Linux Fundamentals

Prerequisites:

Course Description:

This course introduces the delegate to the main concepts of the LINUX Operating System. The most commonly used commands are described in detail as are the command line wildcard and redirection facilities. The mechanisms by which a user acquires a login environment are discussed and the main features of the Bash shell are introduced.

The course is designed to give delegates practical experience in developing and writing shell scripts. Most of the built-in Bash shell commands are introduced together with the main program control structures.

This course includes the following modules:

Introduction to the Linux Operating System

• A brief history of UNIX
• The UNIX kernel
• The UNIX file system
• A login session
• Getting started navigating the file system
• The file system structure
• Directories and files
• Pathnames
• Navigating the file system
• Exercise: Logging on to the system
• Exercise: Navigating the file system

Basic Commands

• Command line syntax
• Basic file handling commands
• Basic Directory handling commands
• Filename wildcard characters
• Exercise: Manipulating files and directories

Redirection and Pipes

• Input redirection
• Output redirection
• Pipes
• Exercise: Using redirection and pipe facilities

Introduction to the vi Editor

• Overview of the vi editor
• Basic functions
• Switching to input mode
• Other useful commands
• Exercises: Using the vi editor
• Exercise: Using more advanced vi features

Searching and Replacing Text

• Replacing text
• Using the vi editor
• Using sed for search and replace
• Searching for text with grep
• Linking files
• Exercises: Searching and Replacing Text

Recalling and Editing Commands

• Overview
• The Bash shell
• The Korn shell
• Exercises: Recall and Edit Commands

File Permissions and Access Control

• Users and user groups
• File access permissions
• Changing file attributes
• Switching users and user groups
• Linking files
• Exercise: Setting and access permissions

Processes

• What is a process?
• Monitoring processes
• Killing processes
• Background processes
• Job Control
• Grouping commands
• Exercise: Monitoring and controlling processes

More Basic Commands

• The wc (word count) command
• The find command
• The cut command
• The sort command
• The finger command
• Exercise: Using file handling commands

The User Environment

• Customising the .profile or .bash_profile
• Customising the .kshrc or .bashrc
• Exercise: Setting up an environment

Unix Command Review

• Basic Unix commands
• General commands
• File and directory handling commands
• Filename generation characters
• I/O Redirection features
• Other commands

Getting Started

• What is a shell script?
• Development guidelines
• Creating and editing shell scripts
• Naming and storing shell scripts
• Executing shell scripts
• Exercise: Write a simple shell script

Using Variables

• Environment variables
• Local variables
• Assigning values to variables
• Assessing variable values
• Using quotes
• Delimiting variable names
• Echo control sequences
• Exercise: Add variables to a script

Integer Arithmetic

• Using the expr command
• Using the (( )) notation
• Exercise: Add integer arithmetic to a shell script

Handling Run Time Data

• The read command
• Command line arguments
• Exercise: Writing a generic shell script
• Exercise: Writing an interactive shell script

Condition Execution

• The if statement
• The test command
• Other test notations
• Default and substitute variables
• Exit status codes
• Exercise: Adding validation to previous scripts

Loop Constructs

• The while loop
• The until loop
• The for loop
• The while true and until false loops
• Loop control commands
• Exercise: Enhancing the previously written scripts
• Exercise: Writing a guess-the-number game

Multi-Branch Decisions

• The case statement
• Menu driven applications
• Exercise: Developing and writing a menu system

Functions

• What is a function?
• Syntax
• Examples
• Exercise: Add a function to a script

Interrupt Handling

• Interrupt signals
• Trapping interrupts
• Exercise: Adding traps to the menu script

Additional Features and Facilities

• The exec commands
• The includes notation
• More about loops
• Arrays
• Here Documents
• Exercise: Create a here script