Linux

Quick Reference Guide

5th edition September 2017

Foreword
This guide stems from the notes I have been taking while working as a Linux sysadmin and while preparing the certification
exams LPIC-1 (Linux Professional Institute Certification level 1), LPIC-2, and RHCSA (Red Hat Certified System
Administrator). This document was originally named Linux & LPIC Quick Reference Guide, then I changed its title to be more
certification-agnostic.
This guide contains a good amount of topics for these certification exams, with some subjects handled in more details than
others, plus other information about standards and useful tools for Linux system administration. I started writing this
document in 2013 and it is my aim to update and integrate it periodically.
This is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, authorized by, sponsored by, or otherwise approved by LPI or Red
Hat. You can freely use and share this whole guide or the single pages, either in electronic or in printed form, provided that
you distribute them unmodified and not-for-profit. Please feel free to contact me if you find any error so I can correct it in
future editions.

Happy Linux hacking,

Daniele Raffo

Version history
1st edition May 2013
2nd edition September 2014
3rd edition July 2015
4th edition June 2016
5th edition September 2017

Sources and suggested readings

● Evi Nemeth et al., UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, O'Reilly
● Rebecca Thomas et al., Advanced Programmer's Guide to Unix System V, McGraw-Hill
● Mendel Cooper, Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide, http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html
● Adam Haeder et al., LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, O'Reilly
● Heinrich W. Klöpping et al., The LPIC-2 Exam Prep, http://lpic2.unix.nl
● Michael Jang, RHCSA/RHCE Red Hat Linux Certification Study Guide, McGraw-Hill
● Asghar Ghori, RHCSA & RHCE RHEL 7: Training and Exam Preparation Guide, Lightning Source Inc.
● Colin Barschel, Unix Toolbox, http://cb.vu/unixtoolbox.xhtml
● Ellen Siever et al., Linux in a Nutshell, O'Reilly, http://archive.oreilly.com/linux/cmd
● Bruce Barnett, The Grymoire, http://www.grymoire.com/Unix
● Brendan Gregg, Linux performance, http://www.brendangregg.com/linuxperf.html
● RHEL manuals, https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux
● A-Z index of Bash command line, http://ss64.com/bash
● GNU software manuals, http://www.gnu.org/manual
● Shell command line snippets, http://www.commandlinefu.com
● Bash command line snippets, http://www.bashoneliners.com
● RAM management in Linux, http://www.linuxatemyram.com
● Regular expressions tester, http://www.regextester.com
● Bash pitfalls, http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls
● Linux man pages, https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages
Index
LVM................................................1 Vi commands.................................53 TCP Wrapper................................105
LVM commands................................2 Vi options......................................54 Routing.......................................106
System boot....................................3 SQL..............................................55 iptables.......................................107
SysV startup sequence.....................4 SQL SELECTs.................................56 iptables rules...............................108
Login..............................................5 SQL JOINs.....................................57 firewalld......................................109
Runlevels........................................6 MySQL..........................................58 firewalld rules..............................110
SysV vs Systemd.............................7 MySQL syntax................................59 NAT routing.................................111
/etc/inittab......................................8 MySQL status................................60 SSH............................................112
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard...........9 MySQL recipes...............................61 SSH operations............................113
Partitions......................................10 MySQL operations..........................62 SSH configuration.........................114
mount..........................................11 X Window......................................63 OpenSSL.....................................115
Filesystem types............................12 X Window tools..............................64 CA.pl..........................................116
Swap............................................13 X11 keysim codes..........................65 GnuPG........................................117
/etc/fstab......................................14 /etc/passwd...................................66 OpenVPN.....................................118
Filesystem operations.....................15 User management..........................67 Key bindings - terminal.................119
Filesystem maintenance..................16 UID and GID..................................68 Key bindings - X...........................120
XFS, ReiserFS, CD-ROM fs...............17 su and sudo...................................69 udev...........................................121
AutoFS..........................................18 Terminals......................................70 Kernel.........................................122
RAID............................................19 Messaging.....................................71 Kernel management......................123
Bootloader....................................20 cron.............................................72 Kernel compile and patching..........124
GRUB 2 configuration......................21 at.................................................73 Kernel modules............................125
GRUB 2 usage................................22 Utilities.........................................74 /proc filesystem...........................126
GRUB Legacy.................................23 Localization...................................75 System recovery..........................127
Low-level package managers...........24 System time..................................76 DNS............................................128
High-level package managers..........25 Syslog..........................................77 DNS configuration.........................129
Package management tools.............26 E-mail...........................................78 DNS zone file...............................130
Backup.........................................27 SMTP............................................79 Apache........................................131
Archive formats..............................28 Sendmail.......................................80 Apache configuration....................132
Command line basics......................29 Exim.............................................81 Apache virtual hosts.....................133
Directories.....................................30 Postfix..........................................82 Apache directory protection...........134
Text filters.....................................31 Postfix configuration.......................83 Apache SSL/TLS...........................135
Advanced text filters.......................32 Procmail........................................84 Tomcat........................................136
Regular expressions........................33 Courier POP configuration................85 Samba server..............................137
File management...........................34 Courier IMAP configuration..............86 Samba client................................138
I/O streams...................................35 Dovecot........................................87 Samba global configuration............139
read and echo................................36 Dovecot mailbox configuration.........88 Samba share configuration............140
Processes......................................37 Dovecot POP and IMAP configuration.89 Samba share access and macros....141
Signals.........................................38 Dovecot authentication...................90 NFS............................................142
Resource monitoring.......................39 FTP..............................................91 /etc/exports.................................143
vmstat and free.............................40 vsftpd...........................................92 DHCP..........................................144
File permissions.............................41 CUPS............................................93 PAM............................................145
File attributes................................42 IP addressing.................................94 LDAP..........................................146
ACLs.............................................43 Subnetting....................................95 OpenLDAP...................................147
Links............................................44 Network services............................96 SELinux.......................................148
Find system files............................45 Network configuration commands.....97 KVM............................................149
Shell options..................................46 Wireless networking.......................98 Git..............................................150
Shell variables...............................47 Network tools................................99 HTML 4.01 - components...............151
Bash scripting................................48 Network monitoring......................100 HTML 4.01 - text..........................152
Bash advanced scripting..................49 tcpdump......................................101 HTML 4.01 - images......................153
Tests............................................50 netcat.........................................102 HTML 4.01 - tables and lists...........154
Flow control...................................51 Network configuration...................103 7-bit ASCII table..........................155
Text processors..............................52 Network configuration (Red Hat).....104
 1/155 LVM
LVM

Logical Volume Management (LVM) introduces an abstraction between physical and logical storage that permits a more
versatile use of filesystems. LVM uses the Linux device mapper feature (/dev/mapper).

Disks, partitions, and RAID devices are made of Physical Volumes, which are grouped into a Volume Group.
A Volume Group is divided into small fixed-size chunks called Physical Extents, which are mapped 1-to-1 to Logical Extents.
Logical Extents are grouped into Logical Volumes, on which filesystems are created.

How to create a Logical Volume

1. Add a new physical or virtual disk to the machine
2. lsblk Check that the new disk is being recognized e.g. as
/dev/sda
3. fdisk /dev/sda Create a new partition (should be of type 0x8E = Linux
LVM) on the new disk.
This is not necessary but recommended, because other
OSes might not recognize LVM and see the whole
unpartitioned disk as empty
4. pvcreate /dev/sda1 Initialize the Physical Volume to be used with LVM
5. vgcreate -s 8M myvg0 /dev/sda1 Create a Volume Group and define the size of Physical
Extents to 8 Mb (default value is 4 Mb)
or vgextend myvg0 /dev/sda1 or add the Physical Volume to an existing Volume Group
6. lvcreate -L 1024M -n mylv myvg0 Create a Logical Volume
7. mkfs -t ext3 /dev/myvg0/mylv Create a filesystem on the Logical Volume
8. mount /dev/myvg0/mylv /mnt/mystuff Mount the Logical Volume which is now ready to be used

How to increase the size of a Logical Volume (only if the underlying filesystem permits it)
1. Add a new physical or virtual disk to the machine; this will provide the extra disk space
2. fdisk /dev/sdc Partition the new disk
3. pvcreate /dev/sdc Initialize the Physical Volume /dev/sdc
4. vgextend myvg0 /dev/sdc Add /dev/sdc to an existing Volume Group
5. lvextend -L 2048M /dev/myvg0/mylv
Extend the Logical Volume by 2 Gb
or lvresize -L+2048M /dev/myvg0/mylv

or lvresize -l+100%FREE /dev/myvg/mylv or extend the Logical Volume taking all free space
6. resize2fs /dev/myvg0/mylv Extend the filesystem

How to reduce the size of a Logical Volume (only if the underlying filesystem permits it)
1. resize2fs /dev/myvg0/mylv 900M Shrink the filesystem
2. lvreduce -L 900M /dev/myvg0/mylv
Shrink the Logical Volume by 900 Mb
or lvresize -L-900M /dev/myvg0/mylv

How to snapshot and backup a Logical Volume

1. lvcreate -s -L 1024M -n snapshot0 /dev/myvg0/mylv Create the snapshot just like another Logical Volume
2. tar cvzf snapshot0.tar.gz snapshot0 Backup the snapshot with any backup tool
3. lvremove /dev/mvvg0/snapshot0 Delete the snapshot

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 2/155 LVM commands
LVM commands

PV commands VG commands LV commands

pvs Report information about vgs Report information lvs Report information
Physical Volumes about Volume Groups about Logical Volumes
pvscan Scan all disks for vgscan Scan all disks for lvscan Scan all disks for
Physical Volumes Volume Groups Logical Volumes
pvdisplay Display Physical Volume vgdisplay Display Volume Group lvdisplay Display Logical Volume
attributes attributes attributes
pvck Check Physical Volume vgck Check Volume Group
metadata metadata
pvcreate Initialize a disk or vgcreate Create a Volume Group lvcreate Create a Logical
partition for use with using Physical Volumes Volume in a Volume
LVM Group
pvchange Change Physical Volume vgchange Change Volume Group lvchange Change Logical Volume
attributes attributes attributes
pvremove Remove a Physical vgremove Remove a Volume lvremove Remove a Logical
Volume Group Volume
vgextend Add a Physical Volume lvextend Increase the size of a
to a Volume Group Logical Volume
vgreduce Remove a Physical lvreduce Shrink the size a
Volume from a Volume Logical Volume
Group
pvresize Resize a disk or partition lvresize Modify the size of a
in use with LVM Logical Volume
vgmerge Merge two Volume
Groups
vgsplit Split two Volume
Groups
vgimport Import a Volume Group
into a system
vgexport Export a Volume Group
from a system
pvmove Move the Logical Extents
on a Physical Volume to
wherever there are
available Physical
Extents (within the
Volume Group) and then
put the Physical Volume
offline
LVM global commands
lvmdiskscan Scan the system for disks and partitions usable by LVM
dmsetup command Perform low-level LVM operations

/dev/mapper/vgname-lvname Mapping of Logical Volumes in the filesystem

/dev/vgname/lvname

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 3/155 System boot
System boot

Boot sequence
POST
Low-level check of PC hardware.
(Power-On Self Test)
BIOS
Detection of disks and hardware.
(Basic I/O System)
GRUB stage 1 is loaded from the MBR and executes GRUB stage 2 from filesystem.
GRUB chooses which OS to boot on.
The chain loader hands over to the boot sector of the partition on which resides the OS.

Chain loader The chain loader also mounts initrd, an initial ramdisk (typically a compressed ext2
GRUB
filesystem) to be used as the initial root device during kernel boot; this make possible to
(GRand Unified
load kernel modules that recognize hard drives hardware and that are hence needed to
Bootloader)
mount the real root filesystem. Afterwards, the system runs /linuxrc with PID 1.
(From Linux 2.6.13 onward, the system instead loads into memory initramfs, a cpio-
compressed image, and unpacks it into an instance of tmpfs in RAM. The kernel then
executes /init from within the image.)

Kernel decompression into memory.

Kernel execution.
Linux kernel
Detection of devices.

The real root filesystem is mounted on / in place of the initial ramdisk.

Execution of init, the first process (PID 1).

The system tries to execute in the following order:
/sbin/init
init /etc/init
/bin/init
/bin/sh
If none of these succeeds, the kernel panics.
Startup The system loads startup scripts and runlevel scripts.
If in text mode, init calls the getty process, which runs the login command that asks
Login the user for login and password.
If in graphical mode, the X Display Manager starts the X Server.

Newer systems use UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) instead of BIOS. UEFI does not use the MBR boot code; it
has knowledge of partition table and filesystems, and stores its application files required for launch in a EFI System
Partition, mostly formatted as FAT32.
After the POST, the system loads the UEFI firmware which initializes the hardware required for booting, then reads its Boot
Manager data to determine which UEFI application to launch. The launched UEFI application may then launch another
application, e.g. the kernel and initramfs in case of a boot loader like GRUB.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 4/155 SysV startup sequence
SysV startup sequence

Startup sequence Debian Red Hat

At startup /sbin/init executes all id:2:initdefault: id:5:initdefault:
instructions on /etc/inittab . This script
at first switches to the default runlevel...
... then it runs the following script (same for /etc/init.d/rcS /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit or
all runlevels) which configures peripheral /etc/rc.sysinit
hardware, applies kernel parameters, sets
hostname, and provides disks initialization...
... and then, for runlevel N, it calls the script /etc/rcN.d/ /etc/rc.d/rcN.d/
/etc/init.d/rc N (i.e. with the runlevel
number as parameter) which launches all
services and daemons specified in the
following startup directories:
The startup directories contain symlinks to the init scripts in /etc/init.d/ which are executed in numerical order.
Links starting with K are called with argument stop, links starting with S are called with argument start.

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 14 Feb 11 22:32 K88sssd -> ../init.d/sssd

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 15 Nov 28 14:50 K89rdisc -> ../init.d/rdisc
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 17 Nov 28 15:01 S01sysstat -> ../init.d/sysstat
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 18 Nov 28 14:54 S05cgconfig -> ../init.d/cgconfig
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 16 Nov 28 14:52 S07iscsid -> ../init.d/iscsid
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 18 Nov 28 14:42 S08iptables -> ../init.d/iptables

The last script to be run is S99local -> ../init.d/rc.local ; therefore, an easy way to run a specific program
upon boot is to call it from this script file.
/etc/init.d/boot.local runs only at boot time, not when switching runlevel.
/etc/init.d/before.local (SUSE) runs only at boot time, before the scripts in the startup directories.
/etc/init.d/after.local (SUSE) runs only at boot time, after the scripts in the startup directories.

To add or remove services at boot sequence: update-rc.d service defaults chkconfig --add service
update-rc.d -f service remove chkconfig --del service

When adding or removing a service at boot, startup directories will be updated by creating or deleting symlinks for the
default runlevels: K symlinks for runlevels 0 1 6, and S symlinks for runlevels 2 3 4 5.
Service will be run via the xinetd super server.

Service operation parameters supported by the init scripts

start Start the service
stop Stop the service
restart Restart the service (stop, then start) Mandatory
status Display daemon PID and execution status
force-reload Reload configuration if service supports it, otherwise restart
condrestart
try-restart Restart the service only if already running
Optional
reload Reload the service configuration

Linux Standard Base (LSB)

The Linux Standard Base defines a format to specify default values on an init script /etc/init.d/foo :

### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: foo
# Required-Start: bar
# Defalt-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Description: Service Foo init script
### END INIT INFO

Default runlevels and S/K symlinks values can also be specified as such:

# chkconfig: 2345 85 15
# description: Foo service

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 5/155 Login
Login

/etc/init/start-ttys.conf (Red Hat) Start the specified number of terminals at bootup via getty, which
manages physical or virtual terminals (TTYs)

/etc/sysconfig/init (Red Hat) Control appearance and functioning of the system during bootup

/etc/machine-id (Red Hat) Randomly-generated machine ID

rm /etc/machine-id && \ Initialize the machine ID

systemd-machine-id-setup (Red Hat)

/etc/securetty List of TTYs from which the root user is allowed to login

/etc/issue Message that will be printed before the login prompt.

Can contain the following escape codes:
\b Baudrate of line \o Domain name
\d Date \r OS release number
\s System name and OS \t Time
\l Terminal device line \u Number of users logged in
\m Architecture identifier of machine \U "n users" logged in
\n Nodename aka hostname \v OS version and build date

/etc/issue.net Message that will be printed before the login prompt on a remote session

/etc/motd Message that will be printed after a successful login, before execution of
the login shell

cat /etc/debian_version (Debian) Show the version of this Linux distribution

cat /etc/fedora-release (Fedora)
cat /etc/redhat-release (Red Hat)
cat /etc/lsb-release
lsb_release -a

/etc/os-release Definitions of values for the name, version, and other information about
this Linux distribution

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 6/155 Runlevels
Runlevels

Runlevel Target
Debian Red Hat
(SysV) (Systemd)
0 Shutdown
1 Single user / maintenance mode
Multi-user mode
2 Multi-user mode without network
(default)

default 3 multi-user.target Multi-user mode Multi-user mode with network

runlevels 4 Multi-user mode Unused, for custom use
Multi-user mode with network and X
5 graphical.target Multi-user mode
(default)
6 Reboot
Single user / maintenance mode
S
(usually accessed through runlevel 1)

Systemd's runleveln.target emulates a SysV's runlevel n.

runlevel Display the previous and the current runlevel

who -r
init runlevel
telinit runlevel Change to runlevel

systemctl get-default Get the default target

systemctl set-default target Set the default target
systemctl isolate target Change to target
systemctl emergency Change to maintenance single-user mode with only /root filesystem mounted
systemctl rescue Change to maintenance single-user mode with only local filesystems mounted

init 0 Halt the system

telinit 0
shutdown -h now
halt
poweroff

init 6 Reboot the system

telinit 6
shutdown -r now
reboot

shutdown Shut down the system in a secure way: all logged-in users are notified via a
message to their terminal, and login is disabled.
This command can be run only by the root user, and by the users (if any) listed in
/etc/shutdown.allow
shutdown -h 16:00 message Schedule a shutdown for 4 PM and send a warning message to all logged-in users
shutdown -a Non-root users that are listed in /etc/shutdown.allow can use this command to
shut down the system
shutdown -f Skip fsck on reboot
shutdown -F Force fsck on reboot
shutdown -c Cancel a shutdown that has been already initiated

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 7/155 SysV vs Systemd
SysV vs Systemd

System V Systemd Action

/etc/init.d/service operation systemctl operation service Perform one of these operations on
the specified service:
service service operation (Red Hat) start
stop
rcservice operation (SUSE) restart
status
force-reload
condrestart
try-restart
reload

update-rc.d service defaults (Debian) Add a service at boot

chkconfig --add service (Red Hat)

update-rc.d -f service remove (Debian) Remove a service at boot

chkconfig --del service (Red Hat)
update-rc.d -f service \ Add a service on the default
start 30 2 3 4 5 . stop 70 0 1 6 . runlevels; create S30 symlinks for
starting the service and K70
symlinks for stopping it
chkconfig --levels 245 service on Add the service on runlevels 2 4 5
chkconfig service on systemctl enable service Add the service on default runlevels
chkconfig service off systemctl disable service Remove the service on default
runlevels
chkconfig service systemctl is-enabled service Check if the service is enabled on
the current runlevel
chkconfig service reset Reset the on/off state of the service
for all runlevels to whatever the LSB
specifies in the init script
chkconfig service resetpriorities Reset the start/stop priorities of the
service for all runlevels to whatever
the LSB specifies in the init script
chkconfig --list service Display current configuration of
service (its status and the runlevels
in which it is active)
chkconfig systemctl list-unit-files \ List all active services and their
chkconfig --list --type=service current configuration
ls /etc/rcn.d (Debian) List services started on runlevel n
systemctl List loaded and active units
systemctl --all List all units, including inactive ones
systemctl -t target List targets

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 8/155 /etc/inittab
/etc/inittab
/etc/inittab
# The default runlevel.
id:2:initdefault:

# Boot-time system configuration/initialization script.

# This is run first except when booting in emergency (-b) mode.
si::sysinit:/etc/init.d/rcS

# What to do in single-user mode.

~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin

# /etc/init.d executes the S and K scripts upon change of runlevel.

l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 6
# Normally not reached, but fall through in case of emergency.
z6:6:respawn:/sbin/sulogin

# /sbin/getty invocations for the runlevels.

# Id field must be the same as the last characters of the device (after "tty").
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2

/etc/inittab describes which processes are started at bootup and during normal operation; it is read and executed by
init at bootup.
All its entries have the form id:runlevels:action:process

1-4 characters, uniquely identifies an entry.

id
For gettys and other login processes it should be equal to the suffix of the corresponding tty
Runlevels for which the specified action must be performed.
runlevels
If empty, action is performed on all runlevels
respawn Process will be restarted when it terminates
Process is started at the specified runlevel and init will wait for its termination
wait
(i.e. execution of further lines of /etc/inittab stops until the process exits)
once Process is executed once at the specified runlevel
boot Process is executed at system boot. Runlevels field is ignored
Process is executed at system boot and init will wait for its termination.
bootwait
Runlevels field is ignored
off Does nothing
ondemand Process is executed when an on-demand runlevel (A, B, C) is called
initdefault Specifies the default runlevel to boot on. Process field is ignored
action
Process is executed at system boot, before any boot or bootwait entries.
sysinit
Runlevels field is ignored
Process is executed when power goes down and an UPS kicks in.
powerfail
init will not wait for its termination
Process is executed when power goes down and an UPS kicks in.
powerwait
init will wait for its termination
powerfailnow Process is executed when power is down and the UPS battery is almost empty
powerokwait Process is executed when power has been restored from UPS
ctrlaltdel Process is executed when init receives a SIGINT via CTRL ALT DEL

kbdrequest Process is executed when a special key combination is pressed on console

process Process to execute. If prepended by a +, utmp and wtmp accounting will not be done

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 9/155 Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

/bin Essential command binaries
/boot Bootloader files (e.g. OS loader, kernel image, initrd)
/dev Virtual filesystem containing device nodes to devices and partitions
/etc System configuration files and scripts
/home Home directories for users
/lib Libraries for the binaries in /bin and /sbin, kernel modules
/lost+found Storage directory for recovered files in this partition
/media Mount points for removable media
/mnt Mount points for temporary filesystems
/net Access to directory tree on different external NFS servers
/opt Optional, large add-on application software packages
/proc Virtual filesystem providing kernel and processes information
/root Home directory for the root user
/sbin Essential system binaries, system administration commands
/srv Data for services provided by the system
/sys Virtual filesystem providing information about hotplug hardware devices
/tmp Temporary files (deleted at reboot)
/usr User utilities and applications
/usr/bin Non-essential command binaries (for all users)
/usr/include C header files
/usr/lib Libraries for the binaries in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin
/usr/local Software installed locally
/usr/local/bin Local software binaries
/usr/local/games Local game binaries
/usr/local/include Local C header files
/usr/local/lib Local libraries for the binaries in /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin
/usr/local/man Local man pages
/usr/local/sbin Local system binaries
/usr/local/share Local architecture-independent hierarchy
/usr/local/src Local source code
/usr/sbin Non-essential system binaries (daemons and services)
/usr/share Architecture-independent files (e.g. icons, fonts, documentation)
/usr/share/doc Package-specific documentation not included in man pages
/usr/share/man Man pages
/usr/share/info Documentation in Info format
/usr/src Source code for the actual OS
/var Variable files (e.g. logs, caches, mail spools)
/var/log Logfiles
/var/opt Variable files for the application software installed in /opt
/var/spool Queued items to be processed (e.g. mail messages, cron jobs, print jobs)
/var/tmp Temporary files that need to be stored for a longer time (preserved between reboots)
Information about filesystem hierarchy can also be obtained via the manpage man hier

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 10/155 Partitions
Partitions

/dev/hda IDE hard drive

/dev/sda SCSI, PATA, or SATA hard drive
/dev/vda Virtual disk for KVM-based virtual machines

/dev/hda, /dev/hdb, /dev/hdc ... first, second, third ... hard drive
/dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3 ... first, second, third ... partition of the first hard drive

The superblock contains information relative to the filesystem e.g. filesystem type, size, status, metadata structures.
The Master Boot Record (MBR) is a 512-byte program located in the first sector of the hard disk; it contains information
about hard disk partitions and has the duty of loading the OS. On recent systems, the MBR has been replaced by the GUID
Partition Table (GPT).
Most modern filesystems use journaling; in a journaling filesystem, the journal logs changes before committing them to the
filesystem, which ensures faster recovery and less corruption in case of a crash.

Partitioning limits for Linux using MBR:

Max 4 primary partitions per hard disk, or 3 primary partitions + 1 extended partition Partition numbers: 1-4
Max 11 logical partitions (inside the extended partition) per hard disk Partition numbers: 5-15
Max disk size is 2 Tb

GPT makes no difference between primary, extended, or logical partitions; moreover, it has practically no limits concerning
number and size of partitions.

fdisk /dev/sda Disk partitioning interactive tool

fdisk -l /dev/sda List the partition table of /dev/sda

parted Disk partitioning interactive tool

sfdisk /dev/sda Disk partitioning non-interactive tool
cfdisk Disk partitioning tool with text-based UI
gparted Disk partitioning tool with GUI
gnome-disks

partprobe After fdisk operations, this command can be run to notify the OS of partition table
changes. Otherwise, these changes will take place only after reboot

mkfs -t fstype device Create a filesystem of the specified type on a partition (i.e. format the partition).
mkfs is a wrapper utility for the actual filesystem-specific maker commands:
mkfs.ext2 aka mke2fs
mkfs.ext3 aka mke3fs
mkfs.ext4
mkfs.msdos aka mkdosfs
mkfs.ntfs aka mkntfs
mkfs.reiserfs aka mkreiserfs
mkfs.jfs
mkfs.xfs
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sda Create an ext2 filesystem on /dev/sda
mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda
mke2fs /dev/sda
mke2fs -j /dev/sda Create an ext3 filesystem (ext2 with journaling) on /dev/sda
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda
mke3fs /dev/sda
mkfs -t msdos /dev/sda Create a MS-DOS filesystem on /dev/sda
mkfs.msdos /dev/sda
mkdosfs /dev/sda

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 11/155 mount
mount
mount Display the currently mounted filesystems.
cat /proc/mounts The commands mount and umount maintain in /etc/mtab a database of currently
cat /etc/mtab mounted filesystems, but /proc/mounts is authoritative

mount -a Mount all devices listed in /etc/fstab (except those indicated as noauto)

mount -t ext3 /dev/sda /foobar Mount a Linux-formatted disk. The mount point (directory) must exist

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt Mount a MS-DOS filesystem floppy disk to mount point /mnt

mount /dev/fd0 Mount a floppy disk. /etc/fstab must contain an entry for /dev/fd0

mount -o remount,rw / Remount the root directory as read-write (supposing it was mounted read-only).
Useful to change flags (in this case, read-only to read-write) for a mounted
filesystem that cannot be unmounted at the moment

mount -o nolock 10.7.7.7:/export/ /mnt/nfs Mount a NFS share without running NFS daemons.
Useful during system recovery

mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0 cd.img /mnt/cdrom Mount a CD-ROM ISO9660 image file like a CD-ROM
(via the loop device)

umount /dev/fd0 Unmount a floppy disk that was mounted on /mnt (device must not be busy)
umount /mnt

umount -l /dev/fd0 Unmount the floppy disk as soon as it is not in use anymore

The UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) of a partition is a 128-bit hash number that is associated to the partition when it is
initialized.
blkid -U 652b786e-b87f-49d2-af23-8087ced0c667 Print the name of the specified partition, given its UUID
blkid -L /boot Print the UUID of the specified partition, given its label

findfs UUID=652b786e-b87f-49d2-af23-8087ced0c667 Print the name of the specified partition, given its UUID
findfs LABEL=/boot Print the name of the specified partition, given its label

e2label /dev/sda1 Print the label of the specified partition, given its name

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 12/155 Filesystem types
Filesystem types

Partition types
0x00 Empty 0x4e QNX4.x 2nd part 0xa8 Darwin UFS
0x01 FAT12 0x4f QNX4.x 3rd part 0xa9 NetBSD
0x02 XENIX root 0x50 OnTrack DM 0xab Darwin boot
0x03 XENIX usr 0x51 OnTrack DM6 Aux1 0xaf HFS / HFS+
0x04 FAT16 <32M 0x52 CP/M 0xb7 BSDI fs
0x05 Extended 0x53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3 0xb8 BSDI swap
0x06 FAT16 0x54 OnTrackDM6 0xbb Boot Wizard hidden
0x07 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 0x55 EZ-Drive 0xbe Solaris boot
0x08 AIX 0x56 Golden Bow 0xbf Solaris
0x09 AIX bootable 0x5c Priam Edisk 0xc1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-12)
0x0a OS/2 Boot Manager 0x61 SpeedStor 0xc4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16 < 32M)
0x0b W95 FAT32 0x63 GNU HURD or SysV 0xc6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-16)
0x0c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 0x64 Novell Netware 286 0xc7 Syrinx
0x0e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 0x65 Novell Netware 386 0xda Non-FS data
0x0f W95 extended (LBA) 0x70 DiskSecure Multi-Boot 0xdb CP/M / CTOS / ...
0x10 OPUS 0x75 PC/IX 0xde Dell Utility
0x11 Hidden FAT12 0x80 Old Minix 0xdf BootIt
0x12 Compaq diagnostics 0x81 Minix / old Linux 0xe1 DOS access
0x14 Hidden FAT16 <32M 0x82 Linux swap / Solaris 0xe3 DOS R/O
0x16 Hidden FAT16 0x83 Linux 0xe4 SpeedStor
0x17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS 0x84 OS/2 hidden C: drive 0xeb BeOS fs
0x18 AST SmartSleep 0x85 Linux extended 0xee GPT
0x1b Hidden W95 FAT32 0x86 NTFS volume set 0xef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
0x1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) 0x87 NTFS volume set 0xf0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
0x1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) 0x88 Linux plaintext 0xf1 SpeedStor
0x24 NEC DOS 0x8e Linux LVM 0xf4 SpeedStor
0x27 Hidden NTFS WinRE 0x93 Amoeba 0xf2 DOS secondary
0x39 Plan 9 0x94 Amoeba BBT 0xfb VMware VMFS
0x3c PartitionMagic recovery 0x9f BSD/OS 0xfc VMware VMKCORE
0x40 Venix 80286 0xa0 IBM Thinkpad hibernation 0xfd Linux raid autodetect
0x41 PPC PReP Boot 0xa5 FreeBSD 0xfe LANstep
0x42 SFS 0xa6 OpenBSD 0xff BBT
0x4d QNX4.x 0xa7 NeXTSTEP

Above is the list of partition IDs and their names, as obtained by the command sfdisk -T

Most used Linux-supported filesystems

ext2 Linux default filesystem, offering the best performances
ext3 ext2 with journaling
ext4 Linux journaling filesystem, upgrade from ext3
Reiserfs Journaling filesystem
XFS Journaling filesystem, developed by SGI
JFS Journaling filesystem, developed by IBM
Btrfs B-tree filesystem, developed by Oracle
msdos DOS filesystem, supporting only 8-char filenames
umsdos Extended DOS filesystem used by Linux, compatible with DOS
fat32 MS-Windows FAT filesystem
vfat Extended DOS filesystem, with support for long filenames
ntfs Replacement for fat32 and vfat filesystems
minix Native filesystem of the MINIX OS
iso9660 CD-ROM filesystem
cramfs Compressed RAM disk
nfs Network filesystem, used to access files on remote machines
SMB Server Message Block, used to mount Windows network shares
proc Pseudo filesystem, used as an interface to kernel data structures
swap Pseudo filesystem, Linux swap area

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 13/155 Swap
Swap

In Linux, the swap space is a virtual memory area (a file or a partition) used as RAM extension. Usually a partition is
preferred because of better performances concerning fragmentation and disk speed. Although listed as filesystem type
0x82, the swap partition is not a filesystem but a raw addressable memory with no structure; therefore it is not shown in
the output of mount or df commands.
The fdisk tool can be used to create a swap partition.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile \ Create a 512-Mb swap file

bs=1024 count=512000

mkswap /swapfile Initialize a (already created) swap file or partition

swapon /swapfile Enable a swap file or partition, thus telling the kernel that it can use it now
swapoff /swapfile Disable a swap file or partition

swapon -s Show the sizes of total and used swap areas

cat /proc/swaps
cat /proc/meminfo
free
top

How to extend a swap partition using LVM

1. lvs Determine the name of the swap Logical Volume
2. swapoff /dev/volgroup0/swap_lv Turn off the swap volume
3. lvresize -L+1G /dev/volgroup0/swap_lv Extend the swap volume with an additional 1 Gb of space
4. mkswap /dev/volgroup0/swap_lv Format the swap volume
5. swapon /dev/volgroup0/swap_lv Turn on the swap volume

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 14/155 /etc/fstab
/etc/fstab

/etc/fstab Filesystems information

# <filesystem> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

/dev/sda2 / ext2 defaults 0 1

/dev/sdb1 /home ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto rw,noauto,user,sync 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 swap swap pri=42 0 0
nfsserver:/dirs /mnt nfs intr 0 0
//smbserver/jdoe /shares/jdoe cifs auto,credentials=/etc/smbcreds 0 0
LABEL=/boot /boot ext2 defaults 0 0
UUID=652b786e-b87f-49d2-af23-8087ced0c667 /test ext4 errors=remount-ro,noatime 0 0

filesystem Device or partition. The filesystem can be identified either by its name, label, or UUID
mount point Directory on which the partition must be mounted
type Filesystem type, or auto if detected automatically
defaults Use the default options: rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, async
ro Mount read-only
rw Mount read-write (default)
suid Permit SUID and SGID bit operations (default)
nosuid Do not permit SUID and SGID bit operations
dev Interpret block special devices on the filesystem (default)
nodev Do not interpret block special devices on the filesystem
auto Mount automatically at bootup, or when command mount -a is given (default)
options
noauto Mount only if explicitly demanded
user Partition can be mounted by any user
nouser Partition can be mounted only by the root user (default)
exec Binaries contained on the partition can be executed
noexec Binaries contained on the partition cannot be executed
sync Write files immediately to the partition
async Buffer write ops and commit them later, or when device is unmounted (default)
Other specific options apply to specific partition types (e.g. NFS or Samba)
dump Options for the dump backup utility. 0 = do not backup

pass Order in which the filesystem must be checked by fsck. 0 = do not check

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 15/155 Filesystem operations
Filesystem operations
df Report filesystem disk space usage
df -h Report filesystem disk space usage in human-readable output
df directory Shows on which device the specified directory is mounted

du directory Report disk usage as size of each file inside directory

du -s directory Report the sum of all files contained inside directory
du -sh directory Report the sum of all files contained inside directory in human-readable output
ncdu Disk usage analyzer with ncurses UI

lsblk List information about all available block devices

lsscsi List information about all SCSI devices

blockdev --getbsz /dev/sda1 Get the block size of the specified partition

sync Flush the buffer and commit all pending writes.

