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UNIT-I

LINUX UTILITIES AND SHELL PROGRAMMING

I. Introduction to Linux:

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open
source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the Linux
kernel, an operating system kernel first released 5 October 1991 by Linus Torvalds.

Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for Intel x86-based personal
computers. It has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other
operating system. It is a leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as
mainframe computers and supercomputers more than 90% of today's 500 fastest
supercomputers run some variant of Linux, including the 10 fastest. Linux also runs on
embedded systems (devices where the operating system is typically built into the firmware and
highly tailored to the system) such as mobile phones, tablet computers, network routers,
televisions and video game consoles; the Android system in wide use on mobile devices is
built on the Linux kernel.
Basic Features
Following are some of the important features of Linux Operating System.
 Portable - Portability means softwares can works on different types of hardwares in
same way. Linux kernel and application programs supports their installation on any
kind of hardware platform.
 Open Source - Linux source code is freely available and it is community based
development project. Multiple teams works in collaboration to enhance the capability
of Linux operating system and it is continuously evolving.

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 Multi-User - Linux is a multiuser system means multiple users can access
system resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at same time.
 Multiprogramming - Linux is a multiprogramming system means multiple
applications can run at same time.
 Hierarchical File System - Linux provides a standard file structure in which system

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 files/ user files are arranged.
 Shell - Linux provides a special interpreter program which can be used to execute
commands of the operating system. It can be used to do various types of operations,
call application programs etc.
 Security - Linux provides user security using authentication features like password
protection/ controlled access to specific files/ encryption of data.

Linux Advantages
1. Low cost: You don’t need to spend time and money to obtain licenses since Linux andmuch
of its software come with the GNU General Public License. You can start to workimmediately
without worrying that your software may stop working anytime because thefree trial version
expires. Additionally, there are large repositories from which you canfreely download high
quality software for almost any task you can think of.
2. Stability: Linux doesn’t need to be rebooted periodically to maintain performance
levels. Itdoesn’t freeze up or slow down over time due to memory leaks and such.
Continuous up- times of hundreds of days (up to a year or more) are not uncommon.
3. Performance: Linux provides persistent high performance on workstations and
onnetworks. It can handle unusually large numbers of users simultaneously, and can make
oldcomputers sufficiently responsive to be useful again.
4. Network friendliness: Linux was developed by a group of programmers over the
Internet and has therefore strong support for network functionality; client and server
systems can be easily set up on any computer running Linux. It can perform tasks such as
network backups faster and more reliably than alternative systems.
5. Flexibility: Linux can be used for high performance server applications, desktop
applications, and embedded systems. You can save disk space by only installing the
components needed for a particular use. You can restrict the use of specific computers by
installing for example only selected office applications instead of the whole suite.
6. Compatibility: It runs all common Unix software packages and can process all common file
formats.
7. Choice: The large number of Linux distributions gives you a choice. Each distribution is
developed and supported by a different organization. You can pick the one you like best;
the
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core functionalities are the same; most software runs on most distributions.
8. Fast and easy installation: Most Linux distributions come with user-friendly installation
and setup programs. Popular Linux distributions come with tools that make installation of
additional software very user friendly as well.
9. Full use of hard disk: Linux continues work well even when the hard disk is almost full.
10. Multitasking: Linux is designed to do many things at the same time; e.g., a large
printing job in the background won’t slow down your other work.
11. Security: Linux is one of the most secure operating systems. “Walls” and flexible file
access permission systems prevent access by unwanted visitors or viruses. Linux users have to
option to select and safely download software, free of charge, from online repositories
containing thousands of high quality packages. No purchase transactions requiring credit card
numbers or other sensitive personal information are necessary.
12.Open Source: If you develop software that requires knowledge or modification of the
operating system code, Linux’s source code is at your fingertips. Most Linux applications are
Open Source as well.
Difference between UNIX and LINUX

Features LINUX UNIX

Cost Linux can be freely distributed, Different flavors of Unix have

downloaded freely, distributed different cost structures according
through magazines, Books etc. to vendors
There are priced versions for
Linux also, but they are
normally cheaper than
Windows.

Development Linux is developed by Open Unix systems are divided into

and Source development i.e. through various other flavors, mostly
Distribution sharing and collaboration of developed by AT&T as well as
code and features through various commercial vendors and
forums etc and it is distributed non-profit organizations.

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 by various vendors.

Manufacturer Linux kernel is developed by Three bigest distributions are

the community. Linus Torvalds Solaris (Oracle), AIX (IBM) & HP-
oversees things. UX Hewlett Packard. And Apple
Makes OSX, an unix based os..

User Everyone. From home users to Unix operating systems were

developers and computer developed mainly for mainframes,
enthusiasts alike. servers and workstations except
OSX, Which is designed for
everyone. The Unix environment
and the client-server program
model were essential elements in
the development of the Internet

Usage Linux can be installed on a The UNIX operating system is used

wide variety of computer in internet servers, workstations &
hardware, ranging from mobile PCs. Backbone of the majority of
phones, tablet computers and finance infastructure and many
video game consoles, to 24x365 high availability solutions.
mainframes and
supercomputers.
File system Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, Jfs, ReiserFS, jfs, gpfs, hfs, hfs+, ufs, xfs, zfs
support Xfs, Btrfs, FAT, FAT32, NTFS format

Text mode BASH (Bourne Again SHell) is Originally the Bourne Shell. Now
interface the Linux default shell. It can it's compatible with many others
support multiple command including BASH, Korn & C.
interpreters.

What is it? Linux is an example of Open Unix is an operating system that is

Source software development very popular in universities,
and Free Operating System companies, big enterprises etc.
(OS).

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GUI Linux typically provides two Initially Unix was a command
GUIs, KDE and Gnome. But based OS, but later a GUI was
there are millions of alternatives created called Common Desktop
such as LXDE, Xfce, Unity, Environment. Most distributions
Mate, twm, ect. now ship with Gnome.

Price Free but support is available for Some free for development use
a price. (Solaris) but support is available for
a price.

Security Linux has had about 60-100 A rough estimate of UNIX viruses
viruses listed till date. None of is between 85 -120 viruses reported
them actively spreading till date.
nowadays.

Threat In case of Linux, threat Because of the proprietary nature

detection and detection and solution is very of the original Unix, users have to
solution fast, as Linux is mainly wait for a while, to get the proper
community driven and bug fixing patch. But these are not
whenever any Linux user posts as common.
any kind of threat, several
developers start working on it
from different parts of the world

Processors Dozens of different kinds. x86/x64, Sparc, Power, Itanium,

PA-RISC, PowerPC and many
others.

Examples Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat, OS X, Solaris, All Linux

Debian, Archlinux, Android etc.

Architectures Originally developed for Intel's is available on PA-RISC and

x86 hardware, ports available Itanium machines. Solaris also
for over two dozen CPU types available for x86/x64 based
including ARM systems.OSX is PowerPC(10.0-

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 10.5)/x86(10.4)/x64(10.5-10.8)

Inception Inspired by MINIX (a Unix-like In 1969, it was developed by a

system) and eventually after group of AT&T employees at Bell
adding many features of GUI, Labs and Dennis Ritchie. It was
Drivers etc, Linus Torvalds written in “C” language and was
developed the framework of the designed to be a portable, multi-
OS that became LINUX in tasking and multi-user system in a
1992. The LINUX kernel was time-sharing configuration
released on 17th September,
1991

Linux Distribution (Operating System) Names

A few popular names:
1. Redhat Enterprise Linux
2. Fedora Linux
3. Debian Linux
4. Suse Enterprise Linux
5. Ubuntu Linux
Common Things Between Linux & UNIX
Both share many common applications such as:
1.GUI, file, and windows managers (KDE, Gnome)
2. Shells (ksh, csh, bash)
3. Various office applications such as OpenOffice.org

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4. Development tools (perl, php, python, GNU c/c++ compilers)
5. Posix interface
Layered Architecture:

Linux System Architecture is consists of following layers

 Hardware layer - Hardware consists of all peripheral devices (RAM/ HDD/ CPU etc).
 Kernel - Core component of Operating System, interacts directly with hardware,
provides low level services to upper layer components.
 Shell - An interface to kernel, hiding complexity of kernel's functions from users. Takes
commands from user and executes kernel's functions.
 Utilities - Utility programs giving user most of the functionalities of an operating
systems.

LINUX File system

Linux file structure files are grouped according to purpose. Ex: commands, data files,
documentation. Parts of a Unix directory tree are listed below. All directories are grouped
under the root entry "/". That part of the directory tree is left out of the below diagram.

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1. / – Root
 Every single file and directory starts from the root directory.
 Only root user has write privilege under this directory.
 Please note that /root is root user’s home directory, which is not same as /.
2. /bin – User Binaries
 Contains binary executables.
 Common linux commands you need to use in single-user modes are located under this
directory.
 Commands used by all the users of the system are located here.
 For example: ps, ls, ping, grep, cp.
3. /sbin – System Binaries
 Just like /bin, /sbin also contains binary executables.
 But, the linux commands located under this directory are used typically by system
aministrator, for system maintenance purpose.
 For example: iptables, reboot, fdisk, ifconfig, swapon
4. /etc – Configuration Files

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  Contains configuration files required by all programs.
 This also contains startup and shutdown shell scripts used to start/stop individual
programs.
 For example: /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/logrotate.conf
5. /dev – Device Files
 Contains device files.
 These include terminal devices, usb, or any device attached to the system.
 For example: /dev/tty1, /dev/usbmon0
6. /proc – Process Information
 Contains information about system process.
 This is a pseudo filesystem contains information about running process. For example:
/proc/{pid} directory contains information about the process with that particular pid.
 This is a virtual filesystem with text information about system resources. For example:
/proc/uptime
7. /var – Variable Files
 var stands for variable files.
 Content of the files that are expected to grow can be found under this directory.
 This includes — system log files (/var/log); packages and database files (/var/lib);
emails (/var/mail); print queues (/var/spool); lock files (/var/lock); temp files needed
across reboots (/var/tmp);
8. /tmp – Temporary Files
 Directory that contains temporary files created by system and users.
 Files under this directory are deleted when system is rebooted.
9. /usr – User Programs
 Contains binaries, libraries, documentation, and source-code for second level programs.
 /usr/bin contains binary files for user programs. If you can’t find a user binary under
/bin, look under /usr/bin. For example: at, awk, cc, less, scp
 /usr/sbin contains binary files for system administrators. If you can’t find a system
binary under /sbin, look under /usr/sbin. For example: atd, cron, sshd, useradd, userdel
 /usr/lib contains libraries for /usr/bin and /usr/sbin
 /usr/local contains users programs that you install from source. For example, when you

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 install apache from source, it goes under /usr/local/apache2
10. /home – Home Directories
 Home directories for all users to store their personal files.
 For example: /home/john, /home/nikita
11. /boot – Boot Loader Files
 Contains boot loader related files.
 Kernel initrd, vmlinux, grub files are located under /boot
 For example: initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic, vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
12. /lib – System Libraries
 Contains library files that supports the binaries located under /bin and /sbin
 Library filenames are either ld* or lib*.so.*
 For example: ld-2.11.1.so, libncurses.so.5.7
13. /opt – Optional add-on Applications
 opt stands for optional.
 Contains add-on applications from individual vendors.
 add-on applications should be installed under either /opt/ or /opt/ sub-directory.
14. /mnt – Mount Directory
 Temporary mount directory where sysadmins can mount filesystems.
15. /media – Removable Media Devices
 Temporary mount directory for removable devices.
 For examples, /media/cdrom for CD-ROM; /media/floppy for floppy drives;
/media/cdrecorder for CD writer
16. /srv – Service Data
 srv stands for service.
 Contains server specific services related data.
 For example, /srv/cvs contains CVS related data.

1. Linux Utilities:

1.1 File Handling

utilities: Cat

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Command:
cat linux command concatenates files and print it on the standard output.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax
is
cat [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

OPTIONS:
-A Show all.
-b Omits line numbers for blank space in the output.
-e A $ character will be printed at the end of each line prior to a new line.
-E Displays a $ (dollar sign) at the end of each line.
-n Line numbers for all the output lines.
-s If the output has multiple empty lines it replaces it with one empty line.
-T Displays the tab characters in the output.
Non-printing characters (with the exception of tabs, new-lines and form-feeds)
-v are printed visibly.

Example:
To Create a new file:
cat > file1.txt
This command creates a new file file1.txt. After typing into the file press control+d
(^d) simultaneously to end the file.

1. To Append data into the

file: cat >> file1.txt

To append data into the same file use append operator >> to write into the file, else
the file will be overwritten (i.e., all of its contents will be erased).

2. To display a

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 file: cat

file1.txt

This command displays the data in the file.

3. To concatenate several files and

display: cat file1.txt file2.txt

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 The above cat command will concatenate the two files (file1.txt and file2.txt) and it will
display the output in the screen. Some times the output may not fit the monitor screen. In
such situation you can print those files in a new file or display the file using less
command.

cat file1.txt file2.txt | less

4. To concatenate several files and to transfer the output to another

file.
cat file1.txt file2.txt > file3.txt

In the above example the output is redirected to new file file3.txt. The cat command will
create new file file3.txt and store the concatenated output into file3.txt.

rm COMMAND:
rm linux command is used to remove/delete the file from the directory.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
rm [options..] [file | directory]

OPTIONS:

-f Remove all files in a directory without prompting the user.

