Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus Introduction to Unix

Introduction to Unix Study Guide

UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.

—Dennis Ritchie

This study guide is made available by the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

This Introduction to Unix Study Guide provides notes and information for the Introduction to Unix (CMST 270) course offered by K–State Polytechnic, which is the campus of Kansas State University located in Salina, Kansas. Self study of the material in the Study Guide is welcome.

Announcements

• Remember to save the html file from KSOL to your jump drive for quick access to the study guide.
• Article about using Diff and Grep to edit configuration files, especially for a web server.

Contents:

• 1. Introducing Unix
  • 1.1. Why an Operating System (OS)
  • 1.2. How a Program Runs on a Computer
  • 1.3. Running Multiple Programs
  • 1.4. Key Concepts
  • 1.5. Unix Architecture: The Kernel
  • 1.6. Unix Architecture: The Shell
  • 1.7. Character Versus Graphical User Interface.
  • 1.8. Unix Philosophy
  • 1.9. The Development of the UNIX Operating System
  • 1.10. Web Resources
• 2. GNU Utilities for Nonprogrammers
  • 2.1. Types of Commands
  • 2.2. Structure of a Command
  • 2.3. Basic Unix Commands
  • 2.4. Standard Files and File Descriptors
  • 2.5. Using man
  • 2.6. Special characters
  • 2.7. passwd
  • 2.8. Logging Out
  • 2.9. Working with Files and Directories
  • 2.10. Properties of Files and Directories
  • 2.11. Using Text Editors
• 3. Advanced Unix Commands
  • 3.1. Use a Pipe For That
  • 3.2. Regular Expressions
  • 3.3. Filtering Data
  • 3.4. Comparing Files
  • 3.5. Finding Files
  • 3.6. Archiving Data
  • 3.7. Scheduling Commands
  • 3.8. Reference Files with Links
  • 3.9. Miscellaneous Other Commands
• 4. The Shells
  • 4.1. A Choice of Shells
  • 4.2. echo
  • 4.3. Shell Metacharacters
  • 4.4. Here Documents
  • 4.5. File Redirection
  • 4.6. Filename Substitution (Wildcards)
  • 4.7. The Pipe (|)
  • 4.8. tee
  • 4.9. sleep
  • 4.10. Command Substitution
  • 4.11. Sequences of Commands
  • 4.12. Shell Variables
  • 4.13. Job or Process Control
  • 4.14. A Shell Script Program
  • 4.15. source
• 5. BASH (Bourne Again Shell)
  • 5.1. BASH Shell Startup
  • 5.2. set
  • 5.3. Accessing Variables
  • 5.4. Environment Variables
  • 5.5. PS1
  • 5.6. alias
  • 5.7. Auto Completion
  • 5.8. history
  • 5.9. Math in Shell Scripts
  • 5.10. test
  • 5.11. read
  • 5.12. Control Constructs
• 6. Networking Utilities
  • 6.1. Users and Hosts
  • 6.2. Communication Between Hosts
• 7. Home Work
  • 7.1. Homework 1 - Unix History
  • 7.2. Homework 2 - The Structure of Unix Commands
  • 7.3. Homework 3 - Manipulating Files and Directories
  • 7.4. Homework 4 - Permissions of Files and Directories
  • 7.5. Homework 5 - Working with More Advanced Unix Tools
  • 7.6. Homework 6 - Additional Advanced Unix Tools
  • 7.7. Homework 7 - First Shell Script
  • 7.8. Homework 8 - Bash Shell Script Programming

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page