Linux+ Guide To Linux Certification, Third Edition

Linux+ Guide to Linux
Certification, Third Edition

Chapter 3
Exploring Linux Filesystems
Objectives
Understand and navigate the Linux directory structure
using relative and absolute pathnames
Describe the various types of Linux files
View filenames and file types
Use shell wildcards to specify multiple filenames
Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e
Objectives (continued)
Display the contents of text files and binary files

Search text files for regular expressions using grep
Use the vi editor to manipulate text files
Identify common alternatives to the vi text editor used
today
The Linux Directory Structure

Directory: Used to organize other files into a logical tree
structure
Stored in a filesystem of a specific partition in the
hard disk
Absolute pathname: Pathname from the root directory
to a certain file or directory
Root: The top level directory
Referred to using the / character
Forms root of a hierarchical tree
The Linux Directory Structure

(continued)
Figure 3-1: The Windows filesystem structure
Figure 3-2: The Linux filesystem structure

Changing Directories
Home directory: unique to each user
~ metacharacter used to refer to home directory
pwd (print working directory) command: displays
current directory in the directory tree
cd (change directory) command: change the current
directory in the directory tree
Argument specifies the destination directory
Relative pathname: pathname of file or directory
relative to current directory
Changing Directories (continued)

Parent directory: directory one step closer to the root of
the tree
Referred to by .. (two dots)
Subdirectory: directory residing within another directory
Tab-completion: pressing the Tab key fills in remaining
characters of a unique filename or directory name
BASH shell feature
Alerts user if there is more than one possible match
Viewing Files and Directories: File

Types
Text files: store information in a readable text format,
contain configuration information
Binary data files: store information associated with
executable programs
Executable program files
Directory files: serve as placeholders to organize other
files
Viewing Files and Directories: File

Types (continued)
Linked files: associated with another file
Special device files: represent system devices
Named pipes: identify channel that passes information
between processes
Socket files: allow a process on another computer to
write to a local file
Filenames
Filename: identifier given to a file
Up to 255 characters
Can use alphanumeric characters, dash (-),
underscore (_), and dot (.)
Filename extensions: identifiers following a dot (.) at
end of filename
Denote file type
Most files on Linux do not have filename extensions
10
Table 3-1: Common filename extensions

11
Listing Files
ls command: List the files in a directory
May pass an argument indicating the directory to be
listed
F option: Argument to indicate file types
l option: Argument to list long file listings
12
Listing Files (continued)

Long listing for each file includes eight components
File type character
List of permissions (mode of the file)
Hard link count
Owner
Group owner
File size
Most recent modification time
Filename
13

Alias: shortcut for a command
ll command: Alias for ls -l
File command: displays file type of any file
Argument indicates what file or files to analyze
Identifies between different types of executable files
Identifies empty files
Hidden files: files not normally displayed to user
Configuration files often hidden
Filenames start with a dot (.)
ls a command: displays hidden files
14
Table 3-2: Common options to the ls command

15
Table 3-2 (continued): Common options to the ls command

16
Wildcard Metacharacters
Wildcard metacharacter: used to simplify commands
specifying multiple filenames
Can match the entire filename or portions of
filenames
Can be used with most Linux filesystem commands
17
Wildcard Metacharacters (continued)
Table 3-3: Wildcard metacharacters
18
Displaying Content of Text Files

Concatenation: joining text together
cat command: displays (concatenates) contents of a
text file to the screen
-n option: displays line number and contents
Log files: contain records of past system events
New events appended to end
tac command: displays contents of a text file in reverse
order
19

(Continued)
head command: view first ten lines of a file
tail command: view last ten lines of a file
For head and tail commands
Line count includes blank lines
Can provide numeric option to specify the number of
lines to be displayed (e.g., head -2 filename)
20

(continued)
Large text files can not be viewed using the cat
command, because the screen will only fit a portion of
the file
more command: displays text files page-by-page
Pressing Spacebar displays the next page
Pressing Enter displays the next line
less command: same as more command, but can also
use cursor to scroll
21

(continued)
Users can use keyboard shortcuts to interact with shell
while in more and less commands.
e.g., pressing h key gets Help screen
e.g., pressing q key quits more and less commands
more and less can be used with output of other
commands
If output is too large to fit on terminal screen, use |
metacharacter and more or less command
e.g., ls -l | more
22
Displaying the Contents of Binary Files

Typically use program that created the file
strings command: searches for and displays text
characters in a binary file
Might indicate purpose of binary file
od command: displays contents of file in octal format
(numeric base 8 format)
-x option displays contents of the file in hexadecimal
format (numeric base 16 format)
23
Searching for Text Within Files

Text tools: commands that search for and manipulate
text
Regular expressions (regexp): text wildcards that ease
the search for specific text
Match patterns of text within a text document
Used by many text tools and programming
languages
Including grep, emacs, C++, PERL, and many more
24
Regular Expressions
Different from wildcard metacharacters
Wildcard metacharacters interpreted by shell;
regexps interpreted by text tools
Wildcard metacharacters match characters in
filenames; regexps match characters within text files
Wildcard metacharacters have different definitions
that regexps
More regexps than wildcard metacharacters
Regular expressions are divided into common regexps
and extended regexps
25
Table 3-4: Regular expressions

26
The grep Command

grep (global regular expression print) command:
displays lines in a text file that match common regexps
egrep command: displays lines in a text file that match
extended regexps
Can be written as grep -E
fgrep command: does not interpret any regular
expressions
Returns results much faster than egrep
Can be written as grep -F
27
The grep Command (continued)

grep requires two arguments
Text to search for
Can use regular expressions
Files in which to search

grep is case sensitive
For case-insensitive search, use i option
grep matches patterns of text, ignoring division into
words
To search only for occurrences of a word, surround it
by space characters
28
Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

One of the oldest and most popular text editors for UNIX OSs
Vim: Linux equivalent of vi
Standard on most Linux distributions
Advantage is portability, not usability
Used on Unix and Linux
Bi-modal editor (two possible modes):
Command mode: Performs text editing tasks not related
to inserting text
Insert mode: Inserts text, but nothing else
User environment is customizable
29

(continued)
Table 3-5: Common keyboard keys used

to change to and from insert mode
30

(continued)
Table 3-6: Key combinations commonly used in command mode

31

(continued)
Table 3-6 (continued): Key combinations

commonly used in command mode
32

(continued)
Table 3-6 (continued): Key combinations

commonly used in command mode
33

(continued)
Table 3-7: Key combinations commonly used at the

command mode : prompt
34
Other Common Text Editors

Emacs (Editor MACroS) editor: comparable functionality
to vi
Ctrl key combinations to perform special functions
Supports LISP (LISt Processing) artificial intelligence
programming language
Emacs editor is not easy to use
Must memorize key combination
Emacs can be run in a GUI environment to get a
graphical version of the editor
Much easier to use; icons replace key combinations
35

(continued)
Table 3-8: Keyboard functions commonly

used in the GNU Emacs editor
36

(continued)
Figure 3-3: A graphical Emacs session

37

(continued)
Nano editor: text editor that uses Ctrl key combinations
for performing functions
Based on the pine UNIX editor
Ctrl key combinations listed at the bottom of the
screen
Very basic and easy-to-use
Used by Linux administrators to modify files when
advanced functionality is not needed
38

(continued)
gedit editor: a graphical text editor functional in a GUI
environment
Does not have advanced functionality like vi and
Emacs
Easiest editor to use
Functionality is analogous to the Windows Wordpad
and Notepad editors
39

(continued)
Figure 3-4: The gedit text editor

40
Summary
The Linux filesystem is arranged hierarchically using a
series of directories to store files
Location of directories and files can be described using
absolute or relative pathnames
Linux filesystem can contain many types of files
text files, binary data, executable programs,
directories, linked files, and special device files
The ls command is used to view filenames
Wide range of options to modify views
41
Summary (continued)
Wildcard metacharacters are special keyboard
characters
can simplify selection of several files when using
common Linux file commands
Text files are the most common file type whose
contents can be viewed by several utilities, such as
head, tail, cat, tac, more, and less
42
Summary (continued)
Regular expression metacharacters can be used to
specify certain patterns of text
used with certain programming languages and text
tool utilities such as grep
vi (vim) is a powerful, bimodal text editor that is
standard on most UNIX and Linux systems
43

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Linux+ Guide to Linux

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Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Display the contents of text files and binary files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

The Linux Directory Structure

The Linux Directory Structure

Figure 3-1: The Windows filesystem structure

Figure 3-2: The Linux filesystem structure

Changing Directories (continued)

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Viewing Files and Directories: File

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Viewing Files and Directories: File

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Table 3-1: Common filename extensions

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Listing Files (continued)

Listing Files (continued)

Listing Files (continued)

Table 3-2: Common options to the ls command

Listing Files (continued)

Table 3-2 (continued): Common options to the ls command

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Wildcard Metacharacters (continued)

Table 3-3: Wildcard metacharacters

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Displaying Content of Text Files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Displaying Content of Text Files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Displaying Content of Text Files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Displaying Content of Text Files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Displaying the Contents of Binary Files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Searching for Text Within Files

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Table 3-4: Regular expressions

The grep Command

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

The grep Command (continued)

Files in which to search

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

Table 3-5: Common keyboard keys used

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

Table 3-6: Key combinations commonly used in command mode

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

Table 3-6 (continued): Key combinations

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

Table 3-6 (continued): Key combinations

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 3e

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor

Table 3-7: Key combinations commonly used at the

Other Common Text Editors

Other Common Text Editors

Table 3-8: Keyboard functions commonly

Other Common Text Editors