A Linux Workbook 1

Geoffrey Robertson
[email protected]

October 13, 2002

1
Copyright c 2002 Geoffrey Robertson. Permission is granted to make and distribute ver-
batim copies or modified versions of this document provided that this copyright notice and this
permission notice are preserved on all copies under the terms of the GNU General Public Li-
cense as published by the Free Software Foundation—either version 2 of the License or (at your
option) any later version.
2
Contents

I Installing Linux 11
1 13

2 Linux install: RH7.0 15

2.1 system requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 system information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 RTFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4 making space for Linux using the fips utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5 make a boot floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.6 starting the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.7 installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.8 check the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.9 personal recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.10 Further configuration of X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.11 start reading and doing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

II Using the bash Shell 21

3 Using command aliases 23
3.1 Creating aliases in the shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 alias example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.3 Creating aliases in .bashrc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.4 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

III Basics 27
4 Navigating the Filesystem 29
4.1 Basic Filesystem Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 Exercise in navigating a filesystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2.1 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5 Startup and Shutdown 33

5.1 Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.1 boot floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.2 LILO in the master boot record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.3 LILO in the first sector of the boot partition . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.2 Shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

3
4 CONTENTS

5.2.1 The shutdown command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.2.2 Ways not to shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6 Setting Up User Accounts 35

6.1 Using the useradd utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.1.1 Practical Exercise—Add a user account for yourself . . . . . 35
6.2 Editing /etc/passwd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.2.1 Practical Exercise for adding a new user manually . . . . . . 36
6.3 The adduser utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.3.1 Practical Exercise (not on Red Hat) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.4 The linuxconf GUI utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.4.1 Practical Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.5 GUI tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

IV Filesystem Basics 39
7 Using DOS floppies with mtools 41
7.1 mtools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.2 Exercise in using mtools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.2.1 mdir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.2.2 mcd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.2.3 mtype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.2.4 mcopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.2.5 mdel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.2.6 mformat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.3 Further Information... rtfm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.3.1 usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.3.2 man pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.3.3 info pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.3.4 usr/doc/mtools-3.9.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

8 Journaling filesystems 45
8.0.5 Gather information about your filesystems . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8.0.6 Convert the root filesystem to ext3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

V Rescue Disks 47
9 tomsrtbt 49
9.0 Some small Linux distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
9.1 Installing tomsrtbt onto a floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
9.1.1 Install from an existing tomsrtbt floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
9.1.2 Install from a tomsrtbt download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
9.2 Booting tomsrtbt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
9.3 Explore the virtual consoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
9.4 Command line gibberish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
9.5 Replacing LILO in the mbr with tomsrtbt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
9.6 using fdisk with tomsrtbt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
9.6.1 exercise using fdisk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
CONTENTS 5

9.7 Using tomsrtbt to edit a file on a data floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

9.7.1 mount a data floppy disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
9.7.2 Editing a file on the floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
9.8 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

VI Manipulating Text 55

10 UNIX and DOS Line Endings 57

10.1 Text Files on Various Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10.1.1 End of Line Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10.1.2 Text Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10.2 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

11 Manipulating Text 61
11.1 Displaying Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
11.2 Create a text file and manipulate the text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
11.3 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

VII Dealing with Files 65

12 File Compression 67
12.1 compress and uncompress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
12.2 zip and unzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
12.3 gzip and gunzip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
12.4 bzip2 and bunzip2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

13 tar basics 71
13.1 tar—from the GNU man page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
13.2 Simple example: creating then extracting a tarball . . . . . . . . . . . 71
13.3 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
13.3.1 tar Function Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
13.3.2 A few popular tar options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
13.4 Practical Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

VIII Installing Software 73

14 Installing software form a source tarball 75

14.1 the tarball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
14.2 source tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
14.3 compile and install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
14.4 Using the application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

15 Using rpms and the RedHat Package Manager 79

6 CONTENTS

IX Emacs 81
16 emacs tutorial 83
16.1 what to do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
16.2 emacs key naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
16.3 A Few Essential Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
16.4 Starting GNU emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
16.5 Exercise: Breaking the Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
16.6 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
16.7 speedbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
16.7.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
16.8 the built in tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
16.8.1 Viewing Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
16.8.2 Basic Cursor Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
16.8.3 Cancel the Current Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
16.8.4 Disabled Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
16.9 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.10Inserting and Deleting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.10.1 Deleting characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.10.2 Marking sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.10.3 Undo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.11Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.12Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
16.13Mode Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

X Inroduction 91
17 using vi 93
17.1 you must be able to use vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
17.2 writing a new file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
17.2.1 entering text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
17.2.2 save your work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
17.2.3 quit from vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
17.3 view a file without changing it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
17.4 edit an existing file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
17.5 emacs viper mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
17.6 want to know more? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
17.7 Vi Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

18 File Permissions 99
18.1 File Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
18.2 Directory Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
18.3 ls -l is your friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
18.4 Numeric Equivalents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
18.5 chown & chgrp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
18.6 Practical Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
18.6.1 File permissions and the root user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
18.6.2 File permissions and a normal user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
18.6.3 Umask exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
CONTENTS 7

19 Inodes and links 105

19.1 Make some files and directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
19.2 File permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
19.3 Hard and soft links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
19.4 Groups – /etc/group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

20 mounting file systems 109

20.1 The Linux file system and removable media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
20.1.1 Mounting and unmounting volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
20.1.2 The filesystem table: /etc/fstab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
20.1.3 /etc/mtab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
20.1.4 other file system commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
20.2 Lab Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
20.2.1 Examine the file system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
20.2.2 Floppy disk exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
20.2.3 CDROM exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
20.2.4 Hard disk partition exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

XI Programming 115
21 "Hello, world!" with gcc and vi 117
21.1 Make a directory for your c programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
21.2 Write a ‘Hello, world! source file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
21.3 Compile to the a.out binary executable with the GNU compiler . . . . 118
21.4 Running your executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
21.5 Write a C language program using vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

22 ”Hello would!” with gcc 119

22.1 Make a directory for your c programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
22.2 Write a ‘Hello, world! source file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
22.3 Compile to the a.out binary executable with the GNU compiler . . . . 120
22.4 Running your executable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
22.5 Programming from emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
22.6 Write out what these 15 commands do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
22.7 Write a C language program using emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

XII Networking 123

23 LAN Setup in Room C222 (RH73) 125
23.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
23.2 Nobrainer Network Setup for RedHat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
23.3 Loading a NIC Driver Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
23.4 Command Line Tools for Managing Kernel Modules . . . . . . . . . 126
23.5 Set Network IP Parameters for Static IP Addresses . . . . . . . . . . 127
23.5.1 Configure the /etc/hosts file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
23.5.2 Network Configuration tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
23.5.3 Setting IP addresses Using netconfig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
23.5.4 Setting IP addresses Using the neat click-o-rama . . . . . . 129
8 CONTENTS

24 Basic Network Commandline Tools 131

25 133

26 Cabling 135
26.1 Crimping RJ45 connectors onto Cat 5 cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
26.1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
26.1.2 Crosover Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

27 networking text tools 137

27.1 configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
27.1.1 configuration files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
27.1.2 /etc/resolv.conf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
27.1.3 /etc/host.conf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
27.1.4 /etc/hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
27.1.5 /etc/HOSTNAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
27.1.6 installing a NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
27.1.7 restarting inetd or xinetd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
27.2 GUI configuration tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
27.3 checking and testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
27.3.1 ifconfig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
27.3.2 the IP routing table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
27.3.3 view TCP traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
27.3.4 ping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
27.4 practical exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
27.4.1 command line tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
27.4.2 GUI tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
27.5 remote login: telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
27.6 file transfer: FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
27.7 using email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
27.8 exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

28 Login to a Remote Host using telnet 145

28.1 warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
28.2 logging into a remote host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
28.3 exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

29 Transfer Files Between Hosts Using ftp 147

29.1 file transfer protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
29.1.1 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
29.1.2 connecting to a remote host with ftp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
29.1.3 Getting help with ftp commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
29.1.4 finishing an ftp session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
29.2 Practical exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
29.2.1 Exercise 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
29.2.2 Exercise 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
CONTENTS 9

30 Using Secure Shell—ssh 151

30.1 Install and setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
30.2 Using an ssh client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
30.2.1 Logging in to a remote host using ssh . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
30.2.2 First time ssh login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
30.3 Using Secure Copy—scp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
30.3.1 Copying files to a remote host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
30.3.2 Copying files from a remote host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
30.4 Exercise in using ssh and scp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

31 talk 155
31.1 talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
31.2 enabling talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.2.1 enable the service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.2.2 restart the network daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.3 using talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.3.1 establishing a talk connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.3.2 replying to a talk request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.3.3 communicating with talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.3.4 finishing a talk session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
31.4 multi way talk sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

32 Network File System—nfs 157

32.1 Using an nfs client to mount directories files on a remote host . . . . 157

33 nfs 159
33.1 Server configuration—nfsd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
33.1.1 The nfs and nfsd modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
33.1.2 Set exported directories in /etc/exports . . . . . . . . . 159
33.1.3 Services required to run an nfs server . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
33.2 nfs client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
33.3 Practical Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

34 163

XIII Graphics 165

35 The Gimp 167
35.1 Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
35.2 File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
35.3 Exercise: Make a logo with script-fu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

36 xfig: vector drawing 169

36.1 documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
36.2 display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
36.3 starting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
36.4 creating xfig drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
36.4.1 scribble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
36.4.2 draw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
36.4.3 draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
10 CONTENTS

37 171
 Part I

Installing Linux

11
Chapter 1

13
14 CHAPTER 1.
Chapter 2

Linux install: RH7.0

This Document: Install Linux from a local CDROM

note 1: This exercise is based on Red Hat 7.0

note 2: The instruction books come with a purchased boxed set of Red Hat Linux.
HTML documentation is included on the Red Hat 7.0 cdrom number 5. See
section RTFM below.
note 3: The procedures described in this document may result in the loss of all data on
your computer. Back up all important data before proceeding.

2.1 system requirements

You will need the following as an absolute minimum:

a Linux distribution on CDROM

a blank floppy or two or four

a suitable computer
– 486DX2 or better
– CD ROM drive
– 8 Mb of RAM or better
– 150 MB hard disk free, preferably more

time and patience

brain turned on

2.2 system information

Gather and record pertinent information about the system
Fill in the sheet “Installation Target Hardware Survey”
Fill in the sheet “Systems Requirement Table”
/cd5/RH-DOCS/rhl-ig-en-7.0/ch-table.html

15
16 CHAPTER 2. LINUX INSTALL: RH7.0

2.3 RTFM
Read the file called README on the first distribution CD.
Extensive documentation is on CD number 5. Open this document in your HTML
browser.
/cd5/RH-DOCS/index-en.html

The Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide

The Official Red Hat Linux Installation Guide

The Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide
If you don’t have Red Hat 7.0 CD number 5 then you can access all the documentation
on the distribution home pages. Read it.

2.4 making space for Linux using the fips utility

This is required if you have a legacy operating system using a fat or fat32 file system
taking up all the room on you hard disk and wish to keep it.
Note: Partition resizing may be performed on the fly during installation on many dis-
tributions.

De-fragment the partition that you wish to shrink;

read the fips documents in d:\dosutils\;

make a DOS boot floppy;

copy the appropriate files to the floppy from the distribution CD to the floppy -
fips.exe, errors.txt and restorrb.exe;

boot the floppy;

launch fips: A:\> fips;

follow the instructions and remember that losing the contents of your hard drive
can ruin your whole day.

2.5 make a boot floppy

Make a Linux boot disk using ”rawrite” if you do not have a BIOS capable of booting
the CDROM

boot the DOG (MS-DOS)

insert a blank formatted floppy in the a: drive

at the dos prompt: (assuming D: is the drive letter of the CDROM)

C:\> d:
D:\> cd dosutils
D:\dosutils> rawrite
- D:\images\boot.img
- a:
2.6. STARTING THE INSTALLATION 17

2.6 starting the installation

place the Linux distribution CDROM in the drive

place the Linux boot disk in the a: drive (if needed)

boot from the CDROM (or floppy)

answer the questions on your screen correctly ;-)

2.7 installing
The Red Hat 7.0 installer presents the user with a series of screens with questions to be
answered and formes to be filled in. The following points might guide you through.

1. Choose a Language: English

2. Keyboard configuration: Generic 101-key PC, US English

3. Mouse configuration: Probably auto detected

4. Read the Welcome screen help

5. Installation Type: Custom System

6. Partitioning: Manual with Disk Druid

hda1 DOS / WinThing

hda5 Linux Swap (128M)
hda6 Linux / (Available room)

7. Format: /

8. Lilo configuration:

Create a boot disk

Boot from MBR

Winthing default

9. Network Configuration These settings are Class C static addresses.

IP Address 192.168.1.7 (for the 7th box)

Netmask 255.255.255.0
Network 192.168.1.0
Broadcast 192.168.1.255
Hostname box7 (for the 7th box)
Gateway
Primary DNS
secondary DNS
Tertiary DNS
18 CHAPTER 2. LINUX INSTALL: RH7.0

10. Time Zone Selection: Sydney Australia (not UTC if dual boot with WinThing)

11. Account Configuration:

Root Password square

User Account add your login name and password

12. Authentication Configuration: Enable MD5 and shadow passwords

13. Package Group Selection: Choose only the packages listed below and deselect
all the others:

Printer Support

X Window System

GNOME

Mail/WWW/News Tools

DOS/Windows connectivity

Graphics Manipulation

Multimedia Support

Networked Workstation

Dial-up Workstation

Network Management workstation

Authoring/Publication

Emacs

Development

Utilities

14. Monitor Configuration: choose your monitor

15. X Configuration: choose your video card and deselect “Use Graphical Login”.
Test your configuration.

16. About to Install: Next

17. Boot disk Iqnstallation: An emergency rescue disk is your friend.

2.8 check the installation

check that LILO boots by default into the pre-installed legacy commercial oper-
ating systems

boot the system into your old OS’s to check that they’re okay

boot to Linux and log on as root

setup a user account: # useradd yourname

give yourself a password # passwd yorname
2.9. PERSONAL RECOVERY 19

login as you on another virtual terminal (ALT F2 say) login with your new
user name, explore and enjoy

try this:
– $ cd somewhere changes directory up to somewhere
– $ cd .. goes back
– $ ls -al lists the details of the files in ”.”
– $ man foo tells you about ”foo”
– $ apropos bar may tell you something about ”bar”
– try $ info and graze on the juicy info here

2.9 personal recovery

If you found the installation stressful you may need to discuss it with the “doctor”.
Start emacs: $ emacs
In emacs type; [esc] x doctor [enter]

2.10 Further configuration of X

Set up mouse screen etc. several choices of setup programs:

# setup

# XF86Setup

# Xconfigurator

# xf86config

hack the config files directly

2.11 start reading and doing

You will probably need a book... have a look at
Running Linux
published by O’Reilly
20 CHAPTER 2. LINUX INSTALL: RH7.0
 Part II

Using the bash Shell

21
Chapter 3

Using command aliases

ALIASES allow a string to be substituted for a word when it is used as the first word
of a simple command. The shell maintains a list of aliases that may be set and unset
with the ‘alias’ and ‘unalias’ builtin commands.

Example
An alias for the command ls -F may be set thus:
$ lf 
bash: lf: command not found

$ alias lf=’ls -F’ 

$ lf 
install_.sh* manipulating.text/ test/
cvstest/ misc102.doc test2*
Note that the alias for $ lf  is only defined in this shell.

