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Chapter 4
Operating System Basics
ITP3901 OPERATING SYSTEMS FUNDAMENTALS
(AY 2019/20)
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What is an Operating System?

 An operating system(OS) is system software that manages computer

hardware and software resources,
and provides common services for computer programs.
 50s - Mainframe Computers
 80s - Desktop Microcomputers became popular
 DOS, CP/M
 Windows NT, MacOS
 Linux

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Key Functions of an Operating
System

 Device Management
 Memory Management
 Process Management
 File Management
 Providing User Interface
 Security

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Types of Operating Systems

 Single Task Vs Multi-Task

 Single User Vs Multi-Users
 Embedded OS
 Designed for devices with a limited number of resources
 Real Time OS
 An OS that guarantees to process events or data by a specific moment in time

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Common Operating Systems

 Microsoft Windows
 first released in 1985, running on top of MS-DOS
 Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, 7, 8, 10
 Windows NT Server, Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 Server
 Apple Macintosh OS (Mac OS)
 MacOS 8, OS 9, OS X (OS 10), macOS Big Sur 11

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Common Operating Systems

 Unix and Unix-like operating systems

 Unix is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating
systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, development starting in
the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center
 E.g. HP's HP-UX and IBM's AIX
 "UNIX-like" is commonly used to refer to the large set of operating systems which
resemble the original UNIX
 E.g. Linux (Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, SuSE etc.)

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The User Interface (UI)

 The user interface (UI) is the component of the OS for the user to interact
with the computer.
 In the old days, the command line interface (CLI) is used for user
interactions.
 Modern operating systems usually provide a graphical user interface (GUI)
in which users perform actions through direct manipulation of the graphical
elements.

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Graphical User Interface ( GUI )

 A graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to use graphics, along
with a keyboard and a mouse to manipulate software using visual objects
such as windows, pull-down menus, pointers, and icons.
 Advantages for using GUI:
 Appealing
 More user-friendly
 Easier to learn

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Command Line Interface ( CLI )

 A command line interface (CLI) is a user interface to a computer's

operating system or an application in which the user responds to a visual
prompt by typing in a command on a specified line
 Reasons for using CLI:
 A simple, low-overhead operating system
 Stable and reliable
 Users have more controls on the operating system and file system
 Allow administrator to administer the system by remote login

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Linux

 Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating

systems based on the Linux kernel
 An operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991
by Linus Torvalds.
 Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution
 Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system
software and libraries
 E.g. Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server

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The Kernel

 Kernel is the most common term for the core of the operating system.
 It is a small piece of code that is loaded into memory when the
computer boots.
 This computer code contains instructions that allow the kernel to
manage hardware devices, memory allocation, system processes, and
other programs.

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The File System

 A file system (or filesystem) is used to control how data is stored and

retrieved. 
 In a hierarchical file system, files are placed in logical containers that
are arranged in an upside-down tree structure.
 The file system starts at the root of the tree.
 UNIX and Linux call these containers ″directory″ and ″subdirectory″.
 Windows and Macintosh OSs use the term ″folder″ and ″subfolder″.

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The File System

 One common type of file system is File Allocation Table (FAT)

 New Technology File System ( NTFS )
 FAT, NTFS, exFAT – used in Windows OS
 ext is extended file system. A second version of this system is called
ext2
 ext2, ext3, ext4 – used in Linux

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Basic
Administration
In Linux

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Linux Distribution Selection

 Fedora
 Red Hat Enterprise
 CentOS
 Mandriva
 Debian
 Ubuntu
 openSuSE
 CentOS
 Chinese Version
 Red Flag

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Linux File System

 File system defines how the hard disk store and organize data
physically
 Some popular filesystems in linux are
 ext2, stable and high performance but no journaling. File system
start up checking (like Scan disk in MS Windows) can be slow,
especially un-clean shutdown (i.e. Shutdown improperly)
 ext3, a journaled version, the most popular
 ext4, latest Linux file system which supports file size up to 16
TB (1024GB) and used in ″ / ″ of Fedora11
 ResiserFS, B-tree based, good performance when dealing with
small files (<4K), 10-15 times faster then ext3

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Filesystem supported by Linux

 NTFS
 FAT32, exFAT
 ext2 / ext3 /ext4
 HPFS

Support means you may use Linux tool to create partition for that particular
type of filesystem (of course, you can read the data from it).

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Directory Layout

 / – root, highest of the hierarchy

 /etc – local configuration files
 /bin – executables files
 /sbin – system utilities files (Administrator only)
 /lib – system library
 /dev – interface to device
 /usr – User application

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Linux Files

 File Types
 Normal (e.g. text file, image file …)
 Directory (container of other directories/files)
 Linux treats everything as file, even your network card, sound card ….
(device files)

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Linux Process

 All running application must have at least one process (you may simply
consider it as a running program)
 Every process have an Process ID (PID)
 Required when you want to kill or check the specified process
 ″init″
 Traditional System V init process
 the first process run on Linux has PID, 1 and all other process are child
process of init
 “Systemd”
 Aimed to replace the traditional Linux init system
 Systemd is the first daemon to start (during booting) and the last daemon to terminate
(during shutdown).

