Introduction to

UNIX / Linux
CTT06208 Introduction to UNIX

Much of the material in these slides was taken from

LINUX/UNIX books and websites
 What is an Operating System?
 The operating system (OS) is the program which starts up when
you turn on your computer and runs underneath all other
programs - without it nothing would happen at all.
 In simple terms, an operating system is a manager. It manages
all the available resources on a computer, from the CPU, to
memory, to hard disk accesses.
 Tasks the operating system must perform:
 Control Hardware - The operating system controls all the parts of the
computer and attempts to get everything working together.
 Run Applications - Another job the OS does is run application software.
This would include word processors, web browsers, games, etc...
 Manage Data and Files - The OS makes it easy for you to organize your
computer. Through the OS you are able to do a number of things to data,
including copy, move, delete, and rename it. This makes it much easier
to find and organize what you have.
 UNIX History
 The UNIX operating system was born in the late 1960s. It
originally began as a one man project led by Ken Thompson
of Bell Labs, and has since grown to become the most widely
used operating system.
 In the time since UNIX was first developed, it has gone
through many different generations and even mutations.
 Some differ substantially from the original version, like Berkeley
Software Distribution (BSD) or Linux.
 Others, still contain major portions that are based on the original
source code.
 An interesting and rather up-to-date timeline of these
variations of UNIX can be found at
http://www.levenez.com/unix/history.html.
 General Characteristics of UNIX as
an Operating System (OS)
 Multi-user & Multi-tasking - most versions of UNIX are capable of allowing multiple users
to log onto the system, and have each run multiple tasks. This is standard for most modern OSs.
 Over 30 Years Old - UNIX is over 30 years old and it's popularity and use is still high. Over
these years, many variations have spawned off and many have died off, but most modern UNIX
systems can be traced back to the original versions. It has endured the test of time. For
reference, Windows at best is half as old (Windows 1.0 was released in the mid 80s, but it was
not stable or very complete until the 3.x family, which was released in the early 90s).
 Large Number of Applications – there are an enormous amount of applications available for
UNIX operating systems. They range from commercial applications such as CAD, Maya,
WordPerfect, to many free applications.
 Free Applications and Even a Free Operating System - of all of the applications available
under UNIX, many of them are free. The compilers and interpreters that we use in most of the
programming courses here at UCC can be downloaded free of charge. Most of the development
that we do in programming courses is done under the Linux OS.
 Less Resource Intensive - in general, most UNIX installations tend to be much less
demanding on system resources. In many cases, the old family computer that can barely run
Windows is more than sufficient to run the latest version of Linux.
 Internet Development - Much of the backbone of the Internet is run by UNIX servers. Many
of the more general web servers run UNIX with the Apache web server - another free
application.
 Parts of the UNIX OS
 The Kernel - handles memory management, input and output requests, and
program scheduling. Technically speaking, the kernel is the OS. It provides the
basic software connection to the hardware. The kernel is very complex and
deals with the inner workings of these things, and is beyond the scope of this
course. The kernel is covered in detail in “Operating Systems.”
 The Shell and Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) - basic UNIX shells
provides a “command line” interface which allows the user to type in
commands. These commands are translated by the shell into something the
kernel can comprehend, and then executed by the kernel.
 The Built-in System Utilities - are programs that allow a user to perform tasks
which involve complex actions. Utilities provide user interface functions that
are basic to an operating system, but which are too complex to be built into the
shell. Examples of utilities are programs that let us see the contents of a
directory, move & copy files, remove files, etc...
 Application Software & Utilities – these are not part of the operating system,
per se. They are additional programs that are bundled with the OS distribution,
or available separately. These can range from additional or different versions
of basic utilities, to full scale commercial applications.
 Flavors of UNIX
 These can be grouped into two categories: Open Source and Proprietary
 Proprietary: (redistribution and modification prohibited or restricted; not free)
 Solaris - Access to a Solaris UNIX server (solaris.gl.umbc.edu) via SSH access.
 IRIX - There are a couple of IRIX machines in the basement of the library, as well as server
access (irix.gl.umbc.edu) via SSH access.
 Mac OS X
 and many others...
 Open Source: (source code is readily available and free to modify)
 FreeBSD .
 Linux Distributions - access is available in the form of dual-boot PCs scattered throughout the
Engineering building. There are also several Linux servers (linux.gl.umbc.edu) through which
access is available.
 RedHat and the Fedora Project (maintained by RedHat)
 Mandrake
 Debian
 SuSE
 Slackware
 and many others...
 As a side note, Linux is a open source UNIX-based OS that was originally developed in 1991 by
Linus Torvalds, a Finnish undergraduate student.
 UNIX Interfaces
 There are really 1 means of connecting to
UNIX computers here at UCC Labs:
 You can be sitting in front of a dual-
bootable PC that you have booted into
Linux and logged onto. All of your
commands are then being run locally on that
computer. When you logon in this manner
you have a full GUI environment.
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)
