Experiment No.

___7__   
PARTICIPATING IN A MULTIUSER ENVIRONMENT   

1. Objective(s):   
​The activity aims
1.1 To analyze various UNIX commands used to manage a multiuser environment 1.2
To analyze UNIX commands used to change password, group and file ownership 1.3
To organize UNIX directory and file permissions
1.4 To interpret how processes are managed in a UNIX environment

2. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs):   

The students shall be able to:
2.1.Manage multiuser environment
2.2.Manage processes in a Unix environment

3. Discussion (not more than 300 words):   

UNIX is a multiuser operating system with multitasking capabilities. Unlike an operating system like MS
DOS, which supports only one user login, UNIX allows multiple users to login concurrently. This
capability is called ​multiuser​.

UNIX also can work on several tasks or process at the same time. This capability is known as
multitasking.

One advantage of this time-sharing feature is that you can run a specified program ​in the background​.
While this program is running in the background, you can continue entering commands and working with
other material.

Exploring the Multiuser Environment  

Because you normally work with your peers while working with UNIX, you often need to find out what is
going on in your UNIX environment. Your executing program, also called processes, share computer
resources with the processes of other users. Even UNIX itself initiates its own processes.

At certain times you may want to abort your program due to incorrect input, or the system hangs. At
times you may want to change your password since somebody has cracked it and to know who are
currently logged in the system, the processes he/she is executing and resources being used.

UNIX provides useful tools that enable you to operate effectively and efficiently on this kind of
multitasking/multiuser computing environment.
4. Resources:   
Personal computer with Unix or unix-based operating system

5. Procedure:   
5.1. Start a terminal session with your unix or unix-based operating system.

5.2. Run and tests commands for managing multiuser environments

5.2.1 Changing Password the passwd. The passwd command gives you the flexibility to
interactively create or change your password. IN some installations, the system
administrator assigns a password when your account is created. You should immediately
change this password once you login, to prevent others from using your account.

The following exercise shows how to change the password for user ariel. The system
asked for the current password, then asks for the new password. To ensure that the
correct password is typed, the system asked to retype the password. If the passwords are
identical, then system prompts that the password are updated

Note that in some system, every keystroke is replaced by the asterisk (*) while others do
not display anything

5.2.2 Change your password adopting the following scenarios:

5.2.2.1. Scenario 1. Enter a wrong (current password)

5.2.2.2. Scenario 2. Enter the same new password
5.2.2.3. Scenario 3. Enter two non-identical new passwords
5.2.2.4. Scenario 4. Enter short passwords
5.2.2.5. Scenario 5. Just change the case of the new password
5.2.3 Finding out Who Is Using the System. The who command enables you to find out who are
 logged in on the system.

Who lists the login names, terminal lines, and login times of users who are currently logged
in.

The whoami variation of the who command identifies the invoking user.

5.2.4 Changing the Group Ownership of Files with chgrp. A company is often organized into
groups, such as accounting, sales, operations, and so on. In the UNIX world, users are
also divided administratively into groups. Each group is identified by a specific group
number and a group name. A record of these items is stored in the /etc/group file; that
contains a listing of the group number and the group members for each group.

Issue the command less /etc/group to scroll to the groups file

A user may be a member of many groups. The system administrator sets up the default
group for the user. The user can switch to any group of which he is a member to access
the file in that particular group.

A file is “owned” by the user that created it. Other than the super user, a file’s owner is the
only user who has absolute control over the access permissions for the file. When a file is
created, it is assigned your user ID number and your current group ID number.

In the next exercise, the chgrp command grants the isidro group access to file1
5.2.5 Switching Groups with newgrp. As a user, you may be listed in several groups. The
/etc/group file lists the groups you are assigned to by the system administrator.

Issue the piped command cat /etc/group|grep ariel. The command displays the /etc/group
file, however with the piped grep ariel, it will display only the lines with the word ​ariel a​ s
shown below:

Or issue the command groups to list the groups where you are a member.

While the command chgrp changes the group affiliation of files, the newgrp changes the
gropu affiliation of a single user. The new group affiliation lasts throughout the user’s
session, or until the user issues another newgrp command.

