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Linux and VI Editor Fundamentals

Jemmy Hu, HPC Analyst

Index

• Objectives
• What is Linux?
• Directory Structure in Linux
• Getting Started
• Changing Password
• Basic Linux Commands
  • ls - List information about file(s)
  • mkdir - Create new directory [folder]
  • rmdir - Remove directory [folder]
  • cd - Change directory [folder]
  • more, less - Display contents of file, page by page
  • cp - Copy file
  • mv - Move or rename files or directories
  • rm - Remove file
  • file - Determine file type
  • diff - Display the differences between two files
  • find - Search for files that meet a desired criteria
  • ps - List processes
  • kill - Stop a process from running
  • time - Measure program running time
  • top - List processes running on the system
  • which - Locate a program file in the user's path
  • man - Help manual
  • df - Display free disk space
  • du - Display file/directory disk usage
• File Permissions
• Other Important Linux Commands
• What is vi?
• Basic vi Commands
  • Start vi
  • Exit vi
  • Insert or Add Text
  • Cursor Movement Commands
  • Change Text
  • Delete Text
  • Cut and Past Text
  • Screen Manipulation
  • Search and Replace Text
  • Determine Line Number
• Further Reading

Objectives

This self-directed tutorial is mainly for people who have none or very little experience in Linux system, particularly for Windows users who want to migrate to SHARCNET Linux systems. Examples shown in the lightgrey areas were run on 'narwhal', a SHARCNET cluster. We hope that this tutorial would be a good starting point for newcomers to Linux.

What is Linux?

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world in the 90's. Linux is becoming popular as a powerful, low-cost operating system for cluster servers.

• multitasking: several programs running at once
• multiusers: several users at the same machine at once
• multiplatforms: it runs on many different CPU

Directory Structure in Linux

Getting Started

• login
  Use SSH (see: SSH for Windows Users) to login onto SHARCNET linux systems
  
  
• hostname: Print system name

• [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ hostname nar316

  
  
• who: Print all usernames currently logged in

• [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ who inta pts/0 Nov 29 12:10 (pharmtech4.pharm.helsinki.fi) jemmyhu pts/1 Nov 29 09:33 (jemmyhu.uwaterloo.ca) jemmyhu pts/2 Nov 29 09:34 (jemmyhu.uwaterloo.ca) tomek pts/3 Nov 19 10:00 (lola.hut.fi) merz pts/5 Nov 29 12:52 (nar317) michaelg pts/4 Nov 2 12:47 (pc-mat1.eng.mcmaster.ca) viv pts/6 Nov 26 19:12 (dirac.physics.uoguelph.ca) mhashimo pts/7 Nov 26 17:21 (lab2.apmaths.uwo.ca) msammalk pts/8 Nov 29 11:13 (mae-msammalk.princeton.edu) sclee pts/9 Nov 29 14:37 (sclee.uwaterloo.ca) merz pts/10 Nov 29 14:41 (scinaa61.uwaterloo.ca) mjhillie pts/12 Nov 27 10:56 (hillier.uwaterloo.ca) zzheng pts/14 Nov 27 11:49 (meg34.megaladon.sharcnet)

• whoami: Print the current username

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ whoami jemmyhu

  
  
• pwd: Print working (current) directory

• [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ pwd /home/jemmyhu

  
  
• date: Display the date & time

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ date Mon Nov 19 15:59:55 EST 2007

  
  
• exit: or logout to leave the system

Changing Password

To change your Linux account password, use the command passwd

If you type your old password and a new password correctly, the new one becomes valid.

NOTE: you can change your SHARCNET password on the SHARCNET webportal.

Basic Linux Commands

• ls - List the contents of a directory

  ls displays the names of all files and subdirectories in the working (current) directory.

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ ls adf2007.01 Dakota mpi script adf2007.01.pc64_linux.hpmpi.bin.tar debugger Octave_matlab test_g03 awk_example fftw_test OpenMP_Summer07 test_mpiPWSCF bin HU overLord util Courses Matlab scratch work

  ls -l shows the detailed information of the contents (permissions, owners, size, and timestamp).

