Your UNIX/Linux

The Ultimate Guide

Third Edition

Sumitabha Das

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 Why an Operating System (OS)
• OS interacts with hardware and manages
programs.
• Programs not expected to know which
hardware they will run on.
• Must be possible to change hardware without
changing the programs.
• Programs can’t manage themselves.
• OS provides a safe environment for programs
to run.
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How a Program Runs on a Computer
• OS loads program from disk and allocates
memory and CPU.
• Instructions in program are run on CPU, and OS
keeps track of last instruction executed.
• If program needs to access the hardware, OS
does the job on its behalf.
• OS saves the state of the program if program has
to leave CPU temporarily.
• OS cleans up memory and registers after process
has completed execution.

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 Running Multiple Programs
• Multiprogramming
– Multiple programs can be in memory.
• Multiuser
– Multiple users can run programs.
e.g. vi (or emacs) is actually using the CPU for a very
small fraction of time
• Multitasking
– One user can run multiple programs.
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 Key Concepts
• Everything in the system is represented as a file.
• Work gets done by processes.
• Files/Users have places and processes have life
• Workload is shared by two separate programs
(kernel and shell).
• Kernel uses system calls to do most of the work.
• All UNIX systems use the same system calls.

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 UNIX Architecture: The Kernel
• Program always resides in memory.
• Has direct access to the hardware.
• Handles file I/O.
• Manages processes.
• Only one copy shared by all users.

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 UNIX Architecture: The Shell
• A program or command invoked only when the
user logs in.
• Accepts user input, examines and rebuilds the
command line (interpreter before execution).
Cat foo*
• Makes calls to the kernel for all other functions.
• At least one shell is invoked by every user.
• User has a choice of shells.
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 UNIX Fragmentation
• System V from AT&T (SVR4)
• BSD UNIX from Berkeley
• Linux with help from GNU

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 Why UNIX Commands Are
Noninteractive
• A command may take input from the output of
another command.
• May be scheduled to run at specific times (e.g. at,
cron).
• User input can also be provided through
command line arguments.
• Command arguments need not be known in
advance.
• Allows designing of applications that determine
their own behavior by reading configuration files.
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 Structure of a Command
e.g. ls -l -u -t chap01
• Command filenames need no specific extensions.
• A command’s behavior is determined by its arguments
and options.
• Command and arguments must be separated by
whitespace.
• Generally possible to combine multiple options into a
single one
(like ls -l -u -t == ls -lut)
• Order of combining is generally not important (like ls -
lut == ls -utl)

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 Types of Commands
• External program on disk which could be
– a binary executable (written in C, C++).
– a script file (like a shell or perl script).
• Internal command of the shell which could be
– a builtin (like cd, pwd, etc.)
– an alias defined by the user that invokes the disk
or internal version in a specific manner.

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 How the Shell Determines the
Command to Run
• If command is invoked with a pathname (like
/bin/echo), the shell runs program at the
specified location.
• If command is invoked without a pathname, the
shell first checks whether it is an alias or builtin:
• If alias or builtin, the shell runs it without looking
in disk.
• If not, the shell looks at the PATH variable for
directories where the command may reside.
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 The PATH
• A shell variable (or environment variable) that specifies
a list of directories to search.
• Shell looks at PATH only when command is not used
with a pathname and is also not a shell builtin.
• Command can still be executed if not in PATH by
– Using a pathname.
– Modifying PATH to include the directory containing the
command.
• PATH can be modified in an absolute or relative
manner:
PATH=/usr/bin:. (Absolute)
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin (Relative)
• Modified setting is lost after user has logged out unless
saved in a startup file.
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 Flexibility of Command Usage
• Run multiple commands by specifying them in the same
line:
date ; echo $PATH
• Split a command into multiple lines:
$ echo “Hello
> Dolly”
• Save command output in a file:
date > foo
• Use output of one command as input of another:
date | cut -d” “ -f2
• Run a command in the background with &:
ls -lRa / > $HOME/ls-lRa.txt &
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 Command Classification: A Different
Approach
• Utilities that are generally used in standalone
mode (vi, stty, bc).
• Commands that do useful work but produce no
output (mkdir, cp, rm).
• Commands that produce output which may need
further processing (date, who, ls).
• Commands specially designed to accept output of
other commands as their input and vice versa
(grep, sort, head).

