CSE 391

Lecture 1
introduction to Linux/Unix environment

slides created by Marty Stepp, modified by Jessica Miller, Ruth Anderson, and Brett Wortzman
http://www.cs.washington.edu/391/

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 Lecture summary
• Course introduction and syllabus

• Unix and Linux operating system

• Introduction to Bash shell

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 Course Introduction
• Instructor:
 Brett Wortzman, brettwo@cs, CSE446
 Office hours: TBD
 Website: http://cs.washington.edu/391

 Collection of tools and topics not specifically addressed in other courses

that CSE majors (and interested others) should know
 CSE 351 may be the first course you take that uses Linux
 Credit / No Credit course, determined by weekly assignments
 Graded primarily on effort/completion
 “Textbook” – Linux Pocket Guide
 Optional but recommended; very useful guide

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 Course Topics
• Linux command line interface (CLI)
• Shell commands
• Users and groups
• Permissions
• Shell scripting
• Regular expressions
• Project management tools (e.g. makefiles)
• Version control (e.g. git)

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 Homework/Grading
• ~Nine weekly assignments
 Released after lecture
 Due following Tuesday, 11:59pm (no late work accepted)
• Based on material covered in that week’s lecture
 A few “self-discovery” extensions
 All required information in lecture, slides, book, and/or man pages
• Graded out of 2 points each
 Primarily determined by effort/completion (see syllabus)
 Total of 14 points required to receive credit
• To be completed on Linux/Unix systems (next slide)
• Collaboration allowed/encouraged, but ALL SUBMITTED WORK
MUST BE YOUR OWN
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 Accessing Linux/Unix
Roughly in suggested order…
•ssh to attu (CSE majors), linuxNN (EE majors), or ovid (all UW
students)
•Download/run CSE VM
•Visit CS or EE basement labs
•Set up Linux on your own machine

•See “Working at Home” on course website for more info

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 Operating systems
• What is an OS? Why have one?

• What is a Kernel?

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 Operating systems
• operating system: Manages activities and resources of a computer.
 software that acts as an interface between hardware and user
 provides a layer of abstraction for application developers

• features provided by an operating system:

 ability to execute programs (and multi-tasking)
 memory management (and virtual memory)
 file systems, disk and network access
 an interface to communicate with hardware
 a user interface (often graphical)

• kernel: The lowest-level core of an operating system.

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 Unix
• brief history:
 Multics (1964) for mainframes
 Unix (1969)
 K&R
 Linus Torvalds and Linux (1992)

• key Unix ideas:

 written in a high-level language (C)
 virtual memory
 hierarchical file system; "everything" is a file
 lots of small programs that work together to solve larger problems
 security, users, access, and groups
 human-readable documentation included
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 Linux
• Linux: A kernel for a Unix-like operating system.
 commonly seen/used today in servers, mobile/embedded devices, ...

• GNU: A "free software" implementation of many Unix-like tools

 many GNU tools are distributed with the Linux kernel

• distribution: A pre-packaged set of Linux software.

 examples: Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS

• key features of Linux:

 open source software: source can be downloaded
 free to use
 constantly being improved/updated by the community
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 Linux Desktop
• X-windows
• window managers
• desktop environments
 Gnome
 KDE

• How can I try out Linux?

 CSE Virtual machine
 CSE basement labs
 attu shared server

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Things you can do in Linux
• Load the course web site in a browser

• Install and play games

• Play MP3s

• Edit photos

• IM, Skype

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 Shell
• shell: An interactive program that uses user input to manage the
execution of other programs.
 A command processor, typically runs in a text window.
 User types commands, the shell runs the commands
 Several different shell programs exist:
• bash : the default shell program on most Linux/Unix systems
• We will use bash
• Other shells: Bourne, csh, tsch

• Why should I learn to use a shell when GUIs exist?

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 Why use a shell?
• Why should I learn to use a shell when GUIs exist?
 faster
 work remotely
 programmable
 customizable
 repeatable

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Example shell commands
command description
pwd print the current working directory
cd changes the working directory
ls lists files in a directory
man brings up the manual for a command
exit logs out of the shell
$ pwd
/homes/iws/rea
$ cd CSE391
$ ls
file1.txt file2.txt
$ ls –l
-rw-r--r-- 1 rea fac_cs 0 2017-03-29 17:45 file1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 rea fac_cs 0 2017-03-29 17:45 file2.txt
$ cd ..
$ man ls
$ exit

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 System commands
command description
man or info get help on a command
clear clears out the output from the console
exit exits and logs out of the shell
date output the system date
cal output a text calendar
uname print information about the current system

• "man pages" are a very important way to learn new commands

man ls
man man
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 Relative directories
directory description
. the directory you are in ("working directory")
.. the parent of the working directory
(../.. is grandparent, etc.)
~ your home directory
(on many systems, this is /home/username
)
~username username's home directory
~/Desktop your desktop

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 Unix file system
directory description
/ root directory that contains all others
(drives do not have letters in Unix)
/bin programs
/dev hardware devices
/etc system configuration files
 /etc/passwd stores user info
 /etc/shadow stores passwords
/home users' home directories
/media, drives and removable disks that have been
/mnt, ... "mounted" for use on this computer
/proc currently running processes (programs)
/tmp, /var temporary files
/usr user-installed programs
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 Directory commands
command description
ls list files in a directory
pwd print the current working directory
cd changes the working directory
mkdir create a new directory
rmdir delete a directory (must be empty)

• some commands (cd, exit) are part of the shell ("builtins")

• others (ls, mkdir) are separate programs the shell runs

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 Command-line arguments
• many accept arguments or parameters
 example: cp (copy) accepts a source and destination file path

• a program uses 3 streams of information:

 stdin, stdout, stderr (standard in, out, error)

• input: comes from user's keyboard

• output: goes to console
• errors can also be printed (by default, sent to console like output)

• parameters vs. input

 parameters: before Enter is pressed; sent in by shell
 input: after Enter is pressed; sent in by user
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 Command-line arguments
• most options are a - followed by a letter such as -c
 some are longer words preceded by two - signs, such as --count

• options can be combined: ls -l -a -r can be ls -lar

• many programs accept a --help or -help option to give more

information about that command (in addition to man pages)
 or if you run the program with no arguments, it may print help info

• for many commands that accept a file name argument, if you omit
the parameter, it will read from standard input (your keyboard)

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 File commands
command description
cp copy a file
mv move or rename a file
rm delete a file
touch create a new empty file, or
update its last-modified time stamp

• caution: the above commands do not prompt for confirmation

 easy to overwrite/delete a file; this setting can be overridden (how?)

• Exercise : Given several albums of .mp3 files all in one folder, move
them into separate folders by artist.
• Exercise : Modify a .java file to make it seem as though you
finished writing it on Dec 28 at 4:56am.
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 Exercise Solutions
• caution: the cp, rm, mv commands do not prompt for confirmation
 easy to overwrite/delete a file; this setting can be overridden (how?)
• Use “-i” with the command, “interactive” to prompt before overwrite
• Exercise : Given several albums of .mp3 files all in one folder, move
them into separate folders by artist.
 mkdir U2
 mkdir PSY
 mkdir JustinBieber
 mv GangnamStyle.mp3 PSY/
 mv Pride.mp3 U2/
• Exercise : Modify a .java file to make it seem as though you
finished writing it on Dec 28 at 4:56am.
 touch –t "201812280456" Hello.java

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