Introduction to

Unix/Linux
Daniel Lucio
 Overview
Origins
Why learn it?

Features
Where to use it?

What is it?
What commands are
available?

The Unix philosophy

The Unix shell

Architecture

The Unix Filesystem Tree

What is a terminal?

GNU == Linux?

Terminal Emulators

More Information
Introduction to Unix
 Origins
Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX) is a
multitasking, multi-user computer operating
system originally developed in 1969 by a group of
AT&T employees at Bell Labs.

The Open Group, an industry standards
consortium, owns the UNIX trademark.

The term Unix is often used informally to denote
any operating system that closely resembles the
trademarked system, (Ex: Linux, BSD).
Introduction to Unix
 What is it?
Unix is an operating system that was designed to be
portable, multi-tasking and multi-user in a time-sharing
configuration.

Under Unix, the operating system consists of many

utilities along with the master control program: the
kernel.

The kernel provides services to start and stop programs,

handles the file system and other common "low level"
tasks that most programs share, and schedules access to
avoid conflicts when programs try to access the same
resource or device simultaneously.
Introduction to Unix
 The Unix Philosophy
Unix systems are characterized by various concepts:
the use of plain text for storing data;

a hierarchical file system;

treating devices and certain types of inter-process communication

(IPC) as files;

and the use of a large number of software tools, small programs

that can be strung together through a command line interpreter
using pipes, as opposed to using a single monolithic program that
includes all of the same functionality. I.e., "the idea that the power of
a system comes more from the relationships among programs than from
the programs themselves."
Introduction to Unix
 Architecture Computer System

}
users terminal UNIX Computer
utilities

(commands)

kernel
Development

Environment

Documentation
}

}
Software Hardware
Introduction to Unix
 Users view
Server

}
users Client

Command Line Interpreter

Programs

(apps)

Operating

System

Terminal UNIX Hardware

Introduction to Unix
 Users view
Supercomputer

compute
nodes
users terminal

login nodes

Introduction to Unix
 What is a Terminal?
In the past, a computer terminal was an electronic or
electromechanical hardware device that was used for
entering data into, and display data from a computer or a
computing system.

The function of a terminal is confined to display and

input of data.

In the present, a personal computer can run terminal

emulator software that replicates the function of a
terminal, sometimes allowing concurrent use of local
programs and access to a distant terminal host system.
Introduction to Unix
 What is a Terminal?
It includes all forms of keyboard/screen computer
communication devices, including personal
computers, diskless workstations, network
computers, thin clients, and X terminals, the term
dumb terminal is sometimes used to refer to any
type of traditional computer terminal that
communicates serially over a RS-232 connection
that does not locally process data or execute
user programs.

Dumb terminal

Introduction to Unix
 MacOS Emulator

Terminal Emulators

MacOS Terminal App

Introduction to Unix
 Linux computer

Introduction to Unix
 Windows Client
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

kraken.nics.utk.edu
Introduction to Unix
 Is there a GUI for Unix?

Example of a graphical user interface using X11 and KDE.

Introduction to Unix
 Why, learn it?
Linux UNIX Windows BSD

As of June 2013,
95.2% of the
Top500
computers use a
Linux-like O.S.

Source: http://www.top500.org/statistics/list/
Introduction to Unix
 Why, learn it?
Have you noticed that in
the movies when the
super-hacker wants to
break into a super-ultra
secure computer the only
way to really get it done is
by typing on a keyboard??

Try http://hackertyper.com/

Introduction to Unix
 Why, learn it?
A command line interface can be can be a powerful
expressive way of communicating with a computer.

Graphical user interfaces (GUI) make easy tasks easy, while

command line interfaces make difficult tasks possible!

Learning the command line can be challenging and takes

real effort. BUT, not that its so hard, but, rather its so vast.

Unlike many other computer skills, knowledge of the

command line is long lasting. The skills learned today will be
useful 10 years from now.

Introduction to Unix
 Why, learn it?
Android is a Linux-based operating system
designed primarily for touchscreen mobile
devices such as smartphones and tablet
computers.

The iOS kernel is based on Darwin OS. Darwin
forms the core set of components upon which
OS X and iOS are based. It is compatible with
the Single UNIX Specification version 3 (SUSv3)
and POSIX UNIX applications and utilities.