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 Using man
• Displays documentation of commands, configuration
files, system calls and library functions.
• Organized in a number of sections. Commands are
found in Section 1.
• May need to use section number when entry exists in
multiple sections (e.g. man passwd and man -s 5
passwd).
• man documentation not available for most internal
commands of the shell.
• Use man man first to know how man should be used.

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 Understanding a man Page
• Example: wc Syntax/Synopsis
wc [ -c | -m | -C ] [ -lw ] [ file ... ]
• Most useful information available in SYNOPSIS and
DESCRIPTION.
• When options grouped in [ ] without a |, one or more of
them can be used. (-l, -w and -lw are valid.)
• The | signifies an OR condition. (Only one of -c, -m or -C can
be used.)
• The ... means that multiple occurrences of the preceding
item are possible. (wc can be used with multiple files.)
• EXIT STATUS indicates values returned on error.

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 The UNIX File
• Filename limited to 255 characters. Can’t
contain / or NULL character.
• Filenames are case-sensitive; chap and Chap
are two different filenames.
• Group of filenames held together in a
directory.
• Directory contains name of the file.
• Both files and directories are subject to access
control.
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 File Types
• Ordinary or regular file
– Contains data. This file can be a
• text file (program sources, configuration files).
• binary file (executables, graphic and multimedia files).
• Directory
– Contains the filename and a number (inode number).
• Device file
– Contains no data whatsoever.
• Symbolic link
– Contains the location of another file.
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 The Hierarchical Structure of the File
System
• A single hierarchical structure that contains all
files.
• Top signified by root (/).
• Existence of a parent-child relationship.
• Parent of any file must be a directory.
• Files accessed with pathnames (like
/etc/passwd).

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 Pathnames: Two Types
• Absolute pathname
Specifies location with reference to the file
system top (like cat /etc/passwd).
• Relative pathname
Specifies location with reference to the user’s
current location (like cd ../include).
• Both commands and filename arguments can
be represented in either form.
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 Absolute Pathname
• Begins with a / (like /etc/passwd).
• First / signifies the root directory.
• System configuration files that normally don’t
change location should be addressed in
absolute manner.
• Used with a command that
– doesn’t feature in PATH.
– resides in two or more directories of PATH.

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 Relative Pathname
• Uses . to signify the current directory.
• Uses .. to signify the parent directory.
• Used to refer to files that are either impossible or
inconvenient to access in an absolute manner.
• Has a synonym for a filename argument that
doesn’t have a /. (cat foo is the same as cat
./foo.)
• Same synonym doesn’t automatically exist for
commands. (cat foo MAY NOT be the same as
./cat foo.)

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 The Home Directory
• Directory where user is placed on login.
• Determined by sixth field in /etc/passwd:
romeo:x:500:100:romeo
vincent:/home/romeo:/bin/bash
• Can also be referred to by
– the shell variable $HOME (e.g. cat $HOME/foo).
– tilde expansion in most shells: ~ (e.g. cat ~/foo).
• cd command used without arguments returns user to
home directory.
• User can create and remove files in their home
directory but not in other directories.

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 File Attributes Stored in Inode
• Type Whether ordinary, directory, device, etc.
• Permissions Determines who can read, write or execute a file.
• Links Number of names a file can have. A program can be
designed to behave differently depending on the name by which it
is invoked.
• Owner A file is owned by a user, by default its creator. The owner
can change many file attributes and set the permissions.
• Group Owner The group which owns the file. The owner by
default belongs to this group.
• File Size Number of bytes of data contained.
• File Time Stamps
– Date and time of last modification
– Date and time of last access

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 File Permissions
• A file has three types of permissions (read, write and
execute).
• Available to three categories of users (user, group and
others).
• Only file owner or superuser can change file
permissions.
• Permissions can be assigned or removed in
– relative manner (e.g. chmod +x foo.sh).
– absolute manner (e.g. chmod 744 foo.sh).
• Significance of permissions different for file and
directory.