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ ls -l total 352192 drwxr-xr-x 8 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Nov 23 09:47 adf2007.01 -rw-rw-r-- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 360212480 Nov 12 13:10 adf2007.01.pc64_linux.hpmpi.bin.tar drwxr-x--- 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Apr 30 2007 awk_example drwxr-xr-x 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Nov 9 12:14 bin drwx------ 3 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Apr 12 2007 Courses drwxr-xr-x 4 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 May 29 2007 Dakota drwx------ 3 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Aug 22 15:39 debugger drwxr-x--- 3 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 May 7 2007 fftw_test drwx------ 13 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Oct 31 12:08 HU drwxrwxr-x 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Oct 31 11:52 Matlab drwx------ 3 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Oct 30 10:57 mpi drwx------ 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Aug 24 15:31 Octave_matlab drwx------ 6 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Jun 13 11:06 OpenMP_Summer07 drwx------ 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Oct 31 11:54 overLord lrwxrwxrwx 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 16 Aug 1 11:22 scratch -> /scratch/jemmyhu drwx------ 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Nov 21 12:14 script drwx------ 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Nov 6 15:29 test_g03 drwx------ 7 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Jun 7 21:34 test_mpiPWSCF drwx------ 2 jemmyhu jemmyhu 4096 Oct 31 11:58 util lrwxrwxrwx 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 13 Aug 1 11:21 work -> /work/jemmyhu

  ls -a shows all subdirectories and files, even files that are hidden (these files begin with a dot.)

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ ls -a . Courses .octave_hist test_g03 .. Dakota Octave_matlab test_mpiPWSCF adf2007.01 .ddt OpenMP_Summer07 util adf2007.01.pc64_linux.hpmpi.bin.tar .ddt_session .pathscale .viminfz.tmp .assistant debugger .rpmmacros work awk_example fftw_test scratch .Xauthority .bash_history HU script .bash_logout .lsbatch .sq .bash_profile Matlab .ssh .bashrc mpi test_g03 bin .nodelist test_mpiPWSCF

• mkdir - Create directory (i.e., a folder)

   mkdir my_dir 
   my_dir is the name of a newly created directory, a subdirectory of the current directory.
  

• rmdir - Remove empty directory

   rmdir my_dir 
   remove my_dir if it is empty. If my_dir is not empty, use
   rm -r my_dir 
  

• cd - Change directory

  cd	Change to your home directory
  cd ..	Change to the parent directory
  cd Directory	Change to directory

  [jemmyhu@nar317 ~]$ cd [jemmyhu@nar317 ~]$ pwd /home/jemmyhu [jemmyhu@nar317 ~]$ cd .. [jemmyhu@nar317 home]$ pwd /home [jemmyhu@nar317 home]$ cd jemmyhu [jemmyhu@nar317 ~]$ pwd /home/jemmyhu

  
  
• more, less - Display contents of File, page by page

  more File

  less File

  User can controle the output:
  • press space the next screen is displayed
  • press enter the next row is displayed
  • press q the command is finished
  
  
• cp - Copy File

  cp File NEWFILE	Copy FILE to NEWFILE in the same directory.
  cp /home/jemmyhu/File .	Copy FILE from /home/jemmyhu to the current directory.
  cp -r DIR NEWDIR	Copy DIR and all its contents to NEWDIR.

  
  
• mv - Move or rename file or directory

  mv File NEWNAME	Rename FILE to NEWNAME in the same directory.
  mv File DIR	Move FILE to existing directory DIR.
  mv DIR NEWDIRNAME	Rename DIR to NEWDIRNAME

  
  
• rm - Remove file

  rm File	Remove FILE in the current directory.
  rm b*p	Remove all files beginning with b and ending with p in the current directory.
  rm *	Remove all files in the current directory
  rm -i *	the system will ask for permission before removing each file.
  rm -r DIR	Remove DIR and its entire contents.