3.1 Creating aliases in the shell

In bash an alias is a user-defined abbreviation for a command.

Setting an alias from the command line:

$ alias m=more 

$ alias ll="ls -l" 
$ alias ls=’ls -F’ 
The quotes are used to hide the white space—single quotes are preferred.

Delete an alias:

$ unalias ll 

Temporally unset an alias (use the original command):
$ \ls

23
24 CHAPTER 3. USING COMMAND ALIASES

3.2 alias example

$ ls
file0 file1 link.file mydir
$ ls -F
file0 file1* link.file@ mydir/

$ alias ls=’ls -F’

$ ls
file0 file1* link.file@ mydir/
$ \ls
file0 file1 link.file mydir

$ ls
file0 file1* link.file@ mydir/

$ unalias ls
$ ls
file0 file1 link.file mydir

3.3 Creating aliases in .bashrc

Aliases are usually set in the users bash configuration file .bashrc. This file is
sourced when a new shell is started.

$ tail -n 5 .bashrc 

alias ll=’ls -l’
alias ls=’ls -F’
alias rm=’rm -i’
alias emacs=’emacs -font 6x13’

3.4 Exercise
In an interactive bash session:
1. Create an alias for ls -alF called ls.
2. Try it out on a few directories.
3. Check that $  ls  makes ls revert to it’s normal unaliased behavior.
4. Delete the alias with the unalias command.
5. Check that it no longer works.
6. Append an alias to your .bashrc file thus:


$ echo -e " nalias ls=’ls -alF’ n" >> ˜/.bashrc  
7. check that it got there: $ cat ˜/.bashrc 
3.4. EXERCISE 25

8. Try it from your current shell (it won’t work yet);

9. Source the .bashrc file: $ . .bashrc 
10. Log out with a C-D (that’s Control D), log back in and try it from a new shell.
11. How does ls differ from $ \ls? Why is it different?
26 CHAPTER 3. USING COMMAND ALIASES
Part III

Basics

27
Chapter 4

Navigating the Filesystem

4.1 Basic Filesystem Commands

There are a handfull of commands required for navigating a filesystem:

pwd Print Working Diretory: returns the Current Working Directory

cd Change Directory: Changes your Current Working Directory

ls LiSt: Lists the files and directories in the Current Working Directory
Commands to create and remove files and directories:

touch Create or update the access and modification time of a file

rm Remove a file (or directory)

mkdir Create a directory

rmdir Remove a directory

4.2 Exercise in navigating a filesystem

Login to the system at a text console as a user. Do not do these or any other exercise
logged in as root.

1. Find out where you are with pwd

Print the Working Directory; $ pwd 
prints your current absolute path.
e.g. /home/margrert/exercises

after you login as root you will you find yourself in the /root directory
(or on some systems in the / directory)

if you login as ”foo” you will find yourself at /home/foo
2. Looking at files and directories with list ls

change to the root directory $ cd / 

look: $ ls  ; you see a simple list of files and directories
29
30 CHAPTER 4. NAVIGATING THE FILESYSTEM

list them one to a line $ ls -l 

(-l for long) Note: ll is often
included as an alias to ls -l. Does it work on your system?

note that the ones starting with a d are directories, the ones starting with a
- are regular files and the ones starting with an l are links

hidden files (those starting with a . (dot)) can be viewed using the -a
option; $ ls -al 
to view a long listing including hidden files

3. Changing your current working directory with cd

the change directory command is used e.g. $ cd /usr/share/doc
 this will change your working directory to /usr/shave/doc (btw
what is stored there? you might find it useful later)

change back to the root $ cd ..  steps back to /usr/share and
$ cd ../.. 
steps back to /

change to /lib/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty and explore: some where
here are the key maps for your system. have a look $ ls 

move the root directory with $ cd / 

move to your home directory with $ cd  (shortcut)
4. Creating and removing directories

change directory to your home directory $ cd ˜   will also do this

make a directory called bush; $ mkdir bush 

admire your bush; $ ls -l 

make a directory under bush called branch $ mkdir ./bush/branch


make a directory called twig; $ cd bush  then $ mkdir twig


make a file in twig called leaf; $ cd twig  then
$ cat > leaf 
dum de dum... 
stuff to go in leaf 
ˆD 

have a look in leaf: $ cat leaf 

see what you’ve got $ ls -l 

remove it $ rm -r *  ( -r for recursive, i.e. down the branches)

see what you’ve got left $ ls -l 

back up and remove the bush $ cd ..  then $ rmdir bush 
4.2.1 Questions
1. What does the -l do in $ ls -l  ?
2. What does rm stand for?
3. List three cd commands that get you to you home directory.
4.2. EXERCISE IN NAVIGATING A FILESYSTEM 31

4. pwd stands for:

5. How do you list hidden files?
6. How do you know if a file is a hidden file or not?
7. What command would you use to make a directory called $ /something 
?
8. What command would you use to remove a directory called /something?
9. What does $ cd /  do?
10. What does the command $ cat  some.text  do?

11. What does STDOUT usually represent?

12. What does STDIN usually represent?
32 CHAPTER 4. NAVIGATING THE FILESYSTEM
Chapter 5

Startup and Shutdown

5.1 Startup
There are a few ways of starting Linux

5.1.1 boot floppy

if you made a boot floppy during installation you may use it to start Linux.

you can make a new boot floppy at any time
– find out which kernel you are using:
# uname -a
Linux bim 2.2.5-15 #1 Mon Apr 19 23:00:46 EDT 1999 i686
– make a boot disk:
# mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.2.5-15
– information about bootdisks:
$ man mkbootdisk

5.1.2 LILO in the master boot record

If you installed LILO in the MBR this easiest way of starting Linux

At the startup boot prompt type
boot: linux

5.1.3 LILO in the first sector of the boot partition

This method requires a boot manager to be set up to boot to LILO

Select the Linux partition from your boot loader

5.2 Shutdown
There are a number of acceptable ways of shutting down Linux and two unacceptable
ways
Note that you must be root to shut down the system

33
34 CHAPTER 5. STARTUP AND SHUTDOWN

5.2.1 The shutdown command

# shutdown -h now halts the computer after an orderly shutdown starting
now.

# shutdown -h 5 halts the computer after an orderly shutdown starting in
five minutes. It is possible to broadcast a warning to any users that are logged on
at the time.

# shutdown -r now restarts the computer after an orderly shutdown start-
ing now.

# halt halts the computer after an orderly shutdown starting now

# reboot reboots the computer after an orderly shutdown starting now

Cntl+Alt+Del halts the computer after an orderly shutdown starting now.

5.2.2 Ways not to shutdown

Turning the power off stops Linux now and may damage the file system and
involve a loss of data.

Pressing the reset switch stops Linux now and may damage the file system and
involve a loss of data.
Chapter 6

Setting Up User Accounts

Six ways of adding user accounts

1. useradd, passwd — Fast command line utility
2. editing /etc/passwd — Hack the files
3. adduser — Interactive command line utility (not on Red Hat)
4. linuxconf — Graphical method
5. RedHat GUI tool: redhat-config-users
6. KDE GUI tool: kuser

6.1 Using the useradd utility

The useradd utility suitable for adding users quickly (in bulk or often).

A new user may be added thus:# useradd jblogs

The m option in # useradd -m jbloggs creates a home directory for jbloggs
at /home/jbloggs and copies all the files in /etc/skel to it

Control over /etc/passwd entries comes from other useradd options
e.g. #useradd -m -d /home/joeB -g 511 -c ‘‘Joe Bloggs’’jbloggs
To look at the results of this command in /etc/passwd:
# grep jbloggs /etc/passwd
jbloggs:!:1003:100:Joe Bloggs:/home/jbloggs:

# passwd jbloggs will replace the “!” with a password for joe

6.1.1 Practical Exercise—Add a user account for yourself

Follow these steps to add a user.
1. Add the user and setup the home directory:

# useradd quincy

35
36 CHAPTER 6. SETTING UP USER ACCOUNTS

2. Give the new user a password:

# passwd quincy
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

3. Logon as the new user to test the setup:

$ su - quincy

6.2 Editing /etc/passwd

The text file /etc/passwd may be edited directly using the editor of your choice.
This method is the most basic and would normally be used only as a last resort or on a
specialized simple system.
This does not work as expected if your system uses shaddow passwords. The
/etc/password file and /etc/group files have to be converted to not use shad-
dow passwords before hand editing. They may then be converted back.

Start the editor e.g. # vi /etc/passwd

Add a line at the end starting with the new user name, say jbloggs

Add the rest of the details regarding group, shell etc. and save

Give the user a password: # passwd jbloggs

Warning! Using the # passwd by it’s self will change the root password...
*don’t do it!* please.

6.2.1 Practical Exercise for adding a new user manually

Follow these steps to add a user.
1. Open the file in an editor:

$ su -c ’vi /etc/passwd’
Password:

2. Add 1 a line for joe at the end. Be sure to add a name that does not already exist
and choose a UID and GID that are also new.

joe:!:510:510:Joe Blow:/bin/bash

3. Edit the file /etc/group and add a line for joe:

joe:x:510

4. Make a home directory for joe:

1 In vi i enters insert mode and <ESC> ZZ will save and exit.
6.3. THE ADDUSER UTILITY 37

# mkdir /home/joe

5. Test the new account by loging jo in:

$ su - joe
Password:
joe@mintie:˜$ pwd
/home/joe
joe@mintie:˜$

6.3 The adduser utility

This is an interactive utility for adding users and setting up their accounts. Not available
in Red Hat distributions. Even if it looks as though it’s there.

In Debian:

$ ls -l /usr/sbin/adduser
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 23466 Sep 12 06:08 \
/usr/sbin/adduser*

In Red Hat 7.0:

$ ls -l /usr/sbin/adduser
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Feb 16 12:16 \
/usr/sbin/adduser -> useradd

6.3.1 Practical Exercise (not on Red Hat)

If your distribution supports it use the adduser utility to add a user account. It should
go something like this:
bash-2.04$ su -c "adduser fred"
Password:
Adding user fred...
Adding new group fred (1005).
Adding new user fred (1005) with group fred.
Creating home directory /home/fred.
Copying files from /etc/skel
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for fred
Enter the new value, or press return for the default
Full Name []: Fred Foo
Room Number []: c222
Work Phone []: 1234 5678
Home Phone []: 4321 8765
Other []:
Is the information correct? [y/n] y
bash-2.04$
38 CHAPTER 6. SETTING UP USER ACCOUNTS

6.4 The linuxconf GUI utility

linuxconf is a graphical utility that can be used to set up user accounts.

Open Config - User Accounts, select Normal then User Accounts

Select Add and enter the users details

Select Accept and enter the users password and then Accept again

6.4.1 Practical Exercise

Use linuxconf to setup an account for fred.
1. Start linuxconf in X:

# linuxconf &

2. Click on the little triangles to open up User accounts / Normal / User ac-
counts
3. Click the add button.
4. Add a login name and the full name.
5. Click the accept button.
6. Give fred a password.
7. Logon as fred from another terminal.

6.5 GUI tools

Click and explore then add two users using each of these commands:

redhat-config-users

kuser
 Part IV

Filesystem Basics

39
Chapter 7

Using DOS floppies with

mtools

note 1: These tools are in /usr/bin

note 2: Documented in man mtools, Sobell page 798 and in Linux Unleashed page
1207.
note 3: Obviates the need to mount and umount a DOS floppy file system

7.1 mtools
The mtools commands mimic DOS commands and are useful for working with DOS
files on a floppy disk—for example

mcd – change directory on the DOS disk

mcopy – copies DOS files between directories

mdel – deletes DOS files

mdir – lists DOS directories

mformat – adds DOS formating to a disk

mtype – cats a DOG file

7.2 Exercise in using mtools

This section assumes:

the current working directory is your home directory

you have an unmounted floppy in the drive and that the floppy has on it the
following directories and files:

a:\baz
a:\foo\bar\penguin.txt
a:\foo\bar\rubb.ish

41
42 CHAPTER 7. USING DOS FLOPPIES WITH MTOOLS

you are logged on as fred and you are in your home directory

7.2.1 mdir
Check what’s on the DOS floppy:

[fred@fang fred]$ mdir

Volume in drive A is MTOOLS
Directory for A:/

foo <DIR> 08-25-1999 17:15

baz <DIR> 08-25-1999 17:15
2 files 0 bytes
1 452 032 bytes free
[fred@fang fred]$

7.2.2 mcd
Move around the DOS floppy:

[fred@fang fred]$ mcd foo/bar

[fred@fang fred]$ mdir
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory for A:/foo/bar

. <DIR> 08-25-1999 17:15

.. <DIR> 08-25-1999 17:15
penguin txt 3998 08-16-1999 10:35
rubb ish 81 08-25-1999 18:08
4 files 4 079 bytes
1 452 032 bytes free

7.2.3 mtype
Look at the contents of a file:

[fred@fang fred]$ mtype a:/foo/bar/rubb.ish

This is just a load of rubbish.
Not good for anything..
Just delete it!
Now!!!

7.2.4 mcopy
Copy a file to your current working directory:

[fred@fang fred]$ mcopy a:/foo/bar/rubb.ish ˜/

[fred@fang fred]$ ls
Desktop latex nsmail os2.99-1 perl tomsrtbt
junk.text mike.lake.latex os1 os2.99-2 rubb.ish
7.3. FURTHER INFORMATION... RTFM 43

7.2.5 mdel
Delete files from a DOS floppy:

[fred@fang fred]$ mdel rubb.ish

[fred@fang fred]$ mdir
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory for A:/foo/bar

. <DIR> 08-25-1999 17:15

.. <DIR> 08-25-1999 17:15
penguin txt 3998 08-16-1999 10:35
3 files 3 998 bytes
1 452 032 bytes free

7.2.6 mformat
format a floppy with a DOS file system:

[fred@fang fred]$ mformat

Mtools version 3.9.1, dated 14 May 1998
Usage: mformat [-V] [-t tracks] [-h heads] [-s sectors] [-l label] [-n serialnumber] [
[fred@fang fred]$ mformat a:
[fred@fang fred]$

7.3 Further Information... rtfm

Information about mtools (and many other commands and utilities) can be found in
the following manner.
Try these out on the command of your choice.

7.3.1 usage
A mistake in the usage of a command may result in a usage message.
Here the incorrect option -xxx is used to provoke a usage response:

[fred@fang fred]$ mcopy -xxx

mcopy: invalid option -- x
Mtools version 3.9.1, dated 14 May 1998
Usage: mcopy [-tnmvV] sourcefile targetfile
mcopy [-tnmvV] sourcefile [sourcefiles...] targetdirectory

7.3.2 man pages

A small section of a man page is shown below:

[fred@fang fred]$ man mcopy

...
...
If only a single, MS-DOS source parameter is provided
(e.g. "mcopy a:foo.exe"), an implied destination of the
44 CHAPTER 7. USING DOS FLOPPIES WITH MTOOLS

current directory (‘.’) is assumed.

A filename of ‘-’ means standard input or standard output,

depending on its position on the command line.

Mcopy accepts the following command line options:

b Batch mode. Optimized for huge recursive copies,

...

7.3.3 info pages

This facility displays the man pages in emacs running in info mode.
[fred@fang fred]$ info mcopy
...
...
Mcopy accepts the following command line options:

b Batch mode. Optimized for huge recursive copies,

but less secure if a crash happens during the copy.

/ Recursive copy. Also copies directories and their

contents

p Preserves the attributes of the copied files

...

