UNIX/Linux Overview

Objectives

What is Unix? Why do I need to know Unix?

Unix history.
Architecture of Unix/Linux. Important files and commands.

How is Unix/Linux booted?

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What is Unix? What is an operating system?

The

low-level (first layer loaded) software which handles the interface to system hardware (input/output devices, memory, file system, etc), schedules tasks, and provides common core services such as a basic user interface.
Colloquially,

all of the software that comes with a system before applications are installed.

What is Unix?
A portable, multi-tasking and multi-user operating system

Portable: runs on many different hardware architectures (Intel x86 and IA-64, Alpha, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, PowerPC, IBM S/390, SPARC, Motorola 680x0, etc.). Preemptive multi-tasking: several programs can run at the same time (time slices, interrupts, and task switching). Multi-user: many users can share the computer system at the same time.
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What is Unix? Other Features

Uses a simple, uniform file model which includes devices and access to other services in a flexible, hierarchical file system. Written in a high-level language (C) making it easy to read, understand, change and port. The command prompt is a simple user process, the Unix shell, which is also a convenient job programming language. Includes support for regular expressions which are convenient for complex searching.
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Is LINUX really UNIX?

Well, yes and no: Yes, because it has essentially the same look and feel like any UNIX operating System. Yes, because it offers the ability to run nearly any program that runs on UNIX systems (through API conventions such as POSIX, etc..). No because the heart of the system (kernel) has a lot of new features that go beyond the classical design philosophy of UNIX kernels.

Unix History

1964 joint project between AT&T Bell Labs, GE, and MIT to develop a new OS. Goal : develop an OS that could provide computational power, data storage and the ability to share data among multiple users. Result: Multiplexed Information & Computer Service - MULTICS.

Unix History

1969 Bell Labs withdraws from group.

Two Bell Lab scientists, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, continue research. They were still left without a Convenient interactive computing service*.

* Ritchie, D.M. The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System, AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal, Oct. 1984, Vol 63, No.8, Part 2, pp. 1577-1594.

Unix History

At the same time Ken Thompson wrote a game space travel in Fortran to run on GECOS OS (Honeywell 635).
The spaceship was hard to control and it was expensive to run. He was told to get the game off his work computer.
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Unix History

Thompson ported the game to a little used PDP-7 computer. Unics (later Unix) was born as a pun on Multics.

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Unix History PDP-7

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Unix History

Dennis Ritchie developed B . Then wrote C a compiled language.

In 1973 entire OS ported to C.

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Linus Torvalds

1991 Linux 0.02 is first released to the public. 1994 Linux 1.0 is released.
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Three Definitions of Linux

Linux

Kernel: The very low-level software that manages

your computer hardware and provides a library (POSIX) interface for user-level software. The Linux kernel runs on many platforms (Intel x86 and IA-64, Alpha, MIPS, HP PARISC, PowerPC, IBM S/390, SPARC, Motorola 680x0, etc.).
GNU/Linux

OS: The Linux kernel plus utility software to

provide a useful working environment.

Linux

Distributions: The packaging of the Linux Kernel,

the GNU/Linux OS and lots of other software to make Linux easy to install, configure, and use (at least for the target audience).

Tux, the Linux Mascot

The Free Software Movement The GNU Project: www.gnu.org

The Four Freedoms

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose. The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

What is GNU?

GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix. The three letter abbreviation is not a joke. It emphasizes a major projec of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) that really created the LINUX operating system with many of its popular tools. Richard Stallman created FSF, in order to encourage the development and use of freely redistributable code. Freely means the freedom of redistributing your code under certain conditions. It does NOT mean zero financial cost! The Gnu Public License (GPL) defines the terms and conditions of redistributing the LINUX kernel and other tools that make it usable, forming a LINUX distribution.