  
  
• file - Determine file type

  [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ file README README: ASCII English text

  
  
• diff - Display the differences between two files

  diff File_1 File_2

  Show differences between two versions of a file.

  
  
• find - Search for files that meet a desired criteria

  find File(s)	Search current dir and its subdirs for FILE(S).
  find /usr -name "lpr" -print	Find a file lpr in directory /usr and its subdirectories.

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ find /usr -name "lpr" -print /usr/bin/lpr /usr/share/terminfo/l/lpr

  
  
• ps - List processes

  ps -u username

  List all your processes.

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ ps -u jemmyhu PID TTY TIME CMD 11437 ? 00:00:00 sshd 11438 pts/5 00:00:00 bash 13861 pts/5 00:00:00 ps

  
  
• kill - Stop a process from running

  kill -9 PID

  Stop a process with process NO. PID before it has been finished normally.

  
  
• time - Measure program running time

  time executablecode

  Display the time used to run executablecode.

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ time ./pi-serial PI = 3.141593 real 0m0.002s user 0m0.001s sys 0m0.002s

  
  
• top - List processes running on the system

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ top top - 11:46:58 up 32 days, 21:23, 18 users, load average: 1.00, 1.02, 1.20 Tasks: 314 total, 2 running, 312 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 1.0% us, 0.7% sy, 0.0% ni, 98.2% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.2% si Mem: 4037544k total, 4020680k used, 16864k free, 4132k buffers Swap: 6289408k total, 257344k used, 6032064k free, 3162308k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 17862 mjhillie 16 0 13324 1820 1196 S 0.7 0.0 4:48.16 top 15146 root 18 0 62636 3692 1476 R 0.7 0.1 0:00.02 auto.home 12647 tomek 15 0 46280 2396 1592 S 0.3 0.1 0:41.05 sshd 12920 tomek 15 0 46280 2400 1592 S 0.3 0.1 0:37.94 sshd 12921 tomek 16 0 25072 5812 1348 S 0.3 0.1 0:07.58 scp 15134 jemmyhu 16 0 13196 2044 1356 R 0.3 0.1 0:00.37 top 1 root 16 0 4748 404 372 S 0.0 0.0 0:06.60 init

  Enter q to stop 'top' command
  
  
• which - Locate a program file in user's path

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ which cc /opt/sharcnet/compile/bin/cc [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ which f90 /opt/sharcnet/compile/bin/f90 [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ which mpicc /opt/sharcnet/compile/bin/mpicc

  
  
• man - Help manual

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ man sqjobs SQJOBS(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation SQJOBS(1) NAME sqjobs - show SQ jobs SYNOPSIS sqjobs [-r][-q][-z][-v][-u user][-n][--summary][jobid...] options: -a or --all show all jobs: all users and all states -r show running jobs -q show queued jobs -z show suspended/preempted jobs -l show more detail on jobs -L show more detail on jobs -u user show jobs for the given user -n, --none show one-line summary of cluster -s or --summary show a line-per-user summary of all jobs -h or --help show usage --man show man page jobid... one or more jobids to examine DESCRIPTION sqjobs displays a succinct tabular listing of jobs in the SQ system.

