Linux System Administration

System Administrator
• Ultimate authority in a Linux environment.
• Has the responsibility to govern the system
and care everything
• Under Linux, every file and program must be
owned by a user. Each user has a unique
identifier called a user ID. Each user must
also belong to atleast one group,
• Group - a collection of users established by
the system administrator.
• Like users, groups also have unique
identifiers called group IDs.
 Duties of a System Administrator
• The administrator of Linux has all the rights required to
control the working of the system. He is responsible for
system maintenance.
• Adding, removing, or updating user account
information, resetting passwords, etc.
• Applying operating system updates, patches, and
configuration changes.
• Allocates storage space
• Assigns access permissions
• Prevents unauthorized permissions and ensure security.
• Installing and configuring new hardware and software.
 Becoming the super user

• The utility to be used to get super user privileges is su

• After typing the password, the prompt for the regular user ($)
will be changed to root user prompt #.

• The su (short for switch user) command makes it possible to

change a login session's owner.

• Although su can be used to change the ownership of a session

to any user, it is most commonly employed to change the
ownership from an ordinary user to the root
 The Linux root user
The root user has complete control of the operation of the
Linux system.
• The home directory of the root user is /root
• The home directory and other information associated with the
root user account is located in the /etc/passwd file.
• An entry in the passwd file is as given
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
• This shows that the user is named root, the user id is set to 0
and the group id is set to 0 , the home directory is /root and
the shell for that user is /bin/bash
• /etc/passwd file – contains information required during login
 Administrative Commands
• commands are intended only for root user.
• When a root user logs in , $PATH variable is set to include
some directories that contain commands for the root user.
– /sbin
- Contains vital system utilities.
- a standard subdirectory of the root directory in linux.
- contains programs that are normally executed by the root
user.
/usr/sbin – contains non-vital system utilities.
commands for managing user accounts and configuring your
mouse. Commands that run as daemon processes are also
contained in this directory.
 Administrative Configuration files

• Most of the configuration files in Linux system

are in the /etc directory .

• Commonly used configuration files found in the /etc

are given below:
/etc/group a list of groups with configurations for each

automatically mounts file systems when you start your

/etc/fstab system

/etc/motd System administrator's message of the day

/etc/mtab currently mounted file systems

/etc/passwd user password and login configurations

/etc/shadow User encrypted passwords

 /etc/shadow File
/etc/shadow Contains the encrypted password information for
users' accounts and optionally the password aging information.
Included fields are:
smithj:Ep6mckrOLChF.:10063:0:99999:7:::
Login name or username
Encrypted password
No.of Days since the password was last changed
No.of Days before password may be changed
No.of Days after which password must be changed
The number of days to warn user of an expiring password
No.of Days after password expires, that account is disabled
No.Days that account has been disabled
 Shadow Passwords
Shadow passwords are an enhancement to login security on Unix
systems. Traditionally, passwords are kept in encrypted form in a
world-readable table ( /etc/passwd).
To test a password, a program encrypts the given password with
the same "key” that was used to encrypt the password stored in
the /etc/shadow file.
Because the encrypted passwords are not "decryptable",
authentication takes place by comparison. If the /etc/shadow file
password matches the encrypted login password, the user is
granted access.
Advantages of shadow passwords over the traditional
way of storing passwords :
Improves system security by moving encrypted
password from the world-readable /etc/passwd file
to /etc/shadow, which is readable only by the root
user.
Stores information about password aging.
 Administrative log files
• Logfile – a file that records either events that
occur in an OS or other software runs, or
messages between different users
• We can use log files to keep track of the
system.
• Almost all logfiles are located under/var/log
directory and its subdirectories on Linux.
• Only root user can view and access logfiles on
linux.
• General system logging is done by syslogd.
• Logging that is specific to kernel activity is
done by klogd.
• Logging is done according to the information
in the /etc/syslog.cof file.
• Commands to see logfiles
• tail,more, cat,grep etc
Eg:

#cat /var/log/messages
 Access files
• /etc/hosts - Contains a list of known hosts (in
the local network).
• /etc/hosts.allow - lists host computers that are
allowed to use certain TCP/IP services from the
local computer.
• /etc/hosts.deny - lists host computers that are
not allowed to use certain TCP/IP services from
the local computer.
• Following is a sample /etc/hosts file:
IPAddress Hostname Alias
127.0.0.1 localhost
208.164.186.1 deep.openna.com deep
208.164.186.2 mail.openna.com mail
208.164.186.3 web.openna.com web
Managing User Accounts
 Adding Users

