Linux Tools for Software Development

This course is a part of Open Source Software Development, Linux and Git, a 3-course Professional Certificate series from edX.

If you are a developer with experience working on any operating system and want to understand the basics of open source development, this course is for you. Experience with the command line is not necessary, but would be helpful.

The course begins by introducing the numerous essential command line tools that are used daily in software development. It then focuses on bash scripting, explaining how to construct scripts and how to do very complicated tasks in an automated way. The course looks at files and filesystems and focuses on compiling programs in Linux, using gcc and other compilers, and using libraries of different types. This course also covers building packages out of software in Linux, and more.

This course helps you familiarize yourself with essential command line tools, so you can work comfortably and productively in Linux environments, and demonstrates that you have mastered important Linux methods and requisite tools.

What you'll learn

• Use essential command line tools for every day tasks.
• Construct scripts and perform complicated tasks in an automated way.
• Discuss how Linux works with various types of filesystems through the use of a virtual filesystem.
• Compile programs in Linux using gcc and other compilers.
• Use different types of shared and static libraries.
• Build packages out of software in Linux in both RPM and Debian systems, to be readily distributed to other developers of Linux distributions.
• And more.