0.1 The Linux command line, enough to be dangerous
You can move around a Linux server, read a log and edit a file without a mouse.
Before:nothing requiredUnlocks:01. Cloud Foundations
Cloud servers are Linux machines with no screen attached, so this subject opens with the command line: moving around a filesystem, reading a log with grep and tail, editing a file without a mouse, and installing software without running as root. It comes first because every later topic assumes these motions are automatic. The common confusion is treating the terminal as a test to pass rather than a place to live; fluency arrives from doing everything here for a fortnight, not from memorising commands.
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Files, directories, paths and permissions
Everything on a Linux server is a file somewhere in one tree, and permissions decide who may read or change each one. Getting this model straight first is what stops the permission errors later from looking like random refusals.
The daily commands: ls, cd, cat, less, grep, tail, find
The handful of commands you will use hundreds of times a day: list, move around, read a file, search inside one, watch the end of a log. Fluency here is the difference between reading a server and poking at it.
Editing with nano; surviving vi if you land in it
You will eventually land on a machine where the friendly editor is missing and the unfriendly one is already open. Knowing how to make a change and get out is a small skill that saves an embarrassing hour.
Package managers, sudo, and why you avoid running as root
Installing software and elevating privileges are the two operations that can break a machine fastest. The habit worth forming now is doing ordinary work as an ordinary user, so a mistyped command cannot reach the whole system.
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