Linux and Basic Tools

Overview and Usage

Hartwig Anzt
– based on material from Adrian Stein, Thomas Lindae

School of Computation, Information and Technology

Technical University of Munich

October 6, 2024
 Linux

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Linux
Linux is a generic name for a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems.

■ Based on the Linux kernel (initially by Linus Torvalds in 1991)

■ Large-scale free open source project
■ Linux distribution includes, kernel, system software, libraries
■ Popular distributions: Debian, Fedora Linux, Arch Linux, Rocky Linux, and Ubuntu
■ Commercial distributions: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise
■ Originally developed for x86 architecture

We use Linux on personal computers, edge devices (watch, cellphone. . . ), embedded systems (microwave, car. . . ), servers,
and high performance computing (HPC) systems.

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Linux Distributions
The distributions differ in

■ Package Manager and Installer

■ Architecture (x86-64 for AMD and Intel, Apple, ARM. . . )
■ Hardware Support (i.e. drivers for non-standard hardware)
■ Release Cycle
■ Documentation
■ Support
■ License
Overall, Ubuntu is probably a good choice for personal computers, for HPC systems, one typically relies on Rocky Linux, Red
Hat Enterprise Linux, etc.

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 The File System

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File Systems
The file system organizes the data on the physical drives (HDD/SSD/USB, etc). There exist different formats to organize the
data, and not all formats are compatible with all operating systems.
■ Linux-typical:
□ ext4
□ Btrfs

■ Windows-typical:
□ FAT32
□ exFAT
□ NTFS

■ MacOS-typical:
□ APFS
□ HFS+

FAT32 is supported also by MacOS and Linux, ext4 requires additional drivers on Windows and MacOS.

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Directories and file names
File systems typically support organizing files into directories, also called folders, which segregate files into groups.

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Directories and file names
File systems typically support organizing files into directories, also called folders, which segregate files into groups.

A file name, or filename, identifies a file for an application or user. For this, a file name has to be unique in a folder.

The path is the global address of a file.

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Navigating and organizing the file system

■ ls show content of current folder

■ ls -l show content of current folder with details

■ cd .. go up one folder

■ cd foo go into folder “foo”

■ pwd show path to current folder

■ mkdir foo create folder “foo”

■ cp (-r) foo bar copy “foo” to “bar” (-r copies all content)

■ mv foo bar rename “foo” to “bar”

■ rm (-r) bar remove “bar”

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 Terminal use

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The Terminal
The terminal is an interface for the user to interact with the computer. (In the past, before GUIs were supported, it was the only
form of interaction).

The terminal

■ accepts commands from the user

■ displays output from the computer
■ allows for full control of all computer applications

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What are the advantages of the terminal?

■ Interaction is efficient and precise

■ Allows for automation (scripts)
■ Flexibility in the usage of programs and interaction between
■ Resource efficient:
□ Remote connection requires little bandwidth
□ Remote connection via terminal usually possible
□ Terminal use is very similar across operating systems

■ Servers usually do not support GUI

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Command Line Arguments

Command Arguments and Options

command [OPTION...] arguments

■ command —The command to be executed

■ [OPTION...] —Options for the command

□ Long-options (e.g. --version ) and Short-options (e.g. -v )

□ Some options take additional arguments
□ Options without arguments are called flags
□ Useful flags: --help (or -h ) and --version (or -v )

■ arguments —Additional arguments (e.g. files, paths, etc.)

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Essential Commands

xkcd 1168

You do not need to know all commands by heart, but it is useful!

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Basic Commands | man
Stands for “manual”.

Opens the usage description for a program.

■ man <command> (e.g., man man )

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Basic Commands | ls
Stands for “list”.

Lists the content of a folder.

Usage:

■ ls

■ ls path/to/folder

■ ls -a —Shows also hidden files (folders/files that start with . )

■ ls -l —Lists details (type, size, access rights, date. . . )

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Essential Commands | cd
Stands for “change directory”.

Change of the current working directory.

Usage:

■ cd path/to/folder

■ cd .. —Change to the parent directory

■ cd ~ —Change to the Home directory

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Basic Commands | pwd
Stands for “print working directory”.

