Lecture # 3,4 (Basic Shell Command, Ubento)

Instructor: Arif Butt.
TA: Dilawer Hussain.
Lecture # 3,4
Basic Shell Commands
Course: Introduction to Computing

Instructor: Arif Butt
TA: Dilawer Hussain
Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT)

University of the Punjab
Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 1
Today's Agenda
● Shell & Commands Basics
● Basic Commands
● Getting Help (Using Man Pages)
● Absolute and Relative Path
● More Commands
● Practising Commands

Shell & Commands Basics

Bash Shell Prompt
Username Machine Name
Present Working Directory. Type of User. '>'

'~' shows user's home Dir shows normal user,
'#' shows root user

General Command Format

One or more optional modifiers (w/o spaces in between)that change the behavior of the command.
Usually one character preceded by -
Command Options Option argument(s) Command argument(s)
One or more optional modifiers

The name of the that can change the behavior
command of option
One or more objects

Command must be followed that are affected by the command
by a space

How Command Executes (Flow Chart)

Basic Commands

Basic Commands
ls - list directory contents
SYNOPSIS
ls [OPTIONS]... [FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by
default). Sort entries alphabetically by default.
Options:
-l display in long listing format (8 x columns)
-a do not ignore entries starting with a dot (i.e., hidden files)
-i show inode number of each file (used with long listing only)
-h show file size in human readable, i.e. In KBs (used with long listing only)
-t sort by modification time
-S, sort by size
-F adds a / in front of directory, an * in front of executable

Basic Commands (cont..):

Examples of ls


pwd - print name of current/working directory
SYNOPSIS
pwd [OPTION]
DESCRIPTION
Print the full filename of the current working directory.
Example of pwd


passwd – change user password
SYNOPSIS
passwd [OPTION]
DESCRIPTION
A regular user can change his own password only. However the
administrator can change the password of any user by preceding the
name of the user after the command passwd.
whoami - print name of current logged user

SYNOPSIS
whoami


mkdir - make directories
SYNOPSIS
mkdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY....
DESCRIPTION
Create the DIRECTORY(ies), if they do not already exist.
Examples of mkdir


cd – is used to change the directory
SYNOPSIS
cd DIRECTORY-NAME
cd[space].. - is used to go one step back in directory hiererchy.
Cd – by simply typing (cd) the prompt will go to the home directory of

user, no matter where you are.
Examples
As a root user, home

directory is ~


rmdir - remove empty directories
SYNOPSIS
rmdir [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY(S)
DESCRIPTION
Remove the DIRECTORY(ies), if they are empty.
Options:
-p, Create/Remove DIRECTORY and its ancestors. E.g., rmdir -p
a/b/c is similar to rmdir a/b/c a/b a
Example of rmdir
Using rmdir a/b/c will

only remove directory c not
the parent directories.

touch - change file timestamps
SYNOPSIS
touch [OPTIONS]... FILE...
DESCRIPTION
Update the access and modification times of each FILE to the
current time.
Example of touch
Touch command also makes a

new file by simply typing
touch Filename

cp - copy files and directories
SYNOPSIS
cp [OPTIONS]... SOURCE DEST
DESCRIPTION
Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple SOURCE(s) to
DIRECTORY.
Options:
-r, Recursively copies directory including files and subdirectories to
destination
-p, Preserves file access modes and time stamps on copied files


Example of cp
dir1 is not empty

Simple cp command will not work
Use -r option for this case


mv - move (rename) files
SYNOPSIS
mv [OPTIONS] FILE/DIR-LIST DIRECTORY
DESCRIPTION
Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to
DIRECTORY. Do not require -r flag for directories. More so, this
command is also used to rename files and directores
Options:
-i Prompt user before ovwrwriting destination


Example of mv


rm - remove files or directories
SYNOPSIS
rm [OPTIONS] FILE...
DESCRIPTION
rm removes each specified file. By default, it does not remove
directories.
Options:
-r, -R, --recursive remove directories and their contents recursively


Example of rm
To avoid prompts
use -f along with
other options


cat - concatenate files and print on the standard output
SYNOPSIS
cat [OPTIONS] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.
Options:
-n, Print line # with each line of the file (for display only)
-ev, Print $ sign, at the end of each line


Example of cat


more – displays file contents page by page
SYNOPSIS
more [OPTIONS] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
More is a filter for paging through text one screenful at a time.
Example of more


less – display file contents page by page
SYNOPSIS
less [OPTIONS] [filename]
DESCRIPTION
Less is a program similar to more (1), but which allows backward
movement in the file as well as forward movement.
Commands:
Movement is done using up/down arrows and pgup and pgdown buttons
G go to the end of the file
g go to the start of the file
/arif search forward for string 'arif '
?arif search backward for string 'arif '
n repeat last search
N repeat last search in opposite direction
v open file in vim
q quit the program

