Linux Essentials for

Cybersecurity

by William “Bo” Rothwell

and Denise Kinsey

Chapter 2: Working on the Command Line

Objectives

 Manage files and directories

 Use shell features such as shell variables
 Be able to re-execute previous commands
using the shell feature called history
 Identify regular expressions and know how to
use them with commands like find, grep, and
sed
 Manage file-compression utilities

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File Management

 Every storage location is accessible under

the top-level directory (root)
 The root directory is symbolized by /

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Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

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Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (cont.)

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Command Execution

 Type the command and press Enter

 An option is a predefined value that changes
the behavior of the command
 Options are a single character value that follows a
hyphen, such as –a or –z
 Some can be combined, as in –az
 Some newer commands accept word options,
such as --long; word options start with two
hyphens

© 2019 by Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 2 Working on the Command Line 6

Command Execution

 An argument is a parameter that appears

after the command
 Example: To use the cd command to change to
the bin directory: cd /bin
 To execute multiple commands on a single
line, separate them with semi-colons and
press Enter only after the last one
 Example: pwd ; date ; ls

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Common Commands

 pwd
 Displays the current directory
 cd
 Changes to another directory
 Accepts a single argument, the desired directory
 Example: cd /etc
 file
 Reports the type of content in a file

© 2019 by Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 2 Working on the Command Line 8

The ls Command
 ls (lowercase L, not a capital I)
 Lists the files in a directory
 Default is the current directory; accepts an
argument of a different directory’s name

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ls Command Output

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File Globbing

 File glob (wildcard): Any character provided

on the command line that represents a
portion of the filename

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More Common Commands

 less
 Displays large chunks of text data, pausing after
displaying the first page of information
 Keys on keyboard enable user to scroll through
the document
 Spacebar: one page forward
 b: one page back
 Enter or down arrow: down one line
 Up arrow: up one line
 q: return to the shell

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More Common Commands
(cont.)
 head
 Displays the top part of text data
 By default the top ten lines are displayed
 tail
 Displays the bottom part of text data
 By default the bottom ten lines are displayed
 mkdir
 Creates (makes) a directory
 Argument of the new directory’s name

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More Common Commands
(cont.)
 cp
 Copies files or directories
 Syntax: cp [options] file|directory destination
 where file|directory is what to copy and destination is
where it should be copied
 mv
 Moves or renames a file
 rm
 Removes (deletes) files and directories

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More Common Commands
(cont.)
 rmdir
 Removes (deletes) empty directories
 Command will fail if not empty unless the –r option
is used
 touch
 Creates an empty file if it doesn’t exist already
 Updates the modification and access timestamps
if an existing file is specified

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Shell Variables

 HOME
 ID
 LOGNAME
 OLDPWD
 PATH
 PS1
 PWD

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echo Command

 Used to display information, such as the

value of a variable
 Can also print literal text strings
 Special character sequences:
 \a Ring terminal bell
 \n New line
 \t Tab
 \\ Single backslash

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set Command

 Displays all shell variables and values when

no arguments are used
 Can also modify the behavior of the shell

 Unset command removes a variable

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PS1 Variable

 Defines the primary prompt

 Uses special character sequences
 \u = current user’s name
 \W = current directory

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PATH Variable

 Contains a comma-separated list of directory

locations
 Example:
/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/
home/student/.local/bin:/home/student/bin
 The path is searched in that order when a
command is called
 To execute a command that is not in the path,
you must use a fully qualified path name

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Environment Variables

 To pass variables and their values to other

commands, convert an existing local variable
to an environment variable with export
 Example: export NAME
 If the variable doesn’t already exist, export
creates it directly as an environment variable
 The command export –p displays all
environment variables

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The env Command

 Displays environment variables in the current

shell
 Local variables are not displayed
 Can also temporarily set a variable for the
execution of a command
 To unset a variable when executing a
command, use --unset=VAR where VAR is
the variable

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Initialization Files

 Logging in starts a login shell

 When a user starts a new shell after login, it
is a non-login shell
 Which initialization files are executed
depends on whether the shell is a login shell
or a non-login shell

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Alias

 A shell feature that allows multiple

commands to be executed by issuing a single
command
 Use alias command with no arguments to
display all aliases
 Use the unalias command to unset an alias

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Command History

 Use history command to view command

history
 Limit the number of commands displayed
with an argument
 Example: history 5

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Methods for Redirection
 Standard input: stdin or STDIN
 Standard output: stdout or STDOUT
 Standard error: stderr or STDERR

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Piping and Subcommands

 Piping
 Routes the output of a command to another
command
 Uses the “pipe” symbol: |
 Example: ls –l /etc | grep “Apr 16”
 Subcommands
 To use one command’s output as an argument in
another command, place the command within the
$( ) characters
 Example: echo “Today is $(date)”
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Regular Expressions (REs)

 A character or set of characters designed to

match other characters
 Examples:
 A dot (.) matches a single character of any type
 [a-z] matches any single lowercase character
 Basic and extended REs

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Basic REs

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Extended REs

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Other Commands

 grep
 Searches files for lines that contain a specific
pattern
 Example: grep “the” /etc/rsyslog.conf
 sed
 Edits file data in a non-interactive method

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Compression Commands

 tar
 Merges multiple files into a single file
 gzip
 Creates a compressed version of the file
 Use gunzip to decompress gzipped files
 bzip2
 Replaces the original file with the compressed file
 xz
 Compresses files

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Summary

 This chapter focused on essential commands

that all Linux users should know
 These commands enable you to navigate the
Linux operating system, manipulate files and
directories, and perform advanced end-user
operations
 Master these commands before moving on to
more advanced security-related topics

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