Welcome To:

Module 4

Linux Fundamentals
Commands Syntax
• Command options and arguments

Commands typically have the syntax:

command option(s) argument(s)

Options:
Modify the way that a command works
Usually consist of a hyphen or dash followed by a single letter
Some commands accept multiple options which can usually be grouped together after a single hyphen

Arguments:
Most commands are used together with one or more arguments
Some commands assume a default argument if none is supplied
Arguments are optional for some commands and required by others
 File Permissions
• UNIX is a multi-user system. Every file and directory in your account can be protected
from or made accessible to other users by changing its access permissions. Every user has
responsibility for controlling access to their files.

• Permissions for a file or directory may be restricted to by types

• There are 3 type of permissions
• r - read
• w - write
• x - exeawke = running a program

• Each permission (rwx) can be controlled at three levels:

• u - user = yourself
• g - group = can be people in the same project
• o - other = everyone on the system

• File or Directory permission can be displayed by running ls –l command

• -rwxrwxrwx

• Command to change permission

• chmod
 Permission Using Numeric Mode
• Permission to a file and directory can also be assigned numerically
• chmod ugo+r FILE
OR
• chmod 444 FILE

-r--r--r--
 Permission Using Numeric Mode
• The table below assigns numbers to permissions types

• chmod 764 FILE

 Permission Using Numeric Mode
• Online calculators can be used as well
File Ownership
• There are 2 owners of a file or directory
• User and group

• Command to change file ownership

• chown and chgrp
• chown changes the ownership of a file
• chgrp changes the group ownership of a file

• Recursive ownership change option (Cascade)

• -R
Help Commands

• There are 3 types of help commands

• whatis command
• command –-help
• man command
TAB Completion and Up Arrow
• Hitting TAB key completes the available commands, files
or directories
• chm TAB
• ls j<TAB>
• cd Des<TAB>

• Hitting up arrow key on the keyboard returns the last

command ran.

By: Imran Afzal

Adding Text to Files (Redirects)

• 3 Simple ways to add text to a file

• vi
• Redirect command output > or >>
• echo > or >>

By: Imran Afzal

 Input and Output Redirects
• There are 3 redirects in Linux
1. Standard input (stdin) and it has file descriptor number as 0
2. Standard output (stdout) and it has file descriptor number as 1
3. Standard error (stderr) and it has file descriptor number as 2

• Output (stdout) - 1
• By default when running a command its output goes to the terminal
• The output of a command can be routed to a file using > symbol
• E.g. ls -l > listings
pwd > findpath
• If using the same file for additional output or to append to the same file then use >>
• E.g. ls –la >> listings
echo “Hello World” >> findpath.

By: Imran Afzal

 Input and Output Redirects
• Input (stdin) - 0
• Input is used when feeding file contents to a file
• E.g. cat < listings
mail –s “Office memo” [email protected] < memoletter

• Error (stderr) - 2
• When a command is executed we use a keyboard and that is also considered (stdin -0)
• That command output goes on the monitor and that output is (stdout – 1)
• If the command produced any error on the screen then it is considered (stderr – 2)
• We can use redirects to route errors from the screen
• E.g ls –l /root 2> errorfile
telnet localhost 2> errorfile.

By: Imran Afzal

 Standard Output to a File (tee)
• “tee” command is used to store and view (both at the same
time) the output of any command

• The command is named after the T-splitter used in plumbing. It

basically breaks the output of a program so that it can be both
displayed and saved in a file. It does both the tasks
simultaneously, copies the result into the specified files or
variables and also display the result.

By: Imran Afzal

Pipes
• A pipe is used by the shell to connect the output of one command directly to
the input of another command.

The symbol for a pipe is the vertical bar ( | ). The command syntax is:

command1 [arguments] | command2 [arguments]

Pipes

ls -l | more
File Maintenance Commands

• cp
• rm
• mv
• mkdir
• rmdir or rm -r
• chgrp
• chown
File Display Commands

• cat
• more
• less
• head
• tail
 Filters / Text Processors Commands

• cut
• awk
• grep and egrep
• sort
• uniq
• wc
 cut - Text Processors Commands
cut
• cut is a command line utility that allows you to cut parts of lines from specified files or piped data and
print the result to standard output. It can be used to cut parts of a line by delimiter, byte position, and
character

