TUCoPS :: Unix :: General :: modern12.txt

UNIX editors and files

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*                                                       *
*           Unix and its file controllers               *
*                                                       *
*           Another Modernz Presentation                *
*                                                       *
*                        by                             *
*                  Digital-demon                        *
*                                                       *
*            (C)opyright April 2, 1991                  *
*                                                       *
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UNIX SYSTEMS

     Among the multitude of operating systems one is the most commonly
     used, and that is UNIX.  UNIX in its varied array of look alike and
     modifications such as zenix and other 'nix variations.  These
     systems have one feature that makes them stand together and that is
     the  multiuser/multitasking environment. However I wish to show the
     files and what commands are used to manipulate them.

     First you must know that the multi-tasking and multi-user
     environment , which means that it can handle more than one action
     or user concurrently, is done by the operating system.  The
     operating system utilizes a time-sharing routine, by maintaining
     the list or queue (which you can understand by reading book on data
     structures) of tasks to be done, and shares the time among the jobs
     waiting to be processed.  The time frame of processing given to
     each task is so small the user believe the system to be processing
     the jobs simultaneously.



     Each time a user logs into the system they are associated with
     their own particular directory, their 'home' directory. This is not
     the root of other operating systems.  Each users has their own
     'home' directory which is where the pointer for the working
     directory originates instead of the root of most other operating
     systems.  UNIX follows the hierarchical directory system as do most
     other operating systems.  It also can only manipulate data within
     the primary storage, the memory, and automatically handles the
     movement between the secondary, disk, and the primary storage
     system.

     Within the hierarchical directory structure the operating system
     keeps track of the file owner, the last modification date and time,
     the location of each file, and the size in bytes (or characters) of
     data within the file.  They are kept in a format like this:


 /-defines if a directory or not (a - in place of a letter
|  means a no, s means special file)
|
|/-these three characters define the file owner modes 
|| the (r-read, w-write, x- execute)
||
||  /-these three characters define the users in the same
||  | group as the owner
||  |
||  |  /-these three characters define the other users of
||  |  | the system
||  |  |
||  |  |   /-total # of blocks (1024 bytes)
||  |  |   |  /-owner name (account name)
||  |  |   |  |     /-group owner name 
||  |  |   |  |     |     /-how many characters
||  |  |   |  |     |     |        
||  |  |   |  |     |     |         /-last modification time   
||  |  |   |  |     |     |         |   
||  |  |   |  |     |     |         |         /-file name
||  |  |   |  |     |     |         |         |
||  |  |   |  |     |     |         |         |
drwxr-xr-x 3 neal DP3725  80  March 10 22:12 UNIX 



     The top of the hierarchical structure is called the root.  The root
     directory and all associated subdirectories are called a file
     system.  A hierarchical system may appear as following:





            root
             |  
             | 
  --------------------
  |                  |
 Jim               demon  <-these accounts are user's home
                     |
                ----------
               |         | 
              docs      homework
               |           |
           ------        ------------
           |    |        |          |
         txt   opsys   calculus    assembly



  
     Subdirectories within a path are separated by the backslash (/)
     character.  This character also within the path will define how far
     from the root the operating system must travel.  Within the
     hierarchical structure and the notation conventions  a single
     period (.) defines the current working directory, and two periods
     (..) define the root.  Note that within the UNIX operating system
     the root directory may have a name.  You access files within
     another directory by specifying the whole path name, such as the
     file UNIX within the opsys directory is called by the path
     /demon/docs/opsys/UNIX, remember that within UNIX capitals and
     lowercase are recognized as different.  You may have files named:
     UNIX, UNiX,UNIx, etc, within the same directory and have them all
     recognized as seperate entities.

     UNIX is an interesting operating system as the standard comes with
     three text editors, and their are a vast number of other text
     editors that are nonstandard formats but also quite common within
     system.  Unfortunately because there are so many different version
     of UNIX and its editors and other commands, many of those text
     editors have security risks within them, holes in the permissions,
     and other supposedly security measures, this is cause by the lack
     of full understanding of everything within the UNIX system by any
     one author/programmer (Midnite Raider 5.)

     The editor that seems the easiest to use, among programmers from
     other operating system is the ed file editor.  It is used in the
     format ed filename.  It is similar to most other operating systems,
     file editors, quite similar in fact to DOS's edlin command.



$ed names

Commands with ed     Description of action
P                    Display the prompt (which within the ed
                     Command appears as an asterisk (*)
*1n                  Print line 1  (note the * is the
                     prompt). 
*1,3n                Print lines 1 through 3.
?                    Produced when a command is in error,
                     such as 2,8n when there are only 7
                     lines.
*h                   Prints out explanation of errors, should
                     be used after receiving an ? to find
                     out what the error is.
*H                   Automatically prints out all error
                     messages after this is used. It is
                     suggested that this is used right after
                     the P command is given.
*1d                  Delete line 1
*1a                  Append after line 1

.                    used in conjunction with the append to
                     tell the operating system when the
                     append is to be terminated.

