COEP FOSSMeet 28-29 March 2020

http://foss.coep.org.in/fossmeet

Introduction to Linux Desktop

and
Command Line
20 Jan 2020

Abhijit A. M.
abhijit.comp@coep.ac.in
COEP’s Free Software Users Group
(COFSUG)
Why GNU/Linux ?
Why GNU/Linux ?

1. Programmer’s Paradise : most versatile,

vast, all pervasive programming
environment

2. Free Software ( or Open Source?) : Free

as in freedom. Freely Use, copy, modify,
redistribute.

3. Highly Productive : Do more in less time

4. Better quality, more secure, very few

crashes
Why Command Line ?

1. Not for everyone ! Absolutely !

2. Those who do it are way more productive

than others

3. Makes you think !

4. Portable. Learn once, use everywhere on

all Unixes, Linuxes, etc.
 Few Key Concepts

Files don't open themselves

Always some application/program
open()s a file.

Files don't display themselves

A file is displayed by the program which
opens it. Each program has it's own way
of handling ifles
 Few Key Concepts

Programs don't run themselves

You click on a program, or run a
command --> equivalent to request to
Operating System to run it. The OS runs
your program

Users (humans) request OS to run
programs, using Graphical or
Command line interface

and programs open files
 Path names

Tree like directory structure

Root directory called /

A complete path name for a file

/home/student/a.c

Relative path names
concept: every running program has a current
working directory
. current directory
.. parent directory
./Desktop/xyz/../p.c
 A command

Name of an executable file

For example: 'ls' is actually “/bin/ls”

Command takes arguments

E.g. ls /tmp/

Command takes options

E.g. ls -a
 A command

Command can take both arguments
and options

E.g. ls -a /tmp/

Options and arguments are basically
argv[] of the main() of that program
 Basic Navigation Commands
 pwd
 ls

ls -l Map these
ls -l /tmp/
commands to



ls -l /home/student/Desktop

ls -l ./Desktop navigation using

ls -a a graphical file
\ls -F browser
 cd

cd /tmp/

cd

cd /home/student/Desktop
 notation: ~

cd ~

cd ~/Desktop

ls ~/Desktop
 The Shell

Shell = Cover

Covers the
Operating System's
“System Calls” for
the Applications

Talks with Users
and Applications
and does some talk
with OS

Not a very accurate diagram !

 The Shell

Shell waits for user's input

Requests the OS to run a program which the user

has asked to run

Again waits for user's input

GUI is a Shell !
Let's Understand fork() and
exec()
#include <unistd.h> #include <unistd.h>
int main() { int main() {
fork(); printf("hi\n");
printf("hi\n"); execl("/bin/ls",
"ls", NULL);
return 0;
printf("bye\n");
}
return 0;
}
 A simple shell
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main() {
char string[128];
int pid;
while(1) {
printf("prompt>");
scanf("%s", string);
pid = fork();
if(pid == 0) {
execl(string, string, NULL);
} else {
wait(0);
}
}
}
 File Permissions on Linux

Two types of users

root and non-root

Users can grouped into 'groups'

3 sets of 3 permission

Octal notation

Read = 4, Write = 2, Execute = 1

644 means

Read-Write for owner, Read for Group, Read for others

chmod command uses these notations

 File Permissions on Linux

-rw-r--r-- 1 abhijit abhijit 1183744 May 16 12:48

01_linux_basics.ppt
-rw-r--r-- 1 abhijit abhijit 341736 May 17 10:39 Debian Family
Tree.svg
drwxr-xr-x 2 abhijit abhijit 4096 May 17 11:16 fork-exec
-rw-r--r-- 1 abhijit abhijit 7831341 May 11 12:13 foss.odp
Owner size name
3 sets of 3 permissions

3 sets = user (owner), last-modification

group, others

3 permissions = read, hard link count

write, execute
 File Permissions on Linux

r on a file : can read the file

open(.... O_RDONLY) works

w on a file: can modify the file

x on a file: can ask the os to run the file as an
executable program

r on a directory: can do 'ls'

w on a directory: can add/remove files from
that directory (even without 'r'!)

x on a directory: can 'cd' to that directory
 Access rights examples

-rw-r--r--
Readable and writable for file owner, only readable
for others

-rw-r-----
Readable and writable for file owner, only readable
for users belonging to the file group.

drwx------
Directory only accessible by its owner

-------r-x
File executable by others but neither by your
friends nor by yourself. Nice protections for a
trap...

