GL120

Linux
Fundamentals

Version: GL120-R6S11U1004-H02

Table of Contents

Chapter Numbers & Titles

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

WHAT IS LINUX?
LOGIN AND EXPLORATION
THE LINUX FILESYSTEM
MANIPULATING FILES
SHELL BASICS
ARCHIVING AND COMPRESSION
TEXT PROCESSING
REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
TEXT EDITING
COMMAND SHELLS
INTRODUCTION TO SHELL SCRIPTING
PROCESS MANAGEMENT AND JOB CONTROL
MANAGING SOFTWARE

Table of Contents

MESSAGING
PRINTING
THE SECURE SHELL (SSH)
MOUNTING FILESYSTEMS & MANAGING
REMOVABLE MEDIA
18 PRE-INSTALLATION CONSIDERATIONS
19 INSTALLING RHEL6
20 INSTALLING SLES11
14
15
16
17

Course Logistics

Schedule:

y Class start and end times

y Lunch and other breaks
Training Facility Information:

y Restrooms
y Telephone and network access
y Break rooms and other resources
y Emergency procedures

Introductions

Participant Introductions:

y Name and employer

y Background and relevant experience
y Objectives and topics of interest

Book Design

Typographic Conventions:

The number
"zero".

The letter
"oh".

Keys pressed at the same time.

The number
"one".

The letter
"ell".

Keys pressed in sequence.

Book Design

b.so retry=3a
dit=0 ocredit=2
use_authtok

Line Wrapping:
password required /lib/security/pam_cracklib.so retry=3a
type= minlen=12 dcredit=2 ucredit=2 lcredit=0 ocredit=2
password required /lib/security/pam_unix.so use_authtok

Representing File Edits:

File: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
+
+

#LoginGraceTime 2m
#PermitRootLogin yes
PermitRootLogin no
AllowUsers sjansen
#StrictModes yes

Book Design

shown# inwhoami
the list of supported distributions for the lab task, then you
shouldroot
simply skip that task.

$ c

in the righ
. .
additiona
lab s
In genera
Occasionally
the prompt
contain
additional
Forsupported
example, the
Certain lab steps
are onlywill
to be
performed
on ainformation.
sub-set of the
provid
When
ex
when
of a lab
be performed
on two
different
stations, do
Linux portions
distributions.
Intask
thisshould
case, the
step will start
with
a standardized
Command
the follow
the
prompt
willPrompts:
be expanded
to:
string
that indicates
which distributions
the step should be performed on. command
When completing lab tasks, skip any steps that do not list your chosen output, an
$ c
stationX$ whoami
at hand.
distribution. For example:

guru
ssh root@stationY
1) stationX$
This step should only be performed on FC3 and RHEL4.
root@stationY's password: password
Because of a bug in RHEL4's and FC3's Japanese fonts...
stationY# whoami
root

Sometimes commands or command output is distribution specific. In

these cases, the matching distribution string will be shown to the left of
Distribution
the
command orSpecific
output. ForInformation:
example:
[RHEL4]
[SLES9]

vi

$ grep -i linux /etc/*-release | cut -d: -f2

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant)
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 (i586)

[SLES9]

roo
$. s.
Pas
cli
#. x.

Book Design

and enthusiast
for examples,
, each version
d to represent

e distribution
mplete string

sub-set of the
re using is not
ask, then you

the supported

description of each action and its effect is shown to the right or under
the action. Alternating actions are shaded to aid readability. For example,
the following action list describes one possible way to launch and use
xkill to kill a graphical application:

Action Lists:

Open the "run" dialog.

xkill

Launch xkill. The cursor should change,

usually to a skull and crossbones.
Click on a window of the application to kill.
Indicate which process to kill by clicking on
it. All of the applications windows should
disappear.

Callouts
Occasionally lab steps will feature a shaded line that extends to a note
in the right margin. This note, referred to as a "callout", is used to provide
additional commentary. This commentary is never necessary to complete
the lab succesfully, and could in theory be ignored. However, callouts
do provide valuable information such as: insight into why a particular

Book Design

of the supported
h a standardized
be performed on.
list your chosen

fonts...

ution specific. In
own to the left of

f2
ant)

additional commentary. This commentary is never necessary to complete

the lab succesfully, and could in theory be ignored. However, callouts
do provide valuable information such as: insight into why a particular
command or option is being used, the meaning of less obvious command
output, and tips or tricks such as alternate ways of accomplishing the task
Callouts:
at
hand.
[SLES9]

$ sux Password: password

# xclock

On SUSE, the sux command

copies the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
so that graphical applications
can be run after switching
to another user account. The
normal su command does
not do this.

Chapter

WHAT IS LINUX?

Unix Origins and Design Principles

Inherits features from Multics such as the hierarchical filesystem
Everything is a file
Small single-purpose programs
Ability to pipe small programs together to accomplish more complex
tasks
The kernel makes minimum policy decisions, leaving things up to
easily modifiable userland programs
All configuration data stored as text, (e.g. ASCII, UTF-8)

Unix Timeline
1965 GE, MIT, and AT&T begin work on MULTICS
1969 MULTICS dropped by AT&T, and replace it with UNICS
1973 Unix rewritten in C, making it portable
1975 Sixth Edition released; source licensed at low cost
1979 Seventh Edition released, foundation of future Unix systems
1985 Eighth Edition, based on 4.1BSD
1988 4.3BSD Net/1: first free software release
1989 Tenth Edition, never released publicly; Plan9 First Edition
replaces it in 1992 (open sourced in 2002)
1990 AT&T Unix System V Release 4.
1991 Minix 1.5 released.
1992 Linus Torvalds releases 0.12 Linux under the GPL.

FSF and GNU

Richard Stallman founder of GNU and the FSF
1983 GNU (GNU's not Unix)
goal: create the free GNU Operating System
first programs: emacs and gcc
1985 Free Software Foundation
nonprofit organization for promotion of free software
manages the GNU project
By 1991 the GNU system was almost complete
only crucial component missing was a kernel

GPL General Public License

Guarantees that free software remains free
All software under the GPL makes source available to the end user
Changes to a GPL licensed software package must also be licensed
under the GPL
Source code from GPL licensed software can be incorporated into
other GPL licensed software
Other Licenses:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html

The Linux Kernel

Linus Torvalds Finnish college student
wanted to replace Minix, a UNIX-like feature-limited teaching OS
The Linux kernel
fresh re-implementation of the UNIX APIs
under the GPL license
The Linux kernel together with GNU and other programs forms a
complete free operating system

Linux Timeline
1991
1993
1994
1995
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2003
2011
2011

Linus Torvalds releases 0.1 Linux

AT&T sells UNIX to Novell
Linux kernel 1.0 released
Novell licenses UNIX to SCO
Linux kernel 2.2 released
SCO sells UNIX code to Caldera, at the time a Linux company
Linux kernel 2.4 released
Caldera makes original Unix and BSD sources available
Linux kernel 2.6 released (17 December)
Novell acquires Ximian and SuSE
Attachmate acquires Novell, including SUSE.
3.0 kernel released (21 July).

