LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM

Introduction

 Brief history of Linux and its development by Linus Torvalds.

 The concept of open-source software and its significance in the tech world.

Core Components of Linux

Linux Kernel is the heart of Linux operating systems. It is an open-source (source
code that can be used by anyone freely) software that is most popular and widely
used in the industry as well as on a personal use basis. Who created Linux and
why? Linux was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 as a hobby project. Since
then, many of the users have contributed to its growth and development of it.
Before Jumping directly to the main topic “Linux Kernel” one must know a few
concepts (prerequisites) to better understand the Linux Kernel.
The Core Subsystems of the Linux Kernel are as follows:
1. The Process Scheduler
2. The Memory Management Unit (MMU)
3. The Virtual File System (VFS)
4. The Networking Unit
5. Inter-Process Communication Unit

 Kernel: The core of the Linux operating system, managing hardware and system
processes.
 Shell: The interface that allows users to interact with the kernel through a command-line
interface (CLI) or a graphical user interface (GUI).
 System Libraries: Essential for running applications, providing standard functions for
programs.

Linux Distributions

 Explanation of what distributions (distros) are and how they differ.

 Examples of popular distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS, and their specific use
cases.

File System Hierarchy

 Overview of the Linux file system structure.

 Explanation of directories like /bin, /etc, /home, /var, etc.

The Linux file system hierarchy is organized as an inverted tree with the root
directory / at the top. All other directories and files stem from this root. Here are
some key directories:

 /bin - Essential command binaries

  /etc - Configuration files
 /home - User home directories
 /lib - Shared libraries and kernel modules
 /opt - Optional/additional software
 /tmp - Temporary files
 /usr - User utilities and applications
 /var - Variable files like logs and databases


Basic Commands

 Commonly used commands for file manipulation (cp, mv, rm), directory navigation (cd,
ls), and system information (uname, top).
 Boot Loader files
 Kernel initrd, vmlinux, memtest, efi, grub files are located under /boot
 Example: initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic, vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
 basic system programs like ls, cp, ps, ls, cat, ping, grep etc. It’s typically
located at /bin.
 Devices files- usb, cpu,bus, char,block, mqueque, net, pts, disk, fd, dri, bsg,
input, lightnvm, snd,shm, v4l, core, console.

/etc :
Host-specific system-wide configuration files.
 Contains configuration files required by all programs.
 This also contains startup and shutdown shell scripts used to start/stop
individual programs.
 Example: /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/logrotate.conf.

The /etc directory in Linux is where system-wide configuration files are stored.
Here are some common files and subdirectories you might find there:

 passwd: Contains user account information.

 shadow: Contains encrypted user passwords.
 hosts: Maps hostnames to IP addresses.
 hostname: Contains the system’s hostname.
 group: Defines groups of users.
 fstab: Lists all disk partitions and storage devices.
 network/: Configuration for network settings.
 sysctl.conf: Kernel parameters settings.


Within a Linux home directory, you’ll typically find several standard subdirectories
and files:

 Desktop/: Contains files and shortcuts placed on the desktop environment.

 Documents/: Used to store personal documents.
 Downloads/: Default location for downloaded files.
 Music/, Pictures/, Videos/: Used to store personal media files.
 .bashrc, .profile: Configuration files for the bash shell.
 .ssh/: Contains secure shell keys and configuration.

ibraries essential for the binaries in /bin/ and /sbin/.

 Library filenames are either ld* or lib*.so.*
 Example: ld-2.11.1.so, libncurses.so.5.7
Permissions and Security

 Understanding file permissions and ownership.

 Using chmod and chown to manage access rights.

Software Management

 Package managers and how they simplify software installation and updates.
 Comparison of apt, yum, dnf, and pacman.

Networking

 Basics of networking in Linux, including IP configuration and troubleshooting tools like

ifconfig, ping, and netstat.

Shell Scripting

 Introduction to shell scripting to automate tasks.

 Basic script structure and examples of simple scripts.

#!/bin/bash

# This is a comment

echo "Hello, World!"

The most common wildcards are * for matching any number of characters, ? for
matching a single character, and [ ] for matching any one of the enclosed characters.

Logging in Linux involves two main types: kernel logging and user logging. Kernel
logging captures system-related messages, while user logging pertains to applications
and services running on the system. Logs are typically stored in the /var/log directory.

1. Basic Linux Commands:

 pwd - Print Working Directory.
 `pwd` : In this we will get to know the name and path of the current working
directory.
  ls - List directory contents.
 `ls` : Use to list all the files and directories in a particular location specified by
us.


 cd - Change directory.
 touch - Create a new file.
 mkdir - Create a new directory.
 rm - Remove files or directories.

`cat` : In this we will print the context inside a text file on terminal.

2. File Permissions and Management:

 Understanding chmod, chown, chgrp commands.

 Managing users and groups.

3. Process Management:

 Use of ps, top, kill, and htop.

4. Networking Commands:

 Basics of ifconfig, ping, netstat.

5. Introduction to Shell Scripting:

 Writing your first shell script.

 Making scripts executable with chmod +x.

6. Basic Script Examples:

 Backup script using rsync.

 Disk usage script with df and du.

7. Advanced Scripting Concepts:

 Conditional statements, loops, and functions.

8. Practical Scripting Exercise:

 Create a script that checks for system updates and applies them automatically.

Commands Description
 Used to check whether the calling program has access to a specified file. It
access can be used to check whether a file exists or not
Used to turn on or turn off the process for accounting or change info
accton process accounting file
aclocal Used to automatically generate aclocal.m4 files from configure.in file
acpi Used to display the battery status and other ACPI information
Tests whether ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
acpi_available subsystem is available or not
It provides intelligent power management on a system and is used to notify
acpid the user-space programs about the ACPI events
addr2line Used to convert addresses into file names and line numbers
It is a Linux version of getty, which is a Unix program running on a host
computer that manages physical or virtual terminals to allow multi-user
agetty access
Instructs the shell to replace one string with another string while executing
alias the commands
It is a command-line mixer for ALSA(Advanced Linux Sound
amixer Architecture) sound-card driver
It is a command-line audio player for ALSA(Advanced Linux Sound
aplay Architecture) sound card drivers.
Used to play standard MIDI(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files, by
sending the content of a MIDI file to an ALSA(Advanced Linux Sound
aplaymidi Architecture) MIDI port
It helps the user when they don’t remember the exact command but knows
apropos a few keywords related to the command that define its uses or functionality
Provides a high-level CLI (Command Line Interface) for the package
management system and is intended as an interface for the end user which
enables some options better suited for interactive usage by default
apt compared to more specialized APT tools like apt-cache and apt-get
apt-get It is a command-line tool which helps in handling packages in Linux
Opens up a highly built-in interface to interact with the package manager
aptitude of the machine
ar Used to create, modify and extract the files from the archives
arch Used to print the computer architecture
It manipulates the System’s ARP cache. It also allows a complete dump of
arp the ARP cache
aspell Used as a spell checker in Linux
atd It is a job scheduler daemon that runs jobs scheduled for later execution
atrm Used to remove the specified jobs. To remove a job, its job number is
 passed in the command
atq It displays the list of pending jobs which are scheduled by the user
autoconf Used in Linux to generate configuration scripts
Used to create a template file of C “#define” or any other template header
autoheader for configure to use
Used for automatically generating Makefile.in files compliant with the set
automake GNU Coding Standards
autoreconf Used to create automatically buildable source code for Unix-like systems

autoupdate Used to update configure.in file in our Linux system to a newer Autoconf.
It is a scripting language used for manipulating data and generating
awk reports

banner Used to print the ASCII character string in large letter to standard output

It strips directory information and suffixes from file names i.e. it prints the file
basename
name NAME with any leading directory components removed

Used to read commands from standard input or a specified file and execute
batch them when system load levels permit i.e. when the load average drops below
1.5

bc Used for command line calculator

bg Used to place foreground jobs in background

A mail notification system for unix that notifies the user at the command line
biff
when new mail arrives and tells from whom it is

bind Used to set Readline key bindings and variables

bison It is basically a parser generator similar to yacc

break Used to terminate the execution of for loop, while loop and until loop

Used to run a shell builtin, passing it arguments(args), and also to get the exit
builtin
status

bzcmp Used to invoke the cmp utility on bzip2 compressed files

bzdiff Used to compare the bzip2 compressed files

bzgrep Used to search for a pattern or an expression but inside a bzip2-compressed file

bzip2 Used to compress and decompress the files

bzless It does not have to read the entire input file before starting, so with a large file,
 it starts up faster

Used as a filter for CRT viewing of bzip2 compressed files, which are saved
bzmore
with .bz2 suffix

Used to see the calendar of a specific month or a whole year. By default, it

cal
shows current month‟s calendar as output

case It is the best alternative when we had to use multiple if/elif on a single variable

Reads data from file and gives their content as output. It helps us to create,
cat
view, concatenate files

cc It is used to compile the C language codes and create executables

ccrypt It is a command line tool for encryption and decryption of data

Known as change directory command. It is used to change current working

cd
directory

It displays or manipulates the disk partition table by providing a text-based

cfdisk
“graphical” interface

chage Used to view and change the user password expiry information

It is a file system command which is used for changing the attributes of a file in
chattr
a directory

It allows you to change a user‟s name and other details easily. chfn stands for
chfn
Change finger

chgrp Used to change the group ownership of a file or directory

chkconfig Used to list all available services and view or update their run level settings

chmod Used to change the access mode of a file

chown Used to change the file Owner or group

chpasswd Used to change password for multiple users at a time

chroot Used to change the root directory

chrt Used for manipulating the real-time attributes of a process

chsh Used to change the user‟s login shell(currently login shell)

Used to switch between the different TTY (TeleTYpewriter) terminals

chvt
available

cksum Used to display a CRC(Cyclic Redundancy Check) value, the byte size of the
 file and the name of the file to standard output

clear Used to clear the terminal screen

Used to compare the two files byte by byte and helps you to find out whether
cmp
the two files are identical or not

It is used to filter out reverse line feeds. The col utility simply reads from the
col
standard input and writes to standard output

Used to format the text processor output so that it can be viewed on Cathode
colcrt
Ray Tube displays

colrm Removes selected columns from a file

column Used to display the contents of a file in columns

Compares two sorted files line by line and write to standard output; the lines
comm
that are common and the lines that are unique

Used to reduce the file size. After compression, the file will be available with
compress
an added .Z extension

continue Used to skip the current iteration in for, while and until loop

cp Used to copy files or group of files or directory

cpio stands for “copy in, copy out“. It is used for processing the archive files
cpio
like *.cpio or *.tar. This command can copy files to and from archives

It is automatically used by C compiler to transform your program before

cpp
compilation

A software utility, offered by Linux-like operating system which automates the

cron
scheduled task at a predetermined time

A list of commands that you want to run on a regular schedule, and also the
crontab
name of the command used to manage that list

csplit Used to split any file into many parts as required by the user

It allows quick access across the files (For example quickly seeing definition of
ctags
a function)

It is a type of scheduler for CUPS (Common Unit Printing System). It

cupsd
implements the printing system on the basis of the Internet Printing Protocol

curl A tool to transfer data to or from a server, using any of the supported protocols

For cutting out the sections from each line of files and writing the result to
cut
standard output
 Used to store the history of a file. Whenever a file gets corrupted or anything
cvs
goes wrong “cvs” help us to go back to the previous version and restore our file

Used to display the system date and time. It is also used to set date and time
date
of the system

Used to evaluate arithmetic expressions. It evaluates expressions in the form

dc
of a postfix expression

It is a command-line utility for Unix and Unix-like operating systems whose

dd
primary purpose is to convert and copy files

Used to declare shell variables and functions, set their attributes and display
declare
their values

Used to generate a list of dependency description of kernel modules and its

depmod
associated map files

Used to display information related to file systems about total space and
df
available space

diff Used to display the differences in the files by comparing the files line by line

diff3 Used to compare the three files line by line

dir Used to list the contents of a directory

Used to remove the trailing forward slahes “/” from the NAME and prints the
dirname
remaining portion

dirs Used to display the list of currently remembered directories

disable Used to stop the printers or classes

dmesg Used to examine the kernel ring buffer and print the message buffer of kernel

Used when the user wants to retrieve system‟s hardware related information
dmidecode such as Processor, RAM(DIMMs), BIOS detail, etc. of Linux system in a
readable format

Used to return the Network Information System (NIS) domain name of the
domainname
host

dos2unix Converts a DOS text file to UNIX format

dosfsck Diagnoses MS-DOS file system for problems and attempts to repair them

Used to retrieve information or statistics form components of the system such

dstat
as network connections, IO devices, or CPU, etc.

