LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

SHELLS
 The computer understands the language of 0’s and 1’s called binary
language. In the early days of computing, instructions are provided
using binary language, which is difficult for all of us, to read and write.
 So the in Operating system there is special program called Shell that
acts as an interface between user and kernel.
 Linux has a large number of commands. A Linux command is a
program written to perform a certain specific action. All such
programs have a name.
 For example, the program that is used to print today’s date in a specific
manner has the name date.
 All Linux commands are written using lower case letters and they are
case sensitive.
 For example date, cat, cp, ls, pwd, who, wc, and so on.

Understanding Shells

 Every Linux system has, at least, one shell.

 A shell is a program that sits on the kernel and acts as an interface or
agent between the user and the kernel and hence the hardware. It is
similar to the command.com file in the MS-DOS environment.

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 Definition of Shell: “A shell is a command-line interpreter or a

processor that lets you access some of the most critical Linux tools.
The shell is powerful, complex, and almost completely unintuitive.”

Figure : Services provided by the shell

 Shell is also a command language interpreter that executes commands

read from the standard input device (keyboard) or from a file.
 At shell prompt, Shell accepts your commands in English, interprets it
in machine language, and if it is a valid command, it is passed onto the
kernel for execution (the kernel after processing the commands gives
back to the shell) and then wait for another command.
 Shell is not part of system kernel, but uses the system kernel to execute
programs, create files etc.

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The Shell Interface

 How you first get to a shell depends on whether your computer is

configured to have a graphical user interface (GUI) or not.
 A desktop system, by its nature, starts with a GUI.
 Server systems often are run entirely from the command line. Here are
ways of reaching a shell, depending on whether you have a desktop
GUI running or not:

1. No Desktop - If your Linux system has no GUI (or one that isn’t
working at the moment), you log in from a text-based prompt
and immediately begin working from the shell.

2. With Desktop - With the desktop GUI running, you can open a
Terminal window (right-click on the desktop, and then click
Open Terminal) to start a shell. You can begin typing commands
into the Terminal window.

 If you are using a shell interface, the first thing you see is the shell
prompt.
 As soon as the system is booted successfully, the shell prompts a
command line prompt.
 The default prompt for a normal user is simply a dollar sign: $
 The default prompt for the root user is a pound sign (also called a hash
mark):#
 If you use a shell other than the default bash shell in Fedora, in some
cases you may see a percent sign (%) as the user prompt instead of the
pound sign.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 For most Linux systems, the $ or # prompts are preceded by your user
name, system name, and current directory name. So, for example, a
login prompt for the user named sanjay on a computer named
localhost with /home/user1 as the current directory would appear as:

 When you see a tilde (~) character as the current directory (instead of
tmp as shown in the preceding code), it indicates that your home
directory is the current directory.
 In the examples that follow, the $ or # symbols indicate a prompt.
 The prompt is followed by the command that you type and then by
Enter. The lines that follow show the output that result from the
command.

Checking Your Login Session

 When you log in to a Linux system, Linux views you as having a

particular identity. That identity includes your user name, group name,
user ID, and group ID. Linux also keeps track of your login session: it

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knows when you logged in, how long you have been idle, and where
you logged in from.
 To find out information about your identity, use the id command as
follows:

$id

uid=501(nitish) gid=105(sales) groups=105(sales), 4(adm),7(lp)

context=user_u:system_r:unconfined_t

 This shows that the user name is nitish, which is represented by the
numeric user ID (uid) 501. Here, the primary group for nitish is called
sales, which has a group ID (gid) of 105. Nitish also belongs to other
groups called adm (gid 4) and lp (gid 7). These names and numbers
represent the permissions that nitish has to access computer
resources.

Exiting the Shell

 To exit the shell when you are done, do one of the following:

1. Press Ctrl+D keys combinations from the keyboard.

2. At the shell prompt, type exit command from the keyboard.

$exit

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Types of Shell:
 The C Shell
 Denoted as csh
 Bill Joy created it at the University of California at Berkeley. It
incorporated features such as aliases and command history. It includes
helpful programming features like built-in arithmetic and C-like
expression syntax.
 In C shell:
 Command full-path name is /bin/csh,
 Non-root user default prompt is hostname %,
 Root user default prompt is hostname #.

 The Bourne Shell

 Denoted as sh
 It was written by Steve Bourne at AT&T Bell Labs. It is the original
UNIX shell. It is faster and more preferred. It lacks features for
interactive use like the ability to recall previous commands. It also
lacks built-in arithmetic and logical expression handling. It is
default shell for Solaris OS.
 For the Bourne shell the:
 Command full-path name is /bin/sh and /sbin/sh,
 Non-root user default prompt is $,
 Root user default prompt is #.

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 The Korn Shell

 It is denoted as ksh
 It Was written by David Korn at AT&T Bell Labs. It is a superset of
the Bourne shell. So it supports everything in the Bourne shell. It
has interactive features. It includes features like built-in arithmetic
and C-like arrays, functions, and string-manipulation facilities. It is
faster than C shell. It is compatible with script written for C shell.
 For the Korn shell the:
 Command full-path name is /bin/ksh,
 Non-root user default prompt is $,
 Root user default prompt is #.

