A Mini UNIX Tutorial
What’s UNIX?
An operating system run on many
servers/workstations
Invented by AT&T Bell Labs in late 60’s
Currently there are different versions and
variants of UNIX such as SunOS, Linux,
Solaris, BSD, …
Basic UNIX
Most UNIX functionality is accessed through the
UNIX prompt.
Text based, like MS-DOS
Mastery of UNIX comes from being familiar with
different commands
We will cover some of the basic commands in this
class
Goal: to be able to navigate through the directories
UNIX Directory Structure
Files are grouped in the directory structure.
The file-system is arranged like hierarchical
tree structure.
The top of the tree is called “root” which
usually contains several sub-directories.
“/”(forward slash) is used to present the
“root”.
What is Directory?
Directories can hold files and other directories
/ root
users tmp
bin etc backup
usern
user2 file1
user1 …… public_html
index.html
Pathnames
Absolute Relative pathnames
Pathnames If you are already in
In the previous the users directory,
tree the relative
/users/usern/file1 is pathname for file1 is
an absolute usern/file1
pathname
More on UNIX paths
“~” (tilda) points to the user’s home directory.
Useful if you are logging into a workstation with
many users.
Many of the other paths are inaccessible and
unimportant to you
~ is the default working directory when you log in.
If you are user “usern”, then /users/usern/file1 is the
same as ~/file1.
“.” refers to the current directory
“..” refers to the parent directory.
If you are in /users/usern/, then ../ refers to /users/.
UNIX – Basic commands
man – manual. Use “man name” to bring up a manual entry for
command or program name.
clear – clear. Clears the screen.
Navigation
ls – list. Lists folders/files in a directory
cd – change directory.
Use “cd name” to navigate to directory name.
pwd – print working directory. Prints the path of the current
directory.
du – disk usage. Shows the disk usage of the current directory
UNIX – More commands
Creation
mkdir – make directory. Use “mkdir name” to create a new
directory in the current directory named name. Can also
create multiple directories.
cp – copy. Use “cp file1 file2” to create a new file, file2
which is a copy of file1. Can also use “cp file(s) directory”
to copy all file(s) to directory.
mv – move. Same as copy, but deletes the original file.
UNIX – More commands
Deletion – Be careful with these!
rm – remove. Use “rm file(s)” to delete files
rmdir – remove directory. Use it to delete an empty
directory
You can not recover your files after you removed them!
Some tips
“tab” is used for auto-complete.
If a file/directory name was partly typed in, tab will auto-
complete it.
If there are multiple options, tab will auto-complete up to
the point where the options branch and show you a list of
possible options
“*” is used as a wild card.
“rm blah*” removes all files which start with blah, so blah1,
blah2, and blahblah would all be removed
Using “cp public/* private/” copies all files in your public
directory into your private directory, and keeps all file
names intact.
More tips
“-r” is a common option that usually makes a
command recursive, that is, it will execute the
same command on all subdirectories.
Commonly used to perform file commands on
directories
Using “cp private/* public/ -r” copies everything from
the private folder to the public folder, and also copies
all subdirectories.
Using “rm –r *” deletes everything in the current
directory and all sub-directories. Never use this in the
root directory!
Programs
Some basic UNIX programs:
emacs – text editing
pico – another text editor
gcc – C compiler
pine – program for internet news and email
