Unix Training Guide

The Unix operating system was created more than 30 years ago by a
group of researchers at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. During the three
decades of constant development that have followed, Unix has
found a home in many places, from the ubiquitous mainframe to
home computers to the smallest of embedded devices. Here we will
learn some fundamental concepts of the basic Unix operating
system.
 Unix Versions

Sun Microsystem's Solaris Unix

IBM AIX
Hewlett Packard HP-UX
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Fedora Core
Debian GNU/Linux
KNOPPIX
SGI IRIX
NetBSD
 Unix Kernel

Basically, the kernel controls processes

input/output devices, file system operations,
It also manages memory.
It is the kernel that allows the system to run in multiuser
(more than one user accessing the system at the same
time), multitasking (more than one program running at a
time) mode.
One of the most important functions of the kernel is to
facilitate the creation and management of processes.
Processes are executed programs (called jobs or tasks in
some operating systems) that have owners — human or
systems — who initiate their calling or execution
The kernel is the lowest layer of the Unix system.
 Shells
A shell provides the next layer of functionality for the
system; it is what you use directly to administer and run
the system.
The shell is a command line interpreter that enables the
user to interact with the operating system
The shell is used almost exclusively via the command
line, a text-based mechanism by which the user
interacts with the system.
The original Unix shells have been heavily modified into
many different types of shells over the years
Here are three major shells available on most systems
The Bourne shell (also called sh),
The C shell (csh),
The Korn shell (ksh)
The Bourne shell (also simply called Shell) was the first
shell for Unix. It is still the most widely available shell on
Unix systems, providing a language with which to script
programs and basic user functionality to call other
programs

The Korn shell was created by David Korn to address

the Bourne shell's user-interaction issues and to deal
with the shortcomings of the C shell's scripting quirks.
The Korn shell adds some functionality that neither the
Bourne or C shell has while incorporating the strong
points of each shell. The only drawback to the Korn shell
is that it requires a license, so its adoption is not as
widespread as that of the other two.
 Login proceedure
telnet webtrain.educ.eds.com

UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 (webtrain)

Welcome to EDS University's UNIX training host.
ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS CORPORATION PLANO, TEXAS

Use of the network is restricted to authorized users. User activity is

monitored and recorded by system personnel. Anyone using the
Network expressly consents to such monitoring and recording. BE
ADVISED: if possible criminal activity is detected, system records,
along with certain personal information, may be provided to law
enforcement officials.

login:root
Password:
 Basic Unix Commands
man – provides access to the online UNIX manual
ex. man ls will return more information about the UNIX
command ls
pwd – returns the name of the present working directory
ls – will return a list of the contents of a directory
ex. ls -l will return the long list option of contents
mkdir – will make a new sub-directory in your pwd
ex. mkdir XYZ
rmdir – will remove a sub-directory in your pwd
ex. rmdir XYZ
cd – will change the working directory
ex. cd no argument – return to home directory
ex. cd .. return you up 1 level
ex. cd / will bring you to the root level
rm – removes file/s in pwd
ex. rm ch1 will remove file ch1 in pwd
ex. rm ch* will remove any file beginning with ch in pwd
ex. rm * will remove all files in pwd
cp – copies file/s from pwd to target destination
ex. cp ch1 ../../projects/chapter1 will copy file ch1 in
pwd
to directory projects and rename chapter1
mv – will move a file to a target directory
can be used to rename the file
cal – prints a calender
date – prints the week, date and time
cat – displays the contents of a text file
more - displays the contents of a text file one screen at a
time
who – list users currently signed onto network
who am i – will tell you who you are
clear – clears the screen
du –k – tells you your disk utilization
passwd – allows you to change your password
logout end your UNIX session
passwd change password by prompting for old
and new passwords
date display or set the date
finger display information about users
ps display information about processes
env display or change current environment
set C shell command to set shell variables
alias C shell command to define command
abbreviations
history C shell command to display recent
commands
 Editing Tools
vi screen oriented (visual) display editor

pico simple text editor

grep search a file for a pattern

 About Unix Directories
All files and directories in the UNIX
System are stored in a hierarchical tree
structure
root directory &
a set of major subdirectories such as
bin, dev, etc, lib, var,tmp, and usr
 Directory structure
Root

etc lIb bin usr var tmp

Other Tools and Applications
COMMAND PURPOSE
pine electronic mail
dc desk calculator
man print UNIX manual page to screen
 Connecting to UNIX Servers
telnet
ssh
ftp
rlogin
rsh