“Linux at the Command Line”

Don Johnson of BU IS&T

 We’ll start with a sign in sheet that include
questions about your Linux experience and
goals.
 We’ll end with a class evaluation.
 We’ll cover as much as we can in the time
allowed; if we don’t cover everything, you’ll
pick it up as you continue working with
Linux.
 This is a hands-on, lab class; ask questions
at any time.
 Commands for you to type are in BOLD
 The Most
Common O/S
Used By BU
Researchers When
Working on a
Server or
Computer Cluster
 Linux is a Unix clone begun in 1991 and
written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with
assistance from a loosely-knit team of
hackers across the Net.
 64% of the world’s servers run some variant
of Unix or Linux. The Android phone and the
Kindle run Linux.
  a set of small
 Linux is an O/S core programs written by
written by Linus Richard Stallman and
Torvalds and others others. They are the
AND GNU utilities.
http://www.gnu.org/
 Network: ssh, scp
 Shells: BASH, TCSH, clear, history, chsh, echo,
set, setenv, xargs
 System Information: w, whoami, man, info,
which, free, echo, date, cal, df, free
 Command Information: man, info
 Symbols: |, >, >>, <, ;, ~, ., ..
 Filters: grep, egrep, more, less, head, tail
 Hotkeys: <ctrl><c>, <ctrl><d>
 File System: ls, mkdir, cd, pwd, mv, touch, file,
find, diff, cmp, du, chmod, find
 File Editors: gedit, nedit
 You need a “xterm” emulation –
software that emulates an “X”
terminal and that connects using the
“SSH” Secure Shell protocol.
◦ Windows
 Use StarNet “X-Win32:”
http://www.bu.edu/tech/desktop/site-
licensed-software/xwindows/xwin32/
◦ Mac OS X
 “Terminal” is already installed
 Why? Darwin, the system on which Apple's Mac OS X
is built, is a derivative of 4.4BSD-Lite2 and FreeBSD.
In other words, the Mac is a Unix system!
 Your Instructor Today

The Ideal Lab Facility

 X-Win32/X-Config
◦ Wizard
 Name: katana
 Type: ssh
 Host: katana.bu.edu (Off-campus, must include
domain “bu.edu” )
 Login: <userID>
 Password: <password>
 Command: Linux
◦ Click “katana” then “Launch”
 Accept the host server public key (first time only)
 Terminal
◦ Type ssh –X katana.bu.edu or ssh –Y katana.bu.edu (less
secure)
 From the lab computer
◦ Using File Explorer, copy the directory “\\scv-
files.bu.edu\SCV\Training\Introduction to Linux”
to “My Documents” on your lab machine
 Linux
◦ Connect to katana.bu.edu using X-Win32 and run
this command:
 cp -Rv /project/ssrcsupp/linux_class ~/
 From a browser, download:
http://ssrc.bu.edu/linux_class
 A shell is a computer program that interprets the
commands you type and sends them to the operating
system. Secondly, it provide a programming environment
consisting of environment variables.
 Most BU systems, including the BU Linux Cluster, support
at least two shells: TCSH and BASH. The default shell for
your account is TCSH. The most popular and powerful
Linux shell today is BASH.
 To determine your shell type:
◦ echo $SHELL (shell prints contents of env
◦ echo “$SHELL” (shell still processes env. variable)
◦ echo ‘$SHELL’ (shell treats env. variable as simple literal)
 The complete environment can be printed with set, setenv
(TCSH) and set (BASH).
 To determine the path to the shell program, type:
◦ which bash
◦ which tcsh
 Change the shell with “chsh /bin/bash” (provide path to
new shell as a “parameter,” meaning to be explained soon)
 The Shell
Output of the echo, which and chsh commands
 After you connect, type
◦ shazam
◦ whoami
◦ hostname
◦ date
◦ cal
◦ free
 Commands have three parts; command, options and
parameters. Example: cal –j 3 1999. “cal” is the command,
“-j” is an option (or switch), “3” and “1999” are parameters.
 Options have long and short forms. Example:
◦ date –u
◦ data --universal

What is the nature of the prompt?

What was the system’s response to the command?
 System Information
Output of the whoami, hostname, date, cal and free
 Try the history command
 Try <Ctrl><r> (only works in BASH shell)
 Choose from the command history by using
the up ↑ and down ↓ arrows
 What do the left ← and right → arrow do on
the command line?
 Try the <Del> and <Backspace> keys
 Type
◦ hostname –-help
◦ man hostname
◦ info hostname (gives the same or most information,
but must be paged)
 And “Yes,” you can always Google it
 The pipe “|” feeds the OUTPUT of one
command into the INPUT of another command.
Our first example will use the pipe symbol to
filter the output of a command. Try:
◦ w
◦ w | grep ‘root’
◦ ps -e -o ruser,comm | grep 'tut‘
 The ps command is using both “options (dash)”
and parameters
 Try both “man grep” and “info grep”. See the
difference?
 The structure resembles an upside down tree
 Directories are collections of files and other
directories.
 Every directory has a parent except for the
root directory.
 Many directories have children directories.
 Unlike Windows, with multiple drives and
multiple file systems, a *Nix system only has
ONE file system.
The Linux File System
A Typical Linux File System
 Try
◦ tree –L 3 –d / | less
◦ tree –L 3 / | less
◦ file /bin/alsac then press <tab>
◦ cd ~; pwd (This is your home directory where
application settings are kept and where you have
write privileges)
◦ ls
◦ mkdir myPics;mkdir myPics/work;mkdir
myPics/friends;mkdir myPics/friends/BU; mkdir
myPics/friends/MIT
◦ tree myPics
Examining the File System
Output from the tree, file, pwd and ls commands
Demonstration of using the mkdir command
 There are two types of pathnames
◦ Absolute (Abs) – the full path to a directory or file;
begins with the root symbol /
◦ Relative (Rel) – a partial path that is relative to the
current working directory
 Examples
◦ Abs cd /usr/local/lib
◦ echo $HOME (one of may environment variables
maintained by the shell)
◦ Abs cd `echo $HOME`
◦ pwd
◦ Rel cd ..
◦ Rel cd ..
◦ Abs cd /lib (location OS shared libraries)
◦ ls –d */ (a listing of only the directories in /lib)
Navigating the File System
Moving around the file system using the cd command
 More useful commands
◦ cd (also takes you to your home directory like cd ~)
◦ mkdir test
◦ echo ‘Hello everyone’ > test/myfile.txt
◦ echo ‘Goodbye all’ >> test/myfile.txt
◦ less test/myfile.txt
◦ mkdir test/subdir1/subdir2 (FAILS)
◦ mkdir -p test/subdir1/subdir2 (Succeeds)
◦ mv test/myfile.txt test/subdir1/subdir2
◦ rmdir test (FAILS)
◦ rm –Rv test (Succeeds)
Modifying the Linux File System
Demonstration of the mkdir, less, mv, rmdir and rm commands
 Useful options for the “ls” command:
◦ ls -a List all file including hidden file beginning with
a period “.”
◦ ls -ld * List details about a directory and not its
contents
◦ ls -F Put an indicator character at the end of each
name
◦ ls –l Simple long listing
◦ ls –lh Give human readable file sizes
◦ ls –lS Sort files by file size
◦ ls –lt Sort files by modification time
 Emacs
 Vim
 Nedit
 Gedit

 Emacs and Vim are powerful editors used by

most programmers. Nedit and Gedit and easy
to learn editors useful for new users on a
Linux system.