Showing posts with label Unix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unix. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

UNIX interview questions

Q: What is the difference between vi and emacs editor?
Ans: vi is a modaleditor whereas emacs is not. That is in vi editor you have edit mode and command mode whereas in emacs only one mode. For more details visit vi editor.

Q: UNIX is case sensitive. To avoid this issue with case sensitive what option you can use while searching for a pattern?
Ans:
grep 'Phoenix' *.txt may give you output, whereas grep 'PHOENIX' *.txt may not.
To avoid this case sensitivity use the option 'i'
grep -i 'PHOENIX' *.txt

Q: What is meant by a filter in UNIX?
A filter is a program which can receive a flow of data from std input, process (or filter) it and send the result
to the std output.

Q: What is the significance of tee command?
Ans:
A powerful command that reads the standard input and sends it to standard output while redirecting a copy to a file specified. It is just re-route the pipline with tee.

Q: What is the significance of awk command?
Ans:
Helps you grab specific columns of information, modify text as it follow past, and swap the order of column information in a file.

Helps in analyzing and manipulating text files. Another alternative for this is the sed command which is less powerful compared to awk command.

Q: What does the command “ $who | sort –logfile > newfile” do?
Ans: This example explains the tricky use of hyphen (-). Above code gives the output from who command as input for sort command, meanwhile sort command will open the file called logfile and the content of this file is sorted togehter with the output of who and moving that to the file called newfile.

Q: What does the command “$ls | wc –l > file1” do?
Ans: Here ls is the input for the command wc and takes the count of line from ls and the count of lines is stored into file1 instead of displaying in the monitor.

Q: Which of the following commands is not a filter man , (b) cat , (c) pg , (d) head
Ans:
Ans: man
A filter is a program which can receive a flow of data from std input, process (or filter) it and send the result
to the std output.
Q: What is the difference between the redirection operators > and >>?
Ans:
When redirection operator > overwrite the content of file >> operator appends to file.

Q: Explain the steps that a shell follows while processing a command.
Ans:
Below are the steps followed by shell

Parsing: Shell first breaks up the command line into words, using spaces and delimiters, unless quoted. All consecutive spaces or tabs are replaces with single space.

Variable Evaluation: All words preceded by a $ are evaluated as variables, unless quoted or escaped.

Command Substitution:Any commands surrounded by backquotes is executed by the shell which then replaces the standard output of the command into the command line.

Wild Card Interpretation: The shell finally scans the command line for the wildcard characters (*,.,?,[,]). Any word containing a wild card is replaced by a sorted list of fienames that match the pattern. The list of this filenames then become the argument to the command.

PATH Evaluation:
It finally looks for the PATH variable to determine the sequence of directories it has to search in order to hunt for the command.

Q: What difference between cmp and diff commands?
Ans:
cmp - Compares two files byte by byte and displays the first mismatch
diff - tells the changes to be made to make the files identical

Q: What is the difference between cat and more command?
Ans:
Cat displays file contents. If the file is large the contents scroll off the screen before we view it. So command more is like a pager which displays the contents page by page.

Q: Write a command to kill the last background job?
Ans:
Kill $!

Q: Which command is used to delete all files in current directory and all its sub-directories?
Ans:
rm -r *

Q: Write a command to display a file’s contents in various formats?
Ans:
$od -cbd file_name

c - character, b - binary (octal), d-decimal, od=Octal Dump.

Q: What will the following command do/
$echo *
Ans;
It is similar to ls command, list down all the files in the current directory.

Q: Is it possible to create a new file system in UNIX?
Ans: Yes, 'mkfs' is used to create a new file system.

Q: Is it possible to restrict the incoming message?
Ans: Yes, using the 'mesg' command

Q:What is the use of the command "ls -x chapter[1-5]"?
ls stands for list; so it displays the list of the files that starts with 'chapter' with suffix '1' to '5', chapter1, chapter2, and so on.

Q: Is ‘du’ a command? If so, what is its use?
Ans:
Yes, it stands for ‘disk usage’. With the help of this command you can find the disk capacity and free space
of the disk.
Q: Is it possible to count number char, line in a file; if so, How?
Ans:
Yes, wc-stands for word count.
wc -c for counting number of characters in a file.
wc -l for counting lines in a file.

Q: Name the data structure used to maintain file identification?
Ans:
inode, each file has a separate inode and a unique inode number.

Q: How many prompts are available in a UNIX system?
Ans:
Two prompts, PS1 (Primary Prompt), PS2 (Secondary Prompt).

