Starting with Linux Shells

Part I
The Linux Command Line

IN THIS PART

• Chapter 1 Starting with Linux Shells
• Chapter 2 Getting to the Shell
• Chapter 3 Basic Bash Shell Commands
• Chapter 4 More Bash Shell Commands
• Chapter 5 Understanding the Shell
• Chapter 6 Using Linux Environment Variables
• Chapter 7 Understanding Linux File Permissions
• Chapter 8 Managing Filesystems
• Chapter 9 Installing Software
• Chapter 10 Working with Editors

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Investigating Linux
• Understanding parts of the Linux kernel
• Exploring the Linux desktop
• Examining Linux distributions

Before you can dive into working with the Linux command line and shells, it's a good idea to first understand what Linux is, where it came from, and how it works. This chapter walks you through what Linux is and explains where the shell and command line fit in the overall Linux picture.

Investigating Linux

If you've never worked with Linux before, you may be confused as to why there are so many different versions of it available. We're sure that you've heard various terms such as distribution, LiveDVD, and GNU when looking at Linux packages and been confused. Wading through the world of Linux for the first time can be a tricky experience. This chapter takes some of the mystery out of the Linux system before you start working on commands and scripts.

For starters, four main parts make up a Linux system:

• The Linux kernel
• The GNU utilities
• A graphical desktop environment
• Application software

Each of these four parts has a specific job in the Linux system. Each one of the parts by itself isn't very useful. Figure 1-1 shows a basic diagram of how the parts fit together to create the overall Linux system.

FIGURE 1-1 The Linux system

This section describes these four main parts in detail and gives you an overview of how they work together to create a complete Linux system.

Looking into the Linux kernel

The core of the Linux system is the kernel. The kernel controls all the hardware and software on the computer system, allocating hardware when necessary and executing software when required.

If you've been following the Linux world at all, no doubt you've heard the name Linus Torvalds. Linus is the person responsible for creating the first Linux kernel software while he was a student at the University of Helsinki. He intended it to be a copy of the Unix system, at the time a popular operating system used at many universities.

After developing the Linux kernel, Linus released it to the Internet community and solicited suggestions for improving it. This simple process started a revolution in the world of computer operating systems. Soon Linus was receiving suggestions from students as well as professional programmers from around the world.

Allowing anyone to change programming code in the kernel would result in complete chaos. To simplify things, Linus acted as a central point for all improvement suggestions. It was ultimately Linus's decision whether or not to incorporate suggested code in the kernel. This same concept is still in place with the Linux kernel code, except that instead of just Linus controlling the kernel code, a team of developers has taken on the task.

The kernel is primarily responsible for four main functions:

• System memory management
• Software program management
• Hardware management
• Filesystem management

The following sections explore each of these functions in more detail.

System memory management

One of the primary functions of the operating system kernel is memory management. Not only does the kernel manage the physical memory available on the server, but it can also create and manage virtual memory, or memory that does not actually exist.

It does this by using space on the hard disk, called the swap space. The kernel swaps the contents of virtual memory locations back and forth from the swap space to the actual physical memory. This allows the system to think there is more memory available than what physically exists (shown in Figure 1-2).

FIGURE 1-2 The Linux system memory map

The memory locations are grouped into blocks called pages. The kernel locates each page of memory in either the physical memory or the swap space. The kernel then maintains a table of the memory pages that indicates which pages are in physical memory and which pages are swapped out to disk.

The kernel keeps track of which memory pages are in use and automatically copies memory pages that have not been accessed for a period of time to the swap space area (called swapping out), even if other memory is available. When a program wants to access a memory page that has been swapped out, the kernel must make room for it in physical memory by swapping out a different memory page, and swap in the required page from the swap space. Obviously, this process takes time and can slow down a running process. The process of swapping out memory pages for running applications continues for as long as the Linux system is running.

Software program management

The Linux operating system calls a running program a process. A process can run in the foreground, displaying output on a display, or it can run in the background, behind the scenes. The kernel controls how the Linux system manages all the processes running on the system.

The kernel creates the first process, called the init process, to start all other processes on the system. When the kernel starts, it loads the init process into virtual memory. As the kernel starts each additional process, it gives the process a unique area in virtual memory to store the data and code that the process uses.

