Table of Contents
This chapter takes a look at the most common directories in the Linux file tree. It also shows that on Unix everything is a file.
Many Linux distributions partially follow the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. The FHS may help make more Unix/Linux file system trees conform better in the future. The FHS is available online at http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ where we read: "The filesystem hierarchy standard has been designed to be used by Unix distribution developers, package developers, and system implementers. However, it is primarily intended to be a reference and is not a tutorial on how to manage a Unix filesystem or directory hierarchy."
There are some differences in the filesystems between Linux distributions. For help about your machine, enter man hier to find information about the file system hierarchy. This manual will explain the directory structure on your computer.
All Linux systems have a directory structure that starts at the root directory. The root directory is represented by a forward slash, like this: /. Everything that exists on your Linux system can be found below this root directory. Let's take a brief look at the contents of the root directory.
[paul@RHELv4u3 ~]$ ls / bin dev home media mnt proc sbin srv tftpboot usr boot etc lib misc opt root selinux sys tmp var
Binaries are files that contain compiled source code (or machine code). Binaries can be executed on the computer. Sometimes binaries are called executables.
The /bin directory contains binaries for use by all users. According to the FHS the /bin directory should contain /bin/cat and /bin/date (among others).
In the screenshot below you see common Unix/Linux commands like cat, cp, cpio, date, dd, echo, grep, and so on. Many of these will be covered in this book.
paul@laika:~$ ls /bin archdetect egrep mt setupcon autopartition false mt-gnu sh bash fgconsole mv sh.distrib bunzip2 fgrep nano sleep bzcat fuser nc stralign bzcmp fusermount nc.traditional stty bzdiff get_mountoptions netcat su bzegrep grep netstat sync bzexe gunzip ntfs-3g sysfs bzfgrep gzexe ntfs-3g.probe tailf bzgrep gzip parted_devices tar bzip2 hostname parted_server tempfile bzip2recover hw-detect partman touch bzless ip partman-commit true bzmore kbd_mode perform_recipe ulockmgr cat kill pidof umount ...
You can find a /bin subdirectory in many other directories. A user named serena could put her own programs in /home/serena/bin.
Some applications, often when installed directly from source will put themselves in /opt. A samba server installation can use /opt/samba/bin to store its binaries.
/sbin contains binaries to configure the operating system. Many of the system binaries require root privilege to perform certain tasks.
Below a screenshot containing system binaries to change the ip address, partition a disk and create an ext4 file system.
paul@ubu1010:~$ ls -l /sbin/ifconfig /sbin/fdisk /sbin/mkfs.ext4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 97172 2011-02-02 09:56 /sbin/fdisk -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 65708 2010-07-02 09:27 /sbin/ifconfig -rwxr-xr-x 5 root root 55140 2010-08-18 18:01 /sbin/mkfs.ext4
Binaries found in /bin and /sbin often use shared libraries located in /lib. Below is a screenshot of the partial contents of /lib.
paul@laika:~$ ls /lib/libc* /lib/libc-2.5.so /lib/libcfont.so.0.0.0 /lib/libcom_err.so.2.1 /lib/libcap.so.1 /lib/libcidn-2.5.so /lib/libconsole.so.0 /lib/libcap.so.1.10 /lib/libcidn.so.1 /lib/libconsole.so.0.0.0 /lib/libcfont.so.0 /lib/libcom_err.so.2 /lib/libcrypt-2.5.so
Typically, the Linux kernel loads kernel modules from /lib/modules/$kernel-version/. This directory is discussed in detail in the Linux kernel chapter.
We currently are in a transition between 32-bit and 64-bit systems. Therefore, you may encounter directories named /lib32 and /lib64 which clarify the register size used during compilation time of the libraries. A 64-bit computer may have some 32-bit binaries and libraries for compatibility with legacy applications. This screenshot uses the file utility to demonstrate the difference.
paul@laika:~$ file /lib32/libc-2.5.so /lib32/libc-2.5.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, \ version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.0, stripped paul@laika:~$ file /lib64/libcap.so.1.10 /lib64/libcap.so.1.10: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, AMD x86-64, \ version 1 (SYSV), stripped
The ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) is used in almost every Unix-like operating system since System V.