 GNU Bourne-Again Shell

 Denoted as bash
 It is compatible to the Bourne shell. It includes features from Korn and
Bourne shell.
 For the GNU Bourne-Again shell the:
 Command full-path name is /bin/bash,
 Default prompt for a non-root user is bash-g.gg$
 Root user default prompt is bash-g.gg#.

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pwd Command
 pwd stands for Print Working Directory. It prints the path of the
working directory, starting from the root.
 pwd is shell built-in command(pwd) or an actual binary(/bin/pwd).
 $PWD is an environment variable which stores the path of the current
directory.

cd Command

 cd command in linux known as change directory command. It is used

to change current working directory.
Syntax:
$ cd [directory]
 To move inside a subdirectory : to move inside a subdirectory in linux
we use
 $ cd [directory_name]

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 In the above example, we have checked number of directories in our

home directory and moved inside the Documents directory by using cd
Documents command.

Different functionalities of cd command :

1. cd /: this command is used to change directory to the root

directory, The root directory is the first directory in your
filesystem hierarchy.

 $ cd /

 Above, / represents the root directory.

2. cd dir_1/dir_2/dir_3: This command is used to move inside a

directory from a directory

 $ cd dir_1/dir_2/dir_3

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 In above example, we have the document directory and inside the

document directory we have a directory named geeksforgeeks and
inside that directory we have example directory. To navigate example
directory we have used command cd
Documents/geeksforgeeks/example.

3. cd ~ : this command is used to change directory to the home

directory.

 $ cd ~

4. cd : this command also work same as cd ~ command.

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5.cd .. : this command is used to move to the parent directory of

current directory, or the directory one level up from the current
directory. “..” represents parent directory.

 $ cd ..

6. cd “dir name”: This command is used to navigate to a directory with

white spaces.Instead of using double quotes we can use single
quotes then also this command will work.
 $ cd "dir name"

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 In above example, we have navigated the My songs directory by using

cd “My songs” command.
or
 $ cd dir\ name :
 this command work same as cd “dir name” command.

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Date Command
 date command is used to display the system date and time.
 date command is also used to set date and time of the system.
 By default the date command displays the date in the time zone on
which unix/linux operating system is configured.

Syntax:
date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
date [-u|--utc|--universal] [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

Options with Examples :

1. date (no option) : With no options, the date command displays the
current date and time, including the abbreviated day name,
abbreviated month name, day of the month, the time separated by
colons, the time zone name, and the year.

Command:
$date
Output:
Tue Oct 10 22:55:01 PDT 2017

Note : Here unix system is configured in pacific daylight time.

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2. -u Option: Displays the time in GMT(Greenwich Mean

Time)/UTC(Coordinated Universal Time )time zone.

Command:
$date -u
Output :
Wed Oct 11 06:11:31 UTC 2017

3. –date or -d Option: Displays the given date string in the format of

date. But this will not affect the system’s actual date and time
value.Rather it uses the date and time given in the form of string.

Syntax:
$date --date=" string "

Command:
$date --date="2/02/2010"
$date --date="Feb 2 2010"
Output:
Tue Feb 2 00:00:00 PST 2010
Tue Feb 2 00:00:00 PST 2010

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4. Using –date option for displaying past dates:

 Date and time of 2 years ago.

Command:
$date --date="2 year ago"
Output:
Sat Oct 10 23:42:15 PDT 2015

 Date and time of previous day.

Command:
$date --date="yesterday"
Output:
Mon Oct 9 23:48:00 PDT 2017

5. Using –date option for displaying future date:

 Date and time of upcoming particular week day.

Command:
$date --date="next tue"
Output:
Tue Oct 17 00:00:00 PDT 2017

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ls Command
 The ls command is used to list files or directories in Linux and other
Unix-based operating systems.
 Just like you navigate in your File Explorer or Finder with a GUI,
the ls command allows you to list all files or directories in the current
directory by default, and further interact with them via the command
line.

Options with Examples :

1. List the contents of the current working directory:

2. List files in the root directory

Type the ls / command to list the contents of the root directory:

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

3. List files in the parent directory

Type the ls .. command to list the contents of the parent directory one level
above. Use ls ../.. for contents two levels above:

4. List only directories

Type the ls -d */ command to list only directories:

5. List files with subdirectories

Type the ls * command to list the contents of the directory with it's
subdirectories:

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6. List files recursively

Type the ls -R command to list all files and directories with their
corresponding subdirectories down to the last file:

If you have a lot of files, this can take a very long time to complete as every
single file in each directory will be printed out. You can instead specify a
directory to run this command in, like so: ls Downloads –R.