To improve performance of Linux filesystems, many write operations are buffered in RAM
and written at once; writes are done in any case before unmount, reboot, or shutdown

chroot /mnt/sysimage Start a shell with /mnt/sysimage as filesystem root.

Useful during system recovery when the machine has been booted from a removable
media (which hence is defined as the filesystem root)

mknod /dev/sda Create a directory allocating the proper inode.

Useful during system recovery when experiencing filesystem problems

hdparm Get/set drive parameters for SATA/IDE devices

hdparm -g /dev/hda Display drive geometry (cylinders, heads, sectors) of /dev/hda
hdparm -i /dev/hda Display identification information for /dev/hda
hdparm -tT /dev/hda Perform disk read benchmarks on the /dev/hda drive
hdparm -p 12 /dev/hda Reprogram IDE interface chipset of /dev/hda to mode 4. Use with caution!

sdparm Access drive parameters for SCSI devices

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 16/155 Filesystem maintenance
Filesystem maintenance
fsck device Check and repair a Linux filesystem. Warning: filesystem must be unmounted!
Corrupted files will be placed into the /lost+found of the partition.
The exit code returned is the sum of the following conditions:
0 No errors 8 Operational error
1 File system errors corrected 16 Usage or syntax error
2 System should be rebooted 32 Fsck canceled by user
4 File system errors left uncorrected 128 Shared library error
Fsck is a wrapper utility for the actual filesystem-specific checker commands:
fsck.ext2 aka e2fsck
fsck.ext3 aka e2fsck
fsck.ext4 aka e2fsck
fsck.msdos
fsck.vfat
fsck.cramfs
fsck Check and repair serially all filesystems listed in /etc/fstab
fsck -As
fsck -f /dev/sda1 Force a filesystem check on /dev/sda1 even if it thinks is not necessary
fsck -y /dev/sda1 During filesystem repair, do not ask questions and assume that the answer is always yes
fsck.ext2 -c /dev/sda1 Check an ext2 filesystem, running the badblocks command to mark all bad blocks and
e2fsck -c /dev/sda1 add them to the bad block inode so they will not be allocated to files or directories
touch /forcefsck Force a filesystem check after next reboot (Red Hat)

tune2fs options device Adjust tunable filesystem parameters on ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystems

tune2fs -l /dev/sda1 List the contents of the filesystem superblock
tune2fs -j /dev/sda1 Add a journal to this ext2 filesystem, making it an ext3
tune2fs -C 7 /dev/sda1 Set the mount count of the filesystem to 7
tune2fs -c 20 /dev/sda1 Set the filesystem to be checked by fsck after 20 mounts
tune2fs -i 15d /dev/sda1 Set the filesystem to be checked by fsck each 15 days
Both mount-count-dependent and time-dependent checking are enabled by default for all hard drives on Linux, to avoid the
risk of filesystem corruption going unnoticed.

dumpe2fs options device Dump ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem information

dumpe2fs -h /dev/sda1 Display filesystem's superblock information (e.g. number of mounts, last
checks, UUID)
dumpe2fs /dev/sda1 | grep -i superblock Display locations of superblock (primary and backup) of filesystem
dumpe2fs -b /dev/sda1 Display blocks that are marked as bad in the filesystem

resize2fs options device size Resize an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem

debugfs device Interactive ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem debugger

debugfs -w /dev/sda1 Debug /dev/sda1 in read-write mode
(by default, debugfs accesses the device in read-only mode)

Many hard drives feature the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) whose purpose is to monitor the
reliability of the drive, predict drive failures, and carry out different types of drive self-tests.
The smartd daemon attempts to poll this information from all drives every 30 minutes, logging all data to syslog.
smartctl -a /dev/sda Print SMART information for drive /dev/sda
smartctl -s off /dev/sda Disable SMART monitoring and log collection for drive /dev/sda
smartctl -t long /dev/sda Begin an extended SMART self-test on drive /dev/sda

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 17/155 XFS, ReiserFS, CD-ROM fs
XFS, ReiserFS, CD-ROM fs
xfs_growfs options mountpoint Expand an XFS filesystem (there must be at least one spare new disk
partition available)

xfs_info /dev/sda1 Print XFS filesystem geometry

xfs_growfs -n /dev/sda1

xfs_check options device Check XFS filesystem consistency

xfs_repair options device Repair a damaged or corrupt XFS filesystem

xfsdump -v silent -f /dev/tape / Dump the root of a XFS filesystem to tape, with lowest level of verbosity.
Incremental and resumed dumps are stored in the inventory database
/var/lib/xfsdump/inventory
xfsrestore -f /dev/tape / Restore a XFS filesystem from tape
xfsdump -J - / | xfsrestore -J - /new Copy the contents of a XFS filesystem to another directory (without
updating the inventory database)

reiserfstune options device Adjust tunable filesystem parameters on ReiserFS filesystem

debugreiserfs device Interactive ReiserFS filesystem debugger

mkisofs -r -o cdrom.img data/ Create a CD-ROM image from the contents of the target directory.
Enable Rock Ridge extension and set all content on CD to be public
readable (instead of inheriting the permissions from the original files)

CD-ROM filesystems
Filesystem Commands
ISO9660 mkisofs Create a ISO9660 filesystem
mkudffs Create a UDF filesystem
udffsck Check a UDF filesystem
UDF (Universal Disk Format)
wrudf Maintain a UDF filesystem
cdrwtool Manage CD-RW drives (disk format, read/write speed, ...)
HFS (Hierarchical File System)
CD-ROM filesystem extensions
Rock Ridge Contains the original file information (e.g. permissions, filename) for MS Windows 8.3 filenames
MS Joliet Used to create more MS Windows friendly CD-ROMs
El Torito Used to create bootable CD-ROMs

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AutoFS

AutoFS is a client-side service that permits automounting of filesystems, even for nonprivileged users.
AutoFS is composed of the autofs kernel module that monitors specific directories for attempts to access them; in this case,
the kernel module signals the automount userspace daemon which mounts the directory when it needs to be accessed and
unmounts it when is no longer accessed.
Mounts managed by AutoFS should not be mounted/unmounted manually or via /etc/fstab, to avoid inconsistencies.

AutoFS configuration files

/etc/sysconfig/autofs AutoFS configuration file
/etc/auto.master Master map file for AutoFS. Each line is an indirect map, and each map file stores the
configuration for the automounting of the subdir.

# mount point map options

/net -hosts
/- /etc/auto.direct
/misc /etc/auto.misc
/home /etc/auto.home --timeout=60

The -hosts map tells AutoFS to mount/unmount automatically any export from the NFS
server nfsserver when the directory /net/nfsserver/ is accessed.

AutoFS map files

/etc/auto.direct Direct map file for automounting of a NFS share.

# dir filesystem
/mydir nfsserver1.foo.org:/myshare
/etc/auto.misc Indirect map file for automounting of directory /misc .

# subdir options filesystem

public -ro,soft,intr ftp.example.org:/pub
cd -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom
/etc/auto.home Indirect map file for automounting of directory /home on a NFS share.
The * wildcard matches any subdir the system attempts to access, and the & variable takes
the value of the match.

# subdir options filesystem

* -rw,soft,intr nfsserver2.bar.org:/home/&

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 19/155 RAID
RAID

RAID levels
Level Description Storage capacity
RAID 0 Striping (data is written across all member disks). Sum of the capacity of member disks
High I/O but no redundancy
RAID 1 Mirroring (data is mirrored on all disks). Capacity of the smaller member disk
High redundancy but high cost
RAID 4 Parity on a single disk. Sum of the capacity of member disks,
I/O bottleneck unless coupled to write-back caching minus one
RAID 5 Parity distributed across all disks. Sum of the capacity of member disks,
Can sustain one disk crash minus one
RAID 6 Double parity distributed across all disks. Sum of the capacity of member disks,
Can sustain two disk crashes minus two
RAID 10 (1+0) Striping + mirroring. Capacity of the smaller member disk
High redundancy but high cost
Linear RAID Data written sequentially across all disks. Sum of the capacity of member disks
No redundancy

mdadm -C /dev/md0 -l 5 \ Create a RAID 5 array from three partitions and a spare.
-n 3 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 \ Partitions type must be set to 0xFD.
-x 1 /dev/sde1 Once the RAID device has been created, it must be formatted e.g. via
mke2fs -j /dev/md0

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 -f /dev/sdd1 Mark a drive as faulty, before removing it

mdadm --manage /dev/md0 -r /dev/sdd1 Remove a drive from the RAID array.
The faulty drive can now be physically removed
mdadm --manage /dev/md0 -a /dev/sdd1 Add a drive to the RAID array.
To be run after the faulty drive has been physically replaced

mdadm --misc -Q /dev/sdd1 Display information about a device

mdadm --misc -D /dev/md0 Display detailed information about the RAID array
mdadm --misc -o /dev/md0 Mark the RAID array as readonly
mdadm --misc -w /dev/md0 Mark the RAID array as read & write

/etc/mdadm.conf Configuration file for the mdadm command.

DEVICE /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1

ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid5 num-devices=3
UUID=0098af43:812203fa:e665b421:002f5e42
devices=/dev/sdb1,/dev/sdc1,/dev/sdd1,/dev/sde1

cat /proc/mdstat Display information about RAID arrays and devices

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 20/155 Bootloader
Bootloader

Non-GRUB bootloaders
LILO Obsolete. Small bootloader that can be placed in the MBR or the boot sector of a partition.
(Linux Loader) The configuration file is /etc/lilo.conf (run /sbin/lilo afterwards to validate changes).

SYSLINUX Able to boot from FAT and NTFS filesystems e.g. floppy disks and USB drives.
Used for boot floppy disks, rescue floppy disks, and Live USBs.
ISOLINUX Able to boot from CD-ROM ISO 9660 filesystems.
Used for Live CDs and bootable install CDs.

The CD must contain the following files:

isolinux/isolinux.bin ISOLINUX image, from the SYSLINUX distro

boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg ISOLINUX configuration
images/ Floppy images to boot
kernel/memdisk

The CD can be burnt with the command:

mkisofs -o output.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table CDrootdir

PXELINUX Able to boot from PXE (Pre-boot eXecution Environment). PXE uses DHCP or BOOTP to enable
basic networking, then uses TFTP to download a bootstrap program that loads and configures
SYSLINUX the kernel.
Used for Linux installations from a central server or network boot of diskless workstations.

The boot TFTP server must contain the following files:

/tftpboot/pxelinux.0 PXELINUX image, from the SYSLINUX distro

/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ Directory containing a configuration file for each machine.
A machine with Ethernet MAC address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
and IP address 192.0.2.91 (C000025B in hexadecimal) will
search for its configuration filename in this order:
01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd
C000025B
C000025
C00002
C0000
C000
C00
C0
C
default

EXTLINUX General-purpose bootloader like LILO or GRUB. Now merged with SYSLINUX.

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 21/155 GRUB 2 configuration
GRUB 2 configuration

GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) is the standard boot manager on modern Linux distros. The latest version is GRUB 2; the
older version is GRUB Legacy.
GRUB Stage 1 (446 bytes), as well as the partition table (64 bytes) and the boot signature (2 bytes), is stored in the 512-
byte MBR. It then accesses the GRUB configuration and commands available on the filesystem, usually on /boot/grub .

/boot/grub/grub.cfg or /boot/grub2/grub.cfg GRUB 2 configuration file

# Linux Red Hat
menuentry "Fedora 2.6.32" { # Menu item to show on GRUB bootmenu
set root=(hd0,1) # root filesystem is /dev/hda1
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.32 ro root=/dev/hda5 mem=2048M
initrd /initrd-2.6.32
}

# Linux Debian
menuentry "Debian 2.6.36-experimental" {
set root=(hd0,1)
linux (hd0,1)/bzImage-2.6.36-experimental ro root=/dev/hda6
}

# Windows
menuentry "Windows" {
set root=(hd0,2)
chainloader +1
}

The GRUB 2 configuration file must not be edited manually. Instead, edit the files in /etc/grub.d/ (these are scripts that
will be run in order) and the file /etc/default/grub (the configuration file for menu display settings), then run update-
grub (Debian) or grub2-mkconfig (Red Hat) which will recreate this configuration file.

root= Specify the location of the filesystem root. This is a required parameter
ro Mount read-only on boot
quiet Disable non-critical kernel messages during boot
debug Enable kernel debugging
Common
splash Show splash image
kernel
parameters: single Boot in single-user mode (runlevel 1)
emergency Emergency mode: after the kernel is booted, run sulogin (single-user login)
which asks for the root password for system maintenance, then run a Bash. Does
not load init or any daemon or configuration setting.
init=/bin/bash Run a Bash shell (may also be any other executable) instead of init

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 22/155 GRUB 2 usage
GRUB 2 usage

The GRUB menu, presented at startup, permits to choose the OS or kernel to boot:
ENTER Boot the currently selected GRUB entry
C Get a GRUB command line
E Edit the selected GRUB entry (e.g. to edit kernel parameters in order to boot in single-user emergency mode,
or to change IRQ or I/O port of a device driver compiled in the kernel)
B Boot the currently selected GRUB entry (this is usually done after finishing modifying it)
P Bring up the GRUB password prompt (necessary if a GRUB password has been set)

grub-install /dev/sda Install GRUB on first SATA drive

grub Access the GRUB shell

grub2-set-default 1 Set GRUB to automatically boot the second entry in the GRUB menu
grub2-editenv list Display the current GRUB menu entry that is automatically booted

/boot/grub/device.map This file can be created to map Linux device filenames to BIOS drives:

(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda

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 23/155 GRUB Legacy
GRUB Legacy

GRUB Legacy shell commands

blocklist file Print the block list notation of a file kernel file Load a kernel
boot Boot the loaded OS lock Lock a GRUB menu entry
cat file Show the contents of a file makeactive Set active partition on root disk to
GRUB's root device
chainloader file Chainload another bootloader map drive1 drive2 Map a drive to another drive
cmp file1 file2 Compare two files md5crypt Encrypt a password in MD5 format
configfile file Load a configuration file module file Load a kernel module
debug Toggle debugging mode modulenounzip file Load a kernel module without
decompressing it
displayapm Display APM BIOS information pause message Print a message and wait for a key
press
displaymem Display memory configuration quit Quit the GRUB shell
embed stage device Embed Stage 1.5 in the device reboot Reboot the system
find file Find a file read address Read a 32-bit value from memory
and print it
fstest Toggle filesystem test mode root device Set the current root device
geometry drive Print information on a drive rootnoverify device Set the current root device without
geometry mounting it
halt Shut down the system savedefault Save current menu entry as the
default entry
help command Show help for a command, or the setup device Install GRUB automatically on the
available commands device
impsprobe Probe the Intel Multiprocessor testload file Test the filesystem code on a file
Specification
initrd file Load an initial ramdisk image file testvbe mode Test a VESA BIOS EXTENSION
mode
install options Install GRUB (deprecated, use uppermem kbytes Set the upper memory size (only
setup instead) for old machines)
ioprobe drive Probe I/O ports used for a drive vbeprobe mode Probe a VESA BIOS EXTENSION
mode

/boot/grub/menu.lst or /boot/grub/grub.conf GRUB Legacy configuration file

timeout 10 # Boot the default kernel after 10 seconds
default 0 # Default kernel is 0

# Section 0: Linux boot

title Debian # Menu item to show on GRUB bootmenu
root (hd0,0) # root filesystem is /dev/hda1
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

# Section 1: Windows boot

title Microsoft Windows XP
root (hd0,1) # root filesystem is /dev/hda2
savedefault
makeactive # set the active flag on this partition
chainloader +1 # read 1 sector from start of partition and run

# Section 2: Firmware/BIOS update from floppy disk

title Firmware update
kernel /memdisk # boot a floppy disk image
initrd /floppy-img-7.7.7

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 24/155 Low-level package managers
Low-level package managers

Low-level package managers Debian Red Hat

Install a package file dpkg -i package.deb rpm -i package.rpm
rpm -i ftp://host/package.rpm
rpm -i http://host/package.rpm

Remove a package dpkg -r package rpm -e package

Upgrade a package rpm -U package.rpm

(and remove old versions)
Upgrade a package rpm -F package.rpm
(only if an old version is already installed)
List installed packages and their state dpkg -l rpm -qa

List installed packages and their installation rpm -qa --last

date, from newest to oldest
List the content of an installed package dpkg -L package rpm -ql package

List the content of a package file dpkg -c package.deb rpm -qpl package.rpm

Show the package containing a specific file dpkg -S file rpm -qf file

Verify an installed package rpm -V package

Reconfigure a package dpkg-reconfigure package

Install a package source file rpm -i package.src.rpm

Compile a package source file rpm -ba package.spec

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 25/155 High-level package managers
High-level package managers

High-level package managers Debian Red Hat

Install a package apt-get install package yum install package

Install a package file yum install package.rpm

yum localinstall package.rpm

Remove a package apt-get remove package yum remove package

Upgrade an installed package yum update package

Upgrade all installed packages apt-get upgrade yum update

Upgrade all installed packages and handle apt-get dist-upgrade

dependencies with new versions
Replace a package with another yum swap packageout packagein

Get the source code for a package apt-get source package

Check for broken dependencies and update apt-get check

package cache
Fix broken dependencies apt-get install -f

Update information on available packages apt-get update

List all installed and available packages yum list

List installed and available packages that yum list searchterm

match the search term
List installed packages yum list installed

List packages available for install yum list available

Search for a package apt-cache search package yum search package

Show package dependencies apt-cache depends package yum deplist package

Show package records apt-cache show package yum list package

Show information about a package apt-cache showpkg package yum info package

Show the installation history yum history

yum history list

Show the installation history about a package yum history package package
yum history list package package

Update information about package contents apt-file update

List the content of an uninstalled package apt-file list package

Show which package provides a specific file apt-file search file yum whatprovides file

Add a CD-ROM to the sources list apt-cdrom add

Download package and all its dependencies yumdownloader --resolve package

Show URLs that would be downloaded yumdownloader --urls package

Try to complete unfinished or aborted package yum-complete-transaction

installations
Print list of available repositories cat /etc/apt/sources.list yum repolist
cat /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo

Package format compressed with ar compressed with cpio

High-level package managers are able to install remote packages and automatically solve dependencies.

GUI package managers Debian Red Hat

Manage packages and dependencies using a aptitude pirut
graphical or text-based UI dselect
synaptic

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 26/155 Package management tools
Package management tools

Package management tools Debian Red Hat

Convert a RPM package to DEB and install it. alien -i package.rpm
Might break the package system!
Convert a RPM package to cpio archive rpm2cpio package.rpm

Add a key to the list of keys used to apt-key add keyfile

authenticate packages
Register a system to the RHSM (Red Hat subscription-manager register
Subscription Management) portal
Attach a RHSM subscription to a registered subscription-manager attach
system

/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo Configuration file for a specific "Fedora" repository

[fedora] Repository ID
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch Repository name
baseurl=http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/\ List of URLs to the repository's repodata
releases/$releasever/Everything/$basearch/os/ directory. Can be any of these types:
http://foo.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/ file:/// local file
http://bar.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/
file:// NFS
http:// HTTP
https:// HTTPS
ftp:// FTP
enabled=1 Whether this repository is enabled
gpgcheck=1 Whether to perform a GPG signature check on
the packages downloaded from this repository
failovermethod=priority Makes yum try the baseurls in the order they're
listed. By default, if more than one baseurl is
specified, yum chooses one randomly
metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=\ URL to a metalink file that specifies the list of
fedora-$releasever&arch=$basearch mirrors to use. Can be used with or in
alternative to a baseurl
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-\ ASCII-armored GPG public key file of the
$releasever-$basearch repository
A detailed list of repository configuration options can be read on the manpage man yum.conf

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 27/155 Backup
Backup
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb Copy the content of one hard disk over another, byte by byte
cat /dev/sda > /dev/sdb
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=sda1.img Generate the image file of a partition
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cdrom.iso bs=2048 Create an ISO file from a CD-ROM, using a block size transfer of 2 Kb
dd if=install.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=512k Write an installation ISO file to a device (e.g. a USB thumb drive)

rsync -rzv /home /tmp/bak Synchronize the content of the home directory with the temporary
rsync -rzv /home/ /tmp/bak/home backup directory. Use recursion, compression, and verbosity.
For all transfers subsequent to the first, rsync only copies the blocks that
have changed, making it a very efficient backup solution in terms of
speed and bandwidth
rsync -avz /home [email protected]:/backup/ Synchronize the content of the home directory with the backup directory
on the remote server, using SSH. Use archive mode (operates
recursively and preserves owner, group, permissions, timestamps, and
symlinks)

Tape libraries
/dev/st0 First SCSI tape device
Devices
/dev/nst0 First SCSI tape device (no-rewind device file)
Utility for magnetic tapes mt -f /dev/nst0 asf 3 Position the tape at the start of 3rd file
mtx -f /dev/sg1 status Display status of tape library
mtx -f /dev/sg1 load 3 Load tape from slot 3 to drive 0
mtx -f /dev/sg1 unload Unload tape from drive 0 to original slot
Utility for tape libraries mtx -f /dev/sg1 transfer 3 4 Transfer tape from slot 3 to slot 4
mtx -f /dev/sg1 inventory Force robot to rescan all slots and drives
mtx -f /dev/sg1 inquiry Inquiry about SCSI media device
(Medium Changer = tape library)

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 28/155 Archive formats
Archive formats
ls | cpio -o > archive.cpio Create a cpio archive of all files in the current directory
ls | cpio -oF archive.cpio
find /home/ | cpio -o > archive.cpio Create a cpio archive of all users' home directories
cpio
cpio -id < archive.cpio Extract all files, recreating the directory structure
cpio -i -t < archive.cpio List the contents of a cpio archive file
gzip file Compress a file with gzip
gunzip file.gz Decompress a gzip-compressed file
gunzip -tv file.gz Test the integrity of a gzip-compressed file

gzip zcat file.gz Read a gzip-compressed text file

zgrep pattern file.gz grep for a gzip-compressed text file
zless file.gz less for a gzip-compressed text file
zmore file.gz more for a gzip-compressed text file
bzip2 file Compress a file with bzip2
bzip2 bunzip2 file.bz2 Decompress a bzip2-compressed file
bzcat file.bz2 Read a bzip2-compressed text file
7-Zip 7z a -t7z archive.7z dir/ Create a 7-Zip archive (has the highest compression ratio)
xz file Compress a file with xz
unxz file.xz Decompress a xz-compressed file
xz xz -d file.xz
xzcat file.xz Read a xz-compressed file
lzma file Compress a file with LZMA
xz --format=lzma file
unlzma file.lzma Decompress a LZMA-compressed file
LZMA xz --format=lzma -d file.lzma
lzcat file.lzma Read a LZMA-compressed file
xz --format=lzma --d --stdout file.lzma
rar a archive.rar dir/ Create a RAR archive
rar
unrar x archive.rar Extract a RAR archive
tar cvf archive.tar dir/ Create a tarred archive (bundles multiple files in a single one)
tar cvzf archive.tar.gz dir/ Create a tarred gzip-compressed archive
tar xvzf archive.tar.gz Extract a tarred gzip-compressed archive
tar cvjf archive.tar.bz2 dir/ Create a tarred bzip2-compressed archive
tar
tar xvjf archive.tar.bz2 Extract a tarred bzip2-compressed archive
tar cvJf archive.tar.xz dir/ Create a tarred xz-compressed archive
tar xvJf archive.tar.xz Extract a tarred xz-compressed archive
tar tvf archive.tar List the contents of a tarred archive
star -c -f=archive.star dir/ Create a star archive
star
star -x -f=archive.star Extract a star archive

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 29/155 Command line basics
Command line basics
man command Show the man page for a command
man 7 command Show section 7 of the command man page
man man Show information about man pages' sections:
1 - Executable programs or shell commands
2 - System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
3 - Library calls (functions within program libraries)
4 - Special files
5 - File formats and conventions
6 - Games
7 - Miscellaneous
8 - System administration commands (usually only for root)
9 - Kernel routines
whatis command Show the man page's short description for a command
apropos keyword Show the commands whose man page's short description matches the keyword.
Inverse of the whatis command
apropos -r regex Show the commands whose man page's short description matches the regex
man -k regex
man -K regex Show the commands whose man page's full text matches the regex
info command Show the Info documentation for a command

history Show the history of command lines executed up to this moment.

Commands prepended by a space will be executed but will not show up in the history.
After the user logs out from Bash, history is saved into ~/.bash_history
!n Execute command number n in the command line history
history -c Clear the command line history
history -d n Delete command number n from the command line history

alias ls='ls -lap' Set up an alias for the ls command

alias Show defined aliases
unalias ls Remove the alias for the ls command
\ls Run the non-aliased version of the ls command
/bin/ls

Unless otherwise specified, shell commands and operations in this guide refer to Bash which is the default shell in many
Linux distributions.

Almost all Linux commands accept the option -v (verbose), and some commands also accept the options -vv or -vvv
(increasing levels of verbosity).

All Bash built-in commands, and many other commands, accept the flag -- which denotes the end of options and the start
of positional parameters:
grep -- -i file Search for the string "-i" in file
rm -- -rf Delete a file called "-rf"

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 30/155 Directories
Directories
cd directory Change to the specified directory
cd - Change to the previously used directory
pwd Print the current working directory
pushd directory Add a directory to the top of the directory stack and make it the current
working directory
popd Remove the top directory from the directory stack and change to the new top
directory

dirname file Output the directory path the file is in, stripping any non-directory suffix from
the filename

Bash directory shortcuts

. Current directory
.. Parent directory
~ Home directory of current user
~jdoe Home directory of user jdoe
~- Previously used directory

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 31/155 Text filters
Text filters
cat file Print a text file
cat file1 file2 > file3 Concatenate text files
cat > file <<EOF Create a Here Document, storing the lines entered in input to a file
line 1
line 2
line 3
EOF
cat file1 > file2 Copy file1 to file2. Note that these can also be binary files of any kind, because cat
> file2 < file1 cat is able to operate on binary streams as well

tac file Print or concatenate text files in reverse, from last line to first line

head file Print the first 10 lines of a text file

head -n 10 file
tail file Print the last 10 lines of a text file
tail -n 10 file
tail -f file Output appended data as the text file grows; useful to read logs in realtime

column file Format a text file into columns

pr file Format a text file for a printer
fmt -w 75 file Format a text file so that each line has a max width of 75 characters
fold -w40 file Wrap each line of a text file to 40 characters

nl file Prepend line numbers to a text file

wc file Print the number of lines, words, and bytes of a text file

join file1 file2 Join lines of two text files on a common field
paste file1 file2 Merge lines of text files

split -l 1 file Split a text file into 1-line files (named xaa, xab, xac, and so on)
uniq file Print the unique lines of a text file, omitting consecutive identical lines
sort file Sort alphabetically the lines of a text file
shuf file Shuffle randomly the lines of a text file

expand file Convert tabs into spaces

unexpand file Convert spaces into tabs

od file Dump a file into octal (or other formats)

diff file1 file2 Compare two text files line by line and print the differences
cmp file1 file2 Compare two files and print the differences

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 32/155 Advanced text filters
Advanced text filters
cut -d: -f3 file Cut the lines of a file, considering : as the delimiter and printing only the 3rd field
cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd Print the list of user accounts in the system
cut -c3-50 file Print character 3 to 50 of each line of a file

sed 's/foo/bar/' file Stream Editor: Replace the first occurrence on a line of foo with bar in file, and print
on stdout the result
sed -i 's/foo/bar/' file Replace foo with bar, overwriting the results in file
sed 's/foo/bar/g' file Replace all occurrences of foo with bar
sed '0,/foo/s//bar/' file Replace only the first line match
sed -n '7,13p' file Print line 7 to 13 of a text file
sed "s/foo/$var/" file Replace foo with the value of variable $var.
The double quotes allow for variable expansion

tr a-z A-Z <file Translate characters: Convert all lowercase into uppercase in a text file
tr [:lower:] [:upper:] <file
tr -d 0-9 <file Delete all digits from a text file
tr -d [:digit:] <file

awk Interpreter for the AWK programming language, designed for text processing and
data extraction

grep foo file Print the lines of a file containing foo

grep -v foo file Print the lines of a file not containing foo
grep -e foo -e bar file Print the lines of a file containing foo or bar
grep -E 'foo|bar' file
grep -v -e foo -e bar file Print the lines of a file containing neither foo nor bar
grep -E regex file Print the lines of a file matching the given Extended Regex
egrep regex file

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 33/155 Regular expressions
Regular expressions
^ Beginning of a line
$ End of a line
\< \> Word boundaries (beginning of line, end of line, space, or punctuation mark)
. Any character, except newline
[abc] Any of the characters specified
[a-z] Any of the characters in the specified range
[^abc] Any character except those specified
* Zero or more times the preceding regex
+ One or more times the preceding regex
? Zero or one time the preceding regex
{5} Exactly 5 times the preceding regex
{5,} 5 times or more the preceding regex
{5,10} Between 5 and 10 times the preceding regex
| The regex either before or after the vertical bar
( ) Grouping, to be used for back-references. \1 expands to the 1st match, \2 to the 2nd, and so on until \9

The symbols above are used in POSIX EREs (Extended Regular Expressions).
For POSIX BREs (Basic Regular Expressions), some symbols will need escaping.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 34/155 File management
File management
cp file file2 Copy a file
cp file dir/ Copy a file to a directory Common options:
cp -ar /root/mydir/. /opt/ Copy a directory recursively -i Prompt before overwriting/deleting files
(interactive)
mv file file2 Rename a file -f Don't ask before overwriting/deleting files
mv file dir/ Move a file to a directory (force)

rm file Delete a file

pv file > file2 Copy a file, monitoring the progress of data through a pipe

mkdir dir Create a directory

mkdir -m 755 dir Create a directory with mode 755
mkdir -p /tmp/mydir1/mydir2 Create a directory, creating also the parent directories if they don't exist
rmdir dir Delete a directory (which must be empty)

touch file Change access/modification timestamp on a file, creating it if it doesn't exist

mktemp Create a temporary file or directory, using as filename template tmp.XXXXXXXXXX

ls List the contents of the current directory

ls -d */ List only directories contained on the current directory
tree List directories and their contents in hierarchical format

stat file Display file or filesystem status

stat -c %A file Display file permissions
stat -c %s file Display file size, in bytes

shred /dev/hda Securely wipe the contents of a device

shred -u file Securely delete a file

lsof List all open files

lsof -u jdoe List all files currently open by user jdoe
lsof -i List open files and their sockets (equivalent to netstat -ap)
lsof -i :80 List connections of local processes on port 80
lsof [email protected] List connections of local processes to remote host 10.0.0.3
lsof [email protected]:80 List connections of local processes to remote host 10.0.0.3 on port 80
lsof -c mysqld List all files opened by the MySQL daemon
lsof /var/lib/mysql/mysqld.pid List all processes using a specific file

File-naming wildcards (globbing) Brace expansion

* Matches zero or more characters cp foo.{txt,bak} Copy file foo.txt to foo.bak
? Matches one character touch foo_{a,b,c} Create files foo_a, foo_b, foo_c
touch foo_{a..c}
[kxw] Matches k, x, or w
[!kxw] Matches any character except k, x, or w
[a-z] Matches any character between a and z

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 35/155 I/O streams
I/O streams

In Linux, everything is (displayed as) a file. File descriptors are automatically associated to any process launched.

File descriptors
# Name Type Default device Device file
0 Standard input (stdin) Input text stream Keyboard /dev/stdin

1 Standard output (stdout) Output text stream Terminal /dev/stdout

2 Standard error (stderr) Output text stream Terminal /dev/stderr

cat /etc/passwd | wc -l Pipe the stdout of command cat to the stdin of command wc (hence printing the number
of accounts in the system). Note that piped commands run concurrently

ls > file Redirect the stdout of command ls to a file (hence writing on a file the content of the
ls 1> file current directory). File is overwritten if it already exists, unless the Bash noclobber
option is set (via set -o noclobber)
ls >| file Redirect the stdout of command ls to a file, even if noclobber is set
ls >> file Append the stdout of command ls to a file
ls 1>> file

ls 2> file Redirect the stderr of command ls to a file (hence writing any error encountered by the
command to a file)
ls 2>> file Append the stderr of command ls to a file
ls 2> /dev/null Silence any error coming from command ls

mail [email protected] < file Redirect a file to the stdin of command mail (hence sending via e-mail a file to the
specified email address)

echo "$(sort file)" > file Sort the contents of a file and write the output in the file itself.
echo "`sort file`" > file sort file > file would not produce the desired result, because the stdout destination
sort file | sponge file is created (deleting the content of the existing file) before the sort command is run

ls 2>&1 Redirect stderr of command ls to stdout

ls > file 2>&1 Redirect both stdout and stderr of command ls to a file
ls &> file Redirect both stdout and stderr of command ls to a file.
ls >& file This usage is not POSIX standard and therefore is not recommended

> file Create an empty file. If the file exists, its content will be deleted

ls | tee file tee reads from stdin and writes both to stdout and a file (hence writing content of
current directory to screen and to a file at the same time)
ls | tee -a file tee reads from stdin and appends both to stdout and a file

ls foo* | xargs cat xargs calls the cat command multiple times for each argument found on stdin
(hence printing the content of every file whose filename starts by foo)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 36/155 read and echo
read and echo
while read -r line Process a text file line by line, reading from file.
do If file is /dev/stdin, reads from standard input instead
echo "Hello $line"
done < file

read MYVAR Read a variable from standard input

read -n 8 MYVAR Read only max 8 chars from standard input
read -t 60 MYVAR Read a variable from standard input, timing out after one minute
read -s MYVAR Read a variable from standard input without echoing to terminal (silent mode)

echo $MYVAR Print a variable on screen

echo -n "message" Print message onscreen without a trailing line feed
printf "message"

echo -e '\a' Produce an alert sound (BEL sequence)

pv -qL10 <<< "Hello world" Print onscreen one character at a time

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 37/155 Processes
Processes

Any application, program, or script that runs on the system is a process. Signals are used for inter-process communication.
Each process has a unique PID (Process ID) and a PPID (Parent Process ID); when a process spawns a child, the process
PID is assigned to the child's PPID.
The /sbin/init process, run at bootup, has PID 1. It is the ancestor of all processes and becomes the parent of any
orphaned process. It is also unkillable; should it die, the kernel will panic.
When a child process dies, its status becomes EXIT_ZOMBIE and a SIGCHLD is sent to the parent. The parent should then
call the wait() system call to read the dead process' exit status and other info; until that moment, the child process
remains a zombie.

ps -ef (UNIX options) List all processes

ps aux (BSD options)
pstree PID Display all processes in hierarchical format.
The process tree is rooted at PID, or at init if PID is omitted
pidof process Show PID of process
top Monitor processes in realtime
htop Monitor processes in realtime (ncurses UI)
ipcs Show IPC facilities information (shared memory, message queues, and semaphores)

kill -9 1138 Send a signal 9 (SIGKILL) to process 1138, hence killing it

killall -9 sshd Kill processes whose name is sshd
pgrep -u root sshd Show processes whose name is sshd and are owned by root Note: pgrep and pkill
pkill -9 -u root sshd Kill processes whose name is sshd and are owned by root accept the same options

xkill Interactive program to kill a process by its X GUI resource

jobs List all jobs (i.e. processes whose parent is a Bash shell)
CTRL Z Suspend a job, putting it in the stopped state (send a SIGTSTP)
bg %1 Put job #1 in the background (send a SIGCONT)
fg %1 Resume job #1 in the foreground and make it the current job (send a SIGCONT)
kill %1 Kill job #1

When a Bash shell is terminated cleanly via exit, its jobs will became child of the Bash's parent and will continue running.
When a Bash is killed instead, it issues a SIGHUP to his children which will terminate.
nohup myscript.sh Prevent a process from terminating (receiving a SIGHUP) when its parent Bash dies

To each process is associated a niceness value: the higher the niceness, the lower the priority.
The niceness value ranges from -20 to 19, and a newly created process has a default niceness of 0.
Unprivileged users can modify a process' niceness only within the range from 1 to 19.
nice -n -5 command Start a command with a niceness of -5. If niceness is omitted, a default value of 10 is used
renice -5 command Change the niceness of a running command to -5

strace command Trace the execution of a command, intercepting and printing the system calls called by a
process and the signals received by a process

( command )& pid=$!; sleep n; kill -9 $pid Run a command and kill it after n seconds

:(){ :|:& };: Fork bomb. Don't try this at home!

