A Basic Set of UNIX Commands

UNIX is the multi-user operating system on the SUN computers. It uses a hierarchial directory system very similar to folders or directories on a PC. Thus a subdirectory to a directory is like a folder in a folder. The root directory is the slash (/). To see your current working directory, type:

condor{smithj}1: pwd (path of the working directory)
/home/condor/call2417/smithj
condor{smithj}2:

The following is a basic set of very useful UNIX commands to get you started. Note that UNIX (and C++, for that matter) is case sensitive - it distinguishes between upper and lower case characters.

ls
list the files in the current working directory.

ls -l
list the files in the current working directory in the long format.

cd directory_name
change the current directory to the directory_name. The default (no name supplied in the command) is to return to the user's home directory.

cp file_name target
copy a file to a new name or location. Target may be a subdirectory or another file name. Target (
.) refers to your current working directory and target (~) refers to your home directory. File_name (*) means copy all the files in the current directory.

mv file_name target
moves or renames files. Target may be a subdirectory or another file name.

rm file_name
remove the named file. It cannot be subsequently recovered so it pays to be careful.

rm -r directory_name
remove an entire directory along with all of its files and directories. These cannot be subsequently recovered so it pays to be careful.

mkdir directory_name
create a named directory. It will be a subdirectory of your current working directory.

rmdir directory_name
remove empty directories from the file structure.

cat file_name
display contents of a text file on the terminal.

cat -n file_name
display contents of a text file on the terminal as well as the line numbers.

more file_name
display contents of a text file on the terminal one page at a time. Press "space bar" to continue and either "
q" or "ctrl+C" to quit.

man command
show the manual page for the command.

file file_name
classifie files according to basic types. Useful to see if named file is a text file before looking at it or attempting to print it.

print file_name
print a text file on the line printer. (Not a standard UNIX command - replaces
lpr)

vi file_name
edits a text file. See below.

g++ file_name.cpp -o file_name
compiles and links a C++ program.

SUN C++ source files must have names ending with .cpp (note lower case). We use the gnu C++ compiler g++. We always choose the same name for the executable file without the .cpp suffix, thus assuming that the source code of our program is named 'my_program.cpp':

condor{smithj}3: g++ my_program.cpp -o my_program

Then to execute:

condor{smithj}4: my_program

Basic vi editor

Telnet "condor"