Unix/Linux Tools and Utilities

Course Overview

This course presents proven techniques for effectively using key standard UNIX tools and utilities. Through extensive in-class hands-on exercises, you gain the knowledge and skills to adapt the UNIX environment to your particular needs.

Audience

This course is valuable for systems and database administrators, software engineers, programmers and those who want to maximise the power of their UNIX/Linux system. Knowledge of UNIX or Linux at the level of Course 428, " UNIX Introduction ", or Course 143, " Linux Introduction ", is assumed.

Skills Gained

• Become an expert builder and user of UNIX/Linux tools and utilities
• Employ standard, programmable text filters to manipulate text and data
• Build shell scripts to automate routine tasks
• Achieve significant productivity gains by matching the mix of tools to the task at hand
• Process structured data with awk

Course Outline

Basic UNIX and Linux Concepts

The evolution of UNIX

• How UNIX developed
• The current state of UNIX/Linux standards

Review of UNIX commands

• File and directory manipulation
• I/O redirection and pipes
• Writing shell start-up files
• Using the KornShell command history

Finding UNIX documentation

• The mancommand
• Other manual page browsers

Searching Text with Regular Expressions

UNIX regular expressions

• The meta character set
• Building search patterns
• Developing extended regular expressions

Using the grepcommand

• Processing files
• Processing command output

UNIX Text Filters

The characteristics of a UNIX filter

• Reading from standard input
• Writing to standard output and standard error

Common UNIX filters

• Editing the output of commands with the stream editor sed
• Translating characters with tr
• Sorting files and command output
• Comparing different versions of files with diff
• Using other common filters: cut, uniqand tee
• Combining filters for complex text processing
• Executing filter commands with find

Shell Programming

Shell basics

• Writing simple shell scripts
• Storing data in shell variables
• Exporting variables to the environment
• Preventing the creation of a subshell environment

Controlling logic flow

• Making decisions with ifand case
• Quoting shell commands to avoid problems with variables
• Reading and testing standard input
• Looping with forand while
• Accessing the shell's built-in variables

Other shell features

• Accepting command line arguments
• Redirecting standard output
• Substituting command output
• Performing arithmetic in shell scripts
• Scanning for command line options

Working creatively with tools

• Combining UNIX filters with pipelines and command substitution
• Developing scripts incrementally

Restructuring Data with awk

awk as a flexible search tool

• Testing and extracting fields from structured input
• Performing arithmetic calculations
• Writing useful awkone-liners

Creating long awkscripts

• Matching patterns with extended regular expressions
• Modifying awk's default behaviour with special patterns and built-in variables
• Calling awkbuilt-in functions

Advanced awkcapabilities

• Using awk's control constructs for testing and looping
• Storing data in arrays
• Formatting output using printf
• Searching files with multiline records