du Used to track the files and directories which are consuming excessive amount
 of space on hard disk drive

dump Used to backup the filesystem to some storage device

Used to print the super block and blocks group information for the filesystem
dumpe2fs
present on device

dumpkeys Used for the dump keyboard translation tables

echo Used to display line of text/string that are passed as an argument

Used for launching the ed text editor which is a line-based text editor with a
ed minimal interface which makes it less complex for working on text files i.e
creating, editing, displaying and manipulating files

It treats the pattern as an extended regular expression and prints out the lines that
egrep
match the pattern

It allows ejecting a removable media (typically a CD-ROM, floppy disk, tape, or

eject
JAZ or ZIP disk) using the software

It is a editor having simple user interface. Also, there is no insert mode in this
emacs
editor. It only have editing mode.

enable Used to start the printers or classes

Used to either print environment variables. It is also used to run a utility or

env
command in a custom environment

eval Built-in command used to execute arguments as a shell command

It is a text editor in Linux which is also termed as the line editor mode of the vi
ex
editor

exec Used to execute a command from the bash itself

exit Used to exit the shell where it is currently running

Allows you to convert tabs into spaces in a file and when no file is specified it
expand
reads from standard input

This command or scripting language works with scripts that expect user inputs. It
expect
automates the task by providing inputs

It is bash shell BUILTINS commands, which means it is part of the shell. It marks
export
an environment variables to be exported to child-processes

expr It evaluates a given expression and displays its corresponding output

factor Used to print the prime factors of the given numbers, either given from command
 line or read from standard input

Used to list, edit or re-execute the commands previously entered into an

fc
interactive shell

It scans the font directories and build font cache for applications which use
fc-cache
fontconfig for their font handling

It is used to list the available fonts and font styles. Using the format option, the list
fc-list
of all fonts can be filtered and sorted out

Format disk is a dialog-driven command in Linux used for creating and

fdisk
manipulating disk partition table

fg Used to put a background job in foreground

fgrep Used to search for the fixed-character strings in a file

Used to determine the type of a file. .file type may be of human-readable(e.g.

file
„ASCII text‟) or MIME type(e.g. „text/plain; charset=us-ascii‟)

find Used to find files and directories and perform subsequent operations on them

It is a user information lookup command which gives details of all the users
finger
logged in.

fmt Works as a formatter for simplifying and optimizing text files

It wraps each line in an input file to fit a specified width and prints it to the
fold
standard output

for Used to repeatedly execute a set of command for every element present in the list

Displays the total amount of free space available along with the amount of
free memory used and swap memory in the system, and also the buffers used by the
kernel

Fun Used to draw various type of patterns on the terminal

function Used to create functions or methods

Used for preprocessing, compilation, assembly and linking of source code to

g++
generate an executable file

gawk Used for pattern scanning and processing language

GNU Compiler Collections is used to compile mainly C and C++ language. It

gcc
can also be used to compile Objective C and Objective C++

GNU Debugger tool helps to debug the programs written in C, C++, Ada,
gdb
Fortran, etc.
 getent Used to get the entries in a number of important text files called databases

gpasswd Used to administer the /etc/group and /etc/gshadow

Searches a file for a particular pattern of characters, and displays all lines that
grep
contain that pattern

groupadd Used to create a new user group

groupdel Used to delete a existing group

groupmod Used to modify or change the existing group on Linux system

Groups are the collection of users. Groups make it easy to manage users with
groups
the same security and access privileges

It verifies the integrity of the groups information. It checks that all entries in
grpck
/etc/group and /etc/gshadow have the proper format and contain valid data

It is used to convert to shadow groups. The grpconv command creates a

grpconv
gshadow from the group and an optionally existing gshadow

This command invokes Ghostscript, which is an interpreter of Adobe Systems

gs
PostScript and Portable Document Format(PDF) languages

gunzip Used to compress or expand a file or a list of files in Linux

Used to compress executable files and also used to automatically uncompress

gzexe
and execute the files

This command compresses files. Each single file is compressed into a single
gzip
file.

Used to instruct the hardware to stop all the CPU functions. Basically, it
halt
reboots or stops the system.

hash Used to maintain a hash table of recently executed programs

Used to get statistics about the hard disk, alter writing intervals, acoustic
hdparm
management, and DMA settings

Head Prints the top N number of data of the given input

help Displays information about shell built-in commands

Used to filter and display the specified files, or standard input in a human
hexdump
readable specified format

history Used to view the previously executed command

host Used for DNS (Domain Name System) lookup operations

 hostid Used to displays the Host‟s ID in hexadecimal format

Used to obtain the DNS(Domain Name System) name and set the system‟s
hostname
hostname or NIS(Network Information System) domain name.