Interactive. With this option, rm prompts for confirmation before removing
-i
any files.
Recursively remove directories and subdirectories in the argument list. The
directory will be emptied of files and removed. The user is normally
-r (or) -R
prompted for removal of any write-protected files which the directory
contains.
EXAMPLE:

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 1. To Remove / Delete a file:

rm file1.txt

Here rm command will remove/delete the file file1.txt.

2. To delete a directory tree:

rm -ir tmp

This rm command recursively removes the contents of all subdirectories of the tmp
directory, prompting you regarding the removal of each file, and then removes the tmp
directory itself.

3. To remove more files at

once rm file1.txt file2.txt

rm command removes file1.txt and file2.txt files at the same time.

cd COMMAND:
cd command is used to change the directory.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
cd [directory | ~ | ./ | ../ | - ]

OPTIONS:

-L Use the physical directory structure.

-P Forces symbolic links.
EXAMPLE:
1. cd linux-command
This command will take you to the sub-directory(linux-command) from its parent
directory.

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 2. cd ..
This will change to the parent-directory from the current working directory/sub-directory.

3. cd ~

This command will move to the user's home directory which is "/home/username".

cp COMMAND:
cp command copy files from one location to another. If the destination is an existing file, then
the file is overwritten; if the destination is an existing directory, the file is copied into the
directory (the directory is not overwritten).

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
cp [OPTIONS]... SOURCE DEST
cp [OPTIONS]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
cp [OPTIONS]... --target-directory=DIRECTORY SOURCE...

OPTIONS:

-a same as -dpR.
--backup[=CONTROL] make a backup of each existing destination file
-b like --backup but does not accept an argument.
if an existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try
-f
again.
-p same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps.

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 preserve the specified attributes (default:
--
mode,ownership,timestamps) and security contexts, if possible
preserve[=ATTR_LIST]
additional attributes: links, all.
--no-
don't preserve the specified attribute.
preserve=ATTR_LIST
--parents append source path to DIRECTORY.
EXAMPLE:
Copy two
files: cp
file1 file2

The above cp command copies the content of file1.php to file2.php.

1. To backup the copied

file: cp -b file1.php

file2.php

Backup of file1.php will be created with '~' symbol as file2.php~.

2. Copy folder and

subfolders: cp -R

scripts scripts1

The above cp command copy the folder and subfolders from scripts to scripts1.
ls COMMAND:
ls command lists the files and directories under current working directory.

SYNTAX:
The
Syntax is
ls [OPTIONS]... [FILE]

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OPTIONS:
Lists all the files, directories and their mode, Number of links, owner of the
-l
file, file size, Modified date and time and filename.
-t Lists in order of last modification time.
-a Lists all entries including hidden files.
-d Lists directory files instead of contents.
-p Puts slash at the end of each directories.
-u List in order of last access time.
-i Display inode information.
-ltr List files order by date.
-lSr List files order by file size.
EXAMPLE:
Display root directory contents:
ls /

lists the contents of root directory.

1. Display hidden files and

directories: ls -a

lists all entries including hidden files and directories.

2. Display inode

information: ls -i
7373073 book.gif
7373074 clock.gif
7373082 globe.gif
7373078 pencil.gif
7373080 child.gif

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 7373081 email.gif
7373076 indigo.gif
The above command displays filename with inode value.

ln COMMAND:
ln command is used to create link to a file (or) directory. It helps to provide soft link for
desired files. Inode will be different for source and destination.

SYNTAX:
The
Syntax is
ln [options] existingfile(or directory)name newfile(or directory)name

OPTIONS:
Link files without questioning the user, even if the mode of target forbids
-f
writing. This is the default if the standard input is not a terminal.
-n Does not overwrite existing files.
-s Used to create soft links.
EXAMPLE:

1. ln -s file1.txt file2.txt
Creates a symbolic link to 'file1.txt' with the name of 'file2.txt'. Here inode
for 'file1.txt' and 'file2.txt' will be different.
2. ln -s nimi nimi1
Creates a symbolic link to 'nimi' with the name of 'nimi1'.

chown COMMAND:
chown command is used to change the owner / user of the file or directory. This is an
admin command, root user only can change the owner of a file or directory.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
chown [options] newowner filename/directoryname

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OPTIONS:

Change the permission on files that are in the subdirectories of the directory
-R
that you are currently in.
-c Change the permission for each file.
Prevents chown from displaying error messages when it is unable to change
-f
the ownership of a file.
EXAMPLE:

1. chown hiox test.txt

The owner of the 'test.txt' file is root, Change to new user hiox.

2. chown -R hiox test

The owner of the 'test' directory is root, With -R option the files and subdirectories
user also gets changed.

3. chown -c hiox calc.txt

Here change the owner for the specific 'calc.txt' file only.

Security By File

Permissions chmod

Command:
chmod command allows you to alter / Change access rights to files and directories.

File Permission is given for users, group and others as,

Read Write Execute

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 User
Grou
Others
Permission 000

Symbolic

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
chmod [options] [MODE] FileName

File Permission

# File Permission
0 none
1 execute only
2 write only
3 write and execute
4 read only
5 read and execute
6 read and write
7 set all permissions

OPTIONS:

-c Displays names of only those files whose permissions are being changed
-f Suppress most error messages
-R Change files and directories recursively

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 -v Output version information and exit.
EXAMPLE:

1. To view your files with what permission they are:

ls -alt

This command is used to view your files with what permission they are.

2. To make a file readable and writable by the group and

others. chmod 066 file1.txt

3. To allow everyone to read, write, and execute the file

chmod 777 file1.txt

mkdir COMMAND:
mkdir command is used to create one or more directories.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
mkdir [options] directories

OPTIONS:

-m Set the access mode for the new directories.

-p Create intervening parent directories if they don't exist.
-v Print help message for each directory created.
EXAMPLE:

1. Create directory:

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 mkdir test

The above command is used to create the directory 'test'.

2. Create directory and set permissions:

mkdir -m 666 test

The above command is used to create the directory 'test' and set the read and write
permission.

rmdir COMMAND:
rmdir command is used to delete/remove a directory and its subdirectories.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
rmdir [options..] Directory

OPTIONS:

Allow users to remove the directory dirname and its parent directories which
-p
become empty.
EXAMPLE:

1. To delete/remove a directory

rmdir tmp

rmdir command will remove/delete the directory tmp if the directory is empty.

2. To delete a directory tree:

rm -ir tmp

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 This command recursively removes the contents of all subdirectories of the tmp
directory, prompting you regarding the removal of each file, and then removes the tmp
directory itself.

mv COMMAND:
mv command which is short for move. It is used to move/rename file from one directory to
another. mv command is different from cp command as it completely removes the file from the
source and moves to the directory specified, where cp command just copies the content from one
file to another.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
mv [-f] [-i] oldname newname

OPTIONS:

This will not prompt before overwriting (equivalent to --reply=yes). mv -f will

-f
move the file(s) without prompting even if it is writing over an existing target.
-i Prompts before overwriting another file.
EXAMPLE:

1. To Rename / Move a

file: mv file1.txt file2.txt

This command renames file1.txt as file2.txt

2. To move a

directory mv

hscripts tmp

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 In the above line mv command moves all the files, directories and sub-directories from
hscripts folder/directory to tmp directory if the tmp directory already exists. If there is no
tmp directory it rename's the hscripts directory as tmp directory.

3. To Move multiple files/More files into another directory

mv file1.txt tmp/file2.txt newdir

This command moves the files file1.txt from the current directory and file2.txt from the
tmp folder/directory to newdir.

diff COMMAND:
diff command is used to find differences between two files.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
diff [options..] from-file to-file

OPTIONS:

-a Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line.

-b Ignore changes in amount of white space.
-c Use the context output format.
-e Make output that is a valid ed script.
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered
-H
small changes.
-i Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case letters equivalent.
Prints in RCS-format, like -f except that each command specifies the number
-n
of lines affected.
Output RCS-format diffs; like -f except that each command specifies the
-q
number of lines affected.

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 -r When comparing directories, recursively compare any subdirectories found.
-s Report when two files are the same.
-w Ignore white space when comparing lines.
-y Use the side by side output format.
EXAMPLE:

Lets create two files file1.txt and file2.txt and let it have the following data.

Data in file1.txt Data in file2.txt

HIOX TEST
HIOX TEST
hscripts.com
HSCRIPTS.com
with friend ship
with friend ship
hiox india

1. Compare files ignoring white

space: diff -w file1.txt file2.txt

This command will compare the file file1.txt with file2.txt ignoring white/blank
space and it will produce the following output.

2c2
< hscripts.com
---
> HSCRIPTS.com
4d3
< Hioxindia.com

2. Compare the files side by side, ignoring white

space: diff -by file1.txt file2.txt

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 This command will compare the files ignoring white/blank space, It is easier to
differentiate the files.

HIOX TEST HIOX TEST

hscripts.com | HSCRIPTS.com
with friend ship with friend ship
Hioxindia.com <

The third line(with friend ship) in file2.txt has more blank spaces, but still the -b ignores

the blank space and does not show changes in the particular line, -y printout the result
side by side.

3. Compare the files ignoring

case. diff -iy file1.txt file2.txt

This command will compare the files ignoring case(upper-case and lower-case) and
displays the following output.

HIOX TEST HIOX TEST

hscripts.com HSCRIPTS.com
with friend ship | with friend ship

chgrp COMMAND:
chgrp command is used to change the group of the file or directory. This is an admin
command. Root user only can change the group of the file or directory.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
chgrp [options] newgroup filename/directoryname

OPTIONS:

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 Change the permission on files that are in the subdirectories of the directory
-R
that you are currently in.
-c Change the permission for each file.
-f Force. Do not report errors.

Hioxindia.com <
EXAMPLE:

1. chgrp hiox test.txt

The group of 'test.txt' file is root, Change to newgroup hiox.

2. chgrp -R hiox test

The group of 'test' directory is root. With -R, the files and its subdirectories also changes
to newgroup hiox.

3. chgrp -c hiox calc.txt

They above command is used to change the group for the specific file('calc.txt') only.

About wc

Short for word count, wc displays a count of lines, words, and characters in a file.

Syntax

wc [-c | -m | -C ] [-l] [-w] [ file ... ]

-c Count bytes.

-m Count characters.

-C Same as -m.

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-l Count lines.

-w Count words delimited by white space characters or new line characters.

Delimiting characters are Extended Unix Code (EUC) characters from any code
set defined by iswspace()

File Name of file to word count.

Examples

wc myfile.txt - Displays information about the file myfile.txt. Below is an example of the output.

5 13 57 myfile.txt

5 = Lines
13 = Words
57 = Characters

About split

Split a file into pieces.

Syntax

split [-linecount | -l linecount ] [ -a suffixlength ] [file [name] ]

split -b n [k | m] [ -a suffixlength ] [ file [name]]

-linecount | -l Number of lines in each piece. Defaults to 1000 lines.

linecount

-a Use suffixlength letters to form the suffix portion of the filenames of the split
suffixlength file. If -a is not specified, the default suffix length is 2. If the sum of the name
operand and the suffixlength option-argument would create a filename exceeding
NAME_MAX bytes, an error will result; split will exit with a diagnostic message

30
 and no files will be created.

-b n Split a file into pieces n bytes in size.

-b n k Split a file into pieces n*1024 bytes in size.

-b n m Split a file into pieces n*1048576 bytes in size.

File The path name of the ordinary file to be split. If no input file is given or file is -,
the standard input will be used.

name The prefix to be used for each of the files resulting from the split operation. If no
name argument is given, x will be used as the prefix of the output files. The
combined length of the basename of prefix and suffixlength cannot exceed
NAME_MAX bytes; see OPTIONS.

Examples

split -b 22 newfile.txt new - would split the file "newfile.txt" into three separate files called
newaa, newab and newac each file the size of 22.

split -l 300 file.txt new - would split the file "newfile.txt" into files beginning with the name
"new" each containing 300 lines of text each

About settime and touch

Change file access and modification time.

Syntax

touch [-a] [-c] [-m] [-r ref_file | -t time ]

file settime [ -f ref_file ] file

-a Change the access time of file. Do not change the modification time unless -m is
also specified.

31
-c Do not create a specified file if it does not exist. Do not write any diagnostic
messages concerning this condition.

-m Change the modification time of file. Do not change the access time unless -a is
also specified.

-r ref_file Use the corresponding times of the file named by ref_file instead of the current
time.

-t time Use the specified time instead of the current time. time will be a decimal number
of the form:

[[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm [.SS]

MM - The month of the year [01-12].

DD - The day of the month [01-31].
hh - The hour of the day [00-23].
mm - The minute of the hour [00-59].
CC - The first two digits of the year.
YY - The second two digits of the year.
SS - The second of the minute [00-61].

