Table Of ContentLinux Fundamentals
A Practical Guide for Data Scientists,
Machine Learning Engineers, and IT
Professionals
Neba Nfonsang
Copyright © 2021 Neba Nfonsang
All rights reserved.
DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to the Almighty God who gave me the inspiration,
wisdom, strength, and grace to complete this book. I also dedicate this book
to my awesome wife Ruka and my wonderful kids, Carol, Mark-Bright and
Debbie.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1 Introduction to Linux
2 Linux Directory Structure and Basic Linux Commands
3 Navigation
4 Working with Files and Directories
5 Standard I/O Redirection and Piping
6 Users and Group Management
7 Permissions Management
8 Regular Expression
9 Text Processing
10 Process Management
11 Scheduling Jobs
12 Other Useful Utilities
13 Customizing the Shell Environment
14 Shell Scripting
15 Deploying a Machine Learning Model
16 Connecting to a Remote Linux Instance
Resources
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank Dr. Nick Cutforth and Dr. Bruce Harmon for being very
supportive towards my academics and teaching career at the University of
Denver. I am grateful to work with faculty who give their best to help
students at the University of Denver. I also want to thank the students at the
University of Denver for the opportunity to expand my ideas and teaching. I
am convinced that the University of Denver is one of the best Universities
you can go for education or teaching.
1 Introduction to Linux
T his chapter provides the motivation for learning the fundamental
concepts of Linux. This chapter also briefly describes the structure of
the Linux operating system, Linux distributions, and the Linux system
architecture. Other concepts covered include types of shells, features of the
Linux operating system, installation of a VirtualBox, how to create a virtual
machine and the installation of Ubuntu on a virtual machine.
Why Linux?
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Engineering,
DevOps, and Cloud Computing, the demand for Linux has increased. This
is because most back-end jobs involving the deployment and release of
applications can be efficiently done in Linux. If you want to break into the
IT world or if you want to learn how to deploy software applications or
machine learning models, you definitely need to know how to use Linux
commands.
You will surely reap some benefits from learning how to use Linux
commands. Moreover, Linux is one of the most reliable and secure
operating systems. The Linux operating system powers local servers,
remote servers, electronic devices, embedded systems, mobile phones,
smart watches, smart TVs and so on.
Linux Operating System and Linux Distributions
Just like Microsoft Windows and macOS, Linux is an operating system.
Compared to other operating systems, Linux is open source. Generally, an
operating system is a software that directly manages a computer system’s
hardware and resources such as the central processing unit (CPU) and
memory storage. An operating system connects software applications and
physical resources in your desktop or laptop computer. Therefore, an
operating system helps software applications to function, by managing the
communication between computer software and hardware.
Linux has several versions (also called distributions) to suit various users.
Some popular Linux distributions include Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian,
CentOS, Fedora, Linux Mint, etc.
Linux System Architecture
The Linux system architecture basically consists of the Linux kernel,
system libraries, user applications and hardware, as shown in the figure
below.
The kernel and system libraries are the key components of the Linux
operating system. The kernel consists of various modules and interacts
directly with the underlying hardware such as CPU, RAM, and I/O. That
means, the kernel is used for the management of system resources:
Device management : all input and output devices are managed
by the kernel.
Memory management: the kernel keeps track of used and
unused memory, implements virtual memory, allocates memory
for user programs and so on.
Process management : the kernel assigns enough time for
processes and prioritizes processes.
Handling system calls : a user application can ask the kernel to
perform certain tasks. Programs use system calls to execute
certain operations. System libraries are functions or programs
used to access the kernel’s features. Standard libraries are
procedures for communicating with the kernel. When
applications place system calls for the kernel to perform certain
tasks, the system calls are usually not invoked directly but
through libraries.
Various applications are used to execute specific tasks inside a Linux
computer. The shell is a special application, a user interface used to
communicate with the kernel which in turn controls hardware components
and processes. Though a single computer generally has a single kernel,
several shells can run simultaneously on the operating system of the same
machine.
Types of Shells
There are different types of shells in Linux, including the:
Bourne Again shell (bash)
Bourne shell (sh)
C shell (csh)
Korn shell (ksh)
TC shell (tcsh)
Note that, it is possible to have more than one type of shells installed on the
Linux operating system.
Features of the Linux Operating System
Some key features of the Linux operating system are as follows:
Multi-user: Multiple users can use different shells to access the same
system resources such as memory, hard disk, application programs at the
same time.
Multi-tasking : Multiple applications can run on the Linus operating
system at the same time.
Portable : The Linux operating system works in the same way across
different platforms.
File system: Files and directories are arranged in a hierarchical manner and
everything including regular files, folders, memory, I/O, and devices are
treated as files.
Shell: This is a command line interface in Linux that allows a user to enter
commands with a keyboard, to execute a program or accomplish a specific
task.
Security: Linux provides security in three major ways, including:
Authentication - password protection is provided by assigning
passwords and login IDs to users.
Authorization - users are provided with the permissions to read
files, write on files or execute programs; hence users are
restricted on what they may or may not do on the computer.
Encryption - files are converted into a format that is not
readable.
Installation of Linux OS
A Linux operating system can be installed on different machines including:
local computers,
local virtual machines (VirtualBox or VMware workstation),
and
remote machines in the cloud environment (AWS or Azure)
Installing VirtualBox
VirtualBox is an open-source virtualization application that allows you to
create multiple virtual machines where different operating systems such as
Linux, Windows, macOS can be installed. You can download the
VirtualBox package that matches with your operating system from
https://www.virtualbox.org/ and install it on your computer.
To open VirtualBox, search for the Oracle VM VirtualBox icon on your
computer and double click on the icon. The VirtualBox interface is as
shown below.
