This presentation provides Unix tips and tricks. It discusses using control operators and mkdir -p for directory creation. It also covers breaking up long command lines, command substitution, and using for loops. Additional tips include using history commands, grepping files with awk, resetting a corrupted terminal, and making typescripts of terminal sessions. Ways to handle remote systems, process input, redirect I/O, and manage open files are also presented.

1. Unix Tips & Tricks
Aleksandar Bilanovic
Ericsson Telekommunikation GmbH

2. Motivation
UNIX interface is made of simple commands that can be
combined into useful programs. Number of combination is
endless
Our infrastructure and product is on UNIX (Linux) platform
What this presentation is
This presentation is collection of few useful Unix tips and tricks
What this presentation is NOT
This presentation is not comprehensive guide to Unix
This presentation is not how-to

3. Tip
Shell
●
Using control operators.
●
Good habit in interactive shell usage
●
MUST when writing shell scripts
$ cd /dir && cmd
$ cd /dir || mkdir /dir
●
Using mkdir –p to create directory structure
●
Bad habit
$ mkdir /dir
$ cd /dir
$ mkdir dir1
$ mkdir dir2
$ cd dir1
$ mkdir a
$ mkdir b
$ mkdir c
●
Good habit
$ mkdir -p /dir/{dir1/{a,b,c},dir2}

4. Tip
Shell
●
Breaking long input lines by using
●
Bad habit
$ find /bin /lib /sbin /usr/sbin /usr/lib /usr/bin /disk2 /disk1 -perm /
4000 –exec ls –la {} ;
●
Good habit
$ find /bin
> /lib
> /sbin
> /usr/sbin
> /usr/lib
> /usr/bin
> /disk2
> /disk1
> -perm /4000
> –exec ls –la {} ;
●
Command substitution
$ mkdir $(basename $PWD)
$ mkdir `basename $PWD`

5. Tip
Shell
●
History helpers
●
bck-i-search
$ cd /tmp
bck-i-search: cd /_
●
history command editing
$ fc
$ fc –l
●
$_ - last argument
$ ls -l /usr/home/dmr/somefile
$ vi $_
$ pwd
/home/bilke
$ cd –
¡ cd /tmp
$ cd -
~
$ pwd
/home/bilke

6. Tip
Shell
●
for loop
●
using shell built in
$ for i in {1..10}; do echo $i; done # bash
$ for i in {01..10}; do echo $i; done # padding with zeroes, only in ZSH!
●
using external program (not recommended – slow and not portable)
$ for i in $(seq 1 10); do echo $i; done
$ for i in $(seq –w 1 10); do echo $i; done
●
greping /etc/passwd file by columns using awk(1)
$ awk -F":" '$3 >= 1000 && $7 != "/bin/false"' /etc/passwd
$ ls -l| grep Dec
-rw-r--r-- 1 bilke bilke 0 Dec 2 17:45 archive.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 bilke bilke 0 Jul 7 2001 December_Report.pdf
-rw-r--r-- 1 bilke bilke 0 Dec 2 17:45 README
$ ls -l| awk '$6 == "Dec"'
-rw-r--r-- 1 bilke bilke 0 Dec 2 17:45 archive.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 bilke bilke 0 Dec 2 17:45 README

7. Tip
Term
●
Term screwed up – reset(1) is your friend
$ cat /bin/ls
#¾xºßÀct{/ Ð¥ûdßÿÿÿé|F¤ëppðqÑÄêí'5¸ÁXÀ!9ùí.oa Ø =ðÉàü`ñ÷9Ï
reset
$
●
script(1) - make typescript of terminal session
$ script
$ ls
typescript
$ exit
Script done, file is typescript
$ cat typescript
Script started on Wed 02 Dec 2009 05:01:13 PM CET
$ ls
typescript
$
Script done on Wed 02 Dec 2009 05:01:36 PM CET
$

8. Tip
Term
●
Need to run command in background with terminal
detached?
●
Use screen(1) & nohup(1)
●
screen - screen manager with VT100/ANSI terminal
emulation
●
nohup - run a command immune to hangups, with
output to a non-tty
●
Difference – while nohup is detaching command
from terminal and redirecting output to file, screen is
detaching itself (not command) from terminal.

