A lesson about the command line interface of Unix.

1. Using the UNIX command line
This exercise is to introduce using the UNIX command line to create a simple batch file that
can run automatically at the command prompt. This is similar to the previous exercise for
MS Windows, where instead you are issuing commands in UNIX syntax.
The purpose of this exercise is to understand
- the Unix operating system
- simple Unix commands
- that letter case is very important
This task will serve you well for understanding the backend of Apple and Android systems in
addition.
Use telnet, and login to your informatics userspace on:
linux1.inf.brad.ac.uk
OR
Use Secure Shell SSH to login to your informatics userspace on:
ssh.scim.brad.ac.uk
You can use FTP to move files between different systems. To do so use an FTP client such
as Filezilla, and login to:
ftp.scim.brad.ac.uk
Notice that the files you see in this area are the same as in your M: drive.
*****************************************************
Create a text file
*****************************************************
IN A TEXT EDITOR, CREATE A TEXT FILE CALLED 'username'.txt
but you MUST SUBSTITUTE your university login name for 'username'
Write some text in the file along the lines of:-
My name is:- .................Fred Bloggs
My e-mail address is:- .............f.bloggs@hardwork.co
Now you have created the file, make sure you save it.

2. *****************************************************
Creating a series of folders using simple UNIX commands
*****************************************************
Note: The following uses a subdirectory area on a UNIX hard disk. This can be your
/home/yourusername area.
- create a directory named 'A' in your user area.
- save the file created above (username.txt) in the root of this directory called 'A'.
Below is a diagram of the folder structure to be created
A
|
+----USERNAME
|
+----FILES
| |
| +----WORK
| |
| +-----WORK.OLD
|
+----BIN
|
+----USER
Now using UNIX commands typed at the command line we will:
- copy the file username.txt to EVERY directory AND subdirectory created
- rename the file username.txt in the WORK.OLD directory to .old
– delete the file username.txt from the 'A' directory
–
Possible partial solution:
touch username.txt
echo "My name is David" > username.txt
cd /home/username
mkdir username
mkdir files
mkdir files/work
mkdir files/work/work.old
mkdir bin
mkdir bin/user