*1,$n                Display entire file.

*3,$d                Delete line 3 through the end of file.

*$a                  Append at the end of the file.

*/test               Finds line containing the string "test"
                     Repeating the string will find the next
                     line that contains the string "test" if
                     it exists.

*.,$n                Lists from the current line to the end.

*s/brick/tear        Changes the string "brick" to "tear" in
                     the example. Only the first term found
                     if more than one on the same line.

*s/,/;/g             Would change all the "," to ";" on the
                     current line.

*1,$s/,/;/g          Would globally change.  Which means it
                     would search through and on every line
                     change all the "," to ";"

*q                   Quit.  Finish editing, however it will
                     not save the file.


*w                   Write changes to the file defined upon
                     entering.  It save the data/text.

*w demon              Writes the changes to the file demon.

Line specifiers
.                    current line

$                    last line of buffer

n                    nth line where n is an integer

+n                   n lines from current(or + :1 line,++:2)  

-n                   n lines back (- : 1 back, -- :2)


     More powerful than the ed command is the Vi text editor.  The
     "vee-eye" screen editor allows the file itself to appear on the
     screen and to allow the user to freely move about it.  However
     because of this reason inexperience users fine this to be too much
     of a shock to comprehend.  The editing itself is shown on the
     screen, as the operating system copies the existing file to the
     buffer, and the vi makes the terminal screen a "window" showing a
     screens worth of the file from the buffer.


vi [option(s)] [file(s)]

options           Descriptions
-rfile            Attempts to recover file after the editor
                  or system crashes. This will not work if
                  the buffer is overwritten.

-l                Sets the LISP mode

-wn               Sets the window, screen size, to n number
                  of lines.

-R                Sets the editor to read-only mode.  This
                  means the user can move around the text
                  but editing commands are disabled.

+command          Use of editor command before the regular
                  editing process.



Commands within the vi       description
a                            Append to file after the
                             cursor. (Hit the escape key
                             after all appending commands
                             are done.)

A                            Append to the file at the end
                             of the current line.

I                            Insert to file at the beginning
                             of the line.
i                            Insert to file before the
                             cursor.

o                            Open/add a new line below the
                             current line the cursor
                             inhabits.

O                            Open/add a new line above the
                             cursor.

R                            Replace or over-type text.

s                            Substitutes for character under
                             cursor.

S                            Substitutes for whole current
                             line.

c                            Changes the indicated text.

C                            Replace to the end of current
                             line.

d                            Deletes the indicated text.

D                            Deletes to the end of the line.


VI editor commands          Description or meaning
dd                           Deletes current line

u                            Undo last delete.

x                            Deletes under cursor.

X                            Deletes in front of cursor.

y                            Make a copy "yanks" the
                             indicated text.

Y                            Yanks current line.

-----------------------------------------------------------

k                            Move the cursor up one line.

n                            Move the cursor to the left.

l                            Move the cursor to the right.

j                            Move the cursor down one line.
2k                           Move cursor up two lines.

kk                           Move the cursor up two lines.

<digit><j,k,l,or n>          Moves the cursor the specified
                             direction by the number of
                             spaces equal to digit.

-----------------------------------------------------------

ZZ                           Save to file and quit.

^D                           <control-d> down 1/2 screen

^U                           <control-u> up 1/2 screen

/word <carriage return>      String search for "word."

?word <carriage return>      String search for last "word."

w                            Go to next word.

e                            Go to end of line.

b                            Go to previous word

dw                           Delete one word

d$                           Delete to end of line.

cw                           Change word

-----------------------------------------------------------

:q                           Quit and don't save any changes

:w                           Write changes but do not quit.

:q!                          Discard changes to file.

:1 <carriage return>         Jump to line 1

:s/a/is/<carriage return>    Change "a" to "is"

;$ <carriage return>         Go to last line

:set number<carriage return> Turn on line numbering.





     Once files have been created with either of those two methods there
     are many commands the operating system allows you to use to view
     and maneuver the files within the system.

     To list you files in your current directory, which you would
     probably like to do after completeing you creation, or your
     modification of an exiting file, you would probably like to see the
     file's size.  So you would issue the ls command, which at the
     default ($) prompt would look like this : $ ls

     And it would display all the file names in the current directory,
     or if a: $ ls /pathname  is issued then the dirctory of files
     within that path are displayed.  A $ ls -l in either of the formats
     will diplay all the file parameters within the directory as
     explained previously in detail.

     Now maybe after listing your files in your currently directory, and
     assuming you are all new to this and have only you working
     directory, which is also your home directory.  You will want to
     issue a mkdir command, make directory, which should include the
     full path name.

