CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Unix Tutorial
Beginner
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Account creation / logging in
Create your CS account:
https://newuser.cs.mcgill.ca/
Reset password (generates new password):
https://newpassword.cs.mcgill.ca/
McGill Username: [email protected]
McGill Password: same password to log into your mcgill e-mail
Change password through terminal:
● passwd
To change password with passwd, you have to be SSH’ed into one of the SOCS servers
(eg: mimi.cs.mcgill.ca, teaching.cs.mcgill.ca)
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
GUI - Graphical User Interface
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Common Applications
Software probably needs admin permissions to install
● Browser: Firefox
● Word processing: LibreOffice Writer
● Text editing: Emacs, Sublime, Text Editor, Geany
● IDE: Eclipse
● Graphics: Gimp, Blender, Wings 3D
● Computation: Matlab, LibreOffice Calc
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
CS Account
CS Mail Account: https://mail.cs.mcgill.ca/ (by request)
● can have a vanity name
Printing:
McGill uPrint: http://kb.mcgill.ca/it/uprint
● 6 cents per page
● Charged on your McGill student account (check in
Minerva)
Network with daily backup
Personal website: cs.mcgill.ca/~username
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Terminal
Command Line Editor
● Text-based access to the operating
system
Why is it useful?
● Almost everything is configurable through
command line
● Powerful, flexible, efficient
✦ combine commands
✦ can do things that you can’t do
through GUI
● Standardized - same “syntax” for all POSIX
compliant machines
● Used in many CS courses
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Anatomy of a command
commandName [-option] [argument]
Examples:
● date
● cal
● whoami
● ls -l
✦ List all files and directories in the current directory. “-l” = long. Descriptive list.
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Basic terminal commands
ls - List directory
Options:
● l = long
● a = hidden files
Examples:
● ls -a
● ls -la
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Basic terminal commands
cd - Change directory
Examples:
● cd myFolderName
✦ Enter the directory called myFolderName
● cd ..
✦ Move up one directory
● cd -
✦ Return to previous folder
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Basic terminal commands
mkdir - Make directory
● mkdir newFolderName
cp - Copy file or folder
● cp myFile someFolder/copiedFile
mv - Move file or folder
● mv myFile someFolder/copiedFile
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Getting more info
man - Manual
Example:
● man mv
--help
Example:
● mv --help
NAME
mv - move (rename) files
SYNOPSIS
mv [OPTION]... [-T] SOURCE DEST
mv [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
mv [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY SOURCE...
DESCRIPTION
Rename SOURCE to DEST, or move SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options
too.
--backup[=CONTROL]
make a backup of each existing destination file
-b like --backup but does not accept an argument
-f, --force ...
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Creating a file
touch - Creates a file
Example:
● touch myFileName
cat - Catenate
Example:
● cat > filename
● ^Z to quit
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Viewing a file
cat - Catenate
tac - Catenate in reverse
Examples:
● cat file1 file2
● tac file1
less - show content one page at a time
by window: b=backwards and f=forwards
by line: k=backwards and j=forwards
cat | less or cat | head or cat | tail
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Editing a file
vim - Vi IMproved
● ‘a’ or ‘i’ to enter Insert Mode
● ‘esc’ to enter Command Mode
● :q :wq :q! → exit
nano - Nano’s ANOther editor
● Helpful interface
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
File Information
touch file.txt
ls -l file.txt
> -rw------- 1 jsmith nogroup 0 Sep 23 10:14 file.txt
[permissions][# of links][user][group][filesize][date modified][filename]
● Permissions: drwxrwxrwx
[directory?][user][group][others]
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
File Permissions - Method 1
chmod - Change file mode bits
r:read, w:write, x:execute
u:user, g:group, o:others, a:all three (ugo)
Examples:
● chmod a+rx file
● Add read and execute permissions to all
● chmod ou-rw
● Remove read and write permissions from others and the user
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
File Permissions - Method 2
chmod - Change file mode bits
Examples:
● chmod 777 file
● Enable full permissions to all three
● chmod 652 file
● Enable read and write to user,
read and execute to group,
write to others
rwx____
000 = 0
001 = 1
010 = 2
011 = 3
100 = 4
101 = 5
110 = 6
111 = 7
-rw-r-x-w- = 652
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Deleting a file or directory
rm - Remove
Example:
● rm file
● rm -r directory
● rm -f file (remove prompt)
● rm -rf directory (delete folder)
CAUTION: rm -rf *.*
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Storage Space
du - File Usage
● du file (kilobytes)
● du -b file (bytes)
df -h - File System Disk Space
free - Display Free and Used Memory
CS Help Desk: Marc Jarvis (in spirit), Monica Ung, Corey Antoniuk 2015
Connecting from home with SSH
Unix (use terminal)
● ssh [email protected]
○ eg: ssh [email protected]
● fingerprint prompt for first time
user (yes)
● password
● ‘exit’ or Ctrl D to quit
Windows (use Putty)
● Host: teaching.cs.mcgill.ca