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 Directory Permissions
• Read permission
– Whether filenames in directory can be listed by a
program (like ls).
• Write permission
– Whether files and directories can be created in the
directory.
• Execute or search permission
– Whether one can pass through directory to search for
filenames.
• Desirable permission setting: 755
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How a Directory Influences File Permissions

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 An Ownership-Permissions Problem
Assumption: romeo and juliet belong to the users group.

Ownership and Permissions of File foo and its Directory

$ who am i
romeo
$ ls -l foo
-r-x-w-r-x 1 juliet users 7017 2004-11-14 13:53 foo
$ ls -ld .
drwxr-xr-x 21 romeo users 8192 2004-11-28 11:40 .

Note: foo is owned by juliet but directory is owned by romeo.

juliet:
– can’t edit foo without changing the permissions.
– can change permissions (as owner) and then edit foo.
– can’t delete foo (directory write-protected for group).
romeo:
– can edit or delete foo.
– can’t change permissions of foo.
– can’t display or copy foo.
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 The User Mask
• Reassigns default file and directory permissions.
• Default permissions before applying mask are
completely insecure:
– 666 for files
– 777 for directories
• Systemwide default changed by umask (a shell
builtin).
• umask statement placed in a startup script
(typically, /etc/profile).
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 File Systems
• System of organizing files into multiple
manageable units.
• Each file system has a separate directory
structure with at top.
• For a file to be visible, its file system must be
attached to the main file system.
• Two files in two file systems may have the same
inode number.
• Not easy to understand whether a directory
structure comprises multiple file systems.

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 The Inode Revisited
• System of organizing file attributes separately
from content.
• Identified by inode number but inode doesn’t
contain this number.
• Inode number displayed by ls -i.
• Both inode and directory entries are looked
up by inode number.
• Possible to consume all inodes even when
there is adequate disk space.
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Making a Program Behave Differently

• Using arguments and options.

• Manipulating a configuration file read by a
program on startup.
• Using different names for the same file.

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 Links or Hard Links
• Mechanism by which a file is allowed to have
multiple names.
• Linked filenames share inode but have
separate directory entries.
• Each link increments link count in inode by 1
and adds an entry to the directory.
• File considered to be deleted and inode freed
only when link count drops to 0.
• Linked filenames equivalent in all respects.
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 Advantages of Hard Links
• Backup
– Prevention from accidental deletion.
• Allows the same file to be executed as two
similar but separate programs.
• Takes care of old programs that accesses a file
whose name or location has changed.

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 Limitations of Hard Links

• Can’t link directories.

• Can’t link across file systems.

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 Symbolic Links or Symlinks
• Separate file type and having its own inode.
• Contains the pathname of another file or
directory.
• Can link across file systems.
• Link and file pointed to are not equivalent.
• Pathname may be stored either in inode or in
a separate file.

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 Understanding Ownership and Group Ownership
Entry for romeo in /etc/passwd:
romeo:x:1003:101::/export/home/romeo:/usr/bin/ksh
Entry for romeo’s group (101) in /etc/group:
users::101:
• A file has a UID (name and number).
• Both UID parameters maintained in /etc/passwd (1st and
3rd field).
• A file has a GID (name and number).
• Both GID parameters maintained in /etc/group (1st and 3rd
field).
• The numeric GID also maintained in /etc/passwd.

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Ownership in SVR4 and BSD

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 The Shell
• Program that constantly runs at terminal after
a user has logged in.
• Interprets command line and makes
arrangements for its execution.
• Generally waits for command to complete
execution.
• Some commands are built into the shell.
• Killed on logging out.
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 The Shell Metacharacters

• Wild-card characters like the *, ?, etc.

• Redirection characters like >, <, etc.
• The pipe character, |.
• Command substitution characters (` `).
• The $ as a variable prefix.