The purpose of /opt is to store optional software. In many cases this is software from outside the distribution repository. You may find an empty /opt directory on many systems.
A large package can install all its files in /bin, /lib, /etc subdirectories within /opt/$packagename/. If for example the package is called wp, then it installs in /opt/wp, putting binaries in /opt/wp/bin and manpages in /opt/wp/man.
The /boot directory contains all files needed to boot the computer. These files don't change very often. On Linux systems you typically find the /boot/grub directory here. /boot/grub contains /boot/grub/grub.cfg (older systems may still have /boot/grub/grub.conf) which defines the boot menu that is displayed before the kernel starts.
All of the machine-specific configuration files should be located in /etc. Historically /etc stood for etcetera, today people often use the Editable Text Configuration backronym.
Many times the name of a configuration files is the same as the application, daemon, or protocol with .conf added as the extension.
paul@laika:~$ ls /etc/*.conf /etc/adduser.conf /etc/ld.so.conf /etc/scrollkeeper.conf /etc/brltty.conf /etc/lftp.conf /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/ccertificates.conf /etc/libao.conf /etc/syslog.conf /etc/cvs-cron.conf /etc/logrotate.conf /etc/ucf.conf /etc/ddclient.conf /etc/ltrace.conf /etc/uniconf.conf /etc/debconf.conf /etc/mke2fs.conf /etc/updatedb.conf /etc/deluser.conf /etc/netscsid.conf /etc/usplash.conf /etc/fdmount.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf /etc/uswsusp.conf /etc/hdparm.conf /etc/pam.conf /etc/vnc.conf /etc/host.conf /etc/pnm2ppa.conf /etc/wodim.conf /etc/inetd.conf /etc/povray.conf /etc/wvdial.conf /etc/kernel-img.conf /etc/resolv.conf paul@laika:~$
There is much more to be found in /etc.
A lot of Unix/Linux distributions have an /etc/init.d directory that contains scripts to start and stop daemons. This directory could disappear as Linux migrates to systems that replace the old init way of starting all daemons.
The graphical display (aka X Window System or just X) is driven by software from the X.org foundation. The configuration file for your graphical display is /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
The skeleton directory /etc/skel is copied to the home directory of a newly created user. It usually contains hidden files like a .bashrc script.
This directory, which is not mentioned in the FHS, contains a lot of Red Hat Enterprise Linux configuration files. We will discuss some of them in greater detail. The screenshot below is the /etc/sysconfig directory from RHELv4u4 with everything installed.
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ls /etc/sysconfig/ apmd firstboot irda network saslauthd apm-scripts grub irqbalance networking selinux authconfig hidd keyboard ntpd spamassassin autofs httpd kudzu openib.conf squid bluetooth hwconf lm_sensors pand syslog clock i18n mouse pcmcia sys-config-sec console init mouse.B pgsql sys-config-users crond installinfo named prelink sys-logviewer desktop ipmi netdump rawdevices tux diskdump iptables netdump_id_dsa rhn vncservers dund iptables-cfg netdump_id_dsa.p samba xinetd paul@RHELv4u4:~$
The file /etc/sysconfig/firstboot tells the Red Hat Setup Agent not to run at boot time. If you want to run the Red Hat Setup Agent at the next reboot, then simply remove this file, and run chkconfig --level 5 firstboot on. The Red Hat Setup Agent allows you to install the latest updates, create a user account, join the Red Hat Network and more. It will then create the /etc/sysconfig/firstboot file again.
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ cat /etc/sysconfig/firstboot RUN_FIRSTBOOT=NO
The /etc/sysconfig/harddisks file contains some parameters to tune the hard disks. The file explains itself.
You can see hardware detected by kudzu in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf. Kudzu is software from Red Hat for automatic discovery and configuration of hardware.
The keyboard type and keymap table are set in the /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file. For more console keyboard information, check the manual pages of keymaps(5), dumpkeys(1), loadkeys(1) and the directory /lib/kbd/keymaps/.
root@RHELv4u4:/etc/sysconfig# cat keyboard KEYBOARDTYPE="pc" KEYTABLE="us"
We will discuss networking files in this directory in the networking chapter.
