Linux & LPIC

Quick Reference Guide

Foreword
This guide stems from the notes I have taken while working with Linux and preparing the LPIC-1 certification. As such, it
includes (almost) all topics of the LPIC-1 exam. This guide, which I started writing in 2013, is a work in progress and my aim
is to update it periodically to make it as complete as possible. Please check the date in the right bottom corner of each page
to ensure you're reading the latest version.

You are authorized to use and share this guide both in electronic and in printed form (for instance as a course material),
provided that you distribute intact either the whole guide or the single pages, and you do it not-for-profit. For any other use
please email me. Feel free to contact me also for any error, inaccuracy, or unclear point so I can correct it in future versions.

Happy Linux hacking,

Daniele Raffo

Index
Hardware settings............................1 Links............................................14 E-mail...........................................27
/proc filesystem...............................2 Find system files............................15 Printing.........................................28
System boot....................................3 Shell environment..........................16 Network addressing........................29
Runlevels........................................4 Scripting.......................................17 Subnetting....................................30
Fileystem........................................5 Flow control...................................18 Network services............................31
Partitions........................................6 SQL..............................................19 Network tools................................32
Boot manager..................................7 X Window System..........................20 Network scanning...........................33
Shared libraries...............................8 User accounts................................21 Net config files...............................34
Package management.......................9 User management..........................22 Net config commands.....................35
Command line...............................10 Job scheduling...............................23 SSH..............................................36
Text streams..................................11 Localization...................................24 GPG.............................................37
Processes......................................12 System time..................................25 OpenSSL.......................................38
File permissions.............................13 Logging.........................................26 Key bindings..................................39
 Linux
Professional
Institute 1/39 Hardware settings

Hardware settings
hdparm Get/set disk parameters
hdparm -g /dev/sda Display drive geometry (cylinders, heads, sectors) of /dev/sda
hdparm -tT /dev/sda Perform benchmarks on the /dev/sda drive
hdparm -p 12 /dev/hda Reprogram IDE interface chipset of /dev/sda to mode 4. Use with caution!

lsdev List information about the system's hardware

lspci List PCI devices

lspci -d 8086: List all Intel hardware present. PCI IDs are stored in /usr/share/misc/pci.ids (Debian)
or /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

lsmod List loaded kernel modules

insmod [module] Insert a module into the running kernel
rmmod [module] Remove a module from the running kernel
modinfo [module] Display information about a module
modprobe Load/remove/list modules from the kernel

The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) manages device files and provides plug-and-play facilities. The HAL daemon hald
maintains the list of devices in a database.
udev creates the device nodes in /dev/. When a device is added, removed, or changes state, the kernel sends an uevent
received by the udevd daemon.
udevadm monitor (Debian)
Monitor uevents
udevmonitor (Red Hat)
dbus-monitor Monitor messages going through a D-Bus message bus
dbus-monitor --session Monitor session messages (default)
dbus-monitor --system Monitor system messages

dmesg [options] Print the logs of the kernel ring buffer

dmesg -n 1 Set the logging level to 1 (= only panic messages)

Almost all Linux commands accept the option -v (verbose), and many commands also accept the option -vv (very verbose).

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 2/39 /proc filesystem

/proc filesystem

/proc pseudo filesystem

Directory Meaning Equivalent command
/proc/n/ Information about process with PID n ps n
/proc/n/cmdline Command line the process was launched by
/proc/n/cwd Working directory of process
/proc/uptime Time elapsed since boot uptime
/proc/sys/ sysfs
/proc/sys/kernel/ Kernel information and parameters
/proc/sys/net/ Network information and parameters
/proc/partitions Drive partition information
/proc/mounts Mounted partitions mount
/proc/devices Drivers currently loaded
/proc/modules Kernel modules currently loaded lsmod
/proc/bus Buses (PCI, USB, PC Card...)
/proc/ioports I/O addresses in use
/proc/dma DMA channels in use
/proc/interrupts Current interrupts
/proc/cpuinfo CPUs information
/proc/meminfo Total and free memory free
/proc/version Linux version uname -a

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 3/39 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.
Chain loader
GRUB chooses which OS to boot on.
GRUB
The chain loader hands over to the boot sector of the partition on which resides the OS.
(GRand Unified
The chain loader may also load initrd, an initial ramdisk to be used as the initial root
Bootloader)
device during kernel boot.
Kernel decompression into memory.
Kernel execution.
Linux kernel
Detection of devices.
Root filesystem is mounted on / in place of the initial ramdisk.

init Execution of the first process (PID 1): /sbin/init

Startup System loads startup scripts and runlevel scripts.
X Server (Optional) The X Display Manager starts the X Server.

