CS 497C – Introduction to UNIX Lecture 4: Understanding the UNIX Command Chin-Chih Chang

The PATH: Locating Commands UNIX obtains the list of directories that has to be searched from of an environment variable – PATH. If you evaluate the value of PATH, you’ll find a directory list separated by colons: $ echo $PATH /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/local/bin:.

The PATH: Locating Commands There are five directories in this list, and when you issue a command, the system will search this list in the sequence specified to locate and execute it.. indicates the current directory. To know in which directory the command is located, you can use the type command. $ type ls ls is /bin/ls

Internal and External Commands The agency that actually does all this work is known as shell – a command interpreter. Since ls is a file having an independent existence in the /bin directory (or /usr/bin), it is called an external command. Most commands are external in nature. The commands built in shell are known as internal commands.

Internal and External Commands The type command itself is a shell built-in. Whether or not you are able to execute it depends on the shell you use. In some versions of the C shell, the type command won’t work. In this case, which or whereis can be used. The shell uses its internal command even though there is an external command of the same name.

Command Structure An UNIX command is composed of two parts: command and argument. Commands and arguments are separated by any number of spaces or tabs know as whitespace. $ ls-l ls-l: Command not found. The argument that begins with a – symbol is called an option.

Options and Filenames Every command has a fixed set of options. The command with its arguments and options is entered in one line that is referred to as the command line. Some commands accept a single filename, some accept more than one filenames. Wrong options will be indicated. An option can have its own arguments. pine –f mail-may

Combining Options Options that begin with a – sign can normally be combined with only one – sign. For instance, this command has three options: ls –l –a -t The -l option provides most details of a file’s attributes. The –t option sorts files according to the time of modification. The -a option lists the hidden files.

Combining Options You can combine these options in this way: ls –lat ls -atl This facility reduces your typing load. The shell parses (break up) the option combination into separate options. Some commands won’t let you combine options in the way you did just now. tar –cv –f /dev/fd0 –b 18

Combining Options There are four options here, but two of them (-f and –b) has their own arguments. These arguments are called option parameters. We combined the –c and –v options here. We can combine the –f and –b options, provided that their own parameters are placed in the same sequence. tar –cvfb /dev/fd0 18 The following one won’t work: tar –cvfb 18 /dev/fd0

Exceptions and Variations All commands don’t compulsorily use options and arguments. Commands like clear don’t accept any argument. The who and date commands may or may not be specified with arguments.

Exceptions and Variations The ls command permits more variations: –Without any argument (ls) –With only one option (ls –l) –With only filenames (ls chap01 chap02) –Using a combination of both (ls –la chap01 chap02) This text discusses commands that use options. The vast majority will conform to the option rules that have been discussed but there are some exceptions.

Flexibility of Command Usage UNIX allows you to specify more than one command in the same command line. Each command is separated from the other by a ; (semicolon): who; ls -l The ; is one of special characters that are understood by the shell. These special characters are known as metacharacters.

A Command Line Can Overflow When a command has more characters than the terminal width, it simply overflows to the next line. You may want to spread the command into multiple lines. The shell issues a secondary prompt, usually > (or ?). $ echo “This is a two-line > text message” In C shell you have to enter a \ (backslash).

Flexibility of Command Usage Subsequent commands can be entered at the keyboard without waiting for the prompt. There is a type-ahead buffer (a temporary storage area) which stores all these commands and passes them on for execution. A command may not behave in the way you want because UNIX comes in many flavors.

Flexibility of Command Usage The uname can print system information. $ uname Linux The uname –r command shows the version number of the kernel. $ uname –r