Unix Tutorial

Unix Tutorial

The base of all operating systems like Linux, Ubuntu, Polaris, etc. is the operating system called Unix. Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie developed the Unix operating system in AT and T laboratories in 1970. The system structure of the Unix operating system consists of:

• Layer-1 is hardware: All hardware-related information is present here.
• Layer-2 is Kernel: The interaction with hardware and tasks like memory management, task scheduling, etc. is done by the kernel.
• Layer-3 is shell commands: Our requests are processed by the utility called a shell.
• Layer-4 is the application layer: The external applications are executed by the outermost layer called the application layer.

Necessity to Learn Unix

The three main reasons to study Unix are:

• There is robust scope for Unix: To learn the command-line better, to save time, to manage complex file management tasks, etc. we use the Unix operating system which is a powerful programming method. Over the past few years, Unix has grown over other operating systems.
• The progress in a career with Unix is promising: The demand for Unix shell scripting professionals is growing in the market every day and the number of experienced professionals in Unix shell scripting is less in the market. The career advancement opportunities for developers and system administrators skilled in Unix shell scripting are high.
• Growth in salary: A Unix shell scripting professional can expect an average pay of ninety-seven Thousand dollars in the United States. The salaries for Unix shell scripting job postings are sixty-eight percent higher than the salaries for other job postings.

Applications of Unix

 The applications of Unix are:

• Supercomputers: The top five hundred supercomputers as of June 2018 run on the Unix operating system.
• Mobile Devices: Android-based on Unix operating systems is the most popular mobile operating system in the world. Powering phones, tablets, and various smart devices run on the Unix operating system.
• Internet services: The large-scale web, email, file transfer, storage, etc. run on the Unix operating system.
• Databases: The largest, fastest databases in the world run on the Unix operating system.
• Automotive electronics: Entertainment, navigation and security systems run on the Unix operating system.
• Rendering of movie scenes: Motion picture studios use Unix operating systems to run CGI rendering jobs.
• Notebooks, laptops, and desktop computers: Notebooks, laptops, and desktop computers, etc. run on the Unix operating system. The Chromebook is a popular, zero-maintenance netbook running on the Unix operating system. Ordinary laptops and desktops also run on the Unix operating system.

Example

To see the list of files or directories in the current directory of a system running on the Unix operating system, we use the “ls” command. The below snapshot shows the output of the “ls” command.

Pre-requisites to Learn Unix

A basic understanding of operating systems and their functionalities and an understanding of various computer concepts are the prerequisites to learn Unix.

Target Audience

Beginners can refer to this tutorial to understand Unix basics. This tutorial is helpful for people who want to pursue a career in the field of Unix. This tutorial is good learning for all other readers.