BASIC LINUX COMMANDS Sakib Haque Zisan (Contributor) Basic LINUX Commands_Bengal Black Diamond Gray Hat Hacker's Community Join with us on Telegram We Clickee1, Introduction Purpose of This Learning To help students understand the basics of Linux shell commands. 1.1 What is Linux? Linux is the best-known and most-used Unix-like open souse operating system. Usually the term “Linux” refers to the Linux kernel, but it also includes the set of programs, tools, and services that are typically bundled together to make Linux a fully functional operating system. Linux is different from other operating systems in many ways. First, Linux is open source software. The source code of Linux is free and available to the public to view, edit, and even appropriate skilled users can contribute to it! There are many distributions of Linux, which include different software options. This means that Linux is incredibly customizable. Moreover, companies and individuals choose Linux for their servers because it is secure, and there are excellent support from a large community of users and commercial companies. 1.2 What is Command Line Interface? A command-line interface is a means of interacting with a computer program (like kernel) where the user issues commands to the program in the form of successive lines of text (command lines). A program which handles the interface is called a command language interpreter or shell, For example, the MS-DOS Prompt application in a Windows operating system 1.3 What is a shell? Shell is an environment in which a user can execute commands, programs, and shell scripts.. A shell is not an operating system rather than a way to interface with the operating system and run commands.1.4 Shell Prompt The shell prompt (or command line) is where one types commands. The prompt, $, which is called the command prompt, is issued by the shell. While the prompt is displayed, users can type a command. Shell reads users’ input after user presses Enter in keyboard. 1.5 Shell Types In Unix, there are two major types of shells — * Bourne shell — In this shell, the $ character is the default prompt. © C shell — In this shell, the % character is the default prompt. Subcategories of the Bourne Shell © Bourne shell (sh) © Kor shell (ksh) © Bourne Again shell (bash): one of the most popular and rich in functionality shells, an expansion of sh (AT&T Bell Labs) 1.6 How is BASH different from the DOS command prompt? * Case Sensitivity: In Linux/UNIX, commands and filenames are case sensitive. “\" vs. “/": In DOS, the forward-slash “ / ” is the command argument delimiter, while the backslash “\” is a directory separator. In Linux/UNIX, the “/”” is the directory separator, and the “\” is an escape character. + Filenames: The DOS world uses the “eight dot three” filename convention, meaning that all files followed a format that allowed up to 8 characters in the filename, followed by a period (“dot”), followed by an option extension, up to 3 characters long (e.g. FILENAME.TXT). In UNIX/Linux, there is no such thing as a file extension. Periods can be placed at any part of the filename, and “extensions” may be interpreted differently by all 1.7 Special Characters Before we continue to learn about Linux shell commands, it is important to know that there are many symbols and characters that the shell interprets in special ways. This means that certain typed characters: a) cannot be used in certain situations, b) may be used to perform special operations, or, c) must be“escaped” if you want to use them in a normal way. Character Descriptions Escape character. IT you want to reference a special character, you must “escape” it with a backslash first. Example: touch /tmp/filename\* Directory separator, used to separate a string of directory names. Example: /ust/sre/linux Current directory. Can also “hide” files when it is the first character in a filename Parent Directory Represenis 0 or more characters in a filename, or by itself, all files ina directory. Example: pic*2002 can represent the files pic2002, picJanuary2002, picFeb292002, ete. Represents a single character in a filename. Example: hello? txt can represent hello1 xt, helloz.txt, but not hello22.txt [TT Can be used to represent a range of values, e.g. [0-9], [A-Z], etc. Example: hello[0-2].txt represents the names hello0.txt, txt hellol txt, and hello2.txt Pipe”. Redirect the output of one command into another command. Example: Is | more Redirect output of a command into a new Tile. Ifthe file already exists, over-write it Example: Is > myfiles.txt = Redirect the output of a command onto the end of an existing Tile. Example: echo .Mary 555-1234. >> phonenumbers.txt Redirect a file as input to a program, Example: more < phonenumbers.txt ‘Command separator, Allows you fo execute mulliple commands on} a single line. Example: cd /var/log ; less