TOPIC: UNIX OPERATING

SYSTEM

Name – Subhadeep Goswami

Roll no. – 31401220036
Subject – Unix & shell programming
Subject code – bcac6001
stream – BCA 3RD YEAR 6TH SEM
 WHAT IS UNIX?
Unix -- trademarked as UNIX -- is a multiuser, multitasking operating system (OS)
designed for flexibility and adaptability. Originally developed in the 1970s, Unix was
one of the first OSes to be written in the C programming language. Since its
introduction, the Unix operating system and its offshoots have had a profound effect
on the computer and electronics industry, offering portability, stability and
interoperability across a range of heterogeneous environments and device types.
In the late 1960s, Bell Labs (later AT&T), General Electric and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology attempted to develop an interactive time-sharing system
called Multiplexed Information and Computing Service (Multics) that would enable
multiple users to access a mainframe simultaneously.

Disappointed with the results, Bell Labs pulled out of the project, but Bell computer
scientists Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie continued their work, which culminated
in the development of the Unix OS. As part of this effort, Thompson and Ritchie
recruited other Bell Labs researchers, and together, they built a suite of components
that provided a foundation for the operating system. The components included a
hierarchical file system, a command-line interface (CLI) and multiple small utility
programs. The OS also brought with it the concepts of computer processes and
device files.
 SOME PROPERTIES OF UNIX:

1. Same resources can be shared by different users, that means it’s a multi
user system.
2. It provides multi-taksing, in which individual users can execute multiple
processors at the same time.
3. It was the very first OS that had been built in a high-level (C Language).
This made it portable with the least number of adaptations.
4. It provides a hierarchical file structure that allows easier access and
maintenance of data.
5. Unix has built-in networking functions so that different users can easily
exchange information.
6. Unix functionality can be extended through user programs built on a
standard programming interface.
 STRUCTURE OF THE UNIX OS:

1. Layer-1: Hardware – It consists of all hardware

related information.
2. Layer-2: Kernel – It interacts with hardware and
most of the tasks like memory management, task
scheduling, and management are done by the
kernel.
3. Layer-3: Shell commands – Shell is the utility
that processes your requests. When you type in a
command at the terminal, the shell interprets the
command and calls the program that you want.
There are various commands like cp, mv, cat,
grep, id, wc, nroff, a.out and more.
4. Layer-4: Application Layer – It is the outermost
layer that executes the given external
applications.
 UNIX COMMANDS:
1. Ls Command - This Unix command is used to show all the files and folders at your current location. The current location could be seen in the blue text
that is just previous to the dollar sign. Here the current location is Desktop.

2. Clear Command - This command is used to clear the screen. It doesn’t delete anything written on the screen but just makes the current line to look
like it is the first line.The below picture shows the before and after images while using the clear command.

3. Mkdir Command - This Unix command is used to make a new directory at your current location. In the below image, we are at the desktop and
using the mkdir command to create a directory named ”newdir” there. The directory could be witnesses in blue color.

4. Rmdir Command - This command will be used to remove the directory. In the below image, you can see that in the second line, the newdir is
present, but after we executed the rmdir command, it has deleted the newdir folder.

5. Cat Command - Cat command is used to read the data written on any file. It could also be used to append the data in the file and can overwrite
on it. We have seen that in the desktop location, we have a file names test.css. We will see what is written on that file using the cat command.

6. Vi Command - Vi command is the most useful command that is used to fetch the data written on any file on the terminal and also let us make the
changes at the same time. Regardless of the size and type of the file, we can edit those using the Vi command if they have text written on it. Here we
will add extra data in the test.css file.

7. Rm Command - The rm command is used to delete the files at your current location. In our case, we are at Desktop that has the test.css file; Now,
we will try to delete that file using the rm command. In the second line, it shows test.css present there, but after running the rm command, that file has
been removed.

8. Mv Command - The mv command can be used for two purposes, for renaming and for moving file or folder. Here we will rename the page.html file
to newpage.html. Please note that if you try to move the file in the same folder, it will rename it, and if you try to move it to another directory, it will get
moved there.

9. Su Command - Su command is used when we need to switch the user. In the below picture, we will be able to see that the current user is Vishal, and
after we used the su command to login as root, the user name will be changed. The user name can be seen in the red text on the left side of the dollar
mark.

