Basic Unix

The UserDoc Collection

UNIX

Basic UNIX Guide

Version 1.0 August 1993

Acknowledgments Authors: User Services staff, Scientific Computing Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Technical writers/editors: Nancy Dawson and Sara Van Dyke Documentation production: Valeri Hart Most of the material in this manual first appeared in other SCD documentation. Thanks to authors Brian Bevirt and Peter Morreale for material from the NCAR UNICOS Primer, to Nancy Dawson, Jeff Kuehn, Peter Morreale, and Tom Parker for material from CMS-UNIX Conversion Guide and SCD UNIX Basic Usage Guide, and to Adrianne Middleton-Link for material from “UNIX Mail Hints.” Thanks also to the technical reviewers of this document: Sally Haerer, Peter Morreale, Tom Parker, Susan Smith, and Greg Woods.

UserDoc categories SCD provides documents covering specific topics in these categories • Applications software

• Networking and data communications

• Cray computers • Graphics • Introduction to the SCD computing environment

• Output services (Text and Graphics System—TAGS) • UNIX • Additional topics

• Mass Storage System Ordering information appears on the last page of this document.

© Copyright 1993 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) All Rights Reserved Published by: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Scientific Computing Division, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Trademarks: All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Reference to a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of that company or product to the exclusion of others. Printed on recycled paper (25% post-consumer waste).

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Basic UNIX Guide

Conventions used in this document UNIX • Command names, options, filenames, pathnames, directories, and other items that must be typed as shown are printed in bold letters. Examples: man ls For more information about the ls command, see its man page. • Variables where you provide the substitution are shown in bold italic letters. Examples: mv filename1 filename2 At the prompt, type your login_id. • The \ (backslash) followed by pressing RETURN when you are entering a command allows you to continue the command on the next line. In UNIX, a \ escapes the next character.

General • Fortran programs, shell scripts, and screen displays are shown in Courier (“typewriter”) font. CALL FLMHDR (35) • You must press RETURN after each command, but the RETURN is not shown in the document, except when required for clarity. • Keystrokes that must be pressed simultaneously are linked by a hyphen, with the modifier key indicated by capital letters before the hyphen. Example: To send your e-mail, enter CONTROL-d at the beginning of a new line.

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Contents Conventions used in this document iii

Chapter 1: The UNIX computing environment ..............................................1 Brief history of UNIX 3 Overview of the UNIX operating system 4 The UNIX kernel 4 The UNIX utilities 4 The UNIX shell 4 Figure 1: UNIX operating system 5

Learning more about UNIX 6 Classes 6 Books and local documentation 6 Online documentation 6 For users at NCAR only 6

Chapter 2: Useful UNIX commands .......................................................................7 Table 1: Basic UNIX commands 11

Logging in and logging out 12 Logging in 12 Logging out 12

UNIX command syntax 13 Getting online help with man 14 Changing your password with passwd 16 Account security 16

The UNIX file system 17 Figure 1: The hierarchical file system 17 UNIX filenaming conventions 17 Using pathnames 18 System file organization 19

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Determining your current directory with pwd 21 Listing the contents of a directory with ls 22 Changing directories with cd 24 Figure 2: The file structure of the jones home directory 24

Looking at a file with more 25 Table 2: more subcommands 25

Looking at a file with pg 26 Table 3: pg subcommands 26

Copying files with cp 27 Figure 3: The file structure showing the new file test1.f 27

Renaming files and directories with mv 28 Figure 4: The file structure after test.f is moved to directory project2 28

Removing files with rm 29 File protection and permissions 30 Figure 5: Sample file permission fields 30 Table 4: File and directory permissions 31 Default permissions 31

Changing file permissions with chmod 32 Creating new directories with mkdir 33 Figure 6: The file structure with a new directory project3 33

Removing directories with rmdir 34 Figure 7: The file structure without the directory project2 34

Searching contents of files with grep 35 Multiple users accessing files with ln 36 Figure 8: The file structure showing the link to smith’s file named data 36

Transferring files with rcp 37 When login ids are different 37

Transferring files with ftp 39 Opening an FTP connection 39 Transferring files 39

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Additional ftp commands 40 Using anonymous FTP accounts 40

Additional UNIX commands 42 Table 5: Additional UNIX commands 42

Chapter 3: Basic vi editor commands..................................................................43 Table 1: Basic vi commands 45

Advantages of the vi editor 47 Basic vi rules 47

Invoking the vi editor 48 Exiting the editor 49 Paging and moving around in the file 50 Inserting text 51 Deleting text 52 Replacing and changing text 54 Copying and moving text within a file 56 Copying and moving text between files 58 Searching text 60 Changing your vi editor environment 61

Chapter 4: Getting started with UNIX shells .................................................63 What is a shell? 65 What the shell does for you 65

The three common UNIX shells 66 The Bourne shell 66 The C shell 66 The Korn shell 67 Changing your UNIX shell 67

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What is a subshell? 68 Table 1: Features of the different shells 69

Shell initialization files 71 Bourne and Korn shell initialization files 71 C shell initialization files 72

Chapter 5: Useful shell features

.............................................................................75

Table 1: Shell features 77 Table 2: Some C shell commands 78

What is a shell script? 79 Shell constructs 81

Filename expansion 83 The UNIX escape character 85 I/O redirection terminology 87 Standard I/O terminology 87

Redirection of standard output (stdout) 89 Append output redirection 89

Redirection of standard input (stdin) 90 The here document 90

Redirection of errors (stderr) 92 C shell 92 Bourne and Korn shells 92

Combining redirection techniques 93 Combining I/O redirection in the C shell 93 Combining I/O redirection in the Bourne and Korn shells 93

Pipes and filters 95 Environment variables 96 Setting an environment variable 96 Removing an environment variable 96 Viewing environment variables 97

Re-executing previous commands 98 Command history 98 Re-executing a selected command 98

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Aliasing commands 100 Managing your jobs in the UNIX environment 102 Background execution 102 Changing from background to foreground execution 103 Changing from foreground to background execution 103

Chapter 6: Using UNIX e-mail...............................................................................105 Getting started with e-mail 107 Table 1: Basic mail commands 107 Table 2: Some ~ (tilde) commands 107

Sending e-mail 108 Addressing your e-mail message 109 E-mail etiquette 110

Reading your e-mail 111 Sending a reply 112 Getting help 113 Quitting the e-mail program 113 Saving messages 114 Deleting messages 114 Undeleting messages 114

Forwarding mail 115 Forwarding to another user 115 Forwarding to yourself on another computer 116

Sending a file as a mail message 117 Editing a mail message before sending it 118 Environment variables for editing mail 118 Editing mail headers 118

Sending e-mail responses when you go on vacation 119 Creating distribution lists and address aliases 120 Customizing your e-mail environment 121 Version 1.0, August 1993

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E-mail error messages 122 Table 3: Possible e-mail error messages 122

Appendix A: Recommended UNIX books

.....................................................123

Index ........................................................................................................................................129 SCD documentation and consulting .....................................................................133

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Chapter 1

The UNIX computing environment

Contents Brief history of UNIX 3 Overview of the UNIX operating system 4 The UNIX kernel 4 The UNIX utilities 4 The UNIX shell 4 Figure 1: UNIX operating system 5

Learning more about UNIX 6 Classes 6 Books and local documentation 6 Online documentation 6 For users at NCAR only 6

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The UNIX computing environment Welcome to the UNIX operating system. This manual contains basic instructions to get you up and running as a new UNIX user. Most of the information in this book applies to any UNIX system at any location. However, since there are some differences in versions of UNIX implemented at different sites, some of the details described in this manual may not apply to the UNIX system you are using. In such cases, consult the online documentation (access to it is described in Chapter 2), locally written documentation, or your local system administrator for assistance. The end of this chapter provides sources of additional UNIX information, and Appendix A lists recommended UNIX books.

Brief history of UNIX In the late 1960s, Bell Laboratories (a research section of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company) developed a version of the UNIX operating system that has evolved as a standard for interactive computing. The current version is called System V. Then another version of UNIX was developed at the computer science department at the University of California, Berkeley. This version of UNIX is referred to as BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution). As UNIX gained in popularity, many computer vendors developed UNIX operating systems under various names. A few of these are UNICOS (Cray Research, Inc.), AIX (International Business Machines, Inc.), and ULTRIX (Digital Equipment Corporation). At this writing, the Scientific Computing Division (SCD) UNIX front-end computer runs a Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) UNIX system, with System V compatibility. The SCD Cray supercomputers run UNICOS, a version of AT&T UNIX System V.

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Overview of the UNIX operating system The UNIX operating system manages the resources of your computer system to perform useful work on your behalf. It is composed of three major parts, as described below and shown in Figure 1.

The UNIX kernel UNIX is an interactive, multitasking, multi-user system. The kernel is at the heart of the UNIX operating system and is the component that schedules tasks and manages data storage. The kernel manages the computer resources by keeping track of disks, tapes, printers, terminals, communication lines, and other devices. Tasks running on a UNIX computer are called processes. UNIX users may run many processes at once; usually there is a system-imposed limit on the number. Because UNIX is also interactive, tasks you initiate run synchronously in foreground mode; control is returned to your terminal only after the current task has completed. However, you may run processes in background mode, as well, which allows you to make maximum concurrent use of many computer resources, without waiting for completion of any single task.

The UNIX utilities UNIX provides a wide variety of utilities and tools to help you get your work done. These utilities include editors (such as vi), file manipulation commands (such as the cp, mv, and rm), text formatting applications (troff), programming languages (C, Fortran, Pascal, and others), communications (File Transfer Protocol), and electronic mail.

The UNIX shell As a user, you do not interact directly with the UNIX utilities or the UNIX kernel. Instead, commands you type are interpreted by a UNIX shell, which sends requests on to the operating system. UNIX shells are really high-level programming languages. The shell lets you type commands efficiently and develop shell script files containing commands and programming constructs (such as conditional testing) that automate very complex operations. Three popular UNIX shells are the Bourne, C, and Korn shells. Your UNIX system supports some or all of these. Chapters 4 and 5 of this manual introduce you to the power of the shell and provide information to help you choose which shell to use.

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Figure 1. UNIX operating system

Shells

Utilities Kernel

Hardware

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Learning more about UNIX Classes Because UNIX is a popular operating system, there may be introductory and advanced UNIX classes in your community. Ask about classes at the campus computing center, the continuing education division of a university, the local school district’s adult education program, and other local adult education or computer programs.

Books and local documentation There are many UNIX books available in libraries and bookstores. Appendix A of this manual lists some that we recommend. Your local computing site has probably made some local modifications and additions to the UNIX system you’re using, such as adding local printing commands. Ask your system administrator for any site-specific documentation.

Online documentation Every UNIX system has detailed online documentation, known as the man pages (which stands for “manual pages”). Access to these is through the man command, described in Chapter 2.

For users at NCAR only SCD offers introductory UNIX classes in Boulder for NCAR users. For information about upcoming classes, send e-mail to [email protected] or call SCD User Information at (303) 497-1225. For instructions on how to login from your location and for site-specific UNIX documentation for SCD users, contact SCD User Information by sending e-mail to [email protected] or by calling (303) 497-1225. SCD provides an online Daily Bulletin, which gives current information about the computing environment. To read it when you are logged in to any UNIX computer at NCAR, at the UNIX shell prompt, type: dailyb. Information about SCD documentation and consulting services is on the last page of this manual.

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Chapter 2

Useful UNIX commands

Contents Table 1: Basic UNIX commands 11

Logging in and logging out 12 Logging in 12 Logging out 12

UNIX command syntax 13 Getting online help with man 14 Changing your password with passwd 16 Account security 16

The UNIX file system 17 Figure 1: The hierarchical file system 17 UNIX filenaming conventions 17 Using pathnames 18 Absolute pathnames 18 Relative pathnames 18 The “dot” files 19 The tilde in the C shell 19 System file organization 19 Command directories 19 Home directories for users 20 Library directories 20 System directories 20

Determining your current directory with pwd 21 Listing the contents of a directory with ls 22 Changing directories with cd 24 Figure 2: The file structure of the jones home directory 24

Looking at a file with more 25 Table 2: more subcommands 25

Looking at a file with pg 26 Table 3: pg subcommands 26

Copying files with cp 27 Figure 3: The file structure showing the new file test1.f 27

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Renaming files and directories with mv 28 Figure 4: The file structure after test.f is moved to directory project2 28

Removing files with rm 29 File protection and permissions 30 Figure 5: Sample file permission fields 30 Table 4: File and directory permissions 31 Default permissions 31

Changing file permissions with chmod 32 Creating new directories with mkdir 33 Figure 6: The file structure with a new directory project3 33

Removing directories with rmdir 34 Figure 7: The file structure without the directory project2 34

Searching contents of files with grep 35 Multiple users accessing files with ln 36 Figure 8: The file structure showing the link to smith’s file named data 36

Transferring files with rcp 37 When login ids are different 37

Transferring files with ftp 39 Opening an FTP connection 39 Transferring files 39 Transferring binary files 40 Additional ftp commands 40 Using anonymous FTP accounts 40

Additional UNIX commands 42 Table 5: Additional UNIX commands 42

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Useful UNIX commands This chapter introduces you to the basic UNIX commands listed on Table 1. For more detailed information on these and other UNIX commands, see the online man pages and the books recommended in Appendix A. Table 1: Basic UNIX commands Command

Description

Example

man

Finds manual information by keyword

man passwd

passwd

Changes your password

passwd

pwd

Lists name of present working directory

pwd

ls

Lists the contents of your directory

ls -l

cd

Changes directory

cd project4

more

Displays contents of a file on screen, one screenful at a time

more file3

pg

Displays contents of a file on screen, one screenful at a time

pg file3

cp

Copies contents of a file to a new file

cp test.f nutest.f

mv

Moves or renames a file

mv myfile newname

rm

Removes a file

rm file2

chmod

Changes permissions of file or directory

chmod ug+x data

mkdir

Makes a new directory

mkdir project4

rmdir

Removes a directory that does not contain any files

rmdir project4

grep

Searches lines of input file(s) for matching pattern

grep "text_string" file4

ln

Allows multiple users access to a single file; lists file in users’ directory displays

ln master_filename my_name

rcp

Copies files to or from a remote computer

rcp hostname:pathname new rcp pathname hostname:new

ftp

Transfers files between computers on the Internet

ftp remote_computer

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Logging in and logging out Ask your system administrator for instructions on connecting to the UNIX computer, since connectivity is site dependent. Once you are connected, follow the instructions below for logging in and logging out.

Logging in Note

UNIX is case sensitive. Be sure CAPS LOCK is not on.

1.

After you connect to the UNIX system, your screen displays login:, which is the system prompt for your login id. Enter your login id.

2.

Your screen then displays password:, the system prompt for the password that goes with your login id. Type your password. (It will not be displayed on the screen.) If you type either your login id or your password incorrectly, press CONTROL-u to erase the line and start again. (To execute a CONTROL-u, hold down the CONTROL key and press the u key.)

3.

You are then presented with any messages of the day and information about the status of your mailbox, followed by a shell prompt. A frequently used shell prompt is % (percent sign), which we use in the examples in this manual. When you see the shell prompt, you are logged in and can proceed with computing tasks. The shell prompt on your system may be something other than %.

4.

To protect the security of your account, change your password the first time you log in to any UNIX system. To do so, use the passwd command, which is described later in this chapter.

Logging out At the end of your computing session, you need to log out. The exact command you use will depend on how your computing environment has been set up. At least one of the following commands should log you out: 1.

Type the logout command. Or

2.

Type the exit command. Or

3.

Press the CONTROL-d keys simultaneously.

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UNIX command syntax In UNIX, there are usually several options available for commands; the options change the way the command functions. This manual covers the most critical options. See the man page for each command for a complete list of its options. Here are some points to remember about UNIX command syntax: • UNIX commands begin with the command name. For most cases, the command may be followed by various options, which may then be followed by one or more filenames, depending upon the command’s purpose: command options filenames • Commands are usually in lowercase. Options usually start with a - (hyphen or minus sign), followed by a letter or a word that is case-specific, and sometimes also followed by a value. This is only the general structure for most UNIX commands; there are exceptions! • Commands, options, and filenames are separated by any number of blanks within a command line.

Example 1: Here is a command line that shows a common UNIX syntax of a command, followed by an option, then followed by a filename: ls -l .login If you type this command, you will find that the ls command with the -l option displays information about your .login initialization file.

Example 2: The command line below is one that shows a different syntax. The pathname /usr/local/bin follows the find command. The -name option is a word, not just a single character, and it uses the string file1 as its value. find /usr/local/bin -name file1 -print The find command helps you locate files and directories on the UNIX system.