-f ref_file Use the corresponding times of the file named by ref_file instead of the current
time.

File A path name of a file whose times are to be modified.

Examples

settime myfile.txt

Sets the file myfile.txt as the current time / date.

touch newfile.txt

32
Creates a file known as "newfile.txt", if the file does not already exist. If the file already
exists
the accessed / modification time is updated for the file newfile.txt
About comm

Select or reject lines common to two files.

Syntax

comm [-1] [-2] [-3 ] file1 file2

-1 Suppress the output column of lines unique to file1.

-2 Suppress the output column of lines unique to file2.

-3 Suppress the output column of lines duplicated in file1 and file2.

file1 Name of the first file to compare.

file2 Name of the second file to compare.

Examples

comm myfile1.txt myfile2.txt

The above example would compare the two files myfile1.txt and myfile2.txt.

Process utilities:

ps Command:
ps command is used to report the process status. ps is the short name for Process Status.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
ps [options]
33
OPTIONS:

List information about all processes most frequently requested: all those
-a
except process group leaders and processes not associated with a terminal..
-A or e List information for all processes.
-d List information about all processes except session leaders.
-e List information about every process now running.
-f Generates a full listing.
-j Print session ID and process group ID.
-l Generate a long listing.
EXAMPLE:

1. ps

Output:

PID TTY TIME CMD

2540 pts/1 00:00:00 bash
2621 pts/1 00:00:00 ps

In the above example, typing ps alone would list the current running processes.

2. ps -f

Output:

UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD

nirmala 2540 2536 0 15:31 pts/1 00:00:00 bash
nirmala 2639 2540 0 15:51 pts/1 00:00:00 ps -f

Displays full information about currently running processes.

34
kill COMMAND:
kill command is used to kill the background process.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
kill [-s] [-l] %pid

OPTIONS:

Specify the signal to send. The signal may be given as a signal name or
-s
number.
Write all values of signal supported by the implementation, if no operand is
-l
given.
-pid Process id or job id.
-9 Force to kill a process.
EXAMPLE:

Step by Step process:

 Open a process music

player. xmms

press ctrl+z to stop the process.

 To know group id or job id of the background

task. jobs -l
 It will list the background jobs with its job id as,
 xmms 3956
kmail 3467

 To kill a job or
process. kill 3956

35
 kill command kills or terminates the background process xmms.

About nice

Invokes a command with an altered scheduling priority.

Syntax

nice [-increment | -n increment ] command [argument ... ]

-increment | - increment must be in the range 1-19; if not specified, an increment of 10 is

n increment assumed. An increment greater than 19 is equivalent to 19.

The super-user may run commands with priority higher than normal by using a
negative increment such as -10. A negative increment assigned by an
unprivileged user is ignored.

command The name of a command that is to be invoked. If command names any of the
special built-in utilities, the results are undefined.

argument Any string to be supplied as an argument when invoking command.

Examples

nice +13 pico myfile.txt - runs the pico command on myfile.txt with an increment of +13.

About at

Schedules a command to be ran at a particular time, such as a print job late at night.

Syntax

at executes commands at a specified time.

atq lists the user's pending jobs, unless the user is the superuser; in that case, everybody's jobs
are listed. The format of the output lines (one for each job) is: Job number, date, hour, job

36
 class.

atrm deletes jobs, identified by their job number.

batch executes commands when system load levels permit; in other words, when the load
average drops below 1.5, or the value specified in the invocation of atrun.

at [-c | -k | -s] [-f filename] [-q queuename] [-m] -t time [date] [-l] [-r]

-c C shell. csh(1) is used to execute the at-job.

-k Korn shell. ksh(1) is used to execute the at-job.

-s Bourne shell. sh(1) is used to execute the at-job.

-f filename Specifies the file that contains the command to run.

-m Sends mail once the command has been run.

-t time Specifies at what time you want the command to be ran. Format hh:mm. am / pm
indication can also follow the time otherwise a 24-hour clock is used. A timezone
name of GMT, UCT or ZULU (case insensitive) can follow to specify that the
time is in Coordinated Universal Time. Other timezones can be specified using
the TZ environment variable. The below quick times can also be entered:

midnight - Indicates the time 12:00 am (00:00).

noon - Indicates the time 12:00 pm.
now - Indicates the current day and time. Invoking at - now will submit submit
an at-job for potentially immediate execution.

date Specifies the date you wish it to be ran on. Format month, date, year. The
following quick days can also be entered:

today - Indicates the current day.

tomorrow - Indicates the day following the current day.

37
-l Lists the commands that have been set to run.

-r Cancels the command that you have set in the past.

Examples

at -m 01:35 < atjob = Run the commands listed in the 'atjob' file at 1:35AM, in addition all
output that is generated from job mail to the user running the task. When this command has been
successfully enter you should receive a prompt similar to the below example.

commands will be executed using /bin/csh

job 1072250520.a at Wed Dec 24 00:22:00 2003

at -l = This command will list each of the scheduled jobs as seen below.

1072250520.a Wed Dec 24 00:22:00 2003

at -r 1072250520.a = Deletes the job just created.

or

atrm 23 = Deletes job 23.

If you wish to create a job that is repeated you could modify the file that executes the commands
with another command that recreates the job or better yet use the crontab command.

Note: Performing just the at command at the prompt will give you an error "Garbled Time", this
is a standard error message if no switch or time setting is given.

Disk utilities:

du (abbreviated from disk usage) is a standard Unix program used to estimate file space
usage—space used under a particular directory or files on a file system.
du takes a single argument, specifying a pathname for du to work; if it is not specified, the current
directory is used. The SUS mandates for du the following options:

-a, display an entry for each file (and not directory) contained in the current directory

38
 -H, calculate disk usage for link references specified on the command line

-k, show sizes as multiples of 1024 bytes, not 512-byte

-L, calculate disk usage for link references anywhere

-s, report only the sum of the usage in the current directory, not for each file

-x, only traverse files and directories on the device on which the pathname argument is
specified.

Other Unix and Unix-like operating systems may add extra options. For example, BSD and GNU
du specify a -h option, displaying disk usage in a format easier to read by the user, adding units
with the appropriate SI prefix’

$ du -sk *
152304 directoryOne
1856548 directoryTwo

Sum of directories in human-readable format (Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte and
Petabyte):

$ du -sh *
149M directoryOne
1.8G directoryTwo

disk usage of all subdirectories and files including hidden files within the current directory
(sorted by filesize) :

$ du -sk .[!.]* *| sort -n

disk usage of all subdirectories and files including hidden files within the current directory
(sorted by reverse filesize) :

$ du -sk .[!.]* *| sort –nr

The weight of directories:

$ du -d 1 -c -h

39
df command : Report file system disk space usage

Df command examples - to check free disk space

Type df -h or df -k to list free disk space:

$ df -h
OR
$ df –k

Output:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sdb1 20G 9.2G 9.6G 49% /
varrun 393M 144k 393M 1% /var/run
varlock 393M 0 393M 0% /var/lock
procbususb 393M 123k 393M 1% /proc/bus/usb
udev 393M 123k 393M 1% /dev
devshm 393M 0 393M 0% /dev/shm
lrm 393M 35M 359M 9% /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volatile
/dev/sdb5 29G 5.4G 22G 20% /media/docs
/dev/sdb3 30G 5.9G 23G 21% /media/isomp3s
/dev/sda1 8.5G 4.3G 4.3G 51% /media/xp1
/dev/sda2 12G 6.5G 5.2G 56% /media/xp2
/dev/sdc1 40G 3.1G 35G 9% /media/backup

du command examples

du shows how much space one ore more files or directories is using.
$ du -sh
103M

-s option summarize the space a directory is using and -h option provides "Human-readable"
output.

Networking commands:

These are most useful commands in my list while working on Linux server , this enables you to
quickly troubleshoot connection issues e.g. whether other system is connected or not , whether
other host is responding or not and while working for FIX connectivity for advanced trading
system this tools saves quite a lot of time .

40
This article is in continuation of my article How to work fast in Unix and Unix Command
tutorials and Examples for beginners.
• finding host/domain name and IP address - hostname
• test network connection – ping
• getting network configuration – ifconfig
• Network connections, routing tables, interface statistics – netstat
• query DNS lookup name – nslookup
• communicate with other hostname – telnet
• outing steps that packets take to get to network host – traceroute
• view user information – finger
• checking status of destination host - telnet

Example of Networking commands in Unix

let's see some example of various networking command in Unix and Linux. Some of them are
quite basic e.g. ping and telnet and some are more powerful e.g. nslookup and netstat. When you
used these commands in combination of find and grep you can get anything you are looking for
e.g. hostname, connection end points, connection status etc.

hostname

hostname with no options displays the machines host name

hostname –d displays the domain name the machine belongs to
hostname –f displays the fully qualified host and domain name
hostname –i displays the IP address for the current machine

ping
It sends packets of information to the user-defined source. If the packets are received, the
destination device sends packets back. Ping can be used for two purposes

1. To ensure that a network connection can be established.

2. Timing information as to the speed of the connection.

If you do ping www.yahoo.com it will display its IP address. Use ctrl+C to stop the test.

ifconfig
View network configuration, it displays the current network adapter configuration. It is handy to

41
determine if you are getting transmit (TX) or receive (RX) errors.

netstat
Most useful and very versatile for finding connection to and from the host. You can find out all
the multicast groups (network) subscribed by this host by issuing "netstat -g"

netstat -nap | grep port will display process id of application which is using that
port netstat -a or netstat –all will display all connections including TCP and UDP
netstat --tcp or netstat –t will display only TCP connection
netstat --udp or netstat –u will display only UDP connection
netstat -g will display all multicast network subscribed by this host.

nslookup
If you know the IP address it will display hostname. To find all the IP addresses for a given
domain name, the command nslookup is used. You must have a connection to the internet
for this utility to be useful.
E.g. nslookup blogger.com

You can also use nslookup to convert hostname to IP Address and from IP Address from
hostname.

traceroute
A handy utility to view the number of hops and response time to get to a remote system or web
site is traceroute. Again you need an internet connection to make use of this tool.

finger
View user information, displays a user’s login name, real name, terminal name and write status.
this is pretty old unix command and rarely used now days.

telnet
Connects destination host via telnet protocol, if telnet connection establish on any port means
connectivity between two hosts is working fine.
telnet hostname port will telnet hostname with the port specified. Normally it is used to see
whether host is alive and network connection is fine or not.

10 Most important linux networking commands

Linux is most powerful operating system which often needs to use commands to explore it
effectively.Some of the commands are restricted to normal user groups as they are powerful and
has more functionality involved in it.Here we summarized most interesting and useful
networking commands which every linux user are supposed to be familiar with it.

42
1.Arp manipulates the kernel’s ARP cache in various ways. The primary options are clearing
an address mapping entry and manually setting up one. For debugging purposes, the arp
program also allows a complete dump of the ARP cache.ARP displays the IP address assigned
to particular ETH card and mac address
Iface
[fasil@smashtech ]# arp Flags Mask
Address HWtype HWaddress eth0
59.36.13.1 ether C

2. Ifconfig is used to configure the network interfaces. Normally we use this command to
check the IP address assigned to the system.It is used at boot time to set up interfaces as
necessary. After that, it is usually only needed when debugging or when system tuning is
needed.

[fasil@smashtech ~]# /sbin/ifconfig

eth0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:126341 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
frame:0 TX packets:44441 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

3. Netstat prints information about the networking subsystem. The type of information which is
usually printed by netstat are Print network connections, routing tables, interface statistics,
masquerade connections, and multicast.

[fasil@smashtech ~]# netstat

Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State
tcp 0 0 .230.87:https ESTABLISHED
Active UNIX domain sockets (w/o servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags Type State I-Node Path
unix 10 [ ] DGRAM 4970 /dev/log
unix 2 [] DGRAM 6625 @/var/run/hal/hotplug_socket
unix 2 [] DGRAM 2952 @udevd
unix 2 [] DGRAM 100564
unix 3 [] STREAM CONNECTED 62438 /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
unix 3 [] STREAM CONNECTED 62437
unix 3 [] STREAM CONNECTED 10271 @/tmp/fam-root-
unix 3 [] STREAM CONNECTED 10270

43
unix 3 [] STREAM CONNECTED 9276
unix 3 [] STREAM CONNECTED 9275

4. ping command is used to check the connectivity of a system to a network.Whenever there

is problem in network connectivity we use ping to ensure the system is connected to network.

[root@smashtech ~]# ping google.com

PING google.com (74.125.45.100) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from yx-in-f100.google.com (74.125.45.100): icmp_seq=0 ttl=241 time=295 ms
64 bytes from yx-in-f100.google.com (74.125.45.100): icmp_seq=1 ttl=241 time=277 ms
64 bytes from yx-in-f100.google.com (74.125.45.100): icmp_seq=2 ttl=241 time=277 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---

3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 6332ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 277.041/283.387/295.903/8.860 ms, pipe 2

5. Nslookup is a program to query Internet domain name servers. Nslookup has two modes:
interactive and non-interactive. Interactive mode allows the user to query name servers for
information about various hosts and domains or to print a list of hosts in a domain. Non-
interactive mode is used to print just the name and requested information for a host or
domain.

