Two Primary Kernel Subsystems

File System: Deals with all input and output
- Includes files and terminals
- Integration of storage devices
Process Management: Deals with programs and program interaction
- How processes share CPU, memory, and signals
- Scheduling
- IPC
- Memory management

Note: UNIX variants have slightly different implementations of various subsystems.

Unix File Types

The UNIX filesystem contains several different types of files:

Ordinary Files: Store your information.
- E.g., documents, images, etc.
- Always located under a directory file
- Don’t contain other files
Directories: Organize groups of files
- Branching points in the hierarchical tree
- Can contain ordinary files, special files, and other directories.
- Never contain “real” information, only organizes it.
- All files are descendants of the root directory (/) located at the top of the tree.
Special Files: Represent a real physical device.
- E.g., printer, SSD, keyboard, etc.
- UNIX considers any device attached to the system to be a file, including your terminal.
  - By default, your terminal is the standard input file, standard output file, and standard error file!
- Two types of I/O (usually found under /dev):
  1. Character
  2. Block

Three Default I/O Channels:

Standard Input (stdin): Where a program expects to find input

Standard Output (stdout): Where a program writes its output

Standard Error (stderr): Where a program writes error messages

Interprocess Communication:

Pipe: One-way data channel that allows two processes to be linked.

Acts as a temporary file which exists to hold data from one command until it’s read by another.

Socket: Two-way high-speed data channel that allows two processes on two machines to talk.

Remember: File types aren’t determined by extension on UNIX.

You can use the file command to find a file’s type.

UNIX File Names

On File Names:

Most characters are permitted. Avoid spaces, tabs, and metacharacters.
Case sensitive.
- Which is why lowercase is recommended.
Can be up to 256 characters long.
Extensions may be used to identify file types.
- Even though UNIX doesn’t need file extensions, some applications might.
All files in same parent directory must have unique names
- Files in separate directories can have identical names.

Hidden Files: Files that begin with a dot (.)

E.g., .zshrc, .mailrc
Most resource configuration files are hidden files.

Reserved Filenames:

Slash (/): Root Directory
Dot (.): Current directory
Double Dot (..): Parent directory
Tilde (~): Home directory

UNIX Pathnames

Pathnames: Specify where a file is located in the hierarchically organized file system.

Each directory or filename is separated from the previous one by a /

Two Kinds of Pathnames:

Absolute Pathname: Tells how to reach a file starting from root.
- Always starts with slash (/)
- Examples: /usr/bin/bash, /etc/portage/package.use/blender
Relative Pathname: Tells how to reach a directory from your current working directory.
- Examples: ../../daemon.sh, ./markdown/06 - UNIX Files.md

Linux File System Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

Directory Tree: All the files in the UNIX file system are organized into a multi-level hierarchy.

The UNIX file system can be envisioned as an inverted tree.

The very top of the file system is root (/), all other files are descendants of root.

The number of levels is largely arbitrary, but most systems have some organizational similarities.

Linux File Hierarchy Structure (FHS): Defines the directory structure and contents in UNIX-like operating systems.

Maintained by the Linux Foundation.
All files and directories appear under root, even if they’re on different physical or virtual devices.
Some of these directories only exist on a particular system if certain subsystems are installed.
- E.g., /etc/X11 only exists if the X Window System is installed, etc.
Most of these directories exist in all UNIX operating systems and are generally used in the same way.
- Though, the FHS is not considered authoritative for platforms other than Linux.

General FHS for Linux

/: Root
- Every single file and directory starts here.
- Only root user has write privileges for this directory.
- Note: /root is the root user’s home directory, not root itself.
/bin: User binaries
- Contains essential low-level binary executables
- Stores common commands and programs that are available to all users.
  - e.g., ps, ls, ping, grep, cp
/sbin: System binaries
- Contains binary executables typically used by the system administrator.
  - e.g., iptables, reboot, fdisk, ifconfig, swapon
/etc: Configuration files
- Contains configuration files requires by all programs.
  - Also contains startup and shutdown shell scripts used to start and stop individual programs.
  - e.g., /etc/resolve.conf, /etc/hostname
/dev: Device files
- Contains device files.
  - Includes any device attached to the system (gamepads, terminal devices, USBs, etc.)
  - e.g., /dev/tty1, /dev/input/mouse0, /dev/nvme0
/proc: Process information
- Contains information about running system processes.
  - Is a pseudo/virtual filesystem.
  - e.g., /proc/{pid} stores information about the process with that particular PID, /proc/uptime stores information about system uptime
/var: Variable files
- Contains files that are expected to grow/shrink (log files, database files, emails, etc.)
  - e.g., /var/log /var/lib, /var/mail
/tmp: Temporary files
- Contains temporary files created by system and users.
- Files in here are deleted when the system is rebooted.
/usr: User programs
- Contains binaries, libraries, documentation, and source-code for second-level programs.
- /usr/bin stores binary files for higher-level user programs
  - e.g., at, awk, cc, less, scp
- /usr/sbin stores binary files for system administrators
  - e.g., atd, cron, sshd, useradd, userdel
- /usr/lib stores libraries for /usr/bin and /usr/sbin
- /usr/local stores user’s programs installed from source
  - e.g., /usr/local/apache2
/home: Home directories
- Contains user’s personal files.
  - e.g., /home/inevitabby, /home/larry, /home/tkaczynski
/boot: Boot loader files
- Contains boot loader-related files.
  - Kernel initrd, vmlinux, and grub files are stored here.
  - e.g., initramfs-6.1.67-gentoo-dist.img, vmlinuz-6.1.67-gentoo-dist
/lib: System libraries
- Contains library files for the binaries in /bin and /sbin
  - Are either ld* or lib*.so.*
  - e.g., ld-2.11.1.so, libncurses.so.5.7
/opt: Optional add-on apps
- Contains add-on applications from individual vendors.
/mnt: Mount directory
- Temporary mount directory where sysadmins can mount filesystems.
/media: Removable devices
- Temporary mount directory for removable devices
  - e.g., /media/cdrom, media/floppy. media/cdrecorder
/srv: Service data
- Contains server-specific services-related data
  - e.g., /src/cvs contains CVS-related data.

