Linux Fundamentals (GL120)

Module 1: What is Linux?

• Unix and its Design Principles

• FSF and GNU

• GPL – General Public License

• The Linux Kernel

• Linux Kernel and Versioning

• Components of a Distribution

• Slackware

• SUSE Linux Products

• Debian

• Ubuntu

• Red Hat Linux Products

• Oracle Linux

 

Module 2: Login and Exploration

• Logging In

• Running Programs

• Interacting with Command Line

• Desktop Environments

• GNOME

• Starting X

• Gathering Login Session Info

• Gathering System Info

• uptime & w

• got root?

• Switching User Contexts

• sudo

• Help from Commands and Documentation

• whereis

• Getting Help Within the Graphical Desktop

• Getting Help with man & info

• Lab Tasks

– Login and Discovery

– Help with Commands

– Switching Users with su

 

Module 3: The Linux Filesystem

• Filesystem Support

• Unix/Linux Filesystem Features

• Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

• Navigating the Filesystem

• Displaying Directory Contents

• Filesystem Structures

• Determining Disk Usage with df and du

• Determining Disk Usage (GUI)

• Disk Usage with Quotas

• File Ownership

• Default Group Ownership

• File and Directory Permissions

• File Creation Permissions with umask

• SUID and SGID on files

• SGID and Sticky Bit on Directories

• Changing File Permissions

• User Private Group Scheme

• Lab Tasks

– Navigating Directories and Listing Files

– Disk and Filesystem Usage

– File and Directory Ownership and Permissions

– Introduction to Troubleshooting Labs

– Troubleshooting Practice: Filesystem

 

Module 4: Manipulating Files

• Directory Manipulation

• File Manipulation

• Deleting and Creating Files

• Managing Files Graphically

• Drag and drop with Nautilus

• Physical Unix File Structure

• Filesystem Links

• File Extensions and Content

• Displaying Files

• Previewing Files

• Producing File Statistics

• Displaying Binary Files

• Searching the Filesystem

• Alternate Search Method

• Lab Tasks

– Manipulating Files and Directories

– File Examination & Search Commands

 

Module 5: Shell Basics

• Role of Command Shell

• Communication Channels

• File Redirection

• Piping Commands Together

• Filename Matching

• File Globbing and Wildcard Patterns

• Brace Expansion

• Shell and Environment Variables

• Key Environment Variables

• Which and Type

• General Quoting Rules

• Nesting Commands

• Lab Tasks

– Redirection and Pipes

– Wildcard File Matching

– Shell Variables

– Shell Meta-Characters

– Command Substitution 

 

Module 6: Archiving and Compression

• Archives with tar

• Archives with cpio

• The gzip Compression Utility

• The bzip2 Compression Utility

• The XZ Compression Utility

• The PKZIP Archiving/Compression format

• GNOME File Roller

• Lab Tasks

– Archiving and Compression

 

Module 7: Text Processing

• Searching Inside Files

• The Streaming Editor

• Text Processing with Awk

• Replacing Text Characters

• Text Sorting

• Duplicate Removal Utility

• Extracting Columns of Text

• Combining Files and Merging Text

• Comparing File Changes

• Lab Tasks

– Processing Text Streams

– Text Processing

 

Module 8: Regular Expressions

• Regular Expression Overview

• Regular Expressions

• RE Character Classes

• Regex Quantifiers

• RE Parenthesis

• Lab Tasks

– Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions

– Extended Regular Expressions

– Using Regular Expressions with sed

 

Module 9: Text Editing

• Text Editing

• Pico/GNU Nano

• Pico/Nano Interface

• Nano configuration

• Pico/Nano Shortcuts

• vi and Vim

• Learning Vim

• Basic vi

• Intermediate vi

• Lab Tasks

– Text Editing with Nano

– Text Editing with Vim

 

Module 10: Messaging

• System Messaging Commands

• Controlling System Messaging

• Internet Relay Chat

• Instant Messenger Clients

• Electronic Mail

• Sending Email with sendmail

• Sending and Receiving Email with mailx

• Sending and Receiving Email with mutt

• Sending Email with Pine

• Evolution

• Lab Tasks

– Command Line Messaging

– Messaging with talkd

– Command Line Email

– Alpine

 

