UNIX Tutorial One

1.1 Listing files and directories

ls (list)

When you first login, your current working directory is your

home directory. Your home directory has the same name as
your user-name, for example, ee91ab, and it is where your
personal files and subdirectories are saved.

To find out what is in your home directory, type

% ls (short for list)

The ls command lists the contents of your current working

directory.

There may be no files visible in your home directory, in which

case, the UNIX prompt will be returned. Alternatively, there may
already be some files inserted by the System Administrator
when your account was created.

ls does not, in fact, cause all the files in your home directory to
be listed, but only those ones whose name does not begin with
a dot (.) Files beginning with a dot (.) are known as hidden files
and usually contain important program configuration
information. They are hidden because you should not change
them unless you are very familiar with UNIX!!!

To list all files in your home directory including those whose

names begin with a dot, type

% ls -a

ls is an example of a command which can take options: -a is

an example of an option. The options change the behaviour of
the command. There are online manual pages that tell you
which options a particular command can take, and how each
option modifies the behaviour of the command. (See later in this
tutorial)
1.2 Making Directories

mkdir (make directory)

We will now make a subdirectory in your home directory to hold

the files you will be creating and using in the course of this
tutorial. To make a subdirectory called unixstuff in your
current working directory type

% mkdir unixstuff

To see the directory you have just created, type

% ls

1.3 Changing to a different directory

cd (change directory)

The command cd directory means change the current

working directory to 'directory'. The current working directory
may be thought of as the directory you are in, i.e. your current
position in the file-system tree.

To change to the directory you have just made, type

% cd unixstuff

Type ls to see the contents (which should be empty)

Exercise 1a

Make another directory inside the unixstuff directory called

backups

1.4 The directories . and ..

Still in the unixstuff directory, type

% ls -a
 As you can see, in the unixstuff directory (and in all other
directories), there are two special directories called (.) and (..)

In UNIX, (.) means the current directory, so typing

% cd .

NOTE: there is a space between cd and the dot

means stay where you are (the unixstuff directory).

This may not seem very useful at first, but using (.) as the name
of the current directory will save a lot of typing, as we shall see
later in the tutorial.

(..) means the parent of the current directory, so typing

% cd ..

will take you one directory up the hierarchy (back to your home
directory). Try it now.

Note: typing cd with no argument always returns you to your

home directory. This is very useful if you are lost in the file
system.

1.5 Pathnames

pwd (print working directory)

Pathnames enable you to work out where you are in relation to

the whole file-system. For example, to find out the absolute
pathname of your home-directory, type cd to get back to your
home-directory and then type

% pwd

The full pathname will look something like this -

/a/fservb/fservb/fservb22/eebeng99/ee91ab
 which means that ee91ab (your home directory) is in the
directory eebeng99 (the group directory),which is located on the
fservb file-server.

Note:

/a/fservb/fservb/fservb22/eebeng99/ee91ab

can be shortened to

/user/eebeng99/ee91ab

Exercise 1b

Use the commands ls, pwd and cd to explore the file system.

(Remember, if you get lost, type cd by itself to return to your

home-directory)

1.6 More about home directories and pathnames

Understanding pathnames

First type cd to get back to your home-directory, then type

% ls unixstuff

to list the conents of your unixstuff directory.

Now type

% ls backups

You will get a message like this -

backups: No such file or directory

The reason is, backups is not in your current working directory.

To use a command on a file (or directory) not in the current
 working directory (the directory you are currently in), you must
either cd to the correct directory, or specify its full pathname. To
list the contents of your backups directory, you must type

% ls unixstuff/backups

~ (your home directory)

Home directories can also be referred to by the tilde ~

character. It can be used to specify paths starting at your home
directory. So typing

% ls ~/unixstuff

will list the contents of your unixstuff directory, no matter where

you currently are in the file system.

What do you think

% ls ~

would list?

What do you think

% ls ~/..

would list?

Summary

ls list files and directories

ls -a list all files and directories
mkdir make a directory
cd directory change to named directory
cd change to home-directory
cd ~ change to home-directory
 cd .. change to parent directory
pwd display the path of the current directory

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © 9th October 2000

UNIX Tutorial Two

2.1 Copying Files

cp (copy)

cp file1 file2 is the command which makes a copy of

file1 in the current working directory and calls it file2

What we are going to do now, is to take a file stored in an open

access area of the file system, and use the cp command to
copy it to your unixstuff directory.

First, cd to your unixstuff directory.

% cd ~/unixstuff

Then at the UNIX prompt, type,

% cp /vol/examples/tutorial/science.txt
.

(Note: Don't forget the dot (.) at the end. Remember, in UNIX,
the dot means the current directory.)

The above command means copy the file science.txt to the

current directory, keeping the name the same.