Q. How does the kernel differentiate device files and ordinary files?
Kernel checks 'type' field in the file's inode structure.


***
Hope this is helpful. Thanks Phoenix.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Understanding UNIX hierarchichal file system

In UNIX the fundamental basic principle is that anything that is not a folder is file, whether it be a normal file, I/O connections anything.

Using calculator in UNIX

UNIX provides both INFIX and POSTFIX calculators.

INFIX is when the operations are embedded within the operators
12*2

POSTFIX is when the operators are listed down and then followed by operations.
12 2 *

So, now to use infix calculator type the command "bc"
bash-3.00$ bc
Nothing happend. Now type in what you need to calculate and the system gives you output
1*2
2
1*2+3
5
2+3*2
8

Ok, now how to get out of this? Its simple. "quit"
.
.
2+3*2
8
quit
bash-3.00$

Various powerful options with bc command:

Find square root?

bash-3.00$ bc
sqrt(16)
4
similarly use below:


Postfix calculator:

user command "dc"

bash-3.00$ dc
2
3
*
p
6
2 3 *
p
6
2 3 * 4 +
p
10
Use "p" to print the result of your calculation.
sqrt(n) Square root of n
% Remainder
^ To the power of (3^5 is 3 to the power of 5)
s(n) Sine(n)
c(n) Cosine(n)
e(n) Exponential(n)
l(n) Log(n)

How to find the date and time in an UNIX system

What I would like to know is the current date and time, so just type in command "date"

bash-3.00$ date
Fri Dec  2 11:02:42 IST 2011


What if I need to look into the calendar? Here it is..


bash-3.00$ cal
   December 2011
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
             1  2  3
 4  5  6  7  8  9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

This list down only current month. What if I need the entire year?

Its very simple. With the command "cal" mention the year you are interested in

bash-3.00$ cal 2011

                                2011
         Jan                    Feb                    Mar
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                   1          1  2  3  4  5          1  2  3  4  5
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8    6  7  8  9 10 11 12    6  7  8  9 10 11 12
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   13 14 15 16 17 18 19
16 17 18 19 20 21 22   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   20 21 22 23 24 25 26
23 24 25 26 27 28 29   27 28                  27 28 29 30 31
30 31
         Apr                    May                    Jun
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                1  2    1  2  3  4  5  6  7             1  2  3  4
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9    8  9 10 11 12 13 14    5  6  7  8  9 10 11
10 11 12 13 14 15 16   15 16 17 18 19 20 21   12 13 14 15 16 17 18
17 18 19 20 21 22 23   22 23 24 25 26 27 28   19 20 21 22 23 24 25
24 25 26 27 28 29 30   29 30 31               26 27 28 29 30

         Jul                    Aug                    Sep
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                1  2       1  2  3  4  5  6                1  2  3
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9    7  8  9 10 11 12 13    4  5  6  7  8  9 10
10 11 12 13 14 15 16   14 15 16 17 18 19 20   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
17 18 19 20 21 22 23   21 22 23 24 25 26 27   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
24 25 26 27 28 29 30   28 29 30 31            25 26 27 28 29 30
31
         Oct                    Nov                    Dec
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S    S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                   1          1  2  3  4  5                1  2  3
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8    6  7  8  9 10 11 12    4  5  6  7  8  9 10
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
16 17 18 19 20 21 22   20 21 22 23 24 25 26   18 19 20 21 22 23 24
23 24 25 26 27 28 29   27 28 29 30            25 26 27 28 29 30 31
30 31


Ok, I agree. But what I need to look into the month of Feb for the year 1999?

bash-3.00$ cal 2 1999
   February 1999
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
    1  2  3  4  5  6
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28


Is that ok?

Be careful while specifying the year. You have to give fully year, iec 2011 not 11. See the difference below.

bash-3.00$ cal 12 2011
   December 2011
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
             1  2  3
 4  5  6  7  8  9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

bash-3.00$ cal 12 11
   December 11
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
       1  2  3  4  5
 6  7  8  9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How to find out who is doing what in an UNIX system

OK, so you are here to learn how to find out who is doing what in your UNIX system.

Then first of all let me ask, who are you?
Now, you have a question in your mind, who am i?

type it down in your system and lets see what the system responds.

bash-3.00$ who am i
scott      pts/3        Nov 30 19:37    (10.203.54.223)

now you have your account name/user name, the communication line, date and time of login and your ip address as well.

Now you know who you are, right? Is that all that you need to know about you?