Introduction to Unix
 Where to use it?
Login to a Unix system like kraken or any other NICS/
UT/XSEDE resource.

Download and boot from a Linux LiveCD either from a

CD/DVD or USB drive.

http://www.puppylinux.com/

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Introduction to Unix
 Where to use it?

Introduction to Unix
 Where to use it?
Install Cygwin: a collection of tools which provide a
Linux look and feel environment for Windows.

http://cygwin.com/index.html

https://newton.utk.edu/bin/view/Main/Workshop0InstallingCygwin

Online terminal emulator

http://bellard.org/jslinux/

http://simpleshell.com/

Introduction to Unix
 Where to use it?

Introduction to Unix
 What type of commands
are available?
Communication
Shells

Comparison
Shell programming

File Management
Storage

Printing
System status

Programming
Text processing
Searching

Introduction to Unix
 Communication
ftp!! ! Insecure interactive file transfer program

login!! Sign on to Unix

mailx!! Read and send email

scp!! ! Secure file transfer

! ! Secure interactive file transfer

sftp!
! Sign on to remote Unix using secure shell

slogin!
ssh!! ! Connect to another system, securely

! Connect to another system, INSECURELY
telnet!
Introduction to Unix
 Comparisons
cmp!! ! Compare two files, byte by byte

! ! Compare items in two sorted files

comm!
! ! Compare two files, line by line

diff!
diff3!! Compare three files

! Compare directories

dircmp!
sdiff!! Compare two files, side by side

Introduction to Unix
 File Management
cd! ! ! Change directory

chgrp! ! Change file group

chmod! ! Change access modes on files

chown! ! Change file owner

cksum! ! Print a file checksum

cp! ! ! Copy files

csplit!! Break files at specific locations

file!! ! Determine a files type

head!! ! Show the first few lines of a file

less!! ! Advanced file viewer

ln! ! ! Create symbolic links

locate!! Locate a given file using a database
Introduction to Unix
 File Management (cont)
ls! ! ! List files or contents of directories

md5sum!
! Print a file checksum using MD5 algorithm

mkdir!! Create a directory

more!
! ! Display contents of files by screen

mv! ! ! Move or rename files

pwd!! ! Print working (current) directory

rm! ! ! Remove files

rmdir!! Remove (empty) directories

split!! Split files evenly

tail!
! ! Show the last few lines of a file

wc! ! ! Count lines, words and characters
Introduction to Unix
 Printing Commands
lpr!! ! Send to the printer

BSD

lpq!! ! Get printer status

lprm!
! ! Cancel a printer request

pr! ! ! Format and paginate for printing

!
cancel!
! Cancel a printer request

System V

lp! ! ! Send to printer

lpstat!
! Get printer status

pr! ! ! Format and paginate for printing

Introduction to Unix
 Programming
cc! ! ! C compiler

ctags!! C function references (for vi)

ld! ! ! Linker

lex!! ! Lexical analyzer generator

make!
! ! Execute commands in a specific order

od! ! ! Dump input in various formats

splint!
! C program analyzer

strace!
! Trace signals and system calls

strip!! Remove data from an object file

truss!! Trace signals and system calls

yacc!
! ! Parser generator. Can be used with lex.
Introduction to Unix
 Searching
egrep!! Extended version of grep

fgrep!! Search files for literal words

! ! Search filenames or directories

find!
! ! Search contents of files for a pattern

grep!
strings!Display text strings found in binary files

Introduction to Unix
 Shells
(Command line interpreters)
C family Bourne Family

bash!
! ! GNU s Bourne Again Shell

ksh!! ! The Korn shell

pdksh!! Public domain Korn shell

sh! ! ! Original Bourne shell

zsh!! ! The Z-shell

!
csh!! ! The original BSD C shell

! ! Tenex shell (csh on steroids)
tcsh!

