Introduction to Shell and

Common Unix Commands

SEEM 3460 1
Introduction to Unix Shell
 A shell executes all of the commands
that you enter. Some popular shells:
 Bourne shell (Bourne Again shell in
Linux)
 Korn shell
 C shell (TC shell in Linux)
 All of these shells share a similar set of
core functionality, together with some
specialized properties.

SEEM 3460 2
Shell (con’t)
 Each shell has its own programming language.
 Why would you write a program in a shell
language rather than a language like C or Java?
 The answer is that shell languages are tailored to
manipulating files and processes in the UNIX
system, which makes them more convenient in
many situations.

SEEM 3460 3
 Shell Operations
 A typical shell operation:
 Shell starts up and initializes itself
 Shell types a prompt character (percent or dollar sign)
and waits for user to type a command line
 User types a command line
 Shell extracts first word and assumes the name of a
program to be run
 Shell searches for this program
 If it finds it, runs the program

 Shell suspends itself until the program terminates

 Shell waits for another command

SEEM 3460 4
Shell Operations
 When a shell is invoked automatically
during a login (or manually from a
keyboard or script), it follows a preset
sequence:
1. It reads a special start-up file, typically located
in the user’s home directory (e.g. ~/.cshrc), that
contains some initialization information. Each
shell’s start-up sequence is different.
2. It displays a prompt and waits for a user
command.
3. If the user enters a Control-D character on a line
of its own, this is interpreted by the shell as
meaning “end of input” and causes the shell to
terminate; otherwise, the shell executes the
user’s command and returns to step 2.

SEEM 3460 5
 Shell Operations

 Shell is an ordinary user program – needs the ability to

read from and write to the terminal, and execute other
programs
 Commands may take arguments, which are passed to
the called program as character strings
 Example
 cp src dest
 Shell accepts magic characters, called wild cards
 Example: ls *.c

SEEM 3460 6
Shell Operations
 Commands range from simple utility
invocations, such as

cuse93:> ls

to complex-looking pipeline sequences,

such as

cuse93:> ps -ef | sort | ul -tdumb | lp

SEEM 3460 7
Shell Operations
 If you ever need to enter a command that is longer than a
line on your terminal, you may terminate a portion of the
command with a backslash (\) character, and the shell
then allows you to continue the command on the next
line:

cuse93:> echo this is a very long shell command and

needs to \
be extended with the line continuation character. Note \
that a single command may be extended for several lines.

this is a very long shell command and needs to be

extended with the line continuation character. Note that a
single command may be extended for several lines.

cuse93:> _
SEEM 3460 8
Executable Files Versus Built-in
Commands

 Most UNIX commands invoke utility programs that

are stored in the directory hierarchy. Utilities are
stored in files that have execute permission. For
example, when you type
cuse93:> ls
the shell locates the executable program called “ls,”
which is typically found in the “/bin” directory, and
executes it.
 In addition to its ability to locate and execute
utilities, the shell contains several built-in
commands, such as echo and cd, which it recognizes
and executes internally.

SEEM 3460 9
Showing Your Shell’s Current
Working Directory: pwd
 Every UNIX process has a location in the directory
hierarchy, termed its current working directory.
 When you log into a UNIX system, your shell starts
off in a particular directory called your home
directory.
 In general, every user has a different home
directory assigned by the system administrator.
 To show your shell’s current working directory, use
the pwd utility.

UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0

login: glass
Password: . . .secret
cuse93:> pwd
/home/glass
cuse93:>
SEEM 3460 10
Absolute And Relative Pathnames
The following diagram indicates that the location of my
login Korn shell is in the directory hierarchy.

The login shell starts at the user’s home directory.

SEEM 3460 11
Absolute And Relative Pathnames
 Two files in the same directory may not have the same
name, although it’s perfectly OK for several files in
different directories to have the same name.
 For example, this diagram shows a small hierarchy that
contains a “ksh” process and three files called “myFile”.

Different files may have the same name.