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 38/155 Signals
Signals

Most frequently used signals

Signal number Signal name Meaning
1 SIGHUP Used by many daemons to reload their configuration
2 SIGINT Interrupt, stop
9 SIGKILL Kill unconditionally (this signal cannot be ignored)
15 SIGTERM Terminate gracefully
18 SIGCONT Continue execution
20 SIGTSTP Stop execution

man 7 signal Display the man page about signals

kill -l List all available signal names

kill -l n Print the name of signal number n

trap action condition Trap a signal

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 39/155 Resource monitoring
Resource monitoring
vmstat Print a report about virtual memory statistics: processes, memory, paging, block I/O,
traps, disks, and CPU activity
iostat Print a report about CPU utilization, device utilization, and network filesystem.
The first report shows statistics since the system boot; subsequent reports will show
statistics since the previous report
mpstat Print a report about processor activities

vmstat 2 5 Print the relevant report every 2 seconds, for 5 times

iostat 2 5
mpstat 2 5

iotop Display I/O usage by processes in the system

atop Advanced system monitor that displays the load on CPU, RAM, disk, and network

free Show the amount of free and used memory in the system

uptime Show how long the system has been up, how many users are connected, and the system
load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes

time command Execute command and, at its completion, write to stderr timing statistics about the run
i.e. elapsed real time, user CPU time, system CPU time

sar Show reports about system activity.

Reports are generated from data collected via the cron job sysstat and stored in
/var/log/sa/sn, where n is the day of the month
sar -n DEV Show reports about network activity (received and transmitted packets per second)
sar -f /var/log/sa/s19 \ Show reports for system activity from 6 to 6:30 AM on the 19th of the month
-s 06:00:00 -e 06:30:00

powertop Power consumption and power management diagnosis tool

sysbench Multithreaded benchmark tool able to monitor different OS parameters: file I/O,
scheduler, memory allocation, thread implementation, databases

inxi Debugging tool to rapidly and easily gather system information and configuration

Linux monitoring tools

collectd System statistics collector
Nagios System monitor and alert
MRTG Network load monitor
Cacti Network monitor
Munin System and network monitor and alert
Zabbix System and network monitor and alert
Centreon System and network monitor and alert

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 40/155 vmstat and free
vmstat and free

Output of command vmstat

procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- -----cpu-----
r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa st
0 0 0 296724 267120 3393400 0 0 17 56 0 3 2 2 95 1 0

r Number of runnable processes (running or waiting for run time)

procs
b Number of processes in uninterruptible sleep
swpd Virtual memory used (swap)
free Free memory (idle)
memory in Kb
buff Memory used as buffers
cache Memory used as cache
si Memory swapped in from disk
swap in Kb/second
so Memory swapped out to disk
bi Blocks received in from a block device
io in blocks/second
bo Blocks sent out to a block device
in Number of interrupts
system per second
cs Number of context switches
us Time spent running user code (non-kernel)
sy Time spent running system code (kernel)

cpu id Time spent idle in percentage of total CPU time

wa Time spent waiting for I/O
st Time stolen from a virtual machine

Output of command free

total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 16344088 2273312 11531400 776228 2539376 12935112
Swap: 1048572 0 1048572
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1504544 1491098 13021 0 91112 764542
-/+ buffers/cache: 635212 869498
Swap: 2047686 7667 2040019

total Total configured amount of memory

used Used memory
free Unused memory
Mem
shared Memory used by tmpfs, 0 if not available
buff/cache Memory used by kernel buffers, page cache, and slabs
available Memory available for new applications (without using swap) *

used Memory used by kernel buffers

-/+ buffers/cache
free Memory available for new applications (without using swap) *

total Total configured amount of swap space

Swap used Used swap space
free Free swap space *

*
These are the true values indicating the free system resources available. All values are in Kb, unless options are used.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 41/155 File permissions
File permissions

- r w x r w x r w x

--==regular
regularfile
file user
user(owner)
(owner) group
group others
others
dd==directory
directory
ll==symbolic rr==read rr==read rr==read
symboliclink
link read read read
ss==Unix
Unixdomain
domainsocket
socket ww==write
write ww==write
write ww==write
write
pp==named xx==execute xx==execute xx==execute
namedpipe
pipe execute execute execute
cc==character
characterdevice
devicefile
file ss==setUID
setUIDand
andexecute
execute ss==setGID
setGIDand
andexecute
execute tt==sticky
stickyand
andexecute
execute
bb==block SS==setUID
setUID andnot
and notexecute SS==setGID
setGID andnot
and notexecute TT==sticky
sticky andnot
and notexecute
blockdevice
devicefilefile execute execute execute

Permission Octal value Command Effect on file Effect on directory

user: 400 chmod u+r

Read group: 40 chmod g+r Can open and read the file Can list directory content
others: 4 chmod o+r

user: 200 chmod u+w

Can create, delete, and rename files in
Write group: 20 chmod g+w Can modify the file
the directory
others: 2 chmod o+w

user: 100 chmod u+x

Can execute the file (binary Can enter the directory, and search files
Execute group: 10 chmod g+x
or script) within (by accessing a file's inode)
others: 1 chmod o+x

Executable is run with the

SetUID (SUID) 4000 chmod u+s No effect
privileges of the file's owner
Executable is run with the All new files and subdirectories inherit
SetGID (SGID) 2000 chmod g+s
privileges of the file's group the directory's group ID
Files inside the directory can be deleted
Sticky 1000 chmod +t No effect
or moved only by the file's owner

chmod 710 file Set read, write, and execute permission to user; set execute permission to group
chmod u=rwx,g=x file
chmod 660 file Set read and write permission to user and group
chmod ug=rw file
chmod +wx file Add write and execute permission to everybody (user, group, and others)
chmod -R o+r file Add recursively read permission to others
chmod o-x file Remove execute permission from others

chown root file Change the owner of file to root

chown root:mygroup file Change the owner of file to root, and the group of file to mygroup

chgrp mygroup file Change the group of file to mygroup

The chmod, chown, and chgrp commands accept the option -R to recursively change properties of files and directories.

umask 022 Set the permission mask to 022, hence masking write permission for group and others.
Linux default permissions are 0666 for files and 0777 for directories. These base permissions are
ANDed with the inverted umask value to calculate the final permissions of a new file or directory.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 42/155 File attributes
File attributes
chattr +mode file Add a file or directory attribute
chattr -mode file Remove a file or directory attribute
chattr =mode file Set a file or directory attribute, removing all other attributes
lsattr file List file or directory attributes

Mode Effect
a File can only be open in append mode for writing
A When file is accessed, its atime record is not modified
c File is automatically compressed on-the-fly on disk by the kernel
C File is not subject to copy-on-write updates (only for filesystems which perform copy-on-write)
d File will not be backed up by the dump program
D When directory is modified, changes are written synchronously on disk (equivalent to dirsync mount option)
e File is using extents for mapping the blocks on disk
E Compression error on file (attribute used by experimental compression patches)
h File is storing its blocks in units of filesystem blocksize instead of in units of sectors, and was larger than 2 Tb
i File is immutable: cannot be modified, linked, or changed permissions
I Directory is being indexed using hashed trees
j All file data is written to the ext3 or ext4 journal before being written to the file itself
N File has data stored inline within the inode itself
s File will be securely wiped by zeroing when deleted
S When file is modified, changes are written synchronously on disk (equivalent to sync mount option)
t File will not have EOF partial block fragment merged with other files (only for filesystems supporting tail-merging)
T Directory is the top of directory hierarchies for the purpose of the Orlov block allocator
u After file is deleted, it can be undeleted
X Raw contents of compressed file can be accessed directly (attribute used by experimental compression patches)
Z Compressed file is dirty (attribute used by experimental compression patches)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 43/155 ACLs
ACLs

Access Control Lists (ACLs) provide a fine-grained set of permissions that can be applied to files and directories.
An access ACL is set on an individual file or directory; a default ACL is set on a directory, and applies to all files and
subdirs created inside it that don't have an access ACL.
The final permissions are the intersection of the ACL with the chmod/umask value.
A partition must have been mounted with the acl option in order to support ACLs on files.

setfacl -m u:user:permissions file Set an access ACL on a file for an user

setfacl -m g:group:permissions file Set an access ACL on a file for a group
setfacl -m m:permissions file Set the effective rights mask on a file
setfacl -m o:permissions file Set the permissions on a file for other users
setfacl -x u:user file Remove an access ACL from a file for an user
setfacl -x g:group file Remove an access ACL from a file for a group
The permissions are standard Unix permissions specified as any combination of r w x .

setfacl -m d:u:user:permissions dir As above, but set a default ACL instead of an access ACL.
setfacl -d -m u:user:permissions dir This applies to all commands above

getfacl file Display the access (and default, if any) ACL for a file

getfacl file1 | setfacl --set-file=- file2 Copy the ACL of file1 and apply it to file2

getfacl --access dir | setfacl -d -M- dir Copy the access ACL of a directory and set it as default ACL

chacl options Change an ACL. This is an IRIX-compatibility command

man acl Show the manpage about ACLs

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 44/155 Links
Links

A Linux directory contains a list of structures which are associations between a filename and an inode.
An inode contains all file metadata: file type, permissions, owner, group, size, access/change/modification/deletion times,
number of links, attributes, ACLs, and address where the actual file content (data) is stored.
An inode does not contain the name of the file; this information is stored in the directory where the file is.

ls -i Show a listing of the directory with the files' inode numbers

df -i Report filesystem inode usage

Hard link Soft or symbolic link

Definition A link to an already existing inode A path to a filename; a shortcut
Command to create it ln file hardlink ln -s file symlink

Link is still valid if the original file Yes (because the link references the No (because the path now references a
is moved or deleted inode the original file pointed to) non-existent file)
Can link to a file in another No (because inode numbers make sense
Yes
filesystem only within a determinate filesystem)
Can link to a directory No Yes
Reflect the original file's permissions,
Link permissions rwxrwxrwx
even when these are changed
Link attributes - (regular file) l (symbolic link)

Inode number The same as the original file A new inode number

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 45/155 Find system files
Find system files
find / -name "foo*" Find all files, starting from the root dir, whose name start with foo
find / -name "foo*" -print
find / -name "foo*" -exec chmod 700 {} \; Find all files whose name start with foo and apply permission 700 to
all of them
find / -name "foo*" -ok chmod 700 {} \; Find all files whose name start with foo and apply permission 700 to
all of them, asking for confirmation before each file
find / -size +128M Find all files larger than 128 Mb
find / -ctime +10 Find all files created more than 10 days ago
find / -perm -4000 -type f Find all files of type file (i.e. not directories) and with SUID set
(a possible security risk, because a shell with SUID root is a backdoor)
find / -perm -2000 -type f Find all files with SGID set
find /home/jdoe/path -type f \ Find and delete all files newer than the specified datetime.
-newermt "May 4 14:50" -delete Using -delete is preferable to using -exec rm {} \;
find . -type f -print -exec cat {} \; Print all files in the current directory with a filename header

locate command Locate command by searching the file index /etc/updatedb.conf,

slocate command not by actually walking the filesystem. The search is fast but will only
held results relative to the last rebuilding of the file index
updatedb Rebuild the file index

which command Locate a binary executable command within the PATH

which -a command Locate all matches of a command, not only the first one

whereis command Locate the binary, source, and manpage files for a command
whereis -b command Locate the binary files for a command
whereis -s command Locate the source files for a command
whereis -m command Locate the manpage files for a command

type command Determine if a command is a program or a built-in (i.e. an internal

feature of the shell)

file myfile Analyze the content of a file or directory, and display the kind of file
(e.g. executable, text file, program text, swap file)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 46/155 Shell options
Shell options

Bash shell event Files run

/etc/profile
The shell executes the
/etc/profile.d/*.sh
system-wide profile files, then
When a login shell is launched ~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login the first of the 3 user files that
~/.profile exists and is readable

When a login shell exits ~/.bash_logout

/etc/bash.bashrc
When a non-login shell is launched /etc/bashrc
~/.bashrc

set -o Show the status of all Bash options

set -option Enable a Bash option
set -o long_option
set +option Disable a Bash option
set +o long_option

set -v Enable printing of shell input lines as they are read

set -o verbose
set -x Enable printing of command traces before execution of each command (debug mode)
set -o xtrace

To run a script with a Bash option enabled, either:

a. Run the script with bash -option scriptfile.sh
b. Specify the shebang line as #!/bin/bash -option
c. Add the command set -option at the beginning of the script

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 47/155 Shell variables
Shell variables

The scope of variables is the current shell only, while environment variables are visible within the current shell as well as
within all subshells and Bash child processes spawned by the shell.
Environment variables are set in /etc/environment in the form var=value .

set Display all variables

env Display all environment variables

export MYVAR Export a variable, making it an environment variable

MYVAR=value Set a variable

((MYVAR=value))
let "MYVAR=value"

echo $MYVAR Use a variable (in this case, echo it to screen).

echo ${MYVAR} If other characters follow the variable name, it is necessary to specify the
boundaries of the variable name via {} to make it unambiguous

MYVAR=$((2+2)) Evaluate a numeric expression and assign the result to another variable
MYVAR=$[2+2]
FOO=$((BAR + 42))
FOO=`expr $BAR + 42`

MYVAR=`date` Assign to a variable the output resulting from a command

MYVAR=$(date)

for i in $(ls) Loop and operate through all the output tokens (in this case, the contents of the
do current directory). Warning: depending on the operation, filenames containing
echo "Item: $i" whitespace or glob characters may break the script
done

unset MYVAR Delete a variable

set ${MYVAR:=value} Set a variable, only if it is not already set (i.e. does not exist) or is null
MYVAR=${MYVAR:-value}

echo ${MYVAR:-message} If variable exists and is not null, print its value, otherwise print message
echo ${MYVAR:+message} If variable exists and is not null, print message, otherwise print nothing
echo ${MYVAR,,} Print a string variable in lowercase

Bash built-in variables

$0 Script name
$n nth argument passed to the script or function
$@ All arguments passed to the script or function (each argument as a separate word)
$* All arguments passed to the script or function (all arguments as a single word)
$# Number of arguments passed to the script or function
$? Exit status of the last executed command
${PIPESTATUS[n]} Exit status of the nth command in the executed pipeline
$$ PID of the script in which this variable is called
$SHLVL Deepness level of current shell, starting with 1

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 48/155 Bash scripting
Bash scripting

Bash scripts must start with the shebang line #!/bin/bash indicating the location of the script interpreter.

Script execution
source myscript.sh Script execution takes place in the same shell. Variables defined and
. myscript.sh exported in the script are seen by the shell when the script exits
bash myscript.sh
Script execution spawns a new shell
./myscript.sh (file must be executable)

command & Execute command in the background

command1; command2 Execute command 1 and then command 2
command1 && command2 Execute command 2 only if command 1 executed successfully (exit status = 0)
command1 || command2 Execute command 2 only if command 1 did not execute successfully (exit status > 0)
(command1 && command2) Group commands together for evaluation priority
(command) Run command in a subshell. This is used to isolate command's effects, as variable
assignments and other changes to the shell environment operated by command will
not remain after command completes

exit Terminate a script

exit n Terminate a script with the specified exit status number n. By convention, a 0 exit
status is used if the script executed successfully, non-zero otherwise

command || exit 1 (To be used inside a script.) Exit the script if command fails

if command Run a command, then evaluate whether it exited successfully or failed

then
echo "Success"
else
echo "Fail"
fi

if [ $? -eq 0 ] Evaluate whether the last executed command exited successfully or failed
then
echo "Success"
else
echo "Fail"
fi

function myfunc { commands } Define a function

myfunc() { commands }
myfunc arg1 arg2 ... Call a function

typeset -f Show functions defined in the current Bash session

for DIR in `ls` Loop through a list of directories

do
rmdir $DIR
done

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 49/155 Bash advanced scripting
Bash advanced scripting
watch command Execute command every 2 seconds
watch -d -n 1 command Execute command every second, highlighting the differences in the output

timeout 30s command Execute command and kill it after 30 seconds

time command Execute command and print its execution time: elapsed real time between invocation and
termination, user CPU time, and system CPU time

command | ts Prepend a timestamp to each line of the output of command

sleep 5 Pause for 5 seconds

usleep 5000 Pause for 5000 microseconds

expect Dialogue with interactive programs according to a script, analyzing what can be expected
from the interactive program and replying accordingly

parallel command Run a command in parallel. This is used to operate on multiple inputs, similarly to xargs

zenity Display GTK+ graphical dialogs for user messages and input

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 50/155 Tests
Tests
test $MYVAR = "value" && command
[ $MYVAR = "value" ] && command Perform a test; if it holds true, command is executed
if [ $MYVAR = "value" ]; then command; fi

Test operators
Integer operators File operators Expression operators
-eq Equal to -e or -a Exists -a Logical AND
-ne Not equal to -d Is a directory -o Logical OR
-lt Less than -b Is a block special file ! Logical NOT
-le Less than or equal to -c Is a character special file \( \) Priority
-gt Greater than -f Is a regular file
-ge Greater than or equal to -r Is readable
String operators -w Is writable
-z Is zero length -x Is executable
-n or nothing Is non-zero length -s Is non-zero length
= or == Is equal to -u Is SUID
!= Is not equal to -g Is SGID
< Is alphabetically before -k Is sticky
> Is alphabetically after -h Is a symbolic link

expr $MYVAR = "39 + 3"

MYVAR=$((39 + 3)) Evaluate an expression (in this case, assigns the value 42 to the variable)

expr string : regex Return the length of the substring matching the regex
expr string : \(regex\) Return the substring matching the regex

Evaluation operators
= Equal to + Plus string : regex
match string regex String matches regex
!= Not equal to - Minus
< Less than \* Multiplied by substr string pos length Substring
<= Less than or equal to / Divided by index string chars Index of any chars in string
> Greater than % Remainder length string String length
>= Greater than or equal to

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 51/155 Flow control
Flow control

Tests
if [test 1] case $VAR in
then pattern1)
[command block 1] command1
elif [test 2] command1bis
then ;;
[command block 2] pattern2)
else command2
[command block 3] ;;
fi *)
command3
;;
esac

Loops
while [test] until [test] for I in [list]
do [command block] do [command block] do [command block]
done done done

The command block executes The command block executes The command block executes
as long as test is true as long as test is false for each I in list
i=0 i=0 for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
while [ $i -le 7 ] until [ $i -gt 7 ] do
do do echo $i
echo $i echo $i done
let i++ let i++
done done for i in {0..7}
do
echo $i
done
start=0
end=7
for i in $(seq $start $end)
do
echo $i
done
start=0
end=7
for ((i = start; i <= end; i++))
do
echo $i
done
break Exit a loop
continue Jump to the next iteration

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 52/155 Text processors
Text processors
vi Vi, text editor
vim Vi Improved, an advanced text editor
gvim Vim with GUI

vimdiff file1 file2 Compare two text files

pico Pico, simple text editor

nano Nano, simple text editor (a GNU clone of Pico)

emacs GNU Emacs, a GUI text editor

gedit GUI text editor

ed Line-oriented text editor

more Text pager (obsolete)

less Text pager

strings file Show all printable character sequences at least 4-character long that are inside a file

antiword docfile Show text and images from a MS Word document

catdoc docfile Output plaintext from a MS Word document

less pager commands

h Help

g Go to first line in the file

G Go to last line in the file
F Go to the end of the file, and move forward automatically as the file grows
CTRL C Stop moving forward

-N Show line numbers

-n Don't show line numbers
= Show information about the file
CTRL G Show current and total line number, byte, and percentage of the file read

q Quit

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 53/155 Vi commands
Vi commands
ESC Go to Command mode
i Insert text before cursor
I Insert text after line
and go to Insert mode
a Append text after cursor
A Append text after line
v Go to Visual mode, character-wise
then use the arrow keys to select a block of text
V Go to Visual mode, line-wise
d Delete selected block gu Switch block to lowercase
y Copy (yank) selected block into buffer gU Switch block to uppercase
w Move to next word $ Move to end of line
b Move to beginning of word 1G Move to line 1 i.e. beginning of file
e Move to end of word G Move to end of file
0 Move to beginning of line z RETURN Make current line the top line of the screen
CTRL G Show current line and column number
ma Mark position "a". Marks a-z are local to current file, while marks A-Z are global to a specific file
'a Go to mark "a". If using a global mark, it also opens the specific file
y'a Copy (yank) from mark "a" to current line, into the buffer
d'a Delete from mark "a" to current line
p Paste buffer after current line yy Copy current line
P Paste buffer before current line yyp Duplicate current line
x Delete current character D Delete from current character to end of line
X Delete before current character dd Delete current line
7dd Delete 7 lines. Almost any command can be prepended by a number to repeat it a number of times
u Undo last command. Vi can undo the last command only, Vim is able to undo several commands
. Repeat last text-changing command
/string Search for string forward n Search for next match of string
?string Search for string backwards N Search for previous match of string
:s/s1/s2/ Replace the first occurrence of s1 with s2 in the current line
:s/s1/s2/g Replace globally every occurrence of s1 with s2 in the current line
:%s/s1/s2/g Replace globally every occurrence of s1 with s2 in the whole file
:%s/s1/s2/gc Replace globally every occurrence of s1 with s2 in the whole file, asking for confirmation
:5,40s/^/#/ Add a hash character at the beginning of each line, from line 5 to 40
!!program Replace line with output from program
:r file Read file and insert it after current line
:X Encrypt current document. Vi will automatically prompt for the password to encrypt and decrypt
:w file Write to file
:wq Save changes and quit
:x
ZZ
:q Quit (fails if there are unsaved changes) :q! Abandon all changes and quit

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 54/155 Vi options
Vi options

Option Effect
ai Turn on auto indentation
all Display all options
ap Print a line after the commands d c J m :s t u
aw Automatic write on commands :n ! e# ^^ :rew ^} :tag
bf Discard control characters from input
dir=tmpdir Set tmpdir as directory for temporary files
eb Precede error messages with a bell
ht=8 Set terminal tab as 8 spaces
ic Ignore case when searching
lisp Modify brackets for Lisp compatibility
list Show tabs and EOL characters
set listchars=tab:>- Show tab as > for the first char and as - for the following chars
magic Allow pattern matching with special characters
mesg Enable UNIX terminal messaging
nu Show line numbers
opt Speed up output by eliminating automatic Return
para=LIlPLPPPQPbpP Set macro to start paragraphs for { } operators
prompt Prompt : for command input
re Simulate smart terminal on dumb terminal
remap Accept macros within macros
report Show largest size of changes on status line
ro Make file readonly
scroll=12 Set screen size as 12 lines
sh=/bin/bash Set shell escape to /bin/bash
showmode Show current mode on status line
slow Postpone display updates during inserts
sm Show matching parentheses when typing
sw=8 Set shift width to 8 characters
tags=/usr/lib/tags Set path for files checked for tags
term Print terminal type
terse Print terse messages
timeout Eliminate 1-second time limit for macros
tl=3 Set significance of tags beyond 3 characters (0 = all)
ts=8 Set tab stops to 8 for text input
wa Inhibit normal checks before write commands
warn Warn "No write since last change"
window=24 Set text window as 24 lines
wm=0 Set automatic wraparound 0 spaces from right margin
:set option turn on an option
:set nooption turn off an option
Options can also be permanently set by including them in ~/.exrc

vi -R file Open file in read-only mode

cat file | vi - Open file in read-only mode (this is done by having Vi read from stdin)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 55/155 SQL
SQL
SHOW DATABASES; Show all existing databases
SHOW TABLES; Show all tables from the selected database
USE CompanyDatabase; Choose which database to use
SELECT DATABASE(); Show which database is currently selected

CREATE TABLE customers ( Create tables

cusid INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
firstname VARCHAR(32), lastname VARCHAR(32), dob DATE,
city VARCHAR(24), zipcode VARCHAR(5));

CREATE TABLE payments (

payid INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
date DATE, fee INT, bill VARCHAR(128), cusid INT,
CONSTRAINT FK1 FOREIGN KEY (cusid) REFERENCES customers(cusid));

CREATE INDEX lastname_index ON customers(lastname); Create an index for faster searches

ALTER TABLE customers ADD INDEX lastname_index (lastname);
DESCRIBE customers; Describe the columns of a table
SHOW CREATE TABLE customers; Show the code used to create a table
DROP TABLE customers; Delete a table
DROP DATABASE CompanyDatabase; Delete a database
ALTER TABLE customers MODIFY city VARCHAR(32); Modify the type of a column

INSERT INTO customers (firstname,lastname,dob) Insert a new record in a table

VALUES ('Arthur','Dent',1959-08-01), ('Trillian','',1971-03-19);
DELETE FROM customers WHERE firstname LIKE 'Zaphod'; Delete some records in a table
UPDATE customers SET city = 'London' WHERE zipcode = '00789'; Modify records in a table

CREATE VIEW cust_view AS Create a view

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE city != 'London';

COMMIT; Commit changes to the database

ROLLBACK; Rollback the current transaction, canceling
any changes done during it
START TRANSACTION; Disable autocommit for this transaction,
BEGIN; until a COMMIT or ROLLBACK is issued

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 56/155 SQL SELECTs
SQL SELECTs
SELECT * FROM customers; Select all columns from the
customers table
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers LIMIT 5; Select first and last name of
customers, showing 5 records only
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE zipcode = '00123'; Select first and last name of
customers whose zip code is 00123
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE zipcode IS NOT NULL; Select first and last name of
customers with a recorded zip code
SELECT * FROM customers ORDER BY lastname, firstname; Select customers in alphabetical
order by last name, then first name
SELECT * FROM customers ORDER by zipcode DESC; Select customers, sorting them by zip
code in reverse order
SELECT firstname, lastname, Select first name, last name, and
TIMESTAMPDIFF(YEAR,dob,CURRENT_DATE) as AGE FROM customers; calculated age of customers
SELECT DISTINCT city FROM customers; Show all cities but retrieving each
unique output record only once
SELECT city, COUNT(*) FROM customers GROUP BY city; Show all cities and the number of
customers in each city. NULL values
are not counted
SELECT cusid, SUM(fee) FROM payments GROUP BY cusid; Show all fee payments grouped by
customer ID, summed up
SELECT cusid, AVG(fee) FROM payments GROUP BY cusid Show the average of fee payments
HAVING AVG(fee)<50; grouped by customer ID, where this
average is less than 50
SELECT MAX(fee) FROM payments; Show the highest fee in the table
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM customers; Show how many rows are in the table

SELECT cusid FROM payments t1 WHERE fee = Show the customer ID that pays the
(SELECT MAX(t2.fee) FROM payments t2 WHERE t1.cusid=t2.cusid); highest fee (via a subquery)
SELECT @maxfee:=MAX(fee) FROM payments; Show the customer ID that pays the
SELECT cusid FROM payments t1 WHERE fee = @maxfee; highest fee (via a user set variable)

SELECT cusid FROM payments WHERE fee > Show the customer IDs that pay fees
ALL (SELECT fee FROM payments WHERE cusid = 4242001; higher than the highest fee paid by
customer ID 4242001

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE firstname LIKE 'Trill%'; Select customers whose first name
starts with "Trill"
SELECT * FROM customers WHERE firstname LIKE 'F_rd'; Select matching customers;
the _ matches a single character
SELECT * FROM customers WHERE firstname REGEXP '^Art.*r$'; Select customers whose first name
matches the regex

SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE zipcode = '00123' Select customers that satisfy any of
UNION the two requirements
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE cusid > 4242001;
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE zipcode = '00123' Select customers that satisfy both of
INTERSECT the two requirements
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE cusid > 4242001;
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE zipcode = '00123' Select customers that satisfy the first
EXCEPT requirement but not the second
SELECT firstname, lastname FROM customers WHERE cusid > 4242001;

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 57/155 SQL JOINs
SQL JOINs

SQL MySQL Operation

SELECT customers.name, payments.bill SELECT customers.name, payments.bill Perform a join (aka inner
FROM customers, payments FROM customers join) of two tables to select
WHERE customers.cusid = payments.cusid; [ JOIN | INNER JOIN | CROSS JOIN ] data that are in a relationship
payments
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill ON customers.cusid = payments.cusid;
FROM customers NATURAL JOIN payments;
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill FROM customers
FROM customers JOIN payments [ JOIN | INNER JOIN | CROSS JOIN ]
USING (cusid); payments
USING (cusid);
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill
FROM customers JOIN payments
ON customers.cusid = payments.cusid;
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill SELECT customers.name, payments.bill Perform a Cartesian product
FROM customers CROSS JOIN payments; FROM customers JOIN payments; (aka cross join) of two tables
(ON clause is missing)
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill Perform a left join (aka left
FROM customers LEFT JOIN payments outer join) of two tables,
ON customers.cusid = payments.cusid; returning records matching the
join condition and also records
in the left table with
unmatched values in the right
table
SELECT customers.name, payments.bill Perform a right join (aka
FROM customers RIGHT JOIN payments right outer join) of two
ON customers.cusid = payments.cusid; tables, returning records
matching the join condition
and also records in the right
table with unmatched values in
the left table

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 58/155 MySQL
MySQL

MySQL is the most used open source RDBMS (Relational Database Management System). It runs on TCP port 3306.

mysqld_safe Start the MySQL server (mysqld) with safety features

such as restarting the server if errors occur and logging
runtime information to the error logfile. Recommended

mysql_install_db (deprecated) Initialize the MySQL data directory, create system

mysqld --initialize tables, and set up an administrative account.
To be run after installing the MySQL server

mysql_secure_installation Set password for root, remove anonymous users, disable

remote root login, and remove test database.
To be run after installing the MySQL server

mysql -u root -p Login to MySQL as root and prompt for the password
mysql -u root -ppassword Login to MySQL as root with the specified password
mysql -u root -p -h host -P port Login to the specified remote MySQL server and port
mysql -u root -p -eNB'SHOW DATABASES' Run a SQL command via MySQL. Flags are:
e Run in batch mode
N Do not print table header
B Do not print table decoration characters +-|

mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > alldbs.sql Backup all databases to a dump file
mysqldump -u root -p MyDatabase > mydb.sql Backup a database to a dump file
mysqldump -u root -p --databases MyDb1 MyDb2 > dbs.sql Backup several databases to a dump file
mysqldump -u root -p MyDatabase t1 t2 > tables.sql Backup some tables of a database to a dump file
mysql -u root -p < alldbsbak.sql Restore all databases from a dump file (which contains a
complete dump of a MySQL server)
mysql -u root -p MyDatabase < mydbbak.sql Restore a specific database from a dump file (which
contains one database)

mysql_upgrade -u root -p Check all tables in all databases for incompatibilities with
the current version of MySQL

mysqlcheck options Perform table maintenance. Each table is locked while is

being processed. Options are:
--check Check table for errors (default)
--analyze Analyze table
--optimize Optimize table
--repair Repair table; can fix almost all problems
except unique keys that are not unique
mysqlcheck --check db table Check the specified table of the specified database
mysqlcheck --check --databases db1 db2 Check the specified databases
mysqlcheck --check --all-databases Check all databases

mysqltuner.pl Review the current MySQL installation configuration for

performances and stability
mysqlreport (obsolete) Generate a user-friendly report of MySQL status values
mytop Monitor MySQL processes and queries
innotop Monitor MySQL InnoDB transactions

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 59/155 MySQL syntax
MySQL syntax
SELECT Host, User FROM mysql.user; List all MySQL users
CREATE USER 'john'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'p4ssw0rd'; Create a MySQL user and set his
password
DROP USER 'john'@'localhost'; Delete a MySQL user
SET PASSWORD FOR 'john'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('p4ssw0rd'); Set a password for a MySQL user.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'john'@'localhost' = '*7E684A3DF6273CD1B6DE53'; The password can be specified either in
plaintext or by its hash value
SHOW GRANTS FOR 'john'@'localhost'; Show permissions for a user
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON MyDatabase.* TO 'john'@'localhost'; Grant permissions to a user
REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON MyDatabase.* FROM 'john'@'localhost'; Revoke permissions from a user; must
match the granted permission on the
same database or table
GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO 'john'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'p4ssw0rd'; Create a MySQL user and set his grants
GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO 'john'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD
'*7E684A3DF6273CD1B6DE53';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; Reload and commit the grant tables; to be
used after any GRANT command

SELECT * INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/mytable.csv' Export a table to a CSV file

FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' FROM MyDatabase.mytable;

USE MyDatabase; SOURCE mydbbak.sql; Restore a database from a dump file

USE MyDatabase; LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'foofile' INTO TABLE foo; Populate a table with data from file (one
record per line, values separated by tabs)

statement; Send a SQL statement to the server

statement\g
statement\G Display result in vertical format, showing
each record in multiple rows
SELECT /*!99999 comment*/ * FROM MyDatabase.mytable; Insert a comment
SELECT /*!n statement*/ * FROM MyDatabase.mytable; The commented statement is executed
only if MySQL is version n or higher
\c Cancel current input

\! command Run a shell command

TEE logfile Log all I/O of the current MySQL session

to the specified logfile

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 60/155 MySQL status
MySQL status
SHOW VARIABLES; Print session variables (affecting the current connection only)
SHOW SESSION VARIABLES;
SHOW LOCAL VARIABLES;
SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES; Print global variables (affecting the global operations on the server)

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%query%'; Print session variables that match the given pattern
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'hostname'; Print a session variable with the given name
SELECT @@hostname;

