First Steps with Linux

Understand what Linux is (and what a distro is), why people choose it, and how it differs from Windows and macOS. By the end of this chapter, you’ll know Linux’s core architecture and why command-line skills are essential.

Set up Linux safely on your current machine using VirtualBox, WSL, Vagrant, or a live environment. Learn the initial install flow, run your first commands, and build confidence navigating the terminal.

Learn how the Linux filesystem is organized, where important directories live, and how to work with paths confidently. You’ll practice creating, copying, moving, deleting, and linking files and directories, plus using help tools like man pages when you get stuck.

Learn how Linux controls access with user, group, and others permissions using both symbolic and numeric modes. You’ll set permissions with chmod, manage ownership with chown/chgrp, understand umask defaults, and use sudo safely for administrative tasks.

Go beyond basic rwx permissions with SUID, SGID, and the sticky bit for shared and multi-user environments. You’ll also learn ACLs and file attributes to enforce finer-grained access rules and protect critical files from accidental changes.

Understand how Linux users and groups control access across a multi-user system. You’ll work with account files like /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow, then use tools such as useradd, usermod, passwd, and group commands to create, modify, and secure user accounts.

Learn how Linux software management works across major distributions using apt, dnf, and lower-level tools like dpkg/rpm. You’ll install, update, remove, and troubleshoot packages, work with repositories (including local ones), compile from source when needed, and set up automatic updates.

Learn how Linux handles disks, partitions, and filesystems, from initial setup to everyday administration. You’ll identify devices, create and format partitions, mount and unmount filesystems, configure persistent mounts with /etc/fstab, and monitor disk usage to troubleshoot storage issues.

Build production-ready storage skills with swap, LVM, RAID, NFS, autofs, and disk quotas. You’ll learn how to scale storage, improve resilience, manage network-mounted data, and control disk usage in multi-user environments.

Master essential text workflows in the terminal: edit files with nano/vi/vim, inspect content with tools like cat/less/head, and process data using grep, cut, tr, redirection, and pipes. You’ll be able to read logs, update configs, and chain commands efficiently.

Learn to build and read regex patterns so you can match structured text instead of just fixed words. You’ll use anchors, character classes, quantifiers, grouping, and alternation in tools like grep, sed, and awk to search, validate, and clean up text.

Learn the difference between archiving and compression, then use tar, gzip, bzip2, xz, and zip to package and extract files safely. You’ll inspect archive contents before extracting, choose the right format for backups and transfers, and avoid common extraction mistakes.

Learn how to monitor and control running processes and services in Linux. You’ll use tools like ps/top/htop, signals, job control, priorities, and systemd commands to troubleshoot performance issues, manage background tasks, and keep services running reliably.

Automate recurring and one-time tasks with cron, at, batch, and systemd timers. You’ll write reliable schedules, understand cron time fields, manage job output/logging, and troubleshoot missed or failing jobs.

Learn practical Linux networking from the command line: inspect interfaces, assign IP addresses, make changes persistent, and verify connectivity. You’ll also use SSH and secure file transfer tools to work with remote systems and troubleshoot common network issues.

Understand how Linux makes routing decisions on a host and how that differs from packet forwarding. You’ll work through destination classes, route scopes, routing tables, path selection (including metrics and ECMP), and policy-based routing concepts to reason about packet flow with confidence.