NDG Linux Unhatched

Copyright © 2019 Network Development Group, Inc.

Why Learn Linux?
● Linux is everywhere!
○ Linux is used by web servers, personal computers, mobile devices, and more.

● Linux is operating system software that is found in many areas of IT (i.e,

cloud technology, virtualization, cybersecurity, networking…).

● Learning Linux results in acquiring in-demand technical job skills to analyze,

process, protect, and transmit data.
Why Learn Linux?
● Linux emphasizes the use of a powerful tool called the command line.

● Linux powers the Internet. How? A high percentage of Internet servers and
services use Linux.

● Linux is an open source product. Open source technology skills are in high-
demand in today’s job market.
Learn how to type commands
Basic Linux Command Syntax
● What is a command?
○ A command is a software program that can be executed on the command line and
performs an action on the computer.

● To execute a command, type the command at the prompt:

sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls
Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

(In the example above, the command ls was typed at the prompt sysadmin@localhost:~$.)

● Most commands follow a simple pattern of syntax:

command [options…] [arguments…]
Basic Linux Command Syntax
● What are arguments?
command [options…] [arguments…]

● An argument can be used to specify something for the command to act upon.

● For example, the ls command can be given the name of a directory as an

argument and it will list the contents of that directory:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls Documents

School alpha-second.txt food.txt linux.txt os.csv

Work alpha-third.txt hello.sh longfile.txt people.csv
...
Basic Linux Command Syntax
● What are options?
command [options…] [arguments…]

● Options can be used to alter the behavior of a command.

● For example, the -l option can be used with the ls command to result in a
“long display” output that provides more information about the directories:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls -l

total 32
drwx------ 2 sysadmin sysadmin 4096 Dec 20 2017 Desktop
drwx------ 4 sysadmin sysadmin 4096 Dec 20 2017 Documents
drwx------ 2 sysadmin sysadmin 4096 Dec 20 2017 Downloads
...
How to locate where you are in the filesystem
Printing the Working Directory

● To find out where you are in the Linux filesystem, use the pwd (print working
directory) command.

sysadmin@localhost:~$ pwd
/home/sysadmin

● According to the output of the pwd command above, the user is in their home
folder in the filesystem.
Note
​ 
In the first prompt above, the blue ~ is equivalent to /home/sysadmin, representing the user's home directory.
After changing directories, the new location can also be confirmed in the new prompt, again shown in blue.

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$
How to move to another directory in the filesystem
Changing Directories

● Directories are a type of file used to store other files.

● They provide a hierarchical structure:

​ 
Changing Directories
● To navigate the filesystem structure, use the cd command. Using a directory as an
argument will change to that directory:

sysadmin@localhost:~$ cd Documents

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$

● A path is a list of directories separated by the / character (i.e., /home/sysadmin).

● Absolute paths specify the exact location of a directory beginning at the root (/)
directory: /home/sysadmin
● Relative paths give directions to a file relative to your current location (instead of the root
directory): School/Art

​ 
Changing Directories
● Shortcuts can also be used to change directories.

○ The .. characters always represents one (1) directory higher relative to your
current directory, also known as the parent directory.

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents/School/Art$ cd ..
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents/School$

○ The . character represents your current directory.

○ The ~ character represents the home directory of the current user.

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents/School/Art$ cd ~
sysadmin@localhost:~$
Learn how to list files and file information
Listing Files
● The ls command is used to list the contents of a directory.
● Remember that when used with the -l option, the ls command will display
more details about files:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls -l /var/log
total 844

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18047 Dec 20 2017 alternatives.log

drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Dec 20 2017 apache2

drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Dec 20 2017 apt

● The output includes information about file type, file permissions, file
ownership, timestamps and more.
​ 
Listing Files
● The information displayed in the ls -l output can be broken down into
different fields:

○ File Type:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18047 Dec 20 2017 alternatives.log

drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Dec 20 2017 apache2

■ The first field has ten characters. The first character indicates the file type.

○ Permissions:
drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Dec 20 2017 apache2

■ Permissions indicate how users can access a file.

Listing Files
○ File Size:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18047 Dec 20 2017 alternatives.log

■ Size of files in bytes.

○ Timestamp:

drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Dec 20 2017 apache2

■ Indicates when a file’s contents were last modified.

○ File Name:

drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Dec 20 2017 apache2

■ The name of the file or directory.

How to gain administrative access using the Linux command line
Administrative Access
● Some commands provide sensitive information such as passwords and
system information.

● Preventing regular users from executing these commands helps protect the
system.