Components of a Distribution
Typical Linux distributions provide
collection of applications along with the Linux kernel
installation program
documentation
support
some are very specialized (e.g. Linux Router Project)
POSIX and Single Unix Specification compliance
Most Linux distributions provide the same basic software:
GNU software
GNU Coding Standards
BSD and Linux utilities
X.Org, GNOME, KDE, and other GUI components

Slackware
Oldest active distribution
Fork of Softlanding Linux System (SLS)
Added simple package management
Uses compressed tarballs
Added an automated installer
Became extremely popular and continues to have a wide following

SUSE Linux Products

SUSE Linux Enterprise Family
Server and Desktop releases
2 year release cycle
7-10 year maintenance life cycle
Highly scalable, mature technology
Five platforms: x86, Amd64/Intel64, ia64, ppc64, S390x(zSeries)
ISV certifications
The openSUSE Project
Cutting edge
8 month release cycle
Limited security updates for 1.5-2 years

Debian
Second oldest active distribution
Initially sponsored by the FSF
Authored and Controlled by the Debian community
Very committed to free software
Uses own package management, DPKG
Innovated with in-place, no reboot upgradability
Easy to keep your system current
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Ubuntu
Founded by Mark Shuttleworth
Licensed by Canonical
Based closely on Debian
Committed to free software
Uses Debian's package management, DPKG
Easy to keep your system current
aptitude update
aptitude upgrade

Red Hat Linux Products

Invented the RPM Package Manager
Easy-to-use installer integrates partitioning and leverages RPM
Loyal to free software ideals: only ships open-source software with
few exceptions
Fedora
Cutting edge, community oriented project
Provides new technology for future RHEL releases
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Enterprise targeted distribution with commercial support
CentOS: community maintained, enterprise targeted, distribution
Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux
Oracle Linux
Matched release cycles with RHEL
Binary and Source compatible with RHEL
Highly scalable, mature technology
Three platforms: x86, AMD64, and Itanium
ISV certifications

Mandriva
Formerly Mandrake
Mandrake bought Connectiva, renamed Mandriva
"User-Friendly" distribution
Powerful installation program (able to resize NTFS and FAT partitions)
Mandriva Online update tool
Drax configuration tool
Uses RPM

Chapter

LOGIN AND
EXPLORATION

Logging In
Serial terminals Text mode login via serial port
mgetty+login Handles modems
agetty+login Handles VT100/VT220 dumb terminals
Virtual terminals Text mode login(s) on local console
mingetty+login
Graphical GUI login on local console
xdm, gdm, kdm, etc.
Terminal Emulator
xterm, rxvt, gnome-terminal, konsole
Network logins Remote text mode login
in.telnetd+login, in.rlogind, sshd, etc.

Running Programs
Graphical environment (e.g. X+GNOME)
Command line (e.g. Bash)

Interacting with Command Line

What happens when I press at the command prompt?
expansion, substitution, and splitting performed
redirection setup
execution
Command options
Command arguments
Common errors
Tips and Tricks

The X Window System

GUI infrastructure for Unix and Linux systems
Created in 1984
Both a Protocol and an Implementation
Advantages of X
Operating System Independent
Modular and Extensible
Client-server (Network Transparent!)
XFree86
Original Open Source implementation of the X Window System
X.Org
Forked XFree86 with a more open development model

Starting X
X already running with a graphical login
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server,
runlevel 5 by default
On Ubuntu, runlevels 2-5 by default
From a text virtual terminal login, use startx
startx is a shell script that eventually runs xinit
can run xinit manually, but by default only starts the X server

Gathering Login Session Info

Who are you really?
UID user id
GID group id
terminal: tty, pts, etc.
Commands for gathering information:
id
id -un|whoami
id -Gn|groups
tty

Gathering System Info

Who else is logged into the system?
users
who
w
finger
What type of system is this?
uname -a
free
What is the system's network name
hostname
ifconfig

got root?
Many operating systems have the concept of a super user
This super, or privileged, user has special access rights and privileges
on the system
The root user is the privileged user on most Unix systems
Has the user ID (UID) of zero (0)

Switching User Contexts

su: launch a new shell as another user (using the target user's
credentials)
Use - | -l | --login to inherit login profile
Default user is root
sudo: run a single command with another user's privilege
Remembers authentication per-terminal (typically five minutes)
Configuration affects authentication and available privilege
(/etc/sudoers)

sudo
sudo a more powerful su
more fine-grained security
able to log commands
sudoedit a safer way to edit files
sudo -e
visudo a safer way to manage sudo
/etc/sudoers
Replacing su with sudo
sudo -i
Using sudo with ssh
ssh -t hostname "sudo reboot"

Help from Commands and Documentation

command --help
Documentation for installed packages
RHEL6 /usr/share/doc/package_name-version
SLES11 /usr/share/doc/packages/package_name
U10.04 /usr/share/doc/package_name
Shipped or online distribution documentation
Linux Documentation Project - TLDP
Online help:
web sites, FAQs, Howtos, newsgroups, mailing lists
Linux User Group(s) (LUGs)
membership typically by mailing list subscription (no dues)
monthly presentations/meetings

Getting Help with man & info

It may seem cryptic, but at least it's well-documented
man [section] name
man sections
useful options
info
created by the GNU project
meant as a "superior" replacement for man
uses HTML like navigation with links
if info pages exist, they usually provide better
documentation than the corresponding man page
use pinfo to view pages

Lab 2
Estimated Time:
R6:
25 minutes
U1004: 25 minutes
S11:
25 minutes

Chapter

THE LINUX
FILESYSTEM

Filesystem Support
Support for dozens of filesystem types including:
Minix, ext2, MS-DOS, UMSDOS, VFAT, NTFS, NFS, ISO9660,
HPFS, SYSV, SMB, AFFS, BeFS, BFS, EFS, NWFS, QNX, RFS,
UDF, UFS, ReiserFS, Btrfs
Support for advanced logging / journaling filesystems:
ReiserFS, ext3, ext4, JFS, XFS, Reiser4, Btrfs
Current default standard for Linux: ext4

Unix/Linux Filesystem Features

Standard Unix filesystem characteristics
singly rooted
cAsE SensiTiviTY
long file names
supports links
timestamps various file operations
ctime, atime, mtime

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Filesystem standard FHS
Guiding principles for each area of filesystem
Predictable location of files and directories
Provides uniformity across multiple Linux distributions
The Linux Standards Base
Aims to allow Linux binaries to run unmodified on multiple Linux
distributions
Specifies system and library interfaces and environment
Incorporates the FHS

Navigating the Filesystem

Changing and displaying directories
cd, pwd
Absolute vs. relative addressing
Special cases
cd (without parameters)
cd username
cd
cd . and ..

Displaying Directory Contents

ls List directory contents
-a show all files (including .hidden files)
-l long listings
-d show directories not contents
-h human readable file sizes
-R recursively list sub-directories
-S sort file list by size

Filesystem Structures
Data Blocks
The file's data.
inode Tables
Data about the file's data.

Determining Disk Usage With df and du

df Report disk space usage per filesystem
-h human readable output
-i list inode information instead of block usage
-T include filesystem type
-H|--si use powers of 1000 instead of 1024
du Report disk usage per file and directory
-h human readable sizes
-s summarize, only display total for each argument
-x do not include files on a different filesystem
--si use powers of 1000 instead of 1024

Determining Disk Usage With baobab

Disk Usage Analyzer (baobab)

Disk Usage with Quotas

quota list user quotas for logged on user
quota -g group List group quotas
quota -u user List quotas of specified user
only available to the superuser
Returns quota information for filesystems listed in the /etc/fstab
queries the aquota.user and aquota.group databases on local
filesystems
queries the rquotad daemon for NFS-mounted filesystem

File Ownership
Each file is owned by a specific UID and GID
chown Change the user (UID) ownership
Only root can change ownership to another user
Can also be used to change group at the same time
chgrp Modify just the group (GID) ownership

Default Group Ownership

Newly created files will usually be given GID ownership based on the
current active group of the person who creates the file
newgrp newgroup - log in to a new group
newly created files will be owned by the new group
users can only change to their own groups
root user can change to any group
exit to switch back