SEEM 3460 12
Absolute And Relative Pathnames
(con’t)
 Although these files have the same name, they may
be unambiguously specified by their pathname
relative to “/”, the root of the directory hierarchy.
 A pathname is a sequence of directory names that
leads you through the hierarchy from a starting
directory to a target file.
 A pathname relative to the root directory is often
termed an absolute or full pathname. The table shows
the absolute pathnames of the “A,” “B,” and “C”
instances of “myFile”. File Absolute PathName

A /home/glass/myFile

B /home/myFile

C /bin/myFile
SEEM 3460 13
Absolute And Relative Pathnames
(con’t)
 We can specify a pathname relative to the home
directory of an account using the character “~”

Pathname Meaning

~wlam home directory of the account wlam

~/ home directory of the current user account

“distribute” directory under the home
~/distribute/
Directory of the current user account

SEEM 3460 14
Absolute And Relative Pathnames
(con’t)
 A pathname can be specified relative to its current
working directory.
 The UNIX file system supports the special fields
shown below that may be used when supplying a
relative pathname.

Field Meaning
. current directory
.. parent directory

SEEM 3460 15
Absolute And Relative Pathnames
(con’t)
 For example, the following table shows the
pathnames of the three instances of “myFile”
relative to the “ksh” process located in the
“/home/glass” directory.
 Note that the pathname “myFile” is equivalent to
“./myFile,” although the second form is rarely used
because the leading “.” is redundant.

File Relative PathName

A myFile
B ../myFile
C ../../bin/myFile

SEEM 3460 16
Unix Programmer Support
 UNIX caters very well to programmers.
 Unix is an example of an “open” system
 the internal software architecture is well
documented and available in source code form,
either free of charge or for a relatively small
fee.
 The features of UNIX, are all easily
accessible from a programming language
such as C via a set of library routines
known as “system calls.”
 such as parallel processing, inter-process
communication and file handling

SEEM 3460 17
End Of Input : Control-D
 Many UNIX utilities take their input from either a file or
the keyboard. If you instruct a utility to do the latter, you
must tell the utility when the input from the keyboard is
finished. To do this, type Control-D on a line of its own
after the last line of input.
 Control-D means “end of input.” For example, the mail
utility allows you to send mail from the keyboard to a
named user:

cuse93:> mail tim …send mail to my friend Tim.

Hi Tim …input is entered from the keyboard.
I hope you get this piece of mail. How about building a country
one of these days?
- with best wishes from Graham
^D …tell the terminal that there’s no more input.
cuse93:> _

SEEM 3460 18
 Unix - Listing The Contents Of A
Directory: ls
 Suppose that we use an editor to edit
a file named “heart” with the following
content
I hear her breathing,
I’m surrounded by the sound.
Floating in this secret place,
I never shall be found.

 We can use the ls utility to list the

name and other information about a
file or a directory.
cuse93:> ls … list all files in current directory
heart
cuse93:> ls -l heart … long listing of “heart”
-rw-r--r-- 1 glass 106 Jan 30 19:46 heart
SEEM 3460 19
Unix - Listing The Contents Of A
Directory: ls (con’t)
 With no arguments at all, ls lists all of the files in
the current working directory in alphabetical
order, excluding files whose name starts with a
period.
 To obtain a listing of directories other than the
current directory, place their names after the
options. To obtain listings of specific files, place
their names after the options.
 The -l option generates a long listing, including
file type, permission flags, the file’s owner, and
the last time the file was modified.

SEEM 3460 20
Unix - Listing The Contents Of A
Directory: ls (con’t)

Field # Field value Meaning

the type and permission mode of the

1 -rw-r--r-- file, which indicates who can read,
write, and execute the file
2 1 the hard link count

3 glass the username of the owner of the file

4 106 the size of the file, in bytes

5 Jan 30 19:46 the last time the file was modified

6 heart the name of the file

SEEM 3460 21
Unix - Listing A File: cat and more
 We can use the cat utility to display the content of a
text file.
 An example:
cuse93:> cat heart … list the contents of the “heart” file.
I hear her breathing,
I’m surrounded by the sound.
Floating in this secret place,
I never shall be found.
cuse93:>

 cat is good for listing small files, but doesn’t pause

between full screens of output.
 The more utility is better suited for larger files and
contains advanced facilities such as the ability to
scroll backward through a file.

SEEM 3460 22
 Listing A File:
cat/more/page/head/tail
 To check the contents of the “heart” file that I had created in my
home directory, “/home/glass”, I directed its contents to the
screen using the cat utility. Notice that I supplied cat with the
name of the file that I wanted to display:

cuse93:> cat heart … list the contents of the “heart” file.

