Linux 4 you

• A simple description of the UNIX system, also applicable
to Linux, is this:
• "On a UNIX system, everything is a file; if something is
not a file, it is a process."
This statement is true because there are special files that
are more than just files (named pipes and sockets, for
instance), but to keep things simple, saying that
everything is a file is an acceptable generalization. A
Linux system, just like UNIX, makes no difference
between a file and a directory, since a directory is just a
file containing names of other files. Programs, services,
texts, images, and so forth, are all files. Input and output
devices, and generally all devices, are considered to be
files, according to the system.
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• Most files are just files, called regular files; they contain
normal data, for example text files, executable files or
programs, input for or output from a program and so on.

• Directories: files that are lists of other files.
• Special files: the mechanism used for input and output. Most
special files are in /dev, we will discuss them later.
• Links: a system to make a file or directory visible in multiple parts
of the system's file tree. We will talk about links in detail.
• (Domain) sockets: a special file type, similar to TCP/IP sockets,
providing inter-process networking protected by the file system's
access control.
• Named pipes: act more or less like sockets and form a way for
processes to communicate with each other, without using network
socket semantics.
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• Most people have a vague knowledge of what partitions
are, since every operating system has the ability to
create or remove them. It may seem strange that Linux
uses more than one partition on the same disk, even
when using the standard installation procedure, so some
explanation is called for.
• One of the goals of having different partitions is to
achieve higher data security in case of disaster. By
dividing the hard disk in partitions, data can be grouped
and separated. When an accident occurs, only the data
in the partition that got the hit will be damaged, while the
data on the other partitions will most likely survive.
• There are two kinds of major partitions on a Linux system:
• data partition: normal Linux system data, including the root
partition containing all the data to start up and run the system; and
• swap partition: expansion of the computer's physical memory, extra memory
on hard disk.
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• This is the default nowadays on most desktop computers.
You know you will connect to the system using graphical
mode when you are first asked for your user name, and
then, in a new window, to type your password. To log in,
make sure the mouse pointer is in the login window,
provide your user name and password to the system and 8
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click OK or press Enter.

Command Meaning
Displays a list of files in the current working directory, like
ls
the dir command in DOS

cd directory change directories
passwd change the password for the current user

file filename display file type of file with name filename

cat textfile throws content of textfile on the screen
pwd display present working directory
exit or logout leave this session
man command read man pages on command
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Directory Content
Common programs, shared by the system, the system
/bin
administrator and the users.
The startup files and the kernel, vmlinuz. In some recent
distributions also grub data. Grub is the GRand Unified
/boot
Boot loader and is an attempt to get rid of the many different
boot-loaders we know today.
Contains references to all the CPU peripheral hardware, which
/dev
are represented as files with special properties.
Most important system configuration files are in /etc, this
/etc directory contains data similar to those in the Control Panel in
Windows
/home Home directories of the common users.
/initrd (on some distributions) Information for booting. Do not remove!
Library files, includes files for all kinds of programs needed by
/lib
the system and the users.
/lost+foun Every partition has a lost+found in its upper directory. Files that
d were saved during failures are here.
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/misc For miscellaneous purposes.

Standard mount point for external file systems, e.g. a CD-ROM or a
/mnt
digital camera.
/net Standard mount point for entire remote file systems
/opt Typically contains extra and third party software.
A virtual file system containing information about system resources.
More information about the meaning of the files in proc is obtained
/proc
by entering the command man proc in a terminal window. The
fileproc.txt discusses the virtual file system in detail.
The administrative user's home directory. Mind the difference
/root between /, the root directory and /root, the home directory of
the root user.
/sbin Programs for use by the system and the system administrator.
Temporary space for use by the system, cleaned upon reboot, so
/tmp
don't use this for saving any work!
Programs, libraries, documentation etc. for all user-related
/usr
programs.
Storage for all variable files and temporary files created by users,
such as log files, the mail queue, the print spooler area, space for
/var Infinity 11
temporary storage of files downloaded from the Internet, or to keep