(Note: The directory /vol/examples/tutorial/ is an area to which

everyone in the department has read and copy access. If you
are from outside the University, you can grab a copy of the file
 here. Use 'File/Save As..' from the menu bar to save it into your
unixstuff directory.)

Exercise 2a

Create a backup of your science.txt file by copying it to a file

called science.bak

2.2 Moving files

mv (move)

mv file1 file2 moves (or renames) file1 to file2

To move a file from one place to another, use the mv command.

This has the effect of moving rather than copying the file, so you
end up with only one file rather than two.

It can also be used to rename a file, by moving the file to the

same directory, but giving it a different name.

We are now going to move the file science.bak to your backup

directory.

First, change directories to your unixstuff directory (can you

remember how?). Then, inside the unixstuff directory, type

% mv science.bak backups/.

Type ls and ls backups to see if it has worked.

2.3 Removing files and directories

rm (remove), rmdir (remove directory)

To delete (remove) a file, use the rm command. As an example,

we are going to create a copy of the science.txt file then delete
it.

Inside your unixstuff directory, type

 % cp science.txt tempfile.txt
% ls (to check if it has created the
file)
% rm tempfile.txt
% ls (to check if it has deleted the
file)

You can use the rmdir command to remove a directory (make

sure it is empty first). Try to remove the backups directory. You
will not be able to since UNIX will not let you remove a non-
empty directory.

Exercise 2b

Create a directory called tempstuff using mkdir , then remove

it using the rmdir command.

2.4 Displaying the contents of a file on the screen

clear (clear screen)

Before you start the next section, you may like to clear the
terminal window of the previous commands so the output of the
following commands can be clearly understood.

At the prompt, type

% clear

This will clear all text and leave you with the % prompt at the top
of the window.

cat (concatenate)

The command cat can be used to display the contents of a file

on the screen. Type:

% cat science.txt
 As you can see, the file is longer than than the size of the
window, so it scrolls past making it unreadable.

less

The command less writes the contents of a file onto the

screen a page at a time. Type

% less science.txt

Press the [space-bar] if you want to see another page,

type [q] if you want to quit reading. As you can see, less is
used in preference to cat for long files.

head

The head command writes the first ten lines of a file to the
screen.

First clear the screen then type

% head science.txt

Then type

% head -5 science.txt

What difference did the -5 do to the head command?

tail

The tail command writes the last ten lines of a file to the
screen.

Clear the screen and type

% tail science.txt

How can you view the last 15 lines of the file?

2.5 Searching the contents of a file

Simple searching using less

Using less, you can search though a text file for a keyword
(pattern). For example, to search through science.txt for the
word 'science', type

% less science.txt

then, still in less (i.e. don't press [q] to quit), type a forward
slash [/] followed by the word to search

/science

As you can see, less finds and highlights the keyword. Type
[n] to search for the next occurrence of the word.

grep (don't ask why it is called grep)

grep is one of many standard UNIX utilities. It searches files

for specified words or patterns. First clear the screen, then type

% grep science science.txt

As you can see, grep has printed out each line containg the
word science.

Or has it????

Try typing

% grep Science science.txt

The grep command is case sensitive; it distinguishes between

Science and science.

To ignore upper/lower case distinctions, use the -i option, i.e.

type
 % grep -i science science.txt

To search for a phrase or pattern, you must enclose it in single

quotes (the apostrophe symbol). For example to search for
spinning top, type

% grep -i 'spinning top' science.txt

Some of the other options of grep are:

-v display those lines that do NOT match

-n precede each maching line with the line number
-c print only the total count of matched lines

Try some of them and see the different results. Don't forget, you
can use more than one option at a time, for example, the
number of lines without the words science or Science is

% grep -ivc science science.txt

wc (word count)

A handy little utility is the wc command, short for word count. To

do a word count on science.txt, type

% wc -w science.txt

To find out how many lines the file has, type

% wc -l science.txt

Summary

cp file1 file2 copy file1 and call it file2

mv file1 file2 move or rename file1 to file2
rm file remove a file
rmdir directory remove a directory
cat file display a file
more file display a file a page at a time
head file display the first few lines of a file
tail file display the last few lines of a file
grep 'keyword' file search a file for keywords
wc file count number of lines/words/characters in file

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © 9th October 2000

UNIX Tutorial Three

3.1 Redirection

Most processes initiated by UNIX commands write to the

standard output (that is, they write to the terminal screen), and
many take their input from the standard input (that is, they read
it from the keyboard). There is also the standard error, where
processes write their error messages, by default, to the terminal
screen.

We have already seen one use of the cat command to write

the contents of a file to the screen.

Now type cat without specifing a file to read

% cat

Then type a few words on the keyboard and press the

[Return] key.