Provides a proper API used to control Linux system hostname and change its
hostnamectl
related settings

It is a command line utility that allows the user to interactively monitor the
htop
system‟s vital resources or server‟s processes in real time

hwclock Utility for accessing the hardware clock, also called Real Time Clock (RTC)

iconv Used to convert some text in one encoding into another encoding

Used to find out user and group names and numeric ID‟s (UID or group ID) of
id
the current user or any other user in the server

if Used to execute commands based on conditions

ifconfig Used to configure the kernel-resident network interfaces.

It is a network analyzing tool used by system administrators to view the

iftop
bandwidth related stats

It basically brings the network interface up, allowing it to transmit and receive
ifup
data

Used for capturing a screenshot for any of the active pages we have and it gives
import
the output as an image file

Reads documentation in the info format. It will give detailed information for a
info
command when compared with the main page

insmod Used to insert modules into the kernel

install Used to copy files and set attributes

iostat Used for monitoring system input/output statistics for devices and partitions

Used to display and monitor the disk IO usage details and even gets a table of
iotop
existing IO utilization by the process

ip Used for performing several network administration tasks

Used to remove some IPC(Inter-Process Communication) resources. It

ipcrm
eliminates the IPC objects and their associated data structure form the system

Shows information on the inter-process communication facilities for which the

ipcs
calling process has read access
 Used to set up and maintain tables for the Netfilter firewall for IPv4, included in
iptables
the Linux kernel

iptables- It will save the current iptables rules in a user specified file, that can be used
save later when the user wants

Used to display the parameters, and the wireless statistics which are extracted
iwconfig
from /proc/net/wireless

It is a command line utility for joining lines of two files based on a key field
join
present in both the files

journalctl Used to view systemd, kernel and journal logs

Used to terminate processes manually. kill command sends a signal to a process which
kill
terminates the process

Used to display the list of all the users logged in and out since the file /var/log/wtmp
last
was created

less Used to read contents of text file one page(one screen) per time

let Used to evaluate arithmetic expressions on shell variables

ln Used to create links between files

locate Used to find the files by name

look Shows the lines beginning with a given string

Used to display details about block devices and these block devices(Except ram disk)
lsblk
are basically those files that represent devices connected to the pc.

Used to generate the detailed information of the system‟s hardware configuration

lshw
from various files in the /proc directory

Used to display the status of modules in the Linux kernel. It results in a list of loaded
lsmod
modules

lsof Provides a list of files that are opened

lsusb Used to display the information about USB buses and the devices connected to them

This command in Linux prints the mail queue i.e the list of messages that are there
mailq
in the mail queue

man Used to display the user manual of any command that we can run on the terminal

md5sum To verify data integrity using MD5 (Message Digest Algorithm 5)

mkdir Allows the user to create directories. This command can create multiple
 directories at once

modinfo Used to display the information about a Linux Kernel module

Used to view the text files in the command prompt, displaying one screen at a
more
time in case the file is large (For example log files)

Used to mount the filesystem found on a device to big tree structure(Linux

mount
filesystem) rooted at „/„

mpstat Used to report processor related statistics.

Used to move one or more files or directories from one place to another in file
mv
system like UNIX

It is one of the powerful networking tool, security tool or network monitoring

nc(netcat)
tool.

Displays various network related information such as network connections,

netstat routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, multicast
memberships, etc.

Used for controlling NetworkManager. nmcli command can also be used to

nmcli display network device status, create, edit, activate/deactivate, and delete
network connections

It is a network administration tool for querying the Domain Name System

nslookup (DNS) to obtain domain name or IP address mapping or any other specific DNS
record

Used to convert the content of input in different formats with octal format as the default
od
format

passwd Used to change the user account passwords

Used to join files horizontally (parallel merging) by outputting lines consisting of

paste
lines from each file specified, separated by tab as delimiter, to the standard output

pidof Used to find out the process IDs of a specific running program

ping Used to check the network connectivity between host and server/host

It is a user information lookup command which gives details of all the users
pinky logged in. Unlike finger, in the pinky, you may trim the information of your
interest.