• Viewing file properties
• ls –al
• Creating directories
• mkdir <dirname>
• Moving files
• mv <from file path> <to file path>
• Copying files
• cp -R <from file path> <to file path>
• Removing files
• rm <file to remove>
• Finding files
• which acroread
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• Find and locate
• find <path> -name <searchstring>
• In GUI mode we can always search from the file explorer
search text box.
• Creating symbolic links
• ln -s /opt/mp3/Queen/ Queen

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• Every file or folder in Linux has access permissions.
There are three types of permissions (what allowed to do
with a file):
• read access
• write access
• execute access
• Permissions are defined for three types of users:
• the owner of the file
• the group that the owner belongs to
• other users

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• Access mode codes
Code Meaning
0 or - The access right that is supposed to be on this place is not granted.
4 or r read access is granted to the user category defined in this place
2 or w write permission is granted to the user category defined in this place
execute permission is granted to the user category defined in this
1 or x
place

• User group codes

Code Meaning
u user permissions
g group permissions
o permissions for others

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• chmod command
• You can set file permissions with the chmod command. Both the
root user and the file's owner can set file permissions
• Chmod 777 <filename>
• This file will have read write and execute rights
• For more details refer :
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/filepermissions.html
• Or just search linux file permission in any search engine you
will get bunch of website describing this.

• Chown command
• This will change the owner of the file
• Chown <user> <filename> : this will make user the owner of
filename
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Command Meaning
bash GNU shell program.
cat file(s) Send content of file(s) to standard output.

cd directory Enter directory. cd is a bash built-in command.

chgrp newgroup file(s) Change the group ownership of file(s) to newgroup

chmod mode file(s) Change access permissions on file(s)
chown newowner[:[newgroup]] file
Change file owner and group ownership.
(s)
cp sourcefile targetfile Copy sourcefile to targetfile.
Reports on used disk space on the partition
df file
containing file.
echo string Display a line of text
Part of bash that announces variables and their
export Infinity 17
values to the system.

file filename Determine file type of filename.
find path expression Find files in the file system hierarchy
Print lines in file containing the search
grep PATTERN file
pattern.

head file Send the first part of file to standard output

Prints real and effective user name and
id
groups.
info command Read documentation about command.
less file View file with a powerful viewer.
Make a link with
ln targetfile linkname
name linkname to targetfile.
Print all accessible files matching the
locate searchstring
search pattern.
ls file(s) Prints directory content.
Format and display online (system)
man command
manual pages for command.
mkdir newdir Make a new empty directory.
mv oldfile newfile Rename or move oldfile.
newgrp groupname Log
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pwd Print the present or current working directory.

quota Show disk usage and limits.
rm file Removes files and directories.
rmdir file Removes directories.
tail file Print the last part of file.
umask [value] Show or change new file creation mode.
wc file Counts lines, words and characters in file.
which comma
Shows the full path to command.
nd
File permissions

WhoWhat r(ead) w(rite) (e)x(ecute)

u(ser) 4 2 1

g(roup) 4 2 1

o(ther) 4 2 1

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(part of)
Meaning
command
regular_command Runs this command in the foreground.

command & Run this command in the background (release the terminal)

jobs Show commands running in the background.

Ctrl+Z Suspend (stop, but not quit) a process running in the foreground (suspend).

Ctrl+C Interrupt (terminate and quit) a process running in the foreground.

Every process running in the background gets a number assigned to it. By using
%n
the % expression a job can be referred to using its number, for instance fg %2.

bg Reactivate a suspended program in the background.

fg Puts the job back in the foreground.

kill End a process (also see Shell Builtin Commands in the Info pages of bash)
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• Displaying process information
• Ps
• Pstree
• relations between processes can be visualized using the pstree
• kill : kill the specified process
• Init 0 : shutdown
• Init 6 : reset

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• Gnome System Monitor
• This displays process
Information like
running processes
memory use
processor uses
network uses
You can kill, suspend and see
Status of the process here

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Command Meaning
at Queue jobs for later execution.
atq Lists the user's pending jobs.