File and Directory Permissions

ls -l List file permissions
first character represents type of file (d,-,l,b,c,s,p)
Then permission sets for:
user -UID that owns the file (sometimes called owner)
group -GID that owns the file
everyone else (sometimes called other)
Permissions can be represented in two ways
symbolic representation (e.g. rwxr-xr-x)
numeric representation (e.g. 0755)

File Creation Permissions with umask

Default permissions for newly created filesystem objects
files: 666
directories: 777
umask
defines what permissions to withhold from the default
permissions
used to display or change your umask
usually set in the user or system shell dot files
used to provide the user private group (UPG) scheme

Changing File Permissions

chmod Modify file permissions
-R recursively modify permissions
supports both numeric and symbolic notation
special permissions
set UID (SUID)
set GID (SGID)
sticky
Special permissions cause different behavior for files and directories

SUID and SGID on files

The SUID bit changes the security context of an executable
An executable is normally run with the security context of the user
who invoked it
An executable with the SUID bit set runs with the security context of
the user who owns it, regardless of the executing user

SGID and Sticky Bit on Directories

SGID
Files or sub-directories created within that directory inherit the
group ownership of the SGID directory
Often used to facilitate collaboration among users who need to
share files
Sticky bit
Normally in a directory that is world writable, users can delete
each other's files. Setting the sticky bit overrides this behavior

User Private Group Scheme

UPG provides a convenient way to share files when working in a
group project directory
UPG scheme implemented by:
1. placing each user in their own private group
2. setting the umask to 0002
3. setting the group ownership of the project directory to a
commonly shared GID
4. setting the project directory SGID
Enabling UPG on SUSE systems
set file-creation mask to 002
create a wrapper shell script that creates/uses private groups

Lab 3
Estimated Time:
R6:
30 minutes
U1004: 30 minutes
S11:
30 minutes

Chapter

MANIPULATING
FILES

Directory Manipulation
Standard manipulation commands
mkdir creates directories
-m: set permissions on new directory
-p: Create parent directories if they don't exist
rmdir deletes empty directories
-p: Remove empty parent directories

File Manipulation
Standard manipulation commands
cp copies files and directories
-a: Archive recursively, preserving permissions,
ownership, links and not following symbolic links, etc.
-r: copy directories recursively
mv moves or renames files and directories
-u: Overwrite only if destination is older than source
Shared options
-f: replace file without prompting (see -i)
-i: prompt before replacing a file

Deleting and Creating Files

rm removes (deletes) files and directories
-i: prompt before removing
-f: do not prompt before removing
-r|-R: remove directories recursively (including contents)
touch creates empty files or updates mtime and atime on existing
files
-a: Set only atime to the current time
-m: Set only mtime to the current time
-t: Set both atime and mtime to a specified time

Physical Unix File Structure

Block and inode based
blocks hold data
inodes hold metadata
Superblock contains filesystem parameters
How many inodes, etc

Filesystem Links
Created with ln
Hard links directory entry that references the same inode as another
directory entry
can't span filesystems
can't create hard links to non-existent file
can't create hard links to directories
do not require additional storage space (i.e. blocks)
Symbolic links file that references another file via path and name
can reference directories
can span filesystems
can reference non-existent files
occupy space

File Extensions and Content

File extensions have no special meaning to the kernel
file extensions are just part of the file name
the kernel only distinguishes between executable and
non-executable (data) files
some applications may care about extensions or otherwise use
them for user convenience features
Apache, file managers like Midnight Commander,
OpenOffice.org/KOffice
The file command reports the type of file by examining the file
contents

Displaying Files
cat displays entire file(s)
more displays file(s) one screen at a time
less more sophisticated and configurable pager

Previewing Files
head displays first 10 (by default) lines of file
tail displays last 10 (by default) lines of file
tail -f to watch a file be appended to
Use the -n option to configure how many lines to view

Displaying Binary Files

Displaying raw binary data may corrupt the display terminal
reset corrects terminal
jresetj (if carriage-return fails)
strings displays ASCII text inside binary files
xxd displays HEX and ASCII dump of file

Searching the Filesystem

find searches a directory structure for requested files
First argument(s) are path(s) to start search from; default is
current directory
Next arguments specify criteria to search on: file name, size,
permissions, type, owner, group, atime, mtime, ctime
Last argument specifies action to perform.
-print is the default action and displays matches
-ls displays full details on matches
-exec allows a command to be run against each
matching file. The -ok can be used when a confirmation
prompt is desired

Alternate Search Method

locate High-speed and low-impact searching
Searches index instead of actual filesystem
Index updated each night by default
locate won't know about recently added/deleted files
until database is rebuilt
Search criteria limited to pattern matching in the pathname and
filename

Producing File Statistics

wc Counts lines, words, characters and bytes in text files
when given multiple files as arguments, produces totals for each
file as well as an overall total
can be told to only output total for lines, words, characters, or
bytes
most common usage is to count lines

Lab 4
Estimated Time:
R6:
30 minutes
U1004: 30 minutes
S11:
30 minutes

Chapter

SHELL BASICS

Role of Command Shell

Shell provides user-interface
access to filesystem
scriptability for task automation
program launching
process control interface

Communication Channels
All running programs in Unix have at least three communication
channels
STDIN (standard in): where the program gets input. This is
usually the keyboard.
STDOUT (standard out): where the program sends output. This is
usually the terminal.
STDERR (standard error): where the program sends error
messages. This is usually the terminal.

File Redirection
File or I/O redirection allows you to redirect STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR
to files
Requires special notation on the command line
redirect standard input with <

$ sort < /etc/passwd

redirect standard output with >

$ echo 100000 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max

redirect standard error with 2>

$ ls -alR /proc/ 2> /dev/null

redirect both STDOUT and STDERR to the same file:

$ ls -R /proc/ > output 2>&1

$ ls -R /proc/ &> output

Piping Commands Together

Piping allows the STDOUT from one program (on the left of the pipe) to
become the STDIN of another (on the right of the pipe)
The pipe symbol, |
simple example:

$ ls -al | less
more complex example:

$ cut -d: -f6 /etc/passwd | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Redirection and piping can be combined:
Usually used for feeding STDERR into the pipeline along with

STDOUT
# ls /proc/ 2>&1 | grep kernel

Filename Matching
Many commands take a list of filenames as arguments tedious to
manually type many filenames
Wildcard patterns provide an easy way to supply many filenames as
arguments
Historically called "file globbing"
Wildcard patterns are specified with special characters

File Globbing and Wildcard Patterns

A wildcard pattern is a string that contains one of the characters:
? matches any single character
* matches anything (any number of characters)
[...] character classes
the - character denotes a range
examples: [abcd2345] [a-d2-5] [a-gA-Z0-5]

Brace Expansion
Allows generation of arbitrary strings
Similar to wildcards, but target files or directories don't need to exist
Can have optional preamble and/or postamble
{m,n,o,on} expands to: m, n, o and on
d{m,n,o,on}t expands to: dmt, dnt, dot & dont, where d
is the preamble and t is the postamble
Can be combined with wildcards; brace expansion occurs
before globbing

Shell and Environment Variables

Useful in shell scripting
Programs may malfunction if not set ($PATH, $HOME, $USER, etc.)
Viewing variables
set (shell)
env (environment)
Clearing variables
unset (shell|environment)
env -u|i command (environment)

Key Environment Variables

$PATH Executable search path
$PWD Path to current working directory
$TERM Login terminal type (e.g. vt100, xterm)
$SHELL Path to login shell (e.g. /bin/sh)
$HOME Path to home directory (e.g. /home/joe)
$USER Username of user
$DISPLAY X display name (e.g. station2:0.0)
$EDITOR Name of default editor (e.g. ex)
$VISUAL Name of visual editor (e.g. vi)