Used to display the memory map of a process. A memory map indicates how
pmap
memory is spread out

poweroff Sends an ACPI signal which instructs the system to power down
 Used to display the given string, number or any other format specifier on the
printf
terminal window

Used to list the currently running processes and their PIDs along with some other
ps
information depends on different options

pwd It prints the path of the working directory, starting from the root

ranlib Used to generate index to archive

rcp Used to copy files from one computer to another computer

Reads up the total number of bytes from the specified file descriptor into the
read
buffer

readelf Used to get information of ELF(Executable and Linkable Format) Files

readlink Used to print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names

reboot Instructs the system to restart or reboot

rename Used to rename the named files according to the regular expression perlexpr

Used to initialize the terminal. This is useful once a program dies leaving a
reset
terminal in an abnormal state

restore Used for restoring files from a backup created using dump

return Used to exit from a shell function.

rev Used to reverse the lines characterwise

Used to remove objects such as files, directories, symbolic links and so on from
rm
the file system like UNIX

rmdir Used to remove empty directories from the filesystem in Linux

rmmod Used to remove a module from the kernel

route Used when you want to work with the IP/kernel routing table

It is a software utility for Unix-Like systems that efficiently sync files and
rsync
directories between two hosts or machines

Used to monitor Linux system‟s resources like CPU usage, Memory

sar
utilization, I/O devices consumption, etc.

scp Used to copy file(s) between servers in a secure way.

Provides the ability to launch and use multiple shell sessions from a single ssh
screen
session
 script Used to make typescript or record all the terminal activities

Used to replay a typescript/terminal_activity stored in the log file that was

scriptreplay
recorded by the script command

Used to compare two files and then writes the results to standard output in a
sdiff
side-by-side format

Used for finding, filtering, text substitution, replacement and text

sed
manipulations like insertion, deletion search etc.

select Used to create a numbered menu from which a user can select an option

seq Used to generate numbers from FIRST to LAST in steps of INCREMENT

setsid Used to run a program in a new session

shift Shifts/moves the command line arguments to one position left.

prints to standard output either the scan codes or the key code or the `ascii‟
showkey
code of each key pressed

shred Used in order to delete a file completely from hard disk

shutdown Used to shutdown the system in a safe way

sleep Used to create a dummy job. A dummy job helps in delaying the execution

Used to read and execute the content of a file(generally set of commands),

source
passed as an argument in the current shell script

sort Used to sort a file, arranging the records in a particular order

split Used to split large files into smaller files

ssh Protocol used to securely connect to a remote server/system

It is one of the most powerful process monitoring, diagnostic, instructional

strace
tool of Linux.

stty Used to change and print terminal line settings

sudo Used as a prefix of some command that only superuser are allowed to run

sum Used to find checksum and count the blocks in a file

sync Used to synchronize cached writes to persistent storage

Used to examine and control the state of “systemd” system and service
systemctl
manager
 tac Used to concatenate and print files in reverse

Tail Prints the last N number of data of the given input

tar Used to create Archive and extract the Archive files

Reads the standard input and writes it to both the standard output and one or
tee
more files

Used to execute a command and prints a summary of real-time, user CPU time
time
and system CPU time spent by executing a command when it terminates

top Provides a dynamic real-time view of the running system

touch Used to create, change and modify timestamps of a file

tr It is a command line utility for translating or deleting characters

tracepath Used to traces path to destination discovering MTU along this path

traceroute Prints the route that a packet takes to reach the host

A recursive directory listing program that produces a depth-indented listing of

Tree
files

It displays the information related to terminal. It basically prints the file name of
tty
the terminal connected to standard input

type Used to describe how its argument would be translated if used as commands

uname Displays the information about the system

Converts each spaces into tabs writing the produced output to the standard
unexpand
output

uniq It is a command line utility that reports or filters out the repeated lines in a file

unix2dos Converts a Unix text file to DOS format

Used to execute a set of commands as long as the final command in the „until‟
until
Commands has an exit status which is not zero

Uptime Used to find out how long the system is active (running)

useradd Used to add user accounts to your system

usermod Used to change the properties of a user in Linux through the command line

It provides a set of commands to fetch username and its configurations from the
username
Linux host
 users Used to show the user names of users currently logged in to the current host

userdel Used to delete a user account and related files

It is the default editor that comes with the UNIX operating system is called visual
vi
editor.