You know that UNIX is a multi user system. Hence the system you have logged in probably might have more users other than you. Rather than having a unique name, don't you think the UNIX system will have a unique id for each of the users in the system!! So let us check our what id Unix has assigned to you.

Type down what come to your mind. Nothing but id!!

bash-3.00$ id
uid=200(scott) gid=201(scott)


It give you both id and your group id as well. After all you don't need to bother much about UID and GID

Now you know who you are, and now its time for you to check who else is there in the system.

who

The only limitation here is, you can get details only on users who are currently logged in to the system.

bash-3.00$ who
scott      pts/2        Nov 30 11:31    (10.203.54.102)
taylor      pts/3        Nov 30 19:37    (10.203.54.223)
ram      pts/4        Nov 30 12:52    (10.203.54.4)
build      pts/5        Nov 24 19:15    (10.222.46.132)


Four users are logged into the same UNIX system. Their communication channel, the time they logged into the system and their system ip address is also listed down.


Now you know who all are there in the system. But do you know what they are doing? Watching some ...movies? You want to check it out?

Use the command "w", a combination of "who are they?" and "what they do?"

bash-3.00$ w
  8:02pm  up 215 day(s),  3:13,  8 users,  load average: 0.18, 0.20, 0.20
User     tty           login@      idle   JCPU   PCPU  what
scott    pts/2        11:31am    17                              bash
taylor    pts/3       7:37pm                                       bash


This command gives us info about the user name, ttyp, logged in time, how long since the user has done anything, combined CPU time of all jobs run by the user, CPU time taken by current job and last field tells you what the user is doing?


So, next time while you do something in your UNIX system, beware that other users can check it out, what you are doing!!

*All the commands explained here are tested against SunOS

How to change password for my UNIX account

Use the command "passwd" to change password of your UNIX account


bash-3.00$ passwd
passwd: Changing password for fwire
Enter existing login password:
New Password:
Re-enter new Password:
passwd: They don't match.
Please try again
New Password:


As I dont want to change my existing one, I gave it wrong :-) !!

Friday, November 25, 2011

How UNIX differs from other Operating System

UNIX is an operating system as like other OS available in market. Its does the task as any other OS does, running programmes, managing resources and communicating with other computer systems.

The uniqueness of UNIX OS is, multiple users can access the same system simultenously, hence we call UNIX a multiuser system. Multiple users can access the machine, run their programmes, do their work all in the same computer, which is not possible in a windows OS. Moreover these users can run multiple programmes from a UNIX machine, hence it is called a multitasking system.

UNIX is also called as a Multichoice system as it has three different primary command-line interface. This command line interface is called shell. Three available flavours of this command-line interface (shell) are Bourne shell, Korn shell and C shell.

UNIX has more than 250 individual commands ranging from simpler to complex ones for high speed networking, developing software and file revision management. Whereas Microsfot MS-DOS and Apple Macintosh has very fewer commands. These interfaces are easy to use which give only less controll to the user.

The way unix system stores data, ordering of files, connection to the external devices are entirely different from Windows or Macintosh OS. Unix use plain text for storing data; it has a hierarchical file system. Everything in UNIX is a file. Every programme, data, external devices everything. It treat devices and certain types of inter-process communication as files.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

UNIX: Search for files

The grep command helps you to search with the text pattern in the file or filenames. It helps you to find the files by their content. Whereas find command helps you in searching for the files.

Examples:

1. Print all directories and filenames under the current directory
bash-3.00$ find . (dont miss the dot here)
.
./wm-dev
./wm-dev/bin
./wm-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-dev/config

2. Print all directories and filenames under the current directory/directory

bash-3.00$ find wm-dev
wm-dev
wm-dev/bin
wm-dev/bin/exec.sh
wm-dev/config

You can notice that the list printed starts with the searching directory.

3. Print all directories and filenames under the current directory/directory/directory
bash-3.00$ find wm-dev/bin
wm-dev/bin
wm-dev/bin/exec.sh

4. From the root directory search for a filename of the given pattern 'exec.sh'
bash-3.00$ find . | grep 'exec.sh'
./wm-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-cn/bin/ca7-orig/exec.sh.orig
./wm-cn/bin/exec.sh
./wm-cn/bin-old/exec.sh
./wm-cn-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-prod-dev-old/bin/exec.sh
./wm-prod-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-prod-dev/bin/exec.sh_090909

