UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,

TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Operating Systems
Experiment 2
Implementation of LINUX Commands -I

(Linux)

CLO 2. Use modern tools and languages.

CLO 3. Demonstrate an original solution of problem under
discussion.
CLO 4. Work individually as well as in teams
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Implementing Basic Linux Commands

Shell a program that takes the commands you type and translates them into instructions to the
operating system.

File: Under most operating systems (including Linux), there is the concept of a file, which is
just a bundle of information given a name (called a filename). Examples of files might be
your history term paper, an e-mail message, or an actual program that can be executed.
Essentially, anything saved on disk is saved in an individual file.

Directory: With the concept of files comes the concept of directories. A directory is a
collection of files. It can be thought of as a “folder'' that contains many different files.
Directories are given names, with which you can identify them. Furthermore, directories are
maintained in a tree-like structure; that is, directories may contain other directories.

Current working directory: At any moment, commands that you enter are assumed to be
relative to your current working directory. You can think of your working directory as the
directory in which you are currently ``located''. When you first log in, your working directory
is set to your home directory--/home/me.

Introduction to Basic Shell Commands

Command: cat

General Syntax

cat [OPTION] [FILE]...

1. Display Contents of File

 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

In the below example, it will show contents of file1/passwd file.

# cat file1/passwd

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
narad:x:500:500::/home/narad:/bin/bash

2. View Contents of Multiple Files in terminal

In below example, it will display contents of test and test1 file in terminal.

# cat test test1

Hello everybody
Hi world,

3. Create a File with Cat Command

We will create a file called test2 file with below command using “>” overwrite operator.

# cat > test2

Awaits input from user, type desired text and press CTRL+D (hold down Ctrl Key and type
‘d‘) to exit. The text will be written in test2 file. You can see content of file with following
cat command.

Note: if you write again in this file using “cat > test2” command then previous content will be
overwritten. To append at the end of previously written content use “>>” append operator.

# cat test2

hello everyone, how do you do?

 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

4. Use Cat Command with More & Less Options

If file having large number of contents that won’t fit in output terminal and screen scrolls up
very fast, we can use parameters more and less with cat command as show above. press “q”
to quit scrolling.

0# cat song.txt | more

# cat song.txt | less

5. Display Line Numbers in File

With -n option you could see the line numbers of a file song.txt in the output terminal.

# cat -n song.txt

1 "Heal The World"

2 There's A Place In
3 Your Heart
4 And I Know That It Is Love
5 And This Place Could
6 Be Much
7 Brighter Than Tomorrow
8 And If You Really Try
9 You'll Find There's No Need
10 To Cry
11 In This Place You'll Feel
12 There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

6. Display $ at the End of File

In the below, you can see with -e option that ‘$‘is shown at the end of line and also in space
showing ‘$‘for gap between paragraphs. This options are useful to squeeze multiple lines in
a single line.
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

# cat -e test

hello everyone, how do you do?$

$
Hey, am fine.$
How's your training going on?$
$

7. Display Tab separated Lines in File

In the below output, we could see TAB space is filled up with ‘^I‘ character.

# cat -T test

hello ^Ieveryone, how do you do?

Hey, ^Iam fine.

^I^IHow's your training ^Igoing on?
Let's do ^Isome practice in Linux.

8. Display Multiple Files at Once

In the below example we have three files test, test1 and test2 and able to view the contents of
those file as shown above. We need to separate each file with ; (semi colon).

# cat test; cat test1; cat test2

This is test file

This is test1 file.
This is test2 file.
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

9. Use Standard Output with Redirection Operator(Overwriting contents of

file with another file)

We can redirect standard output of a file into a new file else existing file with ‘>‘ (greater
than) symbol. Careful, existing contents of test1 will be overwritten by contents of test file.

# cat test > test1

10. Appending Standard Output with Redirection Operator(Appending

contents of file at end of another file)

Appends in existing file with ‘>>‘ (double greater than) symbol. Here, contents of test file
will be appended at the end of test1 file.

# cat test >> test1

11. Redirecting Standard Input with Redirection Operator

When you use the redirect with standard input ‘<‘ (less than symbol), it use file name test2
as a input for a command and output will be shown in a terminal.

