UNIX For Dummies Quick Reference

by Levine Young, Margaret; Levine, John R.

• ISBN13: 9780764504204
• ISBN10: 0764504207
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-24
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

Get instant access to the UNIX commands and functions you need with this fast and friendly reference guide to all things UNIX. UNIX For Dummies Quick Reference, 4th Edition, clues you in to the most popular and essential parts of UNIX: X Windows managers, text editors, sending and receiving electronic mail, and networking. Starting with the UNIX shell and moving steadily deeper inside the UNIX environment, UNIX For Dummies Quick Reference, 4th Edition, cuts to the chase with clear, concise answers to all your UNIX questions. From the basics of entering commands, organizing files and directories, and determining which shell you're using, this valuable little reference book steers you in the right direction. More than 100 basic UNIX commands are alphabetically sorted for easy lookups, and advanced topics on X Windows managers, text editors, and online components are all just a few pages away. Why bother with the hassles of sorting through thousands of pages of text when the answers you need are all right here, tucked inside a lay-flat binding that lets you keep your book open to the page you're reading. Could using a UNIX reference be any easier?

Author Biography

Unlike her peers in that 40-something bracket, Margaret Levine Young was exposed to computers at an early age. In high school, she got into a computer club known as the R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S., a group of kids who spent Saturdays in a barn fooling around with three antiquated computers. She stayed in the field through college against her better judgment and despite her brother John's presence as a graduate student in the computer science department. Margy graduated from Yale and went on to become one of the first microcomputer managers in the early 1980s at Columbia Pictures, where she rode the elevator with big stars whose names she wouldn't dream of dropping here. Since then, Margy (www.gurus.com/margy) has coauthored more than 20 computer books about the topics of the Internet, UNIX, WordPerfect, Microsoft Access, and (stab from the past) PC-File and Javelin, including The Internet For Dummies, 6th Edition, and WordPerfect 7 For Windows 95 For Dummies (all from IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.). She loves her husband, Jordan; her kids, Meg and Zac; gardening; chickens; reading; and anything to do with eating. Margy and her husband also run Great Tapes for Kids (www.greattapes.com) from their home in the middle of a cornfield near Middlebury, Vermont. John R. Levine was a member of the same computer club Margy was in -- before high school students, or even high schools, had computers. He wrote his first program in 1967 on an IBM 1130 (a computer almost as fast as your modern digital wristwatch, only more difficult to use). He became an official system administrator of a networked computer at Yale in 1975 and has been working in the computer and network biz since 1977. He got his company on to Usenet (see Part IV) early enough that it appears in a 1982 Byte magazine article in a map of Usenet, which then was so small that the map fit on half a page. He used to spend most of his time writing software, although now he mostly writes books (including UNIX For Dummies« and Internet Secrets, both from IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.) because it's more fun and he can do so at home in the hamlet of Trumansburg, New York, where he holds the exalted rank of sewer commissioner and offers free samples to visitors and plays with his young daughter when he's supposed to be writing. He also does a fair amount of public speaking. (See www.iecc.com/johnl.) He holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale University, but please don't hold that against him.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How to Use This Book	1	(4)