• cut filename = Does not work

• cut --version = Check version
• cut –c1 filename = List one character
• cut –c1,2,4 = Pick and chose character
• cut –c1-3 filename = List range of characters
• cut –c1-3,6-8 filename = List specific range of characters
• cut –b1-3 filename = List by byte size
• cut -d: -f 6 /etc/passwd = List first 6th column separated by :
• cut -d: -f 6-7 /etc/passwd = List first 6 and 7th column separated by :
• ls –l | cut –c2-4 = Only print user permissions of files/dir
 awk - Text Processors Commands
awk
• awk is a utility/language designed for data extraction. Most of the time it is used to extract fields from a
file or from an output

• awk --version = Check version

• awk ‘{print $1}’ file = List 1st field from a file
• ls –l | awk ‘{print $1,$3}’ = List 1 and 3rd field of ls –l output
• ls –l | awk ‘{print $NF}’ = Last field of the output
• awk '/Jerry/ {print}' file = Search for a specific word
• awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd = Ouput only 1st field of /etc/passwd
• echo "Hello Tom" | awk '{$2="Adam"; print $0}‘ = Replace words field words
• cat file | awk '{$2=“Imran"; print $0}‘ = Replace words field words
• awk 'length($0) > 15‘ file = Get lines that have more than 15 byte size
• ls -l | awk '{if($9 == "seinfeld") print $0;}‘ = Get the field matching seinfeld in /home/iafzal
• ls -l | awk '{print NF}‘ = Number of fields.
 grep/egrep - Text Processors Commands

• What is grep?
• The grep command which stands for “global regular expression print,” processes text line by line
and prints any lines which match a specified pattern

• grep –-version OR grep --help = Check version or help

• grep keyword file = Search for a keyword from a file
• grep –c keyword file = Search for a keyword and count
• grep –i KEYword file = Search for a keyword ignore case-sensitive
• grep –n keyword file = Display the matched lines and their line numbers
• grep –v keyword file = Display everything but keyword
• grep keyword file | awk ‘{print $1}’ = Search for a keyword and then only give the 1st field
• ls –l | grep Desktop = Search for a keyword and then only give the 1st field

• egrep –i “keyword|keyword2” file = Search for 2 keywords.

 sort/uniq - Text Processors Commands

• What are sort and uniq commands?

• Sort command sorts in alphabetical order
• Uniq command filters out the repeated or duplicate lines

• sort –-version OR sort --help = Check version or help

• sort file = Sorts file in alphabetical order
• sort –r file = Sort in reverse alphabetical order
• sort –k2 file = Sort by field number

• uniq file = Removes duplicates

• sort file | uniq = Always sort first before using uniq their line numbers
• sort file | uniq –c = Sort first then uniq and list count
• sort file | uniq –d = Only show repeated lines.
 wc - Text Processors Commands

• What is wc command?
• The command reads either standard input or a list of files and generates: newline count, word
count, and byte count

• wc –-version OR wc --help = Check version or help

• wc file = Check file line count, word count and byte count
• wc –l file = Get the number of lines in a file
• wc –w file = Get the number of words in a file
• wc –b file = Get the number of bytes in a file
• wc DIRECTORY = NOT allowed
• ls –l | wc -l = Number of files
• grep keyword | wc -l = Number of keyword lines.
Compare Files

• diff (Line by line)

• cmp (Byte by byte)
Compress and un-Compress Files

• tar
• gzip
• gzip –d OR gunzip
 Truncate File Size (truncate)
• The Linux truncate command is often
used to shrink or extend the size of a file to
the specified size

• Command
• truncate –s 10 filename

By: Imran Afzal

 Combining and Splitting Files

• Multiple files can be combined into one and

• One file can be split into multiple files

• cat file1 file2 file3 > file4

• split file4

• e.g. split –l 300 file.txt childfile

Split file.txt into 300 lines per file and output to childfileaa,
childfileab and childfileac

By: Imran Afzal

 Linux vs. Windows Commands
Command Description Windows Linux
Listing of a directory dir ls -l
Rename a file ren mv
Copy a file copy cp
Move file move mv
Clear screen cls clear
Delete file del rm
Compare contents of files fc diff
Search for a word/string in a file find grep
Display command help command /? man command
Displays your location in the file system chdir pwd
Displays the time time date