Unix/Linux Resources

People often talk about the Unix philosophy (or culture). This is the kind of thing one often picks up through absorption; think of an apprentice serving a master or a novice student learning under a Zen master. As an alternative path, I highly recommend Eric S. Raymond's book The Art of Unix Programming. Note that this book can be downloaded for free; since it over 500 pages long, please don't print it on the Departmental printers. In particular, Chapter 1 of TAOUP discusses Unix philosophy; if you are Zen-minded (should that be mindful?), you might enjoy Appendix D. My suggestion is that you read Chapter 1 online; if you like it, go and buy the book.

If you haven't used our departmental Linux systems, you should read the information in the introduction to using our systems. You will probably be especially interested in the sections dealing with:

• using the computer lab in Room LL813,
• and accessing our computer systems from home,
• text editors, and
• using X-windows.

Here are some introductory tutorials and "cheat sheets" for people who are just getting started with Unix or Linux:

• Prof. Yanjun Li's short list of Basic UNIX commands.
• The CGI101 Unix Tutorial
• A set of Linux cheat sheets.
• MakeUseOf has several useful articles, among which are the following.
  • Getting started with the command line.
  • Forty essential commands you should know.
• Eric Simard's Linux Handbook site has a lot of Linux tutorials.