Linux

for Beginners

Bahador Bakhshi
bakhshi@gmail.com

Agenda

Introduction

Linux Distributions

Quick Start

Files
Process

Shell & Programming

Networking
Security

Introduction

This course is for beginners

What you learn

General introduction to GNU/Linux OS

Basic operations in Text Mode

A little about administration

What you don't learn learn

In depth Linux structure

Kernel Internal

System programming

Introduction
Security perspectives
OS role
Govern any things in computer
Has privilege
Insecure OS
insecure machine

Introduction

Why Linux?

Free

Open Source, Freedom, GPL (GNU Public License)

No charge

More secure

OS for computer scientists

Open source
You see what happen, no hidden things

You need it
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History

1960

1974 in AT&T

Free Unix

Free BSD

POSIX

MULTICS, Multiplex Computing System

Unix is commercial

MINIX

Simple and free UNIX liked OS, by Tanenbaum

History

1991

Linus Torvalds

Free kernel for i386

5 Oct 1991 in newsgroup of minix

1994

Linux 0.0.2
Linux 1.0

Linux Logo

TUX

Now
linux-2.6.26, www.kernel.org
Multitasking, SMP, multi-user

Wide range of CPUs

Popular OS in universities and academic

research

Platform of network services

Open source
Wide range of network protocols and services

Platform for embedded development

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Linux Distributions

What required
OS, kernel, kernel-space
Applications, user-space
Interfaces and basic commands
Applications
Services

Kernel by Linus and world wide developers

Most of applications by GNU project

GNU : GNU is Not Unix

Our operating system: GNU/Linux

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Linux Distributions

Red Hat & Fedora

SuSE

Most updated and user friendly

Supported by Novel

UBUNTU

Stable and commercial support

New fast growing user friendly Debian based

Debian

Most complete distribution, the Sarge

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Linux Distributions

Bluecat

LinuxPPC

Linux to run on PowerPC machines

Astaro

Linux for embedded systems

Security applaince, Firewall, Antivirus

Live CD

KNOPPIX, PHLAK, Karamad, ...

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Quick Start

Access to Linux

Remote

Local

Remote

Through network

Telnet, insecure and disabled now

SSH, Secure Shell Protocol

Local

Linux installation or Live CDs

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Quick Start

System powered on

BIOS

POST

Bootloader, Grub or LiLo

Initialize Hardware

Kernel extraction

Kernel

Initialize Hardware

Kernel data structures initialization

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Quick Start

System Services

Configured Services

network and network services

User interface

Graphical

Called as X window system, it is a service

KDE, GNOME

Text, Shells

Switch between them: ALT-F? and CTRL-ALT-F?

Screen 7 is the X
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Text vs. X

Contrary to MS Windows

X isn't integrated into OS

X is just an application

Shell

Interactive program, interface between user and kernel

Real power of Linux, specially for hackers and

administrators

Bash (Brown Again Shell), tsh, csh

We study Linux Text Mode and just applications

not Kernel
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Bash

After successful login, you get shell prompt

$ : user

# : root

There are two privilege in user space

reset: reinitialize your screen

Linux is case sensitive

Autocomplete: commands and file names

Commands in $PATH

File name in specified path

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Bash

Linux is multiprocess, even in command line

Process can be run in background

Widecards

* : string

?: a char

[]: regular expression

IO redirection to file
: overwrite,

>

>> : append

<

2> : overwrite by stderror

: Read input
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Bash

IO redirection to a process

| : pass output of command as input to other command

One of the main features in UNIX-like systems

Simple commands which are piped together

Some short-cuts

CTRL-D: Logout, End of file

CTRL-L: Clear Screen

CTRL-C: Stop

CTRL-Z: Suspend

CTRL-E: cut to end of line

CTRL-U: cut to start of line

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Bash

History for each user

Use arrow keys

!# : # command

!<start_of_command>: last command started

with ...