• Most widely available method for creating a

new user from the shell is with the useradd
command.
• The only required parameter to useradd is
the login name of the user.
• Syntax:
useradd [options] username
useradd chris –g mca1 -u 578

#passwd chris
Changing password for user chris
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
Options
• -c “comment” provides a description of the new user
account.
#useradd –c “MarySmith” mary

-e expiry_date assign the expiration date for the account in

MM/DD/YYYY format.
• -g group sets a group for the new user
• -d dir sets the home directory of the new user
• -s shell sets the login shell of the newuser
default /bin/bash
• -u user_id -sets the user ID of the new user
 Modifying Users
• usermod command modifies user properties.

• Syntax: usermod [options] username

• Options are identical to those of useradd
• -l to change the user’s login name
 Changing user account properties

• There are a few commands for changing

various properties of an account (i.e., the
relevant field in /etc/passwd):
• Chfn Change the full name field.
chfn –f “fullname” username
• Chsh Change the login shell.
• passwd Change the password.
 Disabling users in Linux
• If we want to disable a user account , replace
the password in the /etc/passwd file with a *
or some other character. Since * is not a valid
encrypted password there is no password that
will allow you to log on to that account.
Deleting User Accounts
• To delete an account , remove the entire line from
the /etc/passwd file.
• Deleting a user accounts can be done with either
the userdel command or the User Manager window.
• Using userdel
• userdel command takes a single argument, which is the
login name of the account to delete.
• -r option deletes the user’s home directory and all the
files in it.
Eg: #userdel –r mary
 Disabling & Deleting accounts-differences
• If we disable an account technically still it exists. The
user can still receive mail, has a home directory and
has all rights of any other account. The user just can’t
log in.
•
When an account is deleted , the system will bounce
any mail that comes to that user and also any access
to the home directory will not work.
 Suspending a User Account

To temporary disabling user account

• Put a * as start of Password field in /etc/passwd
• Change login shell to /sbin/nologin
Changing Permissions
• By default, permissions are set for the owner of the file, the
group associated with the file, and everyone else who can
access the file.
• Permissions are divided into 4 parts –
– First part represents the special attribute (-, d or 1)
– Second part indicates file owners permission
– Third part indicates the group permission
– Last part indicates the world permission.
• chmod command is used to set permission values.
R Read 4
WWrite 2
X Execute 1
Changing Ownership
• The chown command is used to change the ownership of a
file to someone else.
• Only the root user can do this.
• Syntax
#chown [-R] username filename
username - the login name of the user to whom ownership
ashould be assigned.
filename-the name of the file in question. The filename may
be a directory as well.
-R option
- tells the command that the specified filename is a directory
name
- recursively descend through the directory tree and apply the
new ownership not only to the directory itself, but to all of the
files and directories within it.
 Group Management
• Linux groups are a mechanism to manage a collection of
system users. All Linux users have a user ID and a group ID.
• Users are members of a default group. The default group for
a user is specified in the file /etc/passwd
• There are some main user administration files:
– /etc/passwd: Keeps user account and password
information. This file holds the majority of information
about accounts on the system.
– /etc/shadow: Holds the encrypted password of the
corresponding account.
– /etc/group: This file contains the group information for
each account.
– /etc/gshadow: This file contains secure group account
information.
Creating a group
• You would need to create groups before creating any
account otherwise you would have to use existing groups at
your system. All the groups are listed in /etc/group file.
• A sample entry in an etc/group file
• engines:x:100:chris,robert,valerie,aleena
• All the default groups would be system account specific
groups and it is not recommended to use them for ordinary
accounts.
• Syntax to create a new group account:
– groupadd [-g gid [-o]] [-r] [-f] groupname
Creating a group
Groups should be created before creating any account,otherwise
use existing groups at your system. All the groups are listed
in /etc/group file.
• A sample entry in an etc/group file
• engines:x:100:chris,robert,valerie,aleena
• All the default groups would be system account specific
groups and it is not recommended to use them for ordinary
accounts.
• Syntax to create a new group account:
– groupadd [-g gid [-o]] [-r] [-f] groupname
Modify a Group
• To modify a group, use the groupmod syntax:
$groupmod -n modified_group_name old_group_name
-n to change the group name to the specified group name
• To change the developers_2 group name to developer, type:
$ groupmod -n developer developer_2
• To change the GID to 545:
• $ groupmod -g 545 developer
Delete a Group
• To delete an existing group, use the groupdel
command and the group name.
• Eg: To delete the developer group, the
command is:
$ groupdel developer
• This removes only the group, not any files
associated with that group. The files are still
accessible by their owners.
Change the owner of a file
• # ls –l tmpfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 steeve family 0 2012-05-22 20:03 tmpfile
• # chown root tmpfile
• # ls -l tmpfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root family 0 2012-05-22 20:03 tmpfile
 Changing the owner and group

• Every file is associated with an owner and a group.