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Super User (root)

 Default username of administrator – root (case sensitive)

 Control all services
 Access to all files on the system
 Not restricted by file permission
 Can move or delete any file/directory in the system
 Can shutdown/stop any process / service
 Only login as root when required
 In order to reduce the change of the system accidentally (e.g.
running malicious application)

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Logging On

 You must have an account (username and password) in order to login to the
system
 After you successfully log in to the Linux system (CLI mode), a shell
prompt such as the $ character for normal user, will appear on the screen (#
character for superuser). The shell prompt is simply a message from the
computer telling you that it is ready to accept typed input on the command
line.
 Reminder – Linux is case sensitive

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Introduction to Console / Terminal Environment

 Why do we need to work under console / terminal?

 There are some reasons to use console / terminal mode for system
administration
 As system resource is limited, many server have no GUI interface installed (i.e.
you must input command)
 In work place, many Linux servers may not equip with a keyboard or mouse. You
must use remote access method like Telnet or SSH.
 SSH is much more efficient than the GUI remote connection tool

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Linux Commands (Basic)

 pwd touch
 ls cat, less, more
 cd grep, find
 mkdir shutdown, reboot
 rmdir |
 cp man
 mv clear

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man – get help!

 Use to open the supporting manual for a command. You can find the
following information of a command
 Syntax
 Function
 Argument
 etc. …

e.g. man pwd

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pwd

 To see the current working directory

e.g. $ pwd
It is the home directory of user “lily”
$ /home/lily

Remark:
~ means the home directory of the login user

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cd

 ″cd″ is used to change to other directory.

 e.g. assume we are current in ″ / ″, input ″cd home″ will go to the
directory “home”
 ″ .. ″ mean parent directory (or simply one upper level)
 e.g. assume we are currently in ″/home/john″, input ″cd ..″ will go
to one upper level that is ″home″.
 User can input command ″cd″ or ″cd ~″ to go back his/her own home
directory

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Understand . , .. and ~

 ″.″ is another special directory. It means the current directory.

 Often used to execute program (i.e. the system will search the required
file in this directory first)
 ″..″ means parent directory e.g. the parent directory of
/home/lily is /home
 “~” means home directory of the user

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Absolute Path and Relative Path

 Absolute path indicates the full path of a file or directory

 By input absolute path, you can locate the exact position of the file or directory
 Absolute path must start from /
 e.g. /home/john/osf_notes.txt
 Relative path depends on the current directory. You need to know
where you are.
 If you are in /home/student and execute the command
[student@osa ~]$cat osf_notes.txt
osf_notes.txt may not be found.

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ls

 ls lists the content of a directory

 ″ls –a″ lists all files, including hidden files.
 ″ls –l″ lists all files with detail information
 You may have several
parameters (order of the
parameters is not important)
e.g. ″ls –al″ or ″ls
–la″ or
″ls -l –a″

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cat , less, more
cp, mv
 ″cat″ displays the content of a file (it should be an ASCII file)
e.g. $cat myfile
 $less myfile
 $more myfile
 ″cp″ copies a file from one directory to another directory.
e.g. $cp /home/john/note.doc /home/student1/note.doc
 ″mv″
 moves a file from one directory to anther directory (i.e. copy and then delete the source
file)
e.g. $mv /home/john/note.doc /home/student/note.doc
 renames a file in a directory
 e.g. $mv /home/john/note.doc /home/student/note.doc

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touch

 ″touch″ is used to update the time stamp of the file.

 If the file is not exist, it creates the file.
 e.g. $touch myfile

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rm

 ″rm″ command is used to remove a file or directory

 Console will prompt for confirmation before the file is really deleted.
$ rm myfile
 ″rm″ parameters
 ″rm –f″, no confirmation
 ″rm –rf″, it removes the directory even it is not empty

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Using wildcards *

 Assume we want to delete all files (1000 or more) in a directory

 We can use ″rm *″
 * will match any characters and any length of filename
 Assume we have the following 6 files in a directory
 file1, file2, file3, file4, file, fileABC.
 We can delete all 6 files by ″ rm file* ″
 We can delete fileABC by ″ rm fileA* ″
 The * can match any number of characters or even no character.

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Shutdown and Reboot

 Shutdown the machine

 %shutdown –h now
 Reboot the machine
 %shutdown –r now
 %reboot

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Switch user

 su
 change user ID or become superuser
 su -l user01
 su user01

 su -l
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Executing Command with root
privilege

 sudo
 execute a command as another user
 $sudo shutdown –h now

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Search text in a file

 grep
 print lines matching a pattern
 grep texttosearch file01

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find command

 A very powerful and flexible searching command

 find [path] –[argument] [criteria]
 e.g. ″find / -name john″
 This command start the search of the file ″john″ from ″/″
 e.g. ″find /home –name john.*″ means the search
started from directory ″/home″, targeted filename ″john″ with
any extension

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pipe |

 | can pass the output of one command to another command.

 e.g. ″ls –l | more ″
 the output of ls –l will be passed to more, which will display
the output one page at a time.

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Clear the terminal screen

 $clear

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