7.3.4 usr/doc/mtools-3.9.1
Change to the documentation directory and look at some of the documentation
[fred@fang fred]$ cd/usr/doc/mtools-3.9.1
[fred@fang mtools-3.9.1]$ ls
COPYING Changelog README Release.notes mtools.texi
[fred@fang mtools-3.9.1]$ cat README |less
...
Chapter 8

Journaling filesystems

8.0.5 Gather information about your filesystems

The command $ df -hT shows information about the filesystems. The -h option
makes the bytecount in human readable form and the -T option displays the filesystem
types.
$ df -hT 
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7 ext2 11G 8.0G 2.5G 77% /
/dev/hda5 ext2 91M 9.7M 76M 12% /boot
/dev/hda1 vfat 5.9G 2.4G 3.4G 41% /win
/dev/hda9 ext3 8.8G 5.4G 2.9G 65% /home
/dev/cdrom iso9660 647M 647M 0 100% /mnt/cdrom
Viewing the /etc/fstab file will show similar information:

$ cat /etc/fstab 

Note that on this system the /home partition has an ext3 journaling filesystem
whereas / and /boot have ext2 filesystems.

8.0.6 Convert the root filesystem to ext3

1. Determine which partition your root filesystem is on:

2. Add a journal to the root filesystem using the default journal parameters (see
man tune2fs):

$ tune2fs -j /dev/hda5

45
46 CHAPTER 8. JOURNALING FILESYSTEMS
 Part V

Rescue Disks

47
Chapter 9

tomsrtbt

9.0 Some small Linux distributions

1. tomsrtbt — the most Linux on one floppy
http://www.toms.net/rb/

2. Offline NT Password and Registry editor

http://home.eunet.no/˜pnordahl/ntpasswd/

3. Linuxcare Bootable Recovery Disk (CDROM)

http://www.linuxcare.com/

4. Cyote Linux — Linux Router Project

http://www.coyotelinux.com/

9.1 Installing tomsrtbt onto a floppy

9.1.1 Install from an existing tomsrtbt floppy

Boot the tomsrtbt floppy.

Type in ./clone.s and follow the instructions.

9.1.2 Install from a tomsrtbt download

Download the appropriate tomsrtbt package:

Linux: tomsrtbt-1.7.218.tar.gz

DOS: tomsrtbt-1.7.218.dos.zip

49
50 CHAPTER 9. TOMSRTBT

Creating a tomsrtbt floppy on Linux

Unpack your tomsrtbt: tar zxvf tomsrtbt-1.7.218.tar.gz

Change to the tomsrtbt-1.7.218 directory.

Read the file tomsrtbt.FAQ for installation instructions and general information.
# less tomsrtbt.FAQ (q to quit)

Place a blank floppy in the “A:” drive and run the install script: # ./install

Creating a tomsrtbt floppy on MSDOS

Unpack your tomsrtbt: C:\> pkunzip tomsrtbt-1.7.361.dos.zip

Read the file tomsrtbt.FAQ for installation instructions and general information.
C:\> type tomsrtbt.FAQ |more

Place a blank floppy in the “A:” drive and run the install script: C:\> install

9.2 Booting tomsrtbt

Note: It only really makes sense to use tomsrtbt logged in as root.

Place the tomsrtbt floppy in the floppy disk drive and turn the computer on.


Hit Enter at the “boot:” prompt.


Hit Enter to select a video mode to suit your eyes and screen. (0 is for standard
VGA or you could try 6)


Select the default keyboard at the next prompt: Enter

At the “login:” prompt login as root using the password xxxx.

Check that there are four virtual consoles:
Alt-F1, Alt-F2, Alt-F3 and Alt-F4

9.3 Explore the virtual consoles

Linux is a multiuser operating system. You can have multiple logins using virtual
consoles. Try out the four virtual console on tomsrtbt.

Boot tomsrtbt and login (this will be on the first virtual console);

do something, e.g. # ls;

Change to the second virtual console (VC) by pressing <Alt-A2> and login to
it;

start the editor called vi in this new VC:

– press the letter ”i” to enter insert mode (I knew that :p )

– have a scribble on the page ”now is the time dum de dum...)
9.4. COMMAND LINE GIBBERISH 51

– how do you save, where is the help? how do you stop it?
– intuitive huh? devils work, that’s why they call it 6 :)
– we’ll get back to it;

crank up another VC <Alt-F3> and log on;

start the emacs editor: # emacs ... oh *yes*, this looks goood!

type something: ‘‘throw your pants in the air, and pretend
you just don’t care’’;

god uses this editor for all her really important work;

Close you emacs session with C-X C-C (that’s a Control X followed by a Con-
trol C.

move around between the various virtual terminals by pressing <Alt-F2>,
<Alt-F3>, <Alt-F4>

change back to your original login shell on VC-1 by pressing <Alt-F1>

9.4 Command line gibberish

Occasionally your console may print gibberish after being switched to the upper
ASCII character set. To see what this looks like try catting a binary file. For
example: # cat /usr/bin/dmesg. You can switch between character sets
with:

# echo -e "\016" # readable to gibberish

# echo -e "\017" # gibberish to readable

Try out these commands by typing them at the prompt.

9.5 Replacing LILO in the mbr with tomsrtbt

On occasions you may need to replace LILO in the master boot record of your hard
disk. This may happen after a reinstall of WinThing or running the MSDOS command
C:\> FDISK /MBR.
Normally you place LILO in the master boot record using the boot disk you made
during installation. However if your Linux boot rescue disk is lost or damaged you can
use tomsrtbt or some other system on bootable media to fix your mbr.
This procedure assumes that your Linux root partition is on /dev/hda5. You may
need to run fdisk to determine which partition is root for your system.
1. Boot the tomsrtbt system.
2. Mount the Linux root partition: (YMMV)

# mount -t ext2 /dev/hda5 /mnt && sync

3. Change the root of the filesystem to be the partition you just mounted and start a
shell from the system on the hard disk:
52 CHAPTER 9. TOMSRTBT

# chroot /mnt /bin/bash2

4. Run the LILO command:

# lilo

5. Kill the shell running from the system on the hard drive:

# exit

6. Unmount the filesystem and reboot from the hard drive:

# umount /mnt && shutdown -r now

The system should now boot using LILO from the hard drive.
Alterntive method, enter: /mnt/sbin/lilo -r /mnt

9.6 using fdisk with tomsrtbt

One important administrative task that requires a tool like tomsrtbt is using fdisk to
look at and alter disk partitions. It is very easy to trash your hard disk, so be very
careful.
Warning: For the purposes of this exercise you must quit fdisk with a q: quit
without saving changes.

9.6.1 exercise using fdisk

Start fdisk: # fdisk /dev/hda

Check the menu: m

Look at partitions on your disk: p

List the possible partitions types: l

Quit without saving any changes: q

9.7 Using tomsrtbt to edit a file on a data floppy

9.7.1 mount a data floppy disk

Once tomsrtbt has booted and you have logged in remove the tomsrtbt floppy
and replace it with a blank MSDOS formatted floppy.

Mount the floppy:

# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /fl

Check that it’s mounted:

# mount
...
/dev/fd0 on /fl type msdos (rw)
9.7. USING TOMSRTBT TO EDIT A FILE ON A DATA FLOPPY 53

9.7.2 Editing a file on the floppy

Change your cwd to the floppy disk and have a look around:

# cd /fl
# ls

Add a directory and change to it:

# mkdir mydir && cd $_

Open a new file in Chet’s emacs

# ce answers.txt

Answer the questions in the section headed Questions below by typing the an-
swers into the file answers.txt and save it.
54 CHAPTER 9. TOMSRTBT

9.8 Questions
Answer these questions by typing the answers into a file created on a floppy disk using
Chet’s emacs.
1. Which Linux kernel does tomsrtbt use? (Hint: # dmesg | more)
2. What is different about the sbin directory as compared with the other first level
directories?

3. In which directory is the dd command stored?

4. What does the mount command show when issued with no arguments?
5. List the subdirectories under /usr.
6. Are there many man pages on a tomsrtbt? Hint: find them and have a look.
7. In which directories are most of the Linux commands kept?
8. List the files in the directory /usr/doc.
9. What type of files are kept in /etc?
10. What type of hard disk is on your system? Hint: have a look at the boot up
messages. # dmesg |less
 Part VI

Manipulating Text

55
Chapter 10

UNIX and DOS Line Endings

10.1 Text Files on Various Operating Systems

Unix, DOS and Mac use different characters to end each line of text. So text files have
to be “translated” between the three operating systems.
An ASCII carriage return <cr> is a hexadecimal 0x0D.
An ASCII line feed <lf> is a hexadecimal 0x0A.

10.1.1 End of Line Characters

A DOS, WINDOWS 3.x, 95, 98, me, NT, 2000 file looks like this:
first line<cr><lf>
second line<cr><lf>
<cr><lf>
last line<cr><lf>
ˆZ

A UNIX / Linux file looks like this:
first line<lf>
second line<lf>
<lf>
last line<lf>

10.1.2 Text Conversions

Reference: http://kb.indiana.edu/data/acux.html
There are many tools that may be used to convert text files from UNIX line endings to
DOS line endings and vice versa. The Control-Z required at the end of a DOS text file
may be added from the command line thus:
$ echo -en "\32" >> dosfile.txt
You can view a text file with this command:
$ od -bc textfile
Should you need to do these conversions using tomsrtbt use awk as the other tools are
not available or broken.

57
58 CHAPTER 10. UNIX AND DOS LINE ENDINGS

UNIX to DOS
sed: $ sed ’s/$/ˆM/’ unixfile.txt > dosfile.txt
Note: the ˆM is produced by C-V C-M

awk: $ awk ’sub("$", "\r")’ < unixfile.txt > dosfile.txt

Perl: $ perl -p -e ’s/$/\r/’ < unixfile.txt > dosfile.txt

emacs: M-% C-q C-j RET C-q C-m C-q C-j RET !
Note Add a Control-Z at the end of the file in emacs with C-q C-z.

mcopy: $ mcopy -t unixfile.txt a:/dosfile.txt

DOS to UNIX
tr: $ tr -d ’\15\32’ < dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt

sed: $ sed ’s/ˆM//’ dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt

awk: $ awk ’{ sub("\r$", ""); print }’ dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt

Perl: $ perl -p -e ’s/\r$//’ < dosfile.txt > unixfile.txt

emacs: First open the file in emacs using the find-file-literally option:

$ emacs 
M-% find-file-literally 
Find file literally: ˜/my.MS_DOG.txt 
M-% C-q C-m RET RET !

Then delete the ˆZ at the end of the document if there is one.

Note: Liberal use of the <TAB> key in the emacs mini-buffer will make your
life in emacs easier.

mcopy: $ mcopy -t a:/dosfile.txt unixfile.txt

Exercise in Converting Text Files Between Unix and DOS

Create a text file (ˆD is a C-D)

$ cat >text.unix
dum de
dum
ˆD

View it: (check out $ man od)

$ od -bc text.unix
0000000 144 165 155 040 144 145 012 144 165 155 012
d u m d e \n d u m \n

Convert the line endings with sed:
10.1. TEXT FILES ON VARIOUS OPERATING SYSTEMS 59

$ sed ’s/$/ˆM/’ text.unix > text.dos

Add a ˆZ to the end:

$ echo -en "\32" >> text.dos

Have a look:

$ od -bc text.dos
0000000 144 165 155 040 144 145 015 012 144 165 155 015 012 032
d u m d e \r \n d u m \r \n 032

Open emacs.

Visit the MS-DOG formatted file:

M-% find-file-literally 

Find file literally: ˜/my.MS_DOG.txt 

Convert the file back to Unix format:

M-% C-q C-m RET RET !

Try out the other tools to convert between Unix and DOS line endings.
60 CHAPTER 10. UNIX AND DOS LINE ENDINGS

10.2 Questions
Answer these questions by typing the answers into a file created on a floppy disk using
Chet’s emacs.
1.
Chapter 11

Manipulating Text

11.1 Displaying Text

At a bash command prompt in a virtual terminal or in an xterm follow these steps.

Create a file called letters containing all the letters of the alphabet, lower case
then uppercase. The file should be 52 lines long.

$ cat > letters 

a
b
c
...
Z
ˆD

Count the lines in the file:

$ wc -l letters 

Display the file using cat:

$ cat < letters 

Display the file a page at a time using more (the space bar displays the next
page:

$ more letters 

or
$ more letters  

Display the file a page at a time using less (the arrow keys move both up and
down the file, the q key to quit:

$ less letters 

Display only the first 10 lines:

61
62 CHAPTER 11. MANIPULATING TEXT

$ head letters 

Display only the last 10 lines:

$ tail letters 

System administrators can monitor updates to the system log files using a com-
mand like this (note that I used a \ character to continue my command on the
next line:

$ su -c ’tail -f -n5 \
/var/log/messages’ 

List the first 12 lines with line numbers:

$ head -n12 letters | nl 

$ 

11.2 Create a text file and manipulate the text

At a bash command prompt in a virtual terminal or in an xterm follow these steps.

Create a file called fruit containing the following text:

$ cat > fruit 

blood plum
nashi pear
delicious apple
sugar banana
sultana grape
valencia orange
seville mandarin
ˆD

Print out the file to STDOUT:

$ cat < fruit 

Note that this shorthand syntax does the same thing:

$ cat fruit 

Print the sorted fruit to the screen:

$ sort < fruit 

Direct the sorted fruit to a new file:

$ sort < fruit > sorted.fruit 

11.3. QUESTIONS 63

Check out the new file:

$ cat < sorted.fruit 

Copy the unsorted fruit to a new file called two.fruit:

$ cp fruit two.fruit 

Add a list of sorted fruit to the two.fruit file:

$ cat < sorted.fruit >> \

two.fruit 

Look at the file:

$ cat two.fruit 

Look at the second field of each line (apple, banana etc):

$ cut -d’ ’ -f2 fruit 

Pipe the descriptions to sort and save the result:

$ cut -d’ ’ -f1 fruit | sort > \

fruit.descriptions 

Have a look to check:

$ cat fruit.descriptions 

List the user’s homes from the sixth field the /etc/passwd file:

$ cut -d’:’ -f6 /etc/passwd 

11.3 Questions
1. What is the token used to add (append) to a file?

2. What command would print the contents of the file hello.c to the screen?

3. How can you use cat to copy the file one.a to the file two.a?

4. How do you determine how many words there are in a file? (see $ man wc)

5. The file a.file contains a list of products, one per line. What command would
give a count of the number of products?
64 CHAPTER 11. MANIPULATING TEXT

6. What command would print a list of the words beginning each line of the file
called stuff in reverse alphabetical order? (hint: try $ man sort)

7. Three numbers are returned by the command $ wc my.file. What do the

three numbers represent?

8. If a file is made up of lines with fields separated by colons, how would you save
all of the third fields to a file called thirds.text?

9. Create a file containing the following names.

George Pitman
Jenni Penny
Joe Blow
Mary Contrary
Antonia Lexis

(a) Sort the names in reverse order by the family names.

(b) Display a count of the characters in the file.
(c) Save a list of the first names in a file called names.first
 Part VII

Dealing with Files

65
Chapter 12

File Compression

Document Description: Exercise in using file various compression utilities.

References Read the man pages for compress, uncompress, zip, unzip, gzip,
gunzip, bzip2, bunzip2, funzip, zipcloak, zipgrep, zip-info,
zipnote, zipsplit, zcat, bzcat, zless.

Instructions: Read through these notes and do the practical exercises in each section.