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 Examples of Shell Behavior
cat chap*
– Shell expands * to match all filenames in the current directory
that begin with chap.
date > foo
– Shell sees the > first, opens the file foo and connects the date
output to it.
who | sort
– Shell understands the strings on either side of the | as two
separate programs and connects them.
ls `cat foo`
– Shell first runs cat and supplies the output as arguments to ls.
echo $HOME
– Evaluates $HOME as a variable before running echo.

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 Wild Cards
• Set of metacharacters used in an expression to
match multiple but similar filenames.
• Shell creates list of filenames before allowing
command to run.
• Expansion can be prevented by quoting and
escaping.
• Feature also found in find and shell’s for and case
constructs.
• Filenames must not contain wild-card characters.

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 Wild-card Set
* Any number of characters including none
ls *.lst Lists all files with extension .lst.
? A single character
rm ??* Removes all files comprising at least 2
characters.
[ch] A single character that is either a c or h
cp *.[ch] cprogs Copies all files with .c or .h extension.
[!ch] A single character that is not a c or h
rm *[!a-zA-Z]* Removes files not containing at least one
letter.
ls .??* Lists all filenames beginning with a dot and
comprising at least two more
characters.
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 Escaping (Using a \ before a character)
• Reverses usual meaning of metacharacter
following it. (rm \* removes a file named *.)
• Can also protect itself. (echo \\ prints a \.)
• Protects space and [Enter]. (cd My\ Documents
will work.)
• Inconvenient to use when command line contains
too many metacharacters that need to be
escaped.
• Principle also used by commands in their
expressions. (grep “\.” foo looks for a dot in foo.)

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 Quoting
• Protects most metacharacters from interpretation by
the shell. (echo “*” prints a *.)
• More convenient than escaping when protecting a
group of metacharacters.
• Quoted string understood as a single argument by
shell and C programs. (a.out foo “My Documents” has
2 arguments and not 3.)
• Double quotes and single quotes are not equivalent.
(echo “$SHELL” not the same as echo ‘$SHELL’)
• Quoting doesn’t protect the \; escaping is also
required.
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 Single Quotes or Double Quotes?
• Single quotes protect all characters except \.
(echo ‘\’ won’t work.)
• Double quotes protect all characters except
the \, $ and ` (echo “$” doesn’t print a $.)
• Single quotes protect the “.
• Double quotes protect the ‘.
• Double quotes permit variable evaluation and
command substitution.
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 How the Shell Handles Files
• A file is opened by accessing it by its
pathname.
• Opening returns a file descriptor (an integer).
• Subsequent read/write operations on the file
use the descriptor.
• Kernel allocates lowest available number as
descriptor.
• First three descriptors (0, 1 and 2) are always
allocated.
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 Redirection
• Shell feature for manipulating command input
and output.
• Commands designed to write output to a generic
file.
• Commands designed to take input from a generic
file when used without a filename as argument.
• Shell can assign these files to disk files.
• Commands themselves have no knowledge of the
reassignment.

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 Standard Output
• Uses file descriptor 1.
• By default, assigned to the terminal.
• When command line contains > or >>,
standard output file reassigned to a disk file.
• Can also be used as input to another program.
• Commands continue to write to descriptor 1
and have no knowledge of this manipulation.

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 Standard Input
• Uses file descriptor 0.
• By default, assigned to the terminal.
• When command line contains <, standard
input file reassigned to a disk file.
• Can also be obtained from standard output of
another program.
• Commands continue to read descriptor 0 and
have no knowledge of this manipulation.
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 Standard Error
• Uses file descriptor 2.
• By default, file is assigned to the terminal.
• When command line contains 2>, standard
error file reassigned to a disk file.
• But standard error output can’t be used as
input to another program.
• Commands continue to write error messages
to descriptor 2 and have no knowledge of this
manipulation.
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 Possible Destinations of Standard Output
• Allow it to come to the terminal.
• Redirect it with > and >>.
• Merge it with standard error using 1>&2.
• Force output to /dev/null.
• Force output to /dev/tty.
• Connect it to standard input of another
program.