General Quoting Rules

Metacharacters
Backslash
Double Quotes
Single Quotes

Nesting Commands
Command Substitution
Substitutes output of command in place of "embedded" command
Nesting Commands
command
$(command)
Evaluating Command Output
eval command

Multiple and Multi-line Commands

Entering multiple commands on one command line
Separate commands with a semi-colon ;
Entering multi-line commands
Special use of the backslash (\) to do line-wrapping
This is sometimes called line wrapping or continuation

Lab 5
Estimated Time:
R6:
45 minutes
U1004: 45 minutes
S11:
45 minutes

Chapter

ARCHIVING AND
COMPRESSION

Archives with tar

tar/star
manipulates .tar files, also called tarballs
used for backup and transfer of files
creates, extracts or lists the contents of tarballs
.tar (tarball)
records file and directory structure
includes metadata about the file: date, timestamps, ownership,
permissions, etc.
Compression/Decompression options
compress, gzip, bzip2, lzma/xz

Archives with cpio

Features of cpio archives include:
manipulates .cpio files
used as the basis for RPM packages
doesn't recurse sub-directories, must be passed list of dirs
more robust than tar when media errors encountered
-i input mode, used when feeding a cpio archive into the
cpio command
-o output mode, used to create cpio archives, which are sent
to STDOUT

The gzip Compression Utility

gzip popular replacement for compress
created by the GNU project because of patented algorithms in

compress
default action deletes original after creating new compressed file
standard file extension: .gz
much higher compression ratio than compress
gunzip or zcat decompresses files compressed with gzip
gunzip decompresses the file on disk (removing the original,
compressed file); zcat does not
zcat outputs uncompressed data to STDOUT

The bzip2 Compression Utility

bzip2
typically better compression than the gzip command
default action deletes original after creating new compressed file
standard file extension: .bz2
bunzip2 or bzcat decompresses files compressed with bzip2
bunzip2 decompresses the file on disk (removing the original,
compressed file); bzcat does not
bzcat outputs uncompressed data to STDOUT

The XZ Compression Utility

xz Latest and greatest compression
better compression than the bzip2 command
default action removes original file after creating new
compressed file
standard file extension: .xz
legacy file extension: .lzma
Use --format=lzma for LZMA support
xz -d (unxz) or xz -dc (xzcat) decompresses files compressed with xz
xz -d decompresses the file to disk (removing the original,
compressed file); xz -dc does not
xz -dc prints uncompressed data to STDOUT
Replaces gzip and bzip2 as compression format of choice

The PKZIP Archiving/Compression format

zip Compatible with PKZIP files
default action does NOT delete original file(s) after creating new
compressed archive
standard file extension: .zip
unzip expands a .zip file

Lab 6
Estimated Time:
R6:
15 minutes
U1004: 15 minutes
S11:
15 minutes

Chapter

TEXT PROCESSING

Searching Inside Files

grep searches for patterns within files
-A NUM print match and NUM lines after match
-B NUM print match and preceding NUM lines
-C NUM print match and NUM lines before and after
-E use extended regular expressions
-i perform case insensitive match
-l print name of file(s) containing a matching line
-n show line numbers
-v invert match; prints what doesn't match
--color highlight matched string(s) in color

The Streaming Editor

sed A [s]treaming [ed]itor
performs edits on a stream of text (usually the output of another
program)
often used to automate edits on many files quickly
small and very efficient
-i option for in place edits with modern versions

Text Processing with awk

awk pattern scanning and processing language

Turing complete programming language

splits lines into fields (like cut)
regex pattern matching (like grep)
math operations, control statements, variables, IO...

Replacing Text Characters

tr translates, squeezes & deletes characters
translates one set of characters into another
commonly used to convert lower case into upper case

tr a-z A-Z
squeeze collapses duplicate characters
commonly used to merge multiple blank lines into one

tr -s \n
deletes a set of characters
commonly used to delete special characters

tr -d \000

Text Sorting
sort Sorts text
can sort on different columns
by default sorts in lexicographical order
1, 2, 234, 265, 29, 3, 4, 5
can be told to sort numerically (by using the -n option)
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 29, 234, 265
can merge and sort multiple files simultaneously
can sort in reverse order
often used to prepare input for the uniq command

Duplicate Removal Utility

uniq Removes duplicate adjacent lines from sorted text
cleanly combines lists of overlapping but not identical
information
-c prefixes each line of output with a number indicating number
of occurrences
taking this output and performing a reverse sort produces a
sorted list based on number of occurrences

Extracting Columns of Text

cut Extracts selected fields from a line of text

can specify which fields you want to extract

uses tabs as default delimiter
-d option to specify a different delimiter
most useful on structured input (text with columns)

Combining Files and Merging Text

cat Concatenate files
paste Merges text from multiple files
-s option to merge files serially
uses tabs as default delimiter

Comparing File Changes

The cmp command
-s
The diff command
-c
-u
The patch command
-p#

Lab 7
Estimated Time:
R6:
10 minutes
U1004: 10 minutes
S11:
10 minutes

Chapter

REGULAR
EXPRESSIONS

Regular Expression Overview

Regular Expressions (REs) provide a mechanism to select specific
strings from one or more lines of text
Rich and expressive language
Used by many commands and programming languages:
grep, awk, sed, Emacs, vi, less, Expect, lex, Perl,
Python, Tcl, Delphi, and Microsoft Visual C++

Regular Expressions
The building blocks of regular expressions are expressions that match
a single character
most characters, letters and numbers match themselves
special characters are matchable as well
"." (the period) matches any single character
specify where the match must occur with anchors

RE Character Classes
Character classes, [...], match any single character in the list
RE [0123456789] matches any single digit
Some predefined character classes
[:alnum:] [:alpha:] [:cntrl:] [:digit:]
[:lower:] [:punct:] [:space:] [:upper:]
The - character denotes a range
RE [[:alnum:]] equivalent to [0-9A-Za-z]
Matches any single letter or number character

RE Quantifiers
RE quantifiers, control the number of times a preceding RE is allowed
to match
* match 0 or more times
+ match 1 or more times
? match 0 or 1 times
{n} match exactly n times
{n,} match at least n times
{n,m} match at least n but not more than m times

RE Parenthesis
Parenthesis
(RE) creating a new atom
(RE)\non-zero digit storing values
(RE1|RE2) alternation: RE1 or RE2

Lab 8
Estimated Time:
R6:
35 minutes
U1004: 35 minutes
S11:
35 minutes

Chapter

TEXT EDITING

Text Editing
Unix Revolves Around Text
Text is robust
Text is universally understood
The only tool / program required is a text editor
Remote administration possible over low-bandwidth connections
Text Editors
Many editors available, each with fanatical followings
Pico/Nano, vi and Emacs are the most common
$EDITOR and $VISUAL control default editor

Pico/GNU Nano
Pico
Originally built into Pine
Developed at the University of Washington (UW)
GNU Nano
A free replacement for Pico
Emulates Pico functionality as closely as possible
Advantages
Simplicity in editing as primary goal
Standard features like cut and paste; spell checking
Disadvantages
Not as powerful as many other editors

Pico/Nano Interface
Main Areas of Pico/Nano
Top Line
Editor Window
Status Line
Common Shortcuts
Line Wrapping
Happens automatically
Can be avoided with -w

Pico/Nano Shortcuts
Common Shortcuts
^X eXit (quit), or close the current buffer
^O write Out (save) the current file
^G Get (display) the help screen
^W Where is (search for) a string
^\ search and replace (Nano only)
Cutting and Pasting
^K cut a line
^U Uncut (paste) cut line(s)

vi and Vim
vi The Visual Editor
Developed originally by Bill Joy for BSD UNIX
Officially included in AT&T UNIX System V
Available on all UNIX platforms
Vim Vi IMproved
Has significantly enhanced functionality
Includes a compatibility mode

Learning vi
Getting help
Friends & Co-workers
Books & Cheat Sheets
:help Vim has extensive online help
http://www.vim.org/

Basic vi
vi is Modal
Insert Mode: keystrokes are inserted into the document
Command Mode: keystrokes are interpreted as commands
Basic Cursor Movement Commands
hjkl
Basic Editing Commands
i a x dd
Saving & Exiting
:w
:q
:wq
:wq!

