Using UNIX

a brief introduction

Introduction to UNIX

UNIX is an operating system. It likes to use short two-letter commands for most things. When you ask it to do stuff, it doesn't usually prompt you to make sure you're sure. It also doesn't print much back at you unless there's an error.

Most UNIX commands take arguments which are specified after the command -- often with a "-".

File basics

The current directory is called "." The parent directory is referred to as ".." Your home directory can be referred to using "~". The root directory in UNIX is simply called "/". Files can be specified using slashes between directory names. For example, I can refer to a file named foo in my home directory as "~/foo".

Paths that start with "~" or "/" are absolute pathnames because they refer to a specific starting point. Other paths are relative, and constructed starting from the directory you're in. The example above was absolute and will work no matter where I am. In contrast, "../foo" will go back one level from the current directory and look for foo.

pwd prints the working directory you're in.

cd name changes you into the the named directory.

ls lists the files in the current directory. Subdirectories are marked with a "/".

ls -l gives you the long version of the above. You get the dates the files were created, their sizes, and plenty of other stuff that won't be important.

ls -a lists all the files in a directory. Filenames which start with "." are not printed otherwise.

ls name lists the contents of the named directory.

cp name new-name copies a file to a new name or location.

mv name new-name moves a file. If new-name is a directory, the file will be moved to that location. If it is a filename, it will be renamed to that name.

rm name removes a file (normally no warning, although your environment may be specially configured to warn you).

mkdir name makes a new directory.

rmdir name removes a directory.

Looking at files

The best way to look at a file (short of firing up an emacs session), is to use more. This will display the file one screenful at a time. Between screens, you can hit q to quit, RETURN to advance one line, or SPACE to advance to the next screen. You can also search for text using /text-RETURN.

Using the shell

The shell is the command interpreter that you interact with in an xterm. On the mscc machines, you'll be using a shell called tcsh. You can re-run the previous command using !!. You can re-run a command starting with a particular substring using !substring. You can see a list of the recent commands you've typed using history

You can also re-edit previous commands by using the arrow keys to scroll through them.

On-line help

On UNIX, every command has an on-line manual entry, which is a very terse but complete description of what it does. Access these entries by typing man command. You can also use apropos substring to get a list of commands which contain a given substring.

ssh

You can get access to other UNIX machines remotely using ssh machine. For example, to login to the computer galiano.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca, you would use ssh galiano.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca. You can use -l username to specify a different username.

Conclusion

Those are the most basic basics. This should tell you what you need to know to get through these assignments. For the most part, you should be working within emacs, which I've documented elsewhere. Feel free to ask questions if you have questions about UNIX that aren't covered here.