The title says it all. You have been warned.
I don't know a heck darn that much about unix. I come from the world of dos, an old fart programmer that made enough money in the software business to appreciate getting the job done without too much futzing around. No contract programmer ever made more money by being fancy.
So what is the point of this?
My mind seems to be slipping a bit lately. One day I know how to change my name in tin and the next day I don't. Okay maybe it's more like a month or two. But, the point is still well taken. I forget stuff. So I need a place to put memos -- specifically memos about using unix.
Then I figured, "Why not put the memos in my homepage so that other newbies can make use of the info.
There is a simple function called chfn. (Leave us not forget that in unix nothing is simple unless you know about it. Just try to find somebody that can tell you how to determine which functions are available on a given machine. As in life, and any other skill, when you really know that something is possible you can find a way to do it. If you don't know that something exists as a possibility, who can you expect to find a way to do it?)
At the shell prompt type in "chfn", press return and follow the instructions.
If your unix box doesn't have this particular function or you can't follow instructions, tough. Call a friend or the support dudes (after rush hour if you please).
page filename
If you type "page" followed by the "filename" you will be treated to a stream of characters coursing their way to your computer screen. Be sure to respect cap and non-cap letters as they are. The unix caps convention was designed to teach us that changing everything we encounter in life into something new and different doesn't always work. Personally I find it a pain in the u-know-what. I have a hard enough time speling without also being forced to remember some wEiRdOS choice of caps. A joke is nice but boy does it play havoc with my typing.
If the file you sent to screen with the help of the "page" command was not a text file it can __. @ti &* (2M look a bit weird and mess up your screen configuration. (My screen in Procom locked up one night -- frozen solid. I had to exit and restart the program.)
Something that you may find helpful is the letter "q". When the screen bottom says MORE at the bottom, esc and control-blah-blah don't seem to work to break the outpour of characters. "Q" on the other hand has been known to work wonders on most machines.
To me unix is still a bit like magic. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Something to do with my purification rituals before signing on I think. Either that or my past bad karma catching up with me. I will reserve ignorance as the explanation of last resort.
Oh, by the way. If page doesn't work for some reason, try cat. Cat is a very nice function. It works almost the same as page only cat has more features.
There are a couple of tricks with the "cd" command in unix: 1) they use the wrong way slash / instead of \. You know like the people in England drive on the wrong side of the road. The other trick is something about redirected directories.
Let me explain. The other day I typed in "cd xxxxxx" and moved to a subdirectory. But then when I typed in "cd .." I did not go back to where I came from. Somehow the subdirectory was a shuttle bus into another area of the world. Totally confusing.
If somebody wises me up a bit more about this mystery, I'll try to clue you in too.
The format (syntax -- as the fancy programmers say) is:
cp filefrom fileto.
This will copy filefrom to fileto. If fileto already exists the new copy will flop over the top of the old copy obliterating it.
Remember the problems with directory names and all that there stuff.
rm filename
That will do the trick. At least if the trick you want done is the deletion of a file called filename. Not all that useful of a command is it -- considering that hardly any files are called filename? Well, don't dispair maybe it will work with other names too.
rm filename
That will do the trick. At least if the trick you want done is the deletion of a file called filename. Not all that useful of a command is it -- considering that hardly any files are called filename? Well, don't dispair maybe it will work with other names too.
Use the "man chmod" command to see more details about chmod. For the moment "chmod 0755 *" will set every file in the current directory to world read and world executable without giving them permission to change it.
ls
This will tell you a lot, but:
ls -a
will tell you even more.
Maybe the faq is designed to serve the purpose of telling the truth. (As the writer sees it of course.) In some circles faq is almost synonymous with "God says". Well we know where that kind of faith leads, don't we?
I thought about writing a faq to the effect that sending me money was the only way to ____ (fill in the blank). Since it would be a faq it must be true. It's like having a printed business card. If you want to go into the wholesale gift mart in San Fransico don't try to get in unless you have a business card. (Copy machines can do it for a dime.) With the official business card you can get in. Be sure to put "Wholesale buyer" on the card or maybe even "Owner" if you want to look more important. (Watch the Rockford Files reruns if you don't believe me.)
Maybe the something is grabbing an incoming use-net download or maybe it is directing a http url request to the right spot.
Wouldn't it be fun to create a daemon to grab a copy of every piece of internet correspondence flashing through the lines that matches a subject of your interest. Gee (said with sarcastic overtones) do you think any agencies are already doing that? Don't forget the Holocaust. Don't forget the existence of Revisionist that would like us to forget the Holocaust. Don't forget that maybe -- just maybe -- it is sometimes (I wouldn't want to jump into this too quickly) a good idea to see the world the way it is, rather than the way that is comfortable.
Can't you smell the ozone of tremendous opportunity here? These little daemon program guys sound to me like the programming area I would like to get into if I had the time and knew my way around unix.
Judging by the contributions that some folks have been making it might be better if we did have a few more lurkers.
On the other hand. If you want to assure that the net is a place worth being in, it is up to you to contribute in a way that is constructive by your standard. It is after all your standard isn't it.
Don't wait for me to create the world to match your standard. I don't even necessarily know you. Don't forget, you are sitting miles away at your computer looking at pixels of light and dark. These pixels were generated from some on and off bits transmitted at the speed of light from a server in Sacramento to you through God knows what chain of intervening systems (up to 25 by some counts). I'm probably not even logged on to the internet. I'm probably working on a model of Bardotown or writing another one of my science columns for Galaxy Magazine. In anycase, if you don't pick up the piece of trash on the sidewalk on your way to work in the morning, don't be surprised to see it laying on the sidewalk on your way home at night.
I am familiar to flaming from my graduate school days. We had a visiting student that didn't really know what was happening. So in order to contribute to the conversation he would find minute points to pick at. This did not make for the best discussions and we never invited him out for beer and pizza.