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Getting online help with man All UNIX systems have online documentation that provides complete information about the UNIX commands available with that system. Online documentation is accessed through the man command (which stands for “manual”). At the shell prompt, type: man command where command is a command you want information about. Enough text to fill your screen is displayed. If more text is available, press the SPACEBAR key after you read the first page. (The RETURN key is the default pager for the man command on some UNIX computers.) The man command provides detailed information about the syntax, the function, and the options available with the command. A useful man option is: -k string

Locates all commands documented in the man pages that contain string in the command name or in the NAME section.

The online manual provided by the man command is a complete system manual written by programmers for programmers. Because of this, beginners usually need to study the man pages carefully to use them effectively. The information in a man page is organized into specific sections. • The SYNOPSIS section shows the command line with all the associated options. The [ ] (brackets) surround optional elements. You do not type the brackets. • The DESCRIPTION section details use of the command and describes any options. • A man page may contain several other sections such as CAUTIONS, WARNINGS, ENVIRONMENTS, NOTES, and FILES.

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Example 3: To see the manual page for the man command, type: man man Here is the first part of the man page you will see.

% man man MAN(1) NAME man - Displays on-line manual entries SYNOPSIS man -i keyword[,keyword] man [-o] [-u] [-b] [-l] [-p] [-r] [-s] [-d] [-e] [-q] [section] entries man [-o] [-u] [-b] [-l] [-p] [-r] -k pattern DESCRIPTION The man command has two functions: it displays on your terminal screen (stdout) an entry (man page) from an on-line

Example 4: A valuable option on the man command is the -k option; it lets you search the online manual pages for a subject that you specify as a value following the -k option. This is a good way to explore the contents of the online manual. man -k directories This lists all UNIX commands that have the word “directories” in the line under the “NAME” heading. You might see a list that looks similar to this:

chmod(1) - Changes mode of files or directories cleantmp(1M) - Deletes job temporary directories cpset(1M) - Installs object files in binary directories dircmp(1) - Compares directories exportfs(1M) - Export and unexport directories to NFS clients exports(4F) - Directories to export to NFS clients fsoffload(1M) - Lists files and directories on a logical device rm(1) - Removes files or directories rm(1) (see rm(1)) - Removes files or directories rmdir(1) (see rm(1)) - Removes files or directories spwcard(1M) - Sets wildcard levels on system directories in a secure environmentxtab(4F) (see exports(4F)) - Directories to export to NFS clients

If no entries are found for the topic, try shortening your search string. For example, if man -k compilers finds nothing, try man -k compiler instead.

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Changing your password with passwd You should change your password the first time you log in to any UNIX system and often thereafter for optimum security. The passwd command allows you to change your password. When you type passwd with no options, the utility prompts you to enter your old password, then your new password, then your new password again (to make sure you didn’t make a typing mistake the first time). Passwords never appear on the screen.

Example 5: Here is an example of what you will see when you type the passwd command. Note that you will not see any of the passwords you type. % passwd Changing password for jones. Old password: New password: Retype new password: %

Account security Good account security is your responsibility. If an unauthorized user guesses your password, your own files are in danger of being modified or deleted. We recommend that you use a different password for each system you log into and that you change your password at least twice a year. Here are some guidelines for choosing a good password that cannot be easily broken manually or by passwordbreaking programs. 1. Use a password of six to eight characters and at least one numeral or special character. 2. Don’t write your password down. It’s better to pick an easy one that you can remember than provide a written key to your account. 3. Don’t tell others your password. 4. Avoid using proper names, especially those associated with yourself or your family; this includes rearranging the letters of your login id or other personal data. The UNIX finger command provides some information about you; try out this command and don’t use information that can be obtained this way. 5. Avoid words found in online dictionaries, both English and foreign. Password-breaking programs frequently use online dictionaries to try to break users’ passwords. 6. Don’t use your street address or phone number. Even though it uses numbers, it’s easy to get this information from public sources, such as a telephone book.

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The UNIX file system The UNIX operating system has a hierarchical design for storing files. The file system is arranged as an inverted tree. Commands that allow you to move around in the tree are explained later in this chapter. The top of this inverted tree structure is a directory called root; it contains files and more directories. All directories and files in the tree have a unique name. The name of the top directory in the UNIX hierarchy is pronounced “root” and is written as a forward slash (/). Directories for users are organized into subdirectories of root. On many UNIX systems (including those at NCAR), these directories are named un where n is a number such as 0, 1, or 2. When you log in, you are automatically placed in a subdirectory referred to as your home directory. By UNIX convention, your home directory has the same name as your login id. Within your home directory, you may store files and create other subdirectories to hold more files and more subdirectories. This hierarchical structure allows you to organize your files into related groups. Figure 1. The hierarchical file system

/ u1

root directory

...

bin

u0

home directories jones project1 test.f

...

smith jobs

text.c

doc

...

file1

...

UNIX filenaming conventions UNIX filenames and directory names may be up to 255 characters in length. However, some versions of UNIX allow a maximum of 14 characters. Therefore, we recommend that you limit your filenames to no more than 14 characters. UNIX is case-sensitive; the uppercase letter A is interpreted as a different character from the lowercase letter a. Almost any set of characters is permissible, but you

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should note that several characters, such as the $ (dollar sign) and the " (double quotation mark) are special shell characters. Therefore, we recommend that you use filenames containing just letters (uppercase or lowercase), numbers, the . (period), and the _ (underscore).

Using pathnames A filename that indicates branch nodes is called a pathname. Because two different directories may contain files that have the same name, when you refer to a filename in UNIX, you must specify the pathname to make clear which file and which branch you mean. You may indicate a filename or directory in two ways: 1.

An absolute pathname starts at the root directory.

2.

A relative pathname starts from the directory in which you are currently working (known as the current working directory).

Slashes within a pathname are delimiters between directories and filenames. No spaces are allowed within a pathname. Wherever a filename is required in a UNIX command, you may use a pathname and it may be either a relative or an absolute pathname. Absolute pathnames An absolute pathname always starts at the root directory (/). Thus, whenever you see a UNIX pathname that starts with a / (slash), it is an absolute pathname. (When saying the full pathname of a file, the initial slash is pronounced “slash,” rather than “root.”) Here’s an example of an absolute pathname: /u1/jones/project1/test.f Here, test.f is a file in a directory called project1, which is in a directory called jones, which is in a directory called u1, which is in root. This is the absolute pathname of the file test.f. Relative pathnames If a pathname does not begin with a /, then it is a relative pathname. If you log in as “jones”, you are placed in the directory called jones, your home directory. You could then refer to the test.f file using its relative pathname: project1/test.f If you change your current directory to the project1 directory (we’ll show you how later), then you can refer to the file by its name: test.f

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The “dot” files In every directory, there are two special directory files named . (pronounced “dot”) and .. (“dot dot”) that you can use to help build relative pathnames for files. The . directory file refers to the current directory. The .. directory file refers to the next higher directory, known as the parent directory. For example, suppose you log in as “jones,” and there are two subdirectories, project1 and jobs, in your home directory. You could refer to the file test.f in the project1 directory as: ./project1/test.f The dot is a way to say to UNIX to “start here” to search for a file. If you were currently in the jobs subdirectory, you could refer to the file test.f in the project1 directory as: . ./project1/test.f As you become more comfortable with UNIX, you will find that the concepts behind pathnames are easy to visualize and, with a little practice, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without the .. shortcut. The tilde in the C shell The C shell allows the use of the ~ (tilde) character as a substitution for the home directory of any UNIX user, including yourself; for example, ~jones refers to the home directory for the jones login id. Therefore, you could refer to the file test.f as: ~jones/project1/test.f

System file organization All files on UNIX-based computers are organized in the root directory and its subdirectories. This section introduces you to the locations of some files you will use when you are logged in. Command directories Commands you use during your computing session are commonly located in one of the following directories: /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin The /bin and /usr/bin directories contain various system commands. For example, various compiler commands are located in /bin. The /usr/local/bin directory

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contains local commands that probably aren’t available on other UNIX computers. For example, commands to access local printers or other site-specific equipment are generally located in this directory. Home directories for users When you log in to a UNIX computer, you are placed in your home directory. For example, if your login id is smith, your home directory path might be /u1/smith. Library directories Software libraries on UNIX systems are usually located in one of these directories: /lib /usr/lib /usr/local/lib The /lib and /usr/lib directories are usually reserved for vendor-supported system libraries, and the /usr/local/lib directory usually contains libraries specific to the local site. System directories There are other directories and files in the root directory that are mainly used by the UNIX system. You generally do not use these other directories.

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Determining your current directory with pwd At times, we all wonder where we are in the UNIX directory structure (tree). The command to print to the screen the pathname of the current working directory is: pwd The system responds with the absolute pathname up to and including the directory where you currently are.

Example 6: When you enter the pwd command to see the pathname for your current directory, your screen displays something like:

% pwd /u1/jones/project1

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Listing the contents of a directory with ls The ls command lists the names of the files and subdirectories in the current directory. You may also list specific files in a directory by typing: ls options filename1 filename2 The most common options to the ls command are: -l

Produces a “long” listing for each file (and subdirectory) in this directory. This listing includes the total number of files in the directory, each file’s permissions, owner, size, date and time of last modification, and filename.

-a

Includes in its listing all files that begin with . (dot). By default, ls ignores files that begin with a dot.

-F

Adds a character to the filename signifying the type of file: a trailing / (slash) indicates that the file is a subdirectory; a trailing * (asterisk) indicates that the file is executable (see the examples on the next page). Note that the characters are not a part of the file’s name; they are displayed so you can easily identify various types of files in your directories.

If you do not specify a filename on the command line, ls lists all the files in the current directory.

Example 7: To get a simple list of the contents of the current directory:

% ls bin %

file1

project1

project2

rje

Example 8: An example of the same listing, but using the -F option; shows files that are directories or that are executable.

% ls -F bin/ %

file1*

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project1/

project2/

rje/

Basic UNIX Guide

Example 9: To list the dot files in the current directory: % ls -a . .. .cshrc %

.login .ntwkparms bin

file1 project1 project2

rje

Example 10: To get a “long” listing of the contents of the current directory: % ls -l total 5 drwxr-xr-x -rwxr--r-x drwxr-xr-x drwxr-xr-x drwxrwxrwx %

2 2 7 2 2

jones jones jones jones jones

512 2695 512 512 512

Feb Mar Feb Feb Mar

28 22 20 20 13

12:04 10:31 15:17 12:50 16:02

bin file1 project1 project2 rje

The first field of each line in Example 10 shows the permissions set for that particular file and whether the file is a directory. (File permissions are explained later in this chapter.) You also see the owner of the file or directory (column 3), the size of the file in bytes (column 4), and the date and time the file was created or last modified (columns 5, 6, and 7). The last word on each line is the name of the file or directory. You can also combine options, such as asking for a long listing that includes the dot files of the current directory: ls -la

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Useful UNIX commands 23

Changing directories with cd To change to another directory, use the cd command: cd pathname This places you in the directory indicated by pathname. Pathnames can be relative or absolute. See “The UNIX file system” earlier in this chapter for a complete discussion of pathnames. If you type the cd command without a pathname, you will be returned to your home directory, regardless of your current location.

Example 11: If jones is your home directory, to move into the project2 subdirectory, type: cd project2 The current working directory is now project2. Figure 2. The file structure of the jones home directory

jones project1 test.f

text.c

project2

file1

...

Example 12: To move from the project2 directory and into the project1 directory, type: cd ../project1 To return to the jones home directory, type: cd

24 Useful UNIX commands

Basic UNIX Guide

Looking at a file with more The more command lets you scroll through the contents of a file, one screenful at a time. The syntax for the more command is: more filename At the end of each page displayed, more displays the --More-- prompt. Press the SPACEBAR to see the next page or view additional text by typing any of the more subcommands. The following table lists some of the common more subcommands. Table 2: more subcommands Command

Description

SPACEBAR

When viewing a file, displays the next screenful of the file

xRETURN

When viewing a file, displays x more lines

h

When viewing a file, displays help information

f

Skips the next screenful of the file

/string

Searches forward for the next occurrence of string and displays that screen

q

Allows you to leave more

The more command is not always part of System V UNIX systems, but it is on the SCD UNIX computers. Other commands for viewing files are pg, less, and cat. The pg command is documented on the next page. See the pg, less, and cat man pages for more information.

Example 13: To look at the contents of a file named file1: more file1 The contents of file1 are displayed on the screen a page at a time.

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Looking at a file with pg The pg command, which stands for page, displays a file on your screen, a screenful at a time. The syntax of the pg command is: pg options filename See the man page for the list of options. The pg command has subcommands that allow you to move forward and backward and to search among the pages of your file. After you invoke the pg command, it displays a : (colon) prompt at the bottom of the screen where you type the subcommands. Some of the most commonly used pg subcommands are listed on the table below. Table 3: pg subcommands Command

Description

RETURN

Displays the next screenful of the file

n

Moves to screen n

xl

Begins the screenful at line x

h

Displays help information

$

Goes to the last screenful of the file

f

Skips the next screenful of the file

/string

Searches forward for the next occurrence of string and displays that screen

?string

Searches backward for the last occurrence of string and displays that screen

q

Quits pg

The pg command is not always part of BSD UNIX systems, but it is on the SCD UNIX computers. Other commands for viewing files are more, less, and cat. The more command is documented on the previous page. See the more, less, and cat man pages for more information.

Example 14: To look at the contents of a file named file3 one page at a time, type: pg file3

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Copying files with cp To make a copy of a file, use the cp command: cp old_pathname new_pathname Be sure to use a unique filename. If the new filename matches the name of an existing file in the same directory, UNIX will replace the existing file with the new file. When a file is copied, the original file remains unchanged. The new file will be owned by you and will have the current date/time stamp as its time of origin.

Example 15: In the project1 directory, to make a copy of test.f and name it test1.f, type: cp test.f test1.f

Figure 3. The file structure showing the new file test1.f

jones project1 test.f

Version 1.0, August 1993

text.c

project2

file1

test1.f

Useful UNIX commands 27

Renaming files and directories with mv To change the name of a file or directory in UNIX, you move it from one name to another (that is, rename it) using the mv command: mv old_pathname new_pathname You can move a file from one directory to another this way.

Example 16: In the current working directory, to rename file1 to datafile, use relative pathnames by typing: mv file1 datafile

Example 17: Here is one way to move test.f from the project1 to the project2 directory. First, change directories to project1, then use a relative pathname for old_pathname and an absolute pathname for new_pathname: cd project1 mv test.f /u1/jones/project2/test.f Figure 4. The file structure after test.f is moved to directory project2

jones project1

project2

test.c

test.f

file1

Or, after changing to project1 directory, use fewer keystrokes by using .., the system file that refers to the next higher directory, and specify only the destination directory without the filename; mv uses the same filename it already has. The mv command is: mv test.f ../project2

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Removing files with rm To remove (delete) files from a UNIX directory, use the rm command with this syntax: rm options filename(s) The rm command permanently deletes a file from the UNIX system. Three options you can use with rm are: -i

Causes rm to prompt you with a message to make sure that you really want to remove the file.

-f

Tells rm not to send you any error messages (ignore any error conditions) and to remove the file if possible. You might use this option when you are deleting a list of files and you aren’t sure whether all of the listed files exist.

-r

Tells rm to remove files recursively. This option is generally used when you want to remove all the files in a subdirectory and then remove the subdirectory itself. Notice that this is a powerful option; it removes everything in the subdirectory tree under your current working directory! If you want to use the -r option, we recommend that you use it in combination with -i, so you will be asked about the removal of each file.

Example 18: To remove the files named file3 and data from your current directory: rm file3 data

Example 19: You want rm to check with you before removing the file named data: rm -i data If you do not answer the prompt with a lowercase y (for “yes”), the rm command does not delete the file. Your screen display would look like this: % rm -i data data: ? y %

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File protection and permissions Each file has a permissions structure that allows read, write, and execute permission for three different categories of users. UNIX treats directories as special files that have the same permissions structure. File permissions can be displayed using the ls -l command. File permissions are displayed in a 10-character string such as: drwxrwxrwx or— -rwxr-xr-The first character is either a d or a - (hyphen). The d denotes that this file is a directory; - (hyphen) denotes that it is a file other than a directory. Next, the three characters, r, w, and x, refer to the read, write, and execute permissions of the user who owns the file (see Figure 6, below). The next set of three characters indicates the access permissions of the group of users associated with the file, and the last three characters show the access permissions for all other UNIX users. In these three sets of three characters, a hyphen denotes that the type of permission associated with that position in the display is not granted. Figure 5. Sample file permission fields

d r w x r - x r - x

directory (d) or file (-)

user permissions

group permission

all others’ permissions

Read, write, and execute permissions mean different things for files and for directories, as detailed in the following table.