Another one alternative for the above option.
bash-3.00$ find . -name "exec.sh"
./wm-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-cn/bin/ca7-orig/exec.sh.orig
./wm-cn/bin/exec.sh
./wm-cn/bin-old/exec.sh
./wm-cn-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-prod-dev-old/bin/exec.sh
./wm-prod-dev/bin/exec.sh
./wm-prod-dev/bin/exec.sh_090909

Find files that have been modified in last 5 days (with minus)
find . -mtime -5

Find files that was modified exactly 5 days before (without minus)
find . -mtime 5

Find files that was not modified for past 5 days (with +)
find . -mtime +5

Find files in multiple directories.
find usr bin -name "*.cp"

List the directories alone.
find . -type d

List the files alone.
find . -type f


Hope this is helpful. Thanks Phoenix...

UNIX: Terminating a process

You can terminate a process using the KILL command. To KILL a process you need to have the process ID passed to the KILL command.

There are different types of signals that you pass to a process.
1    SIGHUP - Hang Up
2    SIGINT - Interrrupt
9    SIGKILL - Kill Immediate
15  SIGTERM - Terminate

SIGHUP signal is sent to every process you are running just before you log out of the system.
SIGINT signal is sent when you press ctrl+c
SIGKILL - Kills a process immediately. Temporary files are not deleted here.
SIGTERM - Immediate termination of progamme but allows cleaning up the temporary files.

The default signal with KILL command is SIGTERM.

You can specify the signals with KILL command either by their number or by their name without the SIG
eg:-
kill -9 process.sh
or
kill KILL process.sh

Basically there are 30 different signals in UNIX. The above explained are the most important ones.

Example:
Finding the jobs
bash-3.00$ jobs
[2]-  Stopped                 vi
[3]+  Stopped                 vi
Killing the job with % (here we terminates the job)
bash-3.00$ kill %2
bash-3.00$ jobs
[2]-  Done                    vi
[3]+  Stopped                 vi
Finding Jobs:
bash-3.00$ jobs
[3]+  Stopped                 vi
Killing jobs with KILL signal (-KILL is missing)
bash-3.00$ kill KILL %3
bash: kill: KILL: arguments must be process or job IDs
starting a process in the background
bash-3.00$ vi &
[1] 28236
bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 vi
Kill process with signal number (kill immediate)
bash-3.00$ kill -9 28236
bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Killed                  vi
Checking for jobs
bash-3.00$ jobs
No jobs left

create new job in bg
bash-3.00$ vi &
[1] 28321

bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 vi

Kill with signal number option for termination
bash-3.00$ kill -15 28321

bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 vi
bash-3.00$ kill 28321
bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 vi
bash-3.00$ kill -KILL 28321
bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Killed                  vi
Note: Inorder to run the kill command for a second time to make sure that the kill works, enter "!!"

UNIX: Find the running processes

Finding out Jobs that runs in your UNIX system is a simple task. The command, jobs, helps you to list the jobs which are either stopped or moved to background for process.


Below code automatically moves the vi process to the background
bash-3.00$ vi &
[1] 27467

On entering hte "jobs" command it listed the jobs that are stopped in the background.

bash-3.00$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 vi
bash-3.00$
Alternative to find the processes running in your UNIX system:
The command ps is another one alternative to find the jobs running in your UNIX system. This is a little complex. The command ps stands for processor status and it lists out the processor status of the entire computer.


bash-3.00$ ps
   PID TTY         TIME CMD
 27467 pts/15      0:00 vi
 27469 pts/15      0:00 ps
  3784 pts/15      0:01 bash
  3780 pts/15      0:00 sh

Monday, November 21, 2011

UNIX Process or Jobs: Suspend and Resume

In unix whatever command you execute from the command line initiate a process. Say for example you tried ls tol list files invokes the process ls.  In UNIX any program that's running is a process. You can have multiple process running at once.

Any program that you are running is known as current job.

States of Jobs/Process:
There are different states for the Jobs/Process in UNIX. The most important one is "running".

Stopping and restarting a Job:
A job can be stopped by pressing ctrl+z and to restart it enter fg.

bash-3.00$ ./logging.sh
Stopping the server please wait .........\n
Tue Nov 22 12:08:52 IST 2011
Invoking the PL/SQL Procedures and Bulk add command \n
Bulk Add Start Time:
Tue Nov 22 12:08:52 IST 2011
^Z
[1]+  Stopped                 ./logging.sh
bash-3.00$ fg
./logging.sh
Bulk Add End Time:
Tue Nov 22 12:09:09 IST 2011
Done with  PL/SQL Procedures and Bulk add. Starting the server. Please wait....\n
Tue Nov 22 12:09:09 IST 2011
1
bash-3.00$
Why we use ctrl+z to stop and fg to restart it later?
These commands helps us to stop a a job or process (ctrl+z) that we are doing currently and perform some other job and then resume (fg) our stopped job later.

