Unix-Linux

Here’s a comprehensive learning syllabus for Unix/Linux commands, tailored for beginners to intermediate learners:

 

Week 1: Introduction to Unix/Linux and Basic Commands

Day 1: Overview of Unix/Linux

  • What is Unix/Linux?
  • Basic structure: Kernel, Shell, and File System
  • Types of Unix/Linux distributions

Day 2: Getting Started

  • Logging into a Unix/Linux system
  • Understanding the command-line interface
  • File and directory structure

Day 3: Basic File and Directory Management

  • pwd – Print working directory
  • ls – List directory contents
  • cd – Change directories
  • mkdir – Create directories
  • rmdir – Remove empty directories
  • touch – Create an empty file

Day 4: Viewing and Manipulating Files

  • cat – View file contents
  • less, more – Paginated file viewing
  • cp – Copy files
  • mv – Move/rename files
  • rm – Delete files

Day 5: File Permissions

  • File ownership and permissions
  • chmod – Change permissions
  • chown – Change ownership
  • ls -l – Detailed listing with permissions

Week 2: Intermediate Commands and System Navigation

Day 6: Searching and Finding Files

  • find – Search for files
  • locate – Quickly locate files
  • which – Locate executables
  • grep – Search within files

Day 7: Managing Processes

  • ps – View active processes
  • top – Real-time process monitoring
  • kill, killall – Terminate processes
  • bg, fg, jobs – Background and foreground processes

Day 8: File Compression and Archiving

  • tar – Archive files
  • gzip, gunzip – Compress and decompress files
  • zip, unzip – File compression and extraction

Day 9: Networking Commands

  • ping – Test network connectivity
  • curl, wget – Download files and interact with URLs
  • netstat, ss – View network connections

Day 10: Disk Usage and Space Management

  • df – Display disk space usage
  • du – Show directory space usage
  • mount, umount – Mount/Unmount file systems

Week 3: Advanced Commands and Scripting Basics

Day 11: Text Processing

  • head, tail – View beginning and end of files
  • cut, awk, sed – Advanced text processing
  • sort, uniq – Sorting and deduplication
  • wc – Word, line, and byte count

Day 12: User and Group Management

  • who, whoami, id – User information
  • adduser, deluser – Add/remove users
  • passwd – Change passwords
  • groups – Display user groups

Day 13: Package Management

  • For Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get, apt
  • For Red Hat/CentOS: yum, dnf
  • rpm – Manage individual packages

Day 14: Introduction to Shell Scripting

  • What is a shell script?
  • Writing and executing basic scripts
  • Using variables, loops (for, while), and conditions (if, case)

Week 4: System Administration and Best Practices

Day 15: System Monitoring

  • uptime, dmesg – System uptime and messages
  • vmstat, iostat – CPU and I/O statistics
  • free – Check memory usage

Day 16: Scheduling Tasks

  • cron, crontab – Automating tasks
  • at – Schedule one-time jobs

Day 17: Logs and Troubleshooting

  • tail -f – Monitor log files
  • System log locations (/var/log)
  • journalctl – System logs for systemd

Day 18: Permissions and Security

  • sudo – Execute commands as another user
  • Securing SSH (ssh, scp, ssh-keygen)
  • Understanding and managing firewalls (ufw, iptables)

Day 19: Version Control

  • Basics of git for version control
  • Common commands: init, clone, add, commit, push, pull

Day 20: Review and Practical Exercises

  • Practice exercises for all commands learned
  • Troubleshooting common scenarios
  • Explore man pages (man) and help options (--help)

Resources for Learning

  1. Books:

    • “The Linux Command Line” by William Shotts
    • “Linux Pocket Guide” by Daniel J. Barrett

  2. Online Platforms:

    • Codecademy: Linux Command Line Basics
    • Udemy: Linux for Beginners
    • Linux Foundation Training (free courses)

  3. Practice Tools:

Here’s a detailed day-by-day exercise plan to complement the syllabus

Week 1: Introduction to Unix/Linux and Basic Commands

Day 1: Overview of Unix/Linux

  • Explore your Unix/Linux distribution (use uname -a).
  • Open the terminal and familiarize yourself with it.