• chown and chgrp commands can be used to change the
owner or the group of a particular file or directory.
Change the group of a file
Using chown command, the group (that a file
belongs to) can also be changed.
# ls -l tmpfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 steeve family 0 2012-05-22 20:03 tmpfile
• # chown :friends tmpfile
• # ls -l tmpfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 steeve friends 0 2012-05-22 20:03 tmpfile

By just adding a „:‟ followed by the new group name, the

group of the file can be changed.
Change both owner and the group
• # ls -l tmpfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root family 0 2012-05-22 20:03 tmpfile
• # chown steeve:friends tmpfile
• # ls -l tmpfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 steeve friends 0 2012-05-22 20:03 tmpfile
• using the syntax
• ‘<newOwner>:<newGroup>’, the owner as well as group can be
changed in one go.
 chgrp

• chgrp (CHange GRouP) is one more command which is useful

to change group associated to a file/folder from one group to
other in a Linux box.
• This is sister command to chown which is used to change
owner of the file/folder as well as group name associated with
that file.
• Example1:
Change group name sales of file1 to other group name hrgroup.
chgrp hrgroup file1
• Example2: Change group ownership all the files located in
/var/apache to group:apache
chgrp -R apache /var/apache
Difference between chown and chgrp
chown command is used to change ownership as well as group
name associated to different one, where as chgrp can change
only group associated to it.
Managing file systems and disk
space
• Most of your hard disks are mounted
automatically.
• We can use mount command to mount other
type of devices and also other kinds of file
systems on your Linux system.
• Ie we can store files from other OS or use file
systems that are appropriate for certain kind
of activities like writing large block sizes.
 Mounting
• Mounting: making a device accessible to
users via the logical directory tree
• Attaching a file system on a storage device to
the main directory tree
• Mount point: directory in the file structure to
which the new filesystem is attached.
• Any existing directory can be a mount point
• In order to prevent making files inaccessible,
create empty directories used specifically for
mounting devices

45
 Mounting (continued)

Figure 5-1: The directory structure prior to mounting

46
 Mounting (continued)

Figure 5-2: The directory structure after mounting a floppy device

47
 /mnt directory
 usually used as mount point for other mounted file
systems such as windows partitions.

 Automatic mounting is handled by configuring

 /etc/fstab file.
 Main partitions holding Linux systems are
automatically mounted while booting.
 Mounting and unmounting a file system

Mount command
• The mount command is used to mount a file system
to the Linux operating system.
• The syntax for mount command is
Mount <[-t type] [options]> <device>[directory]
• When mount command is displayed without options
a list of file systems mounted on the system is
displayed.

49
• In the syntax for the mount command - type is
optional and is used to specify the type of file
system.
• Examples of types of file systems
• ISO9660 the standard file system used for CD-ROMS
• MSDOS the standard file system used by MS-DOS
• Vfat the standard file system used by windows 3x
and 9x

50
Some examples of device files
• /dev/fd0 the primary floppy drive
• /dev/fd1 the secondary floppy drive
• /dev/cdrom refers to CDROM Drive

Options
• rw specifies that the file system can be both read
from and written to.

51
 Device name for Floppy drive -fd
 IDE hard drive – hd
 SCSI hard drive – sd

 hda2 -2nd partition on first(represented

by a) IDE hard drive
 sdb3 – 3rd partition on 2nd(represented
by b) SCSI hard drive
 mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

• This command will connect the device "/dev/fd0" (usually the

floppy drive) to the directory "/mnt/floppy" so that you can
access the files and directories (folders) on the floppy disk in
the floppy drive under the "/mnt/floppy" directory. The
directory "/mnt/floppy" is also called the "mount point", which
must already exist when this command is executed.

