This is meant to be a tutorial to learn the Unix command line (Linux and Mac), the basics of shell scripting (using the bash shell), beginning sed and awk, and some other various skills.
These tutorials are about the Unix command line. To use these tutorials, you'll need to open a terminal or command line in a Unix environment.
Everything in here should work as is on machines running Linux or OS X (Mac). Simply make a folder and start the command line. On a Mac you can do a spotlight search for "Terminal", and on Linux it's usually built in fairly well.
If you are running Windows and don't have access to a Linux or Mac machine, there are some ways to get access to a Unix command line. If you are a BYU Engineering or Computer Science student (or are taking a class from either department) you can ssh into ssh.et.byu.edu or schizo.cs.byu.edu respectively. To do this, download PuTTY.exe from the internet,a free, lightweight ssh client for Windows. Simply type the address above in the "Host Name" section, and when prompted provide your department username and password. You will log into a Linux environment in which you can try out all of the Unix commands, run shell scripts, etc. The only downside is that to edit text, you'll either need to learn a command-line based editor (i.e. emacs, vim or nano) or copy and paste all of your text into the PuTTY terminal (which can be done by right clicking the screen after copying text in your native editor).
A handy tool to use in connection with PuTTY is WinSCP. This proivdes a GUI to help you move files between your local computer and another machine, e.g. your account on the Engineering Department, CS Department. You can do this using a similar process to setting up PuTTY.
An alternative would be to download either 1) A tool to connect to your department's Linux account with a GUI session or 2) a virtual machine. Vmware is a professional tool that can be downloaded for free through BYU.
After you have access to a terminal, the next thing you'll need to do is find a good text editor to read and write your files in. Although it's possible to use any text editor, including your Operating System's native one (Notepad, TextEdit, etc.), in practice you'll really want to use an editor that, at the very least, highlights syntax for you.
Some good, free text editors are:
- Emacs
- Vi/Vim
- Sublime Text
- Notepad++
- Atom
- Gedit
- Kate
- Nano
- etc.
There are many free options online, almost any will probably do. Emacs, Vim, and Nano all have the advantage of having the ability to be used via the command line, meaning you can use it across an ssh session.
To get started, go through the commands and tutorials listed in the directory "learn_unix". They will go through many of the basics of using a Unix-style command line.
After you're familiar with navigating the command line on your own, you can go through the files in the directory "learn_bash". They will go through the basics of bash shell scripting. If they seem too basic for you, you can look at the headers for each file to see if the topics or commands each one covers is unfamiliar and only go through those tutorials.
After going through those, you can go through the files in the "learn_awk", "learn_sed", or other tutorials (later to come) to learn other tools.
At any point, you can start to practice by experimenting with creating your own scripts or by trying out the exercises, or "missions". In the "mission" directory, you'll find files that describe a particular "mission" you must perform. These are good opportunities to try to apply the skills you've learned in the tutorials. They mostly target shell scripting, which is an extension of what you can do with the command line on your own, but you can use sed, awk, or whatever other tool you find at your disposal.