Introduction to Linux

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fit@hcmus
 Unix
 Unix was originally developed in 1969 by Ken
Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, … at Bell Labs.
 Mainly used for scientific-technical applications on
mainframes and workstations, but has become,
because of Linux, also popular for classical PC-
applications throughout the last years.
 Is perfectly suited for application in networks. Larger
systems and networks require an administrator.
 Offers various alternatives for the solution of most
tasks. The multitude of commands (more than in any
other OS) are brief and flexible.
 Is originally command-line oriented, but can be used
via a graphical user interface
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 Unix Architecture
 Kernel: The kernel is the heart
of the OS. It interacts with the
hardware and most of the
important tasks.
 Shell: The shell is the utility that
processes your requests. When
you type in a command at your
terminal, the shell interprets the
command and calls the program
that you want.
 Commands and Utilities:
There are various commands
and utilities which you can make
use
 Files and Directories: all the
data of Unix is organized into
files. All files are then organized
into directories. 3
 Linux
 Linus devised a kernel named Linux in 1991.
(Lacking programs like File Manager, Document
Editors, Audio-Video programs)
 He collaborated with other programmers in places
like MIT and applications for Linux started to
appear.
 The earlier versions of Linux OS were not so
user-friendly
 This definitely curbed the Linux’s popularity as
other commercially oriented Operating System
Windows got famous.
 Nonetheless, the open-source aspect of the
Linux operating system made it more robust.
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OPERATING SYSTEMS

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 Linux
 The main advantage of Linux was that programmers
were able to use the Linux Kernel to design their own
custom operating systems.
 With time, a new range of user-friendly OS’s stormed
the computer world.
 Now, Linux is one of the most popular and widely used
Kernel

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 Benefits of Linux
 Being open-source, anyone can modify it.
 It is easy to learn Linux for beginners
 The Linux operating systems now offer millions of
programs/applications and Linux softwares to choose
from, most of them are free!
 Once you have Linux installed you no longer need an
antivirus! Linux is a highly secure system.
 Linux freeware is the OS of choice for Server
environments due to its stability and reliability
(Mega-companies like Amazon, Facebook, and
Google use Linux for their Servers). A Linux based
server could run non-stop without a reboot for years
on end.

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 Why using Linux
 When working for companies in the future, it’s likely that
you have to interact with Linux computer, and probably
have to interact with it through commands (e.g. when
you use remote server)
 Or when you work with Google Colab, the only way to
interact with Linux computer behind Google Colab is to
use commands

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 What is Linux Distro
 A Linux distribution (distro) is a complete operating
system that includes the Linux kernel, system libraries,
utilities, application software, and a package
management system.
 It is created by assembling various software
components from different sources and packaging them
together to provide a cohesive and user-friendly
computing environment.

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 What is Linux Distro
 Linux Kernel: core component of the operating system, providing low-
level functionality, hardware abstraction, and device drivers.
 System Libraries: a set of system libraries, such as the GNU C Library
(glibc), which provide essential functions and interfaces for applications to
interact with the underlying operating system.
 User Interface: Linux distributions offer different user interfaces, including
graphical user interfaces (GUIs) like GNOME, KDE, or Xfce, as well as
command-line interfaces (CLIs).
 Software Packages: Linux distributions come with a collection of software
packages
 Package Management System: Linux distributions utilize a package
management system to install, update, and remove software packages.
 Configuration and Customization: tools and utilities for configuring
various aspects of the system
 Support and Community: Linux distributions are often backed by
communities and support forums.
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 What is Linux Distro
 Popular free Linux distributions:
 Ubuntu from Canonical
 Debian from the Debian Project
 Fedora from the Fedora Project
 OpenSUSE from SUSE
 Rocky and AlmaLinux
 Commercial distributions:
 Oracle Linux
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 SUSE Enterprise Server (SLES).

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 Key points about linux
 Linux is an OS which is open-source, free, and widely used
(especially for server computer)
 Precisely, Linux is not a full-fledged OS, but is the OS’s
core/kernel
 Because Linux source code is published, many groups out
there have used Linux to build OS’s with different flavors (a
Linux-based OS with a specific flavor is call a Linux
distribution or Linux distro): Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint,
Arch, Manjaro, …
 Why are Linux commands and Mac commands similar to
each other? Because both share the same root: the ancient
Unix OS (Linux gets inspired by Unix, but Linux source code
is rewritten from scratch and different from Unix source code;
Mac is related more directly to Unix)

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 Linux vs. Windows
 Linux is an open source operating system so user
can change source code as per requirement whereas
Windows OS is a commercial operating system so user
doesn’t have access to source code.
 Linux is very well secure as it is easy to detect bugs
and fix whereas Windows has a huge user base, so it
becomes a target of hackers to attack windows system.
 Comparing Windows file system vs Linux file system,
Linux runs faster even with older hardware whereas
Windows are slower compared to Linux.