Remember: The /usr variants of folders that can be found under root contain higher-level versions of their counterparts!

For example, /usr/bin contains higher-level system utilities while /bin contains essential lower-level utilities.

Fundamentals of Security (Groups)

UNIX is a multi-user system.

A set of users can form a group, and
A user can be a member of multiple groups.

UNIX systems have one or more users, identified by numeric uid and username.

There is a special user with complete control (uid: 0, username: root)
Every user has a username, numeric uid, and default group association.
- Associations with other groups are also possible.

Command: id lets you view your uid, default groups, and which groups your belong to.

Unix File/Directory Permissions

Every file/directory has:

A single owner.
An association with a single group.
A set of access permissions associated with it.
- For a file, permissions control what can be done to its contents.
- For a directory, permissions control whether files inside it can be listed, searched, renamed, or removed.

Permissions lets us answer questions like:

Can this file be read or written?

Can this program be run?

Can this hardware be used?

Can this process be stopped?

On Access Permissions

Permission	For a File	For a Directory
read	Contents can be viewed	Contents can be listed, but not searched
write	Contents can be changed or deleted	File entries can be added or removed
execute	File can be run as a program	Directory can be searched, and you can `cd` to it

Three Types of Permissions:

Read (r): Process may read contents of file, or list directory contents.
Write (w): Process may write contents of file, or add/remove directory contents.
Execute (x): Process may execute file, or open files in directory or subdirectories.

Three Sets of Permissions:

User (u): Permissions for owner
Group (g): Permissions for group (1 group per file)
Other (o): Permissions for everyone on the system.

Note: Every user is responsible for controlling access to their files and directories.

Use this power with care!

Viewing File Permissions

When using ls -l (long listing), file permissions are given in the following format—

owner read (r)
owner write (w)
owner execute (x)
- group read (r)
- group write (w)
- group execute (x)
  - public read (r)
  - public write (w)
  - public execute (x)

—which are displayed as: -rwxrwxrwx - The first character shows file type: 1. File: - 2. Directory: d 3. Link: l - If a r, w, or x is replaced by a -, that permission is denied for that respective set. - Starting after the file type character, the: * First RWX triplet are for the user owner, * Middle RWX triplet are for the group, and * Last RWX triplet are for others.

Examples: Reading ls -a

-rwxr-xr-x 1 larry larry 15480 Dec 28 23:16 a.out

A file that everyone has execute and read permissions for, but only the owner has write.

drwxr-xr-x 1 larry larry 0 Dec 28 23:17 directory

A folder that everyone has execute and read permissions for, but only the owner has write.

-rw-r--r-- 1 larry larry 90 Dec 28 23:16 source.c

A file that everyone has read permissions for, but only the owner has write.

Utilities for Manipulation File Attributes

chmod: Change file permissions
- Format: chmod [permission] [filename]
chown: Change file owner
- Format: chown [username] [filename]
chgrp: Change file group
- Format: chgrp [groupname] [filename]
umask: User file creation mode mask
- Only the owner or superuser can change file attributes.
- Upon creation, default permissions given to file modified by process umask value.

Permission Settings for Octal Mode

Permission settings use octal numbers:

Permission	Binary	Octal
`r`	`100`	4
`w`	`010`	2
`x`	`001`	1
None	`000`	0

Each r, w, and x is actually an on/off toggle, and the math is pretty simple.
- For example, \text{rx} = 4 + 1 = 5, or \text{rwx} = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7

Example: Converting permissions to octal equivalents

Permission	Binary	Octal
`rwx rwx rwx`	`111 111 111`	`7 7 7`
`rwx r-x r-x`	`111 101 101`	`7 5 5`
`rw- r-- r--`	`110 100 100`	`6 4 4`
`r-- --- ---`	`100 000 000`	`4 0 0`

These codes (777, 755, 644, and 400) are the most-common codes.

Example: Using chmod with symbolic access mode ({u,g,o}/{r,w,x}) and octal access mode

Format: chmod [ugoa] [+-=] [rwx] [file/dir]

[ugoa]: User, group, other, and all, respectively. (Defaults to user)

[+-=]: Add, remove, and set permissions, respectively.

[rwx]: Permission code.

[file/dir]: File or directory to apply it to.

$ chmod +x daemon.sh

Give execute permission to daemon.sh for current owner.

$ chmod o -r unreadable.txt

Remove read permission from unreadable.txt

$ chmod a=r-x file

Set permissions to r-x for unreadable.txt for all.
- Notice how when using = we need to specify all three permission codes.

$ chmod go-w unwriteable.txt

Remove write permission from unwriteable.txt for group and other.

$ chmod g:cs2600-x unexecutable

Remove execute permissions from unexecutable from the cs2600 group.
- Note: When a specific group isn’t given, your default group is the one that’s modified by chmod.

$ chmod 600 my_file

Set permissions for owner to be able to read and write, give no permissions to group and other.

$ chmod 755 our_file

Set permissions for owner to be able to read, write, and execute; give only read and write permissions to group and other.