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 4/39 Runlevels

Runlevels

OS startup sequence (SysV) Debian Red Hat

At startup /sbin/init switches to the default id:2:initdefault: id:5:initdefault:
runlevel specified in /etc/inittab:

The script for system initialization is then run: /etc/init.d/rcS /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

The script launches all services and daemons /etc/rcN.d/ /etc/rc.d/rcN.d/

specified in the startup directories where N is
the actual runlevel:
The startup directories contain symbolic links to 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
To add or remove services at boot sequence update-rc.d [service] defaults chkconfig --add [service]
(startup directories are updated accordingly): update-rc.d -f [service] remove chkconfig --del [service]

Runlevel Debian Red Hat

0 Shutdown
1 Single user mode
Multi-user mode
2 Multi-user mode without network
(default)
3 Multi-user mode Multi-user mode with network
4 Multi-user mode Unused, for custom use
Multi-user mode with network and X
5 Multi-user mode
(default)
6 Reboot

runlevel
who -r Display the previous and the current runlevel

init [runlevel]
telinit [runlevel] Change runlevel

init 0
shutdown -h now Halt the system
halt

init 6
shutdown -r now Reboot the system
reboot

shutdown -h 16:00 "System halt at 4 PM" Halt the system at 4 PM and issue a warning message to all
logged in users

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 5/39 Fileystem

Fileystem

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

/bin Essential command binaries
/boot Bootloader files (kernel, initrd...)
/dev Devices and partitions
/etc System configuration files
/home Home directories for users
/lib Libraries for the binaries in /bin and /sbin, kernel modules
/media Mount points for removable media
/mnt Mount points for temporary filesystems
/opt Optional application software packages
/proc Virtual filesystem providing kernel and processes information
/root Home directory for root
/sbin Essential system binaries
/srv Data for services provided by the system
/tmp Temporary files
/usr User utilities and applications
/usr/bin Non-essential command binaries (for all users)
/usr/lib Libraries for the binaries in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin
/usr/sbin Non-essential system binaries (daemons and services)
/usr/src Source code
/var Variable files (logs, caches, mail spools...)

Linux-supported filesystems
ext2 Linux filesystem
ext3 ext2 with journaling
(the journal logs changes before committing them to the filesystem;
ensures faster recovery and less corruption in case of a crash)
ext4 Linux journaling filesystem
reiserfs Journaling filesystem
fat32 MS-Windows FAT filesystem
iso9660 CD-ROM filesystem
cramfs Compressed RAM disk

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 6/39 Partitions

Partitions
/dev/hda, /dev/hdb, ... first, second, ... IDE hard drive
/dev/sda, /dev/sdb, ... first, second, ... SATA hard drive
/dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, ... first, second, ... partition of the first SATA drive

Partitioning limits for Linux:

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

Required partitions for Linux:

/ root containing the whole Linux distribution
swap virtual memory used as RAM extension

The Logical Volume Manager permits disk hotswapping, partition resizing, dynamic logical volume assignment, backup via
snapshots.
The superblock contains information relative to the filesystem (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.

fdisk -l [device] List the partition table

fdisk [device] Disk partitioning interactive tool
cfdisk Text-based UI for fdisk
gparted Graphical UI for fdisk in GNOME

partprobe Notify the OS of partition table changes (without needing to reboot)

mkfs -t [fstype] [device] Create a filesystem of specified type on a partition

mke2fs /dev/sda Create a ext2 filesystem on first SATA drive
mke2fs -j /dev/sda Create a ext3 filesystem (with journaling) on first SATA drive
mkswap [options] [device] Create a swap filesystem on a partition
swapon [options] [device] Enable a swap partition
swapoff [options] [device] Disable a swap partition

mount /dev/sda /mnt Mount a filesystem to mount point /mnt (mount directory must exist)
mount Print the currently mounted filesystems

df Report filesystem disk space usage

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 7/39 Boot manager

Boot manager
GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) is the standard bootloader on modern Linux distros, which may use either version: GRUB
Legacy or GRUB 2.
Older Linux distros used LILO (Linux Loader) instead.

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 accesses the GRUB configuration and commands available on the filesystem.

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

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

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 Common kernel parameters:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet root= Defines filesystem root
splash
ro Mount read-only on boot
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet Disable most log messages
# Section 1: Windows boot debug Enable kernel debugging
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

GRUB 2 configuration file (/boot/grub/grub.cfg)

# 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
}
Is not meant to be edited manually.
# Linux Debian
menuentry "Debian 2.6.36-experimental" { Instead, you must edit:
/etc/grub.d/
set root=(hd0,1)
/etc/default/grub
linux (hd0,1)/bzImage-2.6.36-experimental ro root=/dev/hda6
} and then run update-grub

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

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 8/39 Shared libraries

Shared libraries

The runtime loader ld.so loads the required libraries of the program into RAM, searching in this order:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH Environment variable specifying the list of directories where libraries should be searched for first
/etc/ld.so.cache Cache file
/lib and /usr/lib Default locations for shared libraries

Configuration file used to specify other shared library locations

/etc/ld.so.conf
(other than the default ones /lib and /usr/lib)

Create a cache file /etc/ld.so.cache of all available dynamically linked libraries.