I hear her breathing,
I’m surrounded by the sound.
Floating in this secret place,
I never shall be found.
cuse93:>

 cat can actually take any number of files as arguments, in which

case they are listed together, one following the other. cat is good
for listing small files, but doesn’t pause between full screens of
output.
 The more and page utilities are better suited for larger files and
contain advanced facilities such as the ability to scroll backward
through a file.
SEEM 3460 23
Listing A File:
cat/more/page/head/tail (con’t)
 Utility: more -f [+lineNumber] {fileName}*
 The more utility allows you to scroll through a list of files, one
page at a time. By default, each file is displayed starting at line 1,
although the + option may be used to specify the starting line
number. The -f option tells more not to fold long lines. After
each page is displayed, more displays the message “--More--” to
indicate that it’s waiting for a command. To list the next page,
press the space bar. To list the next line, press the Enter key. To
quit more, press the q key. To obtain help on the multitude of
other commands, press the h key.

 Utility: page -f [+lineNumber] {fileName}*

 The page utility works just like more, except that it clears the
screen before displaying each page. This sometimes makes the
listing display a little more quickly. While we’re on the topic of
listing files, there are a couple of handy utilities called head and
tail that allow you to peek at the start and end of a file,
respectively.
SEEM 3460 24
Listing A File:
cat/more/page/head/tail (con’t)
 Utility: head -n {fileName}*
 The head utility displays the first n lines of a file. If n is
not specified, head defaults to 10. If more than one file is
specified, a small header identifying each file is displayed
before its contents are.

 Utility: tail -n {fileName}*

 The tail utility displays the last n lines of a file. If n is not
specified, tail defaults to 10. If more than one file is
specified, a small header identifying each file is displayed
before its contents are. In the following example, I
displayed the first two lines and last two lines of my
“heart” file:
cuse93:> head -2 heart … list the first two lines
I hear her breathing,
I’m surrounded by the sound.
cuse93:> tail -2 heart … list the last two lines
Floating in this secret place,
I never shall be found.
cuse93:> SEEM 3460 25
 Filename Substitution (Wildcards)
 All shells support a wildcard facility that
allows you to select files from the file system
that satisfy a particular name pattern.
 Any word on the command line that contains
at least one of the wildcard metacharacters is
treated as a pattern and is replaced by an
alphabetically sorted list of all the matching
filenames.
 This act of pattern replacement is called
globbing.

SEEM 3460 26
 Filename Substitution (Wildcards)
 The wildcards and their meaning are shown in
the following table

Wildcard Meaning
* Matches any string, including the empty string.
? Matches any single character.
Matches any one of the characters between the
[..] brackets. A range of characters may be specified
by separating a pair of characters by a dash.

SEEM 3460 27
 Filename Substitution (Wildcards)
 Some examples of wildcard usage
cuse93:> ls *.c
file1.c axe.c go.c queue.c KIT.c on.c
cuse93:> ls ??.c
go.c on.c
cuse93:> ls [ac]* … any pattern beginning with a or c
axe.c c.txt abc
cuse93:> ls [a-z]* … any pattern beginning with small letter
file1.c axe.c c.txt abc axe.c go.c on.c

SEEM 3460 28
 Renaming A File: mv
 Now that I’d created the first draft of my lyrics,
I wanted to create a few more experimental
versions. To indicate that the file “heart” was
really the first generation of many versions to
come, I decided to rename it “heart.ver1” by
using the mv utility.
 Here’s how I renamed the file using the first
form of the mv utility:

cuse93:> mv heart heart.ver1 …rename to “heart.ver1”.

cuse93:> ls
heart.ver1
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 29
Renaming A File: mv (con’t)
 Utility: mv -i oldFileName newFileName
mv -i {fileName}* directoryName
mv -i oldDirectoryName newDirectoryName
 The first form of mv renames oldFileName as
newFileName. If the label newFileName already exists, it
is replaced.
 The second form allows you to move a collection of files to
a directory.
 The third allows you to move an entire directory None of
these options actually moves the physical contents of a
file if the destination location is within the same file
system as the original; instead, they just move labels
around the hierarchy.
 mv is therefore a very fast utility. The -i option prompts
you for confirmation if newFileName already exists.
SEEM 3460 30
 Making A Directory : mkdir
 Rather than clog up my home directory with the many
versions of “heart,” I decided to create a subdirectory
called “lyrics” in which to keep them all. To do this, I used
the mkdir utility. Here’s how I did it:
cuse93:> mkdir lyrics ...create a directory called “lyrics”
cuse93:> ls -lF ...confirm.
-rw-r--r-- 1 glass 106 Jan 30 23:28 heart.ver1
drwxr-xr-x 2 glass 512 Jan 30 19:49 lyrics/
cuse93:>

