(comp_acct_begin.txt)         

Dr. Don Anderson (Dean, College of Natural Science, UCSD) has set
up computer account on one of the instructional machines
(sdcc14.ucsd.edu also called iNSci2) for our use.  For your
information, this is a four processor Solbourne (Sun-clone).

This will be the machine which the 40 participants this summer
will be working on.  The operating system is Unix, and there are
numerous help files that you should find informative.  Also the
"customization" that is usually needed with a Unix account has
already been set up in a standard manner by the computer center
staff at UCSD.  This staff has had a lot of experience working
with students at both beginning and at advanced levels.

The mail program they (and I) recommend is called      elm

The editor that I recommend is                         vi

The tool to navigate the Internet                      gopher

At the end of this file, I enclose a minimal set of Unix commands
which I feel will make you "functional" on this machine.  As time
goes by, you will hopefully become more proficient.

The tools STEP will focus on:

1) sdcc14
     a) electronic mail                       
     b) network access to the Internet          
     c) running Matlab m-files                 
     d) an abundance of other software is available, we will
        explore its use as it seems applicable.  (Matlab and Maple)

2) Macintosh (while using the SDSC Training Lab):
     a) general running of applications (turbogopher and macsamson)
     b) Matlab demos

-----------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as you log on, you should change your password.  You do this
in Unix by typing

passwd

You will be prompted for your old password and then for your new
password.  (I don't remember the details of what patterns the new
password must follow - but go ahead and type in anything and the
system will let you know.  I kinda think it's: must have a number
and a capital letter and be less than 10 characters in length - but
you try a dummy one and see for sure.  Pick something you can
remember! and write it down.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

When you first log on you'll get a Greeting from the system and you'll
get a chance to cut off seeing more information.  It's up to you, but
I read the information the first time I accessed the machine and now I

q

quit and get out of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

There is an excellent "help" facility which you get to by typing
"help topic" - for example

help elm

will bring up a selection of topics on elm, the mail processor we
will be using.  I've actually included a hardcopy of all the elm
help files today - called elm-help.2)

At your leisure - and hopefully at another time than now, because
we have "work" to do today - you might want to look through all the
capabilities of scdd14 which are outline in the help files. I
would recommend using Zterm from home and starting a "screen
capture" before logging on to sdcc14.  Logon, type

help

look at anything that strikes your fancy, etc.  You'll then have a
record of it all on your home machine which you can print out - or
look at when you want.

The help system also allows you to select a "file name" and then
you can select different topics by number (this will all be prompted
on your screen) so that you can save information by specific topic.
Now the file will reside on sdcc14 - so you'll have to download to
your home machine if you want to print it.  This is how I obtained
the file elm-help.2 which I edited to put the notes on how the file
was created at the beginning of the file.

               I FIND THIS A GOOD HABIT TO FOLLOW.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To logoff, type

logout
====================================================================

                           Minimal Unix

    This is by no means complete and I'm leaving a lot out.  The focus
will be on FUNCTIONAL, not elegant.  I recommend the help system from
sdcc14 a lot.  Remember Unix works with a Tree Structure for its
file system.  There are directories that roughly correspond to "folders"
on a Mac.  Just like you can have folders within folders on a Mac, you
can have directories within directories.

vi name      visual editor for the file "name".  This is a powerful
             editor that takes a little getting used to.  It has
             different modes:

                   insert  (type i and then everything becomes input)
                   Esc     (use Escape key to terminate insert mode)

                   :       (type colon to get to command mode)
                   :wq     issues the command to "w"rite the current
                              file and "q"uit the editor

pwd          print working directory - helps you see "where" in the
             directory structure you are

ls           list the files in the current directory.  this can be
             modified to give more information

             ls -a       lists all file including .login and other
                         "dot" system files
             ls -l       list files in "l"ong format so you can see
                         when last modified and size
             ls -lR      recursively lists all the files in all the
                         directories from wherever you are now and
                         below - LOT OF INFORMATION - you might
                         want to capture to a file and examine with
                         the editor or download to your home machine.

                         cd         (so I'm in my top directory)
                         ls -lR > allmystuff   <<-- big file created!

mkdir dirname  create a directory of "dirname" below the current dir

cd dirname   change to the directory "dirname" which is immediately
             below the current directory

cd           change to your root or home directory (at the top of the
             directory tree structure)

less file    prints the contents of the file "file" to your screen,
             one screenful at a time.  the file must be in the current
             directory.  Note this command can also scroll backwards
             as you proceed through the contents.  You can type

                  ^b   (control key held at same time as "b")
                       to go "b"ack

                  ^f   or just space bar to go forward

                  q    to quit the "less"ing of the file to screen

elm          check your mail - you have a separate handout on elm

rm file      removes the file.  be careful - there is no backup.

rm *         delete all the files in the current directory - careful!

rm -r dirname   be REALLY careful with this one.  deletes ("r"ecursively)
                all the files in the directory "dirname" as well as all
                the subdirectories under "dirname" and can be a quick
                way to clean up your file space or CLOBBER EVERYTHING.
                Watch out - no backup on Unix.

rmdir dirname   If the directory "dirname" is empty, this deletes the
                directory name.

cp file1 file2  copies file1 to file2

cp file1 dirname  copies "file1" to the directory "dirname" which must
                  be immediately below the current directory

mv file1 file2    Moves or renames a file or directory within the same
mv dir1  dir2     same system

history      prints out a "history" all your recent commands.  You
             can use a short cut to repeat some previous command by
             typing

                            !v     (or some collection of letters)

             This will match the most recent command that began with
             v (probably a "vi filename") and helps reduce typing.

^c           kills current process - a panic operation

^z           interrupts current process.  You can then put the process
             into the BACKGROUND by typing

                        bg

             and the process will continue to run, while you can do
             other stuff.  Eventually, you'll want to bring your
             process back to the FOREGROUND by typing

                        fg

             so deal with it.  (Unless it terminates naturally while
             you're doing your other stuff.)

****---->>>> NOTE!  Sometimes the ^c doesn't work to kill a process
             and people type ^z to interrupt it.  You will then need
             to explicit KILL the process.  To do this, you need the
             process id (pid).  You get this information by typing

                        ps

             This displays all your running processes. One will just
             be your login (csh), but there will be something else
             corresponding to whatever process you used ^z to get
             out of.  Say it has pid 103829.  You need to kill it with

                        kill -9 103829

             If you don't, the system manager of sdcc14 will eventually
             catch this runaway process and kill it for you.  But this
             uses up system resources and you will be sent mail by
             the system manager to kill your own running jobs for the
             sake of all other users.

finger user  This lets you check on the "user" - say finger stewart
             You find out when they last logged on, when they last
             read their mail, if there is mail waiting and from when.
             You can also finger stewart@cs.sdsu.edu to see info on
             me at a different machine.

Exotic:

env          prints a lot of useful, but detailed information, that you
             won't be interested in unless you start becoming really
             interested in Unix - I hope some of you will in time.

set          options that have been set - of interest to Unix
             hackers.

set term=vt100 Most of use have terminal emulation built into the
               communications packages we use with modems to access
               the Internet over phonee line.  Usually you are
               emulating a vt100 (possibley vt102).

stty rows 24   sets the number of rows for your screen to be 24 (or some
               other value)

