Structure
1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Introduction Objectives Overview of Unix Unix Commands Summary Further Readings
Introduction to Unix
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
This section is intended to introduce you to the Unix operating system. It will provide you with a basic understanding of the Unix operating system, its file and directory structure. We have also explained the architecture and components of Unix, further the section contains different useful Unix commands, and those are explained in detail with the help of examples.
1.1 OBJECTIVES
After completing this lab manual, you should be able to: • • • • get basic understanding of the Unix operating system; understand file and directory structure of Unix; know the basic Unix commands; and know how to get Unix help.
1.2 OVERVIEW OF UNIX
Even after thirty-five years of its creation Unix is still regarded as one of the most versatile, flexible and powerful operating systems in the computer world. Before you start swimming in your Unix shell, you must find out why people still regard it as powerful. As you may know, it was created at Bell Labs in 1970, written in the C Programming Language, which was developed at the same time. It supports a large number of simultaneous users, runs with few alterations on many hardware platforms (provides some platform independence), and of course it was and is, a simple, elegant, and easy to use (at least compared to its predecessors) operating system. In the early 1980s, the two strands of Unix development – AT&T and Berkeley – continued in parallel. The Berkeley strand got a major boost from Sun Microsystems, which used the Berkeley code as the basis for its Sun OS operating system. This section is only a brief introduction to Unix operating system and does not include information on how to use all of its capabilities. Let’s see the historical development of Unix at a glance: • • • Kenneth Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and