53
• ro specifies that the file system can be read from but
cannot be written to.
• Example of mount command to mount a floppy
• # mount –t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

54
Unmount command
Syntax
Unmount [device][directory]
Example
unmount /mnt/floppy
unmount /dev/fd0

• This command unmounts the floppy drive. After this command

is executed the files and directories on the floppy will no
longer be accessible from the directory tree of the Linux
system.

55
 Removable storage devices are handled by
udev and HAL( Hardware Abstract Layer)

 udev( user devices)

 – the tool used to detect and generate device
files
- Capable of managing all removable devices.
HAL – allows removable devices like a USB to be
recognised.
Files and File Structure
 What is File System?
 It is responsible for storing information on disk and retrieving and
updating this information.
 Example :
 FAT16, FAT32, NTFS
 ext2, ext3
 …
 In Linux everything is file.
 Type of File System
 Network File System
 NFS (Network File System)
 SMB(Server Message Block )
 Disk File System
 ext2 (second extended filesystem)
 ext3
 etc…
 File System
 Managing file system is basic task for system administrators
 Partition

 Distinct area of hard disk

 Has been prepared to store particular type of
data
 File system

 Arrangement of information on device such as

hard disk
 The whole area is divided into several block
 General Structure
Boot block
Super block
Inode table
Data blocks
 Boot Block
 An area of a disk having information for loading the operating system that
is needed to start a computer.
 located in the first few sectors of a file system.
 Contains initial bootstrap program used to load the operating system.
 Blocks on a Linux filesystem are 1024 bytes in length
 Some systems use 512 bytes ,but 2048 and 4096 are also seen
 Super Block
 The boot blocks are followed by the superblock
 Each file system has one super block
 It contains information about the geometry of the physical disk
 it contains
 1. type of file system (ext2, ext3...)
 2. the block size
 3. pointers to a list of free blocks
 4. the inode number of the root directory
 inodes
 Disk space allocation is managed by the inodes (information node)
 Inodes cannot be manipulated directly, but are changed by many
commands
 Inode: Data Block Addressing
 Every Inode has a table of block addresses
 Addressing: direct, one-level indirect, two-levels indirect, ...
 Each inode corresponds to one file, and it stores file’s primary metadata, such
as file’s size, ownership, and temporal information.
 Inode is typically 128 bytes in size and is allocated to each file and directory
Structure of a directory entry
Contents of an inode
 Data Blocks
 This is where the file data itself is stored
 An allocated data block can belong to one and only one file in the system.
 If a data block is not allocated to a file, it is free and available for the
system to allocate when needed.
 The Linux file System
In Linux, file is defined as simply the thing
that deals with a sequence of bytes
 Hence everything are files
– An ordinary file is a file; a directory is also
file; (Files containing list of files within
them)
– a network card, a hard disk, any device
are also files since they deal with a
sequence of bytes
 The Linux file System
The Linux file system looks like an inverted
tree structure.
We start with the root directory, denoted by
/, at the top and work down through sub-
directories below it.
Each node is either a file or a directory of
files, where the latter can contain other files
and directories
 The Linux ile System
We specify a file or directory by its path

The full path name starts with the root, /,

and follows the branches of the file system,
each separated by /, until you reach the
desired file, e.g.:
/home/ckc/desktop/stud
 The Linux file System
Directories root

boot dev

fd hd
cat cp

Data files
…
 Directory Structure of Linux File System
Directory Content
Common programs, shared by the system, the system
/bin
administrator and the users.

/boot The startup files and the kernel,

Contains references to all the CPU peripheral hardware,

/dev
which are represented as files with special properties.
Most important system configuration files are in /etc,
/etc this directory contains data similar to those in the
Control Panel in Windows
/home Home directories of the common users.
Library files, includes files for all kinds of programs
/lib
needed by the system and the users.
Directory Content

/lost+foun Every partition has a lost+found in its upper directory. Files that were
d saved during failures are here.
/misc For miscellaneous purposes.

/proc A virtual file system containing information about system resources.

The administrative user's home directory. the difference between /,

/root
the root directory and /root, the home directory of the root user.

/sbin Programs for use by the system and the system administrator.
/tmp Temporary space for use by the system.
/usr Programs, libraries, documentation etc. for all user-related programs.

