+Linux Fundamentals

Paul Cobbaut
Linux Fundamentals
Paul Cobbaut

Publication date 2015-05-24 CEST

Abstract

This book is meant to be used in an instructor-led training. For self-study, the intent is to
read this book next to a working Linux computer so you can immediately do every subject,
practicing each command.

This book is aimed at novice Linux system administrators (and might be interesting and
useful for home users that want to know a bit more about their Linux system). However, this
book is not meant as an introduction to Linux desktop applications like text editors,
browsers, mail clients, multimedia or office applications.

More information and free .pdf available at http://linux-training.be .

Feel free to contact the author:

• Paul Cobbaut: [email protected], http://www.linkedin.com/in/cobbaut Contributors

to the Linux Training project are:

• Serge van Ginderachter: [email protected], build scripts and infrastructure setup

• Ywein Van den Brande: [email protected], license and legal sections

• Hendrik De Vloed: [email protected], buildheader.pl script We'd also

like to thank our reviewers:

• Wouter Verhelst: [email protected], http://grep.be

• Geert Goossens: [email protected], http://www.linkedin.com/in/

geertgoossens
• Elie De Brauwer: [email protected], http://www.de-brauwer.be

• Christophe Vandeplas: [email protected], http://christophe.vandeplas.com

• Bert Desmet: [email protected], http://blog.bdesmet.be

• Rich Yonts: [email protected],

Copyright 2007-2015 Netsec BVBA, Paul Cobbaut

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of
the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the
Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-
Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled 'GNU Free
Documentation License'.
 Table of Contents
I. introduction to Linux............................................................................................................................1
1. Linux history...................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. 1969 ....................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2. 1980s......................................................................................................................................4
1.3. 1990s......................................................................................................................................4
1.4. 2015 ....................................................................................................................................... 5
2. distributions...................................................................................................................... 6
2.1. Red Hat..................................................................................................................................7
2.2. Ubuntu...................................................................................................................................7
2.3. Debian....................................................................................................................................7
2.4. Other......................................................................................................................................7
2.5. Which to choose ?.................................................................................................................8
3. licensing...................................................................................................................................... 9
3.1. about software licenses.......................................................................................................10
3.2. public domain software and freeware................................................................................10
3.3. Free Software or Open Source Software.............................................................................10
3.4. GNU General Public License................................................................................................11
3.5. using GPLv3 software...........................................................................................................11
3.6. BSD license...........................................................................................................................12
3.7. other licenses.......................................................................................................................12
3.8. combination of software licenses........................................................................................12
II. installing Linux...........................................................................................................................................13
4. installing Debian 8.................................................................................................................... 15
4.1. Debian..................................................................................................................................16
4.2. Downloading........................................................................................................................16
4.3. virtualbox networking..........................................................................................................32
4.4. setting the hostname...........................................................................................................34
4.5. adding a static ip address....................................................................................................34
4.6. Debian package management.............................................................................................35
5. installing CentOS 7.................................................................................................................... 36
5.1. download a CentOS 7 image...............................................................................................37
5.2. Virtualbox.............................................................................................................................39
5.3. CentOS 7 installing...............................................................................................................44
5.4. CentOS 7 first logon............................................................................................................52
5.5. Virtualbox network interface...............................................................................................53
5.6. configuring the network......................................................................................................54
5.7. adding one static ip address................................................................................................54
5.8. package management..........................................................................................................55
5.9. logon from Linux and MacOSX............................................................................................56
5.10. logon from MS Windows...................................................................................................56
6. getting Linux at home............................................................................................................... 58
6.1. download a Linux CD image................................................................................................59
6.2. download Virtualbox............................................................................................................59
6.3. create a virtual machine......................................................................................................60
6.4. attach the CD image............................................................................................................65
6.5. install Linux..........................................................................................................................68
III. first steps on the command line.............................................................................................................69
7. man pages................................................................................................................................ 71

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7.1. man $command...................................................................................................................72
7.2. man $configfile....................................................................................................................72
7.3. man $daemon......................................................................................................................72
7.4. man -k (apropos).................................................................................................................72
7.5. whatis...................................................................................................................................72
7.6. whereis.................................................................................................................................72
7.7. man sections........................................................................................................................73

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 Linux Fundamentals

7.8. man $section $file...............................................................................................................73

7.9. man man..............................................................................................................................73
7.10. mandb................................................................................................................................73
8. working with directories........................................................................................................... 74
8.1. pwd......................................................................................................................................75
8.2. cd..........................................................................................................................................75
8.3. absolute and relative paths.................................................................................................76
8.4. path completion...................................................................................................................77
8.5. ls...........................................................................................................................................77
8.6. mkdir....................................................................................................................................79
8.7. rmdir.....................................................................................................................................79
8.8. practice: working with directories.......................................................................................81
8.9. solution: working with directories.......................................................................................82
9. working with files..................................................................................................................... 84
9.1. all files are case sensitive....................................................................................................85
9.2. everything is a file...............................................................................................................85
9.3. file........................................................................................................................................85
9.4. touch....................................................................................................................................86
9.5. rm.........................................................................................................................................87
9.6. cp..........................................................................................................................................88
9.7. mv.........................................................................................................................................89
9.8. rename.................................................................................................................................90
9.9. practice: working with files..................................................................................................91
9.10. solution: working with files...............................................................................................92
10. working with file contents...................................................................................................... 94
10.1. head...................................................................................................................................95
10.2. tail......................................................................................................................................95
10.3. cat.......................................................................................................................................96
10.4. tac.......................................................................................................................................97
10.5. more and less....................................................................................................................98
10.6. strings.................................................................................................................................98
10.7. practice: file contents........................................................................................................99
10.8. solution: file contents......................................................................................................100
11. the Linux file tree................................................................................................................. 101
11.1. filesystem hierarchy standard..........................................................................................102
11.2. man hier...........................................................................................................................102
11.3. the root directory /..........................................................................................................102
11.4. binary directories.............................................................................................................103
11.5. configuration directories..................................................................................................105
11.6. data directories................................................................................................................107
11.7. in memory directories.....................................................................................................109
11.8. /usr Unix System Resources.............................................................................................114
11.9. /var variable data.............................................................................................................116
11.10. practice: file system tree...............................................................................................118
11.11. solution: file system tree...............................................................................................120
IV. shell expansion......................................................................................................................................122
12. commands and arguments.................................................................................................... 125
12.1. arguments........................................................................................................................126
12.2. white space removal........................................................................................................126
12.3. single quotes....................................................................................................................127
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 Linux Fundamentals
12.4. double quotes..................................................................................................................127
12.5. echo and quotes..............................................................................................................127
12.6. commands........................................................................................................................128
12.7. aliases...............................................................................................................................129
12.8. displaying shell expansion................................................................................................130
12.9. practice: commands and arguments...............................................................................131
12.10. solution: commands and arguments.............................................................................133
13. control operators.................................................................................................................. 135

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 Linux Fundamentals

13.1. ; semicolon.......................................................................................................................136
13.2. & ampersand....................................................................................................................136
13.3. $? dollar question mark...................................................................................................136
13.4. && double ampersand.....................................................................................................137
13.5. || double vertical bar......................................................................................................137
13.6. combining && and ||......................................................................................................137
13.7. # pound sign....................................................................................................................138
13.8. \ escaping special characters...........................................................................................138
13.9. practice: control operators..............................................................................................139
13.10. solution: control operators............................................................................................140
14. shell variables....................................................................................................................... 141
14.1. $ dollar sign.....................................................................................................................142
14.2. case sensitive...................................................................................................................142
14.3. creating variables.............................................................................................................142
14.4. quotes..............................................................................................................................143
14.5. set.....................................................................................................................................143
14.6. unset................................................................................................................................143
14.7. $PS1 ..............................................................................................................................144
14.8. $PATH...............................................................................................................................145
14.9. env....................................................................................................................................146
14.10. export.............................................................................................................................146
14.11. delineate variables.........................................................................................................147
14.12. unbound variables..........................................................................................................147
14.13. practice: shell variables..................................................................................................148
14.14. solution: shell variables.................................................................................................149
15. shell embedding and options................................................................................................ 150
15.1. shell embedding...............................................................................................................151
15.2. shell options.....................................................................................................................152
15.3. practice: shell embedding................................................................................................153
15.4. solution: shell embedding................................................................................................154
16. shell history.......................................................................................................................... 155
16.1. repeating the last command............................................................................................156
16.2. repeating other commands.............................................................................................156
16.3. history..............................................................................................................................156
16.4. !n.......................................................................................................................................156
16.5. Ctrl-r.................................................................................................................................157
16.6. $HISTSIZE..........................................................................................................................157
16.7. $HISTFILE..........................................................................................................................157
16.8. $HISTFILESIZE...................................................................................................................157
16.9. prevent recording a command........................................................................................158
16.10. (optional)regular expressions.........................................................................................158
16.11. (optional) Korn shell history..........................................................................................158
16.12. practice: shell history.....................................................................................................159
16.13. solution: shell history.....................................................................................................160
17. file globbing.......................................................................................................................... 161
17.1. * asterisk..........................................................................................................................162
17.2. ? question mark...............................................................................................................162
17.3. [] square brackets............................................................................................................163
17.4. a-z and 0-9 ranges...........................................................................................................164
17.5. $LANG and square brackets............................................................................................164
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 Linux Fundamentals
17.6. preventing file globbing...................................................................................................165
17.7. practice: shell globbing....................................................................................................166
17.8. solution: shell globbing....................................................................................................167
V. pipes and commands..............................................................................................................................169
18. I/O redirection...................................................................................................................... 171
18.1. stdin, stdout, and stderr..................................................................................................172
18.2. output redirection............................................................................................................173
18.3. error redirection..............................................................................................................175

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 Linux Fundamentals

18.4. output redirection and pipes...........................................................................................176

18.5. joining stdout and stderr.................................................................................................176
18.6. input redirection..............................................................................................................177
18.7. confusing redirection.......................................................................................................178
18.8. quick file clear..................................................................................................................178
18.9. practice: input/output redirection...................................................................................179
18.10. solution: input/output redirection.................................................................................180
19. filters..................................................................................................................................... 181
19.1. cat.....................................................................................................................................182
19.2. tee....................................................................................................................................182
19.3. grep..................................................................................................................................182
19.4. cut....................................................................................................................................184
19.5. tr.......................................................................................................................................184
19.6. wc.....................................................................................................................................185
19.7. sort...................................................................................................................................186
19.8. uniq..................................................................................................................................187
19.9. comm...............................................................................................................................188
19.10. od...................................................................................................................................189
19.11. sed..................................................................................................................................190
19.12. pipe examples................................................................................................................191
19.13. practice: filters...............................................................................................................192
19.14. solution: filters...............................................................................................................193
20. basic Unix tools..................................................................................................................... 195
20.1. find...................................................................................................................................196
20.2. locate................................................................................................................................197
20.3. date..................................................................................................................................197
20.4. cal.....................................................................................................................................198
20.5. sleep.................................................................................................................................198
20.6. time..................................................................................................................................199
20.7. gzip - gunzip.....................................................................................................................200
20.8. zcat - zmore.....................................................................................................................200
20.9. bzip2 - bunzip2................................................................................................................201
20.10. bzcat - bzmore...............................................................................................................201
20.11. practice: basic Unix tools...............................................................................................202
20.12. solution: basic Unix tools...............................................................................................203
21. regular expressions............................................................................................................... 205
21.1. regex versions..................................................................................................................206
21.2. grep..................................................................................................................................207
21.3. rename.............................................................................................................................212
21.4. sed....................................................................................................................................215
21.5. bash history......................................................................................................................219
VI. vi.............................................................................................................................................................220
22. Introduction to vi.................................................................................................................. 222
22.1. command mode and insert mode...................................................................................223
22.2. start typing (a A i I o O)..................................................................................................223
22.3. replace and delete a character (r x X).............................................................................224
22.4. undo and repeat (u .).......................................................................................................224
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 Linux Fundamentals
22.5. cut, copy and paste a line (dd yy p P).............................................................................224
22.6. cut, copy and paste lines (3dd 2yy).................................................................................225
22.7. start and end of a line (0 or ^ and $)..............................................................................225
22.8. join two lines (J) and more..............................................................................................225
22.9. words (w b)......................................................................................................................226
22.10. save (or not) and exit (:w :q :q! )...................................................................................226
22.11. Searching (/ ?)................................................................................................................226
22.12. replace all ( :1,$ s/foo/bar/g )........................................................................................227
22.13. reading files (:r :r !cmd).................................................................................................227
22.14. text buffers.....................................................................................................................227
22.15. multiple files...................................................................................................................227

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 Linux Fundamentals

22.16. abbreviations..................................................................................................................228
22.17. key mappings.................................................................................................................229
22.18. setting options...............................................................................................................229
22.19. practice: vi(m)................................................................................................................230
22.20. solution: vi(m)................................................................................................................231
VII. scripting................................................................................................................................................232
23. scripting introduction............................................................................................................ 234
23.1. prerequisites.....................................................................................................................235
23.2. hello world.......................................................................................................................235
23.3. she-bang...........................................................................................................................235
23.4. comment..........................................................................................................................236
23.5. variables...........................................................................................................................236
23.6. sourcing a script...............................................................................................................236
23.7. troubleshooting a script...................................................................................................237
23.8. prevent setuid root spoofing...........................................................................................237
23.9. practice: introduction to scripting...................................................................................238
23.10. solution: introduction to scripting.................................................................................239
24. scripting loops....................................................................................................................... 240
24.1. test [ ]...............................................................................................................................241
24.2. if then else.......................................................................................................................242
24.3. if then elif........................................................................................................................242
24.4. for loop............................................................................................................................242
24.5. while loop........................................................................................................................243
24.6. until loop..........................................................................................................................243
24.7. practice: scripting tests and loops...................................................................................244
24.8. solution: scripting tests and loops...................................................................................245
25. scripting parameters............................................................................................................. 247
25.1. script parameters.............................................................................................................248
25.2. shift through parameters.................................................................................................249
25.3. runtime input...................................................................................................................249
25.4. sourcing a config file........................................................................................................250
25.5. get script options with getopts........................................................................................251
25.6. get shell options with shopt............................................................................................252
25.7. practice: parameters and options....................................................................................253
25.8. solution: parameters and options....................................................................................254
26. more scripting....................................................................................................................... 255
26.1. eval........................................................................................................256
26.2. (( )) ................................................................................................................................... 256
26.3. let.....................................................................................................................................257
26.4. case 258
26.5. shell functions.............................................................................................................259
26.6. practice : more scripting.............................................................................................260
26.7. solution : more scripting.............................................................................................261
VIII. local user management.................................................................................................................263
27. introduction to users............................................................................................ 266
27.1. whoami.............................................................................................................................267
27.2. who...................................................................................................................................267
27.3. who am i..........................................................................................................................267
27.4. w.......................................................................................................................................267

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 Linux Fundamentals
27.5. id.......................................................................................................................................267
27.6. su to another user...........................................................................................................268
27.7. su to root.........................................................................................................................268
27.8. su as root.........................................................................................................................268
27.9. su - $username................................................................................................................268
27.10. su....................................................................................................................................268
27.11. run a program as another user......................................................................................269
27.12. visudo.............................................................................................................................269
27.13. sudo su...........................................................................................................................270

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 Linux Fundamentals

27.14. sudo logging...................................................................................................................270

27.15. practice: introduction to users......................................................................................271
27.16. solution: introduction to users......................................................................................272
28. user management................................................................................................................. 274
28.1. user management............................................................................................................275
28.2. /etc/passwd......................................................................................................................275
28.3. root...................................................................................................................................275
28.4. useradd.............................................................................................................................276
28.5. /etc/default/useradd........................................................................................................276
28.6. userdel..............................................................................................................................276
28.7. usermod...........................................................................................................................276
28.8. creating home directories................................................................................................277
28.9. /etc/skel/..........................................................................................................................277
28.10. deleting home directories..............................................................................................277
28.11. login shell.......................................................................................................................278
28.12. chsh................................................................................................................................278
28.13. practice: user management...........................................................................................279
28.14. solution: user management...........................................................................................280
29. user passwords..................................................................................................................... 282
29.1. passwd..............................................................................................................................283
29.2. shadow file.......................................................................................................................283
29.3. encryption with passwd...................................................................................................284
29.4. encryption with openssl...................................................................................................284
29.5. encryption with crypt......................................................................................................285
29.6. /etc/login.defs..................................................................................................................286
29.7. chage................................................................................................................................286
29.8. disabling a password........................................................................................................287
29.9. editing local files..............................................................................................................287
29.10. practice: user passwords...............................................................................................288
29.11. solution: user passwords...............................................................................................289
30. user profiles.......................................................................................................................... 291
30.1. system profile..................................................................................................................292
30.2. ~/.bash_profile.................................................................................................................292
30.3. ~/.bash_login....................................................................................................................293
30.4. ~/.profile...........................................................................................................................293
30.5. ~/.bashrc..........................................................................................................................293
30.6. ~/.bash_logout.................................................................................................................294
30.7. Debian overview..............................................................................................................295
30.8. RHEL5 overview...............................................................................................................295
30.9. practice: user profiles......................................................................................................296
30.10. solution: user profiles....................................................................................................297
31. groups................................................................................................................................... 298
31.1. groupadd..........................................................................................................................299
31.2. group file..........................................................................................................................299
31.3. groups..............................................................................................................................299
31.4. usermod...........................................................................................................................300
31.5. groupmod.........................................................................................................................300
31.6. groupdel...........................................................................................................................300
31.7. gpasswd............................................................................................................................301
31.8. newgrp.............................................................................................................................302
31.9. vigr....................................................................................................................................302
31.10. practice: groups.............................................................................................................303
31.11. solution: groups.............................................................................................................304
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 Linux Fundamentals
IX. file security............................................................................................................................................ 305
32. standard file permissions...................................................................................................... 307
32.1. file ownership..................................................................................................................308
32.2. list of special files............................................................................................................310
32.3. permissions......................................................................................................................311

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 Linux Fundamentals

32.4. practice: standard file permissions..................................................................................316

32.5. solution: standard file permissions..................................................................................317
33. advanced file permissions..................................................................................................... 319
33.1. sticky bit on directory......................................................................................................320
33.2. setgid bit on directory.....................................................................................................320
33.3. setgid and setuid on regular files....................................................................................321
33.4. setuid on sudo.................................................................................................................321
33.5. practice: sticky, setuid and setgid bits.............................................................................322
33.6. solution: sticky, setuid and setgid bits.............................................................................323
34. access control lists................................................................................................................ 325
34.1. acl in /etc/fstab................................................................................................................326
34.2. getfacl...............................................................................................................................326
34.3. setfacl...............................................................................................................................326
34.4. remove an acl entry.........................................................................................................327
34.5. remove the complete acl.................................................................................................327
34.6. the acl mask.....................................................................................................................327
34.7. eiciel.................................................................................................................................328
35. file links................................................................................................................................ 329
35.1. inodes...............................................................................................................................330
35.2. about directories..............................................................................................................331
35.3. hard links..........................................................................................................................332
35.4. symbolic links...................................................................................................................333
35.5. removing links..................................................................................................................333
35.6. practice : links..................................................................................................................334
35.7. solution : links..................................................................................................................335
X. Appendices..............................................................................................................................................336
A. keyboard settings................................................................................................................... 338
A.1. about keyboard layout......................................................................................................338
A.2. X Keyboard Layout............................................................................................................338
A.3. shell keyboard layout........................................................................................................338
B. hardware................................................................................................................................ 340
B.1. buses..................................................................................................................................340
B.2. interrupts...........................................................................................................................341
B.3. io ports..............................................................................................................................342
B.4. dma....................................................................................................................................342
C. License................................................................................................................................... 344
Index.............................................................................................................................................................351

xiv
List of Tables
2.1. choosing a Linux distro.............................................................................................................................8
4.1. Debian releases.......................................................................................................................................16
22.1. getting to command mode.................................................................................................................223
22.2. switch to insert mode........................................................................................................................223
22.3. replace and delete..............................................................................................................................224
22.4. undo and repeat.................................................................................................................................224
22.5. cut, copy and paste a line..................................................................................................................224
22.6. cut, copy and paste lines....................................................................................................................225
22.7. start and end of line...........................................................................................................................225
22.8. join two lines......................................................................................................................................225
22.9. words.................................................................................................................................................. 226
22.10. save and exit vi.................................................................................................................................226
22.11. searching...........................................................................................................................................226
22.12. replace...............................................................................................................................................227
22.13. read files and input..........................................................................................................................227
22.14. text buffers........................................................................................................................................227
22.15. multiple files.....................................................................................................................................228
22.16. abbreviations.....................................................................................................................................228
30.1. Debian User Environment...................................................................................................................295
30.2. Red Hat User Environment.................................................................................................................295
32.1. Unix special files.................................................................................................................................310
32.2. standard Unix file permissions...........................................................................................................311
32.3. Unix file permissions position.............................................................................................................311
32.4. Octal permissions................................................................................................................................314

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Part I. introduction to Linux
Table of Contents
1. Linux history........................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1. 1969 ................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.2. 1980s............................................................................................................................................... 4
1.3. 1990s............................................................................................................................................... 4
1.4. 2015 ................................................................................................................................................. 5
2. distributions........................................................................................................................................ 6
2.1. Red Hat............................................................................................................................................7
2.2. Ubuntu.............................................................................................................................................7
2.3. Debian..............................................................................................................................................7
2.4. Other............................................................................................................................................... 7
2.5. Which to choose ?...........................................................................................................................8
3. licensing............................................................................................................................................... 9
3.1. about software licenses................................................................................................................10
3.2. public domain software and freeware..........................................................................................10
3.3. Free Software or Open Source Software......................................................................................10
3.4. GNU General Public License..........................................................................................................11
3.5. using GPLv3 software....................................................................................................................11
3.6. BSD license....................................................................................................................................12
3.7. other licenses................................................................................................................................12
3.8. combination of software licenses.................................................................................................12

2
Chapter 1. Linux history
This chapter briefly tells the history of Unix and where Linux fits in.

If you are eager to start working with Linux without this blah, blah, blah over history,
distributions, and licensing then jump straight to Part II - Chapter 8. Working with
Directories page 73.

3
 Linux history

1.1. 1969

All modern operating systems have their roots in 1969 when Dennis Ritchie and Ken
Thompson developed the C language and the Unix operating system at AT&T Bell Labs.
They shared their source code (yes, there was open source back in the Seventies) with
the rest of the world, including the hippies in Berkeley California. By 1975, when AT&T
started selling Unix commercially, about half of the source code was written by others.
The hippies were not happy that a commercial company sold software that they had
written; the resulting (legal) battle ended in there being two versions of Unix: the official
AT&T Unix, and the free BSD Unix.

Development of BSD descendants like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD and
PC-BSD is still active today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BSD_operating_systems
1.2. 1980s

In the Eighties many companies started developing their own Unix: IBM created AIX, Sun
SunOS (later Solaris), HP HP-UX and about a dozen other companies did the same. The
result was a mess of Unix dialects and a dozen different ways to do the same thing. And
here is the first real root of Linux, when Richard Stallman aimed to end this era of Unix
separation and everybody re-inventing the wheel by starting the GNU project (GNU is
Not Unix). His goal was to make an operating system that was freely available to
everyone, and where everyone could work together (like in the Seventies). Many of the
command line tools that you use today on Linux are GNU tools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AIX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-UX
1.3. 1990s

The Nineties started with Linus Torvalds, a Swedish speaking Finnish student, buying a
386 computer and writing a brand new POSIX compliant kernel. He put the source code
online, thinking it would never support anything but 386 hardware. Many people
embraced the combination of this kernel with the GNU tools, and the rest, as they say, is
history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
https://lwn.net
http://www.levenez.com/unix/ (a huge Unix history poster)

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 Linux history

1.4. 2015

Today more than 97 percent of the world's supercomputers (including the complete top
10), more than 80 percent of all smartphones, many millions of desktop computers,
around 70 percent of all web servers, a large chunk of tablet computers, and several
appliances (dvd- players, washing machines, dsl modems, routers, self-driving cars, space
station laptops...) run Linux. Linux is by far the most commonly used operating system in
the world.

Linux kernel version 4.0 was released in April 2015. Its source code grew by several
hundred thousand lines (compared to version 3.19 from February 2015) thanks to
contributions of thousands of developers paid by hundreds of commercial companies
including Red Hat, Intel, Samsung, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, IBM, Novell,
Qualcomm, Nokia, Oracle, Google, AMD and even Microsoft (and many more).

http://kernelnewbies.org/DevelopmentStatistics
http://kernel.org
http://www.top500.org

5
Chapter 2. distributions
This chapter gives a short overview of current Linux distributions.

A Linux distribution is a collection of (usually open source) software on top of a Linux

kernel. A distribution (or short, distro) can bundle server software, system management
tools, documentation and many desktop applications in a central secure software
repository. A distro aims to provide a common look and feel, secure and easy software
management and often a specific operational purpose.

Let's take a look at some popular distributions.

6
 distribution
s

2.1. Red Hat

Red Hat is a billion dollar commercial Linux company that puts a lot of effort in
developing Linux. They have hundreds of Linux specialists and are known for their
excellent support. They give their products (Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora) away
for free. While Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is well tested before release and
supported for up to seven years after release, Fedora is a distro with faster updates but
without support.

2.2. Ubuntu

Canonical started sending out free compact discs with Ubuntu Linux in 2004 and quickly
became popular for home users (many switching from Microsoft Windows). Canonical
wants Ubuntu to be an easy to use graphical Linux desktop without need to ever see a
command line. Of course they also want to make a profit by selling support for Ubuntu.

2.3. Debian

There is no company behind Debian. Instead there are thousands of well organised
developers that elect a Debian Project Leader every two years. Debian is seen as one of
the most stable Linux distributions. It is also the basis of every release of Ubuntu. Debian
comes in three versions: stable, testing and unstable. Every Debian release is named after
a character in the movie Toy Story.

2.4. Other

Distributions like CentOS, Oracle Enterprise Linux and Scientific Linux are based on Red
Hat Enterprise Linux and share many of the same principles, directories and system
administration techniques. Linux Mint, Edubuntu and many other *buntu named
distributions are based on Ubuntu and thus share a lot with Debian. There are hundreds
of other Linux distributions.

7
 distribution
s

2.5. Which to choose ?

Below are some very personal opinions on some of the most popular Linux Distributions.
Keep in mind that any of the below Linux distributions can be a stable server and a nice
graphical desktop client.

Table 2.1. choosing a Linux distro

distribution name reason(s) for using

Red Hat Enterprise (RHEL) You are a manager and you want a good support contract.
CentOS You want Red Hat without the support contract from Red Hat.
Fedora You want Red Hat on your laptop/desktop.
Linux Mint You want a personal graphical desktop to play movies, music and games.
Debian My personal favorite for servers, laptops, and any other device.
Ubuntu Very popular, based on Debian, not my favorite.
Kali You want a pointy-clicky hacking interface.
others Advanced users may prefer Arch, Gentoo, OpenSUSE, Scientific, ...

When you are new to Linux in 2015, go for the latest Mint or Fedora. If you only want to
practice the Linux command line then install one Debian server and/or one CentOS
server (without graphical interface).

Here are some links to help you choose:

distrowatch.com
redhat.com
centos.org
debian.org
www.linuxmint.com
ubuntu.com

8
Chapter 3. licensing
This chapter briefly explains the different licenses used for distributing operating systems
software.

Many thanks go to Ywein Van den Brande for writing most of this chapter.

Ywein is an attorney at law, co-author of The International FOSS Law Book and author of
Praktijkboek Informaticarecht (in Dutch).

http://ifosslawbook.org
http://www.crealaw.eu

9
 licensing

3.1. about software licenses

There are two predominant software paradigms: Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
and proprietary software. The criteria for differentiation between these two approaches
is based on control over the software. With proprietary software, control tends to lie
more with the vendor, while with Free and Open Source Software it tends to be more
weighted towards the end user. But even though the paradigms differ, they use the same
copyright laws to reach and enforce their goals. From a legal perspective, Free and Open
Source Software can be considered as software to which users generally receive more
rights via their license agreement than they would have with a proprietary software
license, yet the underlying license mechanisms are the same.

Legal theory states that the author of FOSS, contrary to the author of public domain
software, has in no way whatsoever given up his rights on his work. FOSS supports on the
rights of the author (the copyright) to impose FOSS license conditions. The FOSS license
conditions need to be respected by the user in the same way as proprietary license
conditions. Always check your license carefully before you use third party software.

Examples of proprietary software are AIX from IBM, HP-UX from HP and Oracle Database
11g. You are not authorised to install or use this software without paying a licensing fee.
You are not authorised to distribute copies and you are not authorised to modify the
closed source code.

3.2. public domain software and freeware

Software that is original in the sense that it is an intellectual creation of the author
benefits copyright protection. Non-original software does not come into consideration
for copyright protection and can, in principle, be used freely.

Public domain software is considered as software to which the author has given up all
rights and on which nobody is able to enforce any rights. This software can be used,
reproduced or executed freely, without permission or the payment of a fee. Public
domain software can in certain cases even be presented by third parties as own work,
and by modifying the original work, third parties can take certain versions of the public
domain software out of the public domain again.

Freeware is not public domain software or FOSS. It is proprietary software that you can
use without paying a license cost. However, the often strict license terms need to be
respected.

Examples of freeware are Adobe Reader, Skype and Command and Conquer: Tiberian
Sun (this game was sold as proprietary in 1999 and is since 2011 available as freeware).
10
 licensing

3.3. Free Software or Open Source Software

Both the Free Software (translates to vrije software in Dutch and to Logiciel Libre in
French) and the Open Source Software movement largely pursue similar goals and
endorse similar software licenses. But historically, there has been some perception of
differentiation due to different emphases. Where the Free Software movement focuses
on the rights (the

11
 licensing

four freedoms) which Free Software provides to its users, the Open Source Software
movement points to its Open Source Definition and the advantages of peer-to-peer
software development.

Recently, the term free and open source software or FOSS has arisen as a neutral
alternative. A lesser-used variant is free/libre/open source software (FLOSS), which uses
libre to clarify the meaning of free as in freedom rather than as in at no charge.

Examples of free software are gcc, MySQL and gimp.

Detailed information about the four freedoms can be found here:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

The open source definition can be found at:

http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd

The above definition is based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines available here:

http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

3.4. GNU General Public License

More and more software is being released under the GNU GPL (in 2006 Java was
released under the GPL). This license (v2 and v3) is the main license endorsed by the Free
Software Foundation. It’s main characteristic is the copyleft principle. This means that
everyone in the chain of consecutive users, in return for the right of use that is assigned,
needs to distribute the improvements he makes to the software and his derivative works
under the same conditions to other users, if he chooses to distribute such improvements
or derivative works. In other words, software which incorporates GNU GPL software,
needs to be distributed in turn as GNU GPL software (or compatible, see below). It is not
possible to incorporate copyright protected parts of GNU GPL software in a proprietary
licensed work. The GPL has been upheld in court.

3.5. using GPLv3 software

You can use GPLv3 software almost without any conditions. If you solely run the
software you even don’t have to accept the terms of the GPLv3. However, any other use -
such as modifying or distributing the software - implies acceptance.

12
 licensing
In case you use the software internally (including over a network), you may modify the
software without being obliged to distribute your modification. You may hire third
parties to work on the software exclusively for you and under your direction and control.
But if you modify the software and use it otherwise than merely internally, this will be
considered as distribution. You must distribute your modifications under GPLv3 (the
copyleft principle). Several more obligations apply if you distribute GPLv3 software.
Check the GPLv3 license carefully.

You create output with GPLv3 software: The GPLv3 does not automatically apply to the
output.

13
 licensing

3.6. BSD license

There are several versions of the original Berkeley Distribution License. The most
common one is the 3-clause license ("New BSD License" or "Modified BSD License").

This is a permissive free software license. The license places minimal restrictions on how
the software can be redistributed. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses such as the
GPLv. 3 discussed above, which have a copyleft mechanism.

This difference is of less importance when you merely use the software, but kicks in when
you start redistributing verbatim copies of the software or your own modified versions.

3.7. other licenses

FOSS or not, there are many kind of licenses on software. You should read and
understand them before using any software.

3.8. combination of software licenses

When you use several sources or wishes to redistribute your software under a different
license, you need to verify whether all licenses are compatible. Some FOSS licenses (such
as BSD) are compatible with proprietary licenses, but most are not. If you detect a license
incompatibility, you must contact the author to negotiate different license conditions or
refrain from using the incompatible software.

14
Part II. installing Linux
Table of Contents
4. installing Debian 8............................................................................................................................. 15
4.1. Debian............................................................................................................................................16
4.2. Downloading..................................................................................................................................16
4.3. virtualbox networking...................................................................................................................32
4.4. setting the hostname....................................................................................................................34
4.5. adding a static ip address.............................................................................................................34
4.6. Debian package management.......................................................................................................35
5. installing CentOS 7............................................................................................................................ 36
5.1. download a CentOS 7 image.........................................................................................................37
5.2. Virtualbox......................................................................................................................................39
5.3. CentOS 7 installing........................................................................................................................44
5.4. CentOS 7 first logon......................................................................................................................52
5.5. Virtualbox network interface........................................................................................................53
5.6. configuring the network................................................................................................................54
5.7. adding one static ip address.........................................................................................................54
5.8. package management...................................................................................................................55
5.9. logon from Linux and MacOSX......................................................................................................56
5.10. logon from MS Windows............................................................................................................56
6. getting Linux at home........................................................................................................................ 58
6.1. download a Linux CD image..........................................................................................................59
6.2. download Virtualbox.....................................................................................................................59
6.3. create a virtual machine...............................................................................................................60
6.4. attach the CD image.....................................................................................................................65
6.5. install Linux....................................................................................................................................68

14
Chapter 4. installing Debian 8
This module is a step by step demonstration of an actual installation of Debian 8 (also
known as Jessie).

We start by downloading an image from the internet and install Debian 8 as a virtual
machine in Virtualbox. We will also do some basic configuration of this new machine like
setting an ip address and fixing a hostname.

This procedure should be very similar for other versions of Debian, and also for
distributions like Linux Mint, xubuntu/ubuntu/kubuntu or Mepis. This procedure can
also be helpful if you are using another virtualization solution.

Go to the next chapter if you want to install CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise
Linux, ....

15
 installing Debian 8

4.1. Debian

Debian is one of the oldest Linux distributions. I use Debian myself on almost every
computer that I own (including raspbian on the Raspberry Pi).

Debian comes in releases named after characters in the movie Toy Story. The Jessie
release contains about 36000 packages.

Table 4.1. Debian releases

name number year

Woody 3.0 2002
Sarge 3.1 2005
Etch 4.0 2007
Lenny 5.0 2009
Squeeze 6.0 2011
Wheezy 7 2013
Jessie 8 2015

There is never a fixed date for the next Debian release. The next version is released
when it is ready.

4.2. Downloading

All these screenshots were made in November 2014, which means Debian 8 was still in
'testing' (but in 'freeze', so there will be no major changes when it is released).

Download Debian here:

16
installing Debian 8

17
 installing Debian 8

After a couple of clicks on that website, I ended up downloading Debian 8 (testing) here.
It should be only one click once Debian 8 is released (somewhere in 2015).

You have many other options to download and install Debian. We will discuss them much
later.

This small screenshot shows the downloading of a netinst .iso file. Most of the software
will be downloaded during the installation. This also means that you will have the most
recent version of all packages when the install is finished.

I already have Debian 8 installed on my laptop (hence the paul@debian8 prompt).

Anyway, this is the downloaded file just before starting the installation.

paul@debian8:~$ ls -hl debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso

-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 231M Nov 10 17:59 debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso

18
 installing Debian 8

Create a new virtualbox machine (I already have five, you might have zero for now). Click
the New button to start a wizard that will help you create a virtual machine.

The machine needs a name, this screenshot shows that I named it server42.

19
 installing Debian 8

Most of the defaults in Virtualbox are ok.

512MB of RAM is enough to practice all the topics in this book.

We do not care about the virtual disk format.

20
 installing Debian 8

Choosing dynamically allocated will save you some disk space (for a small performance
hit).

8GB should be plenty for learning about Linux servers.

This finishes the wizard. You virtual machine is almost ready to begin the installation.

21
 installing Debian 8

First, make sure that you attach the downloaded .iso image to the virtual CD drive. (by
opening Settings, Storage followed by a mouse click on the round CD icon)

Personally I also disable sound and usb, because I never use these features. I also remove
the floppy disk and use a PS/2 mouse pointer. This is probably not very important, but I
like the idea that it saves some resources.

Now boot the virtual machine and begin the actual installation. After a couple of seconds
you should see a screen similar to this. Choose Install to begin the installation of Debian.

22
 installing Debian 8

First select the language you want to use.

Choose your country. This information will be used to suggest a download mirror.

23
 installing Debian 8

Choose the correct keyboard. On servers this is of no importance since most servers are
remotely managed via ssh.

Enter a hostname (with fqdn to set a dnsdomainname).

24
 installing Debian 8

Give the root user a password. Remember this password (or use hunter2).

It is adviced to also create a normal user account. I don't give my full name, Debian 8
accepts an identical username and full name paul.

25
 installing Debian 8

The use entire disk refers to the virtual disk that you created before in Virtualbox..

Again the default is probably what you want. Only change partitioning if you really know
what you are doing.

26
 installing Debian 8

Accept the partition layout (again only change if you really know what you are doing).

This is the point of no return, the magical moment where pressing yes will forever erase
data on the (virtual) computer.

27
 installing Debian 8

Software is downloaded from a mirror repository, preferably choose one that is close by
(as in the same country).

This setup was done in Belgium.

28
 installing Debian 8

Leave the proxy field empty (unless you are sure that you are behind a proxy server).

Choose whether you want to send anonymous statistics to the Debian project (it gathers
data about installed packages). You can view the statistics here
http://popcon.debian.org/.

29
 installing Debian 8

Choose what software to install, we do not need any graphical stuff for this training.

The latest versions are being downloaded.

30
 installing Debian 8

Say yes to install the bootloader on the virtual machine.

Booting for the first time shows the grub screen

31
 installing Debian 8

A couple seconds later you should see a lot of text scrolling of the screen (dmesg). After
which you are presented with this getty and are allowed your first logon.

You should now be able to log on to your virtual machine with the root account. Do you
remember the password ? Was it hunter2 ?

The screenshots in this book will look like this from now on. You can just type those
commands in the terminal (after you logged on).

root@server42:~# who am i
root tty1 2014-11-10 18:21
root@server42:~# hostname
server42
root@server42:~# date
32
 installing Debian 8

4.3. virtualbox networking

You can also log on from remote (or from your Windows/Mac/Linux host computer)
using ssh or putty. Change the network settings in the virtual machine to bridge. This will
enable your virtual machine to receive an ip address from your local dhcp server.

The default virtualbox networking is to attach virtual network cards to nat. This
screenshiot shows the ip address 10.0.2.15 when on nat:

root@server42:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:27:f5:74:cf
inet addr:10.0.2.15 Bcast:10.0.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fef5:74cf/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:19 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
lo Link encap:Local
RX bytes:2352 Loopback
(2.2 KiB) TX bytes:1988 (1.9 KiB)
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

By shutting down the network interface and enabling it again, we force Debian to renew
an ip address from the bridged network.

root@server42:~# # do not run ifdown while connected over ssh!

root@server42:~# ifdown eth0
Killed old client process
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.1
Copyright 2004-2014 Internet Systems Consortium.
33
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
 installing Debian 8

Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE on eth0 to 10.0.2.2 port 67
root@server42:~# # now enable bridge in virtualbox settings
root@server42:~# ifup eth0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.1
Copyright 2004-2014 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/08:00:27:f5:74:cf
Sending on LPF/eth0/08:00:27:f5:74:cf
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.42
DHCPACK from 192.168.1.42
bound to 192.168.1.111 -- renewal in 2938 seconds.
root@server42:~# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:27:f5:74:cf
inet addr:192.168.1.111 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

Here is an example of ssh to this freshly installed computer. Note that Debian 8 has
disabled remote root access, so i need to use the normal user account.

paul@debian8:~$ ssh [email protected]

[email protected]'s password:

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent

permitted by applicable law.
paul@server42:~$

TODO: putty screenshot here...

34
 installing Debian 8

4.4. setting the hostname

The hostname of the server is asked during installation, so there is no need to configure
this manually.

root@server42:~# hostname
server42
root@server42:~# cat /etc/hostname
server42
root@server42:~# dnsdomainname
paul.local
root@server42:~# grep server42 /etc/hosts

127.0.1.1 server42.paul.local server42

root@server42:~#

4.5. adding a static ip address

This example shows how to add a static ip address to your server.

You can use ifconfig to set a static address that is active until the next reboot (or until the
next ifdown).
a

root@server42:~# ifconfig eth0:0 10.104.33.39

Adding a couple of lines to the /etc/network/interfaces file to enable an extra ip address

forever.