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Table 4: File and directory permissions Permission

Abbreviation

File

Directory

read

r

may be read, copied or printed

filenames in that directory may be listed

write

w

may be modified

files in that directory may be created and deleted (regardless of owner and permissions on the file!)

execute

x

needed to execute file (such as shell scripts or compiled programs)

directory is usable in a pathname and searchable by UNIX utilities

Caution

Note that the ability to delete a file is a permission associated with directories, not with files themselves. When a subdirectory has write permission, files within it may be deleted, regardless of the file permission. Be careful about assigning write permission for others on your subdirectories.

Default permissions The default file creation mode is set with the umask command in your shell’s login script file. You’ll learn about this file in Chapters 4 and 5. For UNIX computers in SCD at NCAR, the initial default permissions are set to read, write, and execute permission for the owner and read and execute permission for the group and others (umask 022).

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Changing file permissions with chmod Only the owner of a file or directory can modify the permissions of that file or directory. The chmod command (which stands for “change mode”) is used to change permissions for a given file or directory. The syntax for the chmod command is: chmod mode filename where mode has the format: who_operator_permission The who part of the mode can be one or any combination of: u User permission g Group permission o Others permission The operator part of the mode can be either: + Adds permission Subtracts permission The permission part of the mode can be one or any combination of: r Read permission w Write permission x Execute permission Multiple modes can be specified if they are separated by commas and no spaces are included. For files to which other users have linked (using the ln command), permissions are set by the owner of the file and users linked to it may perform functions according to those file permissions.

Example 20: Remove write permission for group and others from a file called data: chmod go-w data

Example 21: Add group write permission to the file data, and remove all permissions for others: chmod g+w,o-rwx data

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Creating new directories with mkdir To create a subdirectory, use the mkdir command, which stands for “make directory.” The syntax is: mkdir pathname The pathname may be either an absolute pathname or a relative pathname.

Example 22: To create a new subdirectory named project3 in the current working directory, the command to type is: mkdir project3

Figure 6. The file structure with a new directory project3

jones project1 test.f

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project2

project3

file1

text.c

Useful UNIX commands 33

Removing directories with rmdir To remove (delete) a directory, use the rmdir command. The syntax is: rmdir pathname This removes the directory indicated by pathname. The directory to be removed must be empty. To make sure a directory is empty, you can list the files in it with the ls command, using the -a option. If the directory contains files, you need to move them or delete them before you can use the rmdir command. (However, you do not need to remove the files named . and .. from the directory.) We recommend that you change to the parent directory of the directory you want to remove, before using the rmdir command. This method helps you keep track of exactly which directory you are removing.

Example 23: To remove the project2 directory, change to the directory just above it (the parent directory) and type: rmdir project2 Figure 7. The file structure without the directory project2

jones project1 test.f

34 Useful UNIX commands

project3

file1

text.c

Basic UNIX Guide

Searching contents of files with grep The grep command (global search for a regular expression) examines the contents of a file (or files) for lines that contain strings that match a certain pattern you specify. The syntax is: grep options "pattern" filename1 filename2 Here are two useful options: -i

Ignores difference between upper- and lowercase characters.

-n

Lists line numbers where match is found.

See the grep man page for additional options.

Example 24: The simplest use of grep is to look for a pattern within one file. To look for the pattern “error listing” in the file called output, you would type: grep "error listing" output Any lines containing “error listing” will then be displayed on the screen. If no matches are found, your screen will show the shell prompt, ready for your next command.

Example 25: This example uses grep as a filter, so that only those lines of the input files containing the “pattern” will be sent to your screen. (Chapter 5 provides details on the use of filters and pipes.) To search for the pattern “Aug” in the output from a long listing (ls -l) of a directory, you would type: ls -l | grep "Aug" The ls -l part of the command line is executed first. The output from the ls -l command is then piped (|) to grep, which searches the output for any lines that contains “Aug”. The output from this command line might look like this: drwxr-xr-x -rwxr--r-x drwxr-xr-x

2 2 7

jones jones jones

Version 1.0, August 1993

512 Aug 28 12:04 bin 512 Aug 22 10:3l file1 512 Jun 20 12:50 Augusta.GA

Useful UNIX commands 35

Multiple users accessing files with ln The ln command allows many users to access a single copy of a file. As well as conserving disk space, the ln function provides an easy way to update information in a file that is accessed by many users. A good example of this is a data file, updated regularly, and accessed by many users within one work group. With the ln (link) command, a directory entry is added for each user who links to a file. The command syntax is similar to the cp command, and you may use the same or a different name for the linked file. When creating a link to a file, the new reference to the file retains the original ownership and the original date/time stamp. Even if the file owner removes the file, the file and the links to it will continue to exist until all links to it in the system have been removed. Read the section on the chmod command in this chapter to learn how to designate the permissions other users, linked to one of your files, have for that file.

Example 26: In the project2 directory of jones, to create a directory entry named my_data that links to the file data in the smith subdirectory projectb, type: ln ~smith/projectb/data my_data

Figure 8. The file structure showing the link to smith’s file named data

jones

test.f

text.c

project1

project2

test1.f

my_data

36 Useful UNIX commands

smith file1

projecta

projectb data

Basic UNIX Guide

Transferring files with rcp You can use the UNIX rcp command (remote copy) to copy files between UNIX computers. The rcp command is one of the TCP/IP applications. To use rcp, the computers involved in the transfer must meet these requirements: (1) they must both support rcp, (2) they must be connected to the Internet, (3) the computer that is the target of the rcp command must have a file in its home directory named .rhosts. This file must contain a line that references the computer from which you are issuing the rcp command and your login id on that computer, and (4) the .cshrc file on the local computer must not have any input/output in it, such as an echo command. See your system administrator if you need more information on these requirements. Note

For security, file permission for the .rhosts file should be set to read and write for the owner only. Execute permission should not be set at all. For more information about setting file permissions, see the chmod command in this chapter or the chmod man page.

When you use rcp, the file you are copying is specified first, and the new destination and new name of the file is specified second. The filename on the remote computer must always include the name of the computer (hostname) followed by a colon (:) preceding the pathname of the file itself. To copy a file from a remote computer to your local computer and place the file in your current working directory, the syntax is: rcp hostname:pathname newfile To copy a file from your local computer to a remote computer, the syntax is: rcp pathname hostname:newfile The rcp command assumes a path relative to your home directory on the remote computer unless you specify an absolute pathname.

When login ids are different If your login id for the remote computer is different from your login id for the local computer, you need to include the login id along with the name of the computer to which you are copying the file with the rcp command. See the examples on the next page. If the syntax in the examples don’t work on the UNIX computers you are using, consult the system administrator. Some rcp packages use different syntax.

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Caution

On a UNICOS computer (such as shavano at NCAR), do not use rcp in long-running batch jobs because if the job is interrupted, the job cannot be restarted reliably.

Example 27: User “jones” is logged on to a local computer, and is in the directory where the file named proposal resides. To copy proposal to the home directory on a computer named thunder.uiuc.edu and rename it prop.0621: rcp proposal thunder.uiuc.edu:prop.0621 If “jones” must use the login id “jjj” on thunder, the syntax would be: rcp proposal [email protected]:prop.0621

Example 28: User “jones” is logged on to a local computer. To copy the file named cloud from the remote computer thunder to the local computer and call it cloud9 in the current directory, jones would type: rcp thunder.uiuc.edu:cloud cloud9 If “jones” must use the login id “jjj” on thunder, the syntax would be: rcp [email protected]:cloud cloud9

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Transferring files with ftp The ftp command is the user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You can use the ftp command to transfer files between your local computer and a remote computer if both computers have access to the Internet, support the FTP application, and have TCP/IP communications software. There are some small differences in the version of ftp on different computers. If the instructions outlined here don’t work on your particular computer, see the ftp instructions for that computer.

Opening an FTP connection 1.

Establish a connection with the remote computer using an ftp command that follows this format: ftp remote_computer The remote_computer may be either the Internet name (such as ftp.ucar.edu) or the Internet Protocol (IP) node number (such as 128.117.64.4) of the computer with which you want to connect.

2.

After establishing the connection, ftp prompts you to enter a login id and a password.

3.

After the login and password are accepted, you will get an FTP prompt, which is usually ftp>. You can then start the file transfer process.

4.

To end the FTP session, use either the quit or bye command.

Transferring files Use the get command to retrieve a file from a remote computer: get remotefile localfile This transfers a copy of remotefile from the remote computer and places it on your local computer as localfile. If you do not specify localfile, the file on your computer will have the same filename as it has on the remote computer. Use the put command to transfer a file from your local computer to a remote computer: put localfile remotefile This transfers a copy of localfile to the remote computer and places it on the remote computer as remotefile. If you do not specify remotefile, the file on the remote computer will have the same filename as it has on your local computer.

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Transferring binary files When transferring a binary file (such as a graphics metafile), you must first set the file transfer type to binary within the FTP session, using the binary command. To reset the transfer type to ascii (text files) after the binary file has been transferred, use the ascii command. For example, to retrieve a binary file and then retrieve an ascii file, the command sequence would follow this format: binary get binary_filename ascii get ascii_filename

Additional ftp commands Other useful FTP commands include mget (multiple “gets” with one command), mput (multiple “puts”), help, cd (change directory), and ls (list files). For more information on the ftp command, see its man page. For site-specific information on FTP at NCAR, see the SCD UserDoc, “Using FTP for File Transfer at NCAR.” Documentation ordering information is on the last page of this manual.

Using anonymous FTP accounts FTP is also used to share files with other users on the Internet through anonymous FTP accounts. These accounts allow anyone on the Internet who can access the host computer via FTP to download files without requiring that the user have an account, a password, or operator assistance. SCD uses an anonymous FTP account to make some user documentation available. Directions for using this account are on the last page of this manual.

Caution

Do not use ftp commands in batch jobs you are submitting to a UNICOS computer (such as shavano at NCAR). If either computer is down, the whole job will hang.

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Example 29: A user with the login id of “jones” wants to FTP a copy of a program named my.prog from the current directory on the local computer to the jones home directory on meeker.ucar.edu and give it the name jones.prog. Then, jones wishes to retrieve the prog8912 file from meeker and place it in the current directory on the local computer. The system prompt for the local computer is % (percent sign). The FTP prompt is ftp>. This is how the FTP session would appear: % ftp meeker.ucar.edu Connected to meeker.ucar.edu 220 meeker FTP server (Version 4.162 Mon Jun 18 16:39:52 MST 1990) ready. Name (meeker:jones) : jones 331 Password required for jones. Password: 230 User jones logged in, access restrictions apply. ftp> put my.prog jones.prog 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening data connection for jones.prog (ascii mode) (3318 bytes). 3384 bytes transferred in .22 seconds (15 Kbytes/s) ftp> get prog8912 200 PORT command successful. 150 Opening data connection for prog8912 (ascii mode) (31256 bytes). 32001 bytes transferred in .54 seconds (58 Kbytes/s) ftp> quit 221 Goodbye. %

Note

The messages you see on your screen may vary from this example, depending on the FTP package installed on your local system.

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Useful UNIX commands 41

Additional UNIX commands The table below introduces a few more UNIX commands that you may find useful. To get more information on any UNIX command, see its man page. Also, Appendix A lists several UNIX books. Table 5: Additional UNIX commands Command

Description

ps

Allows you to monitor the status of UNIX processes; provides the PID (process identifier) for every process currently running and owned by you.

kill

Sends a signal to a UNIX process. To terminate a currently running process, type: kill -9 PID where PID is the process number you obtained from the ps command. You cannot kill a process that you do not own.

file

Allows you to see the type of file; type file followed by the filename: file filename This command is useful for determining whether a particular file is editable; that is, whether it contains ASCII text or binary data.

find

Allows you to search a directory hierarchy for a file by name or other characteristic, such as type, owner, permission, and so forth. Use the -print option to list what is found.

diff

Allows you to determine whether two files are different from one another and how they differ. Reading the output from the diff command is a little tricky and you may want to redirect it to a file so you can print and study the results.

comm

Allows you to find lines in common between two files (opposite of diff).

head

Allows you to view the beginning of a file. By default, head displays 10 lines; you can specify the number of lines to display.

tail

Allows you to display the end of a file (the opposite of head). By default, tail displays 10 lines; you can specify the number of lines to display.

who

Lists all current users on the system.

wc

Counts characters, words, and lines in a file.

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Chapter 3

Basic vi editor commands

Contents Table 1: Basic vi commands 45

Advantages of the vi editor 47 Basic vi rules 47

Invoking the vi editor 48 Exiting the editor 49 Paging and moving around in the file 50 Inserting text 51 Deleting text 52 Replacing and changing text 54 Copying and moving text within a file 56 Copying and moving text between files 58 Searching text 60 Changing your vi editor environment 61

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Basic vi editor commands This chapter introduces you to the basic vi editor commands listed on Table 1. For information on additional vi commands, see the recommended books in Appendix A. Table 1: Basic vi commands Command

Description

Creating and editing a file vi filename

Invokes the vi editor for filename

Moving around in the file CONTROL-f

Moves forward a screenful

CONTROL-b

Moves backward a screenful

CONTROL-u

Moves up one-half screenful

CONTROL-d

Moves down one-half screenful

nG

Moves cursor to nth line of file

G

Moves cursor to the last line of file

h

Moves cursor one character to the left

j

Moves cursor one line down

k

Moves cursor one line up

l

Moves cursor one character to the right The h, j, k, and l commands can be preceded by a number that specifies how many times to repeat the command.

Inserting and deleting text i

Inserts text before the cursor

I

Inserts text at beginning of current line

a

Appends text after the cursor

A

Appends text at end of current line

o

Opens a line after the line cursor is on and begins insert mode

O

Opens a line before the line cursor is on and begins insert mode

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UNIX editors 45

Table 1: Basic vi commands (continued)

ESCAPE

Changes from insert mode to command mode

ndd

Deletes the line the cursor is on, n indicates number of times to repeat

ndw

Deletes word to right of cursor; n indicates number of times to repeat

x

Deletes the character the cursor is on

D

Deletes from cursor to the end of the line

Replacing and changing text rx

Replaces the character the cursor is on with x

ns

Replaces n number of characters from cursor forward

ncw

Changes n number of current words from cursor forward

ncc

Changes n number of current lines from cursor forward

Copying and moving text nyy or nY

Yanks (copies) n lines of text

p

Puts yanked (copied) text below line cursor is on

P

Puts yanked (copied) text above line cursor is on

"anyy

Yanks and copies to buffer a n lines of text

"anY

Yanks and copies to buffer a n lines of text (same as "anyy)

"ap

Puts text currently in buffer a below line cursor is on

"aP

Puts text currently in buffer a above line cursor is on

Searching text /string

Searches forward for string

?string

Searches backward for string

/RETURN

Repeats search for string from previous search

N

Reverses order of searching

Exiting the editor and writing the file :w

Writes the file without exiting the editor

:wq

Writes the file and exits (quits) the editing session

:q!

Quits the editing session without saving changes

ZZ

Writes the file and exits the editing session

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Advantages of the vi editor The standard UNIX screen editor is called vi, which stands for “visual editor.” While there are other editors available on some UNIX systems, we recommend that you learn the vi editor because it is a part of all UNIX operating systems and usable on any type of terminal. The vi editor is efficient, powerful, and flexible. It also has some ability to recover your file if there is a computer crash. Unlike many screen editors, the vi editor does not rely on function keys specific to a particular terminal. Instead, it supports a set of keys to simulate function keys found on some terminal keyboards. This chapter starts you off with a set of essential vi editing commands. Several books devoted to the vi editor are listed in Appendix A.

Basic vi rules • All work is done in a buffer and only written to disk when you save the file. • If the file already exists, a copy is brought up on your screen for editing when you invoke vi. If the file doesn’t exist, a blank screen is brought up for editing. • There are two modes of operation within vi: command mode and insert mode. These modes are explained in detail later in this chapter. • When in doubt about which mode you are in, press the ESCAPE key. This returns you to command mode. • All vi commands are case sensitive, so make sure your CAPS LOCK key is not set.

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UNIX editors 47

Invoking the vi editor To invoke the editor, type: vi filename If filename already exists, a copy of it is brought into the editor’s temporary buffer space, and you can then edit this file copy as needed. If the named file does not exist, then the editor creates a file in its buffer space for you. Once you are in the editor, there are two modes of operation: command mode and insert mode. Initially, you will be in command mode and will have to tell the editor what you want to do: insert or delete text, search, move the cursor to another place, and so on. Each of these activities has a key defined as that function. When you press the key, it does not appear on the screen; the editor just does whatever that function that key represents (this will take a little getting used to). We describe some of these letter commands on the pages that follow.