It is a performance monitoring command of the system as it gives the information

vmstat
about processes, memory, paging, block IO, disk and CPU scheduling

Used by system administrators in order to monitor network parameters such as

vnstat
bandwidth consumption or maybe some traffic flowing in or out

w Used to show who is logged on and what they are doing

Displays a message, or the contents of a file, or otherwise its standard input, on the
wall
terminals of all currently logged in users

watch Used to execute a program periodically, showing output in fullscreen

Used to find out number of lines, word count, byte and characters count in the files
wc
specified in the file arguments

Used to download files from the server even when the user has not logged on to
Wget
the system and it can work in background without hindering the current process

whatis Used to get a one-line manual page descriptions

Used to locate the executable file associated with the given command by searching
which
it in the path environment variable

Used to repeatedly execute a set of command as long as the COMMAND returns

while
true

who Used to get information about currently logged in user on to system

whoami Displays the username of the current user when this command is invoked

Allows a user to communicate with other users, by copying lines from one user‟s
write
terminal to others
Commonly Used Options in `ls` command in Linux

Options Description

known as a long format that displays detailed information about files and
-l directories.
Options Description

-a Represent all files Include hidden files and directories in the listing.

Sort files and directories by their last modification time, displaying the most
-t recently modified ones first.

-r known as reverse order which is used to reverse the default order of listing.

-S Sort files and directories by their sizes, listing the largest ones first.

-R List files and directories recursively, including subdirectories.

known as inode which displays the index number (inode) of each file and
-i directory.

known as group which displays the group ownership of files and directories
-g instead of the owner.

-h Print file sizes in human-readable format (e.g., 1K, 234M, 2G).

-d List directories themselves, rather than their contents.

1. Open Last Edited File Using `ls -t `

2. Display One File Per Line Using `ls -1 `
3. Display All Information About Files/Directories Using `ls -l`
4. Display File Size in Human Readable Format Using `ls -lh`
5. Display Hidden Files Using ls -a (or) ls -A
6. Order Files Based on Last Modified Time (In Reverse Order) Using `ls -ltr `
7. Order Files Based on Last Modified Time Using `ls -lt`
8. Display Directory Information Using `ls -ld`
9. Display Files Recursively Using ls -R $ ls /etc/apt all the unhidden files
show
10. Display File Inode Number Using `ls -i`
11. Hide Control Characters Using `ls -q`
12. Display File UID and GID Using `ls -n`
13. Visual Classification of Files with Special Characters Using `ls -F`
14. Visual Classification of Files with Colors Using `ls -F`
  / – directory.
 nothing – normal file.
 @ – link file.
 * – Executable file

-rw-rw-r– 1 maverick maverick 1176 Feb 16 00:19 1.c 1st Character – File Type:
First character specifies the type of the file. In the example above the hyphen (-)
in the 1st character indicates that this is a normal file. Following are the possible
file type options in the 1st character of the ls -l output.
Field Explanation
 – normal file
 d : directory
 s : socket file
 l : link file
 Field 1 – File Permissions: Next characters specifyes the files permission.
Every 3 characters specify read, write, execute permissions for user(root),
group and others respectively in order. Taking the above example, -rw-rw-r–
indicates read-write permission for user(root), read permission for group, and
no permission for others respectively. If all three permissions are given to
user(root), group and others, the format looks like -rwxrwxrwx
 Field 2 – Number of links: Second field specifies the number of links for that
file. In this example, 1 indicates only one link to this file.
 Field 3 – Owner: Third field specifies owner of the file. In this example, this file
is owned by username „maverick‟.
 Field 4 – Group: Fourth field specifies the group of the file. In this example, this
file belongs to” maverick‟ group.
 Field 5 – Size: Fifth field specifies the size of file in bytes. In this example,
„1176‟ indicates the file size in bytes.
 Field 6 – Last modified date and time: Sixth field specifies the date and time of
the last modification of the file. In this example, „Feb 16 00:19‟ specifies the last
modification time of the file.
 Field 7 – File name: The last field is the name of the file. In this example, the file
name is 1.c.

Linux comes in various distributions (distros), each with its own set of features and
target users. Here’s a list of some popular Linux distros:

 Ubuntu: Known for its ease of use and popularity on desktops.

 Fedora: Features cutting-edge technology and innovation.
 Debian: Praised for its stability and used as the base for many other distros.
 CentOS: A free alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, focused on stability.
 Arch Linux: Known for its simplicity and customization.
 openSUSE: Offers both a stable release and a rolling release version.
 Mint: Based on Ubuntu, it’s user-friendly and includes many pre-installed
applications.