Intermediate vi
Repeating Actions
Undoing Changes
Insert & Substitute
Search & Replace
Delete, Yank, & Put
More Movement Commands

Emacs
Two main versions available:
GNU Emacs
XEmacs
Evolved from the esoteric TECO editor macros
Highly extensible

The Emacs Interface

Main areas of Emacs
Frame
Window
Menu Bar
Mode Line
Echo Area

Basic Emacs
Starting Emacs
Major Modes
Movement Commands
Editing Text
Saving & Exiting

More Emacs Commands

Searching For Text
Copying, Cutting & Pasting
Undoing Changes
More Movement Commands

Lab 9
Estimated Time:
R6:
90 minutes
U1004: 90 minutes
S11:
90 minutes

Chapter

10
COMMAND
SHELLS

Shells
Bourne Shell (sh)
C Shell (csh)
Korn Shell (ksh)
Bourne-Again Shell (bash)
Enhanced C Shell (tcsh)
Public Domain Korn Shell (pdksh)
Z Shell (zsh)

Identifying the Shell

Default login shell name is stored in the $SHELL environment variable
Identifying the login shell:

$ echo $SHELL
Identifying the current shell:

$ ps -f

Changing the Shell

Use the shell name to invoke that shell (i.e. type tcsh)
Changing login shell permanently
Edit the /etc/passwd entry for that user
chsh (change shell) available to normal users
/etc/shells contains list of allowed shells

Bourne sh: Configuration Files

/etc/profile system wide
/etc/profile.d/
/.profile per user

Script Execution
Spawn a new shell and run script_name in it:
./script_name
Run script_name in the current shell:
source script_name
. script_name

Bourne sh: Prompts

Simple. No bells or whistles like tcsh or bash
Prompt is set using the PS1 variable

$ PS1="$(hostname) $ "
homer $ export PS1

bash: Bourne-Again Shell

Completely backwards compatible with Bourne shell
Adds several enhancements many from csh / tcsh
command-line history and completion
aliases
sophisticated prompt configuration
both Emacs and vi style command line editing
tilde () as an alias for home directories

bash: Configuration Files

To remain compatible with the Bourne shell
/.profile and /etc/profile
Also parses /.bash_profile, /.bash_login, and /.bashrc, if they
exist
/.bash_login only processed once, at login
If /.bash_logout exists, it will be run on logout.
Login shell options
--login
--noprofile
Subshell options
--rcfile foofile
--norc

bash: Command Line History

View most recent commands entered

$ history
Execute previous command

$ !!
Last command starting with xy

$ !xy
Run command found on specified history line number:

$ !42
Special Control sequences can search history r see man bash
for details
Fix Command may be used for advanced searching and editing:

$ fc -1 -5

bash: Command Editing

Bash shell offers vi-mode and Emacs-mode command editing
to set vi editing mode

$ set -o vi
to set emacs editing mode (default)

$ set -o emacs
Key bindings for vi-mode and emacs-mode can be easily viewed and
modified
System key bindings set in /etc/inputrc
User key bindings set in /.inputrc
The Bash built-in command bind can be used to list and modify
key bindings

bash: Command Completion

Procedure depends on editing mode in use
for simple completion in emacs mode
\ (from control mode) for simple completion in vi mode
More advanced completion than csh or ksh
supports: command, file / directory name, username,
hostname, and variable name completion.
attempts to "do the right thing" based on context
highly customizable

bash: "shortcuts"
Directory navigation
Use of
Use of The pushd, popd and dirs commands
Command shortcuts are called aliases
Created with the alias command
Can be removed with the unalias command
Are not persistent across sessions, but can be added to the
/.bashrc file
Clearing the screen

bash: prompt
Much more rich prompt capabilities than Bourne shell
uses backslash-escaped character sequences

$ PS1="\u@\h \! $ "
joe@homer 56 $ export PS1
joe@homer 57 $

Lab 10
Estimated Time:
R6:
25 minutes
U1004: 25 minutes
S11:
25 minutes

Chapter

11

INTRODUCTION
TO SHELL
SCRIPTING

Shell Script Strengths and Weaknesses

Shell Script Strengths
Repetitive and Error-Prone Tasks
Wrapping or Customizing Larger Applications
Portability to Many Unix Platforms
Text Files and String Data
Shell Script Weaknesses
Large Applications
Numeric and Speed Sensitive Computations
Tasks Requiring Elevated Privileges

Example Shell Script

Create a directory and a simple home page in a user's home directory

#!/bin/bash
USER="$1"
HOMEDIR=$(getent passwd "$USER" | cut -d: -f6)
PUBDIR="${HOMEDIR}/public_html"
mkdir "$PUBDIR"
echo "<html><h1>Hello World</h1></html>" \
> "${PUBDIR}/index.html"
chown -R "${USER}:" "$PUBDIR"
Run the script

$ ./mkwebpage.sh joe

Positional Parameters
Command line arguments in $0, $1, $2, . . .
$0 is name of shell script (e.g. myscript.sh)
$1 is first argument, $2 is second, and so forth
Number of arguments in $#
List of all parameters in $@
Special shell variables

Input & Output

echo prints text to standard out
echo "Your time is up"
can use redirection to write to files or pipes

echo "Your time is up" > time.txt

the -e option causes echo to honor escape sequences for
special characters
the -n option removes the normal newline character from the
end of the output
read reads text from standard input
echo -n "What is your name? "
read NAME

Doing Math
Simple expressions can be evaluated by the shell

$ foo=$((12*34))
$ echo $((56+$foo))
464
Use the expr program within scripts for math
AVG=$(expr \( $X1 + $X2 \) / 2)
expr only does integer math
Use perl, awk or bc for more advanced math
$ pi=$(echo "scale=20; 4*a(1)" | bc -l)

Comparisons with test

Checks file types and compares values
Often used in conditional constructs

Exit Status
Communicates whether a program successfully completed
0 means a program or command was successful
1 - 255 means a program failed somehow
$? reports the exit status
A script can use exit to report a specific exit status
exit
exit 1
echo $?
The shell's logical AND (&&) and OR (||) operators also use return
codes:

[ $X -eq 5 ] && echo "Got to 5" || echo "Not at 5, yet"

Conditional Statements
if then
if then fi
if then else fi
if then elif else fi

Flow Control: case

case
SysV init scripts
getopts

The for Loop

Different construct than in C/C++, Perl, etc.
Iterates through a list (not necessarily numeric)
list can be result of wildcard expansion
do & done encapsulate iteration

The while and until Loops

Commonly uses test or [ command to test a condition
Like a for loop, uses do & done to encapsulate iteration
Use break to exit out of nested loops.