● Logging in as the root user provides administrative access to execute these

commands.
​ 
Administrative Access
● The su command allows you to temporarily login as a different user by
opening a new shell.

● su can be used to login as the root user, providing administrative privileges.

● To login as the root user, execute the su command without specifying a user
and type in the root password:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ su -
Password:
root@localhost:~$

● To return to the regular user, use the exit command

Administrative Access
● The sudo command allows a user to execute a command as another user
without creating a new shell.

● To execute a command as root, type sudo before the command and provide
the root password:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ sudo sl
Password:
sysadmin@localhost:~$

​ 
Learn about user permissions for files and directories
Permissions
● Permissions determine the ways users can interact a file or directory.

● When listing a file with the ls -l command, the output includes permissions.

● Recall that the permissions are in the first field after the file type character:
​ 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sysadmin sysadmin 21 Aug 1 02:35 hello.sh
Permissions
● Permissions are broken down into three sets of three characters.

○ Owner:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 sysadmin sysadmin 21 Aug 1 02:35 hello.sh

○ Group:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 sysadmin sysadmin 21 Aug 1 02:35 hello.sh

○ Others:
​  -rw-rw-r-- 1 sysadmin sysadmin 21 Aug 1 02:35 hello.sh
Permissions
● There are three permission types:

Permission Effect on File Effect on Directory

Read (r) Can read or copy file Allows for listing of files
contents

Write (w) Can modify or overwrite file Can modify directory

contents contents (only with execute)

Execute (x) Can run the file as a Can change (cd) to the
process directory if parent directory
has execute also
How to change file and directory permissions
Changing Permissions
● The chmod command is used to change the permissions of a file or directory.
● There are two techniques to change permissions using chmod ; the symbolic
method and the octal method (not covered in this course).
● Symbolic Method:
Chmod [ <SET><ACTION><PERMISSIONS>]... FILE

○ First indicate the <SET> using the following symbols:

■ u - User permissions

■ g - Group permissions

■ o - Other permissions

■ a - All permissions
​ 
Changing Permissions
○ Then specify the <ACTION> symbol:
■ (+) - Add the permission
■ (=) - Specify exact permission
■ (-) - Remove the permission

○ Specify one or more <PERMISSIONS> to be acted upon:

■ r - Read
■ w - Write
■ x - Execute

○ Lastly, specify the FILE or pathname to assign the permissions to. The action
should resemble the following example:
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ chmod u+x hello.sh
How to change file and directory ownership
Changing Ownership
● The chown command is used to change the ownership of a file or directory.
● To change the user owner of a file, use the following syntax:
chown [OPTIONS] [OWNER] [FILE]

● For example, to change the owner of the hello.sh file from sysadmin to root:
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ ls -l hello.sh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sysadmin sysadmin 112 Aug 1 02:35 hello.sh
​  sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ sudo chown root hello.sh
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ ls -l hello.sh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root sysadmin 112 Aug 1 02:35 hello.sh

Don't forget to use the sudo command in order to gain the necessary administrative privileges.
How to move files around the filesystem
Moving Files
● The mv command is used to move a file from one location in the filesystem to
another.
● The mv command requires at least two arguments; a source (file to be moved)
and a destination (where the file will be moved):
mv SOURCE DESTINATION

● For example, to move the people.csv file to the Work directory:

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ mv people.csv Work
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ ls Work
people.csv
​ 
How to create copies of files in the filesystem
Copying Files
● The cp command is used to copy files.
● Similar to the mv command, cp requires at least two arguments; a source (file
to be copied) and a destination (where the file will be copied):
cp SOURCE DESTINATION

● For example, to copy the /etc/passwd file to the current directory:

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ cp /etc/passwd .

​ 
Recall that . is a shortcut which represents the current directory.
Copying Files
● The dd command is a utility used for copying files or partitions.
● This command can be useful for a few reasons:
○ To clone or delete disk partitions

○ To copy raw data to removable devices (USB, CDROM...)

○ Backup your computer’s MBR (Master Boot Record)

○ Create files with binary zeros used for virtual memory

● For example, using dd the following creates a file named /tmp/swapex with 50 blocks
of zeros that are one megabyte in size:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/swapex bs=1M count=50

○ if = input file; of = output file; bs = byte size

How to remove files from the filesystem
Removing Files
● The rm command is used to delete files and directories.
● The rm command without any options is used to remove files:
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ rm linux.txt
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ ls linux.txt
ls: cannot access linux.txt: no such file or directory

● To delete a directory, use the -r or -R option with the rm command:

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ rm Work
rm: cannot remove ‘Work’: Is a directory
​  sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ rm -r Work
How to view file contents
Viewing Files
● The cat command can be used to view the entire contents of a file:
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ cat food.txt
Food is good.