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Pipes
• Connects standard output on one command
to standard input of another.
• Takes care of flow control; reader and writer
work in unison.
• No temporary file is created.
• Used to solve text manipulation problems.
• Commands have no knowledge that they are
reading from or writing to pipe.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Command Substitution
• Allows command arguments to be obtained from
standard output of another command.
• In command1 `command2`, command2 is run
first and its standard output used as arguments
to command1.
• Command enclosed by ` ` must write to standard
output.
• Convenient mechanism for running commands
whose arguments are known only at runtime.
• Enabled within double quotes but not in single
quotes.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Shell Variables
• Defined as variable=value.
• Variables have no type and need no
declaration before they are used.
• Used by UNIX system to store state
information.
• Evaluation enabled in double quotes but not
in single quotes.
• Variable defined in current shell MAY NOT be
available in programs run from the shell.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 How to Use Shell Variables
• Set a variable x to 5 and display the value:
x=5 ; echo $x
• No whitespace on either side of =:
• x = 5 is illegal; x is interpreted as a command to run.
• Can be set from command substitution:
directory=`pwd`
• No operator needed for concatenation; curly braces and
quotes often useful:
z=$x$y or z=${x}${y}
z=$file’01' or z=${file}01
• Store pathnames that are repeatedly used in a shell script:
addressbook=$HOME/data/addressbook

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 The Process
• An instance of a program in execution.
• Identified by a unique PID (Process-id).
• Created by another process as its child.
• One process can be parent of multiple
children.
• Can be killed or stopped by sending it a signal.

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 The Process Cycle
• Parent forks a child by first replicating its own process
image.
• Child execs (overwrites) this image with that of
another program.
• While child is running, parent may
– wait for child to complete execution (foreground
execution).
– continue with its other tasks (background execution).
• Process terminates and parent picks up exit status of
child.
• Kernel removes entry for dead child from process
table.

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
Process Attributes Not Inherited by
Child
• PID
• PPID

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Process Attributes Inherited by Child
• Real UID and GID
• Effective UID and GID
• Current directory
• File descriptors
• umask value
• Environment variables

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
How a Variable is Transformed to an Environment Variable

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 When the Child Dies Before the Parent
• Child leaves behind exit status in process
table.
• Child turns to zombie state.
• Parent may
– pick up exit status; child is now completely dead.
– may not wait; child continues to remain in zombie
state.
• Zombies can’t be killed; shown as <defunct> in
ps output.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 When the Parent Dies Before the Child

• Child adopted by init.

• PPID of child changes to 1.
• When child dies, init picks up the exit status.

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Signals
• Notification of occurrence of an event.
• Every signal associated with a default action
(disposition).
• Process may
– perform the default action.
– ignore the signal.
– catch the signal and invoke a signal-handling function.
• Two signals (SIGSTOP and SIGKILL) can’t be
ignored or caught.
• The keyboard and kill command generate signals.

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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Running a Job in Background
• Job is run in background with &.
• If nohup is also not used, job could be
terminated on logout.
• Job run with nohup and & continues to run
even after logging out.
• init acquires parentage of job whose parent
dies before the job.
• Background jobs can’t be killed by using
interrupt key.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
 Job Control
• Job accessed by job number, name or a string
embedded in name.
• Apart from background execution, job control allows
– suspending a job ([Ctrl-z]).
– bringing a background job to foreground (fg %1).
– moving a suspended job to foreground or background (bg
%find).
• Job control scheme also includes a built-in kill
command.
• Built-in kill command also works with a job identifier
as argument (kill %find).
• Job control supported by most shells but not Bourne.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
When a Process is Created and When
It Is Not
• External command executed in a separate
process.
• Internal shell command executed without
creating a process.
• Shell script executed in separate sub-shell which
runs commands in script.
• Startup shell script (like .profile) executed
without creating a process for script.
• Alias executed without creating a separate
process for alias.
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manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.