Shows the current working directory.

Usage:

■ pwd

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Basic Commands | cat
Stands for “concatenate files and print”.

Displays files.

Usage:

■ cat test.txt —Prints the content of test.txt

■ cat one.txt two.txt —Prints the content of one.txt and two.txt

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Basic Commands | echo
Gibt den Angegebenen Text wieder aus.

Usage:

■ echo "some text"

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Basic Commands | mkdir
Stands for “make directory”.

Creates folder.

Usage:

■ mkdir folder —creates folder folder in current directory

■ mkdir f1 f2 f3 —creates folders f1 , f2 and f3 in current directory

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Basic Commands | rm
Stands for “remove”.

Removes files or folders

Usage:

■ rm test.txt

■ rm -d empty-folder

■ rm -r nonempty-folder —Folder with content have to be deleted recursively

■ rm -f test.txt —Forces the deletion

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Basic Commands | mv
Stands for “move”.

Change a file location or renames a folder.

Usage:

■ mv path/to/file new/path/ —Moves file from path/to/ to new/path/

■ mv path/to/file new/path/elif —Changes the location and the filename from file to elif

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Basic Commands | cp
Stands for “copy”.

Copies files or folders.

Usage:

■ cp path/to/file other-path/to/copy —Copies file from path/to/ to other-path/to/ and stores the copy as
copy

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Basic Commands | sudo
Stands for “su-do” (“substitute user do”, or “superuser do”).

Call a command as a different user (usually the superuser’s).

sudo is needed if the user rights of the current user are not sufficient:

■ sudo dnf install terminator —the installation of a new package (“terminator”) requires the rights of a superuser

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Control Operators
&&
■ Combine two commands – the second command is only executed if the first was successful.
■ For example: cd foo && ls

||
■ Combine two commands – the second command is only executed if the first was not successful.
■ For example: cd foo || echo "Folder does not exist"

;
■ Combine two commands.
■ For example: cd folder; ls

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Control Operators
&
■ The precious command is executed in the background
■ For example: sleep 10 &

> and >>

■ Redirects the output, > overwrites previous content.

■ For example: echo "HelloWorld!" > greeting.txt or echo "HelloWorld!" >> greeting.txt

| (called “Pipe”)
■ The output of the precious command is the input of the next command
■ For example: ls | sort

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Useful Tricks

■ Recall previous command: upward arrow

■ Complete path: tab
■ Delete current input: Ctrl + u
■ Cancel current input: Ctrl + c
■ Copy terminal input: Ctrl + Shift + c
■ Copy terminal input: Ctrl + Shift + v
■ Remove recent command + output: Ctrl + l

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 Access Control

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Access Control
Controlling the access and privileges of users is important!

■ Data can be private, sensitive, export control. . .

■ Often, many users interact with the same file system

Linux uses Access-Control-List (ACL )

■ ACL is operating from the object size : Every object exposes different rights for different groups
■ Rights given to Owner, Group and Other
■ Rights include:
□ Read
□ Write
□ eXecute

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Access Control
To change the permissions of a file, one uses the chmod command, with the following syntax:

■ chmod [references][operator][modes] filename The references are shorthand ( u , g , or o ) for each class. The
operator determines whether to add (+), remove (-) or explicitly set (=) the particular permissions. The modes are read
(r) , write (w) , or execute (x) .

■ For example, to add the execute permission for the user to file1 :
chmod u+x file1

■ To remove the write permission for others for file2 :

chmod o-w file2
■ You can combine multiple references and modes to set the desired access all at once. For example, to explicitly make
file3 readable and executable to everyone:
chmod ugo=rx file3

■ The all (a) mode is the same as ugo , allowing the previous command to be expressed as:
chmod a=rx file3

For more information on changing permissions, run man chmod

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 Environment Variables

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Environment Variables
Environment Variables enable passing configurable variables to processes via the environment.