For example if we are working on a vi editor editing our file and in between you want to execute some other programme press ctrl+z and once after completing your second job you can resume to editing your file by entering fg.

bash-3.00$ vi
I am testing stopping job and resuming it later
let me stop the job now !!
i am pressing ctrl+z!!   ^Z^Z^Z^Z^Z^Z
ooops!! Before pressing ctrl+z we should be in command mode!!
Moving to command mode and then pressing ctrl+z

~
~
~
Incomplete shell escape command - use 'shell' to get a shell
[1]+  Stopped                 vi
bash-3.00$
bash-3.00$ ls -l | tail -5
-rw-r--r--   1 fwire    fwire       1331 Apr 20  2011 publishpreview.sh
-rw-r--r--   1 fwire    fwire         11 Feb 25  2011 publishpreview_dummy.sh
-rw-r--r--   1 fwire    fwire        275 Oct 15 17:28 shiyas_new.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 fwire    fwire       1622 Oct 15 16:35 test.sh
-rw-r--r--   1 fwire    fwire        313 Oct 15 17:15 uniqtest.txt
bash-3.00$fg
 I am testing stopping job and resuming it later
let me stop the job now !!
i am pressing ctrl+z!!   ^Z^Z^Z^Z^Z^Z
ooops!! Before pressing ctrl+z we should be in command mode!!
Moving to command mode and then pressing ctrl+z


I am back !!
~

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Shell Variables

Working with Shell variables.

As like any other programming languages shell also has variable (most people dont know we can do programming with shell commands.). The shell variables takes single values as strings, even the numeric values is also considered as string.

Declaring and assigning shell variable:
You can declare and assign shell variable as simple as below.
bash-3.00$ color=yellow

You need to be careful while doing this. There should not be any space before and after equal to sign '=', if exists throws error.


Referencing a shell variable:
Below command will display the value stored in the variable color


bash-3.00$ echo $color
yellow


 

what is the output?
bash-3.00$ echo $coloryish

As no variable is declared as coloryish the output will be null. If you are actually interested to display "yellowyish", place the variable in curly braces as below.

bash-3.00$ echo ${color}yish
yellowyish


What if instead of variable color we supplied colour, which is not defined?
bash-3.00$ echo The dress is ${colour}ish
The dress is ish

How to handle this? Fortunately shell helps us to have default values to be set in case the variable is not defined as below
bash-3.00$ echo The dress is ${colour:-green}ish
The dress is greenish


The default value will come into effect only if the variable referenced  is not declared. The syntax :- tells the shell to print the following character

Assigning Variables with read command:
We can assign values to multiple variables at a time with read commnad.

bash-3.00$ read city state message
Thazhekode Kerala Hi Mom!

The above command declares three variables city, state and message and assign values respectively.
city=Thazhekode
state=Kerala
message=Hi Mom!

bash-3.00$ read city state message
Thazhekode New Jersey Hi Mom!

city=Thazhekode
state=New
message=Jersy Hi Mom!

Read command assigns an individual word to a specified variable, and the remaining words are assigned to the last variable. To handle this situation you can use the escape character

bash-3.00$ read city state message
Thazhekode New\ Jersey Hi Mom!




Tuesday, October 25, 2011

UNIX: Shell scripts

Definition: Shell scripts are a series of shell commands added in a file in exactly the order in which they’ll be
executed. Upon giving execute permission for this file, you can execute this entire set of commands by just entering the file name as like a command.

Example:
This example script will search for a specified file in all dirctories.


UNIX: Setting custom prompts

The below command is based on ksh


$ bash
bash-3.00$ PS1='Order me$'
Order me$

UNIX Command Aliases

With alias, you can define new commands that does whatever you like to do with unix in a customized way.

Format for using aliases in
csh:- alias word command-sequence
ksh:- alias word='command'

Example:
bash-3.00$ alias shiyas='ls -CF'

If you want to see the list of aliases created, you only need to enter the word alias

Example:
bash-3.00$ alias
alias ls='ls -CF'
alias shiyas='ls -CF'

Note:
There should not be any space befor or after '=' sign.

