Chapter Topics

The chapters progress from Linux foundations to Bash programming, reliable automation, and authorized cybersecurity workflows. This table describes the curriculum, including topics whose draft sections are still being developed. Preview, Lab, Homework, and Project activities accompany each chapter.

Chapter	Topics
1. The Terminal and the Shell	Terminals and shells; Unix and Linux history and design; terminal navigation; kernel, shell, and processes; filesystem hierarchy; authorized lab boundaries.
2. Filesystem Management	Absolute and relative paths; directory navigation; file creation, copying, moving, and deletion; attributes and links; hidden files; configuration files; project directories.
3. Access Control	Users and groups; privileges and sudo; ownership; permission symbols; chmod and chown; umask; default permissions; least privilege and risky access.
4. Files, Streams, and Pipes	The Unix file model; viewing and inspecting data; standard input, output, and error; basic pipes; basic redirection; composing inspection commands.
5. Command Syntax and Quoting	Command structure and arguments; quoting and escaping; introductory variables; word splitting and globbing; safe argument construction; POSIX and Bash; shebangs; creating and executing a script; executable permissions; exit status.
6. Variables, Expansion, and Arrays	Variables and scope; environment variables; PATH; positional parameters; command substitution; parameter expansion; arithmetic and strings; indexed and associative arrays.
7. Operators and Tests	Arithmetic operators; comparisons; logical operators; string and file tests; conditional expressions; exit status in tests; safe preflight checks.
8. Control Flow and Script Interfaces	if, elif, else, and case; for, while, and until loops; break and continue; read; script arguments; argument validation; getopts and script interfaces.
9. Functions and Modular Scripts	Function definition and invocation; local and global scope; return status; reusable libraries; modular script organization.
10. Streams and Redirection	Standard streams; file descriptors; advanced redirection; pipelines and pipeline status; process substitution; robust stream handling.
11. Text Processing, Regular Expressions, and JSON	Searching, filtering, and parsing; data transformation; regular expressions; grep, sed, and awk; JSON processing with jq.
12. Logs, Reports, and Evidence Files	Log generation and inspection; reports; here-documents and here-strings; evidence files; timestamps; hashes and integrity verification.
13. Error Handling and Defensive Scripting	Exit codes and error propagation; shell options; traps; shopt and subshells; input validation; temporary files and cleanup; dependency checks; defensive scripting; logging and error redirection.
14. Processes and System Monitoring	Process inspection; foreground and background execution; job control; disk and memory monitoring; resource anomalies.
15. Services, Packages, and systemd	Package awareness; service lifecycle; systemctl; journalctl; service units and persistence; authorized service administration.
16. Scheduling and Job Automation	cron and at; scheduled jobs; long-running tasks; batch processing; parallel execution with xargs; reliable automation.
17. Networking and Remote Access	ping, curl, and wget; secure transfer with scp and rsync; remote execution with SSH; network automation and monitoring.
18. Backups, Archives, and Recovery	Maintenance; file and database backups; archives; recovery; restore testing; verification of recovered data.
19. Secure Configuration and Audit Automation	Permission audits; account and SSH checks; secrets and integrity checks; secure configuration; repeatable audit reports.
20. Triage and Incident Response Scripts	Authorized host triage; log-review pipelines; indicators and inventory; incident reports; applying the host audit toolkit.

Complete VM onboarding in Appendix H: Tooling before VM-based assignments. Keep the book and terminal tiled side by side. Appendix C provides the detailed POSIX portability reference; Appendix G organizes the host audit toolkit capstone.