The File System

Outline

This is a workshop aimed at beginners who have never seen the command line or who have a nodding relationship with it. You will learn, from scratch, to use the magic of the command line to manage your files. Also, you can see a demonstration of running programs in Java, Python, and C in this environment.

Participants will also get a PDF text which addresses the topics shown below.

• Spelunking with ls and cd You will learn how to climb up and down in your file system and you will learn about the symbols . and ..
• An Anatomy Lesson You will learn about the three components of a UNIX command and their roles.
  • Name
  • Options
  • Arguments
• Da Man Uh oh. I need to use a command I have never seen before. Where do I look to learn how to use it and how to get it to do what I need it to do? We show the solution to this.
• Some Useful Commands Here are a few: cal date pwd hostname whoami which, among others. You will learn about your home directory, which is where your stuff belongs.
• Making things You will be able to create directories (folders) and files by entering a command.
• Clobbering Things Getting rid of stuff is simple and, (warning....) permanent. There is no undelete. You will learn about the dangers and wonders of these commands.
  • Renaming and moving with mv
  • Copying with cp
  • Clobbering with rm
  All of them are capable of clobbering a file.
• Paths These come in two forms, absolute and relative. Relative to what? And what the heck is $PATH?
• Globbing Here is a game we can play with * and ? to list all files with specific textual patterns.
• Permissions You can control who sees what on your system. This is very important if you are working on a cloud system.
• Laginappe Some items will appear and be addressed on-the-spot; these will be prompted by particpants with a sense of curiosity and adventure.