UNIXhelp for Users: a Reference and Guide
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This guide of 400 pp was produced by the ITTI Unixhelp
project at Edinburgh and is currently available in an A5
D-ring binder form together with a Quick Reference card for
UNIX System V commands.
Postscript source for a set of A4 masters will be available
through anonymous ftp and WWW by 08/94.
Product description
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This is a guide to a comprehensive range of tasks using the
UNIX operating system. Try consulting it whenever you are
faced with a "how do I ..." situation.
While this guide assumes that you have had an initial
introduction to using UNIX, it also appreciates that using a
command line interface places severe demands on your memory
and recall, making even simple tasks appear difficult and
the more complex almost impossible.
You will find that the comprehensive table of contents and
the index are good access aids. If the information you are
looking for is in this guide then you should be able find it
using one or the other of them.
Throughout this guide we use descriptive headings, clear
text, and well documented examples, to help you to match
your idea of what it is you are trying to do with the
information you require. We hope that you find it useful.
What is in this guide?
Section 2 Concepts: Illustrates and explains some of the
basic concepts that are represented by any operating system
and by UNIX in particular. Reading this section will help
you to understand why UNIX behaves in the way it does and
give you a clearer idea of what it is you are doing.
Section 3 Getting started: Here you can find out how to
start and stop using a UNIX system and how to use some of
its many commands. It also explains how you can login and
run commands on remote hosts.
Section 4 Using UNIX Commands: Explains how to make advanced
use of the command line by, connecting commands together,
redirecting command input and output and using regular
expressions. This section also explains how to go about
finding the entry for a command in the online manual.
Section 5 Controlling access to your files and directories:
Every file and directory in your account can be protected
from or made accessible to other users by changing the
access permissions associated with it. This section shows
you how to interpret this information and then explains how
you can go about changing permissions for your own needs.
Section 6 Working with files and directories: Much of the
time that you spend using UNIX involves you in working with
files (and directories) in one way or another. This section
gives you detailed instructions for the most frequent tasks
you will find yourself using.
Section 7 Managing your environment: Explains how the
environment provided by the shell program depends on the
values of shell and environment variables. By changing the
value of these variables you can redefine your user
environment.
Section 8 Text editors: While using UNIX you will often want
to create a text file and then change its content in some
way. This section introduces you to the basic editing
facilities of vi and EMACS, the two editors most often used
in the UNIX environment.
Section 9 Using electronic mail: Every UNIX system allows
you to exchange electronic mail with other users on your
local system and on remote systems. Although there are many
different mail programs available for UNIX, this section
concentrates on explaining the use of mail (or mailx), the
basic mail program available on any UNIX system.
Section 10 Managing jobs and processes: Every command which
you enter starts a program, which, while running, is called
a process. This section explains how you can monitor and
control those processes which are under your control.
Section 11 The shell: Using the resources of the UNIX
operating system is actually achieved through the user
environment provided by a program know as the shell. As
well as explaining how you can switch from using one shell
to another, this section also introduces you to some of the
most useful features provided by the standard UNIX shells.
Section 12 File transfer utilities: Many people find the
task of transferring files from one computer system to
another something of a black art. This section explains the
use of several commands that can be used for file transfer.
It also includes a section on a particular suite of commands
which are still widely used for this purpose within the UK
academic community.
Section 13 File manipulation utilities: UNIX provides an
abundance of commands for manipulating the content of text
files. This section introduces you to commands for
comparing, sorting and searching file contents.
Section 14 Programming utilities: Describes the use of
several utilities that are available to assist anyone
wanting to develop programs under UNIX.
Section 15 Shell programming: As well as using the shell to
run commands you can use its built-in programming language
to write your own commands or programs. This section
describes the shell scripting language features that are
available with the Bourne shell.
Price:-
UKHE 30.00 pounds
Non UKHE 30.00 pounds plus p&p
Distribution:-
The guide is obtainable from:-
Mrs Jean Burgan
USDU
Level Six
University House
SHEFFIELD
S10 2TN
Tel: 0742 725248
Fax: 0742 728705
Email: j.burgan@sheffield.ac.uk
Further Information and Comments:-
PLease address enquiries on product content etc to :
Mr Bob McGonigle
Edinburgh University Computer Services
Edinburgh
e-mail Bob.McGonigle@ed.ac.uk
From: Brian Shields
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994
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