9. Trick
Remove files starting with dash
●
File which name starts with – (dash) can be “hard” to
remove:
$ > -i # Ctrl + D
$ ls –l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 bilke users 0 2009-12-02 01:15 –i
$ rm –i
rm: missing operand
Try `rm --help' for more information.
$ rm -i
rm: missing operand
Try `rm --help' for more information.
$ rm ‘-i’
rm: missing operand
Try `rm --help' for more information.
$ rm “-i”
rm: missing operand
Try `rm --help' for more information.
$ rm “-i”
rm: cannot remove `-i': No such file or directory

10. Trick
Remove files starting with dash
●
A - Delimit the option list. Later arguments, if any, are
treated as operands even if they begin with `-'.
$ rm -- -i
$ ls –l
total 0
●
B – Find out file’s inode number and delete it using find
$ ls –li
total 0
12180 -rw-r--r-- 1 bilke users 0 2009-12-02 01:25 –i
$ find . -inum 12180 -exec rm {} ;
$ ls –l
total 0
●
C – Using absolute or relative path
$ rm ./-i
$ ls –l
total 0

11. Trick
Removing open files
●
File is not deleted until last hard link is deleted and last FD
is closed.
$ less /tmp/file
$ rm /tmp/file # from another shell
$ pgrep less
17395
$ ls –l /proc/17395/fd
total 0
lrwx------ 1 bilke users 64 2009-12-02 01:02 0 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 bilke users 64 2009-12-02 01:02 1 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 bilke users 64 2009-12-02 01:02 2 -> /dev/pts/0
lr-x------ 1 bilke users 64 2009-12-02 01:02 3 -> /dev/tty
lr-x------ 1 bilke users 64 2009-12-02 01:02 4 -> /tmp/file (deleted)
$ cp /proc/17395/fd/4 /tmp/file # or
$ stat -L /proc/17395/fd/4 # (get inode and user FS specific tools to
restore in place – thanks Dr. Reinhard)
●
Potential problems with rotation of logs!
●
file reference removed from directory, but process is still writing
into it – usually until all space on drive is consumed.
●
Symptom - discrepancy between df and du.

12. Tip
I/O Redirection
●
Redirecting I/O
$ ls /tmp /lala >stdout_file 2>stderr_file
$ ls /tmp /lala > both_out_and_err 2>&1
$ ls /tmp /lala >> out_append
$ ls /tmp /lala 2>> err_append
$ cmd M>N (M – file descriptor (defaults to 1); N – file name)
$ cmd M>&N (M – file descriptor (defualts to 1); N – another FD)
$ tr “a-z” “A-Z” < /etc/services
●
Can be placed anywhere in command line
$ echo a b >c
$ echo >c a b
$ >c echo a b
$ </var/log/messages grep bar

13. Trick
I/O Redirection
●
Here document
$ tr “a-z” “A-Z” << EOF
> one two three
> uno dos tres
> EOF
ONE TWO THREE
UNO DOS TRES
●
Escape special characters
$ cat << EOF
> Work dir is $PWD
> EOF
Work dir is /home/bilke
$ cat << “EOF”
> Work dir is $PWD
> EOF
Work dir is $PWD

14. Tip
I/O Redirection
●
Emptying file using I/O redirection
$ cat /dev/null >file
$ echo -n >file
$ :> file
●
Redirecting shell I/O
$ exec 2> err_file
$ ls /tmp /lala
/tmp:
lost+found/
$ cat err_file
ls: cannot access /lala: No such file or directory
$ echo 1234567890 > File # Write string to "File“.
$ exec 3<> File # Open "File“ for rw and assign fd 3 to it.
$ read -n 4 <&3 # Read only 4 characters.
$ echo -n . >&3 # Write a decimal point there.
$ exec 3>&- # Close fd 3.
$ cat File
1234.67890

