The readings
Readings from the text
We will use The Linux command line: A Complete Introduction by William E. Shotts, Jr as our primary reference.
- Learning the shell: Part 1 (pp. 1-121)
- Configuration and the Environment: Part 2
- The Environment: Chapter 11 (pp. 124-135)
- Customizing the prompt: Chapter 13 (pp. 156-164)
- Connon Tasks and Essential Tools: Part 3
- Package Management: Chapter 14 (pp. 166-175)
- Storage Media: Chapter 15 (pp. 176-194)
- Security Communication With Remove Hosts: part 3 of Chapter 16 (pp. 202-208)
- Searching for files: Chapter 17 (pp. 209-225)
- Archiving and Backup: Chapter 18 (pp. 226-242)
- Regular Expressions: Chapter 19 (pp. 243-263)
- sec: section of Chapter 20 (pp. 290-299)
- Writing Shell Scripts: Part 4 (pp.353-500)
The task
As you read through Part 1, execute almost all the commands. There will be a few commands, such as chown and sudo, that you will not be able to do because you lack administrator privileges. There might be other times when the command variations just get to be a bit too much.
What to turn in?
That’s a good question, but enough to convince me you make it through Part 1. Forms of supported evidence include the following:
- A copy of your .bash_history file showing your recently typed commands. You can edit it to remove commands unrelated to this assignment, but just leave the typos in the file.
- The transcript of your terminal session created with
script. This involves starting with
a command similar to:
typescript sysadmhw1.txt
and then submitting the file sysadmhw1.txt. Don’t try to read sysadmhw1.txt. It will be full of terminal escape sequences. - If you have experience using the command line, submit some prose describing your experiences going through Part 1. You can mention the new commands or command options you learned.