ldconfig
To be run when the system complains about missing libraries

ldd [program or lib] Print library dependencies

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 9/39 Package management

Package management

Package management Debian Red Hat

Install a package file dpkg -i package.deb rpm -i 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

Low-level tools
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
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
Install a package apt-get install package yum install package
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

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

High-level tools Update information about available packages apt-get update
(can install
remote List all available packages yum list
packages,
automatically Search for a package apt-cache search package yum search package
solves apt-cache depends package yum deplist package
Show package dependencies
dependencies)
Show package records apt-cache show package yum list package
Show information about a package apt-cache showpkg package yum info package
Update information about package contents apt-file update
List the content of an uninstalled package apt-file list package
Show the package containing a specific file apt-file search file yum provides file
Add a CD-ROM to the list of available sources apt-cdrom add
yumdownloader --resolve
Download package and resolve dependencies
package
yumdownloader --urls
List the URLs that would be downloaded
package

Text-based UI or
aptitude
Manage packages and dependencies
graphical tools dselect
Convert a RPM package to DEB and installs it.
alien -i package.rpm
Other tools May break the package system!

Convert a RPM package to cpio archive rpm2cpio package.rpm

List of available sources /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/yum.repos.d
Miscellaneous
information compressed with ar
Package format compressed with cpio
(package binutils)

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 10/39 Command line

Command line
man 7 [command] Show manpage 7 for a command

man man Show information about manpages' content:

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

cd [directory] Change to the specified directory

cd - Change to the previously used directory
pwd Print the current directory you are in

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

Commands prepended by a space will be executed but won't show up in the history.
Once you logout from Bash, history is saved into ~/.bash_history
!n Execute command number n in the command line history
history -c Delete command line history

uname -a Print system information

vlock
away Lock the virtual console (terminal)

Bash shortcuts
. Current directory
.. Parent directory
~ Home directory of current user
~jdoe Home directory of user jdoe

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 11/39 Text streams

Text streams
cat myfile Print a text file
cat myfile1 myfile2 > myfile3 Concatenate text files
head myfile
head -n 10 myfile Print the first 10 lines of a text file

tail myfile
tail -n 10 myfile Print the last 10 lines of a text file

tail -f myfile Output appended data as the text file grows; useful to read logs in realtime
tac myfile Print a text file in reverse, from last line to first line
fmt -w 75 myfile Format a text file so that each line has a max width of 75 chars
pr myfile Format a text file for a printer

nl myfile Prepend line numbers to a text file

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

join myfile1 myfile2 Join lines of two text files on a common field
paste myfile1 myfile2 Merge lines of text files
split -l 1 myfile Split a text file into 1-line files (named xaa, xab, xac, ...)
uniq myfile Print the unique lines of a text file, omitting consecutive identical lines
sort myfile Sort alphabetically the lines of a text file
expand myfile Convert tabs into spaces
unexpand myfile Convert spaces into tabs

od myfile Dump a file into octal

cut -d: -f3 myfile 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

sed s/foo/bar/ myfile Replace the first occurrence of foo with bar (Stream Editor)
sed s/foo/bar/g myfile Replace all occurrences of foo with bar

tr a-z A-Z <myfile

tr [:lower:] [:upper:] <myfile Convert all lowercase into uppercase in a text file (Translate characters)

tr -d 0-9 <myfile
tr -d [:digit:] <myfile Delete all digits from a text file

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 12/39 Processes

Processes

Any application/program/script that runs on the system is a process. Signals are used for inter-process communication.
Each process has an unique PID (Process ID) and a PPID (Parent Process ID); when a process spawns a child, its PID is
assigned as the child's PPID.
The /sbin/init process, run at bootup, has PID 1; is the ancestor of all processes and becomes the parent of any orphaned
process.
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 stays zombie.

ps -ef (UNIX options)

List all processes
ps aux (BSD options)
pstree Display all processes in hierarchical format
top
htop Monitor processes in realtime

free Show the amount of free and used memory in the system
vmstat Show virtual memory statistics
uptime Show how long the system has been up, and the system load averages

kill -9 1132 Send a signal 9 (SIGKILL) to process 1132, 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 (pgrep and pkill accept
pkill -9 -u root sshd Kill processes whose name is sshd and are owned by root the same options)

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 receiving a SIGHUP (hence terminating) when its parent Bash dies

To each process is associated a niceness value: the lower the niceness, the higher 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

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

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 13/39 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
symboliclink
link rr==read
read rr==read
read rr==read
read
ss==Unix
Unixdomain
domainsocket
socket ww==write
write ww==write
write ww==write
write
pp==named
namedpipe
pipe xx==execute
execute xx==execute
execute xx==execute
execute
cc==character
characterdevice
devicefile
file ss==setUID
setUIDand
andexecute
execute ss==setGID
setGIDand
andexecute
execute tt==sticky
stickyand
andexecute
execute
bb==block
block devicefile
device file SS==setUID
setUIDand
andnot
notexecute
execute SS==setGID
setGIDand
andnot
notexecute
execute TT==sticky
stickyand
andnot
notexecute
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
Execute group: 10 chmod g+x Can access the directory
or script)
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
Only the file's or the directory's owner
Sticky 1000 chmod +t No effect
can delete or rename a file inside

chmod 710 file

chmod u=rwx,g=x file Set read, write, and execute permission to user; set execute permission to group

chmod ug=rw file

chmod 660 file Set read and write permission to user and group

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.