SET sort_buffer_size=10000; Set a session variable

SET @@sort_buffer_size=10000;
SET SESSION sort_buffer_size=10000;
SET LOCAL sort_buffer_size=10000;
SET @@session.sort_buffer_size=10000;
SET @@local.sort_buffer_size=10000;
SET GLOBAL sort_buffer_size=10000; Set a global variable
SET @@global.sort_buffer_size=10000;

SHOW STATUS; Print session status (concerning the current connection only)
SHOW SESSION STATUS;
SHOW LOCAL STATUS;
SHOW GLOBAL STATUS; Print global status (concerning the global operations on the server)

SHOW STATUS LIKE '%wsrep%'; Print session status values that match the given pattern

SHOW WARNINGS; Print warnings, errors and notes resulting from the most recent
statement in the current session that generated messages
SHOW ERRORS; Print errors resulting from the most recent statement in the current
session that generated messages

SHOW TABLE STATUS; Print information about all tables of the currently selected database
e.g. engine (InnoDB or MyISAM), rows, indexes, data length
SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS; Print statistics concerning the InnoDB engine
SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST; Print the list of threads running on the system

SHOW CREATE TABLE table; Print the CREATE statement that created the specified table or view
SHOW CREATE VIEW view;

SELECT VERSION(); Print the version of the MySQL server

SELECT CURDATE(); Print the current date

SELECT CURRENT_DATE;
SELECT CURTIME(); Print the current time
SELECT CURRENT_TIME;
SELECT NOW(); Print the current date and time

SELECT USER(); Print the current user@hostname that is logged in

\s Print status information about server and current connection

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 61/155 MySQL recipes
MySQL recipes
SELECT table_schema "Name", Display the sizes of all databases in the
SUM(data_length+index_length)/1024/1024 "Size in Mb" system (counting data + indexes)
FROM information_schema.tables GROUP BY table_schema;

SELECT table_schema "Name", Display the size of database

SUM(data_length+index_length)/1024/1024 "Size in Mb"
FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='database';

SELECT table_name "Name", Display data and index size of all tables of
ROUND(((data_length)/1024/1024),2) "Data size in Mb", database
ROUND(((index_length)/1024/1024),2) "Index size in Mb"
FROM information_schema.TABLES WHERE table_schema='database'
ORDER BY table_name;

SELECT table_name, table_rows Print an estimate of the number of rows of

FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema = 'database'; each table of database

SELECT SUM(data_length+index_length)/1024/1024 "InnoDB in Mb" Display the amount of InnoDB data in all
FROM information_schema.tables WHERE engine='InnoDB'; databases

SELECT table_name, engine FROM information_schema.tables Print name and engine of all tables in
WHERE table_schema = 'database'; database

SELECT CONCAT('KILL ',id,';') Kill all connections belonging to user

FROM information_schema.processlist WHERE user='user'
INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/killuser'; SOURCE /tmp/killuser;

SELECT COUNT(1) SlaveThreadCount Distinguish between master and slave server;

FROM information_schema.processlist WHERE user='system user'; returns 0 on a master, >0 on a slave

SELECT ROUND(SUM(LENGTH(field)<40)*100/COUNT(*),2) Display the percentage of rows on which the

FROM table; VARCHAR field is shorter than 40 chars

SHOW FULL TABLES IN database WHERE TABLE_TYPE LIKE 'VIEW'; Display the list of views in database

SELECT 'table1' AS `set`, t1.* FROM table1 t1 Display the differences between the contents
WHERE of two tables (assuming they're composed of
ROW(t1.col1, t1.col2, t1.col3) NOT IN (SELECT * FROM table2) 3 columns each)
UNION ALL
SELECT 'table2' AS `set`, t2.* FROM table2 t2
WHERE
ROW(t2.col1, t2.col2, t1.col3) NOT IN (SELECT * FROM table1)

dbs="$(mysql -uroot -ppassword -Bse'SHOW DATABASES;')" Perform an operation on each database name
for db in $dbs
do
[operation on $db]
done

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 62/155 MySQL operations
MySQL operations

How to resync a master-slave replication

1. On the master, on terminal 1: mysql -uroot -p
RESET MASTER;
FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK;
SHOW MASTER STATUS;
Note the values of MASTER_LOG_FILE and MASTER_LOG_POS; these values will need
to be copied on the slave
2. On the master, on terminal 2: mysqldump -uroot -p --all-databases > /root/dump.sql

3. On the master, on terminal 1: UNLOCK TABLES;

4. Transfer the dump file from the master to the slave

5. On the slave: mysql -uroot -p
STOP SLAVE;
SOURCE /root/dump.sql;
RESET SLAVE;
CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_LOG_FILE='mysql-bin.nnnnnn', MASTER_LOG_POS=mm;
START SLAVE;
SHOW SLAVE STATUS;

How to recover the MySQL root password

1. Stop the MySQL server
2. Restart the MySQL server mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking &
skipping the grant tables:
3. Connect to the MySQL server mysql -uroot
passwordlessly:
4. Reload the grant tables: FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

5. Change the root password: SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('s3cr3t');

6. Stop the MySQL server and restart it normally

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 63/155 X Window
X Window

Display Managers
Display Manager Configuration files Display Manager greeting screen

/etc/x11/xdm/Xaccess Control inbound requests from

remote hosts

/etc/x11/xdm/Xresources Configuration settings for X

applications and the login screen
Association of X displays with
X /etc/x11/xdm/Xservers local X server software, or with X Defined in /etc/x11/xdm/Xresources
terminals via XDMCP by the line:
xdm Display
xlogin*greeting: \
Manager Script launched by xdm after
/etc/x11/xdm/Xsession Debian GNU/Linux (CLIENTHOST)
login

/etc/x11/xdm/Xsetup_0 Script launched before the

graphical login screen

/etc/x11/xdm/xdm-config Association of all xdm

configuration files
GNOME
gdm Display /etc/gdm/gdm.conf or /etc/gdm/custom.conf Configured via gdmsetup
Manager
KDE
kdm Display /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc Configured via kdm_config
Manager

/etc/init.d/xdm start Start the X Display Manager

/etc/init.d/gdm start
/etc/init.d/kdm start

xorgconfig (Debian) Configure X (text mode)

Xorg -configure (Red Hat)

xorgcfg (Debian) Configure X (graphical mode)

system-config-display (Red Hat)
X -version Show which version of X is running
xdpyinfo Display information about the X server
xwininfo Display information about windows
xhost + 10.3.3.3 Add or remove 10.3.3.3 to the list of hosts allowed to make X connections to
xhost - 10.3.3.3 the local machine
switchdesk gde Switch to the GDE Display Manager at runtime

gnome-shell --version Show which version of GNOME is running

/etc/X11/xorg.conf Configuration file for X

~/.Xresources Configuration settings for X applications, in the form
program*resource: value
$DISPLAY Environment variable defining the display name of the X server, in the form
hostname:displaynumber.screennumber

/etc/inittab Instruct init to launch XDM at runlevel 5:

x:5:respawn:/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon
/etc/sysconfig/desktop Define GNOME as the default Display Environment and Display Manager:
desktop="gde"
displaymanager="gdm"

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 64/155 X Window tools
X Window tools
xdotool X automation tool
xdotool getwindowfocus Get the ID of the currently focused window (usually the terminal where
this command is typed)
xdotool selectwindow Pop up an X cursor and get the ID of the window selected by it
xdotool key --window 12345678 Return Simulate a Return keystroke inside window ID 12345678

xprop X property displayer

xrandr Show screen(s) size and resolution

xrandr -q
xrandr --output eDP1 --right-of VGA1 Extend the screen on an additional VGA physical screen situated to the left

xsel Manipulate the X selection (primary, secondary, and clipboard)

xsel -b < file Put the contents of a file in the X clipboard
xsel -b -a < file Append the contents of a file to the X clipboard
xsel -b -o Output onscreen the contents of the X clipboard

mkfontdir Catalog the newly installed fonts in the new directory

xset fp+ /usr/local/fonts Dynamically add new installed fonts in /usr/local/fonts to the X server
xfs Start the X font server
fc-cache Install fonts and build font information cache

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 65/155 X11 keysim codes
X11 keysim codes

Main Latin 1 Latin 2

BackSpace ff08 space 0020 questiondown 00bf Aogonek 01a1
Tab ff09 exclam 0021 Agrave 00c0 breve 01a2
Linefeed ff0a quotedbl 0022 Aacute 00c1 Lstroke 01a3
Clear ff0b numbersign 0023 Acircumflex 00c2 Lcaron 01a5
Return ff0d dollar 0024 Atilde 00c3 Sacute 01a6
Pause ff13 percent 0025 Adiaeresis 00c4 Scaron 01a9
Scroll_Lock ff14 ampersand 0026 Aring 00c5 Scedilla 01aa
Sys_Req ff15 apostrophe 0027 AE 00c6 Tcaron 01ab
Escape ff1b quoteright 0027 Ccedilla 00c7 Zacute 01ac
Delete ffff parenleft 0028 Egrave 00c8 Zcaron 01ae
parenright 0029 Eacute 00c9 Zabovedot 01af
Cursor control asterisk 002a Ecircumflex 00ca aogonek 01b1
Home ff50 plus 002b Ediaeresis 00cb ogonek 01b2
Left ff51 comma 002c Igrave 00cc lstroke 01b3
Up ff52 minus 002d Iacute 00cd lcaron 01b5
Right ff53 period 002e Icircumflex 00ce sacute 01b6
Down ff54 slash 002f Idiaeresis 00cf caron 01b7
Prior ff55 0 - 9 0030 - 0039 ETH 00d0 scaron 01b9
Page_Up ff55 colon 003a Eth 00d0 scedilla 01ba
Next ff56 semicolon 003b Ntilde 00d1 tcaron 01bb
Page_Down ff56 less 003c Ograve 00d2 zacute 01bc
End ff57 equal 003d Oacute 00d3 doubleacute 01bd
Begin ff58 greater 003e Ocircumflex 00d4 zcaron 01be
question 003f Otilde 00d5 zabovedot 01bf
Misc functions at 0040 Odiaeresis 00d6 Racute 01c0
A - Z 0041 - 005a multiply 00d7 Abreve 01c3
Select ff60 bracketleft 005b Oslash 00d8 Lacute 01c5
Print ff61 backslash 005c Ooblique 00d8 Cacute 01c6
Execute ff62 bracketright 005d Ugrave 00d9 Ccaron 01c8
Insert ff63 asciicircum 005e Uacute 00da Eogonek 01ca
Undo ff65 underscore 005f Ucircumflex 00db Ecaron 01cc
Redo ff66 grave 0060 Udiaeresis 00dc Dcaron 01cf
Menu ff67 quoteleft 0060 Yacute 00dd Dstroke 01d0
Find ff68 a - z 0061 - 007a THORN 00de Nacute 01d1
Cancel ff69 braceleft 007b Thorn 00de Ncaron 01d2
Help ff6a bar 007c ssharp 00df Odoubleacute 01d5
Break ff6b braceright 007d agrave 00e0 Rcaron 01d8
Mode_switch ff7e asciitilde 007e aacute 00e1 Uring 01d9
script_switch ff7e nobreakspace 00a0 acircumflex 00e2 Udoubleacute 01db
Num_Lock ff7f exclamdown 00a1 atilde 00e3 Tcedilla 01de
Modifiers cent 00a2 adiaeresis 00e4 racute 01e0
sterling 00a3 aring 00e5 abreve 01e3
Shift_L ffe1 currency 00a4 ae 00e6 lacute 01e5
Shift_R ffe2 yen 00a5 ccedilla 00e7 cacute 01e6
Control_L ffe3 brokenbar 00a6 egrave 00e8 ccaron 01e8
Control_R ffe4 section 00a7 eacute 00e9 eogonek 01ea
Caps_Lock ffe5 diaeresis 00a8 ecircumflex 00ea ecaron 01ec
Shift_Lock ffe6 copyright 00a9 ediaeresis 00eb dcaron 01ef
Meta_L ffe7 ordfeminine 00aa igrave 00ec dstroke 01f0
Meta_R ffe8 guillemotleft 00ab iacute 00ed nacute 01f1
Alt_L ffe9 notsign 00ac icircumflex 00ee ncaron 01f2
Alt_R ffea hyphen 00ad idiaeresis 00ef odoubleacute 01f5
Super_L ffeb registered 00ae eth 00f0 rcaron 01f8
Super_R ffec macron 00af ntilde 00f1 uring 01f9
Hyper_L ffed degree 00b0 ograve 00f2 udoubleacute 01fb
Hyper_R ffee plusminus 00b1 oacute 00f3 tcedilla 01fe
twosuperior 00b2 ocircumflex 00f4 abovedot 01ff
threesuperior 00b3 otilde 00f5
acute 00b4 odiaeresis 00f6
mu 00b5 division 00f7
paragraph 00b6 oslash 00f8
periodcentered 00b7 ooblique 00f8
cedilla 00b8 ugrave 00f9
onesuperior 00b9 uacute 00fa
masculine 00ba ucircumflex 00fb
guillemotright 00bb udiaeresis 00fc
onequarter 00bc yacute 00fd
onehalf 00bd thorn 00fe
threequarters 00be ydiaeresis 00ff

This is an excerpt of keysymdef.h which defines keysym codes (i.e. characters or functions associated with each key in X11)
as XK_key and the key hex value. These keys can be used as argument for the xdotool key command.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 66/155 /etc/passwd
/etc/passwd

/etc/passwd User accounts

root:x:0:0:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:/bin:/bin/bash
jdoe:x:500:100:John Doe,,555-1234,,:/home/jdoe:/bin/bash
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 Login name
2 Hashed password (obsolete), or x if password is in /etc/shadow

3 UID – User ID
4 GID – Default Group ID
5 GECOS field – Information about the user: Full name, Room number, Work phone, Home phone, Other
6 Home directory of the user
7 Login shell (if set to /bin/false, user will be unable to log in)

/etc/shadow User passwords

root:$6$qk8JmJHf$X9GfOZ/i9LZP4Kldu6.D3cx2pXA:15537:0:99999:7:::
bin:*:15637:0:99999:7:::
jdoe:!$6$YOiH1otQ$KxeeUKHExK8e3jCUdw9Rxy3Wu53:15580:0:99999:7::15766:
1 2 a b c 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 Login name
2 Hashed password (* if account is disabled, ! or !! if no password is set, prefixed by ! if the account is locked).
Composed of the following subfields separated by $:
a Hashing algorithm: 1 = MD5, 2a = Blowfish, 5 = SHA256, 6 = SHA512 (recommended)
b Random salt, up to 16 chars long. This is to thwart password cracking attempts based on rainbow tables
c String obtained by hashing the user's plaintext password concatenated to the stored salt
3 Date of last password change (in number of days since 1 January 1970)
4 Days before password may be changed; if 0, user can change the password at any time
5 Days after which password must be changed
6 Days before password expiration that user is warned
7 Days after password expiration that account is disabled
8 Date of account disabling (in number of days since 1 January 1970)
9 Reserved field

/etc/group Group accounts

root:x:0:root 1 Group name

jdoe:x:501 2 Encrypted password, or x if password is in /etc/gshadow
staff:x:530:jdoe,asmith 3 GID – Group ID
1 2 3 4
4 Group members (if this is not their Default Group)

/etc/gshadow Group passwords

root::root:root 1 Group name

jdoe:!:: 2 Encrypted password, or ! if no password set (default)
staff:0cfz7IpLhW19i::root,jdoe 3 Group administrators
1 2 3 4
4 Group members

/etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow are mode 000 and therefore readable only by the root user.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 67/155 User management
User management
useradd -m jdoe Create a user account, creating and populating his homedir from /etc/skel
useradd -mc "John Doe" jdoe Create a user account, specifying his full name
useradd -ms /bin/ksh jdoe Create a user account, specifying his login shell
useradd -D Show default values for user account creation, as specified in /etc/login.defs and
/etc/default/useradd

usermod -c "Jonas Doe" jdoe Modify the GECOS field of a user account
usermod -L jdoe Lock a user account
usermod -U jdoe Unlock a user account
Many options for usermod are the same as useradd options.

userdel -r jdoe Delete a user and his homedir

chfn jdoe Change the GECOS field of a user

chsh jdoe Change the login shell of a user

passwd jdoe Change the password of a user

passwd -l jdoe Lock a user account
passwd -S jdoe Show information about a user account: username, account status (L=locked,
P=password, NP=no password), date of last password change, min age, max age,
warning period, inactivity period in days

chage -E 2013-02-14 jdoe Change the password expiration date; account will be locked at that date
chage -d 13111 jdoe Change the date (in number of days since 1 January 1970) of last password change
chage -d 0 jdoe Force the user to change password at his next login
chage -M 30 jdoe Change the max number of days during which a password is valid
chage -m 7 jdoe Change the min number of days between password changes
chage -W 15 jdoe Change the number of days before password expiration that the user will be warned
chage -I 3 jdoe Change the number of days after password expiration before the account is locked
chage -l jdoe List password aging information for a user

groupadd staff Create a group

groupmod -n newstaff staff Change a group name
groupdel staff Delete a group
gpasswd staff Set or change the password of a group
gpasswd -a jdoe staff Add a user to a group
gpasswd -d jdoe staff Delete a user from a group
gpasswd -A jdoe staff Add a user to the list of administrators of the group

adduser
deluser
addgroup (Debian) User-friendly front-end commands for user and group management
delgroup

system-config-users (Red Hat) GUI for user and group management

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 68/155 UID and GID
UID and GID

UID 0 is assigned to the superuser.

UIDs from 0 to 99 should* be reserved for static allocation by the system and not be created by applications.
UIDs from 100 to 499 should* be reserved for dynamic allocation by the superuser and post-install scripts.
UIDs for user accounts start from 500 (Red Hat) or 1000 (SUSE, Debian).

*
as recommended by the Linux Standard Base core specifications

A process has an effective, saved, and real UID and GID:

Effective UID Used for most access checks, and as the owner for files created by the process. An unprivileged process
can change its effective UID only to either its saved UID or its real UID.
Saved UID Used when a process running with elevated privileges needs to temporarily lower its privileges. The
process changes its effective UID (usually root) to an unprivileged one, and its privileged effective UID is
copied to the saved UID. Later, the process can resume its elevated privileges by resetting its effective
UID back to the saved UID.
Real UID Used to identify the real owner of the process and affect the permissions for sending signals. An
unprivileged process can signal another process only if the sender’s real or effective UID matches the
receiver's real or saved UID. Child processes inherit the credentials from the parent, so they can signal
each other.

/etc/nologin If this file exists, login and sshd deny login to the system.
Useful to prevent users to log in when doing system maintenance

/etc/login.defs Definition of default values (UID and GID ranges, mail directory, account validity,
password encryption method, and so on) for user account creation

whoami Print your username (as effective UID)

id Print your real and effective UID and GID, and the groups you are a member of
id -u Print your effective UID
id user Print UID, GID, and groups information about a user

who Print the list of users logged into the system

w Print the list of users logged into the system, and what they are doing

last Print the list of users that logged in and out. Searches through the file /var/log/wtmp
lastb Print the list of bad login attempts. Searches through the file /var/log/btmp

fail2ban Scan authentication logs and temporarily ban IP addresses (via firewall rules) that have
too many failed password logins

/var/log/auth.log Logfile containing user logins and authentication mechanisms

/var/log/pwdfail Logfile containing failed authentication attempts

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 69/155 su and sudo
su and sudo
runuser -u jdoe command Run a command as user jdoe. Can be launched only by the superuser

su jdoe Run a shell as user jdoe

su Run a shell as root
su root
su -c "fdisk -l" Pass a single command to the shell
su - Ensure that the spawned shell is a login shell, hence running login scripts and setting
su -l the correct environment variables. Recommended option

sudo -ujdoe command Run a command as user jdoe

sudo command Run a command as root
sudo -uroot command
sudo -l List the allowed commands for the current user
sudo !! Run again the last command, but this time as root
sudoedit /etc/passwd Edit a protected file. It is recommended to use this instead of allowing users to sudo
sudo -e /etc/passwd text editors as root, which will cause security problems if the editor spawns a shell
visudo Edit /etc/sudoers, the configuration file that specifies access rights to sudo

Sudo commands are logged via syslog on /var/log/auth.log (Debian) or /var/log/secure (Red Hat).

sudo su - Login on an interactive shell as the superuser

sudo -i

gksu -u root -l GUI front-ends to su and sudo used to run an X Window command as root. Will pop up
gksudo -u root guicommand a requester prompting the user for root's password

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 70/155 Terminals
Terminals
chvt n Make /dev/ttyn the foreground terminal
CTRL ALT Fn

vlock Lock the virtual console (terminal)

away

tty Print your terminal device (e.g. /dev/tty1, /dev/pts/1)

echo $(tty)

stty Change or display terminal line settings

stty -ixon Disable XON/XOFF flow control

screen Screen manager that multiplexes a single virtual VT100/ANSI terminal

between multiple processes or shells.
When the connection to a terminal is lost (e.g. because the terminal is closed
manually or because of timeout during a remote SSH session), the processes
running in it are terminated. The screen command starts an interactive shell
screen session, to which you will be able to reattach later
screen -S sessionname Start a screen session with the specified session name
screen command Start the specified command in a screen session; session will end when the
command exits
screen -list Show the list of detached screen sessions
screen -r pid.tty.host Resume a detached screen session
screen -r sessionowner/pid.tty.host
screen -R Resume the last detached screen session
screen -d -R sessionname Detach a remote screen session and reattach your current terminal to it
CTRL A Send a command to the window manager:
0 ... 9 Switch between screen sessions
c Create a new screen session
? Show help

How to detach an already-running job that was not started in a screen session

1. CTRL Z Suspend the job

2. bg Send the job to background
3. jobs Show the number of the backgrounded job; let's assume it's n
4. disown -h %n Detach job n from its parent shell
or
1. screen Start a screen session
2. reptyr pid Attach the job with process ID pid to the current terminal (screen session)
Now the terminal can be closed without killing the job.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 71/155 Messaging
Messaging
write jdoe Write interactively a message to the terminal of user jdoe (must be logged in)
wall Write interactively a message to the terminal of all logged in users
echo "Hello" | write jdoe Write a message to the terminal of user jdoe (must be logged in)
echo "Hello" | wall Write a message to the terminal of all logged in users
talk jdoe Open an interactive chat session with user jdoe (must be logged in)

mesg y Allow the other users to message you via write, wall, and talk
chmod g+w $(tty)
mesg n Disallow the other users to message you via write, wall, and talk
chmod g-w $(tty)
mesg Display your current message permission status
mesg works by enabling/disabling the group write permission of your terminal device, which is owned by system group tty.
The root user is always able to message users.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 72/155 cron
cron

cron is used for repeated scheduled execution of commands.

If /etc/cron.allow exists, only users listed therein can access the service.
If /etc/cron.deny exists, all users except those listed therein can access the service.
If none of these files exist, all users can access the service.

It is not necessary to restart crond after the modification of a crontab file, as the changes will be reloaded automatically.

crontab -e Edit your user crontab file

crontab -l List the contents of your crontab file
crontab -e -u jdoe Edit the crontab file of another user (command available only to the superuser)

/etc/crontab System-wide crontab file; this is the list of commands to execute periodically
/etc/cron.d/ Directory containing commands to execute periodically, one command per file
(which must have the same syntax as /etc/crontab)
/etc/cron.hourly/ Scripts placed in these directories will be automatically executed on the
/etc/cron.daily/ specified periods
/etc/cron.weekly/
/etc/cron.monthly/
/var/spool/cron/user Crontab of user

/etc/crontab
# m h dom mon dow user command
25 6 * * 1 root foo.sh every Monday at 6:25 AM
*/5 16 * * * root /opt/myscript.sh from 4:00 to 4:55 PM every 5 minutes everyday
0,30 7 25 12 * jdoe /home/jdoe/bar.sh at 7:00 and 7:30 AM on 25th December
3 17 * * 1-5 root baz.sh at 5:03 PM everyday, from Monday to Friday
m minutes
h hours
dom day of month (1-31)
mon month (1-12 or jan-dec)
dow day of week (0-7 or sun-sat; 0=7=Sunday)
user User as whom the command will be executed
command Command that will be executed at the specified times
The crond daemon checks /etc/crontab every minute and runs the command as the specified user at the specified times.
Each user may also set his own crontab scheduling, which will result in a file /var/spool/cron/user; this user's crontab file
has the same format as the system-wide crontab file, except that the user field is not present.

/etc/anacrontab
# period delay job-identifier command
7 10 cron.weekly /opt/myscript.sh If the job has not been run in the last 7 days,
wait 10 minutes and then execute the command
period period, in days, during which the command was not executed
delay delay to wait, in minutes, before execution of the command
job-identifier job identifier in anacron messages; should be unique for each anacron job
command command that will be executed
Anacron jobs are run by crond, and permit the execution of periodic jobs on a machine that is not always powered on, such
as a laptop.
Only the superuser can schedule anacron jobs, which have a granularity of one day (vs one minute for cron jobs).
The file /var/spool/anacron/job_identifier contains the date of the last execution of the specified anacron job.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 73/155 at
at

at is used for scheduled execution of commands that must run only once.

If /etc/at.allow exists, only users listed therein can access the service.
If /etc/at.deny exists, all users except those listed therein can access the service.
If none of these files exist, no user except root can access the service.

at 5:00pm tomorrow myscript.sh

at -f mylistofcommands.txt 5:00pm tomorrow Execute a command once at the specified time (absolute or relative)
echo "rm file" | at now+2 minutes
at -l
atq List the scheduled jobs

at -d 3
atrm 3 Remove job number 3 from the list

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 74/155 Utilities
Utilities
bc Calculator

cal Calendar

units Converter of quantities between different units

banner Print a message in large letters

figlet

sensors Print sensor chips information (e.g. temperature)

beep Produce a beep from the machine's speakers

speaker-test Speaker test tone generator for the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) framework

on_ac_power Return an exit code of 0 (true) if the machine is currently connected to AC power, 1 if it is
powered by battery (e.g. a laptop)

ipcalc IP addresses calculator

pwgen Password generator

aspell Spell checker

cloc Count lines of source code and comments on a project' files

gnome-terminal GNOME shell terminal (GUI application)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 75/155 Localization
Localization

Locale environment variables

LANG Language, stored in /etc/default/locale .
LANGUAGE When scripting, it is recommended to set LANG=C because this specifies the minimal locale
environment for C translation, and guarantees a standard collation and formats for the execution
of scripts
LC_CTYPE Character classification and case conversion
LC_NUMERIC Non-monetary numeric formats
LC_TIME Date and time formats
LC_COLLATE Alphabetical order
LC_MONETARY Monetary formats
LC_MESSAGES Language and encoding of system messages and user input
LC_PAPER Paper size
LC_NAME Personal name formats
LC_ADDRESS Geographic address formats
LC_TELEPHONE Telephone number formats
LC_MEASUREMENT Measurement units (metric or others)
LC_IDENTIFICATION Metadata about locale
LC_ALL Special variable overriding all others
These locale variables are in the format language_territory.encoding e.g. en_US.UTF-8

The list of supported locales is stored in /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED

locale Show locale environment variables

locale-gen it_IT.UTF-8 Generate a locale by compiling a list of locale definition files

apt-get install manpages-it language-pack-it Install a different locale (system messages and manpages)

iconv -f IS6937 -t IS8859 filein > fileout Convert a text file from a codeset to another

ISO/IEC-8859 is a standard for 8-bit encoding of printable characters.

The first 256 characters in ISO/IEC-8859-1 (Latin-1) are identical to those in Unicode.
UTF-8 encoding can represent every character in the Unicode set, and was designed for backward compatibility with ASCII.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 76/155 System time
System time
date Show current date and time
date -d "9999 days ago" Calculate a date and show it
date -d "1970/01/01 + 4242"
date +"%F %H:%M:%S" Show current date in the format specified
date +"%s" Show current date in Unix time format (seconds elapsed since 00:00:00 1/1/1970)
date -s "20130305 23:30:00" Set the date
date 030523302013 Set the date, in the format MMDDhhmmYYYY

timedatectl Show current date and time

timedatectl set-time 2013-03-05 Set the date
timedatectl set-time 23:30
timedatectl list-timezones List all possible timezones

zdump GMT Show current date and time in the GMT timezone

tzselect Set the timezone

tzconfig
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata (Debian)
timedatectl set-timezone timezone (Red Hat)

/etc/timezone (Debian) Timezone

/etc/localtime (Red Hat) Timezone, a symlink to the appropriate timezone file in /usr/share/zoneinfo/

ntpd NTP daemon, keeps the clock in sync with Internet time servers
ntpd -q Synchronize the time once and quit
ntpd -g Force NTP to start even if clock is off by more than the panic threshold (1000 secs)
ntpd -n -g -q Start NTP as a non-daemon, force set the clock, and quit

ntpq -p timeserver Print the list of peers for the time server

ntpdate timeserver Synchronizes the clock with the specified time server
ntpdate -b timeserver Brutally set the clock, without waiting for a slow adjusting
ntpdate -q timeserver Query the time server without setting the clock
The ntpdate command is deprecated and will be phased out in future Linux releases.

hwclock --show Show the hardware clock

hwclock -r

hwclock --hctosys Set the system time from the hardware clock
hwclock -s

hwclock --systohc Set the hardware clock from system time

hwclock -w

hwclock --utc Indicate that the hardware clock is kept in Coordinated Universal Time
hwclock --localtime Indicate that the hardware clock is kept in local time

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 77/155 Syslog
Syslog
syslogd
Daemon logging events from user processes
Syslog logging facility: rsyslogd (Ubuntu 14)
klogd Daemon logging events from kernel processes

/etc/syslog.conf
# facility.level action
*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none /var/log/messages
authpriv.* /var/log/secure
mail.* /var/log/maillog
*.alert root
*.emerg *
local5.* @10.7.7.7
local7.* /var/log/boot.log

Facility Level Action

Creator of the message Severity of the message Destination of the message
auth or security† emerg or panic† (highest) filename message is written into a logfile
authpriv alert
cron crit @hostname message is sent to a logger
daemon err or error† server (via UDP port 514)
kern warning or warn†
user1,user2,user3 message is sent to users'
lpr notice consoles
mail info
mark (for syslog internal use) debug (lowest) message is sent to all logged-in
*
news users' consoles
syslog
none (facility disabled)
user
uucp
local0 ... local7 (custom)

† = deprecated

logger -p auth.info "Message" Send a message to syslogd with the specified facility and priority

man 3 syslog Show the syslog manpage listing facilities and levels

logrotate Rotate logs (by gzipping, renaming, and eventually deleting old logfiles) according to
/etc/logrotate.conf

tail -f /var/log/messages Print the end of the message log file, moving forward as the file grows (i.e. read logs
less +F /var/log/messages in real-time)

/var/log/messages System and kernel logfiles

/var/log/syslog
/var/log/kern.log

In Systemd there is no /var/log/messages ; instead, the command journalctl must be used to view the kernel logs.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 78/155 E-mail
E-mail

MUA MTA MTA MDA MUA

(Mail User Agent) (Mail Transfer Agent) (Mail Transfer Agent) (Mail Delivery Agent) (Mail User Agent)
mailclient of sender SMTP server of sender remote host mailserver of recipient mailclient of recipient

e.g. Pine, Mutt e.g. Sendmail, Exim, Postfix, qmail e.g. Procmail, SpamAssassin

~/.forward Mail address(es) to which forward the user's mail, or mail commands
/etc/aliases
/etc/mail/aliases Aliases database for users on the local machine. Each line has syntax alias: user

/var/spool/mail/user Inbox for user on the local machine

/var/log/mail.log (Debian)
Mail logs
/var/log/maillog (Red Hat)

mail
mailx Commands to send mail

mailx -s "Subject" \ Send a mail message to [email protected], using an

-S smtp="mailserver.foobar.com:25" \ external SMTP server
[email protected] < messagefile
uuencode binaryfile | mail [email protected] Send a binary file to [email protected] (not recommended
because many mailclients will display the received
attachment inline)
mutt -a binaryfile -- [email protected] < /dev/null Send a binary file to [email protected] using the Mutt MUA

Mailbox formats
Each mail folder is a single file, storing multiple email messages.
mbox $HOME/Mail/myfolder
Advantages: universally supported, fast search inside a mail folder.
Disadvantages: issues with file locking, possible mailbox corruption.
Each mail folder is a directory, and contains the subdirectories /cur, /new, and /tmp.
Each email message is stored in its own file with an unique filename ID.

The process that delivers an email message writes it to a file in the tmp/ directory,
and then moves it to new/. The moving is commonly done by hard linking the file to
new/ and then unlinking the file from tmp/, which guarantees that a MUA will not see
Maildir a partially written message as it never looks in tmp/. $HOME/Mail/myfolder/
When the MUA finds mail messages in new/ it moves them to cur/.

Advantages: fast location/retrieval/deletion of a specific mail message, no file locking

needed, can be used with NFS.
Disadvantages: some filesystems may not efficiently handle a large number of small
files, searching text inside all mail messages is slow

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 79/155 SMTP
SMTP

SMTP commands
220 smtp.example.com ESMTP Postfix Initiate the conversation and
HELO abc.example.org HELO abc.example.org
identify client host to server
250 Hello abc.example.org, glad to meet you
MAIL FROM: [email protected] EHLO abc.example.org Like HELO, but tell server to
250 Ok use Extended SMTP
RCPT TO [email protected]
250 Ok MAIL FROM: [email protected] Specify mail sender
RCPT TO [email protected] RCPT TO: [email protected] Specify mail recipient
250 Ok
DATA
DATA Specify data to send. Ended
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF> with a dot on a single line
From: Alice <[email protected]>
To: Bob <[email protected]> QUIT
RSET Disconnect
Cc: Eve <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 13 August 2014 18:02:43 -0500 HELP List all available commands
Subject: Test message
NOOP Empty command
This is a test message.
. Verify the existence of an e-
250 OK id=1OjReS-0005kT-Jj VRFY [email protected] mail address (this command
QUIT should not be implemented,
221 Bye for security reasons)
EXPN mailinglist Check mailing list membership

SMTP response codes

1 Command accepted, but not processed until client sends confirmation
2 Command successfully completed
first digit 3 Command accepted, but not processed until client sends more information
4 Command failed due to temporary errors
5 Command failed due to permanent errors
0 Syntax error or command not implemented
1 Informative response in reply to a request for information
second digit
2 Connection response in reply to a data transmission
5 Status response in reply to a mail transfer operation
third digit Specifies further the response
211 System status or help reply
214 Help message
220 The server is ready
221 The server is ending the conversation
250 The requested action was completed
251 The specified user is not local, but the server will forward the mail message
354 Reply to the DATA command. After getting this, start sending the message body
421 The mail server will be shut down, try again later
450 The mailbox that you are trying to reach is busy, try again later
451 The requested action was not done. Some error occurred in the mail server
452 The requested action was not done. The mail server ran out of system storage
500 The last command contained a syntax error or the command line was too long
501 The parameters or arguments in the last command contained a syntax error
502 The last command is not implemented in the mail server
503 The last command was sent out of sequence
504 One of the parameters of the last command is not implemented by the server
550 The mailbox that you are trying to reach can't be found or you don't have access rights
551 The specified user is not local; part of message text will contain a forwarding address
552 The mailbox that you are trying to reach has run out of space, try again later
553 The mail address that you specified was not syntactically correct
554 The mail transaction has failed for unknown causes

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 80/155 Sendmail
Sendmail

Sendmail is a MTA distributed as a monolithic binary file.