 Utility: mkdir [-p] newDirectoryName

 The mkdir utility creates a directory. The -p option creates
any parent directories in the newDirectoryName pathname
that do not already exist. If newDirectoryName already
exists, an error message is displayed and the existing file
is not altered in any way.
SEEM 3460 31
Making A Directory : mkdir (con’t)
 The letter “d” at the start of the permission flags of
“lyrics” indicates that it’s a directory file.
 In general, you should keep related files in their own
separate directory. If you name your directories sensibly,
it’ll make it easy to track down files weeks, or even years,
after you create them.
 Once the “lyrics” directory was created, the next step was
to move the “heart.ver1” into its new location. To do this,
I used mv and confirmed the operation by using ls:

cuse93:> mv heart.ver1 lyrics …move into “lyrics”

cuse93:> ls … list the current directory.
lyrics …”heart.ver1” has gone.
cuse93:> ls lyrics …list the “lyrics” directory.
heart.ver1 …”heart.ver1” has moved.
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 32
Moving To A Directory : cd
 Although I could remain in my home directory and access
the various versions of my lyric files by preceding them
with the prefix “lyrics”, doing this would be rather
inconvenient. For example, to edit the file “heart.ver1”
with the UNIX vim editor, I’d have to do the following:
cuse93:> vim lyrics/heart.ver1 …invoke the vim editor

 In general, it’s a good idea to move your shell into a

directory if you intend to do a lot of work there. To do
this, use the cd command.
 cd isn’t actually a UNIX utility, but instead is an example
of a shell built-in command. Your shell recognizes cd as a
special keyword and executes it directly.

 Shell Command: cd [directoryName]

 The cd (change directory) shell command changes a
shell’s current working directory to directoryName. If the
directoryName argument is omitted, the shell is moved to
its owner’s home directory.
SEEM 3460 33
Moving To A Directory : cd (con’t)
 The following example shows how I moved into the “lyrics”
directory and confirmed my new location by using pwd:
cuse93:> pwd … display where I am.
/home/glass
cuse93:> cd lyrics …move into the “lyrics” directory.
cuse93:> pwd …display where I am now.
/home/glass/lyrics
cuse93:>

An illustration of the shell

movement caused by the
previous cd command.

SEEM 3460 34
 Moving To A Directory : cd (con’t)
 Since “.” and “..” refer to your shell’s current working
directory and parent directory, respectively, you may
move up one directory level by typing “cd ..”. Here’s an
example:

cuse93:> pwd … display current position.

/home/glass/lyrics
cuse93:> cd .. … move up one level.
cuse93:> pwd … display new current position.
/home/glass
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 35
 Copying A File : cp
 After moving into the “lyrics” directory, I decided to work on
a second version of my lyrics. I wanted to keep the first
version for posterity, so I copied “heart.ver1” into a new file
called “heart.ver2” and then edited the new file. To copy the
file, I used the cp utility, which works as shown in.

 Utility: cp -i oldFileName newFileName

cp -ir {fileName}* directoryName

 The first form of cp copies oldFileName to newFileName. If

the label newFileName already exists, it is replaced. The -i
option prompts you for confirmation if newFileName already
exists.
 The second form of cp copies a list of files into
directoryName. The -r option causes any source files that
are directories to be recursively copied, thus copying the
entire directory structure.
SEEM 3460 36
Copying A File : cp (con’t)
 cp actually does two things:
 It makes a physical copy of the original file’s contents.
 In the directory hierarchy, it creates a new label that
points to the copied file.

 The new copy of the original file can therefore be edited,

removed, and otherwise manipulated without having any
effect on the original file. Here’s how I copied the
“heart.ver1” file:
cuse93:> cp heart.ver1 heart.ver2 …copy to “heart.ver2”.
cuse93:> ls -l heart.ver1 heart.ver2 … confirm.
-rw-r--r-- 1 glass 106 Jan 30 23:28 heart.ver1
-rw-r--r-- 1 glass 106 Jan 31 00:12 heart.ver2
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 37
Copying A File : cp (con’t)
 After creating five versions of my song’s lyrics, my work
was done. I moved back to my directory and created a
subdirectory called “lyrics.final” in which to store the final
version of the lyrics. I also renamed the original “lyrics”
directory to “lyrics.draft” which I felt was a better name.
The commands to do all this are as follows:
cuse93:> cd …move back to my home directory.
cuse93:> mkdir lyrics.final …make the final lyrics directory.
cuse93:> mv lyrics lyrics.draft …rename the old lyrics dir.

