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Using text editors In Linux Understanding the Linux directory structure Installation in Linux Linux variables

Used to write text documents and/or edit configuration files Similar to notepad or WordPad in Microsoft windows Better and more flexible than creating viewing and editing with the less, head, tail, touch and cat commands. Three basic text editors are the nano, vi/vim and the nedit.

In order to view or create a file using the vi text editor, type vi filename In the text editor, it is in a default read-only state. In you want t insert words, type the I key and when you are through, type the esc key to go back to read only mode Navigate with the arrow keys If you are done editing press the : key (make sure that you have left edit mode first) then type wq to save and exit q! to exit without saving Followed by the enter key

/bin: This directory must be present for OS to boot, contains utilities used during startup, executable files necessary to manage and run the Linux system, including shells (such as bash) and file system management utilities such as cp and rm. There are four major bin directories (none of which should be used for storing junk files :) /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin All of the bin directories serve similar but distinct purposes; the division of binary files serves several purposes including ease of backups, administration and logical separation.

/sbin: Literally "System Binaries". This directory contains files that should generally only be used by the root user, though the Linux file

standard dictates that no access restrictions should be

placed on normal users to these files. The /sbin directory

should contain essential system management and administration files, such as fdisk, fsck, ifconfig, init, mkfs, halt, system event control (restart and shutdown programs) and certain networking programs.

/boot: This directory contains your bootloader files, which are required to boot your system. /dev :This directory contains special files that are used to represent the various hardware devices installed in the system. SCSI hard disk drive in a system is called sda and the first IDE hard drive in a system is called hda. The files that represent these devices are stored in /dev

/etc: This directory contains text-based configuration files used by the system as well as services running on the system. You can edit these files with a text editor to customize how Linux behaves. Some of the configuration files in /etc include. /etc/fstab : Lists the partitions and file systems that will be automatically mounted when the system boots.

/etc/group

Contains local group definitions.

/etc/grub.conf Contains configuration parameters for the GRUB bootloader (assuming its being used on the system). /etc/hosts Contains a list of hostname-to-IP address mappings the system can use to resolve hostnames.

/etc/inittab Contains configuration parameters for the init process. /etc/init.d/ A subdirectory that contains startup scripts for services installed on the system. On a Fedora or Red Hat system, these are located in /etc/rc.d/init.d. /etc/modules.conf Contains configuration parameters for your kernel modules. etc/passwd Contains your system user accounts. /etc/shadow Contains encrypted passwords for your user accounts. /etc/X11/ Contains configuration files for X Windows

/opt: This directory contains files for some programs you install on the system.

/root: This directory is the root users home directory. Notice that it is located separately from the home directories for other users in /home. /srv: This directory contains subdirectories where services running on the system (such as httpd and ftpd) save their files. /sys:This directory contains information about the hardware in your system.

/tmp: This directory contains temporary files created by you or by the system.

/usr: This directory contains application files. In fact, most of the application files used on your system are saved in a subdirectory of /usr. /var: This directory contains a variety of variable data, including your system log files.

Subdirectory Contents lib : Library files created by various services and applications running on the system log : Log files from your system and from services running on the system

spool :

Print queues

/home: This directory contains subdirectories that serve as home directories for each user account on your Linux system. /lib: This directory contains code libraries used by programs in /bin and /sbin. Your kernel modules are also stored in the modules subdirectory of /lib. /media: This directory is used by some Linux distributions (such as SUSELinux) to mount external devices, including CD drives, DVD drives, and floppy drives. /mnt: This directory is used by some Linux distributions (such as Fedora or Red Hat) to mount external devices, including CD drives, DVD drives, and floppy drives.

This is the act of putting files, folders, and sub-programs in specific known places, linking them and enabling them to communicate, for the proper function of a program unit or system. Prerequisites may be needed to install programs There are two basic forms of installation in Linux The binary installation The source code installation

Program to be installed usually comes in a precompiled package containing all the needed data it is usually in object code which is more understandable to computers it is usually installed by another type of program called a package manager It is usually in a particular format that the package manager can understand e.g. rpm, bin It is relatively easy to install as it places different data in specific default locations

software management tools for downloading, installing and configuration of additional software packages for your system Software comes mostly precompiled bundled in packages, hence the name package manager. The package manager can resolve dependencies between packages automatically. The package manager can also update the system without operator interaction.

Installs packages removes packages configures packages keeps track of the installed packages using a database

Default package manager for RHEL5 Other packet managers include Yum, dpm(apt,dpkg) The default format of binary packages is the .rpm format It is installed by typing the command
rpm ivh rpmname.rpm

Some rpms require prerequisites to install

Relatively more difficult Requires more manual attention It contains a lot of shell scripts, files, folders and involves configuration that is more understandable to human beings and less to computers Requires a program called compiler to translate the source code to object code.

Program specifically to translate source code It is the main prerequisite to be installed before a source code installation can be performed Example gcc, g++

Performed in the last class

This can be done using the rpmbuild bb command Some source codes come with a specification file (.spec) prereq

Variables are a way of passing information from the shell to programs when you run them. Programs look "in the environment" for particular variables and if they are found will use the values stored Some are set by the system, others by you, yet others by the shell, or any program that loads another program.

variables are split into two categories, environment variables and shell variables In broad terms, shell variables apply only to the current instance of the shell and are used to set short-term working conditions. They usually have lower case names. environment variables have a farther reaching significance, and those set at login are valid for the duration of the session. They have UPPER CASE names

An example of an environment variable is the OSTYPE variable. The value of this is the current operating system you are using. Type echo $OSTYPE More examples of environment variables are USER (your login name) HOME (the path name of your home directory) HOST (the name of the computer you are using) ARCH (the architecture of the computers processor) PATH (the directories the shell should search to find a command)

ENVIRONMENT variables are: set using the setenv command displayed using the printenv or env commands, and unset using the unsetenv command. To show all values of these variables, type printenv | less

An is the history variable. The value of this is how many shell commands to save, Type echo $history More examples of shell variables are cwd (your current working directory) home (the path name of your home directory) path (the directories the shell should search to find a command) prompt (the text string used to prompt for interactive commands shell your login shell)

SHELL variables are both set and displayed using the set command. They can be unset by using the unset command. To show all values of these variables, type
set | less

In general, environment and shell variables that have the same name (apart from the case) are distinct and independent, except for possibly having the same initial values. There are, however, exceptions. Each time the shell variables home, user and term are changed, the corresponding environment variables HOME, USER and TERM receive the same values. However, altering the environment variables has no effect on the corresponding shell variables. PATH and path specify directories to search for commands and programs. Both variables always represent the same directory list, and altering either automatically causes the other to be changed.

Each time you login to a UNIX host, the system looks in your home directory for initialisation files. Information in these files is used to set up your working environment. The C and TC shells uses two files called .login and .cshrc (note that both file names begin with a dot). At login the C shell first reads .cshrc followed by .login .login is to set conditions which will apply to the whole session and to perform actions that are relevant only at login. .cshrc is used to set conditions and perform actions specific to the shell and to each invocation of it. The guidelines are to set ENVIRONMENT variables in the .login file and SHELL variables in the .cshrc file. WARNING: NEVER put commands that run graphical displays (e.g. a web browser) in your .cshrc or .login file.

Setting shell variables in the .cshrc file For example, to change the number of shell commands saved in the history list, you need to set the shell variable history. It is set to 100 by default, but you can increase this if you wish. % set history = 200 Check this has worked by typing % echo $history However, this has only set the variable for the lifetime of the current shell. If you open a new xterm window, it will only have the default history value set. To PERMANENTLY set the value of history, you will need to add the set command to the .cshrc file.

First open the .cshrc file in a text editor. An easy, user-friendly editor to use is nedit. % nedit ~/.cshrc Add the following line AFTER the list of other commands. set history = 200 Save the file and force the shell to reread its .cshrc file buy using the shell source command. % source .cshrc Check this has worked by typing % echo $history

Setting the path When you type a command, your path (or PATH) variable defines in which directories the shell will look to find the command you typed. If the system returns a message saying "command: Command not found", this indicates that either the command doesn't exist at all on the system or it is simply not in your path. For example, to run units, you either need to directly specify the units path (~/units174/bin/units), or you need to have the directory ~/units174/bin in your path. You can add it to the end of your existing path (the $path represents this) by issuing the command:

set path = ($path ~/units174/bin) Test that this worked by trying to run units in any directory other that where units is actually located. cd units To add this path PERMANENTLY, add the following line to your .cshrc AFTER the list of other commands. set path = ($path ~/units174/bin)