Finally hold the [Ctrl] key down and press [d] (written as
^D for short) to end the input.

What has happened?

 If you run the cat command without specifing a file to read, it
reads the standard input (the keyboard), and on receiving
the'end of file' (^D), copies it to the standard output (the screen).

In UNIX, we can redirect both the input and the output of

commands.

3.2 Redirecting the Output

We use the > symbol to redirect the output of a command. For

example, to create a file called list1 containing a list of fruit, type

% cat > list1

Then type in the names of some fruit. Press [Return] after

each one.

pear
banana
apple
^D (Control D to stop)

What happens is the cat command reads the standard input

(the keyboard) and the > redirects the output, which normally
goes to the screen, into a file called list1

To read the contents of the file, type

% cat list1

Exercise 3a

Using the above method, create another file called list2

containing the following fruit: orange, plum, mango, grapefruit.
Read the contents of list2

The form >> appends standard output to a file. So to add more

items to the file list1, type

% cat >> list1

Then type in the names of more fruit

 peach
grape
orange
^D (Control D to stop)

To read the contents of the file, type

% cat list1

You should now have two files. One contains six fruit, the other
contains four fruit. We will now use the cat command to join
(concatenate) list1 and list2 into a new file called biglist. Type

% cat list1 list2 > biglist

What this is doing is reading the contents of list1 and list2 in

turn, then outputing the text to the file biglist

To read the contents of the new file, type

% cat biglist

3.3 Redirecting the Input

We use the < symbol to redirect the input of a command.

The command sort alphabetically or numerically sorts a list.

Type

% sort

Then type in the names of some vegetables. Press [Return]

after each one.

carrot
beetroot
artichoke
^D (control d to stop)

The output will be

 artichoke
beetroot
carrot

Using < you can redirect the input to come from a file rather
than the keyboard. For example, to sort the list of fruit, type

% sort < biglist

and the sorted list will be output to the screen.

To output the sorted list to a file, type,

% sort < biglist > slist

Use cat to read the contents of the file slist

3.4 Pipes

To see who is on the system with you, type

% who

One method to get a sorted list of names is to type,

% who > names.txt

% sort < names.txt

This is a bit slow and you have to remember to remove the

temporary file called names when you have finished. What you
really want to do is connect the output of the who command
directly to the input of the sort command. This is exactly what
pipes do. The symbol for a pipe is the vertical bar |

For example, typing

% who | sort

will give the same result as above, but quicker and cleaner.

To find out how many users are logged on, type

% who | wc -l
 Exercise 3b

a2ps -Phockney textfile is the command to print a

postscript file to the printer hockney.

Using pipes, print all lines of list1 and list2 containing the letter
'p', sort the result, and print to the printer hockney.

Answer available here

Summary

command > file redirect standard output to a file

command >> file append standard output to a file
command < file redirect standard input from a file
pipe the output of command1 to the input of
command1 | command2
command2
cat file1 file2 >
concatenate file1 and file2 to file0
file0
sort sort data
who list users currently logged in
a2ps -Pprinter
print text file to named printer
textfile
lpr -Pprinter psfile print postscript file to named printer

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © 9th October 2000

UNIX Tutorial Four

4.1 Wildcards

The characters * and ?

 The character * is called a wildcard, and will match against none
or more character(s) in a file (or directory) name. For example,
in your unixstuff directory, type

% ls list*

This will list all files in the current directory starting with list....

Try typing

% ls *list

This will list all files in the current directory ending with ....list

The character ? will match exactly one character.

So ls ?ouse will match files like house and mouse, but not
grouse.
Try typing

% ls ?list

4.2 Filename conventions

We should note here that a directory is merely a special type of

file. So the rules and conventions for naming files apply also to
directories.

In naming files, characters with special meanings such as / * &

% , should be avoided. Also, avoid using spaces within names.
The safest way to name a file is to use only alphanumeric
characters, that is, letters and numbers, together with _
(underscore) and . (dot).

File names conventionally start with a lower-case letter, and

may end with a dot followed by a group of letters indicating the
contents of the file. For example, all files consisting of C code
may be named with the ending .c, for example, prog1.c . Then
in order to list all files containing C code in your home directory,
you need only type ls *.c in that directory.

Beware: some applications give the same name to all the

output files they generate.
 For example, some compilers, unless given the appropriate
option, produce compiled files named a.out. Should you
forget to use that option, you are advised to rename the
compiled file immediately, otherwise the next such file will
overwrite it and it will be lost.

4.3 Getting Help

On-line Manuals

There are on-line manuals which gives information about most

commands. The manual pages tell you which options a
particular command can take, and how each option modifies the
behaviour of the command. Type man command to read the
manual page for a particular command.

