Open Source Tools

&
Shell Programming

Lecture 1

Michael J. Wise
 Open Source Philosophy
• Free to use software ≠ Open Source software
– Cf Google search (free to use, but not is not OS)
– LibreOffice, Mozilla (Firefox)
• Can get source code or binaries
• Virtues (beyond cost)
– Transparency and, potentially, greater security
– Flexibility
• Create your own version, e.g. Moodle @ UWA
– As good, perhaps better quality
• Wikipedia vesus Encyclopedia Brittanica
• Licensing
– GNU or Creative Commons versus copyright
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 History of UNIX
• Created in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs to run on
departmental computers
– PDP11 tiny by today’s standards
• 16 bit words; 64Kb/128Kb memory; Removable
disk pack 2.5Mb
• Originally coded in assembler language, then C
(1973), which was developed for that purpose
• → Designed for efficiency

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 UNIX Philosophy - processes
• Programs are compiled into objects
(binaries, executables)
• Programs (or binaries) in execution
are processes
– Process image

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 UNIX Philosophy - processes
• Small kernel (the real Unix/Linux), a
master process, provides services to
system and user processes User
processes
• Simple data type/format (text) and
simplified inter-process
System
communication, allows chaining of
processes
processes, versus monolithic
programs
• Separation between ordinary users, Kernel
and a super-user which has special processes
access privileges
– Opening a file
– Sending a file the printer

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 UNIX Philosophy - files
• Unix views almost everything as a file
– There is even a way of viewing processes as files
– Directories are files that point to other files
• The Unix file system is structured as a tree. The
topmost directory is called the root, written as /
• Every user has their own tree structured nest of
directories, each with its own root, called HOME,
and written as ~

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Directory Structure
/ i.e root

~ michaelw

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 Filenames
• Unlike Windows, file name suffix is conventional, but not
compulsory, e.g. .txt for a text file, .py for a Python file
• File names can be any non white-space character; no
blanks in names, so “_” often substituted.
• The current directory is written as . (dot)
• The parent of the current directory is written as ..
– Grandparent directory ../..
– /staff/michaelw/a.out
• A file name beginning with . (dot) is a “hidden” file, in
that you don’t see it when doing plain ls

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 Unix Basix: What is a UNIX command?
<Command name> [<Options>] [<Objects>]
Command name
• The verb. Often, all that is required is the name of the
command, e.g ls lists the names of the files in the
current directory. ls fred (does file fred exist?)
Options
• Act like adverbs, modifying the meaning of the
command. Generally begin with a ‘-’, e.g. ls –l gives
a more verbose listing
Objects
• Act like nouns, i.e. the objects the commands act on,
e.g. ls –l fred

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 The Shell
• You execute commands via a command interpreter
called the shell:
Prompt
% ls Alice_in_Wonderland.txt
Alice_in_Wonderland.txt
• The shell locates the command, locates the object
and, all being well, executes the command, e.g. ls
– User process System process Kernel
• Typing commands one by one can be tedious, so you
can create Shell scripts via a shell scripting language
– First was sh (Bourne Shell, 1976; Bash (Bourne
Again Shell), 1989; ksh (Korn Shell), 1983,1993

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 The most useful command
man <name>
Returns the
manual page
for the
named
command

E.g. man ls

And the rest ……

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 Unix Commands Starter Pack
• mkdir <directory> ...
Create one or more new directories as named by the
argument(s).
• cd <directory>
Move to named directory (i.e. it becomes the current
directory). If no directory is named, move to home
directory. The directory can also be .. which is the
parent directory.
• pwd
Print name of current (working) directory (for when
you get lost)

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 Unix Commands Starter Pack
• ls <file or directory names>
For each directory, the contents of the directory are
listed; for each file, the name of the file is repeated.
Other information will be added depending on the
options that are specified. Most common options:
-l Produce a long listing giving detail of file size,
ownership, etc.
-C Produce multicolumn output.
-t List in order of decreasing time-stamp (latest first).
-r Reverse the listing order
-a List all files, including hidden files (filenames
beginning with a . (dot))

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 Unix Commands Starter Pack
• mv <file1> <file2>
Change the name of file1 to be file2. If file2 already exists,
it is removed
• mv <files> <directory>
Move the listed file(s) into the directory.
• cp <file1> <file2>
• cp <files> <directory>
As for mv, but the original file(s) remain.
• ln <file1> <file2>
A link is made between file1 and file2. Saves space by
allowing the file-name to be present in more than one
directory or be known by more than one name, without
copying.
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 Unix Commands Starter Pack
cat <files>
For each of the listed files,
write their contents to standard
output. Mainly used for
concatenating
multiple files into a single file.

rm <files>
Removes the named files, but
not directories. (-r recursive) Sherlock was unimpressed with that last tweet

What if I called the file –a rather than _a ?

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 Unix Commands Starter Pack
• head –<N> <file>
• tail –<N> <file>
Display the first/last N lines of the named text file.
Useful if the file is very large to grab the first/last few.
For example, debugging output

• less <file>
Allows you to scroll through the file (less is an
improved version of more)

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 Demo
• Try the following:
mkdir week1
cd week1
echo "Hullo world" > _a
• Which command gives you the file size of _a ?
ln _a _b
• How many files are there?
• What is the file size of _a ?
• What if I called the file –a rather than _a ?
cd ..
• What do you see now?
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 Demo
• Run the command:
wget
https://teaching.csse.uwa.edu.au/units/CITS4407/L0_
demo/Alice_in_Wonderland.txt

Which will fetch the Alice text into the current

directory.

Use head, tail and less to look at the file. Use wc to

count the number of lines, words and characters.

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