Linux1

Introduction

Linux or GNU/Linux is an operating system, i.e. the middle man between you and the computer hardware. Therefore Linux is a full replacement for Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. Linux comes with a range of graphical user interfaces where you can use the mouse to interact with the computer as you are used to. However, in most setup within the University (and particularly for the HPC facilities), you will not have access to this graphical user interface. Instead, you will be using Linux at the command line. Therefore this practical introduces some fundamentals commands so that you can carry out your research in a Linux based environment.

The user interface on a computer is technically called a shell. When using Linux at the command line, most often the bash shell is used. There are a range of shells for Linux with slightly different syntaxes. The bash shell is often the default and we will use bash syntax in this practical.

Logging in

Login is performed via a bit of software called secure shell or ssh. There is a client for Microsoft Windows which should be installed on your computer. If not, contact a computer officer. To login select the machine that you want to log into, for instance dylan.ggy.bris.ac.uk or bluecrystal.bris.ac.uk and then enter your username and password. the system will log you in and you will directly be taken to your home directory.

Getting the content for this practical

Now that you are logged in a Linux system, it is time to get the practical content. The necessary files for this practical are hosted in a version control system. To obtain them, just type the following command:

svn export http://source.ggy.bris.ac.uk/subversion-open/intro-to-linux/trunk intro-to-linux

This will fetch all necessary files and put them in a folder called intro-to-linux/. Ignore the cryptic syntax so far, an introduction to version control will be given later on.

Navigation

To change directories, the command cd is used. It stands for ... "change directory" (!) To navigate to the directory folder containing the file, type:

cd intro-to-linux