Storage for all variable files and temporary files created by users,
/var such as log files, the mail queue, the print spooler area, space for
temporary storage of files downloaded from the Internet.
 File naming Conventions

Some applications require certain extensions,

but LINUX does not use any standard
convention for file extensions
In Linux the file name
can be up to 256 characters long
can contain special characters, except ‘/’
case sensitive
should not contain a blank or a tab
Can contain both uppercase and lowercase
alphabets.
…
 Relative path names
Files are named by
naming each containing
directory
starting at the root
This is known as the
pathname
etc/passwd
/

…
/ home/ckc/b
The Working Directory(Home Directory)

One directory is
designated the current
working directory
if you omit the leading /
then path name is
relative to the current
working directory
Use pwd to find out
where you areCurrent
working
directory
doc/ab ab
~/doc/ab
/home/ckc/doc/ab
 Some Special File Names
Some file names are special:
/ The root directory (not to be confused
with the root user)
. The current directory
.. The parent (previous) directory
~ My home directory
Examples:
./a same as a
../stud/x go up one level then look in
directory stud for x
 Types of Files in Linux
File
File

Directory Special
Ordinary files

Character Block Hard Symbolic

…
Device Device link Links
 Types of Files in Linux
 Linux supports 3 types of files
– simple/ordinary file (text file, c++ file, etc)
– Directory
– special file (device)

simple/ordinary file
All files created by a user
Include all data ,pgm, object and executable files
A user can modify it

…
 Types of Files in Linux
 Directory Files
 File systems typically
have directories which allow the user
to group files into separate collections
 This may be implemented by associating
the file name with an an inode in
a Linux-like file system.
 The directory file is automatically
created by the OS.
…
 The directory file has the same name as the directory and
contains information about the files stored in the directory.

 Eg: the directory /home/steve contains a directory file

called steve in the directory /home.

 This directory file contains information about all the files

and directories in the directory steve.

 A user can not modify a directory file.

 Types of Files in Linux
 Special file (device)
– Each hardware device, e.g. keyboard, hard disk,
CD-ROM, etc is associated with at least one file
– Usually store in /dev directory
– Applications can read and write any devices by
reading and writing their associate file – hence the
access method is known as device independent
– Special files are stored in /dev and /etc
– A user can not modify special files.
…
 Types of Files in Linux
– Divide into 4 types:
character device files,
–
– block device files, e.g. disk
– Hard links
– Symbolic link
 character device files
 Read and write one character at a time
 Also known as sequentially accessed
devices
…
 e.g. keyboard,modem
 Types of Files in Linux
 Block Device Files
 Access one block of data at a time
 A block of data cpmprises either 512 or 1024
bytes.
 The kernel collects data in the memory and
then makes the data available to a user
 Block devices allow random access, which
makes i/o operation faster
 Eg; hard disk
…
 Many devices can act as either character or block devices, depending on
the command used to access the device.
 Types of Files in Linux
 Hard links
 Hard links are special files that allow a single
file to have multiple names
 Hard link only for a file not for a directory
 These links are known as hard links bcoz they
create direct link to an inode
 Each file system has its own inode information
database.
 Therefore, you can specify hard links for files
only…when they are on the same file system
 Symbolic (soft) link
similar to hard links, but you can specify
symbolic links for files across different file
systems
 Not a real file, just a link to another file
 Allow giving another name to a file without
actually duplicates it – hence save memory
space
 Types of Users in Linux
 System Administrator
Root
Administrative account
Also called super user
Can perform any operation on Linux
system
Do not log in as root for normal work
Change temporarily to root user
…
 File Owner(User(u))
 The user who create the file known as the owner
of the file.
 Owner can perform any operation on that file,
such as copying, deleting or editing.
Group Owner(User group(g))
 Users who belong to a group
 we can specify a name for the group of users
 Collection of user accounts
 Can be collectively granted access to files and
directories
 Other Users (o)
 Do not belong to a particular group
Text Editors
 Text editors
• A text editor is a program that enables us to create and modify
text files
• A text editor provides a screen with a fixed line length and
line numbers. we can type text line by line, navigate through
the documents by using different commands and save the
document.
A text editor is used to
Create and edit documents
Create programs and utilities
Write e-mail messages
Functions of a Text editor
Create files
Open files
Copy text
Search for text and replace it
 Editors in Linux
vi Editor
vim Editor
emacs editor
ed editor
red editor
joe editor
pico editor
 Vi Editor
• The visual editor is the most widely used UNIX
based text editors.
• It offers a compact interface and enables us to
control the system by using the keyboard.
• The vi editor is used
• to enter and edit source code
• write short notes such as email messages
 Vim editor
• visual editor improved or vim editor
• an enhanced version of the vi editor .The vim
editor includes various enhancements over the vi
editor such as
• Syntax highlighting
• Command-line editing
• Online help
 emacs editor

• The emacs editor is the edit macros editor.