Architecture of Unix

Kernel:

Schedules programs, Manages data/file access and storage, Enforces security, Performs all hardware access.
First program run by kernel on booting. Presents each user a prompt, Interprets commands typed by user, Executes users commands, Provides user/programming environment.
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Init: Shell:

Architecture of Unix

Architecture of Unix Unix file system

root (/)

bin

usr

dev
home var tmp

etc
bin

spool
(users accounts) mail

log

X11R6

(users mail)

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Typical Directories

/:

Root of the tree. Where it starts.

bin, sbin, usr/bin: software for the shells and

most common Unix commands.

dev: short for devices, holds the files necessary

to operate peripherals such as printers and terminals.

home: contains the home directories of users

(/export/home on sun computers).
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Typical Directories
tmp: holds temporary files.

var: contains files that vary in size;

(Mail directories, printer spool files, logs, etc.)

etc: administrative files such as lists of

user names and passwords.

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Typical Directories

usr: Contains application programs

lib: Contains libraries for programs

proc: a pseudo-filesystem used as an interface to kernel data structures.

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File and Directory Name Rules

Valid names can be made up of:

Uppercase letters (A to Z). Lower case letters (a to z). Case sensitive!!! Numbers (0 to 9). Period (.), underscore (_), commas (,).

Should not contain spaces or the following:

& * \ | [ ] { } $ < > ( ) # ? ; ^ ! ~ %. Never /. You should avoid naming files or directories with Unix commands.

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File System Structure

Unix stores a file's administrative information (its physical location on disk, permissions including ownership and modification times) in an inode (inode or Index Node). The file name (link) is stored in the contents of a directory entry. Deleting a file consists of removing a link to the inode (the inode itself is not deleted).

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File System Structure

Data Recovery: When a file is deleted the number of links to the inode is reduced by one. Note: an inode may have more than one link (or name) --- see ln(1). If the number of links becomes zero, the kernel may reuse the disk space making recovery difficult. Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) can recover most data unless wipe(1) is used.
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The K Desktop Environment (KDE)

GNOME

OpenLook Windows Manager (olwm)

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Common Desktop Environment (CDE)

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How Do You Boot Unix? Multi-boot Programs

Windows NT OS loader- select the OS of

choice

Linux LILO (Linux loader)- the tab key will

show Selections. Type the name of the OS to load

Grub Newer versions of Linux (i.e., 9.0) use this loader

to choose the OS

Other methods to boot- Norton system

commander, boot disc, Boot Magic
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Shell

Program that interacts with kernel Bridge between kernel and the user Command interpreter User can type command and the command is conveyed to the kernel and it will be executed

Types of Shell

Sh simple shell BASH Bourne Again Shell

KSH Korne Shell

CSH C Shell SSH Secure Shell To use a particular shell type the shell name at the command prompt. Eg $csh will switch the current shell to c shell

To view the available shells in the system, type cat /etc/shells at

the command prompt

To view the current shell that is being used, type echo $SHELL at the command prompt

UNIX COMMANDS

UNIX Commands
A command is a program which interacts with the kernel to provide the environment and perform the functions called for by the user. A command can be: a built-in shell command; an executable shell file, known as a shell script; or a source compiled, object code file.

The shell is a command line interpreter. The user interacts with the kernel through the shell. You can write ASCII (text) scripts to be acted upon by a shell.

Linux Command Basics

To execute a command, type its name and arguments at the command line
ls -l /etc
Command name
Options (flags) Arguments

Standard Files

UNIX concept of standard files

standard input (where a command gets its input) - default is the terminal standard output (where a command writes it output) - default is the terminal standard error (where a command writes error messages) - default is the terminal

Redirecting Output

The output of a command may be sent (piped) to a file:

ls -l >output
> is used to specify the output file

Redirecting Input

The input of a command may come (be piped) from a file:

wc <input
< is used to specify the input file

Common Commands

pwd - print (display) the working directory cd <dir> - change the current working directory to dir ls - list the files in the current working directory ls -l - list the files in the current working directory in long format