What's in This Book	2	(1)
Conventions Used in This Book	2	(1)
The Cast of Icons	3	(1)
Write to Us!	3	(2)
Part I: Commanding UNIX Using the Shell	5	(10)
Directories	6	(1)
Environment Variables	6	(1)
Filenames	7	(1)
Help with Commands	7	(1)
Identifying Your Shell	8	(1)
Pathnames	8	(1)
Quoting Characters on the Command Line	9	(1)
Redirecting with Pipes and Filters	9	(1)
Shell Prompts	10	(1)
Special Characters and What They Do	11	(2)
Startup Files	13	(1)
Typing Commands	13	(1)
Wildcards	14	(1)
Part II: UNIX Commands	15	(90)
alias	16	(1)
at	16	(2)
awk	18	(1)
bash	18	(1)
bc	19	(1)
bg	20	(1)
cal	20	(1)
calendar	21	(1)
cancel	22	(1)
cat	22	(1)
cd	23	(1)
chgrp	24	(1)
chmod	25	(1)
chown	26	(1)
clear	26	(1)
cmp	27	(1)
compress	27	(1)
cp	28	(1)
cpio	29	(2)
crontab	31	(1)
csh	32	(1)
date	33	(1)
df	34	(1)
diff	34	(2)
diff3	36	(1)
dircmp	36	(1)
du	37	(1)
echo	38	(1)
ed	38	(1)
elm	39	(1)
emacs	39	(1)
env	39	(1)
ex	39	(1)
exit	39	(1)
fg	40	(1)
file	41	(1)
find	42	(2)
finger	44	(1)
ftp	45	(1)
grep	45	(2)
gunzip	47	(1)
gzip	48	(1)
head	49	(1)
help	49	(1)
history	50	(1)
id	51	(1)
irc	51	(1)
jobs	51	(1)
kill	52	(1)
ksh	53	(1)
In	53	(2)
Ip	55	(2)
Ipq	57	(1)
Ipr	57	(1)
Iprm	58	(1)
Ipstat	59	(1)
Is	60	(2)
Iynx	62	(1)
mail	62	(1)
man	62	(1)
mesg	63	(1)
mkdir	64	(1)
more	64	(1)
mv	65	(2)
nice	67	(1)
nn	67	(1)
pack	68	(1)
passwd	68	(1)
pico	69	(1)
pine	69	(1)
pr	69	(2)
ps	71	(2)
pwd	73	(1)
rcp	73	(1)
red	73	(1)
rehash	73	(1)
rlogin	74	(1)
rm	74	(1)
rmdir	75	(1)
rn	76	(1)
rsh	76	(1)
script	76	(1)
sdiff	77	(1)
sed	77	(1)
set	78	(1)
setenv	79	(1)
sh	80	(1)
sleep	81	(1)
sort	82	(1)
spell	83	(1)
stty	84	(1)
tail	85	(1)
talk	86	(1)
tar	86	(2)
tee	88	(1)
telnet	89	(1)
time	89	(1)
tin	89	(1)
touch	90	(1)
trn	90	(1)
troff	91	(1)
tty	92	(1)
umask	92	(1)
unalias	93	(1)
uname	94	(1)
uncompress	95	(1)
uniq	95	(1)
unpack	96	(1)
uucp	97	(1)
uudecode	98	(1)
uuencode	99	(1)
vacation	100	(1)
vi	100	(1)
wall	100	(1)
wc	101	(1)
who	102	(1)
write	102	(1)
zcat	103	(2)
Part III: Using X Window Managers	105	(14)
Anatomy of a Window	106	(1)
Changing the Window Size	106	(1)
Exiting the Window Manager	107	(1)
Keyboard Shortcuts	108	(1)
Motif	108	(1)
FVWM	108	(1)
Maximizing a Window	109	(1)
Minimizing (Iconifying) a Window	109	(1)
Moving a Window	110	(1)
Opening a Window in an Obsolete but Easy Way	110	(1)
Opening Window in a User-Friendly Way	110	(1)
Restoring a Window	111	(1)
Restoring a Window from an Icon	111	(1)
Selecting Several Things with Your Mouse	111	(1)
Switching Windows	112	(1)
The Window Menu	112	(2)
Working with the Common Desktop Environment (CDE)	114	(5)
CDE Applications	114	(1)
CDE Windows	115	(1)
The Front Panel	115	(1)
Front Panel Subpanels	116	(3)
Part IV: Using Text Editors	119	(12)
Using the ed Text Editor	120	(2)
Starting ed	120	(1)
Getting out of ed	120	(1)
ed commands	120	(2)
Using the emacs Text Editor	122	(2)
Starting emacs	122	(1)
Getting out of emacs	122	(1)
emacs commands	122	(2)
emacs commands for editing multiple files	124	(1)
Using the pico Text Editor	124	(2)
Starting pico	125	(1)
Getting out of pico	125	(1)
pico commands	125	(1)
Using the vi Text Editor	126	(5)
Starting vi	126	(1)
Getting out of vi	127	(1)
vi commands	127	(3)
vi commands in input mode	130	(1)
Part V: Sending and Receiving Electronic Mail	131	(16)