The following exercises illustrate how the newgrp command affects group affiliation:

Exercise 1. Using the id command to display identification and group affiliation.

 Exercise 2. Using touch to create files.

5.2.6 Setting File and Directory with chmod. UNIX users can read and write files. In addition, users
can execute files such as shell scripts and binary programs. The process of accessing files
based on the mode of access are called ​read, write a​ nd ​execute. ​This ability to read, write
and execute a file is called a ​permission.

Read (r) permission allows a file to be read and copied. If you use read permissions with a
directory, you can list the contents of that directory.

Write (w) permission allows a file to be modified. If you use write permission with a
directory, you can add or delete files in that directory.

Execute (x) permission allows you to run the file as a program by typing the file’s name.
When you are granted execute permission for use with a directory, you have search
permission for the directory; you also have the power to make that directory you current
directory.

UNIX divides the read, write, and execute modes of its users into three categories. The
three categories are independent and pertain only to the users who fit into each category.
The categories are as follows:
∙ ​Owner – the user ID who created the file or directory
∙ ​Group – the group ID affiliated with the file
 ∙ ​Others – public access to a file by all other users

Arrange the three access categories in a row and list the possible modes of access below
each category:

Owner Group Others

Read Write Execute Read Write Execute Read Write Execute

Each file has a set of access-mode attributes associated with its i-node entry. These
attributes contain read, write and execute access attributes for each of the categories:
Owner, Group, and Others. Recall that these attributes can be seen when you issue the ls
–l command. The first field is the permissions field which is a series of rwx and –
characters.

The first column of the permissions field is the file type indicators which could be any of the
following: d – directory, b – block-type special file, c – character-type special file, l –
symbolic link, p – pipe, s – socket, ‘-‘ - regular file.

The next three columns describe the owner’s access permissions. An ‘r’ in the second
column indicates read permission; a ‘w’ on the third column indicates write permission;
while an ‘x’ in the fourth column indicates execute permission. Execute permission on a
directory allows the owner to list the contents of the directory, whereas execute permission
on a file allows the owner to run the file. When a ‘-‘ appears in place of the r, w, or x, the
corresponding permission is not ​granted.

The permissions for group members are listed in the next three columns. Similarly, the
permissions for the group are listed as r, w, and x. Members of the group can access the
directory or file depending on the permission given to them.
The remaining three columns in the permissions field are for Others, i.e., users who are
neither owner nor group member. Others are also referred to as Public.
The most common directory permission:
Permission Meaning
--- No access allowed to directory
r-x Read-only access, no modification allowed
rwx All access allowed

The chmod command enables you to specify permissions in two different ways:
symbolically or numerically. Symbolic notation is most commonly used to modify existing
permissions, while numeric notation always replaces any existing permission with the new
value specified.

Symbolic notation follows the format shown below:

Pick any Pick only one Pick any

u = user g = group o = + (add) r = read w = write
other ​a = all - (remove) = (set) x = execute

Exercise. Using touch and ls, try changing permissions and observe what happens as you
enter the following commands:

The second form of input that chmod accepts is absolute numeric values for permissions;
and uses binary numbers. The convention is that if a permission is present, the binary
digit is a 1 and zero otherwise. Thus rwxrwxrwx is 111111111, r-xr-xr-x is 101101101 and
rwx------ is 111000000.

You know that the permissions are grouped into three categories thus, rwxrwxrwx,
111111111 in binary is equivalent to 777 in decimal notation, r-xr-xr-x , 101101101 in
 binary is 555 in decimal and rw------- 110000000 in binary is 600.

Exercise. Using touch and ls, try changing permissions and observe what happens as you
enter the following commands:

5.2.7 Controlling File Permission with umask. The umask command controls the establishment of
permissions with newly created files. You use the umask command to set the default
permission of your newly created files.

The value of the umask is actually the value that is taken away (subtracted) from the 777
value for a file. 7 in the umask value will mask the 7 in a file mode because 7 – 7 = 0.
Therefore, a 7 in the umask value results in no permissions for the user(s) in that category.
A 3 in the umask value means that the file has a read permission set for the corresponding
category. Again, starting with 7 and masking with 3 gives 4, and 4 in octal mode is the read
permission. UNIX starts with 7’s in the user, group, and other categories, and then
subtracts the corresponding number in the umask value. The permissions for the created
file are the results of the subtraction.