[fasil@smashtech ~]# nslookup

google.com Server: server ip
Address: gateway ip 3

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 209.85.171.100
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.45.100
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.67.100

6. dig (domain information groper) is a flexible tool for interrogating DNS name servers. It
performs DNS lookups and displays the answers that are returned from the name server(s)
that were queried. Most DNS administrators use dig to troubleshoot DNS problems because of
its flexibility, ease of use and clarity of output. Other lookup tools tend to have less
functionality than dig.

[fasil@smashtech ~]# dig google.com

44
; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> google.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4716
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.com. 122 IN A 74.125.45.100
google.com. 122 IN A 74.125.67.100
google.com. 122 IN A 209.85.171.100

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
google.com. 326567 IN NS ns3.google.com.
google.com. 326567 IN NS ns4.google.com.
google.com. 326567 IN NS ns1.google.com.
google.com. 326567 IN NS ns2.google.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.google.com. 152216 IN A 216.239.32.10
ns2.google.com. 152216 IN A 216.239.34.10
ns3.google.com. 152216 IN A 216.239.36.10
ns4.google.com. 152216 IN A 216.239.38.10

;; Query time: 92 msec

;; SERVER: 172.29.36.1#53(172.29.36.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Mar 5 14:38:45 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 212

7. Route manipulates the IP routing tables. Its primary use is to set up static routes to specific
hosts or networks via an interface after it has been configured with the ifconfig
program.When the add or del options are used, route modifies the routing tables. Without
these options, route displays the current contents of the routing tables.

[fasil@smashtech ~]# route

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface

45
54.192.56.321 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
* 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

8. Traceroute : Internet is a large and complex aggregation of network hardware, connected

together by gateways. Tracking the route one’s packets follow (or finding the miscreant
gateway that’s discarding your packets) can be difficult.

Traceroute utilizes the IP protocol ‘time to live’ field and attempts to elicit an ICMP
TIME_EXCEEDED response from each gateway along the path to some host. The only
mandatory parameter is the destination host name or IP number. The default probe
datagram length is 40 bytes, but this may be increased by specifying a packet length (in bytes)
after the destination host name.

[fasil@smashtech ~]# traceroute google.com

traceroute: Warning: google.com has multiple addresses; using 209.85.171.100
traceroute to google.com (209.85.171.100), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 ***

9.W-displays information about the users currently on the machine, and their processes. The
header shows, in this order, the current time, how long the system has been running, how many
users are currently logged on, and the system load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

[fasil@smashtechl ~]# w
15:18:22 up 4:38, 3 users, load average: 0.89, 0.34, 0.19
USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
root :0 - 10:41 ?xdm? 24:53 1.35s /usr/bin/gnome-session
root pts/1 :0.0 10:58 1.00s 0.34s 0.00s w
root pts/2 :0.0 12:10 23:32 0.03s 0.03s bash

Filters:

more COMMAND:
more command is used to display text in the terminal screen. It allows only backward
movement.

46
SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
more [options] filename

OPTIONS:

-c Clear screen before displaying.

-e Exit immediately after writing the last line of the last file in the argument
list.
-n Specify how many lines are printed in the screen for a given file.
+n Starts up the file from the given number.
EXAMPLE:

1. more -c index.php

Clears the screen before printing the file .

2. more -3 index.php

Prints first three lines of the given file. Press Enter to display the file line by line.

head COMMAND:
head command is used to display the first ten lines of a file, and also specifies how many lines
to display.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
head [options] filename

OPTIONS:

-n To specify how many lines you want to display.

-n number The number option-argument must be a decimal integer whose sign affects

47
 the location in the file, measured in lines.
The number option-argument must be a decimal integer whose sign affects
-c number
the location in the file, measured in bytes.
EXAMPLE:

1. head index.php

This command prints the first 10 lines of 'index.php'.

2. head -5 index.php

The head command displays the first 5 lines of 'index.php'.

3. head -c 5 index.php

The above command displays the first 5 characters of 'index.php'.

tail COMMAND:
tail command is used to display the last or bottom part of the file. By default it displays last
10 lines of a file.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
tail [options] filename

OPTIONS:

-l To specify the units of lines.

-b To specify the units of blocks.
-n To specify how many lines you want to display.
The number option-argument must be a decimal integer whose sign affects the
-c number
location in the file, measured in bytes.

48
 The number option-argument must be a decimal integer whose sign affects the
-n number
location in the file, measured in lines.
EXAMPLE:

1. tail index.php

It displays the last 10 lines of 'index.php'.

2. tail -2 index.php

It displays the last 2 lines of 'index.php'.

3. tail -n 5 index.php

It displays the last 5 lines of 'index.php'.

4. tail -c 5 index.php

It displays the last 5 characters of 'index.php'.

cut COMMAND:
cut command is used to cut out selected fields of each line of a file. The cut command uses
delimiters to determine where to split fields.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
cut [options]

OPTIONS:

-c Specifies character positions.

-b Specifies byte positions.
-d flags Specifies the delimiters and fields.

49
EXAMPLE:
1. cut -c1-3 text.txt

Output:

Thi

Cut the first three letters from the above line.

2. cut -d, -f1,2 text.txt

Output:

This is, an example program

The above command is used to split the fields using delimiter and cut the first two fields.

paste COMMAND:
paste command is used to paste the content from one file to another file. It is also used to set
column format for each line.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
paste [options]

OPTIONS:

-s Paste one file at a time instead of in parallel.

-d Reuse characters from LIST instead of TABs .
EXAMPLE:

1. paste test.txt>test1.txt

Paste the content from 'test.txt' file to 'test1.txt' file.

50
 2. ls | paste - - - -

List all files and directories in four columns for each line.

sort COMMAND:
sort command is used to sort the lines in a text file.
SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
sort [options] filename
OPTIONS:

-r Sorts in reverse order.

-u If line is duplicated display only once.
-o filename Sends sorted output to a file.
EXAMPLE:

1. sort test.txt

Sorts the 'test.txt'file and prints result in the screen.

2. sort -r test.txt

Sorts the 'test.txt' file in reverse order and prints result in the screen.

About uniq

Report or filter out repeated lines in a file.

Syntax

uniq [-c | -d | -u ] [ -f fields ] [ -s char ] [-n] [+m] [input_file [ output_file ] ]

-c Precede each output line with a count of the number of times the line occurred in

51
 the input.

-d Suppress the writing of lines that are not repeated in the input.

-u Suppress the writing of lines that are repeated in the input.

-f fields Ignore the first fields fields on each input line when doing comparisons, where
fields is a positive decimal integer. A field is the maximal string matched by the
basic regular expression:

[[:blank:]]*[^[:blank:]]*

If fields specifies more fields than appear on an input line, a null string will be
used for comparison.

-s char Ignore the first chars characters when doing comparisons, where chars is a
positive decimal integer. If specified in conjunction with the -f option, the first
chars characters after the first fields fields will be ignored. If chars specifies more
characters than remain on an input line, a null string will be used for comparison.

-n Equivalent to -f fields with fields set to n.

+m Equivalent to -s chars with chars set to m.

input_file A path name of the input file. If input_file is not specified, or if the input_file is -
, the
standard input will be used.

output_file A path name of the output file. If output_file is not specified, the standard output
will be used. The results are unspecified if the file named by output_file is the
file named by input_file.

Examples

uniq myfile1.txt > myfile2.txt - Removes duplicate lines in the first file1.txt and outputs the
results to the second file.

52
About tr

Translate characters.

Syntax

tr [-c] [-d] [-s] [string1] [string2]

-c Complement the set of characters specified by string1.

-d Delete all occurrences of input characters that are specified by string1.

-s Replace instances of repeated characters with a single character.

string1 First string or character to be changed.

string2 Second string or character to change the string1.

Examples

echo "12345678 9247" | tr 123456789 computerh - this example takes an echo response of
'12345678 9247' and pipes it through the tr replacing the appropriate numbers with the letters. In
this example it would return computer hope.

tr -cd '\11\12\40-\176' < myfile1 > myfile2 - this example would take the file myfile1 and strip
all non printable characters and take that results to myfile2.

Text processing utilities and Backup utilities:

Text processing utilities:

cat : concatenate files and print on the standard output

Usage: cat [OPTION] [FILE]...

eg. cat file1.txt file2.txt

cat n

file1.txt

53
echo : display a line of text

Usage: echo [OPTION] [string] ...

eg. echo I love India

echo $HOME

wc: print the number of newlines, words, and bytes in files

Usage: wc [OPTION]... [FILE]...

eg. wc file1.txt

wc L

file1.txt

sort :sort lines of text files

Usage: sort [OPTION]...

[FILE]...

eg. sort file1.txt

sort r

file1.txt

General Commands:

date COMMAND:
date command prints the date and time.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
date [options] [+format] [date]

OPTIONS:

Slowly adjust the time by sss.fff seconds (fff represents fractions of a second).
-a
This adjustment can be positive or negative.Only system admin/ super user
54
 can adjust the time.

- date - Sets the time and date to the value specfied in the datestring. The datestr may
string contain the month names, timezones, 'am', 'pm', etc.

-u Display (or set) the date in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-universal time).

Format:

%a Abbreviated weekday(Tue).

%A Full weekday(Tuesday).

%b Abbreviated month name(Jan).

%B Full month name(January).

%c Country-specific date and time format..

%D Date in the format %m/%d/%y.

%j Julian day of year (001-366).

%n Insert a new line.

%p String to indicate a.m. or p.m.

%T Time in the format %H:%M:%S.

%t Tab space.

%V Week number in year (01-52); start week on Monday.

EXAMPLE:
date command
date

The above command will print Wed Jul 23 10:52:34 IST 2008

1. To use tab space:

55
 date +"Date is %D %t Time is %T"

The above command will remove space and print as

Date is 07/23/08 Time is 10:52:34

2. To know the week number of the

year,
date -V

The above command will print 30

3. To set the date,

date -s "10/08/2008 11:37:23"

The above command will print Wed Oct 08 11:37:23 IST 2008

who COMMAND:
who command can list the names of users currently logged in, their terminal, the time they
have been logged in, and the name of the host from which they have logged in.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
who [options] [file]

OPTIONS:

Print the username of the invoking user, The 'am' and 'i' must be space
am i
separated.
-b Prints time of last system boot.
-d print dead processes.
-H Print column headings above the output.
-i Include idle time as HOURS:MINUTES. An idle time of . indicates activity

56
 within the last minute.
-m Same as who am i.
-q Prints only the usernames and the user count/total no of users logged in.
-T,-w Include user's message status in the output.
EXAMPLE:

1. who –Uh

Output:

NAME LINE TIME IDLE PID COMMENT

hiox ttyp3 Jul 10 11:08 . 4578

This sample output was produced at 11 a.m. The "." indiacates activity within the last
minute.

2. who am i

who am i command prints the user name.

echo COMMAND:
echo command prints the given input string to standard output.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
echo [options..] [string]

OPTIONS:

-n do not output the trailing newline

-e enable interpretation of the backslash-escaped characters listed below
-E disable interpretation of those sequences in STRINGs

57
 Without -E, the following sequences are recognized and interpolated:

the character whose ASCII code is NNN

\NNN
(octal)
\a alert (BEL)
\\ backslash
\b backspace
\c suppress trailing newline
\f form feed
\n new line
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab

EXAMPLE:
echo command
echo "hscripts Hiox India"

The above command will print as hscripts Hiox India

1. To use backspace:

echo -e "hscripts \bHiox \bIndia"

The above command will remove space and print as hscriptsHioxIndia

2. To use tab space in echo

command echo -e "hscripts\tHiox\

tIndia"

The above command will print as hscripts Hiox India

58
passwd COMMAND:
passwd command is used to change your password.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
passwd [options]

OPTIONS:

-a Show password attributes for all entries.

-l Locks password entry for name.
Deletes password for name. The login name will not be prompted for
-d
password.
Force the user to change password at the next login by expiring the password
-f
for name.
EXAMPLE:

1. passwd

Entering just passwd would allow you to change the password. After entering passwd you
will receive the following three prompts:

Current Password:
New Password:
Confirm New Password:

Each of these prompts must be entered correctly for the password to be successfully
changed.

pwd COMMAND:
pwd - Print Working Directory. pwd command prints the full filename of the current working
directory.

59
SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
pwd [options]

OPTIONS:

-P The pathname printed will not contain symbolic links.

-L The pathname printed may contain symbolic links.
EXAMPLE:

1. Displays the current working

directory. pwd

If you are working in home directory then, pwd command displays the current working
directory as /home.

cal COMMAND:
cal command is used to display the calendar.

SYNTAX:
The Syntax is
cal [options] [month] [year]

OPTIONS:

-1 Displays single month as output.

-3 Displays prev/current/next month output.
-s Displays sunday as the first day of the week.
-m Displays Monday as the first day of the week.

60
 -j Displays Julian dates (days one-based, numbered from January 1).
-y Displays a calendar for the current year.
EXAMPLE:

1. cal

Output:

September 2008
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30

cal command displays the current month calendar.