35
 installing Debian 8

root@server42:~# vi /etc/network/interfaces
root@server42:~# tail -4 /etc/network/interfaces
auto eth0:0
iface eth0:0 inet static
address 10.104.33.39
netmask 255.255.0.0
root@server42:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:27:f5:74:cf
inet addr:192.168.1.111 Bcast:192.168.1.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fef5:74cf/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500
Metric:1
RX packets:528 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:333 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:45429 (44.3 KiB) TX bytes:48763 (47.6 KiB)

eth0:0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:27:f5:74:cf

inet addr:10.104.33.39 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

lo Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

root@server42:~#

36
 installing Debian 8

4.6. Debian package management

To get all information about the newest packages form the online repository:

root@server42:~# aptitude update

Get: 1 http://ftp.be.debian.org jessie InRelease [191 kB]
Get: 2 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates InRelease [84.1 kB]
Get: 3 http://ftp.be.debian.org jessie-updates InRelease [117 kB]
Get: 4 http://ftp.be.debian.org jessie-backports InRelease [118 kB]
Get: 5 http://security.debian.org jessie/updates/main Sources [14 B]
Get: 6 http://ftp.be.debian.org jessie/main Sources/DiffIndex [7,876 B]

To download and apply all updates for all installed packages:

root@server42:~# aptitude upgrade

Resolving dependencies...
The following NEW packages will be installed:
firmware-linux-free{a} irqbalance{a} libnuma1{a} linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64{a}
The following packages will be upgraded:
busybox file libc-bin libc6 libexpat1 libmagic1 libpaper-utils libpaper1 libsqlite3-0
linux-image-amd64 locales multiarch-support
12 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 44.9 MB of archives. After unpacking 161 MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
... (output truncated)

To install new software (vim and tmux in this example):

root@server42:~# aptitude install vim tmux

The following NEW packages will be installed:
tmux vim vim-runtime{a}
0 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 6,243 kB of archives. After unpacking 29.0 MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Get: 1 http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main tmux amd64 1.9-6 [245 kB]
Get: 2 http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main vim-runtime all 2:7.4.488-1 [5,046 kB]
Get: 3 http://ftp.be.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main vim amd64 2:7.4.488-1 [952 kB]

Refer to the package management chapter in LinuxAdm.pdf for more information.

37
Chapter 5. installing CentOS 7
This module is a step by step demonstration of an actual installation of CentOS 7.

We start by downloading an image from the internet and install CentOS 7 as a virtual
machine in Virtualbox. We will also do some basic configuration of this new machine like
setting an ip address and fixing a hostname.

This procedure should be very similar for other versions of CentOS, and also for
distributions like RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or Fedora. This procedure can also be
helpful if you are using another virtualization solution.

36
 installing CentOS 7

5.1. download a CentOS 7 image

This demonstration uses a laptop computer with Virtualbox to install CentOS 7 as a

virtual machine. The first task is to download an .iso image of CentOS 7.

The CentOS 7 website looks like this today (November 2014). They change the look
regularly, so it may look different when you visit it.

You can download a full DVD, which allows for an off line installation of a graphical
CentOS 7 desktop. You can select this because it should be easy and complete, and
should get you started with a working CentOS 7 virtual machine.

37
 installing CentOS 7

But I clicked instead on 'alternative downloads', selected CentOS 7 and x86_64 and
ended up on a mirror list. Each mirror is a server that contains copies of CentOS 7 media.
I selected a Belgian mirror because I currently am in Belgium.

There is again the option for full DVD's and more. This demonstration will use the minimal
.iso file, because it is much smaller in size. The download takes a couple of minutes.

Verify the size of the file after download to make sure it is complete. Probably a right
click on the file and selecting 'properties' (if you use Windows or Mac OSX).

I use Linux on the laptop already:

paul@debian8:~$ ls -lh CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-Minimal.iso

-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 566M Nov 1 14:45 CentOS-7.0-1406-x86_64-Minimal.iso

38
 installing CentOS 7
Do not worry if you do no understand the above command. Just try to make sure that the
size of this file is the same as the size that is mentioned on the CentOS 7 website.

39
 installing CentOS 7

5.2. Virtualbox

This screenshot shows up when I start Virtualbox. I already have four virtual machines,
you might have none.

Below are the steps for creating a new virtual machine. Start by clicking New and give
your machine a name (I chose server33). Click Next.

40
 installing CentOS 7

A Linux computer without graphical interface will run fine on half a gigabyte of RAM.

A Linux virtual machine will need a virtual hard drive.

41
 installing CentOS 7

Any format will do for our purpose, so I left the default vdi.

The default dynamically allocated type will save disk space (until we fill the virtual disk
up to 100 percent). It makes the virtual machine a bit slower than fixed size, but the fixed
size speed improvement is not worth it for our purpose.

42
 installing CentOS 7

The name of the virtual disk file on the host computer will be server33.vdi in my case (I
left it default and it uses the vm name). Also 16 GB should be enough to practice Linux.
The file will stay much smaller than 16GB, unless you copy a lot of files to the virtual
machine.

You should now be back to the start screen of Virtualbox. If all went well, then you
should see the machine you just created in the list.

43
 installing CentOS 7

After finishing the setup, we go into the Settings of our virtual machine and attach the .iso
file we downloaded before. Below is the default screenshot.

This is a screenshot with the .iso file properly attached.

44
 installing CentOS 7

5.3. CentOS 7 installing

The screenshots below will show every step from starting the virtual machine for the first
time (with the .iso file attached) until the first logon.

You should see this when booting, otherwise verify the attachment of the .iso file form
the previous steps. Select Test this media and install CentOS 7.

45
 installing CentOS 7

Carefully select the language in which you want your CentOS. I always install operating
systems in English, even though my native language is not English.

Also select the right keyboard, mine is a US qwerty, but yours may be different.

You should arrive at a summary page (with one or more warnings).

46
 installing CentOS 7

Start by configuring the network. During this demonstration I had a DHCP server running
at 192.168.1.42, yours is probably different. Ask someone (a network administator ?) for
help if this step fails.

Select your time zone, and activate ntp.

47
 installing CentOS 7

Choose a mirror that is close to you. If you can't find a local mirror, then you can copy the
one from this screenshot (it is a general CentOS mirror).

It can take a couple of seconds before the mirror is verified.

48
 installing CentOS 7

I did not select any software here (because I want to show it all in this training).

After configuring network, location, software and all, you should be back on this page.
Make sure there are no warnings anymore (and that you made the correct choice
everywhere).

49
 installing CentOS 7

You can enter a root password and create a user account while the installation is
downloading from the internet. This is the longest step, it can take several minutes (or up
to an hour if you have a slow internet connection).

If you see this, then the installation was successful.

Time to reboot the computer and start CentOS 7 for the first time.

50
 installing CentOS 7

This screen will appear briefly when the virtual machines starts. You don't have to do
anything.

After a couple of seconds, you should see a logon screen. This is called a tty or a getty.
Here you can type root as username. The login process will then ask your password
(nothing will appear on screen when you type your password).

51
 installing CentOS 7

And this is what it looks like after logon. You are logged on to your own Linux machine,
very good.

All subsequent screenshots will be text only, no images anymore.

For example this screenshot shows three commands being typed on my new CentOS 7
install.

[root@localhost ~]# who am i

root pts/0 2014-11-01 22:14
[root@localhost ~]# hostname
localhost.localdomain
[root@localhost ~]# date
Sat Nov 1 22:14:37 CET 2014

When using ssh the same commands will give this screenshot:

[root@localhost ~]# who am i

root pts/0 2014-11-01 21:00 (192.168.1.35)
[root@localhost ~]# hostname
localhost.localdomain
[root@localhost ~]# date
Sat Nov 1 22:10:04 CET 2014

If the last part is a bit too fast, take a look at the next topic CentOS 7 first logon.

52
 installing CentOS 7

5.4. CentOS 7 first logon

All you have to log on, after finishing the installation, is this screen in Virtualbox.

This is workable to learn Linux, and you will be able to practice a lot. But there are more
ways to access your virtual machine, the next chapters discuss some of these and will
also introduce some basic system configuration.

5.4.1. setting the hostname

Setting the hostname is a simple as changing the /etc/hostname file. As you can see
here, it is set to localhost.localdomain by default.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/hostname

localhost.localdomain

You could do echo server33.netsec.local > /etc/hostname followed by a reboot. But

there is also the new CentOS 7 way of setting a new hostname.

[root@localhost ~]# nmtui

The above command will give you a menu to choose from with a set system hostname
option. Using this nmtui option will edit the /etc/hostname file for you.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/hostname

server33.netsec.local
[root@localhost ~]# hostname
server33.netsec.local
[root@localhost ~]# dnsdomainname 53
netsec.local
 installing CentOS 7

For some reason the documentation on the centos.org and docs.redhat.com websites
tell you to also execute this command:

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl restart systemd-hostnamed

54
 installing CentOS 7

5.5. Virtualbox network interface

By default Virtualbox will connect your virtual machine over a nat interface. This will
show up as a 10.0.2.15 (or similar).

[root@server33 ~]# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast s\
tate UP qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:1c:f5:ab brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 10.0.2.15/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3

You can change this to bridge (over your wi-fi or over the ethernet cable) and thus make
it appear as if your virtual machine is directly on your local network (receiving an ip
address from your real dhcp server).

You can make this change while the vm is running, provided that you execute this command:

55
 installing CentOS 7

[root@server33 ~]# systemctl restart network

[root@server33 ~]# ip a s dev enp0s3
2: enp0s3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast s\
tate UP qlen 1000
link/ether 08:00:27:1c:f5:ab brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.110/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
valid_lft 7199sec preferred_lft 7199sec
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe1c:f5ab/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
[root@server33 ~]#

56
 installing CentOS 7

5.6. configuring the network

The new way of changing network configuration is through the nmtui tool. If you want to
manually play with the files in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts then you will first need to
verify (and disable) NetworkManager on that interface.

Verify whether an interface is controlled by NetworkManager using the nmcli

command (connected means managed bu NM).

[root@server33 ~]#
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
enp0s3 ethernet connected enp0s3
lo loopback unmanaged --

Disable NetworkManager on an interface (enp0s3 in this case):

echo 'NM_CONTROLLED=no' >> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp0s3

192.168.238.135/24 192.168.238.255

You can restart the network without a reboot like this:

[root@server33 ~]# systemctl restart network

Also, forget ifconfig and instead use ip a.

[root@server33 ~]# ip a s dev enp0s3 | grep inet

inet 192.168.1.110/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe1c:f5ab/64 scope link

5.7. adding one static ip address

This example shows how to add one static ip address to your computer.

[root@server33 ~]# nmtui edit enp0s3

In this interface leave the IPv4 configuration to automatic, and add an ip address just below.
IPv4 CONFIGURATION <Automatic> <Hide>
Addresses 10.104.33.32/16 <Remove>

Execute this command after exiting nmtui.

[root@server33 ~]# systemctl restart network

And verify with ip (not with ifconfig):

[root@server33 ~]# ip a s dev enp0s3 | grep inet

inet 192.168.1.110/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp0s3
57
inet 10.104.33.32/16 brd 10.104.255.255 scope global enp0s3
inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:fe1c:f5ab/64 scope link
[root@server33 ~]#
 installing CentOS 7

5.8. package management

Even with a network install, CentOS 7 did not install the latest version of some packages.
Luckily there is only one command to run (as root). This can take a while.

[root@server33 ~]# yum update

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.weepeetelecom.be
* extras: centos.weepeetelecom.be
* updates: centos.weepeetelecom.be
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check

You can also use yum to install one or more packages. Do not forget to run yum update
from time to time.

[root@server33 ~]# yum update -y && yum install vim -y

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.weepeetelecom.be

Refer to the package management chapter for more information on installing and
removing packages.

58
 installing CentOS 7

5.9. logon from Linux and MacOSX

You can now open a terminal on Linux or MacOSX and use ssh to log on to your virtual
machine.

paul@debian8:~$ ssh [email protected]

[email protected]'s password:
Last login: Sun Nov 2 11:53:57 2014
[root@server33 ~]# hostname
server33.netsec.local
[root@server33 ~]#

5.10. logon from MS Windows

There is no ssh installed on MS Windows, but you can download putty.exe from http://
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html (just Google it).

Use putty.exe as shown in this screenshot (I saved the ip address by giving it a name
'server33' and presing the 'save' button).

59
 installing CentOS 7

The first time you will get a message about keys, accept this (this is explained in the ssh
chapter).

Enter your userid (or root) and the correct password (nothing will appear on the screen
when typing a password).

60
Chapter 6. getting Linux at home
This chapter shows a Ubuntu install in Virtualbox. Consider it legacy and use CentOS7
or Debian8 instead (each have their own chapter now).

This book assumes you have access to a working Linux computer. Most companies have
one or more Linux servers, if you have already logged on to it, then you 're all set (skip
this chapter and go to the next).

Another option is to insert a Ubuntu Linux CD in a computer with (or without) Microsoft
Windows and follow the installation. Ubuntu will resize (or create) partitions and setup a
menu at boot time to choose Windows or Linux.

If you do not have access to a Linux computer at the moment, and if you are unable or
unsure about installing Linux on your computer, then this chapter proposes a third
option: installing Linux in a virtual machine.

Installation in a virtual machine (provided by Virtualbox) is easy and safe. Even when you
make mistakes and crash everything on the virtual Linux machine, then nothing on the
real computer is touched.

This chapter gives easy steps and screenshots to get a working Ubuntu server in a
Virtualbox virtual machine. The steps are very similar to installing Fedora or CentOS or
even Debian, and if you like you can also use VMWare instead of Virtualbox.

58
 getting Linux at home

6.1. download a Linux CD image

Start by downloading a Linux CD image (an .ISO file) from the distribution of your choice
from the Internet. Take care selecting the correct cpu architecture of your computer;
choose i386 if unsure. Choosing the wrong cpu type (like x86_64 when you have an old
Pentium) will almost immediately fail to boot the CD.

6.2. Man download Virtualbox

Step two (when the .ISO file has finished downloading) is to download Virtualbox. If you
are currently running Microsoft Windows, then download and install Virtualbox for
Windows!

59
 getting Linux at home

6.3. create a virtual machine

Now start Virtualbox. Contrary to the screenshot below, your left pane should be empty.

Click New to create a new virtual machine. We will walk together through the wizard.
The screenshots below are taken on Mac OSX; they will be slightly different if you are
running Microsoft Windows.

60
 getting Linux at home

Name your virtual machine (and maybe select 32-bit or 64-bit).

Give the virtual machine some memory (512MB if you have 2GB or more, otherwise select
256MB).

61
 getting Linux at home

Select to create a new disk (remember, this will be a virtual disk).

If you get the question below, choose vdi.

62
 getting Linux at home

Choose dynamically allocated (fixed size is only useful in production or on really old, slow
hardware).

Choose between 10GB and 16GB as the disk size.

63
 getting Linux at home

Click create to create the virtual disk.

Click create to create the virtual machine.

64
 getting Linux at home

6.4. attach the CD image

Before we start the virtual computer, let us take a look at some settings (click Settings).

Do not worry if your screen looks different, just find the button named storage.

65
 getting Linux at home

Remember the .ISO file you downloaded? Connect this .ISO file to this virtual machine by
clicking on the CD icon next to Empty.

Now click on the other CD icon and attach your ISO file to this virtual CD drive.

66
 getting Linux at home

Verify that your download is accepted. If Virtualbox complains at this point, then you
probably did not finish the download of the CD (try downloading it again).

It could be useful to set the network adapter to bridge instead of NAT. Bridged usually will
connect your virtual computer to the Internet.

67
 getting Linux at home

6.5. install Linux

The virtual machine is now ready to start. When given a choice at boot, select install and
follow the instructions on the screen. When the installation is finished, you can log on to
the machine and start practising Linux!

68
Part III. first steps on the
command line
Table of Contents
7. man pages......................................................................................................................................... 71
7.1. man $command............................................................................................................................72
7.2. man $configfile..............................................................................................................................72
7.3. man $daemon...............................................................................................................................72
7.4. man -k (apropos)...........................................................................................................................72
7.5. whatis............................................................................................................................................72
7.6. whereis..........................................................................................................................................72
7.7. man sections.................................................................................................................................73
7.8. man $section $file.........................................................................................................................73
7.9. man man.......................................................................................................................................73
7.10. mandb..........................................................................................................................................73
8. working with directories.................................................................................................................... 74
8.1. pwd................................................................................................................................................75
8.2. cd...................................................................................................................................................75
8.3. absolute and relative paths..........................................................................................................76
8.4. path completion............................................................................................................................77
8.5. ls.................................................................................................................................................... 77
8.6. mkdir..............................................................................................................................................79
8.7. rmdir..............................................................................................................................................79
8.8. practice: working with directories................................................................................................81
8.9. solution: working with directories................................................................................................82
9. working with files.............................................................................................................................. 84
9.1. all files are case sensitive..............................................................................................................85
9.2. everything is a file.........................................................................................................................85
9.3. file..................................................................................................................................................85
9.4. touch..............................................................................................................................................86
9.5. rm..................................................................................................................................................87
9.6. cp...................................................................................................................................................88
9.7. mv..................................................................................................................................................89
9.8. rename.......................................................................................................................................... 90
9.9. practice: working with files...........................................................................................................91
9.10. solution: working with files.........................................................................................................92
10. working with file contents............................................................................................................... 94
10.1. head.............................................................................................................................................95
10.2. tail................................................................................................................................................95
10.3. cat................................................................................................................................................96
10.4. tac................................................................................................................................................97
10.5. more and less..............................................................................................................................98
10.6. strings..........................................................................................................................................98
10.7. practice: file contents..................................................................................................................99
10.8. solution: file contents................................................................................................................100
11. the Linux file tree.......................................................................................................................... 101
11.1. filesystem hierarchy standard...................................................................................................102
11.2. man hier....................................................................................................................................102
11.3. the root directory /...................................................................................................................102
11.4. binary directories......................................................................................................................103
11.5. configuration directories...........................................................................................................105
70
11.6. data directories.........................................................................................................................107
11.7. in memory directories...............................................................................................................109
11.8. /usr Unix System Resources......................................................................................................114
11.9. /var variable data......................................................................................................................116
11.10. practice: file system tree.........................................................................................................118
11.11. solution: file system tree.........................................................................................................120

71
Chapter 7. man pages
This chapter will explain the use of man pages (also called manual pages) on your Unix or
Linux computer.

You will learn the man command together with related commands like whereis, whatis
and mandb.

Most Unix files and commands have pretty good man pages to explain their use. Man
pages also come in handy when you are using multiple flavours of Unix or several Linux
distributions since options and parameters sometimes vary.

72
 man
pages

7.1. man $command

Type man followed by a command (for which you want help) and start reading. Press q to
quit the manpage. Some man pages contain examples (near the end).

paul@laika:~$ man whois

Reformatting whois(1), please wait...

7.2. man $configfile

Most configuration files have their own manual.

paul@laika:~$ man syslog.conf

Reformatting syslog.conf(5), please wait...

7.3. man $daemon

This is also true for most daemons (background programs) on your system..

paul@laika:~$ man syslogd

Reformatting syslogd(8), please wait...

7.4. man -k (apropos)

man -k (or apropos) shows a list of man pages containing a string.

paul@laika:~$ man -k syslog

lm-syslog-setup (8) - configure laptop mode to switch syslog.conf ...
logger (1) - a shell command interface to the syslog(3) ...
syslog-facility (8) - Setup and remove LOCALx facility for sysklogd
syslog.conf (5) - syslogd(8) configuration file
syslogd (8) - Linux system logging utilities.
syslogd-listfiles (8) - list system logfiles

7.5. whatis

To see just the description of a manual page, use whatis followed by a string.

paul@u810:~$ whatis route

route (8) 72 the IP routing table

- show / manipulate
 man
pages

7.6. whereis

The location of a manpage can be revealed with whereis.

paul@laika:~$ whereis -m whois

whois: /usr/share/man/man1/whois.1.gz

This file is directly readable by man.

paul@laika:~$ man /usr/share/man/man1/whois.1.gz

73
 man
pages

7.7. man sections

By now you will have noticed the numbers between the round brackets. man man will
explain to you that these are section numbers. Executable programs and shell commands
reside in section one.

1 Executable programs or shell commands

2 System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
3 Library calls (functions within program libraries)
4 Special files (usually found in /dev)
5 File formats and conventions eg /etc/passwd
6 Games
7 Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions), e.g. man(7)
8 System administration commands (usually only for root)

7.8. man $section $file

Therefor, when referring to the man page of the passwd command, you will see it written
as passwd(1); when referring to the passwd file, you will see it written as passwd(5). The
screenshot explains how to open the man page in the correct section.

[paul@RHEL52 ~]$ man passwd # opens the first manual found

[paul@RHEL52 ~]$ man 5 passwd # opens a page from section 5

7.9. man man

If you want to know more about man, then Read The Fantastic Manual (RTFM).

Unfortunately, manual pages do not have the answer to everything...

paul@laika:~$ man woman

No manual entry for woman

7.10. mandb

Should you be convinced that a man page exists, but you can't access it, then try running
mandb on Debian/Mint.

root@laika:~# mandb
0 man subdirectories contained newer manual pages.
0 manual pages were added.
0 stray cats were added.
Or run makewhatis on CentOS/Redhat.

74
 man
pages
[root@centos65 ~]# apropos scsi
scsi: nothing appropriate
[root@centos65 ~]# makewhatis
[root@centos65 ~]# apropos scsi

hpsa (4) - HP Smart Array SCSI driver

lsscsi
sd (8) - list SCSI devices (or hosts) and their attributes

st (4) - Driver for SCSI Disk Drives

(4) - SCSI tape device

75
Chapter 8. working with directories
This module is a brief overview of the most common commands to work with directories:
pwd, cd, ls, mkdir and rmdir. These commands are available on any Linux (or Unix)
system.

This module also discusses absolute and relative paths and path completion in the bash
shell.

74
 working with directories

8.1. pwd

The you are here sign can be displayed with the pwd command (Print Working
Directory). Go ahead, try it: Open a command line interface (also called a terminal,
console or xterm) and type pwd. The tool displays your current directory.

paul@debian8:~$ pwd
/home/paul

8.2. cd

You can change your current directory with the cd command (Change Directory).

paul@debian8$ cd /etc
paul@debian8$ pwd
/etc
paul@debian8$ cd /bin
paul@debian8$ pwd
/bin
paul@debian8$ cd /home/paul/
paul@debian8$ pwd
/home/paul

8.2.1. cd ~

The cd is also a shortcut to get back into your home directory. Just typing cd without a
target directory, will put you in your home directory. Typing cd ~ has the same effect.

paul@debian8$ cd /etc
paul@debian8$ pwd
/etc
paul@debian8$ cd
paul@debian8$ pwd
/home/paul
paul@debian8$ cd ~
paul@debian8$ pwd
/home/paul

8.2.2. cd ..

75
 working with directories
To go to the parent directory (the one just above your current directory in the directory
tree), type cd .. .

paul@debian8$ pwd
/usr/share/games
paul@debian8$ cd ..
paul@debian8$ pwd
/usr/share

To stay in the current directory, type cd . ;-) We will see useful use of the . character
representing the current directory later.

76
 working with directories

8.2.3. cd -

Another useful shortcut with cd is to just type cd - to go to the previous directory.

paul@debian8$ pwd
/home/paul
paul@debian8$ cd /etc
paul@debian8$ pwd
/etc
paul@debian8$ cd -
/home/paul
paul@debian8$ cd -
/etc

8.3. absolute and relative paths

You should be aware of absolute and relative paths in the file tree. When you type a
path starting with a slash (/), then the root of the file tree is assumed. If you don't start
your path with a slash, then the current directory is the assumed starting point.

The screenshot below first shows the current directory /home/paul. From within this
directory, you have to type cd /home instead of cd home to go to the /home directory.

paul@debian8$ pwd
/home/paul
paul@debian8$ cd home
bash: cd: home: No such file or directory
paul@debian8$ cd /home
paul@debian8$ pwd
/home

When inside /home, you have to type cd paul instead of cd /paul to enter the subdirectory
paul of the current directory /home.

Cd ~

In case your current directory is the root directory /, then both cd /home and cd home
will get you in the /home directory.
77
 working with directories

paul@debian8$ pwd
/
paul@debian8$ cd home
paul@debian8$ pwd
/home
paul@debian8$ cd /
paul@debian8$ cd /home
paul@debian8$ pwd
/home

This was the last screenshot with pwd statements. From now on, the current directory
will often be displayed in the prompt. Later in this book we will explain how the shell
variable
$PS1 can be configured to show this.

78
 working with directories

8.4. path completion

The tab key can help you in typing a path without errors. Typing cd /et followed by the
tab key will expand the command line to cd /etc/. When typing cd /Et followed by the
tab key, nothing will happen because you typed the wrong path (upper case E).

You will need fewer key strokes when using the tab key, and you will be sure your typed
path is correct!

8.5. ls

You can list the contents of a directory with ls.

paul@debian8:~$ ls
allfiles.txt dmesg.txt services stuff summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$

8.5.1. ls -a

A frequently used option with ls is -a to show all files. Showing all files means including
the hidden files. When a file name on a Linux file system starts with a dot, it is
considered a hidden file and it doesn't show up in regular file listings.
paul@debian8:~$ ls
allfiles.txt dmesg.txt services stuff summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$ ls -a
. allfiles.txt .bash_profile dmesg.txt .lesshst stuff
services
.. .bash_history .bashrc .ssh summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$

8.5.2. ls -l

Many times you will be using options with ls to display the contents of the directory in
different formats or to display different parts of the directory. Typing just ls gives you a
list of files in the directory. Typing ls -l (that is a letter L, not the number 1) gives you a
long listing.

paul@debian8:~$ ls -l
total 17296
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 17584442 Sep 17 00:03 allfiles.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 96650 Sep 17 00:03 dmesg.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 19558 Sep 17 00:04 services
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:04 stuff
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Sep 17 00:04 summer.txt
79
 working with directories

8.5.3. ls -lh

Another frequently used ls option is -h. It shows the numbers (file sizes) in a more human
readable format. Also shown below is some variation in the way you can give the options
to ls. We will explain the details of the output later in this book.

Note that we use the letter L as an option in this screenshot, not the number 1.

paul@debian8:~$ ls -l -h
total 17M
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 17M Sep 17 00:03 allfiles.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 95K Sep 17 00:03 dmesg.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 20K Sep 17 00:04 services
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4.0K Sep 17 00:04 stuff
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Sep 17 00:04 summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$ ls -lh
total 17M
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 17M Sep 17 00:03 allfiles.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 95K Sep 17 00:03 dmesg.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 20K Sep 17 00:04 services
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4.0K Sep 17 00:04 stuff
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Sep 17 00:04 summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$ ls -hl
total 17M
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 17M Sep 17 00:03 allfiles.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 95K Sep 17 00:03 dmesg.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 20K Sep 17 00:04 services
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4.0K Sep 17 00:04 stuff
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Sep 17 00:04 summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$ ls -h -l
total 17M
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 17M Sep 17 00:03 allfiles.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 95K Sep 17 00:03 dmesg.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 20K Sep 17 00:04 services
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4.0K Sep 17 00:04 stuff
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Sep 17 00:04 summer.txt
paul@debian8:~$

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8.6. mkdir

Walking around the Unix file tree is fun, but it is even more fun to create your own
directories with mkdir. You have to give at least one parameter to mkdir, the name of
the new directory to be created. Think before you type a leading / .

paul@debian8:~$ mkdir mydir

paul@debian8:~$ cd mydir
paul@debian8:~/mydir$ ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 48 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:07 ..
paul@debian8:~/mydir$ mkdir stuff
paul@debian8:~/mydir$ mkdir otherstuff
paul@debian8:~/mydir$ ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:08 otherstuff
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:08 stuff
paul@debian8:~/mydir$

8.6.1. mkdir -p

The following command will fail, because the parent directory of threedirsdeep does not
exist.

When given the option -p, then mkdir will create parent directories as needed.

paul@debian8:~$ mkdir -p mydir2/mysubdir2/threedirsdeep

paul@debian8:~$ cd mydir2
paul@debian8:~/mydir2$ ls -l
total 4cd
drwxr-xr-x 3 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:11 mysubdir2
paul@debian8:~/mydir2$ cd mysubdir2
paul@debian8:~/mydir2/mysubdir2$ ls -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:11 threedirsdeep
paul@debian8:~/mydir2/mysubdir2$ cd threedirsdeep/
paul@debian8:~/mydir2/mysubdir2/threedirsdeep$ pwd
/home/paul/mydir2/mysubdir2/threedirsdeep

8.7. rmdir

When a directory is empty, you can use rmdir to remove the directory.

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paul@debian8:~/mydir$ ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:08 otherstuff
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Sep 17 00:08 stuff
paul@debian8:~/mydir$ rmdir otherstuff
paul@debian8:~/mydir$ cd ..
paul@debian8:~$ rmdir mydir
rmdir: failed to remove ‘mydir’: Directory not empty
paul@debian8:~$ rmdir mydir/stuff
paul@debian8:~$ rmdir mydir
paul@debian8:~$

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8.7.1. rmdir -p

And similar to the mkdir -p option, you can also use rmdir to recursively remove
directories.

paul@debian8:~$ mkdir -p test42/subdir

paul@debian8:~$ rmdir -p test42/subdir
paul@debian8:~$
Cd

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8.8. practice: working with directories

1. Display your current directory.

2. Change to the /etc directory.

3. Now change to your home directory using only three key presses.

4. Change to the /boot/grub directory using only eleven key presses.

5. Go to the parent directory of the current directory.

6. Go to the root directory.

7. List the contents of the root directory.

8. List a long listing of the root directory.

9. Stay where you are, and list the contents of /etc.

10. Stay where you are, and list the contents of /bin and /sbin.

11. Stay where you are, and list the contents of ~.

12. List all the files (including hidden files) in your home directory.

13. List the files in /boot in a human readable format.

14. Create a directory testdir in your home directory.

15. Change to the /etc directory, stay here and create a directory newdir in your home directory.

16. Create in one command the directories ~/dir1/dir2/dir3 (dir3 is a subdirectory from dir2, and dir2 is a
subdirectory from dir1 ).

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17. Remove the directory testdir.

18. If time permits (or if you are waiting for other students to finish this practice), use and understand
pushd and popd. Use the man page of bash to find information about these commands.

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8.9. solution: working with directories

1. Display your current directory.

pwd

2. Change to the /etc directory.

cd /
cd /etc

3. Now change to your home directory using only three key presses.

cd (and the enter key)

4. Change to the /boot/grub directory using only eleven key presses.

cd /boot/grub (use the tab key)

5. Go to the parent directory of the current directory.

cd .. (with space between cd and ..)

6. Go to the root directory.

cd /

7. List the contents of the root directolscdry.

ls

8. List a long listing of the root directory.

ls -l

9. Stay where you are, and list the contents of /etc.

ls /etc

10. Stay where you are, and list the contcdents of /bin and /sbin.

ls /bin /sbin

11. Stay where you are, and list the contents of ~.

ls ~

12. List all the files (including hidden files) in your home directory.
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ls -al ~

13. List the files in /boot in a human readable format.

ls -lh /boot

14. Create a directory testdir in your home directory.

mkdir ~/testdir

15. Change to the /etc directory, stay here and create a directory newdir in your home directory.

cd /etc ; mkdir ~/newdir

16. Create in one command the directories ~/dir1/dir2/dir3 (dir3 is a subdirectory from dir2, and dir2 is a
subdirectory from dir1 ).

mkdir -p ~/dir1/dir2/dir3
17. Remove the directory testdir.

rmdir testdir
18. If time permits (or if you are waiting for other students to finish this practice), use and understand
pushd and popd. Use the man page of bash to find information about these commands.

man bash # opens the manual

/pushd # searches for pushd
n
# next (do this two/three times)

The Bash shell has two built-in commands called pushd and popd. Both commands work
with a common stack of previous directories. Pushd adds a directory to the stack and
changes to a new current directory, popd removes a directory from the stack and sets
the current directory.
paul@debian7:/etc$ cd /bin
paul@debian7:/bin$ pushd /lib
/lib /bin
paul@debian7:/lib$ pushd /proc
/proc /lib /bin
paul@debian7:/proc$ popd
/lib /bin
paul@debian7:/lib$ popd
/bin

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Chapter 9. working with files

In this chapter we learn how to recognise, create, remove, copy and move files using
commands like file, touch, rm, cp, mv and rename.

9.1. all files are case sensitive

Files on Linux (or any Unix) are case sensitive. This means that FILE1 is different from
file1, and /etc/hosts is different from /etc/Hosts (the latter one does not exist on a
typical Linux computer).

This screenshot shows the difference between two files, one with upper case W, the
other with lower case w.

9.2. everything is a file

paul@laika:~/Linux$ ls
winter.txt Winter.txt
paul@laika:~/Linux$ cat winter.txt
It is cold.
paul@laika:~/Linux$ cat Winter.txt
It is very cold!

A directory is a special kind of file, but it is still a (case sensitive!) file. Each terminal
window (for example /dev/pts/4), any hard disk or partition (for example /dev/sdb1)
and any process are all represented somewhere in the file system as a file. It will become
clear throughout this course that everything on Linux is a file.

9.3. file

The file utility determines the file type. Linux does not use extensions to determine the
file type. The command line does not care whether a file ends in .txt or .pdf. As a system
administrator, you should use the file command to determine the file type. Here are
some examples on a typical Linux system.

paul@laika:~$ file pic33.png

pic33.png: PNG image data, 3840 x 1200, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced
paul@laika:~$ file /etc/passwd
/etc/passwd: ASCII text
paul@laika:~$ file HelloWorld.c
HelloWorld.c: ASCII C program text

The file command uses a magic file that contains patterns to recognise file types. The
magic file is located in /usr/share/file/magic. Type man 5 magic for more information.

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It is interesting to point out file -s for special files like those in /dev and /proc.

root@debian6~# file /dev/sda

/dev/sda: block special
root@debian6~# file -s /dev/sda
/dev/sda: x86 boot sector; partition 1: ID=0x83, active, starthead...
root@debian6~# file /proc/cpuinfo
/proc/cpuinfo: empty
root@debian6~# file -s /proc/cpuinfo
/proc/cpuinfo: ASCII C++ program text

9.4. touch

9.4.1. create an empty file

One easy way to create an empty file is with touch. (We will see many other ways for
creating files later in this book.)

This screenshot starts with an empty directory, creates two files with touch and the lists
those files.

paul@debian7:~$ ls -l
total 0
paul@debian7:~$ touch file42
paul@debian7:~$ touch file33
paul@debian7:~$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 08:57 file33
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 08:56 file42
paul@debian7:~$

9.4.2. touch -t

The touch command can set some properties while creating empty files. Can you
determine what is set by looking at the next screenshot? If not, check the manual for
touch.

paul@debian7:~$ touch -t 200505050000 SinkoDeMayo

paul@debian7:~$ touch -t 130207111630 BigBattle.txt
paul@debian7:~$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Jul 11 1302 BigBattle.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 08:57 file33
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 08:56 file42
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 May 5 2005 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$

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9.5. rm

9.5.1. remove forever

When you no longer need a file, use rm to remove it. Unlike some graphical user
interfaces, the command line in general does not have a waste bin or trash can to
recover files. When you use rm to remove a file, the file is gone. Therefore, be careful
when removing files!

paul@debian7:~$ ls
BigBattle.txt file33 file42 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$ rm BigBattle.txt
paul@debian7:~$ ls
file33 file42 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$

9.5.2. rm -i

To prevent yourself from accidentally removing a file, you can type rm -i.

paul@debian7:~$ ls
file33 file42 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$ rm -i file33
rm: remove regular empty file `file33'? yes
paul@debian7:~$ rm -i SinkoDeMayo
rm: remove regular empty file `SinkoDeMayo'? n
paul@debian7:~$ ls
file42 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$

9.5.3. rm -rf

By default, rm -r will not remove non-empty directories. However rm accepts several

options that will allow you to remove any directory. The rm -rf statement is famous
paul@debian7:~$ mkdir test
paul@debian7:~$ rm test
rm: cannot remove `test': Is a directory
paul@debian7:~$ rm -rf test
paul@debian7:~$ ls test
ls: cannot access test: No such file or directory
paul@debian7:~$

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because it will erase anything (providing that you have the permissions to do so). When
you are logged on as root, be very careful with rm -rf (the f means force and the r means
recursive) since being root implies that permissions don't apply to you. You can literally
erase your entire file system by accident.

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9.6. cp

9.6.1. copy one file

To copy a file, use cp with a source and a target argument.

paul@debian7:~$ ls
file42 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$ cp file42 file42.copy
paul@debian7:~$ ls
file42 file42.copy SinkoDeMayo

9.6.2. copy to another directory

If the target is a directory, then the source files are copied to that target directory.

paul@debian7:~$ mkdir dir42

paul@debian7:~$ cp SinkoDeMayo dir42
paul@debian7:~$ ls dir42/
SinkoDeMayo

9.6.3. cp -r

To copy complete directories, use cp -r (the -r option forces recursive copying of all files
in all subdirectories).

paul@debian7:~$ ls
dir42 file42 file42.copy SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$ cp -r dir42/ dir33
paul@debian7:~$ ls
dir33 dir42 file42 file42.copy SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$ ls dir33/
SinkoDeMayo

9.6.4. copy multiple files to directory

You can also use cp to copy multiple files into a directory. In this case, the last argument
(a.k.a. the target) must be a directory.

paul@debian7:~$ cp file42 file42.copy SinkoDeMayo dir42/

paul@debian7:~$ ls dir42/

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9.6.5. cp -i

To prevent cp from overwriting existing files, use the -i (for interactive) option.

paul@debian7:~$ cp SinkoDeMayo file42

paul@debian7:~$ cp SinkoDeMayo file42
paul@debian7:~$ cp -i SinkoDeMayo file42
cp: overwrite `file42'? n
paul@debian7:~$

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9.7. mv

9.7.1. rename files with mv

Use mv to rename a file or to move the file to another directory.

allow-downgrade-to-insecure=yes
Rename

When you need to rename only one file then mv is the preferred command to use.

9.7.2. rename directories with mv

The same mv command can be used to rename directories.

paul@debian7:~$ ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Oct 15 09:36 dir33
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Oct 15 09:36 dir42
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 09:38 file33
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 09:16 file42.copy
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 May 5 2005 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$ mv dir33 backup
paul@debian7:~$ ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Oct 15 09:36 backup
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Oct 15 09:36 dir42
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 09:38 file33
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Oct 15 09:16 file42.copy
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 May 5 2005 SinkoDeMayo
paul@debian7:~$

9.7.3. mv -i

The mv also has a -i switch similar to cp and rm.

this screenshot shows that mv -i will ask permission to overwrite an existing file.

paul@debian7:~$ mv -i file33 SinkoDeMayo

mv: overwrite `SinkoDeMayo'? no
paul@debian7:~$

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9.8. rename

9.8.1. about rename

The rename command is one of the rare occasions where the Linux Fundamentals book
has to make a distinction between Linux distributions. Almost every command in the
Fundamentals part of this book works on almost every Linux computer. But rename is
different.

Try to use mv whenever you need to rename only a couple of files.

9.8.2. rename on Debian/Ubuntu

The rename command on Debian uses regular expressions (regular expression or shor
regex are explained in a later chapter) to rename many files at once.

Below a rename example that switches all occurrences of txt to png for all file names
ending in .txt.

paul@debian7:~/test42$ ls
abc.txt file33.txt file42.txt
paul@debian7:~/test42$ rename 's/\.txt/\.png/' *.txt
paul@debian7:~/test42$ ls

This second example switches all (first) occurrences of file into document for all file
names ending in .png.

paul@debian7:~/test42$ ls
abc.png file33.png file42.png
paul@debian7:~/test42$ rename 's/file/document/' *.png
paul@debian7:~/test42$ ls
abc.png document33.png document42.png
paul@debian7:~/test42$

9.8.3. rename on CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the syntax of rename is a bit different. The first example
below renames all *.conf files replacing any occurrence of .conf with .backup.

[paul@centos7 ~]$ touch one.conf two.conf three.conf

[paul@centos7 ~]$ rename .conf .backup *.conf
[paul@centos7 ~]$ ls
one.backup three.backup two.backup
[paul@centos7 ~]$

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The second example renames all (*) files replacing one with ONE.

[paul@centos7 ~]$ ls
one.backup three.backup two.backup
[paul@centos7 ~]$ rename one ONE *
[paul@centos7 ~]$ ls
ONE.backup three.backup two.backup
[paul@centos7 ~]$

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9.9. practice: working with files

1. List the files in the /bin directory

2. Display the type of file of /bin/cat, /etc/passwd and /usr/bin/passwd.

3a. Download wolf.jpg and LinuxFun.pdf from http://linux-training.be (wget http:// linux-
training.be/files/studentfiles/wolf.jpg and wget http://linux-training.be/files/books/
LinuxFun.pdf)

wget http://linux-training.be/files/studentfiles/wolf.jpg
wget http://linux-training.be/files/studentfiles/wolf.png
wget http://linux-training.be/files/books/LinuxFun.pdf

3b. Display the type of file of wolf.jpg and LinuxFun.pdf

3c. Rename wolf.jpg to wolf.pdf (use mv).

3d. Display the type of file of wolf.pdf and LinuxFun.pdf.

4. Create a directory ~/touched and enter it.

5. Create the files today.txt and yesterday.txt in touched.

6. Change the date on yesterday.txt to match yesterday's date.

7. Copy yesterday.txt to copy.yesterday.txt

8. Rename copy.yesterday.txt to kim

9. Create a directory called ~/testbackup and copy all files from ~/touched into it.

10. Use one command to remove the directory ~/testbackup and all files into it.

11. Create a directory ~/etcbackup and copy all *.conf files from /etc into it. Did you include all
subdirectories of /etc ?

