CPSCI 105: Explorations in Computer Science

Lab 2

January 25, 2007

Use Citrix to use Exceed to connect to warp, and log in. Then we'll discuss the following. If at any point you have a question, be sure to ask. At the end of lab today, review the topics listed below and make sure that you understand what they mean (or how to do them).

Basic emacs

• know what emacs is
• how to start emacs
• how to create a file using emacs
• how to modify a file using the emacs editor
• how to do a “save” or “save as” in emacs
• how to exit emacs

More Unix File Management

• know how to copy, rename, and delete files (cp, mv, and rm)
• know how to take a quick look at the contents of a file (cat, head, tail, more, and less)

Using bash

• what the ampersand character (&) does at the end of a command line
• what “bashrc” is an abbreviation for
• why the name of the file begins with a dot
• what the .bashrc file is used for
• what a comment is in the bash language (both the concept and how to make one)
• what the stuff we put in the .bashrc file does

Note: it is extremely important that your .bashrc file works correctly. The text you'll see me type at the screen in the front of the must be duplicated exactly in your file, right down to the presence/absence of spaces. (The bash shell is very picky about how you type commands to it.) If at any point, you're not sure whether I'm typing an l (i.e., a lowercase L) or a 1 (i.e., a one) make sure you ask—it makes a big difference.

If you get an error message when you log in, call me over and we'll look at your file. But don't count on getting an error message. For example, the commands
      ls -l (i.e., ls hyphen L) and
      ls -1 (i.e., ls hyphen one)
are both legal, but they do completely different things. (Try them and see.) So make sure you type carefully when entering text into your .bashrc file.

Here's a sample .bashrc file to use for comparison.

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