Free

Linux is free. 

First ,It's available free of cost (You don't have to pay to use this OS, other OSes like MS-Windows or Commercial version of Unix may cost you money) 

Second free means freedom to use Linux, i.e. when you get Linux you will also get source code of Linux, so you can modify OS (Yes OS! Linux OS!!) according to your taste. 

It also offers many Software applications, programming languages, and development tools etc. Most of the Program/Software/OS are under GNU General Public License (GPL). 

Unix Like 

Unix is almost 35 year old Os. 

In 1964 OS called MULTICS (Multiplexed Information and Computing System) was developed by Bell Labs, MIT & General Electric. But this OS was not the successful one.

Then Ken Thompson (System programmer of Bell Labs) thinks he could do better (In 1991, Linus Torvalds felt he could do better than Minix - History repeats itself.). So Ken Thompson wrote OS on PDP - 7 Computer, assembler and few utilities, this is know as Unix (1969). But this version of Unix is not portable. Then Unix was rewrote in C. Because Unix written in 'C', it is portable. It means Unix can run on verity of Hardware platform (1970-71). 

At the same time Unix was started to distribute to Universities. There students and professor started more experiments on Unix. Because of this Unix gain more popularity, also several new features are added to Unix. Then US govt. & military uses Unix for there inter-network (now it is know as INTERNET).

So Unix is Multi-user, Multitasking, Internet-aware Network OS.  Linux almost had same Unix Like feature for e.g.

• Like Unix, Linux is also written is C.
• Like Unix, Linux is also the Multi-user/Multitasking/32 or 64 bit Network OS.
• Like Unix, Linux is rich in Development/Programming environment.
• Like Unix, Linux runs on different hardware platform; for e.g.
  • Intel x86 processor (Celeron/PII/PIII/PIV/Old-Pentimus/80386/80486)
  • Macintosh PC's 
  • Cyrix processor 
  • AMD processor 
  • Sun Microsystems Sparc processor
  • Alpha Processor (Compaq)

Open Source

Under GPL the source code is available to anyone who wants it, and can be freely modified, developed, and so forth. There are only a few restrictions on the use of the code. If you make changes to the programs , you have to make those changes available to everyone. This basically means you can't take the Linux source code, make a few changes, and then sell your modified version without making the source code available. For more details, please visit the open-source home page.

Common vi editor command list

How Shell Locates the file

To run script, you need to have in same directory where you created your script, if you are in different directory your script will not run (because of path settings), For e.g.. Your home directory is ( use $ pwd to see current working directory) /home/vivek. Then you created one script called 'first', after creation of this script you moved to some other directory lets say /home/vivek/Letters/Personal, Now if you try to execute your script it will not run, since script 'first' is in /home/vivek directory, to Overcome this problem there are two ways First, specify complete path of your script when ever you want to run it from other directories like giving following command
$ /bin/sh   /home/vivek/first

Now every time you have to give all this detailed as you work in other directory, this take time and you have to remember complete path. 

There is another way, if you notice that all of our programs (in form of executable files) are marked as executable and can be directly executed from prompt from any directory. (To see executables of our normal program give command $ ls -l /bin ) By typing commands like
$ bc
$ cc myprg.c
$ cal
etc, How this happed? All our executables files are installed in directory called /bin and /bin directory is set in your PATH setting, Now when you type name of any command at $ prompt, what shell do is it first look that command in its internal part (called as internal command, which is part of Shell itself, and always available to execute), if found as internal command shell will execute it, If not found It will look for current directory, if found shell will execute command from current directory, if not found, then Shell will Look PATH setting, and try to find our requested commands executable file in all of the directories mentioned in PATH settings, if found it will execute it, otherwise it will give message "bash: xxxx :command not found", Still there is one question remain can I run my shell script same as these executables. Yes you can, for this purpose create bin directory in your home directory and then copy your tested version of shell script to this bin directory. After this you can run you script as executable file without using command like
$ /bin/sh   /home/vivek/first
Command to create you own bin directory.

$ cd $ mkdir bin $ cp first ~/bin $ first

Each of above commands Explanation

Each of above command	Explanation
$ cd	Go to your home directory
$ mkdir bin	Now created bin directory, to install your own shell script, so that script can be run as independent program or can be accessed from any directory
$ cp   first ~/bin	copy your script 'first' to your bin directory
$ first	Test whether script is running or not (It will run)

Answer to Variable sections exercise

Q.1.How to Define variable x with value 10 and print it on screen.
$ x=10
$ echo $x

Q.2.How to Define variable xn with value Rani and print it on screen
For Ans. Click here
$ xn=Rani
$ echo $xn

Q.3.How to print sum of two numbers, let's say 6 and 3
$ echo 6 + 3
This will print 6 + 3, not the sum 9, To do sum or math operations in shell use expr, syntax is as follows 
Syntax: expr   op1   operator   op2
Where, op1 and op2 are any Integer Number (Number without decimal point) and operator can be
+ Addition
- Subtraction
/ Division
% Modular, to find remainder For e.g. 20 / 3 = 6 , to find remainder 20 % 3 = 2, (Remember its integer calculation)
\* Multiplication
$ expr 6 + 3
Now It will print sum as 9 , But
$ expr 6+3
will not work because space is required between number and operator (See Shell Arithmetic)