CTRL-R: search history

history: see command history

.bash_history: saved $HISTSIZE number

of command
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Linux/shell vs. Windows/cmd

Path separator: / not \

File extensions have NOT any meaning

Hidden file started by ., .bashrc,

.bash_history

End of file is CTRL-D

New line is \n not \n\r

Options are passed by - or -All system configurations are saved in text files

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Help & Doc

Command's builtin helps: -h or --help

Man pages

Info pages

Documents in /usr/share/doc

Info pages

are NOT complete

Easy to use

info <command name> or pinfo <command

name>

whatis
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Help & Doc

Man pages

Most complete documentation in Linux

Very technical

Title, description, see also and files

man <man-category> file/command/function

searched in <MANPATH>

manpath : find out the <MANPATH>

configuration file: /etc/manpath.conf

man -k topic : search topic in titles = apropos

man -K topic: search topic in body

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Mans
/usr/share/man

man1: User commands

man2: System libraries
man3: Programming libraries
man4: Special files
man5: File formats
man7: Misc. network protocols, ...
man8: System administration
Other mans: Application man pages
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Internet documents
The Linux Documentation Project:
www.tldp.org
Tutorials
HOWTOs
Software home pages
Mailing lists
Everything is googlized

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Files

Everything in Linux is file, if it is NOT process

Files can be

Regular file

Directory

Links

device

named pipe, ...

Uniform interface, open, read/write, close

You should fully understand the Linux file structure

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Files

Files system

User Space, a tree structure

Kernel Space, VFS and file system depended drivers

What file systems in Linux

Kernel configuration depended

ext2, ext3, jfs, nfs, fat, ntfs, ...

man fs

mkfs.ext2, mkfs.ext3, mkfs.fat, ...

make file systems

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File system structure

/boot

/bin

Binary files, basic utilities, required for boot

/sbin

Bootloader, bootloader config and kernel images

System binary, system management tools

/lib

Shared libraries and kernel modules

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File system structure

/etc

/home

Home directory of users

/root

System configuration, passwords, service config

Home directory of root

/var

log files, message files, lock files, www root, ...

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File system structure

/tmp

/usr

Like the /, /usr/include additional directories bin, sbin,

/opt

temporary files, socket files, pipe files

Additional softwares

/proc

Virtual file system, process and system information

Kernel Interface in user space

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File system structure

/dev

/sys

Device files, block devices, character devices

Kernel interface for hardwares info and management

/mnt and /media

Add new media and file system into your file system

New media has its own file system (kernel level

driver)

mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/flash

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File System Navigation

List directories

ls

Options: -a -l -h -R

Walking in file system

Absolute vs. Relative path

cd <path>

cd , cd , cd ~

pushd

popd
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File System Navigation & Modification

Find where are you, absolute name

Make directory

pwd

mkdir <directory path>

Remove empty directory

rmdir <directory path>

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File System Navigation & Modification

Remove file

rm <file name>

rm -r <directory>

-i: ask you, -f: force

Secure remove

shred

-n: number, -z: fill zero

shred -n 10 -z -v /tmp/xxx

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File System Navigation & Modification

move file and directories

mv <source> <destination>

copy file and directories

cp <source file> <destination file>

cp -r <source directory> <destination directory>

What is the rename?

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File System Navigation & Modification

Links (like windows short-cuts)

Two Types

Hard

ln <target file> <link name>

Soft

Hard (only for files) and soft (files & directories)

ln -s <target name> <link name>

View Links

readlink <link name>, ls -l

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File Commands

Commands

File as an object

File content

Alert timestamp of file

Creation, access and modification

touch <file name> : update mod. time to now

-a : access time, -m : modification time

-t : set time

create new file

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File Commands

Find files and directories

find <path> <regular expression>

name, size, time, type, permission, ...

find /etc/ -name *.conf -exec cp '{}' /home/backup ';

Where are commands and man pages

whereis <command name>

Which command is executed

which <command name>

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File Commands

Archive

Create: tar -cf <archive name> <directory>

Extract: tar -xf <archive name>

File Compression

gzip <file name>, gunzip <zipped file name>

best compress: -9

bzip2 <file name>, bunzip2 <zipped file>

z* commands

zcat, zdiff, zless

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File Security

File permissions

ls -l

-rwxrwxrwx: -(user)(group)(other)