Set the permission mask to 022, hence masking write permission for group and others.
umask 022 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.

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 14/39 Links

Links

A Linux directory contains a list of structures, which are associations between a filename and an inode.
An inode contains 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.

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

Hard link Symbolic link or soft link

What it is A link to an already existing inode A path to a filename, like a shortcut
How to create it ln myfile hardlink ln -s myfile symlink

Yes No
If original file is moved or deleted,
(because the link references the inode (the path now references a non-
is the link still valid?
the original file pointed to) existent file)
No
Can link to a file in another
(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

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 15/39 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 all files whose name start with foo and print their path
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 / -perm -4000 -type f Find all files 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

Locate the command ls by searching the file index, not by actually

locate ls
slocate ls walking the filesystem. The search is quick but will only held results
relative to the last rebuilding of the file index (/etc/updatedb.conf)
updatedb Build the file index (/etc/updatedb.conf)

which command Locate a binary executable command within the PATH

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

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

file myfile Analyse the content of a file or directory

type command Determine if command is a program or a shell builtin

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 16/39 Shell environment

Shell environment

Bash shell event Files run

/etc/profile The shell executes the
~/.bash_profile system-wide profile file, then
When a login shell is launched ~/.bash_login the first of the 3 user files
~/.profile that exists and is readable
When a login shell exits ~/.bash_logout
/etc/bash.bashrc
When a non-login shell is launched ~/.bashrc

function myfunc { [commands] }

myfunc() { [commands] } Define a function

myfunc arg1 arg2 ... Call a function

typeset -f Show functions defined in the current Bash session

MYVAR=myvalue Set a variable

unset MYVAR Delete a variable
export MYVAR Export a variable so it can be seen by Bash child processes

echo $MYVAR Print the value of a variable

echo ${MYVAR:-mymessage} If variable exists and is not null, print its value, otherwise print a message
echo ${MYVAR:+mymessage} If variable exists and is not null, print a message, otherwise print nothing
set ${MYVAR:=myvalue} Set a variable only if it does not exist or is null

set Display all Bash variables

set -o Show the status of all Bash options
set -o [option] Enable a Bash option
set +o [option] Disable a Bash option

env Display all environment variables

alias ls='ls -lap' Set up a command alias

alias Show current aliases

\ls
Run the non-aliased version of the command ls
/bin/ls

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 17/39 Scripting

Scripting
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 a 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)

exit Terminate a script

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

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 "mymessage" Print on screen without a trailing line feed

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

zenity Display GTK+ graphical dialogs for user messages and input

Bash built-in variables

$0 Script name
$1, $2, ... First, second, ... argument passed to the script or function
$# Number of arguments passed to the script or function
$? Exit status of the last executed command

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 18/39 Flow control

Flow control
test $MYVAR = "myvalue" && mycommand
[ $MYVAR = "myvalue" ] && mycommand Perform a test; if it holds true, the command is executed
if [ $MYVAR = "myvalue" ]; then mycommand; 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 writeable
-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" Evaluate an expression; the variable will hold the value 42
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
String matches regex
!= Not equal to - Minus match string regex

< Less than \* Multiplied by substr string position 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

Tests
if [test 1] case $VAR in
then [pattern 1]) [command 1] ;;
[command block 1] [pattern 2]) [command 2] ;;
elif [test 2] *) [command 3]
then esac
[command block 2]
else
[command block 3]
fi
Loops
while [test] for $I in [list] break Terminate a loop
do do
[command block] [command operating on $I] continue Jump to the next iteration
done done

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 19/39 SQL

SQL

SQL syntax

USE MyDatabase; Choose which database to use

SHOW DATABASES; Show all existing databases

SHOW TABLES; Show all tables from the selected database

DESC tableCustomers; Describe the columns of a table

SELECT * FROM tableCustomers; Select all columns from the table

SELECT * FROM tableCustomers ORDER BY columnLastname LIMIT 5; Select only the first 5 records of customers
as ordered by last name

SELECT columnFirstname, columnLastname FROM tableCustomers WHERE Select only first and last name of customers
columnZipcode = 00123; whose zip code is 00123

SELECT columnCustomerID, SUM(columnSalary) FROM tablePayments Select all salary payments grouped by
GROUP BY columnCustomerID; customer ID, summed up

SELECT tableCustomers.columnLastname, tablePayments.columnAmount

FROM tableCustomers, tablePayments WHERE Perform a join by selecting data from two
tableCustomers.columnCustomerID = tablePayments.columnCustomerID; tables that are linked

INSERT INTO tableCustomers

(columnFirstname,columnLastname,columnDOB) Insert new data
VALUES (Arthur,Dent,1959-08-01);

UPDATE tableCustomers SET columnCity = 'London' WHERE

columnZipcode = 00789; Modify data

SHOW GRANTS FOR 'user'@'localhost'; Show permissions for a user

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON MyDatabase.* TO 'user'@'localhost'; Grant permissions to a user

REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES FROM 'user'@'localhost'; Revoke permissions from a user

SELECT Host,User FROM mysql.user; List MySQL users

CREATE USER 'user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'p4ssw0rd'; Create a MySQL user

SET PASSWORD FOR 'user'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('p4ssw0rd'); Set a password for a MySQL user

MySQL command line syntax

mysql -u root -p Login to MySQL as root, prompting for the password

mysql -u root -ps3cr3t Login to MySQL as root with password s3cr3t

mysql -u root -p -e 'CREATE DATABASE NewDatabase' Create a new database by passing a SQL command to MySQL

Create a new database from an external file (.sql files are

mysql -u root -p NewDatabase < newdb.sql
composed of SQL commands)

mysqldump -u root -p MyDatabase > backup.sql Backup a database on an external file

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 20/39 X Window System

X Window System

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 Defined in /etc/x11/xdm/Xresources
X /etc/x11/xdm/Xservers local X server software, or with X by the following line:
xdm Display terminals via XDMCP
Manager Script launched by xdm after xlogin*greeting:
/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 (gdm or kdm are started in a similar way)

xorgconfig Configure X (text mode) (Debian)

Xorg -configure Configure X (text mode) (Red Hat)
xorgcfg Configure X (graphical mode) (Debian)
system-config-display Configure X (graphical mode) (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 10.3.3.3 to the list of hosts allowed to make X connections to the local machine
xhost - 10.3.3.3 Remove 10.3.3.3 from the list of hosts allowed to make X connections to the local machine

mkfontdir Catalog the newly installed fonts in the new directory

xset fp+ /usr/local/fonts Dynamically add the newly 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

switchdesk gde Switch to the GDE Display Manager at runtime

/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 instructs init to launch XDM at runlevel 5: x:5:respawn:/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon

/etc/sysconfig/desktop defines GNOME as the default desktop= "gde"

Display Environment and Display Manager: displaymanager= "gdm"

X11 Forwarding - local execution of remote graphical applications

Over telnet Over ssh
On remote machine /etc/ssh/sshd_config must specify X11Forwarding yes
export DISPLAY=10.1.1.1:0.0
10.2.2.2 xauth must be installed
xhost +
On local machine telnet 10.2.2.2
ssh -X 10.2.2.2
10.1.1.1 xclock &
xclock &

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 21/39 User accounts

User accounts

/etc/passwd – Users 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 Encrypted password (obsolete), or x if password is in /etc/shadow
3 UID – User ID (UID 0 is superuser; by convention UIDs 1-99 are system accounts, UIDs above are regular users)
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 (can be set to /bin/false to prevent a user from logging in)

/etc/shadow – User passwords (file is readable only by root)

root:fZPe54/Kldu6D32pl0X/A:15537:0:99999:7:::
bin:*:15637:0:99999:7:::
jdoe:!hsp\8e3jCUdw9Ru53:15580:0:99999:7::15766:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 Login name
2 Encrypted password (a ! prefix if the account is locked), * if account is disabled, ! or !! if no password
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 (file is readable only by root)

root::root:root 1 Group name

jdoe:!:: 2 Encrypted password, or ! if no password set (default)
staff:0cfz7IpLhGW19i::root,jdoe 3 Group administrators
1 2 3 4 4 Group members

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 22/39 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 (specified in /etc/login.defs) for user account creation

usermod -c "Jonas Doe" jdoe Modify the GECOS field of a user account
(usermod accepts many
usermod -L jdoe Lock a user account
usermod -U jdoe useradd options)
Unlock a user account

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

chage -E 2013-02-14 jdoe Change the password expiration date, locking the account 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 User-friendly front-ends for user and group management (Debian)
delgroup

who am i
whoami Print your effective user ID

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

su jdoe Run a shell as the specified user. If user is not specified, assume 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 fdisk -l Run a command as root. Sudo commands are logged via syslog
sudo -ujdoe fdisk -l Run a command as another user

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 is a security problem if the editor spawns a shell

visudo Edit /etc/sudoers, the configuration file that specifies access rights to sudo

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

/etc/nologin If this file exists, login and sshd deny login to the system

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 23/39 Job scheduling

Job scheduling
cron – repeated scheduled execution

/etc/crontab

# m h dom mon dow user command

25 6 * * 1 root myscript.sh
m = minutes
25 6 * * 1 = every Monday at 6:25 AM
h = hours
*/5 16 * * * = from 4:00 to 4:55 PM every 5 mins, everyday
dom = day of month (1-31)
0,30 7 25 12 * = on 25th December at 7:00 and 7:30 AM
mon = month (1-12 or jan-dec)
3 17 * * 1-5 = at 5:03 PM everyday, from Monday to Friday
dow = day of week (0-7 or sun-sat; 0=7=Sunday)

The crond daemon checks the /etc/crontab system-wide file every minute and executes command as user at the specified
times.
Each user may also set his own crontab scheduling, which will result in a file /var/spool/cron/[user]. A user' crontab file
has the same format, except that the user field is not present.