Example of less


head – output the first part of the file
SYNOPSIS
head [OPTIONS] filename(s)
DESCRIPTION
Print the first ten lines of each file to standard output. With more
than one file precede each with a header giving the file name. With no
file read standard input.
Options:
-n instead of default 10 lines display n lines on console


tail – output the last part of the file
SYNOPSIS
tail [OPTIONS] filename(s)
DESCRIPTION
Print the last ten lines of each file to standard output. With more
than one file precede each with a header giving the file name. With no
file read standard input.
Options:
-n instead of default 10 lines display n lines on console
-f follow growth (used to view log files)


alias – define or display aliases
SYNOPSIS
alias [aliasname=string]
DESCRIPTION
Allows you to create pseudonyms for commands. To remove an
existing alias use unalias command
To make a permanent change in the aliases list, a user need to change
the file ~/.bashrc
In order to make a global alias, the root must add it in
/etc/bash.bashrc.local in opensuse and /etc/bashrc file in RedHat
systems


echo - display a line of text
SYNOPSIS
echo [OPTIONS] string
DESCRIPTION
Echo the STRING(s) to standard output.
Options:
-e enable interpretation of backslash escapes
If -e is in effect, the following sequences are recognized:

\\ backslash \b backspace
\n new line \t horizontal tab
Example of echo

Getting Help

Ways to Get Help

● GUI Help
● Press Alt+ F2, type help
● CLI Help (Open Konqueror Terminal, use)
● $info Command
● $help Command
● $man Command

Using Man pages

The standard way to get help, which works on any UNIX system, is a
command called man (think "manual", as in user handbook).
There are mainly 9 sections of Man pages usually located in /usr/share/man/:
● Section 1 User Commands (cat.1.gz, clear.1.gz, cp.1.gz, ...)
● Section 2 System Calls (open.2.gz, close.2.gz, fork.2.gz, ...)
● Section 3 Language Library Calls (fopen.3.gz, fclose.3.gz, ...)
● Section 3p Perl Modules (fork.3p.gz, fputc.3p.gz, fopen.3p.gz,..)
● Section 4 Devices (mouse.4.gz, fifo.4.gz, ...)
● Section 5 File Formats (passwd.5.gz, fstab.5.gz, elf.5.gz, ...)
● Section 6 Games (fortune.6.gz, glchess.6.gz, ...)
● Section 7 Miscellaneous (ip.7.gz, tcp.7.gz, intro.7.gz, ...)
● Section 8 Administrative / Previleged Commands (fdisk.8.gz, ...)
● Section 9 Kernel

Using Man pages (cont..)

Parts of man page:
1. Information at the top
2. Name of a command
3. Synopsis of a command
4. Description of a command
5. Author
6. Reporting Bugs
7. Copy Rights
8. See Also
9. Information at the Bottom

Using Man pages (cont..)

● Example: Type 'man pwd' in konqueror Terminal & select the
option
● Navigating, Searching and Exiting from man pages:

● Man command use the less program to display the contents
of the help pages, so you can use all techniques that you have
learnt for navigation and searching in the less program.
patterns of 'pwd'

Absolute Path / Relative Path

Absolute Path:
Absolute path specify the full path from root to the desired directory
or file. Every pathname that starts with a slash is an absolute
pathname.
Reference to the figure on next slide:
/home/staff/arif/file2 is an absolute path for file2
Relative Path:
A relative path is a path from the working directory to the file.
Reference to the figure on next slide:
● If working directory is staff then, rauf/file3 is relative path for file3
● If working directory is arif then, ../rauf/file3 is relative path for file3

Directory Tree:
/
home dev usr
dilawer abdul staff
reports file1 arif rauf

.........
.........
......... file2 file3
......... ......... .........
......... .........
......... .........
......... .........

More Commands

More Commands (cont..):

which - shows the full path of (shell) commands.
SYNOPSIS
which [OPTIONS] programname
DESCRIPTION
Which takes one or more arguments. It searches an executable or
script in the directories listed in the environment variable PATH
Option:
-a Print all matching executables in PATH, not just the first
Example of which


whereis - locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a
command
SYNOPSIS
whereis [OPTIONS] filename
DESCRIPTION
whereis locates source/binary and manuals sections for specified
files. Whereis then attempts to locate the desired program in a list of
standard Linux places.
Options:
-b Search only for binaries
-m Search only for manual sections
-s Search only for sources


file - determine file type
SYNOPSIS
file filename .....
DESCRIPTION
File command displays the type of the file, which can be on of the
following:
● Text
● Executable
● Data
stat – display file or file system status

SYNOPSIS
stat filename .....
DESCRIPTION
Displays statistics about the file like, its size, IO blocks,
ownership, time stamps, e.t.c.

wc – prints number of newlines, words, and bytes in a file
clear – clear the terminal screen

shutdown – When used with -h option, halts the system
shutdown – When used with -r option, reboots the system

bc – An interactive calculator program

More Commands:
find - search for files in a directory hierarchy
SYNOPSIS
find [OPTIONS] [path...] [expression]
DESCRIPTION
GNU find searches the directory tree rooted at each given file
name by evaluating the given expression from left to right, according
to the rules of precedence.
Example of find
1.Search for a file named file1 from /home/arif
find /home/arif/ -name file1
2.Search for a file named file1 in your entire file system
find / -name file1


date - print or set the system date and time
SYNOPSIS
date [OPTION]... [+FORMAT]
DESCRIPTION
Display the current time in the given FORMAT, or set the system
date.
Examples of date
To display the current date and time
date
To change the date and time
date MMDDhhmmYY
To set date you must be a root user


cal - displays a calendar
SYNOPSIS
cal [OPTIONS] [[month] year]
DESCRIPTION
Cal displays a simple calendar. If arguments are not specified, the current
month is displayed. The options are as follows:
Options:
-s Display Sunday as the first day of the week. (This is the default.)
-1 Display single month output. (This is the default.)
-3 Display prev/current/next month output.
-y Display a calendar for the current year.


Example of cal


diff - compare files line by line
SYNOPSIS
diff [OPTIONS] files
DESCRIPTION
Compare files line by line.
Options:
-i Ignore case differences in file contents
-E Ignore changes due to tab expansion
-b Ignore changes in the amount of white space
-B Ignore changes whose lines are all blank


Example of diff


grep - print lines matching a pattern
SYNOPSIS
grep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE]
DESCRIPTION
grep searches the named input FILEs (or standard input if no
files are named, or if a single hyphen-minus (-) is given as file name)
for lines containing a match to the given PATTERN. By default,
grep prints the matching lines.
Options:
-f FILE, Obtain patterns from FILE, one per line. The empty file
contains zero patterns, and therefore matches nothing.
-i, Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input
files. (-i is specified by POSIX.)


Example of grep


sort - sort lines of text files
SYNOPSIS
sort [OPTION]... [FILE]
DESCRIPTION
Write sorted concatenation of all FILE(s) to standard output.
Options:
-r, reverse the result of comparisons
Examples of sort


tar - The GNU version of the tar archiving utility
SYNOPSIS
tar [OPTIONS] [FILES]
DESCRIPTION
GNU `tar' (tape archive) saves many files/directories together
into a single tape or disk archive, and can restore individual files
from the archive.
Options:
-c, create a new archive
-r, append files to the end of an archive
-t, list the contents of an archive
-x, extract files from an archive
-f, use archive file or device ARCHIVE
-v, verbosely list files processed
-z, filter the archive through gzip

Following tar command will create an archive mywork.tar. The original
files/dirs remain intact
$tar cvf mywork.tar space-separated-files/dirs-names
Following tar command is used to inspect the contents of an archive

$tar tvf mywork.tar
Following tar command will extract the original files/dirs from the
archive mywork.tar. Before extraction, your pwd must be the target
directory, because tar always extracts to current directory
$tar xvf mywork.tar


Compressing Files
● Reduction in size of a file is known as file compression
● Advantages
● Less disk space
● Less time to transmit over network
● Less time to copy
● Not readable
● Following command will compress file1 to file1.gz and file2 to

file2.gz. Original files are replaced with the compressed files
$gzip file1 file2
● Following command will uncompress file1.gz and file2.gz.
$gzip file1.gz file2.gz

● bzip2 and bzip2 are newer utilities for compression, used in the
same way as gzip

Wild Cards

Wild Cards
When you give the shell abbreviated filenames that contain special
characters, also called metacharacters, the shell can generate
filenames that match the names of existing files. These special
characters are also referred to as wildcards because they act as the
jokers do in a deck of cards.
Special Characters:
● ?
● *
● []

Wild Cards(cont..)
The ? Special Character
The question mark (?) causes the shell to generate filenames.
It matches any single character in the name of an existing file.
Example:
The * Special Character

The asterisk (*) performs a function similar to that of the
question mark but matches any number of characters, including
zero characters, in a filename.
Example:

Wild Cards(cont..)
The [] Special Character
Using [], pair of brackets the shell matches all the characters
with the file name that is included in the pair of brackets.
Examples:
From page1-page6, we just
want to list page2, page3, page6
We want to list page1 - page4

Things to do!
If you have problems visit me in counseling hours. . . .


Lecture # 3,4 (Basic Shell Command, Ubento)

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Instructor: Arif Butt.

TA: Dilawer Hussain.

Course: Introduction to Computing

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT)

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 2

Shell & Commands Basics

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 3

Bash Shell Prompt

Username Machine Name

Present Working Directory. Type of User. '>'

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 4

General Command Format

Command Options Option argument(s) Command argument(s)

One or more optional modifiers

One or more objects

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 5

How Command Executes (Flow Chart)

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 6

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 7

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 8

Basic Commands (cont..):

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 9

Basic Commands (cont..):

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 10

Basic Commands (cont..):

whoami - print name of current logged user

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

cd[space].. - is used to go one step back in directory hiererchy.

Cd – by simply typing (cd) the prompt will go to the home directory of

As a root user, home

Punjab University College of Information Technology (PUCIT) 13

Basic Commands (cont..):

Using rmdir a/b/c will

Basic Commands (cont..):

Touch command also makes a

Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

dir1 is not empty

Use -r option for this case

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):

Basic Commands (cont..):

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Basic Commands (cont..):