Do the following exercises and analyze the results:

The last three digits indicate the umask value for the user, group and other users,
respectively. You specify the mask by using a three-digit octal number. The first digit
controls the owner permission, the second digit controls the group and the third digit
controls the permission for others.
 The previous exercise demonstrates how to change the value of the umask.

Do the exercise below and analyze the result:

When you alter the value of umask, keep in mind that the changes apply only to files being
created; it does not change the permission of the files that already exist.

5.2.8 Switching Between Accounts with su. There may be times when you need to change your
user id, but do not want to log out of the system. For instance, if you are the System
Administrator working under an ordinary login, not root, you can use su to become the root
user. In fact, the command name su is derived from its common use of switching to the
super user​.

You can use the su command to switch between accounts (if you have multiple accounts).
If you do not provide a username argument, it is assumed that you want to switch to the
root account. Use the exit command to return control to the previous account.

Work on the following exercise to change your user ID to root.

5.2.9 Changing File Ownership with chown. When you create a file, UNIX gives you the ownership
of that file. The chown command enables you to change the ownership of a file. The
command is often used by System Administrators. If, however, you need to grant another
user ownership of a file, thus giving up your owner permissions, you can use the chown
command.

If however, you are not able to change the ownership, only the ​super user,​ root, is able to
change ownership.

5.2.10 Displaying the Name of the Current System with uname. The uname command displays the
name of the current system. This command is especially useful if you are working on a
multiuser network. You can use this command to find out information about the system you
are using.
 The uname command displays the name of the current system. This command is
especially useful if you are working on a multiuser network. You can use this command to
find out information about the system you are using.

Use the help to list all available options for uname.

Options available with the uname command

Do the exercises below and know more about the system you are using:

5.2.11 Report on the Status of Processes with ps. A program and its associated data in execution
is called an “active process”. The ls command for example, is just a command until it
begins to execute in computer memory. Then it is considered a process running under the
supervision of the kernel.

Because UNIX is a time-sharing system, it needs to keep track of the information it

acquires when switching back and forth between tasks. To accomplish this, UNIX, assigns
a process identification number (PID) to each process. The process ID is the number
printed on the screen when you place the ampersand character (&) after a command to
run the command in the background. All processes are assigned numbers. Normally,
however, you don’t see the numbers.

The figure below shows the ls command with a leading ampersand. Note that the PID
2179 is displayed after the command is executed.

You use the ps command to report the status of the processes on the current terminal.
There may be instances that you want to check the amount of computer time a command
had been using, obtain the process ID number to terminate the command, or verify which
commands are running.

Another common use of the ps command is to see processes running in the background
and to see what is happening in the system.

The ps command displays the following default headings as indicators of the information
presented below it. The table below lists and explains these headings

Field Explanation

PID originated The cumulative execution

TTY time for the process in minutes and
TIME seconds
COMMAND The name of the command being
The process identification number executed
The terminal where the process

The exercises below illustrate various options commonly used with ps. To find out what
processes you currently have running, use the following command :
 To obtain a full listing, use the following command:

To get a long listing, use the following command:

5.2.12 Stopping Background Commands with kill. Normally, when you are running a command that
is not in the background, you can abort it by pressing an interrupt key, such as <^C> or
<Break>. However, the same is not applicable for commands in the background. Pressing
an interrupt key will not stop the command. The only way you can stop background
commands is to use the kill command.

You may need to stop a job you are running in the background for several reasons. For
example, if a process is waiting for an input that it cannot get. The process goes into an
infinite loop. You can use the kill command to get out of these situations. The kill command
sends signals to a program to demand a termination.

The exercise below shows how a command is stopped using the kill command.

Course: Experiment No.: ​ ​Group No.: Section: ​ ​Group Members: 

Date Performed: ​ ​ Date Submitted: ​ ​ Instructor:     
6. Data and Results:   

7. Conclusion:   

8. Assessment (Rubric for Laboratory Performance):