Example 1: When a file named junk already exists, and you type: vi junk The screen displays something like: Junk file begins here. More text here - line 2 More text here - line 3 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "junk" 3 lines, 70 characters

This is the contents of the file named junk. The cursor position is indicated by an _ (underscore). A ~ (tilde) character at the beginning of a line indicates that the line doesn’t exist. A new file looks similar, but since it doesn’t contain anything, there are tildes at the beginning of every line you see on your screen. As with the above file, the cursor is positioned at the beginning of the file.

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Exiting the editor To exit your file, first you need to decide whether to save or discard the changes you made to the file. Saving the changes writes the temporary buffer copy of the file to a disk file. If you don’t want to save the changes, you can exit the editor and discard the temporary buffer. There are three ways to save the changes made to a file: :w

Writes the editor’s buffer to the permanent disk file without exiting the editor. Do this periodically to save your work—vi uses the filename you gave when you started the editor.

:wq

Writes the buffer into the filename you gave when you started the editor and exits the editor.

ZZ

Same as :wq. Writes the buffer into the filename you gave when you started the editor and exits the editor.

When you type the colon commands, the colon and your command appear in the lower left of your screen. When you press RETURN, the command is executed. To exit the editor without saving any changes, use the command: :q!

Discards the buffer and exits the editor. The text file is still just like it was when you entered the editor (or since the last time you entered :w).

Example 2: Here’s an example of how the screen appears when you are in the editor and you type in the command to write the file and quit the editor. Junk file text begins here. more text here ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ :wq "junk" 2 lines, 25 characters

Notice that :wq is entered as a command at the bottom of the screen. Then, when you press RETURN, the buffer contents are written to the file you named when you invoked vi (in this example the file is named junk) and you are returned to the shell prompt.

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Paging and moving around in the file Commands for scrolling forward and backward in your file are done by holding down the CONTROL key and pressing a letter key at the same time. Some of the most commonly used ones are: CONTROL-f

Moves forward a screenful

CONTROL-b

Moves backward a screenful

CONTROL-u

Moves up one-half screen

CONTROL-d

Moves down one-half screen

Two other helpful positioning commands are: 1G

Moves cursor to the beginning of the file; nG moves the cursor to the beginning of the nth line of the file

G

Moves cursor to the last line of the file

To move the cursor around within the text, the arrow keys are usually used, but these are actually function keys specific to your terminal. These arrow keys may do the job with vi, but they also may not, depending upon your terminal type. An alternate form of cursor movement uses character keys as follows: h

Moves cursor to the left one character for each time h is pressed

l

Moves cursor to the right one character for each l

j

Moves cursor down one line for each j

k

Moves cursor up one line for each k

RETURN

Moves the cursor down one line for each time RETURN is pressed, and positions the cursor at the beginning of each line

If you precede any one of these cursor-moving commands by a number, it affects the number of lines (for up and down movement) or columns (for left and right movement) that the cursor moves. For example: 10k

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Moves the cursor up 10 lines (counting the one where it is currently positioned)

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Inserting text You need to tell the editor when you want to enter insert mode before you can insert text. There are several different ways to do this. i

Inserts text before the cursor

I

Inserts text at beginning of current line

a

Appends text after the cursor

A

Appends text at end of current line

o

Opens a line below the cursor and begins insert mode

O

Opens a line above the cursor and begins insert mode

Once you are in insert mode, everything you type is entered as text into the file. You will stay in insert mode until you press ESCAPE (the escape key), which takes you out of that mode. One of the frustrating things that happens to people who are new to vi is that they often forget they are in insert mode and when they want to move around in the file, they type the movement command characters into the text. For instance, if you are inserting text and need to move forward to the next page, you must press ESCAPE before you use CONTROL-f to move forward. If you don’t press ESCAPE, the CONTROL-f characters become part of your text. If you don’t remember which mode you are in, press: ESCAPE If you are in insert mode, this puts you in command mode; if you are already in command mode, you stay there—the keystroke doesn’t change anything. (The terminal may “beep,” but there is no problem.) As you are entering text, remember that BACKSPACE or DELETE erases one character at a time to the left of the cursor, provided your UNIX environment is properly set. See your system administrator if neither of these keys erases backwards.

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Deleting text Deleting text can be done by line, word, or character. Here are the commonly used deletion commands. dd

Deletes the line the cursor is on

dw

Deletes the word the cursor is on; starts from the cursor and deletes to the end of the word

x

Deletes the character the cursor is on

D

Deletes everything from the cursor to the end of the line

It is easy to delete multiple lines, words, or characters. The dd, dw, and x commands may be preceded by a number that specifies how many times the command is to be executed. See the examples below.

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Example 3: 7dd

Deletes 7 lines, including the line the cursor is on

9dw

Deletes 9 words, including the word the cursor is on

12x

Deletes 12 characters, starting with the character the cursor is on

dd

Deletes the current line

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Replacing and changing text To replace or change text in vi, use the change commands listed below. r

Replaces the character the cursor is on with the next single character you type

s

Replaces the character the cursor is on with whatever sequence of characters you type—until you press ESCAPE

cw

Changes the current word (from the cursor position to the end of the word) to whatever sequence of characters you type—until you press ESCAPE

cc

Changes the current line to whatever sequence of characters you type—until you press ESCAPE

You may change multiple words, characters, or lines by typing a number in front of the command. To change the current word and the next two words, you would type 3cw; to change four characters, you would type 4s.

Example 4: To change the word “Junk” to “Trash,” position the cursor at the beginning of “Junk” (the cursor position is indicated by the underline). When you enter the command to change the word, the last character of the word is displayed as a $ (dollar sign). From that point, everything you type will be the new word, until you press ESCAPE. So in this example, after positioning the cursor and typing cw, a $ replaces the k in “Junk” to mark the end of the string being replaced. Jun$ file - line 3

Now, you type the new text (Trash) and press ESCAPE. The result is: Trash file - line 3

Notice that the cursor is positioned at the end of the changed word.

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Example 5: Changing an entire line is similar, except that when you give the command cc, the entire line is erased, leaving a blank line, and you are in insert mode. Again, the underline indicates where the cursor is during each part of the command. Junk file - line 5

<-(Line erased; insert mode at cursor position) Junk file - line 7

After you type the new text and press ESCAPE, the change appears as shown: Junk file - line 5 This is the new text to replace the old line. Junk file - line 7

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Copying and moving text within a file The yank and put commands (yy or Y and p or P) provide one way to copy and move text within your file. The delete command, dd, can also be used to delete text from one location and put it (with the p or P command) in another location. yy or Y

Yanks (copies to the buffer) one line of text

nyy or nY

Yanks (copies to the buffer) n lines of text

dd

Deletes (in reality, moves text to the buffer) one line of text

ndd

Deletes (in reality, moves text to the buffer) n lines of text

p

Puts last text yanked or deleted below line cursor is on

P

Puts last text yanked or deleted above line cursor is on

The yank method (yy or Y) copies the text, but does not remove it from its original location in the file. The delete method (dd) removes the text from its original location in the file. You may then place the copied or deleted text at a new location using put (p or P) at a new location in the text. Caution

Do not do any other editing between the yank or delete command and the put command, or you will lose the text that was in the buffer. Always follow this order: (1) yank or delete the text, (2) move the cursor to where you want to put the text, and (3) use a put command to insert the text. (You can always type :q! to exit the current editing session and preserve the file as it was before the current editing session started.)

If you want to copy text from one file to another or insert the same text at multiple locations in the file, you may yank it into a special buffer that remains unchanged during your current editing session. The vi editor maintains a set of lettered buffers for that purpose. These special buffers are explained in the next section, “Copying and moving text between files.”

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Example 6: You want to yank (copy) the first six lines in the following file and move them elsewhere in the same file. Move your cursor to anywhere in the first line to be yanked, and type the editing command: 6yy After a yank command, your screen will look like this: Here is a test file. It has several lines of text that can be moved around as needed. One way to move text is to use the yy (yank) command, followed by the put command. ~ ~ ~ ~ 6 lines yanked

(On most UNIX systems, if you yank fewer than five lines, the number of lines does not display at the bottom of your screen, even though they have been yanked into the buffer.) Move your cursor to anywhere in the line you want the yanked text to follow. Type a lowercase p: p and the resulting file will look like this: This is the spot in the file after which the yanked text is inserted. Here is a test file. It has several lines of text that can be moved around as needed. One way to move text is to use the yy (yank) command, ~ ~ ~ 6 more lines

If you don’t want the yanked text to be repeated both places in the file, go back to the original location of the yanked text and type: 6dd to delete those lines.

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Copying and moving text between files This section tells you how to copy and move text between files by using the lettered (a-z) buffers to store the text to be moved. You can use any letter for the designated buffer, and you can be using more than one lettered buffer during any editing session to store different pieces of text. The text remains in the buffer you assigned it to until you end the editing session. The first character in the commands listed here is " (double quotation mark). "ayy or "aY

Yanks and copies to buffer a one line of text

"anyy or "anY

Yanks and copies to buffer a n lines of text

"add

Deletes and stores in buffer a one line of text

"andd

Deletes and stores in buffer a n lines of text

"ap

Puts text currently in buffer a below the cursor line; a copy of the text also remains in buffer a

"aP

Puts text currently in buffer a above the cursor line; a copy of the text also remains in buffer a

You can also use this method to copy and move text within a file. Here are the additional editing commands you need to copy and move text between files. :w

Writes the editor’s buffer to the permanent disk file without exiting the editor

:e filename

Opens filename for editing

:e

Returns to the other currently open file for editing; used to toggle back and forth between files

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Example 7: You want to yank (copy) six lines from the file addendum and move them to the file manuscript1. You have already opened the file addendum with vi and made some editing changes. Type: :w to write any changes that are currently in the buffer to the file. To place the first six lines into buffer a move the cursor to anywhere in the first line to be moved and type: "a6yy To open the file manuscript1 (the file where you want to put the text), type: :e manuscript1 Move your cursor to anywhere in the line you want the text that is stored in buffer a to follow. Type: "ap The text from buffer a is placed below the line the cursor is on. A copy of the text also still remains in buffer a, so if you need to insert the same text again later in the file, you can do so by using another "ap command. Before you return to the other file, type: :w to write the changes you made to the file. To toggle back to the other file, type: :e If you have made any changes to the file, you must always enter a :w before you return to the other file.

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Searching text You can search a file for a string of text using one of these commands: /string

Searches forward for the next occurrence of string

?string

Searches backward for the preceding occurrence of string

To repeat the forward search, type / (slash), then RETURN, or press the n key. When you enter the /, the cursor moves to the bottom left corner of the screen until you press RETURN. If you continue to issue the command after you have searched through the entire file, the search starts over at the beginning of the file. To search backward, just type ? (question mark) followed by a RETURN. When you enter the ?, your cursor moves to the bottom left corner of the screen until you press RETURN. To continue the backward search, press the n key. If you continue to issue the command after you have searched through the entire file, the search starts over at the end of the file. To change the direction of a search, press the N (capital N) key; to change again, press the n (lowercase n) key. The vi search is case sensitive. To make the search commands insensitive to case, at the : (colon) vi prompt, type set ignorecase (or, set ic, for short). For more on the vi :set command, see the next section “Changing your vi editor environment.”

Example 8: To search a file for the string of characters “line 9,” type the search command and it appears in the lower left corner of the screen. Type the search string, then press RETURN; the command is executed and the search is on. : Junk file - line 8 Junk file - line 9 <-(cursor is here after search) Junk file - line 10 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ /line 9 <-(search command typed in)

When the string is found, the cursor is at the beginning of the string that was being searched for.

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Changing your vi editor environment You can modify your vi editing environment to suit your own needs in two ways: 1.

You can use :set commands within the vi editor to modify the editing environment for the current session only.

2.

You can use the .exrc file or setenv EXINIT variables to modify the editing environment for all vi editing.

See the vi man page for details about customizing your vi environment with these tools.

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Chapter 4

Getting started with the UNIX shell

Contents What is a shell? 65 What the shell does for you 65

The three common UNIX shells 66 The Bourne shell 66 The C shell 66 The Korn shell 67 Changing your UNIX shell 67 Changing shells for a single session 67 Changing your default shell for all sessions 68

What is a subshell? 68 Table 1: Features of the different shells 69

Shell initialization files 71 Bourne and Korn shell initialization files 71 C shell initialization files 72

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Getting started with UNIX shells What is a shell? The shell is your user interface to the UNIX operating system. The primary function of a UNIX shell is that of a command interpreter. When you type a UNIX command and press RETURN, the shell accepts that command, interprets it, and then makes a request to the UNIX operating system to execute the command. For you as the user, all this happens transparently. However, the shell actually interprets the shell-specific characters you type before passing your command on to the UNIX operating system. The special shell characters allow you to streamline the use of the standard UNIX commands and work more efficiently in the UNIX environment. After you log in to a UNIX system, the shell is the program the operating system first executes. When you receive the prompt, you are operating in what is referred to as your login shell; the prompt displayed on your screen is the shell prompt. The UNIX shell is a complete programming language, containing a rich set of control structures (including loops and conditional statements). Some shells also contain data types, arrays, and user-definable functions or procedures. These constructs may be used either interactively or from within a shell program (called a shell script). This chapter introduces you to three commonly used UNIX shells and their basic use. The following chapter, “Using the power of the UNIX shell,” discusses some of the more advanced features of shells, which will help you become more efficient in your use of UNIX.

What the shell does for you UNIX shells do many things for you in the process of executing commands. For instance, the shell can direct the output of a command to a file rather than display it on your terminal screen. The shell can also cause the output from one command to become the input for another command. These features are known as I/O redirection and are discussed in more detail in the next chapter. UNIX shells provide a wildcard capability when you type file and directory names. The UNIX shell interprets special wildcard characters and automatically expands names according to filename expansion rules. This gives you flexibility in searching for files and directories by certain patterns or when you are unsure of some characters in the name. Some UNIX shells maintain a list (or history) of commands you have recently executed. History mechanisms are useful features for an interactive command interpreter; they allow you to easily re-execute long instructions to the shell.

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The three common UNIX shells There are currently three UNIX shells that are in widespread use in the UNIX community: the Bourne, C, and Korn shells. Check with your system administrator to find out what shells are available on the UNIX system you are using, and which shell is the system’s default shell. For example, in the Scientific Computing Division at NCAR, the Bourne, C, and Korn shells are available on all UNIX systems and on the Cray supercomputers running under the UNICOS operating system. The C shell is the default shell for all these systems. All UNIX shells are command interpreters, but each has different characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. You need to choose which shell you want to use. Your choice will affect how commands are interpreted. Your choice of shell is subjective; your own preferences and the shell characteristics you need will be determining factors. You can alter the shell interface of any of the shells to suit your particular needs. To help you choose a shell, the three shells are described briefly in this chapter and their features are compared on Table 1. More detailed shell information is in the books listed in Appendix A.

The Bourne shell The Bourne shell is the original shell. It was named for Stephen Bourne, who wrote it while at Bell Laboratories. The Bourne shell has several features that lead to its popularity with users; one example is the Bourne shell’s independent handling of program output and error message output. It also has functions that allow you to define shortcuts for complex commands, including all of the Bourne shell’s powerful control constructs (such as if statements and loops). Some users prefer the Bourne shell as a scripting language over the C shell because of its efficiency, compactness, and signal-handling capability. One advantage of the Bourne shell is that it is the only UNIX shell found on every UNIX computer. One primary drawback of the Bourne shell is its lack of a mechanism that allows easy recall of previously-typed commands (known as a history mechanism and available in both the C and Korn shells). Also, the scheme for arithmetic expression evaluation is somewhat awkward.

The C shell The C shell was the second UNIX shell to be developed. It was written by Bill Joy while he was a computer science student at University of California at Berkeley. It was named for its syntactic similarity with the C programming language.

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The C shell is in widespread use in the UNIX community. One of the C shell’s chief advantages is the history mechanism, which allows easy recall of previously-typed commands. In fact, the history mechanism is the reason many users changed to the C shell from the Bourne shell. The C shell also has a feature called aliasing that allows you to define shortcuts for complex commands. (However, control constructs are not allowed within aliases.)

The Korn shell The Korn shell is the newest of the three UNIX shells discussed here. It was named after its author, David Korn of AT&T Bell Laboratories. The Korn shell’s programming language is a backward-compatible subset of the Bourne shell’s language, including shell functions and many other advanced features. The Korn shell has a history mechanism and a command aliasing capability. Command aliasing combined with other shell features allows great flexibility in customizing your environment. Some users feel that the Korn shell contains the best features of both the Bourne and C shells, and may someday grow to be the most popular shell in use. The disadvantage of the Korn shell is that until recently it has not been widely available. Currently, it can run on everything from a Sun workstation to a Cray supercomputer, but it must be licensed and installed separately from the UNIX operating system.

