Workshop

The Workshop summarizes the key terms you learned and poses some questions about the topics presented in this chapter. It also provides you with a preview of what you will learn in the next hour.

Key Terms

account This is the official one-word name by which the UNIX system knows you. Mine is taylor.

arguments Not any type of domestic dispute, arguments are the set of options and filenames specified to UNIX commands. When you use a command such as vi test.c,all words other than the command name itself (vi) are arguments, or parameters to the program.

command Each program in UNIX is also known as a command: The two words are interchangeable.

i-list See i-node.

i-node The UNIX file system is like a huge notebook full of sheets of information. Each file is like an index tab, indicating where the file starts in the notebook and how many sheets are used. The tabs are called inodes, and the list of tabs (the index to the notebook) is the i-list.

man page Each standard UNIX command comes with some basic online documentation that describes its function. This online documentation for a command is called a man page. Usually, the man page lists the command-line flags and some error conditions.

multitasking A multitasking computer is one that actually can run more than one program, or task, at a time. By contrast, most personal computers lock you into a single program that you must exit before you launch another.

multiuser Computers intended to have more than a single person working on them simultaneously are designed to support multiple users, hence the term multiuser. By contrast, personal computers are almost always single-user because someone else can't be running a program or editing a file while you are using the computer for your own work.

pathname UNIX is split into a wide variety of different directories and subdirectories, often across multiple hard disks and even multiple computers. So that the system needn't search laboriously through the entire mess each time you request a program, the set of directories you reference are stored as your search path, and the location of any specific command is known as its pathname.

shell To interact with UNIX, you type in commands to the command-line interpreter, which is known in UNIX as the shell, or command shell. It's the underlying environment in which you work with the UNIX system.

Exercises

Each hour concludes with a set of questions for you to contemplate. Here's a warning up front: not all the questions have a definitive answer. After all, you are learning about a multichoice operating system!

1:	Name the three multi concepts that are at the heart of UNIX's power.
2:	Is UNIX more like a grid of streets, letting you pick your route from point A to point B, or more like a directed highway with only one option? How does this compare with other systems you've used?
3:	Systems that support multiple users always ask you to say who you are when you begin using the system. What's the most important thing to remember when you're done using the system?
4:	If you're used to graphical interfaces, try to think of a few tasks that you feel are more easily accomplished by moving icons than by typing commands. Write those tasks on a separate paper, and in a few days, pull that paper out and see whether you still feel that way.
5:	Think of a few instances in which you needed to give a person written instructions. Was that easier than giving spoken instructions or drawing a picture? Was it harder?

Preview of the Next Hour

In the next hour, you learn how to log in to the system at the login prompt (login:), how to log out of the system, how to use the passwd command to change your password, how to use the id command to find out who the computer thinks you are, and lots more!