Lab No.

03
Controlling Access to Files, and Managing Packages using
Commands
Objective:
This lab will introduce the basic concept of file access permissions and package management in Linux
to you.

Activity Outcomes:
On completion of this lab students will be able to:
• Reading and setting file permissions.
• Setting the default file permissions.
• Performing package management tasks.

Instructor Notes
As pre-lab activity, read Chapter 09 and 14 from the book “The Linux Command Line”, William E.
Shotts, Jr.

1) Useful Concepts
File Permissions
Linux is a multi-user system. It means that more than one person can be using the computer at the same
time. While a typical computer will likely have only one keyboard and monitor, it can still be used by
more than one user. For example, if a computer is attached to a network or the Internet, remote users can
log in via ssh (secure shell) and operate the computer. In fact, remote users can execute graphical
applications and have the graphical output appear on a remote display. In a multi-user environment, to
ensure the operational accuracy, it is required to protect the users from each other. After all, the actions
of one user could not be allowed to crash the computer, nor could one user interfere with the files
belonging to another user.

id command
In the Linux security model, a user may own files and directories. When a user owns a file or directory,
the user has control over its access. Users can, in turn, belong to a group consisting of one or more users
who are given access to files and directories by their owners. In addition to granting access to a group, an
owner may also grant some set of access rights to everybody, which in Linux terms is referred to as the
world.

User accounts are defined in the /etc/passwd file and groups are defined in the /etc/group file. When user

accounts and groups are created, these files are modified along with /etc/shadow which holds information
about the user's password.
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 Option Explanation
-g Print only the effective group id
-G Print all Group ID’s
-n Prints name instead of number.
-r Prints real ID instead of numbers.
-u Prints only the effective user ID.

Reading, Writing, and Executing

Access rights to files and directories are defined in terms of read access, write access, and execution
access. If we look at the output of the ls command, we can get some clue as to how this is implemented:

The first ten characters of the listing are the file attributes. The first of these characters is the file type.
Here are the file types you are most likely to see:
Attribute File Type
- A regular file.
d A directory.
l A symbolic link.
c A character special file. This file type refers to a device that handles data as a
stream of bytes, such as a terminal or modem.
b A block special file. This file type refers to a device that handles data in blocks,
such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive.

The remaining nine characters of the file attributes, called the file mode, represent the read, write, and
execute permissions for the file's owner, the file's group owner, and everybody else.

User Group World

rwx rwx rwx

Attribute Files Directories

r Allows a file to be opened and Allows a directory's contents to be listed if
read. the execute attribute is also set.

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 w Allows a file to be written Allows files within a directory to be
created, deleted, and renamed if the execute
attribute is also set.
x Allows a file to be treated as a Allows a directory to be entered,
program and executed. e.g., cd directory.

For example: -rw-r--r- A regular file that is readable and writable by the file's owner. Members of the
file's owner group may read the file. The file is world-readable.

Reading File Permissions

The ls command is used to read the permission of a file. In the following example, we have used ls
command with -l option to see the information about /etc/passwd file. Similarly, we can read the current
permissions of any file.

Change File Mode (Permissions)

To change the mode (permissions) of a file or directory, the chmod command is used. Beware that only
the file’s owner or the super-user can change the mode of a file or directory. chmod supports two distinct
ways of specifying mode changes: octal number representation, or symbolic representation. With octal
notation we use octal numbers to set the pattern of desired permissions. Since each digit in an octal
number represents three binary digits, these maps nicely to the scheme used to store the file mode.

Octal Binary File Mode

0 000 ---
1 001 --x
2 010 -w-
3 011 -wx
4 100 r--
5 101 r-x
6 110 rw-
7 111 rwx

In the following example, we first go to the Desktop directory using cd command. In Desktop directory,
we create a text file “myfile.txt” using touch command and read its current permissions using ls
command.

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Now, we change the permission of myfile.txt and set it to 777 that is everyone can read, write and
execute the file.

chmod also supports a symbolic notation for specifying file modes. Symbolic notation is divided into
three parts: who the change will affect, which operation will be performed, and what permission will be
set. To specify who is affected, a combination of the characters “u”, “g”, “o”, and “a” is used as follows:
Character Meaning
u Owner
g Group
o Others
a all
If no character is specified, “all” will be assumed. The operation may be a “+” indicating that a permission
is to be added, a “-” indicating that a permission is to be taken away, or a “=” indicating that only the
specified permissions are to be applied and that all others are to be removed. For example: u+x,go=rx
Add execute permission for the owner and set the permissions for the group and others to read and
execute. Multiple specifications may be separated by commas. In the following example, we change the
permissions of myfile.txt using symbolic codes. As all of the permissions of myfile.txt were set
previously, now we make it readable only to the user while the rest cannot read, write or execute the file.