Changing your UNIX shell You can change your shell for the current login session or you can change your default shell for all subsequent sessions. Changing shells for a single session During a single login session, you may temporarily change to another shell and then revert back to the original shell you were using. For example, if you are using the C shell when you first log in, you may temporarily change to the Bourne shell for your current computing session by typing: sh after logging in. You will be placed in a Bourne subshell and have access to the Bourne shell commands and features. In order to log out of the computer, you must first log out of the Bourne subshell, then log out of the computer.

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Changing your default shell for all sessions You may permanently change your default shell for all subsequent login sessions. For example, to change your default login shell to the Korn shell, type: chsh your_login /bin/ksh at the shell prompt. Log out of the system and log in again. From this point on, you will be working in the Korn shell, your new default login shell.

What is a subshell? You just learned that at the command line you may type the name of another shell if you wish to use it temporarily. For example, if you normally work in the C shell, you may type ksh at the shell prompt to change to the Korn shell. How does UNIX switch you from one shell to another without interrupting operation or logging you out of the system? What actually happens is that UNIX places you into a subshell. This is pretty simple for you: you just see a different prompt that tells you that you’re now operating in a different shell. You have access to all the features and commands of the new subshell. Another example of using a subshell is when you execute a shell script. A shell script is a file containing UNIX commands that you can execute from the command line just by typing the name of the shell script file. A subshell is created whenever you run a shell script. The next chapter contains additional information about using shell scripts and executing commands within a subshell.

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Table 1: Features of the different shells Shell features

Bourne shell (sh)

C shell (csh)

Korn shell (ksh)

For/for each

X

X

X

If-then-else

X

X

X

Case/switch

X

X

X

While

X

X

X

Until

X

Control structures:

Select Built-in arithmetic

X X

X

X

X

Typed variables (fast arithmetic)

X

Arrays

X

X

X

X

Built-in substring manipulation

X

X

Command history

X

X

History editing

X

vi-like or emacs-like

Aliases

X

X

Built-in test/conditional

X

Shell functions

X

X

Control structs in alias/function

X

X

Alias/function passed to subshells

X

X

Filename substitution

X

Filename substring substitution

X

X

X

extended

Variable substitution

X

X

X

Command substitution

X

X

X

Nested command substitution

X

Co-processes

X

General signal handling

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X

signal 2 only

X

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Table 1. Features of the different shell (continued) Shell features

Bourne shell (sh)

C shell (csh)

Korn shell (ksh)

Redirect stderr & stdout independently

X

possible with an extra process

X

Redirect output of shell loop

X

Wait for all background jobs

X

X X

Wait for a particular background job User initialization files

X X

1

2

1 or 2

via signals

1

via signals

Directory stack

X

limited + aliases

Job control

X

X

Logout files

Compatibility

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sh

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Shell initialization files All UNIX shells have initialization files that are used to configure the environment when you log in. An initialization file is nothing more than a file containing UNIX and shell commands. Initialization files are sometimes referred to as dot files, since the first character in their filename is a dot (or period). Some of the operations typically performed by initialization files include: • Telling the shell which directories to search for commands and in what order to search them. • Configuring the environment to accurately reflect what type of terminal you are using, so that the editors and other programs that perform screen manipulation can do so correctly. • Defining shell functions and/or aliases as shortcuts for some of the commands you use frequently. • Defining shell variables that can (1) serve to define default option lists for some commands, or (2) serve as shortcuts for commonly used pieces of commands that do not change often. For example, this could be a list of libraries to be searched when compiling and linking Fortran or C programs. • Performing any task that you would like done each time you log in to the UNIX system.

Bourne and Korn shell initialization files The Bourne and Korn shells have two initialization files: the system file /etc/profile and a file named .profile in your home directory. When you log in, /etc/profile is read first and .profile is read second. The file /etc/profile is set up by the system administrator to perform generic operations and to prepare a default user environment; you cannot alter this file. The .profile file resides in your home directory and is owned by you; you may make changes in your .profile file to customize your own computing environment. A very simple example of .profile file, which works for both the Bourne and Korn shells, might look like this: PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/local/bin TERM=vt100 export PATH TERM ls() { /bin/ls -xF $* }

The first line defines your search path—directories to search for commands and order in which to search them. The second line defines your terminal type. The third line makes this information available for all other UNIX processes started

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from this shell during this login session. Your search path and your terminal type are global information for your environment. The last three lines of this example .profile define the shell function ls to add the -xF options. Adding the -x option to ls causes the files to be listed in columns across your screen; the -F option causes directories to be flagged with a / (slash) after the name and executable files to be flagged with a * (star) after the name. The $* (dollar star) means that any arguments you enter for the ls command will be placed here. Your .profile file is an ASCII text file that you may view, edit, or print. You may change the .profile file to customize your own computing environment. After you modify the file, you must type . .profile (dot-space-dot-profile) for the changes to take immediate effect.

C shell initialization files The C shell has two initialization files: .login and .cshrc, both residing in your home directory. On some UNIX systems there is a third system file: /etc/cshrc. If your system has /etc/cshrc, it is set up by the system administrator to perform generic operations and to prepare a default user environment for all users. If /etc/cshrc exists, it executes first when you log in, followed by .cshrc in your home directory. Finally, your .login file is executed after .cshrc. The .login file executes only once, at login time; however, every time you execute a C shell command, the shell searches the .cshrc file, and behaves according to instructions found in that file. This file is where you should put your shell aliases, so that they are interpreted by the C shell. A very simple example of .cshrc might look like this: #!/bin/csh set path = (/usr/ucb /bin /usr/local/bin .) alias ls '/bin/ls -al \!*'

In the C shell, the first line must be #!/bin/csh or simply a # (pound) sign with nothing else on the line. The second line defines your search path. The third line is an alias command that adds the -al options to the ls command every time it is executed. Recall that the -a option displays the hidden dot files as well as regular files and the -l option gives a long directory listing. The alias in your .cshrc file overrides the system ls command. The \!* means that any other arguments you enter for the ls command will be placed here. Caution

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The .cshrc file should not contain any commands that read from or write to a terminal. Also, it should not contain commands that configure a terminal (for example, the stty, tset, or resize commands). These operations should be in the .login file.

Basic UNIX Guide

A very simple example .login might look like this: #!/bin/csh umask 022 setenv TERM vt100

In the C shell, the first line must be #!/bin/csh or simply a # (pound) sign with nothing else on the line. The second line in the above example defines your default file permissions. The third line defines your terminal type. This example illustrates the use of UNIX environment variables. You may change the characteristics of your working environment by setting environment variables in your .login file. To learn more about environment variables, see the section “Environment variables,” in the next chapter. Your .login and .cshrc files are ASCII text files that you may view, edit, or print. You may change the .login and .cshrc files to customize your own computing environment. After you modify these files, you must type source .login or source .cshrc for the changes to take immediate effect.

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Chapter 5

Using the power of the UNIX shell

Contents Useful shell features 77 Table 1: Shell features 77 Table 2: Some C shell commands 78

What is a shell script? 79 Shell constructs 81

Filename expansion 83 The UNIX escape character 85 I/O redirection terminology 87 Standard I/O terminology 87

Redirection of standard output (stdout) 89 Append output redirection 89

Redirection of standard input (stdin) 90 The here document 90

Redirection of errors (stderr) 92 C shell 92 Bourne and Korn shells 92

Combining redirection techniques 93 Combining I/O redirection in the C shell 93 Combining I/O redirection in the Bourne and Korn shells 93

Pipes and filters 95 Environment variables 96 Setting an environment variable 96 Removing an environment variable 96 Viewing environment variables 97

Re-executing previous commands 98 Command history 98 Re-executing a selected command 98

Aliasing commands 100 Managing your jobs in the UNIX environment 102 Background execution 102 Changing from background to foreground execution 103 Changing from foreground to background execution 103 76 Using the UNIX shell

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Useful shell features Table 1: Shell features Shell Feature * ? [abc] < > >& 2> !str !n !! |

#!/bin/sh

#!/bin/csh #

#!/bin/ksh

Description Matches any character string Matches any single character Matches any single character in the list Redirects program input (stdin) to come from a file Redirects program output (stdout) to a file Redirects stdout and error messages (stderr) to a file when using the C shell Redirects error messages (stderr) to a file when using the Bourne shell Re-executes the last command that begins with str (C shell) Re-executes command number n in the history list (C shell) Re-executes previous command (C shell) Pipes (or connects) two commands so the output from the first becomes the input to the second In a shell script, specifies that the following script must run under the Bourne shell In a shell script, either choice specifies that the following script must run under the C shell

In a shell script, specifies that the following script must run under the Korn shell

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Example ls out.* ls model? ls c[ao] prgm < my.in.data ls > out.file ls >& error.file ls 2> error.file !mak !18 !! ls -l | grep August

#!/bin/sh (must be the first line of the script file) #!/bin/csh or # (must be the first line of the script file) #!/bin/ksh (must be the first line of the script file)

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Table 2: Some C shell commands Command setenv unsetenv env history alias alias unalias

Description Sets C shell environment variables for your login session Removes a C shell environment variable Displays C shell environment variable settings Lists recent C shell commands (default=24) Creates a short character string that stands for a long command line in the C shell Displays the aliases already set in the C shell Removes a specific alias from the C shell

78 Using the UNIX shell

Example setenv TERM vt100 unsetenv TERM env history alias ls 'ls -a' alias unalias ls

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What is a shell script? In general, a shell script is a program written to be interpreted by a shell. In its simplest form, it is nothing more than an executable file containing UNIX commands. More complex shell scripts can also define and use shell variables and shell control structures, such as loops and conditional statements. The first line of a C shell script file must be either: #!/bin/csh or # The # (pound sign) must be the first character of the first line. The first line of a Korn shell script file must be: #!/bin/ksh The # (pound sign) must be the first character of the first line.

Caution

If you do not specify the C shell or the Korn shell by the appropriate first shell script line shown above, the script is interpreted by the Bourne shell. This may cause execution errors for scripts containing C or Korn shell commands.

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Example 1: Here is an example of a simple shell script. The comment lines (any line that starts with a # sign after the first line) indicate what the script does. Comment lines are not part of the executable shell script. #!/bin/csh # anything following a pound sign is a comment # set the variable dir1 to contain /usr/tmp/jones set dir1 = /usr/tmp/jones # reference the shell variable to make a directory mkdir $dir1 # change to the new directory cd $dir1 # redirect the list of files in dir1 to a file named ls.file ls > ls.file # mail the file to me mail jones@ncar < ls.file # remove ls.file rm ls.file

The executable commands in this script are: #!/bin/csh set dir1 = /usr/tmp/jones mkdir $dir1 cd $dir1 ls > ls.file mail jones@ncar < ls.file rm ls.file

For simple scripts such as this, there is no difference among the shells (C, Bourne, or Korn), except for the first line. Differences only show up in more complex scripts that use features unique to one or another of the shells.

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Shell constructs Shell scripts may contain constructs that are specific to the shell in which it executes; these include looping, conditional, and branching constructs. While all shells have these constructs, the syntax differs among them. You should decide which shell you want to use for your scripts before you get too involved in the details of construct syntax. Refer to the man pages for sh (the Bourne shell), csh (the C shell), and ksh (the Korn shell) for more information. The basic if construct for the C shell is: if (expression) then command_sequence_1 else command_sequence_2 endif In this construct, if expression is true, then the C shell executes command_sequence_1; if expression is false, then the C shell executes command_sequence_2.

Example 2: This is an example of a simple C shell script that uses the if construct. Notice that the first line of the script designates that this is a C shell script. Also, notice the way that comments are used both as lines by themselves and within a line of text. #!/bin/csh # # This is a C shell script that shows a simple use of the if construct. # Compile source code on the Cray supercomputer. cft77 source.f # Check return status. If no errors, continue processing. # status=0 means no errors. if ($status == "0") then

# load and run the program

segldr -o runsource source.o runsource else

# compiler error echo "Compiler errors. Program will not be run."

endif

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We’ve introduced two new script concepts in this example. • The echo command transfers the string in double quotes to the terminal screen (the standard output device). • The shell variable status is a predefined C shell variable that always contains the exit status of the last command executed. (Notice that you must type a $ before the variable name when referring to its value.) In this example, status tests whether there were errors in the compile process, and we’ve based the conditional processing on the resulting value of status. There is a set of predefined shell variables that you may use in your scripts (status is one of these). You may also define your own variables within a shell script (using the set command). For more information on shell variables, refer to the recommended shell books listed in Appendix A.

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Filename expansion All three shells have filename expansion features that allow you to specify a file’s name without typing in all the characters of the name. To do this, you type characters that are called metacharacters or wildcard characters. In addition, there are several constructs you can use to help specify a group of files with similar names. This section introduces the most commonly used filename expansion techniques in UNIX. Other techniques are also available; as your knowledge of UNIX increases, you may want to investigate them by consulting the shell man pages (sh for the Bourne shell, csh for the C shell, ksh for the Korn shell). There are three main types of metacharacter: *

Matches any character, any number of characters, or no character. Use caution with this metacharacter. It is easy to reference more than you intend.

?

Matches any single character.

[abc]

Matches any single character in the list. The square brackets enclosing a string tells the shell to match any single character listed in the string. As shown here, a, b, and c stand for single characters to be matched.

The shell interprets these metacharacters, not the UNIX operating system; this is an example of why we say that the UNIX shell is a command interpreter. The shell actually performs the filename expansion and passes the resulting list of filenames along to the command.

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For all of the following examples, assume that your current working directory contains the following files: a.f

aA

aB

ac

b.f

cAb

cAd

cbd

ccd

In the C shell, the % (percent sign) is the default symbol for your shell prompt.

Example 3: Perform the following command: ls c* Your screen displays: % ls c* cAb cAd ccd cbd %

Example 4: You perform the following command: ls a? Your screen displays: % ls a? aA aB ac %

Example 5: You perform the following command: ls c[Ac]? Your screen displays: % ls c[Ac]? cAb cAd ccd %

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The UNIX escape character The UNIX shell interprets all characters you type on the command line before passing the command along to the UNIX operating system. There are many metacharacters that have special meaning to the shell; a few are described on the previous two pages. There may be times when you want the shell to simply pass along something you have typed without interpreting it. UNIX shells use the \ (backslash) character to allow you to hide, or escape, characters from the shell. The backslash escape character causes the UNIX shell to ignore the character immediately following it. The examples below show you some uses for the UNIX escape character.

Example 6: Suppose you are creating a script that contains a long command line. You can make the command easier to read if you have it span two or more lines in the script. You may escape the newline character (RETURN) by preceding it by the \ (backslash). % cp /u1/jones/project2/july93/sampleruns/file /august93/goodruns/file7

/u1/jones/project13\

There must be no spaces after the \ (backslash) and the following character that is to be escaped (a RETURN in this example).

Example 7: Suppose you wish to use one of the UNIX metacharacters as a literal. For example, you wish to echo back some text that contains a question mark. You will need to escape the ? (question mark) so that the shell will not attempt to interpret it. Notice the difference in the two command lines shown below:

% echo Where is the file? echo: no match % echo Where is the file\? Where is the file? %

In the first case, the UNIX shell attempted to perform a substitution on the question mark, looking for a five-letter filename starting with the letters “file.” It could find no such filename in the current directory and returned an error message.

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In the second case, the UNIX shell did not interpret the question mark, but simply passed it along to the UNIX echo command.

Example 8: You may also escape a string of characters using a pair of single quotation marks. When you use quotation marks, you do not need to type a \ (backslash) to escape each space that occurs in a long series of words. % echo Where is the file? echo: no match % echo 'Where is the file?' Where is the file? %

You will see examples of this technique in the section “Aliasing commands,” later in this chapter.

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I/O redirection terminology This section briefly defines the standard terminology you need to know to use UNIX Input/Output (I/O) redirection. Usage examples are on the following pages.

Standard I/O terminology There are three I/O devices that are an integral part of all UNIX-based operating systems. Every program that runs under UNIX may use these three devices. The input device allows a UNIX program to receive input from the user or from another program. In addition, UNIX has two types of output devices. The first type receives the output from a program. The second type receives any error messages that occur during the execution of a program. UNIX has special names for these I/O devices: stdin

Standard input, by default, is expected from the keyboard (Fortran unit 5).

stdout

Standard output, by default, is directed to the screen (Fortran unit 6).

stderr

Standard error includes all error messages resulting from the program. Error messages are directed to the screen by default (Fortran unit 0). Figure 1. UNIX default stdout, stderr, and stdin

standard output (stdout) standard error (stderr)

standard input (stdin)

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It is possible for you to tell the UNIX operating system to take input from something other than the keyboard and to send output or errors to something other than the screen. The term used to describe this capability is I/O redirection, which means to reroute input or output. For example, when a program writes a large amount of output to stdout, the screen cannot hold it all and the output is lost as it scrolls off the top of the screen. I/O redirection allows you to capture this output in a file, which you can then view using one of the UNIX utilities.

