Components of Linux OS
Linux is made up of the following components:
BootLoader - It is the first thing that runs on startup
Linux Kernel - Explained on next page
Background Services - such as networking services
OS Shell (also known as Terminal) - way to interact with OS with the help of commands
sh - short form of Shell. Had major limitations like typing commands again if user makes a mistake while typing.
bash (Bourne Again Shell ) - default shell in most distros
ash and dash (Debian Almquist Shell) - lightweight clones of sh shell
zsh (Z shell) - Better than bash. Default on Kali Linux
csh (Cshell) & Tcsh - Allow for use of C++ syntax for scripting.
ksh (Korn shell)
rbash (Restricted bash)
Graphics Server (X) - The service responsible for GUI and Desktop Environment (XFCE, KDE, GNOME) which actually uses this service. i.e. Graphical server is the middleware between desktop environment to pass the user input captured by desktop environment to the operating systems.
Applications.
File System - Linux OS uses Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) and the hierarchy is as follows:
Volumes - Partitions on physical or virtual storage devices. (usually the best practice is to keep the OS and user data on separate volumes). Volumes are usually mounted (way to connect and interact on the same) which are then presented as directories known as mount points.
Directories - Unlike Windows OS, these are just files which show the indexing of file within.
Files - Actual building block. In Linux everything is just like a file. Note that hidden files are usually indicated as .<filename> or dot files
Note: A disk’s file system has a number of control blocks called inodes (index nodes). These are basically metadata that describe the details of files and other objects, including where on the disk any associated data is stored. Entries in a Linux directory associate a name, with an inode number. As per this site,
On a Linux system, files are stored in the form of blocks of a certain size. If a file is larger than this predetermined size, it’s broken down into chunks and stored in empty blocks wherever they’re available on the disk. With an increase in the number of files, this can easily get confusing. Inodes help the system organize data
Note: /dev which is a short-hand notation for devices as it usually contains drivers and /var which contains variable files is because the files inside /var are constantly changing
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