File Commands

cp <fromfile> <tofile> mv <fromfile> <tofile>

Copy from the <fromfile> to the <tofile>

rm <file>

Move/rename the <fromfile> to the <tofile>

Remove the file named <file>

mkdir <newdir> rmdir <dir>

Make a new directory called <newdir>

Remove an (empty) directory

More Commands

who

whoami
ps

List who is currently logged on to the system Report what user you are logged on as List your processes on the system List all the processes on the system

ps aux

echo A string to be echoed

Echo a string (or list of arguments) to the terminal

More Commands

alias - used to tailor commands:

alias erase=rm alias grep=grep -i

ar - Maintain archive libraries: a collection of files (usually object files which may be linked to a program, like a CMS TXTLIB)

More Commands

awk - a file processing language that is well suited to data manipulation and retrieval of information from text files chown - sets the user ID (UID) to owner for the files and directories named by pathname arguments. This command is useful when from test to production

More Commands

diff - attempts to determine the minimal set of changes needed to convert a file specified by the first argument into the file specified by the second argument find - Searches a given file hierarchy specified by path, finding files that match the criteria given by expression

More Commands

grep - Searches files for one or more pattern arguments. It does plain string, basic regular expression, and extended regular expression searching

More Commands

kill - sends a signal to a process or process group You can only kill your own processes unless you are root
C STIME TTY TIME CMD 2 14:34 ttyp0 00:00:00 sleep 10h 0 14:34 ttyp0 00:00:00 ps -ef kill 6715 sleep 10h

UID PID PPID root 6715 6692 root 6716 6692 [root@penguinvm log]# [1]+ Terminated

More Commands

make - helps you manage projects containing a set of interdependent files (e.g. a program with many source and object files; a document built from source files; macro files) make keeps all such files up to date with one another: If one file changes, make updates all the other files that depend on the changed file Roughly the equivalent of VMFBLD

More Commands

sed - applies a set of editing subcommands contained in a script to each argument input file

find ./ -name "*.c,v" | sed s/,v//g | xargs grep "PATH"

This finds all files in the current and subsequent directories with an extension of c,v. sed then strips the ,v off the results of the find command. xargs then uses the results of sed and builds a grep command which searches for occurrences of the word PATH in the C source files.

Pipes
An important early development in Unix was the invention of "pipes," a way to pass the output of one tool to the input of another. eg. $ who | wc l By combining these two tools, giving the wc command the output of who, you can build a new command to list the number of users currently on the system

Basic Unix commands (vs. DOS)

cat file

Concatenate or type out a file,

Type out a number of files Change current directory to directory1 Change current directory to /usr/bin Change back to your home directory Clear the current screen Copy file1 to file2

cat file1 file2 ...

cd directory1 cd /usr/bin cd

clear cp file1 file2

cp file1 file2 ... dir Copy a number of files to a directory

ls ls /usr/bin

List the files in the current directory List the files in the /usr/bin directory Print file1 out , lpr file1 file2 .. Print a number of files out

lpr file1 more file

Look at the content of a file with paging, use q to get out

Basic Unix commands (vs. DOS)

mkdir directory mv file1 file2

Create a directory Move file1 to file2, like rename.

mv file1 file2 ... dir Move a number of files into a directory mv dir1 dir2 Move or rename a directory

rm file

Remove a file
Remove a number of files Remove a directory include the sub-directory Remove a directory

rm file1 file2 ... rm -r directory

rmdir directory

Basic Unix commands (vs. DOS)

DOS Command Unix Descriptions Command Change directory CD cd CHKDSK du Disk usage CLS clear Clear the current screen COPY cp Copying files DEL rm Removing files or directorie File listing of directories DIR ls MD mkdir Create a directory MORE more Type out a file with paging PRINT lpr Print out a file rmdir RD Remove a directory mv RENAME Moving files around cat TYPE Type out files

Who, When, Why, What and Where?