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Redirection of standard output (stdout) In a programming environment, you can capture output from a program or command in a file without changing the code in your program. You use the > (right angle bracket, also called the greater-than sign) to redirect standard output into a file. You can then print or edit the file. The basic syntax for output redirection is: command > output_filename Since you don’t see any output on your screen when you use output redirection, the only signal to you that your command or program has completed is the return of the shell prompt to the screen. The shell creates output_filename when the command runs. If you wish to redirect output in your Fortran code, you would write to Fortran unit 6 (stdout) and use the > (greater-than sign) to have your program write to a file. Caution

Output redirection overwrites an existing file if there is a filename match. You may prevent this by setting a shell variable called noclobber in your .login file. To learn more about this, consult the man page for the C shell (csh).

Append output redirection You can also use >> (two greater-than signs) to have the shell append stdout to the end of an existing file. command >> output_filename The file, output_filename may already exist; if it does not, the shell creates it. Caution

Append output redirection creates a new file if one does not exist. If you set a shell variable called noclobber in your .login file, append redirection only adds to an existing file. To learn more about this, consult the man page for the C shell (csh).

Example 9: To have the ls command redirect its output to a file named out.file, type: ls > out.file

Example 10: To have the ls command append its output to the same output file named above, you would type: ls -l >> out.file

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Redirection of standard input (stdin) You can tell UNIX to read the standard input (stdin) from a file instead of the keyboard. You use the < (left angle bracket, also called the less-than sign) to redirect stdin. Basically, input redirection looks like this: command < input_filename If you have a code that reads from Fortran unit 5 (the keyboard or stdin), you can avoid re-typing the input from the terminal every time you run this code. To do this, you create a file that contains this input and use < (less-than sign) to have your program read from the file.

Example 11: Suppose you create a file to contain your input and call it my.in.data. To run prgm using the contents of this file as input instead of the keyboard, you would type: prgm < my.in.data

The here document Another useful form of I/O redirection is called the here document. A here document is a form of input redirection that is generally used to redirect stdin from within a shell script, although you may also use it in interactive mode. The here document says to the shell “here is the input” and its general format is: command [argument(s)] << 'terminating_string' command_input command_input command_input . . . 'terminating_string' We suggest that you enclose the terminating_string in single quotes to prevent the C shell from expanding any special characters that may be in command_input. The command_input may contain any number of command lines.

Note

The terminating string ends the here document input. It must begin in the first column of a line and be the only characters on that line.

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Example 12: You can use a here document in combination with the cat command to create separate files from within a shell script, as shown in the example that follows: cat << 'EOF' > new.file This is the text that will be in new.file after I type in the terminating string 'EOF' After you finish entering the command shown above, you will have a new file in the current directory containing the four lines you typed in. (The blank lines are also included.) The new file will be named new.file and it may now be used just as any other UNIX file.

Example 13: From within a script file, you might use a here document to set various parameters for the computing job you are running. Doing this allows you to change the set of parameter values by editing the script file, making the changes, and then rerunning the job. This example assumes that a.out is reading from Fortran Unit 5: . . . a.out << 'EOF' param1 param2 param3 'EOF' . . . To run the program a.out again using different parameter values, change and save the shell script file and then rerun the job. This approach leaves no extra files behind in your directory for you to clean up at the end of your computing session.

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Redirection of errors (stderr) Standard error is different from standard output (even though they both default to the screen), but you may redirect error messages (stderr) much as you redirect stdout. However, there are some important differences in the way this operation is handled by the three shells. The Bourne and Korn shells have similar mechanisms, while the C shell uses a different methodology and different syntax.

C shell In the C shell, >& (greater-than sign, ampersand) redirects both stderr and stdout to a file. Use the following syntax to redirect stdout and stderr to separate files: (command > program_output) >& program_errors This construct redirects the stdout from command to the file program_output and redirects the stderr from command to the file program_errors.

Bourne and Korn shells For both the Bourne and Korn shells, use 2> (two, greater-than sign) to redirect stderr (2) to a file. Use the following syntax to redirect stdout and stderr to separate files: command > program_output 2> program_errors This construct redirects the stdout from command to the file program_output and redirects the stderr from command to the file program_errors.

Example 14: To redirect stdout and stderr to a single file named output.all: C shell: prgm >& output.all Bourne and Korn shells: prgm > output.all 2>&1

Example 15: To redirect stdout to a file named out.data and redirect stderr to a file named error.file: C shell: (prgm > out.data) >& error.file Bourne and Korn shells: prgm > out.data 2> error.file

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Combining redirection techniques You can use any combination of redirection techniques in any order on any command line. Some commonly used redirection techniques are shown in this section; note how the redirection symbols are used. In all of the following cases, command can be any UNIX command, input_file stands for the name of the file from which stdin is taken, output_file is the name of the file to which stdout is directed, and error_file is the name of the file to which stderr is directed.

Combining I/O redirection in the C shell To make your program read its input from a file, then write its output to a file, without requiring you to change any of the code in your program: command < input_file > output_file To separate stdout and stderr into two separate files: (command > output_file) >& error_file To redirect all three of the standard devices from or to files: (command < input_file > output_file) >& error_file

Combining I/O redirection in the Bourne and Korn shells To make your program read its input from a file, then write its output to a file, without requiring you to change any of the code in your program: command < input_file > output_file To separate stdout and stderr into two separate files: command > output_file 2> error_file To redirect all three of the standard devices from or to files: command < input_file > output_file 2> error_file

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Example 16: Redirecting stdin and stdout: prgm < my.in.data > my.out.file This causes your program to read from the my.in.data file and write to the my.out.file file, without any changes in your program code. This example applies to the C, Bourne, and Korn shells.

Example 17: Reading stdin from a file named in.data, redirecting stderr to a file named error.file, and redirecting stdout to a file named out.data: C shell: (prgm < in.data > out.data) >& error.file Bourne and Korn shells: prgm < in.data > out.data 2> error.file

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Pipes and filters You can connect two commands so that the output from the first becomes the input of the next. Two or more commands connected in this way form a pipe. A pipe is designated by a | (vertical bar) between the two commands. command1 | command2 Almost all UNIX commands that use stdin and stdout can be used to form pipes. You may combine several UNIX commands into a pipe where the final output is a subset or manipulated version of the output from the first command. Commands that perform some kind of manipulation on the output of the previous command in the pipe are called filters. One of the most common uses of a filter is to modify its input by filtering out unwanted items so that only the desired lines are contained in the final output.

Example 18: You want to view the many files listed in the current directory a screenful at a time. ls -l | more By piping the output of the ls -l command into more, you are able to see the output of the ls -l command a single screenful at a time instead of having the output scroll off your screen.

Example 19: You want to list all the files that contain the string august in the filename. You want the list to appear on your screen, a screenful at a time. ls | grep august | more The result of the first pipe is a list of files in the current working directory that contain the pattern august in their filenames. (For more information on the grep command, see its man page.) The second pipe will display the list one screenful at a time.

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Environment variables The shell maintains information about you as a computer user and the resources you use, such as directories, printers, mailbox, terminal, and so on. This information is stored in what are known as environment variables. These variables, in turn, are used by many of the UNIX utilities, such as e-mail, the print utilities, and UNIX editors. In many cases, you can set an environment variable to hold common options to a command you use frequently. This saves you from typing in the options every time you use that particular command. Environment variables are always available to UNIX commands. Whether a particular command uses environment variables is determined by the developers of the command. Check the man page for the command to see if environment variables are used and what the valid values are. If a UNIX utility (or you, yourself) starts another shell, environment variables are available to that subshell, as well. However, any environment variable set in a subshell or by a shell script affects only that current shell or future shells spawned by the utility or the script. Changes do not affect the shell that started the subshell.

Setting an environment variable In the C shell, environment variables are generally specified in uppercase characters using the setenv shell command. The setenv command is used as follows: setenv VAR value Blanks separate VAR, the environment variable name, and value, the value given to the variable.

Removing an environment variable To remove an environment variable from the C shell’s environment, use the unsetenv command followed by the name of the variable: unsetenv VAR

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Viewing environment variables In the C shell, to view all the environment variables defined for your login session, type: env To view the value of a single environment variable, use the echo command. Notice that you must type a $ before the variable name when referring to its value. echo $VAR where VAR is the name of the variable.

Example 20: Set the value of the VISUAL environment variable to be the path to the vi editor: setenv VISUAL /usr/bin/vi The VISUAL environment variable is used by several commands, such as more.

Example 21: Remove the VISUAL environment variable from the C shell: unsetenv VISUAL

Example 22: To verify which shell you are currently running, type: echo $SHELL and the screen displays the value contained in this environment variable.

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Re-executing previous commands Command history The C shell provides a feature known as command history, which allows you to reexecute a command using just a few keystrokes. To use the history mechanism, you must first complete the following steps: 1.

Add the line set history to your .cshrc file. By default, the C shell lists the last 24 commands you’ve executed. If you’d like to change that number, add it to the set command: set history = n where n is the number of commands you want. For example, set history = 40 would mean your last 40 commands will be listed.

2.

After you exit from the .cshrc file, type source .cshrc to make the change take effect.

There are several ways you can access the commands in your history list. First, you can see the contents of your history list by typing: history The contents of your history list then appear on your screen; each command has a number.

Re-executing a selected command To re-execute a command in your history list, use one of the following: !str

Re-executes the last command that begins with str, where str is a string of characters that uniquely identifies the command

!n

Re-executes command number n

!!

Repeats the last command executed

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Example 23: You want to use your history list to re-execute a command you have recently typed. To see the history list, type: history Your screen may appear as shown below. (This, of course, depends on the commands you have previously typed.) % 1 2 3 4 5 6 %

history ls mkdir test cd test mv $HOME/.login Login more Login history

Example 24: You want to re-execute the more Login command line shown in the preceding example. There are two ways to do this. You could type: !mo This causes the shell to search backwards through the history list until it finds the most recent command that begins with the string mo. The shell then executes the entire command line. You could also re-execute this command by typing: !5 In either case, the history list is updated to reflect the new execution of the more command.

Example 25: To re-execute the previous command, type: !!

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Aliasing commands The C shell allows you to create short character strings that stand for long command lines. This is commonly called aliasing, and it is performed with the alias command. This is a very useful command because it lets you reduce the number of keystrokes you use during your computing session. To set an alias, use the following syntax: alias string 'long command line' The long command line usually contains blanks, so it is good practice to always enclose long command line in single quotation marks; this ensures that the shell interprets the blanks properly. Be sure to define string so it is both unique and easy to relate to long command line. To see the aliases already set in your shell, type alias without any arguments: alias You can pass command line options into the aliased command by using the notation \!* (backslash, exclamation mark, asterisk). Here is the proper syntax: alias string 'command options \!*' To remove an alias from the shell, use the unalias command with the alias string you want to remove: unalias string Be aware that the alias and unalias commands are only known to the C shell during your login session, just like setenv and unsetenv. If you want to establish aliases that work for all your UNIX sessions, include them in the .cshrc file in your home directory.

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Example 26: You added the following command line in your .cshrc file to give you a long listing for files in the current directory whenever you use the ls command: alias ls 'ls -l' To remove the alias and list only the filenames when you use ls, you would type: unalias ls

Example 27: It is useful to create an alias for the cd command that sets the shell prompt to be the current directory. That way, you can always see on the screen where you are currently working. The syntax is: alias cd 'cd \!*; set prompt = "${cwd}: " ' Now when you execute the cd command, the C shell prompt is set to the current working directory. If you want this alias available every time you log in to the UNIX computer, place the above command in your .cshrc file.

Example 28: You want to alias the cd command to set the shell prompt to display the current working directory along with a command history counter. The command history counter automatically increments with every command you enter. In addition, you want the number to be enclosed in brackets: alias cd 'cd \!*; set prompt = "${cwd}[\\!]: " ' If you want this alias available every time you log in to the UNIX computer, place the above command in your .cshrc file.

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Managing your jobs in the UNIX environment When you execute a UNIX command or run a program interactively, you execute in foreground mode. Your terminal waits for execution to complete, possibly displaying the output of the command (and error messages if something went wrong) and then displays the shell prompt. When the prompt returns to the screen, it is your signal that the command has completed and that the shell can now accept more input from your keyboard. Sometimes, commands and programs take a long time to execute and you would like to perform some other operation before the current task is completed. For example, you might wish to read your mail while you also run a program that sorts and prints a large data file. UNIX supports multitasking capabilities that allow a single user to start up many tasks simultaneously. Because of this, UNIX supports the concept of executing commands in background mode. That is, UNIX concurrently completes the process you initiated “behind the scenes” while you perform another operation at your terminal.

Background execution When you type a UNIX command or invoke a program by typing its name on the command line, you can tell UNIX to execute it in background mode by typing & (ampersand) at the end of the command, before pressing RETURN: command filename & The & (ampersand) signals UNIX to run the command in background and return the shell prompt to the terminal, thus allowing you to type another command. When you put a job into background, UNIX displays some information about the UNIX process you have initiated. You see a message on the screen like this: [1] 818 %

This shows the number of processes you have in background (the number in brackets) and the process identifier (PID—818 in this example) for your background job.

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Changing from background to foreground execution Suppose you wish to bring a background job back into foreground mode. You might wish to do this if the job is taking too long or an error message has displayed that indicates a problem. At the shell prompt, type: fg to bring a background job into foreground mode. This places you into interactive foreground execution again, and you may proceed as if the job had never been placed in background mode.

Changing from foreground to background execution Suppose you started a process in foreground and decide that you needed to put the job into background mode so you could continue to do work at the terminal. To do so: (1) temporarily suspend execution of the process, and (2) type the UNIX command to put the job into background mode. In the C shell on most UNIX systems, do this by typing the following two lines: CONTROL-z bg The CONTROL-z sequence suspends (but does not terminate) the execution of a job. (If CONTROL-z does not suspend execution, check with your system administrator for the correct key sequence.) The UNIX bg (for background) command starts execution of the job again but places it into background mode and then displays the shell prompt on the terminal screen. Your screen might look something like this: % ls | grep august > august.listing ^Z Stopped % bg [1] ls | grep august > august.listing & %

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Chapter 6

Using UNIX e-mail

Contents Getting started with e-mail 107 Table 1: Basic mail commands 107 Table 2: Some ~ (tilde) commands 107

Sending e-mail 108 Addressing your e-mail message 109 For NCAR users: The central post office 110 E-mail etiquette 110

Reading your e-mail 111 Sending a reply 112 Getting help 113 Quitting the e-mail program 113 Saving messages 114 Deleting messages 114 Undeleting messages 114

Forwarding mail 115 Forwarding to another user 115 Forwarding to yourself on another computer 116

Sending a file as a mail message 117 Editing a mail message before sending it 118 Environment variables for editing mail 118 Editing mail headers 118

Sending e-mail responses when you go on vacation 119 Creating distribution lists and address aliases 120 Customizing your e-mail environment 121 E-mail error messages 122 Table 3: Possible e-mail error messages 122

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Using UNIX e-mail Getting started with e-mail UNIX mail programs have some differences on various UNIX computers. This chapter describes the Berkeley mail program. If you find that some things don’t work as described here, consult the mail man page or check with your system administrator. Table 1: Basic mail commands A message list consists of user names, integers, or ranges of integers separated by spaces. If you do not supply message list, mail uses the last message. r

message list

Reply to senders only (Reversed with R on some UNIX systems)

R

message list

Reply to everyone on original list (Reversed with r on some UNIX systems)

?

Help

help

Help

q

Quit, saving unresolved messages in mbox

s

message list file

Append or save message to file

d

message list

Delete messages

u

message list

Undelete messages

x m

Quit, do not modify system mailbox user

Mail to specific users

Table 2: Some ~ (tilde) commands The following ~ (tilde) commands are defined for use in the mail program. To use a tilde command, position the cursor at the first column of a new line when typing a message. ~f

message_#

Forwards mail to another person

~r

file

Read a file into the message buffer

~v

Invoke vi editor on message

~h

Prompt for To:, Subject:, cc:, and Bcc: headers

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Sending e-mail 1.

To send an e-mail message to another user who has a login id on the same UNIX computer as yours, at the shell prompt, type: mail loginid replacing loginid with the login id of the person to whom you are sending mail. Press RETURN. You can send the same mail to several users, all on your UNIX computer, by listing their login ids on the command line. Typing: mail user1_login user2_login user3_login sends the same mail to all three users.