Q.4.How to define two variable x=20, y=5 and then to print division of x and y (i.e. x/y)
For Ans. Click here
$x=20
$ y=5
$ expr x / y

Q.5.Modify above and store division of x and y to variable called z
For Ans. Click here
$ x=20
$ y=5
$ z=`expr x / y`
$ echo $z

Q.6.Point out error if any in following script

ERROR 1 Read this

ERROR 2 Read this

Following script should work now, after corrosponding bug fix!

Parameter substitution.

Now consider following command
$($ echo 'expr 6 + 3')

The command ($ echo 'expr 6 + 3')  is know as Parameter substitution. When a command is enclosed in backquotes, the command get executed and we will get output. Mostly this is used in conjunction with other commands. For e.g.

Now suppose we are working in directory called "/home/vivek/soft/artical/linux/lsst" and I want to copy some samba files from "/mnt/cdrom/lsoft" to my current working directory, then my command will be somthing like

$cp   /mnt/cdrom/lsoft/samba*.rmp    /home/vivek/soft/artical/linux/lsst

Instead of giving above command I can give command as follows

$cp  /mnt/cdrom/lsoft/samba*.rmp  `pwd`

Here file is copied to your working directory. See the last Parameter substitution of `pwd` command, expand it self to /home/vivek/soft/artical/linux/lsst. This will save my time.

Try to notedown output of following Parameter substitution.

Answer to if command. 

A) There is file called foo, on your disk and you give command, $ ./trmfi   foo what will be output.
Ans.: foo file will be deleted, and message "foo file deleted" on screen will be printed.

B) If bar file not present on your disk and you give command, $ ./trmfi   bar what will be output.
Ans.: Message "rm: cannot remove `bar': No such file or directory" will be printed because bar file does not exist on disk and we have called rm command, so error from rm commad

C) And if you type $ ./trmfi, What will be output.
Ans.:  Following message will be shown by rm command, because rm is called from script without any parameters.
rm: too few arguments
Try `rm --help' for more information.

Linux Console (Screen) 

How can I write colorful message on Linux Console? , mostly this kind of question is asked by newcomers (Specially those who are learning shell programming!). As you know in Linux everything is considered as a file, our console is one of such special file. You can write special character sequences to console, which control every aspects of the console like Colors on screen, Bold or Blinking text effects, clearing the screen, showing text boxes etc. For this purpose we have to use special code called escape sequence code.  Our Linux console is based on the DEC VT100 serial terminals which support ANSI escape sequence code.

What is special character sequencs and how to write it to Console?

By default what ever you send to console it is printed as its. For e.g. consider following echo statement,
$ echo "Hello World"
Hello World
Above echo statement prints sequencs of character on screen, but if there is any special escape sequence (control character) in sequencs , then first some action is taken according to escape sequence (or control character) and then normal character is printed on sonsole. For e.g. following echo command prints message in Blue color on console
$ echo -e "\033[34m   Hello Colorful  World!"
Hello Colorful  World!

Now above echo statement uses ANSI escape sequence (\033[34m), above entier string ( i.e.  "\033[34m   Hello Colorful  World!" ) is process as follows

1) First \033, is escape character, which causes to take some action
2) Here it set screen forground color to Blue using [34m escape code.
3) Then it prints our normal message Hello Colorful  World! in blue color.

Note that ANSI escape sequence begins with \033 (Octal value) which is represented as ^[ in termcap and terminfo files of terminals and documentation.

You can use echo statement to print message, to use ANSI escape sequence you must use -e option (switch) with echo statement, general syntax is as follows
Syntax
echo   -e  "\033[escape-code    your-message"

In above syntax you have to use\033[ as its with different escape-code for different operations. As soon as console recives the message it start to process/read it, and if it found escape character (\033) it moves to escape mode, then it read "[" character and moves into Command Sequence Introduction (CSI) mode. In CSI mode console reads a series of ASCII-coded decimal numbers (know as parameter) which are separated by semicolon (;) . This numbers are read until console action letter or character is not found (which determines what action to take). In above example

Following table show important list of such escape-code/action letter or character

m understand following paramenters

q understand following paramenters

Click here to see example of q command.

Click here to see example of m command.

Click here to see example of s and u command.