 The final version of my lyrics was stored in a file called

“heart.ver5” in the “lyrics.draft” directory, which I then
copied into a file called “heart.final” in the “lyrics.final”
directory:
cuse93:> cp lyrics.draft/heart.ver5 lyrics.final/heart.final
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 38
Deleting A Directory : rmdir
 I decided to remove the “lyrics.draft” directory, to avoid
exceeding my modest disk quota. Before I removed it, though, I
hived its contents using the pico utility. To remove the directory,
I used the rmdir utility.
 Utility: rmdir {directoryName}+
The rmdir utility removes all of the directories from the list of
directory names. A directory must be empty before it can be
removed. To remove a directory and all of its contents recursively,
use the rm utility with the -r option (described shortly).
 I tried to remove the “lyrics.draft” directory while it still contained
the draft versions, and I received the following error message:

cuse93:> rmdir lyrics.draft

rmdir: lyrics.draft: Directory not empty
cuse93:>
 To remove the files from the “lyrics.draft” directory, I made use
of the rm utility.

SEEM 3460 39
Deleting A File : rm
 The rm utility allows you to remove a file’s label
from the hierarchy. When no more labels reference
a file, UNIX removes the file itself. In most cases,
every file has only one label, so the act of removing
the label causes the file’s physical contents to be
deallocated.
 However, in some occasions wherein a single file has
more than one label. In these cases, a label may be
removed without affecting the file that it refers to.

SEEM 3460 40
 Deleting A File : rm (con’t)
 Utility: rm -fir {fileName}*
 The rm utility removes a file’s label from the directory
hierarchy. If the filename doesn’t exist, an error
message is displayed. The -i option prompts the user
for confirmation before deleting a filename; press y to
confirm your request and n otherwise. If fileName is a
directory, the -r option causes all of its contents,
including subdirectories, to be recursively deleted. The
-f option inhibits all error messages and prompts.
 To remove every file in the “lyrics.draft” directory, I
moved into the “lyrics.draft” directory and used rm:
cuse93:> cd lyrics.draft …move to “lyrics.draft” directory
cuse93:> rm heart.ver1 heart.ver2 heart.ver3 heart.ver4 heart.ver5
cuse93:> ls …nothing remains.
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 41
Deleting A File : rm (con’t)
 Now that all the files were erased, I moved back to my
home directory and erased the
draft directory:
cuse93:> cd …move to my home directory.
cuse93:> rmdir lyrics.draft …this time it works.
cuse93:>
 I could have written the following instead:
cuse93:> cd lyrics.draft …move into “lyrics.draft” directory.
cuse93:> rm * …erase all files in current directory.
 Even better, I could have used the more advanced -r
option of rm to delete the “lyrics.draft” directory and all of
its contents with just one command:
cuse93:> cd …move to my home directory.
cuse93:> rm -r lyrics.draft …recursively delete directory.
cuse93:>
SEEM 3460 42
Printing A File: lpr/lpq/lprm
 The commands above are on most UNIX systems
and come from the System V family of UNIX. BSD
UNIX provided its own print commands, which are
still supported in many versions of UNIX with a
strong BSD background as well as in Linux. These
commands cover the same basic functions of
printing, checking the queue, and canceling the job,
but have different names and arguments.
 To print my file by using such a system, I employ
the lpr utility. lpr causes a numbered print job to be
started for the specified files. You may find the
status of a particular job or printer by using the lpq
utility.

SEEM 3460 43
Printing A File: lpr/lpq/lprm (con’t)
 Utility: lpr -m [-Pprinter] [-#copies] {fileName}*
 lpr prints the named files to the printer specified by
the -P option. If no printer is specified, the printer in
the environment variable $PRINTER is used. If no
files are specified, standard input is printed instead.
By default, one copy of each file is printed, although
this may be overridden using the -# option. The -m
option causes mail to be sent to you when printing is
complete.

SEEM 3460 44
Printing A File: lpr/lpq/lprm (con’t)
 Utility: lpq -l [-Pprinter] {job#}* {userld}*
 lpq displays the status of jobs on the printer
specified by the -P option. If no printer is specified,
the printer in the environment variable $PRINTER is
used. lpq displays information pertaining to the
specified jobs or the jobs of the specified users. If no
jobs or users are specified, the statuses of all jobs
on the specified printer are displayed. The -l option
generates extra information.
 If, for some reason, you wish to cancel a print job,
you may do so by using the lprm utility. You may
obtain a list of the printers on your system from
your system administrator.