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Controlling the Default Permissions
On Unix-like operating systems, the umask command returns, or sets, the value of the system's file mode
creation mask. When user create a file or directory under Linux or UNIX, he/she creates it with a default
set of permissions. In most case the system defaults may be open or relaxed for file sharing purpose.
umask command with no arguments can be used to return the current mask value. Similarly, If the umask
command is invoked with an octal argument, it will directly set the bits of the mask to that argument.The
three rightmost octal digits address the "owner", "group" and "other" user classes respectively. If fewer
than 4 digits are entered, leading zeros are assumed. An error will result if the argument is not a valid
octal number or if it has more than 4 digits. If a fourth digit is present, the leftmost (high- order) digit
addresses three additional attributes, the setuid bit, the setgid bit and the sticky bit.

Octal Value Permissions

0 read, write, execute
1 read and write
2 read and execute
3 read only
4 write and execute
5 write only
6 execute only
7 no permissions

In the following example, we first read the current mask that is 0022 and then we created a file myfile.txt
using this mask and display its permission. Then we reset the mask with 111 and 333 octal values and
create new files. It can be seen clearly that new files are created with different default permissions.

Changing User Identity

At various times, we may find it necessary to take on the identity of another user. Often, we want to gain
superuser privileges to carry out some administrative task, but it is also possible to “become” another
regular user for such things as testing an account.

Run A Shell with Substitute User and Group IDs

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The su command is used to start a shell as another user. The command syntax looks like this:

su -l username

Execute A Command as Another User

On Unix-like operating systems, the sudo command ("superuser do", or "switch user, do") allows a user
with proper permissions to execute a command as another user, such as the superuser.
Example: In the following example first, we created a new user “aliahmed” using adduser
command. Then we run the shell as aliahmed. In the end we logout using exit command.

Change File Owner and Group

The chown command is used to change the owner and group owner of a file or directory. Superuser
privileges are required to use this command. The syntax of chown looks like this:
chown owner:group file/files

Example: In the following example first, we created a file named myfile.txt as user ubuntu. Then we
changed the ownership of myfile.txt from ubuntu to aliahmed.

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Package Management

Package management is a method of installing and maintaining software on the system. Linux doesn't
work that way. Virtually all software for a Linux system will be found on the Internet. Most of it will be
provided by the distribution vendor in the form of package files and the rest will be available in source
code form that can be installed manually.
Different distributions use different packaging systems and as a general rule, a package intended for one
distribution is not compatible with another distribution. Most distributions fall into one of two camps of
packaging technologies: the Debian “.deb” camp and the Red Hat “.rpm” camp. There are some important
exceptions such as Gentoo, Slackware, and Foresight, but most others use one of these two basic systems.

Package Files

The basic unit of software in a packaging system is the package file. A package file is a compressed
collection of files that comprise the software package. A package may consist of numerous programs and
data files that support the programs. In addition to the files to be installed, the package file also includes
metadata about the package, such as a text description of the package and its contents. Additionally, many
packages contain pre- and post-installation scripts that perform configuration tasks before and after the
package installation.

Repositories
While some software projects choose to perform their own packaging and distribution, most packages
today are created by the distribution vendors and interested third parties. Packages are made available to
the users of a distribution in central repositories that may contain many thousands of packages, each
specially built and maintained for the distribution.

Dependencies

Programs seldom “standalone”; rather they rely on the presence of other software components to get their
work done. Common activities, such as input/output for example, are handled by routines shared by many
programs. These routines are stored in what are called shared libraries, which provide essential services
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to more than one program. If a package requires a shared resource such as a shared library, it is said to
have a dependency. Modern package management systems all provide some method of dependency
resolution to ensure that when a package is installed, all of its dependencies are installed too.

High and Low-level Package Tools

Package management systems usually consist of two types of tools: low-level tools which handle tasks
such as installing and removing package files, and high-level tools that perform metadata searching and
dependency resolution. For Debian based systems low-level tools are defined in dpkg while high-level
tools are defined in apt-get, aptitude.

