Fundamentals of Operating Systems and Programming

Assignment: Role of Operating Systems and Command Line Interface

Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping) This assignment assesses the following Unit Learning Outcomes; students should be able to demonstrate their achievements in them.

a. Describe the role of Operating Systems (OS) and its different subsystems in controlling computer hardware
b. Demonstrate competency in the use of a command line interface to operate and perform simple OS administration

Section 1: Operating Systems

I. List five services provided by an operating system(OS). Explain how each service provides convenience to the users. Can some of the OS services be provided by user level programs?

II. To which extent are the two OS's (Linux/Unix and Windows)essentially the same and importantly different?

III. Discuss multiprocessing systems and explain how multiprocessing increases the utilisation of resources.

IV. Illustrate the concept of batch processing operating system.

Section 2: OS Administration using Command Line Interface (CLI)

Q1. Directory Navigation

Manipulate directory structures.
1. Create a new subdirectory called MN404-temp in your home directory.
2. Create a new subdirectory called assign1 in MN404-temp.
3. Create a new subdirectory called assign2 in MN404-temp.
4. Display the contents of the directory MN404-temp.
5. Delete the directory assign2.
6. Display the contents of the directory MN404-temp
7. Change your current working directory to MN404-temp.
8. Create a new subdirectory called assign2 in MN404-temp.
9. Create a new file called MyFile.txt using the touch command and insert two lines into the file.
i. The first line should be a sentence that tells me your favourite movie.
ii. The second line should be a sentence that tells me your favourite food.
10. Display the contents of the file MyFile.txt to the standard output (screen).
11. Copy the file MyFile.txt to directory assign1 and rename it to t_1.txt.
12. Change your working directory to assign1.
13. Make a copy of t_1.txt with the name t_2.txt (in the same directory).
14. Display the contents of the directory assign1.
15. Copy the t_1.txt file to directory assign2.
16. Display the contents of the directory assign2.

Q2: Manipulate files using wildcards.

1. Change your current working directory to MN404-temp. (Stay in this directory for the rest of the steps in question 2)
2. Create a new directory called assign3 in your working directory.
3. Create 9 new files (in directory assign3) named as follows:
i. Test_1.txt
ii. Test_2.txt
iii. Test_1-1.txt
iv. Test_2-1.txt
v. Test_1-2.txt
vi. Test_2-2.txt
vii. Test_1-1.bak
viii. Test_2-2.bak
ix. File_1.bat

4. Display a listing of all the files in the working directory.

5. Display a listing of all the files ending in txt using one command.

6. Display a listing of all the files ending in t using one command.

7. Copy all the files containing "t_1" to the directory assign3 using one command.

8. Display a listing of the contents of the directory assign3.

9. Create a read-only file in your home directory.

10. How will you find which operating system your system is running on in UNIX?

Q3: Use the man command to first learn the syntax and parameters for the commands du, wc and date, and then use the commands as follows:
1. Print the newline count, the byte counts and the longest line length for the file MyFile.txt in the directory MN404-temp.
2. Print the current date using the default format.

Note: Its good idea to replace the names of the following directories, sub-dir, files etc. with unique identities to reduce the similarity percentage.

1. Subdirectory MN404-temp with your MIT ID.
2. MyFile.txt with yourname.txt
3. t_1.txt with your last name
4. t_2.txt with your initials
5. Filenames in Question 2 with your friends first names
6. Directories assign1, assign2 and assign3 with your first names and appending 1 2 and 3 respectively.