For example, to find out more about the wc (word count)

command, type

% man wc

Alternatively

% whatis wc

gives a one-line description of the command, but omits any

information about options etc.

Apropos

When you are not sure of the exact name of a command,

% apropos keyword

will give you the commands with keyword in their manual page
header. For example, try typing

% apropos copy

Summary
* match any number of characters
? match one character
man command read the online manual page for a command
whatis command brief description of a command
apropos keyword match commands with keyword in their man pages

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © 9th October 2000

UNIX Tutorial Five

5.1 File system security (access rights)

In your unixstuff directory, type

% ls -l (l for long listing!)

You will see that you now get lots of details about the contents
of your directory, similar to the example below.
 Each file (and directory) has associated access rights, which
may be found by typing ls -l. Also, ls -lg gives additional
information as to which group owns the file (beng95 in the
following example):

-rwxrw-r-- 1 ee51ab beng95 2450 Sept29

11:52 file1

In the left-hand column is a 10 symbol string consisting of the

symbols d, r, w, x, -, and, occasionally, s or S. If d is present, it
will be at the left hand end of the string, and indicates a
directory: otherwise - will be the starting symbol of the string.

The 9 remaining symbols indicate the permissions, or access

rights, and are taken as three groups of 3.

• The left group of 3 gives the file permissions for the user that owns
the file (or directory) (ee51ab in the above example);
• the middle group gives the permissions for the group of people to
whom the file (or directory) belongs (eebeng95 in the above
example);
• the rightmost group gives the permissions for all others.

The symbols r, w, etc., have slightly different meanings

depending on whether they refer to a simple file or to a
directory.

Access rights on files.

• r (or -), indicates read permission (or otherwise), that is, the
presence or absence of permission to read and copy the file
• w (or -), indicates write permission (or otherwise), that is, the
permission (or otherwise) to change a file
• x (or -), indicates execution permission (or otherwise), that is, the
permission to execute a file, where appropriate

Access rights on directories.

• r allows users to list files in the directory;

• w means that users may delete files from the directory or move files
into it;
• x means the right to access files in the directory. This implies that
you may read files in the directory provided you have read
permission on the individual files.
 So, in order to read a file, you must have execute permission on
the directory containing that file, and hence on any directory
containing that directory as a subdirectory, and so on, up the
tree.

Some examples

-rwxrwxrwx a file that everyone can read, write and execute (and delete).
a file that only the owner can read and write - no-one else
-rw------- can read or write and no-one has execution rights (e.g. your
mailbox file).

5.2 Changing access rights

chmod (changing a file mode)

Only the owner of a file can use chmod to change the

permissions of a file. The options of chmod are as follows

Symbol Meaning
u user
g group
o other
a all
r read
w write (and delete)
x execute (and access directory)
+ add permission
- take away permission

For example, to remove read write and execute permissions on

the file biglist for the group and others, type

% chmod go-rwx biglist

This will leave the other permissions unaffected.

To give read and write permissions on the file biglist to all,

 % chmod a+rw biglist

Exercise 5a

Try changing access permissions on the file science.txt and on

the directory backups

Use ls -l to check that the permissions have changed.

5.3 Processes and Jobs

A process is an executing program identified by a unique PID

(process identifier). To see information about your processes,
with their associated PID and status, type

% ps

A process may be in the foreground, in the background, or be

suspended. In general the shell does not return the UNIX
prompt until the current process has finished executing.

Some processes take a long time to run and hold up the

terminal. Backgrounding a long process has the effect that the
UNIX prompt is returned immediately, and other tasks can be
carried out while the original process continues executing.

Running background processes

To background a process, type an & at the end of the command

line. For example, the command sleep waits a given number
of seconds before continuing. Type

% sleep 10

This will wait 10 seconds before returning the command prompt

%. Until the command prompt is returned, you can do nothing
except wait.

To run sleep in the background, type

% sleep 10 &

[1] 6259
 The & runs the job in the background and returns the prompt
straight away, allowing you do run other programs while waiting
for that one to finish.

The first line in the above example is typed in by the user; the
next line, indicating job number and PID, is returned by the
machine. The user is be notified of a job number (numbered
from 1) enclosed in square brackets, together with a PID and is
notified when a background process is finished. Backgrounding
is useful for jobs which will take a long time to complete.

Backgrounding a current foreground process

At the prompt, type

% sleep 100

You can suspend the process running in the foreground by

holding down the [control] key and typing [z] (written as
^Z) Then to put it in the background, type

% bg

Note: do not background programs that require user

interaction e.g. pine

5.4 Listing suspended and background processes

When a process is running, backgrounded or suspended, it will

be entered onto a list along with a job number. To examine this
list, type

% jobs

An example of a job list could be

[1] Suspended sleep 100

[2] Running netscape
[3] Running nedit

To restart (foreground) a suspended processes, type

% fg %jobnumber
 For example, to restart sleep 100, type

% fg %1

Typing fg with no job number foregrounds the last suspended

process.