http//free-
electrons.com
Man Pages
 Manpage  4 Device drivers and
 $ man ls network protocols
 $ man 2 mkdir
 /dev/tty
 $ man man
 5 Standard file formats
 $ man -k mkdir
 /etc/hosts
 Manpage sections
 6 Games and demos
 /usr/games/fortune
 1 User-level
cmds and apps
 7 Misc. files and docs
 /bin/mkdir
 man 7 locale
 2 System calls
 8 System admin. Cmds
 int mkdir(const char
 /sbin/reboot
*, …);
 3 Library calls
 int printf(const char
*, …);
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~weesan/cs183/
 GNU / Linux filesystem
structure
Not imposed by the system. Can vary from one
system to the other, even between two GNU/Linux
installations!

/ Root directory
/bin/ Basic, essential system commands
/boot/ Kernel images, initrd and
configuration files
/dev/ Files representing devices
/dev/hda: first IDE hard disk
/etc/ System and application configuration
files
/home/ User directories
/lib/ Basic system shared libraries

http//free-
electrons.com
 GNU / Linux filesystem
structure
/lost+found Corrupt files the system tried to
recover
/media Mount points for removable media:
/media/usbdisk, /media/cdrom
/mnt/ Mount points for temporarily
mounted filesystems
/opt/ Specific tools installed by the
sysadmin
/usr/local/ often used instead
/proc/ Access to system information
/proc/cpuinfo, /proc/version ...
/root/ root user home directory
/sbin/ Administrator-only commands
/sys/ System and device controls
(cpu frequency, device power, etc.)

http//free-
electrons.com
 GNU / Linux filesystem
structure
/tmp/ Temporary files
/usr/ Regular user tools (not essential to the
system)
/usr/bin/, /usr/lib/, /usr/sbin...
/usr/local/ Specific software installed by the
sysadmin
(often preferred to /opt/)
/var/ Data used by the system or system
servers
/var/log/, /var/spool/mail (incoming
mail), /var/spool/lpd (print jobs)...

http//free-
electrons.com
 Files: cut, copy, paste,
remove,

cat <filenames> 
mv <source> <target>

cat /etc/passwd 
mv a.c b.c

cat fork.c 
mv a.c /tmp/

cat <filename1>
<filename2>

mv a.c /tmp/b.c

cp <source> <target>

rm <filename>

cp a.c b.c 
rm a.c

cp a.c /tmp/ 
rm a.c b.c c.c

cp a.c /tmp/b.c 
rm -r /tmp/a

cp -r ./folder1 /tmp/ 
mkdir

cp -r ./folder1 /tmp/folder2

mkdir /tmp/a /tmp/b

rmdir

rmdir /tmp/a /tmp/b
 Useful Commands

echo 
grep

echo hi 
grep bash /etc/passwd

echo hi there 
grep -i display

echo “hi there” /etc/passwd

j=5; echo $j 
egrep -i 'a|b'
/etc/passwd

sort

less <filename>

sort

sort < /etc/passwd

head <filename>

firefox

head -5 <filename>

libreoffice

tail -10 <filename>
 Useful Commands

alias
alias ll='ls -l' 
strings

tar
strings a.out
tar cvf folder.tar
folder

adduser
sudo adduser test

gzip
gzip a.c

su
su administrator

touch
touch xy.txt
touch a.c
 Useful Commands

df
df -h

du
du -hs .

bc

time

date

diff

wc
Network Related Commands

ifconfig 
ping

ssh 
w

scp 
last

telnet 
whoami
 Unix job control
• Start a background process:
– gedit a.c &
– gedit
hit ctrl-z
bg
• Where did it go?
– jobs
– ps
• Terminate the job: kill it
– kill %jobid
– kill pid
• Bring it back into the foreground
– fg %1
 Shell Wildcards

? (question mark) 
[]

Any ene character 
Matches a range

ls a?c

ls ??c

ls a[1-3].c

* 
{}

any number of 
ls pic[1-3].
characters
{txt,jpg}

ls *

ls d*

echo *
 ~/.bashrc file

~/.bashrc
Shell script read each time a bash
shell is started

You can use this file to define

Your default environment variables (PATH,
EDITOR...).

Your aliases.

Your prompt (see the bash manual for details).

