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

Those who want to maximise the power of their UNIX/Linux system. Knowledge of UNIX or Linux at the level of Course 428, "UNIX Comprehensive Introduction", or Course 143, "Linux Comprehensive 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 man command
• 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 grep command

• 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
• Combining filters into pipelines to perform complex tasks
• Redirecting output of a pipeline

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
• Finding, comparing and searching files

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 if and case
• Quoting shell commands to avoid problems with variables
• Reading and testing standard input
• Looping with for and 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 awk one-liners

Creating long awk scripts

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

Advanced awk capabilities

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

Follow On Courses

• UNIX Administration and Support
• UNIX and Linux Security
• Perl Programming Introduction
• Project Risk Management
• Project Management: Skills for Success
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Linux Administration and Support