5.5 Killing a process

kill (terminate or signal a process)

It is sometimes necessary to kill a process (for example, when

an executing program is in an infinite loop)

To kill a job running in the foreground, type ^C (control c). For

example, run

% sleep 100
^C

To kill a suspended or background process, type

% kill %jobnumber

For example, run

% sleep 100 &

% jobs

If it is job number 4, type

% kill %4

To check whether this has worked, examine the job list again to
see if the process has been removed.

ps (process status)

Alternatively, processes can be killed by finding their process

numbers (PIDs) and using kill PID_number

% sleep 100 &

% ps
 PID TT S TIME COMMAND
20077 pts/5 S 0:05 sleep 100
21563 pts/5 T 0:00 netscape
21873 pts/5 S 0:25 nedit

To kill off the process sleep 100, type

% kill 20077

and then type ps again to see if it has been removed from the
list.

If a process refuses to be killed, uses the -9 option, i.e. type

% kill -9 20077

Note: It is not possible to kill off other users' processes !!!

Summary

ls -lag list access rights for all files

chmod [options] file change access rights for named file
command & run command in background
^C kill the job running in the foreground
^Z suspend the job running in the foreground
bg background the suspended job
jobs list current jobs
fg %1 foreground job number 1
kill %1 kill job number 1
ps list current processes
kill 26152 kill process number 26152
 M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, 9th October 2000

UNIX Tutorial Six

Other useful UNIX commands

quota

All students are allocated a certain amount of disk space on the

file system for their personal files, usually about 100Mb. If you
go over your quota, you are given 7 days to remove excess
files.

To check your current quota and how much of it you have used,
type

% quota -v

df

The df command reports on the space left on the file system.

For example, to find out how much space is left on the
fileserver, type

% df .

du

The du command outputs the number of kilobyes used by each

subdirectory. Useful if you have gone over quota and you want
to find out which directory has the most files. In your home-
directory, type

% du

compress

This reduces the size of a file, thus freeing valuable disk space.
For example, type

% ls -l science.txt
 and note the size of the file. Then to compress science.txt, type

% compress science.txt

This will compress the file and place it in a file called

science.txt.Z

To see the change in size, type ls -l again.

To uncomress the file, use the uncompress command.

% uncompress science.txt.Z

gzip

This also compresses a file, and is more efficient than

compress. For example, to zip science.txt, type

% gzip science.txt

This will zip the file and place it in a file called science.txt.gz

To unzip the file, use the gunzip command.

% gunzip science.txt.gz

file

file classifies the named files according to the type of data they
contain, for example ascii (text), pictures, compressed data,
etc.. To report on all files in your home directory, type

% file *

history

The C shell keeps an ordered list of all the commands that you
have entered. Each command is given a number according to
the order it was entered.

% history (show command history list)

If you are using the C shell, you can use the exclamation
character (!) to recall commands easily.
 % !! (recall last command)

% !-3 (recall third most recent command)

% !5 (recall 5th command in list)

% !grep (recall last command starting

with grep)

You can increase the size of the history buffer by typing

% set history=100

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © 24th August 2001

UNIX Tutorial Seven

7.1 Compiling UNIX software packages

We have many public domain and commercial software

packages installed on our systems, which are available to all
users. However, students are allowed to download and install
small software packages in their own home directory, software
usually only useful to them personally.

There are a number of steps needed to install the software.

• Locate and download the source code (which is usually

compressed)
• Unpack the source code
• Compile the code
• Install the resulting executable
• Set paths to the installation directory

Of the above steps, probably the most difficult is the compilation

stage.

Compiling Source Code

 All high-level language code must be converted into a form the
computer understands. For example, C language source code is
converted into a lower-level language called assembly
language. The assembly language code made by the previous
stage is then converted into object code which are fragments of
code which the computer understands directly. The final stage
in compiling a program involves linking the object code to code
libraries which contain certain built-in functions. This final stage
produces an executable program.

To do all these steps by hand is complicated and beyond the

capability of the ordinary user. A number of utilities and tools
have been developed for programmers and end-users to
simplify these steps.

make and the Makefile

The make command allows programmers to manage large

programs or groups of programs. It aids in developing large
programs by keeping track of which portions of the entire
program have been changed, compiling only those parts of the
program which have changed since the last compile.

The make program gets its set of compile rules from a text file
called Makefile which resides in the same directory as the
source files. It contains information on how to compile the
software, e.g. the optimisation level, whether to include
debugging info in the executable. It also contains information on
where to install the finished compiled binaries (executables),
manual pages, data files, dependent library files, configuration
files, etc.