/etc/anacrontab

# period delay job-identifier command

7 10 cron-weekly myscript.sh
period = period in days
delay = delay in minutes
job-identifier = job identifier in anacron messages
Anacron jobs are run by crond, and permit the execution of periodic jobs on a machine that is not always running, such as a
laptop.
If the job has not been executed in the last period, the system waits for delay and then executes command.

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.

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 (only root can do this)
/etc/cron.hourly
/etc/cron.daily
/etc/cron.weekly Scripts placed in these directories will be automatically executed with the specified periods
/etc/cron.monthly

at – scheduled execution 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

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 24/39 Localization

Localization

Locale environment variables

Language, stored in /etc/default/locale .
When scripting, you should set LANG=C because this
LANG
LANGUAGE 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
These locale variables are in the format
LC_COLLATE Alphabetical order [language]_[territory].[encoding]
LC_MONETARY Monetary formats e.g. en_US.UTF-8

LC_MESSAGES Language and encoding of system messages and user The list of supported locales is stored in
input /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
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

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 myfilein > myfileout 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.

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 25/39 System time

System time
tzselect
tzconfig Set the timezone, stored in /etc/timezone
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata (Debian)

Timezone is also set as a symbolic link from /etc/localtime to the correct timezone file in /usr/share/zoneinfo/

date Show current date and time

date -d "9999 days ago" Show a different date
date -d "1970/01/01 + 14662" Convert number of days since 1 January 1970 (e.g. 14662) in a canonical date
date +"%F %H:%M:%S" Show date in the format specified
date -s "20130305 23:30:00" Set the date
date 030523302013 Set the date in the format MMDDhhmmYYYY

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 [server] Query the time server for a list of peers

ntpdate [server] Synchronizes the clock with the specified time server
ntpdate -b [server] Brutally set the clock, without waiting for a slow adjusting
ntpdate -q [server] Query the time server without setting the clock

hwclock --show
hwclock -r Show the hardware clock

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

hwclock --systohc
hwclock -w Set the hardware clock from system time

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

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 26/39 Logging

Logging
syslogd Daemon logging events from user processes
Syslog logging facility: 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 server
daemon err or error† (via UDP port 514)
kern warning or warn†
lpr notice user1,user2,user3 message is sent to users' 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 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 last lines of a file, moving forward as the file grows (useful to read logs in
real-time)

zgrep [grep options] [file] Grep search in a gzipped file

zcat /var/log/messages.1.gz Print a gzipped file on stdout

/var/log/messages
/var/log/syslog System and kernel logs
/var/log/kern.log

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 27/39 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

Examples of MTAs: Sendmail, Exim, Postfix, qmail

mail -s "Subject" -c "[email protected]" < body Send a mail message

~/.forward Specifies one or more mail addresses to forward the user's mail to
/etc/aliases Aliases database for users on the local machine; each line is on the
/etc/mail/aliases form alias: user
newaliases
sendmail -bi Update the aliases database (must be run after any change)

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

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

Exim (MTA)
mailq
exim4 -bp Examine the mail queue

exim4 -M [message id] Attempt delivery of message

exim4 -Mrm [message id] Remove a message from the mail queue
exim4 -Mvh [message id] See the headers of a message in the mail queue
exim4 -Mvb [message id] See the body of a message in the mail queue
exim4 -Mvc [message id] See a message in the mail queue
exim4 -qf [domain] Force a queue run
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 runs

exigrep Search through Exim logfiles
exicyclog Rotate Exim logfiles

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 28/39 Printing

Printing

cupsd CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) daemon.

Administration of printers is done via web interface on http://localhost:631

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

/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

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)

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 29/39 Network addressing

Network addressing

IPv4 IPv6
32-bit 2130:0000:0000:0000:0007:0040:15bc:235f 128-bit
divised in 4 octects divised in 8 16-bit sections
193.22.33.44 (dotted-quad) 2130:0:0:0:7:40:15bc:235f

4 billion addresses 2130::7:40:15bc:235f 3 × 1038 addresses

IPv4 classful addressing

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 10/8 16,777,216 RFC 1918

Private Private Class B 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 172.16/12 1,048,576 RFC 1918

Private Class C 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 192.168/16 65,536 RFC 1918

Source 0.0.0.0 – 0.255.255.255 0/8 16,777,216 RFC 1700

Loopback 127.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255 127/8 16,777,216 RFC 1700

Autoconf 169.254.0.0 – 169.254.255.255 169.254/16 65,536 RFC 3330

Reserved
TEST-NET 192.0.2.0 – 192.0.2.255 192.0.2/24 256 RFC 3330

6to4 relay anycast 192.88.99.0 – 192.88.99.255 192.88.99/24 256 RFC 3068

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

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 30/39 Subnetting

Subnetting

VLSM chart - Last octet subnetting

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.