7. List files with their sizes

Type the ls -s command (the s is lowercase) to list files or directories with
their sizes:

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8. List files in long format

Type the ls -l command to list the contents of the directory in a table format
with columns including:
 content permissions

 number of links to the content

 owner of the content

 group owner of the content

 size of the content in bytes

 last modified date/time of the content

 file or directory name

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9. List files including hidden files

Type the ls -a command to list files or directories including hidden files or
directories. In Linux, anything that begins with a . is considered a hidden file:

10. List files in long format including hidden files

Type the ls -l -a or ls -a -l or ls -la or ls -al command to list files or directories
in a table format with extra information including hidden files or directories:

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11. List files and sort by date and time

Type the ls -t command to list files or directories and sort by last modified
date in descending order (biggest to smallest).
You can also add a -r flag to reverse the sorting order like so: ls -tr:

12. List files and sort by file size

Type the ls -S (the S is uppercase) command to list files or directories and sort
by size in descending order (biggest to smallest).
You can also add a -r flag to reverse the sorting order like so: ls -Sr:

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13. List files and output the result to a file

Type the ls > output.txt command to print the output of the preceding
command into an output.txt file. You can use any of the flags discussed before
like -la — the key point here is that the result will be outputted into a file and
not logged to the command line.
Then you can use the file as you see fit, or log the contents of the file with cat
output.txt:

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cp command
 cp stands for copy.
 This command is used to copy files or group of files or directory.
 It creates an exact image of a file on a disk with different file name.
 cp command require at least two filenames in its arguments.
 Syntax:
 cp [OPTION] Source Destination
 cp [OPTION] Source Directory
 cp [OPTION] Source-1 Source-2 Source-3 Source-n Directory

 The first and second syntax is used to copy Source file to the
Destination file or Directory.
 The third syntax is used to copy multiple Sources(files) to Directory.

 cp command works on three principal modes of operation and these

operations depend upon the number and type of arguments passed in
cp command :
1. Two file names :
 If the command contains two file names, then it copy the
contents of 1st file to the 2nd file.
 If the 2nd file doesn’t exist, then first it creates one and
content is copied to it.
 But if it existed then it is simply overwritten without any
warning. So be careful when you choose destination file
name.
Syntax:
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cp Src_file Dest_file
 Suppose there is a directory named site having a text
file a.txt.
Example:
$ ls
a.txt

$ cp a.txt b.txt

$ ls
a.txt b.txt
2. One or more arguments :
 If the command has one or more arguments, specifying file
names and following those arguments, an argument
specifying directory name then this command copies each
source file to the destination directory with the same
name, created if not existed but if already existed then it
will be overwritten, so be careful.
Syntax:
cp Src_file1 Src_file2 Src_file3 Dest_directory
 Suppose there is a directory named site having a text
file a.txt, b.txt and a directory name new in which we are
going to copy all files.
Example:
$ ls
a.txt b.txt new

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Initially new is empty

$ ls new

$ cp a.txt b.txt new

$ ls new
a.txt b.txt

 Note: For this case last argument must be a directory name.

For the above command to work, Dest_directory must exist
because cp command won’t create it.

3. Two directory names :

 If the command contains two directory names, cp copies all
files of the source directory to the destination directory,
creating any files or directories needed.
4. This mode of operation requires an additional option, typically R,
to indicate the recursive copying of directories.
Syntax:
cp -R Src_directory Dest_directory
 In the above command, cp behavior depend upon
whether Dest_directory is exist or not.
 If the Dest_directory doesn’t exist, cp creates it and copies
content of Src_directory recursively as it is.

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 But if Dest_directory exists then copy

of Src_directory becomes a sub-directory
under Dest_directory.

Options with Examples :

 There are many options of cp command, here we will discuss some of
the useful options:
 Suppose a directory named site contains two files having some content
named as a.txt and b.txt. This scenario is useful in understanding the
following options.
$ ls site
a.txt b.txt

$ cat a.txt
GFG

$ cat b.txt
Site
1.-i(interactive): i stands for Interactive copying.
 With this option system first warns the user before
overwriting the destination file. cp prompts for a response, if
you press y then it overwrites the file and with any other
option leave it uncopied.
$ cp -i a.txt b.txt
cp: overwrite 'b.txt'? y

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$ cat b.txt
GFG

2. -b(backup): With this option cp command creates the backup of the

destination file in the same folder with the different name and in different
format.
$ ls
a.txt b.txt

$ cp -b a.txt b.txt

$ ls
a.txt b.txt b.txt~

2. -r or -R: Copying directory structure.

 With this option, cp command shows its recursive behavior by
copying the entire directory structure recursively.
 Suppose we want to copy site directory containing many files,
and directories into gfg directory(not exist).
$ ls site/
a.txt b.txt b.txt~ Folder1 Folder2

Without -r option, error

$ cp site gfg
cp: -r not specified; omitting directory 'site'

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

With -r, execute successfully

$ cp -r site gfg

$ ls gfg/
a.txt b.txt b.txt~ Folder1 Folder2

4.Copying using * wildcard: The star wildcard represents anything i.e. all
files and directories.
 Suppose we have many text document in a directory and wants to copy
it into another directory, it takes lots of time if we copy files 1 by 1 or
the command becomes too long if specify all these file names as the
argument, but by using * wildcard it becomes simple.
 Initially, Folder1 is empty

$ ls
a.txt b.txt c.txt d.txt e.txt Folder1

$ cp *.txt Folder1

$ ls Folder1
a.txt b.txt c.txt d.txt e.txt

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mkdir command
 mkdir command in Linux allows the user to create directories (also
referred to as folders in some operating systems ).
 This command can create multiple directories at once as well as set the
permissions for the directories. It is important to note that the user
executing this command must have enough permissions to create a
directory in the parent directory, or he/she may receive a ‘permission
denied’ error.
Syntax:
mkdir [options...] [directories ...]