  Enter q to stop 'man' command
  
  
• df - Display free disk space

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 42441844 3662780 36623144 10% / /dev/sda1 703596 31708 636148 5% /boot none 2018772 0 2018772 0% /dev/shm /dev/sda3 27585276 966940 25217068 4% /var 10.33.1.80:/hptc_cluster 13938720 7976032 5254624 61% /hptc_cluster 3712500403@gm0,3712500351@gm0:/nar-sfs-mds3/client_gm 74565613440 41282337520 29524984824 59% /nar_sfs 10.33.1.64:/nar_home 1441960384 77531840 1291178848 6% /nar_home 10.33.1.64:/nar_data 480668576 10531008 445720992 3% /nar_data nar_home.narwhal.sharcnet:/nar_home/mjhillie 1441960360 77531832 1291178832 6% /home/mjhillie bull_home.bull.sharcnet:/bull_home/zbice 1441960360 250717016 1117993648 19% /home/zbice bull_home.bull.sharcnet:/bull_home/mhashimo 1441960360 250717016 1117993648 19% /home/mhashimo 10.20.0.126:/bull_home/jemmyhu 1441960360 250717016 1117993648 19% /home/jemmyhu 10.20.0.126:/bull_home/kowalskm 1441960360 250717016 1117993648 19% /home/kowalskm bull_home.bull.sharcnet:/bull_home/tomek 1441960360 250717016 1117993648 19% /home/tomek wha_home.whale.sharcnet:/wha_home/wangh29 1441960360 99059832 1269650832 8% /home/wangh29

  
  
• du - Display file/directory disk usage (in KB)

  du -sh DIRECTORY

  Display only the total disk usage of DIRECTORY (in MB).

  [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ pwd /home/jemmyhu [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ ls adf2007.01 Dakota mpi script adf2007.01.pc64_linux.hpmpi.bin.tar debugger Octave_matlab test_g03 awk_example fftw_test OpenMP_Summer07 test_mpiPWSCF bin HU overLord util Courses Matlab scratch work [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ du mpi 3896 mpi/mpi-2/gulper 3944 mpi/mpi-2 4160 mpi [jemmyhu@nar316 ~]$ du -sh mpi 4.1M mpi

File Permissions

• chmod - Change file/directory access permissions

• chmod who=permissions Filename	Gives 'who' the specified permissions for a given filename.
  chmod who=permissions DIR	Gives 'who' the specified permissions for a given directory.
  Operator = is used to set up permissions
  To add permissions, use +	To take away permissions, use -

  
  'who' is a list of letters that specifies whom you are going to be giving permissions to.
  These may be specified in any order.

  Letter Meaning u user who owns the file g group the file belongs to o other users a all of the above (an abbreviation for ugo)

  
  'permissions' are the same letters that you see in the directory listing (ls -l).

  r permission to read the file w permission to write (or delete) the file x permission to execute the file

  EXAMPLES:
  
  [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README
  -rw-------  1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov  7 14:17 README
  
  The letters written from the 2nd to the 10th column are for file permissions.
  The first three columns are permissions for the user, the columns 5, 6, 7
  for the user's group, and the last three for other users.
  
  In the above example, user (jemmyhu) has read and write permissions on file 'README',
  but no permissions for the group and others.
  

  Here are some examples to change the permissions on file 'README': [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README *View the original permissions on file 'README' -rw------- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov 7 14:17 README [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ chmod ugo=rw README *Give read and write permissions to all [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README -rw-rw-rw- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov 7 14:17 README [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ chmod ug+x README *Add execute permission to user and group [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README -rwxrwxrw- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov 7 14:17 README [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ chmod ug-x README *Take away execute permission from user and group [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README -rw-rw-rw- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov 7 14:17 README [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ chmod a-w README *Take away write permission for all [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README -r--r--r-- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov 7 14:17 README [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ chmod u+w README *Add write permission to user [jemmyhu@nar316 work]$ ls -l README -rw-r--r-- 1 jemmyhu jemmyhu 342 Nov 7 14:17 README

Other Important Linux Commands

• alias - Create an alias
• awk - Find and Replace text
• cat - Display a short file, or used to append files
• echo - Display message on screen
• env - Environment variables
• grep - Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern
• gzip/gunzip - Compress or decompress named file(s)
• make - Recompile a group of programs
• quota - Display disk usage and limits
• tar - Tape ARchiver
• touch - Create an empty file or Change file timestamps
• wc - Print byte, word, and line counts

What is vi?

vi (visual editor) is the default editor that comes with the UNIX/Linux operating system. 
Alternate editors for UNIX environments include nano (formerly named pico) and emacs
(For basic emacs commands, see: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/emacs.html )

The vi editor is a full screen editor and has two modes of operation:
1. Command mode commands which cause action to be taken on the file, and
2. Insert mode in which entered text is inserted into the file.