Day 2: Getting Started

  • Practice logging into a Unix/Linux system.
  • Use pwd to check your current working directory.
  • Use ls to view directory contents.

Day 3: Basic File and Directory Management

  • Create a directory called my_test.
  • Navigate to the new directory with cd my_test.
  • Create an empty file named file1.txt with touch.
  • Practice creating multiple directories (mkdir dir1 dir2).
  • Remove an empty directory with rmdir.

Day 4: Viewing and Manipulating Files

  • Use cat to create a file with some text (cat > file1.txt).
  • View the contents of file1.txt using cat, less, and more.
  • Copy file1.txt to a new file file2.txt (cp file1.txt file2.txt).
  • Rename file2.txt to file3.txt (mv file2.txt file3.txt).
  • Delete file3.txt with rm.

Day 5: File Permissions

  • Create a file permission_test.txt.
  • Check its permissions with ls -l.
  • Change its permissions to make it read-only (chmod 444 permission_test.txt).
  • Try editing the file to see the effect of permissions.

Week 2: Intermediate Commands and System Navigation

Day 6: Searching and Finding Files

  • Use find to locate all .txt files in the current directory.
  • Try locate to find a file by name (e.g., locate bash).
  • Use grep to search for the word “Linux” in a file.

Day 7: Managing Processes

  • View running processes using ps and top.
  • Open multiple terminal sessions, run sleep 1000, and manage them with jobs.
  • Terminate one of the running processes using kill.

Day 8: File Compression and Archiving

  • Create an archive of the my_test directory using tar (tar -cvf my_test.tar my_test).
  • Compress the archive with gzip (gzip my_test.tar).
  • Uncompress it using gunzip.

Day 9: Networking Commands

  • Use ping google.com to test internet connectivity.
  • Download a file using curl or wget.
  • Check active network connections with netstat or ss.

Day 10: Disk Usage and Space Management

  • Check your disk usage with df -h.
  • List the sizes of files in the current directory using du -sh *.
  • Mount a USB drive and check its mount point with mount.

Week 3: Advanced Commands and Scripting Basics

Day 11: Text Processing

  • Create a text file with multiple lines and practice:
    • View the first 5 lines (head -n 5).
    • View the last 3 lines (tail -n 3).
    • Extract specific columns using cut.
  • Use awk to print the first column of a file.
  • Practice replacing text in a file using sed.

Day 12: User and Group Management

  • Check your user information with whoami and id.
  • Create a new user using sudo adduser testuser.
  • Add a new group and assign the user to it.

Day 13: Package Management

  • Update your package list (sudo apt update or sudo yum check-update).
  • Install a sample package (e.g., sudo apt install tree).
  • Remove the package (sudo apt remove tree).

Day 14: Introduction to Shell Scripting

  • Write a basic script:
    #!/bin/bash
echo "Hello, World!"
  • Execute it (chmod +x script.sh && ./script.sh).
  • Create a script with a loop to print numbers 1 to 5.

Week 4: System Administration and Best Practices

Day 15: System Monitoring

  • Check your system uptime with uptime.
  • View system logs with dmesg | less.
  • Use free to check memory usage.

Day 16: Scheduling Tasks

  • Create a cron job to display “Hello” every minute.
    crontab -e
* * * * * echo "Hello" >> ~/cron_test.log
  • Verify the job is running by checking the log file.

Day 17: Logs and Troubleshooting

  • Locate system logs in /var/log (e.g., ls /var/log).
  • Use tail -f /var/log/syslog to monitor logs in real time.

Day 18: Permissions and Security

  • Create an SSH key pair (ssh-keygen) and practice connecting to a remote machine.
  • Configure and enable a firewall using ufw.

Day 19: Version Control

  • Initialize a Git repository:
    git init
echo "My first file" > file1.txt
git add file1.txt
git commit -m "Initial commit"
  • Create a new branch and merge it into the main branch.

Day 20: Review and Practical Exercises

  • Solve these challenges:
    1. Find all .log files in the /var/log directory.
    2. Write a script to back up a directory.
    3. Compress a file and upload it to a remote server using scp.
  • Share your completed exercises with a mentor or peer for review.

This syllabus ensures hands-on practice while covering all the essentials.