Some packages require you to edit the Makefile by hand to set

the final installation directory and any other parameters.
However, many packages are now being distributed with the
GNU configure utility.

configure

As the number of UNIX variants increased, it became harder to

write programs which could run on all variants. Developers
frequently did not have access to every system, and the
characteristics of some systems changed from version to
version. The GNU configure and build system simplifies the
building of programs distributed as source code. All programs
are built using a simple, standardised, two step process. The
 program builder need not install any special tools in order to
build the program.

The configure shell script attempts to guess correct values

for various system-dependent variables used during
compilation. It uses those values to create a Makefile in each
directory of the package.

The simplest way to compile a package is:

1. cd to the directory containing the package's source code.

2. Type ./configure to configure the package for your system.
3. Type make to compile the package.
4. Optionally, type make check to run any self-tests that come with
the package.
5. Type make install to install the programs and any data files
and documentation.
6. Optionally, type make clean to remove the program binaries
and object files from the source code directory

The configure utility supports a wide variety of options. You can

usually use the --help option to get a list of interesting
options for a particular configure script.

The only generic options you are likely to use are the --
prefix and --exec-prefix options. These options are
used to specify the installation directories.

The directory named by the --prefix option will hold

machine independent files such as documentation, data and
configuration files.

The directory named by the --exec-prefix option, (which

is normally a subdirectory of the --prefix directory), will hold
machine dependent files such as executables.

7.2 Downloading source code

For this example, we will download a piece of free software that

converts between different units of measurements.

First create a download directory

 % mkdir download

Download the software here and save it to your new download

directory.

7.3 Extracting the source code

Go into your download directory and list the contents.

% cd download

% ls -l

As you can see, the filename ends in tar.gz. The tar command
turns several files and directories into one single tar file. This is
then compressed using the gzip command (to create a tar.gz
file).

First unzip the file using the gunzip command. This will create
a .tar file.

% gunzip units-1.74.tar.gz

Then extract the contents of the tar file.

% tar -xvf units-1.74.tar

Again, list the contents of the download directory, then go to

the units-1.74 sub-directory.

% cd units-1.74

7.4 Configuring and creating the Makefile

The first thing to do is carefully read the README and

INSTALL text files (use the less command). These contain
important information on how to compile and run the software.

The units package uses the GNU configure system to compile

the source code. We will need to specify the installation
directory, since the default will be the main system area which
 you will not have write permissions for. We need to create an
install directory in your home directory.

% mkdir ~/units174

Then run the configure utility setting the installation path to this.

% ./configure --prefix=$HOME/units174

NOTE:

The $HOME variable is an example of an environment

variable.
The value of $HOME is the path to your home directory. Just
type

% echo $HOME

to show the contents of this variable. We will learn more

about environment variables in a later chapter.

If configure has run correctly, it will have created a Makefile with

all necessary options. You can view the Makefile if you wish
(use the less command), but do not edit the contents of this.

7.5 Building the package

Now you can go ahead and build the package by running the
make command.

% make

After a minute or two (depending on the speed of the computer),

the executables will be created. You can check to see
everything compiled successfully by typing

% make check

If everything is okay, you can now install the package.

% make install
 This will install the files into the ~/units174 directory you created
earlier.

7.6 Running the software

You are now ready to run the software (assuming everything

worked).

% cd ~/units174

If you list the contents of the units directory, you will see a
number of subdirectories.

bin The binary executables

info GNU info formatted documentation
man Man pages
share Shared data files

To run the program, change to the bin directory and type

% ./units

As an example, convert 6 feet to metres.

You have: 6 feet

You want: metres

* 1.8288

If you get the answer 1.8288, congratulations, it worked.

To view what units it can convert between, view the data file in
the share directory (the list is quite comprehensive).

To read the full documentation, change into the info directory

and type

% info --file=units.info
7.7 Stripping unnecessary code

When a piece of software is being developed, it is useful for the

programmer to include debugging information into the resulting
executable. This way, if there are problems encountered when
running the executable, the programmer can load the
executable into a debugging software package and track down
any software bugs.

This is useful for the programmer, but unnecessary for the user.
We can assume that the package, once finished and available
for download has already been tested and debugged. However,
when we compiled the software above, debugging information
was still compiled into the final executable. Since it is unlikey
that we are going to need this debugging information, we can
strip it out of the final executable. One of the advantages of this
is a much smaller executable, which should run slightly faster.

What we are going to do is look at the before and after size of

the binary file. First change into the bin directory of the units
installation directory.

% cd ~/units174/bin

% ls -l

As you can see, the file is over 100 kbytes in size. You can get
more information on the type of file by using the file
command.

