AD408 Advanced

Linux Operating System

The Linux operating system is a variant of the Unix operating system
Although a graphical user interface (GUI) is available for many typical operations, command line interaction is recommended
The Linux machines in the newSpace lab are all connected to a single network file system so that your data is available on any machine
SSH stands for Secure Shell and is a more secure alternative to telnet
FTP and SSH into newSpace machines by connecting to vr6.aa.uic.edu
Most commands/programs on Linux have help associated with them called man pages (i.e. type: man ls for help on ls)

Connecting with SSH from a remote machine:
ssh -l username vr6.aa.uic.edu

Listing Files type:
ls

Listing Files with details type:
ls -ltra

where the l option gives a long listing including modification date, owner, and read/write privileges
where the t option lists files in the order they were modified
where the r option lists files in reverse order
where the a option lists even files that start with a period (.i.e. .caverc, .jotcrft)

Print current working directory type:
pwd

Changing into a directory type:
cd directory

where directory is the name of the directory you want to change to
if the directory is not relative (i.e. below) the current directory then a full path must be given (i.e. /usr/local/yg)

Creating directories type:
mkdir directory

Copying a file from type:
cp filetocopy localfilename

where filetocopy is either a relative path (i.e. yg.scene, data/yg.scene) or an absolute path (/usr/local/yg/RUN)
locafilename can be replaced with a period to indicate that the file should be copied with the same name to the current directory

Moving a file or Changing a file name type:
mv filetomove newfilename

Opening a file for editing type:
kate filename &

filename is the name of the file to edit
the & symbol indicates that the program should run in the background so that the shell terminal remains usable