2. cal -3 5 2008

Output:

April 2008 May 2008 June 2008

Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
27 28 29 30 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 29 30

Here the cal command displays the calendar of April, May and June month of year 2008.

login Command

61
Signs into a new system.

Syntax

login [ -p ] [ -d device ] [-h hostname | terminal | -r hostname ] [ name [ environ ] ]

-p Used to pass environment variables to the login shell.

-d device login accepts a device option, device. device is taken to be the path name of the
TTY port login is to operate on. The use of the device option can be expected to
improve login performance, since login will not need to call ttyname. The -d
option is available only to users whose UID and effective UID are root. Any
other attempt to use -d will cause login to quietly exit.

-h hostname | Used by in.telnetd to pass information about the remote host and terminal type.
terminal

-r hostname Used by in.rlogind to pass information about

the remote host.

Examples

login computerhope.com - Would attempt to login to the computerhope domain.

uname command

Print name of current system.

Syntax

uname [-a] [-i] [-m] [-n] [-p] [-r] [-s] [-v] [-X] [-S systemname]

-a Print basic information currently available from the system.

-i Print the name of the hardware implementation (platform).

62
-m Print the machine hardware name (class). Use of this option is discouraged; use
uname -p instead.

-n Print the nodename (the nodename is the name by which the system is known to
a communications network).

-p Print the current host's ISA or processor type.

-r Print the operating system release level.

-s Print the name of the operating system. This is the default.

-v Print the operating system version.

-X Print expanded system information, one information

element per line, as expected by SCO Unix. The
displayed information includes:

 system name, node, release, version, machine, and number of CPUs.

 BusType, Serial, and Users (set to "unknown" in Solaris)
 OEM# and Origin# (set to 0 and 1, respectively)

-S The nodename may be changed by specifying a system name argument. The

systemname system name argument is restricted to SYS_NMLN characters. SYS_NMLN is
an implementation specific value defined in <sys/utsname.h>. Only the super-
user is allowed
this capability.

Examples

uname -arv

List the basic system information, OS release, and OS version as shown below.

SunOS hope 5.7 Generic_106541-08 sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCstation-10

63
uname -p

Display the Linux platform.

SED:

What is sed?

 A non-interactive stream editor

 Interprets sed instructions and performs actions
 Use sed to:
⚫ Automatically perform edits on file(s)
⚫ Simplify doing the same edits on multiple files
⚫ Write conversion programs

64
Sed Command Syntax(Sed Scripts):

Sed Operation

How Does sed Work?

 sed reads line of input

⚫ line of input is copied into a temporary buffer called pattern space
⚫ editing commands are applied

65
  subsequent commands are applied to line in the pattern space, not
the original input line
 once finished, line is sent to output

(unless –n option was used)

⚫ line is removed from pattern space

 sed reads next line of input, until end of

file Note: input file is unchanged

sed instruction format(Sed Addresses):

 address determines which lines in the input file are to be processed by the command(s)
⚫ if no address is specified, then the command is applied to each input line
 address types:
⚫ Single-Line address
⚫ Set-of-Lines address
⚫ Range address
⚫ Nested address

Single-Line Address

 Specifies only one line in the input file

⚫ special: dollar sign ($) denotes last line of input file

Examples:

⚫ show only line 3

sed -n -e '3 p' input-file

⚫ show only last line

66
 sed -n -e '$ p' input-file

⚫ substitute “endif” with “fi” on line 10

sed -e '10 s/endif/fi/' input-file

Set-of-Lines Address

 use regular expression to match lines

⚫ written between two slashes
⚫ process only lines that match
⚫ may match several lines
⚫ lines may or may not be consecutives

Examples:

sed -e ‘/key/ s/more/other/’ input-file

sed -n -e ‘/r..t/ p’ input-file

Range Address

 Defines a set of consecutive

lines Format:

start-addr,end-addr (inclusive)

Examples:

10,50 line-number,line-number

10,/R.E/ line-number,/RegExp/

/R.E./,10 /RegExp/,line-number

67
/R.E./,/R.E/ /RegExp/,/RegExp/

Example: Range Address

% sed -n -e ‘/^BEGIN$/,/^END$/p’ input-file

 Print lines between BEGIN and END, inclusive

BEGIN

Line 1 of input

Line 2 of input

Line3 of input

END

Line 4 of input

Line 5 of input

Nested Address

 Nested address contained within another

address Example:

print blank lines between line 20 and 30

20,30{

/^$/ p

Address with !

68
  address with an exclamation point (!):

instruction will be applied to all lines that do not match the address

Example:

print lines that do not contain “obsolete”

sed -e ‘/obsolete/!p’ input-file

sed commands

Line Number

 line number command (=) writes the current line number before each matched/output

line Examples:

sed -e '/Two-thirds-time/=' tuition.data

sed -e '/^[0-9][0-9]/=' inventory

modify commands

69
Insert Command: i

 adds one or more lines directly to the output before theaddress:

⚫ inserted “text” never appears in sed’s pattern space
⚫ cannot be used with a range address; can only be used with the single-line and
set- of-lines address types

Syntax:

[address] i\

text

Append Command: a

 adds one or more lines directly to the output after theaddress:

⚫ Similar to the insert command (i), append cannot be used with a range address.
⚫ Appended “text” does not appear in sed’s pattern space.

Syntax:

[address] a\

text

Change Command: c

 replaces an entire matched line with new text

 accepts four address types:

70
 ⚫ single-line, set-of-line, range, and nested addresses.

Syntax:

[address1[,address2]] c\

text

Delete Command: d

 deletes the entire pattern space

⚫ commands following the delete command are ignored since the deleted text is
no longer in the pattern space

Syntax:

[address1[,address2]] d

Substitute Command (s)

Syntax:

[addr1][,addr2] s/search/replace/[flags]

 replaces text selected by search string with replacementstring

 search string can be regular expression
 flags:
⚫ global (g), i.e. replace all occurrences
⚫ specific substitution count (integer), default

1 Regular Expressions: use with sed

71
Substitution Back References

Example: Replacement String &

$ cat datafile

72
Charles Main 3.0 .98 3 34

Sharon Gray 5.3 .97 5 23

Patricia Hemenway 4.0 .7 4 17

TB Savage 4.4 .84 5 20

AM Main Jr. 5.1 .94 3 13

Margot Weber 4.5 .89 5 9

Ann Stephens 5.7 .94 5 13

$ sed -e ‘s/[0-9][0-9]$/&.5/’ datafile

Charles Main 3.0 .98 3 34.5

Sharon Gray 5.3 .97 5 23.5

Patricia Hemenway 4.0 .7 4 17.5

TB Savage 4.4 .84 5 20.5

AM Main Jr. 5.1 .94 3 13.5

Margot Weber 4.5 .89 5 9

Ann Stephens 5.7 .94 5 13.5

Transform Command (y)

Syntax:

[addr1][,addr2]y/a/b/

⚫ translates one character 'a' to another 'b'

73
 ⚫ cannot use regular expression metacharacters
⚫ cannot indicate a range of characters
⚫ similar to “tr” command

Example:

$ sed -e ‘1,10y/abcd/wxyz/’ datafile

sed i/o commands

Input (next) Command: n and N

 Forces sed to read the next input line

⚫ Copies the contents of the pattern space to output
⚫ Deletes the current line in the pattern space
⚫ Refills it with the next input line
⚫ Continue processing
 N (uppercase) Command
⚫ adds the next input line to the current contents of the pattern space
⚫ useful when applying patterns to two or more lines at the same

time Output Command: p and P

 Print Command (p)

⚫ copies the entire contents of the pattern space to output
⚫ will print same line twice unless the option “–n” is used
 Print command: P
⚫ prints only the first line of the pattern space

74
 ⚫ prints the contents of the pattern space up to and including a new line character
⚫ any text following the first new line is not printed

List Command (l)

 The list command: l

⚫ shows special characters (e.g. tab, etc)
 The octal dump command (od -c) can be used to produce similar
result
Hold Space

 temporary storage area

used to save the contents of the pattern space

 4 commands that can be used to move text back and forth between the pattern space
and the hold space:

h, H

g, G

File commands

 allows to read and write from/to file while processing standard input
 read: r command
 write: w

command Read File

command Syntax: r

filename

⚫ queue the contents of filename to be read and inserted into the output stream
at the end of the current cycle, or when the next input line is read

75
  if filename cannot be read, it is treated as if it were an empty file,
without any error indication
⚫ single address only

Write File command

Syntax: w filename

⚫ Write the pattern space to filename

⚫ The filename will be created (or truncated) before the first input line is read
⚫ all w commands which refer to the same filename are output through the same
FILE stream

Branch Command (b)

 Change the regular flow of the commands in the script

file Syntax: [addr1][,addr2]b[label]

⚫ Branch (unconditionally) to ‘label’ or end of script

⚫ If “label” is supplied, execution resumes at the line following :label;
otherwise, control passes to the end of the script

 Branch label

:mylabel

Example: The quit (q) Command

Syntax: [addr]q

⚫ Quit (exit sed) when addr is encountered.

Example: Display the first 50 lines and quit

% sed -e ’50q’ datafile

76
Same as:

% sed -n -e ‘1,50p’ datafile

% head -50 datafile

Awk

What is awk?

 created by: Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan

 scripting language used for manipulating data and generating reports
 versions of awk
⚫ awk, nawk, mawk, pgawk, …
⚫ GNU awk: gawk

What can you do with awk?

 awk operation:
⚫ scans a file line by line
⚫ splits each input line into fields
⚫ compares input line/fields to pattern
⚫ performs action(s) on matched lines
 Useful for:
⚫ transform data files
⚫ produce formatted reports
 Programming constructs:
⚫ format output lines
⚫ arithmetic and string operations
⚫ conditionals and loops

The Command: awk

77
Basic awk Syntax

 awk [options] ‘script’ file(s)

 awk [options] –f scriptfile file(s)

Options:

-F to change input field separator

-f to name script

file Basic awk Program

 consists of patterns & actions:

pattern {action}

⚫ if pattern is missing, action is applied to all lines

78
 ⚫ if action is missing, the matched line is printed
⚫ must have either pattern or action

Example:

awk '/for/' testfile

⚫ prints all lines containing string “for” in testfile

Basic Terminology: input file

 A field is a unit of data in a line

 Each field is separated from the other fields by the field separator
⚫ default field separator is whitespace
 A record is the collection of fields in a line
 A data file is made up of

records Example Input File

79
Buffers

 awk supports two types of

buffers: record and field

 field buffer:
⚫ one for each fields in the current record.
⚫ names: $1, $2, …
 record buffer :
⚫ $0 holds the entire record

Some System Variables

FS Field separator (default=whitespace)

RS Record separator (default=\n)

NF Number of fields in current record

NR Number of the current record

OFS Output field separator (default=space)

ORS Output record separator (default=\

n) FILENAME Current filename

Example: Records and Fields

80
% cat emps

Tom Jones 4424 5/12/66 543354

Mary Adams 5346 11/4/63 28765

Sally Chang 1654 7/22/54 650000

Billy Black 1683 9/23/44 336500

% awk '{print NR, $0}' emps

1 Tom Jones 4424 5/12/66 543354

2 Mary Adams 5346 11/4/63 28765

3 Sally Chang 1654 7/22/54 650000

4 Billy Black 1683 9/23/44 336500

Example: Space as Field Separator

% cat emps

Tom Jones 4424 5/12/66 543354

Mary Adams 5346 11/4/63 28765

Sally Chang 1654 7/22/54 650000

Billy Black 1683 9/23/44 336500

% awk '{print NR, $1, $2, $5}' emps

1 Tom Jones 543354

2 Mary Adams 28765

81
3 Sally Chang 650000

4 Billy Black 336500

Example: Colon as Field Separator

% cat em2

Tom Jones:4424:5/12/66:543354

Mary Adams:5346:11/4/63:28765

Sally Chang:1654:7/22/54:650000

Billy Black:1683:9/23/44:336500

% awk -F: '/Jones/{print $1, $2}'

em2 Tom Jones 4424

awk Scripts

 awk scripts are divided into three major parts:

82
 comment lines start with #

 BEGIN: pre-processing
⚫ performs processing that must be completed before the file processing starts
(i.e., before awk starts reading records from the input file)
⚫ useful for initialization tasks such as to initialize variables and to create report
headings
 BODY: Processing

⚫ contains main processing logic to be applied to input records

⚫ like a loop that processes input data one record at a time:
 if a file contains 100 records, the body will be executed 100 times, one
for each record
 END: post-processing
⚫ contains logic to be executed after all input data have been processed
⚫ logic such as printing report grand total should be performed in this part of
the script