12. Use rename to rename all *.conf files to *.backup . (if you have more than one distro available, try it
on all!)

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9.10. solution: working with files

1. List the files in the /bin directory

ls /bin

2. Display the type of file of /bin/cat, /etc/passwd and /usr/bin/passwd.

file /bin/cat /etc/passwd /usr/bin/passwd

3a. Download wolf.jpg and LinuxFun.pdf from http://linux-training.be (wget http:// linux-
training.be/files/studentfiles/wolf.jpg and wget http://linux-training.be/files/books/
LinuxFun.pdf)

wget http://linux-training.be/files/studentfiles/wolf.jpg
wget http://linux-training.be/files/studentfiles/wolf.png
wget http://linux-training.be/files/books/LinuxFun.pdf

3b. Display the type of file of wolf.jpg and LinuxFun.pdf

file wolf.jpg LinuxFun.pdf

3c. Rename wolf.jpg to wolf.pdf (use mv).

mv wolf.jpg wolf.pdf

3d. Display the type of file of wolf.pdf and LinuxFun.pdf.

file wolf.pdf LinuxFun.pdf

4. Create a directory ~/touched and enter it.

mkdir ~/touched ; cd ~/touched

5. Create the files today.txt and yesterday.txt in touched.

touch today.txt yesterday.txt

6. Change the date on yesterday.txt to match yesterday's date.

touch -t 200810251405 yesterday.txt (substitute(helyettesít) 20081025 with

yesterday)

7. Copy yesterday.txt to copy.yesterday.txt

cp yesterday.txt copy.yesterday.txt

8. Rename copy.yesterday.txt to kim

mv copy.yesterday.txt kim 98
 working with files

9. Create a directory called ~/testbackup and copy all files from ~/touched into it.

mkdir ~/testbackup ; cp -r ~/touched ~/testbackup/

10. Use one command to remove the directory ~/testbackup and all files into it.

rm -rf ~/testbackup

11. Create a directory ~/etcbackup and copy all *.conf files from /etc into it. Did you include all
subdirectories of /etc ?

cp -r /etc/*.conf ~/etcbackup

Only *.conf files that are directly in /etc/ are copied.

12. Use rename to rename all *.conf files to *.backup . (if you have more than one distro available, try it
on all!)

On RHEL: touch 1.conf 2.conf ; rename conf backup *.conf

On Debian: touch 1.conf 2.conf ; rename 's/conf/backup/' *.conf

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In this chapter we will look at the contents of text files with head, tail, cat, tac, more, less
and strings.

We will also get a glimpse of the possibilities of tools like cat on the command line.

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10.1. head

You can use head to display the first ten lines of a file.

paul@debian7~$ head /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh
root@debian7~#

The head command can also display the first n lines of a file.

paul@debian7~$ head -4 /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
paul@debian7~$

And head can also display the first n bytes.

paul@debian7~$ head -c14 /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:roopaul@debian7~$

10.2. tail

Similar to head, the tail command will display the last ten lines of a file.

paul@debian7~$ tail /etc/services

vboxd 20012/udp # binkp fidonet protocol
binkp 24554/tcp # Address Search Protocol

asp 27374/tcp
asp 27374/udp # cluster synchronization tool
# Detachable IRC Proxy
csync2 30865/tcp
# fidonet EMSI over telnet
dircproxy
# Local services57000/tcp # fidonet EMSI over TCP
paul@debian7~$
tfido 60177/tcp
fido 60179/tcp

You can give tail the number of lines you want to see.

paul@debian7~$ tail -3 /etc/services

# fidonet EMSI over TCP
fido 60179/tcp
95
# Local services
paul@debian7~$
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The tail command has other useful options, some of which we will use during this course.

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10.3. cat

The cat command is one of the most universal tools, yet all it does is copy standard input
to standard output. In combination with the shell this can be very powerful and diverse.
Some examples will give a glimpse into the possibilities. The first example is simple, you
can use cat to display a file on the screen. If the file is longer than the screen, it will scroll
to the end.

paul@debian8:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf

domain linux-training.be
search linux-training.be
nameserver 192.168.1.42
10.3.1. concatenate

cat is short for concatenate. One of the basic uses of cat is to concatenate files into a
bigger (or complete) file.

paul@debian8:~$ echo one >part1

paul@debian8:~$ echo two >part2
paul@debian8:~$ echo three >part3
paul@debian8:~$ cat part1
one
paul@debian8:~$ cat part2
two
paul@debian8:~$ cat part3
three
paul@debian8:~$ cat part1 part2 part3
one
two
three
paul@debian8:~$ cat part1 part2 part3 >all

10.3.2. create files

You can use cat to create flat text files. Type the cat > winter.txt command as shown in
the screenshot below. Then type one or more lines, finishing each line with the enter key.
After the last line, type and hold the Control (Ctrl) key and press d.

paul@debian8:~$ cat > winter.txt

It is very cold today!
paul@debian8:~$ cat winter.txt
It is very cold today!
paul@debian8:~$

The Ctrl d key combination will send an EOF (End of File) to the running process ending
the cat command.

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10.3.3. custom end marker

You can choose an end marker for cat with << as is shown in this screenshot. This
construction is called a here directive and will end the cat command.

paul@debian8:~$ cat > hot.txt <<stop

> It is hot today!
> Yes it is summer.
> stop
paul@debian8:~$ cat hot.txt

10.3.4. copy files

In the third example you will see that cat can be used to copy files. We will explain in
detail what happens here in the bash shell chapter.

paul@debian8:~$ cat winter.txt

It is very cold today!
paul@debian8:~$ cat winter.txt > cold.txt
paul@debian8:~$ cat cold.txt
It is very cold today!
10.4. tac

Just one example will show you the purpose of tac (cat backwards).

paul@debian8:~$ cat count

one
two
three
four
paul@debian8:~$ tac count
four
three
two

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10.5. more and less

The more command is useful for displaying files that take up more than one screen.
More will allow you to see the contents of the file page by page. Use the space bar to see
the next page, or q to quit. Some people prefer the less command to more.

10.6. strings

With the strings command you can display readable ascii strings found in (binary) files.
This example locates the ls binary then displays readable strings in the binary file (output
is truncated).

paul@laika:~$ which ls
/bin/ls
paul@laika:~$ strings /bin/ls
/lib/ld-linux.so.2
librt.so.1
gmon_start
_Jv_RegisterClasses
clock_gettime

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10.7. practice: file contents

1. Display the first 12 lines of /etc/services.

2. Display the last line of /etc/passwd.

3. Use cat to create a file named count.txt that looks like this:

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

4. Use cp to make a backup of this file to cnt.txt.

5. Use cat to make a backup of this file to catcnt.txt.

6. Display catcnt.txt, but with all lines in reverse order (the last line first).

7. Use more to display /etc/services.

8. Display the readable character strings from the /usr/bin/passwd command.

9. Use ls to find the biggest file in /etc.

10. Open two terminal windows (or tabs) and make sure you are in the same directory in both. Type echo
this is the first line > tailing.txt in the first terminal, then issue tail -f tailing.txt in the second terminal. Now
go back to the first terminal and type echo This is another line >> tailing.txt (note the double >>), verify
that the tail -f in the second terminal shows both lines. Stop the tail -f with Ctrl-C.

11. Use cat to create a file named tailing.txt that contains the contents of tailing.txt followed by the
contents of /etc/passwd.

12. Use cat to create a file named tailing.txt that contains the contents of tailing.txt preceded by the
contents of /etc/passwd.

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10.8. solution: file contents

1. Display the first 12 lines of /etc/services.

head -12 /etc/services

2. Display the last line of /etc/passwd.

tail -1 /etc/passwd

3. Use cat to create a file named count.txt that looks like this:

cat > count.txt

One
Two
Three
Four
Five (followed by Ctrl-d)

4. Use cp to make a backup of this file to cnt.txt.

cp count.txt cnt.txt

5. Use cat to make a backup of this file to catcnt.txt.

cat count.txt > catcnt.txt

6. Display catcnt.txt, but with all lines in reverse order (the last line first).

tac catcnt.txt

7. Use more to display /etc/services.

more /etc/services

8. Display the readable character strings from the /usr/bin/passwd command.

strings /usr/bin/passwd

9. Use ls to find the biggest file in /etc.

ls -lrS /etc

10. Open two terminal windows (or tabs) and make sure you are in the same directory in both. Type echo
this is the first line > tailing.txt in the first terminal, then issue tail -f tailing.txt in the second terminal. Now
go back to the first terminal and type echo This is another line >> tailing.txt (note the double >>), verify
that the tail -f in the second terminal shows both lines. Stop the tail -f with Ctrl-C.
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11. Use cat to create a file named tailing.txt that contains the contents of tailing.txt followed by the
contents of /etc/passwd.

cat /etc/passwd >> tailing.txt

12. Use cat to create a file named tailing.txt that contains the contents of tailing.txt preceded by the
contents of /etc/passwd.

mv tailing.txt tmp.txt ; cat /etc/passwd tmp.txt > tailing.txt

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This chapter takes a look at the most common directories in the Linux file tree. It also
shows that on Unix everything is a file.

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11.1. filesystem hierarchy standard

Many Linux distributions partially follow the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. The FHS
may help make more Unix/Linux file system trees conform better in the future. The FHS is
available online at http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ where we read: "The filesystem
hierarchy standard has been designed to be used by Unix distribution developers,
package developers, and system implementers. However, it is primarily intended to be a
reference and is not a tutorial on how to manage a Unix filesystem or directory
hierarchy."

11.2. man hier

There are some differences in the filesystems between Linux distributions. For help
about your machine, enter man hier to find information about the file system hierarchy.
This manual will explain the directory structure on your computer.

11.3. the root directory /

All Linux systems have a directory structure that starts at the root directory. The root
directory is represented by a forward slash, like this: /. Everything that exists on your
Linux system can be found below this root directory. Let's take a brief look at the
contents of the root directory.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ ls /
srv tftpboot usr
bin
boot dev
etc home
lib media
misc mnt
opt proc
root sbin
selinux sys tmp var

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11.4. binary directories

Binaries are files that contain compiled source code (or machine code). Binaries can be
executed on the computer. Sometimes binaries are called executables.

11.4.1. /bin

The /bin directory contains binaries for use by all users. According to the FHS the /bin
directory should contain /bin/cat and /bin/date (among others).

In the screenshot below you see common Unix/Linux commands like cat, cp, cpio, date,
dd, echo, grep, and so on. Many of these will be covered in this book.

paul@laika:~$ ls /bin
archdetect egrep mt setupcon
autopartition false mt-gnu sh
bash fgconsole mv sh.distrib
bunzip2 fgrep nano sleep
bzcat fuser nc stralign
bzcmp fusermount nc.traditional stty
bzdiff get_mountoptions netcat su
bzegrep grep netstat sync
bzexe gunzip ntfs-3g sysfs
bzfgrep gzexe ntfs-3g.probe tailf
bzgrep gzip parted_devices tar
bzip2 hostname parted_server tempfile
bzip2recover hw-detect partman touch
bzless ip partman-commit true
bzmore kbd_mode perform_recipe ulockmgr
cat kill pidof umount
...

11.4.2. other /bin directories

You can find a /bin subdirectory in many other directories. A user named serena could
put her own programs in /home/serena/bin.

Some applications, often when installed directly from source will put themselves in /opt. A
samba server installation can use /opt/samba/bin to store its binaries.

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11.4.3. /sbin

/sbin contains binaries to configure the operating system. Many of the system binaries
require root privilege to perform certain tasks.

Below a screenshot containing system binaries to change the ip address, partition a disk
and create an ext4 file system.

paul@ubu1010:~$ ls -l /sbin/ifconfig /sbin/fdisk /sbin/mkfs.ext4

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 97172 2011-02-02 09:56 /sbin/fdisk
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 65708 2010-07-02 09:27 /sbin/ifconfig
-rwxr-xr-x 5 root root 55140 2010-08-18 18:01 /sbin/mkfs.ext4

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11.4.4. /lib

Binaries found in /bin and /sbin often use shared libraries located in /lib. Below is a
screenshot of the partial contents of /lib.

paul@laika:~$ ls /lib/libc*
/lib/libc-2.5.so /lib/libcfont.so.0.0.0 /lib/libcom_err.so.2.1
/lib/libcap.so.1 /lib/libcidn-2.5.so /lib/libconsole.so.0
/lib/libcap.so.1.10 /lib/libcidn.so.1 /lib/libconsole.so.0.0.0
/lib/libcfont.so.0 /lib/libcom_err.so.2 /lib/libcrypt-2.5.so

/lib/modules

Typically, the Linux kernel loads kernel modules from /lib/modules/$kernel-version/.

This directory is discussed in detail in the Linux kernel chapter.

/lib32 and /lib64

We currently are in a transition between 32-bit and 64-bit systems. Therefore, you may
encounter directories named /lib32 and /lib64 which clarify the register size used during
compilation time of the libraries. A 64-bit computer may have some 32-bit binaries and
libraries for compatibility with legacy applications. This screenshot uses the file utility to
demonstrate the difference.

paul@laika:~$ file /lib32/libc-2.5.so

/lib32/libc-2.5.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, \
version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.0, stripped
paul@laika:~$ file /lib64/libcap.so.1.10
/lib64/libcap.so.1.10: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, AMD x86-64, \
version 1 (SYSV), stripped

The ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) is used in almost every Unix-like operating
system since System V.

11.4.5. /opt

The purpose of /opt is to store optional software. In many cases this is software from
outside the distribution repository. You may find an empty /opt directory on many
systems.

A large package can install all its files in /bin, /lib, /etc subdirectories within /opt/
$packagename/. If for example the package is called wp, then it installs in /opt/wp,
putting binaries in /opt/wp/bin and manpages in /opt/wp/man.
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11.5. configuration directories

11.5.1. /boot

The /boot directory contains all files needed to boot the computer. These files don't
change very often. On Linux systems you typically find the /boot/grub directory here.
/boot/grub contains /boot/grub/grub.cfg (older systems may still have
/boot/grub/grub.conf) which defines the boot menu that is displayed before the kernel
starts.

11.5.2. /etc

All of the machine-specific configuration files should be located in /etc. Historically /etc
stood for etcetera, today people often use the Editable Text Configuration backronym.

Many times the name of a configuration files is the same as the application, daemon, or
protocol with .conf added as the extension.

paul@laika:~$ ls /etc/*.conf
/etc/adduser.conf /etc/ld.so.conf /etc/scrollkeeper.conf
/etc/brltty.conf /etc/lftp.conf /etc/sysctl.conf
/etc/ccertificates.conf /etc/libao.conf /etc/syslog.conf
/etc/cvs-cron.conf /etc/logrotate.conf /etc/ucf.conf
/etc/ddclient.conf /etc/ltrace.conf /etc/uniconf.conf
/etc/debconf.conf /etc/mke2fs.conf /etc/updatedb.conf
/etc/deluser.conf /etc/netscsid.conf /etc/usplash.conf
/etc/fdmount.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf /etc/uswsusp.conf
/etc/hdparm.conf /etc/pam.conf /etc/vnc.conf
/etc/host.conf /etc/pnm2ppa.conf /etc/wodim.conf
/etc/inetd.conf /etc/povray.conf /etc/wvdial.conf
/etc/kernel-img.conf /etc/resolv.conf
paul@laika:~$

There is much more to be found in /etc.

/etc/init.d/

A lot of Unix/Linux distributions have an /etc/init.d directory that contains scripts to start
and stop daemons. This directory could disappear as Linux migrates to systems that
replace the old init way of starting all daemons.

/etc/X11/

The graphical display (aka X Window System or just X) is driven by software from the
X.org foundation. The configuration file for your graphical display is /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

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/etc/skel/

The skeleton directory /etc/skel is copied to the home directory of a newly created user.
It usually contains hidden files like a .bashrc script.

/etc/sysconfig/

This directory, which is not mentioned in the FHS, contains a lot of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux configuration files. We will discuss some of them in greater detail. The screenshot
below is the /etc/sysconfig directory from RHELv4u4 with everything installed.

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paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ls /etc/sysconfig/
apmd firstboot irda network saslauthd
apm-scripts grub irqbalance networking selinux
authconfig hidd keyboard ntpd spamassassin
autofs httpd kudzu openib.conf squid
bluetooth hwconf lm_sensors pand syslog
clock i18n mouse pcmcia sys-config-sec
console init mouse.B pgsql sys-config-users
crond installinfo named prelink sys-logviewer
desktop ipmi netdump rawdevices tux
diskdump iptables netdump_id_dsa rhn vncservers
dund iptables-cfg netdump_id_dsa.p samba xinetd
paul@RHELv4u4:~$

The file /etc/sysconfig/firstboot tells the Red Hat Setup Agent not to run at boot time. If
you want to run the Red Hat Setup Agent at the next reboot, then simply remove this
file, and run chkconfig --level 5 firstboot on. The Red Hat Setup Agent allows you to
install the latest updates, create a user account, join the Red Hat Network and more. It
will then create the /etc/sysconfig/firstboot file again.

paul@RHELv4u4:~$ cat /etc/sysconfig/firstboot

RUN_FIRSTBOOT=NO

The /etc/sysconfig/harddisks file contains some parameters to tune the hard disks. The
file explains itself.

You can see hardware detected by kudzu in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf. Kudzu is software

from Red Hat for automatic discovery and configuration of hardware.

The keyboard type and keymap table are set in the /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file. For
more console keyboard information, check the manual pages of keymaps(5),
dumpkeys(1), loadkeys(1) and the directory /lib/kbd/keymaps/.

root@RHELv4u4:/etc/sysconfig# cat keyboard

KEYBOARDTYPE="pc"
KEYTABLE="us"

We will discuss networking files in this directory in the networking chapter.

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11.6. data directories

11.6.1. /home

Users can store personal or project data under /home. It is common (but not mandatory
by the fhs) practice to name the users home directory after the user name in the format
/home/
$USERNAME. For example:

paul@ubu606:~$ ls /home
geert annik sandra paul tom

Besides giving every user (or every project or group) a location to store personal files, the
home directory of a user also serves as a location to store the user profile. A typical Unix
user profile contains many hidden files (files whose file name starts with a dot). The
hidden files of the Unix user profiles contain settings specific for that user.

paul@ubu606:~$ ls -d /home/paul/.*
/home/paul/. /home/paul/.bash_profile /home/paul/.ssh
/home/paul/.. /home/paul/.bashrc /home/paul/.viminfo
/home/paul/.bash_history /home/paul/.lesshst

11.6.2. /root

On many systems /root is the default location for personal data and profile of the root
user. If it does not exist by default, then some administrators create it.

11.6.3. /srv

You may use /srv for data that is served by your system. The FHS allows locating cvs,
rsync, ftp and www data in this location. The FHS also approves administrative naming in
/ srv, like /srv/project55/ftp and /srv/sales/www.

On Sun Solaris (or Oracle Solaris) /export is used for this purpose.

11.6.4. /media

The /media directory serves as a mount point for removable media devices such as CD-
ROM's, digital cameras, and various usb-attached devices. Since /media is rather new in
the Unix world, you could very well encounter systems running without this directory.
Solaris 9 does not have it, Solaris 10 does. Most Linux distributions today mount all
removable media in /media.
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paul@debian5:~$ ls /media/
cdrom cdrom0 usbdisk

11.6.5. /mnt

The /mnt directory should be empty and should only be used for temporary mount
points (according to the FHS).

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Unix and Linux administrators used to create many directories here, like
/mnt/something/. You likely will encounter many systems with more than one directory
created and/or mounted inside /mnt to be used for various local and remote filesystems.

11.6.6. /tmp

Applications and users should use /tmp to store temporary data when needed. Data
stored in /tmp may use either disk space or RAM. Both of which are managed by the
operating system. Never use /tmp to store data that is important or which you wish to
archive.

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11.7. in memory directories

11.7.1. /dev

Device files in /dev appear to be ordinary files, but are not actually located on the hard
disk. The /dev directory is populated with files as the kernel is recognising hardware.

common physical devices

Common hardware such as hard disk devices are represented by device files in /dev.
Below a screenshot of SATA device files on a laptop and then IDE attached drives on a
desktop. (The detailed meaning of these devices will be discussed later.)

#
# SATA or SCSI or USB
#
paul@laika:~$ ls /dev/sd*
/dev/sda /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2

#
# IDE or ATAPI
#
paul@barry:~$ ls /dev/hd*
/dev/hda /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdb2 /dev/hdc

Besides representing physical hardware, some device files are special. These special
devices can be very useful.

/dev/tty and /dev/pts

For example, /dev/tty1 represents a terminal or console attached to the system. (Don't
break your head on the exact terminology of 'terminal' or 'console', what we mean here
is a command line interface.) When typing commands in a terminal that is part of a
graphical interface like Gnome or KDE, then your terminal will be represented as
/dev/pts/1 (1 can be another number).

/dev/null

On Linux you will find other special devices such as /dev/null which can be considered
a black hole; it has unlimited storage, but nothing can be retrieved from it. Technically
speaking, anything written to /dev/null will be discarded. /dev/null can be useful to
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discard unwanted output from commands. /dev/null is not a good location to store your
backups ;-).

11.7.2. /proc conversation with the kernel

/proc is another special directory, appearing to be ordinary files, but not taking up disk
space. It is actually a view of the kernel, or better, what the kernel manages, and is a
means to interact with it directly. /proc is a proc filesystem.

paul@RHELv4u4:~$ mount -t proc

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none on /proc type proc (rw)

When listing the /proc directory you will see many numbers (on any Unix) and some
interesting files (on Linux)

mul@laika:~$ ls /proc
1 2339 4724 5418 6587 7201 cmdline mounts
10175 2523 4729 5421 6596 7204 cpuinfo mtrr
10211 2783 4741 5658 6599 7206 crypto net
10239 2975 4873 5661 6638 7214 devices pagetypeinfo
141 29775 4874 5665 6652 7216 diskstats partitions
15045 29792 4878 5927 6719 7218 dma sched_debug
1519 2997 4879 6 6736 7223 driver scsi
1548 3 4881 6032 6737 7224 execdomains self
1551 30228 4882 6033 6755 7227 fb slabinfo
1554 3069 5 6145 6762 7260 filesystems stat
1557 31422 5073 6298 6774 7267 fs swaps
1606 3149 5147 6414 6816 7275 ide sys
180 31507 5203 6418 6991 7282 interrupts sysrq-trigger
181 3189 5206 6419 6993 7298 iomem sysvipc
182 3193 5228 6420 6996 7319 ioports timer_list
18898 3246 5272 6421 7157 7330 irq timer_stats
19799 3248 5291 6422 7163 7345 kallsyms tty
19803 3253 5294 6423 7164 7513 kcore uptime
19804 3372 5356 6424 7171 7525 key-users version
1987 4 5370 6425 7175 7529 kmsg version_signature
1989 42 5379 6426 7188 9964 loadavg vmcore
2 45 5380 6430 7189 acpi locks vmnet
20845 4542 5412 6450 7191 asound meminfo vmstat
221 46 5414 6551 7192 buddyinfo misc zoneinfo
2338 4704 5416 6568 7199 bus modules

Let's investigate the file properties inside /proc. Looking at the date and time will display
the current date and time showing the files are constantly updated (a view on the
kernel).

paul@RHELv4u4:~$ date
Mon Jan 29 18:06:32 EST 2007
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ls -al /proc/cpuinfo
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 29 18:06 /proc/cpuinfo
paul@RHELv4u4:~$
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ...time passes...
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paul@RHELv4u4:~$
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ date
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Most files in /proc are 0 bytes, yet they contain data--sometimes a lot of data. You can
see this by executing cat on files like /proc/cpuinfo, which contains information about
the CPU.

paul@RHELv4u4:~$ file /proc/cpuinfo

/proc/cpuinfo: empty
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 43

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model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+

stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 2398.628
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1

Just for fun, here is /proc/cpuinfo on a Sun Sunblade 1000...

paul@pasha:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

cpu : TI UltraSparc III (Cheetah)
fpu : UltraSparc III integrated FPU
promlib : Version 3 Revision 2
prom : 4.2.2
type : sun4u
ncpus probed : 2
ncpus active : 2
Cpu0Bogo : 498.68
Cpu0ClkTck : 000000002cb41780
Cpu1Bogo : 498.68
Cpu1ClkTck : 000000002cb41780
MMU Type : Cheetah

Most of the files in /proc are read only, some require root privileges, some files are
writable, and many files in /proc/sys are writable. Let's discuss some of the files in /proc.

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/proc/interrupts

On the x86 architecture, /proc/interrupts displays the interrupts.

paul@RHELv4u4:~$ cat /proc/interrupts

CPU0
0: 13876877 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 15 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 1 IO-APIC-edge rtc
9: 0 IO-APIC-level acpi
12: 67 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 128 IO-APIC-edge ide0
15: 124320 IO-APIC-edge ide1
169: 111993 IO-APIC-level ioc0
177: 2428 IO-APIC-level eth0
NMI: 0
LOC: 13878037
ERR: 0
MIS: 0

On a machine with two CPU's, the file looks like this.

paul@laika:~$ cat /proc/interrupts

CPU0 CPU1
0: 860013 0 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 4533 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
7: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge parport0
8: 6588227 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc
10: 2314 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 133 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
15: 72269 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
18: 1 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi yenta
19: 115036 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi eth0
20: 126871 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi libata, ohci1394
21: 30204 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2
22: 1334 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi saa7133[0], saa7133[0]
24: 234739 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi nvidia
NMI: 72 42
LOC: 860000 859994
ERR: 0

/proc/kcore

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The physical memory is represented in /proc/kcore. Do not try to cat this file, instead use
a debugger. The size of /proc/kcore is the same as your physical memory, plus four bytes.

paul@laika:~$ ls -lh /proc/kcore

-r-------- 1 root root 2.0G 2007-01-30 08:57 /proc/kcore
paul@laika:~$

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11.7.3. /sys Linux 2.6 hot plugging

The /sys directory was created for the Linux 2.6 kernel. Since 2.6, Linux uses sysfs to
support usb and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) hot plug devices. See the manual pages of
udev(8) (the successor of devfs) and hotplug(8) for more info (or visit http://linux-
hotplug.sourceforge.net/ ).

Basically the /sys directory contains kernel information about hardware.

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11.8. /usr Unix System Resources

Although /usr is pronounced like user, remember that it stands for Unix System
Resources. The /usr hierarchy should contain shareable, read only data. Some people
choose to mount
/usr as read only. This can be done from its own partition or from a read only NFS share
(NFS is discussed later).

11.8.1. /usr/bin

The /usr/bin directory contains a lot of commands.

paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/bin | wc -l
1395

(On Solaris the /bin directory is a symbolic link to /usr/bin.)

11.8.2. /usr/include

The /usr/include directory contains general use include files for C.

paul@ubu1010:~$ ls /usr/include/
aalib.h expat_config.h math.h search.h
af_vfs.h expat_external.h mcheck.h semaphore.h
aio.h expat.h memory.h setjmp.h
AL fcntl.h menu.h sgtty.h
aliases.h features.h mntent.h shadow.h
...

11.8.3. /usr/lib

The /usr/lib directory contains libraries that are not directly executed by users or scripts.

paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/lib | head -7

4Suite
ao
apt
arj
aspell
avahi

11.8.4. /usr/local

The /usr/local directory can be used by an administrator to install software locally.

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11.8.5. /usr/share

The /usr/share directory contains architecture independent data. As you can see, this is a
fairly large directory.

paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/share/ | wc -l

paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/local/
bin etc games include lib man sbin share src
paul@deb508:~$ du -sh /usr/local/
128K /usr/local/

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263
paul@deb508:~$ du -sh /usr/share/
1.3G /usr/share/

This directory typically contains /usr/share/man for manual pages.

paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/share/man
cs fr hu it.UTF-8 man2 man6 pl.ISO8859-2 sv
de fr.ISO8859-1 id ja man3 man7 pl.UTF-8 tr
es fr.UTF-8 it ko man4 man8 pt_BR

zh_CN

fi gl it.ISO8859-1 man1 man5 pl ru zh_TW

And it contains /usr/share/games for all static game data (so no high-scores or play logs).

paul@ubu1010:~$ ls /usr/share/games/
openttd wesnoth

11.8.6. /usr/src

The /usr/src directory is the recommended location for kernel source files.

paul@deb508:~$ ls -l /usr/src/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2011-02-01 14:43 linux-headers-2.6.26-2-686
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 2011-02-01 14:43 linux-headers-2.6.26-2-common
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-10-28 16:01 linux-kbuild-2.6.26

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11.9. /var variable data

Files that are unpredictable in size, such as log, cache and spool files, should be located in
/var.

11.9.1. /var/log

The /var/log directory serves as a central point to contain all log files.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ ls /var/log

acpid cron.2 maillog.2 quagga secure.4
amanda cron.3 maillog.3 radius spooler
anaconda.log cron.4 maillog.4 rpmpkgs spooler.1
anaconda.syslog cups mailman rpmpkgs.1 spooler.2
messages rpmpkgs.2 spooler.3
anaconda.xlog dmesg messages.1 rpmpkgs.3 spooler.4
audit exim messages.2 rpmpkgs.4 squid
boot.log gdm messages.3 sa uucp
boot.log.1 httpd messages.4
samba vbox
boot.log.2 iiim mysqld.log
boot.log.3 iptraf news
boot.log.4 lastlog pgsql scrollkeeper.log vmware-tools-guestd
canna mail ppp
maillog secure wtmp
cron secure.1 wtmp.1
cron.1 secure.2 Xorg.0.log
maillog.1 prelink.log secure.3 Xorg.0.log.old

11.9.2. /var/log/messages

A typical first file to check when troubleshooting on Red Hat (and derivatives) is the /var/
log/messages file. By default this file will contain information on what just happened to
the system. The file is called /var/log/syslog on Debian and Ubuntu.

[root@RHEL4b ~]# tail /var/log/messages

Jul 30 05:13:56 anacron: anacron startup succeeded
Jul 30 05:13:56 atd: atd startup succeeded
Jul 30 05:13:57 messagebus: messagebus startup succeeded
Jul 30 05:13:57 cups-config-daemon: cups-config-daemon startup succeeded
Jul 30 05:13:58 haldaemon: haldaemon startup succeeded
Jul 30 05:14:00 fstab-sync[3560]: removed all generated mount points
Jul 30 05:14:01 fstab-sync[3628]: added mount point /media/cdrom for...
Jul 30 05:14:01 fstab-sync[3646]: added mount point /media/floppy for...
11.9.3. /var/cache

The /var/cache directory can contain cache data for several applications.

paul@ubu1010:~$ ls /var/cache/
apt dictionaries-common gdm man software-center
pm-utils
binfmts flashplugin-installer hald

cups fontconfig jockey123 pppconfig

debconf fonts ldconfig samba
 the Linux file tree

11.9.4. /var/spool

The /var/spool directory typically contains spool directories for mail and cron, but also
serves as a parent directory for other spool files (for example print spool files).

124
 the Linux file tree

11.9.5. /var/lib

The /var/lib directory contains application state information.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for example keeps files pertaining to rpm in /var/lib/rpm/.

11.9.6. /var/...

/var also contains Process ID files in /var/run (soon to be replaced with /run) and
temporary files that survive a reboot in /var/tmp and information about file locks in
/var/lock. There will be more examples of /var usage further in this book.

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 the Linux file tree

11.10. practice: file system tree

1. Does the file /bin/cat exist ? What about /bin/dd and /bin/echo. What is the type of these files ?

2. What is the size of the Linux kernel file(s) (vmlinu*) in /boot ?

3. Create a directory ~/test. Then issue the following commands:

cd ~/test

dd if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.txt count=1 bs=100

od zeroes.txt

dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/zero
to ~/test/zeroes.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/zero ?

4. Now issue the following command:

dd if=/dev/random of=random.txt count=1 bs=100 ; od random.txt

dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/
random to ~/test/random.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/random ?

5. Issue the following two commands, and look at the first character of each output line.

ls -l /dev/sd* /dev/hd*

ls -l /dev/tty* /dev/input/mou*

The first ls will show block(b) devices, the second ls shows character(c) devices. Can you
tell the difference between block and character devices ?

6. Use cat to display /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf. What is your idea about the purpose of these files ?

7. Are there any files in /etc/skel/ ? Check also for hidden files.

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 the Linux file tree
8. Display /proc/cpuinfo. On what architecture is your Linux running ?

9. Display /proc/interrupts. What is the size of this file ? Where is this file stored ?

10. Can you enter the /root directory ? Are there (hidden) files ?

11. Are ifconfig, fdisk, parted, shutdown and grub-install present in /sbin ? Why are these binaries in /sbin
and not in /bin ?

12. Is /var/log a file or a directory ? What about /var/spool ?

13. Open two command prompts (Ctrl-Shift-T in gnome-terminal) or terminals (Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F2, ...)
and issue the who am i in both. Then try to echo a word from one terminal to the other.

127
 the Linux file tree

14. Read the man page of random and explain the difference between /dev/random and / dev/urandom.

128
 the Linux file tree

11.11. solution: file system tree

1. Does the file /bin/cat exist ? What about /bin/dd and /bin/echo. What is the type of these files ?

ls /bin/cat ; file /bin/cat

ls /bin/dd ; file /bin/dd

ls /bin/echo ; file /bin/echo

2. What is the size of the Linux kernel file(s) (vmlinu*) in /boot ?

ls -lh /boot/vm*

3. Create a directory ~/test. Then issue the following commands:

cd ~/test

dd if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.txt count=1 bs=100

od zeroes.txt
dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/zero
to ~/test/zeroes.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/zero ?
/dev/zero is a Linux special device. It can be considered a source of zeroes. You cannot
send something to /dev/zero, but you can read zeroes from it.
4. Now issue the following command:

dd if=/dev/random of=random.txt count=1 bs=100 ; od random.txt

dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/
random to ~/test/random.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/random ?
/dev/random acts as a random number generator on your Linux machine.

5. Issue the following two commands, and look at the first character of each output line.

ls -l /dev/sd* /dev/hd*

ls -l /dev/tty* /dev/input/mou*
The first ls will show block(b) devices, the second ls shows character(c) devices. Can you
tell the difference between block and character devices ?
Block devices are always written to (or read from) in blocks. For hard disks, blocks of 512
bytes are common. Character devices act as a stream of characters (or bytes). Mouse and
keyboard are typical character devices.

6. Use cat to display /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf. What is your idea about the purpose of these files ?

/etc/hosts contains hostnames with their ip address

/etc/resolv.conf should contain the ip address of a DNS name server.

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 the Linux file tree

7. Are there any files in /etc/skel/ ? Check also for hidden files.

Issue "ls -al /etc/skel/". Yes, there should be hidden files there.

8. Display /proc/cpuinfo. On what architecture is your Linux running ?

The file should contain at least one line with Intel or other cpu.

9. Display /proc/interrupts. What is the size of this file ? Where is this file stored ?

The size is zero, yet the file contains data. It is not stored anywhere because / proc is a
virtual file system that allows you to talk with the kernel. (If you answered "stored in
RAM- memory, that is also correct...).

10. Can you enter the /root directory ? Are there (hidden) files ?

Try "cd /root". The /root directory is not accessible for normal users on most modern Linux sy

11. Are ifconfig, fdisk, parted, shutdown and grub-install present in /sbin ? Why are these binaries in
/sbin and not in /bin ?

Because those files are only meant for system administrators.

12. Is /var/log a file or a directory ? What about /var/spool ?

Both are directories.

13. Open two command prompts (Ctrl-Shift-T in gnome-terminal) or terminals (Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F2, ...)
and issue the who am i in both. Then try to echo a word from one terminal to the other.

tty-terminal: echo Hello > /dev/tty1

pts-terminal: echo Hello > /dev/pts/1

14. Read the man page of random and explain the difference between /dev/random and / dev/urandom.

man 4 random

130
Part IV. shell expansion
Table of Contents
12. commands and arguments............................................................................................................. 125
12.1. arguments..................................................................................................................................126
12.2. white space removal.................................................................................................................126
12.3. single quotes.............................................................................................................................127
12.4. double quotes...........................................................................................................................127
12.5. echo and quotes........................................................................................................................127
12.6. commands.................................................................................................................................128
12.7. aliases........................................................................................................................................129
12.8. displaying shell expansion.........................................................................................................130
12.9. practice: commands and arguments.........................................................................................131
12.10. solution: commands and arguments.......................................................................................133
13. control operators........................................................................................................................... 135
13.1. ; semicolon.................................................................................................................................136
13.2. & ampersand.............................................................................................................................136
13.3. $? dollar question mark............................................................................................................136
13.4. && double ampersand..............................................................................................................137
13.5. || double vertical bar...............................................................................................................137
13.6. combining && and ||...............................................................................................................137
13.7. # pound sign..............................................................................................................................138
13.8. \ escaping special characters....................................................................................................138
13.9. practice: control operators.......................................................................................................139
13.10. solution: control operators.....................................................................................................140
14. shell variables................................................................................................................................ 141
14.1. $ dollar sign...............................................................................................................................142
14.2. case sensitive.............................................................................................................................142
14.3. creating variables......................................................................................................................142
14.4. quotes........................................................................................................................................143
14.5. set..............................................................................................................................................143
14.6. unset..........................................................................................................................................143
14.7. $PS1...........................................................................................................................................144
14.8. $PATH........................................................................................................................................145
14.9. env.............................................................................................................................................146
14.10. export......................................................................................................................................146
14.11. delineate variables..................................................................................................................147
14.12. unbound variables...................................................................................................................147
14.13. practice: shell variables...........................................................................................................148
14.14. solution: shell variables...........................................................................................................149
15. shell embedding and options......................................................................................................... 150
15.1. shell embedding........................................................................................................................151
15.2. shell options..............................................................................................................................152
15.3. practice: shell embedding.........................................................................................................153
15.4. solution: shell embedding.........................................................................................................154
16. shell history................................................................................................................................... 155
16.1. repeating the last command.....................................................................................................156
16.2. repeating other commands.......................................................................................................156
16.3. history........................................................................................................................................156
16.4. !n................................................................................................................................................156

123
16.5. Ctrl-r...........................................................................................................................................157
16.6. $HISTSIZE...................................................................................................................................157
16.7. $HISTFILE...................................................................................................................................157
16.8. $HISTFILESIZE.............................................................................................................................157
16.9. prevent recording a command..................................................................................................158
16.10. (optional)regular expressions..................................................................................................158
16.11. (optional) Korn shell history....................................................................................................158
16.12. practice: shell history..............................................................................................................159

124
 shell expansion

16.13. solution: shell history..............................................................................................................160

17. file globbing................................................................................................................................... 161
17.1. * asterisk...................................................................................................................................162
17.2. ? question mark.........................................................................................................................162
17.3. [] square brackets......................................................................................................................163
17.4. a-z and 0-9 ranges....................................................................................................................164
17.5. $LANG and square brackets......................................................................................................164
17.6. preventing file globbing............................................................................................................165
17.7. practice: shell globbing.............................................................................................................166
17.8. solution: shell globbing.............................................................................................................167

124
Chapter 12. commands and arguments
This chapter introduces you to shell expansion by taking a close look at commands and
arguments. Knowing shell expansion is important because many commands on your
Linux system are processed and most likely changed by the shell before they are
executed.

The command line interface or shell used on most Linux systems is called bash, which
stands for Bourne again shell. The bash shell incorporates features from sh (the original
Bourne shell), csh (the C shell), and ksh (the Korn shell).

This chapter frequently uses the echo command to demonstrate shell features. The echo
command is very simple: it echoes the input that it receives.

paul@laika:~$ echo Burtonville

Burtonville
paul@laika:~$ echo Smurfs are blue
Smurfs are blue

125
 commands and
arguments

12.1. arguments

One of the primary features of a shell is to perform a command line scan. When you
enter a command at the shell's command prompt and press the enter key, then the shell
will start scanning that line, cutting it up in arguments. While scanning the line, the shell
may make many changes to the arguments you typed.

This process is called shell expansion. When the shell has finished scanning and
modifying that line, then it will be executed.

12.2. white space removal

Parts that are separated by one or more consecutive white spaces (or tabs) are
considered separate arguments, any white space is removed. The first argument is the
command to be executed, the other arguments are given to the command. The shell
effectively cuts your command into one or more arguments. (paraméterek)

This explains why the following four different command lines are the same after shell
expansion.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello World

Hello World
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello World
Hello World

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello World

Hello World
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello World
Hello World

The echo command will display each argument it receives from the shell. The echo
command will also add a new white space between the arguments it received.

126
 commands and
arguments

12.3. single quotes

You can prevent the removal of white spaces by quoting the spaces. The contents of the
quoted string are considered as one argument. In the screenshot below the echo
receives only one argument.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo 'A line with single quotes'

A line with single quotes
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

12.4. double quotes

You can also prevent the removal of white spaces by double quoting the spaces. Same as
above, echo only receives one argument.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo "A line with double quotes"

A line with double quotes
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

Later in this book, when discussing variables we will see important differences between
single and double quotes.

12.5. echo and quotes

Quoted lines can include special escaped characters recognised by the echo command
(when using echo -e). The screenshot below shows how to use \n for a newline and \t for
a tab (usually eight white spaces).

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo -e "A line with \na newline"

A line with
a newline
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo -e 'A line with \na newline'
A line with
a newline
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo -e "A line with \ta tab"
A line with a tab

The echo command can generate more than white spaces, tabs and newlines. Look in the
man page for a list of options.

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 commands and
arguments

12.6. commands

12.6.1. external or builtin commands ?

Not all commands are external to the shell, some are builtin. External commands are
programs that have their own binary and reside somewhere in the file system. Many
external commands are located in /bin or /sbin. Builtin commands are an integral part of
the shell program itself.

12.6.2. type

To find out whether a command given to the shell will be executed as an external command
or as a builtin command, use the type command.

paul@laika:~$ type cd
cd is a shell builtin
paul@laika:~$ type cat
cat is /bin/cat

As you can see, the cd command is builtin and the cat command is external.

You can also use this command to show you whether the command is aliased or not.

paul@laika:~$ type ls
ls is aliased to `ls --color=auto'

12.6.3. running external commands

Some commands have both builtin and external versions. When one of these commands
is executed, the builtin version takes priority. To run the external version, you must
enter the full path to the command.
paul@laika:~$ type -a echo
echo is a shell builtin
echo is /bin/echo
paul@laika:~$ /bin/echo Running the external echo command...
Running the external echo command...

