CS197U: A Hands-on Introduction to UNIX

Description

This course offers a 4-week introduction to working with Unix, and it is intended to help students work with tools commonly used in CS courses. The class is comprised of both discussion and hands-on exercises in the EdLab. Topics covered include working with the command line, installing and maintaining the OS and software packages, version control systems, compiling programs, and more. No previous experience with Unix is required. This course is for majors and minors only, but it does not count towards the BS-CMPSCI. 1 credit.

Course Information

Website: http://www.cs.umass.edu/~elif/cs197u

Instructor: Elif Aktolga
Email: elif at cs.umass.edu

Meeting Time: Tu/Thu 4:00-5:00 LGRC Room A301
This class will meet for only 4 weeks, and starts on the second week starting 1/31/12 and ending 2/23/12.

Reserved Lab Time: Tu/Thu 5:00-6:00 Edlab LGRT Room 225
The edlab will be reserved for students after each lecture for working on the assignments. During this time the instructor will be available to answer questions.

Optional Textbook: Unix and Linux: Visual QuickStart Guide (4th Edition), by Deborah S. Ray, Eric J. Ray.

Grading

The course will be graded Pass / Fail. To pass you must:

Turn in four out of five assignments (each assignment is worth 10 points)
Achieve a total of 30 or more points by the end of the class in four assignments and in class attendance

We cannot give any incomplete grades unless you have a note from a doctor proving your inability to complete the course material.

Class Attendance

We will monitor class attendance at the beginning of every class. Class attendance will be counted as 0 points if two or more classes are missed, 1 point if one class is missed, and 2 points if all classes are attended.

Late Policy

No late submissions are allowed, but instead you get to choose which four of the five assignments you want to turn in. Please turn the assignments in on time (3pm sharp), otherwise you will get 0 points for a late assignment. If you turn in all five assignments, the best four will be counted. Please notify the instructor if you are skipping an assignment.

Please note that if you fail to turn in four assignments, you won't be able to pass. The grading policy requires all four assignments to be turned in to pass.

Withdrawal Policy

Because the class only runs for 4 weeks, there is a special withdrawal policy. Withdrawal is only possible until the start of Lecture 3 (2/7/12). After this date, you cannot withdraw from the class.

Academic Honesty Policy

Please read the official University Academic Honesty Policy.

You may discuss concepts covered in class with others, but your assignments must be completed individually.

When asking others for help, do not write down notes for the solution. Also, make sure not to show any part of your written solutions to others.

Schedule

Lecture 1: What is Unix/Linux?

Basic overview and history of unix/linux
Command line basics
Commands: ssh, ls, pwd, cd, cp, rm, mv

Lecture 2: Using the Command Line

Accessing remote servers and files
Editing and manipulating files
Piping commands and saving output
Searching in command line history
Commands: mkdir, nano, cat, head, tail, less, clear, grep, sort, uniq, man, >, |, ssh-keygen

Lecture 3: Operating System Organization

OS basics, processes
Filesystem layout
File permissions
Commands: chmod, find, locate

Lecture 4: Your Own Copy of Linux

Overview of popular Linux distributions
Running Linux in a virtual machine
Super user powers
Installing applications
Commands: make, apt-get

Lecture 5: Configuring the System

Basic system administration
Setting environment variables
Listing users and processes
Basics of mount and NFS
Commands: uname, users, finger, alias, ps, top, kill, mount, df, du

Lecture 6: Programming in Linux

Simple Bash shell scripting
Compiling C/C++ files
File processing: awk, sed
Commands: gcc, sh

Lecture 7: Programming & Scripting

Source control with SVN
More powerful editors: emacs, vim
More commands: svn, tar, screen, nohup, disown, nice, cron, whereis, which, diff, scp, rsync

Lecture 8: Going Forward

Review of what we've learned
Resources to learn more
Continuing to use *nix: cygwin, ssh, OS X terminal, or your own Linux install

Assignments

(Exact details will be discussed in class)

Assignment One: Connect to an Edlab Linux server and browse through your home directory.

Assignment Two: Command line tool basics, editing files with nano, basic file processing.

Assignment Three: Create a virtual machine and install Ubuntu Linux. Use root privileges to install new software packages.

Assignment Four: Write AWK and shell scripts to process data in several files.

Assignment Five: Create an SVN repository. More command line tool basics and more file processing.