Pattern / Action Syntax

83
Categories of Patterns

Expression Pattern types

 match
⚫ entire input record

regular expression enclosed by ‘/’s

⚫ explicit pattern-matching expressions

~ (match), !~ (not match)

 expression operators
⚫ arithmetic
⚫ relational
⚫ logical

Example: match input

record

% cat employees2

Tom Jones:4424:5/12/66:543354

84
Mary Adams:5346:11/4/63:28765

85
Sally Chang:1654:7/22/54:650000

Billy Black:1683:9/23/44:336500

% awk –F: '/00$/' employees2

Sally Chang:1654:7/22/54:650000

Billy Black:1683:9/23/44:336500

Example: explicit match

% cat datafile

northwest NW Charles Main 3.0 .98 3 34

western WE Sharon Gray 5.3 .97 5 23

southwest SW Lewis Dalsass 2.7 .8 2 18

southern SO Suan Chin 5.1 .95 4 15

southeast SE Patricia Hemenway 4.0 .7 4 17

eastern EA TB Savage 4.4 .84 5 20

northeast NE AM Main 5.1 .94 3 13

north NO Margot Weber 4.5 .89 5 9

central CT Ann Stephens 5.7 .94 5 13

% awk '$5 ~ /\.[7-9]+/' datafile

southwest SW Lewis Dalsass 2.7 .8 2 18

central CT Ann Stephens 5.7 .94 5 13

86
Examples: matching with REs

% awk '$2 !~ /E/{print $1, $2}' datafile

northwest NW

southwest SW

southern SO

north NO

central CT

% awk '/^[ns]/{print $1}' datafile

northwest

southwest

southern

southeast

northeast

north

Arithmetic Operators

Operator Meaning Example

+ Add x+y

- Subtract x–y

* Multiply x*y

87
 / Divide x/y

% Modulus x%y

^ Exponential x^y

Example:

% awk '$3 * $4 > 500 {print $0}' file

Relational Operators

Operator Meaning Example

< Less than x<y

<= Less than or equal x<=y

== Equal to x == y

!= Not equal to x != y

> Greater than x>y

>= Greater than or equal to x>=y

~ Matched by reg exp x ~ /y/

!~ Not matched by req exp x !~ /y/

Logical Operators

Operator Meaning Example

&& Logical AND a && b

|| Logical OR a || b

88
 ! NOT !a

Examples:

% awk '($2 > 5) && ($2 <= 15) {print $0}' file

% awk '$3 == 100 || $4 > 50' file

Range Patterns

 Matches ranges of consecutive input

lines Syntax:

pattern1 , pattern2 {action}

 pattern can be any simple pattern

 pattern1 turns action on
 pattern2 turns action off

Range Pattern Example

89
 awk Actions

awk expressions

 Expression is evaluated and returns value

⚫ consists of any combination of numeric and string constants, variables,
operators, functions, and regular expressions
 Can involve variables
⚫ As part of expression evaluation
⚫ As target of

assignment awk variables

 A user can define any number of variables within an awk script

 The variables can be numbers, strings, or arrays
 Variable names start with a letter, followed by letters, digits, and underscore
 Variables come into existence the first time they are referenced; therefore, they do
not need to be declared before use
 All variables are initially created as strings and initialized to a null string “”

90
awk Variables

Format:

variable = expression

Examples:

% awk '$1 ~ /Tom/

{wage = $3 * $4; print wage}' filename

% awk '$4 == "CA" {$4 = "California"; print $0}' filename

awk assignment operators

= assign result of right-hand-side expression

to left-hand-side variable

++ Add 1 to variable

-- Subtract 1 from variable

+= Assign result of addition

-= Assign result of subtraction

*= Assign result of multiplication

/= Assign result of division

%= Assign result of modulo

^= Assign result of

exponentiation Awk example

91
  File: grades

john 85 92 78 94 88

andrea 89 90 75 90 86

jasper 84 88 80 92 84

 awk script: average

# average five grades

{ total = $2 + $3 + $4 + $5 + $6

avg = total / 5

print $1, avg }

 Run as:

awk –f average grades

Output Statements

print

print easy and simple output

printf

print formatted (similar to C printf)

sprintf

format string (similar to C sprintf)

Function: print

92
  Writes to standard output
 Output is terminated by ORS
⚫ default ORS is newline
 If called with no parameter, it will print $0
 Printed parameters are separated by OFS,
⚫ default OFS is blank
 Print control characters are allowed:
⚫ \n \f \a \t \\ …

print example

% awk '{print}' grades

john 85 92 78 94 88

andrea 89 90 75 90 86

% awk '{print $0}' grades

john 85 92 78 94 88

andrea 89 90 75 90 86

% awk '{print($0)}' grades

john 85 92 78 94 88

andrea 89 90 75 90 86

Redirecting print output

 Print output goes to standard

output unless redirected via:

> “file”
93
>> “file”

| “command”

 will open file or command only once

 subsequent redirections append to already open stream

print Example

% awk '{print $1 , $2 > "file"}' grades

% cat file

john 85

andrea 89

jasper 84

% awk '{print $1,$2 | "sort"}' grades

andrea 89

jasper 84

john 85

% awk '{print $1,$2 | "sort –k 2"}' grades

jasper 84

john 85

andrea 89

% date

94
Wed Nov 19 14:40:07 CST 2008

% date |

awk '{print "Month: " $2 "\nYear: ", $6}'

Mo0nth: Nov

Year: 2008

printf: Formatting output

Syntax:

printf(format-string, var1, var2, …)

⚫ works like C printf

⚫ each format specifier in “format-string” requires argument of matching type

Format specifiers

%d %i decimal integer

%c single character

%s string of characters

%f floating point number

%o octal number

%x hexadecimal number

%e scientific floating point notation

95
%% the letter “%”

Format specifier examples

Format specifier modifiers

 between “%” and letter

%10s

%7d

%10.4f

%-20s

 meaning:
⚫ width of field, field is printed right justified
⚫ precision: number of digits after decimal point
⚫ “-” will left

justify sprintf: Formatting text

Syntax:

sprintf(format-string, var1, var2, …)

⚫ Works like printf, but does not produce output

⚫ Instead it returns formatted string

Example:

text = sprintf("1: %d – 2: %d", $1, $2)

96
 print text

awk Array

 awk allows one-dimensional arrays

to store strings or numbers

 index can be number or string

 array need not be declared
⚫ its size
⚫ its elements
 array elements are created when first used
⚫ initialized to 0 or

“” Arrays in awk

Syntax:

arrayName[index] = value

Examples:

list[1] = "one"

list[2] = "three"

list["other"] = "oh my !"

Illustration: Associative Arrays

 awk arrays can use string as index

97
 Awk builtin split functions

split(string, array, fieldsep)

⚫ divides string into pieces separated by fieldsep, and stores the pieces in array
⚫ if the fieldsep is omitted, the value of FS is used.

Example:

split("auto-da-fe", a, "-")

 sets the contents of the array a as follows:

a[1] = "auto"

a[2] = "da"

a[3] = "fe"

Example: process sales data

 input file:

98
  output:
⚫ summary of category

sales Illustration: process each input line

99
Illustration: process each input line

Summary: awk program

Example: complete program

% cat sales.awk

deptSales[$2] += $3

END {

for (x in deptSales)

100
 print x, deptSales[x]

% awk –f sales.awk sales

awk builtin functions

tolower(string)

 returns a copy of string, with each upper-case character converted to lower-

case. Nonalphabetic characters are left unchanged.

Example: tolower("MiXeD cAsE 123")

returns "mixed case 123"

toupper(string)

 returns a copy of string, with each lower-case character converted to upper-case.

awk Example: list of products

103:sway bar:49.99

101:propeller:104.99

104:fishing line:0.99

113:premium fish bait:1.00

106:cup holder:2.49

107:cooler:14.89

112:boat cover:120.00

101
109:transom:199.00

110:pulley:9.88

105:mirror:4.99

108:wheel:49.99

111:lock:31.00

102:trailer hitch:97.95

awk Example: output

Marine Parts R Us

Main catalog

Part-id name price

======================================

101 propeller 104.99

102 trailer hitch 97.95

103 sway bar 49.99

104 fishing line 0.99

105 mirror 4.99

106 cup holder 2.49

107 cooler 14.89

108 wheel 49.99

102
109 transom 199.00

110 pulley 9.88

111 lock 31.00

112 boat cover 120.00

113 premium fish bait 1.00

======================================

Catalog has 13 parts

awk Example: complete

BEGIN {

FS= ":"

print "Marine Parts R Us"

print "Main catalog"

print "Part-id\tname\t\t\t price"

print "======================================"

printf("%3d\t%-20s\t%6.2f\n", $1, $2, $3)

count++

103
END {

print "======================================"

print "Catalog has " count " parts"

Applications:

Awk control structures

 Conditional
⚫ if-else
 Repetition
⚫ for
 with counter
 with array index
⚫ while
⚫ do-while
⚫ also: break,

continue if Statement

Syntax:

if (conditional expression)

statement-1

else

statement-2

Example:

104
if ( NR < 3 )

print $2

else

print $3

for Loop

Syntax:

for (initialization; limit-test; update)

statement

Example:

for (i = 1; i <= NR; i++)

total += $i

count++

for Loop for arrays

Syntax:

for (var in array)

statement

Example:

105
for (x in deptSales)

print x, deptSales[x]

While Loop

Syntax:

while (logical expression)

statement

Example:

i=1

while (i <= NF)

print i, $i

i++

do-while Loop

Syntax:

do

statement

106
 while (condition)

 statement is executed at least once, even if condition is false at the

beginning
Example:

i=1

do {

print $0

i++

} while (i <= 10)

loop control statements

 break

exits loop

 continue

skips rest of current iteration, continues with next iteration

Shell Programming

The shell has similarities to the DOS command processor Command.com (actually Dos was
design as a poor copy of UNIX shell), it's actually much more powerful, really a programming
language in its own right.

A shell is always available on even the most basic UNIX installation. You have to go through the
shell to get other programs to run. You can write programs using the shell. You use the shell to
administrate your UNIX system. For example:

ls -al | more
is a short shell program to get a long listing of the present directory and route the output through
the more command.

107
What is a Shell?

A shell is a program that acts as the interface between you and the UNIX system, allowing you
to enter commands for the operating system to execute.

Here are some common shells.

Introduction- Working with Bourne Shell

• The Bourne shell, or sh, was the default Unix shell of Unix Version 7. It was
developed by Stephen Bourne, of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
• A Unix shell, also called "the command line", provides the traditional user interfacefor
the Unix operating system and for Unix-like systems. Users direct the operation of the
computer by entering command input as text for a shell to execute.
• There are many different shells in use. They are
– Bourne shell (sh)
– C shell (csh)
– Korn shell
(ksh) Bourne Again shell

108
(bash)

109
 • When we issue a command the shell is the first agency to acquire the information.
It accepts and interprets user requests. The shell examines &rebuilds the commands
&leaves the execution work to kernel. The kernel handles the h/w on behalf ofthese
commands &all processes in the system.
• The shell is generally sleeping. It wakes up when an input is keyed in at the prompt.
This input is actually input to the program that represents the shell.
•
Shell responsibilities
1. Program Execution
2. Variable and Filename Substitution
3. I/O Redirection
4. Pipeline Hookup
5. Environment Control
6. Interpreted Programming Language
1. Program Execution:
• The shell is responsible for the execution of all programs that you request from
your terminal.
• Each time you type in a line to the shell, the shell analyzes the line and then
determines what to do.
• The line that is typed to the shell is known more formally as the command line. The
shell scans this command line and determines the name of the program to be executed
and what arguments to pass to the program.
2. Variable and Filename Substitution:
• Like any other programming language, the shell lets you assign values to variables.
Whenever you specify one of these variables on the command line, preceded by adollar
sign, the shell substitutes the value assigned to the variable at thatpoint.
3. I/O Redirection:
• It is the shell's responsibility to take care of input and output redirection on the
command line. It scans the command line for the occurrence of the special redirection
characters <,
>, or >>.
4. Pipeline Hookup:
• Just as the shell scans the command line looking for redirection characters, it also looks
for the pipe character |. For each such character that it finds, it connects the standard
output from the command preceding the | to the standard input of the one following the
|. It then initiates execution of both programs.

5. Environment Control:

• The shell provides certain commands that let you customize your environment. Your
environment includes home directory, the characters that the shell displays toprompt you

110
 to type in a command, and a list of the directories to be searched whenever you request
that a program be executed.

6. Interpreted Programming Language:

• The shell has its own built-in programming language. This language is interpreted,
meaning that the shell analyzes each statement in the language one line at a time and
then executes it. This differs from programming languages such as C and FORTRAN, in
which the programming statements are typically compiled into a machine-executable
form before they are executed.
• Programs developed in interpreted programming languages are typically easier to debug
and modify than compiled ones. However, they usually take much longer to execute
than their compiled equivalents.

Pipes and Redirection

Pipes connect processes together. The input and output of UNIX programs can be redirected.

Redirecting Output

The > operator is used to redirect output of a program. For example:

ls -l > lsoutput.txt
redirects the output of the list command from the screen to the file lsoutput.txt.

To 0append to a file, use the >> operator.

ps >> lsoutput.txt

Redirecting Input

You redirect input by using the < operator. For example:

more < killout.txt

Pipes

We can connect processes together using the pipe operator ( | ). For example, the following
program means run the ps program, sort its output, and save it in the file pssort.out

ps | sort > pssort.out

The sort command will sort the list of words in a textfile into alphbetical order according to the
ASCII code set character order.