12.6.4. which
128
 commands and
The which command will arguments
search for binaries in the $PATH environment variable
(variables will be explained later). In the screenshot below, it is determined that cd is
builtin, and ls, cp, rm, mv, mkdir, pwd, and which are external commands.

[root@RHEL4b ~]# which cp ls cd mkdir pwd

/bin/cp
/bin/ls
/usr/bin/which: no cd in (/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:...
/bin/mkdir
/bin/pwd

129
 commands and
arguments

12.7. aliases

12.7.1. create an alias

The shell allows you to create aliases. Aliases are often used to create an easier to
remember name for an existing command or to easily supply parameters.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat count.txt

one
two
three
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ alias dog=tac
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ dog count.txt
-> így már a dog azt csinálja,
mint a cat
three

12.7.2. abbreviate commands

An alias can also be useful to abbreviate an existing command.

paul@laika:~$ alias ll='ls -lh --color=auto'

paul@laika:~$ alias c='clear'
paul@laika:~$

12.7.3. default options

Aliases can be used to supply commands with default options. The example below shows
how to set the -i option default when typing rm.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ rm -i winter.txt

rm: remove regular file `winter.txt'? no
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ rm winter.txt
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ ls winter.txt
ls: winter.txt: No such file or directory
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ touch winter.txt
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ alias rm='rm -i'
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ rm winter.txt
rm: remove regular empty file `winter.txt'? no
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

Some distributions enable default aliases to protect users from accidentally erasing files ('rm
-i', 'mv -i', 'cp -i')

12.7.4. viewing aliases

130
 commands and
arguments
You can provide one or more aliases as arguments to the alias command to get their
definitions. Providing no arguments gives a complete list of current aliases.

paul@laika:~$ alias c ll
alias c='clear'
alias ll='ls -lh --color=auto'

131
 commands and
arguments

12.7.5. unalias

You can undo an alias with the unalias command.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ which rm

/bin/rm
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ alias rm='rm -i'
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ which rm
alias rm='rm -i'
/bin/rm
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ unalias rm
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ which rm
/bin/rm
12.8. displaying shell expansion

You can display shell expansion with set -x, and stop displaying it with set +x. You might
want to use this further on in this course, or when in doubt about exactly what the shell
is doing with your command.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ set -x

++ echo -ne '\033]0;paul@RHELv4u3:~\007'
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo $USER
+ echo paul
paul
++ echo -ne '\033]0;paul@RHELv4u3:~\007'
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo \$USER
+ echo '$USER'
$USER
++ echo -ne '\033]0;paul@RHELv4u3:~\007'
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ set +x
+ set +x
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo $USER
paul

132
 commands and
arguments

12.9. practice: commands and arguments

1. How many arguments are in this line (not counting the command itself).

touch '/etc/cron/cron.allow' 'file 42.txt' "file 33.txt"

2. Is tac a shell builtin command ?

3. Is there an existing alias for rm ?

4. Read the man page of rm, make sure you understand the -i option of rm. Create and remove a file to
test the -i option.

5. Execute: alias rm='rm -i' . Test your alias with a test file. Does this work as expected ?

6. List all current aliases.

7a. Create an alias called 'city' that echoes your

hometown. 7b. Use your alias to test that it works.

8. Execute set -x to display shell expansion for every command.

9. Test the functionality of set -x by executing your city and rm aliases.

10 Execute set +x to stop displaying shell expansion.

11. Remove your city alias.

12. What is the location of the cat and the passwd commands ?

13. Explain the difference between the following commands:

echo

/bin/echo

14. Explain the difference between the following commands:

133
 commands and
arguments
echo Hello

echo -n Hello

15. Display A B C with two spaces between B and C.

(optional)16. Complete the following command (do not use spaces) to display exactly the
following output:

4+4 =8
10+14 =24

17. Use echo to display the following exactly:

??\\

134
 commands and
arguments

Find two solutions with single quotes, two with double quotes and one without quotes
(and say thank you to René and Darioush from Google for this extra).

18. Use one echo command to display three words on three lines.

135
 commands and
arguments

12.10. solution: commands and arguments

1. How many arguments are in this line (not counting the command itself).

touch '/etc/cron/cron.allow' 'file 42.txt' "file 33.txt"

answer: three

2. Is tac a shell builtin command ?

type tac

3. Is there an existing alias for rm ?

alias rm

4. Read the man page of rm, make sure you understand the -i option of rm. Create and remove a file to
test the -i option.

man rm

touch testfile

rm -i testfile

5. Execute: alias rm='rm -i' . Test your alias with a test file. Does this work as expected ?

touch testfile

rm testfile (should ask for confirmation)

6. List all current aliases.

alias

7a. Create an alias called 'city' that echoes your hometown.

alias city='echo Antwerp'

7b. Use your alias to test that it works.

city (it should display Antwerp)

8. Execute set -x to display shell expansion for every command.

set -x

136
 commands and
9. arguments
Test the functionality of set -x by executing your city and rm aliases.

shell should display the resolved aliases and then execute the command:
paul@deb503:~$ set -x
paul@deb503:~$ city
+ echo antwerp
antwerp

10 Execute set +x to stop displaying shell expansion.

set +x

11. Remove your city alias.

137
 commands and
arguments

unalias city

12. What is the location of the cat and the passwd commands ?

which cat (probably /bin/cat)

which passwd (probably /usr/bin/passwd)

13. Explain the difference between the following commands:

echo

/bin/echo

The echo command will be interpreted by the shell as the built-in echo command. The
/bin/ echo command will make the shell execute the echo binary located in the /bin
directory.

14. Explain the difference between the following commands:

echo Hello

echo -n Hello

The -n option of the echo command will prevent echo from echoing a trailing newline.
echo Hello will echo six characters in total, echo -n hello only echoes five characters.

(The -n option might not work in the Korn shell.)

15. Display A B C with two spaces between B and C.

echo "A B C"

16. Complete the following command (do not use spaces) to display exactly the following output:

4+4 =8
10+14 =24

The solution is to use tabs with \t.

echo -e "4+4\t=8" ; echo -e "10+14\t=24"

17. Use echo to display the following exactly:

??\\
echo '??\\'
138
echo -e '??\\\\'
echo "??\\\\"
 commands and
arguments

Find two solutions with single quotes, two with double quotes and one without quotes
(and say thank you to René and Darioush from Google for this extra).

18. Use one echo command to display three words on three lines.

echo -e "one \ntwo \nthree"

139
Chapter 13. control operators
In this chapter we put more than one command on the command line using control
operators. We also briefly discuss related parameters ($?) and similar special
characters(&).

135
 control
operators

13.1. ; semicolon

You can put two or more commands on the same line separated by a semicolon ; . The
shell will scan the line until it reaches the semicolon. All the arguments before this
semicolon will be considered a separate command from all the arguments after the
semicolon. Both series will be executed sequentially with the shell waiting for each
command to finish before starting the next one.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello

Hello
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo World
World
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello ; echo World
Hello
World
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

13.2. & ampersand

When a line ends with an ampersand &, the shell will not wait for the command to finish.
You will get your shell prompt back, and the command is executed in background. You
will get a message when this command has finished executing in background.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ sleep 20 &

[1] 7925
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$
...wait 20 seconds...
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

The technical explanation of what happens in this case is explained in the chapter about
processes.

13.3. $? dollar question mark

The exit code of the previous command is stored in the shell variable $?. Actually $? is a
shell parameter and not a variable, since you cannot assign a value to $?.

paul@debian5:~/test$ touch file1

paul@debian5:~/test$ echo $?
0
paul@debian5:~/test$ rm file1
paul@debian5:~/test$ echo $?
0
paul@debian5:~/test$ rm file1
rm: cannot remove `file1': No such file or directory
paul@debian5:~/test$ echo $?
1
paul@debian5:~/test$
136
 control
operators

13.4. && double ampersand

The shell will interpret && as a logical AND. When using && the second command is
executed only if the first one succeeds (returns a zero exit status).

paul@barry:~$ echo first && echo second

first
second
paul@barry:~$ zecho first && echo second
-bash: zecho: command not found

Another example of the same logical AND principle. This example starts with a working cd
followed by ls, then a non-working cd which is not followed by ls.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cd gen && ls

file1 file3 File55 fileab FileAB fileabc
file2 File4 FileA Fileab fileab2
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ cd gen && ls
-bash: cd: gen: No such file or directory

13.5. || double vertical bar

The || represents a logical OR. The second command is executed only when the first
command fails (returns a non-zero exit status).

paul@barry:~$ echo first || echo second ; echo third

first
third
paul@barry:~$ zecho first || echo second ; echo third
-bash: zecho: command not found
second

Another example of the same logical OR principle.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cd gen || ls

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ cd gen || ls
-bash: cd: gen: No such file or directory
file1 file3 File55 fileab FileAB fileabc
file2 File4 FileA Fileab fileab2

13.6. combining && and ||

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operators
You can use this logical AND and logical OR to write an if-then-else structure on the
command line. This example uses echo to display whether the rm command was
successful.

paul@laika:~/test$ rm file1 && echo It worked! || echo It failed!

It worked!
paul@laika:~/test$ rm file1 && echo It worked! || echo It failed!
rm: cannot remove `file1': No such file or directory
It failed!
paul@laika:~/test$

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operators

13.7. # pound sign

Everything written after a pound sign (#) is ignored by the shell. This is useful to write a
shell comment, but has no influence on the command execution or shell expansion.

paul@debian4:~$ mkdir test # we create a directory

paul@debian4:~$ cd test #### we enter the directory
paul@debian4:~/test$ ls # is it empty ?
paul@debian4:~/test$

13.8. \ escaping special characters

The backslash \ character enables the use of control characters, but without the shell
interpreting it, this is called escaping characters.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo hello \; world

hello ; world
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo hello\ \ \ world
hello world
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo escaping \\\ \#\ \&\ \"\ \'
escaping \ # & " '
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo escaping \\\?\*\"\'
escaping \?*"'

13.8.1. end of line backslash

Lines ending in a backslash are continued on the next line. The shell does not interpret
the newline character and will wait on shell expansion and execution of the command
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo This command line \
> is split in three \
> parts
This command line is split in three parts
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

line until a newline without backslash is encountered.

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operators

13.9. practice: control operators

0. Each question can be answered by one command line!

1. When you type passwd, which file is executed ?

2. What kind of file is that ?

3. Execute the pwd command twice. (remember 0.)

4. Execute ls after cd /etc, but only if cd /etc did not error.

5. Execute cd /etc after cd etc, but only if cd etc fails.

6. Echo it worked when touch test42 works, and echo it failed when the touch failed. All on one command
line as a normal user (not root). Test this line in your home directory and in /bin/ .

7. Execute sleep 6, what is this command doing ?

8. Execute sleep 200 in background (do not wait for it to finish).

9. Write a command line that executes rm file55. Your command line should print 'success' if file55 is
removed, and print 'failed' if there was a problem.

(optional)10. Use echo to display "Hello World with strange' characters \ * [ } ~ \

\ ." (including all quotes)

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operators

13.10. solution: control operators

0. Each question can be answered by one command line!

1. When you type passwd, which file is executed ?

which passwd

2. What kind of file is that ?

file /usr/bin/passwd

3. Execute the pwd command twice. (remember 0.)

pwd ; pwd

4. Execute ls after cd /etc, but only if cd /etc did not error.

cd /etc && ls

5. Execute cd /etc after cd etc, but only if cd etc fails.

cd etc || cd /etc

6. Echo it worked when touch test42 works, and echo it failed when the touch failed. All on one command
line as a normal user (not root). Test this line in your home directory and in /bin/ .

paul@deb503:~$ cd ; touch test42 && echo it worked || echo it failed

it worked
paul@deb503:~$ cd /bin; touch test42 && echo it worked || echo it failed
touch: cannot touch `test42': Permission denied
it failed

7. Execute sleep 6, what is this command doing ?

pausing for six seconds

8. Execute sleep 200 in background (do not wait for it to finish).

sleep 200 &

9. Write a command line that executes rm file55. Your command line should print 'success' if file55 is
removed, and print 'failed' if there was a problem.

rm file55 && echo success || echo failed

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operators
(optional)10. Use echo to display "Hello World with strange' characters \ * [ } ~ \
\ ." (including all quotes)

echo \"Hello World with strange\' characters \\ \* \[ \} \~ \\\\ \. \"

or

echo \""Hello World with strange' characters \ * [ } ~ \\ . "\"

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Chapter 14. shell variables
In this chapter we learn to manage environment variables in the shell. These variables
are often needed by applications.

141
 shell variables

14.1. $ dollar sign

Another important character interpreted by the shell is the dollar sign $. The shell will
look for an environment variable named like the string following the dollar sign and
replace it with the value of the variable (or with nothing if the variable does not exist).

These are some examples using $HOSTNAME, $USER, $UID, $SHELL, and $HOME.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo This is the $SHELL shell

This is the /bin/bash shell
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo This is $SHELL on computer $HOSTNAME
This is /bin/bash on computer RHELv4u3.localdomain
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo The userid of $USER is $UID
The userid of paul is 500
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo My homedir is $HOME
My homedir is /home/paul

14.2. case sensitive

This example shows that shell variables are case sensitive!

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello $USER

Hello paul
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Hello $user
Hello
14.3. creating variables

This example creates the variable $MyVar and sets its value. It then uses echo to verify
the value.

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ MyVar=555

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo $MyVar
555
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$

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 shell variables

14.4. quotes

Notice that double quotes still allow the parsing (elemzése) of variables, whereas single
quotes prevent this.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ MyVar=555

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo $MyVar
555
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo "$MyVar"
555
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo '$MyVar'
$MyVar

The bash shell will replace variables with their value in double quoted lines, but not in
single quoted lines.

paul@laika:~$ city=Burtonville
paul@laika:~$ echo "We are in $city today."
We are in Burtonville today.
paul@laika:~$ echo 'We are in $city today.'
We are in $city today.

14.5. set

You can use the set command to display a list of environment variables. On Ubuntu and
Debian systems, the set command will also list shell functions after the shell variables.
Use set | more to see the variables then.

14.6. unset

Use the unset command to remove a variable from your shell environment.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ MyVar=8472

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $MyVar
8472
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ unset MyVar
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $MyVar

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 shell variables

14.7. $PS1

The $PS1 variable determines your shell prompt. You can use backslash escaped special
characters like \u for the username or \w for the working directory. The bash manual
has a complete reference.

In this example we change the value of $PS1 a couple of times.

paul@deb503:~$ PS1=prompt
prompt
promptPS1='prompt '
prompt
prompt PS1='> '
>
> PS1='\u@\h$ '
paul@deb503$
paul@deb503$ PS1='\u@\h:\W$'
paul@deb503:~$

To avoid unrecoverable mistakes, you can set normal user prompts to green and the root
prompt to red. Add the following to your .bashrc for a green user prompt:

# color prompt by paul

RED='\[\033[01;31m\]'
WHITE='\[\033[01;00m\]'
GREEN='\[\033[01;32m\]'
BLUE='\[\033[01;34m\]'
export PS1="${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}$GREEN\u$WHITE@$BLUE\h$WHITE\w\$ "

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14.8. $PATH

The $PATH variable is determines where the shell is looking for commands to execute
(unless the command is builtin or aliased). This variable contains a list of directories,
separated by colons.

[[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $PATH

/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:

The shell will not look in the current directory for commands to execute! (Looking for
executables in the current directory provided an easy way to hack PC-DOS computers). If
you want the shell to look in the current directory, then add a . at the end of your
$PATH.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ PATH=$PATH:.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $PATH
/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:.
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

Your path might be different when using su instead of su - because the latter will take on
the environment of the target user. The root user typically has /sbin directories added to
the
$PATH variable.

[paul@RHEL3 ~]$ su
Password:
[root@RHEL3 paul]# echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
[root@RHEL3 paul]# exit
[paul@RHEL3 ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@RHEL3 ~]# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:
[root@RHEL3 ~]#

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 shell variables

14.9. env

The env command without options will display a list of exported variables. The
difference with set with options is that set lists all variables, including those not exported
to child shells.

But env can also be used to start a clean shell (a shell without any inherited
environment). The env -i command clears the environment for the subshell.

Notice in this screenshot that bash will set the $SHELL variable on startup.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ bash -c 'echo $SHELL $HOME $USER'

/bin/bash /home/paul paul
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ env -i bash -c 'echo $SHELL $HOME $USER'
/bin/bash
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

You can use the env command to set the $LANG, or any other, variable for just one
instance of bash with one command. The example below uses this to show the
influence of the
$LANG variable on file globbing (see the chapter on file globbing).

[paul@RHEL4b test]$ env LANG=C bash -c 'ls File[a-z]'

Filea Fileb
[paul@RHEL4b test]$ env LANG=en_US.UTF-8 bash -c 'ls File[a-z]'
Filea FileA Fileb FileB
[paul@RHEL4b test]$

14.10. export

You can export shell variables to other shells with the export command. This will export
the variable to child shells.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ var3=three

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ var4=four
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ export var4
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var3 $var4
three four
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ bash
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var3 $var4
four

But it will not export to the parent shell (previous screenshot continued).

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 shell variables

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ export var5=five

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var3 $var4 $var5
four five
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ exit
exit
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var3 $var4 $var5
three four

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 shell variables

14.11. delineate variables

Until now, we have seen that bash interprets a variable starting from a dollar sign,
continuing until the first occurrence of a non-alphanumeric character that is not an
underscore. In some situations, this can be a problem. This issue can be resolved with
curly braces like in this example.
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ prefix=Super
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo Hello $prefixman and $prefixgirl
Hello and
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo Hello ${prefix}man and ${prefix}girl
Hello Superman and Supergirl
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

14.12. unbound variables

The example below tries to display the value of the $MyVar variable, but it fails because
the variable does not exist. By default the shell will display nothing when a variable is
unbound (does not exist).
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo $MyVar

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$

There is, however, the nounset shell option that you can use to generate an error when a
variable does not exist.

paul@laika:~$ set -u
paul@laika:~$ echo $Myvar
bash: Myvar: unbound variable
paul@laika:~$ set +u
paul@laika:~$ echo $Myvar

In the bash shell set -u is identical to set -o nounset and likewise set +u is identical to set
+o nounset.

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 shell variables

14.13. practice: shell variables

1. Use echo to display Hello followed by your username. (use a bash variable!)

2. Create a variable answer with a value of 42.

3. Copy the value of $LANG to $MyLANG.

4. List all current shell variables.

5. List all exported shell variables.

6. Do the env and set commands display your variable ?

6. Destroy your answer variable.

7. Create two variables, and export one of them.

8. Display the exported variable in an interactive child shell.

9. Create a variable, give it the value 'Dumb', create another variable with value 'do'. Use
echo and the two variables to echo Dumbledore.

10. Find the list of backslash escaped characters in the manual of bash. Add the time to your
PS1 prompt.

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 shell variables

14.14. solution: shell variables

1. Use echo to display Hello followed by your username. (use a bash variable!)

echo Hello $USER

2. Create a variable answer with a value of 42.

answer=42

3. Copy the value of $LANG to $MyLANG.

MyLANG=$LANG

4. List all current shell variables.

set

set|more on Ubuntu/Debian

5. List all exported shell variables.

env
export
declare -x

6. Do the env and set commands display your variable ?

env | more
set | more

6. Destroy your answer variable.

unset answer

7. Create two variables, and export one of them.

var1=1; export var2=2

8. Display the exported variable in an interactive child shell.

bash
echo $var2

9. Create a variable, give it the value 'Dumb', create another variable with value 'do'. Use

150
 shell variables
echo and the two variables to echo Dumbledore.

varx=Dumb; vary=do

echo ${varx}le${vary}re

solution by Yves from Dexia : echo $varx'le'$vary're'

solution by Erwin from Telenet : echo "$varx"le"$vary"re

10. Find the list of backslash escaped characters in the manual of bash. Add the time to your
PS1 prompt.

PS1='\t \u@\h \W$ '

151
Chapter 15. shell embedding and options
This chapter takes a brief look at child shells, embedded shells and shell options.

150
 shell embedding and
options

15.1. shell embedding

Shells can be embedded on the command line, or in other words, the command line scan
can spawn new processes containing a fork of the current shell. You can use variables to
prove that new shells are created. In the screenshot below, the variable $var1 only
exists in the (temporary) sub shell.

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo $var1

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo $(var1=5;echo $var1)

5
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo $var1

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$

You can embed a shell in an embedded (beágyazott) shell, this is called nested

embedding of shells. This screenshot shows an embedded shell inside an embedded

paul@deb503:~$ A=shell
shell.
paul@deb503:~$ echo $C$B$A $(B=sub;echo $C$B$A; echo $(C=sub;echo $C$B$A))
shell subshell subsubshell

15.1.1. backticks

Single embedding can be useful to avoid changing your current directory. The screenshot
below uses backticks instead of dollar-bracket to embed.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo `cd /etc; ls -d * | grep pass`

passwd passwd- passwd.OLD
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

You can only use the $() notation to nest embedded shells, backticks cannot do this.

15.1.2. backticks or single quotes

Placing the embedding between backticks uses one character less than the dollar and
parenthesis combo. Be careful however, backticks are often confused with single quotes.
The technical difference between ' and ` is significant!

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 shell embedding and
options
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo `var1=5;echo $var1`
5
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ echo 'var1=5;echo $var1' var1=5;echo
$var1
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$

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 shell embedding and
options

15.2. shell options

Both set and unset are builtin shell commands. They can be used to set options of the
bash shell itself. The next example will clarify this. By default, the shell will treat unset
variables as a variable having no value. By setting the -u option, the shell will treat any
reference to unset variables as an error. See the man page of bash for more information.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var123

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ set -u

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var123
-bash: var123: unbound variable
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ set +u
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo $var123

To list all the set options for your shell, use echo $-. The noclobber (or -C) option will be
explained later in this book (in the I/O redirection chapter).

Set -o posix

When typing set without options, you get a list of all variables without function when the
shell is on posix mode. You can set bash in posix mode typing set -o posix.

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 shell embedding and
options

15.3. practice: shell embedding

1. Find the list of shell options in the man page of bash. What is the difference between set
-u and set -o nounset?

2. Activate nounset in your shell. Test that it shows an error message when using non- existing variables.

3. Deactivate nounset.

4. Execute cd /var and ls in an embedded shell.

The echo command is only needed to show the result of the ls command. Omitting will
result in the shell trying to execute the first file as a command.

5. Create the variable embvar in an embedded shell and echo it. Does the variable exist in your current
shell now ?

6. Explain what "set -x" does. Can this be useful ?

(optional)7. Given the following screenshot, add exactly four characters to that command
line so that the total output is FirstMiddleLast.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo First; echo Middle; echo Last

8. Display a long listing (ls -l) of the passwd command using the which command inside
an embedded shell.

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 shell embedding and
options

15.4. solution: shell embedding

1. Find the list of shell options in the man page of bash. What is the difference between set
-u and set -o nounset?

read the manual of bash (man bash), search for nounset -- both mean the same thing.

2. Activate nounset in your shell. Test that it shows an error message when using non- existing variables.

set -u
OR
set -o nounset

Both these lines have the same effect.

3. Deactivate nounset.

set +u
OR
set +o nounset

4. Execute cd /var and ls in an embedded shell.

echo $(cd /var ; ls)

The echo command is only needed to show the result of the ls command. Omitting will
result in the shell trying to execute the first file as a command.

5. Create the variable embvar in an embedded shell and echo it. Does the variable exist in your current
shell now ?

echo $(embvar=emb;echo $embvar) ; echo $embvar #the last echo fails

$embvar does not exist in your current shell

6. Explain what "set -x" does. Can this be useful ?

It displays shell expansion for troubleshooting your command.

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 shell embedding and
options

(optional)7. Given the following screenshot, add exactly four characters to that
command line so that the total output is !!

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ echo First; echo Middle; echo Last

echo -n First; echo -n Middle; echo Last

8. Display a long listing (ls -l) of the passwd command using the which command inside
an embedded shell.

ls -l $(which passwd)

156
Chapter 16. shell history
The shell makes it easy for us to repeat commands, this chapter explains how.

155
 shell history

16.1. repeating the last command

To repeat the last command in bash, type !!. This is pronounced as bang bang.

paul@debian5:~/test42$ echo this will be repeated > file42.txt

paul@debian5:~/test42$ !!
echo this will be repeated > file42.txt
paul@debian5:~/test42$

16.2. repeating other commands

You can repeat other commands using one bang followed by one or more characters.
The shell will repeat the last command that started with those characters.

Livia1945

16.3. history

To see older commands, use history to display the shell command history (or use history
n to see the last n commands).

paul@debian5:~/test$ history 10
38 mkdir test
39 cd test
40 touch file1
41 echo hello > file2
42 echo It is very cold today > winter.txt
43 ls

16.4. !n

When typing ! followed by the number preceding the command you want repeated, then
the shell will echo the command and execute it.

paul@debian5:~/test$ !43
ls

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 shell history

16.5. Ctrl-r

Another option is to use ctrl-r to search in the history. In the screenshot below i only
typed ctrl-r followed by four characters apti and it finds the last command containing
these four consecutive (egymást követő) characters.

paul@debian5:~$
(reverse-i-search)`apti': sudo aptitude install screen

16.6. $HISTSIZE

The $HISTSIZE variable determines the number of commands that will be remembered in
your current environment. Most distributions default this variable to 500 or 1000.

paul@debian5:~$ echo $HISTSIZE

500

You can change it to any value you like.

paul@debian5:~$ HISTSIZE=15000
paul@debian5:~$ echo $HISTSIZE
15000

16.7. $HISTFILE

The $HISTFILE variable points to the file that contains your history. The bash shell
defaults this value to ~/.bash_history.

paul@debian5:~$ echo $HISTFILE

/home/paul/.bash_history

A session history is saved to this file when you exit the session!

Closing a gnome-terminal with the mouse, or typing reboot as root will NOT save your
terminal's history.

16.8. $HISTFILESIZE

The number of commands kept in your history file can be set using $HISTFILESIZE.

paul@debian5:~$ echo $HISTFILESIZE

15000

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 shell history

16.9. prevent recording a command

You can prevent a command from being recorded in history using a space prefix.

paul@debian8:~/github$ echo abc

abc
paul@debian8:~/github$ echo def
def
paul@debian8:~/github$ echo ghi
ghi
paul@debian8:~/github$ history 3
9501 echo abc
9502 echo ghi
9503 history 3

16.10. (optional)regular expressions

It is possible to use regular expressions when using the bang to repeat commands. The
screenshot below switches 1 into 2.

paul@debian5:~/test$ cat file1

paul@debian5:~/test$ !c:s/1/2
cat file2
hello
paul@debian5:~/test$

16.11. (optional) Korn shell history

Repeating a command in the Korn shell is very similar. The Korn shell also has the history
command, but uses the letter r to recall lines from history.

This screenshot shows the history command. Note the different meaning of the parameter.

$ history 17
17 clear
18 echo hoi
19 history 12
20 echo world
21 history 17

Repeating with r can be combined with the line numbers given by the history command,
or with the first few letters of the command.
158
 shell history

$ r e
echo world
world
$ cd /etc
$ r

159
 shell history

16.12. practice: shell history

1. Issue the command echo The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42.

2. Repeat the previous command using only two characters (there are two solutions!)

3. Display the last 5 commands you typed.

4. Issue the long echo from question 1 again, using the line numbers you received from the command in
question 3.

5. How many commands can be kept in memory for your current shell session ?

6. Where are these commands stored when exiting the shell ?

7. How many commands can be written to the history file when exiting your current shell session ?

8. Make sure your current bash shell remembers the next 5000 commands you type.

9. Open more than one console (by press Ctrl-shift-t in gnome-terminal, or by opening an extra putty.exe
in MS Windows) with the same user account. When is command history written to the history file ?

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 shell history

16.13. solution: shell history

1. Issue the command echo The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42.

echo The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42

2. Repeat the previous command using only two characters (there are two solutions!)

!!
OR
!e

3. Display the last 5 commands you typed.

paul@ubu1010:~$ history 5
52 ls -l
53 ls
54 df -h | grep sda

You will receive different line numbers.

4. Issue the long echo from question 1 again, using the line numbers you received from the command in
question 3.

paul@ubu1010:~$ !55
echo The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42
The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42

5. How many commands can be kept in memory for your current shell session ?

echo $HISTSIZE

6. Where are these commands stored when exiting the shell ?

echo $HISTFILE

7. How many commands can be written to the history file when exiting your current shell session ?

echo $HISTFILESIZE

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 shell history
8. Make sure your current bash shell remembers the next 5000 commands you type.

HISTSIZE=5000

9. Open more than one console (by press Ctrl-shift-t in gnome-terminal, or by opening an extra putty.exe
in MS Windows) with the same user account. When is command history written to the history file?

when you type exit

162
Chapter 17. file globbing
The shell is also responsible for file globbing (or dynamic filename generation). This
chapter will explain file globbing.

161
 file globbing

17.1. * asterisk

The asterisk * is interpreted by the shell as a sign to generate filenames, matching the
asterisk to any combination of characters (even none). When no path is given, the shell
will use filenames in the current directory. See the man page of glob(7) for more
information. (This is part of LPI topic 1.103.3.)

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls
file1 file2 file3 File4 File55 FileA fileab Fileab FileAB fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls File*
File4 File55 FileA Fileab FileAB
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file*
file1 file2 file3 fileab fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls *ile55
File55
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls F*ile55
File55
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls F*55
17.2. ? question mark

Similar to the asterisk, the question mark ? is interpreted by the shell as a sign to
generate filenames, matching the question mark with exactly one character.

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls
file1 file2 file3 File4 File55 FileA fileab Fileab FileAB fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls File?
File4 FileA
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls Fil?4
File4
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls Fil??
File4 FileA

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 file globbing

17.3. [] square brackets

The square bracket [ is interpreted by the shell as a sign to generate filenames, matching
any of the characters between [ and the first subsequent ]. The order in this list between
the brackets is not important. Each pair of brackets is replaced by exactly one character.

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls
file1 file2 file3 File4 File55 FileA fileab Fileab FileAB fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls File[5A]
FileA
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls File[A5]
FileA
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls File[A5][5b]
File55
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls File[a5][5b]
File55 Fileab

You can also exclude characters from a list between square brackets with the
exclamation mark !. And you are allowed to make combinations of these wild cards.

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls
file1 file2 file3 File4 File55 FileA fileab Fileab FileAB fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file[a5][!Z]
fileab
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file[!5]*
file1 file2 file3 fileab fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file[!5]?
fileab
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$

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 file globbing

17.4. a-z and 0-9 ranges

The bash shell will also understand ranges of characters between brackets.

[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls
file1 file3 File55 fileab FileAB fileabc
file2 File4 FileA Fileab fileab2
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file[a-z]*
fileab fileab2 fileabc
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file[0-9]
file1 file2 file3
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$ ls file[a-z][a-z][0-9]*
fileab2
[paul@RHELv4u3 gen]$

17.5. $LANG and square brackets

But, don't forget the influence of the LANG variable. Some languages include lower case
letters in an upper case range (and vice versa).

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls [A-Z]ile?
file1 file2 file3 File4
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls [a-z]ile?
file1 file2 file3 File4
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ echo $LANG
en_US.UTF-8
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ LANG=C
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ echo $LANG
C
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls [a-z]ile?
file1 file2 file3
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls [A-Z]ile?
File4
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$

If $LC_ALL is set, then this will also need to be reset to prevent file globbing.

164
 file globbing

17.6. preventing file globbing

The screenshot below should be no surprise. The echo * will echo a * when in an empty
directory. And it will echo the names of all files when the directory is not empty.

paul@ubu1010:~$ mkdir test42

paul@ubu1010:~$ cd test42
paul@ubu1010:~/test42$ echo *
*
paul@ubu1010:~/test42$ touch file42 file33
paul@ubu1010:~/test42$ echo *

Globbing can be prevented using quotes or by escaping the special characters, as shown
in this screenshot.

paul@ubu1010:~/test42$ echo *
file33 file42
paul@ubu1010:~/test42$ echo \*
*
paul@ubu1010:~/test42$ echo '*'
*

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 file globbing

17.7. practice: shell globbing

1. Create a test directory and enter it.

2. Create the following files :

file1
file10
file11
file2
File2
File3
file33
fileAB
filea
fileA
fileAAA
file( f
ile 2

(the last one has 6 characters including a space)

3. List (with ls) all files starting with file

4. List (with ls) all files starting with File

5. List (with ls) all files starting with file and ending in a number.

6. List (with ls) all files starting with file and ending with a letter

7. List (with ls) all files starting with File and having a digit as fifth character.

8. List (with ls) all files starting with File and having a digit as fifth character and nothing else.

9. List (with ls) all files starting with a letter and ending in a number.

10. List (with ls) all files that have exactly five characters.

11. List (with ls) all files that start with f or F and end with 3 or A.

12. List (with ls) all files that start with f have i or R as second character and end in a number.

166
 file globbing
13. List all files that do not start with the letter F.

14. Copy the value of $LANG to $MyLANG.

15. Show the influence of $LANG in listing A-Z or a-z ranges.

16. You receive information that one of your servers was cracked, the cracker probably replaced the ls
command. You know that the echo command is safe to use. Can echo replace ls ? How can you list the files
in the current directory with echo ?

17. Is there another command besides cd to change directories ?

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 file globbing

17.8. solution: shell globbing

1. Create a test directory and enter it.

mkdir testdir; cd testdir

2. Create the following files :

file1
file10
file11
file2
File2
File3
file33
fileAB
filea
fileA
fileAAA
file( f
ile 2

(the last one has 6 characters including a space)

touch file1 file10 file11 file2 File2 File3

touch file33 fileAB filea fileA fileAAA
touch "file("
touch "file 2"

3. List (with ls) all files starting with file

ls file*

4. List (with ls) all files starting with File

ls File*

5. List (with ls) all files starting with file and ending in a number.

ls file*[0-9]

6. List (with ls) all files starting with file and ending with a letter

ls file*[a-z]
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 file globbing

7. List (with ls) all files starting with File and having a digit as fifth character.

ls File[0-9]*

8. List (with ls) all files starting with File and having a digit as fifth character and nothing else.

ls File[0-9]

9. List (with ls) all files starting with a letter and ending in a number.

ls [a-z]*[0-9]

10. List (with ls) all files that have exactly five characters.

169
 file globbing

ls ?????

11. List (with ls) all files that start with f or F and end with 3 or A.

ls [fF]*[3A]

12. List (with ls) all files that start with f have i or R as second character and end in a number.

ls f[iR]*[0-9]

13. List all files that do not start with the letter F.

ls [!F]*

14. Copy the value of $LANG to $MyLANG.

MyLANG=$LANG

15. Show the influence of $LANG in listing A-Z or a-z ranges.

see example in book

16. You receive information that one of your servers was cracked, the cracker probably replaced the ls
command. You know that the echo command is safe to use. Can echo replace ls ? How can you list the files
in the current directory with echo ?popd

echo *

17. Is there another command besides cd to change directories ?

pushd popd

170
Part V. pipes and commands
Table of Contents
18. I/O redirection............................................................................................................................... 171
18.1. stdin, stdout, and stderr...........................................................................................................172
18.2. output redirection.....................................................................................................................173
18.3. error redirection........................................................................................................................175
18.4. output redirection and pipes....................................................................................................176
18.5. joining stdout and stderr..........................................................................................................176
18.6. input redirection........................................................................................................................177
18.7. confusing redirection.................................................................................................................178
18.8. quick file clear...........................................................................................................................178
18.9. practice: input/output redirection............................................................................................179
18.10. solution: input/output redirection..........................................................................................180
19. filters............................................................................................................................................. 181
19.1. cat..............................................................................................................................................182
19.2. tee..............................................................................................................................................182
19.3. grep............................................................................................................................................182
19.4. cut..............................................................................................................................................184
19.5. tr................................................................................................................................................184
19.6. wc..............................................................................................................................................185
19.7. sort.............................................................................................................................................186
19.8. uniq............................................................................................................................................187
19.9. comm.........................................................................................................................................188
19.10. od.............................................................................................................................................189
19.11. sed...........................................................................................................................................190
19.12. pipe examples..........................................................................................................................191
19.13. practice: filters.........................................................................................................................192
19.14. solution: filters........................................................................................................................193
20. basic Unix tools............................................................................................................................. 195
20.1. find.............................................................................................................................................196
20.2. locate.........................................................................................................................................197
20.3. date............................................................................................................................................197
20.4. cal..............................................................................................................................................198
20.5. sleep..........................................................................................................................................198
20.6. time............................................................................................................................................199
20.7. gzip - gunzip..............................................................................................................................200
20.8. zcat - zmore...............................................................................................................................200
20.9. bzip2 - bunzip2..........................................................................................................................201
20.10. bzcat - bzmore.........................................................................................................................201
20.11. practice: basic Unix tools........................................................................................................202
20.12. solution: basic Unix tools........................................................................................................203
21. regular expressions........................................................................................................................ 205
21.1. regex versions............................................................................................................................206
21.2. grep............................................................................................................................................207
21.3. rename...................................................................................................................................... 212
21.4. sed.............................................................................................................................................215

170
21.5. bash history...............................................................................................................................219

171
Chapter 18. I/O redirection
One of the powers of the Unix command line is the use of input/output redirection and
pipes.

This chapter explains redirection of input, output and error streams.

172
 I/O redirection

18.1. stdin, stdout, and stderr

The bash shell has three basic streams; it takes input from stdin (stream 0), it sends
output to stdout (stream 1) and it sends error messages to stderr (stream 2) .

The drawing below has a graphical interpretation of these three streams.

stdout (1)
stdin (0) bash
stderr (2)

The keyboard often serves as stdin, whereas stdout and stderr both go to the display.
This can be confusing to new Linux users because there is no obvious way to recognize
stdout from stderr. Experienced users know that separating output from errors can be
very useful.

The next sections will explain how to redirect these streams.

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 I/O redirection

18.2. output redirection

18.2.1. > stdout

stdout can be redirected with a greater than sign. While scanning the line, the shell will
see the > sign and will clear the file.

The > notation is in fact the abbreviation of 1> (stdout being referred to as stream 1).

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo It is cold today!

It is cold today!
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo It is cold today! > winter.txt
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt
It is cold today!
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

Note that the bash shell effectively removes the redirection from the command line
before argument 0 is executed. This means that in the case of this command:

echo hello > greetings.txt

the shell only counts two arguments (echo = argument 0, hello = argument 1). The
redirection is removed before the argument counting takes place.

18.2.2. output file is erased

While scanning the line, the shell will see the > sign and will clear the file! Since this
happens before resolving argument 0, this means that even when the command fails, the
file will have been cleared!

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt

It is cold today!
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ zcho It is cold today! > winter.txt
-bash: zcho: command not found
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

173
 I/O redirection

18.2.3. noclobber

Erasing a file while using > can be prevented by setting the noclobber option.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt

It is cold today!
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ set -o noclobber
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo It is cold today! > winter.txt
-bash: winter.txt: cannot overwrite existing file
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ set +o noclobber
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$
18.2.4. overruling noclobber

The noclobber can be overruled with >|.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ set -o noclobber

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo It is cold today! > winter.txt
-bash: winter.txt: cannot overwrite existing file
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo It is very cold today! >| winter.txt
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt
It is very cold today!
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

18.2.5. >> append

Use >> to append output to a file.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo It is cold today! > winter.txt

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt
It is cold today!
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ echo Where is the summer ? >> winter.txt
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ cat winter.txt
It is cold today!
Where is the summer ?
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

174
 I/O redirection

18.3. error redirection

18.3.1. 2> stderr

Redirecting stderr is done with 2>. This can be very useful to prevent error messages from
cluttering your screen.

The screenshot below shows redirection of stdout to a file, and stderr to /dev/null. Writing
1> is the same as >.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ find / > allfiles.txt 2> /dev/null

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

18.3.2. 2>&1

To redirect both stdout and stderr to the same file, use 2>&1.

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ find / > allfiles_and_errors.txt 2>&1

[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$

Note that the order of redirections is significant. For example, the command

ls > dirlist 2>&1

directs both standard output (file descriptor 1) and standard error (file descriptor 2) to
the file dirlist, while the command

ls 2>&1 > dirlist

directs only the standard output to file dirlist, because the standard error made a copy of
the standard output before the standard output was redirected to dirlist.

175
 I/O redirection

18.4. output redirection and pipes

By default you cannot grep inside stderr when using pipes on the command line, because
only stdout is passed.

paul@debian7:~$ rm file42 file33 file1201 | grep file42

rm: cannot remove ‘file42’: No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove ‘file33’: No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove ‘file1201’: No such file or directory

With 2>&1 you can force stderr to go to stdout. This enables the next command in the
pipe to act on both streams.

paul@debian7:~$ rm file42 file33 file1201 2>&1 | grep file42

rm: cannot remove ‘file42’: No such file or directory

You cannot use both 1>&2 and 2>&1 to switch stdout and stderr.

paul@debian7:~$ rm file42 file33 file1201 2>&1 1>&2 | grep file42

rm: cannot remove ‘file42’: No such file or directory
paul@debian7:~$ echo file42 2>&1 1>&2 | sed 's/file42/FILE42/'
FILE42

You need a third stream to switch stdout and stderr after a pipe symbol.

paul@debian7:~$ echo file42 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 | sed 's/file42/FILE42/'

file42
paul@debian7:~$ rm file42 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 | sed 's/file42/FILE42/'
rm: cannot remove ‘FILE42’: No such file or directory

18.5. joining stdout and stderr

The &> construction will put both stdout and stderr in one stream (to a file).

paul@debian7:~$ rm file42 &> out_and_err

paul@debian7:~$ cat out_and_err
rm: cannot remove ‘file42’: No such file or directory
paul@debian7:~$ echo file42 &> out_and_err
paul@debian7:~$ cat out_and_err
file42
paul@debian7:~$

176
 I/O redirection

18.6. input redirection

18.6.1. < stdin

Redirecting stdin is done with < (short for 0<).

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ cat < text.txt

one
two
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ tr 'onetw' 'ONEZZ' < text.txt
ONE
ZZO
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

18.6.2. << here document

The here document (sometimes called here-is-document) is a way to append input until
a certain sequence (usually EOF) is encountered. The EOF marker can be typed literally or
can be called with Ctrl-D.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ cat <<EOF > text.txt

> one
> two
> EOF
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ cat text.txt
one
two
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ cat <<brol > text.txt
> brel
> brol
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ cat text.txt
18.6.3. <<< here string

The here string can be used to directly pass strings to a command. The result is the same
as using echo string | command (but you have one less process running).

paul@ubu1110~$ base64 <<< linux-training.be

bGludXgtdHJhaW5pbmcuYmUK
paul@ubu1110~$ base64 -d <<< bGludXgtdHJhaW5pbmcuYmUK
linux-training.be

See rfc 3548 for more information about base64.

177
 I/O redirection

18.7. confusing redirection

The shell will scan the whole line before applying redirection. The following command line
is very readable and is correct.

cat winter.txt > snow.txt 2> errors.txt

But this one is also correct, but less readable.

2> errors.txt cat winter.txt > snow.txt

Even this will be understood perfectly by the shell.

< winter.txt > snow.txt 2> errors.txt cat

18.8. quick file clear

So what is the quickest way to clear a file ?

>foo

And what is the quickest way to clear a file when the noclobber option is set ?

>|bar

178
 I/O redirection

18.9. practice: input/output redirection

1. Activate the noclobber shell option.

2. Verify that noclobber is active by repeating an ls on /etc/ with redirected output to a file.

3. When listing all shell options, which character represents the noclobber option ?

4. Deactivate the noclobber option.

5. Make sure you have two shells open on the same computer. Create an empty tailing.txt file. Then type
tail -f tailing.txt. Use the second shell to append a line of text to that file. Verify that the first shell displays
this line.

6. Create a file that contains the names of five people. Use cat and output redirection to create the file
and use a here document to end the input.

179
 I/O redirection

18.10. solution: input/output redirection

1. Activate the noclobber shell option.

set -o noclobber
set -C

2. Verify that noclobber is active by repeating an ls on /etc/ with redirected output to a file.

ls /etc > etc.txt

ls /etc > etc.txt (should not work)

4. When listing all shell options, which character represents the noclobber option ?

echo $- (noclobber is visible as C)

5. Deactivate the noclobber option.

set +o noclobber

6. Make sure you have two shells open on the same computer. Create an empty tailing.txt file. Then type
tail -f tailing.txt. Use the second shell to append a line of text to that file. Verify that the first shell displays
this line.

paul@deb503:~$ > tailing.txt

paul@deb503:~$ tail -f tailing.txt
hello
world

in the other shell:

paul@deb503:~$ echo hello >> tailing.txt
paul@deb503:~$ echo world >> tailing.txt

7. Create a file that contains the names of five people. Use cat and output redirection to create the file
and use a here document to end the input.

180
 I/O redirection

paul@deb503:~$ cat > tennis.txt << ace

> Justine Henin
> Venus Williams
> Serena Williams
> Martina Hingis
> Kim Clijsters
> ace
paul@deb503:~$ cat tennis.txt
Justine Henin
Venus Williams
Serena Williams
Martina Hingis
Kim Clijsters
paul@deb503:~$

181
Chapter 19. filters
Commands that are created to be used with a pipe are often called filters. These filters
are very small programs that do one specific thing very efficiently. They can be used as
building blocks.

This chapter will introduce you to the most common filters. The combination of simple
commands and filters in a long pipe allows you to design elegant solutions.

181
 filters

19.1. cat

When between two pipes, the cat command does nothing (except putting stdin on stdout).

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ tac count.txt | cat | cat | cat | cat | cat

five
four
three
two
one
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

19.2. tee

Writing long pipes in Unix is fun, but sometimes you may want intermediate results. This
is were tee comes in handy. The tee filter puts stdin on stdout and also into a file. So tee
is almost the same as cat, except that it has two identical outputs.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ tac count.txt | tee temp.txt | tac

one
two
three
four
five
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat temp.txt
five
four
three
two
one
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

19.3. grep

The grep filter is famous among Unix users. The most common use of grep is to filter lines
of text containing (or not containing) a certain string.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat tennis.txt

Amelie Mauresmo, Fra
Kim Clijsters, BEL
Justine Henin, Bel
Serena Williams, usa
Venus Williams, USA
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat tennis.txt | grep Williams
Serena Williams, usa
Venus Williams, USA

182
 filters
You can write this without the cat.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ grep Williams tennis.txt

Serena Williams, usa
Venus Williams, USA

One of the most useful options of grep is grep -i which filters in a case insensitive way.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ grep Bel tennis.txt

Justine Henin, Bel
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ grep -i Bel tennis.txt

183
 filters

Kim Clijsters, BEL

Justine Henin, Bel
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

Another very useful option is grep -v which outputs lines not matching the string.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ grep -v Fra tennis.txt

Kim Clijsters, BEL
Justine Henin, Bel
Serena Williams, usa
Venus Williams, USA
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

And of course, both options can be combined to filter all lines not containing a case
insensitive string.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ grep -vi usa tennis.txt

Amelie Mauresmo, Fra
Kim Clijsters, BEL
Justine Henin, Bel
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

With grep -A1 one line after the result is also displayed.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ grep -A1 Henin tennis.txt

Justine Henin, Bel
Serena Williams, usa

With grep -B1 one line before the result is also displayed.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ grep -B1 Henin tennis.txt

Kim Clijsters, BEL
Justine Henin, Bel

With grep -C1 (context) one line before and one after are also displayed. All three options
(A,B, and C) can display any number of lines (using e.g. A2, B4 or C20).

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ grep -C1 Henin tennis.txt

Kim Clijsters, BEL
Justine Henin, Bel
Serena Williams, usa

184
 filters

19.4. cut

The cut filter can select columns from files, depending on a delimiter or a count of bytes.
The screenshot below uses cut to filter for the username and userid in the /etc/passwd
file. It uses the colon as a delimiter, and selects fields 1 and 3.

[[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cut -d: -f1,3 /etc/passwd | tail -4

Figo:510
Pfaff:511
Harry:516
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cut -d" " -f1 tennis.txt
Hermione:517
Amelie
[paul@RHEL4b
Kim pipes]$
Justine
Serena
Venus
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

When using a SPACE AS THE DELIMITER for cut, you HAVE TO QUOTE THE SPACE.

This example uses cut to display the second to the seventh character of /etc/passwd.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cut -c2-7 /etc/passwd | tail -4

igo:x:
faff:x
arry:x
ermion
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

19.5. tr

You can translate characters with tr. The screenshot shows the translation of all
occurrences of e to E.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat tennis.txt | tr 'e' 'E'

AmEliE MaurEsmo, Fra
Kim ClijstErs, BEL
JustinE HEnin, BEl
SErEna Williams, usa
VEnus Williams, USA

Here we set all letters to uppercase by defining two ranges.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat tennis.txt | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'

AMELIE MAURESMO, FRA
KIM CLIJSTERS, BEL
JUSTINE HENIN, BEL
SERENA WILLIAMS, USA
VENUS WILLIAMS, USA

185
 filters
Here we translate all newlines to spaces.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat count.txt

one
two

186
 filters

three
four
five
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat count.txt | tr '\n' ' '
one two three four five [paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

The tr -s filter can also be used to squeeze multiple occurrences of a character to one.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat spaces.txt

one two three
four five six
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat spaces.txt | tr -s ' '
one two three
four five six
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

You can also use tr to 'encrypt' texts with rot13.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat count.txt | tr 'a-z' 'nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm'

bar
gjb
guerr
sbhe
svir
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ cat count.txt | tr 'a-z' 'n-za-m'
bar
gjb
guerr
sbhe
svir
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$

This last example uses tr -d to delete characters.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ cat tennis.txt | tr -d e

Amli Maursmo, Fra
Kim Clijstrs, BEL
Justin Hnin, Bl
Srna Williams, usa
Vnus Williams, USA
19.6. wc

Counting words, lines and characters is easy with wc.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ wc tennis.txt

5 15 100 tennis.txt
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ wc -l tennis.txt
5 tennis.txt
187
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ wc -w tennis.txt
15 tennis.txt
 filters

19.7. sort

The sort filter will default to an alphabetical sort.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ cat music.txt

Queen
Brel
Led Zeppelin
Abba
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ sort music.txt
Abba
Brel
Led Zeppelin
Queen

But the sort filter has many options to tweak its usage. This example shows sorting
different columns (column 1 or column 2).

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ sort -k1 country.txt

Belgium, Brussels, 10
France, Paris, 60
Germany, Berlin, 100
Iran, Teheran, 70
Italy, Rome, 50
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ sort -k2 country.txt
Germany, Berlin, 100
Belgium, Brussels, 10
France, Paris, 60
Italy, Rome, 50
Iran, Teheran, 70

The screenshot below shows the difference between an alphabetical sort and a
numerical sort (both on the third column).

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[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ sort -k3 country.txt

Belgium, Brussels, 10
Germany, Berlin, 100
Italy, Rome, 50
France, Paris, 60
Iran, Teheran, 70
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ sort -n -k3 country.txt
Belgium, Brussels, 10
Italy, Rome, 50
France, Paris, 60
Iran, Teheran, 70
Germany, Berlin, 100

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19.8. uniq

With uniq you can remove duplicates from a sorted list.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ cat music.txt

Queen
Brel
Queen
Abba
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ sort music.txt
Abba
Brel
Queen
Queen
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ sort music.txt |uniq
Abba
Brel
Queen

uniq can also count occurrences with the -c option.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ sort music.txt |uniq -c

1 Abba
1 Brel
2 Queen

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19.9. comm

Comparing streams (or files) can be done with the comm. By default comm will output
three columns. In this example, Abba, Cure and Queen are in both lists, Bowie and Sweet
are only in the first file, Turner is only in the second.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ cat > list1.txt

Abba
Bowie
Cure
Queen
Sweet
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ cat > list2.txt
Abba
Cure
Queen
Turner
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ comm list1.txt list2.txt
Abba
Bowie
Cure

The output of comm can be easier to read when outputting only a single column. The
digits point out which output columns should not be displayed.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ comm -12 list1.txt list2.txt

Abba
Cure
Queen
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ comm -13 list1.txt list2.txt
Turner
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ comm -23 list1.txt list2.txt
Bowie
Sweet

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19.10. od

European humans like to work with ascii characters, but computers store files in bytes.
The example below creates a simple file, and then uses od to show the contents of the
file in hexadecimal bytes

paul@laika:~/test$ cat > text.txt

abcdefg
1234567
paul@laika:~/test$ od -t x1 text.txt
0000000 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 0a 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 0a
0000020

The same file can also be displayed in octal bytes.

paul@laika:~/test$ od -b text.txt
0000000 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 012 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 012
0000020

And here is the file in ascii (or backslashed) characters.

paul@laika:~/test$ od -c text.txt

0000000 a b c d e f g \n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 \n
0000020

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19.11. sed

The stream editor sed can perform editing functions in the stream, using regular
expressions.

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ echo level5 | sed 's/5/42/'

level42
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ echo level5 | sed 's/level/jump/'
jump5

Add g for global replacements (all occurrences of the string per line).

paul@debian5:~/pipes$ echo level5 level7 | sed 's/level/jump/'

jump5 level7
paul@debian5:~/pipes$ echo level5 level7 | sed 's/level/jump/g'
jump5 jump7

With d you can remove lines from a stream containing a character.

paul@debian5:~/test42$ cat tennis.txt

Venus Williams, USA
Martina Hingis, SUI
Justine Henin, BE
Serena williams, USA
Kim Clijsters, BE
Yanina Wickmayer, BE
paul@debian5:~/test42$ cat tennis.txt | sed '/BE/d'
Venus Williams, USA
Martina Hingis, SUI
Serena williams, USA

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19.12. pipe examples

19.12.1. who | wc

How many users are logged on to this system ?

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ who

root tty1 Jul 25 10:50
paul pts/0 Jul 25 09:29 (laika)
Harry pts/1 Jul 25 12:26 (barry)
paul pts/2 Jul 25 12:26 (pasha)
[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ who | wc -l
4

19.12.2. who | cut | sort

Display a sorted list of logged on users.

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort

Harry
paul
paul
root

Display a sorted list of logged on users, but every user only once .

[paul@RHEL4b pipes]$ who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort | uniq

Harry
paul
root

19.12.3. grep | cut

Display a list of all bash user accounts on this computer. Users accounts are explained in
detail later.

paul@debian5:~$ grep bash /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
paul:x:1000:1000:paul,,,:/home/paul:/bin/bash
serena:x:1001:1001::/home/serena:/bin/bash
paul@debian5:~$ grep bash /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1
root
paul
serena

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19.13. practice: filters

1. Put a sorted list of all bash users in bashusers.txt.

2. Put a sorted list of all logged on users in onlineusers.txt.

3. Make a list of all filenames in /etc that contain the string conf in their filename.

4. Make a sorted list of all files in /etc that contain the case insensitive string conf in their filename.

5. Look at the output of /sbin/ifconfig. Write a line that displays only ip address and the subnet mask.

6. Write a line that removes all non-letters from a stream.

7. Write a line that receives a text file, and outputs all words on a separate line.

8. Write a spell checker on the command line. (There may be a dictionary in /usr/share/ dict/ .)

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19.14. solution: filters

1. Put a sorted list of all bash users in bashusers.txt.

grep bash /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1 | sort > bashusers.txt

2. Put a sorted list of all logged on users in onlineusers.txt.

who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort > onlineusers.txt

3. Make a list of all filenames in /etc that contain the string conf in their filename.

ls /etc | grep conf

4. Make a sorted list of all files in /etc that contain the case insensitive string conf in their filename.

ls /etc | grep -i conf | sort

5. Look at the output of /sbin/ifconfig. Write a line that displays only ip address and the subnet mask.

/sbin/ifconfig | head -2 | grep 'inet ' | tr -s ' ' | cut -d' ' -f3,5

6. Write a line that removes all non-letters from a stream.

paul@deb503:~$ cat text

This is, yes really! , a text with ?&* too many str$ange# characters ;-)
paul@deb503:~$ cat text | tr -d ',!$?.*&^%#@;()-'
This is yes really a text with too many strange characters

7. Write a line that receives a text file, and outputs all words on a separate line.

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paul@deb503:~$ cat text2

it is very cold today without the sun

paul@deb503:~$ cat text2 | tr ' ' '\n'

it
is
very
cold
today
without
the
sun

8. Write a spell checker on the command line. (There may be a dictionary in /usr/share/ dict/ .)

paul@rhel ~$ echo "The zun is shining today" > text

paul@rhel ~$ cat > DICT

is
shining
sun
the

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today

paul@rhel ~$ cat text | tr 'A-Z ' 'a-z\n' | sort | uniq | comm -23 - DICT
zun

You could also add the solution from question number 6 to remove non-letters, and tr -s '
' to remove redundant spaces.

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Chapter 20. basic Unix tools
This chapter introduces commands to find or locate files and to compress files, together
with other common tools that were not discussed before. While the tools discussed here
are technically not considered filters, they can be used in pipes.

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20.1. find

The find command can be very useful at the start of a pipe to search for files. Here are
some examples. You might want to add 2>/dev/null to the command lines to avoid
cluttering your screen with error messages.

Find all files in /etc and put the list in etcfiles.txt

find /etc > etcfiles.txt

Find all files of the entire system and put the list in allfiles.txt

find / > allfiles.txt

Find files that end in .conf in the current directory (and all subdirs).

find . -name "*.conf"

Find files of type file (not directory, pipe or etc.) that end in .conf.

find . -type f -name "*.conf"

Find files of type directory that end in .bak .

find /data -type d -name "*.bak"

Find files that are newer than file42.txt

find . -newer file42.txt

Find can also execute another command on every file found. This example will look for
*.odf files and copy them to /backup/.

find /data -name "*.odf" -exec cp {} /backup/ \;

Find can also execute, after your confirmation, another command on every file found.
This example will remove *.odf files if you approve of it for every file found.

find /data -name "*.odf" -ok rm {} \;

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20.2. locate

The locate tool is very different from find in that it uses an index to locate files. This is a
lot faster than traversing all the directories, but it also means that it is always outdated. If
the index does not exist yet, then you have to create it (as root on Red Hat Enterprise
Linux) with the updatedb command.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ locate Samba

warning: locate: could not open database: /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db:...
warning: You need to run the 'updatedb' command (as root) to create th...
Please have a look at /etc/updatedb.conf to enable the daily cron job.
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ updatedb
fatal error: updatedb: You are not authorized to create a default sloc...
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@RHEL4b ~]# updatedb
[root@RHEL4b ~]#

Most Linux distributions will schedule the updatedb to run once every day.

20.3. date

The date command can display the date, time, time zone and more.

paul@rhel55 ~$ date
Sat Apr 17 12:44:30 CEST 2010

A date string can be customised to display the format of your choice. Check the man
page for more options.

paul@rhel55 ~$ date +'%A %d-%m-%Y'

Saturday 17-04-2010

Time on any Unix is calculated in number of seconds since 1969 (the first second being the
first second of the first of January 1970). Use date +%s to display Unix time in seconds.

paul@rhel55 ~$ date +%s

1271501080

When will this seconds counter reach two thousand million ?

paul@rhel55 ~$ date -d '1970-01-01 + 2000000000 seconds'

Wed May 18 04:33:20 CEST 2033

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20.4. cal

The cal command displays the current month, with the current day highlighted.

paul@rhel55 ~$ cal
April 2010
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30

You can select any month in the past or the future.

paul@rhel55 ~$ cal 2 1970

February 1970
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28

20.5. sleep

The sleep command is sometimes used in scripts to wait a number of seconds. This
example shows a five second sleep.

paul@rhel55 ~$ sleep 5
paul@rhel55 ~$

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20.6. time

The time command can display how long it takes to execute a command. The date
command takes only a little time.

paul@rhel55 ~$ time date

Sat Apr 17 13:08:27 CEST 2010

real 0m0.014s
user
sys 0m0.008s
0m0.006s

The sleep 5 command takes five real seconds to execute, but consumes little cpu time.

paul@rhel55 ~$ time sleep 5

real 0m5.018s
user
sys 0m0.005s
0m0.011s

This bzip2 command compresses a file and uses a lot of cpu time.

paul@rhel55 ~$ time bzip2 text.txt

real 0m2.368s
user
sys 0m0.847s
0m0.539s

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20.7. gzip - gunzip

Users never have enough disk space, so compression comes in handy. The gzip command
can make files take up less space.

paul@rhel55 ~$ ls -lh text.txt

-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 6.4M Apr 17 13:11 text.txt
paul@rhel55 ~$ gzip text.txt
paul@rhel55 ~$ ls -lh text.txt.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 760K Apr 17 13:11 text.txt.gz

You can get the original back with gunzip.

paul@rhel55 ~$ gunzip text.txt.gz

paul@rhel55 ~$ ls -lh text.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 6.4M Apr 17 13:11 text.txt

20.8. zcat - zmore

Text files that are compressed with gzip can be viewed with zcat and zmore.

paul@rhel55 ~$ head -4 text.txt

/
/opt
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6/routines.sh
paul@rhel55 ~$ gzip text.txt
paul@rhel55 ~$ zcat text.txt.gz | head -4
/
/opt
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6/routines.sh

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20.9. bzip2 - bunzip2

Files can also be compressed with bzip2 which takes a little more time than gzip, but
compresses better.

paul@rhel55 ~$ bzip2 text.txt

paul@rhel55 ~$ ls -lh text.txt.bz2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 569K Apr 17 13:11 text.txt.bz2

Files can be uncompressed again with bunzip2.

paul@rhel55 ~$ bunzip2 text.txt.bz2

paul@rhel55 ~$ ls -lh text.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 6.4M Apr 17 13:11 text.txt

20.10. bzcat - bzmore

And in the same way bzcat and bzmore can display files compressed with bzip2.

paul@rhel55 ~$ bzip2 text.txt

paul@rhel55 ~$ bzcat text.txt.bz2 | head -4

/
/opt
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6
/opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-3.1.6/routines.sh

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20.11. practice: basic Unix tools

1. Explain the difference between these two commands. This question is very important. If you don't know
the answer, then look back at the shell chapter.

find /data -name "*.txt"

find /data -name *.txt

2. Explain the difference between these two statements. Will they both work when there are 200 .odf files
in /data ? How about when there are 2 million .odf files ?

find /data -name "*.odf" > data_odf.txt

find /data/*.odf > data_odf.txt

3. Write a find command that finds all files created after January 30th 2010.

4. Write a find command that finds all *.odf files created in September 2009.

5. Count the number of *.conf files in /etc and all its subdirs.

6. Here are two commands that do the same thing: copy *.odf files to /backup/ . What would be a reason
to replace the first command with the second ? Again, this is an important question.

cp -r /data/*.odf /backup/

find /data -name "*.odf" -exec cp {} /backup/ \;

7. Create a file called loctest.txt. Can you find this file with locate ? Why not ? How do you make locate
find this file ?

8. Use find and -exec to rename all .htm files to .html.

9. Issue the date command. Now display the date in YYYY/MM/DD format.

10. Issue the cal command. Display a calendar of 1582 and 1752. Notice anything special ?

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20.12. solution: basic Unix tools

1. Explain the difference between these two commands. This question is very important. If you don't know
the answer, then look back at the shell chapter.

find /data -name "*.txt"

find /data -name *.txt

When *.txt is quoted then the shell will not touch it. The find tool will look in the /data
for all files ending in .txt.

When *.txt is not quoted then the shell might expand this (when one or more files that
ends in .txt exist in the current directory). The find might show a different result, or can
result in a syntax error.

2. Explain the difference between these two statements. Will they both work when there are 200 .odf files
in /data ? How about when there are 2 million .odf files ?

find /data -name "*.odf" > data_odf.txt

find /data/*.odf > data_odf.txt

The first find will output all .odf filenames in /data and all subdirectories. The shell will
redirect this to a file.

The second find will output all files named .odf in /data and will also output all files that
exist in directories named *.odf (in /data).

With two million files the command line would be expanded beyond the maximum that
the shell can accept. The last part of the command line would be lost.

3. Write a find command that finds all files created after January 30th 2010.

touch -t 201001302359 marker_date

find . -type f -newer marker_date

There is another solution :

find . -type f -newerat "20100130 23:59:59"

4. Write a find command that finds all *.odf files created in September 2009.

touch -t 200908312359 marker_start

touch -t 200910010000 marker_end
find . -type f -name "*.odf" -newer marker_start ! -newer marker_end
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 basic Unix tools

The exclamation mark ! -newer can be read as not newer.

5. Count the number of *.conf files in /etc and all its subdirs.

find /etc -type f -name '*.conf' | wc -l

6. Here are two commands that do the same thing: copy *.odf files to /backup/ . What would be a reason
to replace the first command with the second ? Again, this is an important question.

cp -r /data/*.odf /backup/

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 basic Unix tools

find /data -name "*.odf" -exec cp {} /backup/ \;

The first might fail when there are too many files to fit on one command line.

7. Create a file called loctest.txt. Can you find this file with locate ? Why not ? How do you make locate
find this file ?

You cannot locate this with locate because it is not yet in the index.

updatedb

8. Use find and -exec to rename all .htm files to .html.

paul@rhel55 ~$ find . -name '*.htm'

./one.htm
./two.htm

paul@rhel55 ~$ find . -name '*.htm' -exec mv {} {}l \;

paul@rhel55 ~$ find . -name '*.htm*'
./one.html
./two.html

9. Issue the date command. Now display the date in YYYY/MM/DD format.

date +%Y/%m/%d

10. Issue the cal command. Display a calendar of 1582 and 1752. Notice anything special ?

cal 1582

The calendars are different depending on the country. Check http://linux-training.be/files/

studentfiles/dates.txt

205
Chapter 21. regular expressions
Regular expressions are a very powerful tool in Linux. They can be used with a variety of
programs like bash, vi, rename, grep, sed, and more.

This chapter introduces you to the basics of regular expressions.

205
 regular
expressions

21.1. regex versions

There are three different versions of regular expression syntax:

BRE: Basic Regular Expressions

ERE: Extended Regular Expressions
PRCE: Perl Regular Expressions

Depending on the tool being used, one or more of these syntaxes can be used.

For example the grep tool has the -E option to force a string to be read as ERE while -G
forces BRE and -P forces PRCE.

Note that grep also has -F to force the string to be read

literally. The sed tool also has options to choose a regex

syntax.

Read the manual of the tools you use!

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 regular
expressions

21.2. grep
21.2.1. print lines matching a pattern

grep is a popular Linux tool to search for lines that match a certain pattern. Below are
some examples of the simplest regular expressions.

This is the contents of the test file. This file contains three lines (or three newline characters).

paul@rhel65:~$ cat names

Tania
Laura
Valentina

When grepping for a single character, only the lines containing that character are returned.

paul@rhel65:~$ grep u names

Laura
paul@rhel65:~$ grep e names
Valentina
paul@rhel65:~$ grep i names
Tania
Valentina

The pattern matching in this example should be very straightforward; if the given
character occurs on a line, then grep will return that line.

21.2.2. concatenating characters

Two concatenated characters will have to be concatenated in the same way to have a match.

This example demonstrates that ia will match Tania but not Valentina and in will match
Valentina but not Tania.
paul@rhel65:~$ grep a names
Tania
Laura
Valentina
paul@rhel65:~$ grep ia names
Tania
paul@rhel65:~$ grep in names
Valentina
paul@rhel65:~$c

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 regular
expressions
21.2.3. one or the other

PRCE and ERE both use the pipe symbol to signify OR. In this example we grep for lines
containing the letter i or the letter a.

paul@debian7:~$ cat list

Tania
Laura
paul@debian7:~$ grep -E 'i|a' list
Tania
Laura

Note that we use the -E switch of grep to force interpretion of our string as an

ERE. We need to escape the pipe symbol in a BRE to get the same logical OR.
paul@debian7:~$ grep -G 'i|a' list
paul@debian7:~$ grep -G 'i\|a' list
Tania
Laura

21.2.4. one or more

The * signifies zero, one or more occurences of the previous and the + signifies one or
more of the previous.

paul@debian7:~$ cat list2

ll
lol
lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$ grep -E 'o*' list2
ll
lol
lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$ grep -E 'o+' list2
lol
lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$

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 regular
expressions

21.2.5. match the end of a string

For the following examples, we will use this file.

paul@debian7:~$ cat names

Tania
Laura
Valentina
Fleur
Floor

The two examples below show how to use the dollar character to match the end of a string.

paul@debian7:~$ grep a$ names

Tania
Laura
Valentina
paul@debian7:~$ grep r$ names
Fleur
Floor

21.2.6. match the start of a string

The caret character (^) will match a string at the start (or the beginning) of a line.

Given the same file as above, here are two examples.

paul@debian7:~$ grep ^Val names
Valentina
paul@debian7:~$ grep ^F names
Fleur
Floor

Both the dollar sign and the little hat are called anchors in a regex.

21.2.7. separating words

Regular expressions use a \b sequence to reference a word separator. Take for example
paul@debian7:~$ cat text
The governer is governing.
The winter is over.
Can you get over there?

this file:

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 regular
expressions

Simply grepping for over will give too many results.

paul@debian7:~$ grep over text

The governer is governing.
The winter is over.
Can you get over there?

paul@debian7:~$ grep '\bover\b' text

The winter is over.
Can you get over there?
paul@debian7:~$

Surrounding the searched word with spaces is not a good solution (because other
characters can be word separators). This screenshot below show how to use \b to find
only the searched word:

Note that grep also has a -w option to grep for words.

paul@debian7:~$ cat text

The governer is governing.
The winter is over.
Can you get over there?
paul@debian7:~$ grep -w over text
The winter is over.
Can you get over there?
paul@debian7:~$

21.2.8. grep features

Sometimes it is easier to combine a simple regex with grep options, than it is to write a
more complex regex. These options where discussed before:

grep -i
grep -v
grep -w
grep -A5
grep -B5
grep -C5

21.2.9. preventing shell expansion of a regex

The dollar sign is a special character, both for the regex and also for the shell (remember
variables and embedded shells). Therefore it is advised to always quote the regex, this
paul@debian7:~$ grep 'r$' names
Fleur
Floor

prevents shell expansion.

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expressions
21.3. rename

21.3.1. the rename command

On Debian Linux the /usr/bin/rename command is a link to /usr/bin/prename installed

by the perl package.

paul@pi ~ $ dpkg -S $(readlink -f $(which rename))

perl: /usr/bin/prename

Red Hat derived systems do not install the same rename command, so this section does
not describe rename on Red Hat (unless you copy the perl script manually).

There is often confusion on the internet about the rename command because
solutions that work fine in Debian (and Ubuntu, xubuntu, Mint, ...) cannot
be used in Red Hat (and CentOS, Fedora, ...).

21.3.2. perl

The rename command is actually a perl script that uses perl regular expressions. The
complete manual for these can be found by typing perldoc perlrequick (after installing
perldoc).

root@pi:~# aptitude install perl-doc

The following NEW packages will be installed:
perl-doc
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 8,170 kB of archives. After unpacking 13.2 MB will be used.
Get: 1 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ wheezy/main perl-do...
Fetched 8,170 kB in 19s (412 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package perl-doc.
(Reading database ... 67121 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking perl-doc (from .../perl-doc_5.14.2-21+rpi2_all.deb) ...
Adding 'diversion of /usr/bin/perldoc to /usr/bin/perldoc.stub by perl-doc'
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up perl-doc (5.14.2-21+rpi2) ...

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 regular
expressions

21.3.3. well known syntax

The most common use of the rename is to search for filenames matching a certain string
and replacing this string with an other string.

This is often presented as s/string/other string/ as seen in this example:

paul@pi ~ $ ls

abc allfiles.TXT bllfiles.TXT Scratch tennis2.TXT

tennis.TXT
abc.conf backup cllfiles.TXT temp.TXT

paul@pi ~ $ rename 's/TXT/text/' *

paul@pi ~ $ ls
abc allfiles.text bllfiles.text Scratch tennis2.text
abc.conf backup cllfiles.text temp.text tennis.text

And here is another example that uses rename with the well know syntax to change the
extensions of the same files once more:

paul@pi ~ $ ls
abc allfiles.text bllfiles.text Scratch tennis2.text
abc.conf backup cllfiles.text temp.text tennis.text
paul@pi ~ $ rename 's/text/txt/' *.text
paul@pi ~ $ ls
abc allfiles.txt bllfiles.txt Scratch tennis2.txt
abc.conf backup cllfiles.txt temp.txt tennis.txt
paul@pi ~ $

These two examples appear to work because the strings we used only exist at the end of
the filename. Remember that file extensions have no meaning in the bash shell.

The next example shows what can go wrong with this syntax.

paul@pi ~ $ touch atxt.txt

paul@pi ~ $ rename 's/txt/problem/' atxt.txt
paul@pi ~ $ ls tennis.txt
abc.conf
abc aproblem.txt
allfiles.txt bllfiles.txt
backup Scratch
cllfiles.txt tennis2.txt
temp.txt
paul@pi ~ $

Only the first occurrence of the searched string is replaced.

212
21.3.4. a global replace

The syntax used in the previous example can be described as s/regex/replacement/. This
is simple and straightforward, you enter a regex between the first two slashes and a
replacement string between the last two.

This example expands this syntax only a little, by adding a modifier.

paul@pi ~ $ rename -n 's/TXT/txt/g'

aTXT.TXT aTXT.TXT renamed as atxt.txt
paul@pi ~ $

The syntax we use now can be described as s/regex/replacement/g where s signifies switch

and g stands for global.

Note that this example used the -n switch to show what is being done (instead of
actually renaming the file).

21.3.5. case insensitive replace

Another modifier that can be useful is i. this example shows how to replace a case
insensitive string with another string.

paul@debian7:~/files$ ls
file1.text file2.TEXT file3.txt
paul@debian7:~/files$ rename 's/.text/.txt/i' *
paul@debian7:~/files$ ls
file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
paul@debian7:~/files$

21.3.6. renaming extensions

Command line Linux has no knowledge of MS-DOS like extensions, but many end users
and graphical application do use them.
Here is an example on how to use rename to only rename the file extension. It uses the
dollar sign to mark the ending of the filename.
paul@pi ~ $ ls *.txt
allfiles.txt bllfiles.txt cllfiles.txt really.txt.txt temp.txt tennis.txt
paul@pi ~ $ rename 's/.txt$/.TXT/' *.txt
paul@pi ~ $ ls *.TXT
allfiles.TXT bllfiles.TXT cllfiles.TXT really.txt.TXT
temp.TXT tennis.TXT

Note that the dollar sign in the regex means at the end. Without the dollar sign this
command would fail on the really.txt.txt file.
21.4. sed

21.4.1. stream editor

The stream editor or short sed uses regex for stream

editing. In this example sed is used to replace a string.

echo Sunday | sed 's/Sun/Mon/'
Monday

The slashes can be replaced by a couple of other characters, which can be handy in some
cases to improve readability.

echo Sunday | sed 's:Sun:Mon:'

Monday
echo Sunday | sed 's_Sun_Mon_'
Monday

21.4.2. interactive editor

While sed is meant to be used in a stream, it can also be used interactively on a file.

paul@debian7:~/files$ echo Sunday > today

paul@debian7:~/files$ cat today
Sunday
paul@debian7:~/files$ sed -i 's/Sun/Mon/' today
paul@debian7:~/files$ cat today
Monday

21.4.3. simple back referencing

The ampersand character can be used to reference the searched (and found)

string. In this example the ampersand is used to double the occurence of the

found string.
echo Sunday | sed 's/Sun/&&/'
SunSunday

21.4.4. back
echo Sunday
Sundayday
| referencing
sed 's/day/&&/'

Parentheses (often called round brackets) are used to group sections of the regex so they
can leter be referenced. Consider this simple example:

paul@debian7:~$ echo Sunday | sed 's_\(Sun\)_\1ny_'

Sunnyday
paul@debian7:~$ echo Sunday | sed 's_\(Sun\)_\1ny \1_'
Sunny Sunday

21.4.5. a dot for any character

 In a regex a simple dot can signify any character.

paul@debian7:~$ echo 2014-04-01 | sed 's/....-...../YYYY-MM-DD/'

YYYY-MM-DD
paul@debian7:~$ echo abcd-ef-gh | sed 's/....-...../YYYY-MM-DD/'
YYYY-MM-DD

21.4.6. multiple back referencing

When more than one pair of parentheses is used, each of them can be referenced
separately by consecutive numbers.

paul@debian7:~$ echo 2014-04-01 | sed 's/\(.. .\)-\(..\)-\(..\)/\1+\2+\3/'

2014+04+01

paul@debian7:~$ echo 2014-04-01 | sed 's/\(....\)-\(..\)-\(..\)/\3:\2:\1/'

01:04:2014

This feature is called grouping.

21.4.7. white space

The \s can refer to white space such as a space or a tab.

This example looks for white spaces (\s) globally and replaces them with 1 space.

paul@debian7:~$ echo -e 'today\tis\twarm'

today is warm

paul@debian7:~$ echo -e 'today\tis\twarm' | sed 's_\s_ _g'

today is warm

21.4.8. optional occurrence

A question mark signifies that the previous is optional.

 The example below searches for three consecutive letter o, but the third o is optional.
paul@debian7:~$ cat list2
ll
lol
lool
loool

paul@debian7:~$ grep -E 'ooo?' list2

lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$ cat list2 | sed 's/ooo\?/A/'
ll
lol
lAl
lAl

21.4.9. exactly n times

You can demand an exact number of times the oprevious has to

occur. This example wants exactly three o's.

paul@debian7:~$ cat list2
ll
lol
lool
loool

paul@debian7:~$ grep -E 'o{3}' list2

loool
paul@debian7:~$ cat list2 | sed 's/o\{3\}/A/'
ll
lol
lool
lAl
paul@debian7:~$
21.4.10. between n and m timesAnd here we demand exactly from minimum 2 to maximum
3 times.
paul@debian7:~$ cat list2
ll
lol
lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$ grep -E 'o{2,3}' list2
lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$ grep 'o\{2,3\}' list2
lool
loool
paul@debian7:~$ cat list2 | sed 's/o\{2,3\}/A/'
ll
lol
lAl
lAl
paul@debian7:~$

21.5. bash history

The bash shell can also interprete some regular expressions.

This example shows how to manipulate the exclamation mask history feature of the bash
shell.

paul@debian7:~$ mkdir hist

paul@debian7:~$ cd hist/
paul@debian7:~/hist$ touch file1 file2 file3
paul@debian7:~/hist$ ls -l file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Apr 15 22:07 file1
paul@debian7:~/hist$ !l
ls -l file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Apr 15 22:07 file1
paul@debian7:~/hist$ !l:s/1/3
paul@debian7:~/hist$ history 6
ls -l file3
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Apr 15 22:07 file3
paul@debian7:~/hist$

This also works with the history numbers in bash.

paul@debian7:~/hist$
2089 mkdir hist !2092
ls -l file1
2090 cd hist/
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Apr 15 22:07 file1
2091 touch file1 file2 file3
paul@debian7:~/hist$ !2092:s/1/2
2092 ls -l file1
ls -l file2
2093 ls -l file3
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 Apr 15 22:07 file2
2094 history 6
paul@debian7:~/hist$
Part VI. vi
Table of Contents
22. Introduction to vi........................................................................................................................... 222
22.1. command mode and insert mode.............................................................................................223
22.2. start typing (a A i I o O)............................................................................................................223
22.3. replace and delete a character (r x X)......................................................................................224
22.4. undo and repeat (u .)................................................................................................................224
22.5. cut, copy and paste a line (dd yy p P)......................................................................................224
22.6. cut, copy and paste lines (3dd 2yy)..........................................................................................225
22.7. start and end of a line (0 or ^ and $).......................................................................................225
22.8. join two lines (J) and more.......................................................................................................225
22.9. words (w b)...............................................................................................................................226
22.10. save (or not) and exit (:w :q :q! )............................................................................................226
22.11. Searching (/ ?).........................................................................................................................226
22.12. replace all ( :1,$ s/foo/bar/g ).................................................................................................227
22.13. reading files (:r :r !cmd)...........................................................................................................227
22.14. text buffers..............................................................................................................................227
22.15. multiple files............................................................................................................................227
22.16. abbreviations...........................................................................................................................228
22.17. key mappings...........................................................................................................................229
22.18. setting options.........................................................................................................................229
22.19. practice: vi(m)..........................................................................................................................230
22.20. solution: vi(m).........................................................................................................................231

221
Chapter 22. Introduction to vi
The vi editor is installed on almost every Unix. Linux will very often install vim (vi
improved) which is similar. Every system administrator should know vi(m), because it is
an easy tool to solve problems.

The vi editor is not intuitive, but once you get to know it, vi becomes a very powerful
application. Most Linux distributions will include the vimtutor which is a 45 minute lesson
in vi(m).

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22.1. command mode and insert mode

The vi editor starts in command mode. In command mode, you can type commands.
Some commands will bring you into insert mode. In insert mode, you can type text. The
escape key will return you to command mode.

Table 22.1. getting to command mode

key action
Esc set vi(m) in command mode.

22.2. start typing (a A i I o O)

The difference between a A i I o and O is the location where you can start typing. a will
append after the current character and A will append at the end of the line. i will insert
before the current character and I will insert at the beginning of the line. o will put you in
a new line after the current line and O will put you in a new line before the current
line.

Table 22.2. In vi switch to insert mode

command action
a start typing after the current character
A start typing at the end of the current line
i start typing before the current character
I start typing at the start of the current line
o start typing on a new line after the current line
O start typing on a new line before the current line

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22.3. replace and delete a character (r x X)

When in command mode (it doesn't hurt to hit the escape key more than once) you can
use the x key to delete the current character. The big X key (or shift x) will delete the
character left of the cursor. Also when in command mode, you can use the r key to
replace one single character. The r key will bring you in insert mode for just one key
press, and will return you immediately to command mode.

Table 22.3. Vi in command mode replace and delete

command action
x delete the character below the cursor
X delete the character before the cursor
r replace the character below the cursor
p paste after the cursor (here the last deleted character)
xp switch two characters

22.4. undo and repeat (u .)

When vi in command mode, you can undo your mistakes with u. You can do your
mistakes twice with . (in other words, the . will repeat your last command).

Table 22.4. undo and repeat

command action
u undo the last action
. repeat the last action

22.5. cut, copy and paste a line (dd yy p P)

When vi in command mode, dd will cut the current line. yy will copy the current line. You
can paste the last copied or cut line after (p) or before (P) the current line.

Table 22.5. cut, copy and paste a line

command action
dd cut the current line
yy (yank yank) copy the current line
p paste after the current line
224
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P paste before the current line

225
 Introduction to vi

22.6. cut, copy and paste lines (3dd 2yy)

When vi in command mode, before typing dd or yy, you can type a number to repeat the
command a number of times. Thus, 5dd will cut 5 lines and 4yy will copy (yank) 4 lines.
That last one will be noted by vi in the bottom left corner as "4 line yanked".