File compression is used to minimise the amount of storage space a file occupies and to
reduce the time it takes to be transmitted over a network. Commonly used on archived
files for backup and long term storage.

12.1 compress and uncompress

Files compressed with the utility compress are given the .Z extension.

Make a text file to practice compression on:

$ man man -7 >man.txt 

check the size of man.txt

$ ls -l man.txt 
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 30095 May 13 18:55 man.txt

compress it:

$ compress man.txt 

check the size of man.txt.Z

$ ls -l man.txt 
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 12874 May 13 18:55 man.txt.Z

View the compressed file with zcat:

67
68 CHAPTER 12. FILE COMPRESSION

$ zcat man.txt.Z |less 

Uncompress the file:

$ uncompress man.txt.Z 

What is the compression ratio between man.txt and man.txt.Z? How does it com-
pare with the compression of a binary file?

12.2 zip and unzip

The zip and unzip utilities are compatible with the MSDOG utilities PKZIP and
PKUNZIP (Phil Katz zip.

Archives and compresses (similar to compress and tar);

Not very efficient or fast; (= to compress)

ported to most platforms:

– WinNT
– Atari
– Mac OS
– VMS
– UNIX
– OS/2
– Amiga

See also funzip, zipcloak, zipgrep, zip-info, zipnote and zipsplit.

12.3 gzip and gunzip

Files compressed with the utility gzip are given the .gz extension. gunzip can currently
decompress files created by gzip, zip, compress, compress -H or pack.

Make a text file to practice compression on (the -7 may not work on your system;
leave it out):

$ man gzip -7 > gzip.txt 

check the size of gzip.txt

$ ls -l gzip.txt 
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 18307 May 13 22:19 gzip.txt

compress it:

$ gzip gzip.txt 

12.4. BZIP2 AND BUNZIP2 69

check the results of thegzip compression.

$ ls -l .txt 
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 6404 May 13 22:19 gzip.txt.gz

View the compressed file with zcat:

$ zcat gzip.txt.gz |less 

list the details of the compression:

$ gzip -l gzip.txt.gz
compressed uncompr. ratio uncompressed_name
6404 18307 65.1% gzip.txt

Uncompress the file:

$ gunzip gzip.txt.gz 

12.4 bzip2 and bunzip2

The bzip2 compression utility is an advanced high performance compression utility.
It produces files with the .bz2 extension.

Make a text file to practice compression upon:

$ man bzip2 -7 >bzip2.txt 

check the size of bzip2.txt

$ ls -l bzip2.txt 
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 19367 May 13 22:56 bzip2.txt

compress it:

$ bzip2 bzip2.txt 

check the results of thebzip2 compression.

$ ls -l bzip2.txt.bz2 
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 6469 May 13 22:56 bzip2.txt.bz2

View the compressed file with zcat:

$ bzcat bzip2.txt.bz2 |less 

Uncompress the file:

$ bunzip2 bzip2.txt.bz2 

The bz2recover utility may be used to recover data from damaged bz2 com-
pressed files.
70 CHAPTER 12. FILE COMPRESSION
Chapter 13

tar basics

Document Description: exercise in using the tape archive command tar

References man tar and info tar
Instructions:

Read through these notes on tar;

Do the practical exercise in section 13.4

13.1 tar—from the GNU man page

tar is an archiving program designed to store and extract files from an archive file
known as a tarfile or tarball. A tarfile may be made on a tape drive, however, it is also
common to write a tarfile to a normal file.

13.2 Simple example: creating then extracting a tarball

Make an archive file called some.tar of all the files and directories recursively
under a directory called foo-dir: (c—create, v—verbose, f—file)

$ tar cvf foo.tar foo-dir/ 

Extract all the files and directories from foo.tar into the /tmp directory:
(x—extract, v—verbose, f—file)

$ foo.tar /tmp 

$ cd /tmp 
$ tar xvf foo.tar 

71
72 CHAPTER 13. TAR BASICS

13.3 Options
13.3.1 tar Function Letters
The tar options must include one and only one of the following function letters:

-A, --catenate, --concatenate append tar files to an archive

-c, --create create a new archive

-d, --diff, --compare find differences between archive and file system

--delete delete from the archive (not for use on mag tapes!)

-r, --append append files to the end of an archive

-t, --list list the contents of an archive

-u, --update only append files that are newer than copy in archive

-x, --extract, --get extract files from an archive

13.3.2 A few popular tar options

There are dozens of options for tar, these are only a few of them.

-v, --verbose verbosely list files processed— always use this

-f, --file [HOSTNAME:]F use archive file or device F (default “-”, mean-
ing stdin/stdout)— always use this

-z, --gzip, --ungzip filter the archive through gzip—very frequently
used

-j --bzip—filter the archive through bzip2, use an extention of .tar.bz2

13.4 Practical Exercise

1. Peruse the man page and the info pages for the tar command. Memorise the
options. (just kidding)

2. Archive your home directory (say as a backup) into a compressed file called
mybackup.tar.gz. List the files in your tarball. Then extract the tarball into the
/tmp directory.

Move outside the directory you are going to archive (avoid recursion) then
make a tarball in your current working directory:
$ cd /tmp 
$ tar -czvf mybackup.tar.gz ˜ 

List the files in the archive:
$ tar -ztvf mybackup.tar.gz 

Extract the archive:
$ tar -zxvf mybackup.tar.gz 

Inspect the extracted files: $ tree 
 Part VIII

Installing Software

73
Chapter 14

Installing software form a

source tarball

14.1 the tarball

Open source UNIX and Linux software is frequently supplied archived and compressed
in what is coloquially known as a tarball.
A tarball is a source code tree that has been archived with tar and compressed with
gzip.
$ ls *.tar.gz *.tgz 
ls: *.tgz: No such file or directory
wv-0.6.7.tar.gz
Follow these steps to install software from a tarball:

First obtain your tarball, say by googleing for it.

Copy the tarball to a suitable location, say /tmp.

Uncompress and unarchive the software into a source tree.

Change directory into the base of the source tree.

Configure the Makefile.

Compile (make the executable)

Install the software.

Enjoy :)

14.2 source tree

Make a copy of your tarball in /tmp

$ wv-0.6.7.tar.gz /tmp 

$ d $_ 
75
76 CHAPTER 14. INSTALLING SOFTWARE FORM A SOURCE TARBALL

Make the source tree:

$ tar zxvf wv-0.6.7.tar.gz /tmp 

Have a look at the source tree:
$ tree -L 3 -d wv-0.6.7 
wv-0.6.7
|-- CVS
|-- Documentation

|-- wingdingfont
| ‘-- CVS
‘-- xml
‘-- CVS

$ tree -d wv-0.6.7 

...

$ ls wv-0.6.7 
config.h.in iconv/ sep.c
config.sub* install-sh* shd.c
configure* laolareplace.c sprm.c
configure.in laolareplace.old.c sprmtest

14.3 compile and install

Change the cwd to the source tree:
$ cd wv-0.6.7 

Run the configure script:
$ ./configure 
creating cache ./config.cache
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc) works..yes
...

Compile using the make utility:
$ make 
making oledecod in oledecod
make[1]: Entering directory ‘/tmp/wv-0.6.7/o
...

Install using the make utility:
$ su -c ’make install’ 
Password: 
gcc -g -O2 -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I/usr/include/
glib-1.2 -I/usr/lib/glib/include -ansi -pedantic
...
14.4. USING THE APPLICATION 77

14.4 Using the application

1. Locate a MS Word formatted document:

$ ls 
MS_Word_File.doc

$ file MS_Word_File.doc 

MS_Word_File.doc: Microsoft Word document data

2. Have a look at the document with Abiword if it is installed on you r system:

$ AbiWord MS_Word_File.doc 

3. Check which filters are available to you with wv:

$ wv <TAB> <TAB> 

wvAbw wvHtml wvPS wvText
wvCleanLatex wvLatex wvRTF wvVersion
wvConvert wvMime wvSimpleCLX wvWare
wvDVI wvPDF wvSummary wvWml

4. Convert the file to a plain ASCII text:

$ wvText MS_Word_File.doc MS_Word_File.txt 

$ 
less MS_Word_File.txt

5. Convert the file into HTML:

$ wvHtml MS_Word_File.doc MS_Word_File.html 

$ netscape MS_Word_File.html & 
6. Convert the file into PostScript:

$ wvPS MS_Word_File.doc MS_Word_File.ps 

$ gv MS_Word_File.ps & 
7. Convert the file into a PDF:

$ wvPDF MS_Word_File.doc MS_Word_File.pdf 

$ xpdf MS_Word_File.pdf & 
78 CHAPTER 14. INSTALLING SOFTWARE FORM A SOURCE TARBALL
Chapter 15

Using rpms and the RedHat

Package Manager

79
80 CHAPTER 15. USING RPMS AND THE REDHAT PACKAGE MANAGER
Part IX

Emacs

81
Chapter 16

emacs tutorial

This Document: Guide to the learn-by-doing built in emacs tutorial.

16.1 what to do

Read the information in sections 2 and 3.

Practice opening GNU emacs at a text console and in an X terminal (section 4).

Work through the practical exercise in section 5.

answer the questions in section 6.

16.2 emacs key naming conventions

C-x hold the control key while pressing the x key.

M-x either:

hold down Meta or Alt key while pressing the x key.

or press and release the 
 key then press x key.

16.3 A Few Essential Commands

C-x C-c exit the program

C-x C-s save

C-g cancel what you are doing

C- or C-/ undo

Delete or Backspace delete the character to the left of the cursor

C-d delete the character under to cursor

C-@ or C-space set the mark

83
84 CHAPTER 16. EMACS TUTORIAL

C-w kill text from mark to point to the kill ring

M-w copy text from mark to point to the kill ring
C-y Yank text from the kill ring to the point
C-x C-f find (open) a file
C-x 1 close all but this buffer

16.4 Starting GNU emacs

1. In a Linux text console type the command to start emacs.

$ emacs

2. Close emacs (C-x C-c) and start the X Window System:

$ startx

3. In an X terminal type the command to start emacs. Note the ampersand follow-
ing the command which runs the program in the background.

$ emacs &

4. Start another copy of emacs from the Window Manager’s menu system.
5. Close your emacsen either by killing them or C-x C-c.

16.5 Exercise: Breaking the Ice

Open emacs $ emacs

Read the survival guide in the scratch buffer.

Remember: C-g if you make a mistake and C-x C-c to exit.

Explore the menus by clicking on the menu bar and moving the mouse pointer
around.

Open the calendar from the Tools menu, and move around in it using the arrow
keys.

Close the calendar window: C-x 0 (that’s zero).

Open the emacs tutorial: C-h t. You don’t need to read it all just yet.

Move around the document using the arrow keys and the page up and down keys.

Delete the first paragraph by highlighting it with your mouse cursor and then
hitting the delete key. (C-w will also kill the marked text and copy it to the kill
ring)

Get it back with undo: C- or C-/.
16.5. EXERCISE: BREAKING THE ICE 85

Place your cursor in the middle of a line. Delete five characters to the left with
your Backspace key then delete five characters to the right with C-d.

Get back your ten deletions by pressing C- ten times.

Try a forward search:
– If you dont have the emacs tutorial open then open it with C-h t
– Move the curser to very top of the tutorial document.
– Type C-s to open the I-search:
– type the letter “b”. Note that the cursor has moved to the first letter b in the
document.
– Type the letter “l”, then an “e”. Note how the search progresses.
– Cancel it with C g

Save the file in your home directory with a new name: C-x C-w and type the
name of the file say /junk.text.

Delete a line: Move the cursor the start of a line and press C-k.

Save the altered file: C-x C-s.

Close emacs C-x C-c.
86 CHAPTER 16. EMACS TUTORIAL

16.6 Questions
1. What keys are used to delete characters to the right of the cursor?

2. What keys are used to undo a recent command?

3. What is a kill ring?

4. What does this do? C-x C-c

5. What do C-s and C-r do?

6. How do you save your work?

7. What is meant by the “point”?

In emacs what is ment by the term “yank”?

8. What two commands may be used to set a mark?

9. If you pressed C-x and wanted to cancel it what do you do?

10. How do you kill a block of marked text and copy it to the kill ring?

11. What is the difference between C-x 0 and C-x 1

16.7. SPEEDBAR 87

16.7 speedbar
The emacs speedbar is useful for browsing the info system.
M-x Info-speedbar-browser

16.7.1
88 CHAPTER 16. EMACS TUTORIAL

16.8 the built in tutorial

Start the tutorial with C-h t.
Answer the question on this sheet while working through the tutorial.

16.8.1 Viewing Screens

1. How do you:

Move forward one screenful?

Move backward one screenful?

Centre the screen about the cursor position?

16.8.2 Basic Cursor Control

1. What are the commands to move the cursor

to the previous line?

backward along the line?

forward along the line?

to the next line?

2. When the cursor is placed on the last line of the page what happens when your
press C-n?

3. What is the difference between pressing C-f and M-f?

4. What key combinations move the cursor to the beginning or end of a line?

5. What do M-a and M-edo ?

6. What do M-¡ and M-¿ do?

7. Why is it better to learn to use the control keys rather than use the arrow keys?

8. What is C-u used for?

9. Which mouse button is used to move the thumb in the scroll bar?

16.8.3 Cancel the Current Command

1. What key combination is used to reset an emacs command?

2. when would you use it?

16.8.4 Disabled Commands

1. Give an example of a disabled command.

2. What are the choices you are given if you use a disabled command key combi-
nation?
16.9. WINDOWS 89

16.9 Windows
1. C-x 1 does what exactly?

16.10 Inserting and Deleting

16.10.1 Deleting characters
1. Which two keys delete the character to the left of the point?
2. What key combination deletes the character under the point?
3. How would you type a row of 72 *’s across the screen?
4. M-¡Delete¿ and M-d do what?
5. C-k deletes from the cursor to the end of the line, what does M-k do? What
might the k stand for?
6.

16.10.2 Marking sections

1. C-@ is one way of marking the beginning of block, what is the other?
2. To what process does “killing” a block of text refer?
3. What defines a block of text?
4. What key combination kills a block?

5. Waft is the difference between deleting and killing?

6. What does C-w do?
7. To what process does “yanking” text refer?
8. How do you yank the third last thing you killed?

16.10.3 Undo
1. What does C-x u do?
2. What other key combination does the same as C-x u?

16.11 Files
16.12 Buffers
16.13 Mode Line
90 CHAPTER 16. EMACS TUTORIAL
 Part X

Inroduction

91
Chapter 17

using vi

Document Description: Exercise in using the vi (VIsual) editor and learning a few
relevant commands.

References :

1. Running Linux by Mat Welsh and Lar Kaufman

2. A Practical Guide to Linux by Mark Sobell
3. Learning the vi Editor by Linda Lamb & Arnold Robbins

note1 [ESC] means press the escape key, redundant [ESC] key-presses just beep at
you

note2 Generally you will use a vi clone like elvis or vim or emacs viper mode

note3 vi is pronounced as the letters v then i, not vi like the name

17.1 you must be able to use vi

vi is the single most useful (and used) configuration tool used on all flavours of *NIX.
All systems have vi, some have no other editor; if you don’t have at least a rudimentary
knowledge of vi you will get stuck sooner or later.
Besides, learning vi is a *NIX right of passage.

