Reference no: EM132286639

Assignment: Role of Operating Systems and Command Line Interface (CLI)

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

Purpose of the Assignment:

The assignment focuses on two aspects, the role of OS as an interface between the user and the computer hardware, and the use of command line interface. It helps the students to understand the different types of OS and their relative performances. Also it assists the students in gaining competency in using UNIX/LINUX commands to perform simple OS administration.

With this assignment, students will learn how to research and comprehend the basic concepts of OS, and appreciate the differences and similarities in the interfacing role they play on various computing and communication devices. Also, they will appreciate the ease of using GUI over CLI.

Assignment 1

Section 1: Operating Systems(OS)

1. If you are to develop an Operating system for some of the house-hold appliances such as Oven, Washing Machine, Refrigerator etc. then what innovative/new service would you wish to include along with the existing OS features? 5 marks

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

3. Discuss in detail how an OS,along with its subsystem managers control the computer hardware.

4. Is batch processing still relevant? Justify with examples

5. Industry estimates predict there will be over 20 Billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices shipping by the year 2020 (source: Gartner.com). Most IoT devices will involve some type of network connectivity (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, 6LoWPAN, Ethernet), and many also will include a Graphical User Interface (GUI). These devices usually also perform some functions other than network communication and user interaction, such as data acquisition (sensors), appliance control (home automation), and DSP (security systems). Because of this processor load, all but the simplest IoT devices will require 32-bit microprocessors/microcontrollers in order to provide the necessary address space and processing power. There already is strong migration from 8-bit and 16-bit to 32-bit microprocessors, due to requirements for enhanced device functionality as well as the attractive cost/performance attributes of new 32-bit microprocessors. The predicted IoT growth promises to sharply accelerate this migration! The migration to 32-bit processors is clear, but what about the software side?

Research to identify a suitable OS for such IoT devices. Justify your answer with relevant examples.

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

Refer to theman command to understand the syntax and parameters for the commands that you would be using in this section.

- This section has queries that can be answered using basic Unix commands. You all have to demonstrate the following Unix/Linux commands in the lab to your tutor before week 6 and paste the screen shots of the execution of all commandsin the same word file that has section 1 of the assignment.

Questions:

1. You would like to change your password. How do you do it? Change it to mypssd. Logout, then log back in to make sure it worked. Change it back to something only you know.

2. Assume you have lost track of where you are in the computer system directory. How do you return to your home directory? Assuming you don't remember the full pathname of your home directory, how can you get there?

3. In your account, create a new directory, called temp.dir. Copy the two files /etc/hosts and /etc/fstab into it as hosts and fstab respectively (Create them in case they don't exist).

4. From your home directory, create a second directory, called temp2.dir. Copy the content of temp.dir into it.

5. Remove the entire temp.dir and temp2.dir. Report if you can remove them.

6. You have a file called list.names in your directory. How can you find out the last time you wrote to that file?

7. Some files begin with a dot (.). These are called hidden files. How can you list them?

8. Create a file called myfile, with length zero.

9. Now rename myfile to hisfile.

10. Do a long listing of all files in the /bin directory and place it into file hisfile.

11. Who is logged on to the system at the moment?

12. My friend just created a file in his/her directory. Can I go and change permissions on it? Why, or why not?

13. I just created a new file in my directory, but I would like it to have rwx permissions for me, and r permissions for everyone else. What command can I use to change those permissions?

14. I have a file with permissions rwxrwxr-x. I want it to have rwxr-xr-x permissions. Which two commands can be used to change the permissions on it?

15. Take the same file. I want to remove all execute permissions for everyone, except myself. Again, which command can be used to achieve my goal?