In the command mode, every character typed is a command that does something to the text file
being edited; a character typed in the command mode may even cause the vi editor to enter the
insert mode. In the insert mode, every character typed is added to the text in the file; 
pressing the Esc key turns off the Insert mode.
While there are a number of vi commands, just a handful of these are usually sufficient for
beginning vi users.

Both UNIX/Linux and vi are case-sensitive. Be sure not to use a capital letter in place of a 
lowercase letter; the results will not be what you expect.

Basic vi Commands

• Start vi

  vi Filename - Open Filename in command mode

  If Filename exists, the file will be displayed on the screen. If Filename does not exist, then an empty file is created for entering text. The screen looks like: ~

• Exit vi
  In the following, [Enter] means press Enter key after the keystrokes.

  Keystrokes	Meaning
  :x [Enter]	exit vi, save the modified file to file named
  :wq [Enter]	exit vi, save the modified file to file named
  :q [Enter]	exit vi
  :q! [Enter]	exit vi, without saving the modified file

  
  
• Insert or Add Text
  The following keystroke will lead to insert mode for inserting and adding text.

  Keystroke	Meaning
  i	insert text before cursor, until Esc key is pressed
  a	append text after cursor, until Esc key is pressed
  o	open a new line below current line, until Esc key is pressed

  Esc key must be pressed to terminate the insert mode.
  
  
• Cursor Movement Commands
  In the command mode, move along the cursor on the screen.

  Keystroke	Meaning
  h	Cursor is moved one space to the left
  l	Cursor is moved one space to the right
  j	Cursor is moved one line down
  k	Cursor is moved one line up

  
  
• Change Text

  Keystroke	Meaning
  r	Replace one character over the cursor
  R	Overwrite text until the keystroke of Esc

  
  
• Delete Text

  Keystrokes	Meaning
  x	delete single character under cursor
  dd	delete the current line
  Ndd	delete N lines, beginning with the current line

  
  
• Cut and Paste Text
  

  Keystrokes	Meaning
  yy	copy (yank, cut) the current line into the buffer
  Nyy	copy (yank, cut) the next N lines into the buffer
  p	paste the copied line(s) into the text after the current line

  
  
• Screen Manipulation
  
  In the table below, the symbol ^ before a letter means that
  the Ctrl key should be held down while the letter key is pressed.
  
  

  Keystrokes	Meaning
  ^f	move down (forward) one screen
  ^b	move up (backward) one screen
  ^d	move down (forward) one half screen
  ^u	move up (back) one half screen

  
  
• Search and Replace Text
  
  A common occurrence in text editing is to replace one word or phase by another.
  To locate instances of particular sets of characters (or strings), use the following commands:
  
  

  Keystrokes	Meaning
  /string [Enter]	search forward for occurrence of 'string' in text
  ?string [Enter]	search backward for occurrence of 'string' in text
  n [Enter]	move to next occurrence of search string
  :%s/oldstring/newstring/cg [Enter]	search 'oldstring' and replace it with 'newstring' in the entire file

  
  
• Determine Line Number

  Keystrokes	Meaning
  :.= [Enter]	returns line number of current line at bottom of screen
  := [Enter]	returns the total number of lines at bottom of screen
  :set number [Enter]	provides the line number for the entire file

Further Reading

http://www.fsid.cvut.cz/cz/U201/LINUX.HTML

Quick Linux Tutorial, by Jiri Vogel

http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/jan.plaza/computing/help/commands.html

Basic Unix Commands

http://www.ss64.com/bashsyntax/vi.html

vi Editor Commands

http://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/vi.html

Basic vi Commands

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