Linux Basic Commands

CLOUD COMPUTING TEAM

CDAC
CHENNAI
 Table of Contents

● File system Commands

● Shell Metacharacters
● Basic Linux Commands
● File Handling Commands
● Simple Filters
● Pattern Searching
● Task Automation

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 Linux Basic commands
File system commands
● mkdir – make directory
#mkdir <dirname> # mkdir -­p path/test/test1
­-p ­> make parent directories as needed

● cd -­change directory

Type cd followed by the name of a directory to access #cd /opt

that directory.

● mv - change the name of a directory

Type mv followed by the current name of a directory and #mv testdir newdirname
the new name of the directory.

● cp ­- copy files and directories

cp source destination #cp test1 test2

cp -­r srcdir destdir #cp -i myfile yourfile
-r option - Copy all files from the directory "srcdir" to
the directory "destdir" recursively.

cp ­-i myfile yourfile #cp -r srcdir destdir

With the "­i" option, if the file "yourfile" exists, you will
be prompted before it is overwritten.

● rmdir - Remove an existing directory

To remove a file #rm filename

To remove directories and files within the directories #rm -r name
recursively

● mount ­- Displays all mounted devices, their mount point, filesystem, and access.

To display all mounted devices, their mount point, #mount

filesystem, and access.

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Shell Metacharacters
­These are special characters that are recognized by the shell

* - ­ matches 0 or more characters #ls *.c

? ­- matches any single character #ls ab?.c

[] - This will match any single character in the range #ls tut[0­9].m
This will find files such as tut0.m, tut9.m etc.,

>­ - Redirect standard output to a file #echo “hello world” >

hello.txt

>> ­- Appends standard output to a file. #echo “Hello Again” >>

hello.txt

<­ - Takes standard input from a file #cat < filename

| - This is a pipe character. Sends the output of first command as input #who | grep sam
for the second command

Basic Linux Commands

uname ­- print system information #uname ­-a
diff - ­find differences between two files #diff -­u testfile1 testfile2
eg)diff [options] from­file to­file

sort –reorders lines of text file. #sort testfile

sort -u - To remove duplicates use ­u option with sort #sort -­ u testfile

command

man - displays the documentation for a command #man mkdir

usage: man <command name>

pwd - ­print working directory will show you the full path #pwd
to the directory you are currently in.

link - Creates a symbolic link named symlink that points #ln - ­s test symlink
to the file test

free - ­Displays the amount of used and free system #free -m

memory. #free -g

df – report file system disk space usage #df -­h

­h ­> print sizes in human readable format

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du ­- summarize disk usage of each file, recursively for #du -­h
directories.

find ­- Find locations of files/directories quickly across #find / -­name appname ­-type d ­-xdev
entire filesystem
-type d --­search for the directory named appname
­-xdev -- Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
­-search -- against all directories below / for the appname
found in directories but only on the existing filesystem.

find - Command to find and remove files #find . -­name "FILE­TO­FIND" -­exec rm
-­rf {} \;

lspci ­- a utility for displaying information about PCI #lspci -v

buses in the system and devices connected to them.
­-v – displays detailed information.

lsusb – a utility for displaying information about USB #lsusb -v

buses in the system and the devices connected to them.
­v – displays detailed information.

lshw - ­list the hardware #lshw

cat /proc/cpuinfo – gives information about cpu #cat /proc/cpuinfo

cat /proc/meminfo ­- gives information about memory #cat /proc/meminfo

hwinfo – probs for the hardware #hwinfo

ps (i.e., process status) command is used to provide #ps -­aux

information about the currently running processes,
including their process identification numbers (PIDs).
ps – lists all the processes

kill – to kill a process #kill -­9 pid

ps is most often used to obtain the PID of a malfunctioning
process in order to terminate it with the kill command
where pid – process id of the process to be killed

File Handling Commands

cat ­-- used to display the contents of a small file on terminal #cat <file name>

more - commands are used to view large files one page at a #more <file name>
time

less - commands are used to view large files one page at a time #less <file name>

wc - command is used to count lines, words and characters, #wc [options] [file name]
depending on the option used.

