Introduction to Unix Commands

Click the image above to see the screencast!

Windows users should download PuTTY:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Getting Started (5 minutes)

• Why bash is important to know
• Understanding the directory structure (tree)

Remember how, on your Desktop, you can manipulate files and folders?

The entire filesystem for your computer is just a MASSIVE tree of folders and folders with files along the way.

Notable Directories

• Root "/" - The single folder at the core
• Home "~" - The folder containing everything for your user
• Working "." - The current folder you're in

...also, I'm gonna refer to folders as directories here on out.

Bits of Bash (20 minutes)

Got that shell open? Time for some basic navigation!

• ls - list directory contents
• cd - change working directory
• touch - change file access and modification times (creates a file)
• rm - remove directory entries
• cp - copy files
• mv - move files
• clear - clear the terminal screen

Now that you've got those under your belt, we need to talk about command options- or flags. Flags are how we specify additional parameters to our commands similar to passing arguments to a function in programming.

For example: sure, ls lists directory contents but what if I want to see hidden dotfiles? I can include the -a option:

ls -a

Want a "long" listing with lots of additional system information?

ls -l

But how do we familiarize with all of these hidden options? ...I'm glad you asked.

• man - format and display the on-line manual pages

Time to wing it

Before we move on, you should copy this document onto your desktop:

curl --location goo.gl/NU44jC > ~/Desktop/unix.txt

This will prove a great resource for you to refer back to if you ever get lost or have any nagging questions after the workshop.

I got you. -Steven Kneiser

My Mysterious & Undisputably Dope Project (10 minutes)

Finally! Time to do something both tangible and dope. First thing we're gonna do is remote into a school server:

ssh [email protected]

After entering your password you should be in your user's home directory (represented by the "~"). Next up, we're gonna make a directory for this project called "web" and hop right in there:

mkdir web
cd web

This seems like the PERFECT place to dump my mysterious & undisputably dope file:

curl --location goo.gl/W5GHZd > index.html

Rubs hands together with a devilish grin

Now before I give anything away, I want you to run these two commands:

chmod -R a+rX ~/web
chmod 701 ~/

Congratulations, you've officially setup your very own student homepage! Don't believe me? Visit:

cse.msu.edu/~your_net_id

Q&A & Unix Tips (25 minutes)

Basic Navigation

• ls & cd
• touch & rm
• cp & mv
• mkdir & rmdir
• cat & editors (nano, vim, emacs)
• understanding flags
• tab-completion & clear
• finding help (man, apropos, ...then google)

Bash Redirection & Search

• piping
• less/more & head & tail
• grep
• sort & awk & wc
• find

Filesystem security

• reading access rights
• chmod
• sudo & su

Running processes (language-specific consoles etc)

• jobs (listing and suspending)
• fg & bg
• ps
• sending signals

Customizing your environment (dotfiles)

• environmental variables (echo & printenv)
• .profile's & rc's (SHELL-DEPENDENT)
• aliases & functions
• SSH & simplifying (.ssh/config)
• package-management

Advanced Miscellaneous

• keyboard shortcuts (reverse-i search)
• curly brace completion
• bash scripting
• crontab

Further reading

This Repo

Other Unix tutorials

• CSE-320 Bash reference READ THIS IF NOTHING ELSE
• A curated list of awesome command-line guides, frameworks, etc
• Advancing in the Bash Shell
• Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide: An in-depth exploration of the art of shell scripting

Other shells

• Z Shell (zsh) tutorial
• Great resource for customizing your zsh

More on Unix:

• Wikipedia - Unix
• dotJS Talk w/ some historical background knowledge

Learning Vim?

• My favorite cheatsheet
• Learn from others' screencasts
• Advanced vim registers

Miscellaneous

• Jealous of my colorful bash prompt? Generate a dope one
• An even more beautiful prompt recommended by @nicovergara
• Scheduling routine tasks on your crontab
• Passing command-line arguments to python