Table 22.6. cut, copy and paste lines

command action
3dd cut three lines
4yy copy four lines

22.7. start and end of a line (0 or ^ and $)

When vi in command mode, the 0 and the caret ^ will bring you to the start of the
current line, whereas the $ will put the cursor at the end of the current line. You can add
0 and $ to the d command, d0 will delete every character between the current character
and the start of the line. Likewise d$ will delete everything from the current character
till the end of the line. Similarly y0 and y$ will yank till start and end of the current line.

Table 22.7. start and end of line

command action
0 jump to start of current line
^ jump to start of current line
$ jump to end of current line
d0 delete until start of line
d$ delete until end of line

22.8. join two lines (J) and more

When vi in command mode, pressing J will append the next line to the current line. With yyp
you duplicate a line and with ddp you switch two lines.

Table 22.8. join two lines When vi in command mode

command action
J join two lines
yyp duplicate a line
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 Introduction to vi

ddp switch two lines

22.9. words (w b)
When vi in command mode, w will jump to the next word and b will move to the
previous word. w and b can also be combined with d and y to copy and cut words (dw db
yw yb).

Table 22.9. words When vi in command mode

command action
w forward one word
b back one word
3w forward three words
dw delete one word
yw yank (copy) one word
5yb yank five words back
7dw delete seven words

22.10. save (or not) and exit (:w :q :q! )

Pressing the colon : will allow you to give instructions to vi (technically speaking, typing
the colon will open the ex editor). :w will write (save) the file, :q will quit an unchanged
file without saving, and :q! will quit vi discarding any changes. :wq will save and quit and
is the same as typing ZZ in command mode.

Table 22.10. save and exit vi

command action
:w save (write)
:w fname save as fname
:q quit
:wq save and quit
ZZ save and quit
:q! quit (discarding your changes)
:w! save (and write to non-writable file!)

The last one is a bit special. With :w! vi will try to chmod the file to get write permission
(this works when you are the owner) and will chmod it back when the write succeeds.
This should always work when you are root (and the file system is writable).

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 Introduction to vi

22.11. Searching (/ ?)

When in command mode typing / will allow you to search in vi for strings (can be a
regular expression). Typing /foo will do a forward search for the string foo and typing ?
bar will do a backward search for bar.

Table 22.11. searching

command action
/string forward search for string

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command Action In vi
?string backward search for string
n go to next occurrence of search string
/^string forward search string at beginning of line
/string$ forward search string at end of line
/br[aeio]l search for bral brel bril and brol
/\<he\> search for the word he (and not for here or the)

22.12. replace all ( :1,$ s/foo/bar/g )

To replace all occurrences of the string foo with bar, first switch to ex mode with : . Then
tell vi which lines to use, for example 1,$ will do the replace all from the first to the last
line. You can write 1,5 to only process the first five lines. The s/foo/bar/g will replace all
occurrences of foo with bar.

Table 22.12. replace

command action
:4,8 s/foo/bar/g replace foo with bar on lines 4 to 8
:1,$ s/foo/bar/g replace foo with bar on all lines

22.13. reading files (:r :r !cmd)

When in command mode, :r foo will read the file named foo, :r !foo will execute the
command foo. The result will be put at the current location. Thus :r !ls will put a listing of
the current directory in your text file.

Table 22.13. read files and input

command action
:r fname (read) file fname and paste contents
:r !cmd execute cmd and paste its output

22.14. text buffers

There are 36 buffers in vi to store text. You can use them with the " character.

Table 22.14. text buffers

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 Introduction to vi
command action
"add delete current line and put text in buffer a
"g7yy copy seven lines into buffer g
"ap paste from buffer a

22.15. multiple files

You can edit multiple files with vi. Here are some tips.

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 Introduction to vi

Table 22.15. multiple files

command action
vi file1 file2 file3 start editing three files
:args lists files and marks active file
:n start editing the next file
:e toggle with last edited file
:rew rewind file pointer to first file

22.16. abbreviations
With :ab you can put abbreviations in vi. Use :una to undo the abbreviation.

Table 22.16. abbreviations

command action
:ab str long string abbreviate str to be 'long string'
:una str un-abbreviate str

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 Introduction to vi

22.17. key mappings

Similarly to their abbreviations, you can use mappings with :map for command mode and
:map! for insert mode.

This example shows how to set the F6 function key to toggle between set number and
set nonumber. The <bar> separates the two commands, set number! toggles the state
and set number? reports the current state.

:map <F6> :set number!<bar>set number?<CR>

22.18. setting options

Some options that you can set in vim.

:set number ( also try :se nu )

:set nonumber
:syntax on
:syntax off
:set all (list all options)
:set tabstop=8

You can set these options (and much more) in ~/.vimrc for vim or in ~/.exrc for standard vi.

paul@barry:~$ cat ~/.vimrc

set number
set tabstop=8
set textwidth=78
map <F6> :set number!<bar>set number?<CR>
paul@barry:~$

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 Introduction to vi

22.19. practice: vi(m)

1. Start the vimtutor and do some or all of the exercises. You might need to run aptitude install vim on
xubuntu.

2. What 3 key sequence in command mode will duplicate the current line.

3. What 3 key sequence in command mode will switch two lines' place (line five becomes line six and line
six becomes line five).

4. What 2 key sequence in command mode will switch a character's place with the next one.

5. vi can understand macro's. A macro can be recorded with q followed by the name of the macro. So qa
will record the macro named a. Pressing q again will end the recording. You can recall the macro with @
followed by the name of the macro. Try this example: i 1 'Escape Key' qa yyp 'Ctrl a' q 5@a (Ctrl a will
increase the number with one).

6. Copy /etc/passwd to your ~/passwd. Open the last one in vi and press Ctrl v. Use the arrow keys to
select a Visual Block, you can copy this with y or delete it with d. Try pasting it.

7. What does dwwP do when you are at the beginning of a word in a sentence ?

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 Introduction to vi

22.20. solution: vi(m)

1. Start the vimtutor and do some or all of the exercises. You might need to run aptitude install vim on
xubuntu.

vimtutor

2. What 3 key sequence in command mode will duplicate the current line.

yyp

3. What 3 key sequence in command mode will switch two lines' place (line five becomes line six and line
six becomes line five).

ddp

4. What 2 key sequence in command mode will switch a character's place with the next one.

xp

5. vi can understand macro's. A macro can be recorded with q followed by the name of the macro. So qa
will record the macro named a. Pressing q again will end the recording. You can recall the macro with @
followed by the name of the macro. Try this example: i 1 'Escape Key' qa yyp 'Ctrl a' q 5@a (Ctrl a will
increase the number with one).

6. Copy /etc/passwd to your ~/passwd. Open the last one in vi and press Ctrl v. Use the arrow keys to
select a Visual Block, you can copy this with y or delete it with d. Try pasting it.

cp /etc/passwd ~
vi passwd
(press Ctrl-V)

7. What does dwwP do when you are at the beginning of a word in a sentence ?

dwwP can switch the current word with the next word.

234
Part VII. scripting
Table of Contents
23. scripting introduction..................................................................................................................... 234
23.1. prerequisites..............................................................................................................................235
23.2. hello world................................................................................................................................235
23.3. she-bang....................................................................................................................................235
23.4. comment...................................................................................................................................236
23.5. variables.....................................................................................................................................236
23.6. sourcing a script........................................................................................................................236
23.7. troubleshooting a script............................................................................................................237
23.8. prevent setuid root spoofing....................................................................................................237
23.9. practice: introduction to scripting.............................................................................................238
23.10. solution: introduction to scripting...........................................................................................239
24. scripting loops................................................................................................................................ 240
24.1. test [ ]........................................................................................................................................241
24.2. if then else................................................................................................................................242
24.3. if then elif..................................................................................................................................242
24.4. for loop......................................................................................................................................242
24.5. while loop..................................................................................................................................243
24.6. until loop...................................................................................................................................243
24.7. practice: scripting tests and loops............................................................................................244
24.8. solution: scripting tests and loops............................................................................................245
25. scripting parameters...................................................................................................................... 247
25.1. script parameters......................................................................................................................248
25.2. shift through parameters..........................................................................................................249
25.3. runtime input............................................................................................................................249
25.4. sourcing a config file.................................................................................................................250
25.5. get script options with getopts.................................................................................................251
25.6. get shell options with shopt.....................................................................................................252
25.7. practice: parameters and options.............................................................................................253
25.8. solution: parameters and options.............................................................................................254
26. more scripting................................................................................................................................ 255
26.1. eval............................................................................................................................................256
26.2. (( )) ............................................................................................................................................. 256
26.3. let...............................................................................................................................................257
26.4. case............................................................................................................................................258
26.5. shell functions...........................................................................................................................259
26.6. practice : more scripting...........................................................................................................260
26.7. solution : more scripting...........................................................................................................261

233
Chapter 23. scripting introduction
Shells like bash and Korn have support for programming constructs that can be saved as
scripts. These scripts in turn then become more shell commands. Many Linux commands
are scripts. User profile scripts are run when a user logs on and init scripts are run when
a daemon is stopped or started.

This means that system administrators also need basic knowledge of scripting to
understand how their servers and their applications are started, updated, upgraded,
patched, maintained, configured and removed, and also to understand how a user
environment is built.

The goal of this chapter is to give you enough information to be able to read and
understand scripts. Not to become a writer of complex scripts.

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 scripting
introduction

23.1. prerequisites

You should have read and understood part III shell expansion and part IV pipes and
commands before starting this chapter.

23.2. hello world

Just like in every programming course, we start with a simple hello_world script. The
following script will output Hello World.

echo Hello World

After creating this simple script in vi or with echo, you'll have to chmod +x hello_world
to make it executable. And unless you add the scripts directory to your path, you'll have
to type the path to the script for the shell to be able to find it.
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ echo echo Hello World > hello_world
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ chmod +x hello_world
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ ./hello_world
Hello World
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$

23.3. she-bang

Let's expand our example a little further by putting #!/bin/bash on the first line of the
script. The #! is called a she-bang (sometimes called sha-bang), where the she-bang is
the first two characters of the script.

#!/bin/bash
echo Hello World

You can never be sure which shell a user is running. A script that works flawlessly in bash
might not work in ksh, csh, or dash. To instruct a shell to run your script in a certain shell,
you can start your script with a she-bang followed by the shell it is supposed to run in.
This script will run in a bash shell.

#!/bin/bash
echo -n hello
echo A bash subshell `echo -n hello`

This script will run in a Korn shell (unless /bin/ksh is a hard link to /bin/bash). The /etc/
shells file contains a list of shells on your system.
235
 scripting
introduction
#!/bin/ksh
echo -n hello
echo a Korn subshell `echo -n hello`

236
 scripting
introduction

23.4. comment

Let's expand our example a little further by adding comment lines.

#!/bin/bash
#
# Hello World Script
#
echo Hello World

23.5. variables

Here is a simple example of a variable inside a script.

#!/bin/bash
#
# simple variable in script
#
var1=4

Scripts can contain variables, but since scripts are run in their own shell, the variables
do not survive the end of the script.

[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ echo $var1

[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ ./vars

var1 = 4
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ echo $var1

23.6. sourcing a script

Luckily, you can force a script to run in the same shell; this is called sourcing a script.

[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ source ./vars

var1 = 4

[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ echo $var1 4

[paul@RHEL4a ~]$

The above is identical to the below.

[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ . ./vars

var1 = 4
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ echo $var1
4
[paul@RHEL4a ~]$ 237
 scripting
introduction
23.7. troubleshooting a script

Another way to run a script in a separate shell is by typing bash with the name of the
script as a parameter.

paul@debian6~/test$ bash runme

42

Expanding this to bash -x allows you to see the commands that the shell is executing
(after shell expansion).

paul@debian6~/test$ bash -x runme

+ var4=42
+ echo 42
42
paul@debian6~/test$ cat runme
# the runme script
var4=42
echo $var4
paul@debian6~/test$

Notice the absence of the commented (#) line, and the replacement of the variable
before execution of echo.

23.8. prevent setuid root spoofing

Some user may try to perform setuid based script root spoofing. This is a rare but
possible attack. To improve script security and to avoid interpreter spoofing (futásidőben
történő megtévesztés), you need to add -- after the #!/bin/bash, which disables further
option processing so the shell will not accept any options.

#!/bin/bash -
or
#!/bin/bash --

Any arguments after the -- are treated as filenames and arguments. An argument of - is
equivalent to --.

23.9. practice: introduction to scripting

0. Give each script a different name, keep them for later!

1. Write a script that outputs the name of a city.

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 scripting
introduction

2. Make sure the script runs in the bash shell.

3. Make sure the script runs in the Korn shell.

4. Create a script that defines two variables, and outputs their value.

5. The previous script does not influence your current shell (the variables do not exist outside of the
script). Now run the script so that it influences your current shell.

6. Is there a shorter way to source the script ?

7. Comment your scripts so that you know what they are doing.

239
 scripting loops

23.10. solution: introduction to scripting

0. Give each script a different name, keep them for later!

1. Write a script that outputs the name of a city.

$ echo 'echo Antwerp' > first.bash

$ chmod +x first.bash
$ ./first.bash
Antwerp

2. Make sure the script runs in the bash shell.

$ cat first.bash
#!/bin/bash
echo Antwerp

3. Make sure the script runs in the Korn shell.

$ cat first.bash
#!/bin/ksh
echo Antwerp

Note that while first.bash will technically work as a Korn shell script, the name ending
in .bash is confusing.

4. Create a script that defines two variables, and outputs their value.

$ cat second.bash
#!/bin/bash

var33=300
var42=400

5. The previous script does not influence your current shell (the variables do not exist outside of the
script). Now run the script so that it influences your current shell.

source second.bash

6. Is there a shorter way to source the script ?

. ./second.bash
240
 scripting loops

7. Comment your scripts so that you know what they are doing.

$ cat second.bash
#!/bin/bash
# script to test variables and sourcing

# define two variables

var33=300
var42=400

Chapter 24. scripting loops

24.1. test [ ]

The test command can test whether something is true or false. Let's start by testing
whether 10 is greater than 55.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ test 10 -gt 55 ; echo $?

1
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ test 56 -gt 55 ; echo $?

0
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

The test command returns 1 if the test fails. And as you see in the next screenshot, test
returns 0 when a test succeeds.

If you prefer true and false, then write the test like this.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ test 56 -gt 55 && echo true || echo false

true

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ test 6 -gt 55 && echo true || echo false

false
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ [ 56 -gt 55 ] && echo true || echo false
true
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ [ 6 -gt 55 ] && echo true || echo false
false

The test command can also be written as square brackets, the screenshot below is
identical to the one above.

241
 scripting loops
Below are some example tests. Take a look at man test to see more options for tests.

[ -d foo ] Does the directory foo exist ?

Does the file bar exist ?
[ -e bar ]
Is the string /etc equal to the variable $PWD ?
[ '/etc' = $PWD ] Is the first parameter different from secret ?
[ $1 != 'secret' ] Is 55 less than the value of $bar ?
[ 55 -lt $bar ] Is the value of $foo greater or equal to 1000 ?
[ $foo -ge 1000 ] Does abc sort before the value of $bar ?
[ "abc" < $bar ] Is foo a regular file ?
[ -f foo ] Is bar a readable file ?

[ -r bar ] Is file foo newer than file bar ?

Is the shell option nounset set ?
[ foo -nt bar ]
[ -o nounset ]

Tests can be combined with logical AND and OR.

paul@RHEL4b:~$ [ 66 -gt 55 -a 66 -lt 500 ] && echo true || echo false

true
paul@RHEL4b:~$ [ 66 -gt 55 -a 660 -lt 500 ] && echo true || echo false
false
paul@RHEL4b:~$ [ 66 -gt 55 -o 660 -lt 500 ] && echo true || echo false
true

24.2. if then else

The if then else construction is about choice. If a certain condition is met, then execute
something, else execute something else. The example below tests whether a file exists,
and if the file exists then a proper message is echoed.

#!/bin/bash

if [ -f isit.txt ]
[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ ./choice
then echonot
isit.txt isit.txt
found!exists!
else echo isit.txt not found!
[paul@RHEL4a
fi scripts]$ touch isit.txt
[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ ./choice
isit.txt exists!
[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$

If we name the above script 'choice', then it executes like this.

24.3. if then elif

242
 for i in 1 2 4
do
echo $i
done scripting loops

You can nest a new if inside an else with elif. This is a simple example.

#!/bin/bash
count=42
if [ $count -eq 42 ]
then
echo "42 is correct."
elif [ $count -gt 42 ]
then
echo "Too much."
else
echo "Not enough."
fi

24.4. for loop

The example below shows the syntax of a classical for loop in bash.

An example of a for loop combined with an embedded shell.

#!/bin/ksh

for counter in `seq 1 20`

do
echo counting from 1 to 20, now at
$counter sleep 1
done

The same example as above can be written without the embedded shell using the bash

{from..to} shorthand.

243
 scripting loops

#!/bin/bash
for counter in {1..20}
do
echo counting from 1 to 20, now at $counter
sleep 1
done

This for loop uses file globbing (from the shell expansion). Putting the instruction on the
command line has identical functionality.

kahlan@solexp11$ ls
count.ksh go.ksh
kahlan@solexp11$ for file in *.ksh ; do cp $file $file.backup ; done
kahlan@solexp11$ ls
count.ksh count.ksh.backup go.ksh go.ksh.backup

24.5. while loop

Below a simple example of a while loop.

i=100;

while [ $i -ge 0 ] ;
do
echo Counting down, from 100 to 0, now at $i;
#!/bin/ksh
let i--;
done
# endless loop
while :
do
echo hello
sleep 1
done

Endless loops can be made with while true or while : , where the colon is the equivalent
of no operation in the Korn and bash shells.

24.6. until loop

Below a simple example of an until loop.

let i=100;

until [ $i -le 0 ] ;
do
echo Counting down, from 100 to 1, now at $i;
let i--;
done

244
 scripting loops

24.7. practice: scripting tests and loops

1. Write a script that uses a for loop to count from 3 to 7.

2. Write a script that uses a for loop to count from 1 to 17000.

3. Write a script that uses a while loop to count from 3 to 7.

4. Write a script that uses an until loop to count down from 8 to 4.

5. Write a script that counts the number of files ending in .txt in the current directory.

6. Wrap an if statement around the script so it is also correct when there are zero files ending in .txt.

245
 scripting
parameters

24.8. solution: scripting tests and loops

1. Write a script that uses a for loop to count from 3 to 7.

#!/bin/bash

for i in 3 4 5 6 7
#!/bin/bash
do
echo Counting from 3 to 7, now at $i
donei in `seq 1 17000`
for
do
echo Counting from 1 to 17000, now at $i
done

2. Write a script that uses a for loop to count from 1 to 17000.

3. Write a script that uses a while loop to count from 3 to 7.

#!/bin/bash
i=3

while [ $i -le 7 ] do
#!/bin/bash
echo Counting from 3 to 7, now at $i let
i=8
i=i+1
until [ $i -lt 4 ]
done
do
echo Counting down from 8 to 4, now at $i
let i=i-1
done

4. Write a script that uses an until loop to count down from 8 to 4.

5. Write a script that counts the number of files ending in .txt in the current directory.

#!/bin/bash
let i=0

for file in *.txt

do
let i++
done
echo "There are $i files ending in .txt"

246
 scripting
6. Wrap an if statement around the scriptparameters
so it is also correct when there are zero files ending in .txt.

#!/bin/bash
ls *.txt > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? -ne 0 ]

then echo "There are 0 files ending in .txt"

else
let i=0
for file in *.txt
do
let i++
done

Chapter 25. scripting parameters

25.1. script parameters

A bash shell script can have parameters. The numbering you see in the script below
continues if you have more parameters. You also have special parameters containing the
number of parameters, a string of all of them, and also the process id, and the last return
code. The man page of bash has a full list.

#!/bin/bash
echo The first argument is $1 echo The second
argument is $2 echo The third argument is $3
echo \$ $$ PID of the script echo \# $#
count arguments echo \? $?
last return code echo \* $* all
the arguments

Below is the output of the script above in action.

[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ ./pars one two three

The first argument is one
The second argument is two
The third argument is three
$ 5610 PID of the script
# 3 count arguments
? 0 last return code
* one two three all the arguments 247
 scripting
parameters

Once more the same script, but with only two parameters.

[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ ./pars 1 2

The first argument is 1
The second argument is 2
The third argument is
$ 5612 PID of the script
# 2 count arguments
? 0 last return code
* 1 2 all the arguments
[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$

Here is another example, where we use $0. The $0 parameter contains the name of the script.

paul@debian6~$ cat myname echo

this script is called $0
paul@debian6~$ ./myname
this script is called ./myname
paul@debian6~$ mv myname test42
paul@debian6~$ ./test42
this script is called ./test42

25.2. shift through parameters

The shift statement can parse all parameters one by one. This is a sample script.

kahlan@solexp11$ cat shift.ksh

#!/bin/ksh
if [ "$#" == "0" ]
then
echo You have to give at least one parameter.
exit 1
fi
while (( $# ))
do
echo You gave me $1
shift
done

Below is some sample output of the script above.

kahlan@solexp11$ ./shift.ksh one

You gave me one
kahlan@solexp11$ ./shift.ksh one two three 1201 "33 42"
You gave me one
You gave me two 248
You gave me three
You gave me 1201
You gave me 33 42
 scripting
parameters
25.3. runtime input

You can ask the user for input with the read command in a script.

#!/bin/bash
echo -n Enter a number:
read number

25.4. sourcing a config file

The source (as seen in the shell chapters) can be used to source a configuration

file. Below a sample configuration file for an application.

[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ cat myApp.conf
# The config file of myApp
# Enter the path here
myAppPath=/var/myApp
# Enter the number of quines here
quines=5

And here an application that uses this file.

[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ cat myApp.bash

#!/bin/bash
#
# Welcome to the myApp application
#

The running application can use the values inside the sourced configuration file.

[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$ ./myApp.bash

There are 5 quines
[paul@RHEL4a scripts]$

25.5. get script options with getopts

249
 scripting
The getopts function allows you toparameters
parse options given to a command. The following
script allows for any combination of the options a, f and z.

kahlan@solexp11$ cat options.ksh

#!/bin/ksh

while getopts ":afz" option; do

case $option in a)
echo received -a
kahlan@solexp11$ ./options.ksh
kahlan@solexp11$
;; ./options.ksh -af
received -a
f)
received -f
echo received -f
kahlan@solexp11$ ./options.ksh -zfg
received -z
;;
received -f
z)
invalid option -g
kahlan@solexp11$ ./options.ksh -a -b -z
echo received -z
received -a
;;
invalid option -b
received
*) -z

echo "invalid option -$OPTARG"

;;
esac done

This is sample output from the script above. First we use correct options, then we enter
twice an invalid option.

250
 scripting
You can also check for options thatparameters
need an argument, as this example shows.

kahlan@solexp11$ cat argoptions.ksh

#!/bin/ksh

while getopts ":af:z" option;

do
case $option in
a)
echo received -a
;;
f)
echo received -f with $OPTARG
;;
z)
echo received -z
;;
:)
echo "option -$OPTARG needs an argument"
;;
*)
echo "invalid option -$OPTARG"
;;
esac
done

This is sample output from the script above.

kahlan@solexp11$ ./argoptions.ksh -a -f hello -z

received -a
received -f with hello
received -z
kahlan@solexp11$ ./argoptions.ksh -zaf 42
received -z
received -a
received -f with 42
kahlan@solexp11$ ./argoptions.ksh -zf
received -z
option -f needs an argument

25.6. get shell options with shopt

251
 scripting
You can toggle the parameters
values of variables controlling
optional shell behaviour with the shopt
built-in shell command. The example below first verifies whether the cdspell option is
set; it is not. The next shopt command sets the value, and the third shopt command
verifies that the option really is set. You can now use minor spelling mistakes in the cd
command. The man page of bash has a complete list of options.

paul@laika:~$ shopt -q cdspell ; echo $?

1
paul@laika:~$ shopt -s cdspell
paul@laika:~$ shopt -q cdspell ; echo $?
0
paul@laika:~$ cd /Etc
/etc

25.7. practice: parameters and options

1. Write a script that receives four parameters, and outputs them in reverse order.

2. Write a script that receives two parameters (two filenames) and outputs whether those files exist.

3. Write a script that asks for a filename. Verify existence of the file, then verify that you own the file, and
whether it is writable. If not, then make it writable.

4. Make a configuration file for the previous script. Put a logging switch in the config file, logging means
writing detailed output of everything the script does to a log file in /tmp.

252
 scripting
parameters

25.8. solution: parameters and options

1. Write a script that receives four parameters, and outputs them in reverse order.

echo $4 $3 $2 $1

2. Write a script that receives two parameters (two filenames) and outputs whether those files exist.

#!/bin/bash
if [ -f $1 ]

then echo $1 exists!

else echo $1 not found!
fi
if [ -f $2 ]
then echo $2 exists!
else echo $2 not found!
fi

3. Write a script that asks for a filename. Verify existence of the file, then verify that you own the file, and
whether it is writable. If not, then make it writable.

4. Make a configuration file for the previous script. Put a logging switch in the config file, logging means
writing detailed output of everything the script does to a log file in /tmp.

253
 more scripting

Chapter 26. more scripting

26.1. eval

eval reads arguments as input to the shell (the resulting commands are executed). This
allows using the value of a variable as a variable.

$ answer=42
$ word=answer

$ eval x=\$$word ; echo $x

kahlan@solexp11$ answer=42
42
kahlan@solexp11$ word=answer
kahlan@solexp11$ eval "y=\$$word" ; echo $y
42

Both in bash and Korn the arguments can be quoted.

Sometimes the eval is needed to have correct parsing of arguments. Consider this
example where the date command receives one parameter 1 week ago.

paul@debian6~$ date --date="1 week ago"

Thu Mar 8 21:36:25 CET 2012

When we set this command in a variable, then executing that variable fails unless we use
eval.

paul@debian6~$ lastweek='date --date="1 week ago"'

paul@debian6~$ $lastweek

date: extra operand `ago"'

Try `date --help' for more information.
paul@debian6~$ eval $lastweek

Thu Mar 8 21:36:39 CET 2012

26.2. (( ))

254
 more scripting
The (( )) allows for evaluation of numerical expressions. – lehetővé teszi a numerikus kifejezések
értékelését.

paul@deb503:~/test42$ (( 42 > 33 )) && echo true || echo false

true
paul@deb503:~/test42$ (( 42 > 1201 )) && echo true || echo false
false
paul@deb503:~/test42$ var42=42
paul@deb503:~/test42$ (( 42 == var42 )) && echo true || echo false
true
paul@deb503:~/test42$ (( 42 == $var42 )) && echo true || echo false
true
paul@deb503:~/test42$ var42=33
paul@deb503:~/test42$ (( 42 == var42 )) && echo true || echo false
false

26.3. let

The let built-in shell function instructs the shell to perform an evaluation of arithmetic
expressions. It will return 0 unless the last arithmetic expression evaluates to 0.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="3 + 4" ; echo $x

7
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="10 + 100/10" ; echo $x
20
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="10-2+100/10" ; echo $x
18
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="10*2+100/10" ; echo $x
30

The shell can also convert between different bases.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="0xFF" ; echo $x

255
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="0xC0" ; echo $x
192
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="0xA8" ; echo $x
168
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="8#70" ; echo $x 56
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="8#77" ; echo $x 63
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ let x="16#c0" ; echo $x
192

There is a difference between assigning a variable directly, or using let to evaluate the
arithmetic expressions (even if it is just assigning a value).

kahlan@solexp11$ dec=15 ; oct=017 ; hex=0x0f

kahlan@solexp11$ echo $dec $oct $hex
15 017 0x0f
255
kahlan@solexp11$ let dec=15 ; let oct=017 ; let hex=0x0f
kahlan@solexp11$ echo $dec $oct $hex
 more scripting

26.4. case

You can sometimes simplify nested if statements with a case construct.

[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ ./help

What animal did you see ? lion
You better start running fast!
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ ./help
What animal did you see ? dog
Don't worry, give it a cookie.
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ cat help
#!/bin/bash
#
# Wild Animals Helpdesk Advice
#
echo -n "What animal did you see ? "
read animal
case $animal in
"lion" | "tiger")

echo "You better start running fast!"

;;

"cat")

echo "Let that mouse go..."

;;

"dog")

echo "Don't worry, give it a cookie."

;;

"chicken" | "goose" | "duck" )

echo "Eggs for breakfast!"
;;
"liger")

echo "Approach and say 'Ah you big fluffy kitty...'."

;;

"babelfish")

echo "Did it fall out your ear ?"

;;

*)

echo "You discovered an unknown animal, name it!"

;;

esac
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$

256
 more scripting

26.5. shell functions

Shell functions can be used to group commands in a logical way.

kahlan@solexp11$ cat funcs.ksh

#!/bin/ksh
function greetings
{ echo Hello World!
kahlan@solexp11$ ./funcs.ksh
We will now call a function
echo
Helloand hello to $USER to!
World!
}
and hello to kahlan to!
The end
echo We will now call a function
greetings
echo The end

This is sample output from this script with a function.

A shell function can also receive parameters.

kahlan@solexp11$ cat addfunc.ksh

#!/bin/ksh

function plus {
let result="$1 + $2"
echo $1 + $2 = $result

plus 3 10
plus 20 13
plus 20 22

kahlan@solexp11$ ./addfunc.ksh
3 + 10 = 13
20 + 13 = 33
20 + 22 = 42

This script produces the following output.

26.6. practice : more scripting

257
 more scripting
1. Write a script that asks for two numbers, and outputs the sum and product (as shown here).

Enter a number: 5
Enter another number: 2

Sum: 5 + 2 = 7
Product: 5 x 2 = 10

2. Improve the previous script to test that the numbers are between 1 and 100, exit with an error if
necessary.

3. Improve the previous script to congratulate the user if the sum equals the product.

4. Write a script with a case insensitive case statement, using the shopt nocasematch option. The
nocasematch option is reset to the value it had before the scripts started.

5. If time permits (or if you are waiting for other students to finish this practice), take a look at Linux
system scripts in /etc/init.d and /etc/rc.d and try to understand them. Where does execution of a script
start in /etc/init.d/samba ? There are also some hidden scripts in ~, we will discuss them later.

258
 more scripting

26.7. solution : more scripting

1. Write a script that asks for two numbers, and outputs the sum and product (as shown here).

Enter a number: 5
Enter another number: 2

Sum: -n "Enter
echo 5 + 2
a = 7
number between 1 and 100 : "
read n1
#!/bin/bash
if [ $n1 -lt 1 -o $n1 -gt 100 ]
echo -n "Enter a number : "
then
read n1
echo Wrong number...
echo -nexit
"Enter
1 another number : "
read n2
fi
let sum="$n1+$n2"
let pro="$n1*$n2"
echo -e "Sum\t: $n1 + $n2 = $sum"
echo -e "Product\t: $n1 * $n2 = $pro"

2. Improve the previous script to test that the numbers are between 1 and 100, exit with an error if
necessary.

3. Improve the previous script to congratulate the user if the sum equals the product.

if [ $sum -eq $pro ]

then echo Congratulations $sum == $pro
fi

4. Write a script with a case insensitive case statement, using the shopt nocasematch option. The
nocasematch option is reset to the value it had before the scripts started.

#!/bin/bash
#

# Wild Animals Case Insensitive Helpdesk Advice

#
if shopt -q nocasematch;
then nocase=yes;
else
nocase=no;

shopt -s nocasematch;
fi

259
 more scripting
5. If time permits (or if you are waiting for other students to finish this practice), take a look at Linux
system scripts in /etc/init.d and /etc/rc.d and try to understand them. Where does execution of a script
start in /etc/init.d/samba ? There are also some hidden scripts in ~, we will discuss them later.

260
Part VIII. local user management
Table of Contents
27. introduction to users..................................................................................................................... 266
27.1. whoami......................................................................................................................................267
27.2. who............................................................................................................................................267
27.3. who am i...................................................................................................................................267
27.4. w................................................................................................................................................267
27.5. id................................................................................................................................................267
27.6. su to another user....................................................................................................................268
27.7. su to root..................................................................................................................................268
27.8. su as root..................................................................................................................................268
27.9. su - $username..........................................................................................................................268
27.10. su.............................................................................................................................................268
27.11. run a program as another user...............................................................................................269
27.12. visudo......................................................................................................................................269
27.13. sudo su....................................................................................................................................270
27.14. sudo logging............................................................................................................................270
27.15. practice: introduction to users................................................................................................271
27.16. solution: introduction to users................................................................................................272
28. user management.......................................................................................................................... 274
28.1. user management.....................................................................................................................275
28.2. /etc/passwd...............................................................................................................................275
28.3. root............................................................................................................................................275
28.4. useradd......................................................................................................................................276
28.5. /etc/default/useradd.................................................................................................................276
28.6. userdel.......................................................................................................................................276
28.7. usermod.....................................................................................................................................276
28.8. creating home directories.........................................................................................................277
28.9. /etc/skel/....................................................................................................................................277
28.10. deleting home directories.......................................................................................................277
28.11. login shell................................................................................................................................278
28.12. chsh..........................................................................................................................................278
28.13. practice: user management....................................................................................................279
28.14. solution: user management....................................................................................................280
29. user passwords.............................................................................................................................. 282
29.1. passwd.......................................................................................................................................283
29.2. shadow file................................................................................................................................283
29.3. encryption with passwd............................................................................................................284
29.4. encryption with openssl............................................................................................................284
29.5. encryption with crypt................................................................................................................285
29.6. /etc/login.defs............................................................................................................................286
29.7. chage......................................................................................................................................... 286
29.8. disabling a password.................................................................................................................287
29.9. editing local files.......................................................................................................................287
29.10. practice: user passwords.........................................................................................................288
29.11. solution: user passwords.........................................................................................................289
30. user profiles................................................................................................................................... 291
30.1. system profile............................................................................................................................292
30.2. ~/.bash_profile..........................................................................................................................292
30.3. ~/.bash_login.............................................................................................................................293
264
30.4. ~/.profile....................................................................................................................................293
30.5. ~/.bashrc....................................................................................................................................293
30.6. ~/.bash_logout...........................................................................................................................294
30.7. Debian overview........................................................................................................................295
30.8. RHEL5 overview.........................................................................................................................295
30.9. practice: user profiles................................................................................................................296
30.10. solution: user profiles..............................................................................................................297

265
 local user management

31. groups............................................................................................................................................ 298

31.1. groupadd...................................................................................................................................299
31.2. group file...................................................................................................................................299
31.3. groups........................................................................................................................................299
31.4. usermod.....................................................................................................................................300
31.5. groupmod..................................................................................................................................300
31.6. groupdel.....................................................................................................................................300
31.7. gpasswd.....................................................................................................................................301
31.8. newgrp.......................................................................................................................................302
31.9. vigr.............................................................................................................................................302
31.10. practice: groups.......................................................................................................................303
31.11. solution: groups.......................................................................................................................304

265
Chapter 27. introduction to users
This little chapter will teach you how to identify your user account on a Unix computer
using commands like who am i, id, and more.

In a second part you will learn how to become another user with the su

command. And you will learn how to run a program as another user with sudo.

266
 user
management

27.1. whoami

The whoami command tells you your username.

Id

27.2. who

The who command will give you information about who is logged on the system.

[paul@centos7 ~]$ who

root pts/0 2014-10-10 23:07 (10.104.33.101)
paul pts/1 2014-10-10 23:30 (10.104.33.101)
laura pts/2 2014-10-10 23:34 (10.104.33.96)
tania pts/3 2014-10-10 23:39 (10.104.33.91)
[paul@centos7 ~]$

27.3. who am i

With who am i the who command will display only the line pointing to your current session.

[paul@centos7 ~]$ who am i

paul pts/1 2014-10-10 23:30 (10.104.33.101)
[paul@centos7 ~]$

27.4. w
The w command shows you who is logged on and what they are doing.

[paul@centos7 ~]$ w 01, 0.02

23:34:07 up 31 min, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.

USER TTY LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
root pts/0 23:07 15.00s 0.01s 0.01s top
paul pts/1 23:30 7.00s 0.00s 0.00s w
[paul@centos7 ~]$

27.5. id

The id command will give you your user id, primary group id, and a list of the groups that
you belong to.

paul@debian7:~$ id
uid=1000(paul) gid=1000(paul) groups=1000(paul)

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On RHEL/CentOS you will also get SELinux context information with this command.

[root@centos7 ~]# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root) context=unconfined_u:unconfined_r\
:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

27.6. su to another user

The su command allows a user to run a shell as another user.

laura@debian7:~$ su tania
Password:
tania@debian7:/home/laura$

27.7. su to root

Yes you can also su to become root, when you know the root password.

laura@debian7:~$ su root
Password:
root@debian7:/home/laura#

27.8. su as root

You need to know the password of the user you want to substitute to, unless your are
logged in as root. The root user can become any existing user without knowing that
user's password.

root@debian7:~# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
root@debian7:~# su - valentina
valentina@debian7:~$

27.9. su - $username

By default, the su command maintains the same shell environment. To become another
user and also get the target user's environment, issue the su - command followed by the
target username.

root@debian7:~# su laura
laura@debian7:/root$ exit
exit
root@debian7:~# su - laura
laura@debian7:~$ pwd

27.10. su -

When no username is provided to su or su -, the command will assume root is the target.

tania@debian7:~$ su -
Password:
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27.11. run a program as another user

The sudo program allows a user to start a program with the credentials of another user.
Before this works, the system administrator has to set up the /etc/sudoers file. This can
be useful to delegate administrative tasks to another user (without giving the root
password).
The screenshot below shows the usage of sudo. User paul received the right to run
useradd with the credentials of root. This allows paul to create new users on the system
without becoming root and without knowing the root password.
First the command fails for paul.

paul@debian7:~$ /usr/sbin/useradd -m valentina

useradd: Permission denied.
useradd: cannot sudo
paul@debian7:~$ lock /usr/sbin/useradd
/etc/passwd; try again later.
-m valentina
[sudo] password for paul:
paul@debian7:~$

But with sudo it works.

27.12. visudo

Check the man page of visudo before playing with the /etc/sudoers file. Editing the sudoers
is out of scope for this fundamentals book.

paul@rhel65:~$ apropos visudo

visudo (8) - edit the sudoers file
paul@rhel65:~$

27.13. sudo su -

On some Linux systems like Ubuntu and Xubuntu, the root user does not have a
password set. This means that it is not possible to login as root (extra security). To
perform tasks as root, the first user is given all sudo rights via the /etc/sudoers. In fact
all users that are members of the admin group can use sudo to run all commands as
root.
root@laika:~# grep admin /etc/sudoers
# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

The end result of this is that the user can type sudo su - and become root without having
to enter the root password. The sudo command does require you to enter your own
password. Thus the password prompt in the screenshot below is for sudo, not for su.

paul@laika:~$ sudo su -
Password:
root@laika:~#

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27.14. sudo logging

Using sudo without authorization will result in a severe warning:

paul@rhel65:~$ sudo su -
We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

root@rhel65:~# tail /var/log/secure | grep sudo | tr -s ' '

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
Apr #2) Think before
13 16:03:42 you
rhel65 type.
sudo: paul : user NOT in sudoers ; TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=\
#3) With
/home/paul ; great power
USER=root ; comes great responsibility.
COMMAND=/bin/su -
root@rhel65:~#

[sudo] password for paul:

paul is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
paul@rhel65:~$

The root user can see this in the /var/log/secure on Red Hat and in /var/log/auth.log on
Debian).

27.15. practice: introduction to users

1. Run a command that displays only your currently logged on user name.

2. Display a list of all logged on users.

3. Display a list of all logged on users including the command they are running at this very moment.

4. Display your user name and your unique user identification (userid).

5. Use su to switch to another user account (unless you are root, you will need the password of the other
account). And get back to the previous account.

6. Now use su - to switch to another user and notice the difference.

Note that su - gets you into the home directory of Tania.

7. Try to create a new user account (when using your normal user account). this should fail. (Details on
adding user accounts are explained in the next chapter.)

8. Now try the same, but with sudo before your command.
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27.16. solution: introduction to users

1. Run a command that displays only your currently logged on user name.

laura@debian7:~$ whoami
laura
laura@debian7:~$
laura@debian7:~$ echo
who $USER
laura
laura pts/0 2014-10-13 07:22 (10.104.33.101)
laura@debian7:~$
2. Display a list of all logged on users.

3. Display a list of all logged on users including the command they are running at this very moment.

laura@debian7:~$ w
07:47:02 up 16 min, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU
PCPU WHAT
root pts/0 10.104.33.101 07:30 6.00s 0.04s 0.00s w
root pts/1 10.104.33.101 07:46 6.00s 0.01s 0.00s sleep 42
laura@debian7:~$

4. Display your user name and your unique user identification (userid).

laura@debian7:~$ id
uid=1005(laura) gid=1007(laura) groups=1007(laura)
laura@debian7:~$

5. Use su to switch to another user account (unless you are root, you will need the password of the other
account). And get back to the previous account.

laura@debian7:~$ su tania
Password:
tania@debian7:/home/laura$ id
uid=1006(tania) gid=1008(tania) groups=1008(tania)
tania@debian7:/home/laura$ exit

6. Now use su - to switch to another user and notice the difference.

laura@debian7:~$ su - tania
Password:
tania@debian7:~$ pwd
/home/tania
tania@debian7:~$ logout
laura@debian7:~$

Note that su - gets you into the home directory of Tania.

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7. Try to create a new user account (when using your normal user account). this should fail. (Details on
adding user accounts are explained in the next chapter.)

laura@debian7:~$ useradd valentina

-su: useradd: command not found
laura@debian7:~$ /usr/sbin/useradd valentina
useradd: Permission denied.
useradd: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

It is possible that useradd is located in /sbin/useradd on your computer.

