Preface
In this book, the goal is to build a solid foundation of learning all the essentials of the Linux command line to get you started. It has been designed to strongly focus on learning only the practical core skills and essential Linux knowledge, which is really important when beginning this wonderful OS in an easy way. All the examples shown in this course have been carefully chosen to be everyday and real-world tasks, use cases, and problems Linux beginners or system administrators will probably encounter when starting out from scratch. We begin our journey with the virtualization software and install CentOS 7 Linux as a VM. Then, we will gently introduce you to the most basic command-line operations, such as cursor movement, commands, options and arguments, history, quoting and globbing, file streams and pipes, and getting help, and then introduce you to the wonderful art of regular expressions and how to work with files. Then, the most essential everyday Linux commands are demonstrated and explained, and a compact introduction to Bash shell scripting provided. Finally, the reader is introduced to advanced topics such as networking, how to troubleshoot your system, advanced file permissions, ACL, setuid, setgid, and sticky bit. This is just the starting point and there is so much more you can learn about Linux.
Who this book is for
This book is for individuals looking to work as Linux system administrator.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to Linux, introduces you to the general idea of Linux. Topics range from virtualization, and the installation of VirtualBox and CentOS, through to the working dynamics of VirtualBox, and SSH connectivity with VirtualBox.
Chapter 2, The Linux Command Line, sheds some light on a wide range of topics, including shell globbing, an introduction to command-line operations, the navigation of files and folders in the Linux filesystem, the central idea of different streams, regular expressions, and important commands such as grep, sed, and awk.
Chapter 3, The Linux Filesystem, focuses on the working dynamics of the system, including file links, users and groups, file permissions, text files, text editor, and an understanding of the Linux filesystem.
Chapter 4, Working with the Command Line, walks you through essential Linux commands, signals, additional programs, processes, and Bash shell scripting.
Chapter 5, More Advanced Command Lines and Concepts, provides an overview of basic networking concepts, services, ACL, troubleshooting, setuid, setgid, and sticky bit.
To get the most out of this book
You will need a basic lab setup and at least a system with 8 GB of RAM and a dual-core processor. If you are planning to create a virtual environment, then a system with the same memory and a quad-core processor is recommended.
A VirtualBox and a VMware workstation are the best options for Windows. For Mac systems, run the testing system on parallels.
Throughout the book, we have used CentOS 7 minimal as the operating system.
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/FundamentalsofLinux_ColorImages.pdf.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The first CentOS 7 VM server can now be accessed using the IP 127.0.0.1 with port 2222, the second at port 2223, and the third at port 2224."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
# yum update -yBold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select our CentOS 7 server VM and click on the green Start button to start it."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear like this.
Note
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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