This course gives an introduction to Linux, a versatile and stable operating system used in business and on many of the servers on the internet. The course is suitable as preparation for the CompTIA Linux+ examinations.

We concentrate on the command line rather than the graphical user interface with the most commonly used commands and utilities described in detail as are the use of piping, redirection, wildcards and the vim editor.

The system is fairly easy to learn and use and we expect this course to be a fun and interesting way to master it.

Although based on Ubuntu or Redhat (CentOS) Linux, the commands and principles learnt may be applied to all other versions of Linux, including SUSE, Mint and Arch and to all versions of Unix including Solaris and AIX.

This course is suitable for those who have some knowledge of Linux as well as those who are using the operating system for the first time.

Overview of the Course

Aims and Objectives, Schedule, Introductions, Pre-requisites, Responsibilities

Accessing the System

Objectives, What are Linux and Unix?, Logging On, Fedora, Red Hat and CentOS., CentOS, Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, Connecting to the Training Server, Command Syntax, Command Alone, Command With Options, Command With Filename, System Information, id - Who Am I?, who - Who is Logged On?, date - What is the Date/Time?, cal - Days and Months, Arrow Keys, echo - Display a Message, Escape Character \, figlet - Display a Message, man - Getting Help, Important Keys, Control Keys, passwd - Changing the Password, exit - Leaving the System, Advantages & Disadvantages, Basic Structure, ps - Which Shell Am I Using, Bourne Shell, C Shell, Korn Shell, Bash Shell, Which Shell to Use?, Self Study, WSL – Linux on Windows, wsl --install, unzip L*zip, ls fpt, History of Unix, History of Linux, Interesting Facts about Linux, Terms Explained

Commands and Concepts

Objectives, Processes and Files, root Directory, Listing Directories, Listing Options, Directory Entry, Directory Structure, cat, less - Displaying Files, wc - Counting lines in Files, nl - Numbering Files, file - Displaying File Types, Piping - using | symbol, Redirection - using > symbol, Redirection - using >> symbol, cat - Concatenating Output, tail - End of File Display, head - Start of File Display, tee - Combining Redirection and Piping, Two Commands at Once - ;, su - Switching Users, sudo - Commands as Root, Piping and Redirection, Self Study, Process Execution, Part of File Display, Script - Saving the Session, Protecting Files - noclobber, Directory Structure, File Types

Directory Commands

Objectives, Home Directory - HOME, Working Directory - pwd, cd - Changing Directories, Command Prompt - PS1, Secondary Prompt - >, Files or Directories?, Aliases, Using Aliases, Customising the Shell, Source and . Commands, Command History, Command Completion, mkdir - Make Directory, rmdir - Remove Empty Directory, Special Files - . and .., type - Type of command, Using Path Names

File Commands

Objectives, cp - Copying Files, Interactive Copy - cp -i, mv - Moving Files, Interactive Move - mv -i, Moving Directories, Copying Directories, touch - Creating Files, rm – Removing Files, Interactive Remove - rm -i, Removing Unusual Files, Read Only Files - rm -f, Removing Directories - rm -r, Wildcards - File Name Generation, Wildcards - using *, Wildcards - using ?, Wildcards - using , Wildcards with cp, Wildcards with rm, Wildcards with ls, Word count - wc, Combining Commands, Self Study, Disc Usage – df, du, Wildcards – Other Options, Workshop - optional, Workshop Answers

The Vim Editor

Objectives, What is vi?, What is vim?, Using vim, Normal Mode, Searching for Text, Setting Options, Input/Replace Mode, Deleting Text, Other Commands, Visual Mode, Command-line Mode, Help Screen, Split Screen Editing, Saving/Exiting, 6. Save the file and exit., Comparing Files - cmp, diff, sdiff, comm, vimdiff, Mapping Keys, Saving Settings, Regular Expressions, Global Search Commands, Line Addresses, Global Substitution, Global Printing and Deleting, Multiple File Editing, Why use vim?, Screen Editor Alternatives to vim, Get By In micro, Get By In nano, Command Line Alternatives to vim, Self Study, Summary of vim Features, Highlighting, Visual Mode

Finding Files and Job Control

Objectives, find - Finding Files, Listing Details, More on Redirection, Redirecting Errors, Finding Multiple Files, Find and Execute Command, xargs - Passing Filenames, Foreground Jobs, Background Jobs - &, jobs - Job Control, kill - Stopping Jobs, kill $(ps|awk 'NR>1{print $1}'), killall - Stopping Jobs, Tmux Command, Start a Session, tmux, top, tmux attach, Scheduling Jobs, Crontab Command, mail - Reading Mail, Understanding Inodes, ln - Linking Files, ln - Linking Directories, write - Sending a Message, mesg - Setting Permissions, Redirecting Input - using < symbol, Piping into Commands, Self Study, find - Examples, locate - Finding Files, Brace Expansion - { }, at - Scheduling a Job, Redirecting Input - using << symbol, Useful Crontab Examples

Finding Text and Sorting

Objectives, grep - Finding Text in Files, grep - Using Regular Expressions, egrep - Expression grep, Using Filters, sort - Sorting Files, sort - Redirection, Sort - Using Fields, Sort - Field Separator, uniq - Removing Duplicates, cut - Cropping Text, cut - Using Delimiters, Self Study, tr - Translate File, Sort - Using Characters, Print System, pr - Format Files, lpstat, lp, cancel - Printing Files, lpq, lpr, lprm - Printing Files, expand and unexpand, join and paste, split, fmt - reformat, od, nohup Command, nice Command, More Regular Expressions, Regular Expression Examples

Backup, Restore and Transfer

Objectives, tar - Backing Up Files, tar - Viewing the Archive, tar - Restoring a File, tar - Restoring a File using Wildcards, tar – Incremental Backups, File Transfer, /etc/hosts File, ping - Contacting a Server, File Transfer Between Servers, Self Study, tar - No Wildcards Option, gzip - Compress an Archive, gunzip - Uncompress an Archive, cpio - Backing Up Files, cpio - Viewing the Archive, cpio - Restoring a File

File Permissions

Objectives, Permissions - File and Directory, Permissions - Evaluating, chmod - Changing Permissions, chmod – Octal Numbers, Sticky Bit, SUID Bit, umask - Default File Permissions, umask - Changing Default Permissions

Course Review

A short review of the whole course.