man cp man -k keyword passwd pwd uptime users who w whoami Display on-line manual for the cp command Display manual help file related to the keyword Change your login password Display the path name of where you are Tell you how long the machine has been up and running Tell you who is logging in Tell you who is logging-in in detail Tell you who is logging in and doing what! Show you the owner of this account

finger user Find out the personal information of a user finger name Try to find the persons info. by his/her name finger email-address Try to find the persons info across the network write user Write a message on somebodys screen talk user Talk to the person logging in the same system with you talk email-address Talk to somebody logging in the network date Display todays time and date cal year Display the calendar of the specified year (e.g. 1997)

Shell Scripting

Shell scripting is the most useful and powerful feature in Linux

Minimizes typing of repetitive command Can schedule jobs to run in the system Can initiate back up activities for system administration Similar to batch files in DOS, but more powerful than Batch files

Working with shell script

Open a file with extension .sh using vi editor We can type any number of commands that we use to type at command prompt Save the file Execute the file
sh file.sh ./file.sh (if the file has execution permission)

VI Editor

Popular text editor Just type vi <<filename>> at the prompt and hit the enter key. A new file will be opened Type the contents needed and save To save, press the Esc Key and then press : (colon) w q and then enter To quit with out saving Esc + : + q and then enter

Vi editor

Navigation Left - h Down -j Up - k Right -l Top of the screen H (shift + h) //caps lock will not work Middle of the screen M (shift + m) Bottom of the screen L (shift + l) $ - End Key, 0 Home Key Edit Commands Cut X, x Copy yy, yw Paste P, p

Vi editor
X cuts the letter after cursor position x cuts the letter before cursor position yy Copies a line at which cursor is currently positioned yw Copies a word at which cursor is currently positioned P Pastes the copied content after cursor position p Pastes the copied content before cursor position dd Deletes a line

Shell Scripts

To Print a line
echo Hello World (Prints Hello World in the screen)

To read a line
read n (Stores the content entered by user in variable n

To Comment a line
# This is a comment Only single line comment is available. For multi line comment, we need to use # symbol in lines which we want to comment.

Conditions

We can have if, if else, if elif else and case statements (Nested if statements are also possible
1. if [ condn ] then fi 2. if [ condn ] then else fi 3. if [ condn ] then elif [ condn ] then else fi

Conditions (Case)
case expr in Option1) stmt ;; Option2) stmt ;; *) stmt ;; esac

Every option should be terminated with a double semicolon. Denotes default case Case should be termniated with esac

Loops

For loop
for i in 1 2 3 4 5 //Loops 5 times do Body of the loop done

for (( i=0; i<5; i++ )) do Body of the loop done

While Loop
while [ condn ] do body of the loop done We need to ensure that the while loop condition is terminated in a finite way

Comparison

For integer comparison we have the following

-eq : equal to -ne : not equal to -lt : less than -gt : greater than -le : less than or equal to -ge : greater than or equal to

Comparison

For string comparison we have

= : equal to ~= : not equal to

For logical operators

-a : AND -o : OR

Arrays

Initialising an array
A[0] = 10 A[1] = Hi

Using an array
${A[0]} : retrieves 10

Here arrays can contain data belonging to different data types Uninitialised index in arrays will have null value by default

Functions

Local Function
Written at the command prompt Lasts for the current session alone
Written in .bashrc file Available as long as the definition is there in .bashrc file

Global Function

Function in shell script

Available with in the file alone

Parameters

Sample function
Functionname() { echo $1 }
Calling function: Functionname Ram Result: Ram

We can pass any number of parameters like this $0 File name $1,$2 - first, second parameters and so on $? stores the status (success or failure status of the last command that was executed) $# - stores the number of parameters passed through the command line #pwd /home #echo $? 0 // As the last command is success #abc Error:command not found #echo $? 127 // as the last command didnt execute successfully

C Program in Linux

Open a file with extension .c from the command prompt using vi editor vi hello.c

Type the contents and save (Esc : wq!) Compile the file gcc hello.c

Run the executable ./a.out

Compile file with output option gcc o hello hello.c

Run the executable ./hello