15. Tip
I/O Redirection
●
tee (1) - Copy standard input to file(s), and also to
standard output.
$ make all | tee make_out
rm -f mksyntax
gcc -DPROGRAM='"bash"' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='"i686"'
-DCONF_OSTYPE='"linux-gnu"' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='"i686-pc-
linux-gnu"' -DCONF_VENDOR='"pc"'
-DLOCALEDIR='"/usr/local/share/locale"' -DPACKAGE='"bash"'
-DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I./include -I./lib
-g -o mksyntax ./mksyntax.c
rm -f syntax.c
./mksyntax -o syntax.c
/bin/sh ./support/mkversion.sh -b -S . -s release -d 3.2
-o newversion.h
…

16. Tip
Input processing
●
xargs(1) – build and execute command line from stdin
$ find /tmp -name core -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm –f calls rm once
●
! Be careful, can’t handle long files list. Use find’s
built in –exec instead (slower):
calls rm as many
$ find /tmp -name core -type f –exec rm –f {} ; times as file is
matched
(slower but safer)
●
Getting compact list of users using xargs :
$ cut -d: -f1 < /etc/passwd | sort | xargs echo
avahi backup bilke bin bind daemon Debian-exim festival
ftp games gdm gnats haldaemon identd irc libuuid list lp
mail man messagebus mysql nemanja news nobody ntop ntp
postfix postgres proxy root saned snmp sshd statd sync sys
uucp www-data

17. Tip
Input processing
●
read(1) – shell built in reads from standard input
$ ls -1 /4Mfiles_dir| head –n 600000| while read file; do rm
delete first 600k
-rf $file; done files from dir with
4M files
●
Use I/O redirection instead of pipe (faster!)
$ while read line; do echo LINE: $line; done < /etc/services good habit
bad habit!
$ cat /etc/services| while read line; do echo LINE: $line; do not cat files,
done do not use pipe
If not necessary
●
read(1) can also process space/tab delimited data:
egrep -v '^#|^$' /etc/protocols | while read protocol number
rest ; do echo $protocol:$number; done

18. Tip
Dealing with remote
●
Execute command on remote server
$ ssh bilanova@siegburg “ls –la”
●
Execute command that requires term on remote server
$ ssh –t bilanova@lublin “top”
●
Redirect output on remote server
ls -la / | ssh bilanova@lublin 'cat > lublin_ls_out'
●
Making backup on remote machine
tar vcf - /data | ssh bmachine‘(cd /destdir; cat |bzip2 -9 > b.tar.bz)' subshell

19. Trick
& More
●
dd(1) - convert and copy a file
●
allocate data blocks as the file grows.
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=server.img oflag=direct bs=1M seek=2047
count=1
Works only on systems where file systems supports sparse files (most
UNIXes) and where dd can do ftruncate(2). If available truncate(1) can
be used too.
●
Using tar(1) to copy files
When recursive copying, cp (cp -Rip, etc.) may not be the best tool
for the job. For example, cp copies hard links as separate files,
which is probably not what you want. To get a true copy of a
directory, try:
$ tar cf - <dir> | (cd <destdir>; tar xf -)

20. Trick
& More
●
lsof(8) – list open files
●
Since tcp/udp connection is also file we can list it
too:
$ /usr/sbin/lsof -i:22
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
ssh 15856 bilke 3u IPv4 1662638 TCP cunningplan.ba.uk:49111-
>saga.lhs-systems.com:ssh (ESTABLISHED)
ssh 29587 bilke 3u IPv4 3756273 TCP cunningplan.ba.uk:60326-
>70.42.235.86:ssh (ESTABLISHED)
●
pstree(1) - display a tree of processes (also ps auxf)

21. References
Mastering Unix Shell Scripting (Randal K. Michael)
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-badunixhabits.html
http://www.nesbitt.ca/unix-tips.html
http://sial.org/howto/shell/
http://nl.ijs.si/gnusl/tex/tunix/tips/tips.html
http://osxfaq.com/tips/unix-tricks/