A few different types of init process implementations are available in Linux, but these days the two most popular are:

• SysVinit: The SysVinit (SysV) initialization method, the original method used by Linux, was based on the Unix System V initialization method. Though it is not used by many Linux distributions these days, you still may find it around in older Linux distributions.
• Systemd: The systemd initialization method, created in 2010, has become the most popular initialization and process management system used by Linux distributions.

The SysVinit initialization method used a concept called runlevels to determine what processes to start. The runlevel defines the state of the running Linux system and what processes should run in each state. Table 1-1 shows the different runlevels associated with the SysVinit initialization method.

TABLE 1-1 The SysVinit Runlevels

The /etc/inittab file defines the default runlevel for a system. The processes that start for specific runlevels are defined in subdirectories of the /etc/rc.d directory. You can view the current runlevel at any time using the runlevel command:

The systemd initialization method became popular because it has the ability to start processes based on different events:

• When the system boots
• When a particular hardware device is connected
• When a service is started
• When a network connection is established
• When a timer has expired

The systemd method determines what processes to run by linking events to unit files. Each unit file defines the programs to start when the specified event occurs. The systemctl program allows you to start, stop, and list the unit files currently running on the system.

The systemd method groups unit files together into targets. A target defines a specific running state of the Linux system, similar to the SysVinit runlevel concept. At system startup, the default.target unit defines all the unit files to start. You can view the current default target using the systemctl command:

The graphical.target unit file defines the processes to start when a multi-user graphical environment is running, similar to the old SysVinit runlevel 5.

Hardware management

Still another responsibility for the kernel is hardware management. Any device that the Linux system must communicate with needs driver code inserted inside the kernel code. The driver code allows the kernel to pass data back and forth to the device, acting as an intermediary between applications and the hardware. Two methods are used for inserting device driver code in the Linux kernel:

• Drivers compiled in the kernel
• Driver modules added to the kernel

Previously, the only way to insert device driver code was to recompile the kernel. Each time you added a new device to the system, you had to recompile the kernel code. This process became even more inefficient as Linux kernels supported more hardware. Fortunately, Linux developers devised a better method to insert driver code into the running kernel.

Programmers developed the concept of kernel modules to allow you to insert driver code into a running kernel without having to recompile the kernel. Also, a kernel module could be removed from the kernel when the device was finished being used. This greatly simplified and expanded using hardware with Linux.

The Linux system identifies hardware devices as special files, called device files. There are three classifications of device files:

• Character
• Block
• Network

Character device files are for devices that can handle data only one character at a time. Most types of modems and terminals are created as character files. Block files are for devices that can handle data in large blocks at a time, such as disk drives.

The network file types are used for devices that use packets to send and receive data. This includes network cards and a special loopback device that allows the Linux system to communicate with itself using common network programming protocols.

Linux creates special files, called nodes, for each device on the system. All communication with the device is performed through the device node. Each node has a unique number pair that identifies it to the Linux kernel. The number pair includes a major and a minor device number. Similar devices are grouped into the same major device number. The minor device number is used to identify a specific device within the major device group.

Filesystem management

Unlike some other operating systems, the Linux kernel can support different types of filesystems to read and write data to and from hard drives. Besides having over a dozen filesystems of its own, Linux can read and write to and from filesystems used by other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows. The kernel must be compiled with support for all types of filesystems that the system will use. Table 1-2 lists the standard filesystems that a Linux system can use to read and write data.

TABLE 1-2 Linux Filesystems

Any hard drive that a Linux server accesses must be formatted using one of the filesystem types listed in Table 1-2.

The Linux kernel interfaces with each filesystem using the Virtual File System (VFS). This provides a standard interface for the kernel to communicate with any type of filesystem. VFS caches information in memory as each filesystem is mounted and used.

The GNU utilities

Besides having a kernel to control hardware devices, a computer operating system needs utilities to perform standard functions, such as controlling files and programs. Although Linus created the Linux system kernel, he had no system utilities to run on it. Fortunately for him, at the same time he was working, a group of people were working together on the Internet trying to develop a standard set of computer system utilities that mimicked the popular Unix operating system.

The GNU organization (GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix) developed a complete set of Unix utilities but had no kernel system to run them on. These utilities were developed under a software philosophy called open source software (OSS).