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You can just print number of lines, number of words or number
of characters by using following options:
-­l : Number of lines
­-w : Number of words
­-c : Number of characters

Filters
Filters are commands which accept data from standard input, manipulate it and write the
results to standard output.

head ­- displays the lines at the top of the file #head filename
­when used without any option it will display first 10 lines of the #head -n 10 filename
file
­-n ­> print the first N lines instead of the first 10

tail ­- displays the lines at the end of the file. By default it will #tail filename
display last 10 lines of the file

cut - cut the columns/fields #cut ­-c 1,3­-5 /etc/passwd

-­c option to cut the columns from a file #cut -­d’:’ ­-f2 /etc/passwd
-f ­option you can cut the fields delimited by some character
-­d option is used to specify the delimiter and ­-f option used to
specify the field number

paste - command will paste the contents of the file side by side #paste a.txt b.txt

Pattern Searching

grep -­scans its input for a pattern, displays the line containing #grep options pattern filename(s)
that pattern

grep - searching for a text string in one #grep 'boss' /etc/passwd

searches for the pattern boss in the /etc/passwd file

grep - searching for a text string in multiple files #grep ‘root’ *.txt

grep - Case Insensitive file searching #grep ­-i ‘hello’ hello.txt

grep - Reversing the meaning of a grep search. #grep -­v ‘boss’ /etc/passwd
Displays all the lines that do not contain the specified pattern

grep with pipeline #ps -aux | grep firefox

egrep with pipeline - Linux grep command to search for #egrep ‘boss|root’ /etc/passwd
multiple patterns at one time

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 grep - pattern matching and regular expressions (regex #grep '[FG]oo' *
patterns) #grep '[0­-9][0-­9][0-­9]' *
#grep '^fred' /etc/passwd

Task Automation

Cron is the name of a program that enables linux users to execute commands or scripts
(groups of commands) automatically at a specified time/date.
You can set up commands or scripts, which will repeatedly run at a set time.
● The cron service (daemon) runs in the background and constantly checks the
/etc/crontab file, /etc/cron.*/ directories.
● It also checks the /var/spool/cron/ directory.

crontab - To edit the crontab file, type the following #crontab ­-e
command at the Linux shell prompt:
Syntax of crontab (Field Description) m h dom mon dow
where /path/to/command arg1 arg2
m: Minute (0 - ­59)
h: Hours (0­- 23)
dom: Date (0 - ­31)
mon: Month (0 - ­12 [12 == December])
dow: week days(0- ­7 [0 or 7 sunday])
/path/to/command ­- Script or command name to schedule

Every day at 3am, 0 3 * * * /root/backup.sh

If you wished to have a script named /root/backup.sh run
everyday at 3 am, your crontab entry would look like as follows:

Execute every minute * * * * * /bin/script.sh

This script is being executed every minute.

Execute every Friday 1AM 0 1 * * 5 /bin/execute/this/script.sh

To schedule the script to run at 1AM every Friday, we would
need the following cronjob:
The script is now being executed when the system clock hits:
1. minute: 0
2. of hour: 1
3. of day of month: * (every day of month)
4. of month: * (every month)
5. and weekday: 5 (=Friday)

Execute on workdays 1AM 0 1 * * 1-­5 /bin/script.sh

To schedule the script to run from Monday to Friday at 1 AM,
we would need
the following cronjob:
The script is now being executed when the system clock hits:
1. minute: 0
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2. of hour: 1
3. of day of month: * (every day of month)
4. of month: * (every month)
5. and weekday: 1­-5 (=Monday till Friday)

Execute 10 past after every hour on the 1st of every 10 * 1 * * /bin/script.sh

month

Run script every 10 minutes 0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /bin/script.sh

(or)
*/10 * * * * /bin/script.sh

Special Words @daily /bin/script.sh

If you use the first (minute) field, you can also put in a keyword
instead of a number
@reboot Run once, at startup
@yearly Run once a year "0 0 1 1 *"
@annually (same as @yearly)
@monthly Run once a month "0 0 1 * *"
@weekly Run once a week "0 0 * * 0"
@daily Run once a day "0 0 * * *"
@midnight (same as @daily)
@hourly Run once an hour "0 * * * *

Storing the crontab output */10 * * * * /bin/script.sh 2>&1 >>

To store the output in a separate log file. /var/log/script_output.log