Here Documents

111
A here document is a special way of passing input to a command from a shell script. The
document starts and ends with the same leader after <<. For example:

#!/bin/sh

cat < this is a here

document
!FUNKY!

How It Works

It executes the here document as if it were input commands.

Running a Shell Script

You can type in a sequence of commands and allow the shell to execute them interactively, or
youu can sotre these commands in a file which you can invoke as a program.

Interactive Programs

A quick way of trying out small code fragments is to just type in the shell script on the command
line. Here is a shell program to compile only files that contain the string POSIX.

The Shell as a Programming Language

Creating a Script

To create a shell script first use a text editor to create a file containing the commands. For
example, type the following commands and save them as first.sh

112
Note: commands start with a #.

The line

#!/bin/sh
is special and tells the system to use the /bin/sh program to execute this program.

The command

exit 0
Causes the script program to exit and return a value of 0, which means there were not errors.

Making a Script Executable

There are two ways to execute the script. 1) invoke the shell with the name of the script file as a
parameter, thus:

/bin/sh first.sh
Or 2) change the mode of the script to executable and then after execute it by just typing its
name.
chmod +x first.sh
first.sh
Actually, you may need to type:
./first.sh
to make the file execute unles the path variable has your directory in it.

Shell Syntax

The modern UNIX shell can be used to write quite large, structured programs.

Shell metacharacters

113
The shell consists of large no. of metacharacters. These characters plays vital role in Unix
programming.

Types of metacharacters:

1. File substitution

2. I/O redirection

3. Process execution

4.Quoting metacharacters

5.Positional parameters

6.Special characters

7.Command substitution

Filename substitution:

These metacharacters are used to match the filenames in a

directory. Metacharacter significance

* matches any no. of characters

? matches a single character

[ijk] matches a single character either i,j,k

[!ijk] matches a single character that is not an I,j,k

Shell Variables

Variables are generally created when you first use them. By default, all variables are considered
and stored as strings. Variable names are case sensitive.

114
⚫ U can define & use variables both in the command line and shell scripts. These
variables are called shell variables.
⚫ No type declaration is necessary before u can use a shell variable.
⚫ Variables provide the ability to store and manipulate the information with in the shell
program. The variables are completely under the control of user.
⚫ Variables in Unix are of two types.

1) User-defined variables:

Generalized form:

variable=value.

Eg: $x=10

$echo $x

10

⚫ To remove a variable use unset.

$unset x

⚫ All shell variables are initialized to null strings by default. To explicitly set null
values use

x= or x=‘’ or x=“”

⚫ To assign multiword strings to a variable use

$msg=‘u have a mail’

115
 2) Environment Variables

⚫ They are initialized when the shell script starts and normally capitalized
to distinguish them from user-defined variables in scripts
⚫ To display all variables in the local shell and their values, type the set command
⚫ The unset command removes the variable from the current shell and sub shell

Environment Variables Description

$HOME Home directory

$PATH List of directories to search for commands
$PS1 Command prompt
$PS2 Secondary prompt
$SHELL Current login shell
$0 Name of the shell script

$# No . of parameters passed
$$ Process ID of the shell script

Command substitution and Shell commands:

read:

The read statement is a tool for taking input from the user i.e. making
scripts interactive. It is used with one or more variables. Input supplied
through the standard input is read into these variables.

$read name

What ever u entered is stored in the

variable name. printf:

Printf is used to print formatted

o/p. printf "format" arg1 arg2

... Eg:

$ printf "This is a number: %d\n" 10

116
This is a number: 10

Printf supports conversion specification characters like %d, %s ,%x

,%o…. Exit status of a command:

Every command returns a value after execution .This value is called the exit
status or return value of a command.
This value is said to be true if the command executes successfully and false if it fails.
There is special parameter used by the shell it is the $?. It stores the exit
status of a command.

exit:

The exit statement is used to prematurely terminate a program. When this statement
is encountered in a script, execution is halted and control is returned to the calling
program- in most cases the shell.
⚫ U don’t need to place exit at the end of every shell script because the shell
knows when script execution is complete.

set:
Set is used to produce the list of currently defined variables.

$set

Set is used to assign values to the positional parameters.

$set welcome to Unix

The do-nothing( : )Command

It is a null command.
In some older shell scripts, colon was used at the start of a line to introduce a
comment, but modern scripts uses # now.
expr:
The expr command evaluates its arguments as an expression:
$ expr 8 + 6
⚫ 14
⚫ $ x=`expr 12 / 4 `
$ echo $x
⚫ 3

export:

117
 There is a way to make the value of a variable known to a sub shell, and that's
by exporting it with the export command. The format of this command is

export variables

where variables is the list of variable names that you want exported. For any sub
shells that get executed from that point on, the value of the exported variables will be
passed down to the sub shell.

eval:

eval scans the command line twice before executing it. General form for eval

is eval command-line

Eg:

$ cat last

eval echo \$$#

$ last one two three four

four

${n}

If u supply more than nine arguments to a program, u cannot access the tenth and greater
arguments with $10, $11, and so on.

${n} must be used. So to directly access argument 10, you must write

${10}

Shift command:

The shift command allows u to effectively left shift your positional parameters. If u execute
the command

Shift

whatever was previously stored inside $2 will be assigned to $1, whatever was previously
stored in $3 will be assigned to $2, and so on. The old value of $1 will be irretrievably lost.

The Environment-Environment Variables

It creates the variable salutation, displays its value, and some parameter variables.

118
 • When a shell starts, some variables are initialized from values in the
environment. Here is a sample of some of them.

Parameter Variables
• If your script is invoked with parameters, some additional variables are created.

Quoting

Normally, parameters are separated by white space, such as a space. Single quot marks can be
used to enclose values containing space(s). Type the following into a file called quot.sh

make sure to make it executable by typing the command:

< chmod a+x

quot.sh The results of executing

119
the file is:

How It Works

The variable myvar is created and assigned the string Hi there. The content of the variable is
displyed using the echo $. Double quotes don't effect echoing the value. Single quotes and
backslash do.

The test, or []Command

Here is how to check for the existance of the file fred.c using the test and using the []
command.

You can even place the then on the same line as the if, if youu add a semicolon before the
word then.

Here are the conditon types that can be used with the test command. There are string
comparison.

There are arithmetic comparison.

120
There are file conditions.

Control Structures

The shell has a set of control structures.

if

The if statement is vary similar other programming languages except it ends with a

fi. if condition
then
statements
else
statements
fi

elif

the elif is better known as "else if". It replaces the else part of an if statement with another if
statement. You can try it out by using the following script.

121
#!/bin/sh

echo "Is it morning? Please answer yes or no"

read timeofday

if [ $ti0meofday = "yes" ]
then
echo "Good morning"
elif [ $timeofday = "no" ]; then
echo "Good afternoon"

122
 else

123
 echo "Sorry, $timeofday not recognized. Enter yes or no" exit 1
fi

exit 0

How It Works

The above does a second test on the variable timeofday if it isn't equal to yes.

A Problem with Variables

If a variable is set to null, the statement

if [ $timeofday = "yes" ]
looks like
if [ = "yes" ]
which is illegal. This problem can be fixed by using double quotes around the variable name.
if [ "$timeofday" = "yes" ]
.

for

The for construct is used for looping through a range of values, which can be any set of strings.
The syntax is:

for variable in values

do
statements
done
Try out the following script:
#!/bin/sh

for foo in bar fud 43

do
echo $foo
done
exit 0
When executed, the output should be:
bar
fud0
43

How It Works

The above example creates the variable foo and assigns it a different value each time around the
for loop.
124
How It Works

Here is another script which uses the $(command) syntax to expand a list to chap3.txt, chap4.txt,
and chap5.txt and print the files.

#!/bin/sh

for file in $(ls chap[345].txt); do

lpr $file
done0

while

While loops will loop as long as some condition exist. OF course something in the body
statements of the loop should eventually change the condition and cause the loop to exit. Here is
the while loop syntax.

while condition do
statements
done
Here is a whil loop that loops 20 times.
#!/bin/sh

foo=1

while [ "$foo" -le 20 ]

do

echo "Here we go again"

done foo=$(($foo+1))

exit 0

How It Works

The above script uses the [ ] command to test foo for <= the value 20. The line foo=$

(($fo0o+1))
increments the value of foo each time the loop executes..

until

The until statement loops until a condition becomes true! Its syntax is:

125
 until condition
do
statements
done
Here is a script using until.
#!/bin/sh

until who | grep "$1" > /dev/null

do
Sl0eep 60
done

# now ring the bell and announce the expected user.

echo -e \\a
echo "**** $1 has just loogged in ****"

exit 0

case

The case statement allows the testing of a variable for more then one value. The case statement
ends with the word esac. Its syntax is:

case variable in
pattern [ | pattern] ...) statements;;
pattern [ | pattern] ...) statements;;
...
esac
Here is a sample script using a case statement:
#!/bin/sh

echo "Is it morning? Please answer yes or no"

read timeofday

case "$timeofday" in
"yes") echo "Good Morning";;
"no" ) echo "Good Afternoon";;
0"y" ) echo "Good Morning";;
"n" ) echo "Good Afternoon";;
* ) echo "Soory, answer not recognized";;
esac

exit 0

126
The value in the varaible timeofday is compared to various strings. When a match is made, the
associated echo command is executed.

Here is a case where multiple strings are tested at a time, to do the some action.

case "$timeofday" in
"yes" | "y" | "yes" | "YES" ) echo "good Morning";;
"n"* | "N"* ) <echo "Good Afternoon";;
* ) < echo "Sorry, answer not recognized";;
0esac

How It Works

The above has sever strings tested for each possible statement.

Here is a case statement that executes multiple statements for each case.

case "$timeofday" in
"yes" | "y" | "Yes" | "YES" )
echo "Good Morning"
echo "Up bright and early this morning"
;;
[nN]*)
echo "Good Afternoon"
;;
*)
echo "Sorry, answer not
recognized" echo "Please answer
yes or noo" exit 1
;;
esac

How It Works

When a match is found to the variable value of timeofday, all the statements up to the ;; are
executed.

Arithmetic in shell

The $((...)) is a better alternative to the expr command, which allows simple arithmetic
commands to be processed.

x=$(($x+1))

Parameter Expansion

127
Using { } around a variable to protect it against expansion.

#!/bin/sh

for i in 1 2
do
my_secret_process ${i}_tmp
done
Here are some of the parameter expansion

How It Works

The try it out exercise uses parameter expansion to demonstrate how parameter expansion works.

Shell Script

Examples Example

#!/bin/sh

echo "Is it morning? (Answer yes or no)"

read timeofday

if [ $timeofday = "yes" ]; then

echo "Good Morning"

else

echo "Good afternoon"

fi

128
exit 0

elif - Doing further Checks

#!/bin/sh

echo "Is it morning? Please answer yes or no"

read timeofday

if [ $timeofday = "yes" ]; then

echo "Good Morning"

elif [ $timeofday = "no" ]; then

echo "Good afternoon"

else echo "Wrong answer! Enter yes or

no" exit 1

fi exit 0

Interrupt Processing-trap

The trap command is used for secifying the actions to take on receipt of signals. It syntax is:

trap command signal

Here are some of the signals.

How It Works

The try it out section has you type in a shell script to test the trap command. It creates a file and
keeps saying that it exists until youu cause a control-C interrupt. It does it all again.

129
 Functions

You can define functions inthe shell. The syntax is:

function_name () {
statements
}0
Here is a sample function and its execution.
#!/bin/sh

foo()
{ echo "Function foo is executing"
}

echo "script starting"

foo
echo "script ended"

exit 0

How It Works

When the above script runs, it defines the funcion foo, then script echos script starting, then it
runs the functions foo which echos Function foo is executing, then it echo script ended.

Here is another sample script with a function in it. Save it as my_name

#!/bin/sh

yes_or_no() {
echo "Parameters are $*"
while true
do
echo -n "Enter yes or no"
read x
0case "$x" in
y | yes ) return 0;;
n | no ) return 1;;
* ) echo "Answer yes or no"
esac
done
}

echo "Original parameters are $*"

130
 if yes_or_no "IS your naem $1"
then
echo "Hi $1"
else
echo "Never mind"
fi

0exit 0

How It Works

When my_name is execute with the statement:

my_name Rick and Neil

. gives the output of:
Original parameters are Rick and Neil
Parameters are Is your name Rick
Enter yes or no
no
Never mind

Commands

You can execute normal command and built-in commands from a shell script. Built-in
commands are defined and only run inside of the script.

break

It is used to escape from an enclosing for, while or until loop before the controlling condition has
been met.

The : Command

The colon command is a null command. It can be used for an alias for true..

Continue

The continue command makes the enclosing for, while, or until loop continue at the next
iteration.

The Command

The dot command executes the command in the current shell:

. shell_script
.

131
echo

The echo command simply outputs a string to the standard output device followed by a newline
character.

Eval

The eval command evaluates arguments and give s the results.

exec

The exec command can replace the current shell with a different program. It can also modify the
current file descriptors.

exit n

The exit command causes the script to exit with exit code n. An exit code of 0 means success.
Here are some other codes.

export

The export command makes the variable named as its parameter available in subshells.

expr

The expr command evaluates its arguments as an expression.