Users can store personal or project data under /home. It is common (but not mandatory by the fhs) practice to name the users home directory after the user name in the format /home/$USERNAME. For example:
paul@ubu606:~$ ls /home geert annik sandra paul tom
Besides giving every user (or every project or group) a location to store personal files, the home directory of a user also serves as a location to store the user profile. A typical Unix user profile contains many hidden files (files whose file name starts with a dot). The hidden files of the Unix user profiles contain settings specific for that user.
paul@ubu606:~$ ls -d /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.* /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/. /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.bash_profile /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.ssh /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.. /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.bashrc /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.viminfo /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.bash_history /data/sites/web/cobbautbe/subsites/.lesshst
On many systems /root is the default location for personal data and profile of the root user. If it does not exist by default, then some administrators create it.
You may use /srv for data that is served by your system. The FHS allows locating cvs, rsync, ftp and www data in this location. The FHS also approves administrative naming in /srv, like /srv/project55/ftp and /srv/sales/www.
On Sun Solaris (or Oracle Solaris) /export is used for this purpose.
The /media directory serves as a mount point for removable media devices such as CD-ROM's, digital cameras, and various usb-attached devices. Since /media is rather new in the Unix world, you could very well encounter systems running without this directory. Solaris 9 does not have it, Solaris 10 does. Most Linux distributions today mount all removable media in /media.
paul@debian5:~$ ls /media/ cdrom cdrom0 usbdisk
The /mnt directory should be empty and should only be used for temporary mount points (according to the FHS).
Unix and Linux administrators used to create many directories here, like /mnt/something/. You likely will encounter many systems with more than one directory created and/or mounted inside /mnt to be used for various local and remote filesystems.
Device files in /dev appear to be ordinary files, but are not actually located on the hard disk. The /dev directory is populated with files as the kernel is recognising hardware.
Common hardware such as hard disk devices are represented by device files in /dev. Below a screenshot of SATA device files on a laptop and then IDE attached drives on a desktop. (The detailed meaning of these devices will be discussed later.)
# # SATA or SCSI or USB # paul@laika:~$ ls /dev/sd* /dev/sda /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb2 # # IDE or ATAPI # paul@barry:~$ ls /dev/hd* /dev/hda /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdb2 /dev/hdc
Besides representing physical hardware, some device files are special. These special devices can be very useful.
For example, /dev/tty1 represents a terminal or console attached to the system. (Don't break your head on the exact terminology of 'terminal' or 'console', what we mean here is a command line interface.) When typing commands in a terminal that is part of a graphical interface like Gnome or KDE, then your terminal will be represented as /dev/pts/1 (1 can be another number).
On Linux you will find other special devices such as /dev/null which can be considered a black hole; it has unlimited storage, but nothing can be retrieved from it. Technically speaking, anything written to /dev/null will be discarded. /dev/null can be useful to discard unwanted output from commands. /dev/null is not a good location to store your backups ;-).
/proc is another special directory, appearing to be ordinary files, but not taking up disk space. It is actually a view of the kernel, or better, what the kernel manages, and is a means to interact with it directly. /proc is a proc filesystem.
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ mount -t proc none on /proc type proc (rw)
When listing the /proc directory you will see many numbers (on any Unix) and some interesting files (on Linux)
mul@laika:~$ ls /proc 1 2339 4724 5418 6587 7201 cmdline mounts 10175 2523 4729 5421 6596 7204 cpuinfo mtrr 10211 2783 4741 5658 6599 7206 crypto net 10239 2975 4873 5661 6638 7214 devices pagetypeinfo 141 29775 4874 5665 6652 7216 diskstats partitions 15045 29792 4878 5927 6719 7218 dma sched_debug 1519 2997 4879 6 6736 7223 driver scsi 1548 3 4881 6032 6737 7224 execdomains self 1551 30228 4882 6033 6755 7227 fb slabinfo 1554 3069 5 6145 6762 7260 filesystems stat 1557 31422 5073 6298 6774 7267 fs swaps 1606 3149 5147 6414 6816 7275 ide sys 180 31507 5203 6418 6991 7282 interrupts sysrq-trigger 181 3189 5206 6419 6993 7298 iomem sysvipc 182 3193 5228 6420 6996 7319 ioports timer_list 18898 3246 5272 6421 7157 7330 irq timer_stats 19799 3248 5291 6422 7163 7345 kallsyms tty 19803 3253 5294 6423 7164 7513 kcore uptime 19804 3372 5356 6424 7171 7525 key-users version 1987 4 5370 6425 7175 7529 kmsg version_signature 1989 42 5379 6426 7188 9964 loadavg vmcore 2 45 5380 6430 7189 acpi locks vmnet 20845 4542 5412 6450 7191 asound meminfo vmstat 221 46 5414 6551 7192 buddyinfo misc zoneinfo 2338 4704 5416 6568 7199 bus modules
Let's investigate the file properties inside /proc. Looking at the date and time will display the current date and time showing the files are constantly updated (a view on the kernel).
