Course Summary

For persons who have no command-line experience in Linux or UNIX and want to develop skills for using and customizing their own Linux workstations.

Course updated for building skills on the following distributions :

Mandriva 2005

Mandriva 2006

Mandrake 10.1

Mandrake 10.2

White Box Enterprise Linux 3

White Box Enterprise Linux 4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

Fedora Core 2

Red Hat 9.0

Mandrake Move

Knoppix

Suse Live

ATRC Linux Essentials Description

Goal:

A power user who can effectively use, customize and script an Enterprise Linux system for common command line processes as well as use basic network utilities. A student who successfully masters the material in ATRC is ready to begin learning system administration ATRC and RH133.

Audience:

IT professionals who want to build user-level skills before learning Linux System and Network Administration.

Prerequisites:

User-level experience with any computer system, including: use of mouse, use of menus and use of any graphical user interface.

Course Duration : 36 Hours.

15:00 - 17:00 Monday to Friday

18 Classes of two hours each. 3.5 Weeks.

Course Fees : Rs 9600 per participant.

Prepares for:

ATRC Linux System Administration RH 133 +

This course teaches the basics of a Linux environment and prepares for the future role as a system administrator. The course focuses on the use of the command line interface and its basic commands that a crucial for a administrator or system engineer.

Goal:

A Linux user who can be productive in using and customizing a Linux system for common command line processes and desktop productivity roles.

Audience:

Users who are new to Linux and have no prior UNIX or command-line skills, who want to develop and practice the basic skills to use and control their own Linux system.

Prerequisites

User-level experience with any computer system, use of mouse, use of menus, use of any graphical user interface.

Course Objective

  Understand the Linux file system
  Perform common file maintenance tasks
  Use and customize the GNOME interface
  Issue essential Linux commands from the command line
  Perform common tasks using the GNOME GUI
  Open, edit, and save text documents using the vi editor
  File access permissions
  Launch applications from command line and GNOME interface
  Printing commands and utilities
  Customize X Window System
  Regular expression pattern matching and I/O redirection
  Copy files to and from a floppy diskette
  Install, upgrade, delete, and query packages on your system
  Network utilities for the user
  Power user utilities
  Miscellaneous topics

Course Content

The following is an outline of the skills and knowledge represented in the training elements of the ATRC Linux Essentials Course.

Linux Essentials Outline.

Section 1: A Tour of Enterprise Linux

UNIT 1: Overview

  Objectives
  Agenda
  UNIX History
  UNIX Principles
  GNU Project / FSF
  GPL - GNU General Public License
  Linux Origins
  Why Linux?
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  White Box Enterprise Linux
  Recommended Hardware Specifications
  Local Logins
  Virtual Consoles
  The Xorg GUI Framework
  Xorg Graphical Environments
  Starting Xorg
  Changing Your Password

UNIT 2: Running Commands and Getting Help

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Running Commands
  Some Simple Commands
  Getting Help
  The whatis Command
  The --help Option
  Reading Usage Summaries
  The man Command
  Navigating man Pages
  The info Command
  Navigating info Pages
  Extended Documentation
  Red Hat Documentation
  Linux Documentation
  Hands-on Lab: Getting Help with Commands

UNIT 3: Browsing the File system

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Linux File Hierarchy Concepts
  Some Important Directories
  Other Important Directories
  Current Working Directory
  File and Directory Names
  Absolute Pathnames
  Relative Pathnames
  Changing Directories
  Listing Directory Contents
  Copying Files and Directories
  Copying Files and Directories: The Destination
  Moving and Renaming Files and Directories
  Moving and Renaming Files and Directories: The Destination
  Creating and Removing Files
  Creating and Removing Directories
  Using Nautilus
  Moving and Copying in Nautilus
  Determining File Content
  Viewing an Entire Text File
  Viewing Text Page by Page
  Hands-on Lab: Browsing the File system

UNIT 4: The bash Shell

  Objectives
  Agenda
  bash Introduction
  bash Heritage and Features
  Command Line Shortcuts: File Globing
  Command Line Shortcuts: The Tab Key
  Command Line Shortcuts: history
  Command Line Expansion: Tilde
  Command Line Expansion: Variable and String
  Command Line Expansion: Command and Math
  Protecting from Expansion: Backslash
  Protecting from Expansion: Quotes
  History Tricks
  Command Editing Tricks
  Command Editing Tricks: Editing Modes
  gnome-terminal
  Hands-on Lab: Exploring the bash Shell

UNIT 5: Standard I/O and Pipes

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Standard Input and Output
  Redirecting Input and Output
  Redirecting Output
  Redirecting Standard Output
  Overwriting or Appending
  Redirecting Standard Error
  Redirecting Both Standard Output and Error
  Redirecting Input
  Using Pipes to Connect Processes
  Useful Pipe Targets
  tee
  Hands-on Lab: Standard I/O and Pipes

UNIT 6: Users, Groups, and Permissions

  Objectives
  Agenda
  The Linux Security Model
  Users
  Groups
  The root User
  Linux File Security
  Permission Types
  Examining Permissions
  Interpreting Permissions
  Examining Directories
  Linux Process Security
  Changing Permissions- Symbolic Method
  Changing Permissions- Numeric Method
  Changing Permissions- Nautilus
  Hands-on Lab: File Permissions

UNIT 7: vi, vim, joe, and gedit Editor Basics and Printing

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Overview of vi and vim
  Starting vi and vim
  Three Modes of vi and vim
  Cursor Movement
  Entering Insert Mode
  Leaving Insert Mode: <Esc>
  Change, Delete, and Yank
  Put (paste)
  Undoing Changes
  Searching for Text
  Command-Mode Tricks
  Saving and Exiting: ex mode
  Printing in Linux
  Printing Commands
  Printing Utilities
  Hands-on Lab: vi and vim Editor Basics

