The Datafile PD-CD 4

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INTRODUCTION From the user's point of view, the operating system is easy to learn and use, and presents few of the usual impedi- ments to getting the job done. It is hard, however, for the beginner to know where to start, and how to make the best use of the facilities available. The purpose of this intro- duction is to help new users get used to the main ideas of the system and start making effective use of it quickly. You should have a couple of other documents with you for easy reference as you read this one. The most important is The it's often easier to tell you to read about something in the manual than to repeat its contents here. The other use- ful document is A Tutorial Introduction to the Text Editor, which will tell you how to use the editor to get text -- programs, data, documents -- into the computer. A word of warning: the system has become quite popular, and there are several major variants in widespread use. Of course details also change with time. So although the basic structure of and how to use it is common to all versions, there will certainly be a few things which are different on your system from what is described here. We have tried to minimize the problem, but be aware of it. In cases of doubt, this paper describes Version 7 This paper has five sections: 1. Getting Started: How to log in, how to type, what to do about mistakes in typing, how to log out. Some of this is dependent on which system you log into (phone numbers, for example) and what terminal you use, so this section must necessarily be supplemented by local information. 2. Day-to-day Use: Things you need every day to use the sys- tem effectively: generally useful commands; the file sys- tem. 3. Document Preparation: Preparing manuscripts is one of the most common uses for systems. This section contains advice, but not extensive instructions on any of the for- matting tools. 4. Writing Programs: is an excellent system for developing programs. This section talks about some of the tools, but again is not a tutorial in any of the programming lan- guages provided by the system. -2- 5. A Reading List. An annotated bibliography of documents that new users should be aware of. I. GETTING STARTED Logging In You must have a login name, which you can get from whoever administers your system. You also need to know the phone number, unless your system uses permanently connected termi- nals. The system is capable of dealing with a wide variety of terminals: Terminet 300's; Execuport, TI and similar portables; video (CRT) terminals like the HP2640, etc.; high-priced graphics terminals like the Tektronix 4014; plotting terminals like those from GSI and DASI; and even the venerable Teletype in its various forms. But note: is strongly oriented towards devices with lower case. If your terminal produces only upper case (e.g., model 33 Teletype, some video and portable terminals), life will be so diffi- cult that you should look for another terminal. Be sure to set the switches appropriately on your device. Switches that might need to be adjusted include the speed, upper/lower case mode, full duplex, even parity, and any others that local wisdom advises. Establish a connection using whatever magic is needed for your terminal; this may involve dialing a telephone call or merely flipping a switch. In either case, should type login:'' at you. If it types garbage, you may be at the wrong speed; check the switches. If that fails, push the ``break'' or ``inter- rupt'' key a few times, slowly. If that fails to produce a login message, consult a guru. When you get a login:-message, type your login name in lower case. Follow it by a the system will not do anything until you type a If a password is required, you will be asked for it, and (if possible) printing will be turned off while you type it. Don't forget The culmination of your login efforts is a ``prompt char- acter,'' a single character that indicates that the system is ready to accept commands from you. The prompt character is usually a dollar sign $-or a percent sign %. (You may also get a message of the day just before the prompt charac- ter, or a notification that you have mail.) Typing Commands Once you've seen the prompt character, you can type com- mands, which are requests that the system do something. Try typing date followed by You should get back something like Mon Jan 16 14:17:10 EST 1978 Don't forget the after the com- mand, or nothing will happen. If you think you're being -3- ignored, type a something should happen. won't be mentioned again, but don't forget it -- it has to be there at the end of each line. Another command you might try is who, which tells you everyone who is currently logged in: who gives something like mb tty01Jan 16 09:11 ski tty05Jan 16 09:33 gam tty11Jan 16 13:07 The time is when the user logged in; ``ttyxx'' is the system's idea of what terminal the user is on. If you make a mistake typing the command name, and refer to a non-existent command, you will be told. For example, if you type whom you will be told whom: not found Of course, if you inadvertently type the name of some other command, it will run, with more or less mysterious results. Strange Terminal Behavior Sometimes you can get into a state where your terminal acts strangely. For example, each letter may be typed twice, or the may not cause a line feed or a return to the left margin. You can often fix this by logging out and log- ging back in.- Or you can read the description of the com- mand stty-in section 1 of the manual. To get intelligent treatment of tab characters (which are much used in if your terminal doesn't have tabs, type the command stty -tabs and the system will convert each tab into the right number of blanks for you. If your terminal does have computer- settable tabs, the command tabs-will set the stops correctly for you. Mistakes in Typing If you make a typing mistake, and see it before has been typed, there are two ways to recover. The sharp-character #- erases the last character typed; in fact successive uses of #- erase characters back to the beginning of the line (but not beyond). So if you type badly, you can correct as you go: dd#atte##e is the same as date.