SEEM 3460 45
Printing A File: lpr/lpq/lprm (con’t)
 Utility: lprm [-Pprinter] [-] {job#}* {userid}*
 lprm cancels all of the specified jobs on the printer
specified by the -P option. If no printer is specified,
the printer in the environment variable $PRINTER is
used. The
— option cancels all of the print jobs started by you.
If you are the superuser, you may cancel all of the
jobs owned by a particular individual by specifying
his or her user id.

SEEM 3460 46
Printing A File: lpr/lpq/lprm (con’t)
 As in our previous example, I started by ordering a printout
of “heart.final” from the “lwcs” printer. I then decided to
order two more copies and obtained a printer status. Finally, I
changed my mind and canceled the last print job. The
commands are as follows:
cuse93:> lpr –Plwcs heart.final …order a printout.
cuse93:> lpq -Plwcs glass … look at the printer status.
lwcs is ready and printing
Rank Owner Job Files Total Size
active glass 731 heart.final 213 bytes
cuse93:> lpr -#2 -Plwcs heart.final …order two more copies.
cuse93:> lpq -Plwcs glass …look at the printer status again.
lwcs is ready and printing
Rank Owner Job Files Total Size
active glass 731 heart.final 213 bytes
active glass 732 heart.final 426 bytes
cuse93:> lprm -Plwcs 732 ….remove the last job.
centaur: dfA732vanguard dequeued
centaur: cfA732vanguard. utdallas.edu dequeued
cuse93:> SEEM 3460 47
Printing A File: lpr/lpq/lprm (con’t)
 In the next example, I used the keyboard to compose a quick
message for the printer and requested that I be notified by e-mail
upon completion of the job:
cuse93:> lpr -m -Plwcs …print from standard input.
Hi there,
This is a test of the print facility.
- Graham
^D …end of input.
cuse93:>

SEEM 3460 48
Counting The Words In A File : wc
 I was quite interested in finding out how many characters,
words, and lines were in the “heart.final” file (even though
printing it gave me a byte count). To do this, I used the
wc utility. Here’s an example of wc:

cuse93:> wc heart.final …obtain a word count.

9 43 213 heart.final
cuse93:> _

Utility: wc -lwc { fileName } *

The wc utility counts the lines, words, or characters in a list of

files. If no files are specified, standard input is used instead. The
-l option requests a line count, the -w option requests a word
count, and the -c option requests a character count. If no
options are specified, then all three counts are displayed. A word
is defined by a sequence of characters surrounded by tabs,
spaces, or newlines.
SEEM 3460 49
Determining Your Terminal’s Type:
tset

 Several UNIX utilities, including the two standard

editors vi (or vim) and emacs, need “know” what
kind of terminal you’re using so that they can
control the screen correctly.
 The type of your terminal is stored by your shell
in something called an environment variable.
 You may think of environment variables as being
global variables for the shell and they can hold
strings.

SEEM 3460 50
Determining Your Terminal’s Type:
tset (con’t)
 Before vi (or vim) or emacs can work correctly, your
shell’s TERM environment variable must be set to your
terminal type. Common settings for this variable include
“vtl00” and “vt52.” There are several ways to set TERM:

 Your shell start-up file can set TERM directly by

containing a line of the form ‘setenv TERM vtl00’ (C
shell) or ‘TERM=vtl00; export TERM’ (for Bourne, Korn,
and Bash shells). This method of setting TERM is
practical only if you know the type of your terminal in
advance and you always log into the same terminal.
 Your shell start-up file can invoke the tset utility,
which looks at the communications port that you’re
connected to and then set TERM accordingly. Consult
the online manual for tset.
 You can manually set TERM from a shell.
SEEM 3460 51
Editing A File: pico (nano in Linux)
 General Command
 Write editor contents to a file [Ctrl] o
 Save the file and exit pico [Ctrl] x
 Spell Check [Ctrl] t
 Justify the text [Ctrl] j

 Moving around in your file

 Move one character to the right [Ctrl] f or right arrow key
 Move one character to the left [Ctrl] b or left arrow key
 Move up one line [Ctrl] p or up arrow key
 Move down one line [Ctrl] n or down arrow key

SEEM 3460 52
 Editing A File: emacs
 Starting emacs
To start emacs with a blank file, enter the command
emacs with no parameters. To edit an existing file, specify
its name as a command line parameter. Assuming that
you supply no parameters, your screen will initially look
something like the figure below, depending on your
version of emacs.
GNU Emacs 19.34.1

Copyright (C) 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Type C-x C-c to exit Emacs.

