This is no tutorial, but a book recommendation for the ebook category.

"Linux Fundamentals" is a well organized introduction with many practical exercises. As the examples are well chosen, working with this book is a very fast and effective way of learning and practicing fundamental Linux commands and understanding important concepts of Linux.

Bibliographical data

Cobbaut, Paul
Linux Fundamentals
Copyright 2007-2015 Netsec BVBA, Paul Cobbaut
License: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or later

HTML version: http://linux-training.be/

PDF download: LinuxFun.pdf

Abstract (by the author)

This book is meant to be used in an instructor-led training. For self-study, the intent is to read
this book next to a working Linux computer so you can immediately do every subject, practicing
each command.

This book is aimed at novice Linux system administrators (and might be interesting and useful
for home users that want to know a bit more about their Linux system). However, this book
is not meant as an introduction to Linux desktop applications like text editors, browsers, mail
clients, multimedia or office applications.

Table of Contents

I. introduction to Linux

1. Linux history

Linux history

2. distributions

Red Hat

Ubuntu

Debian

Other

Which to choose ?

3. licensing

about software licenses

public domain software and freeware

Free Software or Open Source Software

GNU General Public License

using GPLv3 software

BSD license

other licenses

combination of software licenses

II. installing Linux

4. installing Debian 8

Debian

Downloading

virtualbox networking

setting the hostname

adding a static ip address

Debian package management

5. installing CentOS 7

download a CentOS 7 image

Virtualbox

CentOS 7 installing

CentOS 7 first logon

setting the hostname

Virtualbox network interface

configuring the network

adding one static ip address

package management

logon from Linux and MacOSX

logon from MS Windows

6. getting Linux at home

download a Linux CD image

download Virtualbox

create a virtual machine

attach the CD image

install Linux

III. first steps on the command line

7. man pages

man $command

man $configfile

man $daemon

man -k (apropos)

whatis

whereis

man sections

man $section $file

man man

mandb

8. working with directories

pwd

cd

cd ~

cd ..

cd -

absolute and relative paths

path completion

ls

ls -a

ls -l

ls -lh

mkdir

mkdir -p

rmdir

rmdir -p

practice: working with directories

solution: working with directories

9. working with files

all files are case sensitive

everything is a file

file

touch

create an empty file

touch -t

rm

remove forever

rm -i

rm -rf

cp

copy one file

copy to another directory

cp -r

copy multiple files to directory

cp -i

mv

rename files with mv

rename directories with mv

mv -i

rename

about rename

rename on Debian/Ubuntu

rename on CentOS/RHEL/Fedora

practice: working with files

solution: working with files

10. working with file contents

head

tail

cat

concatenate

create files

custom end marker

copy files

tac

more and less

strings

practice: file contents

solution: file contents

11. the Linux file tree

filesystem hierarchy standard

man hier

the root directory /

binary directories

/bin

other /bin directories

/sbin

/lib

/opt

configuration directories

/boot

/etc

data directories

/home

/root

/srv

/media

/mnt

/tmp

in memory directories

/dev

/proc conversation with the kernel

/sys Linux 2.6 hot plugging

/usr Unix System Resources

/usr/bin

/usr/include

/usr/lib

/usr/local

/usr/share

/usr/src

/var variable data

/var/log

/var/log/messages

/var/cache

/var/spool

/var/lib

/var/...

practice: file system tree

solution: file system tree

IV. shell expansion

12. commands and arguments

arguments

white space removal

single quotes

double quotes

echo and quotes

commands

external or builtin commands ?