8. Now try the same, but with sudo before your command.

laura@debian7:~$ sudo /usr/sbin/useradd valentina

[sudo] password for laura:
laura is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
laura@debian7:~$

Notice that laura has no permission to use the sudo on this system.

Chapter 28. user management

This chapter will teach you how to use useradd, usermod and userdel to create, modify
and remove user accounts.

You will need root access on a Linux computer to complete this chapter.

28.1. user management

User management on Linux can be done in three complementary ways. You can use the
graphical tools provided by your distribution. These tools have a look and feel that
depends on the distribution. If you are a novice Linux user on your home system, then
use the graphical tool that is provided by your distribution. This will make sure that you
do not run into problems.
Another option is to use command line tools like useradd, usermod, gpasswd, passwd
and others. Server administrators are likely to use these tools, since they are familiar and
very similar across many different distributions. This chapter will focus on these
command line tools.
A third and rather extremist way is to edit the local configuration files directly using vi
(or vipw/vigr). Do not attempt this as a novice on production systems!

28.2. /etc/passwd

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The local user database on Linux (and on most Unixes) is /etc/passwd.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# tail /etc/passwd

inge:x:518:524:art dealer:/home/inge:/bin/ksh
ann:x:519:525:flute player:/home/ann:/bin/bash
frederik:x:520:526:rubius poet:/home/frederik:/bin/bash
steven:x:521:527:roman emperor:/home/steven:/bin/bash
pascale:x:522:528:artist:/home/pascale:/bin/ksh
geert:x:524:530:kernel developer:/home/geert:/bin/bash
wim:x:525:531:master damuti:/home/wim:/bin/bash
sandra:x:526:532:radish stresser:/home/sandra:/bin/bash
annelies:x:527:533:sword fighter:/home/annelies:/bin/bash
laura:x:528:534:art dealer:/home/laura:/bin/ksh

As you can see, this file contains seven columns separated by a colon. The columns
contain the username, an x, the user id, the primary group id, a description, the name of
the home directory, and the login shell.
More information can be found by typing man 5 passwd.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# man 5 passwd

28.3. root

The root user also called the superuser is the most powerful account on your Linux
system. This user can do almost anything, including the creation of other users. The root
user always has userid 0 (regardless of the name of the account).

[root@RHEL5 ~]# head -1 /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

28.4. useradd

You can add users with the useradd command. The example below shows how to add a
user named yanina (last parameter) and at the same time forcing the creation of the
home directory (-m), setting the name of the home directory (-d), and setting a
description (-c).
[root@RHEL5 ~]# useradd -m -d /home/yanina -c "yanina wickmayer" yanina
[root@RHEL5 ~]# tail -1 /etc/passwd
yanina:x:529:529:yanina wickmayer:/home/yanina:/bin/bash

The user named yanina received userid 529 and primary group id 529.

28.5. /etc/default/useradd
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Both Red Hat Enterprise management
Linux and Debian/Ubuntu have a file called
/etc/default/useradd that contains some default user options. Besides using cat to
display this file, you can also use useradd -D.

[root@RHEL4 ~]# useradd -D

GROUP=100
HOME=/home
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/bash
SKEL=/etc/skel

28.6. userdel

You can delete the user yanina with userdel. The -r option of userdel will also remove
the home directory.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# userdel -r yanina

28.7. usermod

You can modify the properties of a user with the usermod command. This example uses
usermod to change the description of the user harry.

[root@RHEL4 ~]# tail -1 /etc/passwd

harry:x:516:520:harry potter:/home/harry:/bin/bash
[root@RHEL4 ~]# usermod -c 'wizard' harry
[root@RHEL4 ~]# tail -1 /etc/passwd
harry:x:516:520:wizard:/home/harry:/bin/bash

28.8. creating home directories

The easiest way to create a home directory is to supply the -m option with
useradd (it is likely set as a default option on Linux).
A less easy way is to create a home directory manually with mkdir which also requires
setting the owner and the permissions on the directory with chmod and chown (both
commands are discussed in detail in another chapter).

[root@RHEL5 ~]# mkdir /home/laura

[root@RHEL5 ~]# chown laura:laura /home/laura

[root@RHEL5 ~]# chmod 700 /home/laura
[root@RHEL5 ~]# ls -ld /home/laura/
drwx------ 2 laura laura 4096 Jun 24 15:17 /home/laura/

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28.9. /etc/skel/

When using useradd the -m option, the /etc/skel/ directory is copied to the newly
created home directory. The /etc/skel/ directory contains some (usually hidden) files
that contain profile settings and default values for applications. In this way /etc/skel/
serves as a default home directory and as a default user profile.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# ls -la /etc/skel/

total 48
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 1 00:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 97 root root 12288 Jun 24 15:36 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24 Jul 12 2006 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 176 Jul 12 2006 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 124 Jul 12 2006 .bashrc

28.10. deleting home directories

The -r option of userdel will make sure that the home directory is deleted together with
the user account.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# ls -ld /home/wim/

drwx------ 2 wim wim 4096 Jun 24 15:19 /home/wim/
[root@RHEL5 ~]# userdel -r wim
[root@RHEL5 ~]# ls -ld /home/wim/
ls: /home/wim/: No such file or directory

28.11. login shell

The /etc/passwd file specifies the login shell for the user. In the screenshot below you
can see that user annelies will log in with the /bin/bash shell, and user laura with the
/bin/ksh shell.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# tail -2 /etc/passwd

annelies:x:527:533:sword fighter:/home/annelies:/bin/bash
laura:x:528:534:art dealer:/home/laura:/bin/ksh
You can use the usermod command to change the shell for a user.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# usermod -s /bin/bash laura

[root@RHEL5 ~]# tail -1 /etc/passwd
laura:x:528:534:art dealer:/home/laura:/bin/bash

28.12. chsh

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Users can change their login shell with the chsh command. First, user harry obtains a list
of available shells (he could also have done a cat /etc/shells) and then changes his login
shell to the Korn shell (/bin/ksh). At the next login, harry will default into ksh instead of
bash.

[laura@centos7 ~]$ chsh -l

/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/sbin/nologin
/usr/bin/sh
/usr/bin/bash
/usr/sbin/nologin
/bin/ksh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/csh
[laura@centos7 ~]$
Note that the -l option does not exist on Debian and that the above screenshot assumes that
ksh and csh shells are installed.

The screenshot below shows how laura can change her default shell (active on next login).

[laura@centos7 ~]$ chsh -s /bin/ksh

Changing shell for laura.
Password:
Shell changed.

28.13. practice: user management

1. Create a user account named serena, including a home directory and a description (or comment) that
reads Serena Williams. Do all this in one single command.

2. Create a user named venus, including home directory, bash shell, a description that reads
Venus Williams all in one single command.

3. Verify that both users have correct entries in /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group.

4. Verify that their home directory was created.

5. Create a user named einstime with /bin/date as his default logon shell.

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7. What happens when you log on with themanagement
einstime user ? Can you think of a useful real world example
for changing a user's login shell to an application ?

8. Create a file named welcome.txt and make sure every new user will see this file in their home directory.

9. Verify this setup by creating (and deleting) a test user account.

10. Change the default login shell for the serena user to /bin/bash. Verify before and after you make this
change.

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28.14. solution: user management

1. Create a user account named serena, including a home directory and a description (or comment) that
reads Serena Williams. Do all this in one single command.

root@debian7:~# useradd -m -c 'Serena Williams' serena

2. Create a user named venus, including home directory, bash shell, a description that reads
Venus Williams all in one single command.

root@debian7:~# useradd -m -c "Venus Williams" -s /bin/bash venus

3. Verify that both users have correct entries in /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group.

root@debian7:~# tail -2 /etc/passwd

serena:x:1008:1010:Serena Williams:/home/serena:/bin/sh
venus:x:1009:1011:Venus Williams:/home/venus:/bin/bash
root@debian7:~# tail -2 /etc/shadow
root@debian7:~# ls -lrt /home | tail -2
serena:!:16358:0:99999:7:::
drwxr-xr-x 2 serena serena 4096 Oct 15 10:50 serena
venus:!:16358:0:99999:7:::
venus
drwxr-xr-x 2 venus
root@debian7:~# 4096 Oct 15 10:59 venus
tail -2 /etc/group
root@debian7:~#
serena:x:1010:
venus:x:1011:

4. Verify that their home directory was created.

5. Create a user named einstime with /bin/date as his default logon shell.

root@debian7:~# useradd -s /bin/date einstime

Or even better:

root@debian7:~# useradd -s $(which date) einstime

7. What happens when you log on with the einstime user ? Can you think of a useful real world example
for changing a user's login shell to an application ?

root@debian7:~# su - einstime
Wed Oct 15 11:05:56 UTC 2014 # You get the output of the date command
root@debian7:~#

It can be useful when users need to access only one application on the server. Just
logging in opens the application for them, and closing the application automatically logs
them out.
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8. passwords
Create a file named welcome.txt and make sure every new user will see this file in their home
directory.

root@debian7:~# echo Hello > /etc/skel/welcome.txt

9. Verify this setup by creating (and deleting) a test user account.

root@debian7:~# useradd -m test

root@debian7:~# ls -l /home/test
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 test test 6 Oct 15 11:16 welcome.txt
root@debian7:~# userdel -r test
root@debian7:~#

10. Change the default login shell for the serena user to /bin/bash. Verify before and after you make this
change.

root@debian7:~# grep serena /etc/passwd

serena:x:1008:1010:Serena Williams:/home/serena:/bin/sh
root@debian7:~# usermod -s /bin/bash serena
root@debian7:~# grep serena /etc/passwd
serena:x:1008:1010:Serena Williams:/home/serena:/bin/bash
root@debian7:~#

Chapter 29. user passwords

This chapter will tell you more about passwords for local users.
Three methods for setting passwords are explained; using the passwd command, using
openssel passwd, and using the crypt function in a C program.
The chapter will also discuss password settings and disabling, suspending or locking
accounts.

29.1. passwd

Passwords of users can be set with the passwd command. Users will have to provide
their old password before twice entering the new one.

[tania@centos7 ~]$ passwd

Changing password for user tania.
Changing password for tania.
(current) UNIX password:
New password:
BAD PASSWORD: The password is shorter than 8 characters
New password:
BAD PASSWORD: The password is a palindrome
New password:
BAD PASSWORD: The password is too similar to the old one
passwd: Have exhausted maximum number of retries for service

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As you can see, the passwd tool willpasswords
do somebasic verification to prevent users from
using too simple passwords. The root user does not have to follow these rules (there will
be a warning though). The root user also does not have to provide the old password
before entering the new password twice.

root@debian7:~# passwd tania

Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

29.2. shadow file

User passwords are encrypted and kept in /etc/shadow. The /etc/shadow file is read
only and can only be read by root. We will see in the file permissions section how it is
possible for users to change their password. For now, you will have to know that users
can change their password with the /usr/bin/passwd command.

[root@centos7 ~]# tail -4 /etc/shadow paul:

$6$ikp2Xta5BT.Tml.p$2TZjNnOYNNQKpwLJqoGJbVsZG5/Fti8ovBRd.VzRbiDSl7TEq\
IaSMH.TeBKnTS/SjlMruW8qffC0JNORW.BTW1:16338:0:99999:7:::
tania:$6$8Z/zovxj$9qvoqT8i9KIrmN.k4EQwAF5ryz5yzNwEvYjAa9L5XVXQu.z4DlpvMREH\
eQpQzvRnqFdKkVj17H5ST.c79HDZw0:16356:0:99999:7:::
laura:$6$glDuTY5e$/NYYWLxfHgZFWeoujaXSMcR.Mz.lGOxtcxFocFVJNb98nbTPhWFXfKWG\
SyYh1WCv6763Wq54.w24Yr3uAZBOm/:16356:0:99999:7:::
valentina:$6$jrZa6PVI$1uQgqR6En9mZB6mKJ3LXRB4CnFko6LRhbh.v4iqUk9MVreui1lv7\
GxHOUDSKA0N55ZRNhGHa6T2ouFnVno/0o1:16356:0:99999:7:::
[root@centos7 ~]#

The /etc/shadow file contains nine colon separated columns. The nine fields contain
(from left to right) the user name, the encrypted password (note that only inge and laura
have an encrypted password), the day the password was last changed (day 1 is January 1,
1970), number of days the password must be left unchanged, password expiry day,
warning number of days before password expiry, number of days after expiry before
disabling the account, and the day the account was disabled (again, since 1970). The last
field has no meaning yet.
All the passwords in the screenshot above are hashes of hunter2.

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29.3. encryption with passwd

Passwords are stored in an encrypted format. This encryption is done by the crypt
function. The easiest (and recommended) way to add a user with a password to the
system is to add the user with the useradd -m user command, and then set the user's
password with passwd.

[root@RHEL4 ~]# useradd -m xavier

[root@RHEL4 ~]# passwd xavier
Changing password for user xavier.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
[root@RHEL4 ~]#

29.4. encryption with openssl

Another way to create users with a password is to use the -p option of useradd, but that
option requires an encrypted password. You can generate this encrypted password with
the openssl passwd command.
The openssl passwd command will generate several distinct hashes for the same
password, for this it uses a salt.

paul@rhel65:~$ openssl passwd hunter2

86jcUNlnGDFpY
paul@rhel65:~$ openssl passwd hunter2
Yj7mDO9OAnvq6
paul@rhel65:~$ openssl passwd hunter2
YqDcJeGoDbzKA
paul@rhel65:~$

This salt can be chosen and is visible as the first two characters of the hash.

paul@rhel65:~$ openssl passwd -salt 42 hunter2

42ZrbtP1Ze8G.
paul@rhel65:~$ openssl passwd -salt 42 hunter2
42ZrbtP1Ze8G.
paul@rhel65:~$ openssl passwd -salt 42 hunter2
42ZrbtP1Ze8G.
paul@rhel65:~$

This example shows how to create a user with password.

root@rhel65:~# useradd -m -p $(openssl passwd hunter2) mohamed

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Note that this command puts the password in your command history!

29.5. encryption with crypt

A third option is to create your own C program using the crypt function, and compile this
into a command.

paul@rhel65:~$ cat MyCrypt.c

#include <stdio.h>
#define USE_XOPEN
#include <unistd.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv)

{
if(argc==3)
{
printf("%s\n", crypt(argv[1],argv[2]));
}
else
{
printf("Usage: MyCrypt $password $salt\n" );
}
return 0;
}

This little program can be compiled with gcc like this.

paul@rhel65:~$ gcc MyCrypt.c -o MyCrypt -lcrypt

To use it, we need to give two parameters to MyCrypt. The first is the unencrypted
password, the second is the salt. The salt is used to perturb the encryption algorithm in
one of 4096 different ways. This variation prevents two users with the same password
from having the same entry in /etc/shadow.

paul@rhel65:~$ ./MyCrypt hunter2 42

42ZrbtP1Ze8G.
paul@rhel65:~$ ./MyCrypt hunter2 33
33d6taYSiEUXI

Did you notice that the first two characters of the password are the salt?

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The standard output of the crypt function is using the DES algorithm which is old and can
be cracked in minutes. A better method is to use md5 passwords which can be
recognized by a salt starting with $1$.

paul@rhel65:~$ ./MyCrypt hunter2 '$1$42'

$1$42$7l6Y3xT5282XmZrtDOF9f0
paul@rhel65:~$ ./MyCrypt hunter2 '$6$42'
$6$42$OqFFAVnI3gTSYG0yI9TZWX9cpyQzwIop7HwpG1LLEsNBiMr4w6OvLX1KDa./UpwXfrFk1i...
paul@rhel65:~$ ./MyCrypt hunter2 '$1$hunter2'
$1$hunter2$YVxrxDmidq7Xf8Gdt6qM2.

The md5 salt can be up to eight characters long. The salt is displayed in /etc/shadow
between the second and third $, so never use the password as the salt!

29.6. /etc/login.defs

The /etc/login.defs file contains some default settings for user passwords like password
aging and length settings. (You will also find the numerical limits of user ids and group ids
and whether or not a home directory should be created by default).

root@rhel65:~# grep ^PASS /etc/login.defs

PASS_MAX_DAYS 99999
PASS_MIN_DAYS 0
root@debian7:~# grep PASS /etc/login.defs
PASS_MIN_LEN 5
# PASS_MAX_DAYS Maximum number of days a password may be used.
PASS_WARN_AGE 7
# PASS_MIN_DAYSMinimum number of days allowed between password changes.
# PASS_WARN_AGENumber of days warning given before a password expires.
PASS_MAX_DAYS 99999
PASS_MIN_DAYS 0
PASS_WARN_AGE 7
#PASS_CHANGE_TRIES
#PASS_ALWAYS_WARN
#PASS_MIN_LEN
#PASS_MAX_LEN
# NO_PASSWORD_CONSOLE
root@debian7:~#
Debian also has this file.

29.7. chage

The chage command can be used to set an expiration date for a user account (-E), set a
minimum (-m) and maximum (-M) password age, a password expiration date, and set the
number of warning days before the password expiration date. Much of this functionality
root@rhel65:~# chage -l paul
Last password change : Mar 27, 2014
Password expires
: never
Password inactive
Account expires : never

288change
Minimum number of days between password : never
Maximum number of days between password change
: 0
Number of days of warning before password expires
root@rhel65:~# : 99999
 user profiles
is also available from the passwd command. The -l option of chage will list these settings
for a user.

29.8. disabling a password

herrobPasswords in /etc/shadow cannot begin with an exclamation mark. When the

second field in /etc/passwd starts with an exclamation mark, then the password can not
be used.
Using this feature is often called locking, disabling, or suspending a user account. Besides
vi (or vipw) you can also accomplish this with usermod.
The first command in the next screenshot will show the hashed password of laura in
/etc/ shadow. The next command disables the password of laura, making it impossible
for Laura to authenticate using this password.

root@debian7:~# grep laura /etc/shadow | cut -c1-70 laura:

$6$JYj4JZqp$stwwWACp3OtE1R2aZuE87j.nbW.puDkNUYVk7mCHfCVMa3CoDUJV
root@debian7:~# usermod -L laura

root@debian7:~# grep laura /etc/shadow | cut -c1-70 laura:!

$6$JYj4JZqp$stwwWACp3OtE1R2aZuE87j.nbW.puDkNUYVk7mCHfCVMa3CoDUJ
root@debian7:~#
As you can see below, the password hash is simply preceded with an exclamation mark.

The root user (and users with sudo rights on su) still will be able to su into the laura
account (because the password is not needed here). Also note that laura will still be able
to login if she has set up passwordless ssh!

root@debian7:~# su - laura
laura@debian7:~$

You can unlock the account again with usermod -U.

root@debian7:~# usermod -U laura

root@debian7:~# grep laura /etc/shadow | cut -c1-70
laura:$6$JYj4JZqp$stwwWACp3OtE1R2aZuE87j.nbW.puDkNUYVk7mCHfCVMa3CoDUJV

Watch out for tiny differences in the command line options of passwd, usermod, and
useradd on different Linux distributions. Verify the local files when using features like
"disabling, suspending, or locking" on user accounts and their passwords.

29.9. editing local files

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If you still want to manually edit the /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow, after knowing these
commands for password management, then use vipw instead of vi(m) directly. The vipw
tool will do proper locking of the file.

[root@RHEL5 ~]# vipw /etc/passwd

vipw: the password file is busy (/etc/ptmp present)

29.10. practice: user passwords

1. Set the password for serena to hunter2.

2. Also set a password for venus and then lock the venus user account with usermod. Verify the locking in
/etc/shadow before and after you lock it.

3. Use passwd -d to disable the serena password. Verify the serena line in /etc/shadow
before and after disabling.

4. What is the difference between locking a user account and disabling a user account's password like we
just did with usermod -L and passwd -d?

5. Try changing the password of serena to serena as serena.

6. Make sure serena has to change her password in 10 days.

7. Make sure every new user needs to change their password every 10 days.

8. Take a backup as root of /etc/shadow. Use vi to copy an encrypted hunter2 hash from
venus to serena. Can serena now log on with hunter2 as a password ?

9. Why use vipw instead of vi ? What could be the problem when using vi or vim ?

10. Use chsh to list all shells (only works on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora), and compare to cat / etc/shells.

11. Which useradd option allows you to name a home directory ?

12. How can you see whether the password of user serena is locked or unlocked ? Give a solution with
grep and a solution with passwd.

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29.11. solution: user passwords

1. Set the password for serena to hunter2.

root@debian7:~# passwd serena

Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

2. Also set a password for venus and then lock the venus user account with usermod. Verify the locking in
/etc/shadow before and after you lock it.

root@debian7:~# passwd venus

Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root@debian7:~# grep venus /etc/shadow | cut -c1-70
venus:$6$gswzXICW$uSnKFV1kFKZmTPaMVS4AvNA/KO27OxN0v5LHdV9ed0gTyXrjUeM/
root@debian7:~# usermod -L venus
root@debian7:~# grep venus /etc/shadow | cut -c1-70
venus:!$6$gswzXICW$uSnKFV1kFKZmTPaMVS4AvNA/KO27OxN0v5LHdV9ed0gTyXrjUeM

Note that usermod -L precedes the password hash with an exclamation mark (!).

3. Use passwd -d to disable the serena password. Verify the serena line in /etc/shadow
before and after disabling.

root@debian7:~# grep serena /etc/shadow | cut -c1-70

serena:$6$Es/omrPE$F2Ypu8kpLrfKdW0v/UIwA5jrYyBD2nwZ/dt.i/IypRgiPZSdB/B
root@debian7:~# passwd -d serena
passwd: password expiry information changed.
root@debian7:~# grep serena /etc/shadow
serena::16358:0:99999:7:::
root@debian7:~#

4. What is the difference between locking a user account and disabling a user account's password like we
just did with usermod -L and passwd -d?

Locking will prevent the user from logging on to the system with his password by putting
a ! in front of the password in /etc/shadow.

Disabling with passwd will erase the password from /etc/shadow.

5. Try changing the password of serena to serena as serena.

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log on as serena, then execute: passwd serena... it should fail!

6. Make sure serena has to change her password in 10 days.

chage -M 10 serena

7. Make sure every new user needs to change their password every 10 days.

vi /etc/login.defs (and change PASS_MAX_DAYS to 10)

8. Take a backup as root of /etc/shadow. Use vi to copy an encrypted hunter2 hash from
venus to serena. Can serena now log on with hunter2 as a password ?

Yes.

9. Why use vipw instead of vi ? What could be the problem when using vi or vim ?

vipw will give a warning when someone else is already using that file (with vipw).

10. Use chsh to list all shells (only works on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora), and compare to cat / etc/shells.

chsh -l
cat /etc/shells

11. Which useradd option allows you to name a home directory ?

-d

12. How can you see whether the password of user serena is locked or unlocked ? Give a solution with
grep and a solution with passwd.

grep serena /etc/shadow

passwd -S serena

Chapter 30. user profiles

Logged on users have a number of preset (and customized) aliases, variables, and
functions, but where do they come from ? The shell uses a number of startup files that
are executed (or rather sourced) whenever the shell is invoked. What follows is an
overview of startup scripts.

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30.1. system profile

Both the bash and the ksh shell will verify the existence of /etc/profile and source it if it
exists.
When reading this script, you will notice (both on Debian and on Red Hat Enterprise
Linux) that it builds the PATH environment variable (among others). The script might also
change the PS1 variable, set the HOSTNAME and execute even more scripts like
/etc/inputrc
This screenshot uses grep to show PATH manipulation in /etc/profile on Debian.

root@debian7:~# grep PATH /etc/profile

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games"
export PATH
root@debian7:~#

This screenshot uses grep to show PATH manipulation in /etc/profile on RHEL7/CentOS7.

[root@centos7 ~]# grep PATH /etc/profile

case ":${PATH}:" in
PATH=$PATH:$1
PATH=$1:$PATH
export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE HISTCONTROL
[root@centos7 ~]#

The root user can use this script to set aliases, functions, and variables for every user on
the system.

30.2. ~/.bash_profile

When this file exists in the home directory, then bash will source it. On Debian Linux
5/6/7 this file does not exist by default.

RHEL7/CentOS7 uses a small ~/.bash_profile where it checks for the existence of

~/.bashrc and then sources it. It also adds $HOME/bin to the $PATH variable.

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 user profiles

[root@rhel7 ~]# cat /home/paul/.bash_profile

# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin

export PATH
[root@rhel7 ~]#

30.3. ~/.bash_login

When .bash_profile does not exist, then bash will check for ~/.bash_login and source it.

Neither Debian nor Red Hat have this file by default.

30.4. ~/.profile

When neither ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bash_login exist, then bash will verify the existence
of ~/.profile and execute it. This file does not exist by default on Red Hat.

On Debian this script can execute ~/.bashrc and will add $HOME/bin to the $PATH
variable.

root@debian7:~# tail -11 /home/paul/.profile

if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
# include .bashrc if it exists
if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
. "$HOME/.bashrc"
fi
fi

RHEL/CentOS does not have this file by default.

30.5. ~/.bashrc

The ~/.bashrc script is often sourced by other scripts. Let us take a look at what it does
by default.

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 user profiles
Red Hat uses a very simple ~/.bashrc, checking for /etc/bashrc and sourcing it. It also
leaves room for custom aliases and functions.

[root@rhel7 ~]# cat /home/paul/.bashrc

# .bashrc

# Source global definitions

if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bashrc
fi

On Debian this script is quite a bit longer and configures $PS1, some history variables
and a number af active and inactive aliases.

root@debian7:~# wc -l /home/paul/.bashrc
110 /home/paul/.bashrc

30.6. ~/.bash_logout

When exiting bash, it can execute ~/.bash_logout.

Debian use this opportunity to clear the console

serena@deb503:~$ cat .bash_logout
screen.
# ~/.bash_logout: executed by bash(1) when login shell exits.

# when leaving the console clear the screen to increase privacy

Red
if [Hat Enterprise
"$SHLVL" = 1 Linux 5 will simple call the /usr/bin/clear command in this script.
]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/clear_console ] && /usr/bin/clear_console -q
[serena@rhel53 ~]$ cat .bash_logout
fi
# ~/.bash_logout

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 create this file, but leave it empty (except for a comment).

paul@rhel65:~$ cat .bash_logout

# ~/.bash_logout

30.7. Debian overview

Below is a table overview of when Debian is running any of these bash startup scripts.

Table 30.1. Debian User Environment

script su su - ssh gdm

~./bashrc no yes yes yes
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 user profiles
~/.profile no yes yes yes
/etc/profile no yes yes yes
/etc/bash.bashrc yes no no yes

30.8. RHEL5 overview

Below is a table overview of when Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is running any of these bash
startup scripts.

Table 30.2. Red Hat User Environment

script su su - ssh gdm

~./bashrc yes yes yes yes
~/.bash_profile no yes yes yes
/etc/profile no yes yes yes
/etc/bashrc yes yes yes yes

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30.9. practice: user profiles

1. Make a list of all the profile files on your system.

2. Read the contents of each of these, often they source extra scripts.

3. Put a unique variable, alias and function in each of those files.

4. Try several different ways to obtain a shell (su, su -, ssh, tmux, gnome-terminal, Ctrl- alt-F1, ...) and
verify which of your custom variables, aliases and function are present in your environment.

5. Do you also know the order in which they are executed?

6. When an application depends on a setting in $HOME/.profile, does it matter whether

$HOME/.bash_profile exists or not ?

30.10. solution: user profiles

1. Make a list of all the profile files on your system.

ls -a ~ ; ls -l /etc/pro* /etc/bash*

2. Read the contents of each of these, often they source extra scripts.

3. Put a unique variable, alias and function in each of those files.

4. Try several different ways to obtain a shell (su, su -, ssh, tmux, gnome-terminal, Ctrl- alt-F1, ...) and
verify which of your custom variables, aliases and function are present in your environment.

5. Do you also know the order in which they are executed?

same name aliases, functions and variables will overwrite each other

6. When an application depends on a setting in $HOME/.profile,

7. does it matter whether
$HOME/.bash_profile exists or not ?

Yes it does matter. (man bash /INVOCATION)

297
 groups

Chapter 31. groups

Users can be listed in groups. Groups allow you to set permissions on the group level
instead of having to set permissions for every individual user.

Every Unix or Linux distribution will have a graphical tool to manage groups. Novice users
are advised to use this graphical tool. More experienced users can use command line
tools to manage users, but be careful: Some distributions do not allow the mixed use of
GUI and CLI tools to manage groups (YaST in Novell Suse). Senior administrators can edit
the relevant files directly with vi or vigr.

31.1. groupadd

Groups can be created with the groupadd command. The example below shows the
creation of five (empty) groups.

root@laika:~# groupadd tennis

root@laika:~# groupadd football
root@laika:~# groupadd snooker
root@laika:~# groupadd formula1
root@laika:~# groupadd salsa

31.2. group file

Users can be a member of several groups. Group membership is defined by the /etc/group
file.

root@laika:~# tail -5 /etc/group

tennis:x:1006:
football:x:1007:
snooker:x:1008:
formula1:x:1009:
salsa:x:1010:
root@laika:~#

The first field is the group's name. The second field is the group's (encrypted) password
(can be empty). The third field is the group identification or GID. The fourth field is the
list of members, these groups have no members.

31.3. groups

A user can type the groups command to see a list of groups where the user belongs to.

[harry@RHEL4b ~]$ groups

harry sports
[harry@RHEL4b ~]$

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 groups

31.4. usermod

Group membership can be modified with the useradd or usermod command.

root@laika:~# usermod -a -G tennis inge

root@laika:~# usermod -a -G tennis katrien
root@laika:~# usermod -a -G salsa katrien
root@laika:~# usermod -a -G snooker sandra
root@laika:~# usermod -a -G formula1 annelies
root@laika:~# tail -5 /etc/group
tennis:x:1006:inge,katrien
football:x:1007:
snooker:x:1008:sandra
formula1:x:1009:annelies
salsa:x:1010:katrien
root@laika:~#

Be careful when using usermod to add users to groups. By default, the usermod
command will remove the user from every group of which he is a member if the group is
not listed in the command! Using the -a (append) switch prevents this behaviour.

31.5. groupmod

You can change the group name with the groupmod command.

root@laika:~# groupmod -n darts snooker

root@laika:~# tail -5 /etc/group
tennis:x:1006:inge,katrien
football:x:1007:
formula1:x:1009:annelies
salsa:x:1010:katrien
darts:x:1008:sandra

31.6. groupdel

You can permanently remove a group with the groupdel command.

root@laika:~# groupdel tennis

root@laika:~#

31.7. gpasswd

You can delegate control of group membership to another user with the gpasswd
command. In the example below we delegate permissions to add and remove group
members to serena for the sports group. Then we su to serena and add harry to the
sports group.
[root@RHEL4b ~]# gpasswd -A serena sports
[root@RHEL4b ~]# su - serena
[serena@RHEL4b ~]$ id harry
uid=516(harry) gid=520(harry) groups=520(harry)
[serena@RHEL4b ~]$ gpasswd -a harry sports
Adding user harry to group sports
[serena@RHEL4b ~]$ id harry
uid=516(harry) gid=520(harry) groups=520(harry),522(sports)
[serena@RHEL4b ~]$ tail -1 /etc/group 299
sports:x:522:serena,venus,harry
[serena@RHEL4b ~]$
 groups

Group administrators do not have to be a member of the group. They can remove
themselves from a group, but this does not influence their ability to add or remove
members.

[serena@RHEL4b ~]$ gpasswd -d serena sports

Removing user serena from group sports
[serena@RHEL4b ~]$ exit

Information about group administrators is kept in the /etc/gshadow file.

[root@RHEL4b ~]# tail -1

/etc/gshadow
sports:!:serena:venus,harry
To remove all group administrators from a group, use the gpasswd command to set an
empty administrators list.

[root@RHEL4b ~]# gpasswd -A "" sports

31.8. newgrp

You can start a child shell with a new temporary primary group using the newgrp
command.

root@rhel65:~# mkdir prigroup

root@rhel65:~# cd prigroup/
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# touch standard.txt
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Apr 13 17:49 standard.txt
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# echo $SHLVL
1
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# newgrp tennis
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# echo $SHLVL
2
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# touch newgrp.txt
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--. 1 root tennis 0 Apr 13 17:49 newgrp.txt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Apr 13 17:49 standard.txt
root@rhel65:~/prigroup# exit
exit
root@rhel65:~/prigroup#

31.9. vigr

Similar to vipw, the vigr command can be used to manually edit the /etc/group file, since
it will do proper locking of the file. Only experienced senior administrators should use vi
or vigr to manage groups.

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31.10. practice: groups

1. Create the groups tennis, football and sports.

2. In one command, make venus a member of tennis and sports.

3. Rename the football group to foot.

4. Use vi to add serena to the tennis group.

5. Use the id command to verify that serena is a member of tennis.

6. Make someone responsible for managing group membership of foot and sports. Test that it works.

301
31.11. solution: groups

1. Create the groups tennis, football and sports.

groupadd tennis ; groupadd football ; groupadd sports

2. In one command, make venus a member of tennis and sports.

usermod -a -G tennis,sports venus

3. Rename the football group to foot.

groupmod -n foot football

4. Use vi to add serena to the tennis group.

vi /etc/group

5. Use the id command to verify that serena is a member of tennis.

id (and after logoff logon serena should be member)

6. Make someone responsible for managing group membership of foot and sports. Test that it works.

gpasswd -A (to make manager)

gpasswd -a (to add member)

Part IX. file security

Table of Contents
32. standard file permissions............................................................................................................... 307
32.1. file ownership............................................................................................................................308
32.2. list of special files......................................................................................................................310
32.3. permissions................................................................................................................................311
32.4. practice: standard file permissions...........................................................................................316
32.5. solution: standard file permissions...........................................................................................317
33. advanced file permissions.............................................................................................................. 319
33.1. sticky bit on directory...............................................................................................................320
33.2. setgid bit on directory...............................................................................................................320
33.3. setgid and setuid on regular files..............................................................................................321
33.4. setuid on sudo...........................................................................................................................321
33.5. practice: sticky, setuid and setgid bits......................................................................................322
33.6. solution: sticky, setuid and setgid bits......................................................................................323
34. access control lists......................................................................................................................... 325
34.1. acl in /etc/fstab.........................................................................................................................326
34.2. getfacl........................................................................................................................................326
34.3. setfacl.........................................................................................................................................326
34.4. remove an acl entry..................................................................................................................327
34.5. remove the complete acl..........................................................................................................327
34.6. the acl mask..............................................................................................................................327
34.7. eiciel...........................................................................................................................................328
35. file links......................................................................................................................................... 329
35.1. inodes........................................................................................................................................330
35.2. about directories.......................................................................................................................331
35.3. hard links...................................................................................................................................332
35.4. symbolic links............................................................................................................................333
35.5. removing links...........................................................................................................................333
35.6. practice : links............................................................................................................................334
35.7. solution : links............................................................................................................................335

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 standard file
permissions

Chapter 32. standard file permissions

This chapter contains details about basic file security through file ownership and file
permissions.

32.1. file ownership

32.1.1. user owner and group owner

The users and groups of a system can be locally managed in /etc/passwd and
/etc/group, or they can be in a NIS, LDAP, or Samba domain. These users and groups can
own files. Actually, every file has a user owner and a group owner, as can be seen in the
following screenshot.

paul@rhel65:~/owners$ ls -lh
total 636K
-rw-r--r--. 1 paul snooker 1.1K Apr 8 18:47 data.odt
-rw-r--r--. 1 paul paul 626K Apr 8 18:46 file1

-rw-r--r--. 1 root tennis 185 Apr 8 18:46 file2

-rw-rw-r--. 1 root root 0 Apr 8 18:47 stuff.txt

paul@rhel65:~/owners$

User paul owns three files; file1 has paul as user owner and has the group paul as group
owner, data.odt is group owned by the group snooker, file2 by the group tennis.

The last file is called stuff.txt and is owned by the root user and the root group.

32.1.2. listing user accounts

You can use the following command to list all local user accounts.

paul@debian7~$ cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd | column

root ntp sam bert naomi
daemon mysql tom rino matthias2
bin paul wouter antonio bram
sys maarten robrecht simon fabrice
sync kevin bilal sven chimene
games yuri dimitri wouter2 messagebus
man william ahmed tarik roger
lp yves dylan jan frank
mail kris robin ian toon
news hamid matthias ivan rinus
uucp vladimir ben azeddine eddy

308
 standard file
proxy abiy permissions
mike eric bram2
www-data david kevin2 kamel keith
backup chahid kenzo ischa jesse
list stef aaron bart frederick
irc joeri lorenzo omer hans
gnats glenn jens kurt dries
nobody yannick ruben steve steve2
libuuid christof jelle constantin tomas
Debian-exim george stefaan sam2 johan
statd joost marc bjorn tom2
sshd arno thomas ronald

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 standard file
permissions

32.1.3. chgrp

You can change the group owner of a file using the chgrp command.

root@rhel65:/home/paul/owners# ls -l file2
-rw-r--r--. 1 root tennis 185 Apr 8 18:46 file2
root@rhel65:/home/paul/owners# chgrp snooker file2
root@rhel65:/home/paul/owners# ls -l file2
-rw-r--r--. 1 root snooker 185 Apr 8 18:46 file2
root@rhel65:/home/paul/owners#

32.1.4. chown

The user owner of a file can be changed with chown command.

root@laika:/home/paul# ls -l FileForPaul
-rw-r--r-- 1 root paul 0 2008-08-06 14:11 FileForPaul
root@laika:/home/paul# chown paul FileForPaul
root@laika:/home/paul# ls -l FileForPaul
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 2008-08-06 14:11 FileForPaul

You can also use chown to change both the user owner and the group owner.

root@laika:/home/paul# ls -l FileForPaul
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 2008-08-06 14:11 FileForPaul
root@laika:/home/paul# chown root:project42 FileForPaul
root@laika:/home/paul# ls -l FileForPaul
-rw-r--r-- 1 root project42 0 2008-08-06 14:11 FileForPaul

32.2. list of special files

When you use ls -l, for each file you can see ten characters before the user and group
owner. The first character tells us the type of file. Regular files get a -, directories get a
d, symbolic links are shown with an l, pipes get a p, character devices a c, block
devices a b, and sockets an s.

Table 32.1. Unix special files

first character file type

- normal file
d directory
l symbolic link
p named pipe
b block device
c character device

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s socket permissions

Below a screenshot of a character device (the console) and a block device (the hard disk).

paul@debian6lt~$ ls -ld /dev/console /dev/sda

crw------- 1 root root 5, 1 Mar 15 12:45 /dev/console

brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Mar 15 12:45 /dev/sda

And here you can see a directory, a regular file and a symbolic link.

paul@debian6lt~$ ls -ld /etc /etc/hosts /etc/motd

drwxr-xr-x 128 root root 12288 Mar 15 18:34 /etc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 372 Dec 10 17:36 /etc/hosts
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Dec 5 10:36 /etc/motd -> /var/run/motd

32.3. permissions

32.3.1. rwx

The nine characters following the file type denote the permissions in three triplets. A
permission can be r for read access, w for write access, and x for execute. You need the r
permission to list (ls) the contents of a directory. You need the x permission to
enter (cd) a directory. You need the w permission to create files in or remove files from
a directory.

Table 32.2. standard Unix file permissions

permission on a file on a directory

r (read) read file contents (cat) read directory contents (ls)
w (write) change file contents (vi) create files in (touch)
x (execute) execute the file enter the directory (cd)

32.3.2. three sets of rwx

We already know that the output of ls -l starts with ten characters for each file. This
screenshot shows a regular file (because the first character is a - ).

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls -l proc42.bash
-rwxr-xr-- 1 paul proj 984 Feb 6 12:01 proc42.bash

Below is a table describing the function of all ten characters.

Table 32.3. Unix file permissions position

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 standard file
position characters permissions function
1 - this is a regular file
2-4 rwx permissions for the user owner
5-7 r-x permissions for the group owner
8-10 r-- permissions for others

When you are the user owner of a file, then the user owner permissions apply to you.
The rest of the permissions have no influence on your access to the file.

When you belong to the group that is the group owner of a file, then the group owner
permissions apply to you. The rest of the permissions have no influence on your access
to the file.

When you are not the user owner of a file and you do not belong to the group owner,
then the others permissions apply to you. The rest of the permissions have no influence
on your access to the file.

32.3.3. permission examples

Some example combinations on files and directories are seen in this screenshot. The
name of the file explains the permissions.

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -lh
total 12K
drwxr-xr-x 2 paul paul 4.0K 2007-02-07 22:26 AllEnter_UserCreateDelete
-rwxrwxrwx 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:21 EveryoneFullControl.txt
-r--r----- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:21 OnlyOwnersRead.txt
-rwxrwx--- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:21 OwnersAll_RestNothing.txt
dr-xr-x--- 2 paul paul 4.0K 2007-02-07 22:25 UserAndGroupEnter
dr-x------ 2 paul paul 4.0K 2007-02-07 22:25 OnlyUserEnter
paul@laika:~/perms$

To summarise, the first rwx triplet represents the permissions for the user owner. The
second triplet corresponds to the group owner; it specifies permissions for all members
of that group. The third triplet defines permissions for all other users that are not the
user owner and are not a member of the group owner.

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32.3.4. setting permissions (chmod)

Permissions can be changed with chmod. The first example gives the user owner
execute permissions.

