Bare Bones Basics of UNIX for Liberty Users

UNIX is an operating system with enormous power and complexity, but a person with no interest in deep geekdom will find some of the most basic commands very useful. This summary will get you started on an odyssey of exploration and will enable you to do basic housekeeping in your Liberty account.

The Liberty menu offers the choice 5. Liberty Functions; if you type 5 and then choose 1. UNIX from the next menu you will see Liberty's $ prompt --which means UNIX is ready to do whatever you order it to do.

ls is the simple command for "list the current directory" (like DIR in DOS)

You can add parameters to see different versions of the directory data: 

           ls -l       will show you the LONG form of the directory
                       listing, including the size of files (entities
                       whose size is a multiple of 512 [1024, etc.]
                       are DIRECTORIES)

           ls -a       will show you 'hidden' files that begin with a .
                       (like  .profile)

           ls -al      will show both long form AND hidden files
cd is the command for "change directory" 
           cd /pathname  (e.g.,  cd /myfiles/courses/psych395  will
                       change to a directory called "psych395" which is
                       in a directory called "courses", which is in a
                       directory called "myfiles"

           cd ..       will RETURN you to the directory just above

           cd          alone will return you to your HOME directory
mkdir is the command to CREATE ('make') a directory 
           mkdir myfiles   will create a (sub)directory called "myfiles"
rmdir is the command to REMOVE a directory (which must be EMPTY)

rm is the command to REMOVE a file 

           ( rm myfile3  will delete myfile3)
           
           NB: there is NO way to recover a file if you rm it by mistake.
mv is to command to MOVE a file, but it's also how to RENAME a file 
           mv myfile3 myfile3new  will RENAME  myfile3   to  myfile3new

           mv myfile3 /courses/psych395  will put myfile3 into the
                       subdirectory /psych395
           mv myfile3 /courses/psych395/myfile3new  will put myfile3 into
                       the subdirectory /psych395 AND rename it  myfile3new
               **Don't use & or " in the names of files**
more is the command to TYPE a file to the screen 
           more myfile3  will present the contents of  myfile3  a screen 
           at a time --hit the  bar to see the next page)
pico awakens an editor which allows you to create new files or edit existing files. Look elsewhere for a bare bones basics for pico.

You can enter commands at the $ prompt which will cause Liberty to CALL other programs: you can type gopher to start the W&L gopher server, or lynx to start the W&L text-only WWW browser, or telnet plus a correct telnet address to connect to a distant resource (telnet hollis.harvard.edu will connect you to an interactive session with Harvard's online library catalog), or ftp plus a correct internet address to connect to a distant computer for anonymous connection and retrieval of files (see the bare bones basics for ftp to find out more).

There's much more. For the moment I'll only add one other feature: if you want to know more about a unix command (its parameters, its powers) you can type man commandname (e.g., man mv) to see the manual page which explains that command in detail.

Some other UNIX help material from other sites, much more detailed: