Unix/Linux Fundamentals

Prerequisites:

The course would be suitable for anyone who needs to use Unix/Linux as a data-processing platform or those who support Unix-based applications and users. It would also give a useful introduction to anyone who needs to learn how to administer a Unix/Linux system, although administration is outside the scope of this course

Course Description:

This course provides an introduction to Unix/Linux and the use of the operating system commands. The course would also provide a good refresher to those returning to Unix/Linux after a long time on other platforms, and to those whose experience of Unix/Linux was not acquired through formal training and who wish to fill in gaps in their knowledge.

Delegates will learn how to:

• Use features of the UNIX shell to customise their working environment
• Create, copy and move files and directories
• Secure files and directories using permissions
• Save the results of commands into a file
• Logon to a Unix system and use the korn shell command interface to run commands and locate and examine files
• Move around the UNIX filestore using full and partial pathnames
• Use features of the UNIX shell to combine commands using pipes

This course includes the following modules:

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY

• What does Unix do? Why Unix is useful. A brief history of Unix and why there are different flavours of Unix

BASIC UNIX COMMANDS

• Logging-in and entering commands, types of user (user/superuser) and their capabilities, structure of the passwd file and how to read it, some useful identification commands (id/who/who am I), commands, options and arguments how to create a command-line, listing files, reading files, finding the date and time, logging out

UNIX FILE SYSTEM STRUCTURE

• Logical file system, root directory (/), standard Unix directory structure, navigating the directories the cd command, pathnames (absolute vs relative), creating and removing directories, copying, renaming and deleting files

UNIX SHELLS (PRIMARILY KORN)

• Bourne/C/Korn/Bash, general features of interactive shells, command line processing, internal vs external commands, identifying commands with the type command, wildcards and special characters, quoting text and special characters

EDITING WITH VI

• Why learn vi? vi modes, vi cursor keys, vi insert commands, vi delete/cut commands, vi copy/paste commands, vi change commands, vi search and replace commands, vi file commands, configuring vi

SHELL CONFIGURATION

• Aliasing commands, command history and command editing, sub(child) shells, environment (aliases/variables/shell options), shell variables (PATH/HOME/PWD/PS1), variables (local/exported), variables and quotes, command substitution, arithmetic substitution, configuration files (/etc/profile, .profile), the ENV variable and .kshrc

INPUT AND OUTPUT DATA STREAMS

• Unix processes and stdin/stdout/stderr, redirection of stdout, redirection of stderr, redirection of both stdout and stderr, redirection of stdin, here-documents as an alternative to redirection from files, opening additional data streams, using additional data streams

PIPES AND DATA MANIPULATION

• What is a pipe? Pipes vs redirection, some simple pipelines, some more complex pipelines

BASIC SHELL SCRIPTS

• Shell as a programming language, #! (hashbang) header, positional parameters, if/then/else construct, test command, read command, loops (for/while/until)