2.

At the prompt, type the subject of your message; press RETURN and type your mail message. You may backspace to correct errors in the current line. To make corrections in previous lines, you must invoke an editor from within the mail facility. You will learn how to do this later in this chapter.

3.

To send your message, press RETURN to position the cursor at the beginning of a blank line after the last line of text and press CONTROL-d. Once you have pressed CONTROL-d, your message has been sent and there is no recalling it. Your only choice is to send another message clarifying the first one. The recipient of your mail message does not have to be logged in at the time you send the mail.

4.

If you want to cancel a message you have started typing, press CONTROL-c twice. Your message is canceled and you are returned to the shell prompt. UNIX automatically saves what you typed in a file in your home directory called dead.letter. To use this file as the basis of another mail message, you can edit it and then use UNIX mail to send the file. (See the section “Sending a file as a mail message,” later in this chapter.)

Example 1: This example illustrates the keystrokes used to compose and send an e-mail message: % mail smith Subject: Missing book Have you seen my copy of "UNIX for People" anywhere? Jane Jones ^d %

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Example 2: This interrupted message will not be sent to jones: % mail jones Subject: no book I haven’t seen your book and I ^c (Interrupt -- one more to kill letter) ^c %

Example 3: The same message will be sent to several users: % mail smith jones cbrown Subject: Missing book Have you seen my copy of "UNIX for People" anywhere? Jane Jones ^d %

Addressing your e-mail message If the person you’re sending mail to is not on the same computer where you are logged in, you need to include a more detailed mail address. Under UNIX, the general syntax for an e-mail address is [email protected] where loginid

Login id of the user

host

Specific computer where the user receives e-mail

domain

Location or network of the host computer

Generally, the name after the @ sign and to the left of the dot is the name of your recipient’s host computer; everything located to the right of the . (dot) is the domain name, which is the location of that computer. For example, at NCAR, the name of the host computer that runs the NCAR central post office is ncar, and NCAR’s domain name is ucar.edu. The basic address syntax for sending e-mail to any NCAR user, regardless of where you are logged in, is [email protected]

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For NCAR users: The central post office Mail sent to [email protected] is delivered to the NCAR central post office that then routes the message to the correct computer and user. When telling other people your e-mail address, use the [email protected] address, rather than an address containing the specific name of your current computer. Then, if you change the computer on which you work and update your e-mail address on the NCAR central post office computer, your mail is always routed correctly. You are responsible for updating your own e-mail address on the NCAR central post office computer. To learn how to do this, see the UserDoc “Using the NCAR E-mail System.” Document ordering information is on the last page of this manual. To learn how to look up any UCAR or NCAR user’s e-mail address online, see the description of the NCAR E-mail Query/Change software in the document mentioned above. If you are using a UNIX computer outside of NCAR, check with your system administrator to see if there is a local database of user’s addresses.

Example 4: This example illustrates the correct syntax for sending mail to “jones”, a UCAR or NCAR computer user: mail [email protected]

E-mail etiquette • E-mail is great for sending short messages and short files. However, it is not designed for the transfer of long files and it cannot be used to transfer binary files. NCAR currently imposes a size limit of 64,000 bytes on e-mail messages going out or coming in, and other systems you use may also have a size limit. • You should use file transfer protocol (FTP) rather than electronic mail to send large files or noncharacter (binary) files. FTP excels at transferring data files and large documents. It also allows the transfer of binary files. • Add information in the Subject: field of your messages to others; it helps those receiving your mail as they view the header information in their mailbox. And, cover only one subject in a message; it’s easier to forward and sort mail messages that way. • Remember that mail is not secure. Don’t send a message or document through e-mail that is private or sensitive.

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Reading your e-mail To read your e-mail, type: mail at the shell prompt. If you have mail messages, the mail program responds by displaying a message headers list that shows, for each message in your mailbox: • U (unread), N (new), or blank (already read) in the first column • Message number in the second column • Mail address of the sender • Date the message was sent • Size of the message (for example, 12/480 indicates 12 lines, 480 characters, including the mail header) • First 25 characters of the subject line The current message is marked by >. The mail system prompt is & (ampersand). Note

If you type mail but you have no mail messages, mail displays the message “No mail for loginid,”and returns the shell prompt.

Example 5: To read the message from smith, type 2 at the & prompt and press RETURN. The message displays on your screen, with the & prompt again at the bottom, ready for your next mail command: % mail >U 1 [email protected] Fri Aug 1 08:43 12/480 solution to pr N 2 smith Fri Aug 1 1216 13/483 missing book & 2 I think I took your book home. When do you need it back? Steve Smith &

For messages that are longer than one screen, press the SPACE BAR to display the next screenful. (There is no way to move back up through a mail message unless you invoke the editor. See the v command on the mail man page if you want to learn how to do this.)

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Sending a reply To send a reply to a mail message without having to enter the person’s address and the subject, on most systems with the Berkeley UNIX mailer, at the & prompt, type r. The mail program automatically completes the header information for you. Then type your message and use CONTROL-d to send it as usual. Caution

On some UNIX computers, typing R (capital R) instead of lowercase r sends a reply to everyone who received the original message, not just the sender. On other UNIX computers, the functions of r and R may be reversed. To find out whether you need to use r or R, type a ? (question mark) at the & prompt.

Example 6: This message will be sent to the user who mailed the original message. & r Subject: missing book I’d like it back on Mon. Thanks. JJ ^d %

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Getting help You can access a limited help screen while you are using mail to read your messages. At the & prompt, type: help or ? The mail program displays a list of mail subcommands and a brief description of each. When you are using mail to send a message, you may access help for using the ~ (tilde) commands by typing: ~? at the beginning of a line in the message area. The complete list of tilde commands displays with a brief explanation of each. Even though the tilde commands list is still displayed on your screen, it will not appear in the mail you’re sending. Just continue entering your message as usual. There is also a man page for mail. Be sure you are back at the shell prompt, then type: man mail

Quitting the e-mail program To leave the mail program and return to the shell prompt, at the & prompt, type: q which stands for “quit.” The shell prompt is then displayed.

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Saving messages To save a mail message in a separate file, at the & prompt, type: s message_number filename If you just enter a filename with no path, then the current mail message (marked by > in the message header list) is saved in a file in the directory where you are working. If you want to save the file in another directory, enter a relative or absolute pathname.

Example 7: To store message 1 as solution.green in your equations subdirectory type: s 1 equations/solution.green

Deleting messages If you want to delete some e-mail messages, you can do so at the & prompt by typing: d message_number message_number . . . Be sure to separate the message numbers by spaces. If you type d and no number, the message marked by the > in the message headers list is marked for deletion. The messages are actually deleted when you quit the mail program by typing q.

Undeleting messages If you are still in the mail program (you haven’t yet quit mail with the q command) there are two ways to undelete messages: 1.

If you know the message number(s), at the & prompt, type: u message_number message_number If you type u and no number, the last message you deleted will be undeleted.

2.

If you don’t know the message number(s), you can retrieve all the mail you had at the beginning of the current mail session. At the & prompt, type: x to exit the mail program and return all your mail messages to your mailbox. Caution

114 Using e-mail

Once you have deleted mail and quit the mail program using the q command, there is no way to recover deleted mail. Basic UNIX Guide

Forwarding mail There are two kinds of mail forwarding. 1.

You can forward a single message in your mailbox to another person or group of people.

2.

You can automatically forward your own mail from one UNIX computer to another.

Forwarding to another user 1.

To forward a mail message to another user, at the & prompt, type: m loginid@host

2.

Type a subject line at the Subject: prompt.

3.

Indicate which message to forward by typing: ~f message_number where message_number is the number of the message you want to forward. The screen displays the following:

Interpolating: message_number (continue)

4.

The message to forward is now in your mail message, although it isn’t displayed on the screen. You may type an additional message if you want or just press CONTROL-d at the beginning of a new line to send the message.

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Forwarding to yourself on another computer You may forward all your mail automatically from one computer to another by creating a file called .forward in your home directory. (Be sure to include the dot as the first character of the filename.) This file must contain only your e-mail address for the computer where you want to receive your mail. All your UNIX accounts, except the account where you want to receive mail, should have a line like this in their .forward files: [email protected] To verify the existence of your .forward file, use the -a option of the ls command to list the dot files. Caution

Use .forward files with care! Be careful to forward all your mail to only one computer. If you accidently forward you mail in circles among two or more computers, it will probably cause an infinite loop and possible loss of all your incoming mail.

Example 8: The following .forward file is in the “jones” home directory on the computer named meeker.ucar.edu: [email protected] All mail addressed to [email protected] will be forwarded to [email protected].

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Sending a file as a mail message You can use UNIX e-mail to send someone an existing file, provided it meets the size limits that may be imposed by any of the computers that must pass the file to its final destination. For example, currently at NCAR, files larger than 64,000 bytes will be rejected by the mail program. You may send only ASCII files in e-mail. Also, UNIX e-mail does not have the capability of handling binary file format. There are two ways to mail someone a text file. 1.

At the shell prompt, you can redirect a file to be the input for mail. This method has the advantage of being quick, but it does not allow you to type an additional message. To use the redirection method, you should use the -s option to add a Subject: header that tells the recipient what it is that you are sending: mail -s 'subject in single quotes' [email protected] < filename

2.

The second method allows you to include your own message along with the file. In this case, enter your personal message as you normally do. Then, to include the file, press RETURN and, on the new line, type: ~r filename

where the ~ (tilde) is the first character on the line. This inserts your file at this point in your mail message. You can then either enter some concluding lines, or you can press CONTROL-d at the beginning of a new line to send the mail. Note

When using any ~ (tilde) command, be sure your cursor is positioned in the first character space on a new line. More ~ (tilde) commands are described later in this chapter.

Example 9: Here is an example of writing your own message, including a file, then adding a concluding message before sending the mail:

% mail smith Subject: Missing book Have you seen my copy of "UNIX for People" anywhere? And here is a list of other UNIX books you might like to see: ~r unix.books "unix.books" 3/20 Let me know ASAP if you find my book Jane Jones ^d %

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Editing a mail message before sending it If you want to edit your mail message before sending it, you can use the UNIX vi editor while you are still writing your message. This is particularly handy to check that you did the right thing with ~r to include a file in your mail. Just press RETURN and type: ~v where the ~ (tilde) is the first character on the line. This puts you into the vi editor so you can now use all the standard vi editing commands. After you are finished with your message, leave vi by typing :wq. Press CONTROL-d at the beginning of a line to send your message.

Environment variables for editing mail To assure that the ~v option invokes the vi editor in mail, we recommend that two environment variables be set in your .login file: setenv EDITOR /usr/ucb/vi setenv VISUAL /usr/ucb/vi

Editing mail headers You may want to edit a mail header before you send your mail; for example, you might wish to add a name to the list of recipients or alter the wording in the Subject: line. The following command can be particularly handy used in combination with the r or R command to reply to a message. Like other ~ (tilde) commands, you must first be in the e-mail program and in the process of sending a message. Then, to change the Subject: line or add another address to the list of users receiving your message, just enter: ~h at the beginning of a new line. A mail prompt displays: To:

followed by the list of recipients of your mail message.

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Follow the steps below to continue editing the mail header information: 1.

To add people to the list, press the SPACE BAR and then type the additional e-mail addresses. Use the DELETE key to erase any addresses you don’t want. Be sure to put a space between every e-mail address you type.

2.

Press RETURN to display the Subject: header. To alter the subject header, use the DELETE key to erase the original header. Type in the new subject.

3.

Press RETURN to display the cc: (carbon copy) header. Use the DELETE key to erase addresses you don’t want and the type in new addresses, leaving a space between each address.

4.

Press RETURN to display the Bcc: (blind carbon copy) header. Use the DELETE key to erase addresses you don’t want and the type in new addresses, leaving a space between each address. (Recipients of “blind copies” receive the mail, but the mail header that goes to others on the list won’t include anyone you mailed to using Bcc:.) Press RETURN when you are done.

5.

To leave any header field unchanged, press RETURN to bypass it.

6.

After the header fields have been edited, the screen displays this message:

(continue)

7.

Type your message and press CONTROL-d at the beginning of a new line to send it.

Sending e-mail responses when you go on vacation Many UNIX systems provide the vacation command, which provides a way to inform senders of incoming mail that you are away for an extended period and will not be reading their message immediately. To see if the UNIX system you are using supports this feature, type: man vacation at the shell prompt. To use vacation, follow the instructions on the man page. Caution

If you subscribe to e-mail lists on BITNET, you should unsubscribe before using vacation. In some cases, the BITNET lists cause your vacation messages to go out to all list subscribers

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Creating distribution lists and address aliases To make addressing mail easier, you can create alias lines in your .mailrc file in your home directory. These lines contain a short name (known as an alias) and the complete address of the recipient of your mail. The basic structure of an alias command is: alias short_name long_e-mail_address You can also create a single alias to send mail to a list of people. It is also possible to put a group alias in the system alias file, which is located in the /usr/lib directory, so that more than one person can send messages to the whole group. This can be very useful to a group of people working on a project together. The system alias file /usr/lib/aliases can be changed only by your system postmaster or by your system administrator; contact them for procedures.

Example 10: Here is an example of aliases in a .mailrc file. alias list1 liz@cgdra kent@ncar tisone@hao robin@mmm \ burghart@rdss cal@ncar nad@niwot alias v valent@ncar alias phil [email protected] alias joe [email protected] alias woods [email protected] alias list2 cal@ncar nad@niwot \ haerer@redcloud

The \ (backslashes) at the end of lines are escape characters so that the list may be typed on more than one line.

Example 11: If you were to create the above aliases in your .mailrc file, you could send mail to your colleague Phil in Toronto on BITNET by typing: mail phil and proceed as if Phil were a user on your home computer.

Example 12: If you wanted to send a message to all the people on list1, it would be like sending mail to one person: mail list1

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Customizing your e-mail environment The .mailrc mail initialization file sets options that are used every time you type the mail command. The .mailrc file must be located in your home directory. Listed below are some of the popular set commands you may want to include in your .mailrc file: set crt=22

Breaks incoming messages into 22 lines so that long messages will not scroll off the screen before you can read them

set ask

Provides the Subject: line if it is not already a system default

set hold

Saves incoming mail in your system mailbox so that all messages are accessible by the mail command until you delete or save them

set metoo

Allows mail to be sent to “you, too” when your own login is included in a list of users to whom you are mailing

set askcc

Provides the cc: line (“carbon copy”) at the end of the mail message

set askbc

Provides the Bcc: line (“blind carbon copy”) at the end of the mail message

There are several other set commands available; these are listed in the mail man page as well as in the “Mail Reference Manual,” which is included in UNIX User’s Manual: Supplementary Documents (4.2 Berkeley Software Distribution).

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E-mail error messages A returned message will probably have a header like: from: MAILER-DAEMON@hostname The returned mail message includes the original e-mail message you tried to send. Any mail system along the route (the hostname) may have generated the error message. Therefore, the error message may be somewhat different from the ones shown on the table below, depending on which system returned it. If you encounter problems you cannot solve, contact your system administrator or the designated e-mail specialist at your site. Table 3: Possible e-mail error messages Error message

Problem

Action

Host unknown

The host.domain part of address is incorrect.

Check that typing and e-mail address are correct.

User unknown

Message received by proper host, but loginid was incorrect.

Check that typing and loginid are correct.

Hostname lookup failure

Mail system unable to look up IP address of the destination host.

Contact system admin. or e-mail specialist.

Host unreachable Network is unreachable

Problem at other network

Contact system admin. or e-mail specialist.

Connection refused

Remote host or mail server program is down.

Contact system admin. or e-mail specialist.

Connection timed out

Destination network or host is down.

Contact system admin. or e-mail specialist.

Cannot send for xx days

No connection could be made to remote host. Poor connection or host is down.

Contact system admin. or e-mail specialist.

Bad file number

Remote host closed connection before message transferred. Poor connection or host went down during transaction.

Contact system admin. or e-mail specialist.

Part of this page was adapted from “Unix Mail Utility,” with permission from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  June 1992, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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Appendix A

Recommended UNIX books

Recommended UNIX books Beginner Learning the UNIX Operating System (A Nutshell Handbook), Todino, Grace, and John Strang. O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1989. ISBN 0-937175-16-1 ($9.00). NCAR Library call no. QA76.8 U65T4. This short handbook teaches the basic system utility commands to get you started with UNIX (AT&T’s System V version). Topics have been carefully chosen so the new user is not overwhelmed with unnecessary details. The handbook concentrates on the most basic and useful features of a command so that the user can feel comfortable as soon as possible in the UNIX environment. Note

O’Reilly and Associates produces a series of Nutshell Handbooks covering numerous UNIX topics. Each handbook is an extended essay on a particular area with a lot of examples, help, and reference material.

