Linux Beginner 18 h 20 min 104 items

Linux Basics

From your first shell to a hardened, automated system: pipelines, permissions, processes, storage, networking, scripting and security.

About this course

A hands-on Linux course built on the A Linux Companion: Linux Basics workbook. Eight modules take you from the Unix philosophy and the shell to pipelines, users and permissions, process control, storage and backups, networking and firewalls, Bash scripting, and system hardening.

What you get

  • Lessons ported directly from the workbook, with real commands you can run
  • Hands-on exercises and a quick-reference page for every module
  • A quiz for each module and a timed final exam
  • The complete workbook as a PDF download

Syllabus

Welcome and how to use this course Lesson
About the author Optional Lesson

1.1 Pipes and pipelines Lesson
1.2 grep - Pattern Matching and Filtering Lesson
1.2 sed - Stream Editor Lesson
1.2 awk, sort and uniq Lesson
1.3 Documentation and search: man, info and find Lesson
1.3 locate, and locate vs. find Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 1 quiz Quiz

0.1 Shell types and the prompt Lesson
0.1 Keybinds and command history Lesson
0.1 Shell Startup Files and Session Types Lesson
0.1 Streams and redirection Lesson
0.1 Globbing, expansion and terminal editors Lesson
0.1 The nano and vim editors Lesson
0.1 Choosing an editor, and tmux Lesson
Hands-on exercises: 0.1 The Terminal Environment Optional Lesson
Quick reference: 0.1 The Terminal Environment Optional Lesson
0.2 What lives where: the FHS Lesson
0.2 Paths, symlinks and hard links Lesson
Hands-on exercises: 0.2 File-System Hierarchy Standard (FHS) Optional Lesson
Quick reference: 0.2 File-System Hierarchy Standard (FHS) Optional Lesson
0.3 Navigating and creating: ls, cd, pwd, mkdir, rmdir, touch Lesson
0.3 Inspecting, reading and removing files Lesson
0.3 cp - Copy Files and Directories Lesson
0.3 mv, and how the commands interact Lesson
Hands-on exercises: 0.3 Core File Manipulation Commands Optional Lesson
Quick reference: 0.3 Core File Manipulation Commands Optional Lesson
Module 0 quiz Quiz

2.1 The permissions model and octal notation Lesson
2.1 chmod and chown Lesson
2.2 Identity files, users and groups Lesson
2.2 Passwords and policy: passwd and chage Lesson
2.2 sudo - Superuser Privilege Lesson
2.2 Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) Overview Lesson
2.3 Special permission bits: SUID, SGID and sticky Lesson
2.3 The umask and ownership context Lesson
2.4 Access Control Lists (ACLs) Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 2 quiz Quiz

3.1 PIDs and process states Lesson
3.1 lsof and job control Lesson
3.2 ps and pgrep Lesson
3.2 top, htop and pstree Lesson
3.2 Memory and I/O: free, vmstat, iostat, iotop Lesson
3.3 Signals, kill and nice Lesson
3.3 Zombies, orphans and a monitoring toolbox Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 3 quiz Quiz

4.1 Disks, partition tables and mount points Lesson
4.2 Creating file-systems: mkfs and types Lesson
4.2 Mounting, fstab, df/du and fsck Lesson
4.2 Swap: spillover space for memory Lesson
4.3 Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Lesson
4.4 SMART disk health monitoring Lesson
4.4 tar, zip and unzip Lesson
4.4 Backup routines, the 3-2-1 rule and restore testing Lesson
4.4 Modern backup tools: Borg, restic and rclone Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 4 quiz Quiz

5.1 IP addressing: IPv4 and IPv6 Lesson
5.1 The ip command and network managers Lesson
5.1 Inspecting the network: ping, ss, traceroute and DNS Lesson
5.2 Firewall concepts and iptables Lesson
5.2 nftables and firewalld Lesson
5.2 ufw and minimizing your attack surface Lesson
5.3 SSH - Secure Shell Lesson
5.3 systemd and systemctl - Service Management Lesson
5.4 journalctl and /var/log Lesson
5.4 The logging stack and central logging Lesson
5.4 dmesg - Kernel Ring Buffer Lesson
5.4 A structured troubleshooting workflow Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 5 quiz Quiz

6.1 Script anatomy, variables and substitution Lesson
6.2 Conditionals, loops and parameter expansion Lesson
6.2 The case statement Lesson
6.3 Functions and error handling Lesson
6.3 Parsing input and a production-quality script Lesson
6.4 cron and crontabs Lesson
6.4 systemd timers, and cron vs. timers Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 6 quiz Quiz

7.1 Least privilege: service accounts, users and sudo Lesson
7.1 Network service minimization Lesson
7.1 Mandatory access control: SELinux and AppArmor Lesson
7.1 DAC, MAC and the security stack Lesson
7.2 auditd - The Linux Audit Daemon Lesson
7.2 Regular reviews and compliance benchmarks Lesson
7.3 Package management and repositories Lesson
7.3 Package Management Best Practices Lesson
7.4 Configuration management: Ansible, Puppet and Chef Lesson
7.4 The desired-state principle Lesson
Hands-on exercises Optional Lesson
Quick reference Optional Lesson
Module 7 quiz Quiz

Final exam Quiz