10. Chmod Command - The chmod command is used when we have to change the permission of any file. Here we have the newpage.html file. The
file has read and run permission to the owner, read permission to the group and read permission to others. We will use the chmod command to give all
permission to everyone.

11. Sudo Command - There are some commands that the only root is authorized to execute. Here we will be executing a command that could lead to
making some changes in the system, and hence it couldn’t be executed with other users. We have to use the Sudo command to make it work.
 UNIX SYSTEMS:
1. Solaris - Built for Sun Microsystems that was later acquired by Oracle, Solaris is
a proprietary UNIX system. It was initially released in 1992 and by then was
known as SunOS. Later, it became known as Solaris after 1993. This gave rise to
new versions of Solaris OS i.e., Solaris for Power PC, SPARC, and Intel platforms.
In 2010, its name changed to Oracle Solaris after the acquisition of Sun by
Oracle.

2. HP-UX - Short for Hewlett Packard UNIX, HP-UX was HP’s implementation of the
UNIX system. HP-UX was first released in 1984 and was based on System V
version 2 which was one of the earliest versions on UNIX written by developers in
AT&T labs. HP-UX came preloaded on their computers.

3) IBM-AIX - Initially launched in 1986, IBM AIX is based on System V version 3

and BSD 4.3. The idea was to make it run on IBM machines. Nowadays, it
supports a wide spectrum of hardware platforms including Apple Network
Server, PowerPC -based systems and PS/2 personal computers.
 SOME ADVANTAGES OF UNIX:
1. Portability: This feature makes the UNIX work on different machines and platforms with the easy transfer of code to any
computer system. Since a significant portion of UNIX is written in C language, and only a tiny portion is coded in assembly
language for specific hardware.

2. File Security and Protection: Being a multi-user system, UNIX makes special consideration for file and system security. UNIX
has different levels of security using assigning username and password to individual users ensuring the authentication, at the
level providing file access permission viz. read, write and execute and lastly file encryption to change the file into an
unreadable format.

3. Command Structure: UNIX commands are easy to understand and simple to use. Example: "cp", mv etc. While working in
the UNIX environment, the UNIX commands are case-sensitive and are entered in lower case.

4. Communication: In UNIX, communication is an excellent feature that enables the user to communicate worldwide. It
supports various communication facilities provided using the write command, mail command, talk command, etc.

5. Open Source: UNIX operating system is open source it means it is freely available to all and is a community-based
development project.

6. Accounting: UNIX keeps an account of jobs created by the user. This feature enhances the system performance in terms
of CPU monitoring and disk space checking. It allows you to keep an account of disk space used by each user, and the
disk space can be limited by each other. You can assign every user a different disk quota. The root user can perform these
accounting tasks using various commands such as quota, df, du, etc.

7. UNIX Tools and Utilities: UNIX system provides various types of tools and utilities facilities such as UNIX grep, sed and awk,
etc. Some of the general-purpose tools are compilers, interpreters, network applications, etc. It also includes various server
programs which provide remote and administration services.
 DISADVANTAGES OF UNIX:

1. Unix is largely designed in the text-based command line, where simple programs
are chained together to process information in ways that can be confusing to users
who are more accustomed to controlling systems with mice and touch screens. Its
emphasis on concise output can also be confusing or intimidating for new users.

2. Additionally, much common software is only available for other operating systems,
which can make using Unix and its variants a problem for people who need to use
such software, from video games to commercial business tools.

3. Multiple operating systems can be classified as Unix, even though they work on
different hardware and use different underlying code. It is more useful to pick a
particular variant such as Linux that works based on a single core set of code than to
attempt to run systems or develop programs based on all the Unix systems.
 WHY LEARN UNIX?

1. Individual who aspire to Unix Administrator, Architect, Developer,

Analyst, Scientist, Tester also relative professional roles.
2. Helps to move forward the professional aspects and technical
skill set of professionals who are intended to do the same.
3. Candidates who are interested in pursuing a career in the Unix
application development.
 CONCLUSION:

On a finishing note, UNIX is a high power operating system which

has a stable position in the market over a large period of time
across various market needs and users. Definitely concurrency and
security of access is one among the profound uses of systems.
Though traveling through a long era of technology and
developments need for this open-source OS remains salient and
steady in the market at all possible means.
THANK YOU!