Addressing Your Mail	132	(1)
elm	132	(4)
Sending a message	132	(1)
Reading your messages	133	(1)
Printing a message	133	(1)
Saving a message	134	(1)
Exiting the program	134	(1)
Changing your elm options	134	(1)
Getting help	135	(1)
Command line options	135	(1)
Mail	136	(3)
Sending a message	136	(1)
Reading your messages	137	(1)
Forwarding a message	137	(1)
Printing a message	138	(1)
Saving a message	138	(1)
Exiting the mail program	138	(1)
Command line options	138	(1)
Pine	139	(5)
Sending a message	139	(1)
Reading your messages	140	(1)
Replying to a message	141	(1)
Forwarding a message	141	(1)
Printing a message	141	(1)
Saving a message	142	(1)
Deleting a message	142	(1)
Adding an address to an address book	143	(1)
Retrieving an address from an address book	143	(1)
Exiting the program	143	(1)
Changing options	144	(1)
Getting help	144	(1)
Sending Mail Using Other Mail Programs	144	(3)
Part VI: Connecting to Other Computers	147	(16)
FTP	148	(6)
Connecting to a remote system	148	(1)
Connecting by using anonymous FTP	148	(1)
Quitting FTP	149	(1)
Listing the files in a directory	149	(1)
Moving to other directories	150	(1)
Retrieving files	150	(1)
Retrieving groups of files	151	(1)
Decompressing files that you have retrieved	151	(1)
Downloading retrieved files to your PC	152	(1)
Sending files to a remote system using FTP	153	(1)
Summary of FTP commands	154	(1)
IRC: Chatting with Others on the Net	154	(4)
Starting IRC	155	(1)
Finding IRC channels	155	(1)
Joining an IRC channel	156	(1)
Quitting IRC	156	(1)
Getting help with IRC commands	156	(1)
Chatting by using IRC commands	156	(1)
Summary of IRC commands	157	(1)
Having an IRC private conversation	158	(1)
rcp	158	(1)
Copying files from a remote computer	158	(1)
Copying all the files in a directory	159	(1)
rlogin and rsh	159	(3)
Connecting to a remote computer	159	(1)
Disconnecting from a remote computer	160	(1)
Running commands on a remote computer by using rsh	160	(1)
Logging in automatically by using rlogin and rsh	161	(1)
telnet	162	(1)
Connecting to a remote computer	162	(1)
Disconnecting from a remote computer	162	(1)
Part VII: Finding Resources on the Net	163	(8)
Internet Explorer	164	(1)
Lynx	164	(2)
Going directly to a page	164	(1)
Going back to a previous page	165	(1)
Searching within Web pages	165	(1)
Key summary	165	(1)
Netscape	166	(2)
Starting up	166	(1)
Going to a new page	166	(1)
Going back to a previous page	167	(1)
Finding places to go in Netscape	167	(1)
Printing a page	167	(1)
Saving a file	168	(1)
Freeing disk space	168	(1)
Quitting Netscape	168	(1)
Resource Indexes	168	(3)
Part VIII: Usenet Newsgroups	171	(16)
Netiquette: Avoiding Getting Flamed	172	(1)
Reading Usenet Newsgroups with trn	172	(15)
Starting your newsreader	172	(2)
Changing the order in which newsgroups appear	174	(1)
Choosing which new newsgroups to subscribe to	174	(1)
Dealing with rot-13 articles	175	(1)
Dealing with shar files	175	(1)
Dealing with uuencoded files	175	(1)
Exiting the newsreader	176	(1)
Finding articles on specific topics	176	(1)
Finding a newsgroup	177	(1)
Getting help	177	(1)
Posting a new article	178	(1)
Reading articles	179	(1)
Replying to and following up an article	180	(1)
Sending an e-mail reply	181	(1)
Posting a news follow-up	181	(1)
Saving an article	181	(1)
Selecting newsgroups to read	182	(1)
Selecting the threads that you want to read	182	(2)
Skipping over a newsgroup	184	(1)
Skipping an uninteresting or offensive article	184	(1)
Skipping unread articles	184	(1)
Unsubscribing to a newsgroup	185	(1)
Understanding Newsgroup Names	185	(2)
Glossary: Techie Talk	187	(14)
Index	201
Book Registration Information	Back of Book