Beginning UNIX

UNIX is an operating system.

UNIX is the operating system that manages servers such as cats1, sparta at Schenley, henry at Frick ..... Most users will use UNIX commands to do account maintenance and run mail and news programs such as Pine and Tin. Rather than navigate through their accounts from the menu, experienced users find it is faster and more convenient to work from the UNIX Prompt. When you first logon to your account you will see the UNIX Prompt [check@cats1] ~>.

UNIX commands

In UNIX, a command is a direct instruction.

who - Type the who command and the command shows the names and other information about other users currently logged on the system.

finger - Type the finger command and the command shows the names of those users presently logged on to the system. To locate a user on any system, type finger userid@server.name.
eg: Type finger check@hermia.woolslair.pps.pgh.pa.us to locate a user named check.
tin - Type tin at the UNIX prompt to go directly to newsgroups.

passwd - Type passwd at the UNIX prompt to change your password.

talk - Type talk username@whole server name to talk to another person.
eg: Type talk franklin@hermia.woolslair.pps.pgh.pa.us to request a talk session.
eg: Type talk check@cats1.admin.pps.pgh.pa.us to start the talk session.
If the talk request has scrambled the screen, you can redraw the screen by typing Ctrl-L.
If you do not wish to talk, type mesg n to turn talk off for this session only.
Type Ctrl-C to end a talk session.
pine - Type pine at the UNIX prompt to go directly to your email.
Type pine -i to go directly to your email index.
Type pine [user address] to go directly into composer, sending to a given address.
eg: pine franklin@pps.pgh.pa.us will allow composing a message to user franklin.
lynx - Type lynx at the UNIX prompt to go directly to the World Wide Web in text format only.
eg: lynx http://info.ckp.edu/ will take you to the CK:P homepage.
Type lynx [user home page address] (URL) to take you to that location.
gopher - Type gopher at the UNIX prompt to go directly to the gopher.

Commands that are used for your account maintenance.

All users will be required at some point to perform maintenance on their account.

ls - To list files.
Type ls to list the files in the present directory.
Type ls -a to list all files, including . files.
Type ls -l to list files and file information.
Type ls -al to list all files with information.
Type ls -l |more to list one screen at a time.
cd - Type cd to change to a new directory.
Type mkdir www to create a new directory.
Type cd www to change to the newly created directory.
To return to the previous directory type cd ..
rm - To remove files and/or directories.
Type rm filename to remove a file.
Type rm -r directory name to remove a directory.

Special Navigational Commands

myquota - Type myquota to get quota information on your account.

ckpnews - Type ckpnews to get to the CK:P news announcements.

menu - Type menu to get to the CK:P main menu.

ansiprint [filename] - Prints a file to your local printer.