Unix Basics

Most of the time you can happily use the desktop GUI world of icons & click-click-click to navigate your directory(folder) setup. However, for this course and in order to set up new packages you will find a survival set of understandings about the underlying textual command interface of Unix very helpful.

Here's some Unix commands you'll find useful from time to time. 

    ls
list contents of current directory(folder)

ls can be used alone or in targeted way 

                  ls  
                  ls ~                 ('~' is shorthand for your home folder)
                  ls ..                ('..' is parent of current working directory)
                  ls ../*.java         (* is a "wild card")
The "/" symbol separates folder levels in the path 
    cd
change current directory(folder)

cd can be used alone or in targeted way 

                  cd                   ( when you don't specify which one; default is your home folder)
                  cd ~                 ( specifically your home folder )
                  cd ..                ( change to the parent folder )
                  cd ../..             ( change to the parent of the parent folder )
                  cd ~/cs157           ( change to subfolder of home folder )
             
    pwd
"print working directory" 
    mkdir

make a new directory(folder) from the command line
Unless you specify and alternate path, directory is underneath the working directory (aka "inside current folder") 

                  mkdir cs284  

                  mkdir cs284/hw4

                  mkdir ../tiasStuff

                  mkdir ~/html/project3
             
    diff

diff is used to compare two files and report any and all differences between their contents.

You must provide two files to compare. 

                  grep  index_A.php   index_B.php

                  grep  index_B.html   ..

                  grep  work.html   ../StyleHW0/
             
    grep

grep is used to search files for strings (aka simple "regular expressions")

The first field is the regular expression.
The second is which file(s) you want to look into. 

                  grep  navigation  *.html   ( search for the word 'navigation' in all html files in current folder )

                  grep   //   *.php          ( search for side by side slashes in all php files in current folder )

             
    cp

cp is used to make copies of one or more files

The first field is what you want a copy of.
The second is the new name and/or place you want the copy to be named or go to. 

                  cp  index.html  index.php                 (copies a single file)

                  cp  *.php   phpTIAS/                      (copies all files ending in .java into subdirectory phpTIAS)

                  cp  -rf cs284/   SavaAllcs284Files/       (makes a copy of the entire directory & all subdirectories)

                  cp  ../work.html  .                       (copies file found in parent directory(..) to current directory(.) )
                                                               new file has same name as original 

                  cp  ../work.html  workOfArt.html          (copies file found in parent directory(..) to current directory(.) )
                                                               new file has a different name than original 

             
    mv

mv is used to move a file or files from one place to another (or one name to another) 

                  mv  tias.html  tias_01.html               (renames a single file)

                  mv  *.html   cs284Archives/               (moves all files ending in .html into subdirectory cs284Archives)

                  mv  ../*.html   .                         (moves all files ending in .html from parent directory to current)

                  mv  JavaPkgs/   SavaAllJavaPkgs/          (renames a directory)

                  mv  ../one.html  two.html                 (moves file found in parent directory(..) to current directory(.) )
                                                               file has a different name

             
    rm

rm is used to remove/DELETE a file or files Remove/DELETE one or more files. BE CAREFUL!!! 

                  rm  FirstClient.java                      (deletes a single file)

                  rm  *.class                               (deletes all files ending in .class in current directory)

                  rm  */*.class                             (deletes all files ending in .class from all subdirectories;
                                                             does NOT remove those in current directory)

                  rm  ../*.class                            (deletes all files ending in .class from parent directory)

                  rm  *                                     (deletes all files in directory.  BE CAREFUL!!!)