The concept of OSS allows programmers to develop software and then release it to the world with no licensing fees attached. Anyone can use, modify, or incorporate the software into their own system without having to pay a license fee. Uniting Linus's Linux kernel with the GNU operating system utilities created a complete, functional, free operating system.

Although the bundling of the Linux kernel and GNU utilities is often just called Linux, you will see some Linux purists on the Internet refer to it as the GNU/Linux system to give credit to the GNU organization for its contributions to the cause.

The core GNU utilities

The GNU project was mainly designed for Unix system administrators to have a Unix-like environment available. This focus resulted in the project porting many common Unix system command-line utilities. The core bundle of utilities supplied for Linux systems is called the coreutils package.

The GNU coreutils package consists of three parts:

• Utilities for handling files
• Utilities for manipulating text
• Utilities for managing processes

Each of these three main groups of utilities contains several utility programs that are invaluable to the Linux system administrator and programmer. This book covers each of the utilities contained in the GNU coreutils package in detail.

The shell

The GNU/Linux shell is a special interactive utility. It provides a way for users to start programs, manage files on the filesystem, and manage processes running on the Linux system. The core of the shell is the command prompt. The command prompt is the interactive part of the shell. It allows you to enter text commands, and then it interprets the commands and executes them in the kernel.

The shell contains a set of internal commands that you use to control tasks such as copying files, moving files, renaming files, displaying the programs currently running on the system, and stopping programs running on the system. Besides the internal commands, the shell allows you to enter the name of a program at the command prompt. The shell passes the program name off to the kernel to start it.

You can also group shell commands into files to execute as a program. Those files are called shell scripts. Any command that you can execute from the command line can be placed in a shell script and run as a group of commands. This provides great flexibility in creating utilities for commonly run commands or processes that require several commands grouped together.

Quite a few Linux shells are available to use on a Linux system. Different shells have different characteristics, some being more useful for creating scripts and some being more useful for managing processes. The default shell used in all Linux distributions is the Bash shell. The Bash shell was developed by the GNU project as a replacement for the standard Unix shell, called the Bourne shell (after its creator). The Bash shell name is a play on this wording, referred to as the “Bourne again shell.”

In addition to the Bash shell, we will cover several other popular shells in this book. Table 1-3 lists the different shells we will examine.

TABLE 1-3 Linux Shells

Most Linux distributions include more than one shell, although usually they pick one of them to be the default. If your Linux distribution includes multiple shells, feel free to experiment with different shells and see which one fits your needs.

The Linux desktop environment

In the early days of Linux (the early 1990s), all that was available was a simple text interface to the Linux operating system. This text interface allowed administrators to start programs, control program operations, and move files around on the system.

With the popularity of Microsoft Windows, computer users expected more than the old text interface to work with. This spurred more development in the OSS community, and the Linux graphical desktops emerged.

Linux is famous for being able to do things in more than one way, and no place is this more relevant than in graphical desktops. In Linux you can choose from a plethora of graphical desktops. The following sections describe a few popular ones.

The X Window software

Two basic elements control your video environment — the video card in your PC and your monitor. To display fancy graphics on your computer, the Linux software needs to know how to talk to both of them. The X Window software is the core element in presenting graphics.

The X Window software is a low-level program that works directly with the video card and monitor in the PC and controls how Linux applications can present fancy windows and graphics on your computer.

Linux isn't the only operating system that uses X Window; versions have been written for many different operating systems. In the Linux world, a few software packages can implement it. Two X Window packages are most commonly used in Linux:

• X.org
• Wayland

The X.org package is the older of the two, based on the original Unix X Window System version 11 (often called X11). More Linux distributions are migrating to the newer Wayland software, which is more secure and easier to maintain.

When you first install a Linux distribution, it attempts to detect your video card and monitor, and it then creates an X Window configuration file that contains the required information. During installation you may notice a time when the installation program scans your monitor for supported video modes. Sometimes this causes your monitor to go blank for a few seconds. Because lots of different types of video cards and monitors are out there, this process can take a little while to complete.

The core X Window software produces a graphical display environment but nothing else. Although this is fine for running individual applications, it is not too useful for day-to-day computer use. There is no desktop environment allowing users to manipulate files or launch programs. To do that, you need a desktop environment on top of the X Window system software.