% file units

units: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel

80386, version 1, dynamically linked
(uses shared libs), not stripped

To strip all the debug and line numbering information out of the
binary file, use the strip command

% strip units

% ls -l
 As you can see, the file is now 36 kbytes - a third of its original
size. Two thirds of the binary file was debug code !!!

Check the file information again.

% file units

units: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel

80386, version 1, dynamically linked
(uses shared libs), stripped

HINT: You can use the make command to install pre-stripped

copies of all the binary files when you install the package.

Instead of typing make install, simply type make

install-strip

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © October 2001

UNIX Tutorial Eight

8.1 UNIX Variables

Variables are a way of passing information from the shell to

programs when you run them. Programs look "in the
environment" for particular variables and if they are found will
use the values stored. Some are set by the system, others by
you, yet others by the shell, or any program that loads another
program.

Standard UNIX variables are split into two categories,

environment variables and shell variables. In broad terms, shell
variables apply only to the current instance of the shell and are
used to set short-term working conditions; environment
variables have a farther reaching significance, and those set at
 login are valid for the duration of the session. By convention,
environment variables have UPPER CASE and shell variables
have lower case names.

8.2 Environment Variables

An example of an environment variable is the OSTYPE variable.

The value of this is the current operating system you are using.
Type

% echo $OSTYPE

More examples of environment variables are

• USER (your login name)

• HOME (the path name of your home directory)
• HOST (the name of the computer you are using)
• ARCH (the architecture of the computers processor)
• DISPLAY (the name of the computer screen to display X windows)
• PRINTER (the default printer to send print jobs)
• PATH (the directories the shell should search to find a command)

Finding out the current values of these variables.

ENVIRONMENT variables are set using the setenv

command, displayed using the printenv or env commands,
and unset using the unsetenv command.

To show all values of these variables, type

% printenv | less

8.3 Shell Variables

An example of a shell variable is the history variable. The value

of this is how many shell commands to save, allow the user to
scroll back through all the commands they have previously
entered. Type

% echo $history

More examples of shell variables are

 • cwd (your current working directory)
• home (the path name of your home directory)
• path (the directories the shell should search to find a command)
• prompt (the text string used to prompt for interactive commands
shell your login shell)

Finding out the current values of these variables.

SHELL variables are both set and displayed using the set
command. They can be unset by using the unset command.

To show all values of these variables, type

% set | less

So what is the difference between PATH and path ?

In general, environment and shell variables that have the same

name (apart from the case) are distinct and independent, except
for possibly having the same initial values. There are, however,
exceptions.

Each time the shell variables home, user and term are changed,
the corresponding environment variables HOME, USER and
TERM receive the same values. However, altering the
environment variables has no effect on the corresponding shell
variables.

PATH and path specify directories to search for commands and

programs. Both variables always represent the same directory
list, and altering either automatically causes the other to be
changed.

8.4 Using and setting variables

Each time you login to a UNIX host, the system looks in your
home directory for initialisation files. Information in these files is
used to set up your working environment. The C and TC shells
uses two files called .login and .cshrc (note that both file names
begin with a dot).

At login the C shell first reads .cshrc followed by .login

 .login is to set conditions which will apply to the whole session
and to perform actions that are relevant only at login.

.cshrc is used to set conditions and perform actions specific to

the shell and to each invocation of it.

The guidelines are to set ENVIRONMENT variables in the

.login file and SHELL variables in the .cshrc file.

WARNING: NEVER put commands that run graphical

displays (e.g. a web browser) in your .cshrc or .login file.

8.5 Setting shell variables in the .cshrc file

For example, to change the number of shell commands saved in

the history list, you need to set the shell variable history. It is set
to 100 by default, but you can increase this if you wish.

% set history = 200

Check this has worked by typing

% echo $history

However, this has only set the variable for the lifetime of the
current shell. If you open a new xterm window, it will only have
the default history value set. To PERMANENTLY set the value
of history, you will need to add the set command to the .cshrc
file.

First open the .cshrc file in a text editor. An easy, user-friendly

editor to use is nedit.

% nedit ~/.cshrc

Add the following line AFTER the list of other commands.

set history = 200

Save the file and force the shell to reread its .cshrc file buy
using the shell source command.
 % source .cshrc

Check this has worked by typing

% echo $history

8.6 Setting the path

When you type a command, your path (or PATH) variable

defines in which directories the shell will look to find the
command you typed. If the system returns a message saying
"command: Command not found", this indicates that either the
command doesn't exist at all on the system or it is simply not in
your path.

For example, to run units, you either need to directly specify the
units path (~/units174/bin/units), or you need to have the
directory ~/units174/bin in your path.

You can add it to the end of your existing path (the $path
represents this) by issuing the command:

% set path = ($path ~/units174/bin)

Test that this worked by trying to run units in any directory other
that where units is actually located.