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ date Mon Jan 29 18:06:32 EST 2007 paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ls -al /proc/cpuinfo -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 29 18:06 /proc/cpuinfo paul@RHELv4u4:~$ paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ...time passes... paul@RHELv4u4:~$ paul@RHELv4u4:~$ date Mon Jan 29 18:10:00 EST 2007 paul@RHELv4u4:~$ ls -al /proc/cpuinfo -r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 29 18:10 /proc/cpuinfo
Most files in /proc are 0 bytes, yet they contain data--sometimes a lot of data. You can see this by executing cat on files like /proc/cpuinfo, which contains information about the CPU.
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ file /proc/cpuinfo /proc/cpuinfo: empty paul@RHELv4u4:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 15 model : 43 model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ stepping : 1 cpu MHz : 2398.628 cache size : 512 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge... bogomips : 4803.54
Just for fun, here is /proc/cpuinfo on a Sun Sunblade 1000...
paul@pasha:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo cpu : TI UltraSparc III (Cheetah) fpu : UltraSparc III integrated FPU promlib : Version 3 Revision 2 prom : 4.2.2 type : sun4u ncpus probed : 2 ncpus active : 2 Cpu0Bogo : 498.68 Cpu0ClkTck : 000000002cb41780 Cpu1Bogo : 498.68 Cpu1ClkTck : 000000002cb41780 MMU Type : Cheetah State: CPU0: online CPU1: online
Most of the files in /proc are read only, some require root privileges, some files are writable, and many files in /proc/sys are writable. Let's discuss some of the files in /proc.
On the x86 architecture, /proc/interrupts displays the interrupts.
paul@RHELv4u4:~$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 13876877 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 15 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 1 IO-APIC-edge rtc
9: 0 IO-APIC-level acpi
12: 67 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 128 IO-APIC-edge ide0
15: 124320 IO-APIC-edge ide1
169: 111993 IO-APIC-level ioc0
177: 2428 IO-APIC-level eth0
NMI: 0
LOC: 13878037
ERR: 0
MIS: 0On a machine with two CPU's, the file looks like this.
paul@laika:~$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0 CPU1
0: 860013 0 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 4533 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
7: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge parport0
8: 6588227 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc
10: 2314 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 133 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
15: 72269 0 IO-APIC-edge libata
18: 1 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi yenta
19: 115036 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi eth0
20: 126871 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi libata, ohci1394
21: 30204 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb2
22: 1334 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi saa7133[0], saa7133[0]
24: 234739 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi nvidia
NMI: 72 42
LOC: 860000 859994
ERR: 0The /sys directory was created for the Linux 2.6 kernel. Since 2.6, Linux uses sysfs to support usb and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) hot plug devices. See the manual pages of udev(8) (the successor of devfs) and hotplug(8) for more info (or visit http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net/ ).
Basically the /sys directory contains kernel information about hardware.
Although /usr is pronounced like user, remember that it stands for Unix System Resources. The /usr hierarchy should contain shareable, read only data. Some people choose to mount /usr as read only. This can be done from its own partition or from a read only NFS share (NFS is discussed later).
The /usr/bin directory contains a lot of commands.
paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/bin | wc -l 1395
(On Solaris the /bin directory is a symbolic link to /usr/bin.)
The /usr/include directory contains general use include files for C.
paul@ubu1010:~$ ls /usr/include/ aalib.h expat_config.h math.h search.h af_vfs.h expat_external.h mcheck.h semaphore.h aio.h expat.h memory.h setjmp.h AL fcntl.h menu.h sgtty.h aliases.h features.h mntent.h shadow.h ...