Lab 11
Estimated Time:
R6:
20 minutes
U1004: 20 minutes
S11:
20 minutes

Chapter

12
PROCESS
MANAGEMENT
AND JOB
CONTROL

What is a Process?
A process is a launched program
Associated with a process:
process ID (PID)
priority
nice value
memory
security context
environment
file handles
exit status

Process Lifecycle
Processes are organized in a hierarchy
init first process spawned by kernel with PID of 1
the only process directly launched by the kernel
init will spawn child processes
child processes spawn other children, etc.
Processes can be created by two methods
fork() create child duplicate of self
exec() spawn completely new process that replaces parent
fork() + exec() method for launching different process
Process termination methods
Normal termination via exit()
Abnormal termination via abort() or uncaught signal

Process States
Processes can transition between states upon receipt of signals
running currently being allocated CPU slices
stopped still loaded in memory, but not running
sleeping waiting for some event (ex. user input)
un-interruptible sleep as the name suggests; usually caused
when waiting for I/O
zombie a terminated process whose resources have all been
freed except for a PID and exit status

Viewing Processes
ps standard command to view process info
supports many options to modify output
can emulate behavior of other Unix variants ps
reads information from the /proc/ filesystem
top similar to ps, but interactive
refreshes display every 3 seconds by default
can sort processes by various criteria such as CPU usage,
memory, UID, etc.
can send signals to processes
gnome-system-monitor limited GUI top-like program
KDE System Guard (ksysguard) GUI with extensive local & remote
monitoring capabilities

Signals
Special message that can be sent to a process
Processes can install signal handlers that catch signals and trigger
some action
Signals can have different meanings on different architectures
Some signals cannot be caught or ignored and are processed by the
kernel (ex. SIGKILL (9))

Tools to Send Signals

kill Send arbitrary signals to process by PID
sends a SIGTERM (15) by default
-l lists all signals supported on the machine
killall Send signal to process by name
pkill Send signal to process by terminal, group, username, PID, or
command name
top, gnome-system-monitor, ksysguard can also send signals
Certain key bindings send signals
c = SIGINT (2)
z = SIGSTOP (19)

Job Control Overview

Job control gives you the ability to do multitasking at the command
line
Job control refers to the ability to selectively stop (suspend) the
execution of processes and continue (resume) their execution at a
later point
These functions are exposed to the user via the shell
Older or minimalist shells may not support job control

Job Control Commands

Start a process as a background process by running program &
Stop an already running process by sending it a SIGSTOP (19), (ex.
pressing z)
fg run the job in the foreground
bg run the job in the background
kill terminate the job
Refer to jobs using %n, where n is the job number
The jobs command will list all jobs present on the shell but can not
list jobs for other shells

Persistent Shell Sessions with Screen

Terminal Multiplexer (window manager)
Allows for very efficient multitasking from a virtual terminal
Sessions can be disconnected and reconnected at will
Useful for remote administration

Using screen
Starting screen
Commands
Detaching and re-attaching to sessions
Session basics

Advanced Screen
Session locking
Split-screen
Monitoring sessions
Sharing screen sessions
Default settings
System-wide: /etc/screenrc
Per user: /.screenrc

Lab 12
Estimated Time:
R6:
45 minutes
U1004: 45 minutes
S11:
45 minutes

Chapter

13
MANAGING
SOFTWARE

Downloading with FTP

Most ubiquitous file transfer method is FTP
supported by almost all platforms
many ftp client and server programs available for Linux
supports anonymous file transfers
authenticates in clear text
HTTP is supplanting FTP in many cases
provides for a more user-friendly interface
very widespread support

FTP
Standard FTP clients have text-based interfaces
FTP servers typically listen on TCP port 21 and send data to clients on
TCP port 20
To connect specify name or IP address of the server
If at the shell prompt:

$ ftp ftp.freesoftware.com
If already at the ftp> prompt ...

ftp> open ftp.freesoftware.com

The server will then prompt for username and password
When doing an anonymous login, the username ftp can often be
used instead

lftp
An excellent replacement for the standard ftp client
Supports a wealth of useful features including
progress meters
filename completion
command history
background processing
auto-resume downloads
bookmarking
host redialing
working with firewalls and proxies
downloading entire directory trees

Command Line Internet Non-interactive

wget Non-interactive file retrieval
supports HTTP(s) and FTP
auto-resume of downloads, and recursive downloads
curl Non-interactive file transmitter
supports HTTP(S), FTP(S), SCP, SFTP, TFTP, etc.
SSL certificates and Authentication (Basic, Kerberos and more)
uploading and downloading with auto-resume
proxies, cookies, proxy tunneling
Both are great for scripts/automation

Command Line Internet Interactive

lynx console browser
Basic browser

w3m enhanced console browser

Supports tables and frames
Acts as pager so it can be used as a replacement to more or

less
elinks modern console browser

supports javascript, tables, frames, cookies

menu interface, download manager, full color support
begins rendering page while still downloading
links is symlink to elinks

Managing Software Dependencies

Software Management Problems
Large dependency trees are difficult to manage
Many applications have many dependencies
Package Management Solutions
Uses a central repository of packages
Inter-dependencies are automatically calculated/managed
Bundled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Provided by the yum command
Bundled with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Provided by the zypper command
Bundled with Ubuntu
Provided by APT

Using the YUM command

YUM Package (un)installation:
install/localinstall
update
remove
YUM Package Querying
info
list
search
whatprovides
YUM Maintenance
clean

YUM package groups

YUM package group commands:
yum groupinstall
yum groupupdate
yum groupinfo
yum grouplist
yum groupremove

Configuring YUM
YUM configuration
Main configuration

/etc/yum.conf
YUM repositories

/etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo
yum-config-manager

Popular Yum Repositories

Highly regarded 3rd party repositories
EPEL repository Over 11,000 add-on packages
Dag Wieers / RPMforge repository Over 4,800 add-on
packages
atrpms repository Over 2,500 add-on packages
Jpackage repository Over 1,200 add-on packages
RPM Fusion Over 800 add-on packages
WARNING! Software installed from 3rd party repositories isn't
supported by distribution vendor
Yum configuration and GPG keys typically provided in an RPM. For
example:
rpm -Uvh rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

Using the Zypper command

Zypper commands:
install (in)
update (up)
info (if)
search (se)
remove (rm)
Common Options
-y
-D
Dealing with related groups of packages
-t pattern [pattern]

Zypper Services and Catalogs

Zypper Service and Repository Tools
zypper addservice (as)/addrepo (ar)
zypper removeservice (rs)/removerepo (rr)
zypper modifyservice (ms)/modifyrepo (mr)
zypper renamerepos (nr)
zypper services (ls)/repos (lr)
zypper refresh-services (refs)/refresh (ref)
zypper clean (cc)
SUSE Update Service
suse_register

The dselect & APT Frontends to dpkg

APT
apt-get automates downloading and installing packages and
their dependencies

# apt-get install package_name

apt-cache search configured archives and display information
for packages

# apt-cache {info,search} package_name

dselect ncurses interface

Aptitude
The aptitude utility offers both command line and ncurses interfaces
Alternative to the old dselect command and most APT tools
Searches are limited to package names; use apt-cache for
better searching support
Automatically installed packages can be automatically
uninstalled

Configuring APT
APT configuration
Main configuration

/etc/apt/apt.conf
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/*
APT archives

/etc/apt/sources.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list
Keeping a Debian-based System Current

Lab 13
Estimated Time:
R6:
30 minutes
U1004: 15 minutes
S11:
30 minutes

Chapter

14
MESSAGING

System Messaging Commands

write
Useful for sending short (1-2 line) instant messages to other
users on the system
Effective in a pipeline

wall
Similar to write, but sends message to all users on the system
Effective in a pipeline

talk
Real-time keystroke at a time chat
Works between Internet hosts as well

Controlling System Messaging

Terminal Devices
Owned by special system group tty
Have default group write permissions
The mesg Utility
Toggles the terminal device's group write permission.
Use mesg followed by y or n to toggle
Use mesg with no arguments to see current status
write, wall and talk commands honor current mesg status.