The KDE Plasma desktop

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) was first released in 1996 as an open source project to produce a graphical desktop similar to the Microsoft Windows environment. The KDE desktop incorporates all the features you are probably familiar with if you are a Windows user. Figure 1-3 shows the current version, called KDE Plasma, running in the openSUSE Linux distribution.

The KDE Plasma desktop allows you to place both application and file icons in a special area on the desktop. If you single-click an application icon, the Linux system starts the application. If you single-click a file icon, the KDE desktop attempts to determine what application to start to handle the file.

FIGURE 1-3 The KDE Plasma desktop on an openSUSE Linux system

The bar at the bottom of the desktop is called the Panel. The Panel consists of four parts:

• The K menu: Much like the Windows Start menu, the K menu contains links to start installed applications.
• Program shortcuts: These are quick links to start applications directly from the Panel.
• The taskbar: The taskbar shows icons for applications currently running on the desktop.
• Applets: These are small applications that have an icon in the Panel that can often change depending on information from the application.

All of the Panel features are similar to what you would find in Windows. In addition to the desktop features, the KDE project has produced a wide assortment of applications that run in the KDE environment.

The GNOME desktop

The GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) is another popular Linux desktop environment. First released in 1999, GNOME has become the default desktop environment for many Linux distributions (the most popular being Red Hat Linux).

Figure 1-4 shows the standard GNOME desktop used in the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

FIGURE 1-4 A GNOME 3 desktop on an Ubuntu Linux system

The GNOME 3 desktop cleans up the desktop interface by reducing the available menus to just three:

• Activities: Displays favorites, as well as any running application icons
• Calendar: Shows the current date/time, along with any system notification messages
• System: Shows network connections, system settings, and options to restart the system

The GNOME 3 desktop was designed to work on multiple types of devices, so you won't find a lot of menus. To launch applications, you must search for them using the Activities Overview, which is a search feature on the Activities menu.

Not to be outdone by KDE, the GNOME developers have also produced a host of graphical applications that integrate with the GNOME desktop.

Other desktops

One of the main features of Linux is choice, and nowhere is that more evident than in the graphical desktop world. There are a plethora of different types of graphical desktops available in the Linux world. If you're not happy with the default desktop in your Linux distribution, it usually doesn't take much effort to change it to something else!

When the GNOME desktop project radically changed its interface in version 3, many Linux developers who preferred the look and feel of GNOME version 2 created spin-off versions based on GNOME 2. Of these, two became somewhat popular:

• Cinnamon: The Cinnamon desktop was developed in 2011 by the Linux Mint distribution in an attempt to continue development of the original GNOME 2 desktop. It's now available as an option in several Linux distributions, including Ubuntu Fedora and openSUSE.
• MATE: The MATE desktop was also developed in 2011 by an Arch Linux user who disliked the switch to GNOME 3. It incorporates a few features of GNOME 3 (such as replacing the taskbar) but maintains the overall look and feel of GNOME 2.

Figure 1-5 shows the Cinnamon desktop as it appears in the Linux Mint distribution.

The downside to these fancy graphical desktop environments is that they require a fair amount of system resources to operate properly. In the early days of Linux, a hallmark and selling feature of Linux was its ability to operate on older, less powerful PCs that the newer Microsoft desktop products couldn't run on. However, with the popularity of KDE Plasma and GNOME 3 desktops, this has changed, since it takes just as much memory to run a KDE Plasma or GNOME 3 desktop as it does to run the latest Microsoft desktop environment.

If you have an older PC, don't be discouraged. The Linux developers have banded together to take Linux back to its roots. They've created several low memory–oriented graphical desktop applications that provide basic features that run perfectly fine on older PCs.

Although these graphical desktops don't have all that many applications designed around them, they still run many basic graphical applications that support features such as word processing, spreadsheets, databases, drawing, and, of course, multimedia support.

Table 1-4 shows some of the smaller Linux graphical desktop environments that can be used on lower-powered PCs and laptops.

FIGURE 1-5 The Cinnamon desktop from Linux Mint

TABLE 1-4 Other Linux Graphical Desktops

These graphical desktop environments are not as fancy as the KDE Plasma and GNOME 3 desktops, but they provide basic graphical functionality just fine. Figure 1-6 shows what the Xfce desktop used in the MX Linux distribution looks like.

FIGURE 1-6 The Xfce desktop as seen in the MX Linux distribution

If you are using an older PC, try a Linux distribution that uses one of these desktops and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Examining Linux Distributions

Now that you have seen the four main components required for a complete Linux system, you may be wondering how you are going to get them all together to make a Linux system. Fortunately, there are people who have already done that for you.

A complete Linux system package is called a distribution. Numerous Linux distributions are available to meet just about any computing requirement you could have. Most distributions are customized for a specific user group, such as business users, multimedia enthusiasts, software developers, or average home users. Each customized distribution includes the software packages required to support specialized functions, such as audio- and video-editing software for multimedia enthusiasts, or compilers and integrated development environments (IDEs) for software developers.

The different Linux distributions are often divided into two categories:

• Full-core Linux distributions
• Specialized distributions

The following sections describe these types of Linux distributions and show examples in each category.

Core Linux distributions

A core Linux distribution contains a kernel, one or more graphical desktop environments, and just about every Linux application that is available, precompiled for the kernel. It provides one-stop shopping for a complete Linux installation. Table 1-5 shows some popular core Linux distributions.

TABLE 1-5 Core Linux Distributions

In the early days of Linux, a distribution was released as a set of floppy disks. You had to download groups of files and then copy them onto disks. It would usually take 20 or more disks to make an entire distribution! Needless to say, this was a painful experience.

Nowadays, Linux distributions are released as an ISO image file. The ISO image file is a complete disk image of a DVD as a single file. You use a software application to either burn the ISO image file onto a DVD or create a bootable USB stick. You then just boot your workstation from the DVD or USB stick to install Linux. This makes installing Linux much easier.

However, beginners still often run into problems when they install one of the core Linux distributions. To cover just about any situation in which someone might want to use Linux, a single distribution has to include lots of application software. They include everything from high-end Internet database servers to common games.

Although having lots of options available in a distribution is great for Linux geeks, it can become a nightmare for beginning Linux users. Most core distributions ask a series of questions during the installation process to determine which applications to load by default, what hardware is connected to the PC, and how to configure the hardware. Beginners often find these questions confusing. As a result, they often either load way too many programs on their computer or don't load enough and later discover that their computer won't do what they want it to.

Fortunately for beginners, there's a much simpler way to install Linux.

Specialized Linux distributions

A new subgroup of Linux distributions has started to appear. These are typically based on one of the main distributions but contain only a subset of applications that would make sense for a specific area of use.

In addition to providing specialized software (such as only office products for business users), customized Linux distributions attempt to help beginning Linux users by autodetecting and autoconfiguring common hardware devices. This makes installing Linux a much more enjoyable process.

Table 1-6 shows some of the specialized Linux distributions available and what they specialize in.

TABLE 1-6 Specialized Linux Distributions

That's just a small sampling of specialized Linux distributions. There are literally hundreds of specialized Linux distributions, and more are popping up all the time on the Internet. No matter your specialty, you'll probably find a Linux distribution made for you.

Many of the specialized Linux distributions are based on the Debian Linux distribution. They use the same installation files as Debian but package only a small fraction of a full-blown Debian system.

Summary

This chapter discussed the Linux system and the basics of how it works. The Linux kernel is the core of the system, controlling how memory, programs, and hardware all interact with one another. The GNU utilities are also an important piece in the Linux system. The Linux shell, which is the main focus of this book, is part of the GNU core utilities. The chapter also discussed the final piece of a Linux system, the Linux desktop environment. Things have changed over the years, and Linux now supports several graphical desktop environments.

The chapter also discussed the various Linux distributions. A Linux distribution bundles the various parts of a Linux system into a simple package that you can easily install on your PC. The Linux distribution world consists of full-blown Linux distributions that include just about every application imaginable, as well as specialized Linux distributions that only include applications focused on a special function. The Linux LiveDVD craze has created another group of Linux distributions that allow you to easily test-drive Linux without even having to install it on your hard drive.

In the next chapter, we look at what you need to start your command-line and shell scripting experience. You'll see what you have to do to get to the Linux shell utility from your fancy graphical desktop environment. These days, that's not always an easy thing.