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt
paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod u+x permissions.txt
paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwxr--r-- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

This example removes the group owners read permission.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod g-r permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwx---r-- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

This example removes the others read permission.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod o-r permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwx------ 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

This example gives all of them the write permission.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod a+w permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwx-w--w- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

You don't even have to type the a.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod +x permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwx-wx-wx 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

You can also set explicit permissions.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod u=rw permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rw--wx-wx 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

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Feel free to make any kind of combination.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod u=rw,g=rw,o=r permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

Even fishy combinations are accepted by chmod.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod u=rwx,ug+rw,o=r permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwxrw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

32.3.5. setting octal permissions

Most Unix administrators will use the old school octal system to talk about and set
permissions. Look at the triplet bitwise, equating r to 4, w to 2, and x to 1.

Table 32.4. Octal permissions

binary octal permission

000 0 ---
001 1 --x
010 2 -w-
011 3 -wx
100 4 r--
101 5 r-x
110 6 rw-
111 7 rwx

This makes 777 equal to rwxrwxrwx and by the same logic, 654 mean rw-r-xr-- . The chmod
command will accept these numbers.

paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod 777 permissions.txt

paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwxrwxrwx 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt
paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod 664 permissions.txt
paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt
paul@laika:~/perms$ chmod 750 permissions.txt
paul@laika:~/perms$ ls -l permissions.txt
-rwxr-x--- 1 paul paul 0 2007-02-07 22:34 permissions.txt

32.3.6. umask

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When creating a file or directory, a set of default permissions are applied. These default
permissions are determined by the umask. The umask specifies permissions that you do
not want set on by default. You can display the umask with the umask command.

[Harry@RHEL4b ~]$ umask

0002
[Harry@RHEL4b ~]$ touch test
[Harry@RHEL4b ~]$ ls -l test
-rw-rw-r-- 1 Harry Harry 0 Jul 24 06:03 test
[Harry@RHEL4b ~]$

As you can also see, the file is also not executable by default. This is a general security
feature among Unixes; newly created files are never executable by default. You have to
explicitly do a chmod +x to make a file executable. This also means that the 1 bit in the
umask has no meaning--a umask of 0022 is the same as 0033.

32.3.7. mkdir -m

When creating directories with mkdir you can use the -m option to set the mode. This
screenshot explains.

paul@debian5~$ mkdir -m 700 MyDir

paul@debian5~$ mkdir -m 777 Public
paul@debian5~$ ls -dl MyDir/ Public/
drwx------ 2 paul paul 4096 2011-10-16 19:16 MyDir/
drwxrwxrwx 2 paul paul 4096 2011-10-16 19:16 Public/

32.3.8. cp -p

To preserve permissions and time stamps from source files, use cp -p.

paul@laika:~/perms$ cp file* cp
paul@laika:~/perms$ cp -p file* cpp
paul@laika:~/perms$ ll *
-rwx------ 1 paul paul 0 2008-08-25 13:26 file33
-rwxr-x--- 1 paul paul 0 2008-08-25 13:26 file42

cp:
total 0
-rwx------
1 paul paul 0 2008-08-25 13:34 file33
-rwxr-x--- 1 paul paul 0 2008-08-25 13:34 file42

cpp:
total 0
-rwx------
1 paul paul 0 2008-08-25 13:26 file33
-rwxr-x--- 1 paul paul 0 2008-08-25 13:26 file42

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32.4. practice: standard file permissions

1. As normal user, create a directory ~/permissions. Create a file owned by yourself in there.

2. Copy a file owned by root from /etc/ to your permissions dir, who owns this file now ?

3. As root, create a file in the users ~/permissions directory.

4. As normal user, look at who owns this file created by root.

5. Change the ownership of all files in ~/permissions to yourself.

6. Make sure you have all rights to these files, and others can only read.

7. With chmod, is 770 the same as rwxrwx--- ?

8. With chmod, is 664 the same as r-xr-xr-- ?

9. With chmod, is 400 the same as r-------------------?

10. With chmod, is 734 the same as rwxr-xr-- ?

11a. Display the umask in octal and in symbolic form.

11b. Set the umask to 077, but use the symbolic format to set it. Verify that this works.

12. Create a file as root, give only read to others. Can a normal user read this file ? Test
writing to this file with vi.

13a. Create a file as normal user, give only read to others. Can another normal user read
this file ? Test writing to this file with vi.

13b. Can root read this file ? Can root write to this file with vi ?

14. Create a directory that belongs to a group, where every member of that group can
read and write to files, and create files. Make sure that people can only delete their own
files.
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32.5. solution: standard file permissions

1. As normal user, create a directory ~/permissions. Create a file owned by yourself in there.

mkdir ~/permissions ; touch ~/permissions/myfile.txt

2. Copy a file owned by root from /etc/ to your permissions dir, who owns this file now ?

cp /etc/hosts ~/permissions/

The copy is owned by you.

3. As root, create a file in the users ~/permissions directory.

(become root)# touch /home/username/permissions/rootfile

4. As normal user, look at who owns this file created by root.

ls -l ~/permissions

The file created by root is owned by root.

5. Change the ownership of all files in ~/permissions to yourself.

chown user ~/permissions/*

You cannot become owner of the file that belongs to root.

6. Make sure you have all rights to these files, and others can only read.

chmod 644 (on files)

chmod 755 (on directories)

7. With chmod, is 770 the same as rwxrwx--- ? yes

8. With chmod, is 664 the same as r-xr-xr-- ? No

9. With chmod, is 400 the same as r-------------------?

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 advanced file permissions
yes

10. With chmod, is 734 the same as rwxr-xr-- ? no

11a. Display the umask in octal and in symbolic form.

umask ; umask -S

11b. Set the umask to 077, but use the symbolic format to set it. Verify that this works.

umask -S u=rwx,go=

12. Create a file as root, give only read to others. Can a normal user read this file ? Test
writing to this file with vi.

(become root)

# echo hello > /home/username/root.txt

# chmod 744 /home/username/root.txt

(become user)

vi ~/root.txt
13a. Create a file as normal user, give only read to others. Can another normal user read
this file ? Test writing to this file with vi.

echo hello > file ; chmod 744 file

Yes, others can read this file

13b. Can root read this file ? Can root write to this file with vi ?

Yes, root can read and write to this file. Permissions do not apply to root.

14. Create a directory that belongs to a group, where every member of that group can
read and write to files, and create files. Make sure that people can only delete their own
files.

mkdir /home/project42 ; groupadd project42

chgrp project42 /home/project42 ; chmod 775 /home/project42

You can not yet do the last part of this exercise...

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Chapter 33. advanced file permissions

33.1. sticky bit on directory

You can set the sticky bit on a directory to prevent users from removing files that they
do not own as a user owner. -megakadályozza, hogy a felhasználók olyan fájlokat
mozdítsanak el, melyekhez nem rendelkeznek megfelelő jogosultságokkal The sticky bit
is displayed at the same location as the x permission for others. The sticky bit is
represented by a t (meaning x is also there) or a T (when there is no x for others).

root@RHELv4u4:~# mkdir /project55

root@RHELv4u4:~# ls -ld /project55
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 7 17:38 /project55
root@RHELv4u4:~# chmod +t /project55/
root@RHELv4u4:~# ls -ld /project55
drwxr-xr-t 2 root root 4096 Feb 7 17:38 /project55
root@RHELv4u4:~#

The sticky bit can also be set with octal permissions, it is binary 1 in the first of four triplets.

root@RHELv4u4:~# chmod 1775 /project55/

root@RHELv4u4:~# ls -ld /project55
drwxrwxr-t 2 root root 4096 Feb 7 17:38 /project55
root@RHELv4u4:~#
root@barry:~# ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 6 root root 4096 2009-06-04 19:02 /tmp

You will typically find the sticky bit on the /tmp directory.

33.2. setgid bit on directory

setgid can be used on directories to make sure that all files inside the directory are
owned by the group owner of the directory. The setgid bit is displayed at the same
location as the x permission for group owner. The setgid bit is represented by an s
(meaning x is also there) or a S (when there is no x for the group owner). As this example
shows, even though root does not belong to the group proj55, the files created by root in
/project55 will belong to proj55 since the setgid is set.

root@RHELv4u4:~# groupadd proj55

root@RHELv4u4:~# chown root:proj55 /project55/
root@RHELv4u4:~# chmod 2775 /project55/
root@RHELv4u4:~# touch /project55/fromroot.txt
paul@laika:~$ find
root@RHELv4u4:~# ls/-ld
-type d -perm -2000 2> /dev/null
/project55/
/var/log/mysql
drwxrwsr-x 2 root proj55 4096 Feb 7 17:45 /project55/
root@RHELv4u4:~# ls -l /project55/
/var/log/news
total 4
/var/local
-rw-r--r-- 1 root proj55 0 Feb 7 17:45 fromroot.txt
...
root@RHELv4u4:~#

You can use the find command to find all setgid directories.

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 advanced file permissions

33.3. setgid and setuid on regular files

These two permissions cause an executable file to be executed with the permissions of
the file owner instead of the executing owner. This means that if any user executes
a program that belongs to the root user, and the setuid bit is set on that program, then
the program runs as root. This can be dangerous, but sometimes this is good for security.
Take the example of passwords; they are stored in /etc/shadow which is only readable by
root. (The root user never needs permissions anyway.)

root@RHELv4u4:~# ls -l /etc/shadow
-r-------- 1 root root 1260 Jan 21 07:49 /etc/shadow

Changing your password requires an update of this file, so how can normal non-root
users do this? Let's take a look at the permissions on the /usr/bin/passwd.

root@RHELv4u4:~# ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-r-s--x--x 1 root root 21200 Jun 17 2005 /usr/bin/passwd

When running the passwd program, you are executing it with root

credentials. You can use the find command to find all setuid programs.

paul@laika:~$ find /usr/bin -type f -perm -04000

/usr/bin/arping
/usr/bin/kgrantpty
/usr/bin/newgrp
/usr/bin/chfn
/usr/bin/sudo
/usr/bin/fping6
/usr/bin/passwd
/usr/bin/gpasswd
...

In most cases, setting the setuid bit on executables is sufficient. Setting the setgid bit will
result in these programs to run with the credentials of their group owner.

33.4. setuid on sudo

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 advanced file permissions
The sudo binary has the setuid bit set, so any user can run it with the effective userid of root.

paul@rhel65:~$ ls -l $(which sudo)

---s--x--x. 1 root root 123832 Oct 7 2013 /usr/bin/sudo
paul@rhel65:~$

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 advanced file permissions

33.5. practice: sticky, setuid and setgid bits

1a. Set up a directory, owned by the group sports.

1b. Members of the sports group should be able to create files in this directory.

1c. All files created in this directory should be group-owned by the sports

group. 1d. Users should be able to delete only their own user-owned files.

1e. Test that this works!

2. Verify the permissions on /usr/bin/passwd. Remove the setuid, then try changing your password as a
normal user. Reset the permissions back and try again.

3. If time permits (or if you are waiting for other students to finish this practice), read about file attributes
in the man page of chattr and lsattr. Try setting the i attribute on a file and test that it works.

33.6. solution: sticky, setuid and setgid bits

1a. Set up a directory, owned by the group sports.

groupadd sports

mkdir /home/sports

chown root:sports /home/sports

1b. Members of the sports group should be able to create files in this directory.

chmod 770 /home/sports

1c. All files created in this directory should be group-owned by the sports group.

chmod 2770 /home/sports

1d. Users should be able to delete only their own user-owned files.

chmod +t /home/sports

1e. Test that this works!

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 advanced file permissions

Log in with different users (group members and others and root), create files and watch
the permissions. Try changing and deleting files...

2. Verify the permissions on /usr/bin/passwd. Remove the setuid, then try changing your password as a
normal user. Reset the permissions back and try again.

root@deb503:~# ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 31704 2009-11-14 15:41 /usr/bin/passwd
root@deb503:~# chmod 755 /usr/bin/passwd
root@deb503:~# ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 31704 2009-11-14 15:41 /usr/bin/passwd

A normal user cannot change password now.

root@deb503:~# chmod 4755 /usr/bin/passwd

root@deb503:~# ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 31704 2009-11-14 15:41 /usr/bin/passwd

3. If time permits (or if you are waiting for other students to finish this practice), read about file attributes
in the man page of chattr and lsattr. Try setting the i attribute on a file and test that it works.

paul@laika:~$ sudo su -
[sudo] password for paul:
root@laika:~# mkdir attr
root@laika:~# cd attr/
root@laika:~/attr# touch file42
root@laika:~/attr# lsattr
./file42
root@laika:~/attr# chattr +i file42

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 access control lists

root@laika:~/attr# lsattr
----i------------- ./file42
root@laika:~/attr# rm -rf file42
rm: cannot remove `file42': Operation not permitted
root@laika:~/attr# chattr -i file42
root@laika:~/attr# rm -rf file42
root@laika:~/attr#

Chapter 34. access control lists

Standard Unix permissions might not be enough for some organisations. This chapter
introduces access control lists or acl's to further protect files and directories.

34.1. acl in /etc/fstab

File systems that support access control lists, or acls, have to be mounted with the acl
option listed in /etc/fstab. In the example below, you can see that the root file system
has acl support, whereas /home/data does not.

root@laika:~# tail -4 /etc/fstab

/dev/sda1 / ext3 acl,relatime 0 1
/dev/sdb2 /home/data auto noacl,defaults 0 0
pasha:/home/r /home/pasha nfs defaults 0 0
wolf:/srv/data /home/wolf nfs defaults 0 0

34.2. getfacl

Reading acls can be done with /usr/bin/getfacl. This screenshot shows how to read the acl
of file33 with getfacl.

paul@laika:~/test$ getfacl file33

# file: file33
# owner: paul
# group: paul
user::rw-
group::r--
mask::rwx
other::r--

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 access control lists

34.3. setfacl

Writing or changing acls can be done with /usr/bin/setfacl. These screenshots show
how to change the acl of file33 with setfacl.

First we add user sandra with octal permission 7 to the acl.

paul@laika:~/test$ setfacl -m u:sandra:7 file33

Then we add the group tennis with octal permission 6 to the acl of the same file.

paul@laika:~/test$ setfacl -m g:tennis:6 file33

The result is visible with getfacl.

paul@laika:~/test$ getfacl file33

# file: file33
# owner: paul
# group: paul
user::rw-
user:sandra:rwx
group::r--
group:tennis:rw
- mask::rwx
other::r--

34.4. remove an acl entry

The -x option of the setfacl command will remove an acl entry from the targeted file.

paul@laika:~/test$ setfacl -m u:sandra:7 file33

paul@laika:~/test$ getfacl file33 | grep sandra
user:sandra:rwx
paul@laika:~/test$ setfacl -x sandra file33
paul@laika:~/test$ getfacl file33 | grep sandra

Note that omitting the u or g when defining the acl for an account will default it to a user
account.

34.5. remove the complete acl

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 access control lists
The -b option of the setfacl command will remove the acl from the targeted file.

paul@laika:~/test$ setfacl -b file33

paul@laika:~/test$ getfacl file33
# file: file33
# owner: paul
# group: paul
user::rw-
group::r--
other::r--

34.6. the acl mask

The acl mask defines the maximum effective permissions for any entry in the acl. This
mask is calculated every time you execute the setfacl or chmod

commands. You can pr

event the calculation by using the --no-mask switch.

paul@laika:~/test$ setfacl --no-mask -m u:sandra:7 file33
paul@laika:~/test$ getfacl file33
# file: file33
# owner: paul
# group: paul
user::rw-
user:sandra:rwx #effective:rw-
group::r--
mask::rw-
other::r--

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34.7. eiciel

Desktop users might want to use eiciel to manage acls with a graphical tool.

You will need to install eiciel and nautilus-actions to have an extra tab in nautilus to
manage acls.

paul@laika:~$ sudo aptitude install eiciel nautilus-actions

Chapter 35. file links

An average computer using Linux has a file system with many hard links and symbolic
links. To understand links in a file system, you first have to understand what an inode is.

35.1. inodes

35.1.1. inode contents

An inode is a data structure that contains metadata about a file. When the file system
stores a new file on the hard disk, it stores not only the contents (data) of the file, but
also extra properties like the name of the file, the creation date, its permissions, the
owner of the file, and more. All this information (except the name of the file and the
contents of the file) is stored in the inode of the file.

The ls -l command will display some of the inode contents, as seen in this screenshot.
root@rhel53 ~# ls -ld /home/project42/327
drwxr-xr-x 4 root pro42 4.0K Mar 27 14:29 /home/project42/
 file links

35.1.2. inode table

The inode table contains all of the inodes and is created when you create the file system
(with mkfs). You can use the df -i command to see how many inodes are used and free
on mounted file systems.

root@rhel53 ~# df -i
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
4947968 115326 4832642 3% /
/dev/hda1 26104 45 26059 1% /boot
tmpfs 64417 1 64416 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1 262144 2207 259937 1% /home/project42
/dev/sdb1 74400 5519 68881 8% /home/project33
/dev/sdb5 0 0 0 - /home/sales
/dev/sdb6 100744 11 100733 1% /home/research

In the df -i screenshot above you can see the inode usage for several mounted file
systems. You don't see numbers for /dev/sdb5 because it is a fat file system.

35.1.3. inode number

Each inode has a unique number (the inode number). You can see the inode numbers
with the ls -li command.

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ touch file1

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ touch file2
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ touch file3
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls -li
total 12
817266 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file1
817267 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file2
817268 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file3
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$

These three files were created one after the other and got three different inodes (the
first column). All the information you see with this ls command resides in the inode,
except for the filename (which is contained in the directory).

35.1.4. inode and file contents

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 file links
Let's put some data in one of the files.

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls -li
total 16
817266 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file1
817270 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 92 Feb 5 15:42 file2
817268 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file3
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ cat file2
It is winter now and it is very cold.
We do not like the cold, we prefer hot summer nights.
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$

The data that is displayed by the cat command is not in the inode, but somewhere else
on the disk. The inode contains a pointer to that data.

35.2. about directories

35.2.1. a directory is a table

A directory is a special kind of file that contains a table which maps filenames to inodes.
Listing our current directory with ls -ali will display the contents of the directory file.

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls -ali
total 32
817262 drwxrwxr-x 2 paul paul 4096 Feb 5 15:42 .
800768 drwx------ 16 paul paul 4096 Feb 5 15:42 ..
817266 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file1
817270 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 92 Feb 5 15:42 file2
817268 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file3
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$

35.2.2. . and ..

You can see five names, and the mapping to their five inodes. The dot . is a mapping to
itself, and the dotdot .. is a mapping to the parent directory. The three other names are
mappings to different inodes.

35.3. hard links

35.3.1. creating hard links

329
 file links
When we create a hard link to a file with ln, an extra entry is added in the directory. A
new file name is mapped to an existing inode.

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ln file2 hardlink_to_file2

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls -li
total 24
817266 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file1
817270 -rw-rw-r-- 2 paul paul 92 Feb 5 15:42 file2
817268 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file3
817270 -rw-rw-r-- 2 paul paul 92 Feb 5 15:42 hardlink_to_file2
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$

Both files have the same inode, so they will always have the same permissions and the
same owner. Both files will have the same content. Actually, both files are equal now,
meaning you can safely remove the original file, the hardlinked file will remain. The inode
contains a counter, counting the number of hard links to itself. When the counter drops
to zero, then the inode is emptied.

35.3.2. finding hard links

You can use the find command to look for files with a certain inode. The screenshot
below shows how to search for all filenames that point to inode 817270. Remember
that an inode number is unique to its partition.

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ find / -inum 817270 2> /dev/null

/home/paul/test/file2
/home/paul/test/hardlink_to_file2

330
35.4. symbolic links

Symbolic links (sometimes called soft links) do not link to inodes, but create a name to
name mapping. Symbolic links are created with ln -s. As you can see below, the symbolic
link gets an inode of its own.

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ln -s file2 symlink_to_file2

paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$ ls -li
total 32
817273 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 13 Feb 5 17:06 file1
817270 -rw-rw-r-- 2 paul paul 106 Feb 5 17:04 file2
817268 -rw-rw-r-- 1 paul paul 0 Feb 5 15:38 file3
817270 -rw-rw-r-- 2 paul paul 106 Feb 5 17:04 hardlink_to_file2
817267 lrwxrwxrwx 1 paul paul 5 Feb 5 16:55 symlink_to_file2 -> file2
paul@RHELv4u4:~/test$

Permissions on a symbolic link have no meaning, since the permissions of the target
apply. Hard links are limited to their own partition (because they point to an inode),
symbolic links can link anywhere (other file systems, even networked).

35.5. removing links

Links can be removed with rm.

paul@laika:~$ touch data.txt

paul@laika:~$ ln -s data.txt sl_data.txt
paul@laika:~$ ln data.txt hl_data.txt
paul@laika:~$ rm sl_data.txt
paul@laika:~$ rm hl_data.txt

35.6. practice : links

1. Create two files named winter.txt and summer.txt, put some text in them.

2. Create a hard link to winter.txt named hlwinter.txt.

3. Display the inode numbers of these three files, the hard links should have the same inode.

4. Use the find command to list the two hardlinked files

5. Everything about a file is in the inode, except two things : name them!
 6. Create a symbolic link to summer.txt called slsummer.txt.

7. Find all files with inode number 2. What does this information tell you ?

8. Look at the directories /etc/init.d/ /etc/rc2.d/ /etc/rc3.d/ ... do you see the links ?

9. Look in /lib with ls -l...

10. Use find to look in your home directory for regular files that do not(!) have one hard link.

35.7. solution : links

1. Create two files named winter.txt and summer.txt, put some text in them.

echo cold > winter.txt ; echo hot > summer.txt

2. Create a hard link to winter.txt named hlwinter.txt.

ln winter.txt hlwinter.txt

3. Display the inode numbers of these three files, the hard links should have the same inode.

ls -li winter.txt summer.txt hlwinter.txt

4. Use the find command to list the two hardlinked files

find . -inum xyz #replace xyz with the inode number

5. Everything about a file is in the inode, except two things : name them!

The name of the file is in a directory, and the contents is somewhere on the disk.

6. Create a symbolic link to summer.txt called slsummer.txt.

ln -s summer.txt slsummer.txt

7. Find all files with inode number 2. What does this information tell you ?

It tells you there is more than one inode table (one for every formatted partition +
virtual file systems)

8. Look at the directories /etc/init.d/ /etc/rc.d/ /etc/rc3.d/ ... do you see the links ?

ls -l /etc/init.d

/etc/rc2.d
ls -l /etc/rc3.d
9. Look in /lib with ls -l...

ls -l /lib

10. Use find to look in your home directory for regular files that do not(!) have one hard link.

find ~ ! -links 1 -type f

Part X. Appendices
Table of Contents
A. keyboard settings............................................................................................................................ 338
A.1. about keyboard layout...............................................................................................................338
A.2. X Keyboard Layout.....................................................................................................................338
A.3. shell keyboard layout.................................................................................................................338
B. hardware......................................................................................................................................... 340
B.1. buses...........................................................................................................................................340
B.2. interrupts....................................................................................................................................341
B.3. io ports........................................................................................................................................342
B.4. dma.............................................................................................................................................342
C. License............................................................................................................................................ 344

337
Appendix A. keyboard settings

A.1. about keyboard layout

Many people (like US-Americans) prefer the default US-qwerty keyboard layout. So when
you are not from the USA and want a local keyboard layout on your system, then the
best practice is to select this keyboard at installation time. Then the keyboard layout will
always be correct. Also, whenever you use ssh to remotely manage a Linux system, your
local keyboard layout will be used, independent of the server keyboard configuration. So
you will not find much information on changing keyboard layout on the fly on linux,
because not many people need it. Below are some tips to help you.

A.2. X Keyboard Layout

This is the relevant portion in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, first for Belgian azerty, then for US-
qwerty.

[paul@RHEL5 ~]$ grep -i xkb /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Option "XkbModel" "pc105"

[paul@RHEL5 ~]$ grep -i xkb /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Option "XkbModel" "pc105"

When in Gnome or KDE or any other graphical environment, look in the graphical menu
in preferences, there will be a keyboard section to choose your layout. Use the graphical
menu instead of editing xorg.conf.

A.3. shell keyboard layout

When in bash, take a look in the /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file. Below a sample US-qwerty
configuration, followed by a Belgian azerty configuration.

[paul@RHEL5 ~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/keyboard

KEYBOARDTYPE="pc"
KEYTABLE="us"

[paul@RHEL5 ~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/keyboard

KEYBOARDTYPE="pc"
KEYTABLE="be-latin1"

The keymaps themselves can be found in /usr/share/keymaps or /lib/kbd/keymaps.

338
[paul@RHEL5 ~]$ ls -l /lib/kbd/keymaps/
total 52
 keyboard settings

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 1 00:14 atari

drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Apr 1 00:14 i386
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 1 00:14 include
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Apr 1 00:14 mac
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Apr 1 00:14 ppc -> mac
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 1 00:14 sun

339
 hardwar
e

Appendix B. hardware

B.1. buses

B.1.1. about buses

Hardware components communicate with the Central Processing Unit or cpu over a bus.
The most common buses today are usb, pci, agp, pci-express and pcmcia aka pc-card.
These are all Plag and Play buses.

Older x86 computers often had isa buses, which can be configured using jumpers or dip
switches.

B.1.2. /proc/bus

To list the buses recognised by the Linux kernel on your computer, look at the contents
of the /proc/bus/ directory (screenshot from Ubuntu 7.04 and RHEL4u4 below).

root@laika:~# ls /proc/bus/
input pccard pci usb

[root@RHEL4b ~]# ls /proc/bus/

input pci usb

Can you guess which of these two screenshots was taken on a laptop ?

B.1.3. /usr/sbin/lsusb

To list all the usb devices connected to your system, you could read the contents of
/proc/ bus/usb/devices (if it exists) or you could use the more readable output of lsusb,
which is executed here on a SPARC system with Ubuntu.

root@shaka:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0430:0100 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 3-button Mouse
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0430:0005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Type 6 Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 04b0:0136 Nikon Corp. Coolpix 7900 (storage)
root@shaka:~#

B.1.4. /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids

341
 hardwar
e a gzipped list of all known usb devices.
The /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids file contains

paul@barry:~$ zmore /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids | head

------> /var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids <------
#
# List of USB ID's
#
# Maintained by Vojtech Pavlik <[email protected]>

# If you have any new entries, send them to the maintainer.

# The latest version can be obtained from
# http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids
#
# $Id: usb.ids,v 1.225 2006/07/13 04:18:02 dbrownell Exp $

B.1.5. /usr/sbin/lspci

To get a list of all pci devices connected, you could take a look at /proc/bus/pci or run lspci
(partial output below).

paul@laika:~$ lspci
...
00:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-139...
00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-816...
00:09.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7133/SAA713...
00:0a.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA ...
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A...
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1....
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1....
...

B.2. interrupts

B.2.1. about interrupts

An interrupt request or IRQ is a request from a device to the CPU. A device raises an
interrupt when it requires the attention of the CPU (could be because the device has data
ready to be read by the CPU).

Since the introduction of pci, irq's can be shared among devices.

342
 hardwar
Interrupt 0 is always reserved for the e
timer, interrupt
1 for the keyboard. IRQ 2 is used
as a channel for IRQ's 8 to 15, and thus is the same as IRQ 9.

B.2.2. /proc/interrupts

You can see a listing of interrupts on your system in /proc/interrupts.

paul@laika:~$ cat /proc/interrupts

CPU0 CPU1
0: 1320048 555 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 10224 7 IO-APIC-edge i8042
7: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge parport0
8: 2 1 IO-APIC-edge rtc
10: 3062 21 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 131 2 IO-APIC-edge i8042
15: 47073 0 IO-APIC-edge ide1
18: 0 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi yenta
19: 31056 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi libata, ohci1394
20: 19042 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi eth0
21: 44052 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2,...
22: 188352 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi ra0

343
 hardwar
e

23: 632444 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi nvidia

24: 1585 1 IO-APIC-fasteoi VIA82XX-MODEM, VIA8237

B.2.3. dmesg

You can also use dmesg to find irq's allocated at boot time.
paul@laika:~$ dmesg | grep "irq 1[45]"
[ 28.930069] ata3: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0x2090 irq 14
[ 28.930071] ata4: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0x2098 irq 15

B.3. io ports

B.3.1. about io ports

Communication in the other direction, from CPU to device, happens through IO ports.
The CPU writes data or control codes to the IO port of the device. But this is not only a
one way communication, the CPU can also use a device's IO port to read status
information about the device. Unlike interrupts, ports cannot be shared!

B.3.2. /proc/ioports

You can see a listing of your system's IO ports via /proc/ioports.

[root@RHEL4b ~]# cat /proc/ioports

0000-001f : dma1
0020-0021 : pic1
0040-0043 : timer0
0050-0053 : timer1
0060-006f : keyboard
0070-0077 : rtc
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00a1 : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : fpu
0170-0177 : ide1
02f8-02ff : serial
...

344
 hardwar
e
B.4. dma

B.4.1. about dma

A device that needs a lot of data, interrupts and ports can pose a heavy load on the cpu.
With dma or Direct Memory Access a device can gain (temporary) access to a specific
range of the ram memory.

B.4.2. /proc/dma

Looking at /proc/dma might not give you the information that you want, since it only
contains currently assigned dma channels for isa devices.

root@laika:~# cat /proc/dma

1: parport0
4: cascade

pci devices that are using dma are not listed in /proc/dma, in this case dmesg can be
useful. The screenshot below shows that during boot the parallel port received dma
channel 1, and the Infrared port received dma channel 3.

root@laika:~# dmesg | egrep -C 1 'dma 1|dma 3'

[ 20.576000] parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
[ 20.580000] parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7, dma 1...
[ 20.764000] irda_init()
--
[ 21.204000] pnp: Device 00:0b activated.
[ 21.204000] nsc_ircc_pnp_probe() : From PnP, found firbase 0x2F8...
[ 21.204000] nsc-ircc, chip->init

345
Appendix C. License

GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this

license document, but changing it is not allowed.

0. PREAMBLE

The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other

functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to
assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,
with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially.
Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way
to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible
for modifications made by others.

This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative

works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It
complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
license designed for free software.

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it
can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License
principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

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This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that
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or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright
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A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the

Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
modifications and/or translated into another language.

344
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of
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The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles

345
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License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other
implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has
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2. VERBATIM COPYING

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either

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The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License

give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or
imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this
License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified
versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the
Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and
list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its
license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
different contents, make the title of each such section unique by
adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original
author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.
Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of
Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History"

in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled
"History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements",
and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections
Entitled "Endorsements".

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other

documents released under this License, and replace the individual
copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules
of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all
other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and

distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a
copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that
document.

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate

and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or
distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright
resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights
of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit.

351
 License
When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not
apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves
derivative works of the Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these

copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of
the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on
covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form.
Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole
aggregate.

352
 License

8. TRANSLATION

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may

distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a
translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include
the original English version of this License and the original versions
of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between
the translation and the original version of this License or a notice
or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.

If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",

"Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to Preserve
its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual
title.

9. TERMINATION

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document

except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise
to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License.

However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license
from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally,
unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally
terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder
fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to
60 days after the cessation.

Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is

reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the
violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have
received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that
copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after
your receipt of the notice.

Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the
licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under
this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently
reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does
not give you any rights to use it.

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the
GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions
will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in

353
 License
detail to address new problems or concerns. See
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.

If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this
License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or
of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document specifies

354
 License

that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be
used, that proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version
permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.

11. RELICENSING

"Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site" (or "MMC Site") means any

World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also
provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A
public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A
"Massive Multiauthor Collaboration" (or "MMC") contained in the site
means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.

"CC-BY-SA" means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit
corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco,
California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license
published by that same organization.

"Incorporate" means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in

part, as part of another Document.

An MMC is "eligible for relicensing" if it is licensed under this

License, and if all works that were first published under this License
somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole
or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections,

355
Index /etc/inputrc, 292
/etc/login.defs, 286
Symbols
/etc/passwd, 191, 275, 278, 287, 287, 308
; (shell), 136
/etc/profile, 292
!! (shell), 156
/etc/resolv.conf, 120
! (bash history), 156
/etc/shadow, 283, 285, 321
! (file globbing), 163
/etc/shells, 235, 278
? (file globbing), 162
/etc/skel, 105, 277
/, 76, 102
/etc/sudoers, 269, 270
/bin, 103, 128
/etc/sysconfig, 105
/bin/bash, 125, 292
/etc/sysconfig/firstboot, 106
/bin/cat, 103
/etc/sysconfig/harddisks, 106
/bin/csh, 125
/etc/sysconfig/hwconf, 106
/bin/date, 103
/etc/sysconfig/keyboard, 106
/bin/ksh, 125, 292
/etc/X11/xorg.conf, 105
/bin/rm, 129
/export, 107
/bin/sh, 125
/home, 107
/boot, 105
/lib, 104
/boot/grub, 105
/lib/kbd/keymaps/, 106
/boot/grub/grub.cfg, 105
/lib/modules, 104
/boot/grub/grub.conf, 105
/dev, 85, 109
/dev/null, 109, 175
/dev/pts/1, 109
/dev/random, 120
/dev/tty1, 109
/dev/urandom, 119, 121
/dev/zero, 120
/etc, 105
/etc/bashrc, 293
/etc/default/useradd, 276
/etc/fstab, 326
/etc/group, 299, 308
/etc/gshadow, 301
/etc/hosts, 120
/etc/init.d/, 105
351
/lib32, 104 /var/lock, 117
/lib64, 104 /var/log, 116
/media, 107 /var/log/messages, 116
/opt, 104 /var/log/syslog, 116
/proc, 85, 109 /var/run, 117
/proc/bus, 340 /var/spool, 116
/proc/bus/pci, 341 /var/tmp, 117
/proc/bus/usb/devices, 340 ., 75
/proc/cpuinfo, 110 .., 75
/proc/dma, 342 .. (directory), 331
/proc/interrupts, 112, 341 . (directory), 331
/proc/ioports, 342 . (shell), 236
/proc/kcore, 112 .bash_history, 157
/proc/sys, 111 .bash_login, 293
/root, 107 .bash_logout, 294
/run, 117 .bash_profile, 292
/sbin, 103, 128 .bashrc, 292, 293
/srv, 107 .exrc, 229
/sys, 113 .vimrc, 229
/tmp, 108, 320 `(backtick), 151
/usr, 114 ~, 75
/usr/bin, 114
/usr/bin/getfacl, 326
/usr/bin/passwd, 321
/usr/bin/setfacl, 326
/usr/include, 114
/usr/lib, 114
/usr/local, 114
/usr/share, 114
/usr/share/games, 115
/usr/share/man, 115
/usr/src, 115
/var, 116
/var/cache, 116
/var/lib, 117
/var/lib/rpm, 117
/var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids, 340

352
 Index

'(single quote), 151 alias(bash), 129

" (double quotes), 127 alias(shell), 129
(( (shell), 256
apropos, 72
-- (shell), 237
arguments(shell), 126
[ (file globbing), 163
[ (shell), 241
$? (shell variables), 136 B
backticks, 151
$() embedded shell, 151
base64, 177
$ (shell variables), 142
bash, 219, 248
$HISTFILE, 157
bash history, 156
$HISTFILESIZE, 157
bash -x, 237
$HISTSIZE, 157
binaries, 103
$LANG, 164
Bourne again shell, 125 BSD, 4
$PATH, 128, 145
bunzip2, 201
$PS1, 76
bus, 340
* (file globbing), 162
bzcat, 201
\ (backslash), 138
bzip2, 199, 201, 201
&, 136
bzmore, 201
&&, 137
#!/bin/bash, 235
#! (shell), 235
# (pound sign), 138
>, 173
>>, 174
>|, 174
||, 137
1>, 175
2>, 175
2>&1, 175
777, 314

A
access control list, 326
acl, 328
acls, 326
agp, 340
AIX, 4

352
 Index
C command line scan,
126
cal, 198
command mode(vi), 223
case, 258
copyleft, 11
case sensitive, 85
copyright, 10, 10
cat, 96, 182
cp, 88
cd, 75
cp(1), 88
cd -, 76
cpu, 340
CentOS, 7
crypt, 284
chage, 286
csh, 235
chgrp(1), 309
Ctrl d, 96
chkconfig, 106
ctrl-r, 157
chmod, 277, 314
current directory, 75
chmod(1), 226, 313
cut, 191
chmod +x, 235, 315
cut(1), 184
chown, 277
chown(1), 309
D
chsh(1), 278 daemon, 72
c date, 197
o
m Debian, 7
m Dennis Ritchie, 4
(
1 devfs, 113
)
df -i, 330
,
directory, 331
1
8 distribution, 6
8 distributions, 102
dma, 342
dmesg(1), 342, 343
dumpkeys(1), 106

E
echo, 126
echo(1), 125, 127
echo $-, 152
echo *, 165
Edubuntu, 7
eiciel, 328
ELF, 104

353
 Index
elif, 242
embedding(shell), 151

354
env(1), 146, 146 GPL, 11
environment variable, 142 GPLv3, 11
EOF, 96, 177 grep, 206, 207, 210
escaping (shell), 165 grep(1), 182
eval, 256 grep -i, 182
executables, 103 grep -v, 183
exit (bash), 157 groupadd(1), 299
export, 146 groupdel(1), 300
groupmod(1), 300

F groups, 298
Fedora, 7 groups(1), 299
FHS, 102 gunzip(1), 200
file, 85 gzip, 200
file(1), 104 gzip(1), 200
file globbing, 161
file ownership, 308
H
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, 102 hard link, 332
filters, 181
head(1), 95
find(1), 196, 320, 321, 332
here directive, 97
FireWire, 113
here document, 177
for (bash), 242
here string, 177
FOSS, 10
four freedoms, 11
Free Software, 10
free software, 10
freeware, 10
function (shell), 259

G
gcc(1), 285
getfacl, 326
getopts, 251
GID, 299
glob(7), 162
GNU, 4
gpasswd, 301
 hidden files, 77 interrupt, 341
HP, 4 IO Ports, 342
HP-UX, 4 IRQ, 341
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/, isa, 340
102

K
I Ken Thompson, 4
IBM, 4
kernel, 104
id, 267
keymaps(5), 106
IEEE 1394, 113
Korn shell, 158
i
f Korn Shell, 278
ksh, 158, 235
t
h kudzu, 106
e
n
L
e less(1), 98
l
s let, 257
e Linus Torvalds, 4

( Linux Mint, 7
b
ln, 333
a
s ln(1), 332
h
) loadkeys(1), 106
, locate(1), 197

2 logical AND, 137

4
logical OR, 137
2
Logiciel Libre, 10
i
n ls, 77, 311, 330
o ls(1), 77, 330, 331
d
e ls -l, 310
, lspci, 341

3 lsusb, 340
2
9
, M
magic, 85
3
3 makewhatis, 73
2
man(1), 72, 72, 73
inode table, 330
mandb(1), 73
insert mode(vi), 223
man hier, 102
man -k, 72
md5, 285
mkdir, 277
mkdir(1), 79, 315
mkdir -p, 79
mkfs, 330
more(1), 98 pwd(1), 76
mv, 89

R
random number generator, 120 read, 249
N
noclobber, 174 reboot, 157

nounset(shell), 147 Red Hat, 7

regular expressions, 158

O rename, 90, 212, 213, 214

octal permissions, 314 repository, 6
od(1), 189 Richard Stallman, 4
OEL, 7 rm, 87
open source, 10 rm(1), 333
open source definition, rmdir(1), 79
11 open source software,
10 openssl, 284 rmdir -p, 80

Oracle Enterprise Linux, 7 rm -rf, 87

owner, 311
root, 103, 268, 269, 270, 275
root directory, 102
P rpm, 117
parent directory, 75
passwd, 283, 283, 284, 286
passwd(1), 73, 321
passwd(5), 73
path, 76, 77
pc-card, 340
pci, 340
pci-express, 340
pcmcia, 340
perl, 212
perldoc, 212
popd, 83
prename, 212
primary group, 276
proprietary, 10
public domain, 10
pushd, 83
pwd, 75
S sudo, 269, 270, 287
sudo su -, 270
salt (encryption), 285
Sun, 4
Scientific, 7
SunOS, 4
sed, 190, 215, 216
superuser, 275
set, 152
symbolic link, 333
set(shell), 143
sysfs, 113
set +x, 130
System V, 104
setfacl, 326
setgid, 320, 320
T
setuid, 237, 321, 321, 321 tab key(bash), 77
set -x, 130 tac, 97
she-bang (shell), 235 tail(1), 95
shell, 291 tee(1), 182
shell comment, 138 test, 241
shell embedding, 151 time, 199
shell escaping, 138 touch(1), 86
shell expansion, 126, 126 tr, 185
shell functions, 259 tr(1), 184
shift, 249 type(shell), 128
shopt, 252
skeleton, 105
sleep, 198
soft link, 333
Solaris, 4
sort, 191
sort(1), 186
source, 236, 250
standard input, 96
standard output, 96
stderr, 172
stdin, 172, 182
stdout, 172, 182
sticky bit, 320
strings(1), 98
su, 268, 268, 287, 301
su -, 145
U
Ubuntu, 7
umask(1), 315
unalias(bash), 130
uniq, 191
uniq(1), 187
Unix, 4
unset, 152
unset(shell), 143
until (bash), 243
updatedb(1), 197
usb, 113, 340
useradd, 276, 277, 284
useradd(1), 277
useradd -D, 276
userdel(1), 276
usermod, 287, 287, 300
usermod(1), 276

V
vi, 302
vi(1), 222
vigr(1), 302
vim(1), 222
vimtutor(1), 222
vipw, 287
visudo, 269
vrije software, 10

W
w, 267
wc(1), 185
whatis(1), 72
whereis(1), 72
which(1), 128
while (bash), 243
white space(shell), 126
who, 191, 267
whoami, 267
who am i, 267
wild cards, 163

X
X, 105
X Window System, 105

Z
zcat, 200
zmore, 200