= The at-sign @-erases all of the characters typed so far on the current input line, so if the line is irretrievably fouled up, type an @-and start the line over. What if you must enter a sharp or at-sign as part of the text? If you precede either #-or @-by a backslash \, it ----------- - In Berkeley Unix, the command "reset<control-j>" will often reset a terminal apparently in a strange state because a fullscreen editor crashed. = Many installations set the erase character for display terminals to the delete or backspace key. "stty all" tells you what it actually is. -4- loses its erase meaning. So to enter a sharp or at-sign in something, type \#-or \@. The system will always echo a newline at you after your at-sign, even if preceded by a backslash. Don't worry -- the at-sign has been recorded. To erase a backslash, you have to type two sharps or two at-signs, as in \##. The backslash is used extensively in to indicate that the following character is in some way spe- cial. Read-ahead has full read-ahead, which means that you can type as fast as you want, whenever you want, even when some command is typing at you. If you type during output, your input char- acters will appear intermixed with the output characters, but they will be stored away and interpreted in the correct order. So you can type several commands one after another without waiting for the first to finish or even begin. Stopping a Program You can stop most programs by typing the character (per- haps called ``delete'' or ``rubout'' on your terminal). The ``interrupt'' or ``break'' key found on most terminals can also be used.- In a few programs, like the text editor, stops whatever the program is doing but leaves you in that program. Hanging up the phone will stop most programs.= Logging Out The easiest way to log out is to hang up the phone. You can also type login and let someone else use the terminal you were on.* It is usually not sufficient just to turn off the terminal. Most systems do not use a time-out mechanism, so you'll be there forever unless you hang up. Mail When you log in, you may sometimes get the message You have mail. provides a postal system so you can communicate with other users of the system. To read your mail, type the command mail Your mail will be printed, one message at a time, most recent message first.= After each message, mail- ----------- - In Berkeley Unix, "control-c" is the usual way to stop programs. "stty all" tells you the value of your "intr" key. = If you use the c shell, programs running in the background continue running even if you hang up. * "control-d" and "logout" are other alternatives. = The Berkeley mail program lists the headers of some number of unread pieces of mail in the order of their receipt. -5- waits for you to say what to do with it. The two basic responses are d, which deletes the message, and which does not (so it will still be there the next time you read your mailbox). Other responses are described in the manual. (Earlier versions of mail-do not process one message at a time, but are otherwise similar.) How do you send mail to someone else? Suppose it is to go to ``joe'' (assuming ``joe'' is someone's login name). The easiest way is this: mail joe now type in the text of the letter on as many lines as you like ... After the last line of the letter type the character ``control-d'', that is, hold down ``control'' and type a letter ``d''. And that's it. The ``control-d'' sequence, often called ``EOF'' for end-of-file, is used throughout the system to mark the end of input from a terminal, so you might as well get used to it. For practice, send mail to yourself. (This isn't as strange as it might sound -- mail to oneself is a handy reminder mechanism.) There are other ways to send mail -- you can send a previ- ously prepared letter, and you can mail to a number of peo- ple all at once. For more details see mail(1). (The nota- tion mail(1) means the command mail-in section 1 of the Writing to other users- At some point, out of the blue will come a message like Message from joe tty07... accompanied by a startling beep. It means that Joe wants to talk to you, but unless you take explicit action you won't be able to talk back. To respond, type the command write joe This establishes a two-way commu- nication path. Now whatever Joe types on his terminal will appear on yours and vice versa. The path is slow, rather like talking to the moon. (If you are in the middle of something, you have to get to a state where you can type a command. Normally, whatever program you are running has to terminate or be terminated. If you're editing, you can escape temporarily from the editor -- read the editor tuto- rial.) A protocol is needed to keep what you type from getting garbled up with what Joe types. Typically it's like this: Joe types write-smith-and waits. Smith types write-joe-and waits. Joe now types his message (as many lines as he likes). When ----------- - Although "write" works on Berkeley there is a much nicer way of communicating using display- terminals -- "talk" splits the screen into two sections, and both of you can type simultaneously (see talk(1)). -6- he's ready for a reply, he signals it by typing (o), which stands for ``over''. Now Smith types a reply, also terminated by (o). This cycle repeats until someone gets tired; he then signals his intent to quit with (oo), for ``over and out''. To terminate the conversation, each side must type a ``con- trol-d'' character alone on a line. (``Delete'' also works.) When the other person types his ``control-d'', you will get the message EOF-on your terminal. If you write to someone who isn't logged in, or who doesn't want to be disturbed, you'll be told. If the target is logged in but doesn't answer after a decent interval, simply type ``control-d''. On-line Manual The Programmer's Manual is typically kept on-line. If you get stuck on something, and can't find an expert to assist you, you can print on your terminal some manual section that might help. This is also useful for getting the most up-to- date information on a command. To print a manual section, type ``man command-name''. Thus to read up on the who-com- mand, type man who and, of course, man man tells all about the man-command. Computer Aided Instruction Your system may have available a program called learn, which provides computer aided instruction on the file system and basic commands, the editor, document preparation, and even C programming. Try typing the command learn If learn- exists on your system, it will tell you what to do from there.