type

running external commands

which

aliases

create an alias

abbreviate commands

default options

viewing aliases

unalias

displaying shell expansion

practice: commands and arguments

solution: commands and arguments

13. control operators

; semicolon

& ampersand

$? dollar question mark

&& double ampersand

|| double vertical bar

combining && and ||

# pound sign

\ escaping special characters

end of line backslash

practice: control operators

solution: control operators

14. shell variables

$ dollar sign

case sensitive

creating variables

quotes

set

unset

$PS1

$PATH

env

export

delineate variables

unbound variables

practice: shell variables

solution: shell variables

15. shell embedding and options

shell embedding

backticks

backticks or single quotes

shell options

practice: shell embedding

solution: shell embedding

16. shell history

repeating the last command

repeating other commands

history

!n

Ctrl-r

$HISTSIZE

$HISTFILE

$HISTFILESIZE

prevent recording a command

(optional)regular expressions

(optional) Korn shell history

practice: shell history

solution: shell history

17. file globbing

* asterisk

? question mark

[] square brackets

a-z and 0-9 ranges

$LANG and square brackets

preventing file globbing

practice: shell globbing

solution: shell globbing

V. pipes and commands

18. I/O redirection

stdin, stdout, and stderr

output redirection

> stdout

output file is erased

noclobber

overruling noclobber

>> append

error redirection

2> stderr

2>&1

output redirection and pipes

joining stdout and stderr

input redirection

< stdin

<< here document

<<< here string

confusing redirection

quick file clear

practice: input/output redirection

solution: input/output redirection

19. filters

cat

tee

grep

cut

tr

wc

sort

uniq

comm

od

sed

pipe examples

who | wc

who | cut | sort

grep | cut

practice: filters

solution: filters

20. basic Unix tools

find

locate

date

cal

sleep

time

gzip - gunzip

zcat - zmore

bzip2 - bunzip2

bzcat - bzmore

practice: basic Unix tools

solution: basic Unix tools

21. regular expressions

regex versions

grep

print lines matching a pattern

concatenating characters

one or the other

one or more

match the end of a string

match the start of a string

separating words

grep features

preventing shell expansion of a regex

rename

the rename command

perl

well known syntax

a global replace

case insensitive replace

renaming extensions

sed

stream editor

interactive editor

simple back referencing

back referencing

a dot for any character

multiple back referencing

white space

optional occurrence

exactly n times

between n and m times

bash history

VI. vi

22. Introduction to vi

command mode and insert mode

start typing (a A i I o O)

replace and delete a character (r x X)

undo and repeat (u .)

cut, copy and paste a line (dd yy p P)

cut, copy and paste lines (3dd 2yy)

start and end of a line (0 or ^ and $)

join two lines (J) and more

words (w b)

save (or not) and exit (:w :q :q! )

Searching (/ ?)

replace all ( :1,$ s/foo/bar/g )

reading files (:r :r !cmd)

text buffers

multiple files

abbreviations

key mappings

setting options

practice: vi(m)

solution: vi(m)

VII. scripting

23. scripting introduction

prerequisites

hello world

she-bang

comment

variables

sourcing a script

troubleshooting a script

prevent setuid root spoofing

practice: introduction to scripting

solution: introduction to scripting

24. scripting loops

test [ ]

if then else

if then elif

for loop

while loop

until loop

practice: scripting tests and loops

solution: scripting tests and loops

25. scripting parameters

script parameters

shift through parameters

runtime input

sourcing a config file

get script options with getopts

get shell options with shopt

practice: parameters and options

solution: parameters and options

26. more scripting

eval

(( ))

let

case

shell functions

practice : more scripting

solution : more scripting

VIII. local user management

27. introduction to users

whoami

who

who am i

w

id

su to another user

su to root

su as root

su - $username

su -

run a program as another user

visudo

sudo su -

sudo logging

practice: introduction to users

solution: introduction to users

28. user management

user management

/etc/passwd

root

useradd

/etc/default/useradd

userdel

usermod

creating home directories

/etc/skel/

deleting home directories

login shell

chsh

practice: user management

solution: user management

29. user passwords

passwd

shadow file

encryption with passwd

encryption with openssl

encryption with crypt

/etc/login.defs

chage

disabling a password

editing local files

practice: user passwords

solution: user passwords

30. user profiles

system profile

~/.bash_profile

~/.bash_login

~/.profile

~/.bashrc

~/.bash_logout

Debian overview

RHEL5 overview

practice: user profiles

solution: user profiles

31. groups

groupadd

group file

groups

usermod

groupmod

groupdel

gpasswd

newgrp

vigr

practice: groups

solution: groups

IX. file security

32. standard file permissions

file ownership

user owner and group owner

listing user accounts

chgrp

chown

list of special files

permissions

rwx

three sets of rwx

permission examples

setting permissions (chmod)

setting octal permissions

umask

mkdir -m

cp -p

practice: standard file permissions

solution: standard file permissions

33. advanced file permissions

sticky bit on directory

setgid bit on directory

setgid and setuid on regular files

setuid on sudo

practice: sticky, setuid and setgid bits

solution: sticky, setuid and setgid bits

34. access control lists

acl in /etc/fstab

getfacl

setfacl

remove an acl entry

remove the complete acl

the acl mask

eiciel

35. file links

inodes

inode contents

inode table

inode number

inode and file contents

about directories

a directory is a table

. and ..

hard links

creating hard links

finding hard links

symbolic links

removing links

practice : links

solution : links

X. Appendices

A. keyboard settings

about keyboard layout

X Keyboard Layout

shell keyboard layout

B. hardware

buses

about buses

/proc/bus

/usr/sbin/lsusb

/var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids

/usr/sbin/lspci

interrupts

about interrupts

/proc/interrupts

dmesg

io ports

about io ports

/proc/ioports

dma

about dma

/proc/dma

C. License

Index