17.2 writing a new file

start vi thus:
$ vi  or
$ vi filename 

change from command mode to Insert mode: press ”i”

enter your text, say some c source, a letter or a novel

93
94 CHAPTER 17. USING VI

17.2.1 entering text

Enter the following C language source code:

/* first c using vi */
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
printf("hi, vee-eye");
return 0;
}

17.2.2 save your work

enter command mode
[ESC]

write the name and path of the file
:w hi.c 

subsequent saves:
[ESC] :w 

17.2.3 quit from vi

enter command mode with ESC (if vi is already in command mode then it will
harmlessly beep)

ESC :q  — if your file has been saved already

ESC :wq  — saves (writes) and quits

ESC :q!  — forces a quit without saving

ESC ZZ  — quick save and exit

look at the results
$ cat hi.c | less 

17.3 view a file without changing it

open the file /etc/rc.6 (BTW rc stands for run command)
$ vi /etc/rc.6 

mmmm... you could hack this around and the shutdown command might not
work so well, lets not!

quit with no changes
[ESC] :q! 
17.4. EDIT AN EXISTING FILE 95

17.4 edit an existing file

get a copy of an existing file to experiment with:
$ cp /tmp/tomsrtbt.FAQ . 

open a file in vi
$ vi tomsrtbt.FAQ 

in case we muck it up save it with a new name:
[ESC] :w toms.FAQ 

open the copy
[ESC] :e toms.FAQ 

in command mode you can use the cursor keys to move around; do that, have a
browse

lets delete a line, move the cursor to the line starting with the number 4) and
press dd (in command mode) - gone

delete four lines: move the cursor to ’10) Tips’ and press 4dd

yank (copy) two lines, copy from the ’2) Design goals’ by [ESC] 2yy nothing
happened? it’s okay

move the cursor to ’14)’ and press ”p” (p for put) this should place the lines 2)
and 3) after the 14)

want to find something, say the word “ftp”?
[ESC] :/ftp 
to find the first “ftp” and press n to find the next “ftp”

replace the word “scratch” with the word “itch”?
[ESC] :%s/scratch/itch/

want to look at the original? save this file :w  and open another [ESC] :e
tomsrtbt.FAQ 

enough?
[ESC] :q! 

17.5 emacs viper mode

The other editor (the editor from hell which includes at least two kitchen sinks) has a
vi emulation mode—of course.
Start emacs, read the introduction and edit a text file to check it’s operation.

Start emacs: $ emacs  ;

enter viper mode: M-X viper  ;

read, read, read;

open a file: ESC :e some-file-name-that-exists  ;

check that the vi editing commands work;

exit emacs / viper
96 CHAPTER 17. USING VI

17.6 want to know more?

$ man vi 

$ info vi 

$ vi -h 

$ help vi 

Running Linux by Mat Welsh and Lar Kaufman

Chapter 8 of ”A Practical Guide to Linux” Mark G Sobell

Learning the vi Editor by Linda Lamb & Arnold Robbins

vi Editor Pocket Reference by Arnold Robbins

Just about any UNIX or Linux book
17.7. VI QUICK REFERENCE 97

17.7 Vi Quick Reference

ENTERING vi

vi name start vi editor with file name .

The file is created if it doesn’t exist.

LEAVING vi

ZZ exit from vi, saving changes.

:q! exit from vi, discarding changes.

CURSOR POSITIONING

h moves left one character position.

j moves down one line.
k moves up one line.
l moves right one character position.
0 (zero) moves to the beginning of a line.
w moves right one word.
b moves left one word.
CTRL-u moves up 1/2 screen full.
CTRL-d moves down 1/2 screen full.
G moves to the bottom of the file.
nG moves to line number n .
CTRL-l clear screen and re-draw.

TEXT MODIFICATION

itextESC inserts text to the left of the cursor.

Insert doesn’t cause the cursor to move;
text appears as it is typed, terminate with
ESC.
atextESC appends (inserts) text to the right of
the cursor, terminate with ESC.
RtextESC Replaces (overprints) characters at the
cursor position, terminate with ESC.
dd deletes the line the cursor is on.
ndd deletes n lines from the cursor position.

D deletes characters from the cursor position

to the end of the line.
x deletes the character at the cursor.
nx deletes n characters to the right of the
cursor.
u undo the last change.

PATTERN SEARCHING

/pat/ positions the cursor at the next

occurrence of the string pattern.

NOTES:
ESC represents the ESC key. Press the ESC key when
98 CHAPTER 17. USING VI

it is called for in the above commands.

CTRL- represents the CTRL key. Hold the CTRL key and
press the following key simultaneously.

CURSOR POSITIONING

} move down one paragraph.

{ move up one paragraph.
mx save the current cursor position and label it
with the letter x. (x is any letter)
’x return to the cursor position labeled x.

TEXT MODIFICATION

dw delete the next word.

. (period) repeat last change.
A append at the end of the current line.
P put back deleted line(s). Text deleted with D
and dd commands may be pasted back with the P
command. Text is pasted in before the cursor
position.
:a,bs/old/new/
From line number ’a’ to line number ’b’,
substitute the pattern ’old’ with the pattern
’new’. You may use any text string which
doesn’t contain a carriage return in place of
the ’old’ and ’new’ strings. Use CTRL-G to tell
what line the cursor is on.

PATTERN SEARCHING

// search for the next occurrence of a previously

specified search string.

MISCELLANEOUS

:w write out current changes. The vi editor works

on a copy of your file. The :w command causes
the editor to write its copy over the original
which is on the disk.
:w name write out changes to the file name . This is
like the :w command but the changes are written
into the file you specify. (good for making
intermediate copies)
Cut and Paste Move to the begining of the text to cut. Use
dd to delete (cut) several lines. Use D to cut
only the end of one line. Move to the place
where you wish to paste the text. Use P to
put back the text. You may need to clean up
the spacing after pasting.

http://vertigo.hsrl.rutgers.edu/ug/vi_qref.html
Chapter 18

File Permissions

Prepared by Andrew Eager

18.1 File Permissions

 An access control mechanism
 Based on relation between file & user
 Analogy:
– Documents receive classification
– Employees receive clearance
– Access to a particular document is determined by the documents classification and
the employees clearance
 A file has 3 modes of access:
– Read (r) - Can view the file
– Write (w) - Can change the file
– Execute (x) - Can run the file (program)
 A file can be accessed by 3 different types of people:
– The file owner or user (u)
– A member of the files group (g)
– Anyone else or others (o)

18.2 Directory Permissions

 Directories are treated in the same way as files
 They have an associated owner
 They have an associated group
 The permissions do slightly different things
– Read (r) - Can view the contents of directory (ls)
– Write (w) - Can add, delete, rename files
– Execute (x) - Can ’cd’ into the directory and open files in it or its subdirectories

99
100 CHAPTER 18. FILE PERMISSIONS

fred fred fred

wilma wilma wilma

barney barney barney

betty betty betty

pebbles pebbles

bambam bambam

USERS FLINSTONES FLINFOLKS

GROUP GROUPS

18.3 ls -l is your friend

 All of the file’s attributes can be examined using the ls -l command

$ ls -l rubbles* 
-rwxrw-r-- 1 barney flinstones 16345 Nov15 08:45 rubbles.txt
$

File Group File Size Creation

Type Permissions (Bytes) Date / Time Filename

− rwx rw− −−x 1 barney flinstones 16345 Nov 15 08:45 rubbles.txt

Owner Others Associated Associated

Pernissions Permissions Owner Group

18.4 Numeric Equivalents

 Each of the permission bits are bitmapped as follows:
18.5. CHOWN & CHGRP 101

USER GROUP OTHER

FILE TYPE Read Write Execute Read Write Execute Read Write Execute
(r) (w) (x) (r) (w) (x) (r) (w) (x)

400 200 100 40 20 10 4 2 1

r w x Value
− Normal File
− − − 0
d Directory
− − x 1
− w − 2
− w x 3
r − − 4
r − x 5
r w − 6
r w x 7

18.5 chown & chgrp

 A file’s owner can be changed using chown:

# ls -l rubble.txt 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 barney flinstones ... rubble.txt

# chown fred rubble.txt 

# ls -l rubble.txt 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred flinstones ... rubble.txt

 A file’s owner & group can also be changed using chown:

# ls -l rubble.txt 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 barney flinstones ... rubble.txt

# chown fred:flinfolks rubble.txt 

# ls -l rubble.txt 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred flinfolks ... rubble.txt

 To change only the group use chgrp:

# ls -l rubble.txt 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 barny flinstones ... rubble.txt

# chgrp flinfolks rubble.txt 

# ls -l rubble.txt 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 barney flinfolks ... rubble.txt
102 CHAPTER 18. FILE PERMISSIONS

18.6 Practical Exercise

18.6.1 File permissions and the root user
1. Log into the system as root and make sure you are in root’s home directory:
# cd /root 
2. Create a new file called test.txt using touch:
# touch test.txt 
3. Remove all permissions of test.txt using chmod:
# chmod 0000 test.txt 
4. Now write something to test.txt:
# cat > test.txt 
This is root writing to a file without any permissions!
Can you read this?
<ctrl-d>
#
5. Now try to read the file:
# cat test.txt 
6. Have a look at the owner, group and permissions of test.txt using ls -l:
# ls -l test.txt 
18.6.2 File permissions and a normal user
1. Log out from root and log back in as a normal user.
2. Try repeating the exercise above as a normal user.
3. Change the permissions of test.txt to write only:
$ chmod 0200 test.txt (or chmod u=w test.txt) 
4. Now try writing something to the file:
$ cat > test.txt 
This is a user writing to a file with only write permissions!
Can you read this?
<ctrl-d>
$
5. What do you see when you try to read the file ?
$ cat test.txt 
6. Have a look at what permissions are set for the file:
$ ls -l test.txt 
7. Now add read permissions to the file:
$ chmod u+r test.txt 
8. Look again at what permissions are set for the file:
$ ls -l test.txt 
9. Can you read the file now?
18.6. PRACTICAL EXERCISE 103

18.6.3 Umask exercises

1. Log in as a normal user.
2. Have a look to see what your umask is set to:
$ umask 
Umask =
3. Touch a file and have a look at the resulting permissions:
$ touch test.txt 
$ ls -l test.txt  
$ rm test.txt 
Record the permissions:
4. Now set your umask to 0000 and try the same again:
$ umask 0000 
$ touch test.txt 
$ ls -l test.txt  
$ rm test.txt 
Record the permissions:
5. Now set your umask to 0777 and try the same again:
$ umask 0777 
$ touch test.txt 
$ ls -l test.txt  
$ rm test.txt 
Record the permissions:
6. What do you notice about umask and the execute permission bit?
104 CHAPTER 18. FILE PERMISSIONS
Chapter 19

Inodes and links

note 1: Every object in the filesystem has an owner ID and a group ID which are by default the
ID’s of the process which created it.

19.1 Make some files and directories

These directories and files are just examples to experiment with. Follow the steps.
 change to you home directory – $ cd
 check where you are – $ pwd
 make a new directory – $ mkdir test.dir
 change to the new directory – $ cd test.dir
 check where you are – $ pwd
 check what’s there – $ ls
 make an empty file – $ touch a.file
 make a hard link to the a.file – $ ln a.file b.file
 make a soft link to the a.file – $ ln -s a.file c.file
 check what’s there (the a includes hidden files) – $ ls -al
 make a subdirectory – $ mkdir sub.dir
 make a soft link to the subdirectory – $ ln -s sub.dir ln.dir
 take a look (the i shows the inode numbers) – $ ls -li
Your list should look something like this:

[geoffrey@freckle text.dir]$ ls -li %$

total 1
454378 -rw-rw-r-- 2 geoffrey geoffrey 0 Sep 1 14:35 a.file
454378 -rw-rw-r-- 2 geoffrey geoffrey 0 Sep 1 14:35 b.file
454379 lrwxrwxrwx 1 geoffrey geoffrey 6 Sep 1 14:37 c.file -> a.file
454380 -rw-rw-r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 0 Sep 1 14:44 d.file
454381 lrwxrwxrwx 1 geoffrey geoffrey 7 Sep 1 15:04 ln.dir -> sub.dir
456433 drwxrwxr-x 2 geoffrey geoffrey 1024 Sep 1 14:35 sub.dir

105
106 CHAPTER 19. INODES AND LINKS

19.2 File permissions

List the details of a particular file with $ ls -il a.file. Reading across the line a.file we
see:
454378 -rw-rw-r-- 2 geoffrey geoffrey 0 Sep 1 14:35 a.file
1. 454378 which is the inode number
2. -rw-rw-r-- which are the file permissions
 the first dash means a.file is a regular file (d for directory and l for link etc.)
 the following three letters are the owners permissions rw- means readable, writable
but not executable.
 the next letters rw- indicate the permissions for the file’s group
 the last three letters r-- show that other users can only read the file
3. 2 is a count of the hard links to the file
4. geoffrey is the owner of the file
5. geoffrey is the group of the file
6. 0 is a count of the bytes in the file
7. Sep 1 14:35 is the date and time of last modification of the file
8. a.file the name of the file

19.3 Hard and soft links

Note that a.file and b.file have the same inode number, this indicates that the two names
represent the same file. But c.file is an alias to that file with two names

454378 -rw-rw-r-- 2 geoffrey geoffrey 0 Sep 1 14:35 a.file

454378 -rw-rw-r-- 2 geoffrey geoffrey 0 Sep 1 14:35 b.file
454379 lrwxrwxrwx 1 geoffrey geoffrey 6 Sep 1 14:37 c.file -> a.file

The following should show you that they they are the same file.
 add some text into a.file $ echo "this is going into the in a.file" >> a.file
 look in a.file $ cat a.file ... the text went in?
 look at the c.file – $ cat c.file – it’s a soft link to a.file
 nuke the a.file – $ rm a.file
 take another look at the c.file – $ cat c.file nothing to link to now
 but what about the b.file – $ cat b.file

19.4 Groups – /etc/group

Share files with a group
 first edit /etc/group: root will have to do this for you
[geoffrey@freckle geoffrey]$ su -
Password:
[root@freckle /root]# emacs /etc/group
 add some users to the student group
19.4. GROUPS – /ETC/GROUP 107

geoffrey:x:500:
joe:x:501:
jbloggs:x:502:
jblogg:x:503:
student::504:geoffrey,joe,jbloggs,jblogg
 check that you are in the group:
$ id
uid=500(geoffrey) gid=500(geoffrey) groups=500(geoffrey)
 logout and log back in to register the change in the /etc/group file and check your id
again:
$ id
uid=500(geoffrey) gid=500(geoffrey) groups=500(geoffrey),504(student)
 change the group id of the file a.file to student
$ chgrp student a.file
$ ls -l
total 3
-rw-rw-r-- 2 geoffrey student 18 Sep 1 17:14 a.file
 see if jbloggs can use the file
$ su jbloggs
Password:
[jbloggs$ echo "jbloggs waz here" >>a.file
[jbloggs$ exit

$ cat a.file
this is in a.file
jbloggs waz here
108 CHAPTER 19. INODES AND LINKS
Chapter 20

mounting file systems

Document Description: Exercise in using file various file system utilities.

References Read the man pages for mount, umount, df, du, fstab, mtab, tree.
Instructions: Read through these notes and do the practical exercises in each section.