The /usr/lib directory contains libraries that are not directly executed by users or scripts.
paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/lib | head -7 4Suite ao apt arj aspell avahi bonobo
The /usr/local directory can be used by an administrator to install software locally.
paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/local/ bin etc games include lib man sbin share src paul@deb508:~$ du -sh /usr/local/ 128K /usr/local/
The /usr/share directory contains architecture independent data. As you can see, this is a fairly large directory.
paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/share/ | wc -l 263 paul@deb508:~$ du -sh /usr/share/ 1.3G /usr/share/
This directory typically contains /usr/share/man for manual pages.
paul@deb508:~$ ls /usr/share/man cs fr hu it.UTF-8 man2 man6 pl.ISO8859-2 sv de fr.ISO8859-1 id ja man3 man7 pl.UTF-8 tr es fr.UTF-8 it ko man4 man8 pt_BR zh_CN fi gl it.ISO8859-1 man1 man5 pl ru zh_TW
And it contains /usr/share/games for all static game data (so no high-scores or play logs).
paul@ubu1010:~$ ls /usr/share/games/ openttd wesnoth
The /usr/src directory is the recommended location for kernel source files.
paul@deb508:~$ ls -l /usr/src/ total 12 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2011-02-01 14:43 linux-headers-2.6.26-2-686 drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 2011-02-01 14:43 linux-headers-2.6.26-2-common drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-10-28 16:01 linux-kbuild-2.6.26
Files that are unpredictable in size, such as log, cache and spool files, should be located in /var.
The /var/log directory serves as a central point to contain all log files.
[paul@RHEL4b ~]$ ls /var/log acpid cron.2 maillog.2 quagga secure.4 amanda cron.3 maillog.3 radius spooler anaconda.log cron.4 maillog.4 rpmpkgs spooler.1 anaconda.syslog cups mailman rpmpkgs.1 spooler.2 anaconda.xlog dmesg messages rpmpkgs.2 spooler.3 audit exim messages.1 rpmpkgs.3 spooler.4 boot.log gdm messages.2 rpmpkgs.4 squid boot.log.1 httpd messages.3 sa uucp boot.log.2 iiim messages.4 samba vbox boot.log.3 iptraf mysqld.log scrollkeeper.log vmware-tools-guestd boot.log.4 lastlog news secure wtmp canna mail pgsql secure.1 wtmp.1 cron maillog ppp secure.2 Xorg.0.log cron.1 maillog.1 prelink.log secure.3 Xorg.0.log.old
A typical first file to check when troubleshooting on Red Hat (and derivatives) is the /var/log/messages file. By default this file will contain information on what just happened to the system. The file is called /var/log/syslog on Debian and Ubuntu.
[root@RHEL4b ~]# tail /var/log/messages Jul 30 05:13:56 anacron: anacron startup succeeded Jul 30 05:13:56 atd: atd startup succeeded Jul 30 05:13:57 messagebus: messagebus startup succeeded Jul 30 05:13:57 cups-config-daemon: cups-config-daemon startup succeeded Jul 30 05:13:58 haldaemon: haldaemon startup succeeded Jul 30 05:14:00 fstab-sync[3560]: removed all generated mount points Jul 30 05:14:01 fstab-sync[3628]: added mount point /media/cdrom for... Jul 30 05:14:01 fstab-sync[3646]: added mount point /media/floppy for... Jul 30 05:16:46 sshd(pam_unix)[3662]: session opened for user paul by... Jul 30 06:06:37 su(pam_unix)[3904]: session opened for user root by paul
The /var/cache directory can contain cache data for several applications.
paul@ubu1010:~$ ls /var/cache/ apt dictionaries-common gdm man software-center binfmts flashplugin-installer hald pm-utils cups fontconfig jockey pppconfig debconf fonts ldconfig samba
The /var/spool directory typically contains spool directories for mail and cron, but also serves as a parent directory for other spool files (for example print spool files).
1. Does the file /bin/cat exist ? What about /bin/dd and /bin/echo. What is the type of these files ?
2. What is the size of the Linux kernel file(s) (vmlinu*) in /boot ?
3. Create a directory ~/test. Then issue the following commands:
cd ~/test
dd if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.txt count=1 bs=100
od zeroes.txt
dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/zero to ~/test/zeroes.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/zero ?