Type C-h for help; C-x u to undo changes.

Example of
Type C-h t for a tutorial on using Emacs. starting emacs.

— Emacs: *scratch* (Fundamental) --- All

SEEM 3460 53
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 I’ll draw screens that are only about six lines long to
conserve space. The second-from bottom line is called the
mode line and contains information in the following left-
to- right order:
 If the first three dashes contain a then the current file has
been modified.
The name that follows “Emacs:” is the name of the current
file. If no file is currently loaded, the name *scratch* is used
instead.
 The current editing mode is then shown between
parentheses. In this case, it’s Fundamental, which is the
standard editing mode.
 The next entry indicates your relative position in the file as a
percentage of the entire file. If the file is very small and fits
completely on the screen, then All is displayed. If you’re at
the top or the bottom of a file, then Top and Bot are
respectively displayed.
SEEM 3460 54
 Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 emacs Commands
Unlike vim, emacs doesn’t distinguish between text entry
mode and command mode. To enter text, simply start
typing. The initial emacs welcome banner automatically
disappears when you type the first letter. Long lines are
not automatically broken, so you must press the Enter key
when you wish to start a new line. Lines longer than the
width of the screen are indicated by a \ character at the
end of the screen, with the remainder of the line “wrapped”
onto the next line, as shown below.

This is a very long line that illustrates the way that unbroken lines a \

re displayed.

This is a much shorter line.

— Emacs: *scratch* (Fundamental) -- All

How emacs wraps long lines.
SEEM 3460 55
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
emacs’s editing features are accessed via either a control
sequence or a metasequence. I’ll indicate control sequences by
appending the prefix Control- to the name of the key. For
example, the sequence

 Control-H t
 means “Press and hold the Control key and then press the H key.
(For control sequences, it doesn’t matter whether you use
uppercase or lowercase, so I suggest that you use lowercase, as
it’s easier.) Then release both keys and press the t key on its
own.” Similarly, metasequences use the Esc key. For example,
the sequence

 Esc x
 means “Press the Esc key (but don’t hold it) and then press the x
key.” The next few sections contain many examples of emacs
command sequences. If you ever accidentally press Esc followed
by Esc, emacs warns you that you’re trying to do something
advanced and suggests that you press the n key to continue.
Unless you’re a seasoned emacs user, it’s good advice.

SEEM 3460 56
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 Getting Out of Trouble
Whenever you’re learning a new editor, it’s quite
easy to get lost and confused. Here are a couple of
useful command sequences to return you to a sane
state:
 The command sequence Control-G terminates
any emacs command, even if it’s only partially
entered, and returns emacs to a state in which
it’s waiting for a new command.
 The command sequence Control-X 1 closes all
emacs windows except your main file window.
This action is useful, as several emacs options
create a new window to display information, and
it’s important to know how to close them once
you’ve read their contents.

SEEM 3460 57
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 Getting Help
There are several ways to obtain help information
about emacs. One of the best ways to get started
with emacs is to read the self-describing help
tutorial. I suggest that you do this before anything
else. To read the tutorial, use the command
sequence Control-H t. The tutorial will appear and
give you directions on how to proceed.

 Leaving emacs
To leave emacs and save your file, use Control-X
Control-C. If you haven’t saved your file since it was
last modified, you’ll be asked whether you want to
save it.