messagesCommand separator as above, but only runs the second command && if the first one finished without errors. Example: cd /var/logs && less messages Execute a command in the background, and immediately get your & shell back Example: find / -name core > /tmp/corefiles.txt & Used to start a comment or return the Tength of an array. Example: # this is comment $#path, this return the length of $PATH environment variable.2. Linux terminal command 2.1 Executing Commands « The Command PATH: > “Most common commands are located in your shell's “PATH”, meaning that you can just the name of the program to execute it. > Your shell's “PATH” variable includes the most common program locations, such as /bin, /ust/bin, /ust/X11R6/bin, and others. » To execute commands that are not in your current PATH, you have to give the complete location of the command. Examples: /home/bob/myprogram ./program (Execute a program in the current directory) ~/bin/program (Execute program from a personal bin directory) © Command Syntax > Commands can be run by themselves, or you can pass in additional arguments to make them do different things. Typical command syntax can look something like this: command [-argument] [-argument] [—argument] [file] Examples: Is List files in current directoryIs -l Js -1 --color cat filename cat -n filename Lists files in —longl format As above, with colorized output Show contents of a file Show contents of a file, with line numbers 2.2 Navigating the Linux File system The Linux file system is a tree-like hierarchy of directories and files. At the base of the file system is the “ /” directory, otherwise known as the “ root ” (not to be confused with the root user).The following table describes many of the most common Linux directories. Directory Descriptions Zssential command binaries (programs) are stored here (bash, /bin Is, mount,tar, ete.) Device Tiles. In Linux, hardware devices are acceessd just like Idev other files, and they are kept under this directory. /ete Host-specific system configuration files. Location of users’ personal home directories (.g. /home /home/ susan). The Base directory for most shareable, read-only data Jusr (programs, libraries, documentation, and much more). Jusr/bin Most user programs are kept here (cc, find, du, ete.) Jusr/include | Header files for compiling C programs. Tusr/lib Libraries for most binary programs.2.3 Linux commands 2.3.1 Part 1 Linux Command Description hort for print working directory, this command can be used Pwd to display the directory in which you are currently working. hort for Change Directory, when typed all by itself, it retums Ca you to your home directory. ed directory Change into the specified directory name. Example: ed /usr/sre/linux ed. Move up one directory. For example, if you are in /home/vic and you type “ ed ..”, you will end up in /home. ed- Return to previous directory. An easy way to get back to your previous location! Ls List all files in the current directory, in column format, Is directory List the files in the specified directory, Example: Is /var/loj Iss List files in “long” format, one file per line. This also shows you additional info about the file, such as ownership, permissions, date, and size. Is—a List all files, including “hidden” files, Hidden files 4are those files that begin with a“. ”, e.g. The bash_history file in your home directo Js /usr/bin/d* List all Higs whose names bogin wih the Teter alin he fust/bin directory. Linux Command Description Mkdir Make Directory. Example: mkdir /imp/myfiles [Cat Display the contents of a text file on the screen. For example: cat mp3files.txt would display the file we created in the previous section, Head Display the first few lines of a text file. Example: head /ete/services Display the last few lines of @ text file Example: tail /etc/services Display the Tast few lines of a text Tile, and then output appended data as the file grows (very useful for following log files!). Example: tail -f /var/log/messages [Cp Copies a file from one location to another. Example: cp mp3files.txt /tmp (copies the mp3files.txt file to the /tmp directory) DMy Moves a file to a new location, or renames it. For example: mv mp3files.txt /tmp (copy the file to /tmp, and delete it from the original location) Rm Delete a file. Example: rm /tmp/mp3files.txt [Rmdir Remove Directory. Example: rmdir /mp/myfiles This is used to display information about a command. Man Example: man command name, like man ed2.3.3 Part 3 Linux Command Description SHOWS he Tu path Of shell commands Tound ih your path Which For example, i you want to know exactly where the “grep” command is located on the filesystem, you can type “which grep”. The output should be something like: /bin/grep ‘A very powerful command, but sometimes icky to use. Tt Find can be used to search for files matching certain