Previous versions used to run SUID root, which caused many security problems; recent versions run SGID smmsp, the group
that has write access on the mail queue.
Sendmail uses smrsh, a restricted shell, to run some external programs.

/etc/mail/submit.cf Sendmail local mail transfer configuration file

/etc/mail/sendmail.cf Sendmail MTA configuration file
The .cf configuration files must not be edited by hand and are generated from editable .mc text files via the m4 command,
e.g. m4 /etc/mail/submit.mc > /etc/mail/submit.cf

/etc/mail/access.db Access control file to allow or deny access to systems or users

/etc/mail/local-host-names.db List of domains that must be considered as local accounts
/etc/mail/virtusertable.db Map for local accounts, used to distribute incoming email
/etc/mail/mailertable.db Routing table, used to dispatch emails from remote systems
/etc/mail/domaintable.db Domain table, used for transitions from an old domain to a new one
/etc/mail/genericstable.db Map for local accounts, used to specify a different sender for outgoing mail
/etc/mail/genericsdomain.db Local FQDN
The .db database files must not be edited by hand and are generated from editable text files via the makemap command,
e.g. makemap hash /etc/mail/access.db < /etc/mail/access

/var/spool/mqueue/ Temporary mailqueue files (where nnn is the Message ID):

dfnnn Mail body
qfnnn Message envelope with headers and routing information
Qfnnn Message envelope if abandoned
hfnnn Message envelope if held / quarantined by a milter (i.e. mail filter)
tfnnn Temporary file
lfnnn Lock file
nfnnn Backup file
xfnnn Transcript of delivery attempts

newaliases Update the aliases database; must be run after any change to /etc/aliases
sendmail -bi
mailq Examine the mail queue
sendmail -bp
sendmail -bt Run Sendmail in test mode
sendmail -q Force a queue run

hoststat Print statistics about remote hosts usage

purgestat Clear statistics about remote host usage
mailstats Print statistics about the mailserver
praliases Display email aliases

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 81/155 Exim
Exim

Exim is a free MTA, distributed under open source GPL license.

/etc/exim.conf Exim4 configuration file

/usr/local/etc/exim/configure (FreeBSD)

exim4 -bp Examine the mail queue

exim4 -M messageID Attempt delivery of message
exim4 -Mrm messageID Remove a message from the mail queue
exim4 -Mvh messageID See the headers of a message in the mail queue
exim4 -Mvb messageID See the body of a message in the mail queue
exim4 -Mvc messageID See a message in the mail queue
exim4 -qf domain Force a queue run of all queued messages for a domain
exim4 -Rff domain Attempt delivery of all queued messages for a domain
exim4 -bV Show version and other info

exinext Give the times of the next queue run

exigrep Search through Exim logfiles
exicyclog Rotate Exim logfiles

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 82/155 Postfix
Postfix

Postfix is a fast, secure, easy to configure, open source MTA intended as a replacement for Sendmail. It is implemented as
a set of small helper daemons, most of which run in a chroot jail with low privileges. The main ones are:
master Postfix master daemon, always running; starts the other daemons when necessary
nqmgr Queue manager for incoming and outgoing mail, always running
smtpd SMTP daemon for incoming mail
smtp SMTP daemon for outgoing mail
bounce Manager of bounce messages
cleanup Daemon that verifies the syntax of outgoing messages before they are handed to the queue manager
local Daemon that handles local mail delivery
virtual Daemon that handles mail delivery to virtual users

/var/spool/postfix/incoming Incoming queue.

All new mail entering the Postfix queue is written here by the cleanup daemon.
Under normal conditions this queue is nearly empty
/var/spool/postfix/active Active queue.
Contains messages ready to be sent. The queue manager places messages here
from the incoming queue as soon as they are available
/var/spool/postfix/deferred Deferred queue.
A message is placed here when all its deliverable recipients are delivered, and for
some recipients delivery failed for a transient reason. The queue manager scans
this queue periodically and puts some messages into the active queue for a retry
/var/spool/postfix/bounce Message delivery status report about why mail is bounced (non-delivered mail)
/var/spool/postfix/defer Message delivery status report about why mail is delayed (non-delivered mail)
/var/spool/postfix/trace Message delivery status report (delivered mail)

postfix reload Reload configuration

postconf -e 'mydomain = example.org' Edit a setting in the Postfix configuration

postconf -l List supported mailbox lock methods
postconf -m List supported database types
postconf -v Increase logfile verbosity

postmap dbtype:textfile Manage Postfix lookup tables, creating a hashed map file of database
type dbtype from textfile
postmap hash:/etc/postfix/transport Regenerate the transport database

postalias Convert /etc/aliases into the aliases database file /etc/aliases.db

postsuper Operate on the mail queue

postqueue Unprivileged mail queue manager

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 83/155 Postfix configuration
Postfix configuration

/etc/postfix/main.cf Postfix main configuration file

mydomain = example.org This system's domain
myorigin = $mydomain Domain from which all sent mail will appear to originate
myhostname = foobar.$mydomain This system's hostname
inet_interfaces = all Network interface addresses that this system receives mail on.
Value can also be localhost, all, or loopback-only
proxy_interfaces = 1.2.3.4 Network interface addresses that this system receives mail on
by means of a proxy or NAT unit
mynetworks = 10.3.3.0/24 !10.3.3.66 Networks the SMTP clients are allowed to connect from
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost, Domains for which Postfix will accept received mail.
$mydomain, example.com, Value can also be a lookup database file e.g. a hashed map
hash:/etc/postfix/otherdomains
relayhost = 10.6.6.6 Relay host to which Postfix should send all mail for delivery,
instead of consulting DNS MX records
relay_domains = $mydestination Sources and destinations for which mail will be relayed.
Can be empty if Postfix is not intended to be a mail relay
virtual_alias_domains = virtualex.org Set up Postfix to handle mail for virtual domains too.
virtual_alias_maps = /etc/postfix/virtual The /etc/postfix/virtual file is a hashed map, each line of
the file containing the virtual domain email address and the
or destination real domain email address:
[email protected] [email protected]
virtual_alias_domains = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual
[email protected] kim.smith
@virtualex.org root
The last line is a catch-all specifying that all other email
messages to the virtual domain are delivered to the root user
on the real domain
mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail Use Procmail as MDA
A line beginning with whitespace or tab is a continuation of the previous line.
A line beginning with a # is a comment. The # is not a comment delimiter if it is not placed at the beginning of a line.

/etc/postfix/master.cf Postfix master daemon configuration file

# service type private unpriv chroot wakeup maxproc command + args
smtp inet n - - - - smtpd
pickup fifo n - - 60 1 pickup
cleanup unix n - - - 0 cleanup
qmgr fifo n - - 300 1 qmgr
rewrite unix - - - - - trivial-rewrite
bounce unix - - - - 0 bounce
defer unix - - - - 0 bounce
flush unix n - - 1000? 0 flush
smtp unix - - - - - smtp
showq unix n - - - - showq
error unix - - - - - error
local unix - n n - - local
virtual unix - n n - - virtual
lmtp unix - - n - - lmtp

service Name of the service

type Transport mechanism used by the service
private Whether the service is accessible only by Postfix daemons and not by the whole system. Default is yes
unprivileged Whether the service is unprivileged i.e. not running as root. Default is yes
chroot Whether the service is chrooted. Default is yes
wakeup How often the service needs to be woken up by the master daemon. Default is never
maxproc Max number of simultaneous processes providing the service. Default is 50
command Command used to start the service
The - indicates that an option is set to its default value.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 84/155 Procmail
Procmail

Procmail is a regex-based MDA whose main purpose is to preprocess and sort incoming email messages.
It is able to work both with the standard mbox format and the Maildir format.

To have all email processed by Procmail, the ~/.forward file may be edited to contain:
"|exec /usr/local/bin/procmail || exit 75"

/etc/procmailrc System-wide recipes

~/.procmailrc User's recipes

procmail -h List all Procmail flags for recipes

formail Utility for email filtering and editing

lockfile Utility for mailbox file locking
mailstat Utility for generation of reports from Procmail logs

/etc/procmailrc and ~/.procmailrc Procmail recipes

PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
MAILDIR=$HOME/Mail
DEFAULT=$MAILDIR/Inbox Common parameters, non specific to Procmail
LOGFILE=$HOME/.procmaillog

Flag: match headers (default) and use file locking (highly

:0h: or :0:
recommended when writing to a file or a mailbox in mbox format)
* ^From: .*(alice|bob)@foobar\.org
$DEFAULT Condition: match the header specifying the sender address
Destination: default mailfolder
:0:
* ^From: .*owner@listserv\.com Conditions: match sender address and subject headers
* ^Subject:.*Linux Destination: specified mailfolder, in mbox format
$MAILDIR/Geekstuff1
:0
Flag: file locking not necessary because using Maildir format
* ^From: .*owner@listserv\.com
* ^Subject:.*Linux Conditions: match sender address and subject headers
$MAILDIR/Geekstuff2/ Destination: specified mailfolder, in Maildir format

# Blacklisted by SpamAssassin
Flag: file locking not necessary because blackholing to /dev/null
:0
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes Condition: match SpamAssassin's specific header
/dev/null Destination: delete the message

:0B:
* hacking Flag: match body of message instead of headers
$MAILDIR/Geekstuff
:0HB:
* hacking Flag: match either headers or body of message
$MAILDIR/Geekstuff
:0:
* > 256000 Condition: match messages larger than 256 Kb
| /root/myprogram Destination: pipe message through the specified program

:0fw
* ^From: .*@foobar\.org Flags: use the pipe as a filter (modifying the message), and tell
| /root/myprogram Procmail to wait that the filter finished processing the message

:0c
* ^Subject:.*administration
Flag: copy the message and proceed with next recipe
! [email protected]
Destination: forward to specified email address, and (as ordered
:0: by the next recipe) save in the specified mailfolder
$MAILDIR/Forwarded

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 85/155 Courier POP configuration
Courier POP configuration

The Courier MTA provides modules for ESMTP, IMAP, POP3, webmail, and mailing list services in a single framework.

To use it, you must first launch the courier-authlib service, then launch the desired mail service e.g. courier-imap for
the IMAP service.

imapd Courier IMAP daemon configuration

/usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/ imapd-ssl Courier IMAPS daemon configuration
or
/etc/courier/ pop3d Courier POP3 daemon configuration
pop3d-ssl Courier POP3S daemon configuration

/usr/lib/courier-imap/share/ Directory for public and private keys

mkimapdcert Generate a certificate for the IMAPS service

mkpop3dcert Generate a certificate for the POP3 service
makealiases Create system aliases in /usr/lib/courier/etc/aliases.dat , which is
made by processing a /usr/lib/courier/etc/aliases/system text file:
root : postmaster
mailer-daemon : postmaster
MAILER-DAEMON : postmaster
uucp : postmaster
postmaster : admin

/usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/pop3d Courier POP configuration file

ADDRESS=0 Address to listen on. 0 means all addresses
PORT=127.0.0.1.900,192.168.0.1.900 Port number connections are accepted on. Accept connections on
port 900 on IP addresses 127.0.0.1 and 192.168.0.1
POP3AUTH="LOGIN CRAM-MD5 CRAM-SHA1" POP authentication advertising SASL (Simple Authentication and
Security Layer) capability, with CRAM-MD5 and CRAM-SHA1
POP3AUTH_TLS="LOGIN PLAIN" Also advertise SASL PLAIN if SSL is enabled
MAXDAEMONS=40 Maximum number of POP3 servers started
MAXPERIP=4 Maximum number of connections to accept from the same IP address
PIDFILE=/var/run/courier/pop3d.pid PID file
TCPDOPTS="-nodnslookup -noidentlookup" Miscellaneous couriertcpd options that shouldn't be changed
LOGGEROPTS="-name=pop3d" courierlogger options
POP3_PROXY=0 Enable or disable proxying
PROXY_HOSTNAME=myproxy Override value from gethostname() when checking if a proxy
connection is required
DEFDOMAIN="@example.com" Optional default domain. If the username does not contain the first
character of DEFDOMAIN, then it is appended to the username. If
DEFDOMAIN and DOMAINSEP are both set, then DEFDOMAIN is appended
only if the username does not contain any character from DOMAINSEP
POP3DSTART=YES Flag intended to be read by the system startup script
MAILDIRPATH=Maildir Name of the maildir directory

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 86/155 Courier IMAP configuration
Courier IMAP configuration

/usr/lib/courier-imap/etc/imapd Courier IMAP configuration file

ADDRESS=0 Address to listen on. 0 means all addresses
PORT=127.0.0.1.900,192.168.0.1.900 Port number connections are accepted on. Accept connections on
port 900 on IP addresses 127.0.0.1 and 192.168.0.1
AUTHSERVICE143=imap Authenticate using a different service parameter depending on the
connection's port. This only works with authentication modules that
use the service parameter, such as PAM
MAXDAEMONS=40 Maximum number of IMAP servers started
MAXPERIP=20 Maximum number of connections to accept from the same IP address
PIDFILE=/var/run/courier/imapd.pid File where couriertcpd will save its process ID
TCPDOPTS="-nodnslookup -noidentlookup" Miscellaneous couriertcpd options that shouldn't be changed
LOGGEROPTS="-name=imapd" courierlogger options
DEFDOMAIN="@example.com" Optional default domain. If the username does not contain the first
character of DEFDOMAIN, then it is appended to the username. If
DEFDOMAIN and DOMAINSEP are both set, then DEFDOMAIN is appended
only if the username does not contain any character from DOMAINSEP
IMAP_CAPABILITY="IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS \ Specifies what most of the response should be to the CAPABILITY
CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT \ command
THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE"
IMAP_KEYWORDS=1 Enable or disable custom IMAP keywords. Possible values are:
0 disable keywords
1 enable keywords
2 enable keywords with a slower algorithm
IMAP_ACL=1 Enable or disable IMAP ACL extension
SMAP_CAPABILITY=SMAP1 Enable the experimental Simple Mail Access Protocol extensions
IMAP_PROXY=0 Enable or disable proxying
IMAP_PROXY_FOREIGN=0 Proxying to non-Courier servers. Re-sends the CAPABILITY command
after logging in to remote server. May not work with all IMAP clients
IMAP_IDLE_TIMEOUT=60 How often, in seconds, the server should poll for changes to the folder
while in IDLE mode
IMAP_CHECK_ALL_FOLDERS=0 Enable or disable server check for mail in every folder
IMAP_UMASK=022 Set the umask of the server process. This value is passed to the
umask command. This feature is mostly useful for shared folders,
where the file permissions of the messages may be important
IMAP_ULIMITD=131072 Set the upper limit of the size of the data segment of the server
process, in Kb. This value is passed to the ulimit -d command.
This feature is used as an additional safety check that should stop any
potential DoS attacks that exploit any kind of a memory leak to
exhaust all the available memory on the server
IMAP_USELOCKS=1 Enable or disable dot-locking to support concurrent multiple access to
the same folder. Strongly recommended when using shared folders
IMAP_SHAREDINDEXFILE=\ Index of all accessible folders.
/etc/courier/shared/index Normally, this setting should not be changed
IMAP_TRASHFOLDERNAME=Trash Name of the trash folder
IMAP_EMPTYTRASH=Trash:7,Sent:30 Purge folders i.e. delete all messages from the specified folders after
the specified number of days
IMAP_MOVE_EXPUNGE_TO_TRASH=0 Enable or disable moving expunged messages to the trash folder
(instead of straight deleting them)
HEADERFROM=X-IMAP-Sender Make the return address, $SENDER, being saved in the
X-IMAP-Sender mail header. This header gets added to the sent
message (but not in the copy of the message saved in the folder)
MAILDIRPATH=Maildir Name of the mail directory

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 87/155 Dovecot
Dovecot

Dovecot is an open source, security-hardened, fast and efficient IMAP and POP3 server.
By default it uses PAM authentication. The script mkcert.sh can be used to create self-signed SSL certificates.

/etc/dovecot.conf Dovecot configuration file

base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/ Base directory where to store runtime data
protocols = imaps pop3s Protocols to serve. If Dovecot should use dovecot-auth, this can be set
to none
listen = *, [::] Network interfaces to accept connections on.
Here, listen to all IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces
disable_plaintext_auth = yes Disable LOGIN command and all other plaintext authentications unless
SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability)
shutdown_clients = yes Kill all IMAP and POP3 processes when Dovecot master process shuts
down. If set to no, Dovecot can be upgraded without forcing existing
client connections to close
log_path = /dev/stderr Log file to use for error messages, instead of sending them to syslog.
Here, log to stderr
info_log_path = /dev/stderr Log file to use for informational and debug messages. Default value is
the same as log_path
syslog_facility = mail Syslog facility to use if logging to syslog
login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login Directory where the authentication process places authentication UNIX
sockets, to which the login process needs to be able to connect
login_chroot = yes Chroot login process to the login_dir
login_user = dovecot User to use for the login process. This user is used to control access for
authentication process, and not to access mail messages
login_process_size = 64 Maximum login process size, in Mb
login_process_per_connection = yes If yes, each login is processed in its own process (more secure); if no,
each login process processes multiple connections (faster)
login_processes_count = 3 Number of login processes to keep for listening for new connections
login_max_processes_count = 128 Maximum number of login processes to create
login_max_connections = 256 Maximum number of connections allowed per each login process.
This setting is used only if login_process_per_connection = no; once
the limit is reached, the process notifies master so that it can create a
new login process
login_greeting = Dovecot ready. Greeting message for clients
login_trusted_networks = \ Trusted network ranges (usually IMAP proxy servers).
10.7.7.0/24 10.8.8.0/24 Connections from these IP addresses are allowed to override their IP
addresses and ports, for logging and authentication checks.
disable_plaintext_auth is also ignored for these networks
mbox_read_locks = fcntl Locking methods to use for locking mailboxes in mbox format.
mbox_write_locks = dotlock fcntl Possible values are:
dotlock Create mailbox.lock file; oldest and NSF-safe method
dotlock_try Same as dotlock, but skip if failing
fcntl Recommended; works with NFS too if lockd is used
flock May not exist in all systems; doesn't work with NFS
lockf May not exist in all systems; doesn't work with NFS
maildir_stat_dirs = no Option for mailboxes in Maildir format. If no (default), the LIST
command returns all entries in the mail directory beginning with a dot.
If yes, returns only entries which are directories
dbox_rotate_size = 2048 Maximum and minimum file size, in Kb, of a mailbox in dbox format
dbox_rotate_min_size = 16 until it is rotated
!include /etc/dovecot/conf.d/*.conf Include configuration file
!include_try /etc/dovecot/extra.conf Include optional configuration file, do not give error if file not found

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 88/155 Dovecot mailbox configuration
Dovecot mailbox configuration

/etc/dovecot.conf Dovecot configuration file

mail_location = \ Mailbox location, in mbox or Maildir format. Variables:
mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u %u username
or %n user part in user@domain, same as %u if there is no domain
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
%d domain part in user@domain, empty if there is no domain
%h home directory
namespace shared { Definition of a shared namespace, for accessing other users' mailboxes
that have been shared.
Private namespaces are for users' personal emails.
Public namespaces are for shared mailboxes managed by root user
separator = / Hierarchy separator to use. Should be the same for all namespaces; it
depends on the underlying mail storage format
prefix = shared/%%u/ Prefix required to access this namespace; must be different for each.
Here, mailboxes are visible under shared/user@domain/ ; the variables
%%n, %%d and %%u are expanded to the destination user
location = maildir:%%h/Maildir:\ Mailbox location for other users' mailboxes; it is in the same format as
INDEX=~/Maildir/shared/%%u mail_location which is also the default for it.
%variable and ~/ expand to the logged in user's data;
%%variable expands to the destination user's data
inbox = no There can be only one INBOX, and this setting defines which
namespace has it
hidden = no Define whether the namespace is hidden i.e. not advertised to clients
via NAMESPACE extension
subscriptions = no Namespace handles its own subscriptions; if set to no, the parent
namespace handles them and Dovecot uses the default namespace for
saving subscriptions. If prefix is empty, this should be set to yes
list = children Show the mailboxes under this namespace with LIST command,
making the namespace visible for clients that do not support the
NAMESPACE extension.
Here, lists child mailboxes but hide the namespace prefix; list the
namespace only if there are visible shared mailboxes
}
mail_uid = 666 UID and GID used to access mail messages
mail_gid = 666
mail_privileged_group = mail Group to enable temporarily for privileged operations; currently this is
used only with INBOX when its initial creation or a dotlocking fails
mail_access_groups = tmpmail Supplementary groups to grant access to for mail processes; typically
these are used to set up access to shared mailboxes
lock_method = fcntl Locking method for index files. Can be fcntl, flock, or dotlock
first_valid_uid = 500 Valid UID range for users; default is 500 and above. This makes sure
last_valid_uid = 0 that users cannot login as daemons or other system users.
Denying root login is hardcoded to Dovecot and cannot be bypassed
first_valid_gid = 1 Valid GID range for users; default is non-root/wheel. Users having
last_valid_gid = 0 non-valid primary GID are not allowed to login
max_mail_processes = 512 Maximum number of running mail processes. When this limit is
reached, new users are not allowed to login
mail_process_size = 256 Maximum mail process size, in Mb
valid_chroot_dirs = List of directories under which chrooting is allowed for mail processes
mail_chroot = Default chroot directory for mail processes. Usually not needed as
Dovecot does not allow users to access files outside their mail directory
mailbox_idle_check_interval = 30 When IDLE command is running, mailbox is checked once in a while to
see if there are any new mails or other changes. This setting defines
the minimum time to wait between these checks, in seconds

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 89/155 Dovecot POP and IMAP configuration
Dovecot POP and IMAP configuration

/etc/dovecot.conf Dovecot configuration file

protocol pop3 { Block with options for the POP3 protocol
listen = *:110 Network interfaces to accept POP3 connections on
login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login Location of the POP3 login executable
mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3 Location of the POP3 mail executable
pop3_no_flag_updates = no If set to no, do not try to set mail messages non-recent
or seen with POP3 sessions, to reduce disk I/O.
With Maildir format do not move files from new/ to cur/,
with mbox format do not write Status- headers
pop3_lock_session = no Whether to keep the mailbox locked for the whole POP3
session
pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv POP3 UIDL (Unique Mail Identifier) format to use
}
protocol imap { Block with options for the IMAP protocol
listen = *:143 Network interfaces to accept IMAP and IMAPS
ssl_listen = *:993 connections on
login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login Location of the IMAP login executable
mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap Location of the IMAP mail executable
mail_max_userip_connections = 10 Maximum number of IMAP connections allowed for a
user from each IP address
imap_idle_notify_interval = 120 How many seconds to wait between "OK Still here"
notifications when client is IDLE
}
ssl = yes SSL/TLS support.
Possible values are yes, no, required
ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/dovecot-cert.pem Location of the SSL certificate
ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot-key.pem Location of private key
ssl_key_password = b1gs3cr3t Password of private key, if it is password-protected.
Since /etc/dovecot.conf is usually world-readable, it is
better to place this setting into a root-owned 0600 file
instead and include it via the setting
!include_try /etc/dovecot/dovecot-passwd.conf .
Alternatively, Dovecot can be started with
dovecot -p b1gs3cr3t
ssl_ca_file = /etc/dovecot/cafile.pem List of trusted SSL certificate authorities; the file
contains the CA certificates followed by the CRLs
ssl_verify_client_cert = yes Request client to send a certificate
ssl_cipher_list = ALL:!LOW:!SSLv2 List of SSL ciphers to use
verbose_ssl = yes Show protocol level SSL errors

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 90/155 Dovecot authentication
Dovecot authentication

/etc/dovecot.conf Dovecot configuration file

auth_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-auth Location of the authentication executable
auth_process_size = 256 Max authentication process size, in Mb
auth_username_chars = abcde ... VWXYZ01234567890.-_@ List of allowed characters in the username. If the
username entered by user contains a character not listed
in here, the login automatically fails. This is to prevent
an user exploiting any potential quote escaping
vulnerabilities with SQL/LDAP databases
auth_realms = List of realms for SASL authentication mechanisms that
need them. If empty, multiple realms are not supported
auth_default_realm = example.org Default realm/domain to use if none was specified
auth_anonymous_username = anonymous Username to assign to users logging in with ANONYMOUS
SASL mechanism
auth_verbose = no Whether to log unsuccessful authentication attempts and
the reasons why they failed
auth_debug = no Whether to enable more verbose logging (e.g. SQL
queries) for debugging purposes
auth_failure_delay = 2 Delay before replying to failed authentications, in seconds
auth default {
mechanisms = plain login cram-md5 Accepted authentication mechanisms
passdb passwd-file { Deny login to the users listed in /etc/dovecot.deny (file
args = /etc/dovecot.deny contains one user per line)
deny = yes
}
passdb pam { PAM authentication block.
args = cache_key=%u%r dovecot Enable authentication matching (username and remote IP
} address) for PAM.
passdb passwd { System users e.g. NSS or /etc/passwd
blocking = yes
args =
}
passdb shadow { Shadow passwords for system users e.g. NSS or
blocking = yes /etc/passwd
args =
}
passdb bsdauth { PAM-like authentication for OpenBSD
cache_key = %u
args =
}
passdb sql { SQL database
args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
}
passdb ldap { LDAP database
args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf
}
socket listen { Export the authentication interface to other programs.
master { Master socket provides access to userdb information; it is
path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master typically used to give Dovecot's local delivery agent
mode = 0600 access to userdb so it can find mailbox locations. The
user = default user/group is the one who started dovecot-auth
group =
} (i.e. root).
client { The client socket is generally safe to export to everyone.
path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client Typical use is to export it to the SMTP server so it can do
mode = 0660 SMTP AUTH lookups using it
}
}
}

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 91/155 FTP
FTP

Active mode (default)

1. Client connects to FTP server on port 21 (control channel) and sends second unprivileged port number
2. Server acknowledges
3. Server connects from port 20 (data channel) to client's second unprivileged port number
4. Client acknowledges

Passive mode (more protocol-compliant, because it is the client that initiates the connection)
1. Client connects to FTP server on port 21 and requests passive mode via the PASV command
2. Server acknowledges and sends unprivileged port number via the PORT command
3. Client connects to server's unprivileged port number
4. Server acknowledges

FTP servers
Very Secure FTP A hardened and high-performance FTP implementation. The vsftpd daemon operates with multiple
processes that run as a non-privileged user in a chrooted jail.
Pure-FTP A free, easy-to-use FTP server.
pure-ftpd Pure-FTP daemon
pure-ftpwho Show clients connected to the Pure-FTP server
pure-mrtginfo Show connections to the Pure-FTP server as a MRTG graph
pure-statsdecode Show Pure-FTP log data
pure-pw Manage Pure-FTP virtual accounts
pure-pwconvert Convert the system user database to a Pure-FTP virtual accounts database
pure-quotacheck Manage Pure-FTP quota database
pure-uploadscript Run a command on the Pure-FTP server to process an uploaded file
FTP clients
ftp Standard FTP client.
lftp A sophisticated FTP client with support for HTTP and BitTorrent.
lftp ftpserver.domain.org Connect to a FTP server and tries an anonymous login

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 92/155 vsftpd
vsftpd

/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf Very Secure FTP server configuration file

listen=NO Run vsftpd in standalone mode (i.e. not via inetd)?
local_enable=YES Allow local system users (i.e. in /etc/passwd) to log in?
chroot_local_user=YES Chroot local users in their home directory?
write_enable=YES Allow FTP commands that write on the filesystem (i.e.
STOR, DELE, RNFR, RNTO, MKD, RMD, APPE and SITE)?
anonymous_enable=YES Allow anonymous logins? If yes, anonymous and ftp are
accepted as logins
anon_root=/var/ftp/pub After anonymous login, go to directory /var/ftp/pub
anon_upload_enable=YES Allow anonymous uploads?
chown_uploads=YES Change ownership of anonymously uploaded files?
chown_username=ftp Change ownership of anonymously uploaded files to user
ftp
anon_world_readable_only=NO Allow anonymous users to only download files which are
world readable?
ssl_enable=YES Enable SSL?
force_local_data_ssl=NO Encrypt local data?
force_local_logins_ssl=YES Force encrypted authentication?
allow_anon_ssl=YES Allow anonymous users to use SSL?
ssl_tlsv1=YES Versions of SSL/TLS to allow
ssl_tlsv2=NO
ssl_tlsv3=NO
rsa_cert_file=/etc/pki/tls/certs/vsftpd.pem Location of certificate file
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/pki/tls/certs/vsftpd.pem Location of private key file

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 93/155 CUPS
CUPS
cupsd CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) daemon.
Administration of printers is done via web interface on http://localhost:631

/etc/cups/cupsd.conf CUPS configuration file

/etc/cups/printers.conf Database of available local CUPS printers
/etc/printcap Database of printer capabilities, for old printing applications
/var/spool/cups/ Printer spooler for data awaiting to be printed
/var/log/cups/error_log CUPS error log
/var/log/cups/page_log Information about printed pages

/etc/init.d/cupsys start Start the CUPS service

gnome-cups-manager Run the CUPS Manager graphical application

cupsenable printer0 Enable a CUPS printer
cupsdisable printer0 Disable a CUPS printer
cupsaccept printer0 Accept a job sent on a printer queue
cupsreject -r "Rejected" printer0 Reject a job sent on a printer queue, with an informational message
cupstestppd LEXC510.ppd Test the conformance of a PPD file to the format specification
cupsaddsmb printer0 Export a printer to Samba (for use with Windows clients)

cups-config --cflags Show the necessary compiler options

cups-config --datadir Show the default CUPS data directory
cups-config --ldflags Show the necessary linker options
cups-config --libs Show the necessary libraries to link to
cups-config --serverbin Show the default CUPS binaries directory that stores filters and backends
cups-config --serverroot Show the default CUPS configuration file directory

lpstat Show CUPS status information

lpadmin Administer CUPS printers
lpadmin -p printer0 -P LEXC750.ppd Specify a PPD (Adobe PostScript Printer Description) file to associate to a printer
lp -d printer0 file Print a file on the specified printer

lpq View the default print queue

lpq -P printer0 View a specific print queue
lpq jdoe View the print queue of a specific user
lprm -P printer0 5 Delete a specific job from a printer queue
lprm -P printer0 jdoe Delete all jobs from a specific user from a printer queue
lprm -P printer0 - Delete all jobs from a printer queue
lpc Manage print queues

a2ps file.txt Convert a text file to PostScript

ps2pdf file.ps Convert a file from PostScript to PDF
mpage file.ps Print a PostScript document on multiple pages per sheet on a PostScript printer
gv file.ps View a PostScript document (the gv software is derived from GhostView)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 94/155 IP addressing
IP addressing

IPv4 classful addressing (assigned by IANA)

Address range Prefix Number of addresses Reference

Class A (Unicast) 0.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255 /8 128 networks × RFC 791

first octet: 0XXX XXXX 16,777,216 addresses

Class B (Unicast) 128.0.0.0 – 191.255.255.255 /16 16,384 networks × RFC 791

first octet: 10XX XXXX 65,536 addresses

Class C (Unicast) 192.0.0.0 – 223.255.255.255 /24 2,097,152 networks × RFC 791

Classful
first octet: 110X XXXX 256 addresses

Class D (Multicast) 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255 /4 268,435,456 RFC 3171

first octet: 1110 XXXX

Class E (Experimental) 240.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.255 /4 268,435,456 RFC 1166

first octet: 1111 XXXX

Private Class A 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 10.0.0.0/8 16,777,216 RFC 1918

Private Private Class B 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 172.16.0.0/12 1,048,576 RFC 1918

Private Class C 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 192.168.0.0/16 65,536 RFC 1918

Source 0.0.0.0 – 0.255.255.255 0.0.0.0/8 16,777,216 RFC 1700

Loopback 127.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255 127.0.0.0/8 16,777,216 RFC 1700

Autoconf 169.254.0.0 – 169.254.255.255 169.254.0.0/16 65,536 RFC 3330

Reserved
TEST-NET 192.0.2.0 – 192.0.2.255 192.0.2.0/24 256 RFC 3330

6to4 relay anycast 192.88.99.0 – 192.88.99.255 192.88.99.0/24 256 RFC 3068

Device benchmarks 198.18.0.0 – 198.19.255.255 198.18.0.0/15 131,072 RFC 2544

IPv4 address: 32-bit long, represented divided in four octets (dotted-quad).

e.g. 193.22.33.44

4 × 109 total addresses

IPv6 addressing
64-bit network prefix (>= 48-bit routing prefix + <= 16-bit subnet id) + 64-bit interface identifier
Unicast
A 48-bit MAC address is transformed into a 64-bit EUI-64 by inserting ff:fe in the middle.
A EUI-64 is then transformed into a IPv6 interface identifier by inverting the 7 th most significant bit.

Link-local fe80:0000:0000:0000 + 64-bit interface identifier

Multicast ff + 4-bit flag + 4-bit scope field + 112-bit group ID

IPv6 address: 128-bit long, represented divided in eight 16-bit groups (4 hex digits).

e.g. 2130:0000:0000:0000:0007:0040:15bc:235f which can also be written as 2130::7:40:15bc:235f

Leading zeros in each group can be deleted. A single chunk of one or more adjacent 0000 groups can be deleted.