Here's a breakdown with example scripts and deeper explanations for each section of the syllabus:

Week 1: Introduction to Unix/Linux and Basic Commands

Day 3: Basic File and Directory Management

  • Script Example:
    #!/bin/bash
echo "Creating directories..."
mkdir -p my_test/dir1
echo "Creating files..."
touch my_test/dir1/file1.txt my_test/dir1/file2.txt
echo "Listing directory contents..."
ls -R my_test

Day 4: Viewing and Manipulating Files

  • Deeper Explanation:

    • cat displays file contents. Use >, >> to write/append:
      cat > file1.txt
Hello, Unix/Linux!  # Type your content
Ctrl+D              # Save and exit
    • less/more display files one screen at a time.

  • Script Example:

    #!/bin/bash
echo "Creating a sample file..."
echo -e "Line1\nLine2\nLine3" > sample.txt
echo "Displaying the file:"
cat sample.txt

Week 2: Intermediate Commands and System Navigation

Day 6: Searching and Finding Files

  • Script Example:
    #!/bin/bash
echo "Searching for .txt files in the current directory..."
find . -type f -name "*.txt"
echo "Searching for the word 'Hello' in sample.txt..."
grep "Hello" sample.txt

Day 7: Managing Processes

  • Deeper Explanation:

    • Use ps aux to view processes.
    • Kill a process by ID (kill <PID>).
    • jobs, bg, fg manage background/foreground tasks.

  • Example:

    # Run a long process in the background
sleep 1000 &
echo "Background process ID: $!"
jobs

Day 9: Networking Commands

  • Deeper Explanation:
    • ping checks connectivity.
    • curl fetches data from a URL.
      curl -O https://example.com/sample.txt  # Download file

Week 3: Advanced Commands and Scripting Basics

Day 11: Text Processing

  • Script Example:
    #!/bin/bash
echo -e "Name,Age\nAlice,30\nBob,25" > data.csv
echo "Extracting the first column using cut:"
cut -d, -f1 data.csv
echo "Sorting data:"
sort data.csv
echo "Counting lines:"
wc -l data.csv

Day 14: Introduction to Shell Scripting

  • Deeper Explanation:

    • Start scripts with #!/bin/bash.
    • Use variables:
      name="Linux Learner"
echo "Hello, $name!"

  • Script Example:

    #!/bin/bash
for i in {1..5}; do
  echo "Iteration $i"
done

Week 4: System Administration and Best Practices

Day 16: Scheduling Tasks

  • Deeper Explanation:
    • crontab -e edits cron jobs. Format:
      * * * * * command_to_run
    • Example: Add a cron job to back up files daily:
      0 0 * * * tar -czf backup.tar.gz /path/to/files

Day 19: Version Control

  • Script Example:
    #!/bin/bash
echo "Initializing a Git repository..."
git init
echo "Creating a new file..."
echo "My first Git file" > file1.txt
git add file1.txt
git commit -m "Initial commit"
echo "Repository setup complete."

Hands-On Challenges

Here are practical exercises combining multiple concepts:

  1. File Backup Script:

    #!/bin/bash
SRC="/path/to/source"
DEST="/path/to/backup"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d)
BACKUP_FILE="backup_$DATE.tar.gz"

echo "Backing up $SRC to $DEST/$BACKUP_FILE..."
tar -czf "$DEST/$BACKUP_FILE" "$SRC"
echo "Backup complete!"

  2. Monitoring and Logging Script:

    #!/bin/bash
LOG_FILE="system_usage.log"

echo "Logging system usage to $LOG_FILE..."
echo "Timestamp: $(date)" >> $LOG_FILE
echo "Disk Usage:" >> $LOG_FILE
df -h >> $LOG_FILE
echo "Memory Usage:" >> $LOG_FILE
free -h >> $LOG_FILE
echo "----------------------" >> $LOG_FILE

  3. Find and Archive Files Script:

    #!/bin/bash
DIR="/path/to/search"
ARCHIVE_NAME="archive.tar.gz"

echo "Finding .log files in $DIR..."
find "$DIR" -type f -name "*.log" -exec tar -czf "$ARCHIVE_NAME" {} +
echo "Archived files into $ARCHIVE_NAME"