In binary format -421421421

r: read, w: write, x: execute

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File Security

More file permissions

t: sticky bit. Others can not delete your file even with w
permission

Chang permissions

s & g: Set User/Group ID. Change process id to file owner

chmod [ugo][+-=][rwx/binary] file

Attributes: undelete, fill zero, append only, ...

lsattr, chattr

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File Security

Default permission

umask: Invert of your permission

umask 077: no one else can do anything

Chang owner and group (only root)

chgrp <group> file

chown <user> file

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File Commands

Most important file type in Linux: Text

Config files

Log files

Source codes

File type

file <file name>

Binary files

xpdf, gimp, openoffice2, firefox, konqueror, xdiv,

kde, ...
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File Commands

What is in a file

cat <file name>

tac <file name>

View large files

more <file name> or pipe: ls -l | more

less <file name> or pipe: cat test.txt | less

View not all of file

tail -# <file name>, -f is continues

head -# <file name>

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File Commands

Search content of file

grep <regular expression> <file name>

-i: ignore case, -v: invert result, -r: recursive

Count file words

wc <file name>

-l: Lines, -w: words, -c: characters

Difference between files

diff <file 1> <file 2>

-Nu : create patch

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Editors

Again Text editor

Text Editors

X editors

text mode editors

Again text mode editors

X editors

gedit, kwrite

kate
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Editors

emacs

Old and very user friendly

Menu based, F10

mcedit

A part of the midnight commander

Menu based, easy to use

vi & vim (vi improved)

Difficult

Editor for programmers

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vim

Three modes

Input mode: edit your document

Command mode: simple commands

Line input mode: special and advance commands

Input mode

Go from command mode by i or a

Type what you want

Arrow keys, del, home, ... are workings

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vim

Command mode, the default mode

Go from input mode by: Esc

Navigation commands

home : start of line

end : end of line

b : previous word

w : next work

:# : go to line #
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vim

Edit commands

x : cut a char

#dw : cut # of words

#dd : cut # of lines

d$ : cut to end of line, d^ : cut to start of line

#yw : copy # of words

#yy: copy # of lines

p : past

u : undo
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vim

Line Input mode

Go from command mode by :

:w : save file, :w! : force to save

:e <filename> : open file

:q : quit, :q! : force to quit

:! <any command>: run shell command

/<str> : search str

:#1,#2 s/<str1>/<str2> /[c,g]: replace

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Process

In Linux, every things is file, if it is NOT a process

Linux is multi-user, multi-process, time-sharing

OS

Each process has a unique id and a parent (tree)

Process can be run in

Foreground

Background

Foreground is default
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Process

Background

& at end of command

suspend (CTRL-Z), send resume signal (bg <job

id>)

Process id is NOT job id

fg <job id> : Job come from background to

foreground

jobs : list of jobs

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Process

Scheduling, running in background

at time -f <file name>, atq, atrm <id>

cron, crontab, man crontab

nohup <command> & : Leave job running

Priority

less nice is better

nice -# <command> : priority is decreased by #

renice # <process id> : Change process priority

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Process

Monitoring

ps : list of your process

ps aux : all running process, with command Lines

top : top processes

ksysgaurd : Graphical monitor, more than process

monitor

pstree : tree of running processes

/proc/process-id : kernel information about

processes
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Process

Process and Signal

Signals are notifiers

Kernel and users can send signals

skill -<signal number> <process id>: user send signal

skill -L : List of signals

man 7 signal : Full description of signals

kill <procees-id>, kill -9 <process-id> : Kill the

process

killall -9 <process name> : kill the process

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System Information

uname -a, -r : Kernel name

dmesg : Kernel messages

/var/log/ : system logs (syslogd) and application's

messages

date : date of system

uptime : How long time your system is alive?

iostat <device name>: usage of cpu and device

users, who, w : list of on-line users

finger <user-name>/@<computer name>: remote users

info
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Shell

Executable applications

Binary programs: usually in developed in C

Scripts: shell, perl, awk, python, ...