Life with UNIX: A Guide for Everyone, Libes, Don, and Sandy Ressler. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1989. ISBN 0-13-5366577 ($30.95 paper). Comprehensive treatise of what UNIX is all about, from technical, market, and historical orientations. Provides analysis of UNIX from three different viewpoints—user, programmer, and administrator. UNIX for People: A Modular Guide to the UNIX Operating System: Visual Editing, Document Preparation, and Other Resources. Birns, Peter, Patrick Brown, and John Muster. Prentice Hall, Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-139374-42-6 ($37.95 paper). A nonintimidating “hands-on” guide to the UNIX operating system that assumes no previous experience with UNIX or computing in general. UNIX Primer Plus, Waite, Mitchell, Donald Martin, and Stephen Prata. Howard W. Sams and Company, 1983. ISBN 0-672-22028-8 ($22.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.6.W3185. An easy-to-read tutorial introduction to UNIX.

New to UNIX but have technical background The UNIX Programming Environment, Kernighan, Brian W., and Robert Pike. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-13-937699-2 ($40.00 hardcover). NCAR Library call no. QA76.6.K495. A nicely done book on the UNIX program development environment and philosophy that ties together the fundamental concepts of UNIX programming. Talks about UNIX from the user’s perspective and introduces how-to tools effectively. Recommended for developers or users who want to know a lot about UNIX and how to use it effectively. An excellent book for the beginning UNIX system programmer.

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Introducing UNIX System V, Morgan, Rachel, and Henry McGilton. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1987. ISBN 0-07-043152-3 for the revised edition ($19.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.O63M68. An excellent introduction to AT&T’s System V UNIX. Extremely comprehensive yet reads easily. Good for technical people and confident beginners. Covers information accurately.

Advanced Advanced UNIX Programming, Rochkind, Marc J. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-13-011800-1 ($35.95 paper). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.O63R63. Excellent book on programming in a UNIX environment. Shows why, when, and how to use System V calls or the C interface to the operating system. Contains information about UNIX internals from the application programmer’s point of view. This book describes programming at the UNIX system call level. The author covers every system call in detail and provides sample code. Included are comprehensive treatments of sophisticated subjects such as signals and interprocessor communication. While little knowledge of UNIX is assumed, this book is one that all UNIX experts will want to keep handy. The book is oriented toward System V and its derivatives. However, the author discusses portability issues with specific mention of BSD, XENIX, and other systems. Advanced Programmer’s Guide to UNIX System V, Thomas, Rebecca, Lawrence Rodgers, and Jean Yates. McGraw-Hill, 1986. ISBN 0-07-881711-9 ($40.00). NCAR Library call no. QA76.6.T43. A good reference for UNIX System V users and programmers. The book contains many good shell scripts and C code examples, especially on interprocess communications. The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Bach, Maurice J. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-13-201799-7 ($31.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.6.B3. Describes in detail the System V internal kernel algorithms and data structures.

Shell programming The UNIX C Shell Field Guide, Anderson, Gail, and Paul Anderson. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-13-937468-X ($34.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.063A53. Entirely devoted to the C shell, this book tells you everything you ever wanted to know about C shell programming. UNIX Shell Programming, Kochan, Stephen G., and Patrick Wood. Hayden Books, 1985. ISBN 0-8104-6309-1 ($24.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.063K64. This book is all about shell programming. It concentrates on the Bourne shell, includes chapters on the Korn shell, and briefly covers the C shell.

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UNIX Desktop Guide to the Korn Shell, Valley, John. Hayden Books, 1985. ISBN 0-672-48513-3 ($27.95). This book covers Korn and Bourne shell features and shell programming. The numerous examples emphasize user productivity. Differences between the Korn and Bourne shells are clearly noted for portability between systems.

The vi editor vi—The UNIX Screen Editor, Hansen, August. Prentice Hall Press, 1986. ISBN 0-89303-928-4, ($21.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.T49H36. A wellorganized description of vi, the interactive text editor on UNIX systems. Contains a complete vi reference guide. Visual Editing on UNIX, Srinivasan, B., and K. Ranai. World Scientific Publishing Co., Inc., 1989. ISBN 9-971507-70-6, ($44.00). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.T49S68. A complete description of vi, the interactive text editor on UNIX systems. Contains numerous screen examples and a quick reference guide. A Guide to vi: Visual Editing on the UNIX System, Sonnenschein, Dan. Prentice-Hall, 1987. ISBN 0-13-371311-3 025, ($21.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.T49966. A complete description of vi, the interactive text editor on UNIX systems. Contains a vi reference guide. Learning the vi Editor, Lamb, Linda. O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1990. ISBN 0-937175-67-6 ($21.95). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.063L355. A get-startedquickly handbook that graduates to more advanced editing skills.

UNIX system manuals These manuals by the AT&T staff are still the best place to find out what UNIX commands do, but you must first master how to read the AT&T manual page (known as the “man page”). UNIX Programmer’s Manual, Vol. 1, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986. ISBN 0-03009317-1 ($28.95 paper). UNIX Programmer’s Manual, Vol. 2, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986. ISBN 0-03009314-7 ($28.95 paper). UNIX Programmer’s Manual, Vol. 3, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986. ISBN 0-03009313-9 ($19.95 paper). UNIX Programmer’s Manual, Vol. 4, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986. ISBN 0-31747172-4 ($28.95 paper). UNIX Programmer’s Manual, Vol. 5, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986. ISBN 0-31747175-9 ($37.95 paper).

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UNIX System Administrator’s Reference Manual, Prentice-Hall, 1988. ISBN 0-13-936147-2 ($24.95 paper). UNIX System User’s Manual, Prentice Hall, 1987. ISBN 0-13-938242-9 ($42.00 paper). NCAR Library call no. QA76.76.O63A486. 4.3BSD UNIX Manuals, University of California at Berkeley, Howard Press c/o USENIX Association. System manuals for Berkeley Software Distribution Release 4.3 UNIX.

128 Appendix A

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Index & (ampersand) background execution, 102 .forward file, 116 .login file, 118 .mailrc file, 121 .rhosts file, 37 \ (backslash) escape character, 85 ~ (tilde) in C shell, 19

quick reference, 11, 42 repeating in C shell, 98 syntax, 13 Consulting, for NCAR users, 129 Copying files, 27 cp command, 27

D A Aliasing commands C shell, 100 e-mail, 120 ascii command, in FTP, 40

B Background job execution, 102 Backslash (\) escape character, 85 binary command, in FTP, 40 Binary files, transferring, 40 Books, recommended, 125–128 Bourne shell, 66, 77–103 BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution), 3

C C shell, 66, 77–103 quick reference, 78 tilde (~) in, 19 cat command, 25 cd command, 24 chmod command, 32 Classes, 6 comm command, 42 Command mode, in vi, 48 Commands, 11–42 aliasing in C shell, 100 options, 13

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dailyb, at NCAR, 6 Deleting directories, 34 Deleting files, 29 diff command, 42 Directories changing, 24 creating, 33 deleting, 34 home, 17 listing, 22 moving, 28 naming conventions, 17 parent, 19, 34 removing, 34 renaming, 28 root, 17 searching, 35 working (current), 21 Documentation locally written, 6 online, 14 written by SCD, 133 Dot files, 19

E echo command, 82 in C shell, 97 Editor, vi, 45–61 E-mail, 107–122 .mailrc file, 121 addressing, 109

129

environment, modifying, 121 etiquette, 110 forwarding, 115–116 help in, 113 leaving, 113 quick reference, 107 quitting, 113 reading, 111 removing, 114 replying to, 112 restoring, 114 saving, 114 security of, 110 sending, 108–110 sending files in, 117 undeleting, 114 vacation command, 119 env command, in C shell, 97 Escape character, 85

Foreground job execution, 102 FTP (File Transfer Protocol), 39–41 ftp command, 39

F

I

file command, 42 Files copying, 27 deleting, 29 dot, 19 filename expansion, 83 linking, 36 listing, 22 moving, 28 naming conventions, 17 organization of, 17–20 pathnames, 18 permissions, 30–32 protecting, 16, 30–32 remote copying, 37 removing, 29 renaming, 28 searching, 35 transferring, 37–41 viewing, 25–26 Filters, 95 find command, 42 finger command, 16

I/O (Input/Output) redirection of, 89–94 terms defined, 87 Insert mode, in vi, 51

130

G get command, in FTP, 39 grep command, 35

H head command, 42 Help, online, 14 here document, 90 Hierarchy, of files, 17–20 History, in C shell, 98 Home directory, 17

K Kernel, 4 kill command, 42 Korn shell, 67, 77–103

L less command, 25 ln command, 32, 36 Logging in, 12 Logging out, 12 Login shell, 65 ls command, 22

Basic UNIX Guide

M man command, 14 man pages (online manual), 14 Metacharacters, 83 mget command, in FTP, 40 mkdir command, 33 more command, 25 Moving directories, 28 Moving files, 28 mput command, in FTP, 40 mv command, 28

N NCAR users, information for, 6

O Online help, 14 Operating system diagram of, 5 overview of, 3–5

P Parent directory, 19, 34 passwd command, 16 Passwords, of files, 16 Pathnames, 18 pg command, 26 Pipes, 95 Processes, 4 ps command, 42 put command, in FTP, 39 pwd command, 21

Q Quick reference C shell, 78

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commands, 11, 42 e-mail, 107 shells, 77 vi editor, 45–46

R rcp command, 37 Redirection, in shells, 89–93 Removing files, 29 Renaming files and directories, 28 rm command, 29 rmdir command, 34 Root directory, 17

S Security, of accounts, 16 setenv command, in C shell, 96 Shells, 4, 65–103 See also C shell; Bourne shell; Korn shell aliasing commands in C shell, 100 changing for single session, 67 changing the default, 68 compared, 69–70 filters, 95 history in C shell, 98 login, 65 pipes, 95 prompt, 65 quick reference, 77 redirecting stderr (standard error), 92 redirecting stdin (standard output), 90 redirecting stdout (standard output), 89 redirection combined, 93 scripts, 79–82 subshells, 68 Shells, books about, 126 Start-up files. See Files: initialization status variable, in C shell, 82 stderr (standard error), 87

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redirection of, 92 stdin (standard input), 87 redirection of, 90 stdout (standard output), 87 redirection of, 89 Subshells, 68 System V, 3

T tail command, 42 Tilde (~), in C shell, 19

U umask command, 31 UNICOS, 3 UNIX commands. See Commands UNIX directories. See Directories UNIX files. See Files unsetenv command, in C shell, 96 Utilities, 4

V vacation command, in e-mail, 119 vi editor commands, 45–61 books about, 127 command mode, 48 insert mode, 48, 51 quick reference, 45–46

W wc command, 42 who command, 42 Wildcard characters, 83

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SCD documentation and consulting To order SCD-produced documentation, send e-mail to [email protected] on the Internet. You may also call Mary Buck at (303) 497-1232. The SCD Documentation Catalog and order form are available online via anonymous FTP on the computer named ftp.ucar.edu. To obtain a copy of the files, follow the steps below. Press RETURN after typing each line: ftp ftp.ucar.edu or ftp 128.117.64.4 When prompted for a login name, type: anonymous Note: If your local computer is a Digital Equipment VAX running VMS, you may need to type: "anonymous" Enter your last name at the password prompt, wait for the ftp> prompt, then type: get docs/catalog/userdoc.catalog local_filename get docs/catalog/orderform.catalog local_filename quit (Replace local_filename in the command above with a name that is unique to your current working directory to ensure that you do not overwrite an existing file.) To contact an SCD consultant, send e-mail to [email protected] on the Internet, or call (303) 497-1278.

Version 1.0, August 1993

Recommended books 133

134 Appendix A

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Index & (ampersand) background execution, 102 .forward file, 116 .login file, 118 .mailrc file, 121 .rhosts file, 37 \ (backslash) escape character, 85 ~ (tilde) in C shell, 19

A Aliasing commands C shell, 100 e-mail, 120 ascii command, in FTP, 40

B Background job execution, 102 Backslash (\) escape character, 85 binary command, in FTP, 40 Binary files, transferring, 40 Books, recommended, 125–128 Bourne shell, 66, 77–103 BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution), 3

C C shell, 66, 77–103 quick reference, 78 tilde (~) in, 19 cat command, 25 cd command, 24 chmod command, 32 Classes, 6 comm command, 42 Command mode, in vi, 48 Commands, 11–42 aliasing in C shell, 100 options, 13 quick reference, 11, 42 repeating in C shell, 98 syntax, 13 Version 1.0, August 1993

Consulting, for NCAR users, 129 Copying files, 27 cp command, 27

D dailyb, at NCAR, 6 Deleting directories, 34 Deleting files, 29 diff command, 42 Directories changing, 24 creating, 33 deleting, 34 home, 17 listing, 22 moving, 28 naming conventions, 17 parent, 19, 34 removing, 34 renaming, 28 root, 17 searching, 35 working (current), 21 Documentation locally written, 6 online, 14 written by SCD, 129 Dot files, 19

E echo command, 82 echo command, in C shell, 97 Editor, vi, 45–61 E-mail, 107–122 .mailrc file, 121 addressing, 109 aliases in, 120 deleting, 114 editing, 118–119 environment, modifying, 121 etiquette, 110 forwarding, 115–116 131

help in, 113 leaving, 113 quick reference, 107 quitting, 113 reading, 111 removing, 114 replying to, 112 restoring, 114 saving, 114 security of, 110 sending, 108–110 sending files in, 117 undeleting, 114 vacation command, 119 env command, in C shell, 97 Escape character, 85

G get command, in FTP, 39 grep command, 35

H head command, 42 Help, online, 14 here document, 90 Hierarchy, of files, 17–20 History, in C shell, 98 Home directory, 17

I F file command, 42 Files copying, 27 deleting, 29 dot, 19 filename expansion, 83 linking, 36 listing, 22 moving, 28 naming conventions, 17 organization of, 17–20 pathnames, 18 permissions, 30–32 protecting, 16, 30–32 remote copying, 37 removing, 29 renaming, 28 searching, 35 transferring, 37–41 viewing, 25–26 Filters, 95 find command, 42 finger command, 16 Foreground job execution, 102 FTP (File Transfer Protocol), 39–41 ftp command, 39

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I/O (Input/Output) redirection of, 89–94 terms defined, 87 Insert mode, in vi, 51

K Kernel, 4 kill command, 42 Korn shell, 67, 77–103

L less command, 25 ln command, 32, 36 Logging in, 12 Logging out, 12 Login shell, 65 ls command, 22

M man command, 14 man pages (online manual), 14

Basic UNIX Guide

Metacharacters, 83 mget command, in FTP, 40 mkdir command, 33 more command, 25 Moving directories, 28 Moving files, 28 mput command, in FTP, 40 mv command, 28

R rcp command, 37 Redirection, in shells, 89–93 Removing files, 29 Renaming files and directories, 28 rm command, 29 rmdir command, 34 Root directory, 17

N NCAR users, information for, 6

O Online help, 14 Operating system diagram of, 5 overview of, 3–5

P Parent directory, 19, 34 passwd command, 16 Passwords, of files, 16 Pathnames, 18 pg command, 26 Pipes, 95 Processes, 4 ps command, 42 put command, in FTP, 39 pwd command, 21

Q Quick reference C shell, 78 commands, 11, 42 e-mail, 107 shells, 77 vi editor, 45–46

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S Security, of accounts, 16 setenv command, in C shell, 96 Shells, 4, 65–103 aliasing commands in C shell, 100 changing for single session, 67 changing the default, 68 compared, 69–70 filters, 95 history in C shell, 98 login, 65 pipes, 95 prompt, 65 quick reference, 77 redirecting stderr (standard error), 92 redirecting stdin (standard output), 90 redirecting stdout (standard output), 89 redirection combined, 93 scripts, 79–82 subshells, 68 Shells, books about, 126 Shells. See also C shell; Bourne shell; Korn shell<$nopage>, 65 Start-up files. See Files: initialization status variable, in C shell, 82 stderr (standard error), 87 redirection of, 92 stdin (standard input), 87 redirection of, 90 stdout (standard output), 87 redirection of, 89 Subshells, 68 133

System V, 3

T tail command, 42 Tilde (~), in C shell, 19

U umask command, 31 UNICOS, 3 UNIX commands. See Commands UNIX directories. See Directories UNIX files. See Files unsetenv command, in C shell, 96 Utilities, 4

V vacationcommand, in e-mail, 119 vi editor commands, 45–61 books about, 127 command mode, 48 insert mode, 48, 51 quick reference, 45–46

W wc command, 42 who command, 42 Wildcard characters, 83

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