This is just quick introduction about Linux Console and what you can do using this Escape sequence. Above table does not contaies entier CSI sequences. My up-coming tutorial series on C Programming Language will definatly have entier story with S-Lang and curses (?). What ever knowledge you gain here will difinatly first step towords the series programming using c. This much knowledge is sufficient for  Shell Programming, now try the following exersies :-) I am Hungry give me More Programming Excersies & challeges! :-)

1) Write function box(),  that will draw box on screen (In shell Script)
    box (left, top, height, width)
    For e.g. box (20,5,7,40)
   

Hint: Use ANSI Escape sequence
1) Use of 11 parameter to m
2) Use following for cursor movement
   row;col H
      or
   rowl;col f
  
  For e.g.
  $ echo   -e "\033[5;10H Hello"
  $ echo   -e "\033[6;10f Hi"

In Above example prints Hello message at row 5 and column 6 and Hi at 6th row and 10th Column.

Shell Built in Variables

See example of $@ and $* variable.

More examples of Shell Script (Exercise for You :-)

First try to write this shell script, as exercise, if any problem or for sample answer to this Shell script open the shell script file supplied with this tutorial.

Q.1. How to write shell script that will add two nos, which are supplied as command line argument, and if this two nos are not given show error and its usage
Answer: See Q1 shell Script.

Q.2.Write Script to find out biggest number from given three nos. Nos are    supplies as command line argument. Print error if sufficient arguments are not supplied.
Answer: See Q2 shell Script.

Q.3.Write script to print nos as 5,4,3,2,1 using while loop.
Answer: See Q3 shell Script.

Q.4. Write Script, using case statement to perform basic math operation as
follows
+ addition
-  subtraction
x  multiplication
/  division
The name of script must be 'q4' which works as follows
$ ./q4 20 / 3, Also check for sufficient command line arguments
Answer: See Q4 shell Script.

Q.5.Write Script to see current date, time, username, and current directory
Answer: See Q5 shell Script.

Q.6.Write script to print given number in reverse order, for eg. If no  is 123 it must print as 321.
Answer: See Q6 shell Script.

Q.7.Write script to print given numbers sum of all digit, For eg. If no is 123 it's sum of all digit will be 1+2+3 = 6.
Answer: See Q7 shell Script.

Q.8.How to perform real number (number with decimal point) calculation in Linux 
Answer: Use Linux's bc command

Q.9.How to calculate 5.12 + 2.5 real number calculation at $ prompt in Shell ?
Answer: Use command as , $ echo 5.12 + 2.5 | bc , here we are giving echo commands output to bc to calculate the 5.12 + 2.5

Q.10.How to perform real number calculation in shell script and store result to
third variable , lets say a=5.66, b=8.67, c=a+b?
Answer: See Q10 shell Script.

Q.11.Write script to determine whether given file exist or not, file name is supplied as command line argument, also check for sufficient number of command line argument
Answer: See Q11 shell Script.

Q.12.Write script to determine whether given command line argument ($1) contains "*" symbol or not, if $1 does not contains "*" symbol add it to $1, otherwise show message "Symbol is not required". For e.g. If we called this script Q12 then after giving , 
$ Q12 /bin
Here $1 is /bin, it should check whether "*" symbol is present or not if not it should print Required i.e. /bin/*, and if symbol present then Symbol is not required  must be printed. Test your script as 
$ Q12  /bin
$ Q12  /bin/*
Answer: See Q12 shell Script

Q.13. Write script to print contains of file from given line number to next given number of lines. For e.g. If we called this script as Q13 and run as
$ Q13   5  5  myf , Here print contains of 'myf' file from line number 5 to next 5 line of that file.
Answer: See Q13 shell Script

Q.14. Write script to implement getopts statement, your script should understand following command line argument called this script Q14,
Q14  -c -d -m -e 
Where options work as
-c  clear the screen
-d  show list of files in current working directory
-m start mc (midnight commander shell) , if installed
-e  { editor } start this { editor } if installed
Answer: See Q14 shell Script

Q.15. Write script called sayHello, put this script into your startup file called .bash_profile, the script should run as soon as you logon to system, and it print any one of the following message in infobox using dialog utility, if installed in your system, If dialog utility is not installed then use echo statement to print message : -
Good Morning
Good Afternoon 
Good Evening , according to system time.
Answer: See Q15 shell Script

Q.16. How to write script, that will print, Message "Hello World" , in Bold and Blink effect, and in different colors like red, brown etc using echo command.
Answer: See Q16 shell Script

Q.17. Write script to implement background process that will continually print current time in upper right corner of the screen , while user can do his/her normal job at $ prompt.
Answer: See Q17 shell Script.

Q.18. Write shell script to implement menus using dialog utility. Menu-items and action according to select menu-item is as follows

Note: Create function for all action for e.g. To show date/time on screen create function show_datetime(). 
Answer: See Q18 shell Script.

Q.19. Write shell script to show various system configuration like
1) Currently logged user and his logname
2) Your current shell
3) Your home directory 
4) Your operating system type
5) Your current path setting
6) Your current working directory
7) Show Currently logged number of users 
8) About your os and version ,release number , kernel  version
9) Show all available shells
10) Show mouse settings
11) Show computer cpu information like processor type, speed etc
12) Show memory information
13) Show hard disk information like size of hard-disk, cache memory, model etc
14) File system (Mounted)
Answer: See Q19 shell Script.