Options with Examples :

1. –version: It displays the version number, some information regarding
the license and exits.
Output:

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

2. –help: It displays the help related information and exits.

Output:

3. -v or –verbose: It displays a message for every directory created.

Output:

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4. -p: A flag which enables the command to create parent directories as

necessary. If the directories exist, no error is specified.
Syntax:
mkdir -p [directories]

 Suppose you execute the following command –

mkdir -p first/second/third

 If the first and second directories do not exist, due to the -p option,
mkdir will create these directories for us. If we do not specify the -p
option, and request the creation of directories, where parent
directory doesn’t exist, we will get the following output –

 If we specify the -p option, the directories will be created, and no error

will be reported. Following is the output of one such execution. We’ve also
provided the -v option, so that we can see it in action.
Output:

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5. -m: This option is used to set the file modes, i.e. permissions, etc. for
the created directories. The syntax of the mode is the same as
the chmod command.
Syntax:
mkdir -m a=rwx [directories]

 The above syntax specifies that the directories created give access to
all the users to read from, write to and execute the contents of the
created directories. You can use ‘a=r’ to only allow all the users to read
from the directories and so on.

Output:

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touch command
 It is used to create a file without any content.
 The file created using touch command is empty. This command can be
used when the user doesn’t have data to store at the time of file
creation.
o Syntax:
o touch file_name

 The file which is created can be viewed by ls command and to get more
details about the file you can use long listing command ls -l command
. Here file with name ‘File1‘ is created using touch command.

 Touch command to create multiple files: Touch command can be

used to create the multiple numbers of files at the same time. These
files would be empty while creation.

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Syntax:
touch File1_name File2_name File3_name

 Multiple files with name Doc1, Doc2, Doc3 are created at the same time
using touch command here.

touch Command Options

 Like all other command Touch command have various options. These
options are very useful for various purpose.

Options with Examples :

1.touch -r : This command is used to use the timestamp of another file.
Here Doc2 file is updated with the time stamp of File 1.
Syntax:
touch -r second_file_name first_file_name

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2.touch -t : This is used to create a file using a specified time.

Syntax:
touch -t YYMMDDHHMM fileName

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rm command
 rm stands for remove here.
 rm command is used to remove objects such as files, directories,
symbolic links and so on from the file system like UNIX.
 To be more precise, rm removes references to objects from the
filesystem, where those objects might have had multiple references
(for example, a file with two different names).
 By default, it does not remove directories.
 This command normally works silently and you should be very careful
while running rm command because once you delete the files then you
are not able to recover the contents of files and directories.
Syntax:
rm [OPTION]... FILE...
 Let us consider 5 files having name a.txt, b.txt and so on till e.txt.
$ ls
a.txt b.txt c.txt d.txt e.txt
Removing one file at a time

$ rm a.txt

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt e.txt

Removing more than one file at a time

$ rm b.txt c.txt

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$ ls
d.txt e.txt
Note: No output is produced by rm, since it typically only generates
messages in the case of an error.
Options with Example:
1. -i (Interactive Deletion): Like in cp, the -i option makes the
command ask the user for confirmation before removing each file, you
have to press y for confirm deletion, any other key leaves the file un-
deleted.
$ rm -i d.txt
rm: remove regular empty file 'd.txt'? y

$ ls
e.txt

2. -r (Recursive Deletion): With -r(or -R) option rm command

performs a tree-walk and will delete all the files and sub-directories
recursively of the parent directory.
At each stage it deletes everything it finds. Normally, rm wouldn’t
delete the directories but when used with this option, it will delete.
Below is the tree of directories and files:

$ ls
A

$ cd A

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$ ls
B C

$ ls B
a.txt b.txt

$ ls C
c.txt d.txt

Now, deletion from A directory(as parent directory) will be done

as:
$ rm *
rm: cannot remove 'B': Is a directory
rm: cannot remove 'C': Is a directory

$ rm -r *

$ ls

Every directory and file inside A directory is deleted.`

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rmdir command
 rmdir command is used to remove empty directories from the
filesystem in Linux. The rmdir command removes each and every
directory specified in the command line only if these directories are
empty. So if the specified directory has some directories or files in it
then this cannot be removed by the rmdir command.

Syntax:

rmdir [-p] [-v | –verbose] [–ignore-fail-on-non-empty]

directories …

Options:

1. rmdir -p: In this option each of the directory arguments is treated as a

pathname of which all components will be removed, if they are already
empty, starting from the last component.

2. rmdir -v, --verbose: This option displays verbose information for every
directory being processed.

3. rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty: This option does not report a

failure that occurs solely because a directory is non-empty. Normally,
when rmdir is being instructed to remove a non-empty directory, it
simply reports an error. This option consists of all those error messages.

4. rmdir --version: This option is used to display the version information

and exit.