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 Linux vs. Windows
 Linux peripherals like hard drives, CD-ROMs, printers
are considered files whereas Windows, hard drives,
CD-ROMs, printers are considered as devices
 Linux files are ordered in a tree structure starting with
the root directory whereas in Windows, files are stored
in folders on different data drives like C: D: E:
 In Linux you would find the system and program files in
different directories whereas in Windows, system and
program files are usually saved in C: drive.
 Linux filename is case-sensitive. Windows is not

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 Command Line Interface
 Even though the world is moving to GUI based systems,
CLI has its specific uses and is widely used in scripting
and server administration.
 Comparatively, Commands offer more options & are flexible.
Piping and stdin/stdout are immensely powerful are not
available in GUI
 Some configurations in GUI are up to 5 screens deep while in a
CLI it’s just a single command
 Moving, renaming 1000’s of the file in GUI will be time-
consuming while in CLI, using regular expressions so can do
the same task with a single command.
 CLI load fast and do not consume RAM compared to GUI. In
crunch scenarios this matters.

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Command Line Interface

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 How to install Linux (on Windows)

 https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-
on-wsl2-on-windows-11-with-gui-support
 Install WSL
 Download Ubuntu
 Configure Ubuntu

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 How to install Linux (on Windows)

 After install:
 Type: “Ubuntu”
 Choose ubuntu version

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Root

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 File Permission

 Owner permissions
 Group permissions
 Other (world) permissions
 Specific permission:
 read (r)
 write (w)
 execute (x)
 −

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 File Permission

 First character indicates whether it is a normal file ( - ) or directory ( d )

 Next 9 characters are permissions for the file or directory
 The next field is the number of blocks
 The next field is the owner of the file or directory
 The next field is the group the file or directory belongs to
 Following this is the file size.
 Next up is the file modification time.
 Finally we have the actual name of the file or directory.

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 Bash Scripting
 A Bash script: define a series of actions which the
computer will then perform without us having to enter
the commands ourselves.
 If a particular task is done often, or it is repetetive, then a script
can be a useful tool.
 A Bash script is interpreted
 Anything you can run on the command line you may
place into a script and they will behave exactly the
same.
 Anything you can put into a script, you may run on the
command line and again it will perform exactly the same.

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 Bash Scripting: Example
 Create a script file (DemoScript.sh)
#!/bin/bash
# Simple demo script
echo Here is the files in your directory:
ls -l

 Beware if create file on windows

 First line:
 The very first line of a script should always be this line.
 This line identifies which interpreter should be used.
 The first two characters “#!” are referred to as a shebang. After that (important,
no spaces) is the path to the interpreter.
 Linux is an extensionless system. “.sh” extension is is purely for
convenience and is not required

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 Bash Scripting: Example
 Run the script

 chmod 755 myscript.sh: set execute right.

 ./myscript.sh: run the script
 ./myscript.sh we are actually tellling the system to look in our current directory
to find the script

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 Bash Scripting: Variables
 Create a script file (variableexample.sh)
#!/bin/bash
# A simple demonstration of variables

name='Ryan'
echo Hello $name

 When we set a variable, we specify it's name, followed directly by

an equals sign ( = ) followed directly by the value.
 No spaces on either side of the = sign.
 When we refer to a variable, we must place a dollar sign ( $ )
before the variable name.

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 Bash Scripting:
Command line arguments
 Create a script file (commandlineagvDemo.sh)
#!/bin/bash
# A simple demonstration of variables

echo My name is $0 and I have been given $# command line arguments

echo Here they are: $*
echo And the 2nd command line argument is $2

 $0 - The name of the script.

 $1 - $9 - Any command line arguments given to the script. $1 is the
first argument, $2 the second and so on.
 $# - How many command line arguments were given to the script.
 $* - All of the command line arguments.

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 A Sample Backup Script
 Create a script file (projectbackup)
#!/bin/bash
# Backs up a single project directory

date=`date +%F`
mkdir backups/$1_$date
cp -R $1 backups/$1_$date
echo Backup of $1 completed

 For more info about bash scripting (if statement, loop, function…)
can check this Bash Scripting Tutorial

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 Basic command line

 https://cheatography.com/davechild/cheat
-sheets/linux-command-line/

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 Simple Tutorial

 https://missing.csail.mit.edu/2020/course-
shell/
 https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/command-
line-for-beginners
 https://missing.csail.mit.edu/
 https://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutorial/

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 Reference

 [1] The operating system Linux and

programming languages: An introduction,
Joachim Puls and Michael Wegner
 [2] https://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix/
 [3] https://www.guru99.com/introduction-
linux.html

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