     In this case you will make a directory called TXT and a directory
     called OPSYS.  $ mkdir ./TXT  in that case I created the directory
     TXT one down from the current.

     Now assuming I have created those two subdirectories below my
     current, which is the "home" direcotry in this case.  And I have a
     bunch of files within the home direcotry which I would like to move
     to the directory.  I would issue the $ cp oldfilename newfilename
     The cp is the copy file command.  And if I wisht to move a file to
     another directory I just define the newfilename with its full path.
     Copying for one directory to another direcotry, neither within the
     current just means both files must be defined with the full
     pathname.

     However A lazy user can get around using the full pathname in the
     firstfilename as long as prior to the command they had issued the
     CDPATH command with the path to be used within.  This command which
     can be set up like such:  $ CDPATH=.:..:$HOME  in this case a cd
     command or a copy command will search the list of direcotries in
     trun until the desired subdirectory is found or the list exhausted.
     Within the list of this one is (.) for the current directory, (..)
     for the parent or root directory, and $HOME for the home directory.
     Each directory or subdirectory is separated by the (:) .

     Now you come upon some files you don't remember what they are
because you named them funny.  First you would probably issue a
concatinate command.  Sure that sounds like a joining command and it is
if used in that format.  By typing: $ cat filename You can display the
contents of filename on the screen in normal format.  If you wish to see
commands within a file that are "unprintable" the command $ cat -v
filename will display most "unprintable" characters.  They will appear
with a caret before them.  An example is if a control-d is used within
the file, a ^d will appear.  If you issue the command as $ cat filename1
filename2 one file will be listed right after the other.  This is useful
when in the process of printing a larger number of files, just uses the
pipe to the printer, or if a $ cat filename1 filename2 > filename3 is
issued then the two files are listed in sequence and saved in file 3.
However if file 3 is the name for either of the previous files the cat
command wipes the file clean before anything is saved into it.
     
     Now that you have figured out what the strnagely named program is,
maybe it would be better to rename the file to something you can
remember.  With a single use of $ mv <old name> <new name>   you have
solved you dilema. Or if someone else is useing the same account and you
don't wish to confuse that user, you may use the $ ln <old name> <name>
command to link or assign an additional name which can be used to define
the file.  Thereby creating an alias for you pesky file.  Or if you find
that after listing the file you can not figure out a use for the file
and wish to remove it, issue the $ rm command, rm can be followed by as
many names as you wish or you could add the special characters to
perform the job if names are similar.
   
     Now suppose you want other people to use this file.  Or you have a
file copied from another user.  You will probably want to or need to
redefine the permissions.  There are quite a few commands regarding the
permissions.  First before you get the new file from a friend or
transfer a file to them, you should issue the change owner command,
which can only be done by the owner or the system operator. $ chown
newowner file(s).  Then if you wish to change the group name of the file
a simple 'chgrp' command is issued in the form $ chgrp (newgroupname)
(file(s)) which tells which group has permission to access the file
under the group parameters, needless to say it is not a commonly need
command, but worth Knowing just in case.

     However you are the kind of person that doesn't wish those other people within the group to fool around and modify your hard work.  But you would like to show it off so you want the group to see it.  What do you do?  Well how about issuing the change file mode command.  This command is the end all of file permissions alterations.  It can be used
in the format of: $ chmod (absolute-mode)  (file(s))   or in the form: $ chmod (symbolic-mode) (file(s)).  In either format this command can be used to set the permissions for either a file or a whole directory.


Absolute mode            Meaning
4000                     Set the user ID upon execution.

2000                     Set the group ID upon execution. 

20#0                     If # is 7, 5, 3, or 1, then set the
                         group ID.  If the # is 6, 4, 2, or
                         0, then enable file locking.

1000                     Reserved

0400                     Owner has read permission.

0200                     Owner has write permission.

0100                     Owner has execute (search)
                         permission.

0040                     Group has read permission.

0020                     Group has write permission.

0010                     Group has execute permission.

0004                     Others have read permission.

0002                     Others have write permission.

0001                     Others have execute permission.


     For example if 0644 is given as the absolute value then the
     following are enabled: 0400 (owner has read permission), 0200
     (owner has write permission), 0040 (group has read permission) and
     0004 (others have read permission).

     Symbolic mode consists of three parameters within the command.
     They are the "who" the "operator" and the "permission string".

Symbolic mode             Meaning

Who
u                         User
g                         Group
o                         Others
a                         All which takes the place of
                          defining as ugo, this is the
                          default of the who parameter.



Operator
+                         Add these permissions to what
                          already exists.
-                         Remove these permission from what
                          already exists.
=                         Assigns absolutely the indicated
                          permissions.  Anything mentioned
                          and those things not mentioned are
                          also affected. 

Permission string
r                         Read
w                         Write
x                         Execute
s                         Set ID
l                         Manadatory file lock during use.



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