Introduction to Unix
 Shell Programming
basename!
! Return filename of a pathname.

dirname!! Return directory portion of a pathname

echo!
! ! ! Write arguments to the standard output

expr!
! ! ! Evaluate expression

id! ! ! ! Return user identity

line!
! ! ! Read a line of input

printf!
! ! Formatted output

sleep!! ! Suspend execution for an interval of time

test!
! ! ! Test a condition
Introduction to Unix
 Storage
bunzip2!Expand compressed files .bz2

bzip2!! Compression program

! ! Copy archives in or out

cpio!
! Expand compressed files .gz and .Z

gunzip!
gzcat!! Uncompress files on the fly

! ! File compression program

gzip!
tar!! ! File/tree directory archiver

! ! Uncompress files on the fly
zcat!
Introduction to Unix
 System Status
at! ! ! Execute commands later

crontab!Execute commands (periodically) at certain time

! ! Display or set date

date!
df! ! ! Show free disk space and mounted disks

du! ! ! Show disk usage

env!! ! Show environment variables

! Display information about users

finger!
! ! Terminate a running program

kill!
ps! ! ! Show processes

! ! Set or display terminal settings

stty!
who!! ! Show who is logged on
Introduction to Unix
 Text Processing
awk! ! ! Pattern-directed scanning and processing language

cat! ! ! Concatenate files or display them

cut! ! ! Select columns for display

ex! ! ! Line editor (underlying vi)

fmt! ! ! Simple text formatter

iconv! ! Character set conversion

join!! ! Merge different columns into a database

paste! ! Merge columns or switch order

sed! ! ! Non-interactive text editor

sort!! ! Sort or merge files

tr! ! ! Translate characters

uniq!! ! Find repeated or unique lines in a file

vi! ! ! Visual text editor

xargs! ! Process many arguments in manageable portions
Introduction to Unix
 Text Editing on Unix
There are screen text editors like vi, vim,
ex, emacs, pico, nano,..

There are graphical text editors like gVim,
gEdit, Eclipse, emacs,..

You can process text files via utilities or
custom programs with tools like: sed, awk,
gawk, troff, nroff, ...

Introduction to Unix
 Bash commands (Linux)
alias! crontab! false! if! mknod! ram! strace!
unshar!
apropos! csplit! fdformat! ifconfig! more! rcp! su!
until!
apt-get! cut! fdisk! ifdown! mount! read! sudo!
uptime!
aptitude! date! fg! ifup! mtools! readarray! sum!
useradd!
aspell! dc! fgrep! import! mtr! readonly! suspend!
userdel!
awk! dd! file! install! mv! reboot! symlink!
usermod!
basename! ddrescue! find! jobs! mmv! rename! sync!
users!
bash! declare! fmt! join! netstat! renice! tail!
uuencode!
bc! df! fold! kill! nice! remsync! tar!
uudecode!
bg! diff! for! killall! nl! return! tee!
v!
break! diff3! format! less! nohup! rev! test!
vdir!
builtin! dig! free! let! notify-send! rm! time!
vi!
bzip2! dir! fsck! ln! nslookup! rmdir! times!
vmstat!
cal! dircolors! ftp! local! open! rsync! touch!
wait!
case! dirname! function! locate! op! screen! top!
watch!
cat! dirs! fuser! logname! passwd! scp! traceroute!
wc!
cd! dmesg! gawk! logout! paste! sdiff! trap!
whereis!
cfdisk! du! getopts! look! pathchk! sed! tr!
which!
chgrp! echo! grep! lpc! ping! select! true!
while!
chmod! egrep! groupadd! lpr! pkill! seq! tsort!
who!
chown! eject! groupdel! lprint! popd! set! tty!
whoami!
chroot! enable! groupmod! lprintd! pr! sftp! type!
wget!
chkconfig! env! groups! lprintq! printcap! shift! ulimit!
write!
cksum! ethtool! gzip! lprm! printenv! shopt! umask!
xargs!
clear! eval! hash! ls! printf! shutdown! umount!
xdg-open!
cmp! exec! head! lsof! ps! sleep! unalias!
yes!
comm! exit! help! make! pushd! slocate! uname!
.!
command! expect! history! man! pwd! sort! unexpand!
!!!
continue! expand! hostname! mkdir! quota! source! uniq!
###!
cp! export! iconv! mkfifo! quotacheck! split! units!
cron! exprx`! id! mkisofs! quotactl! ssh! unset!

Introduction to Unix
 The Unix Shell
The shell is the user interface to Unix.

There is always a default one, but you can
choose from different ones with different
features.

The shell is simply a program that allows
the system to understand your commands.
That is why is called a Command Line
Interpreter.

Introduction to Unix
 The Unix Shell Features
Cursor movement with keyboard
arrow keys.

!

Command history

!