4. Now issue the following command:
dd if=/dev/random of=random.txt count=1 bs=100 ; od random.txt
dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/random to ~/test/random.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/random ?
5. Issue the following two commands, and look at the first character of each output line.
ls -l /dev/sd* /dev/hd*
ls -l /dev/tty* /dev/input/mou*
The first ls will show block(b) devices, the second ls shows character(c) devices. Can you tell the difference between block and character devices ?
6. Use cat to display /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf. What is your idea about the purpose of these files ?
7. Are there any files in /etc/skel/ ? Check also for hidden files.
8. Display /proc/cpuinfo. On what architecture is your Linux running ?
9. Display /proc/interrupts. What is the size of this file ? Where is this file stored ?
10. Can you enter the /root directory ? Are there (hidden) files ?
11. Are ifconfig, fdisk, parted, shutdown and grub-install present in /sbin ? Why are these binaries in /sbin and not in /bin ?
12. Is /var/log a file or a directory ? What about /var/spool ?
13. Open two command prompts (Ctrl-Shift-T in gnome-terminal) or terminals (Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F2, ...) and issue the who am i in both. Then try to echo a word from one terminal to the other.
14. Read the man page of random and explain the difference between /dev/random and /dev/urandom.
1. Does the file /bin/cat exist ? What about /bin/dd and /bin/echo. What is the type of these files ?
ls /bin/cat ; file /bin/cat
ls /bin/dd ; file /bin/dd
ls /bin/echo ; file /bin/echo
2. What is the size of the Linux kernel file(s) (vmlinu*) in /boot ?
ls -lh /boot/vm*
3. Create a directory ~/test. Then issue the following commands:
cd ~/test
dd if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.txt count=1 bs=100
od zeroes.txt
dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/zero to ~/test/zeroes.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/zero ?
/dev/zero is a Linux special device. It can be considered a source of zeroes. You cannot send something to /dev/zero, but you can read zeroes from it.
4. Now issue the following command:
dd if=/dev/random of=random.txt count=1 bs=100 ; od random.txt
dd will copy one times (count=1) a block of size 100 bytes (bs=100) from the file /dev/random to ~/test/random.txt. Can you describe the functionality of /dev/random ?
/dev/random acts as a random number generator on your Linux machine.
5. Issue the following two commands, and look at the first character of each output line.
ls -l /dev/sd* /dev/hd*
ls -l /dev/tty* /dev/input/mou*
The first ls will show block(b) devices, the second ls shows character(c) devices. Can you tell the difference between block and character devices ?
Block devices are always written to (or read from) in blocks. For hard disks, blocks of 512 bytes are common. Character devices act as a stream of characters (or bytes). Mouse and keyboard are typical character devices.
6. Use cat to display /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf. What is your idea about the purpose of these files ?
/etc/hosts contains hostnames with their ip address
/etc/resolv.conf should contain the ip address of a DNS name server.
7. Are there any files in /etc/skel/ ? Check also for hidden files.
Issue "ls -al /etc/skel/". Yes, there should be hidden files there.
8. Display /proc/cpuinfo. On what architecture is your Linux running ?
The file should contain at least one line with Intel or other cpu.
9. Display /proc/interrupts. What is the size of this file ? Where is this file stored ?
The size is zero, yet the file contains data. It is not stored anywhere because /proc is a virtual file system that allows you to talk with the kernel. (If you answered "stored in RAM-memory, that is also correct...).
10. Can you enter the /root directory ? Are there (hidden) files ?
Try "cd /root". The /root directory is not accessible for normal users on most modern Linux systems.11. Are ifconfig, fdisk, parted, shutdown and grub-install present in /sbin ? Why are these binaries in /sbin and not in /bin ?
Because those files are only meant for system administrators.
12. Is /var/log a file or a directory ? What about /var/spool ?
Both are directories.
13. Open two command prompts (Ctrl-Shift-T in gnome-terminal) or terminals (Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F2, ...) and issue the who am i in both. Then try to echo a word from one terminal to the other.
tty-terminal: echo Hello > /dev/tty1
pts-terminal: echo Hello > /dev/pts/1
14. Read the man page of random and explain the difference between /dev/random and /dev/urandom.
man 4 random