Internet Relay Chat

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
Clients can chat or join channels and transfer files
Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) connections possible
Channels can have operators and other properties
Multiple linked IRC servers form an "IRC network"
IRC networks: Freenode, EFNET, DALNET, UnderNET
The largest networks typically having 60,000+ concurrent
clients in over 20,000+ channels each
Shell variables commonly honored by IRC clients
$IRCNAME: set name as displayed by /whois
$IRCNICK: set default IRC nick
$IRCSERVER: set default IRC service

Instant Messenger Clients

Instant messaging clients allow chatting, file transfers, and other
communication.
Allow creation of "buddy" lists for notification.
Many different IM networks exist: ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, MSN,
Jabber/XMPP, and others.
Many powerful graphical IM clients exist for Linux
Often clients can simultaneously work with multiple networks
pidgin is the most popular GNOME client
Kopete is a multi-protocol IM client included with KDE

Electronic Mail
Sendmail, Postfix, and Exim: popular email servers / Mail Transport
Agent (MTA)
Command-line email clients / Mail User Agents (MUA)
mail original, very simple client
pine sophisticated, menu-driven client
other command-line clients include:

elm
mutt
GUI email clients
Mozilla Thunderbird Email client from Mozilla
Evolution Powerful GNOME Outlook clone
Kmail Standard KDE mail client

Sending Email with sendmail

Sending Email with sendmail
sendmail -t

Sending and Receiving Email with mail

mail, Mail, and mailx
Can be used interactively to send and read email from the
command line
More commonly used to mail the output of some process or file
Can be used to read spooled mail for other accounts
Only capable of reading local mail spool(s)
Only capable of using local SMTP server

Sending and Receiving Email with mutt

Sending Email with Mutt
Similar functions to mail
Supports integrated, common MUA features
MIME encoding and decoding
Digital Signatures
IMAPS/POP3S/APOP
SMTP AUTH/STARTTLS
Keyboard macros
Only capable of using localhost SMTP
Can send mail interactively and non-interactively

Sending Email with Pine

PINE: A program for Internet News and Email
Originally designed for novice users
Menu-driven
Easy to use
Supports SMTP, IMAP, POP3, MIME, etc.
To send a message:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Press c (Compose) from main menu

Fill in To:, Subject:, etc. fields
Enter message body
Type x (Send)
Press y to confirm

Evolution
Graphical information suite for Linux
Email
Calendar
Contacts
Synchronization with PDAs

Lab 14
Estimated Time:
R6:
20 minutes
U1004: 20 minutes
S11:
20 minutes

Chapter

15
PRINTING

Linux Printer Sub-systems

There are several printer sub-systems available for Linux.
The three most popular are:
lpd
LPRng
CUPS

Legacy Print Systems

Unix LPD
Originally designed for line printers
Supports network, parallel and serial printers
Configuration in /etc/printcap, based on termcap(5)
syntax
LPRng
Next Generation lpr/lpd
LPD compatible commands and configuration
Advanced Configuration

lpd.conf
lpd.perms

Common UNIX Printing System

A completely new printing system
Supports both BSD and SysV printing commands
For example: lpr and lp
Supports network, parallel, serial, and USB printers.
Many advanced features
Web based administration
Uses Postscript Printer Description files (.ppd)
Automatic client setup
Supports IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)
Client authentication
Very easy to setup!

Defining a Printer
CUPS web interface

lpadmin
KDE Control Center (kcontrol) Peripherals Printer tool
system-config-printer
SLES11 specific yast2 printer

Standard Print Commands

Send a job to the queue to be printed
lpr (BSD/LSB)
lp (SysV/POSIX/LSB)
lpq View the contents of the queue
lprm Remove a job from the queue
Use the -Pqueue option to specify the print queue named queue

Format Conversion Utilities

Unix applications output text or Postscript
Ghostscript
impressive suite of utilities that can prepare output for many
non-Postscript printers
converts between Postscript and many different file formats,
including other printer languages (e.g. PCL)
enscript Converts text to Postscript
mpage Formats output to print several document pages on one
printer page

Ghostscript
Can be invoked on demand by
lpd
LPRng
CUPS for printing to non-Postscript printers
Ghostscript Utilities
ps2ascii convert Postscript to ASCII
ps2pdf convert Postscript to Portable Document Format
ps2ps Postscript distiller makes a Postscript file simpler, and
usually faster to print
also includes ascii2ps and pdf2ps

enscript and mpage

enscript
Converts text or STDIN to Postscript and spools it to the printer
or a file
Many options available to configure output
Useful to send the output of commands to the printer

mpage
Prints files with their text reduced in size so that several pages
appear on one sheet of paper
Input may be text or Postscript
Useful for saving paper

Lab 15
Estimated Time:
R6:
20 minutes
U1004: 20 minutes
S11:
20 minutes

Chapter

16
THE SECURE
SHELL (SSH)

Secure Shell
Replaces unencrypted utilities
rlogin, rsh and telnet
rexec
rcp
Automates X11 authentication
Supports tunneling of other protocols such as
POP, IMAP
HTTP
PPP
Supports user RSA/DSA keys for password-less logins

ssh and sshd Configuration

Secure Shell Client ssh
/etc/ssh/ssh_config
/.ssh/config
/.ssh/id_*
/.ssh/known_hosts
Server daemon sshd
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_*key*

Accessing Remote Shells

Encrypted Logins
ssh [user@]host remote interactive login
ssh [user@]host command remote non-interactive command
execution
Escape Sequences
.
?

Transferring Files
Encrypted File Transfers
sftp interactive file transfer
scp non-interactive file transfer

Alternative sftp Clients

Command-line sftp Interfaces
lftp
mc
Graphical sftp Interface
konqueror
nautilus

SSH Key Management

Enables password-less logins to remote machines
End users can generate key public / private key pairs.
In RSA1 (SSH version 1), or RSA / DSA format (SSH version 2)
End user places public key on remote SSH server(s), and keeps
private key on primary workstation(s)
Private key should be encrypted with a passphrase

ssh-agent
With public keys distributed, a user logs into the remote systems by
providing the passphrase to unlock the private key
The ssh-agent is a long-running daemon that caches decrypted
private keys in memory
ssh-add is used to add new keys to be cached
ssh/sftp/scp will automatically use keys from ssh-agent
Started automatically upon login to any supported graphical desktop
environment

Lab 16
Estimated Time:
R6:
20 minutes
U1004: 20 minutes
S11:
20 minutes

Chapter

17

MOUNTING
FILESYSTEMS &
MANAGING
REMOVABLE
MEDIA

Filesystems Concept Review

Unix (and Linux) use a single-rooted filesystem
If you want to use additional filesystems, they must be grafted into
the root filesystem
You can mount both local and remote network-shared filesystems (ex.
NFS, SMB, etc.)
Unix systems traditionally have many filesystems:
/, /tmp/, /home/, etc.

Mounting Filesystems
Mount filesystems with the mount command
mount [-t type] [-o option[,option[,...]]] [device] [dir]
searches the /etc/fstab file for missing parameters if supplied
with only device or dir
mount without parameters to list currently mounted filesystems
Unmount filesystems not currently in use with
umount [device|dir]

NFS
The Network Filesystem is the native Unix file-sharing method
Developed by Sun Microsystems
NFS servers export directories
Client machines mount NFS exports and local applications and
users access files as if they were local
Default settings are conservative; can be tuned for much higher
performance

SMB
SMB is the native file sharing protocol on Microsoft Windows and
many other platforms
Developed by IBM originally
SMB is synonymous with CIFS
Servers share directories, printers, users and other information
Client machines can browse shared files and printers, accessing
them just like local resources
Two Linux clients
smbclient
Mount smbfs or cifs network shares

Filesystem Table (/etc/fstab)

Contains information about filesystems
Which filesystems to mount and when
Order is significant
One filesystem per line
Options for mounting each filesystem
Used to mount filesystems at boot time (auto vs. noauto)
Requires root access unless the user or users options are used

AutoFS
Automated mounting of filesystems on demand
un-privileged users can trigger mount
automatically unmounts when no longer in use
Kernel driver plus userspace daemon
Direct vs. indirect map behavior

Removable Media
Must be mounted before use
Must be unmounted before removal
when possible, the system will attempt to enforce this by
preventing removal of mounted media
use fuser to locate processes accessing a filesystem
GNOME and KDE automount removable media devices (CDs, DVDs,
USB drives, etc.)