Shell (Bash)

After login, your shell executes (/etc/passwd)

.bash_profile

/etc/bashrc

.bashrc
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Bash

Environment Variables

Save, parameters and some configurations

Some important variables

$PATH: Path of commands

$HOME: Your home directory

$SHELL: Your shell address

$PS1: Bash prompt

$USER: Your login name

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Bash

Define a variable

View variable content

echo $ABC

Define variable for subsequent shells

ABC=This is test

export AAA=This is test

View all variables

printenv
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Bash Script

Bash programming language

Variables

User defined variables

Built in variables: $0, $?, ...

All commands

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Bash Script

Control statements

for <name> in <word>; do <commands>; done

case <variable> in x) <command>;; y) <commands>;;

esac

if <condition>; then <commands>; elif <condition>

then <command>; fi

while <condition>; do <commands>; done

Example
vim test.sh
#!/bin/bash
for file in *; do
if grep -q $1 $file; then
echo Found in file: $file
fi;
done;
exit 0
chmod +x test.sh
./test.sh test
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C programming

GCC: GNU Compiler Collection

C, C++, Java, ADA, Fortran, ...

Tools to build C or C++ program

cpp: C preprocessor

cc: C Compiler

c++: C++ Compiler

as: The assembler

ld: Linker

gdb: GNU debugger

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C programming

All steps altogether

gcc -o <output name> <input C>

Intermediate results

-c : Just compile, with out linking

-S: Produce assembly code

-E: Just process the file

-g: Add debugging options

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C programming (make &

Makefile)

Open source world

Automate compiling large packages: make &

Makefile

target : req1 req2 ....

Rule1 to make target

Rule2 to make target

req1 : req11 req12

Rule11 to make req1

....

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Installing programs

Binary format

Distribution depended

Red Hat & Fedora: rpm & yum

Debian based (Ubuntu): apt-get

Source code
./configure
make
make install

Networking

Most of network protocols are implemented in Linux

Application layer: bind, apache, sendmail, ssh, ftp, NFS

Transport layer: TCP, UDP

Network Layer: IP, IPX, ATM

Physical layer: PPP, Ethernet, 802.11

Configurations

On line

Config files

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Networking

Network interface (Ethernet)

ifconfig eth0 10.10.10.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Red Hat: /etc/sysconfig/network & networking

Ubuntu: /etc/network/interfaces

Routing

route add -net 192.168.0.0/24 gw 10.10.10.2 dev

eth0

/etc/sysconfig/networking & network

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Networking

DNS

/etc/resolve.conf

/etc/hosts

Host Name

hostname

/etc/hostname

IP suit: ip route, ip address, ip route ....

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Networking

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

List of all connections: netstat -an

Find route and its MTU: tracepath, traceroute

Check liveness: ping

Your machine ip traffic: iptraf

Sniffer: tcpdum, ethereal

Scanners: nmap, amap, ...

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Using from Network

Remote shell: telnet, ssh

Remote file transfer: ftp, lftp, sftp, scp

Web: lynx, firefox

Download: wget, crul, prozilla

Mail: fetchmail, mail

DNS resolver: nslookup, dig

Windows NetBIOS: smb* commands

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Services

Linux services

Network services: web, mail, ...

Local services: udev, alsa

Startup scripts

/etc/init.d/<sevice name>, /etc/init.d/apache2

Configuration files

/etc, /etc/apache2

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Security

Security

Local: File security, Process security

Network

SELinux: role-based access control and

sandboxing

Each user

Has its own unique ID, /etc/passwd

Belong to some groups, /etc/group

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Security

Process security

Each process has its own user id

You can kill only your processes, root can do

anythings

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Network Security

Statefull Firewall: iptables

IDS: snort

VPNs

IPSec: openswan

SSL: stunnel, openswan

Secure services

SSH, SSL, Tunneling

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Now is the end time of my presentation

But it is the start of your Linux learning