20.1 The Linux file system and removable media

Unlike MSDOS based operating systems that use named volumes with separate file systems (C:
drive, A: drive, etc.) Linux and other unicies have a unified file system with volumes “grafted”
in to a single tree at various mount points. The mount points are arbitrary. Typical mount points
for removable media are as follows:
 Floppy disk: device /dev/fd0 mounted at /mnt/floppy
 ZIP drive: mounted at /ZIP
 CDROM disk: device /dev/hdc mounted at /mnt/cdrom
 CD Writer: device /dev/sd2 mounted at /burner
 Network drive: mounted at /mnt/nfs/database
 NT Server network drive: /mnt/samba-vol
Exercise: Look at the file system tree on your system:

$ tree / | less 

20.1.1 Mounting and unmounting volumes
1. To access a volume via the Linux filesystem the volume must first be mounted. This
example is for a floppy disk.
# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy 
Where:
 mount is the command
 -t msdos is the filesystem type
 /dev/fs0 is the device node for the filesystem
 /mnt/floppy is the mount point for the filesystem

109
110 CHAPTER 20. MOUNTING FILE SYSTEMS

2. Any files existing at the mount point will be hidden when a volume is mounted at the
point.
3. File system types include:

ext2 Linux standard file system

ext3 New journaling file system
riserfs Journaling file system
iso9660 Standard file system on CDROMs
msdos Microsoft FAT16 file system
vfat Microsoft FAT32 file system
ntfs Microsoft NT file system
hfs Apple file system

4. Before removing the media the volume should be unmounted:

# umount /mnt/floppy 

5. Note that by default the superuser only has mounting rights. Users may be given some
mounting rights in the configuration file (see next).

20.1.2 The filesystem table: /etc/fstab

The file /etc/fstab is a table of static mount information. The mount command references
this table. Edit this file to reflect your system.
$ cat /etc/fstab 
# <file system><mount pt><type> <options> <dump> <pass>

/dev/sda1 / ext2 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

/dev/sda2 /tmp ext2 rw 0 2
/dev/sda3 /var ext2 rw 0 2
/dev/sda4 none swap sw 0 0

/dev/sr5 /burner iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0

/dev/hdb /dvd iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noauto 0 0

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto defaults,user,noauto 0 0

Using this table the mount commands may be abbreviated. Note also that users
have access to mounting the floppy and cdroms.

Mount a floppy

$ mount /mnt/floppy 

Mount the DVD:

$ mount /dvd 

20.1.3 /etc/mtab
/etc/mtab is a dynamic table of currently mounted file systems. Do *not* edit this
file. Ever.
20.2. LAB EXERCISES 111

$ cat /etc/mtab 

/dev/hda6 / ext2 rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/disk vfat rw 0 0

The mount command with no arguments also will report the currently mounted
volumes.
$ mount 
/dev/hda6 on / type ext2 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/hda1 on /mnt/disk type vfat (rw)

20.1.4 other file system commands

Disk usage

$ du 
24 ./vmware/win2000
961136 ./vmware/nt4
961164 ./vmware
20 ./.netscape/cache
4 ./.netscape/archive
968164 .

Disk filesystem disk space usage
$ df 
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda6 3755460 3041736 522956 86% /
/dev/hda1 2044240 614664 1429576 31% /mnt/disk

20.2 Lab Exercises

20.2.1 Examine the file system

Check the disk usage on your system. How much of the available disk space has
been filled?

$ df 

Look at the dynamic mount table:

$ cat /etc/mtab 

Examine the static mount table:

$ cat /etc/fstab 

112 CHAPTER 20. MOUNTING FILE SYSTEMS

Check the disk usage for your home directory (the -h option gives a human
readable format of the output:

$ du -h ˜ 
20.2.2 Floppy disk exercise
Note: If you have an automount demon running it may mount your floppy disk auto-
matically (check with mount. In this case first unmount the floppy disk.

List the directory /mnt/floppy: $ ls -la /mnt/floppy 

place an MSDOS formatted floppy in the fd0 device (a.k.a. a: drive);

mount the floppy so that it can be accessed from the mount point /mnt/floppy
(note that to use the mount command in it’s full form you may need to be root):

# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy 

or using /etc/fstab (from a user login)

$ mount /mnt/floppy 

use the df and mount command to see what has happened;

change the current working directory to the floppy:

$ cd /mnt/floppy 

make a subdirectory on it called /mnt/floppy/asubdir and use cat or vi
to create a test file on the floppy

umount the floppy before removing it. Note that the floppy must not be in use
when unmounting it.

$ cd 
$ umount /mnt/floppy 

physically remove the floppy.

20.2.3 CDROM exercise

Note: If you have an automount demon running it may mount your CDROM automat-
ically. In this case first unmount the CDROM.

List the directory /mnt/cdrom: $ ls -la /mnt/cdrom 

place an iso9660 formatted CDROM in the cdrom device (a.k.a. d:, whatever
drive);

mount the CDROM so that it can be accessed from the mount point /mnt/cdrom:

# mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom 

20.2. LAB EXERCISES 113

or as an ordinary user

$ mount /mnt/cdrom 

use the df and mount command to see what has happened;

change the current working directory to the CDROM:

$ cd /mnt/cdrom 

explore the CDROM

umount and eject the CDROM before removing it:

$ cd 
$ eject 

physically remove the CDROM.

20.2.4 Hard disk partition exercise

Make a directory on which to mount the windows partition (/dev/hda1):

# mkdir /mnt/windows 

mount the widows partition (read only) so that it can be accessed from the mount
point /mnt/windows:

$ mount -o ro -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows 

use the df and mount command to see what has happened;

change the current working directory to the windows directory:

$ cd /mnt/windows 

explore the widows file system
114 CHAPTER 20. MOUNTING FILE SYSTEMS
 Part XI

Programming

115
Chapter 21

"Hello, world!" with gcc

and vi

This Document: Writing, compiling and running a c program using vi.

21.1 Make a directory for your c programmes

Make sure you are logged in as an ordinary user - not as root;

Change to your home directory:
$ cd 

Make a directory for your programmes:
$ mkdir vi.practice 

Go there:
$ cd vi.practice 
21.2 Write a ‘Hello, world! source file

Write a hello world source file using vi:
$ vi hi.c 
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
printf("Hello, world!\n");
return 0;
}

Save it and exit with <esc> ZZ

Check that you have no typos:
$ cat hi.c 
117
118 CHAPTER 21. "HELLO, WORLD!" WITH GCC AND VI

21.3 Compile to the a.out binary executable with the

GNU compiler

Compile your source (create an executable called a.out):

$ gcc hi.c 

check that it happened:

$ ls 
a.out hi.c

21.4 Running your executable

Try running the program:

$ a.out 
bash: a.out: command not found

Check the permissions to see that the ’x’ bit is set:

$ ls -l 
-rwxrwxr-x 1 yourname yourname 4150 Mar 9 17:27 a.out

Why doesn’t it run? By default the current directory ’.’ is not in the path. Check
it $ echo $PATH; you will see no ’.’.

To run it you have to give the path to the file:

$ ./a.out 
Hello, world!

21.5 Write a C language program using vi

Copy your program with a new name ($ cp hi.c hi3.c  ) edit it with vi so
that it is exactly like this:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char name[100];

printf("What is your name? =>> ");

scanf("%s", name);

printf("Hello, %s\n", name);

return 0;
}
Chapter 22

”Hello would!” with gcc

This Document: writing, compiling and running a c program

22.1 Make a directory for your c programmes

Make sure you are logged in as an ordinary user - not as root;

Change to your home directory:

$ cd 

Make a directory for your programmes:

$ mkdir c.progs 

go there:

$ cd c.progs 

22.2 Write a ‘Hello, world! source file

Write a hello world source file using cat and ˆD

$ cat > hi.c 

#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
printf("\n\n\tHello, Linux world!\n\n\n");
return 0;
x1}
ˆD

Check that you have no typos:

$ cat hi.c 

Should you have errors use an editor to fix them.

119
120 CHAPTER 22. ”HELLO WOULD!” WITH GCC

22.3 Compile to the a.out binary executable with the

GNU compiler

Compile your source (create an executable called a.out):

$ gcc hi.c 

heck that it happened:

$ ls 
a.out hi.c

22.4 Running your executable

Try running the program:

$ a.out 
bash: a.out: command not found

Check the permissions to see that the ’x’ bit is set:

$ ls -l 
-rwxrwxr-x 1 yourname yourname 4150 Mar 9 17:27 a.out

Why doesn’t it run? By default the current directory ’.’ is not in the path. Check
it $ echo $PATH; you will see no ’.’.

To run it you have to give the path to the file:

$ ./a.out 
Hello, world!

22.5 Programming from emacs

Open your file in emacs:

$ emacs hi.c 

Edit the printf() to print ”Hello, world from emacs”

Save the emacs buffer with a new name: (Control-X Control-W then type in the
mini-buffer at the bottom of the emacs frame)

C-x C-w
hi.emacs.c 

Save your emacs edits at any time with C-X C-S.

Compile your source from inside emacs: (M-! means either Alt-! or [ESC] then
!, the shell command is then typed into the mini-buffer window)
22.6. WRITE OUT WHAT THESE 15 COMMANDS DO 121

M-!
Shell command: gcc -o hello hi.emacs.c 

Run the program with output to a new buffer:

M-!
Shell command: ./a.out

Close the other emacs window:

C-x 1

Save your file and exit emacs:

C-x C-C

22.6 Write out what these 15 commands do

C-X C-s
C-X C-w
C-X C-f
C-X C-c
C-L
C-G
C-K
C-A
C-E

ESC !
C-SPACE
C-X 0
C-X 1
C-X 2
C-X 3

22.7 Write a C language program using emacs

Write, debug and run an ohms law program from command line emacs; user to enter
current and resistance program calculates and prints voltage.
122 CHAPTER 22. ”HELLO WOULD!” WITH GCC
 Part XII

Networking

123
Chapter 23

LAN Setup in Room C222

(RH73)

23.1 Overview
There are several layers that have to be built in order to setup a Local Area Network.

1. Load the kernel module (driver) for the NIC (ethernet card) card that is installed
on the system.
On systems using Plug and Play hardware the modudules will be automatically
loaded. However, in the case of legacy hardware such as the NE2000 NIC this
has to be done by hand.

2. Configure IP address settings.

This may be done automatically from a DHCP server,

Or configured manually in the case of static IP addresses.

3. Setup and run network services such as:

sendmail for email transfer

NFS file sharing

network printing

brousing internet or intranet webservers

downloading files using ftp

loging into remote hosts using ssh

messaging services such as irc etc.

23.2 Nobrainer Network Setup for RedHat

1. Run the ncurses program called netconfig from a root prompt:

# netconfig 
125
126 CHAPTER 23. LAN SETUP IN ROOM C222 (RH73)

2. Tap the spacebar to use DHCP, then <tab> to OKAY

[x] Use dynamic IP configuration (BOOTP/DHCP)

3. Test the network:

$ ping 192.168.222.254 

23.3 Loading a NIC Driver Module

On modern systems this will have been detected and configured automatically during
installation and the driver module will have been loaded at boot time.

Exercise:
1. Check that the module used for your Network Interface Card is loaded:

# lsmod 
Unload the module:

# rmmod <module name> 

2. Load the module:

# insmod <module name> 

or
# modprobe <module name> 
Note: these two commands both load the module. modprobe also loads other
modules that are required by the particular module if there any.

23.4 Command Line Tools for Managing Kernel Mod-

ules

List the modules currently loaded:

# lsmod 
Module Size Used by
lockd 31176 1 (autoclean)
sunrpc 52964 1 (autoclean) [lockd]
ne2k-pci 4652 1 (autoclean)
8390 6072 0 (autoclean) [ne2k-pci]

Install a loadable kernel module: (if there was a NE2000 ISA NIC)

# insmod ne io=0x300 irq=5 

Record details of modules so that they may be loaded easily on demanmd
23.5. SET NETWORK IP PARAMETERS FOR STATIC IP ADDRESSES 127

# vi /etc/modules.conf 
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias sound-slot-0 maestro3
alias eth0 ne
options ne io=0x300 irq=5
˜
˜

Now when eth0 is used the ne module will load automatically using the pa-
rameters shown.

Unload a kernel module:

# rmmod ne 

depmod handles dependency descriptions for loadable kernel modules. Creates
a module dependency list. $ man depmod 
for details.
Divert the output to STDOUT for viewing:

# depmod -n | less 

The command modprobe (with depmod) provides high level handling of load-
able modules. In particular, note that modprobe will not only load a given
module but also load all the modules it depends on. Check the man pages.

# modprobe ftape 

Exercise Practice using the commands for modules.

List the modules currently loaded: $ lsmod  ;

Attempt to load the module zftape, and note that there are unmet dependencies.
To load the zftape module successfully you would have to load the modules it
depends on first.
Try it: # insmod zftape 

Now load the module with modprobe:
# modprobe zftape 

List the modules now loaded;

unload the driver with rmmod zftape;

again list the modules now loaded;

23.5 Set Network IP Parameters for Static IP Addresses

23.5.1 Configure the /etc/hosts file
Exercise
Using your favourite editor edit the file /etc/hosts as shown below.
128 CHAPTER 23. LAN SETUP IN ROOM C222 (RH73)

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.222.254 foozle.c222 foozle
192.168.222.253 sparkie.c222 sparkie

192.168.222.1 box1.c222 box1

192.168.222.2 box2.c222 box2
192.168.222.3 box3.c222 box3
...
...
192.168.222.22 box22.c222 box22
192.168.222.23 box23.c222 box23
192.168.222.24 box24.c222 box24

23.5.2 Network Configuration tools

There are many command line and GUI tools for doing setting static IP addresses.

netconfig RedHat special, old but still supplied.

linuxconf General tool, now generally out of favor.

netcfg Easy to use, reliable, no longer supplied RedHat tool.

neat New RedHat GUI tool. Buggy in RH72 better in RH73.

ifconfig Command line tool always available on all distrobutions.

23.5.3 Setting IP addresses Using netconfig

Fill in the numbers and <tab> between fields, enter for OKAY.

netconfig 0.8.11 (C) 1999 Red Hat, Inc.

----------------------- Configure TCP/IP ---------------------
| |
| Please enter the IP configuration for this machine. Each |
| item should be entered as an IP address in dotted-decimal |
| notation (for example, 1.2.3.4). |
| |
| [ ] Use dynamic IP configuration (BOOTP/DHCP) |
| |
| IP address: 192.168.222.1 |
| Netmask: 255.255.255.0 |
| Default gateway (IP): 192.168.222.254 |
| Primary nameserver: 192.168.222.254 |
| |
| ------ -------- |
| | OK | | Back | |
| ------ -------- |
| |
--------------------------------------------------------------
<Tab>/<Alt-Tab> between elements | <Space> selects | <F12> next screen
23.5. SET NETWORK IP PARAMETERS FOR STATIC IP ADDRESSES 129

23.5.4 Setting IP addresses Using the neat click-o-rama

A new Ethernet Device may configured by clicking the add button and following the
wizzard. Help may be found by clicking the help button.

Figure 23.1: Ethernet Device Figure 23.2: Ethernet Settings

Exercise
Setup a static IP address for your system. Use netconfig then neat. Explore neat
thoroughly.
130 CHAPTER 23. LAN SETUP IN ROOM C222 (RH73)
Chapter 24

Basic Network Commandline

Tools

131
132 CHAPTER 24. BASIC NETWORK COMMANDLINE TOOLS
Chapter 25

133
134 CHAPTER 25.
Chapter 26

Cabling

26.1 Crimping RJ45 connectors onto Cat 5 cable

Reference: Network HOWTO

26.1.1
If you hold the RJ45 connector facing you (as if you were going to plug it into your
mouth) with the lock tab on the top, then the pins are numbered 1 to 8 from left to right.