3 × 1038 total addresses

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 95/155 Subnetting
Subnetting

VLSM chart - Last octet subnetting (CIDR notation)

Prefix: /24 Prefix: /25 Prefix: /26 Prefix: /27 Prefix: /28 Prefix: /29 Prefix: /30
Netmask: .0 Netmask: .128 Netmask: .192 Netmask: .224 Netmask: .240 Netmask: .248 Netmask: .252
00000000 10000000 11000000 11100000 11110000 11111000 11111100
1 subnet 2 subnets 4 subnets 8 subnets 16 subnets 32 subnets 64 subnets
254 hosts each 126 hosts each 62 hosts each 30 hosts each 14 hosts each 6 hosts each 2 hosts each
254 total hosts 252 total hosts 248 total hosts 240 total hosts 224 total hosts 192 total hosts 128 total hosts
.0
.0
.4
.0
.8
.8
.12
.0
.16
.16
.20
.16
.24
.24
.28
.0
.32
.32
.36
.32
.40
.40
.44
.32
.48
.48
.52
.48
.56
.56
.60
.0
.64
.64
.68
.64
.72
.72
.76
.64
.80
.80
.84
.80
.88
.88
.92
.64
.96
.96
.100
.96
.104
.104
.108
.96
.112
.112
.116
.112
.120
.120
.124
.0
.128
.128
.132
.128
.136
.136
.140
.128
.144
.144
.148
.144
.152
.152
.156
.128
.160
.160
.164
.160
.168
.168
.172
.160
.176
.176
.180
.176
.184
.184
.188
.128
.192
.192
.196
.192
.200
.200
.204
.192
.208
.208
.212
.208
.216
.216
.220
.192
.224
.224
.228
.224
.232
.232
.236
.224
.240
.240
.244
.240
.248
.248
.252

Each block of a column identifies a subnet, whose range of valid hosts addresses is [network address +1 — broadcast address -1] inclusive.
The network address of the subnet is the number shown inside a block.
The broadcast address of the subnet is the network address of the block underneath -1 or, for the bottom block, .255.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 96/155 Network services
Network services

Most common well-known ports

Port number Service
20 TCP FTP (data)
21 TCP FTP (control)
22 TCP SSH
23 TCP Telnet
25 TCP SMTP
53 TCP/UDP DNS
67 UDP BOOTP/DHCP (server)
68 UDP BOOTP/DHCP (client)
80 TCP HTTP
110 TCP POP3
119 TCP NNTP
123 UDP NTP
139 TCP/UDP Microsoft NetBIOS
143 TCP IMAP
161 UDP SNMP
443 TCP HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS)
465 TCP SMTP over SSL
993 TCP IMAPS (IMAP over SSL)
995 TCP POP3S (POP3 over SSL)
1-1023: privileged ports, used server-side
1024-65535: unprivileged ports, used client-side

/etc/services lists all well-known ports.

Many network services are run by the xinetd super server.

ISO/OSI and TCP/IP protocol stack models

Layer ISO/OSI TCP/IP Standards (e.g.) Data transmission unit

7 Application HTTP, SMTP, POP Message
6 Presentation Application
5 Session
4 Transport Transport TCP, UDP Segment (TCP), Datagram (UDP)
3 Network Internet IPv4, IPv6, ICMP Packet
2 Data Link Ethernet, Wi-Fi, PPP Frame
Network Access
1 Physical Bit

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 97/155 Network configuration commands
Network configuration commands
ip a Display configuration of all network
ip addr interfaces
ip addr show
ifconfig -a
ip link show eth0 Display configuration of eth0
ifconfig eth0
ip addr add dev eth0 10.1.1.1/8 Configure IP address of eth0
ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 broadcast 10.255.255.255
ifconfig eth0 hw ether 45:67:89:ab:cd:ef Configure MAC address of eth0
ip link set eth0 up Activate eth0
ifconfig eth0 up
ifup eth0
ip link set eth0 down Shut down eth0
ifconfig eth0 down
ifdown eth0
dhclient eth0 Request an IP address via DHCP
pump
dhcpcd eth0 (SUSE)

ip neigh Show the ARP cache table

arp -a
ip neigh show 10.1.0.6 Show the ARP cache entry for a host
arp 10.1.0.6
ip neigh add 10.1.0.7 lladdr 01:23:45:67:89:ab dev eth0 Add a new ARP entry for a host
arp -s 10.1.0.7 01:23:45:67:89:ab
ip neigh del 10.1.0.7 dev eth0 Delete a ARP entry
arp -d 10.1.0.7
ip neigh flush all Delete the ARP table for all interfaces

hostname Get the hostname

hostname -f Get the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)
hostname mylinuxbox Set the hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname --static "mylinuxbox" (RHEL 7)

hostnamectl (RHEL 7) Get the hostname, OS, and other information

/etc/init.d/networking restart (Debian) Restart network services

/etc/init.d/network restart (Red Hat)

brctl command bridge Manage the Ethernet bridge configuration in the Linux kernel

ethtool option device Query or control network driver and hardware settings
ethtool eth0 View hardware settings of eth0

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 98/155 Wireless networking
Wireless networking
iwlist wlan0 scan List all wireless devices in range, with their quality of signal and other information
iwlist wlan0 freq Display transmission frequency settings
iwlist wlan0 rate Display transmission speed settings
iwlist wlan0 txpower Display transmission power settings
iwlist wlan0 key Display encryption settings

iwgetid wlan0 option Print NWID, ESSID, AP/Cell address or other information about the wireless network
that is currently in use

iwconfig wlan0 Display configuration of wireless interface wlan0

iwconfig wlan0 option Configure wireless interface wlan0

iw dev wlan0 station dump On a wireless card configured in AP Mode, display information (e.g. MAC address,
tx/rx, bitrate, signal strength) about the clients

rfkill list List installed wireless devices

rfkill unblock n Enable wireless device number n

hcidump -i device Display raw HCI (Host Controller Interface) data exchanged with a Bluetooth device

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 99/155 Network tools
Network tools
dig example.org Perform a DNS lookup for the specified domain or hostname.
Returns information in BIND zone file syntax; uses an internal
resolver and hence does not honor /etc/resolv.conf
host example.org Perform a DNS lookup for the specified domain or hostname.
Does honor /etc/resolv.conf

nslookup example.org (deprecated) Perform a DNS lookup for the specified domain or hostname
dig @10.7.7.7 -t MX example.org Perform a DNS lookup for the MX record of the domain
host -t example.org 10.7.7.7 example.org, querying nameserver 10.7.7.7
dig example.org any Get all DNS records for a domain
host -a example.org
dig -x 203.0.113.1 Perform a reverse DNS lookup for the IP address 203.0.113.1
host 203.0.113.1

whois example.org Query the WHOIS service for an Internet resource, usually a
domain name

ping 10.0.0.2 Test if a remote host can be reached and measure the round-trip
time to it (by sending an ICMP ECHO_REQUEST datagram and
expecting an ICMP ECHO_RESPONSE)

fping -a 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.7 10.0.0.8 Ping multiple hosts in parallel and report which ones are alive

bing 10.0.0.10 10.0.0.11 Calculate point-to-point throughput between two remote hosts

traceroute 10.0.0.3 Print the route, hop by hop, packets trace to a remote host
(by sending a sequence of ICMP ECHO_REQUEST datagrams with
increasing TTL values, starting with TTL=1)

tracepath 10.0.0.3 Simpler traceroute

mtr 10.0.0.3 traceroute and ping combined

telnet 10.0.0.4 23 Establish a telnet connection to the specified host and port
(if port is omitted, use default port 23)

ftp 10.0.0.5 Establish an interactive FTP connection with host 10.0.0.5

wget –-no-clobber –-html-extension \ Download a whole website www.example.org/foobar

--page-requisites --convert-links \
--recursive --domains example.org \
--no-parent www.example.org/foobar

curl -XPUT 10.0.0.6 -d'data' Send a HTTP PUT command with data to 10.0.0.6
curl -o file.html www.example.org/file.html Download a file via HTTP

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 100/155 Network monitoring
Network monitoring
netstat Display network connections
netstat –-tcp Display active TCP connections
netstat -t
netstat -l Display only listening sockets
netstat -a Display all listening and non-listening sockets
netstat -n Display network connections, without resolving hostnames or portnames
netstat -p Display network connections, with PID and name of program to which each socket
belongs
netstat -i Display network interfaces
netstat -s Display protocol statistics
netstat -r Display kernel routing tables (equivalent to route -e)
netstat -c Display network connections continuously

ss Display socket statistics (similar to netstat)

ss -t -a Display all TCP sockets

nmap 10.0.0.1 Scan for open ports (TCP SYN scan) on remote host 10.0.0.1
nmap -sS 10.0.0.1
nmap -sP 10.0.0.1 Do a ping sweep (ICMP ECHO probes) on remote host
nmap -sU 10.0.0.1 Scan UDP ports on remote host
nmap -sV 10.0.0.1 Do a service and version scan on open ports
nmap -p 1-65535 10.0.0.1 Scan all ports (1-65535) on remote host, not only the common ports
nmap -O 10.0.0.1 Find which operating system is running on remote host (OS fingerprinting)

ngrep Filter data payload of network packets matching a specified regex

nload Display a graph of the current network usage

iptraf IP LAN monitor (ncurses UI)

iptraf-ng

netserver Run a network performance benchmark server

netperf Do network performance benchmarks by connecting to a netserver

iperf -s Run a network throughput benchmark server

iperf -c server Perform network throughput tests in client mode, by connecting to an iperf server

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 101/155 tcpdump
tcpdump
tcpdump -ni eth0 Sniff all network traffic on interface eth0, suppressing DNS resolution

tcpdump ip host 10.0.0.2 tcp port 25 Sniff network packets on TCP port 25 from and to 10.0.0.2

tcpdump ether host '45:67:89:ab:cd:ef' Sniff traffic from and to the network interface having MAC address
45:67:89:ab:cd:ef

tcpdump 'src host 10.0.0.2 and \ Sniff HTTP and HTTPS traffic having as source host 10.0.0.2
(tcp port 80 or tcp port 443)'

tcpdump -ni eth0 not port 22 Sniff all traffic on eth0 except that belonging to the SSH connection

tcpdump -vvnn -i eth0 arp Sniff ARP traffic on eth0, on maximum verbosity level, without
converting host IP addresses and port numbers to names

tcpdump ip host 10.0.0.2 and \ Sniff IP traffic between 10.0.0.2 and any other host except 10.0.0.9
not 10.0.0.9

dhcpdump -i eth0 Sniff all DHCP packets on interface eth0

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 102/155 netcat
netcat
nc Netcat, "the Swiss Army knife of networking", a very flexible
ncat (Red Hat) generic TCP/IP client/server
netcat (SUSE)

nc -z 10.0.0.7 22 Scan for a listening SSH daemon on remote host 10.0.0.7

ncat 10.0.0.7 22

nc -l -p 25 Listen for connections on port 25 (i.e. mimic a SMTP server).

Send any input received on stdin to the connected client and
dump on stdout any data received from the client

nc 10.0.0.7 389 < file Push the content of file to port 389 on remote host 10.0.0.7

echo "GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n" | nc 10.0.0.7 80 Connect to web server 10.0.0.7 and issue a HTTP GET

while true; \ Start a minimal web server, serving the specified HTML page
do nc -l -p 80 -q 1 < page.html; done to any connected client

while true; \
do echo "<html><body><h1>WWW</h1></body></html>" \
| ncat -l -p 80; done

nc -v -n -z -w1 -r 10.0.0.7 1-1023 Run a TCP port scan against remote host 10.0.0.7.
Probe randomly all privileged ports with a 1-second timeout,
without resolving service names, and with verbose output

echo "" | nc -v -n -w1 10.0.0.7 1-1023 Retrieve the greeting banner of any network service that
might be running on remote host 10.0.0.7

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 103/155 Network configuration
Network configuration
/etc/hosts Mappings between IP addresses and hostnames, for name resolution

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

10.2.3.4 myhost.domain.org myhost

/etc/nsswitch.conf Sources that must be used by various system library lookup functions

passwd: files nisplus nis

shadow: files nisplus nis
group: files nisplus nis
hosts: files dns nisplus nis

/etc/host.conf Sources for name resolution, for systems before glibc2.

Obsolete, superseded by /etc/nsswitch.conf

order hosts,bind
multi on

/etc/resolv.conf Domain names that must be appended to bare hostnames, and DNS servers
that will be used for name resolution

search domain1.org domain2.org

nameserver 192.168.3.3
nameserver 192.168.4.4

/etc/networks Mappings between network addresses and names

loopback 127.0.0.0
mylan 10.2.3.0

/etc/network/interfaces (Debian) List and configuration of all network interfaces

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 10.2.3.4
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.2.3.254
dns-domain example.com
dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 4.4.4.4

/etc/hostname (Debian) Hostname of the local machine

/sys/class/net List of all network interfaces in the system

/etc/services List of service TCP/UDP port numbers

/etc/protocols List of available protocols

/etc/ethers ARP mappings (i.e. MAC to IP addresses)

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 104/155 Network configuration (Red Hat)
Network configuration (Red Hat)
/etc/sysconfig/network Network configuration file

ADDRESS=10.2.3.4
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=10.2.3.254
HOSTNAME=mylinuxbox.example.org
NETWORKING=yes

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 Configuration file for network interface eth0.

This file is read by the ifup and ifdown scripts

DEVICE=eth0
TYPE=Ethernet
HWADDR=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=no
IPADDR=10.2.3.4
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=10.2.3.254
DNS1=8.8.8.8
DNS2=4.4.4.4
USERCTL=no

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0 Configuration files for different interface aliases.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:1 This makes possible to bind multiple IP addresses to a single NIC
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:2

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-eth0 Static route configuration for eth0

default 10.2.3.4 dev eth0

10.7.8.0/24 via 10.2.3.254 dev eth0
10.7.9.0/24 via 10.2.3.254 dev eth0

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 105/155 TCP Wrapper
TCP Wrapper
/etc/hosts.allow Host access control files used by the TCP Wrapper system.
/etc/hosts.deny
Each file contains zero or more daemon:client lines. The first matching line is considered.

Access is granted when a daemon:client pair matches an entry in /etc/hosts.allow .

Otherwise, access is denied when a daemon:client pair matches an entry in /etc/hosts.deny .
Otherwise, access is granted.

/etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny lines syntax

ALL: ALL All services to all hosts
ALL: .example.edu All services to all hosts of the example.edu domain
ALL: .example.edu EXCEPT host1.example.edu All services to all hosts of example.edu, except host1
in.fingerd: .example.com Finger service to all hosts of example.com
in.tftpd: LOCAL TFTP to hosts of the local domain only
sshd: 10.0.0.3 10.0.0.4 10.1.1.0/24 SSH to the hosts and network specified
sshd: 10.0.1.0/24 SSH to 10.0.1.0/24
sshd: 10.0.1. SSH to 10.0.1.0/24
sshd: 10.0.1.0/255.255.255.0 SSH to 10.0.1.0/24
in.tftpd: ALL: spawn (/safe_dir/safe_finger \ Send a finger probe to hosts attempting TFTP and
-l @%h | /bin/mail -s %d-%h root) & notify root user via email
portmap: ALL: (echo Illegal RPC request \ When a client attempts a RPC request via the
from %h | /bin/mail root) & portmapper (NFS access), echo a message to the
terminal and notify root user via email

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 106/155 Routing
Routing

Output of command route -en

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.3.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
0.0.0.0 192.168.3.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
network or host destination network or host
Destination
0.0.0.0 default route
host gateway
0.0.0.0
Gateway * no gateway needed, network is directly connected

- rejected route
network mask network mask to apply for the destination network
Genmask 255.255.255.255 destination host
0.0.0.0 default route
U route is up
G use gateway
H target is host
Flags ! rejected route
D dynamically installed by daemon
M modified from routing daemon
R reinstate route for dynamic routing

ip route Display IP routing table

route -en
route -F
netstat -rn

ip route show cache Display kernel routing cache

route -C

ip route add default via 10.1.1.254 Add a default gateway

route add default gw 10.1.1.254
ip route add 10.2.0.1 dev eth0 Add a route for a host
ip route add 10.2.0.1 via 10.2.0.254
route add -host 10.2.0.1 gw 10.2.0.254
ip route add 10.2.0.0/16 via 10.2.0.254 Add a route for a network
route add -net 10.2.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 10.2.0.254
ip route delete 10.2.0.1 dev eth0 Delete a route for a host
route del -host 10.2.0.1 gw 10.2.0.254
ip route flush all Delete the routing table for all interfaces

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 107/155 iptables
iptables

The Netfilter framework provides firewalling capabilities in Linux. It is implemented by the user-space application programs
iptables for IPv4 (which replaced ipchains, which itself replaced ipfwadm) and ip6tables for IPv6.
Iptables is implemented in the kernel and therefore does not have a daemon process or a service.
The ability to track connection state is provided by the ip_conntrack kernel module.

From RHEL 7 onward, iptables has been replaced by the firewalld daemon. To use it anyway, it is necessary to install the
package iptables-services which provides a systemd interface for iptables, and disable firewalld.
In Ubuntu, iptables is managed by the ufw service (Uncomplicated Firewall).

/etc/sysconfig/iptables Default file containing the firewall rules

iptables-restore < file Load into iptables the firewall rules specified in the file
iptables-save > file Save into iptables the firewall rules specified in the file

iptables rules file

*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] Delete all rules and open the firewall to all connections
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
COMMIT

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 108/155 iptables rules
iptables rules

Iptables uses tables containing sets of chains, which contain sets of rules. Each rule has a target (e.g. ACCEPT).
The "filter" table contains chains INPUT, FORWARD, OUTPUT (built-in chains); this is the default table to which all iptables
commands are applied, unless another table is specified via the -t option.
The "nat" table contains chains PREROUTING, OUTPUT, POSTROUTING.
The "mangle" table contains chains PREROUTING, OUTPUT.
When a packet enters the system, it is handed to the INPUT chain. If the destination is local, it is processed; if the
destination is not local and IP forwarding is enabled, the packet is handed to the FORWARD chain, otherwise it is dropped.
An outgoing packet generated by the system will go through the OUTPUT chain.
If NAT is in use, an incoming packet will pass at first through the PREROUTING chain, and an outgoing packet will pass last
through the POSTROUTING chain.

iptables -A INPUT -s 10.0.0.6 -j ACCEPT Add a rule to accept all packets from 10.0.0.6
iptables -A INPUT -s 10.0.0.7 -j REJECT Add a rule to reject all packets from 10.0.0.7 and send
back a ICMP response to the sender
iptables -A INPUT -s 10.0.0.8 -j DROP Add a rule to silently drop all packets from 10.0.0.8
iptables -A INPUT -s 10.0.0.9 -j LOG Add a rule to log via syslog all packets from 10.0.0.9

iptables -D INPUT -s 10.0.0.9 -j LOG Delete a specific rule

iptables -D INPUT 42 Delete rule 42 of the INPUT chain
iptables -F INPUT Flush all rules of the INPUT chain
iptables -F Flush all rules, hence disabling the firewall
iptables -t mangle -F Flush all rules of the "mangle" table
iptables -t mangle -X Delete all user-defined (not built-in) rules in the "mangle"
table

iptables -L INPUT List the rules of the INPUT chain

iptables -L -n List all rules, without translating numeric values (IP
addresses to FQDNs and port numbers to services)

iptables -N mychain Define a new chain

iptables -P INPUT DROP Define the chain policy target, which takes effect when no
rule matches and the end of the rules list is reached

iptables -A OUTPUT -d 10.7.7.0/24 -j DROP Add a rule to drop all packets with destination 10.7.7.0/24
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -j LOG Add a rule to log all packets entering the system via eth0
and exiting via eth1
iptables -A INPUT -p 17 -j DROP Add a rule to drop all incoming UDP traffic (protocol
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -j DROP numbers are defined in /etc/protocols)
iptables -A INPUT --sport 1024:65535 --dport 53 \ Add a rule to accept all packets coming from any
-j ACCEPT unprivileged port and with destination port 53
iptables -A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request \ Add a rule to accept incoming pings through eth0 at a
-m limit --limit 1/s -i eth0 -j ACCEPT maximum rate of 1 ping/second
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED \ Load the module for stateful packet filtering, and add a
-j ACCEPT rule to accept all packets that are part of a
communication already tracked by the state module
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT Add a rule to accept all packets that are not part of a
communication already tracked by the state module
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state RELATED -j ACCEPT Add a rule to accept all packets that are related (e.g.
ICMP responses to TCP or UDP traffic) to a communication
already tracked by the state module
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state INVALID -j ACCEPT Add a rule to accept all packets that do not match any of
the states above

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 109/155 firewalld
firewalld

In firewalld, a network interface (aka interface) or a subnet address (aka source) can be assigned to a specific zone.
To determine to which zone a packet belongs, first the zone of the source is analyzed, then the zone of the interface; if no
source or interface matches, the packet is associated to the default zone (which is "public", unless set otherwise).
If the zone is not specified in a command, the command is applied to the default zone.
By default, commands are temporary; adding the --permanent option to a command sets it as permanent, or shows
permanent settings only.
Temporary commands are effective immediately but are canceled at reboot, firewall reload, or firewall restart.
Permanent commands are effective only after reboot, firewall reload, or firewall restart.

Firewalld zones (as obtained by firewall-cmd --get-zones)

block Rejects incoming connections with an ICMP HOST_PROHIBITED; allows only established connections
dmz Used to expose services to the public; allows only specific incoming connections
drop Drops all incoming packets; allows only outgoing connections
external Used for routing and masquerading; allows only specific connections
home Allows only specific incoming connections
internal Used to define internal networks and allow only private network traffic
public Allows only specific incoming connections
trusted Accepts all traffic
work Used to define internal networks and allow only private network traffic

systemctl status firewalld

firewall-cmd --state Check the status of the firewall

firewall-config Firewall management GUI

firewall-cmd --reload Reload firewall configuration; this applies all permanent changes and
cancels all temporary changes. Current connections are not terminated
firewall-cmd --complete-reload Reload firewall configuration, stopping all current connections
firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent Transform all temporary changes to permanent

firewall-cmd --list-all-zones List all zones and their full settings

firewall-cmd --get-default-zone Show the default zone
firewall-cmd --set-default-zone=home Set "home" as the default zone
firewall-cmd --get-active-zones Show the active zones i.e. zones bound to
either an interface or a source
firewall-cmd --get-zones Show all available zones
firewall-cmd --get-zone-of-interface=eth0 Show the zone assigned to eth0
firewall-cmd --new-zone=test Create a new zone called "test"
firewall-cmd --zone=home --change-interface=eth0 Assign temporarily eth0 to the "home" zone
firewall-cmd --zone=home --change-interface=eth0 --permanent Assign permanently eth0 to the "home" zone
firewall-cmd --zone=home --list-all List temporary settings of the "home" zone
firewall-cmd --zone=home --list-all --permanent List permanent settings of the "home" zone

firewall-cmd --zone=home --add-source=10.1.1.0/24 Assign 10.1.1.0/24 to the "home" zone

firewall-cmd --zone=home --list-sources List sources bound to the "home" zone

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 110/155 firewalld rules
firewalld rules
firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --add-service=ssh
firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --add-port=22/tcp Add the SSH service to the "trusted" zone

firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --add-service={ssh,http,https} Add the SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS services to the
"trusted" zone

firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --list-services Show temporary and permanent services

bound to the "trusted" zone

firewall-cmd --zone=trusted --list-ports Show temporary and permanent ports open on

the "trusted" zone

firewall-cmd --get-icmptypes Show all known types of ICMP messages

firewall-cmd --add-icmp-block=echo-reply Block a specific ICMP message type
firewall-cmd --query-icmp-block=echo-reply Tell if a specific ICMP message type is blocked
firewall-cmd --list-icmp-block Show the list of blocked ICMP message types

/usr/lib/firewalld/services/service.xml Predefined configuration of service

/etc/firewalld/services/service.xml User-defined configuration of service

firewall-cmd --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter INPUT 0 \ Set up a direct rule (in iptables format) to
-p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT accept SSH connections

firewall-offline-cmd rule Set up a direct rule when firewalld is not

running
firewall-cmd --direct --get-all-rules Show all direct rules

/etc/firewalld/direct.xml User-defined direct rules

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule' Set up a rich rule

firewall-cmd --list-rich-rules List all rich rules
man firewalld.richlanguage Show the manpage about rich rules

firewall-cmd --zone=external --add-masquerade Set up masquerading on the "external" zone

for machines of the "internal" zone; packets
originating from the "internal" zone will get
the firewall's IP address as source address
firewall-cmd --zone=external --add-forward-port=\ Set up port forwarding from port 22 to 2222
port=22:proto=tcp:toport=2222 for the "external" zone

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 111/155 NAT routing
NAT routing

LAN Linux box

eth0 NAT router eth1 Internet
10.0.0.0/24
10.0.0.1 93.184.216.119

SNAT (Source Network Address Translation)

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.0.0.0/24 -o eth1 \ Map all traffic leaving the LAN to the external IP
-j SNAT --to-source 93.184.216.119 address 93.184.216.119
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.0.0.0/24 -o eth1 \ Map all traffic leaving the LAN to a pool of external
-j SNAT --to-source 93.184.216.119:93.184.216.127 IP addresses 93.184.216.119-127
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE Map all traffic leaving the LAN to the address
dynamically assigned to eth1 via DHCP

DNAT (Destination Network Address Translation)

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -d 93.184.216.119 \ Allow the internal host 10.0.0.13 to be publicly
-j DNAT --to-destination 10.0.0.13 reachable via the external address 93.184.216.119

PAT (Port Address Translation)

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -d 93.184.216.119 \ Make publicly accessible a webserver that is
-p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 10.0.0.13:8080 located in the LAN, by mapping port 8080 of the
internal host 10.0.0.13 to port 80 of the external
address 93.184.216.119
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -d ! 10.0.0.0/24 \ Redirect all outbound HTTP traffic originating from
-p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 3128 the LAN to a proxy running on port 3128 on the
Linux box

sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 Enable IP forwarding; necessary to set up a Linux machine as a router.

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward (This command causes other network options to be changed as well.)

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 112/155 SSH
SSH
ssh root@remotehost Connect to a remote host via SSH (Secure Shell) and login
as the root user
ssh -v root@remotehost Connect via SSH, specifying increasing levels of verbosity
ssh -vv root@remotehost
ssh -vvv root@remotehost
ssh -p 2222 root@remotehost SSH as root using port 2222 instead of standard port 22
ssh root@remotehost /root/mycommand Execute a command on a remote host

sftp root@remotehost FTP-like tool for secure file transfer

scp myfile root@remotehost:/tmp/myfile2 Non-interactive secure file copy.

scp root@remotehost:/tmp/myfile2 myfile Can transfer files from local to remote, from remote to
scp jdoe@host1:/tmp/myfile root@host2:/root/myfile2 local, or between two remote hosts

sshpass -p p455w0rd ssh root@remotehost Connect to a remote host using the specified password

pssh -i -H "host1 host2 host3" /root/mycommand Execute a command in parallel on a group of remote hosts

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 Generate interactively a 2048-bit RSA key pair; will
prompt for a passphrase
ssh-keygen -t dsa Generate a DSA key pair
ssh-keygen -p -t rsa Change passphrase of the private key
ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -f /etc/ssh/id_rsa -N '' -C '' Generate a RSA key with no passphrase (for non-
interactive use) and no comment
ssh-keygen -lf /etc/ssh/id_rsa.pub View key length and fingerprint of a public key

ssh-agent Start the SSH Agent daemon that caches decrypted

private keys in memory; also echoes to the terminal the
environment variables that must be set. The cached keys
are automatically used by SSH tools ssh, sftp, and scp
eval `ssh-agent` Show the PID of ssh-agent and set appropriate
environment variables

ssh-add Add the default private keys to the ssh-agent cache

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa Add a specific private key to the ssh-agent cache

ssh-copy-id root@remotehost Use locally available keys to authorize, via public key
authentication, login of root on a remote host.
Copies root's local public key ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to
~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote host

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 113/155 SSH operations
SSH operations

SSH port forwarding (aka SSH tunneling)

ssh -L 2525:mail.foo.com:25 [email protected] Establish a SSH encrypted tunnel from localhost to remote
host mail.foo.com, redirecting traffic from local port 2525
to port 25 of remote host mail.foo.com.
Useful if the local firewall blocks outgoing port 25. In this
case, port 2525 is used to go out; the application must be
configured to connect to localhost on port 2525 (instead of
mail.foo.com on port 25)
ssh -L 2525:mail.foo.com:25 [email protected] Establish a SSH encrypted tunnel from localhost to remote
host login.foo.com.
Remote host login.foo.com will then forward, unencrypted,
all data received over the tunnel on port 2525 to remote
host mail.foo.com on port 25

SSH reverse forwarding (aka SSH reverse tunneling)

ssh -R 2222:localhost:22 [email protected] Establish a SSH encrypted reverse tunnel from remote
host login.foo.com back to localhost, redirecting traffic
sent to port 2222 of remote host login.foo.com back
towards local port 22.
Useful if the local firewall blocks incoming connections so
remote hosts cannot connect back to local machine. In
this case, port 2222 of login.foo.com is opened for
listening and connecting back to localhost on port 22;
remote host login.foo.com is then able to connect to the
local machine on port 2222 (redirected to local port 22)

SSH as a SOCKS proxy

ssh -D 33333 [email protected] The application supporting SOCKS must be configured to
connect to localhost on port 33333. Data is tunneled from
localhost to login.foo.com, then unencrypted to destination

X11 Forwarding
ssh -X [email protected] Enable the local display to execute locally a X application
stored on a remote host login.foo.com

How to enable public key authentication

1. On remote host, set PubkeyAuthentication yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
2. On local machine, do ssh-copy-id you@remotehost (or copy your public key to the remote host by hand)

How to enable host-based authentication amongst a group of trusted hosts

1. On all hosts, set HostbasedAuthentication yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
2. On all hosts, create /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv and enter in this file all trusted hostnames
3. Connect via SSH manually from your machine on each host so that all hosts' public keys go into ~/.ssh/known_hosts
4. Copy ~/.ssh/known_hosts from your machine to /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts on all hosts

How to enable SSH Agent

1. Type eval `ssh-agent`
2. Type ssh-add to add the private key to cache, and enter the key's passphrase

How to enable X11 Forwarding

1. On remote host 10.2.2.2, set X11Forwarding yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config, and make sure that xauth is installed
2. On local host 10.1.1.1, type ssh -X 10.2.2.2, then run on remote host the graphical application e.g. xclock &

It is also possible to enable X11 Forwarding via telnet (but this is insecure and obsolete, and therefore not recommended):
1. On remote host 10.2.2.2, type export DISPLAY=10.1.1.1:0.0
2. On local host 10.1.1.1, type xhost +
3. On local host 10.1.1.1, type telnet 10.2.2.2, then run on remote host the graphical application e.g. xclock &

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 114/155 SSH configuration
SSH configuration
/etc/ssh/sshd_config SSH server daemon configuration file
/etc/ssh/ssh_config SSH client global configuration file
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_key Host's private key (should be mode 0600)
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.pub Host's public key
/etc/ssh/shosts.equiv Names of trusted hosts for host-based authentication
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts Database of host public keys that were previously accepted as legitimate
~/.ssh/ User's SSH directory (must be mode 0700)
~/.ssh/config SSH client user configuration file
~/.ssh/id_rsa User's RSA or DSA private key, as generated by ssh-keygen
~/.ssh/id_dsa
~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub User's RSA or DSA public key, as generated by ssh-keygen
~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
~/.ssh/known_hosts Host public keys that were previously accepted as legitimate by the user
~/.ssh/authorized_keys Trusted public keys; the corresponding private keys allow the user to
~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 (obsolete) authenticate on this host

/etc/ssh/sshd_config SSH server configuration file

PermitRootLogin yes Control superuser login via SSH. Possible values are:
yes Superuser can login
no Superuser cannot login
without-password Superuser cannot login with password
forced-commands-only Superuser can only run commands in SSH command line
AllowUsers jdoe ksmith
DenyUsers jhacker List of users that can/cannot login via SSH, or * for everybody

AllowGroups geeks
DenyGroups * List of groups whose members can/cannot login via SSH, or * for all groups

PasswordAuthentication yes Permit authentication via login and password

PubKeyAuthentication yes Permit authentication via public key
HostbasedAuthentication yes Permit authentication based on trusted hosts
Protocol 1,2 Specify protocols supported by SSH. Value can be 1 or 2 or both
X11Forwarding yes Allow X11 Forwarding

/etc/ssh/ssh_config and ~/.ssh/config SSH client configuration file

Host * List of hosts to which the following directives will apply, or * for all hosts
StrictHostKeyChecking yes Ask before adding new host keys to the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file, and refuse to
connect if the key for a known host has changed. This prevents MITM attacks
GSSAPIAuthentication yes Support authentication using GSSAPI
ForwardX11Trusted yes Allow remote X11 clients to fully access the original X11 display
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa User identity file for authentication. Default values are:
~/.ssh/identity for protocol version 1
~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa for protocol version 2

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 115/155 OpenSSL
OpenSSL
openssl x509 -text -in certif.crt -noout Read a certificate
openssl req -text -in request.csr -noout Read a Certificate Signing Request
openssl req -new -key private.key -out request.csr Generate a Certificate Signing Request (in PEM
format) for the public key of a key pair
openssl req -new -nodes -keyout private.key \ Create a 2048-bit RSA key pair and generate a
-out request.csr -newkey rsa:2048 Certificate Signing Request for it
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes \ Generate a self-signed root certificate (and create
-keyout private.key -out certif.crt -days validity a new CA private key)
openssl ca -config ca.conf -in request.csr \ Generate a self-signed certificate
-out certif.crt -days validity -verbose
openssl ca -config ca.conf -gencrl -revoke certif.crt \ Revoke a certificate
-crl_reason why
openssl ca -config ca.conf -gencrl -out crlist.crl Generate a Certificate Revocation List containing
all revoked certificates so far

openssl x509 -in certif.pem -outform DER \ Convert a certificate from PEM to DER
-out certif.der
openssl pkcs12 -export -in certif.pem \ Convert a certificate from PEM to PKCS#12
-inkey private.key -out certif.pfx -name friendlyname including the private key
cat cert.crt cert.key > cert.pem Create a PEM certificate from CRT and private key

openssl dgst -hashfunction -out file.hash file Generate the digest of a file
openssl dgst -hashfunction file | cmp -b file.hash Verify the digest of a file (no output means that
digest verification is successful)
openssl dgst -hashfunction -sign private.key \ Generate the signature of a file
-out file.sig file
openssl dgst -hashfunction -verify public.key \ Verify the signature of a file
-signature file.sig file
openssl enc -e -cipher -in file -out file.enc -salt Encrypt a file
openssl enc -d -cipher -in file.enc -out file Decrypt a file

openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -cipher 3des \ Generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair protected by
-pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048 -out key.pem TripleDES passphrase
openssl pkey -text -in private.key -noout Examine a private key
openssl pkey -in old.key -out new.key -cipher Change the passphrase of a private key
openssl pkey -in old.key -out new.key Remove the passphrase from a private key

1. openssl s_client -connect www.website.com:443 > tmpfile Retrieve and inspect a SSL certificate from a
website
2. CTRL C

3. openssl x509 -in tmpfile -text

openssl list-message-digest-commands List all available hash functions

openssl list-cipher-commands List all available ciphers

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 116/155 CA.pl
CA.pl
CA.pl -newca Create a Certification Authority hierarchy
CA.pl -newreq Generate a Certificate Signing Request
CA.pl -signreq Sign a Certificate Signing Request
CA.pl -pkcs12 "Certificate name" Generate a PKCS#12 certificate from a Certificate Signing Request

CA.pl -newcert Generate a self-signed certificate

CA.pl -newreq-nodes Generate a Certificate Signing Request, with unencrypted private key
(this is necessary for use in servers, because the private key is accessed in
non-interactive mode i.e. without passphrase typing)

