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Lecture #2: Navigating the file system

Learning objectives

Unix/Linux Command-line

  1. Differentiate between the terminal window and the shell
  2. Draw a filespace as a tree of directories
  3. Identify the current working directory with pwd
  4. Define the meaning of ., .. and ~
  5. Recognize whether a path is an absolute path or a relative path
  6. Use different options to render different formats of file list with ls
  7. Use man to learn more about a command by recognizing the components of a command from a man page
  8. Change directories using cd using both absolute and relative paths
  9. Make new directories using mkdir
  10. Use tab completion to navigate a filesystem more effectively
  11. Look at files with head, tail, cat and less
  12. Create files with touch, cat and nano

Textbook Reference

Chapter 1, Pages 1-17

Activities

  1. open a terminal

  2. pwd

    • type pwd and interpret results
    • draw the branch of the filesystem tree that includes your home directory, starting from the root

  3. ls

    • type ls and interpret the results
    • type ls . and interpret the results
    • type ls .. and interpret the results
    • type ls -l and interpret the results
    • for a subdirectory, dir, from your current working directory, type ls <dir> and interpret the results

  4. man

    • type man ls and discuss what you see with your neighbor
    • find a way to list all your files in one column
    • find a way to sort your file listing by the age of the file
    • find a way to sort your file listing by the size of the file

  5. cd

    • change to the parent of your home directory
    • change back to your home directory
    • use a relative path to change to the "grand-parent" of your home directory
    • change back to your home directory with a relative path
    • repeat and change back to your home directory with no path
    • explore the /bin directory
    • use tab completion to be more effective when moving around the file system
    • draw a partial picture of the file tree that includes your home directory

  6. mkdir

    • make a new directory called ep476-sandbox - we will use this directory as a place that we can freely delete and clean out on various occasions, so don't put important things here.

    • change to that directory

    • download this zip file and save it in the current directory

      • BONUS: use the command-line tool wget to accomplish this

    • unpack the zip file with the command: unzip ecp-sample-filespace.zip (Hint: use tab completion)

    • chage to the textbook-examples/filespace directory

    • draw a tree that represents this filespace

  7. cat

    • go to the fission/applications/power in Lise Meitner's directory
    • type cat reactor.txt and interpret the results

  8. head

    • look at the beginning of the file with head reactor.txt
    • use the man pages to learn how to show only the first 5 lines

  9. tail

    • look at the end of the file with tail reactor.txt

  10. wc

    • count the number of lines in the file with wc reactor.txt

  11. touch

    • create a new empty file with touch new_file.txt
    • check the timestamnp of reactor.txt and then update the timestamp of a file with touch reactor.txt

  12. nano

    • open a file for editing with nano reactor.txt

Command-line Cheat Sheet