Linux and CS Systems - Getting Started
This page is meant to help a new student in a CS course at ISU to get familiar with using Linux (in particular using the text-based terminal to interact with the system).
Contents
Reading
To begin with, read through - Linux Tutorial
System Setup
Try it Out
Once you have your Linux system to try out, open up the terminal (also called the shell, or command prompt), and you are ready to try out some commands. Note that all commands in Linux are case-sensitive. Also, _ is different than -, and ' is different than ".
System Information, Part 1
Linux commands - System Information
Text Editors, Part 1
Files and Directories, Part 1
Using Linux - Files and Directories
Shakespeare Text File
Using Linux - Large Text Files
More Reading
Read through another tutorial about Linux. Some options include the follow.
Commands to Know
Bootcamp Questions/Tasks
Here we give small tasks for you to complete. These are numbered so that we can refer to them.
Linux.0 Log in to the CS server, and run the chfn command to put your name into the system. You can leave all the other fields blank (just type enter). Also, use the chsh command to change your default shell from /bin/tcsh (or whatever it is) to /bin/bash
Linux.1 Log in to the CS server, create a directory named aboutMe in your home directory, and create a text file name.txt. In the name.txt file, give your full name.
Linux.2 In your aboutMe directory, create a file courses.txt and list which CS courses you are currently taking or plan to take in the upcoming term.
Linux.3 Log in to the CS server, create a directory named notes in your home directory, and create a text file named linux.txt and put in some links to linux tutorials or information that you have found helpful.
Linux.4 Log in to the CS server, create a directory named linux-bootcamp in your home directory.
Linux.5 In your linux-bootcamp directory, create a text file shake.txt. In shake.txt, put how many lines are in the shakespeare.txt file mentioned in the information above.
Linux.6 In your shake.txt file, add information about how many times "the" appears in shakespeare.txt. Use the command grep, add to what you had how many lines "the" appears in shakespeare.txt. Hint - use the -c option for grep, also use the -i option so your count will also include "The", "THE", etc. In your shake.txt, you should have the number of lines that contain "the" (including "The", etc.), and also the percentage of the lines that contain the.
Linux.7 In your linux-bootcamp directory, create a text file weather.txt. Copy the Indianapolis weather csv file from /u1/junk/weather/ into your linux-bootcamp directory. In your weather.txt file, put how many rows of data are in the csv file (use wc, head, and tail). Assuming 365 days per year, put in your weather.txt file how many years of data are in the csv file.
Linux.8 In your weather.txt file, put the maximum PRCP, SNOW, SNWD, TMAX, TMIN, MEAN from the csv file. Hint - use the sort command, and use the options -t, -k, -n, -o.
