Accessing your account
Logging in and out of you account
Changing your password
Changing your login shell
Manipulating and managing files and directories
Transferring files to and from your account
Printing from your account
Compilers and interpreters
Compiling a C program
GNU C and C++ Compiler
Browsing the web
Reading a PDF file
References and tutorials
Books
System tools
System support references

Accessing your account

You can access your UNIX account from one of the following two ways:
  1. By sitting directly in front of the UNIX computer you are trying to access. The UNIX computers in our department live in the AN 131 lab. This simply involves entering your username and password (given on the first day of class) at the console. Be sure to change your password (see instructions below).

  2. By accessing the UNIX computer remotely from another (UNIX, Macintosh, Windows) computer using SSH (Secure SHell).

    1. SSH is a common protocol for connecting to remote computers. There are several free versions of SSH available. My personal favorite is PuTTY. The Windows computers in the CPS labs (AN 13[15]) are equip with SSH Secure Shell (Start -> Programs -> SSH Secure Shell -> Secure Shell Client).

    2. You may connect to any of the following three client computers (runnig SUSE Linux) identified by their hostname:

      cpssuse04.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse05.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse06.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse07.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse08.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse09.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse10.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse11.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse12.cps.udayton.edu
      cpssuse13.cps.udayton.edu

      Note: You can access your files from any of these computers.

  3. After you connect, enter your username and password (given on the first day of class; if you have never logged into one of these computers, your password is still the default as it is not synchronized with your Windows account). You will see a command prompt for input.

Logging in and out of your account

To log in, follow the above instructions for accessing you account. Enter your username when prompted. Similarly, enter your password when prompted.

To log out, hit crtl-d (this is the EOF character on UNIX systems).

Changing your password

To change your password, enter the following command at the prompt. 
passwd

Changing your login shell

To change your login shell (e.g., to bash), enter the following command at the prompt. 
chsh
The path to the Bash shell (Bourne Again SHell) is /bin/bash. The path to the Korn shell is /bin/ksh. The shell is the user's command line interface to the UNIX system. The Bash and Korn shells have more user friendly features, such as command and filename completion (using the TAB key), than the C shell (i.e., csh, the default login shell for your account).

Manipulating and managing files and directories

Transferring files to and from your account

To transfer files to and from your account, use a secure file transfer program such as FileZilla. You can also use PSCP or PSFTP available for free download from the PuTTY Download Page. The Windows computers in the CPS labs (AN 13[15] and MH 21A) are equip with Secure File Transfer Client (Start -> Programs -> SSH Secure Shell -> Secure Shell File Transfer Client).

Printing from you account

Printing is unavailable at this time, but should be available soon. To print a file in your account, you will need to first transfer (see above) it out of your account and then print it locally.

You can also explore various utilities for printing installed on the system such as a2ps (ascii to postscript), enscript, gs, and dvips. For instance, enscript hw1.c -o hw1.ps sends the output of the conversion of hw1.c from ascii to Postscript to the file hw1.ps rather than directory to the printer.

Compilers and interpreters

  • C: gcc mypgm.c
  • C++: g++ mypgm.cpp
  • Perl: perl mypgm.pl
  • Python: python mypgm.py

Compiling a C program

GNU C and C++ Compiler

Browsing the web

To fire the Mozilla web browser, enter the following command (only from the console): firefox &

Reading a PDF file

To read a PDF file, enter the following command (only from the console): acroread [filename] & or replace acroread with evince or kpdf on Linux system.

References and tutorials

(also have a look at the posters titled "UNIX Shell Commands" and "UNIX Vi Commands" in the AN 131 lab)

Books

Pick up any textbook or programming reference on UNIX at the Roesch Library or your local library. My favorites are the following.
  1. B.W. Kernighan and R. Pike. The UNIX Programming Environment. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Second edition, 1984. ISBN: 0-13-937681-X.
  2. M. G. Sobell. A Practical Guide to the UNIX System. Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, Third edition, 1994. ISBN: 0-8053-7565-1.
  3. A. Robbins. UNIX in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Solaris. O'Reilly, Fourth edition, 1999. ISBN: 0596100299.
  4. L. Lamb and A. Robbins. Learning the vi Editor. O'Reilly, Sixth edition, 1998. ISBN: 1-56592-426-6.
  5. S. Powers, J. Peek, T. O'Reilly, and M. Loukides. UNIX Power Tools. O'Reilly, Third edition, 2002. ISBN: 0596003307.

System tools

  • VirtualBox
  • LiveCD and LiveUSB images are available on the main download page for openSUSE (both GNOME and KDE live media are available)
  • XLiveCD (a free CD based on Cygwin for X Windows forwarding through ssh)
  • Xming (a free X Window server for Microsoft Windows (XP/2003/Vista) which can be used to forward X applications through ssh)

System support references

(c) Saverio Perugini, Winter 2005, University of Dayton. Permission to use ideas about the organization of topics and any notes or material is granted, provided suitable acknowledgments and citations are made.
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