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Example 1: This will first remove the child directory and then remove the
parent directory.

rmdir -p mydir/mydir1

Example 2: Remove the directories mydir1, mydir2, and mydir3, if they are
empty. If any of these directories are not empty, then an error message will be
printed for that directory, and the other directories will be removed.

rmdir mydir1 mydir2 mydir3

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Example 3: Remove the directory mydir/mydir1 if it is empty. Then, remove

directory mydir, if it is empty after mydir/mydir1 was removed.

rmdir mydir/mydir1 mydir

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

mv command
 mv stands for move. mv is used to move one or more files or
directories from one place to another in a file system like UNIX.
 It has two distinct functions:
(i) It renames a file or folder.
(ii) It moves a group of files to a different directory.

 No additional space is consumed on a disk during renaming. This

command normally works silently means no prompt for
confirmation.
Syntax:
mv [Option] source destination
 Let us consider 4 files having names a.txt, b.txt, and so on till d.txt.
To rename the file a.txt to geek.txt(not exist):
$ ls
a.txt b.txt c.txt d.txt

$ mv a.txt geek.txt

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt

 If the destination file doesn’t exist, it will be created.

 In the above command mv simply replaces the source filename in the
directory with the destination filename(new name).

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 If the destination file exist, then it will be overwrite and the source
file will be deleted. By default, mv doesn’t prompt for overwriting the
existing file, So be careful.
 Let’s try to understand with an example,
moving geeks.txt to b.txt(exist):
$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt

$ cat geek.txt
India

$ cat b.txt
geeksforgeeks

$ mv geek.txt b.txt

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt

$ cat b.txt
India

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Options with Example:

1. -i (Interactive): Like in cp, the -i option makes the command ask the
user for confirmation before moving a file that would overwrite an
existing file, you have to press y for confirm moving, any other key
leaves the file as it is. This option doesn’t work if the file doesn’t exist,
it simply rename it or move it to new location.
$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt

$ cat geek.txt
India
$ cat b.txt
geeksforgeeks

$ mv -i geek.txt b.txt
mv: overwrite 'b.txt'? y

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt
$ cat b.txt
India

2. -f (Force): mv prompts for confirmation overwriting the destination

file if a file is write-protected. The -f option overrides this minor

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

protection and overwrites the destination file forcefully and deletes

the source file.
$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt
$ cat b.txt
geeksforgeeks

$ ls -l b.txt
-r--r--r--+ 1 User User 13 Jan 9 13:37 b.txt

$ mv geek.txt b.txt
mv: replace 'b.txt', overriding mode 0444 (r--r--r--)? n

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt

$ mv -f geek.txt b.txt

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt
$ cat b.txt
India

3. -n (no-clobber): With the -n option, mv prevents an existing file

from being overwritten.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

In the following example, the effect is for nothing to happen as a file

would be overwritten.
$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt
$ cat b.txt
geeksforgeeks

$ mv -n geek.txt b.txt

$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt
$ cat b.txt
Geeksforgeeks

4. -b(backup): With this option, it is easier to take a backup of an

existing file that will be overwritten as a result of the mv command.
This will create a backup file with the tilde character(~) appended to
it.
$ ls
b.txt c.txt d.txt geek.txt

$ mv -b geek.txt b.txt

$ ls
b.txt b.txt~ c.txt d.txt

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

cat command
 cat(concatenate) command is very frequently used in Linux. It reads
data from the file and gives their content as output. It helps us to
create, view, concatenate files. So let us see some frequently used cat
commands.

1) To view a single file

Command:
$cat filename

Output :

It will show content of given filename

2) To view multiple files

Command:
$cat file1 file2

Output :

This will show the content of file1 and file2.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

3) To view the contents of a file preceding with line numbers.

Command:
$cat -n filename

Output :

It will show content with line number

example:-cat-n geeks.txt

1)This is geeks

2)A unique array

4) Create a file

Command:
$ cat > newfile

Output :

Will create a file named newfile

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

5) Copy the contents of one file to another file.

Command:
$cat [filename-whose-contents-is-to-be-copied] > [destination-
filename]

Output :

The content will be copied in destination file

6) Cat command can append the contents of one file to the end of
another file.

Command:
$cat file1 >> file2

Output :

Will append the contents of one file to the end of another file

7) Cat command can display content in reverse order using tac

command.

Command:
$tac filename

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Output :

Will display content in reverse order

8) Cat command can highlight the end of line.

Command:
$cat -E "filename"

Output :

Will highlight the end of line

9) Cat command if the file has a lot of content and can’t fit in the
terminal.

Command:
$cat "filename" | more

Output :

Will show that much content, which could fit in terminal and will
ask to show more.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

10) Cat command to merge the contents of multiple files.

Command:
$cat "filename1" "filename2" "filename3" > "merged_filename"

Output :

Will merge the contents of file in respective order and will insert
that content in "merged_filename".

11) Cat command to display the content of all text files in the folder.

Command:
$cat *.txt

Output :

Will show the content of all text files present in the folder.

12) Cat command to write in an already existing file.

Command :
$cat >> geeks.txt

The newly added text.

Output:

Will append the text "The newly added text." to the end of the
file.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

wc command
 wc stands for word count. As the name implies, it is mainly used for
counting purpose.
 It is used to find out number of lines, word count, byte and
characters count in the files specified in the file arguments.
 By default it displays the four-columnar output.
 First column shows number of lines present in a file specified, second
column shows number of words present in the file, third column shows
number of characters present in file and fourth column itself is the file
name which are given as argument.
Syntax:
wc [OPTION]... [FILE]...
 Let us consider two files having
name state.txt and capital.txt containing 5 names of the Indian states
and capitals respectively.

$ cat state.txt
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Chhattisgarh

$ cat capital.txt
Hyderabad

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Itanagar
Dispur
Patna
Raipur
Passing only one file name in the argument.
$ wc state.txt
5 7 63 state.txt
OR
$ wc capital.txt
5 5 45 capital.txt
Passing more than one file name in the argument.
$ wc state.txt capital.txt

5 7 63 state.txt

5 5 45 capital.txt

10 12 108 total

 Note : When more than file name is specified in argument then

command will display four-columnar output for all individual files plus
one extra row displaying a total number of lines, words and characters
of all the files specified in the n argument, followed by keyword total.

Options with Example:

1. -l: This option prints the number of lines present in a file.
 With this option wc command displays two-columnar output, 1st
column shows number of lines present in a file and 2nd itself
represent the file name.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

With one file name

$ wc -l state.txt
5 state.txt

With more than one file name

$ wc -l state.txt capital.txt
5 state.txt
5 capital.txt
10 total
2. -w: This option prints the number of words present in a file. With
this option wc command displays two-columnar output, 1st column
shows number of words present in a file and 2nd is the file name.
With one file name
$ wc -w state.txt
7 state.txt

With more than one file name

$ wc -w state.txt capital.txt
7 state.txt
5 capital.txt
12 total

3. -c: This option displays count of bytes present in a file. With this
option it display two-columnar output, 1st column shows number of
bytes present in a file and 2nd is the file name.
With one file name

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

$ wc -c state.txt
63 state.txt

With more than one file name

$ wc -c state.txt capital.txt
63 state.txt
45 capital.txt
108 total
4. -m: Using -m option ‘wc’ command displays count of
characters from a file.
With one file name
$ wc -m state.txt
63 state.txt

With more than one file name

$ wc -m state.txt capital.txt
63 state.txt
45 capital.txt
108 total

5. -L: The ‘wc’ command allow an argument -L, it can be used to print
out the length of longest (number of characters) line in a file.
 So, we have the longest character line Arunachal Pradesh in a
file state.txt and Hyderabad in the file capital.txt.
 But with this option if more than one file name is specified then
the last row i.e. the extra row, doesn’t display total but it display

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

the maximum of all values displaying in the first column of

individual files.
 Note: A character is the smallest unit of information that
includes space, tab and newline.
With one file name
$ wc -L state.txt
17 state.txt

With more than one file name

$ wc -L state.txt capital.txt
17 state.txt
10 capital.txt
17 total

Applications of wc Command
1. To count all files and folders present in the directory:
 As we all know ls command in UNIX is used to display all the files
and folders present in the directory, when it is piped
with wc command with -l option it displays the count of all files
and folders present in the current directory.
$ ls gfg
a.txt
b.txt
c.txt
d.txt
e.txt

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

geeksforgeeks
India

$ ls gfg | wc -l
7

2. Display number of word count only of a file:

 We all know that this can be done with wc command having -
w option, wc -w file_name, but this command shows two-
columnar output one is count of words and other is file name.
$ wc -w state.txt
7 state.txt

 So to display 1st column only, pipe(|) output of wc -w command

to cut command with -c option. Or use input redirection(<).
$ wc -w state.txt | cut -c1
7
OR
$ wc -w < state.txt
7

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

grep command
 The grep filter searches a file for a particular pattern of characters, and
displays all lines that contain that pattern.
 The pattern that is searched in the file is referred to as the regular
expression (grep stands for global search for regular expression and
print out).

Syntax:
grep [options] pattern [files]

Options Description:
1. -c : This prints only a count of the lines that match a pattern
2. -h : Display the matched lines, but do not display the filenames.
3. -i : Ignores, case for matching
4. -l : Displays list of a filenames only.
5. -n : Display the matched lines and their line numbers.
6. -v : This prints out all the lines that do not matches the pattern
7. -e exp : Specifies expression with this option. Can use multiple times.
8. -f file : Takes patterns from file, one per line.
9. -w : Match whole word
10. -o : Print only the matched parts of a matching line, with each such
part on a separate output line.

11. -A n : Prints searched line and nlines after the result.

12. -B n : Prints searched line and n line before the result.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

13. -C n : Prints searched line and n lines after before the result.

Sample Commands
Consider the below file as an input.

$cat > geekfile.txt

unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.

learn operating system.

Unix linux which one you choose.

uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a

powerful.

1. Case insensitive search : The -i option enables to search for a string case
insensitively in the given file. It matches the words like “UNIX”, “Unix”,
“unix”.

$grep -i "UNix" geekfile.txt

Output:
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.

Unix linux which one you choose.

uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a

powerful.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

2. Displaying the count of number of matches : We can find the number of

lines that matches the given string/pattern

$grep -c "unix" geekfile.txt

Output:
2

3. Display the file names that matches the pattern : We can just display
the files that contains the given string/pattern.