CA.pl -verify Verify a certificate against the Certification Authority certificate for "demoCA"

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 117/155 GnuPG
GnuPG
gpg --gen-key Generate a key pair
gpg --import alice.asc Import Alice's public key into your keyring
gpg --list-keys List the keys contained into your keyring
gpg --list-secret-keys List your private keys contained into your keyring
gpg --list-public-keys List the public keys contained into your keyring
gpg --export -o keyring_backup.gpg Export your whole keyring to a file
gpg --export-secret-key -a "You" -o private.key Export your private key (username You) to a file
gpg --export-public-key -a "Alice" -o alice.pub Export Alice's public key to a file
gpg --edit-key "Alice" Sign Alice's public key
gpg -e -u "You" -r "Alice" file.txt Sign a file (with your private key) and encrypt it to
Alice (i.e. with Alice's public key)
gpg -d file.txt.gpg Decrypt a file (with your own public key)

md5sum Print a digest of a file generated by the relevant hashing algorithm

sha1sum
sha224sum
sha256sum
sha384sum
sha512sum

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 118/155 OpenVPN
OpenVPN
openvpn --genkey --secret keyfile Generate a shared secret keyfile for OpenVPN authentication.
The keyfile must be copied on both server and client

openvpn server.conf Start the VPN on the server side. The encrypted VPN tunnel uses UDP port 1194
openvpn client.conf Start the VPN on the client side

/etc/openvpn/server.conf Server-side configuration file:

dev tun
ifconfig server_IP client_IP
keepalive 10 60
ping-timer-rem
persist-tun
persist-key
secret keyfile

/etc/openvpn/client.conf Client-side configuration file:

remote server_public_IP
dev tun
ifconfig client_IP server_IP
keepalive 10 60
ping-timer-rem
persist-tun
persist-key
secret keyfile

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 119/155 Key bindings - terminal
Key bindings - terminal

Key Alternate key Function

CTRL F → Move cursor forward one char
CTRL B ← Move cursor backward one char
CTRL A HOME Move cursor to beginning of line
CTRL E END Move cursor to end of line

CTRL H BACKSPACE Delete char to the left of cursor

CTRL W Delete word to the left of cursor
CTRL U Delete all chars to the left of cursor
CTRL K Delete all chars to the right of cursor
CTRL T Swap current char with previous char
ESC T Swap current word with previous word

SHIFT PAGE UP Scroll up the screen buffer

SHIFT PAGE DOWN Scroll down the screen buffer
CTRL L Clear screen (same as clear)

CTRL P ↑ Previous command in history

CTRL N ↓ Next command in history
CTRL R Reverse history search
TAB Autocomplete commands, filenames, and directory names

ALT / Autocomplete filenames and directory names only

CTRL ALT E Expand the Bash alias currently entered on the command line

CTRL J RETURN Line feed

CTRL M Carriage return

CTRL S Pause transfer to terminal

Forward history search (if XON/XOFF flow control is disabled)
CTRL Q Resume transfer to terminal
CTRL Z Send a SIGTSTP to put the current job in background
CTRL C Send a SIGINT to stop the current process
CTRL D Send a EOF to current process (if it's a shell, same as logout)

CTRL ALT DEL Send a SIGINT to reboot the machine (same as shutdown -r now);
specified in /etc/inittab and /etc/init/control-alt-delete

CTRL ALT F1 ... F6 Switch between text consoles (same as chvt n)

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 120/155 Key bindings - X
Key bindings - X

Key Alternate key Function

CTRL ALT F7 ... F11 Switch between X Window consoles
CTRL ALT + Increase X Window screen resolution
CTRL ALT - Decrease X Window screen resolution
CTRL TAB Switch between X Window tasks

CTRL ALT → CTRL ALT ↓ Switch to next workspace

CTRL ALT ← CTRL ALT ↑ Switch to previous workspace
CTRL ALT BACKSPACE Reboot the X Window server

ALT TAB Switch between windows in the current workspace in GNOME

SUPER Show activities overview in GNOME
SUPER L Lock screen in GNOME
SUPER M Show tray messages in GNOME
ALT F2 Run command in GNOME

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 121/155 udev
udev

The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) manages device files and provides plug-and-play facilities. The HAL daemon hald
maintains a persistent database of devices.
udev is the device manager for the Linux kernel. It dynamically generates the device nodes in /dev/ for devices present on
the system; it also provides persistent naming for storage devices in /dev/disk .
When a device is added, removed, or changes state, the kernel sends an uevent received by the udevd daemon which will
pass the uevent through a set of rules stored in /etc/udev/rules.d/*.rules and /lib/udev/rules.d/*.rules .

udevadm monitor Show all kernel uevents and udev messages

udevmonitor
udevadm info --attribute-walk --name=/dev/sda Print all attributes of device /dev/sda in udev rules key format
cat /sys/block/sda/size Print the size attribute of disk sda in 512-byte blocks.
This information is retrieved from sysfs
udevadm test /dev/sdb Simulate a udev event run for the device and print debug output
gnome-device-manager Browser for the HAL device manager

/etc/udev/rules.d/*.rules and /lib/udev/rules.d/*.rules udev rules

KERNEL=="hda", NAME="mydisk" Match a device which was named by the
kernel as hda; name the device node as
mydisk. The device node will be therefore
/dev/mydisk

KERNEL=="hdb", DRIVER=="ide-disk", SYMLINK+="mydisk myhd" Match a device with kernel name and driver
as specified; name the device node with the
default name and create two symbolic links
/dev/mydisk and /dev/myhd pointing to
/dev/hdb

KERNEL=="fd[0-9]*", NAME="floppy/%n", SYMLINK+="%k" Match all floppy disk drives (i.e. fdn); place
device node in /dev/floppy/n and create a
symlink /dev/fdn to it

SUBSYSTEM=="block", ATTR{size}=="41943040", SYMLINK+="mydisk" Match a block device with a size attribute of

41943040; create a symlink /dev/mydisk

KERNEL=="fd[0-9]*", OWNER="jdoe" Match all floppy disk drives; give ownership

of the device file to user jdoe

KERNEL=="sda", PROGRAM="/bin/mydevicenamer %k", SYMLINK+="%c" Match a device named by the kernel as sda;
to name the device, use the defined
program which takes on stdin the kernel
name and output on stdout e.g. name1
name2. Create symlinks /dev/name1 and
/dev/name2 pointing to /dev/sda

KERNEL=="sda", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/myprogram" Match a device named by the kernel as sda;

run the defined program when the device is
connected

KERNEL=="sda", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/myprogram" Match a device named by the kernel as sda;

run the defined program when the device is
disconnected
%n = kernel number (e.g. = 3 for fd3)
%k = kernel name (e.g. = fd3 for fd3)
%c = device name as output from program

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 122/155 Kernel
Kernel

A kernel version number has the form major.minor.patchlevel.

Kernel images are usually gzip-compressed and can be of two types: zImage (max 520 Kb) and bzImage (no size limit).
Kernel modules can be loaded dynamically into the kernel to provide additional functionalities on demand, instead of being
included when the kernel is compiled; this reduces memory footprint.
kerneld (daemon) and kmod (kernel thread) facilitate the dynamic loading of kernel modules.

/lib/modules/X.Y.Z/*.ko Kernel modules for kernel version X.Y.Z

/lib/modules/X.Y.Z/modules.dep Modules dependencies.
This file needs to be recreated (via the command depmod -a) after a
reboot or a change in module dependencies
/etc/modules.conf Modules configuration file
/etc/conf.modules (deprecated)

/usr/src/linux/ Contains the kernel source code to be compiled

/usr/src/linux/.config Kernel configuration file

freeramdisk Free the memory used for the initrd image. This command must be
run directly after unmounting /initrd
mkinitrd initrd_image kernel_version Create a initrd image file (Red Hat)
mkinitramfs Create a initrd image file according to the configuration file
/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf (Debian)
dracut Create initial ramdisk images for preloading modules

dbus-monitor Monitor messages going through a D-Bus message bus

dbus-monitor --session Monitor session messages (default)
dbus-monitor --system Monitor system messages

The runtime loader ld.so loads the required shared libraries of the program into RAM, searching in this order:

1. LD_LIBRARY_PATH Environment variable specifying the list of dirs where libraries should be searched for first
2. /etc/ld.so.cache Cache file
3. /lib and /usr/lib Default locations for shared libraries

/etc/ld.so.conf Configuration file used to specify other shared library locations

(other than the default ones /lib and /usr/lib)

ldconfig Create a cache file /etc/ld.so.cache of all available dynamically

linked libraries.
To be run when the system complains about missing libraries

ldd program_or_lib Print library dependencies

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 123/155 Kernel management
Kernel management
lspci List PCI devices
lspci -d 8086: List all Intel hardware present. PCI IDs are stored in:
/usr/share/misc/pci.ids (Debian)
/usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids (Red Hat)

lsusb List USB devices

lsusb -d 8086: List all Intel USB devices present. USB IDs are stored in:
/var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids (Debian)
/usr/share/hwdata/usb.ids (Red Hat)

lsdev List information about the system's hardware

lshw List system hardware

lscpu List information about the CPU architecture

uname -s Print the kernel name

uname -n Print the network node hostname
uname -r Print the kernel release number X.Y.Z
uname -v Print the kernel version number
uname -m Print the machine hardware name
uname -p Print the processor type
uname -i Print the hardware platform
uname -o Print the operating system
uname -a Print all the above information, in that order

dmesg Print the messages of the kernel ring buffer

dmesg -n 1 Set the logging level to 1 (= only panic messages)

journalctl Query the systemd journal

journalctl -n Query the systemd journal, showing only the 10 most recent lines
journalctl --since "1 hour ago" Query the systemd journal for events happened in the last hour
journalctl -x Query the systemd journal, adding explanations from the message catalog
journalctl -f Query the systemd journal in real time, scrolling as new entries are added
journalctl -u sshd.service Query the systemd journal for a specific unit

evtest Monitor and query input device events in /dev/input/eventn

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 124/155 Kernel compile and patching
Kernel compile and patching

Kernel compile
Download kernel source code linux-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2 from http://www.kernel.org
Download
to the base of the kernel source tree /usr/src/linux
make clean Delete most generated files
Clean make mrproper Delete all generated files and kernel configuration
make distclean Delete temporary files, patch leftover files, and similar
make config Terminal-based (options must be set in sequence)
make menuconfig ncurses UI
make xconfig
make gconfig GUI

make oldconfig Create a new config file, based on the options in the old config
file and in the source code
Configure
Components (e.g. device drivers) can be either:
- not compiled
- compiled into the kernel binary, for support of devices always used on the system or necessary
for the system to boot
- compiled as a kernel module, for optional devices

The configuration command creates a /usr/src/linux/.config config file containing

instructions for the compile
make bzImage Compile the kernel
make modules Compile the kernel modules
Build
make all Compile kernel and kernel modules
make -j2 all will speed up compilation by allocating 2 simultaneous compile jobs

Install the previously built modules present in

Modules install make modules_install
/lib/modules/X.Y.Z
make install Install the kernel automatically
To install the kernel by hand:

Copy the new compiled kernel and other files into the boot partition
Kernel install cp /usr/src/linux/arch/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-X.Y.Z (kernel)
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/boot/System.map-X.Y.Z /boot
cp /usr/src/linux/arch/boot/config-X.Y.Z /boot (config options used for this compile)

Create an entry in GRUB to boot on the new kernel

Optionally, the kernel can be packaged for install on other machines
make rpm-pkg Build source and binary RPM packages
Package
make binrpm-pkg Build binary RPM package
make deb-pkg Builds binary DEB package

Kernel patching
Download Download and decompress the patch to /usr/src
patch -p1 < file.patch Apply the patch
Patch To remove a patch, you can either apply the patch again or
patch -Rp1 < file.patch
use this command (reverse patch)
Build Build the patched kernel as explained previously
Install Install the patched kernel as explained previously

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 125/155 Kernel modules
Kernel modules

Kernel modules allow the kernel to access functions (symbols) for kernel services e.g. hardware drivers, network stack, or
filesystem abstraction.

lsmod List the modules that are currently loaded into the kernel
insmod module Insert a module into the kernel. If the module requires another module or if it
does not detect compatible hardware, insertion will fail
rmmod module Remove a module from the kernel. If the module is in use by another module, it
is necessary to remove the latter first
modinfo module Display the list of parameters accepted by the module
depmod -a Probe all modules in the kernel modules directory and generate the file that lists
their dependencies

It is recommended to use modprobe instead of insmod/rmmod, because it automatically handles prerequisites when inserting
modules, is more specific about errors, and accepts just the module name instead of requiring the full pathname.
modprobe module option=value Insert a module into the running kernel, with the specified parameters.
Prerequisite modules will be inserted automatically
modprobe -a Insert all modules
modprobe -t directory Attempt to load all modules contained in the directory until a module succeeds.
This action probes the hardware by successive module-insertion attempts for a
single type of hardware, e.g. a network adapter
modprobe -r module Remove a module
modprobe -c module Display module configuration
modprobe -l List loaded modules

Configuration of device drivers

Device drivers support the kernel with instructions on how to use that device.
Device driver compiled Configure the device driver by passing a kernel parameter in the GRUB menu:
into the kernel kernel /vmlinuz ro root=/dev/vg0/root vga=0x33c

Edit module configuration in /etc/modprobe.conf or /etc/modprobe.d/ (Red Hat):

Device driver provided
alias eth0 3c59x Specify that eth0 uses the 3c59x.ko driver module
as a kernel module
options 3c509 irq=10,11 Assign IRQ 10 and 11 to 3c509 devices

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 126/155 /proc filesystem
/proc filesystem

File Information stored (viewable via cat) Equivalent command

/proc/bus Buses (e.g. PCI, USB, PC Card)
/proc/cpuinfo CPUs information
/proc/devices Drivers currently loaded
/proc/dma DMA channels in use
/proc/filesystems Filesystems supported by the system
/proc/interrupts Current IRQs (Interrupt Requests) procinfo
/proc/ioports I/O addresses in use
/proc/loadavg System load averages uptime
/proc/mdstat Information about RAID arrays and devices
/proc/meminfo Total and free memory free
/proc/modules Kernel modules currently loaded lsmod
/proc/mounts Mounted partitions mount
/proc/n/ Information about process with PID n ps n
/proc/n/cmdline Command by which the process was launched
/proc/n/cwd Symlink to process' working directory
/proc/n/environ Values of environment variables of process
/proc/n/exe Symlink to process' executable
/proc/n/fd Files currently opened by the process lsof -p n
/proc/n/root Symlink to process' filesystem root
/proc/n/status Status of process
/proc/net/dev Network interface statistics
/proc/partitions Drive partition information
/proc/swaps Size of total and used swap areas swapon -s
/proc/sys/ sysfs: exposes tunable kernel parameters
/proc/sys/kernel/ Kernel information and parameters
/proc/sys/net/ Network information and parameters
/proc/uptime Time elapsed since boot uptime
/proc/version Linux version uname -a

/proc is a pseudo filesystem that gives access to process data held in the kernel.

/proc/sys is the only writable branch of /proc and can be used to tune kernel parameters on-the-fly.
All changes are lost after system shutdown.

sysctl fs.file-max Get the maximum allowed number of open files

cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max

sysctl -w "fs.file-max=100000" Set the maximum allowed number of open files to 100000
echo "100000" > /proc/sys/fs/file-max

sysctl -a List all available kernel tuning options

sysctl -p Apply all tuning settings listed in /etc/sysctl.conf .
This command is usually run at boot by the system initialization script,
permitting to make permanent changes to kernel parameters

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 127/155 System recovery
System recovery

If the kernel has been booted in emergency mode and init has not been run, some initial configuration is necessary e.g.

mount /proc
mount -o remount,rw /
mount -a

If mounting the filesystems fails:

mknod /dev/sda
mknod /dev/sda1
fdisk -l /dev/sda
fsck -y /dev/sda1
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt/sysimage
chroot /mnt/sysimage

To install a package using an alternative root directory (useful if the system has been booted from a removable media):

rpm -U --root /mnt/sysimage package.rpm

To install GRUB on the specified directory (which must contain /boot/grub/):

grub-install –-root-directory=/mnt/sysimage /dev/sda

An alternative metod is to chroot /mnt/sysimage before installing GRUB via grub-install /dev/sda .

Run sync and unmount all filesystems before exiting the shell, to ensure that all changes have been written on disk.

How to reset the root password (RHEL 7)

1. Power up the system and, on the GRUB 2 boot screen, press E to edit the current entry.
2. Edit the line with linux16, removing the rhgb and quiet parameters and adding rd.break at the end.

3. Press CTRL X ; the system will boot on the initramfs switch_root prompt.

4. Remount the filesystem as writable: mount -o remount,rw /sysroot

5. Change the filesystem root: chroot /sysroot

6. Modify the root password: passwd root

7. Force SELinux to relabel context on next boot: touch /.autorelabel

8. Remount the filesystem as readonly: mount -o remount,ro /sysroot

9. Exit the chroot environment: exit

10. Resume system boot: exit

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 128/155 DNS
DNS

DNS implementations
BIND Berkeley Internet Name Domain system, is the standard DNS server for UNIX
dnsmasq Lightweight DNS, DHCP and TFTP server for a small network
djbdns Security-hardened DNS server that also includes DNS debugging tools
PowerDNS Alternative open-source DNS server

named BIND Name Daemon

ndc Name Daemon Controller for BIND 8
rndc Remote Name Daemon Controller for BIND 9, uses a shared key to communicate securely with named

dnswalk example.org. DNS debugger

rndc reconfig Reload BIND configuration and new zones

rndc reload example.org Reload the zone example.org
rndc freeze example.org Suspend updates for the zone example.org
rndc thaw example.org Resume updates for the zone example.org
rndc tsig-list List all currently active TSIG keys

DNSSEC was designed to secure the DNS tree and hence prevent cache poisoning.
The TSIG (Transaction SIGnature) standard, that authenticates communications between two trusted systems, is used to
sign zone transfers and DDNS (Dynamic DNS) updates.

dnssec-keygen -a dsa -b 1024 \ Generate a TSIG key with DNSSEC algorithm nnn and key fingerprint fffff.
-n HOST dns1.example.org This will create two key files
Kdns1.example.org.+nnn+fffff.key
Kdns1.example.org.+nnn+fffff.private
which contain a key number that has to be inserted both in /etc/named.conf and
/etc/rndc.conf

rndc-confgen -a Generate a /etc/rndc.key key file:

key "rndc-key" {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "vyZqL3tPHsqnA57e4LT0Ek==";
};
options {
default-key "rndc-key";
default-server 127.0.0.1;
default-port 953;
};

This file is automatically read both by named and rndc

dnssec-signzone example.org Sign the zone example.org

named -u named -g named Run BIND as user/group named (both must be created if needed) instead of root
named -t /var/cache/bind Run BIND in a chroot jail /var/cache/bind
(actually is the chroot command that starts the named server)

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 129/155 DNS configuration
DNS configuration

/etc/named.conf DNS server configuration file

controls {
inet 127.0.0.1 allow {localhost;} keys {rndckey;};
};
key "rndc-key" { // TSIG key
algorithm dsa;
secret "HYZur46fftdUQ43BJKI093t4t78lkp";
};

acl "mynetwork" {10.7.0.0/24;}; // Alias definition

// Built-in ACLs: any, none, localhost, localnets

options {
directory "/var/named"; // Working directory
version "0.0"; // Hide version number by replacing it with 0.0
listen-on port 53 {10.7.0.1; 127.0.0.1;}; // Port and own IP addresses to listen on
blackhole {172.17.17.0/24;}; // IPs whose packets are to be ignored
allow-query {mynetwork;}; // IPs allowed to do iterative queries
allow-query-on {any;}; // Local IPs that can accept iterative queries
allow-query-cache {any;}; // IPs that can get an answer from cache
allow-recursion {mynetwork;}; // IPs to accept recursive queries from (typically
// own network's IPs). The DNS server does the full
// resolution process on behalf of these client IPs,
// and returns a referral for the other IPs
allow-recursion-on {mynetwork;}; // Local IPs that can accept recursive queries
allow-transfer {10.7.0.254;}; // Zone transfer is restricted to these IPs (slaves);
// on slave servers, this option should be disabled
allow-update {any;}; // IPs to accept DDNS updates from
recursive-clients 1000; // Max number of simultaneous recursive lookups
dnssec-enable yes; // Enable DNSSEC
dialup no; // Not a dialup connection: external zone maintenance
// (e.g. sending heartbeat packets, external zone transfers)
// is then permitted
forward first; // Site-wide cache: bypass the normal resolution
forwarders {10.7.0.252; 10.7.0.253;}; // method by querying first these central DNS
// servers if they are available
};

// Define the root name servers

zone "." {
type hint;
file "root.cache";
}

// Configure system to act as a master server for the example.org domain

zone "example.org" IN {
type master;
file "master/example.org.zone"; // Zone file for the example.org domain
};
zone "240.123.224.in-addr.arpa" IN { // Configure reverse lookup zone (for 224.123.240.0/24)
type master;
file "slave/example.org.revzone";
};

// Configure system to act as a slave server for the example2.org domain

zone "example2.org" IN {
type slave;
file "slave/example2.org.zone"; // Slave: do not edit this zone file!
masters {10.7.0.254;};
};
zone "0.7.10.in-addr.arpa" IN { // Configure reverse lookup zone (for 10.7.0.0/24)
type slave;
file "slave/10.7.0.revzone";
masters {10.7.0.254;};
};

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 130/155 DNS zone file
DNS zone file

/var/named/master/example.org.zone DNS zone file for the example.org zone

$TTL 86400 ; TTL (1 day)
$ORIGIN example.org.
example.org IN SOA dns1.example.org. help.example.org. ( ; Master DNS server is dns1.example.org
2014052300 ; serial ; For problems contact [email protected]
28800 ; refresh (8 hours)
7200 ; retry (2 hours)
604800 ; expire (1 week)
600 ) ; negative TTL (10 mins)

IN NS dns1.example.org.
IN NS dns2.example.org.
IN MX 10 mail1.example.org.
IN MX 20 mail2.example.org.

dns1 IN A 224.123.240.3
dns2 IN A 224.123.240.4
mail1 IN A 224.123.240.73
mail2 IN A 224.123.240.77
foo IN A 224.123.240.12
bar IN A 224.123.240.13
www IN A 224.123.240.19
baz IN CNAME bar

subdomain IN NS ns1.subdomain.example.org. ; Glue records

IN NS ns2.subdomain.example.org.
ns1.subdomain.example.org. IN A 224.123.240.201
ns2.subdomain.example.org. IN A 224.123.240.202

/var/named/master/example.org.revzone DNS reverse zone file for the example.org zone

$TTL 86400 ; TTL (1 day)
example.org IN SOA dns1.example.org. help.example.org. (
2014052300 ; serial
28800 ; refresh (8 hours)
7200 ; retry (2 hours)
604800 ; expire (1 week)
600 ) ; negative TTL (10 mins)

12.240.123.224.in-addr.arpa IN PTR foo

13.240.123.224.in-addr.arpa IN PTR bar
19.240.123.224.in-addr.arpa IN PTR www

Resource Records
$TTL How long to cache a positive response
$ORIGIN Suffix appended to all names not ending with a dot.
Useful when defining multiple subdomains inside the same zone
SOA Start Of Authority for the example.org zone
serial Serial number. Must be increased after each edit of the zone file
refresh How frequently a slave server refreshes its copy of zone data from the master
retry How frequently a slave server retries connecting to the master
expire How long a slave server relies on its copy of zone data. After this time period expires,
the slave server is not authoritative anymore for the zone unless it can contact a master
negative TTL How long to cache a non-existent answer
A Address: maps names to IP addresses. Used for DNS lookups.
PTR Pointer: maps IP addresses to names. Used for reverse DNS lookups.
Each A record must have a matching PTR record
CNAME Canonical Name: specifies an alias for a host with an A record (even in a different zone).
Discouraged as it causes multiple lookups; it is better to use multiple A records instead
NS Name Service: specifies the authoritative name servers for the zone
MX Mailserver: specifies address and priority of the servers able to handle mail for the zone
Glue Records are not really part of the zone; they delegate authority for other zones, usually subdomains

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 131/155 Apache
Apache

apachectl (Red Hat) Manage the Apache webserver

httpd (Red Hat)
apache2ctl (Debian)

apachectl start Start the Apache webserver daemon

apachectl status Display a brief status report
apachectl fullstatus Display a detailed status report
apachectl graceful Gracefully restart Apache; currently open connections are not aborted
apachectl graceful-stop Gracefully stop Apache; currently open connections are not aborted
apachectl configtest Test the configuration file, reporting any syntax error
apachectl -t
apachectl -M List all loaded and shared modules

/var/www/html Default document root directory

$HOME/public_html Default document root directory for users' websites
Web content must be readable by the user/group the Apache process runs as. For security reasons, it should be owned and
writable by the superuser or the webmaster user/group, not the Apache user/group.

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf (Red Hat)

Apache configuration file
/etc/apache2/httpd.conf (Debian and SUSE)

The Apache webserver contains a number of MPMs (Multi-Processing Modules) which can operate following two methods:
prefork MPM A number of child processes is spawned in advance, with each child serving one connection.
Highly reliable due to Linux memory protection that isolates each child process
worker MPM Multiple child processes spawn multiple threads, with each thread serving one connection.
More scalable but prone to deadlocks if third-party non-threadsafe modules are loaded

HTTPS
A secure web server (one which uses HTTP over SSL i.e. HTTPS) hands over its public key to the client when the latter
connects to it via port 443. The server's public key is signed by a CA (Certification Authority), whose validity is
ensured by the root certificates stored into the client's browser.

The openssl command and its user-friendly CA.pl script are the tools of the OpenSSL crypto library that can be used
to accomplish all public key crypto operations e.g. generate key pairs, Certificate Signing Requests, self-signed
certificates.

Virtual hosting with HTTPS requires assigning an unique IP address for each virtual host; this because the SSL
handshake (during which the server sends its certificate to the client's browser) takes place before the client sends
the Host: header (which tells to which virtual host the client wants to talk).
A workaround for this is SNI (Server Name Indication) that makes the browser send the hostname in the first
message of the SSL handshake. Another workaround is to have all multiple name-based virtual hosts use the same
SSL certificate with a wildcard domain e.g. *.example.org.

/etc/ssl/openssl.cnf Configuration file for OpenSSL

/etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf (Red Hat) Configuration file for the mod_ssl module

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 132/155 Apache configuration
Apache configuration

httpd.conf Apache configuration

Server configuration directives

ServerName www.mysite.org:80 Name and port (if omitted, uses default HTTP port 80) of server
ServerRoot /etc/httpd Root directory for config and log files
ServerAdmin [email protected] Contact address that the server includes in any HTTP error
messages to the client. Can be an email address or an URL
StartServers 5 Number of servers to start initially
MinSpareServers 5 Minimum and maximum number of idle child server processes
MaxSpareServers 10

MaxClients 256 (before v2.3.13) Max number of simultaneous requests that will be served; clients
MaxRequestWorkers 256 (v2.3.13 and later) above this limit will get a HTTP error 503 - Service Unavailable.
Prefork MPM: max number of child processes launched to serve
requests.
Worker MPM: max total number of threads available to serve
requests
ServerLimit 256 Prefork MPM: max configured value for MaxRequestWorkers.
Worker MPM: in conjunction with ThreadLimit, max configured
value for MaxRequestWorkers
ThreadsPerChild 25 Worker MPM: number of threads created by each child process
ThreadLimit 64 Worker MPM: max configured value for ThreadsPerChild
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so Load the module mime_module by linking in the object file or
library modules/mod_mime.so
Listen 10.17.1.1:80 Make the server accept connections on the specified IP
Listen 10.17.1.5:8080 addresses (optional) and ports
User nobody User and group the Apache process runs as. For security
Group nobody reasons, this should not be root

Main configuration directives

DocumentRoot /var/www/html Directory in filesystem that maps to the root of the website
Alias /image /mydir/pub/image Map the URL http://www.mysite.org/image/ to the directory
/mydir/pub/image in the filesystem. This allows Apache to
serve content placed outside of the document root
TypesConfig conf/mime.types Media types file. The path is relative to ServerRoot
AddType image/jpeg jpeg jpg jpe Map the specified filename extensions onto the specified content
type. These entries adds to or override the entries from the
media types file conf/mime.types
Redirect permanent /foo /bar Redirect to a URL on the same host. Status can be:
permanent return a HTTP status 301 - Moved Permanently
temp return a HTTP status 302 - Found
(i.e. the resource was temporarily moved)
seeother return a HTTP status 303 - See Other
gone return a HTTP status 410 - Gone
If status is omitted, default status temp is used
Redirect /foo http://www.example.com/foo Redirect to a URL on a different host
AccessFileName .htaccess Name of the distributed configuration file, which contains
directives that apply to the document directory it is in and to all
its subtrees
<Directory "/var/www/html/foobar"> Specify which global directives a .htaccess file can override:
AllowOverride AuthConfig Limit AuthConfig Authorization directives for directory protection
</Directory>
FileInfo Document type and metadata
Indexes Directory indexing
Limit Host access control
Options Specific directory features
All All directives
None No directive

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 133/155 Apache virtual hosts
Apache virtual hosts

httpd.conf Apache configuration

Virtual hosts directives

NameVirtualHost * Specify which IP address will serve virtual hosting. The
argument can be an IP address, an address:port pair, or * for all
IP addresses of the server. The argument will be repeated in the
relevant <VirtualHost> directive
<VirtualHost *:80> The first listed virtual host is also the default virtual host.
ServerName www.mysite.org It inherits those main settings that does not override.
ServerAlias mysite.org *.mysite.org This virtual host answers to http://www.mysite.org , and also
DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/mysite
redirects there all HTTP requests on the domain mysite.org
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80> Name-based virtual host http://www.mysite2.org .
ServerAdmin [email protected] Multiple name-based virtual hosts can share the same IP
ServerName www.mysite2.org address; DNS must be configured accordingly to map each name
DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/mysite2
to the correct IP address. Cannot be used with HTTPS
ErrorLog /var/www/logs/mysite2
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:8080> Port-based virtual host answering to connections on port 8080.
ServerName www.mysite3.org In this case the config file must contain a Listen 8080 directive
DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/mysite3
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost 10.17.1.5:80> IP-based virtual host answering to http://10.17.1.5
ServerName www.mysite4.org
DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/mysite4
</VirtualHost>

Logging directives
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" Specify the format of a log
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common Specify a nickname (here, "common") for a log format.
This one is the CLF (Common Log Format) defined as such:
%h IP address of the client host
%l Identity of client as determined by identd
%u User ID of client making the request
%t Timestamp the server completed the request
%r Request as done by the user
%s Status code sent by the server to the client
%b Size of the object returned, in bytes
CustomLog /var/log/httpd/access_log common Set up a log filename, with the format or (as in this case)
the nickname specified
TransferLog /var/log/httpd/access_log Set up a log filename, with format determined by the most
recent LogFormat directive which did not define a nickname
TransferLog "|rotatelogs access_log 86400" Organize log rotation every 24 hours
HostnameLookups Off Disable DNS hostname lookup to save network traffic.
Hostnames can be resolved later by processing the log file:
logresolve <access_log >accessdns_log

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 134/155 Apache directory protection
Apache directory protection

httpd.conf Apache configuration

Limited scope directives

<Directory "/var/www/html/foobar"> Limit the scope of the specified directives to the directory
[list of directives] /var/www/html/foobar and its subdirectories
</Directory>
<Location /foobar> Limit the scope of the specified directive to the URL
[list of directives] http://www.mysite.org/foobar/ and its subdirectories
</Location>

Directory protection directives

<Directory "/var/www/html/protected">
AuthName "Protected zone" Name of the realm. The client will be shown the realm name
and prompted to enter a user and password
AuthType Basic Type of user authentication: Basic, Digest, Form, or None
AuthUserFile "/var/www/.htpasswd" User database file. Each line has the format
user:encryptedpassword
To add a user to the database file:
htpasswd /var/www/.htpasswd user
(will prompt for password)
AuthGroupFile "/var/www/.htgroup" Group database file. Each line specifies a group followed by the
usernames of all its members:
group: user1 user2 user3
Require valid-user Control who can access the protected resource.
valid-user any user in the user database file
user user only the specified user
group group only the members of the specified group
Allow from 10.13.13.0/24 Control which host can access the protected resource
Satisfy Any Set the access policy concerning user and host control.
All both Require and Allow criteria must be satisfied
Any any of Require or Allow criteria must be satisfied
Order Allow,Deny Control the evaluation order of Allow and Deny directives.
Allow,Deny First, all Allow directives are evaluated; at
least one must match, or the request is
rejected. Next, all Deny directives are
evaluated; if any matches, the request is
rejected. Last, any requests which do not
match an Allow or a Deny directive are
denied
Deny,Allow First, all Deny directives are evaluated; if
any match, the request is denied unless it
also matches an Allow directive. Any
requests which do not match any Allow or
Deny directives are permitted

</Directory>

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 135/155 Apache SSL/TLS
Apache SSL/TLS

httpd.conf Apache configuration

SSL/TLS directives (mod_ssl module)

SSLCertificateFile \ SSL server certificate
/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile \ SSL server private key (for security reasons, this file must
/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key be mode 600 and owned by root)
SSLCACertificatePath \ Directory containing the certificates of CAs. Files in this
/usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/ directory are PEM-encoded and accessed via symlinks to
hash filenames
SSLCACertificateFile \ Certificates of CAs. Certificates are PEM-encoded and
/usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/ca-bundle.crt concatenated in a single bundle file in order of preference
SSLCertificateChainFile \ Certificate chain of the CAs. Certificates are PEM-encoded
/usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/ca.crt and concatenated from the issuing CA certificate of the
server certificate to the root CA certificate. Optional
SSLEngine on Enable the SSL/TLS Protocol Engine
SSLProtocol +SSLv3 +TLSv1.2 SSL protocol flavors that the client can use to connect to
server. Possible values are:
SSLv2 (deprecated)
SSLv3
TLSv1
TLSv1.1
TLSv1.2
All (all the above protocols)
SSLCipherSuite \ Cipher suite available for the SSL handshake (key
ALL:!aDH:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP exchange algorithms, authentication algorithms,
cipher/encryption algorithms, MAC digest algorithms)
ServerTokens Full Server response header field to send back to client.
Possible values are:
Prod send Server: Apache
Major send Server: Apache/2
Minor send Server: Apache/2.4
Minimal send Server: Apache/2.4.2
OS send Server: Apache/2.4.2 (Unix)
Full send Server: Apache/2.4.2 (Unix)
PHP/4.2.2 MyMod/1.2
If not specified, sends full header
ServerSignature Off Trailing footer line on server-generated documents.
Possible values are:
Off no footer line (default)
On server version number and ServerName
EMail as above, plus a mailto link to ServerAdmin
SSLVerifyClient none Certificate verification level for client authentication.
Possible values are:
none no client certificate is required
require the client needs to present a valid
certificate
optional the client may present a valid
certificate (this option is unused
as it doesn't work on all browsers)
optional_no_ca the client may present a valid
certificate but it doesn't need to
be successfully verifiable (this
option is pretty much useless and
is used only for SSL testing)

TraceEnable on Enable TRACE requests

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 136/155 Tomcat
Tomcat

Tomcat is an open source Java Servlet Container implementing several Java EE specifications, and was originally part of the
Jakarta Project. It is composed of:
- Catalina, the core component and servlet container implementation;
- Coyote, an HTTP connector component, providing a pure Java webserver environment to run Java code;
- Jasper, a JSP (Java Server Pages) engine, which parses JSP files and compiles them into Java servlets.

