absolute Path

Relative Path

pwd
cd .
pwd
cd ..
pwd
cd ..
pwd
cd

Ablsoute Path

cd
mkdir mydir
pwd
cd /Users/invite
pwd
cd /Users
pwd
cd /
pwd
cd /Users/invite
cd ~/mydir

Redirect, Append and Pipe

Redirect and append
Output of command is displayed on screen.
Using >, you can redirect the output from screen to a file.
Using >> you can append the output to the bottom of the file.

Pipe
Some commands require input from a file or other commands.
Using |, you can use output from other command as input to the command.
On MacOSX, The Pipe sign: (Shift+Alt+N: franc, Alt+7)

Redirect, Append and Pipe

Commands
head

show first several lines and omit other lines.

tail

show last several lines and omit

other lines.

grep XXX File show lines matching pattern XXX in File

Redirect, Append and Pipe

In home directory, type

ls -1 > sample.txt
less sample.txt
Use redirect.
head -3 sample.txt
head -3 sample.txt > redirect.txt
Use append.
tail -3 sample.txt
tail -3 sample.txt >> redirect.txt
less redirect.txt

Use pipe.

less redirect.txt
grep Desk redirect.txt
grep n Desk redirect.txt
man grep
tail redirect.txt | grep Desk
rm sample.txt
rm redirect.txt

Sorting
Commands
sort

Sorts using the first field of each line.

-n
-k3

Sorts considering the numeric value of the strings

Sorts using the third field of each line
Sorts in reverse order, using the numeric value of
the third field

-rnk3

Redirect, Append and Pipe

Identify the largest file in a directory:

ls la /bin/ | sort nk5 | tail -1

Permission
All of files and directories have owner and permission.
There are three types of permission, readable, writeable and

executable.
Permissions are given to three kinds of group. owner, group
member and others.
Example:
ls -l .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--

1 cnotred

cnotred

191 Jan 4 13:11 .bash_profile

r:readable, w:writable, x: executable

Permission
Command
chmod

change file mode, add or remove

permission
change owner of the file

chown

Example)
chmod a+w filename
add writable permission to all users
chmod o-x filename
remove executable permission from others
chmod a+x
Gives permission to the usser to execute a file
u: user (owner),

g: group,

o: others

a: all

Permission

Check permission
ls l .bash_profile
cp .bash_profile sample.txt
ls l sample.txt

Remove readable permission from all.

chmod a-r sample.txt
ls l sample.txt
less sample.txt

Add readable & writable premissions to file owner.

chmod u+rw sample.txt
ls l sample.txt
less sample.txt
rm sample.txt

Process Management
Process is a unit of running program.
Each process has some information, like process ID, owner,

priority, etc.

Example) Output of top command

Process Management
Commands
kill

Stop a program. The program is

specified by process ID.
Stop a program. The program is
specified by command name.
Show process status
Show system usage statistics

killall
ps
top

Process Management
Check your process.
ps
ps u
Check process of all

users.
top (To quit top, press
q)
ps e
ps ef

Find your process.

ps ef | grep cnotred

Install Software

Unix system has a de facto standard way to install a

software.
configure, make & make install
Typical software installation procedure as following.
1.
Download source code. Usually, its archived with tar
command and compressed with gzip command.
2.
configure command creates Makefile automatically
which is used to compile the source.
3.
Program compilation is written in Makefile.

Install Software
Commands

gzip
gunzip
tar
configure
make

compress a file
uncompress a file
archive or expand files
create Makefile
compile & install software

Install Software
Example: parallel programming library installation
gunzip software.tar.gz
tar xvf software.tar
cd software
./install OR make all OR

Text Editor
pico
Programs & configuration files are text file.
There are two popular text editors, vi and Emacs.
Although they are very powerful and useful, it is also

true that they are complicated for beginners and

difficult to learn.
pico is an easy and simple alternative.

Text Editor
Commands

Arrow-keys Move cursor

CTRL+a Move to the beginning of the current line.
CTRL+e Move to the end of the current line.
CTRL+v Move forward one page.
CTRL+y Move backward one page.
CTRL+w Search for text.
CTRL+d Delete the current character.
CTRL+k Remove (cut) current line or selected text.
CTRL+u Paste (uncut) last cut text at the cursor position.
CTRL+o Save (output) the file.
CTRL+x Exit Pico, saving the file.

Autre: xemacs, emacs

Text Editor
Create the file Hello

pico hello.pl
Write hello.pl as follows.

#!/usr/bin/perl
print Hello World\n;

Make il executable

chmod u+x hello.pl

Run it!

./hello.pl

Foreground and Background

Running job has two modes, foreground and background
If program is running as background,

the program keeps running even after your session was

closed
If program is running as foreground,

Ctrl-C
Ctrl-Z

stop program
let program background

Foreground and Background

To run programs in background mode, use &

[nomura@ssc-1]$ command &

To get background job back into foreground mode, use fg

command.
[nomura@ssc-1]$ fg

Remote Login & File Transfer

rshd, telnetd, ftpd, sshd are server program
and provide similar services, remote login & file
transfer.
The major difference is security level.
rshd < telnetd + ftpd < sshd
Commands
Client
rsh & rcp
telnet & ftp
ssh & scp

Server
rshd
telnetd & ftpd
sshd

Remote Login & File Transfer

Remote login & file transfer system are based on
server and client model. client program on your
machine ask sever program certain service remote
machine.
For example, telnet server provides remote login
service. ftp server provides file transfer service.
Sample client programs;
WS FTP
Internet Exploror
Eudora

FTP client
HTTP client
POP, SMTP client

Tutorial of Unix/Linux
END