Hands-on computer based workshop on the fundamentals of the UNIX operating system including the command line interface, commonly used commands, regular expressions, text editors and shell scripts.

Organizers: Lucy Skrabanek, Jason Banfelder (ICB, WMC)

Goals and Objectives: This workshop is divided into three two-hour sessions and one three hour session. At the end of the workshop, attendees are expected to be comfortable using the UNIX operating system.

Schedule:

Part 1 (day 1: 2 hours)
This part covers logging in and out of a UNIX system, as well as the basics of file system structure and the use of some basic commands to view and manipulate files and their contents. Basic operation and use of the vi text editor is also covered.

Parts 2 and 3 (days 2 and 3: 2 hours each)
This part covers how the system runs programs, more advanced file manipulation and documentation. Specifically, advanced vi operation, construction of regular expressions and commands such as cut, join, and sort are covered. These commands and constructs are useful for the efficient analysis and manipulation of files. The use and interpretation of UNIX documentation is taught so that full functionality of available commands may be understood.

Part 4 (day 4: 2 hours)
This part covers shell scripting that is used to automate complex, multi-step tasks. Specifically, simple programming structures, such as if-then logic and loops, and automatic scheduling of scripts are reviewed.

Prerequisite: Familiarity with a personal desktop computer operating system, such as Macintosh or Windows, is desirable.