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 31/39 Network services

Network services

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
139 TCP/UDP Microsoft NetBIOS
143 TCP IMAP
161 UDP SNMP
443 TCP HTTPS
465 TCP SMTP over SSL
993 TCP IMAPS
995 TCP POP3S
1-1023: privileged ports used server-side
1024-65535: unprivileged ports used client-side
The well-known ports are listed in /etc/services

Protocol stack models

ISO/OSI TCP/IP
7 Application
6 Presentation Application HTTP, SMTP, POP, SSH, ...
5 Session
4 Transport Transport TCP, UDP, ...
3 Network Internet IPv4, IPv6, ICMP, ...
2 Data Link
Network Access Ethernet, Wi-Fi, PPP, ...
1 Physical

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 32/39 Network tools

Network tools

dig example.org (most powerful)

host example.org Perform a DNS lookup for the specified domain or hostname
nslookup example.org (deprecated)

dig @10.7.7.7 -t MX example.org Perform a DNS lookup for the MX record of the domain example.org,
querying nameserver 10.7.7.7
dig -x 192.0.32.8 Perform a reverse lookup on the IP address 192.0.32.8

host example.org 10.7.7.7 Perform a DNS lookup for the domain example.org, querying nameserver
10.7.7.7

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

Test reachability and measure the round-trip time to a remote host

ping 192.0.32.8 (by sending an ICMP ECHO_REQUEST datagram and expecting an ICMP
ECHO_RESPONSE)

traceroute 192.0.32.8
tracepath 192.0.32.8 Print the route packets trace to a remote host

telnet 192.0.32.8 23 Establish a TELNET connection to host 192.0.32.8 on port 23

(if port is omitted, use default port 23)

ftp 192.0.32.8 Establish an interactive FTP connection with a host

wget --recursive --no-clobber \

--page-requisites –html-extension \
--convert-links --domains example.org \ Download a whole website www.example.org/foobar
--no-parent www.example.org/foobar

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 33/39 Network scanning

Network scanning
netstat Display network connections
netstat –-tcp Display active TCP connections
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 -en)

nmap 192.0.32.8
nmap -sS 192.0.32.8 Scan for open ports (TCP SYN scan by default) on remote host

nmap -sP 192.0.32.8 Do a ping sweep on remote host

nmap -sU 192.0.32.8 Scan UDP ports on remote hosts
nmap -p 1-65535 192.0.32.8 Scan all ports (1-65535) on remote host, not only the common ports
nmap -sV 192.0.32.8 Do a service and version scan on open ports
nmap -O 192.0.32.8 Find which operating system is running on remote host (OS fingerprinting)

tcpdump ip host 10.3.3.3 tcp port 25 Sniff network packets on TCP port 25 from and to the specified host
tcpdump ether host '45:67:89:ab:cd:ef' Sniff traffic from and to the network interface with that MAC address

lsof List all open files

lsof -u jdoe List all files currently open by a user
lsof -i List open files and their sockets (equivalent to netstat -anp)
lsof [email protected] List connections of local processes to remote host 10.2.2.2

iptraf IP LAN monitor (ncurses GUI)

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 34/39 Net config files

Net config files

/etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain Mappings between IP addresses and
10.2.3.4 myhost hostnames, for simple name resolution

/etc/nsswitch.conf passwd: files nisplus nis Controls the sources used by various
shadow: files nisplus nis system library lookup functions
group: files nisplus nis
hosts: files dns nisplus nis

/etc/host.conf order hosts,bind Controls the sources for name resolution

multi on for systems before glibc2.
Superseded by /etc/nsswitch.conf

/etc/resolv.conf nameserver 192.168.3.3 DNS servers to use

nameserver 192.168.4.4

/etc/networks loopback 127.0.0.0 Mappings between network addresses

mylan 10.2.3.0 and names

/etc/hostname Hostname of the local machine

/etc/network/interfaces List and config of all network interfaces

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

BOOTPROTO=none eth0 (RedHat)
ONBOOT=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=10.2.3.4
USERCTL=no