0x = `expr $x + 1`
Here are some of its expression evaluations

132
printf

The printf command is only available in more recent shells. It works similar to the echo
command. Its general form is:

printf "format string" parameter1 parameter2 ...

Here are some characters and format specifiers.

return

The return command causes functions to return. It can have a value parameter which it returns.

set

133
The set command sets the parameter variables for the shell.

shift

The shift command moves all the parameters variables down by one, so $2 becomes $1, $3
becomes $2, and so on.

unset

The unset command removes variables or functions from the environment.

Command Execution

The result of $(command) is simply the output string from the command, which is then
available to the script.

Debugging Shell Scripts

When an error occurs in a script, the shell prints out the line number with an error. You can use
the set command to set various shell option. Here are some of them.

134
 UNIT-II:
Files and Directories File Concept
File types
File System Structure
File metadata
Inodes
kernel support for files

System calls for file I/O operations

open,create, read, write, close, lseek,dup2
file status information- stat family
file and record locking- fcntl function
file permission- chmod, fchmod
file ownership- chown, lchown,fchown
links- soft links & hard
links-
Symlink,Link,ulink
2.11Directories creating- mkdir,
removing - rmdir
changing directories -chdir
obtaining current working directory- getcwd
scanning directories- opendir,readdir,closedir,rewind dirfunctions
.

135
 Unit II

Files and Directories

Working with Files

In this chapter we learn how to create, open, read, write, and close files.

UNIX File Structure

In UNIX, everything is a file.

Programs can use disk files, serial ports, printers and other devices in the exactly the same way
as they would use a file.

Directories, too, are special sorts of files.

File types

Most files on a UNIX system are regular files or directories, but there are additional types of
files:

1. Regular files: The most common type of file, which contains data of some form. There
is no distinction to the UNIX kernel whether this data is text or binary.
2. Directory file: A file contains the names of other files and pointers to information on
these files. Any process that has read permission for a directory file can read the contents
of the directory, but only the kernel can write to a directoryfile.
3. Character special file: A type of file used for certain types of devices on asystem.
4. Block special file: A type of file typically used for disk devices. All devices on a
system are either character special files or block special files.
5. FIFO: A type of file used for interprocess communication between processes. It’s
sometimes called a named pipe.
6. Socket: A type of file used for network communication between processes. A socket
can also be used for nonnetwork communication between processes on a single host.
7. Symbolic link: A type of file that points to another file.

The argument to each of different file types is defined as follows_

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 Macro Type of file

S_ISREG() Regular file

S_ISDIR() Directory file

S_ISCHR() Character special file

S_ISBLK() Block special file

S_ISFIFO() Pipe or FIFO

S_ISLNK() Symbolic link

S_ISSOCK() Socket

File System Structure

Files are arranged in directories, which also contain subdirectories.

A user, neil, usually has his files stores in a 'home' directory, perhaps /home/neil.

Files and Devices

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Even hardware devices are represented (mapped) by files in UNIX. For example, as root, you
mount a CD-ROM drive as a file,

$ mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt/cd_rom

$ cd /mnt/cd_rom
/dev/console - this device represents the system console.
/dev/tty - This special file is an alias (logical device) for controlling terminal (keyboard and
screen, or window) of a process.
/dev/null - This is the null device. All output written to this device is discarded.

File Metadata

Inodes

• A structure that is maintained in a separate area of the hard disk.

• File attributes are stored in the inode.
• Every file is associated with a table called the inode.
• The inode is accessed by the inode number.
• Inode contains the following attributes of a
file: file type, file permissions , no. of links

UID of the owner, GID of the group owner, file size

date and time of last modification, last access, change.

File attributes
Attribute value meaning
File type type of the file
Access permission file access permission for owner, group and
others Hard link countno.of hard links of a file.
UID file owner user ID.
GID the file group ID.
File size file size in bytes.
Inode number system inode number of the file.
File system ID file system ID where the file is stored.

Kernel Support For Files:

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UNIX supports the sharing of open files between different processes. Kernel has three data
structures are used and the relationship among them determines the effect one process has on
another with regard to file sharing.

1. Every process has an entry in the process table. Within each process table entry is a table
of open file descriptors, which is taken as a vector, with one entry per descriptor.
Associated with each file descriptor are
a. The file descriptor flags.
b. A pointer to a file table entry.
2. The kernel maintains a file table for all open files. Each file table entry contains
a. The file status flags for the file(read, write, append, sync, nonblocking, etc.),
b. The current file offset,
c. A pointer to the v-node table entry for the file.
3. Each open file (or device) has a v-node structure. The v-node contains information about
the type of file and pointers to functions that operate on the file. For most files the v-
node also contains the i-node for the file. This information is read from disk when the
file is opened, so that all the pertinent information about the file is readily available.
The arrangement of these three tables for a single process that has two different files open
one file is open on standard input (file descriptor 0) and the other is open standard output
(file descriptor 1).

Here, the first process has the file open descriptor 3 and the second process has file open
descriptor 4. Each process that opens the file gets its own file table entry, but only a single v-
node table entry. One reason each process gets its own file table entry is so that each process has
its own current offset for the file.

 After each ‘write’ is complete, the current file offset in the file table entry is incremented
by the number of bytes written. If this causes the current file offset to exceed the current
file size, the current file size, in the i-node table the entry is to the current file offset(Ex:
file is extended).
 If a file is opened with O_APPEND flag, a corresponding flag is set in the file status
flags of the file table entry. Each time a ‘write’ is performed for a file with this
append flag

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 set, the current file offset in the file table entry is first set to the current file size from the
i-node table entry. This forces every ‘write’ to be appended to the current end of file.
 The ‘lseek’ function only modifies the current offset in the file table entry. No I/O
table place.
 If a file is positioned to its current end of file using lseek, all that happens is the
current file offset in the file table entry is set to the current file size from the i-node
table entry.
It is possible
descriptor flagfor
is linked
more than
with aa descriptor
single descriptor
entry to
in point
a single
to process,
the samewhile
file table
file status
only. flags
The file
are
descriptors in any process that point to given file table entry.

System Calls and Device Drivers

System calls are provided by UNIX to access and control files and devices.

A number of device drivers are part of the kernel.

The system calls to access the device drivers include:

Library Functions

To provide a higher level interface to device and disk files, UNIIX provides a number of
standard libraries.

140
Low-level File Access

Each running program, called a process, has associated with it a number of file descriptors.

When a program starts, it usually has three of these descriptors already opened. These are:

The write system call arranges for the first nbytes bytes from buf to be written to the file
associated with the file descriptor fildes.

With this knowledge, let's write our first program, simple_write.c:

141
Here is how to run the program and its output.

$ simple_write
Here is some data
$

read

The read system call reads up to nbytes of data from the file associated with the file
decriptor fildes and places them in the data area buf.

This program, simple_read.c, copies the first 128 bytes of the standard input to the standard
output.

If you run the program, you should see:

142
 $ echo hello there | simple_read
hello there
$ simple_read < draft1.txt
Files

open

To create a new file descriptor we need to use the open system call.

open establishes an access path to a file or device.

The name of the file or device to be opened is passed as a parameter, path, and
the oflags parameter is used to specify actions to be taken on opening the file.

The oflags are specified as a bitwise OR of a mandatory file access mode and other optional
modes. The open call must specify one of the following file access modes:

The call may also include a combination (bitwise OR) of the following optional modes in
the oflags parameter:

145
Initial Permissions

When we create a file using the O_CREAT flag with open, we must use the three parameter
form. mode, the third parameter, is made form a bitwise OR of the flags defined in the header
file sys/stat.h. These are:

For example

Has the effect of creating a file called myfile, with read permission for the owner and execute
permission for others, and only those permissions.

umask

The umask is a system variable that encodes a mask for file permissions to be used when a file is
created.

You can change the variable by executing the umask command to supply a new value.

The value is a three-digit octal value. Each digit is the results of ANDing values from 1, 2, or 4.

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For example, to block 'group' write and execute, and 'other' write, the umask would be:

Values for each digit are ANDed together; so digit 2 will have 2 & 1, giving 3. The
resulting umask is 032.

close

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We use close to terminate the association between a file descriptor, fildes, and its file.

ioctl

ioctl is a bit of a rag-bag of things. It provides an interface for controlling the behavior of
devices, their descriptors and configuring underlying services.

ioctl performs the function indicated by cmd on the object referenced by the descriptor fildes.

Try It Out - A File Copy Program

We now know enough about the open, read and write system calls to write a low-level
program, copy_system.c, to copy one file to another, character by character.

Running the program will give the following:

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We used the UNIX time facility to measure how long the program takes to run. It took 2 and one
half minutes to copy the 1Mb file.

We can improve by copying in larger blocks. Here is the improved copy_block.c program.

Now try the program, first removing the old output file:

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The revised program took under two seconds to do the copy.

Other System Calls for Managing Files

Here are some system calls that operate on these low-level file descriptors.

lseek

The lseek system call sets the read/write pointer of a file descriptor, fildes. You use it to set
where in the file the next read or write will occur.

The offset parameter is used to specify the position and the whence parameter specifies how the
offset is used.

whence can be one of the following:

dup and dup2

The dup system calls provide a way of duplicating a file descriptor, giving two or more, different
descriptors that access the same file.

File Status Information-Stat Family: fstat, stat and lstat

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The fstat system call returns status information about the file associated with an open file
descriptor.

The members of the structure, stat, may vary between UNIX systems, but will include:

The permissions flags are the same as for the open system call above. File-type flags include:

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Other mode flags include:

Masks to interpret the st_mode flags include:

There are some macros defined to help with determining file types. These include:

To test that a file doesn't represent a directory and has execute permisson set for the owner and
no other permissions, we can use the test:

152
 File and record locking-fcntl function

• File locking is applicable only for regular files.

• It allows a process to impose a lock on a file so that other processes can not modify
the file until it is unlocked by the process.
• Write lock: it prevents other processes from setting any overlapping read / write locks
on the locked region of a file.
• Read lock: it prevents other processes from setting any overlapping write locks on
the locked region of a file.

• Write lock is also called a exclusive lock and read lock is also called a shared lock.
• fcntl API can be used to impose read or write locks on either a segment or an entirefile.
• Function prototype:

#include<fcntl.h>

int fcntl (int fdesc, int cmd_flag, ….);

• All file locks set by a process will be unlocked when the process terminates.

File Permission-chmod

You can change the permissions on a file or directory using the chmod system call. Tis forms the
basis of the chmod shell program.

chown

153
A superuser can change the owner of a file using the chown system call.

Links-soft link and hard link

Soft link(symbolic links):Refer to a symbolic path indicating the abstract location of another
file.
 Used to provide alternative means of referencing files.
 Users may create links for files using ln command by specifying –s option.
hard links : Refer to the specific location of physical data.
 A hard link is a UNIX path name for a file.
 Most of the files have only one hard link. However users may create additional hard links
for files using ln command.
Limitations:
 Users cannot create hard links for directories unless they have super userprivileges.
 Users cannot create hard links on a file system that references files on a different systems.

unlink, link, symlink

We can remove a file using unlink.

The unlink system call decrements the link count on a file.

The link system call cretes a new link to an existing file.

The symlink creates a symbolic link to an existing file.

Directories

As well as its contents, a file has a name and 'administrative information', i.e. the file's
creation/modification date and its permissions.
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The permissions are stored in the inode, which also contains the length of the file and where on
the disc it's stored.

A directory is a file that holds the inodes and names of other files.

mkdir, rmdir

We can create and remove directories using the mkdir and rmdir system calls.

The mkdir system call makes a new directory with path as its name.

The rmdir system call removes an empty directory.

chdir

A program can naviagate directories using the chdir system call.

Current Working Directory- getcwd

A program can determine its current working directory by calling the getcwd library function.

The getcwd function writes the name of the current directory into the given buffer, buf.

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 Scanning Directories

The directory functions are declared in a header file, dirent.h. They use a structure, DIR, as a
basis for directory manipulation.

Here are these functions:

opendir

The opendir function opens a directory and establishes a directory stream.

readdir

The readdir function returns a pointer to a structure detailing the next directory entry in the
directory stream dirp.

The dirent structure containing directory entry details included the following entries:

156
telldir

The telldir function returns a value that records the current position in a directory stream.

seekdir

The seekdir function sets the directory entry pointer in the directory stream given by dirp.

12.13.3 closedir

The closedir function closes a directory stream and frees up the resources associated with it.

Try It Out - A Directory Scanning Program

1. The printdir, prints out the current directory. It willrecurse for subdirectories.

157
2. Now we move onto the main function:

158
The program produces output like this (edited for brevity):

How It Works

After some initial error checking, using opendir, to see that the directory exists, printdir makes
a call to chdir to the directory specified. While the entries returned by readdir aren't null, the
program checks to see whether the entry is a directory. If it isn't, it prints the file entry with
indentation depth.

159
Here is one way to make the program more general.

You can run it using the command:

$ printdir /usr/local | more

160
161