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Introduction to UNIX

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 Course Length - 3 Days 
   
Course Description

This three-day hands-on course provides a comprehensive introduction to the full range of UNIX user commands and utilities. Students will also develop shell programming and vi editing skills.

 
  
You Will Learn How To

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: 

  • Start up and successfully log in to any UNIX environment
  • Search and display online documentation
  • Interact with UNIX via the command line interface
  • Use links and directories to navigate across the UNIX file system
  • Create and edit files using vi, plus customize the vi environment
  • Protect files and directories from unauthorized access
  • Find files, applications and utilities by date, name, owner, type or other criteria
  • Customize the shell to efficiently use command substitutions and history
  • Process data with filters, pipes and redirection
  • Write batch and interactive shell scripts to automate tasks
  • Perform simple administration, such as backing up and restoring personal files
  • Perform a safe shutdown of any UNIX computer
 
  
Course Benefits

Students will quickly learn how to efficiently UNIX commands in an interactive environment.

 
  
Course Prerequisites

This course assumes students have no previous knowledge of UNIX. Basic computer experience at the user level is expected.

 
  

Who Should Attend?

This course is valuable for anyone who is new to the UNIX environment.

 
  
Hands-On Exercises:

Throughout this course, students perform a series of extensive hands-on exercises, including: 

  • Using the online manual to obtain information about commands
  • Copy, delete, move and display files
  • Copy, delete, move and navigate across directories
  • Simple and sophisticated file editing with vi
  • Customizing vi setting by editing the .exrc file
  • Finding strings in files with grep
  • Manipulaing and comparing file contents with cut, paste, and diff
  • Setting and changing permission modes with chmod, and umask
  • Finding files
  • Obtaining process status and changing status priorities
  • Building complex commands with wildcards, pipes and redirection
  • Customizing the shell
  • Writing shell scripts with for and while loops
  • Writing shell scripts with case constructs
  • Making, editing, and deleting a crontab entry
  • Using tar to back up files
  
Course Outline:  

Getting Started

 
  • UNIX operating system features
  • Flavors of UNIX
  • Brief History of UNIX
  • Logging in and using the system
  • User names and passwords
  • Command line syntax: commands, arguments, whitespace, options
  • Accessing and searching the on-line reference manual
  • A Few Commands
 
Files 
  • What is a file
  • Wildcards
  • File Properties
  • The ls Command
  • Displaying files
  • Copy, move and remove files
 
Directories 
  • The hierarchical UNIX directory structure
  • File Types
  • Directories and their contents
  • Relative vs. absolute paths
  • Copying Files into Directories
 
Editing with vi 
  • Why Learn vi
  • The vi Temporary File
  • Command Mode and Insert Mode
  • Moving the Cursor
  • Scrolling
  • Searching
  • Copy and Paste
  • Reading in external files
  • Advanced vi Tricks
  • Customizing .exrc File
 
Text Handling Utilities 
  • Word count
  • grep
  • Sorting files
  • File comparison
  • Printing
 
File System Security 
  • Basic File Permissions
  • Changing Permission Modes
  • The umask Command
  • Why directories need execute permission
 
File System Management 
  • The find Utility
  • Disk Usage
  • CPU Usage
 
Processes 
  • What are daemons and processes
  • The ps utility
  • Background commands (&)
  • Killing processes
  • Signals
 
Redirection 
  • Filters and Streams
  • Standard I/O
  • Redirection and pipes
  • Appending Output
  • The tee Command
 
Using the Shell 
  • Which Shell To Use
  • Determining Which Shell Is Running
  • Changing finger information with the chfn utility
  • Changing The Shell
  • Shell Variables
  • Environment Variables
  • The history Command
  • What Is A Shell Script
 
Shell Scripting 
  • Exit Status
  • Setting A Variable
  • Special Variable
  • Test Conditions
  • For and While Loops
  • The case Construct
  • Scripts With Arguments
  • Reading In Variables
  • Subshells
 
Personal System Administration 
  • Logging In As Root
  • Difference between su and su -
  • System Start Up
  • System Shutdown
  • Making your own crontab entry
  • Compressing files
  • Backing up files with tar
  • The cpio Command