4.2.6 Lab - Working With Text Files in The CLI
4.2.6 Lab - Working With Text Files in The CLI
Objectives
In this lab, you will become familiar with Linux command line text editors and configuration files.
Part 1: Graphical Text Editors
Part 2: Command Line Text Editors
Part 3: Working with Configuration Files
Required Resources
CyberOps Workstation virtual machine
Instructions
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
g. Even though SciTE is looking at the correct directory (/home/analyst), space.txt is not displayed. This is
because SciTE is looking for known extensions and .txt is not one of them. To display all files, click the
dropdown menu at the bottom of the Open File window and select All Files (*).
h. Select space.txt to open it.
Note: While the Linux file systems do not rely on extensions, some applications such as SciTE may
attempt to use them to identify file types.
i. Close space.txt when finished.
e. Close this instance of SciTE by either clicking the X icon as before, or by switching the focus back to the
terminal window that launched SciTE and stopping the process. You can stop the process by pressing
CTRL+C.
Note: Starting SciTE from the command line is helpful when you want to run SciTE as root. Simply
precede scite with the sudo command, sudo scite.
f. Close SciTE and move on to the next section.
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
the bottom of the screen, where a number of commands for the current context are listed. After nano is open,
press CTRL+G for the help screen and a complete list.
a. In the terminal window, type nano space.txt to open the text file created in Part 1.
[analyst@secOps ~]$ nano space.txt
b. nano will launch and automatically load the space.txt text file. While the text may seem to be truncated
or incomplete, it is not. Because the text was created with no return characters and line wrapping is not
enabled, by default, nano is displaying one long line of text.
Use the Home and End keyboard keys to quickly navigate to the beginning and to the end of a line,
respectively.
What character does nano use to represent that a line continues beyond the boundaries of the screen?
Type your answers here.
c. As shown on the bottom shortcut lines, CTRL+X can be used to exit nano. nano will ask if you want to
save the file before exiting (‘Y’ for Yes, or N for ‘No’). If ‘Y’ is chosen, you will be prompted to press enter
to accept the given file name, or change the file name, or provide a file name if it is a new unnamed
document.
d. To control nano, you can use CTRL, ALT, ESCAPE or the META keys. The META key is the key on the
keyboard with a Windows or Mac logo, depending on your keyboard configuration.
Navigation in nano is very user friendly. Use the arrows to move around the files. Page Up and Page
Down can also be used to skip forward or backwards entire pages. Spend some time with nano and its
help screen. To enter the help screen, press CTRL+G. Press q to quit the help screen and return to
document editing in nano.
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
While a few files are displayed, none of them seem to be configuration files. This is because it is
convention to hide home-directory-hosted configuration files by preceding their names with a “.” (dot)
character.
b. Use the ls command again but this time add the –a option to also include hidden files in the output:
[analyst@secOps ~]$ ls –la
total 144
drwx------ 14 analyst analyst 4096 Apr 17 16:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Mar 20 2018 ..
-rw------- 1 analyst analyst 424 Apr 17 12:52 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 analyst analyst 21 Feb 7 2018 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 analyst analyst 57 Feb 7 2018 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 analyst analyst 97 Mar 20 2018 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 analyst analyst 141 Feb 7 2018 .bashrc_stock
drwxr-xr-x 8 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 25 12:18 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 10 analyst analyst 4096 Jul 19 2018 .config
drwxr-xr-x 2 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 22 2018 Desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 analyst analyst 23 Mar 23 2018 .dmrc
drwxr-xr-x 3 analyst analyst 4096 Apr 2 14:44 Downloads
drwx------ 3 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 22 2018 .gnupg
-rw------- 1 analyst analyst 2520 Mar 24 12:32 .ICEauthority
drwxr-xr-x 2 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 24 2018 .idlerc
drwxr-xr-x 9 analyst analyst 4096 Jul 19 2018 lab.support.files
-rw------- 1 analyst analyst 61 Mar 24 12:36 .lesshst
drwxr-xr-x 3 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 22 2018 .local
drwx------ 5 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 24 2018 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x 2 analyst analyst 4096 Mar 21 2018 second_drive
-rw-r--r-- 1 analyst analyst 255 Apr 17 16:42 space.txt
<Some output omitted>
c. Use cat command to display the contents of the .bashrc file. This file is used to configure user-specific
terminal behavior and customization.
[analyst@secOps ~]$ cat .bashrc
export EDITOR=vim
Do not worry too much about the syntax of .bashrc at this point. The important thing to notice is
that .bashrc contains configuration for the terminal. For example, the line PS1='\[\e[1;32m\][\u@\h \W]\$\[\
e[0m\] ' defines the prompt structure of the prompt displayed by the terminal: [username@hostname
current_dir] followed by a dollar sign, all in green. A few other configurations include shortcuts to
commands such as ls and vi. In this case, every time the user types ls, the shell automatically converts
that to ls –color to display a color-coded output for ls (directories in blue, regular files in grey, executable
files in green, etc.)
The specific syntax is out of the scope of this course. What is important is understanding that user
configurations are conventionally stored as hidden files in the user’s home directory.
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
d. While configuration files related to user applications are conventionally placed under the user’s home
directory, configuration files relating to system-wide services are place in the /etc directory, by
convention. Web services, print services, ftp services, and email services are examples of services that
affect the entire system and of which configuration files are stored under /etc. Notice that regular users do
not have writing access to /etc. This is important as it restricts the ability to change the system-wide
service configuration to the root user only.
