Multi-vendor Unix Fundamentals

Prerequisites:

Programmers, system and network administrators and other IT professionals who are relatively new to the UNIX environment. It is also recommended for users of any UNIX system who need to 'escape' an application and use the system at the command line level.

No specific Unix knowledge is required, but delegates must have a basic knowledge of the major computer components as well as computer operating system functionality and concepts. Ability of working with command line (such as in DOS, OS2 or VMS) and familiarity with hierarchical file structure, organisation and management is assumed.

Course Description:

Multi-Vendor UNIX Fundamentals course will provide the delegates with transferable skills, and – equally important – will give them appreciation of working in a multi-vendor UNIX environment. The course concentrates on the common approach to the variants of UNIX whilst looking at some specific areas of particular systems and shells.

The platform used for practical exercises is Linux, with SSH access provided to at least one other version of UNIX, for example HP-UX.

The course explains how to use the basic facilities of a UNIX system and demystifies most of the major concepts and principles of UNIX operation. We discuss the role the shell plays in interfacing with the operating system, analyse the file system and explore file, directory and data manipulation utilities.

We also take a look at more advanced use of the shell, including a brief introduction to shell scripts (command or batch files) and how to use them to automate repetitive tasks. There is a very useful overview of simple UNIX system administration and network communication utilities.

Hands-on work (labs, demos and interactive exercises) accounts for nearly half of the course. Each lab session is carefully structured to lead you through the concepts of the preceding chapter, thereby building knowledge and confidence in using UNIX. Each delegate is assigned his/her own machine, and all machines are configured as a network.

This course includes the following modules:

Introduction

• What is Unix?
• Good and bad points
• Unix users
• Logging in and out
• Basic commands

The File System

• File system concepts
• Navigating the file system
• Manipulating files and directories
• Examining file contents

The vi Editor

• Concepts of the visual editor
• Useful vi commands
• Extended vi commands

The Korn Shell

• What is a shell?
• Shell as a command line interpreter
• Commands and arguments
• Using wildcards
• Quotes
• Command history and line editing

The Shell Environment

• Shell variables
• Customising user's environment
• The search path
• Korn shell aliases
• Startup files: /etc/profile, .profile and .kshrc

Command Input and Output

• Unix I/O streams
• Standard input, output and error
• I/O redirection using >, >> and