SEEM 3460 58
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 emacs Modes
emacs supports several different modes for entering text.
including Fundamental, Lisp Interaction, and C. Each
mode supports special features that are customized for
the particular kind of text that you’re editing. emacs starts
in Fundamental mode by default; I’ll use that mode during
my description of emacs. For more information about
modes, consult the emacs tutorial.
 Entering Text
To enter text, simply start typing. For example, the
following shows a short four-line poem. The next section
describes the editing features of emacs that allowed me
to change this poem to something a little better.
There is no need for fear in the night,
You know that your Mommy is there,
To watch over her babies and hold them tight,
When you are in her arms you can feel her sigh all night.
—Emacs: *scratch* (Fundamental) ---All -------
Entering text in emacs.
SEEM 3460 59
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 Common Editing Features
The most common emacs editing features can be grouped into the
following categories:
 moving the cursor
 deleting, pasting, and undoing text
 searching through text
 searching and replacing text
 saving and loading files
 miscellaneous
These categories are described and illustrated in the subsections
that follow, using the
sample poem that I entered at the start of this section.
 Moving the Cursor
The table shows the common cursor movement commands. For
example, to insert the words “worry or” before the word “fear” on
the first line, I moved the cursor to the first line of the file by
typing Esc < and then moved forward several words by using the
Esc f sequence. I then typed in the words, which were
automatically inserted at the current cursor position.
SEEM 3460 60
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
Movement Key sequence
Up one line Control-P (previous)
Down one line Control-N (next)
Right one character Control-F (forward, wraps around)
Left one character Control-B (backward, wraps around)
To start of line Control-A (a is first letter)
To end of line Control-E (end)
Back one word Esc b (back)
Forward one word Esc f (forward)
Down one screen Control-V
Up one screen Esc v
Start of file Esc <
End of file Esc>

SEEM 3460 61
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 Deleting, Pasting, and Undoing
The following table shows the common deletion
commands. Whenever an item is deleted, emacs
“remembers” it in an individual “kill buffer.” A list of kill
buffers is maintained so that deleted items may be
retrieved long after they have been removed from the
display. To retrieve the last killed item, use Control-Y.
After you have typed Control-Y, you may type Esc y to
replace the retrieved item with the previously deleted
item. Every time you type Esc y, the retrieved item moves
one step back through the kill buffer list.
 You may append the next deleted item onto the end of
the last kill buffer, rather than create a new buffer, by
typing Esc Control-W immediately prior to the delete
command. This tack is useful if you wish to cut different
bits and pieces out of a file and then paste them all
together back into one place.
SEEM 3460 62
 Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
Item to delete Key sequence
Character before cursor <delete> key
Character after cursor Control-D
Deleting, pasting, and
Word before cursor Esc <delete> undoing in emacs.
Word after cursor Esc d
To end of current line Control-K
Sentence Esc k
 You may undo editing actions one at a time by typing Control-X u for each
action that you wish to undo.
The following table shows a summary of the kill buffer and undo
commands.
Action Key sequence
Insert last kill buffer. Control-Y The kill buffer in
Retrieve previous kill. Esc y emacs.
Append next kill. Esc Control-W
Undo. Control-X u
SEEM 3460 63
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 Searching
emacs allows you to perform something called an incremental
search. To search for ward from your current cursor position for a
particular sequence of letters, type Control-S. The prompt “I-
search:” is displayed on the bottom line of the screen, indicating
that emacs wants you to enter the string that you wish to search
for. As you enter the character sequence, emacs searches to find
the string nearest to your initial cursor position that matches
what you’ve entered so far; in other words, partial sub strings are
found as you enter the full string. To terminate the search and
leave your cursor at its current position, press Esc. If you delete
characters in the full string before pressing the Esc key, emacs
moves back to the first match of the remaining sub string. To
repeat a search, don’t press Esc, but instead press Control-S to
search forward or Control-R to search backward.
Action Key sequence
Search foward for str. Control-S str
Search backward for str. Control-R str
Repeat last search forward. Control-S
Repeat last search backward. Control-R
Leave search mode. Esc
SEEM 3460 64
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 Search and Replace
To perform a global search and replace, type Esc x,
followed by the string “repl s”, followed by Enter. emacs
will prompt you for the string to replace. Enter the string
and press Enter. emacs will prompt you for the
replacement string. Enter the string and press Enter.
emacs then performs the global text substitution.

 Saving and Loading Files

To save your current work to a file, type Control-X
Control-S. If your work hasn’t been associated with a
filename yet, you are prompted for one. Your work is then
saved into its associated file.
To edit another file, type Control-X Control-F. You are
prompted for the new filename. If the file already exists,
its contents are loaded into emacs; otherwise, the file is
created. SEEM 3460 65
Editing A File: emacs (con’t)
 To save your file and then quit emacs, type Control-
X Control-C.
Action Key sequence
Saving and
Save current work. Control-X Control-S loading files in
Edit another file. Control-X Control-F emacs.
Save work and then quit. Control-X Control-C

 Miscellaneous
To redraw the screen, type Control-L. To place
emacs into auto-wrap mode, which automatically
inserts line breaks when words flow past the end of
a line, type Esc x auto-fill-mode and press Enter. To
leave this mode, repeat the command.
SEEM 3460 66