Use the ls command to list the contents of the /etc directory:
[analyst@secOps ~]$ ls /etc
adjtime host.conf mke2fs.conf rc_maps.cfg
apache-ant hostname mkinitcpio.conf request-key.conf
apparmor.d hosts mkinitcpio.d request-key.d
arch-release ifplugd modprobe.d resolv.conf
avahi initcpio modules-load.d resolvconf.conf
bash.bash_logout inputrc motd rpc
bash.bashrc iproute2 mtab rsyslog.conf
binfmt.d iptables nanorc securetty
ca-certificates issue netconfig security
crypttab java-7-openjdk netctl services
dbus-1 java-8-openjdk netsniff-ng shadow
default kernel nginx shadow-
depmod.d krb5.conf nscd.conf shells
dhcpcd.conf ld.so.cache nsswitch.conf skel
dhcpcd.duid ld.so.conf ntp.conf ssh
dkms ld.so.conf.d openldap ssl
drirc libnl openvswitch sudoers
elasticsearch libpaper.d os-release sudoers.d
environment lightdm pacman.conf sudoers.pacnew
ethertypes locale.conf pacman.conf.pacnew sysctl.d
filebeat locale.gen pacman.d systemd
fonts locale.gen.pacnew pam.d tmpfiles.d
fstab localtime pango trusted-key.key
gai.conf login.defs papersize udev
gemrc logrotate.conf passwd UPower
group logrotate.d passwd- vdpau_wrapper.cfg
group- logstash pcmcia vimrc
group.pacnew lvm pkcs11 webapps
grub.d machine-id polkit-1 wgetrc
gshadow mail.rc profile X11
gshadow- makepkg.conf profile.d xdg
gshadow.pacnew man_db.conf protocols xinetd.d
gtk-2.0 mdadm.conf pulse yaourtrc
gtk-3.0 mime.types rc_keymaps
e. Use the cat command to display the contents of the bash.bashrc file:
[analyst@secOps ~]$ cat /etc/bash.bashrc
#
# /etc/bash.bashrc
#
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
case ${TERM} in
xterm*|rxvt*|Eterm|aterm|kterm|gnome*)
PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033]0;%s@%s:%s\007"
"${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/\~}"'
;;
screen)
PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033_%s@%s:%s\033\\"
"${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/\~}"'
;;
esac
[ -r /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ] && .
/usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
[analyst@secOps ~]$
The syntax of bash.bashrc is out of scope of this course. This file defines the default behavior of the shell
for all users. If a user wants to customize his/her own shell behavior, the default behavior can be
overridden by editing the .bashrc file located in the user’s home directory. Because this is a system-wide
configuration, the configuration file is placed under /etc, making it editable only by the root user.
Therefore, the user will have to log in as root to modify bash.bashrc.
Question:
Why are user application configuration files saved in the user’s home directory and not under /etc with all
the other system-wide configuration files?
Type your answers here.
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
e. Locate 32 and replace it with 31. 32 is the color code for green, while 31 represents red.
f. Save the file by selecting File > Save and close SciTE by clicking the X icon.
g. Click the Terminal application icon located on the Dock, at the bottom center of the Cisco CyberOPS VM
screen. The prompt should appear in red instead of green.
Question:
Did the terminal window which was already open also change color from green to red? Explain.
Type your answers here.
h. The same change could have been made from the command line with a text editor such as nano. From a
new terminal window, type nano .bashrc to launch nano and automatically load the .bashrc file in it:
[analyst@secOps ~]$ nano .bashrc
export EDITOR=vim
[ Read 5 lines ]
^G Get Help ^O Write Out ^W Where Is ^K Cut Text ^J Justify ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit ^R Read File ^\ Replace ^U Uncut Text^T To Spell ^_ Go To Line
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
1
2 #user html;
3 worker_processes 1;
4
5 #error_log logs/error.log;
6 #error_log logs/error.log notice;
7 #error_log logs/error.log info;
8
9 #pid logs/nginx.pid;
10
11
12 events {
13 worker_connections 1024;
14 }
15
16
17 http {
18 include mime.types;
19 default_type application/octet-stream;
20
21 #log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
22 # '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
23 # '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
24
25 #access_log logs/access.log main;
26
27 sendfile on;
28 #tcp_nopush on;
29
30 #keepalive_timeout 0;
31 keepalive_timeout 65;
32
33 #gzip on;
34
35 types_hash_max_size 4096;
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
36 server_names_hash_bucket_size 128;
37
38 server {
39 listen 81;
40 server_name localhost;
41
42 #charset koi8-r;
43
44 #access_log logs/host.access.log main;
45
46 location / {
47 root /usr/share/nginx/html;
48 index index.html index.htm;
49 }
<Some output omitted>
j. To shut down the nginx webserver, press ENTER to get a command prompt and type the following
command in the terminal window:
[analyst@secOps ~]$ sudo pkill nginx
k. You can test whether the nginx server is indeed shut down by first clearing the recent history in the web
browser, then close and re-open the web browser, then go to the nginx homepage at 127.0.0.1:8080.
Question:
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Lab - Working with Text Files in the CLI
Challenge Question: Can you edit the /etc/nginx/custom_configuration.conf file with SciTE? Describe the
process below.
Remember, because the file is stored under /etc, you will need root permissions to edit it.
Type your answers here.
Reflection
Depending on the service, more options may be available for configuration.
Configuration file location, syntax, and available parameters will vary from service to service. Always consult
the documentation for information.
Permissions are a very common cause of problems. Make sure you have the correct permissions before
trying to edit configuration files.
More often than not, services must be restarted before the changes take effect.
End of document
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