Common Package Management Tasks

Finding a Package in a Repository: Using the high-level tools to search repository metadata, a package
can be located based on its name or description. In Debian based systems it can be done as given below:

apt-get update
apt-cache search search_string
Example: To search apt repository for the emacs text editor, this command could be used:

apt -get update

apt-get search emacs

Installing a Package from a Repository: High-level tools permit a package to be downloaded from a
repository and installed with full dependency resolution.
Example: To install the emacs text editor from an apt repository:

apt-get update; apt-get install emacs

Installing a Package from a Package File: If a package file has been downloaded from a source other
than a repository, it can be installed directly (though without dependency resolution) using a low-level
tool.

dpkg-install package_file
Example: If the emacs-22.1-7.fc7-i386.deb package file had been downloaded from a non- repository
site, it would be installed this way:

dpkg –install emacs-22.1-7.fc7-i386.deb

Removing A Package: Packages can be uninstalled using either the high-level or low-level tools. The
high-level tools are shown below.

apt -get remove package_name

Example: To uninstall the emacs package from a Debian-style system

apt -get remove emacs

Updating Packages from a Repository: The most common package management task is keeping the
system up-to-date with the latest packages. The high-level tools can perform this vital task in one single
step.
Example: To apply any available updates to the installed packages on a Debian-style system:
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apt -get update; apt-get upgrade

Upgrading a Package from a Package File: If an updated version of a package has been downloaded
from a non-repository source, it can be installed, replacing the previous version:

dpkg --install package_file

Listing Installed Packages: These commands can be used to display a list of all the packages installed
on the system:
dpkg --list

Determining If A Package Is Installed: These low-level tools can be used to display whether a specified
package is installed
dpkg --status package_name
Example:
dpkg --status emacs

Displaying Information About an Installed Package: If the name of an installed package is known, the
following commands can be used to display a description of the package:

apt -cache show package_name

Example:
apt -cache show emacs

2) Solved Lab Activities

Sr.No Allocated Time Level of Complexity CLO Mapping
1 15 Medium CLO-5
2 15 Medium CLO-5
3 15 Medium CLO-5

Activity 1:
This activity is related to file permission. Perform the following tasks
• Create a new directory named test in root directory as superuser
• Make this directory public for all
• Create a file “testfile.txt” in /test directory
• Change its permissions that no boy can write the file, but the owner can read it.
• Create another user “Usama”
• Run the shell with user Usama
• Try to read the “testfile.txt”
• Logout as Usama
• Change the permission of testfile.txt so that everyone can read, write and execute it
• Run shell as Usama again
• Now, read the file

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Solution:

Activity 2:
Perform the following tasks
• Set the permission such that a newly created file is readable only to the owner
• Create a text file “act.txt” in /test directory crated in previous activity
• Run the shell as user “usama” (created previously)
• Access the file “act.txt”
• Logout as usama
• Now change the ownership of the file from ubuntu to usama
• Run the shell again as usama
• Read the file “act.txt” using cat command
• Logout as usama
• Now access the act.txt with user ubuntu

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Solution:

Activity 3:
Perform the following tasks
• search apt repository for the chromium browser
• install the chromium browser using command line
• write the command to update and upgrade the repository
• list the software installed on your machine and write output on a file list.txt
• read the list.txt file using cat command

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Solution:

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3) Graded Lab Tasks
Note: The instructor can design graded lab activities according to the level of difficult and
complexity of the solved lab activities. The lab tasks assigned by the instructor should be
evaluated in the same lab.

Task 1:
You are familiar with adduser command using: man adduser/useradd, man groupadd useradd - create a
new user or update default new user information. Create 3 user accounts (user1, user2, user3) and add 2
groups (gr1, gr2). add user1 to gr1 and add user2, user2 to gr2.
Check user ID (UID) and group ID (GID) by listing file /etc/passwd. Find lines with added user. What
is the UID and GID for these accounts? Write command which show UID and GID for your user name:
create 3 files with touch command: files1, files2, files3.
Write the command line by using letters with chmod to set the following permissions:
rwxrwxr-x for file1
r-x—x—x for file2
——xrwx for file3
Write the command line by using numbers with chmod to set the following permissions:
rwxrwxrwx for file4 (you have to prepare this file)
-w for file5 (you have to prepare this file)
rwx--x—x for folder1 (you have to prepare this folder)
Create two user accounts: tst1 and tst2 Logging in id: tst1, group users, with bash shell, home directory
/home/tst1 Logging in id: tst2, group public, with bash shell, home directory home/tst2 For the two
accounts set a password.
Logging in as tst1 and copy /bin/ls into tst1 home directory as myls file. Change the owner of myls to
tst1 and the permissions to 0710. What does this permission value mean?
Logging in as tst2 and try to use /home/tst1/myls to list your current directory. Does it work
?
Create a new group labo with tst1 and tst2. Change the owner group of myls file to labo. Try again from
tst2 account to execute /home/tst1/myls to list your current directory. Does it work?

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