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

/etc/protocols List of available protocols

/etc/inetd.conf Configuration file for inetd, the super-

server Internet daemon

/etc/dhcpd.conf Configuration file for the DHCP server

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 35/39 Net config commands

Net config commands

ifconfig -a Display all configured network interfaces
ifconfig eth0 Display configuration of eth0
ifconfig eth0 up
ifup eth0 Activate eth0

ifconfig eth0 down

ifdown eth0 Shut down eth0

ifconfig eth0 10.2.3.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.2.3.255 Configure IP address of eth0
ifconfig eth0 hw ether 45:67:89:ab:cd:ef Configure MAC address of eth0

dhclient
pump Request an IP address via DHCP

iwlist wlan0 scanning Scan for wireless networks

route Display IP routing table

route -en
route -F
Gateway: Flags:
[host] gateway name U route is up
* no gateway G use gateway
- rejected route H target is host
! rejected route
D dynamically installed by daemon
M modified from routing daemon
R reinstate route for dynamic routing

route -C Display kernel routing cache

route add default gw 10.2.3.1 eth0 Add a default route via eth0
route add -host 10.7.0.9 gw 10.7.0.1 Add a route for a host
route add -net 10.7.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0 gw 10.7.0.1 Add a route for a network
route del -host 10.7.0.66 gw 10.7.0.1 Delete a route for a host

arp Show the ARP cache table

arp 10.7.0.9 Show the ARP cache for a host
arp -s 10.7.0.9 01:23:45:67:89:ab Add a new ARP entry for a host
arp -d 10.7.0.9 Delete a ARP entry

Get or set the hostname

hostname
(stored in /etc/hostname)

/etc/init.d/networking
/etc/init.d/network Initialize network services

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 36/39 SSH

SSH

Secure Shell (SSH)

SSH configuration files
/etc/ssh/sshd_config SSH server daemon configuration file
/etc/ssh/ssh_config SSH client configuration file

SSH key generation

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 Generate interactively a 2048-bit RSA key pair,
prompting for a passphrase.
Private key is stored in ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Public key is stored in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
ssh-keygen -p -t rsa Change passphrase of the private key
ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -f /etc/ssh/host_key -N '' -C '' Generate a RSA host key with no passphrase and no
comment
ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/host_key View fingerprint of a public key

SSH Port Forwarding

ssh -L 2525:mail.example.com:25 [email protected] Forwarding: redirect traffic from local port 2525
to port 25 of remote host mail.example.com
ssh -R 80:local:8080 [email protected] Reverse forwarding: redirect connections to port 80 of
login.example.com towards port 8080 of local machine

How to enable Public Key Authentication:

1. Set PubkeyAuthentication yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config of remote server
2. Copy your public key ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 on the remote server

How to enable Host-based Authentication amongst a group of hosts:

1. Set HostbasedAuthentication yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config on all hosts
2. Create /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv on all hosts, and enter there all hostnames
3. Connect via SSH manually on each host so that all hosts' public keys are stored into ~/.ssh/known_hosts, and copy this
file to /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts on all hosts

How to enable SSH Agent:

1. Type eval `ssh-agent` (this will show the PID of ssh-agent)
2. Type ssh-add and enter the passphrase of the private key to escrow

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 37/39 GPG

GPG

GNU Privacy Guard (GPG)

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 Encrypt a file (to Alice i.e. with Alice's public key),
signing it with your private key
gpg -d file.txt.gpg Decrypt a file (with your own public key)

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 38/39 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 for the
public key of a key pair
openssl req -new -nodes -keyout newprivate.key \ Create a 2048-bit RSA key pair and generates a
-out request.csr -newkey rsa:2048 Certificate Signing Request for it
openssl ca -config ca.conf -in request.csr \ Sign a certificate
-out certif.cer -days validity -verbose
openssl ca -config ca.conf -gencrl -revoke certif.cer \ 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

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 (if there is no output,
then 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 genrsa -des3 -out key.pem 2048 Generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair protected by
TripleDES passphrase (older versions of OpenSSL)
openssl pkey -text -in private.key -noout Examine a private key
openssl rsa -text -in private.key -noout Examine a private key
(older versions of OpenSSL)
openssl pkey -in old.key -out new.key -cipher Change a private key's passphrase
openssl rsa -in old.key -out new.key -cipher Change a private key's passphrase
(older versions of OpenSSL)

openssl s_client -connect www.website.com:443 > tmpfile Retrieve and inspect a certificate from a website
CTRL C

openssl x509 -in tmpfile -text

openssl list-message-digest-commands List all available hash functions

openssl list-cipher-commands List all available ciphers

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013

 Linux
Professional
Institute 39/39 Key bindings

Key bindings

Key Alternate key Function

CTRL F RIGHT ARROW Move cursor forward one char

CTRL B LEFT ARROW 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 buffer

SHIFT PAGE DOWN Scroll down the buffer
CTRL L Clear screen (same as clear)

CTRL P UP ARROW Previous command in history

CTRL N DOWN ARROW Next command in history
CTRL R Reverse history search
TAB Autocomplete file and directory names

CTRL J RETURN Line feed

CTRL M Carriage return

CTRL S Pause trasfer to terminal

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 (same as logout on shell prompt)

CTRL ALT DEL Reboot the machine (same as shutdown -r now)

CTRL ALT F1 ... F6 Switch between text consoles

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 Change between X Window tasks
CTRL ALT BACKSPACE Reboot the X Window server

© Daniele Raffo www.crans.org/~raffo 07/05/2013