How to use Shell (basic commands)

Target

Often in the community using the shell.
I thought to write some commands that might be useful for beginners

Premise:
The dos prompt in wWindows allows a limited number of operations. The Linux shell allows you to perform advanced scriptingoperations .
All commands can be chained using some special characters (“|” “>” and “<”) as needed.

Moving between folders:
syntax:

cd path

example:

cd /var/lib
cd nethserver

where path is the path to the folder where you want to go. It can be relative or absolute


List files in a folder
syntax:

ls path

example:

ls /var/lib
ls nethservice

lists files and folders in path specified (relative or absolute).
The command takes several parameters:

ls -la

detailed list of files and folders including hiden files .


Size folders
syntax

du path

example:

du /var/lib

the command takes several parameters.

du -s m

calculates the overall size of a folder rather than in mega bytes


Check disk space
example

df -m

It returns information about the space of partitions mounted7


Display file contents
syntax:

more filename
cat filename

example:

cat /etc/passwd

A particularly interesting feature is the ability to view variations of a real-time file. This function is used for displaying the log file

cat /var/log/samba/smb.log | less

Another command to see the last 10 lines of a file

tail filename

Also this command takes several parameters

tail -20 /etc/passwd

Show the last 20 lines

tail /var/log/nomelog | less


Filter content
syntax:

grep -r “string” files

Search “string” in files.
It accepts several parameters and is useful combined with other commands

grep -r --color “root” / etc / password

search in /etc/passwd the string “root” and highlights it in red

grep -r --color “root” /etc> list.txt

Search for all the files in /etc including subfolders the string “root”. The output is written on file list.txt


File List
syntax

find path

example

find /var/lib/nethservice

Lists all files in path and subfolder.
This command is often used in combination with other:

find /var/lib/nethserver/ | grep mail | grep admin> list.txt

Lists files in /var/lib/nethserver/ extracting only those that contain in path and name the string “email” and “admin” and stores them in list.txt

Network
Check presence host
Syntax:

ping host

Example:

ping 192.168.1.10
table nethserver.domain.lan


Search host
Syntax:

nmap [option]

Example:

nmap -v -sn 172.16.1.0/24

Scanning the 172.16.1.x network and lists the status of each address
Accepts a variety of parameters

nmap -v -A nethservice.domain.lan

Lists all open doors for host nethservice.domain.lan


Text editor
Syntax:

sed [options] file

Example:

sed s/Installing/Removing/ install.log

It replaceswords “Installing” with “Removing” in install.log file
It’s a very powerful editor. Here are some example:

sed /test/d file.log

Delete all lines that contain the word test

sed /!test/d file.log

Delete all lines that do not contain the word test

sed /^test/d file.log

Delete all lines that begin with the word test

sed ‘2,30d’ file.log

Delete rows from 2 to 30

sed ‘2,$d’ file.log

Delete rows from 2 onwards

sed ‘$d’ file.log

Delete the last line

sed -n ‘/test/p’ file.log

Print only lines with the word test. If you add -i you will change the file

sed ‘/ ^$/d’ install.log

Deletes empty line

sed ‘s /^/text/’ install.log

Add “text” at beginning of every line

sed ‘s/$/text/’

Adds “text” at the end of each line

You can run multiple instructions separated by -e

sed -e ‘s/Installing/Removing/’ -e ‘s/$/text/’ install.log

or placing them in a file (eg. list.txt)

s/Installing/Removing/
s/$/text/

and pass through the -f switch

sed -f install.log list.txt


Script
Once the sequence of commands you can place them in a script.
The script usually has the extension .sh (script.sh) and must be executable

chmod + x script.sh

Example

for i in $ (ls); do
echo item: $ i
done

Example

cat /etc/passwd | while read line
do
echo $line |grep apache| gawk -F: ‘{print $1"\t My home is:"$7}’
done

18 Likes

@enzoturri
Thank you for the HowTo.
Would you mind to add it to our Wiki HowTo?

2 Likes

Great howto! :clap:

Great shot man! Very helpful for our Windows Sysadmins :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I’ve never used wiki . I have to create an account and add the howto ?

@enzoturri
Yes, you create an account and write the howto.
I did it that way that I wrote the howto under my account and after I finished it I created the topic at the UserGuide section and copied everything in.
You will find a howto for writing a Howto there as well Howto write a howto
To understand the format I opened an existing howto with a format I needed to see how they had it done.

Thanks @WillZen.
I read all the documentation, I created the account but not allow me to create new howto.
I’m wrong or I do not have rights?

@jim @stephdl does he need additional right to create a howto?

Users must be granted for the first time…I will do…

Edit: It is done

2 Likes

Thanks to everyone

1 Like

thanx @enzoturri,

Nice read and looking forward to the wiki page!

A bit Of Topic, i’m curious if the community can point to some nice reads on this?

One of my favourites : The Linux Command Line By William Shotts.
direct link : https://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxcommand/files/TLCL/13.07/TLCL-13.07.pdf/download
info: http://linuxcommand.org/index.php

5 Likes

Very good, thanks.

1 Like