Linux Fundamentals - GL120 Course Outline

The GL120 is a challenging course that focuses on the fundamental tools and concepts of Linux and Unix. Students gain proficiency using the command line. Beginners develop a solid foundation in Unix, while advanced users discover patterns and fill in gaps in their knowledge. Like all Guru Labs courses, the course material is designed to provide extensive hands-on experience. Topics include: basic file manipulation; basic and advanced filesystem features; I/O redirection and pipes; text manipulation and regular expressions; managing jobs and processes; vi, the standard Unix editor; automating tasks with shell scripts; managing software; secure remote administration; and more.

Students should be comfortable with computers. No familiarity with Linux or other Unix operating systems is required.

Course Content

Lesson 1: What is Linux

• Unix and its Design Principles
• FSF and GNU
• GPL – General Public License
• The Linux Kernel
• Linux Kernel and Versioning
• Components of a Distribution
• Slackware
• SUSE Linux Products
• Debian
• Ubuntu
• Red Hat Linux Products
• Oracle Linux

Lesson 2: Login and Exploration

• Logging In
• Running Programs
• Interacting with Command Line
• The X Window System
• Starting X
• Gathering Login Session Info
• Gathering System Info
• uptime
• got root?
• Switching User Contexts
• sudo
• Help from Commands and Documentation
• whereis
• Getting Help Within the Graphical Desktop
• Getting Help with man & info

Lesson 3: The Linux Filesystem

• Filesystem Support
• Unix/Linux Filesystem Features
• Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
• Navigating the Filesystem
• Displaying Directory Contents
• Filesystem Structures
• Determining Disk Usage With df and du
• Determining Disk Usage (GUI)
• Disk Usage with Quotas
• File Ownership
• Default Group Ownership
• File and Directory Permissions
• File Creation Permissions with umask
• SUID and SGID on files
• SGID and Sticky Bit on Directories
• Changing File Permissions
• User Private Group Scheme

Lesson 4: Manipulating Files

• Directory Manipulation
• File Manipulation
• Deleting and Creating Files
• Physical Unix File Structure
• Filesystem Links
• File Extensions and Content
• Displaying Files
• Previewing Files
• Producing File Statistics
• Displaying Binary Files
• Searching the Filesystem
• Alternate Search Method

Lesson 5: Shell Basics

• Role of Command Shell
• Communication Channels
• File Redirection
• Piping Commands Together
• Filename Matching
• File Globbing and Wildcard Patterns
• Brace Expansion
• Shell and Environment Variables
• Key Environment Variables
• Which and Type
• General Quoting Rules
• Nesting Commands

Lesson 6: Archiving and Compression

• Archives with tar
• Archives with cpio
• The gzip Compression Utility
• The bzip2 Compression Utility
• The XZ Compression Utility
• The PKZIP Archiving/Compression format
• GNOME File Roller

Lesson 7: Text Processing

• Searching Inside Files
• The Streaming Editor
• Text Processing with Awk
• Replacing Text Characters
• Text Sorting
• Duplicate Removal Utility
• Extracting Columns of Text
• Combining Files and Merging Text
• Comparing File Changes

Lesson 8: Regular Expressions

• Regular Expression Overview
• Regular Expressions
• RE Character Classes
• Regex Quantifiers
• RE Parenthesis

Lesson 9: Text Editing

• Text Editing
• Pico/GNU Nano
• Pico/Nano Interface
• Nano configuration
• Pico/Nano Shortcuts
• vi and Vim
• Learning Vim
• Basic vi
• Intermediate vi

Lesson 10: Messaging

• System Messaging Commands
• Controlling System Messaging
• Internet Relay Chat
• Instant Messenger Clients
• Electronic Mail
• Sending Email with sendmail
• Sending and Receiving Email with mailx
• Sending and Receiving Email with mutt
• Sending Email with Pine
• Evolution

Lesson 11: Command Shells

• Shells
• Identifying the Shell
• Changing the Shell
• Configuration Files
• Script Execution
• Shell Prompts
• Bash: Bourne-Again Shell
• Bash: Configuration Files
• Bash: Command Line History
• Bash: Command Editing
• Bash: Command Completion
• Bash:

  shortcuts

• Bash: prompt
• Setting Resource Limits via ulimit

Lesson 12: Introduction to Shell Scripting

• Shell Script Strengths and Weaknesses
• Example Shell Script
• Positional Parameters
• Input & Output
• Doing Math
• Comparisons with test
• Exit Status
• Conditional Statements
• Flow Control: case
• The for Loop
• The while and until Loops

Lesson 13: Process Management and Job Control

• What is a Process?
• Process Lifecycle
• Process States
• Viewing Processes
• Signals
• Tools to Send Signals
• nohup and disown
• Managing Processes
• Tuning Process Scheduling
• Job Control Overview
• Job Control Commands
• Persistent Shell Sessions with Screen
• Using screen
• Advanced Screen

Lesson 14: At and Cron

• Automating Tasks
• at/batch
• cron
• The crontab Command
• crontab Format
• /etc/cron./ Directories
• Anacron

Lesson 15: Managing Software

• Downloading with FTP
• FTP
• lftp
• Command Line Internet – Non-interactive
• Command Line Internet – Interactive
• Managing Software Dependencies
• Using the Yum command
• YUM package groups
• Configuring Yum
• yumdownloader
• Popular Yum Repositories
• Using the Zypper command
• Zypper Services and Catalogs
• The dselect & APT Frontends to dpkg
• Aptitude
• Configuring APT

Lesson 16: The Secure Shell (SSH)

• Secure Shell
• ssh and sshd Configuration
• Accessing Remote Shells
• Transferring Files
• Alternative sftp Clients
• SSH Key Management
• ssh-agent

Lesson 17: Mounting Filesystems & Managing Removable Media

• Filesystems Concept Review
• Mounting Filesystems
• NFS
• SMB
• Filesystem Table (/etc/fstab)
• AutoFS
• Removable Media

Lesson 18: Printing

• Legacy Print Systems
• Common UNIX Printing System
• Defining a Printer
• Standard Print Commands
• Format Conversion Utilities
• ens