Module 11: Command Shells

• Shells

• Identifying the Shell

• Changing the Shell

• Configuration Files

• Script Execution

• Shell Prompts

• Bash: Bourne-Again Shell

• Bash: Configuration Files

• Bash: Command Line History

• Bash: Command Editing

• Bash: Command Completion

• Bash: "shortcuts"

• Bash: prompt

• Setting Resource Limits via ulimit

• Lab Tasks

– Linux Shells

– Bash History

– Aliases

– Bash Login Scripts

– The Z Shell 

 

Module 12: Introduction to Shell Scripting

• Shell Script Strengths and Weaknesses

• Example Shell Script

• Positional Parameters

• Input & Output

• Doing Math

• Comparisons with test

• Exit Status

• Conditional Statements

• Flow Control: case

• The for Loop

• The while and until Loops

• Lab Tasks

– Writing a Shell Script  

 

Module 13: Process Management and Job Control

• What is a Process?

• Process Lifecycle

• Process States

• Viewing Processes

• Signals

• Tools to Send Signals

• nohup and disown

• Managing Processes

• Tuning Process Scheduling

• Job Control Overview

• Job Control Commands

• Persistent Shell Sessions with Screen

• Using screen

• Advanced Screen

• Lab Tasks

– Job Control Basics

– Process Management Basics

– Screen Basics

– Using Screen Regions

– Troubleshooting Practice: Process Management

 

Module 14: At and Cron

• Automating Tasks

• at/batch

• cron

• The crontab Command

• crontab Format

• /etc/cron.*/ Directories

• Anacron

• Lab Tasks

– Creating and Managing User Cron Jobs

– Adding System cron Jobs

– Troubleshooting Practice: Automating Tasks

 

Module 15: Managing Software

• Downloading with FTP

• FTP

• lftp

• Command Line Internet – Non-interactive

• Command Line Internet – Interactive

• Managing Software Dependencies

• Using the Yum command

• Using Yum history

• YUM package groups

• Configuring Yum

• yumdownloader

• Popular Yum Repositories

• Using the Zypper command

• Zypper Services and Catalogs

• The dselect & APT Frontends to dpkg

• Aptitude • Configuring APT

• Lab Tasks

– Command Line File Transfers

– Using Yum

– Using Zypper

– Managing Yum Repositories

– Managing Zypper Repositories

– Using APT

– Adding an APT repository

 

Module 16: The Secure Shell (SSH)

• Secure Shell

• ssh and sshd Configuration

• Accessing Remote Shells

• Transferring Files

• Alternative sftp Clients

• SSH Key Management

• ssh-agent

• Lab Tasks

– Introduction to ssh and scp

– SSH Key-based User Authentication

– Using ssh-agent

 

Module 17: Mounting Filesystems & Managing Removable Media

• Filesystems Concept Review

• Mounting Filesystems

• NFS

• SMB

• Filesystem Table (/etc/fstab)

• AutoFS

• Removable Media

• Lab Tasks

– Accessing NFS Shares

– On-demand filesystem mounting with AutoFS

 

Module 18: Printing

• Legacy Print Systems

• Common UNIX Printing System

• Defining a Printer

• Standard Print Commands

• Format Conversion Utilities

• enscript and mpage

• Lab Tasks

– Printing

– Configuring Print Queues 

 

Appendix A: The X Window System

• The X Window System

• X Modularity

• X.Org Drivers

• Configuring X Manually

• Automatic X Configuration

• Xorg and Fonts

• Installing Fonts for Modern Applications

• Installing Fonts for Legacy Applications

• The X11 Protocol and Display Names

• Display Managers and Graphical Login

• Starting X Apps Automatically

• X Access Control

• Remote X Access (historical/insecure)

• Remote X Access (modern/secure)

• XDMCP

• Remote Graphical Access with VNC and RDP

• Specialized X Servers

• Lab Tasks

– Remote X with XDMCP

– Configure X Security

– Configure a VNC Server

– Configure a VNC Server

– Configure a VNC Server

– Launching X Apps Automatically

– Secure X

 

Appendix B: Emacs

• Emacs

• The Emacs Interface

• Basic Emacs

• More Emacs Commands

• Lab Tasks

– Text Editing with Emacs

Prerequisites

Students should be comfortable with computers. No familiarity with Linux or other Unix operating systems is required.