• The emacs editor provides a much larger set of commands than
the vi editor .
• we can use emacs editor to format a set of source code for
programming languages such as c, c++.
• emacs editor displays an online help screen.
 ed editor
• ed editor or line editor is used to create, display, modify and save
text files.
• When we start the ed editor with a filename as an argument , a
copy of the file is created in the editor's buffer .we can make
changes only to the copy of the file and not directly to file.
• To save the changes to the file use the w command.
 red editor
• The restricted editor is used to edit files in the current
directory .
• we cannot execute shell commands by using the red
editor.
 joe editor
• Another popular editor is the Joe’s own editor or joe.
• joe editor can be invoked by typing joe at the command
prompt.
• File name can be provided along with joe command to
open the file in the joe editor.
• The joe editor is a full screen editor that lets us edit
both programs and text.
 pico editor
• Pico editor is based on pine messaging system.
• Pine messaging system is a character based interface in
Linux. It can be used to send and receive email
messages.
• Pico editor offers features like paragraph justification,
spelling checker , file browser and search features.
• In pico, editor command are displayed at the bottom of
the screen.
• pico provides context sensitive help.
vi Editor
 Vi editor
• Vi editor is used to
– Create files
– Edit files, documents & programs
– Displays contents of files on the screen.
• Getting started with vi Editor
– $ vi filename<Enter>
• Vi editor works in two modes
1.Edit Mode
2.Command Mode
In edit mode we can add text to a file.
The vi editor has different commands to add, change and delete
text. In the command mode we can move the cursor, save the file
and give various commands to manage files.
• To switch from edit mode to command mode press the <Esc>
key. To switch from command mode to edit mode press a, A, o,
O, i, or I keys.
 Commands used in vi editor
h Moves the cursor to the previous character

l Moves the cursor to the next character

k Moves the cursor to the line above the current line

j Moves the cursor to the line below the current line.

x Deletes the character at the current cursor position

:wq<Enter> Saves all changes and quits the vi editor

:w<Enter> Saves the file

:q!<Enter> Quits vi without saving changes

:e<filename>>Enter> Opens the specified file

:r<filename><Enter> Reads and inserts the contents of the

file after the current line.

:w<filename><Enter> Writes to the specified file.(From Vi

file to another)

:W!<filename><Enter> Forcefully writes to the specified file.

:!<Command_name> Executes a shell command

<Enter>
Insert and Replace Commands
a Enables to append text after the current character
A Enables to append text at the end of the line
i Enables to insert text before the current character
I Enables to insert text at the beginning of the file
o inserts a blank line below the current line and allows to insert text

O inserts a blank line above the current line and allows to insert text

rx Replaces the current character with the specified character

Rtext<esc> Replaces characters at the current cursor position with the specified
text , until <Esc> Key is pressed
Cursor Movement Commands
<Ctrl>d or D Scrolls down half-screen

<Ctrl>u or U Scrolls up half-screen

<Ctrl>F Moves a page forward
<Ctrl>B Moves a page backward
0(zero) Moves The cursor to the beginning of the line

$ Moves The cursor to the end of the line

Word Movement Commands

w Moves the cursor to the next word

b Moves the cursor to the previous word

e Moves the cursor to the end of the word

Deletion and modification commands

dw Deletes a word
dd Deletes a line
cw Changes a word
cc Changes a line
X Deletes the character before the current cursor position

J Joins two lines

u Undoes last change
.(dot) Repeats last change made
 Command to Copy Lines
yy or Y Yanks the current line, which is to be copied

Nyy or NY Yanks N lines to be copied, including the

current line
p places yanked text after the current line

P places yanked text before the current line

 Pattern finding commands

fx Finds the specified character x on the current

line after the current cursor position

FX Finds the specified character x on the current

line before the current cursor position a line

/pattern<enter> find the next line containing the specified

pattern

?pattern<enter> find the previous line containing the specified

pattern
n Repeat the last search command

Repeats the search command in the opposite

N direction
Substitution

• :s -search and replace

• :adress s/source_pattern/target_pattern/flags

• Eg:
• :1,$s/director/member/g
• :1,50s/unsigned//g
• :3,10s/director/member/g
• :.s/director/member/g only the current line
• :$s/director/member/g only the last line