atrm Deletes jobs, determined by their job number.

batch Executes commands when system load level permits.

crontab Maintain crontab files for individual users.
halt Stop the system.
init run level Process control initialization.
jobs Lists currently executing jobs.
kill Terminate a process.
mesg Control write access to your terminal.
Display network connections, routing tables, interface
netstat statistics, masquerade connections and multicast
memberships.

nice Run a program with modified scheduling priority.

pgrep Display processes.
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ps Report process status.
pstree Display a tree of processes.
reboot Stop the system.
renice Alter priority of running processes.
shutdown Bring the system down.
sleep Delay for a specified time.
Time a command or report resource
time
usage.
top Display top CPU processes.
Show how long the system has been
uptime
running.
vmstat Report virtual memory statistics.
Show who is logged on and what they
w
are doing.
Send a message to everybody's
wall
terminals.
who Show
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• Most Linux commands read input, such as a file or another
attribute for the command, and write output. By default, input
is being given with the keyboard, and output is displayed on
your screen. Your keyboard is yourstandard input (stdin)
device, and the screen or a particular terminal window is
the standard output (stdout) device.
• Output redirection with > and |
• > : put output of a command in a file
• | : sends the standard output of one command to another command
as standard input
• Input redirection
• Accept input from a file. Eg : mail cousin < my_typed_letter
• The >> operator
• append text to an existing file
• We can also combine this operator as our requirement
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• Vi(m)
• Vim stands for "Vi IMproved". It used to be "Vi IMitation", but there are
so many improvements that a name change was appropriate. Vim is a
text editor which includes almost all the commands from the UNIX
program viand a lot of new ones.
• GNU Emacs
• Emacs is the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time
display editor, known on many UNIX and other systems.
• And if you are working in GUI mode you have editors like
gedit, emacs and some other. Using which you can modify
files very easily.

• Please refer http://www.tuxfiles.org for more details on working
with these editor

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• Environment variables
• An environment variable is a named object that contains data used
by one or more applications. In simple terms, it is a variable with a
name and a value. The value of an environmental variable can for
example be the location of all executable files in the filesystem
• export MANPATH=$MANPATH:/opt/FlightGear/man
• Shell scripts
• A shell script is a script written for the shell, or command line
interpreter, of an operating system. The shell is often considered a
simple domain-specific programming language. Typical operations
performed by shell scripts include file manipulation, program
execution, and printing text.
#!/bin/csh
echo compiling...
cc -c foo.c
echo done. Infinity 27

• RPM packages
• RPM, the RedHat Package Manager, is a powerful package
manager that you can use to install, update and remove packages.
It allows you to search for packages and keeps track of the files
that come with each package. Eg:
• rpm -Uvh /path/to/rpm-package(s)
• DEB (.deb) packages
• This package format is the default on Debian GNU/Linux,
where dselect, and, nowadays more common, aptitude, is the
standard tool for managing the packages. It is used to select
packages that you want to install or upgrade. Eg:
• dpkg -i debFileName

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• Software Center
• Using this we can just search and install software
easily
• Synaptic package manager
• Provide addition of software source, search of
software, software organized in categories which easily
we can select and install
• Moreover you can download .bin, .sh files which
are binary installation files which you can always
execute and install it using making it executable
using chmod + x and ./filename.sh or ./bin file
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Command Meaning
bzip2 A block-sorting file compressor.

cdrecord Record audio or data Compact Disks from a master.

dd Convert and copy a file
fdformat Low-level formats a floppy disk.
gpg Encrypt and decrypt data.
gzip Compress or expand files.
mcopy Copy MSDOS files to/from UNIX.
mdir Display an MSDOS directory.

mformat Add an MSDOS file system to a low-level formatted floppy disk.

mkbootdisk Creates a stand-alone boot floppy for the running system.

Mount a file system (integrate it with the current file system by connecting it to a mount
mount
point).
rsync Synchronize directories.

tar Tape archiving utility, also used for making archives on disk instead of on tape.

umount Unmount file systems. Infinity 30

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