$grep -l "unix" *
or
$grep -l "unix" f1.txt f2.txt f3.xt f4.txt
Output:

geekfile.txt

4. Checking for the whole words in a file : By default, grep matches the
given string/pattern even if it is found as a substring in a file. The -w option
to grep makes it match only the whole words.

$ grep -w "unix" geekfile.txt

Output:

unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a

powerful.

5. Displaying only the matched pattern : By default, grep displays the

entire line which has the matched string. We can make the grep to display
only the matched string by using the -o option.

$ grep -o "unix" geekfile.txt

Output:

unix

unix

unix

unix

unix

unix

6. Show line number while displaying the output using grep -n : To show
the line number of file with the line matched.

$ grep -n "unix" geekfile.txt

Output:

1:unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

4:uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a

powerful.

7. Inverting the pattern match : You can display the lines that are not
matched with the specified search string pattern using the -v option.

$ grep -v "unix" geekfile.txt

Output:

learn operating system.

Unix linux which one you choose.

8. Matching the lines that start with a string : The ^ regular expression
pattern specifies the start of a line. This can be used in grep to match the
lines which start with the given string or pattern.

$ grep "^unix" geekfile.txt

Output:

unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.

9. Matching the lines that end with a string : The $ regular expression
pattern specifies the end of a line. This can be used in grep to match the lines
which end with the given string or pattern.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

$ grep "os$" geekfile.txt

10.Specifies expression with -e option. Can use multiple times :

$grep –e "Agarwal" –e "Aggarwal" –e "Agrawal" geekfile.txt

11. Print n specific lines from a file: -A prints the searched line and n lines
after the result, -B prints the searched line and n lines before the result, and -
C prints the searched line and n lines after and before the result.
Syntax:
$grep -A[NumberOfLines(n)] [search] [file]

$grep -B[NumberOfLines(n)] [search] [file]

$grep -C[NumberOfLines(n)] [search] [file]

Example:
$grep -A1 learn geekfile.txt
Output:
learn operating system.
Unix linux which one you choose.
--
uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a
powerful.

(Prints the searched line along with the next n lines (here n = 1 (A1).)

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

(Will print each and every occurrence of the found line, separating each
output by --)
(Output pattern remains the same for -B and -C respectively)
Unix linux which one you choose.
--
uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a
powerful.
Unix linux which one you choose.
--
uNix is easy to learn.unix is a multiuser os.Learn unix .unix is a
powerful.

ASST. PROF. ZEENAT SULTANA

 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

stat command
 The stat is a command which gives information about the file and
filesystem.
 Stat command gives information such as the size of the file, access
permissions and the user ID and group ID, birth time access time of the
file.
 Stat command has another feature, by which it can also provide the file
system information.
Syntax :
stat --options filenames

Example:
stat a3.docx

Output:

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 The information we get from stat

 Following is the information we get about the file when we run the stat
command.

 File: The name of the provided file. If the provided file is a symlink, then
the name will be different.
 Size: The size of a given file in Bytes.
 Blocks: Total number of allocated blocks to the file to store on the hard
disk.
 IO Block: The size of every allocated block in bytes.
 File type: The file may be of the following types: Regular files, special
files, directories, or symbolic links.
 Device: Device number in hexadecimal format.
 Inode: Inode number of the file.
 Links: Number of hard links of the file.
 Access: Access permissions in the numeric and symbolic methods.
 Context: The field stores SELinux security context.
 Access: The last time at which the file was accessed.
 Modify: The last time at which file was modified.
 Change: The last time the at which file’s attribute or content was
changed.
 Birth: The time at which the file was created.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

man command
 man command in Linux is used to display the user manual of any
command that we can run on the terminal.
 It provides a detailed view of the command which includes NAME,
SYNOPSIS, DESCRIPTION, OPTIONS, EXIT STATUS, RETURN VALUES,
ERRORS, FILES, VERSIONS, EXAMPLES, AUTHORS and SEE ALSO.

 Every manual is divided into the following sections:

 Executable programs or shell commands

 System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
 Library calls (functions within program libraries
 Games
 Special files (usually found in /dev)
 File formats and conventions eg /etc/passwd
 Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions), e.g. groff(7)
 System administration commands (usually only for root)
 Kernel routines [Non standard]

Syntax :
$man [OPTION]... [COMMAND NAME]...

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Options and Examples:

1. No Option: It displays the whole manual of the command.
Syntax :
$ man [COMMAND NAME]

Example:
$ man printf

Output:

In this example, manual pages of the command ‘printf‘ are simply returned.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

clear command
 clear is a standard Unix computer operating system command that is
used to clear the terminal screen.
 This command first looks for a terminal type in the environment and
after that, it figures out the terminfo database for how to clear the
screen. And this command will ignore any command-line parameters
that may be present.
 Also, the clear command doesn’t take any argument and it is almost
similar to cls command on a number of other Operating Systems.

