Essential Unix

Linda B. Merims
MIT Project Athena
Revision A
September 10, 1984


Table of Contents


Introduction
First You Need...
Login
Logout
You Have to Know...
  Control Keys:  Fixing Typos, Bailing Out
  Case Sensitivity
  Common Terminal Session Problems
Entering Commands
  The Shell
  Command Format
Change Your Password:  passwd
Getting Help
  Documentation:  man and apropos
  Consultants
  Hardware Trouble
Files
  File Names
    Name Conventions
    Wildcards:  * and ?
  To Get a List of Your Files:  ls
  To See the Contents of a File:  cat and more
  To Create a File
  To Delete a File: rm
  To Copy a File: cp
  To Rename (Move) a File:  mv
Printed Output
  To Send a File to the Printer:  lpr
  What Files Are Waiting to Print?  lpq
  To Cancel Print Jobs:  lprm

Interlude

Directories
  The Working Directory
  The HOME Directory
  To Make a Directory:  mkdir
  To Change the Working Directory:  cd
  To Find Out What Directory You're In:  pwd
  To Delete a Directory:  rmdir
  The -r Recursive Option
  Sample Directory Specifications
  System File Organization:  An Aside

File Protection:  Who Can Read Your Files?
  The Default Protection
  Changing Protections
   To Make a File Readable by Everyone in a Group
   To Make a Directory Where All Members of a Group Can Read and Write
   To Make a Public Directory
   To Open Your Files to All:  An Interesting Issue
  Caveat Emptor:  A Final Warning

Exploring Your Environment
  The Files that Come with Your Username
  Your Neighbors:  Who's On?
  What's the System Doing?
  To Kill a Session