COP 3353: Midterm Review Checklist of Topics Covered

This is a list of topics intended as a checklist to help you recall what topics and commands have been covered

General Concepts

Know the basic components of the Unix OS (kernel, shells, file system, utilities/commands)
Know the meaning of terms like executable, process
There are multiple varieties of Unix, including commercial and freeware versions. (Be able to name some)
Know what an SSH program is, as well as how to use it to log into a unix system, like your CS account
Know what a shell program is
- Be able to name some of the different unix shells
- Be able to use a simple command shell, like tcsh (this is the one on your CS account by default)

Files / Pathnames

Know how to recognize files and directories in a unix system
Know how to form unix pathnames
- Absolute pathnames
- relative pathnames
Know what directory is "root"
Know the symbols to use in a pathname, for referencing
- your own home directory
- another user's home directory
- the parent directory (i.e. the directory "above" this one)
- the current working directory
Know how to handle special characters in filenames (like spaces, or other characters that already have other unix meanings)
Know how to use basic unix wildcards in filenames/paths, for use in unix commands. These include:
- *
- ?
- []

Format of Unix commands

Know the general form of unix commands (command_name, flags, parameters)
Know what flags are, and how they syntactically work in unix commands
Know what command-line parameters are (and that they are separated by spaces)
Know how to activate the man page or help menu for any command (i.e. the --help parameter on commands)
Know how to type multiple instructions on one line (i.e. separate with ;

File permissions

Understand the types of processes that can access files/directories
- User (owner of the file)
- Group
- Other (anybody else)
Understand the types of permissions available for each type of process (read, write, execute) and what they mean for files and directories
Be able to look at a long listing of a directory and determine what permissions are currently set for whom
Be able to change the permissions to any desired setting using the chmod command
- This includes both forms of the command -- the numeric form and the symbolic form for changing permissions

Unix text editors

The three Unix text editors discussed in class:
- pico/nano
- emacs
- vi
Be able to describe the basic differences between these editors
For each of these three editors, you should know the commands to do at least the following common editing tasks
- Start the editor, to begin a blank file
- Open an existing text file in the editor
- Edit/enter basic text (if this involves specific modes, like command versus input modes, know how to switch between them
- Exit the editor
- Save a file under a specific filename
- Cut and/or copy text
- Paste text (that has been copied/cut)

Shell Commands Covered

Command	Description	Flag options covered	You should be able to
`ls`	List files	`-l -a`	list the contents of a directory do a "long listing" showing file details list the invisible "dot-files" in a directory
`cd`	Change directory		change to another directory, using any style pathname change to your home directory
`cat`	Concatenate (to standard output)		print contents of one or more files to screen use with output redirection to concatenate files into a single file
`more`	a viewer, to view file contents		use this command to view a file describe how it works
`less`	a viewer, to view file contents		use this command to view a file describe how it works (and differs from `more`)
`touch`	create a file, or update time stamp		use this command to create an empty file use this command to update a file's time stamp
`pwd`	Show current directory		display the pathname of the current working directory
`mkdir`	Make directory		Create a directory
`rmdir`	Remove (empty) directory		remove an empty directory
`cp`	copy a file (or directory)	`-r`	copy a file to another filename copy one or more files to another location copy an entire directory with a single command
`mv`	move a file (or directory)		move a file or directory to another filename (i.e. rename it) move one or more files to another location move an entire directory to another location
`rm`	delete (remove)	`-r`	delete one or more files delete a directory and all of its contents<
`wc`	Word count	`-c -w -l -L`	count the number of characters/words/lines in a file print the length of the longest line in a file
`passwd`	Change your password		change your password
`man`	Manual pages		view the manual pages of other unix commands
`date`	Date command		print the current date
`chmod`	Change permissions		set permissions for files and directories, using both forms of the command that were discussed
`diff`	print the difference between two files	`-b -w -i`	print the lines that differ between two text files, with possible variations of treating multiple spaces as one, ignoring any white space on lines, and/or ignoring upper/lower case
`gzip` and `gunzip`	compress/decompress a file	`gzip -d` (same as `gunzip`)	compress a file with gzip decompress a file with gunzip explain how this differs from the Windows .zip format
`tar`	tape archive utility	`c x t f v`	create a tar archive, packing up files and/or directories unpack the contents of a tar archive file list the table of contents of a tar archive file describe the meaning of the flags given here

Input/Output redirection

Understand what is meant by:
- standard input
- standard output
- standard error
Know how to use these symbols in unix commands:
- <
- >
- >>
- |
Specifically, know how to:
- Re-direct standard input into a command to come from a file
- Re-direct the standard output from a command to go to a file (instead of the screen)
- Re-direct the standard output from a command to be appended to a file
- "Pipe" the output from one command to become the input to another command