Syntax:
$clear

Example:

Terminal Before Executing clear command:

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Terminal after Executing clear command:

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

history Command
 history command is used to view the previously executed command.
This feature was not available in the Bourne shell.
 Bash and Korn support this feature in which every command executed
is treated as the event and is associated with an event number using
which they can be recalled and changed if required.
 These commands are saved in a history file. In Bash
shell history command shows the whole list of the command.
Syntax:
$ history

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

chmod Command
1. Linux File Ownership

Every file and directory on your Unix/Linux system is assigned 3 types of the
owner, as given below.

 User

 A user is the owner of the file. By default, the person who created a file
becomes its owner. Hence, a user is also sometimes called an owner.

 Group

 A user- group can contain multiple users.

 All users belonging to a group will have the same Linux group
permissions access to the file.
 Suppose you have a project where a number of people require access to
a file.
 Instead of manually assigning permissions to each user, you could add
all users to a group, and assign group permission to file such that only
these group members and no one else can read or modify the files.

 Other

 Any other user who has access to a file.

 This person has neither created the file nor belongs to a user group that
could own the file. Practically, it means everybody else.
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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 Hence, when you set the permission for others, it is also referred to as
set permissions for the world.
 Now, the big question arises how does Linux distinguish between
these three user types so that a user ‘A’ cannot affect a file which
contains some other user ‘B’s’ vital information/data. It is like you do
not want your colleague, who works on your Linux computer, to view
your images.
 This is where Permissions are set in, and they define user behavior.

2.Linux File Permissions

 Every file and directory in your UNIX/Linux system has the following 3
permissions defined for all the 3 owners discussed above.

 Read: This permission give you the authority to open and read a file.
Read permission on a directory gives you the ability to list its
content.
 Write: The write permission gives you the authority to modify the
contents of a file.

The write permission on a directory gives you the authority to add,

remove and rename files stored in the directory.

Consider a scenario where you have to write permission on a file but

do not have to write permission on the directory where the file is
stored. You will be able to modify the file contents.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

But you will not be able to rename, move or remove the file from the
directory.

 Execute: In Windows, an executable program usually has an

extension “.exe” which you can easily run.

In Unix/Linux, you cannot run a program unless the execute

permission is set. If the execute permission is not set, you might still
be able to see/modify the program code (provided read & write
permissions are set), but not run it.

File
Permissions in Linux/Unix

 Let’s see file permissions in Linux with examples:

ls – l on terminal gives

ls - l

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 Here, we have highlighted ‘-rw-rw-r–‘and this weird looking code is the

one that tells us about the Unix permissions given to the owner, user
group and the world.
 Here, the first ‘–‘ implies that we have selected a file.p>

 Else, if it were a directory, d would have been shown.

 The characters are pretty easy to remember.

r = read permission
w = write permission
x = execute permission
– = no permission

 Let us look at it this way.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 The first part of the code is ‘rw-‘. This suggests that the owner ‘Home’
can:

 Read the file

 Write or edit the file
 He cannot execute the file since the execute bit is set to ‘-‘.

 By design, many Linux distributions like Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, etc.

will add users to a group of the same group name as the user name.
Thus, a user ‘tom’ is added to a group named ‘tom’.
 The second part is ‘rw-‘. It for the user group ‘Home’ and group-
members can:

 Read the file

 Write or edit the file

 The third part is for the world which means any user. It says ‘r–‘. This
means the user can only:

 Read the file

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

3. Changing file/directory permissions in Linux Using the‘ chmod’

command

 Say you do not want your colleague to see your personal images. This
can be achieved by changing file permissions.
 We can use the ‘chmod’ command which stands for ‘change mode’.
Using the command, we can set permissions (read, write, execute) on a
file/directory for the owner, group and the world.

Syntax:

chmod permissions filename

 There are 2 ways to use the command –

1. Absolute mode
2. Symbolic mode

1. Absolute(Numeric) Mode in Linux

 In this mode, file permissions are not represented as characters but

a three-digit octal number.

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 The table below gives numbers for all for permissions types.

Number Permission Type Symbol

0 No Permission —

1 Execute –x

2 Write -w-

3 Execute + Write -wx

4 Read r–

5 Read + Execute r-x

6 Read +Write rw-

7 Read + Write +Execute rwx

 Let’s see the chmod permissions command in action.

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 In the above-given terminal window, we have changed the permissions

of the file ‘sample to ‘764’.

 ‘764’ absolute code says the following:

 Owner can read, write and execute

 Usergroup can read and write
 World can only read

 This is shown as ‘-rwxrw-r–

 This is how you can change user permissions in Linux on file by
assigning an absolute number.

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 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

2. Symbolic Mode in Linux

 In the Absolute mode, you change permissions for all 3 owners. In the
symbolic mode, you can modify permissions of a specific owner.
 It makes use of mathematical symbols to modify the Unix file
permissions.

Operator Description
+ Adds a permission to a file or directory
– Removes the permission
= Sets the permission and overrides the permissions set
earlier.

 The various owners are represented as –

User Denotations
u user/owner
g group
o other
a all

ASST. PROF. ZEENAT SULTANA

 LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

 We will not be using permissions in numbers like 755 but characters

like rwx. Let’s look into an example

ASST. PROF. ZEENAT SULTANA