Basic Linux Commands and Installation
Uploaded by
AdarshBasic Linux Commands and Installation
Uploaded by
AdarshBasic Linux Commands
& Installation
Why Linux ?
● Many users on the system with different privileges
● Each user has its own private space
● users, who and, w prints a list of users logged into a system
/etc/passwd information about user accounts
login name, full name, home directory etc
Superuser account root or superuser
can modify any file, USE WITH CAUTION
What is Linux
● Linux is not to UNIX as Windows is to DOS
● UNIX not operating system, rather a specification
● UNIX SCO, HP, Digital, BSD, and of course, Linux
● Various distributions different organizations distributing Linux
in their own way
● Redhat, Suse, Mandrake, Debian etc.
● Linux truly GNU/Linux
● Linux the kernel written by Linus Torvalds
● GNU many utilities like gcc, gnumake, gzip etc
The Shell
● Real power of Linux
● Command line interface
● Starter for text and GUI based apps
Benefits
Fast processing
More options per command
More command
The Shell . . . continued
● Examples
bash GNU BourneAgain Shell
csh The C Shell
ksh Korn Shell
zsh Z Shel
Computing Basics
● Commands words to tell the computer what to do
● Shell the place where you can type commands
● Files Structures to store logically continuous data
Listing Files ls
Displaying Files cat
Editing Files vi
Deleting Files rm
Copying and moving files cp, mv
Computing Basics . . . continued
● Directories
Listing Directories ls
Changing to a directory cd
Creating a directory mkdir
Deleting directories rmdir, rm r
Managing user accounts
● Adding new users
useradd
● Removing users
userdel
● Modifying user information
usermod
Groups
● Logical collections of users
● Need for groups
● Managing groups
Adding new groups
groupadd
Removing group
groupdel
Modifying group
groupmo
Access Privileges
● File attributes owner, group, permissions
● Display file information: ls l
● File permissions
Read access (mnemonic: r, binary weight: 4)
Write access (mnemonic: w, binary weight: 2)
Execute access (mnemonic: x, binary weight:1)
● Managing file permissions
chmod change file access permissions
chown change file owner and group
Linux File System
● ext2 file system, ext3 journaling file system
● treats everything as a file
directories files containing pointers to other files
hardware devices as files under the directory /dev
Linux File System . . . continued
Standard directory structure
/ the topmost
/dev all the devices are accessible as files
/var "variable" data such as mails, log files, databases
/usr almost all the packages installed
/etc configuration files
/home home directories for all the users
/root home directory of the privileged user root
/mnt used to mount other directories/partitions
Concept of Mount
● Mounting a floppy
mount /dev/fd0
● Mounting a cd
mount /dev/cdrom
● Unmount
umount /dev/cdrom
● Ejecting a floppy or cd
eject
Linux Utilities tar and zip
● tar the archiving utility
to store and extract files from an archive known as tarfile
create a new archive
tar cvf archive.tar <file1> <file2> ....
extract files from archive
tar xvf archive.tar
● gzip and gunzip compress or expand files
To compress (zip): gzip <filename>
To expand (unzip): gunzip <filename.gz
Managing Software
● Tarballs tarred gzipped files (extension .tar.gz) distribute source
● unzip and untar the package
gunzip <package.tar.gz>
tar xvf <package.tar>
cd <package>
● configure the source code: ./configure
● compile the software: make
● Install this requires root privileges: make install
Managing Software . . . continued
● RPM (Redhat package Manager) precompiled binaries (exten
sion .rpm)
popular distributions like redhat, suse, mandrake
Installing rpm ivh <package name>
Upgrading rpm Uvh <package name>
Uninstalling rpm e <package name
Commands
● You have already seen...
Commands words to tell the computer what to do
Shell the place where you can type commands
● Reading files
less, more
tail, head
cat, tac
● Wildcard Character
Command Concatenation
●
Nonverboseness
● Concept of stdin, stdout and stderr
stdin : Standard Input Device
stdout : Standard Output Device
stderr : Standard Error Devic
Command Concatenation
● Output redirection
example: cat file.txt >output.txt
● Input redrection
example: head < file1.txt
● Error msg redirection
example: cat file.txt 2>error.log
Linux Help System
● Offline Documentation /usr/share/doc
info command
Navigation u up, p previous, n next, b
beginning, e end
Searching / <keyword>
Quitting
Linux Help System . . . continued
● man command
Keyword search man k <keyword>
Manual sections
Features
Command line parameters and options
Detail description
Bugs
Contact Information
Related command
Linux Help System . . . continued
● whatis
Syntax: whatis keyword ...
● apropos
Syntax: apropos keyword ...
Both commands are similar
apropos internally uses whatis database
/var/cache/man/whatis databas
VI Editor
● Most of Vim was written by Bram Moolenaar <bram@vim.org>.
● Posix standard
● IEEE standard 1003.2 Part 2: Shell and utilities
● Textual description of how Vi is supposed to work
● VI Modified vi
VI Editor . . . continued
● Starting Vi Editor
vi
vi filename
vi R filename
● Getting out of Vi Editor :q
● Vi editor modes
Command mode
Insert mode
Ex mod
VI Editor . . . continued
● Vi Help System
F1 key
:help
vimtuto
VI Editor . . . continued
● VI functionalities
✔ Searching string
✔ Replace with search
Thank you
