12 January 2021

touch
    argument:  file(s)
who
chmod
mv
    argument: at least two files
rmdir
pwd
ls
passwd
mkdir
cd
finger
    argument: username
cat
vi
    argument: filemame
sudo

vi modes
    command mode
        mobility
        save file to disk or save a copy
        cut/paste to Mabel
        search
    visual
        selects 
            texticographically
            line mode
            block mode
    insert
        type characters into file






Some Unfinished Business from Yesterday

Relative and Absolute Paths A relative path is a path that is relative to your cwd. An absolute path is a path that points to an absolute location in the file system. Here are the types of absolute paths.

All other paths are relative. Relative to what. Relative to the cwd.

Here we list with an absolute path starting with /.

~> ls /home
2017  2022  anglin            gannCheryl       lobuglio  rebecca.conrad
2018  2023  charles.robinson  gotwals          menchini  rex.jeffries
2019  2024  compact           jennifer.betz    morrison  sedans
2020  2025  cooper            keethan.kleiner  newbauer  vazquez
2021  2026  cs                linsey.morrison  rash      webster
~> ls /home/2022
alexander22d     delosreyes22m  raganath22d  vester22j
atalla22l        fake22z        schrader22a  wang22m
benjamin22s      pham22l        sharma22p    warner22p
bhattacharya22s  pollard22l     singhvi22k   yete22r

You should try these.

ls ~
ls ~morrison/public_html
ls ~cs/data

Processes have a cwd. Can a process change its cwd? This C program shows us the answer is, "Yes!"


#include<stdio.h> 
#include<unistd.h>  
int main() 
{    
    char s[100]; 
    printf("%s\n", getcwd(s, 100)); 
    chdir(".."); 
    printf("%s\n", getcwd(s, 100)); 
    return 0; 
} 

Can you do this in Python?

Globbing You can create wildcards in arguments using the * character. Here are examples.

You can use a ? to create a one-character wildcard.

You can use a list character class (list of chars inside of [] to create a wildcard tht will match the listed characters.

Here is globbing with an absolute path.

~> cd public_html/
~/public_html> ls -d /home/2021/b*
/home/2021/babu21k         /home/2021/bit21m
/home/2021/bauernfeind21d  /home/2021/boyer21n
~/public_html> ls /bin/ls*
/bin/ls      /bin/lscpu     /bin/lsipc     /bin/lsmem
/bin/lsattr  /bin/lsdiff    /bin/lslocks   /bin/lsns
/bin/lsblk   /bin/lsinitrd  /bin/lslogins  /bin/lsscsi

The Environment Variable $PATH and friends $PATH tells the system where to look when you enter a command.

substitutions

Comments in BASH A one-line comment is a space then a pound sign(#). Do not forget the space or you will get an ugly surprise. That means: deliberately make that mistake and see what happens.

Aliases

.bashrc and .bash_profile

.vimrc

Redirection

Fact of UNIX Life Everything is a file!

For most UNIX commands, the default input stream is stdin, which by default is the keyboard. The default output stram is stdout, which is the terminal screen. The default error stream is stderr, which by default is also the terminal screen. All three of these can be redirected. All three are files. Also, any printer or peripheral you have attached to your computer is also a file.

Note that running a BASH script or a an executable program is really just another UNIX command.

Here is a little puzzler. What does this do?

unix> ls > cows.txt
unix> ls -l >> cows.txt

What did this do?

Now run this again. What happened?

unix> ls > cows.txt

Suppose heffalump is a nonexistent file

unix> ls heffalump 2> junk.txt

Now try this. At the command line type cat type a line of text and hit enter. Repeat several times. To exit, hit control-d.

What is the default input for cat?

Make a small test file foo.txt and do this.

unix > cat < foo.txt

Can you explain what happened? Now do this.

unix > cat < 

Type in a few lines of text, hitting ENTER after each one. Then hit control-D to exit. Let us discuss what happened.

Here we see redirection at work wiht the ls command. The second redirection is using append to append its output to the end of a file. You use the "double funnel" >> to do this.

~> ls /bin > file.txt
~> vi file.txt
~> ls -la >> file.txt

printf This is similar to C's printf and can be used to format output.

Here is a guide to Bash's [clunky] arithmetic.


#!/bin/bash
printf "My name is %s %s\n" "Boffer" "Bings"

Here is a script using variables.


#!/bin/bash
echo This is a shell script.
echo Here is a calendar showing today.
cal
PURSUER="cat"
QUARRY="dog"
printf "A %s is chasing a %s\n" "$PURSUER" "$QUARRY"

Redirecting stderr Put a 2 in front of the funnel to redirect stderr.

~> ls heffalump 2> errs.txt
~> ls
bin       demolish.sh  public_html  roster.txt.out  submitted
build.sh  errs.txt     returned     stayHome.sh     test
~> cat errs.txt
ls: cannot access heffalump: No such file or directory

Command-line Arguments vs. stdin


#include<stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    for(int k = 1; k < argc; k++)
    {
        printf("cows %s\n", argv[k]);
    }
    return 0;
}

Pipes

picture of a pipe spewing pollution

It is possible to chain the action of UNIX commands usiing a device called a pipe. Pipes allow you to make the output of one command the input for the next. However, we have to be careful. Here is why. Consider the command ls. Its arguents are not stdin; they are command-line arguments in the C program that is ls. Here we show how command-line arguments are handled in C.

The object argv is an array of strings and argc is its size.

Filters A filter takes a character stream from standard input, operates on it, and puts it to stdout.

Let's learn about a few simple ones, cat, head, and tail, and cut.

This Cut Video explains the basics.