_____________________
brown 8-------| |
white / brown 7-------| |
orange 6-------| _______________ |
white / blue 5-------| | | TAB on top
blue 4-------| |______________ |
white / orange 3-------| |
green 2-------| |
white /green 1-------|_____________________|

Do not untwist the pairs any more that necessary

Do not cut or strip the insulation off the wires

Trim the ends level after you have them in the right order

Push the wires to the end of the RJ45

Make sure the sheath will be caught under the restraint

Test after crimping

26.1.2 Crosover Cables

135
136 CHAPTER 26. CABLING
Chapter 27

networking text tools

Document Description: Exercise in using a local area network

Instructions:

read through these notes and the man pages

do the exercises

27.1 configuration
27.1.1 configuration files

/etc/HOSTNAME the host name for the localhost

/etc/resolv.conf stipulates how host names are resolved

/etc/hosts lookup table matching host names to IP addresses

/etc/services table of network services and port numbers

/etc/inetd.conf controls which services are available; xinetd is an alternative
system

/etc/xinetd.conf and the files in /etc/xintd.d/ control which services are avail-
able on RH7.0 and up

/etc/host.conf remote host lookup order.

27.1.2 /etc/resolv.conf
resolver uses the configuration file /etc/resolv.conf provide access to the Internet Do-
main Name System.
$ cat /etc/resolv.conf 
search fernbank
nameserver 61.8.0.2
nameserver 61.8.0.5

137
138 CHAPTER 27. NETWORKING TEXT TOOLS

27.1.3 /etc/host.conf
This configuration file controls the host lookup order. In this example the resolver will
search all of the /etc/hosts file first then use bind (DNS lookup).
$ cat /etc/host.conf 
order hosts,bind
multi on

27.1.4 /etc/hosts
In a small network host names may be resolved into IP addresses form the file /etc/hosts.
e.g.
$ cat /etc/hosts 
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.222.1 foozle.zork foozle
192.168.222.101 box1.zork box1
192.168.222.102 box2.zork box2
192.168.222.103 box3.zork box3
...
192.168.222.116 box16.zork box16

27.1.5 /etc/HOSTNAME
The hostname is read at boot time by the boot scripts from the file /etc/HOSTNAME
(RedHat) or /etc/hostname (Debian) on some systems. This file may be edited to
permanently change the hostname. The hostname may be displayed:
# hostname 
foozle.zork
or changed temporarily with this command:
# hostname blahblah 
27.1.6 installing a NIC
Normally a plug and play Ethernet Adapter will be automatically detected and set up
during installation. A legacy ISA adapter may have to be compiled into the kernel or
loaded as a module.

Check which modules are loaded (here a netgear PCI and a NE2000 NIC are
installed)

$ lsmod 
tulip 30264 1
ne2k-pci 34757 1

A legacy NE2000 ISA card would be loaded thus: (ymmv)

# modprobe ne io=0x300 irq=5 

To load the module at each system restart the system init scripts will require
editing. On RH7.0 the GUI tool kernel.cfg makes this task trivial.
27.2. GUI CONFIGURATION TOOLS 139

27.1.7 restarting inetd or xinetd

Note: Recent systems such as RH7.0 and above use xinetd to replace inetd.
Services may stopped or started by editing the files in the directory /etc/xinetd/.
After making network configuration changes you may need to restart the network
daemon. Three methods of doing this follow:
1. Restart xinetd with the script:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart 

tarball
2. Restart xinetd by name with the command:

# killall -HUP xinetd 

3. Find the process id number for xinetd and restart the process by PID.

# ps afx |grep xinetd 

422 ? S 0:00 xinetd
24757 ttyp9 S 0:00 | grep xinetd
# kill -HUP 422
#

27.2 GUI configuration tools

There are a range of various GUI tools available on most distributions.

netcfg network configuration

linuxconf general RedHat configurations tool

netconf network configuration

neat network configuration

netconfig text (ncurses) network configuration tool

kernelcfg edits which kernel modules will be loaded

tksysv edits which services will run at which runlevel

27.3 checking and testing

27.3.1 ifconfig
Some details about the network interfaces may be found with the ifconf command.
Note that in this example there are three interfaces:
eth0: the ethernet card for the local area network
lo: loopback address
140 CHAPTER 27. NETWORKING TEXT TOOLS

ppp0: the ppp modem internet connection for this machine

# ifconfig 
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:05:46:7F:32
inet addr:192.168.42.1 Bcast:192.168.42.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:24076 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:93529 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:38 txqueuelen:100
Interrupt:9 Base address:0x9500
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:3924 Metric:1
RX packets:29552 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:29552 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:61.8.18.98 P-t-P:203.9.190.192 Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:5151 errors:12 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:12
TX packets:4591 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:10

A NIC can be started with an ifconfig command such as the following:

$ ifconfig eth0 192.168.222.15 up 

27.3.2 the IP routing table

The route command shows and manipulates the routing table for your system. View
the table with the command:
$ /sbin/route 
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default sherbie.fernban 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

27.3.3 view TCP traffic

TCP traffic on your system may be viewed with the command: (ˆC to exit)

# tcpdump 
tcpdump: listening on all devices
01:20:56.210331 eth0 > lollipop.fernbank.ssh >
mintie.fernbank.1870: P 3624801409:3624801517
(108) ack 2624831152 win 32120 <nop,nop,timestamp
61941018 276985734> (DF) [tos 0x10]
....
....
298 packets received by filter
27.3. CHECKING AND TESTING 141

27.3.4 ping
ping is used to check if a particular IP address is accessible and to check the timing
and reliability of the connections:

check the connection to the ethernet card

$ ping bim 

PING bim.fernbank (192.168.42.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.42.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=16.8 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.42.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.2 ms

connect to a host on the local network

$̧ ping jaffa 

PING jaffa.fernbank (192.168.42.3): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.42.3: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=2.3 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.42.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.8 ms

ping a DNS server on the Internet

$ ping 61.8.0.2 

PING 61.8.0.2 (61.8.0.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 61.8.0.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=254 time=122.9 ms
142 CHAPTER 27. NETWORKING TEXT TOOLS

27.4 practical exercise

27.4.1 command line tools
Note: After changing network configuration details you may have to restart xinetd or
inetd (see previous instructions).

1. Check that the /etc/hosts file has entries for the loopback address and the
hosts on the network.

[fred@box3 fred]$ less /etc/hosts

Edit the file if it is incomplete or inaccurate.

[fred@box3 fred]$ su -
Password:
[root@box3 root]# vi /etc/hosts

2. Have a look at your host name:

[fred@box3 fred]$ echo $HOSTNAME

box3
[fred@box3 fred]$ hostname
box3

3. Check the binding to your Ethernet card with the command:

[fred@box3 fred]$ ifconfig

If the IP address is wrong it can be changed with:

[root@box3 root]$ ifconfig 192.168.222.xxx eth0

4. Have a look at the routing table:

# route 
Add a default route if it does not exist:

# route add default gw <gateway hostname or IP> 

5. Ping a few hosts near you. What is the packet turn around time? Were any
packets lost?

27.4.2 GUI tools

Have a look at the GUI tools on your system. But don’t make any changes that may
damage the system. Close them with Cancel and Quit without saving changes.
27.5. REMOTE LOGIN: TELNET 143

27.5 remote login: telnet

See notes from previous lesson.

read the man pages for telnet

27.6 file transfer: FTP

See notes from previous lesson.

read the man pages for FTP

27.7 using email

See notes from previous lesson.

read the pine help screens

27.8 exercise
After this exercise you should be able to:

telnet a remote host

copy files from a floppy to your home directory on the remote host

make a tarball of a group of files

use FTP to transfer files between hosts

compile a c program

send an email to a user on the local network

add an attachment to an email

telnet into the remote host

[fred@box1 fred]$ telnet elephant

...
login: fred
Password:
[fred@elephant fred]$

copy all the files on a floppy to your home directory on the remote host

[fred@elephant fred]$ mkdir temp

[fred@elephant fred]$ cp -a /mnt/floppy/* temp

tar and compress the files now in temp into a tarball called files.cvfz
144 CHAPTER 27. NETWORKING TEXT TOOLS

[fred@elephant fred]$ tar cvfz files.tgz temp

[fred@elephant fred]$ ls -l files.tgz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred fred 219863 Mar 28 10:48 files.tgz

transfer the tarball to your localhost

[fred@box1 fred]$ mkdir work

[fred@box1 fred]$ cd work
[fred@box1 work]$ ftp elephant
...
ftp> ls files.tgz
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
-rw-rw-r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 219863 Mar 28 10:48 files.tgz
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get files.tgz
local: files.tgz remote: files.tgz
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for files.tgz (219863 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
219863 bytes received in 0.289 secs (7.4e+02 Kbytes/sec)
ftp>

untar the files

[fred@box1 fred]$ tar xvfz files.tgz

find and compile the file ohmslaw.c

[fred@box1 fred]$ cd work/temp

[fred@box1 temp]$ ls
begining lost+found ncurses ohmeslaw ohmslaw.c test unleashed
[fred@box1 temp]$ gcc -Wall -o ohmeslaw ohmslaw.c -lcurses

run the program and capture the output

[fred@box1 temp] $./ohmslaw >catch.out

> r

check your output

[fred@box1 temp] $ cat catch.out

send an email to geoffrey@elephant and attatch the file catch.out
Chapter 28

Login to a Remote Host using

telnet

Document Description: exercise in using telnet on a local area network

Instructions:

read through these notes and man telnet

telnet into some hosts where you have user accounts

28.1 warning
Hosts connected to an untrusted network may be vulnerable to cracking and various
exploits should they leave the telnet service open. Using a secure shell such as ssh is
safer in a hostile environment.

28.2 logging into a remote host

You must have a network connection to the remote host.

You will not be able to log onto a remote host as root.

You must have an account with a current passwd on the remote host.

28.3 exercise

logon to the remote host—it should go something like this (If foozle is not in
your /etc/hosts file then either add it or use the ip address):

[foo@box]$ telnet foozle

Trying 192.168.222.254...
Connected to foozle.c222.
Escape character is ’ˆ]’.
Welcome to foozle.c222

145
146 CHAPTER 28. LOGIN TO A REMOTE HOST USING TELNET

Linux Mandrake release 7.0 (Air)

Kernel 2.2.14-15mdk on an i686
login: foo
Password:
Last login: Tue Aug 15 04:17:27 from bim
[foo@foozle foo]$

check who is currently logged on to foozle
[foo@foozle foo]$ finger

get some details about someone on foozle
[foo@foozle foo]$ finger fred
Login: fred Name: Fred Dagg
Directory: /home/fred Shell: /bin/bash
On since Mon Aug 7 00:58 on tty1 4 days 7 hours idle
No mail.
No Plan.

have a look at the home directories for other users
[foo@foozle foo]$ ls /home

try to have a look and a play with their files
[foo@foozle foo]$ cd /home/foobar
bash: /home/foobar: Permission denied

After enabling the remote host to display on your local host ($ xhost +foozle
 send some xeyes back to your localhost:
[foo@foozle foo]$ xeyes -display box:0.0

create a script in your home directory on the remote host
[foo@foozle foo]$ cd
[foo@foozle foo]$ cat >hi.sh
> echo "hello, world at foozle.zork"
> ˆD
[foo@foozle foo]$ sh hi.sh
hello, world at foozle.zork

make your self a plan
[foo@foozle foo]$ cat > .plan
> I’m here doing this Linux thing...
> ˆD
[foo@foozle foo]$ finger foo

logout
[foo@foozle foo]$ ˆD
Connection closed by foreign host.
[foo@bim foo]$
Chapter 29

Transfer Files Between Hosts

Using ftp

29.1 file transfer protocol

The ftp command is generally used for transferring files between your local host and a
remote host, although it is possible to transfer files between two remote hosts.

29.1.1 Notes

It in not generally possible or advisable to use ftp while logged on as root;

ftp transmits passwords and data in plain text, so for untrusted networks (inter-
net) use anonymous ftp or scp.

29.1.2 connecting to a remote host with ftp

Establishing a connection from localhost called mybox to a remotehost called other-
box for a user called fred on a network called thisnet

[fred@mybox fred] $ ftp otherbox 

Connected to otherbox.thisnet
220 FTP server (Version wu-2.6.0(1)
Tue Jan 4 19:41:20 GMT 2000) ready.
Name (mybox:fred): 
331 Password required for fred.
Password: 
230 User fred logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp>

29.1.3 Getting help with ftp commands

A list of commands is available from the ftp prompt:

147
148 CHAPTER 29. TRANSFER FILES BETWEEN HOSTS USING FTP

ftp> help 

Commands may be abbreviated. Commands are:

! debug mdir sendport site

$ dir mget put size
account disconnect mkdir pwd status
append exit mls quit struct
ascii form mode quote system
bell get modtime recv sunique
binary glob mput reget tenex
bye hash newer rstatus tick
case help nmap rhelp trace
cd idle nlist rename type
cdup image ntrans reset user
chmod lcd open restart umask
close ls prompt rmdir verbose
cr macdef passive runique ?
delete mdelete proxy send

The ftp man page gives details for the use of each command:

$ man ftp 

$ /bye 
bye Terminate the FTP session with the remote server and exit
ftp. An end of file will also terminate the session and
exit.
...

29.1.4 finishing an ftp session

ftp> bye 
221-You have transferred 0 bytes in 0 files.
221-Total traffic for this session was 249 bytes in 0 transfers.
221-Thank you for using the FTP service on otherbox.mynet.
221 Goodbye.
[fred@mybox fred] $

29.2 Practical exercise

In these exercises you will establish simultaneous telnet and ftp sessions between your
local host (say mybox) and a remote host (here called otherbox).

Fillin these boxes:
– Actual name of local host: = mybox
– Actual name of remote host: = otherbox

Open three terminals in X or login to three virtual consoles.
first terminal: local login to mybox
second terminal: remote login to otherbox
third terminal: ftp session between mybox and otherbox
29.2. PRACTICAL EXERCISE 149

29.2.1 Exercise 1
Create two files, one on the local host and one on the remote host, then copy each of
the files to the other computer.

Create a file on the local host:

[fred@mybox fred] $ uname -a > ˜/local.file 

Telnet into the remote host (here called otherbox) and create a file in your home
directory over there:

[fred@mybox fred] $ telnet otherbox 

...
login: fred
Password:
[fred@otherbox fred] $ uname -a > ˜/remote.file 

Establish an ftp session (see section 29.1.2):

[fred@mybox] $ ftp otherbox 

...
ftp>

put the file local.file from the local host to the remote host.

ftp> put local.file 

local: local.file remote: local.file
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for local.file.
69 bytes sent in 0.00 secs (1271.4 kB/s)

Look at the “.file’s” on the remote host:

ftp> ls *.file 

200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 69 May 14 02:09 local.file
-rw-r--r-- 1 geoffrey geoffrey 80 May 14 01:59 remote.file

get the file remote.file from the remote host to the local host:

ftp> get remote.file 

local: remote.file remote: remote.file
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for remote.file (80 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
80 bytes received in 0.00 secs (137.1 kB/s)
150 CHAPTER 29. TRANSFER FILES BETWEEN HOSTS USING FTP

End you telnet session:

[fred@otherbox fred] $ ˆD 
[fred@mybox fred] $

end your ftp session:

ftp> bye 

[fred@mybox fred] $

29.2.2 Exercise 2

Establish a telnet session with the remote host;

copy all the files on the floppy disk mounted on the remote host to a directory in
your home directory on the remote host;

[fred@otherbox] $ mkdir ˜/temp 

[fred@otherbox] $ cp -a /mnt/floppy/* ˜/temp

tar and compress the files now in temp into a tarball called files.tar.gz

[fred@otherbox] $ tar zcvf files.tar.gz ˜/temp 

[fred@otherbox] $ ls -l files.tar.gz 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fred fred 219863 Mar 28 10:48 files.tar.gz

establish an ftp session with the remote host and transfer the tarball to your lo-
calhost:
[fred@mybox fred] $ mkdir work 
[fred@mybox fred] $ cd work 
[fred@mybox work] $ ftp otherbox 
...
ftp> mget files.t* 
mget files.tar.gz? y 
...

untar the files:

[fred@mybox fred] $ tar zxvf files.tar.gz 

find and compile the file example.c:

[fred@mybox fred] $ cd ˜/temp 

[fred@mybox temp] $ gcc -Wall -o example example.c 

run the program and capture the output:

[fred@mybox temp] $./example >catch.out 

check your output:
[fred@mybox temp] $ cat catch.out 
Chapter 30

Using Secure Shell—ssh

Document Description: Exercise in using ssh and scp over a network.

References man ssh and man scp
Instructions:

Read through these notes on ssh and scp;

do the practical exercise in Section 30.4.

30.1 Install and setup

OpenSSH was probably installed during your system installation. If not then install
the OpenSSH packages using the command line or request your system administrator
to do so for you.

30.2 Using an ssh client

In order to login to a remote host:

You must have an account on the remote host;

you must have ssh client software installed on the local host;

and an ssh server (sshd) must be running on the remote host.

30.2.1 Logging in to a remote host using ssh

If your username for your account on the remote host is the same as it is on the local
host then you may login thus:
geoffrey@mintie:˜$ ssh zipper.zip.com.au 
[email protected]’s password: 
If your account name is different then add your remote host username to the ssh login
command:
geoffrey@mintie:˜$ ssh [email protected] 
[email protected]’s password: 
151
152 CHAPTER 30. USING SECURE SHELL—SSH

30.2.2 First time ssh login

The first login requires authenticity encription keys to be set up on the local host. Your
first login session may look like this:
geoffrey@mintie:˜$ ssh zipper.zip.com.au 
The authenticity of host ’zipper.zip.com.au’ can’t be established.
DSA key fingerprint is fe:12:02:fb:49:de:8a:d1:c2:8f:82:54:63:d1:bc.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes 
Warning: Permanently added ’zipper.zip.com.au,61.8.0.87’
(DSA) to the list of known hosts.
[email protected]’s password: 
Last login: Sun May 20 17:14:57 2001
from cpe-144-132-250-208.nsw.bigpond.net.au

geoffrey@zipperii:˜$

30.3 Using Secure Copy—scp

30.3.1 Copying files to a remote host
To copy a file called local.txt from the local host to your home directory on a remote
host:
bar@localhost˜$ scp local.txt [email protected]:˜/ 
[email protected]’s password: 
local.txt 100% |***********************| 589 00:00

30.3.2 Copying files from a remote host

To copy a file called remote.txt from your home directory on a remote host to your
current working directory on the local host:
bar@localhost˜$ scp [email protected]:˜/remote.txt . 
[email protected]’s password: 
remote.txt 100% |***********************| 589 00:00
30.4. EXERCISE IN USING SSH AND SCP 153

30.4 Exercise in using ssh and scp

For this exercise:

Local hostname:

Local username:

Remote hostname:

Remote username:
Open two xterm’s: one will be a local host login; the other a remote host ssh login.
Follow these steps.
1. Create a file in your local home directory called <username>.local where
<username> is your user name. e.g.

freddy@localbox:˜$ id >freddy.local 

2. Use scp to copy the file to a remote host.

3. Use ssh to login to the remote host.

4. Check that the file arrived:

student@remotebox:˜$ ls -l 
student@remotebox:˜$ cat freddy.local 
5. Make a copy of the file on the remote host called <username>.remote and
append something to it:

student@remotebox:˜$ cp freddy.local freddy.remote 

student@remotebox:˜$ uname >> freddy.remote 
6. Copy the file called <username>.remote on the remote host back to the
local host.

7. Check that it arrived back again:

freddy@localbox:˜$ ls -l 
freddy@localbox:˜$ cat freddy.remote 
freddy@localbox:˜$ diff freddy.local freddy.remote
154 CHAPTER 30. USING SECURE SHELL—SSH
Chapter 31

talk

Document Description: exercise in using the talk utility

Instructions:

read through these sheets and check $ man talk

have a “talk” with a few people on the network

31.1 talk
Talk is a visual communication program which copies lines from your terminal to that
of another user. talk allows the user to have a two way chat session with another user.
A typical talk session could look like this:

[Connection established]
pretty good... and your self?
okay
bye robbo

|------------------------------------------------------|
Hi Geoffrey, how are you?
i’m excellent. but i’m very busy i’ll talk to
you later
cu later
g

The screen divides into two and each person types in the top half and reads what the
other person is typing in the bottom half.

155
156 CHAPTER 31. TALK

31.2 enabling talk

31.2.1 enable the service
For talk to work the service has to be enabled.
As root edit the file /etc/inetd.conf and remove the # from the beginning of
these two lines:
talk dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.talkd
ntalk dgram udp wait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.ntalkd

31.2.2 restart the network daemon

While logged on as root:
[root@freckle geoffrey]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/inet restart
Stopping INET services: [ OK ]
Starting INET services: [ OK ]

31.3 using talk

31.3.1 establishing a talk connection
[fred@box2 fred]$ talk [email protected]

31.3.2 replying to a talk request

Message from [email protected] at 18:46 ...
talk: connection requested by [email protected].
talk: respond with: talk [email protected]
[quincy@box13 quincy]$ talk [email protected]

31.3.3 communicating with talk

Type and read, type and read.

31.3.4 finishing a talk session

Just say goodbye and press ˆC.

31.4 multi way talk sessions

Try using ytalk, it is like talk but you can have three way (or more) talk sessions.
Chapter 32

Network File System—nfs

32.1 Using an nfs client to mount directories files on a

remote host
This description assumes:

The local host can access a remote host called remotehost over the network.

remotehost is an nfs server exporting a directory called /export/

Remote file systems may be mounted in a number of ways.

Using the mount command; here the exported /tmp directory of a remote host
is mounted on the preexisting mount point /nfs/tmp:

# mount remotehost:/tmp /nfs/tmp 

# mount 
...
192.168.42.10:/tmp on /nfs/tmp type nfs (rw,addr=192.168.1.10)

Mounting of remote file systems at boot time is achieved with an entry in /etc/fstab.

# tail -2 /etc/fstab 

# Server:directory Mount Point Type Options Dump Fsckorder
homesbox:/home /nfs/home nfs soft,timeout=100 0 0

The remote file systems are unmounted in the normal way:

# umount /nfs/home 

The startup script to mount remote file systems may be run thus:

# service netfs restart 

Note that this script also mount samba and netware remote file systems that are
referenced in /etc/fstab.

157
158 CHAPTER 32. NETWORK FILE SYSTEM—NFS

The modules nfs, lockd and sunrpc should be loded on demand when mounting.
Check before and after with:

# lsmod 
and
# ps aux |grep rpc 
Chapter 33

nfs

Document Description: Exercise in setting up an using a network file system.

References Read the man/info pages for nfs, nfsd, mountd, expotrfs, showmount,
nfsstat, nhfsstone.

Instructions: Read through these notes and do the practical exercises.

33.1 Server configuration—nfsd

33.1.1 The nfs and nfsd modules
The nfs module is required for mounting an exported file system and nfsd is required
for exporting a file system. Either they must be compiled into the kernel or dynamically
loaded.

Load the modules:

# modprobe nfs 

# modprobe nfsd 

Check the modules:

# lsmod 
Module Size Used by
nfs 76800 0 (unused)
nfsd 69984 0 (unused)
lockd 52336 0 [nfs nfsd]
sunrpc 62448 0 [nfs nfsd lockd]
...

33.1.2 Set exported directories in /etc/exports

The exportfs command is used to shows which file-systems are currently available
for export.

159
160 CHAPTER 33. NFS

This example shows the /tmp directory may be nfs mounted by any host on the
192.168.1.0 C-class network.

# exportfs 
/tmp 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(ro)

Export all entries in /etc/exports:

# export -a 

Un-export all entries in /etc/exports:

# export -ua 

Export the /opt directory to the host other box for reading and writing:

# exportfs -o rw other_box:/opt 

Note that no part of the file system may be exported more than once. This is
broken:

$ tail -2 /etc/exports 

/home 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(ro)
/home/mary blah.com.au(ro)

33.1.3 Services required to run an nfs server

Check to see if the portmapper is running:

# service portmap status 

portmap (pid 444) is running...

If the portmapper is not running, start it:

# service portmap start 

Starting portmapper: [ OK ]

Start (or restart) nfs:

# service nfs start 

Starting NFS services: [ OK ]
Starting NFS quotas: [ OK ]
Starting NFS mountd: [ OK ]
Starting NFS daemon: [ OK ]

Start nfslock

# service nfslock start 

Starting NFS file locking services:
Starting NFS statd: [ OK ]
33.2. NFS CLIENT 161

Check the remote procedure call processes:

# ps aux |grep rpc 

rpc 444 0.0 0.3 1484 168 ? S Oct21 0:00 portmap
rpcuser 459 0.0 0.0 1532 4 ? S Oct21 0:00 rpc.statd
root 6588 0.0 0.9 1340 424 ? S 00:25 0:00 rpc.rquotad
root 6593 0.0 1.2 1460 564 ? S 00:25 0:00 rpc.mountd
root 6600 0.0 0.0 0 0 pts/2 SW 00:25 0:00 [rpciod]
rpcuser 6625 0.0 1.6 1532 756 ? S 00:27 0:00 rpc.statd

Make sure you have some nfs daemons running:

# ps aux |grep nfs 

root 6598 0.0 0.0 0 0 pts/2 SW 00:25 0:00 [nfsd]
root 6601 0.0 0.0 0 0 pts/2 SW 00:25 0:00 [nfsd]
...

See where exported files are mounted on remote hosts:

# showmount 
Hosts on lapdog2:
192.168.1.2

33.2 nfs client

Remote file systems may be mounted in a number of ways.

Using the mount command; here the exported /tmp directory of a remote host
is mounted on the preexisting mount point /nfs/tmp:

# mount remotehost:/tmp /nfs/tmp 

# mount 
...
192.168.42.10:/tmp on /nfs/tmp type nfs (rw,addr=192.168.1.10)

Mounting of remote file systems at boot time is achieved with an entry in /etc/fstab.

# tail -2 /etc/fstab 

# Server:directory Mount Point Type Options Dump Fsckorder
homesbox:/home /nfs/home nfs soft,timeout=100 0 0

The remote file systems are unmounted in the normal way:

# umount /nfs/home 

The startup script to mount remote file systems may be run thus:

# service netfs restart 

Note that this script also mount samba and netware remote file systems that are
referenced in /etc/fstab.
162 CHAPTER 33. NFS

The modules nfs, lockd and sunrpc should be loded on demand when mounting.
Check before and after with:

# lsmod 
and
# ps aux |grep rpc 

33.3 Practical Exercise

1. Explore, check and prepare your system.

Read, digest and apply the information in section 33.1 os this document.

Check that you have access to your local network—ping some hosts.

Load the required modules and check them.
2. Export some part of your file system.

Edit /etc/exports file; add a line with similar format to the following:
(do not copy this line exactly)
/tmp 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0(rw) 

Use the export command.

3. Mount some remote nfs filesystems.

Chapter 34

163
164 CHAPTER 34.
Part XIII

Graphics

165
Chapter 35

The Gimp

The Gimp (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) provides an easy way using script-fu
to produce cool and crufty Logos suitable for display on web pages.

35.1 Documentation
Explore the documentation.

Users manual:
– Online: http://manual.gimp.org
– Dead tree: GIMP The Official Handbook CORIOLIS Press

Web page: http://www.gimp.org

Tutorials: http://www.gimp.org/tut-basic.html

Man page: $ man gimp

35.2 File Formats

The Gimp can use and save many different file formats, a few of the most useful are:
XCF The Gimp native format; use this to store your images as you work on them,
then export to the image format of your choice when you are finished.
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) Industry standard for file exchange. Lossless.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Highly compressed lossy format suitable
for photographs on web pages.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) Suitable for transparent Web graphics and GIF
animations. Propriety format.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Lossless compressed format intended to replace
GIFs.
PS (PostScript) Industry standard for printed documents.

167
168 CHAPTER 35. THE GIMP

35.3 Exercise: Make a logo with script-fu

Make a Logo to include on a web page. As a trial run to see how script-fu works follow
these steps. Then experiment to make your own original logo for your web page.
1. Open The Gimp by either selecting it from a menu or executing it from an
xterm: $ gimp 
. The Gimp toolbox should display, see Figure 35.1.
2. From The Gimp extensions menu (Xtns choose a logo script.
Xtns / Script-Fu / Logos / Alien Neon . See Figure 35.2.

Figure 35.1: The Gimp Toolbox Figure 35.2: Selecting a Logo script

3. Select some appropriate options. See Figure 35.3 for the options chosen to give
a simple black and white logo.
4. Right click on the image and choose File / Save As. For a webpage pick a low
resolution compressed format like jpeg or png. Figure 35.4 shows a finished
logo.

Figure 35.3: Alien Neon Options Figure 35.4: Web Page Logo
Chapter 36

xfig: vector drawing

Description: Exercise in learning to use the xfig drawing utility

Instruction: Draw some diagrams with xfig

36.1 documentation
Take a quick look at the documentation.

Man page:$ man xfig

Users manual: Start netscape and enter the URL
file:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xfig/html/index.html

PDF manual: $ xpdf /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xfig/xfig.pdf &

PDF xfig-howto: $ xpdf /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xfig/xfig-howto.pdf
&

36.2 display
A VGA screen resolution of 640x480 does not give sufficient real estate to run xfig. If
X is setup correctly increase the resolution by pressing Cntl-Alt-keypadminus. Screen
resolutions may be set up using the setup / xconfigurator or XF86Setup utilities. If
all else fails use the virtual screens to use the off screen menus. Resize xfig to best fit
your screen.

36.3 starting

Start a new xfig figure by entering at the command line of an xterm:
$ xfig foo.fig.
The xfig utility should load and display.

Set the units to metric. Click mouse button 3 in the box at the intersection of the
rulers near the top right corner.

Explore the menus. Find out how to save, print and open a file. Look at the help

169
170 CHAPTER 36. XFIG: VECTOR DRAWING

36.4 creating xfig drawings

36.4.1 scribble
Have a scribble on the page. Try out the drawing tools.

36.4.2 draw
See Figure 1 below. Draw a picture of an egg in a truck on a bumpy road. For detailed
help see the html howto. Save your drawing.
rectangle: Select the rectangle button; click left; move; click left again.
move: Move the rectangle a bit. Select the move button; left click on a handle; move
the object then left click again.
resize: Enlarge the rectangle a bit. Select the resize button; left click on a corner, move
to resise and left click again.
splines: Draw a bumpy road. Select a spline button: click; click; click.
rotate: Select ellipse button; left click move ane click again; edit button to edit the
pattern and line thickness; rotate button to rotate.
text: Select the button labled T . Select the point size and font then click where you
want the text placed and start typing.

36.4.3 draft
See Figure 2 below. Draw a circuit diagram using library parts. Select the library
button and place a few parts from the Logic library. Connect the parts.

Figure 1 Figure 2
Chapter 37

171