Beispiele für Environment Variables:

■ HOSTTYPE—Architecture of the computer (e.g. x86-64)

■ HOME—Path to /home/<username>
■ PWD—Path to current working directory”
■ PATH—Path to executables
■ TEMP/TMP—Path to temporary data

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 SSH

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SSH
SSH stands for Secure Shell:

■ Enables a secure connection between servers (e.g. Internet)

■ Enables secure remote server administration
■ Identities, passwords, files are encrypted

We can connect to a remote server this way:

ssh <username>@lxhalle.in.tum.de

: Connection can be closed with exit .

In the first connection, the fingerprint Fingerprints need to be verified. (Is it the right server?)

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SSH Keys
Instead of verification with a password, we can also use a set of ssh keys. Generation:

■ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 for an RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) key pair

■ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 for an ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) key pair

A key pair consists of:

■ a public key (e.g. ~/.shh/id_ed25519.pub )

■ a private key (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 )

: It is an asymmetric encryption strategy!

■ The public key can be given to anyone. I.e. stored on the server we want to access. (Rechnerhalle, LRZ, GitHub, etc.)
■ The private key has to be kept private! Never share it!

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 Code Editing

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Editors

xkcd 1823

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Text Editors and IDE’s
Text editors are lightweight tools for editing text or coding:

■ nano
■ vi, vim, neovim
■ Sublime Text
■ Visual Studio Code
■ VSCodium

IDE Stands for Integrated Development Environment. IDE’s add tools that ease the software development:

■ IntelliJ
■ Eclipse
■ Visual Studio

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Terminal Editors
Terminal editors line nano, vi, vim are pre-installed on almost every system.

nano:

■ Easy to use
■ In the manual of nano, ^ refers to Ctrl

■ nano is quit with ^X (Ctrl+X )

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Terminal Editors
vim:

■ Operates with “Modes” (e.g. INSERT-MODE and NORMAL-MODE)

■ vim starts in NORMAL-MODE, which allows the commands:
□ :q —“Quit” (quits vim)
□ :w —“Write” (writes the edited text)
□ :wq —“Write and Quit”
□ ! forces the command
□ with i the editor changes to INSERT-MODE

■ The INSERT-MODE allows to

□ insert text
□ change to NORMAL-MODE with ESC

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 Useful Commands

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Useful Commands | grep
Stands for “global regular expression search and print”.

With grep we can search for patterns.

Usage:

■ General use: grep "RegEx" Datei-Muster

■ grep "test" *.txt —Returns the rows of the .txt files that contain test

■ cat *.txt | grep "test" —Often used in combination with pipes |

■ Useful options are -c (for “count”) and -i for “ignore-case”

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Useful Commands | wc
Stands for “word count”.

Returns the number of rows, words, and bytes of a file.

Usage:

■ wc test.txt

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Useful Commands | ping
Sends an ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to the IP address or URL.

Useful to check the reachability of a website or server.

Usage:

■ ping zulip.in.tum.de

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Useful Commands | scp
Stands for “OpenSSH secure file copy”

Copies files over the network between servers

Usage:

■ scp path/to/local/file <username>@<remote-URL>:path/to/remote/copy

■ e.g. scp test.txt <username>@lxhalle.in.tum.de:~/

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Useful Commands | htop
“Task manager” of Linux.

Usage:

■ htop

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Useful Commands | who
Shows who is logged in on a server.

Usage:

■ who

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Useful Commands | more
The content of a file is shown page-by-page.

Usage:

■ cat huge-file | more

■ more huge-file

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Useful Commands | less
less similar to more, but more powerful.
■ less does not have to process the whole file : faster
■ allows for scrolling the file row by row

Usage:

■ cat huge-file | less

■ less huge-file

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Useful Commands | alias
Creates a alias command, a redirect.

Example:

■ alias wisdom="fortune | cowsay" —allows to call the combined command in one command: wisdom instead of
fortune | cowsay

Only valid for the current session : A persistent alias can be created in the user environment (e.g. ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc )

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Useful Commands | history
Displays the history of the used commands.

Usage:

■ history

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Useful Commands | tree
Displays the file system below the current path.

Usage:

■ tree

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Useful Commands | pushd and popd
Stands for “push directory” and “pop directory”.

Simplifies to copy file paths.

Usage:

1. pushd /bin —stores pwd and switches to /bin

2. popd —switches pwd to the previous path

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