Automatic completion
Introduction to Unix
 Command line session
Command
Results
from
command

Prompt

Terminal Window
Introduction to Unix
 Command line session
user004@sshell ~ $
user004@sshell ~ $ fdsfdsf
bash: fdsfdsf: command not found
user004@sshell ~ $ date
Thu Oct 24 14:38:15 UTC 2013
user004@sshell ~ $ cal
October 2013
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31

user004@sshell ~ $ whoami
user004
user004@sshell ~ $ exit

Introduction to Unix
 Purpose of the
Command-line interface?
Is a program that takes keyboard commands
and passes them to the operating system to
carry out.

Customization of your Unix session: You can
setup variables, run initialization files, run
startup commands, etc.

Programming: Shells allow you to create small
programs called shells scripts that help
automate tasks.

Introduction to Unix
 Filesystem tree
All the files are organized into what is called a hierarchical
directory structure, i.e. organized in a tree-like pattern of
directories. The first directory is called the root directory.

Root Directory

Parent-Directory

Directory

Home directory
Current Working

Directory Sub-directory

Introduction to Unix
 Absolute and Relative
Pathnames

carol/play
/users/john/work

Introduction to Unix
 Pathname Shortcuts Symbols
. current directory
! !

.. parent directory
! !

~ Home directory
! !

/ Root directory

Introduction to Unix
 File Management
cd! ! ! Change directory
chgrp! ! Change file group

chmod! ! Change access modes on files

chown! ! Change file owner

cksum! ! Print a file checksum

cp! ! ! Copy files

csplit!! Break files at specific locations

file!! ! Determine a files type

head!! ! Show the first few lines of a file

less!! ! Advanced file viewer
ln! ! ! Create symbolic links

locate!! Locate a given file using a database
Introduction to Unix
 File Management (cont)
ls! ! ! List files or contents of directories
md5sum!
! Print a file checksum using MD5 algorithm

mkdir!! Create a directory
more!
! ! Display contents of files by screen

mv! ! ! Move or rename files

pwd!! ! Print working (current) directory
rm! ! ! Remove files
rmdir!! Remove (empty) directories
split!! Split files evenly

tail!
! ! Show the last few lines of a file

wc! ! ! Count lines, words and characters
Introduction to Unix
 Unix vs Linux vs GNU
UNIX
Is a Unix-like
Is an operating operating system Is a project
system assembled under started by
developed and the model of Richard Stallman,
owned by AT&T free and open with the goal of
source software. creating a a
vs vs complete unix-
The core
compatible
component is
system: compilers,
the kernel libraries,
developed by utilities, ...
Linus Torvalds.
Introduction to Unix
 More information
http://www.gnu.org/

http://www.linux.org/

Unix man pages!
http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://linuxcommand.org

Introduction to Unix
 Getting examples for
this course
$ wget http://www.nics.tennessee.edu/~lucio/crashCourse.tgz
--2013-03-15 08:14:28-- http://www.nics.tennessee.edu/~lucio/crashCourse.tgz
...
$ ls -l crashCourse.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 lucio staff 1587590 Mar 15 08:06 crashCourse.tgz
$ gunzip crashCourse.tgz
$ ls -l crashCourse.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 lucio staff 4956160 Mar 15 08:06 crashCourse.tar
$ tar -xvf crashCourse.tar
x crash/MPI/pi_mpi.c
x crash/MPI/pi_mpi
...
Introduction to Unix
 $ head list.txt !
alias Create an alias !
apropos Search Help manual pages (man -k)!
apt-get Search for and install software packages (Debian/Ubuntu)!
aptitude Search for and install software packages (Debian/Ubuntu)!
aspell Spell Checker!
awk Find and Replace text, database sort/validate/index!
b!
basename Strip directory and suffix from filenames!
bash GNU Bourne-Again SHell !
bc Arbitrary precision calculator language!
!
$ cut -d ' ' -f3 list.txt | sed '/^.$/d'| head!
alias!
apropos!
apt-get!
aptitude!
aspell!
awk!
basename!
bash!
bc!
bg
Introduction to Unix
 Command syntax

$ command [<options>] [<file> | <argument> ...]

Examples:

tar {-r | -u} -f archive-file [options] [files | directories]

cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvX] source_file target_file

ps [-AaCcEefhjlMmrSTvwXx] [-O fmt | -o fmt] [-G gid[,gid...]]

Introduction to Unix