# cat < test2

This is test2 file.

12. Redirecting Multiple Files Contain in a Single File

This will create a file called test3 and all output will be redirected in a newly created file.

# cat test test1 test2 > test3

existing contents of test3 will be overwritten by contents of test,test1 and test2 files.
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

2. Command: pwd

Syntax: pwd [OPTION]

Description: "pwd" stands for print working directory. It displays your current position in the
LINIX file system.

Examples:
 pwd
It is simply used to report your current working directory.

4. Command: ls

Syntax: ls [options] [names]

Description: "ls" stands for list. It is used to list information about files and directories.

Examples:

 ls
This is the basic "ls" command, with no options. It provides a very basic listing of the files in
your current working directory. Filenames beginning with a decimal are considered hidden
files, and they are not shown.

 ls -al
This command provides a long listing of information about all files in the current directory.
This is probably the most used version of the ls command.

 ls -a
This command provides a listing of information about all hidden files and directories in the
current directory whose name begins with a dot.
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

4. Command: mv

Syntax: mv [options] source target11

Description: The "mv" command is used to rename files.

Examples:
mv Chapter1 garbage

This command renames the file "Chapter1" to the new name "garbage".

5. Command: rm and rm -r

Description:

1. The "rm" command is used to remove files.

2. The “rm -r” command is used to remove directories..

(Warning - be very careful when removing files!)

Examples:

rm Chapter1.bad

This command deletes the file named "Chapter1.bad"assuming you have permission to delete
this file).

rm Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3

This command deletes the files named "Chapter1", "Chapter2", and "Chapter3".

rm -i Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3

 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

This rm-i command prompt you before deleting any of the three files specified. The -i option
stands for inquire. You must answer y (for yes) for each file you want to delete. This can be a
safer way to delete files.

rm *.html

This command deletes all files in the current directory whose filename ends with the characters
".html".

rm index*

This command deletes all files in the current directory whose filename begins with the
character’s "index".

rm -r new-novel

This command deletes the directory named "new-novel”. This directory, and all of its contents,
are erased from the disk, including any sub-directories and files.

6. Command: cp

Syntax: cp [options] file1 file2

cp [options] files directory

Description: The "cp" command is used to copy files and directories. Note that when using
the cp command, you must always specify both the source and destination of the file(s) to be
copied.
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Examples:

cp -r file1 Lab2
This command copies your file “file1” to a directory named “Lab2”.

7. Command: mkdir

Syntax: mkdir [options] directory name

Description: The "mkdir" command is used to create new directories (sub-directories).

Examples:

mkdir tmp

This command creates a new directory named "tmp" in your current directory. (This example
assumes that you have the proper permissions to create a new sub-directory in your current
working directory.)

mkdir memos letters e-mail

This command creates three new sub-directories (memos, letters, and e-mail) in the current
directory.

mkdir –p parent/child/customer/acme

This command creates a new directory named parent/child/customer/acme, and creates any
intermediate directories that are needed.
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

8. Command: rmdir

Syntax: rmdir [options] directories

Description: The "rmdir" command is used to remove directories. (Warning - be very careful
when removing directories!)

Examples:

rmdir Lab2

This command deletes the directory named "Lab2" (assuming you have permission to delete
this directory).

 ~ files with this symbol are backup files. We can recover them.

 To remove these backup files, we use rm *~.

 It will remove all the backup files.

Command: clear
Clear the Window

Command: exit
Exit a shell
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Lab Task

1. Verify that you are in your home directory.

2. Change to directory Desktop. Reside in this Directory.

3. Create 2 more directories in pwd, named “File1” and “File2”.
4. Create a file named as FisrtFile in directory File1 with some content.
5. Create a file named as SecondFile directory File2 with some content.
6. View Contents of both files at once on monitor.
7. Append the content of FisrtFile in 2nd File. Verify the Change in 2nd File.
8.Overwrite the existing contents of FisrtFile by contents of SecondFile file. Verify the
Change in SecondFile File.
9. Make a copy of the file FisrtFile under the name SecondFile.

11. Delete the file FisrtFile.

12. Verify that FisrtFile. has been deleted.

13. Clear the window.