 When you logon locally, you are presented with
graphical environment.
 You start at a graphical login screen. You must enter
your username and password. You also the have the
option to choose from a couple session types. Mainly
you have the choice between Gnome and KDE.
 Once you enter in your username and password, you
are then presented with a graphical environment that
looks like one of the following...
Gnome
KDE
 Command Line Interface
 You also have access to some UNIX servers as well.
 You can logon from virtually any computer that has
internet access whether it be Windows, Mac, or UNIX
itself.
 In this case you are communicating through a local
terminal to one of these remote servers.
 All of the commands actually execute on the remote server.
 It is also possible to open up graphical applications through
this window, but that requires a good bit more setup and
software. (Time permitting, we may cover how to do this.)
The Terminal
 Linux vs. Windows
 OS does not have to use a graphical interface.
 The OS itself (the kernel) is incredibly small.
 The GUI just another application (or set of
applications) that can be installed and run on top
the existing text-based OS.
 File system differences.
 Windows typically uses FAT32 or NTFS file
systems.
 Linux typically uses the ext2 or ext3 file systems
 UCC’s Computing Environment
 You need a GL account username and password!
 Since almost all UNIX systems are multi-user systems you
will need to have a logon name and password to
authenticate yourself to the system. At UCC, when you
signup for a GL account, you are given a username and
password, which is your means of logging on to any
computer system, be it UNIX, Windows.
 Where is UNIX / Linux available?
 There are many labs in this building where there are dual-
bootable Windows and Linux PCs. You can simple reboot
one of these machines and select Linux as the operating
system.
 Practical Tasks
 Rebooting the computer into Linux on a dual-
boot PC.
 Logging in.
 Locking the screen.
 Logging out.
 The non-graphical terminal!
 Press Ctrl-Alt-F2 then login
 Be sure to logout with the command “logout”
 Press Ctrl-Alt-F7 to get the GUI back.
 What is X Window?
 X window is the program that draws windows on the screen
under most GUI-based versions of UNIX. It is important to
note that the language that X windows speaks is completely
different from that of Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X.
 Any X window system consists of 2 distinct parts - the X
server and 1 or more X clients.
 The server controls the display directly, and is responsible for all
input/output via the keyboard, mouse or display.
 The clients, on the other hand, do not access the screen directly - they
communicate with the server, which handles all input and output.
 It is the clients which do the "real" computing work - running applications
or whatever.
 The clients communicate with the server, causing the server to open one or
more windows to handle input and output for that client.
What’s the deal about the X Window
Server and Client?!
 The X window server runs on the machine to
which the monitor is connected.
 The clients may also run on this machine,
communicating directly with the server. On
most workstations, this is the normal situation.
However, X is a networked window system,
and it is possible for the client to run on a
remote machine, communicating with the
server via some form of network.
 What is a Desktop Manager?
 Gnome and KDE are examples of desktop managers. Both of
these look a lot like Microsoft Windows.
 They have the equivalent of a Start Menu, have an equivalent of
Windows Explorer, and have some sort of control panel.
 The roll of the Desktop Manager is to provide you with the
ability to manage all of the details of your system that would
otherwise require you to type in a bunch of commands in a
terminal window.
 These details include managing your files, launching programs,
configuring various aspects of your system, etc.
 It is also worthy to note that the desktop manager is optional.
Many older systems did not have a desktop manger that sat in-
between the X server and the Window manager.
 What is a Window Manager?
 The Window Manager is a program that manages the placement of
Windows on your system. The Window Manager makes it possible to
move, resize, and minimize the various programs running on your
computer
 KDE handles this functionality as well, whereas Gnome does not directly
provide this functionality, but rather relies on an independent window
manager to do it for us.
 Think of the Window Manager as the framing around the windows as well
as all of the associated functionality that they provide.
 For example, most all window managers can close, minimize, maximize &
resize.
 However most UNIX window managers add so much more in the way of
functionality. The decoration and customization of these windows under UNIX
tends to be much more flexible.
 Many Window Managers also provide other functionality such as shading,
sticky/nonsticky, window history, and desktop and workspace manipulations.
Some Notes on X window, Desktop Managers &
Window Managers
 Most UNIX systems can be installed without the GUI.
 The GUI is just another application that runs on top of
the operating system.
 There are many implementations of all three of these
components.
 It is possible to mix and match implementation and versions
of these.
 They need not be alike and need not be all by the same
organization.
 This is quite a shift in paradigm from Microsoft and
Apple.
 Programming Tools and Utilities
Available under Linux
 Text Editors  Debuggers
 Xemacs  C / C++ debugger - gdb
 Emacs  Interpreters
 Pico  Perl - perl
 vi  Tcl/Tk - tcl & wish
 Compilers  Miscellaneous
 C compiler - gcc  Web Browsers - Mozilla,
 C++ compiler - g++ Netscape, Firefox, and Lynx
 Java compiler & Java Virtual (lynx is text based)
Machine - javac & java  Instant Messengers - Gaim
 Email - Netscape is there, but
we will learn Pine
THE END
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