LAB ACTIVITY 3 : COMMAND LINE IN LINUX

CODE & COURSE : DFN 4023 OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM

PROGRAMME : DNS
SUB-TOPIC : 3.2, 3.3
CLO : CLO2 : Use the various graphical and command line
utilities to perform daily tasks and administration to ensure
the system works properly. (P3, C3, PLO2, PLO1)
DURATION : 2 HOURS

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this lab, students should be able to:

1. Use basic command line in Linux

Theory :

A command is an instruction given by a user telling a computer to do something. the shell is

a program that takes your commands from the keyboard and gives them to the operating
system to perform

Activity 4(A) : Student will be able to use Linux command line.

1. Run terminal from your system.

Click Application -> Accessories ->Terminal

2. List information about

files. ls

Syntax:
ls [Options]... [File]...

Examples:

# List the contents of your home

directory $ ls
 # list everything in current directory:
$ ls ~

# list everything in a vertical list:

$ ls–al

total 128
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 2015-05-20 00:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2014-08-12 04:39 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 220 2014-08-12 04:39 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3103 2014-08-12 04:39 .bashrc
drwx------ 4 root root 4096 2015-05-20 00:56 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2014-08-11 21:51 .config
drwx------ 3 root root 4096 2014-08-11 21:50 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2014-08-11 21:50 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41 2015-05-20 00:55 .dmrc

the first column is the file type

d = directory and - = file
 # List the directories in the current
directory: $ ls -d */

# list ALL subdirectories

$ ls *

3. Change Directory - change the current working directory to a specific Folder.

cd

Syntax:
cd [Options] [Directory]

Examples:

#Move to the / directory

$ cd /

#Change to another folder

$ cd /var/log

#me back one folder $

cd ..
#Quickly get back
$ cd –

#Back to your home folder

$ cd
4. Print Working Directory (shell builtin)
pwd

Syntax:
pwd [-LP]

Examples:

# List the current directory

$ cd /var/log

$ pwd
/var/log

5. Print who is currently logged in

who

Syntax:
who [Options] [file] [am i]

Examples:

# Print the current user

$whoami
user1

6. Format and display help pages.

man/ info/ help

Syntax:
man [-acdfFhkKtwW] [--path] [-m system] [-p string] [-C config_file]
[-M pathlist] [-P pager] [-B browser] [-H htmlpager] [-S section_list]
[section] name ...
Examples:

# Display the ls manual page

$ man ls
7. Create new or empty files.
touch

Syntax:
touch [Options]... file...

Examples:
#Create a new file
$ touch file1.txt
$ls
Desktop Downloads file1.txt Pictures Templates
Documents examples.desktop Music Public Videos

#Create a file2.txt and file3.txt simultaneously

$ touch file2.txt file3.txt

$ls
Desktop Downloads file1.txt file3.txt Public Videos
Documents examples.desktop file2.txt Pictures Templates Music

8. Editing File
cat

Syntax:
cat >> [File]...

Examples:

#Edit file1.txt
$ cat >> file1.txt
Learning command line in linux is fun !!!
Ctrl – D (to exit from text mode)

#Edit file1.txt
$ cat >> file1.txt
PUO is the best
Ctrl – D (to exit from text mode)

#Edit a file2.txt $
cat >> file2.txt
My name is ………………………………………..
I’m proud to be PUO student
Ctrl – D (to exit from text mode)
9. Concatenate and print (display) the content of files.
cat

Syntax:
cat [Options] [File]...

Examples:

#Display a file:

$ cat file1.txt
Learning command line in linux is fun !!!
PUO is the best

#Concatenate two files:

$ cat file1.txt file2.txt > union.txt

$ cat union.txt
Learning command line in linux is fun !!!
PUO is the best
My name is ………………………………………..
I’m proud to be PUO student

10. Create new directory(s), if they do not already exist.

mkdir

Syntax:
mkdir [Options] folder...

Examples:

#In your own home directory make subdirectory

dir1 $mkdir dir1

#In your own home directory make subdirectories dir2 and dir3 simultaneously

$mkdir dir2 dir3

11. Copy files and directories.

cp

Syntax:
cp [Options]... Source Dest
cp [Options]... Source... Directory

Examples:
 #Copy file1.txt to dir1
$ cp file1.txt dir1

#Copy dir1 to dir2

$ cp dir1 dir2

12. Move or rename files or directories.

mv

Syntax:
mv [Options]... SourceDest
mv [Options]... Source... Directory

Examples:

#Rename file1.txt as orange.txt

mv file1.txt orange.txt

#Move orange.txt to dir3 :

mv orange.txt dir3

13. Remove files (delete/unlink)

rm

Syntax:
rm [Options]... file...

Example:

#Remove file orange.txt

$ rm orange.txt

Remove directory, this command will only work if the directories are empty.
rmdir

Syntax:
rmdir [Options]... folder(s)...

Example:

#Remove directory dir3

$ rmdir dir3

#Remove directory dir2

$ rmdir dir2
rmdir: dir2: Directory not empty

#Remove directory dir2 and it subdirectory

$rmdir –r dir2
14. Output the first part of files, prints the first part (10 lines by default) of each file.
head

Syntax:
head [Options]... [file]...

15. Output the last part of files, print the last part (10 lines by default) of each
FILE; tail reads from standard input if no files are given or when given a FILE
of - tail

Syntax:
tail [Options]... [file]...

Examples:

head or tail to do the following:

# Display the first 10 lines of the file /etc/login.defs

$head -10 /etc/login.defs

#Display the last 4 lines of the file /etc/passwd

$tail -4 /etc/passwd

#Display the last 4 lines from a file /etc/group then tail to get the last 10:
$head -4 /etc/group | tail -10

16. Display output one screen at a time, Search through output.

less

Syntax:
less [Options]... [file]...

#Open multiple files by passing the file names as arguments.

$ less file1 file2

#While viewing file1, use :e to open the file2 as shown below.

$ less file1
:e file2

#Start printing from 3rd line of the file

$less +3 index.php

Note: The Linux commands less are similar to cat, but with less you can scroll the file
instead of showing the enter file at once. So if you have larger files you want to view that
are longer than your screen or terminal then you can use less commands instead of cat.