● The head command displays the first ten lines of a file.

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ head alpha.txt

● The tail command displays the last ten lines of a file.

sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ tail alpha.txt

● The -n option can be used with head and tail to adjust the number of line
displayed.

​ 
How to filter file contents using regular expressions and basic patterns
Filtering Input
● The grep command is a text filter that will search input and return matches of a pattern:

grep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE]

● For example, to filter information about the sysadmin user in the passwd file,
use sysadmin as the PATTERN argument and passwd as the [FILE]
argument:
sysadmin@localhost:/Documents$ grep sysadmin passwd
sysadmin:x:1001:1001:System Administrator,,,,:/home/sysadmin:/bin/bash
​ 
Filtering Input
● Regular expressions (regex) are patterns that only certain commands can interpret.
● Regular expressions can also be used with the grep command to filter file contents.
○ Basic regular expressions include:
. Any one single character * Zero or more of the previous character

[ ] Any one specified character ^ Pattern must be at beginning, or literal ^

[^ ] Not the specified character $ Pattern must be at end, or literal $

○ Extended regular expressions include:

+ One or more of the previous pattern ( ) Used to create groups

{ } Specify minimum, maximum, or

exact matches of previous pattern | Alternation (logical “or”)
Filtering Input
● Regular expressions can be used with grep to match basic patterns in text.
● Anchor Characters:

○ First anchor character ^ is used to ensure that the pattern appears at the beginning.
sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ grep '^root' /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

○ Second anchor character $ is used to ensure that the pattern appears at the end.
sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ grep 'r$' alpha-first.txt
B is for Bear
F is for Flower
Filtering Input
● The . character will match any character (except newline)

○ For example, the pattern r..f will return the following:

sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ grep 'r..f' red.txt
reef
roof

● The [ ] brackets match a single character from a list or range contained in

the brackets:
sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ grep '[0-9]' profile.txt
I am 37 years old.
3121991
I have 2 dogs.
123456789101112
Filtering Input
● The * character will match zero or more of a character preceding it.

○ For example, the pattern e* will match zero or more of the letter e and will
result in the following:
sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ grep 're*d' red.txt
red
reeed
rd
reed
How to shutdown the Linux system
Shutting Down
● The shutdown command brings down the system safely and notifies all users the
system is going down.
shutdown [OPTIONS] TIME [MESSAGE]

● Formats of the TIME argument can be the word now, a time of day in the format hh:mm
or the number of minutes to delay in the format +minutes.
root@localhost:~# shutdown +1 "Goodbye World!"

​  Broadcast message from sysadmin@localhost

(/dev/console) at 2:23 ...

The system is going down for maintenance in 1 minute!

Goodbye World!
Learn about your computer on the network
Network Configuration
● Systems are connected to a network in order to communicate to other systems (like the
internet).

● The ifconfig command is used to display network configuration information.

● ifconfig can also used to modify network settings.

root@localhost:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 02:42:c0:a8:01:02
​  inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::42:c0ff:fea8:102/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1450 Metric:1
RX packets:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1128 (1.1 KB) TX bytes:648 (648.0 B)
Network Configuration
● The ping command is used to verify connectivity between two computers on a network.

● The ping command sends “packets” to another machine by using an IP address.

● If the ping command is successful, the output will look like the following:
root@localhost:~# ping -c 2 192.168.1.2
PING 192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
​  64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.035 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.027 ms

--- 192.168.1.2 ping statistics ---

2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1329ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.027/0.031/0.035/0.004 ms
How to view processes on the Linux system
Viewing Processes
● Running a command results in a process.

● In the Linux operating system, processes are executed with the privileges of
the user who executes the command.

● The ps command can be used to list processes:

sysadmin@localhost:~$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
​  87 ? 00:00:00 bash
128 ? 00:00:00 ps
Viewing Processes
● The output of the ps command includes the following columns of information:

○ PID: The process identifier, which is unique to the process. This information is
useful to control the process by its ID number.

○ TTY: The name of the terminal where the process is running.

○ TIME: The total amount of processor time used by the process.

○ CMD: The command that started the process.

​ 
Learn about how software is installed on a Linux system
Package Management
● Package management is a system by which software can be installed,
updated, queried or removed from a filesystem.

● In Linux, there are many different software package management systems.

● The Debian Advanced Package Tool apt-get is a front-end program that

makes package management easy for Linux beginners.