/usr/share/tomcat7 $CATALINA_HOME. This is the root of the Tomcat installation.

Tomcat may also be configured for multiple instances by defining the
variable $CATALINA_BASE for each instance. If a single instance of
Tomcat is running, $CATALINA_BASE is the same as $CATALINA_HOME

$CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml Tomcat main configuration file

$CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml Options and values applied to all web applications running on a specific
Tomcat instance. These can be overridden by the application-specific
servlet configuration defined in
$CATALINA_BASE/webapps/appname/WEB-INF/web.xml
$CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml Context applied to all web applications running on a specific Tomcat
instance
$CATALINA_BASE/conf/tomcat-users.xml Users, passwords, and roles applied to a specific Tomcat instance
$CATALINA_BASE/conf/catalina.policy Tomcat's core security policy for the Catalina class
$CATALINA_BASE/conf/catalina.properties Java properties file for the Catalina class
$CATALINA_BASE/conf/logging.properties Java properties file for Catalina's built-in logging functions

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 137/155 Samba server
Samba server

Samba is a free-software, cross-platform implementation of SMB/CIFS.

SMB (Server Message Block) is Microsoft's proprietary protocol for file and printer sharing, while CIFS (Common Internet File
System) is the public version of SMB.
WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) is a name service used to translate NetBIOS names to IP addresses.

Commonly used ports in Samba

TCP/UDP 137 netbios-ns NetBIOS name service requests and responses
TCP/UDP 138 netbios-dgm NetBIOS datagram services e.g. server announcements
TCP/UDP 139 netbios-ssn NetBIOS session service e.g. file and printer sharing
TCP 445 microsoft-ds Active Directory - registration and translation of NetBIOS names, network browsing
TCP 389 LDAP
TCP 901 SWAT service
The full list of used ports can be found via the command grep -i netbios /etc/services

smbd Server Message Block daemon. Provides SMB file and printer sharing, browser services, user authentication,
and resource lock. An extra copy of this daemon runs for each client connected to the server
nmbd NetBIOS Name Service daemon. Handles NetBIOS name lookups, WINS requests, list browsing and elections.
An extra copy of this daemon runs if Samba functions as a WINS server.
Another extra copy of this daemon runs if DNS is used to translate NetBIOS names

/etc/smb/ Samba directory

/etc/samba/ (RHEL 7 onwards)
/etc/samba/lmhosts Samba NetBIOS hosts file
/etc/samba/netlogon User logon directory

smbd -V Show the version of the Samba server

smbclient -V

testparm Check the Samba configuration file and report any error

smbpasswd jdoe Change the Samba password of user jdoe

smbpasswd -a ksmith Create a new Samba user ksmith and set his password

nmblookup smbserver Look up the NetBIOS name of a server and map it to an IP

address
nmblookup -U winsserver -R WORKGROUP#1B Query recursively a WINS server for the Domain Master
Browser for the specified workgroup
nmblookup -U winsserver -R WORKGROUP#1D Query recursively a WINS server for the Domain Controller
for the specified workgroup

net Tool for administration of Samba and remote CIFS servers

net rpc shutdown -r -S smbserver -U root%password Reboot a CIFS server
net rpc service list -S smbserver List available services on a CIFS server
net status sessions Show active Samba sessions
net status shares Show Samba shares
net rpc info Show information about the domain
net groupmap list Show group mappings between Samba and Windows

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 138/155 Samba client
Samba client
smbmount Mount a Samba share on a Linux filesystem, using the CIFS
mount.cifs filesystem interface

smbmount //smbserver/share1 /mnt/shares/sh1 \ Mount a Samba share checking access upon a credentials
-o auto,credentials=/etc/smbcreds file /etc/smbcreds (which should be readable only by root):
username = jdoe
password = jd03s3cr3t
smbmount //smbserver/share1 /mnt/shares/sh1 \ Mount a Samba share as user jdoe
-o username=jdoe

smbstatus Display current information about shares, clients

connections, and locked files

smbclient //smbserver/share1 Access a Samba share on a server (with a FTP-like interface)

smbclient -L //smbserver -W WORKGROUP -U user List the Samba resources available on a server, belonging to
the specified workgroup and accessible to the specified user

cat msg.txt | smbclient -M client -U user Show a message popup on the client machine (using the
WinPopup protocol)

Samba mount options

credentials=file Mount the share as the user defined in the credentials file
username=user Mount the share as user
password=password Specify the mount user's password

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 139/155 Samba global configuration
Samba global configuration

/etc/samba/smb.conf Samba configuration

[global] Global server settings: defines parameters applicable for the whole
Samba server and sets the defaults that will be used for the
parameters not mentioned in other sections
workgroup = MYWORKGROUP Make Samba join the specified workgroup
server string = Linux Samba Server %L Describe server to the clients
hosts allow = 10.9.9.0/255.255.255.0 Allow only the specified machines to connect to the server
security = user Set up user-level authentication
encrypt passwords = yes Use encrypted passwords
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd Refer to the specified password file for user authentication.
A new user's password will need to be set both in Linux and Samba by
using these commands from shell prompt:
passwd newuser
smbpasswd newuser
unix password sync = yes When the password of a client user (e.g. under Windows) is changed,
change the Linux and Samba password too
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers Map each Samba server user name to client user name(s).
The file /etc/samba/smbusers is structured as follows:
root = Administrator Admin
jdoe = "John Doe"
kgreen = "Kim Green"
netbios name = Mysambabox Set NetBIOS name and alias
netbios aliases = Mysambabox1
wins support = yes Make Samba play the role of a WINS server.
Note: There should be only one WINS server on a network
logon server = yes Enable logon support.
Logon script parameters will be defined in a [netlogon] section
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m Use a separate logfile for each machine that connects
max log size = 1000 Maximum size of each logfile, in Kb
syslog only = no Whether to log only via Syslog
syslog = 0 Log everything to the logfiles /var/log/smb/log.smbd and
/var/log/smb/log.nmbd, and log a minimum amount of information
to Syslog. This parameter can be set to a higher value to have Syslog
log more information
panic action = \ Mail a backtrace to the sysadmin in case Samba crashes
/usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
[netlogon] Section defining a logon script
comment = Netlogon for Windows clients
path = /home/netlogon Specifies a per-user script e.g. /home/netlogon/jdoe.bat will be
logon script = %U.bat called when user jdoe logs in.
It is also possible to specify a per-clientname script %m.bat, which will
be called when a specific machine logs in.
browseable = no
writeable = no
guest ok = no Guest access to the service (i.e. access without entering a password)
is disabled
[Canon LaserJet 3] Section defining a printer accessible via the network
printer name = lp
comment = Canon LaserJet 3 main printer
path = /var/spool/lpd/samba
printable = yes
writeable = no

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 140/155 Samba share configuration
Samba share configuration

/etc/samba/smb.conf Samba configuration

[public] Section defining a public share accessible on read/write by anyone
comment = Public Storage on %L Describe the public share to users
path = /home/samba Path of the public share on the server
browsable = yes Whether to show the public share when browsing
writeable = yes Whether to allow all users to write in this directory
[homes] Section enabling users that have an account and a home directory
on the Samba server to access it and modify its contents from a
Samba client.
The path variable is not set, by default is path=/home/%S
comment = %U's home directory on %L from %m Describe the share to the user
browseable = no Whether to show the homes share when browsing
writeable = yes Whether to allow the user to write in his home directory
[foobar] Section defining a specific share
path = /foobar Path of the share on the server
comment = Share Foobar on %L from %m Describe the share to users
browsable = yes Whether to show the share when browsing
writeable = yes Whether to allow the users to write in this share
valid users = jdoe, kgreen, +geeks Allow access only to users jdoe and kgreen, and local group geeks
invalid users = csmith Deny access to user csmith
read list = bcameron Allow read-only access to user bcameron
write list = fcastle Allow read-write access to user fcastle

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 141/155 Samba share access and macros
Samba share access and macros

Samba share access (defined in the configuration file)

User-level authentication
[global]
security = user Set up user-level authentication
guest account = nobody Map the guest account to the system user nobody (default)
map to guest = Never Specify how incoming requests are mapped to the guest account:
Bad User redirect from an invalid user to guest account on server
Bad Password redirect from an invalid password to guest account on server
Never reject unauthenticated users

Server-level authentication
[global]
security = server Set up server-level authentication
password server = srv1 srv2 Authenticate to server srv1, or to server srv2 if srv1 is unavailable
Domain-level authentication
[global]
security = ADS Set up domain-level authentication as an Active Directory member server
realm = KRB_REALM Join the specified realm.
Kerberos must be installed and an administrator account must be created:
net ads join -U Administrator%password

Share-level authentication
[global]
security = share Set up share-level authentication
[foobar] Define a foobar share accessible to any user which can supply quux's password.
path = /foobar The user quux must be created on the system:
username = quux useradd -c "Foobar account" -d /tmp -m -s /sbin/nologin quux
only user = yes and added to the Samba password file:
smbpasswd -a quux

Samba macros
%S Username The substitutes below apply only to the
configuration options that are used when
%U Session username (the username that the client requested,
a connection has been established:
not necessarily the same as the one he got)
%G Primary group of session username %S Name of the current service, if any
%h Samba server hostname %P Root directory of the current service, if any
%M Client hostname %u Username of the current service, if any
%L NetBIOS name of the server %g Primary group name of username
%m NetBIOS name of the client %H Home directory of username
%d Process ID of the current server process %N Name of the NIS home directory server as
obtained from the NIS auto.map entry.
%a Architecture of remote machine
Same as %L if Samba was not compiled with
%I IP address of client machine the --with-automount option
%i Local IP address to which a client connected %p Path of service's home directory as obtained
from the NIS auto.map entry.
%T Current date and time
The NIS auto.map entry is split up as %N:%p
%D Domain or workgroup of the current user
%w Winbind separator
%$(var) Value of the environment variable var

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 142/155 NFS
NFS

A Network File System (NFS) server makes filesystems available to remote clients for mounting.

The portmapper is needed by NFS to map incoming TCP/IP connections to the appropriate NFS RPC calls. Some Linux
distributions use rpcbind instead of the portmapper.
For security, the TCP Wrapper should be configured to limit access to the portmapper to NFS clients only:
file /etc/hosts.deny should contain portmap: ALL
file /etc/hosts.allow should contain portmap: IP_addresses_of_clients

NFS handles user permissions across systems by considering users with same UID and username as the same user.
Group permission is evaluated similarly, by GID and groupname.

rpc.nfsd NFS daemons

rpc.mountd
rpc.lockd
rpc.statd

/etc/exports List of the filesystems to be exported (via the command exportfs)

/var/lib/nfs/xtab List of exported filesystems, maintained by exportfs
/proc/fs/nfs/exports Kernel export table (can be examined via the command cat)

exportfs -ra Export or reexport all directories.

When exporting, fills the kernel export table /proc/fs/nfs/exports.
When reexporting, removes those entries in /var/lib/nfs/xtab that are
deleted from /etc/exports (therefore synchronizing the two files), and
removes those entries from /proc/fs/nfs/exports that are no longer valid
exportfs -ua Unexport all directories.
Removes from /proc/fs/nfs/exports all those entries that are listed in
/var/lib/nfs/xtab, and clears the latter file

showmount Show the remote client hosts currently having active mounts
showmount --directories Show the directories currently mounted by a remote client host
showmount --exports Show the filesystems currently exported i.e. the active export list
showmount --all Show both remote client hosts and directories
showmount -e nfsserver Show the shares a NFS server has available for mounting

rpcinfo -p nfsserver Probe the portmapper on a NFS server and display the list of all registered
RPC services there
rpcinfo -t nfsserver nfs Test a NFS connection by sending a null pseudo request (using TCP)
rpcinfo -u nfsserver nfs Test a NFS connection by sending a null pseudo request (using UDP)

nfsstat Display NFS/RPC client/server statistics.

NFS RPC both

server -sn -sr -s
Options:
client -cn -cr -c

both -n -r -nr

mount -t nfs nfsserver:/share /usr Command to be run on a client to mount locally a remote NFS share.
NFS shares accessed frequently should be added to /etc/fstab e.g.
nfsserver:/share /usr nfs intr 0 0

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 143/155 /etc/exports
/etc/exports
/etc/exports
/export/ 10.3.3.3(rw)
/export/ *(ro,sync)
/home/ftp/pub client1(rw) *.example.org(ro)
/home/crew @FOOBARWORKGROUP(rw) (ro)

filesystem Filesystem on the NFS server to be exported to clients

Client systems allowed to access the exported directory.
client
Can be identified by hostname, IP address, wildcard, subnet, or @NIS workgroup.
identity
Multiple client systems can be listed, and each one can have different options
ro Read-only access (default)
rw Read and write access. The client may choose to mount read-only anyway
sync Reply to requests only after the changes made by these requests have been committed to
stable storage
async Reply to requests without waiting that changes are committed to stable storage.
client
options Improves performances but might cause loss or corruption of data if server crashes
root_squash Requests by user root on client will be done as user nobody on server (default)
no_root_squash Requests by user root on client will be done as same user root on server
all_squash Requests by a non-root user on client will be done as user nobody on server
no_all_squash Requests by a non-root user on client will be attempted as same user on server (default)

NFS mount options

rsize=nnn Size for read transfers (from server to client)
wsize=nnn Size for write transfers (from client to server)
nfsvers=n Use NFS version n for transport
retry=n Keep retrying a mount attempt for n minutes before giving up
timeo=n A mount attempt times out after n tenths of a second
intr User can interrupt a mount attempt
nointr User cannot interrupt a mount attempt (default)
hard The system will try a mount indefinitely (default)
soft The system will try a mount until an RPC timeout occurs
bg Try a mount in the foreground, all retries occur in the background
fg All mount attempts occur in the foreground (default)
tcp Connect using TCP
udp Connect using UDP

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 144/155 DHCP
DHCP

A DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server listens for requests on UDP port 67 and answers to UDP port 68.
The assignment of an IP address to a host is done through a sequence of DHCP messages initiated by the client host:
DHCP Discover, DHCP Offer, DHCP Request, DHCP Acknowledgment.
Because DHCP Discover messages are broadcast and therefore not routed outside a LAN, a DHCP relay agent is necessary
for those clients situated outside the DHCP server's LAN. The DHCP relay agent listens to DHCP Discover messages and
relays them in unicast to the DHCP server.

/etc/dhcpd.conf Configuration file for the DHCP server

/etc/sysconfig/dhcrelay (SUSE) Configuration file for the DHCP relay agent
/var/lib/dhcpd/dhcpd.leases DHCP current leases

/etc/dhcpd.conf DHCP server configuration

option domain-name-servers 10.2.2.2;
option smtp-servers 10.3.3.3;
option pop-servers 10.4.4.4; Global parameters for DNS, mail, NTP, and news servers
option time-servers 10.5.5.5; specification
option nntp-servers 10.6.6.6;

shared-network geek-net { Definition of a network

default-lease-time 86400; Time, in seconds, that will be assigned to a lease if a client
does not ask for a specific expiration time
max-lease-time 172800; Maximum time, in seconds, that can be assigned to a
lease if a client asks for a specific expiration time
option routers 10.0.3.252;
option broadcast-address 10.0.3.255;

subnet 10.0.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.128 {

Definition of different subnets in the network, with
range 10.0.3.1 10.0.3.101;
} specification of different ranges of IP addresses that will be
subnet 10.0.3.128 netmask 255.255.255.128 { leased to clients depending on the client's subnet
range 10.0.3.129 10.0.3.229;
}
}

group { Definition of a group

option routers 10.0.17.252;
option broadcast-address 10.0.17.255;
netmask 255.255.255.0;
host linuxbox1 {
hardware ethernet AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF;
fixed-address 10.0.17.42;
option host-name "linuxbox1"; Definition of different hosts to whom static IP addresses
} will be assigned to, depending on their MAC address
host linuxbox2 {
hardware ethernet 33:44:55:66:77:88;
fixed-address 10.0.17.66;
option host-name "linuxbox2";
}
}

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 145/155 PAM
PAM

PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is an abstraction layer that allows applications to use authentication methods while
being implementation-agnostic.

/etc/pam.d/service PAM configuration for service

/etc/pam.conf (obsolete) PAM configuration for all services

ldd /usr/sbin/service | grep libpam Check if service is enabled to use PAM

/etc/pam.d/service
auth requisite pam_securetty.so
auth required pam_nologin.so
auth required pam_env.so
auth required pam_unix.so nullok
account required pam_unix.so
session required pam_unix.so
session optional pam_lastlog.so
password required pam_unix.so nullok obscure min=4 max=8
auth Authentication module to verify user identity and group membership
account Authorization module to determine user's right to access a resource (other than his identity)
type
password Module to update an user's authentication credentials
session Module (run at end and beginning of an user session) to set up the user environment
optional Module is not critical to the success or failure of service
sufficient If this module successes, and no previous module has failed, module stack processing ends
successfully. If this module fails, it is non-fatal and processing of the stack continues
control required If this module fails, processing of the stack continues until the end, and service fails
requisite If this module fails, service fails and control returns to the application that invoked service
include Include modules from another PAM service file
PAM module and its options, e.g.:
pam_unix.so Standard UNIX authentication module via /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow
pam_nis.so Module for authentication via NIS
pam_ldap.so Module for authentication via LDAP
module
pam_fshadow.so Module for authentication against an alternative shadow passwords file
pam_cracklib.so Module for password strength policies (e.g. length, case, max n of retries)
pam_limits.so Module for system policies and system resource usage limits
pam_listfile.so Module to deny or allow the service based on an arbitrary text file

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 146/155 LDAP
LDAP

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a simplified version of the X.500 standard and uses TCP port 389.
LDAP permits to organize hierarchically a database of entries, each one of which is identified by an unique DN (Distinguished
Name). Each DN has a set of attributes, each one of which has a value. An attribute may appear multiple times.

Most frequently used LDAP attributes

Attribute Example Meaning
dn dn: cn=John Doe,dc=example,dc=org Distinguished Name
(not an attribute; identifies the entry)
cn cn: John Doe Common Name
dc dc=example,dc=org Domain Component
givenName givenName: John Firstname
sn sn: Doe Surname
mail mail: [email protected] Email address
telephoneNumber telephoneNumber: +1 505 1234 567 Telephone number
uid uid: jdoe User ID
c c: US Country code
l l: San Francisco Locality
st st: California State or province
street street: 42, Penguin Road Street
o o: The Example Foundation Organization
ou ou: IT Dept Organizational Unit
manager manager: cn=Kim Green,dc=example,dc=org Manager

ldapsearch -H ldap://ldapserver.example.org \ Query the specified LDAP server for entries where
-s base -b "ou=people,dc=example,dc=com" \ surname=Doe, and print common name, surname, and
"(sn=Doe)" cn sn telephoneNumber telephone number of the resulting entries.
Output is shown in LDIF

ldappasswd -x -D "cn=Admin,dc=example,dc=org" \ Authenticating as Admin, change the password of user jdoe in

-W -S "uid=jdoe,ou=IT Dept,dc=example,dc=org" the OU called IT Dept, on example.org

ldapmodify -b -r -f /tmp/mods.ldif Modify an entry according to the LDIF file /tmp/mods.ldif

ldapadd -h ldapserver.example.org \ Authenticating as Admin, add an entry by adding the content

-D "cn=Admin" -W -f /tmp/mods.ldif of the LDIF file /tmp/mods.ldif to the directory.
This command actually invokes ldapmodify -a

ldapdelete -v "uid=jdoe,dc=example,dc=org" \ Authenticating as Admin, delete the entry of user jdoe

-D "cn=Admin,dc=example,dc=org" -W

LDIF (LDAP Data Interchange Format)

dn: cn=John Doe, dc=example, dc=org This LDIF file will change the email address
changetype: modify of jdoe, add a picture, and delete the
replace: mail description attribute for the entry
mail: [email protected]
-
add: jpegPhoto
jpegPhoto:< file://tmp/jdoe.jpg
-
delete: description
-

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 147/155 OpenLDAP
OpenLDAP
slapd Standalone OpenLDAP daemon

/var/lib/ldap/ Files constituting the OpenLDAP database

/etc/openldap/slapd.conf OpenLDAP configuration file

/usr/local/etc/openldap/slapd.conf

slapcat -l file.ldif Dump the contents of an OpenLDAP database to a LDIF file

slapadd -l file.ldif Import an OpenLDAP database from a LDIF file

slapindex Regenerate OpenLDAP's database indexes

yum install openldap openldap-clients \ Install the OpenLDAP client (on RHEL 7)
authconfig sssd nss-pam-ldapd authconfig-gtk

authconfig --enableldap --enableldapauth \ Set up the LDAP client to connect to a ldapserver.

--ldapserver=ldap://ldapserver \ This will update the configuration files /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and
--ldapbasedn="dc=example,dc=org" \ /etc/openldap/ldap.conf
--enablesssd --update

getent group groupname Get entries about groupname from NSS libraries

authconfig-gtk OpenLDAP configuration GUI

system-config-authentication

sssd (the System Security Services Daemon) must be running to provide access to OpenLDAP as an authentication and
identity provider.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 148/155 SELinux
SELinux

Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a Linux kernel security module that provides a mechanism for supporting access
control security policies.
SELinux implements a Mandatory Access Control framework that allows the definition of fine-grained permissions for how
subjects (i.e. processes) interact with objects (i.e. other processes, files, devices, ports, sockets); this improves security
with respect to the standard Discretionary Access Control, which defines accesses based on users and groups. The security
context of a file is stored in its extended attributes.
The decisions SELinux takes about allowing or disallowing access are stored in the AVC (Access Vector Cache).

setenforce 0 Enter permissive mode

echo 0 > /selinux/enforce
setenforce 1 Enter enforcing mode
echo 1 > /selinux/enforce
getenforce Display current mode
cat /selinux/enforce
sestatus -v

chcon context file Change the security context of file to the specified context
chcon --reference=file0 file Change the security context of file to the same as the reference file file0
restorecon -f file Restore the security context of file to the system default

ls -Z List files and their security context

ps -eZ List processes and their security context
getsebool boolean Get the value of a SELinux boolean
setsebool boolean=value Set the value of a SELinux boolean

tar --selinux [other args] Create or extract archives that retain the security context of files
star -xattr -H=exustar [other args]

semanage Manage SELinux policies

/etc/selinux/config SELinux mode can be configured permanently inside this file.

(symlinked in /etc/sysconfig/selinux)
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
SELINUX=enforcing
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

/selinux/ Pseudo filesystem, created by SELinux, containing commands used by

the kernel for its operations.

/var/log/audit/audit.log AVC denials are logged on this file if auditd is running

/var/log/messages AVC denials are logged on this file if rsyslogd is running

sealert -a logfile Analyze a SELinux logfile and display SELinux policy violations
grep nnnnn.mmm:pp logfile | audit2why Diagnostic a specific AVC event entry from a SELinux logfile:
type=AVC msg=audit(nnnnn.mmm:pp): avc: denied (...)

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 149/155 KVM
KVM

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel that allows it to function as an
hypervisor.

/etc/libvirt/qemu/ Directory containing the XML files that define VMs properties.
libvirtd must be restarted after modifying a XML file
/var/lib/libvirt/ Directory containing files related to the VMs

virt-manager KVM GUI

virt-install --prompt Interactive command-line program to create a VM

virt-install -n vmname -r 2048 \ Create a VM with 2 Gb of RAM,
--disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/vmname.img \ specifying path of virtual disk,
-l /root/vmstuff/inst/ \ location of installation files,
-x "ks=/root/vmstuff/kickstart.cfg" and (as extra argument) Kickstart configuration to use

virt-clone --prompt Interactive command-line program to clone a VM.

A VM must be shut off or paused before it can be cloned
virt-clone -o vmname -n vmclonename Clone a VM

virsh Interface for VM management

virsh list --all List all VMs present on the system
virsh start vmname Start a VM
virsh destroy vmname Brutally shut down a VM
virsh shutdown vmname Gracefully shut down a VM
virsh autostart vmname Set a VM to be automatically started when the system boots.
Done by symlinking the VM to /etc/libvirt/qemu/autostart/
virsh autostart --disable vmname Disable the autostart of a VM at system boot
virsh edit vmname Edit the XML file defining a VM's properties

virt-what Detect whether the current machine is a VM

Kickstart
Kickstart is a method to perform automatic installation and configuration of RHEL machines.
This can be done by specifying inst.ks=hd:/dev/sda:/root/path/ksfile either as a boot option, or an option
to the kernel command in GRUB 2.

system-config-kickstart GUI tool to create a Kickstart file

ksvalidator ksfile Check the validity of a Kickstart file
/root/anaconda-ks.cfg Kickstart file describing the current system. This file was automatically
generated during the installation of the current system
ksverdiff -f RHEL6 -t RHEL7 Show the differences in the Kickstart syntax between RHEL 6 and RHEL 7

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 150/155 Git
Git
git init Initialize the current directory as a repository

git clone repoaddress Clone a remote repository.

repoaddress can be a URL (SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, Git) or a local path e.g.
ssh://[email protected]:8888/path/to/repo.git
git://example.com:9999/path/to/repo.git
/path/to/repo.git

git checkout branch Start working into an already existing branch

git checkout -B branch Create branch and start working into it

git pull Pull the changes from the remote repository branch to the local branch

git add file Add file to the content staged for the next commit (hence starting to track it)
git rm file Remove file from the content staged for the next commit

git status See the status (e.g. files changed but not yet staged) of the current branch

git commit -am "Message" Commit all staged files in the current branch

git push Push the local commits from the current branch to the remote repository
git push origin branch Push the local commits from branch to the remote repository

git merge branch Merge changes made on branch to the master branch

git diff checksum1 checksum2 Compare two commits

git branch Show local branches

git branch -r Show remote branches
git branch -a Show remote and local branches

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 151/155 HTML 4.01 - components
HTML 4.01 - components

Tag Attributes
<h1>...<h6> Heading align=left|center|right|justify Heading alignment †

Line break and

<br> Line break
carriage return
align=left|center|right Line alignment †
noshade Solid rendering instead of 3D †
<hr> Horizontal line
size=npixels Line height
width=npixels|percent% Line width
<p> Paragraph
align=left|center|right|justify Paragraph or section alignment †
<div> Section

<span> Group Group of elements

charset=encoding Character encoding of target URL
coords=left,top,right,bottom| Coordinates of region; depends on
cx,cy,radius|x1,y1,...,xn,yn shape
href=url Target URL for the link
hreflang=language Language of document at the
target URL
name=section Name of anchor for document
<a> Anchor Hyperlink bookmarking
rel|rev=alternate|stylesheet| Relationship between this
start|next|prev|contents|index| document and the target URL
glossary|copyright|chapter| (rel) or vice versa (rev)
section|subsection|appendix|
help|bookmark
shape=rectangle|circle|polygon Shape of region
target=_blank|_parent|_self|_top Destination of target URL
type=mimetype MIME type of target URL
<dl>
Definition list
<dt>
Definition term
<dd> Description of a
Definition description definition term

† = deprecated

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 152/155 HTML 4.01 - text
HTML 4.01 - text

Tag Attributes
<i> Italic

<b> Bold
<s>
<strike> Strike-through Strike-through text †

<u> Underlined Underlined text †

<big> Bigger

<small> Smaller

<sub> Subscript

<sup> Superscript

<tt> Teletype Monospaced text

<em> Emphasized

<strong> Strong

cite=url URL to document explaining

<del> Deleted deletion/insertion
Deleted/inserted text
<ins> Inserted
datetime=yyyy-mm-dd When the text was deleted/inserted
<pre> Preformatted width=ncharacters Max number of characters per line †

<code> Code Source code text

<samp> Sample Sample code text
<kbd> Keyboard Keyboard key
<var> Variable Variable name
<cite> Citation Citation block
<blockquote> Quotation
cite=url URL to document containing the quote
<q> Short quotation

<address> Address Address block

<abbr> Abbreviation

<acronym> Acronym

<dfn> Definition Definition term

color=rgb(r,g,b)|#rrggbb|color Text color
<font> Font Font † face=fontname Text font
size=[1...7]|[-6...+6] Text size
Direction of text: left-to-right or right-
<bdo> Bidirectional override dir=ltr|rtl
to-left
Non-formatted text † ;
<xmp> XMP
ignores other HTML tags
class=class|style Class of the element
id=id Unique ID of the element
style=styledef Inline style definition
title=tooltip Text of the tooltip to display
Attributes common to
other tags Direction of text: left-to-right or right-
almost all other tags dir=ltr|rtl
to-left
lang=language Language of the content
accesskey=character Keyboard shortcut for the element
tabindex=ntab N of tab for the element

† = deprecated

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 153/155 HTML 4.01 - images
HTML 4.01 - images

Tag Attributes
align=top|bottom|left|middle|right Image alignment with respect to surrounding text †
alt=alternatetext Description of the image for text-only browsers
border=npixels Border width around the image †
height=npixels|percent% Image height
hspace=npixels Blank space on the left and right side of image †
<img>
ismap=url URL for server-side image map
Image
longdesc=url URL containing a long description of the image
src=url URL of the image
usemap=url URL for client-side image map
vspace=npixels Blank space on top and bottom of image †
width=npixels|percent% Image width

<map> id=id Unique ID for the map tag

Image map name=name Unique name for the map tag
alt=alternatetext Description of area for text-only browsers
coords=left,top,right,bottom|
cx,cy,radius|x1,y1,...,xn,yn Coordinates of clickable area; depends on shape

<area> href=url Target URL of area

Area of
image map nohref=true|false Excludes or includes the area from image map
shape=rectangle|circle|polygon Shape of area
target=_blank|_parent|_self|_top Destination of target URL

† = deprecated

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 154/155 HTML 4.01 - tables and lists
HTML 4.01 - tables and lists

Tag Attributes
align=left|center|right Table alignment †
bgcolor=rgb(r,g,b)|#rrggbb|color Table background color †
border=npixels Border width
cellpadding=npixels|percent% Space around the content of each cell
cellspacing=npixels|percent% Space between cells
<table>
Table frame=void|above|below|
lhs|rhs|hsides|vsides|box|border Visibility of sides of the table border

rules=none|groups|rows|cols|all Horizontal or vertical divider lines

summary=summary Summary of the table for text-only browsers
width=npixels|percent% Table width
align=left|center|right|justify|char Horizontal text alignment
bgcolor=rgb(r,g,b)|#rrggbb|color Row background color †
<tr>
Table row char=character Character to align text on, if align=char
charoff=npixels|percent% Alignment offset to first character, if align=char
valign=top|middle|bottom|baseline Vertical text alignment
abbr=content Abbreviated content in a cell
align=left|center|right|justify|char Horizontal text alignment
axis=category Cell name
bgcolor=rgb(r,g,b)|#rrggbb|color Cell background color †
char=character Character to align text on, if align=char
charoff=npixels|percent% Alignment offset to first character, if align=char
<td>
Table cell colspan=ncolumns Number of columns this cell spans on
<th> headers=headerid Cell header information for text-only browsers
Table header
height=npixels Cell height †
nowrap Text in cell stays on a single line †
rowspan=nrows Number of rows this cell spans on
scope=col|colgroup|row|rowgroup Target for cell header information
valign=top|middle|bottom|baseline Vertical text alignment
width=npixels|percent% Cell width †
compact=compact List must be more compact †
<ol>
start=firstnumber Number to start the list on †
Ordered list
type=A|a|I|i|1 List numbers type †

<ul> compact=compact List must be more compact †

Unordered list type=disc|square|circle List type †

<li> type=disc|square|circle|A|a|I|i|1 List item type †

List item value=itemno List item value †

† = deprecated

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo
 155/155 7-bit ASCII table
7-bit ASCII table

Dec Hex Char Dec Hex Char Dec Hex Char Dec Hex Char
0 0 NUL Null 32 20 space 64 40 @ 96 60 `

1 1 SOH Start of heading 33 21 ! 65 41 A 97 61 a

2 2 STX Start of text 34 22 " 66 42 B 98 62 b

3 3 ETX End of text 35 23 # 67 43 C 99 63 c

4 4 EOT End of transmission 36 24 $ 68 44 D 100 64 d

5 5 ENQ Enquiry 37 25 % 69 45 E 101 65 e

6 6 ACK Acknowledge 38 26 & 70 46 F 102 66 f

7 7 BEL Bell 39 27 ' 71 47 G 103 67 g

8 8 BS Backspace 40 28 ( 72 48 H 104 68 h

9 9 TAB Horizontal tab 41 29 ) 73 49 I 105 69 i

10 A LF Line feed 42 2A * 74 4A J 106 6A j

11 B VT Vertical tab 43 2B + 75 4B K 107 6B k

12 C FF Form feed 44 2C , 76 4C L 108 6C l

13 D CR Carriage return 45 2D - 77 4D M 109 6D m

14 E SO Shift out 46 2E . 78 4E N 110 6E n

15 F SI Shift in 47 2F / 79 4F O 111 6F o

16 10 DLE Data link escape 48 30 0 80 50 P 112 70 p

17 11 DC1 Device control 1 49 31 1 81 51 Q 113 71 q

18 12 DC2 Device control 2 50 32 2 82 52 R 114 72 r

19 13 DC3 Device control 3 51 33 3 83 53 S 115 73 s

20 14 DC4 Device control 4 52 34 4 84 54 T 116 74 t

21 15 NAK Negative ACK 53 35 5 85 55 U 117 75 u

22 16 SYN Synchronous idle 54 36 6 86 56 V 118 76 v

23 17 ETB End of Tx block 55 37 7 87 57 W 119 77 w

24 18 CAN Cancel 56 38 8 88 58 X 120 78 x

25 19 EM End of medium 57 39 9 89 59 Y 121 79 y

26 1A SUB Substitute 58 3A : 90 5A Z 122 7A z

27 1B ESC Escape 59 3B ; 91 5B [ 123 7B {

28 1C FS File separator 60 3C < 92 5C \ 124 7C |

29 1D GS Group separator 61 3D = 93 5D ] 125 7D }

30 1E RS Record separator 62 3E > 94 5E ^ 126 7E ~

31 1F US Unit separator 63 3F ? 95 5F _ 127 7F DEL Delete

Characters 0-31 and 127 are non-printable.

Linux Quick Reference Guide 5th ed. September 2017 © Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo