Tutorial 8 - Links / Process Management

Content under development

LINKING FILES / MANAGING PROCESSES

Main Objectives of this Practice Tutorial

• Define the term i-node as it relates to the Unix/Linux File System

• Issue the ls -i command to view i-node (index) numbers associated with Unix/Linux files

• Define the terms Hard and Symbolic Links

• Issue the ln command to create hard and symbolic links

• Define term process as it relates to the Unix/ Linux operating system

• Run and terminate processes in the foreground and background

• Display and manipulate background and foreground processes

• Use alias and history commands in Unix/Linux

Tutorial Reference Material

Course Notes		Concepts / Commands
Course Notes: PDF | PPTX		Links Hard Links Symbolic Links Managing Processes inode Manipulating Processes	Linux Commands ln ps top fg bg jobs kill sleep alias , unalias history

KEY CONCEPTS

i-node (index) ID Number of a File

The i-node number is like a finger-print, and is considered to be unique for each file on the Unix / Linux file system.

An i-node is a database containing information (e.g. file type, owner, permissions, etc.) for all files that are created on the Unix/Linux filesystem.

The i-node number is like a finger-print, and is considered to be unique for each file on the Unix / Linux file system.

Referring to the diagram on the far right, issuing the ls command with the -i option displays the i-node number for each file. You can see that each file (whether it is a directory or regular file) has its own unique
i-node number.

Hard Links

A Hard link is a reference to the physical data on a file system.
It does this by creating a file that shares the same i-node number with the original file.

Advantages: If only one hard link remains (even if original file has been removed), the data in that hard linked file is NOT lost. The data in hard linked files are automatically updated when original file are updated.

Disadvantages: Hard links take-up extra space, you cannot hard link directories,
and you cannot hard link files from other Unix/Linux servers (since the inode number may already be used by the other Unix/Linux server).

Examples:

ln myfile.txt myfile1.hard.lnk
ln myfile.txt ~/backups/myfile.hard.lnk

Symbolic Links

A Symbolic Link is an indirect pointer to a file and are also known as soft link or symlink. The symbolic link file contains the pathname to the original file.

Advantages: symbolic links are shortcuts to other files, where the symbolic link only contains the pathname to the original file, you can create symbolic links
on different Unix/Linux servers, and that you can create symbolic links for directories.

Disadvantages: Symbolic links are NOT good for backup purposes
since a symbolic link can point to a nonexistent file (referred to as a "broken link").

Examples:

ln -s otherfile.txt otherfile1.sym.lnk
ln -s otherfile.txt ~/backups/otherfile.sym.lnk

Managing Processes

All commands/programs (tasks) that are running on a Unix/Linux computer system are referred to as processes.

Characteristics of Processes:

• Each process has an owner
• Each process has a unique ID (PID)
• Processes keep their PID for their entire life.
• Usually a parent sleeps (suspends) when a child is running (the exception is when the child process is running in the background)
• UNIX / Linux processes are hierarchical. The process structure can have child processes, great grandchild processes, etc.

Users can manage processes to become more productive while working in the Unix / Linux Command-line environment.
Processes that run in the terminal are known as foreground processes. You can run or send processes currently running
in the foreground to the background to free-up your terminal (e.g. issue other Linux commands).

Below are a listing of common Linux commands and keyboard shortcuts to manage foreground and background processes:

Linux Command / Key Combination	Purpose
ps	Displays snapshot information about processes. Examples: ps , ps -l , ps -ef , ps -u , ps aux
top	The top command provides a realtime status of running processes. NOTE: You can press ctrl-c to exit
ctrl-c	Terminates a process running in the foreground
ctrl-z	Sends a process running in the foreground into the background.
fg	Moves a background job from the current environment into the foreground. Example: fg %job-number
bg	Runs (starts) the most recent process that was placed into the background. Example: bg %job-number
jobs	The jobs utility displays the status of jobs that were started in the current shell environment. Example: jobs [1]+ Stopped vim a   <-- Job #1 (+ most recent process / background) [2]  Running sleep 200 &  <-- Job #2 [3]  Running sleep 300 &  <-- Job #3 [4]- Running sleep 400 &  <-- Job #4 (- second recent process / background)
kill	The kill command sends the specified signal to the specified processes or process groups. If no signal is specified, the TERM signal is sent. The default action for this signal is to terminate the process. Examples: kill PID , kill -9 PID , kill %job-number , kill -9 %job-number

Aliases / Command History

Aliases:

An alias is a nickname to an existing command or group of commands.

An alias existing in system memory and will be lost when your current Linux session ends,
unless the alias is set in a start-up file (e.g. ~/.bashrc. You will learn about using start-up files later in this course.

Examples:

alias (Alias command without an argument will display all the aliases currently set)

alias dir=ls
alias ls='ls -al'
alias clearfile='cat /dev/null >'

unalias alias-name (removes alias from memory)

Command History:

The filename ~/.bash_history stores recently executed command lines

Examples of commands that use command history:

up arrow or down arrow	move to previous command or next command within Bash shell prompt
fc -l	display last 16 commands
history | more	display all stored commands
!num	re-execute an issued command number by command number (determined from history command)
!xxx	re-run a most recent previously-issued command beginning with string "xxx"

INVESTIGATION 1: LINKING FILES

ATTENTION: The due date for successfully completing this tutorial (i.e. tutorial 1) is by Friday, December 15 @ 11:59 PM (Week 14).

In this investigation, you will learn how to create hard links and symbolic links on your Matrix account,
and observe the advantages and limitations of using both types of links.

Perform the Following Steps:

1. Login to your matrix account.
   
   
2. Issue a Linux command to confirm you are located in your home directory.
   
   NOTE: You will remain in your home directory to get practice using pathnames.
   
   
3. Issue the following Linux command to create a directory called ~/links:
   mkdir ~/links
   
   
4. Issue the ls -ld command to confirm that the directory ~/links exists.
   
   
5. Use a text editor to create a file called ~/links/data-file.txt
   (i.e. without changing to the links directory).
   
   
6. Enter the following text displayed below:
   
   This is line 1
   This is line 2
   This is line 3
   
   
   

   Hard links share the same i-node with regular files on a Unix / Linux filesystem.
7. Save your editing session and exit your text editor.
   
   
8. Issue the following Linux command:
   ls -li ~/links/data-file.txt
   
   View the i-node number for this file. What does this i-node number represent?
   
   We will now create a hard link file to demonstrate how creating hard links are useful for back-ups.
   
   
9. Issue the following Linux command to create the following hard link in the same directory:
   ln ~/links/data-file.txt ~/links/data-file.hard.lnk
   
   
10. Issue the following Linux command to display i-node ID numbers for both files:
    ls -li ~/links/data-file.txt ~/links/data-file.hard.lnk
    
    What do you notice about both of those file's i-node numbers?
    
    
11. Use a text editor to edit ~/links/data-file.txt
    and add some lines of text to the bottom of that file.
    
    
12. Save your editing session and exit your text editor.
    
    
13. Issue the following Linux command:
    cat ~/links/data-file.hard.lnk
    
    You should notice that the hard linked file also contains the additional line(s) that you added to the original file.
    This is very useful for backing up your files without using the cp command!
    
    
14. Use a text editor to edit the hard-linked file ~/links/data-file.hard.lnk
    and add some lines to the bottom of this file.
    
    
15. Save your editing session and exit your text editor.
    
    
16. Issue the following Linux command:
    cat ~/links/data-file.txt
    
    What happened to this original file?</u> file?
    What does this mean in terms of creating hard-linked files for back-ups?
    
    
17. Issue the following Linux command to create a hard-linked file in your home directory:
    ln ~/links/data-file.txt ~/data-file.hard.lnk
    
    
18. Issue the following Linux command to compare all file's i-node numbers:
    ls -li ~/links/data-file.txt ~/links/data-file.hard.lnk ~/data-file.hard.lnk
    
    What do you notice about all of those file's i-node numbers?
    
    
19. Issue the following Linux command to check that you created those hard links:
    ~osl640/week8-check-1
    
    If you encounter errors, then view the feedback to make corrections, and then re-run the checking script.
    If you receive a congratulation message that there are no errors, then proceed with this tutorial.
    