• :1,$s/director/member/gc -interactive substitution

Absolute Movement(G)

• Ctrl+g –to know the current line number

• 40G –go to line number 40
• 1G -go to line number 1
• G -go to end of file
Pattern Meaning
^part search for all lines which begin with the word 'part'
part$ search for all lines which end with the word 'part'

\<part search for all strings which begin with the word 'part'
part\> search for all strings which end with the word 'part'
\<part\> only the whole word 'part' will qualify
will search for strings which contain any character in
[m-s]ing the range „m‟ to 's' and is followed by 'ing'
search for all strings which contain the characters
'art', with 'art' being preceded by any character
[^p]art other than 'p'
All words which begin with characters 'wing' and
wing* ends with any character
 Regular Expressions

Agarwal
aggarwal
Agrawal

Similar ,but not identical patterns

An expression used to match a group of similar patterns with
the help of an elaborate metacharacter set is termed as regular
Expressions.
eg: [aA]g[ar][ar]wal
2 Categories of Regular expressions are there
1. Basic Regular expressions(BRE)
2. Extended Regular expressions(ERE)
ERE

The ERE set includes 2 special characters

+ and ?
+ - Matches one or more occurrences of the previous character.
? - Matches zero or one occurrence of the previous character.

Eg: b+ matches b, bb,bbb etc

b? matches b or nothing
Eg: grep -E “[aA]gg?arwal” emp.lst
egrep “[aA]gg?arwal” emp.lst
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#include +<stdio.h>
Expression Significance
Matches one or more occurrences of the
ch+ character ch.
Matches zero or one occurrence of the
ch? character ch.

exp1|exp2 Matches exp1 or exp2

GIF|JPEG Mathces GIF or JPEG

(x1|x2)x3 Matches x1x3 or x2x3

(holy|bolly)wood matches holywood or bolltwood

grep -E ‘senguptha|dasguptha’ emp.lst

grep -E ‘(sen|das)guptha’ emp.lst

-f - to take the pattern from the file

sed –The stream Editor

A non interactive text editor used to change or manipulate

streams of text.
- Combines works of several filters
- Derived from ed editor.
- Syntax
sed options „ address action ‟ file(s)
Addressing in sed can be done in two ways:
1. By one or two line numbers(like 3,7) line addressing
2. By specifying a /-enclosed pattern which occurs in a line.
(like /pattern/) Context addressing
Actions are referred to as commands
$ sed ‘3q’ emp.lst

$ sed –n ‘1,2p’ emp.lst

$ sed –n ‘$p’ emp.lst

$ sed –n ‘9,11p’ emp.lst

To select Multiple groups of Lines
sed –n „1,2p
7,9p
$p‟ emp.lst

Negating the action(!)

sed –n „3,$!p‟ emp.lst don‟t print lines3 to end
Using multiple instructions

sed –n -e „1,2p‟ -e '7,9p‟ -e „$p‟ emp.lst

$cat pattern1
1,2p
7,9p
$p

sed –n –f pattern1 emp.lst

sed –n –f pattern1 –f pattern2 emp.lst
Context Addressing

$ sed –n „/director/p‟ emp.lst

$ sed –n „/dasguptha/,/saksena/p‟ emp.lst

$ sed –n „/[aA]gg*[ar][ar]wal/p‟ emp.lst

Writing selected lines to a file(w)

sed –n „/director/w dlist‟ emp.lst
sed –n „/director/w dlist
/manager/w mlist
/executive/w elist emp.lst
sed –n „1,500w file1
501,$w file2‟ myfile

Deleting Lines(d)
Sed „/director/d‟ emp.lst >olist
sed –n „/director/!p‟ emp.lst >olist
select all lines except those containing director , and save them
in olist.
Substitituion(s)
Syntax:
[address]s/expression1/expression2/flags
Eg:
sed „s/ | /:/‟ emp.lst |head –n 2
sed „s/ | /:/g‟ emp.lst
sed „1,3s/ | /:/g‟ emp.lst
sed „1,5s/director/member /g‟ emp.lst
sed „s/[Aa]gg*[ar][ar]wal/Agarwal/g‟ emp.lst
sed „s/ ^ / 2 /g‟ emp.lst
sed „s/ $ /.00 /g‟ emp.lst
• pr
• - Prepares a file for printing by adding suitable headers,footers and
formatted text.