​ 
Package Management
● Package files are commonly installed by downloading them directly from repositories
located on Internet servers.

● Before installing a package, refresh the list of available packages using the apt-get
update command.

● To search for packages, you can use the apt-cache search command:
apt-cache search [keyword]

● Once you've found the package that you want to install, you can install it with the apt-
get install command:
​  sudo apt-get install [package]
Package Management
● To update all packages
○ First update the cache of all packages available with apt-get update.
○ Second, execute the apt-get upgrade command.

● The apt-get command is able to either remove or purge a package.

○ Purging deletes all package files, while removing deletes all but the
configuration files.
○ To remove a package, use apt-get remove as an administrator
○ To purge a package, use apt-get purge as an administrator
​ 
How to update a user’s password on a Linux system
Updating User Passwords
● The passwd command is used to update user passwords.

● Users can only change their own passwords, whereas the root user can update
the password for any user.

● To execute the passwd command use the following syntax:

passwd [OPTIONS] [USER]

● You will be prompted to enter the existing password once and the new
password twice.

​ 
Updating User Passwords
● To view status information about your password use the -S option with the passwd
command:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ passwd -S sysadmin

sysadmin P 03/01/2015 0 99999 7 -1

○ sysadmin: User Name

○ P: Password Status (P indicates usable status, L indicates locked, NP means no password)

○ 03/01/2015: Change Date (date when password was last changed)

○ 0: Minimum (minimum number of days that must pass before the current password can be changed by
the user)

○ 99999: Maximum (the maximum number of days remaining for the password to expire)

○ 7: Warn (the number of days prior to password expiry that the user is warned)

○ -1: Inactive (the number of days after password expiry that the user account remains active)
Learn about input/output redirection on the command line
Redirection
● Input/Output redirection allows for information in the command line to be sent to files,
devices, and other commands.

● There are three type of input/output:

○ Standard Input (STDIN): Information the command receives and processes when it
is executed.
sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls

○ Standard Output (STDOUT): The output of the command.

sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls
Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

○ Standard Error (STDERR): Error messages generated by commands that are not
correctly executed.
sysadmin@localhost:~$ ls fakefile
ls: cannot access fakefile: No such file or directory
Redirection
● STDOUT can be used to write to files by redirecting command output to a file.
[COMMAND] > [FILE]

● For example, the output of the cat command can be redirected to a new file called
newfile1.txt:

sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ cat food.txt

Food is good.
sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ cat food.txt > newfile1.txt
sysadmin@localhost:~/Documents$ cat newfile1.txt
Food is good.

● The single > character will overwrite any contents of a file, so to append content to a file
use the double-greater than characters >>.
Learn about Linux text editors
Text Editors
● There are numerous text editors in Linux (nano, emacs, vi)

● The most advanced text editor for Linux is called vi. Benefits of vi include:

○ Available on every Linux distribution in the world.

○ Can be executed both in a CLI (command line interface) and a GUI (graphical user
interface).

○ Core functions have been around for decades.

● To get started using vi, type the command followed by the pathname to the file to edit
or create:
sysadmin@localhost:~$ vi newfile.txt
​ 
Text Editors
● There are three modes used to navigate and edit in vi:
○ command mode
○ insert mode
○ ex mode

● Command Mode
○ Used to type commands that move around a document, manipulate text, and to access
the other two modes.

○ Command Mode Movement

■ Movement commands in vi use a motion and an optional number prefix.
■ For example, 5h would move the cursor five characters to the left.
■ Some other movement commands include:
j - down one line l - right one character b - one word back
k - up one line w - one word forward ^ - beginning of the line $ - end of the line
$ - end of the line
Text Editors
● Command Mode Actions
○ vi uses the following three action commands:
■ d - Delete (cut)
■ y - Yank (copy)
■ p - Put (paste)

● The following syntax is used for command mode:

action [count] motion

○ For example:

■ d3w will delete the next three words

■ yw will yank the current word

​ 
Text Editors
● Insert Mode
○ Insert mode is used to add text to the document.
○ There a few ways to enter insert mode from command mode

a - Enter insert mode after cursor i - Enter insert mode before cursor
A - Enter insert mode at end of line I - Enter insert mode at beginning of line
o - Enter insert mode on blank line after cursor O - Enter insert mode on blank line before cursor

● Ex Mode
○ Used to view or change settings, as well as carry out file-related commands like opening,
saving or aborting changes to a file.

○ To get to ex mode, type a : character in command mode.

■ For example, :w will write (save) the file to the filesystem; :q! will quit without saving.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this brief introduction into the world of Linux!