UNIT 8: The Linux File system In-Depth

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Partitions and File systems
  Inodes
  Directories
  Inodes and Directories
  cp and Inodes
  mv and Inodes
  rm and Inodes
  Symbolic (or Soft) Links
  Hard Links
  The Seven Fundamental File types
  Checking Free Space
  Removable Media
  Mounting CDs and DVDs
  Mounting USB Media
  Mounting Floppy Disks
  Formatting Floppy Disks
  Why Archive Files?
  Creating an Archive
  Inspecting Archives
  Extracting an Archive
  Why Use File Compression?
  Compression Utilities
  Using Compression
  Compressing Archives
  tar to Unformatted Floppies
  Hands-on Lab: The Linux File system

UNIT 9: Configuring the bash Shell

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Configuring the bash Shell
  Variables
  Configuring the Shell: Local Variables
  Common Local Variables
  The PS1 Local Variable
  Aliases
  Other Shell Configuration Methods
  Configuring Commands: Environment Variables
  Common Environment Variables
  The TERM Environment Variable
  The PATH Environment Variable
  How the Shell Expands the Command Line
  Shell Startup Scripts
  Login Shells
  Startup Scripts: Order of Execution
  /etc/profile
  /etc/profile.d
  ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bashrc
  ~/.bash_logout
  Hands-on Lab: Configuring the bash Shell

UNIT 10: Advanced Topics in Users, Groups, and Permissions

  Objectives
  Agenda
  User and Group ID Numbers
  /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group Files
  System Users and Groups
  Changing Your Identity
  User Information Commands
  Default Permissions
  Special Permissions
  Special Permissions for Executables
  Special Permissions for Directories
  Hands-on Lab: Switching Users and Setting a umask

UNIT 11: Advanced Uses of the vi and vim Editors

  Objectives
  Agenda
  File Repositioning
  Screen Repositioning
  Filtering
  ex mode: Search and Replace
  Visual Mode
  Advanced Reading and Saving
  Configuring vi and vim
  Expanding your Vocabulary
  A Peek at the Appendix
  Hands-on Lab: Advanced Uses of the vi and vim Editors

UNIT 12: Introduction to String Processing

  Objectives
  Agenda
  head
  tail
  tail - continued
  wc
  sort
  uniq
  cut
  Other String Processing Tools
  Version Comparison with diff
  Spell Checking with aspell
  Formatting Tools
  Hands-on Lab: Introduction to String Processing

UNIT 13: String Processing with Regular Expressions

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions
  Wild card Characters
  Modifiers
  Anchors
  regex Combinations
  Regular Expressions - Examples
  Quote your regex's!
  grep
  sed
  Using sed
  less and slocate
  Regular Expressions in vi and vim
  Extended Regular Expressions
  Extended regex Syntax
  awk
  Using awk
  Hands-on Lab: String Processing with Regular Expressions

UNIT 14: Finding and Processing Files

  Objectives
  Agenda
  slocate
  slocate Examples
  find
  Basic find Examples
  find and Logical Operators
  find and Permissions
  find and Numeric Criteria
  find and Access Times
  Executing Commands with find
  find Execution Examples
  The Gnome Search Tool
  Hands-on Lab: Finding and Processing Files

UNIT 15: Investigating and Managing Processes

  Objectives
  Agenda
  What is a Process?
  How Processes Are Created
  Process Ancestry
  Process States
  Viewing Processes
  Sending Signals to Processes
  Terminating Processes
  Altering Process Scheduling Priority
  Altering Process Scheduling Priority- continued
  Interactive Process Management Tools
  Running a Process in the Foreground
  Running a Process in the Background
  Suspending a Process
  Listing Background and Suspended Jobs
  Resuming Suspended Jobs
  Compound Commands
  Scheduling a Process to Execute Later
  Scheduling Periodic Processes
  Using cron
  Crontab File Format
  Hands-on Lab: Process Control

UNIT 16: Network Clients

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Web Clients
  Firefox
  Other GUI Web Browsers
  Non-GUI Web Browsers
  wget
  Email and Messaging
  Evolution
  Configuring Evolution
  Evolution and GnuPG
  Other GUI Mail Clients
  Non-GUI Mail Clients
  Gaim
  Remote Access and File Transfer
  ssh: Secure Shell
  scp: Secure Copy
  telnet and the "r" Services
  rsync
  lftp
  gFTP
  smbclient
  File Transfer with Nautilus
  Xorg Clients
  Network Diagnostic Tools
  Hands-on Lab: Network Clients

UNIT 17: bash Shell Scripting

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Scripting Basics
  Creating Shell Scripts
  Creating Shell Scripts- Continued
  Generating Output
  Handling Input
  Exit Status
  Control Structures
  Conditional Execution
  Selection Structures: Using the if Statement
  File Tests
  String Tests
  Selection Structures: Using if / else Statements
  Selection Structures: Using the case Statement
  Repetition Structures: The for loop
  for and sequences
  Selection Structures: The while loop
  continue and break
  Using Positional Parameters
  Handling Parameters with Spaces
  Handling Filenames with Spaces
  Using Functions in Shell Scripts
  Using Functions - continued
  Scripting at the Command Line
  Shell Script Debugging
  Hands-on Lab: bash Shell Scripting

UNIT 18: So… What now?

  Objectives
  Agenda
  Some Areas to Explore
  Development
  ATRC Development Classes
  System Administrator Duties
  LPI Skills Courses
  RHCE/RHCT Skills Courses
  RHCA Skills Courses
  The Linux Community