patterns, as well as many other types of searches. A simple example is find . name \*mp3 This example starts searching in the current directory “ ” and all subdirectories, looking for files with “mp3” at the end of their names. ‘A quick way to search Tor files anywhere on the filesystem. Locate For example, you can find all files and directories that contain the name Smozillal by typing: locate mozillaPs Lists currently running process (programs). Ww Show who is logged on and what they are doing. Id Print your user-id and group id's [Free Displays amoumt of Wee and used memory in Me system. cat /proc/epuinto Displays information about your CPU. cat /proc/meminfo Display Tots of information about current memory usage. uname -a Prints system information to the screen (kernel version, machiné type, etc.) 2.3.4 Part 3 Linux Command Description ‘Clear Clear the screen Display text on the screen. Mostly useful when writing shell] Echo scripts. For example: echo “Hello World” Display a file, or program output one page at a time. More Examples: more mp3files.txt Is-la | more ‘An improved replacement for the —morel command, Less Allows you to scroll backwards as well as forwards. earch for a pattern in a file or program output. For Grep example, to find | outwhich TCP network port is used by the —nfsl service, you can do thi grep .nfs. /etc/services This looks for any line that contains the string —nfsl in the file —ete/servicesl and displays only those lines. Lpr Print a file or program output. Examples: Ipr mp3files.txt - Print the mp3files.txt file Is -la | Ipr - Print the output of the —Is —la” command. “Switch User”. Allows you to switch to another user's Su account temporarily. The default account to switch to is the root/superuser account. Examples: su- Switch the root account Switch to root, and log in with root's su-- environment su larry -_ Switch to Larry's account3. Advanced topics 3.1 Piping Commands Together The pipe character, —||, is used to chain two or more commands together. The output of the first command is piped! into the next program, and if there is a second pipe, the output is sent to the third program, ete. For example. Is -la /usr/bin | less In this example, we run the command —Is -la /usr/binl, which gives us a long listing of all of the files in /ust/bin, Because the output of this command is typically very long, we pipe the output to a program called —lessl, which displays the output for us one screen at a time. 4.2 Redirecting Program Output to Files ‘There are times when it is useful to save the output of a command to a file, instead of displaying it to the screen. For example, if we want to create a file that lists all of the MP3 files in a directory, we can do something like this, using the —>1 redirection character: Is -I /home/vie/MP3/*.mp3 > mp3files.txt A similar command can be written so that instead of creating a new file called mp3files.txt, we can append to the end of the original file: Is -I /home/vie/extraMP3s/*.mp3 >> mp3files.txt Task 4: Go to working directory and print the files under working directory using piping. Then redirect the output of the previous command to a text file. 4.3 Shortcuts When you start using the Bash shell more often, you will appreciate these shortcuts that can save you very much typing time. Shortcut Up/Down Atrow Scroll through your most recent commands. You can Keys scroll back to an old command, hit ENTER, and execute the command without having to re-type it. history 1 Show your complete command history. comman dTAB Completi on If you type a partial command or filename that the shell recognizes, you can have it automatically completed for you if you press the TAB key. Try typing the first few characters of your favorite Linux command, then hit TAB a couple of times to see what happens, Search your comman d history with CTRL-R Press CTRL-R and then type any portion of a recent command. It will search the commands for you, and onceyou find the command you want, just press ENTER. Scrolling the screen with] Shift-PageUp and Page Down, Scroll back and forward through your terminal. Reference: Ben oo . vic.gedris.org/Manual-ShellIntro/l.2/Shellintro. pdf . Wikipedia . Online tutorials |. thdp.org/LDP/intro-tinux/intro-linux.pdf Further reading and videos http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/ s L 2. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix/ 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOvisrCv3Bk . https://www.voutube.com/watch?v=GuOS-wEH_A0About Contributor - Sakib Haque Zisan Mentor, Cyber Security Researcher. Instructor, The Tech-Cher Bd Team owner, Bengal Black Diamond Gray Hat Hacker's Community. CEO & Founder, Byte Capsule Ltd. Community Fecebook Croup Ethical Hacking STEM fie cs FE YouTube Chanel The Tech Cher Bd Oficial Telegram Chanel - Bengal Black Diamond OFFicia