    
20. Issue the following Linux command to remove the ~/links directory and its contents:
    rm -rf ~/links
    
    
21. Issue a Linux command to confirm that the ~/links directory has been removed.
    
    
22. Issue the following Linux command to view the contents of your linked file in your home directory:
    cat ~/data-file.hard.lnk
    
    What do you notice? What does this tell you about hard links?
    
    We will now learn how to create symbolic links.
    
    
23. Issue the following Linux command to create a directory called ~/links2:
    mkdir ~/links2
    
    NOTE: You will remain in your home directory to get practice using pathnames.
    
    
24. Issue the ls -ld command to confirm that the directory called ~/links2 exists.
    
    
25. Use a text editor to create a file called ~/links2/text-file.txt
    (i.e. without changing to the links2 directory).
    
    
    

    Symbolic links are pointers (i.e. pathnames) to regular files and directories.
    They do NOT share the same i-node.
26. Enter the following text displayed below:
    
    This is line one
    This is line two
    This is line three
    
    
27. Save your editing session and exit your text editor.
    
    
28. Issue the following Linux command to create the following symbolic link in the same directory:
    ln -s ~/links2/text-file.txt ~/links2/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    
29. Issue the following Linux command to display i-node numbers for both files:
    ls -li ~/links2/text-file.txt ~/links2/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    What do you notice about both of these file's i-node numbers?
    What do you notice about the size of the file ~/links2/text-file.sym.lnk?
    What pathname do you think this symbolic-linked file represents?
    
    
30. Issue the following Linux command to create the following symbolic link in your home directory:
    ln -s ~/links2/text-file.txt ~/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    
31. Issue the following Linux command to display i-node numbers for all of those files:
    ls -li ~/links2/text-file.txt ~/links2/text-file.sym.lnk ~/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    What do you notice about all of those file's i-node numbers?
    What is the file size of ~/text-file.sym.lnk?
    What pathname do you think this symbolic-linked file contains?
    
    
32. Use a text editor to edit the symbolic link file called ~/links2/text-file.sym.lnk
    and add some lines to the bottom of that file.
    
    
33. Save your editing session and exit your text editor.
    
    
34. Issue the following Linux command to view the contents of the original file:
    cat ~/links2/text-file.txt
    
    What did you notice? This happened because when you edited the symbolic-linked file,
    you were redirected (via pathname) to the original file.
    
    
35. Use a text editor to edit the original file called ~/links2/text-file.txt
    and add some lines to the bottom of that file.
    
    
36. Save your editing session and exit your text editor.
    
    
37. Issue the following Linux command to view the contents of the symbolic linked file:
    cat ~/links2/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    What did you notice? Again, when you view the contents of the symbolic-linked file,
    you are redirected (via pathname) to the original file.
    
    
38. Issue the following Linux command to check that you created those symbolic links:
    ~osl640/week8-check-2
    
    If you encounter errors, then view the feedback to make corrections, and then re-run the checking script.
    If you receive a congratulation message that there are no errors, then proceed with this tutorial.
    
    
39. Issue the following Linux command to remove the ~/links2 directory:
    rm -rf ~/links2
    
    
40. Issue a Linux command to confirm that the ~/links2 directory has been removed.
    
    
41. Issue the following Linux command to view the contents of the
    original file called ~/links2/text-file.txt:
    cat ~/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    What happened? Why did does this happen?
    
    
    

    Example of a broken link when a symbolic link points to a non-existent file.
42. Issue the following Linux command:
    ls -l ~/text-file.sym.lnk
    
    This output indicates a "broken link" and indicates this is not an effective method of backing up files.
    
    
43. Issue a command to delete the ~/text-file.sym.lnk file which is a broken link.
    
    
44. Issue the following Linux command:
    ln -s ~murray.saul/myscripts checking-scripts
    
    
    

    Symbolic links can be used to point to directories as well as regular files. Symbolic links can also point to files on other Unix/Linux filesystems.
45. Issue the following Linux command:
    ls -ld checking-scripts
    
    What do you notice? Symbolic links are good for creating "short-cuts" to both regular files and directories.

In the next investigation, you will learn how to manage processes on your Matrix server.

INVESTIGATION 3: ALIASES / COMMAND HISTORY

= LINUX PRACTICE QUESTIONS =