Lab 17
Estimated Time:
R6:
20 minutes
U1004: 20 minutes
S11:
20 minutes

Chapter

18

PRE-INSTALLATION
CONSIDERATIONS

Pre-Installation Considerations
Is the hardware compatible?
Will the system require dual booting?
Which boot loader should be used?
LILO, NT Loader, GRUB, etc.
What partitioning or LVM scheme will be used?
Resizing existing partitions? RAID?
What filesystem(s) will be used?
What is the expected primary role of this system?
Life Cycle Considerations: 10 years
7 year life cycle, plus up to 3 years extended life cycle

Hardware Compatibility
Linux should be compatible with most hardware
Potentially problematic hardware
Extremely new hardware
Proprietary laptop components

Multi-OS Booting
Consider OS partition and drive constraints
Consider possible sharing of partitions
swap
data
Consider making a backup of the master boot record (MBR)

Partition Considerations
MBR Table Structure
Primary Partitions (max of 4)
Extended Partition (max of 1)
generally fills rest of disk
contains Logical Partitions
Max number of partitions limited by kernel and partitioning tools
32bit LBA limits max disk size to 2TB
GPT Table Structure
128 partitions
No extended or logical partitions
Critical structures duplicated and CRC checked
64bit LBA limits max disk size to 9.4 billion TB

Filesystem Planning
Appropriate filesystem layout depends on machine function
Only a root filesystem (/) is absolutely required
Typical minimum partitions: /boot/, /, and swap.
Common additional filesystems
/var/ This directory contains logs, mail files and other various
data
/tmp/ Space for temporary files
/usr/ Program binaries
/home/ Users' home directories
/opt/ Additional program binaries (usually third party)

Selecting a Filesystem
Linux supports several advanced journaling filesystems
Extended Filesystem: Ext2 (no journal), Ext3, and Ext4 (Linux
default)
XFS SGI's journaling filesystem
Provides advanced features such as bandwidth guarantees
ReiserFS v3

Chapter

19
INSTALLING
RHEL6

Anaconda: An Overview
Installer for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Multiple modes
Install
Upgrade
Rescue
Multiple components
Boot the system
Load anaconda
Configure the system
Download packages
Documentation

Anaconda: Booting the System

Hardware issues
IA-32 or Amd64/Intel64
BIOS or UEFI
Boot methods
CD/DVD
USB
PXE
Hard drive

Anaconda: Common Boot Options

Kernel arguments
Anaconda options
rescue
text
vnc
askmethod
repo= . . .
ks= . . .

Anaconda: Loading Anaconda and Packages

DVD
Tree-based
USB/HD
NFS/FTP/HTTP
ISO-based
USB/HD
NFS

Anaconda: Storage Options

Devices
Local disks
Firmware RAID
SAN and multipath devices
iSCSI and FCoE
Formats
Software RAID
LVM
LUKS

Anaconda: Troubleshooting
Logging
Anaconda updates
Hardware compatibility

FirstBoot
Requirements
Install graphical environment
Boot to runlevel 5
Tasks
Subscribe to RHN
Create a non-root user
Configure user authentication
Configure the system clock
Configure kdump
Alternatives to firstBoot

A Typical Install

Lab 19
Estimated Time:
R6: 30 minutes

Chapter

20
INSTALLING
SLES11

Installation Choices
Sources for installing SUSE Linux:
DVD-ROM
Hard Drive
Network
Methods of installation:
GUI
local console
VNC
Text
local/serial console
ssh
AutoYaST2

DVD-ROM Install Media

SUSE Linux installable via DVDs
First DVD-ROM bootable and contains the binary packages
Second DVD-ROM not bootable and contains the source code
Speed depends on the speed of the DVD-ROM drive
Allows for installing packages from other disks
A boot disc can be created from the DVD

Network Installation
Often faster than DVD-ROM installation
Requires the creation of a SUSE Linux Network Installation Server
Copy contents of all DVD-ROMs to server
Clients boot off of floppy images, CD-ROM made with the
suse-boot.iso image, SUSE Linux installation DVD-ROM 1, or PXE
server
Installation client supports 5 different protocols
NFS
FTP/TFTP
HTTP
SMB

SLP for SUSE Linux Installation

Service Location Protocol implementations
OpenSLP

http://www.openslp.org/
Apple Rendezvous/Bonjour

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bonjour/
Static SLP service registration files in /etc/slp.reg.d/
Add install=slp on the boot: prompt to have linuxrc find
installation servers via SLP

Local Hard Drive Installation

Requires that the installation tree exist on a hard drive, and partition,
attached to the system
Can reside on FAT16/32, NTFS, ReiserFS, ext2/3, jfs, or xfs
filesystem
Installation tree can be created from the actual DVD-ROM or
copied from loopback mounted ISO image of the DVD-ROM
Initiating install requires at least a bootdisk floppy and modules4
floppy, SUSE Linux installation disc 1 or a suse-boot.iso
CD-ROM
Add install=hd:/<path/to/source>?device=sdaX on the boot: prompt
to have linuxrc find and use the installation media located on a
local hard drive.

The linuxrc Program

The Versatile linuxrc Program

Install Program Interface

YaST is the install program
Offers both GUI and text-based installs
Additionally supports serial console and SSH installs
Text or GUI installation can be manually selected after booting
off install media
Two components

linuxrc
YaST

Installation Diagnostics
Virtual Terminal

Contents

Installation Dialog

, ,
,

Shell Prompt

Install log (from installation

program)

System-related Messages

X Graphical Display

Language/Keyboard Selection and EULA

Choose language to use during and after installation
Choose an appropriate keyboard
Read through and accept the License Agreement

Installation Mode
Fresh Install, Upgrade, or Repair existing system

Clock and Time Zone

Choose time zone and hardware clock details

Desktop Selection
SUSE Linux 10.0 and before uses KDE as default
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and later use GNOME as default

Server Base Scenario

Physical Machine
Virtual Machine
Xen Virtualization Host

The YaST Installer Design

Hub and spoke architecture

Disk Partitioning
Accept proposed disk layout?

Boot Loader Configuration

Set Boot Loader options

Software Package Selection

Choose general options or detailed selections

Kernel Crash Dump Configuration

Kernel Crash Dump (Kdump)

Confirmation and File Installation

Confirm to actually do the installation

Setting the Root Password

The root password and authentication configuration

Hostname and Domain Name

Hostname can be set manually, or gleaned from the DHCP server

Network Configuration
Network card configuration

SLES Services Configuration

Certifying Authority and OpenLDAP can be configured during install

Adding a User Account

Supply unprivileged user details

Release Notes
The release notes contain valuable insights into the differences
between this and the previous release

Final Installation Hub

Third and final Hub

Installation Complete and AutoYaST2 "Cloning"

Have YaST2 create an AutoYaST2 file representing the installation
that was just completed?
"Cloning" this manual installation allows you to perform AutoYaST2
based automated installs

Lab 20
Estimated Time:
S11: 45 minutes