EEGR788:Seminar I
Babatunde Olubando D.Eng.
September 2020
Introduction to Linux
What is Linux?
• It is an Operating System(O.S)
• A collection of software that manages hardware resources
• Unix based, but written from scratch
• Environment where applications can work
• Store information
• Interact with users
• Interact with external peripherals
• It is also a Kernel
• Core of the OS
What is Linux ?
• Acts as intermediary/ middleware
• It includes system libraries, graphical user
interface(s), web browsers,…
• Created by Linus Torvalds in 1991
• Unix based
• First version released in 1994
• FOSS (Free /Open Source Software)
• Can be modified as long as the source code is
shared.
What is Linux?
• Linux Distribution (a.k.a Distro/ Flavor)
• Linux Distro = Linux Kernel + Applications
• Each distro has a different focus
• Applications = open source curated software that can be changed
• Free distros with no support
• Commercial distros ( license purchase required with support)
• Desktop/server focus, research/ science focus, media focus, security focus
Linux Distros
• Fedora
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
• Banks, airlines, telecom, healthcare
• Ubuntu
• Startups, SaaS, Social networks, cloud based systems
• Debian
• OpenSuSE
• SuSE Linux Enterprise Server(SLES)
• Linux Mint
• Kali Linux Source: Most Popular Linux Distros (2017)
Why Linux ?
• Platform agnostic
• Can run on many hardware platforms
• Mobile devices, embedded devices (IOTs), PCs, super computers, servers vs.
• Unix flavors that are platform specific
• HPUX (HP devices), AIX (IBM), Solaris (Sun[Oracle])
• Small footprint
• Stable ,reliable and secure
• Long Term Support ( for commercial distros)
• Great for servers/ desktops
• Not as costly as proprietary Unix Oses
• Linux concepts are mostly universal
Virtual box + Linux distro
• Installing Virtualbox
• Downloading Linux Distro (Ubuntu)
• Initial setup of Linux distro
Linux Directory structure
• Common Directories
• / (directory separator)
• / “Root”, top of the file system hierarchy
• /bin Binaries and other executable programs or files
• /etc System configuration files
• /home User home directories
• /opt Optional or third party software
• /tmp Temporary space(typically cleared on reboot)
• /usr User related programs
• /usr/local/
• /var Variable data (most notably log files)
Some other directories
• /boot Files needed to boot the operating system
• /cdrom Mount point for CD-ROMs
• /cgroup Control group hierarchy
• /dev Device files (typically controlled by OS and sys admins)
• /export Shared file systems
• /lib System libraries
• /lib64 System libraries (64bit)
• /lost+found Used by system to store recovered files after file systems check has been performed
• /media Used to mount removable media like CD-ROMs
• /mnt Used to mount external file systems
• /proc Provides info about running processes
Linux Shell
• Default interface to Linux
• If connecting to Linux machine over the network (S_ _?)
• Text-based login prompt
• The GUI is also referred to as a graphical shell.
• An application that accepts user commands and executes them.
• Also known as a Command Line Interpreter
Command Line Interface (CLI) vs. GUI
• There will always be a command line
• The command line is more powerful
• Batch commands can be easily accomplished vs. with a GUI
• Most Linux server distributions do not include GUIs
• Desktop distributions have both GUIs & CLIs
Types of Linux/ Unix Shells
• bash+ (Bourne Again Shell)
• ksh+ (Korn Shell)
• tcsh (derived from csh, Berkely Unix C shell)
• zsh
• fish (Friendly Interactive Shell)
Shell Prompt
• Once a shell is started
• Initialization
• Waiting for command
• Prompt gives useful information
Logged in User machine Logged in machine System connected to
System connected to
a regular user User a super user
* This root is different from the file system root
Superuser, root
• Root is all powerful* ( do not leave this account open)
• Similar to administrator account on Windows
• Normal user accounts can only do a subset of the functions root can do.
• Root access may be required to
• Install programs
• Start/ stop an application
• Change/ access configuration files
Different ways the prompt can presented
user@mece_svr $ ~user -----> /home/user
[user@mece_svr /tmp]$ ~user2 -----> /home/user2
mece_svr: /home/user> ~root -----> /root
user@mece_svr:~> ~ftp -----> /srv/ftp (services)
How to customize the shell will be covered in latter sections
Linux commands
• Commands are case sensitive
Ls ≠ ls ≠ LS
• ls – list directory contents
• cd – change the current directory
• pwd – display the present working directory
• cat – concatenates and display files
• echo – Display arguments to the screen.
• man – Display the online manual
• exit – Exits the shell or your current session
• clear – Clears the screen
**Most commands have additional arguments(options) you can add**
Linux commands- navigating the man pages
• Enter – Moves down one line
• Space – Move down one page
• g – Move to the top of the page
• G – Move to the bottom of the page
• q – Quit
man [command]
Linux commands- $PATH environment variable
• An Environment variable is a name/value pair
• Typically upper case
• Can be accessed by ‘echo $VAR_NAME’
• $PATH is an essential environment variable
• It stores the command search path
• Allows you to run commands without having to navigate to the full path
• Contains a list of directories, separated by :
• ‘which [command]’shows location/ full path of command
Linux commands
• [command]--help or [command]-h, gives more info on
particular command
• Sometimes doesn’t work (use man instead then)
• man –k [SEARCH_TERM], for when you are not sure of the
command to use)