% cd; units

HINT: You can run multiple commands on one line by

separating them with a semicolon.

To add this path PERMANENTLY, add the following line to your

.cshrc AFTER the list of other commands.

set path = ($path ~/units174/bin)

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk October 2001

 Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Single Page

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions

(1/7) [Frequent posting]

Archive-name: unix-faq/faq/part1
Version: $Id: part1,v 2.9 1996/06/11 13:07:56 tmatimar Exp $

These seven articles contain the answers to some Frequently Asked

Questions often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.shell.
Please don't ask these questions again, they've been answered plenty
of times already - and please don't flame someone just because they may
not have read this particular posting. Thank you.

This collection of documents is Copyright (c) 1994, Ted Timar, except

Part 6, which is Copyright (c) 1994, Pierre Lewis and Ted Timar.
All rights reserved. Permission to distribute the collection is
hereby granted providing that distribution is electronic, no money
is involved, reasonable attempts are made to use the latest version
and all credits and this copyright notice are maintained.
Other requests for distribution will be considered. All reasonable
requests will be granted.

All information here has been contributed with good intentions, but
none of it is guaranteed either by the contributors or myself to be
accurate. The users of this information take all responsibility for
any damage that may occur.

Many FAQs, including this one, are available on the archive site
rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers.
The name under which a FAQ is archived appears in the "Archive-Name:"
line at the top of the article. This FAQ is archived as
"unix-faq/faq/part[1-7]".

These articles are divided approximately as follows:

1.*) General questions.

2.*) Relatively basic questions, likely to be asked by beginners.
3.*) Intermediate questions.
4.*) Advanced questions, likely to be asked by people who thought
they already knew all of the answers.
5.*) Questions pertaining to the various shells, and the
differences.
6.*) An overview of Unix variants.
7.*) An comparison of configuration management systems (RCS,
SCCS).

This article includes answers to:

 1.1) Who helped you put this list together?
1.2) When someone refers to 'rn(1)' or 'ctime(3)', what does
the number in parentheses mean?
1.3) What does {some strange unix command name} stand for?
1.4) How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" and the
"info-unix" mailing list work?
1.5) What are some useful Unix or C books?
1.6) What happened to the pronunciation list that used to be
part of this document?

If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 1.5, and want to
skip
everything else, you can search ahead for the regular expression
"^1.5)".

While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in

comp.unix.questions or comp.unix.shell on an annual basis, usually
followed by plenty of replies (only some of which are correct) and then
a period of griping about how the same questions keep coming up. You
may also like to read the monthly article "Answers to Frequently Asked
Questions" in the newsgroup "news.announce.newusers", which will tell
you what "UNIX" stands for.

With the variety of Unix systems in the world, it's hard to guarantee
that these answers will work everywhere. Read your local manual pages
before trying anything suggested here. If you have suggestions or
corrections for any of these answers, please send them to to
tmatimar@isgtec.com.

Section Contents

• News Headers
• Who helped you put this list together?
• When someone refers to 'rn(1)' ... the number in parentheses mean?
• What does {some strange unix command name} stand for?
• How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" ... work ?
• What are some useful Unix or C books?
• What happened to the pronunciation list ... ?

Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Single Page

Rate this
FAQ
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[ Usenet FAQs | Search | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ]

 Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer:
tmatimar@isgtec.com (Ted Timar)

Last Update June 15 2004 @ 00:33 AM

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 The Creation of the UNIX* Operating System

After three decades of use, the UNIX* computer operating system from Bell Labs is
still regarded as one of the most powerful, versatile, and flexible operating systems
(OS) in the computer world. Its popularity is due to many factors, including its
ability to run a wide variety of machines, from micros to supercomputers, and its
portability -- all of which led to its adoption by many manufacturers.

Like another legendary creature whose name also ends in 'x,' UNIX rose from the
ashes of a multi-organizational effort in the early 1960s to develop a dependable
timesharing operating system.

The joint effort was not successful, but a few survivors from Bell Labs tried again,
and what followed was a system that offers its users a work environment that has
been described as "of unusual simplicity, power, and elegance...."

The system also fostered a distinctive approach to software design -- solving a

problem by interconnecting simpler tools, rather than creating large monolithic
application programs.

Its development and evolution led to a new philosophy of computing, and it has
been a never-ending source of both challenges and joy to programmers around the
world.

Next: Before Multics there was chaos, and afterwards, too

• The Creation of the UNIX* Operating System

• An Overview of the UNIX* Operating System
• Dennis Ritchie -- Biography
• Ken Thompson -- Biography
• Bell Labs' Early Contributions to Computer Science
• Lucent's Contributions to Computer Science, Software and
Data Transmission
• For more information

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