A greeting message.

http//free-
electrons.com
 Special devices (1)
Device files with a special behavior or contents

/dev/null
The data sink! Discards all data written to this
file.
Useful to get rid of unwanted output, typically
log information:
mplayer black_adder_4th.avi &> /dev/null

/dev/zero
Reads from this file always return \0
characters
Useful to create a file filled with zeros:
dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1k count=2048

See man null or man zero for details

http//free-
electrons.com
 Special devices (2)

/dev/random
Returns random bytes when read. Mainly used
by cryptographic programs. Uses interrupts
from some device drivers as sources of true
randomness (“entropy”).
Reads can be blocked until enough entropy is
gathered.

/dev/urandom
For programs for which pseudo random
numbers are fine.
Always generates random bytes, even if not
enough entropy is available (in which case it is
possible, though still difficult, to predict future
byte sequences from past ones).
See man random for details.
http//free-
electrons.com
 Special devices (3)

/dev/full
Mimics a full device.
Useful to check that your application properly
handles
this kind of situation.
See man full for details.

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electrons.com
 Files names and inodes

Hard Links Vs Soft Links

Users

File name interface

Soft link File Hard link

rm
rm

Inode Inode Inode

interface

Filesystem

http//free-
electrons.com
Shell Programming
 Shell Programming

is “programming”

Any programming: Use existing tool
to create new utilities

Shell Programming: Use shell
facilities to create better utilities

Know “commands” --> More tools

Know how to combine them
 Shell Variables

Shell supports variables

Try:

j=5; echo $j

No space in j=5

Try

set

Shows all set variables

Try

a=10; b=20; echo $a$b

What did you learn?

All variables are strings
Shell's predefined variables

USER 
HOSTNAME

Name of current user

Name of the computer

OLDPWD

HOME

Previous working directory

Home directory of
current $USER

PATH

List of locations to search

PS1 for a command's

The prompt executable file

LINES

$?

Return value of previou

No. of lines of the command
screen

 Redirection

cmd > filename

Redirects the output to a file

Try:

ls > /tmp/xyz
cat /tmp/xyz

echo hi > /tmp/abc
cat /tmp/abc

cmd < filename

Reads the input from a file instead of keyboard

Think of a command now!
 Pipes

Try

last | less

grep bash /etc/passwd | head – 1

grep bash /etc/passwd | head – 2 | tail -1

Connect the output of LHS command as input of
RHS command

Concept of filters – programs which read input
only from stdin (keyboard, e.g. scanf, getchar),
and write output to stdout (e.g. printf, putchar)

Programs can be connected using pipes if they
are filters

Most Unix/Linux commands are filters !
 The test command

test Shortcut

test 10 -eq 10 notation for

test “10” == “10” calling test
test 10 -eq 9
[]



test 10 -gt 9

test “10” >= “9” [ 10 -eq 10 ]

test -f /etc/passwd Note the space

test -d ~/desktop after '[' and

... before ']'
 The expr command and
backticks

expr 
backticks ``

expr 1 + 2 
j=`ls`; echo $j

a=2; expr $a + 2 
j=`expr 1 + 2`;

a=2; b=3; expr $a + echo $j
$b


a=2;b=3; expr $a \*
$b

a=2;b=3; expr $a | $b

Used for mathematical
calculations
 if then else
if [ $a -lt $b ] if [ $a -lt
then $b ];then
echo $a; else
echo $a echo $b; fi
else 0 TRUE
echo $b Nonzero FALSE
fi
 while do done
while [ $a -lt $b ] while [ $a -lt $b ]; do
do echo $a; a=`expr
echo $a $a + 1`; done
a=`expr $a + 1`
done

while [ $a -lt $b ]
do
echo $a
a=$(($a + 1))
done
 for x in ... do done
for i in {1..10} for i in *; do echo
do $i;
echo $i done
done

for i in *
do
echo $i
done
read space
case $space in
[1-6]*)
case ... esac
Message="one to 6"
;; Syntax
[7-8]*) ;;
Message="7 or 8"
) after option
;;
* for default
9[1-8])
Message="9 with a number" esac
;;
*)
Message="Default"
;;
esac
echo $Message
 Try these things

Print 3rd line from /etc/passwd, which
contains the word bash

Print numbers from 1 to 1000

Create files named like this: file1, file2,
file3, ... filen where n is read from user

Read i%5th file from /etc/passwd and store it
in filei

Find all files ending in .c or .h and create
a .tar.gz file of these files

 The Golden Mantra

Everything can be done from command line !

Command line is far more powerful than graphical

interface

Command line makes you a better programmer