Getting Started with UNIX and the Internet

Getting an Account at Morgan State University - School of Engineering.

To get an account on the eng.morgan.edu cluster, fill out an application form and give it to a system operator. They are located in one of the faculty research rooms across from the Computer Engineering Lab on the second floor of Mitchell (Room 215). They will assign a userid and password. Be sure to write on the form or make some arrangements to get this information from them.

If You Have Forgotten Your Password.

If you have a current account, but have forgotten your password, fill out the form for a new account, indicating that you currently have an account. Be sure to identify your desired new password.

Logging In.

It doesn't matter whether you log into either McCoy, Latimer or Washington. You are logging into the same account.

From Windows, select Internet Applications. Then click on either McCoy, Latimer or Washington. It doesn't matter whether which one. You are logging into the same account.

You will be greeted with a login: prompt followed by a password prompt.

Some Basic UNIX Commands.

From the command line MCCOY> try some of the following commands.


     w              who is on that particular machine
     last           a listing of who has logged in on MCCOY
     last pha -20   a listing of the last 20 times pha logged in on MCCOY
     last -10       last 10 entries by anyone

     passwd         to change your password

     pwd            print work directory (your current directory)

     ls             to list your files

     ls -a          to list all files
     ls -l          to obtain a more "lengthy" listing of your files
     ls -al         a combination of the above

     cat .login          type file .login to the terminal
     cd ..               to move up a directory
     cd /home/pha        to return to your directory

     finger pha          to obtain info on user pha
     finger -l pha@eng   for more information
     finger @eng         to obtain a list of all users logged in to the 
                            cluster
     
     finger pha@access.digex.net
                    to obtain information on a user at another site
     finger @nsf.gov     to list all users logged in at another site

     logout              logs you out of the system
Coke Servers.

The finger command was used to display the number of sodas remaining in the COKE machine at Carnegie - Mellon. Thus, these types of info services are termed COKE servers. Some famous COKE servers; [I haven't tried some of these in awhile].

     
     
     finger quakes@geophys.washington.edu
     finger nasanews@space.mit.edu     (Space Shots)
     finger forecast@typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu  (Hurricanes)

Telnet

     telnet 

One interesting BBS is;

     telnet bbs.isca.uiowa.edu          login new

1200 students from all over the world are usually logged on in some 200 different discussion groups.

Other interesting addresses include the following. Please note that I haven't tried these recently, so some may be wrong.

     telnet stinfo.hq.eso.org      login stinfo (Hubble)
     telnet lpi.jsc.nasa.gov       login lpi (NASA-Johnson)
     telnet nasanews@space.mit.edu
     telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov

To TELNET to eng From a Remote Site.

Assume you are on a summer internship at MIT and have an account on an MIT machine. If you feel homesick, you may log in to the eng cluster.

     telnet mccoy.eng.morgan.edu

MAIL

To the world you are your_user_name@eng.morgan.edu and you may send and receive mail receive mail from anywhere in the world. The general form of an e-mail address is user_name@site.domain.

Most student prefer the PINE mailer. From the system prompt, simply type;

     pine

This is pretty much menu driven, and the best way to learn is to explore it on your own.

More UNIX

     ps   process show - see below
     df   diskfull - shows disk usage
     bif  see below

When you logout, you may get a message indicating you have stopped processes, courtesy demands you go back and kill them.

From the MCCOY prompt;

     ps        process show

You will then get a list of all processes which are active.

     kill #         kill the processes you don't want
 

BIFF

Biff was a famous dog in the early 80s at UCLA - Berkeley. [He is now retired and is reportedly in good health].

If you want to be interrupted when new mail arrives; from the MCCOY prompt;

     biff  y

Otherwise;

     biff  n

If you are unsure as to how biff is set;

     biff

PICO Editor

Pine uses an editor called Pico. At the MCCOY prompt;

     pico

This is pretty intuitive and I have used this to edit simple C programs. It is particularly useful in editing HTML files.

C Compiler

The eng cluster is equipped with a C compiler. C in a UNIX environment is a whole book unto itself. If you want cursory info, please send me a request.

More Filter

To display an ASCII file;

     cat file

For example;

     cat .history

The command "cat" is similar to the DOS command "type".

If the file is longer than 25 lines it will rapidly scroll off the screen. Note that ctrl-s may be used to scroll lock and ctrl-q to unlock, but this requires some dexterity. An alternative is;

     cat file | more

This will cause 25 lines at a time to be displayed on the terminal. To advance to the next page, hit the space bar. (Note that the | more may also be used on a DOS PC. "type file | more").

man Command

For more information on a topic, from the UNIX prompt, use the man command. For example;

     man finger