If you want to make availability of an alias permanent add it into .chrsc if you are using csh or to .profile if you are using korn shell

C shell History Commands

CommandFunction
!!Repeat the previous command
!$Repeat the last word of the previous command.
!*Repeat all but the first word of the previous command.
^a^bReplace a with b in the previous command.
!nRepeat command n from the history list.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Identifying the type of shell

If you screen shows a % symbol, it means you are using the C shell or modified C shell (tcsh
). If your prompt contains $you could be using the Bourne shell, the Korn shell, or a variant thereof.

UNIX difference btw :q and :q!

Open a file in vi editor and modify the content of the file.

Now try entering :q

of modern UNIX is the energy of the UNIX programming community; plenty of UNIX users
decide to write a new version of a command in order to solve slightly different problems, thus
spawning many versions of a command.
C
No write since last change (:quit! overrides)


You get the error as above. In this case you should enter :q!

Hence
:q means quit vi editor
:q! quit regardless of whether any changes have occured

UNIX: Searching within the file

What is the command to go to 10th line of the given file?
10G

Will 10g works?
No. Remember in UNIX case sensitive matters.
Then what happens if you enter G alone?
The cursor will go to last line of your file.

Search for a pattern in the file
Enter '/', will take you to the end of the file and then provide the patter to search...

primary players. Each is a little different from the other.) Another contributor to the sprawl
of modern UNIX is the energy of the UNIX programming community; plenty of UNIX users
decide to write a new version of a command in order to solve slightly different problems, thus
spawning many versions of a command.
C
/



primary players. Each is a little different from the other.) Another contributor to the sprawl
of modern UNIX is the energy of the UNIX programming community; plenty of UNIX users
decide to write a new version of a command in order to solve slightly different problems, thus
spawning many versions of a command.
C
/decide



primary players. Each is a little different from the other.) Another contributor to the sprawl
of modern UNIX is the energy of the UNIX programming community; plenty of UNIX users
decide to write a new version of a command in order to solve slightly different problems, thus
spawning many versions of a command.
C
/decide



To find next occurence press "n"


Here also the case matters. If you type "DECIDE" after the search command "/" UNIX will look for "DECIDE" not "decide"


What if I need to search backward
ans:
use the command ?
primary players. Each is a little different from the other.) Another contributor to the sprawl
of modern UNIX is the energy of the UNIX programming community; plenty of UNIX users
decide to write a new version of a command in order to solve slightly different problems, thus
spawning many versions of a command.
C
?decide



Now when you enter command "n" it will search backward!!

****
Hope this is helpful. Thanks Phoenix...

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Vi Editor

When we need to add some more lines to existing file we can use "cat" commnad, if we need to replace some string we have "sed"

But when we need to create a new file or edit already existing files we have to go for screen oriented editors.
There are different types of editors vi, ed, ex and emacs of which vi is the most choosen one. vi and emacs use the entire screen to edit.

Different modes of vi:
vi editor has two different modes, hence it is also called "modaleditor". The two different modes are "insert" and "command" mode. The way UNIX interprets your input depends on which mode we are. For example when we are in commnad mode and enter "dd", it will delete one single line, whereas if we are in edit mode entering "dd" will add "dd" to the file. So whenever you are in doubt in which mode you are, just keep on pressin escape button which will take you to command mode.


Diffrence beween vi and emacs:
emacs is a modeless editor. ie whenver you enter any key it adds to the file. Command in emac is entered by holding the control key while entering the command. For example ctrl+c will delete a character.

Cursor Moverments:

In keyboard the letters H,J,K,L comes in a series.
To move the curson left in a file -H
Right - L
Down - J
Up -K

You can move to the begining of next line by pressing the return key.
Move the cursor to the begining of line - ^,0 (zero)
Move the cursor to the end of line - $
Move forward word by word - w
Move backward word by word- b
Move forward to mid of the text in screen - ctrl+d
Move backward mid of the text - ctrl+u
Page down - ctrl+f
Page up -ctrl+b

vi insert modes:
There are basically four different ways you can get into vi insert mode.
i - insert text into file
a - append text into file
o - Open up a line below current line
O - Open up a line above current line (capital o)

Difference btw i and a for edit mode:
at present the cursor is on a, and now I am going to enter edit mode by entering "i"
On entring "i" the curson doesnt move and it will be there in the same location as above and now I am entering "cursor not moved" and you can see that the text entered to the left of "a" with cursor is not moved at all from "a" and then  press escape, you will find cursor move one space back.

On entering "a" to get into the edit mode, vi behaves differently.
Assume the cursor position is on "a" same as above and press "a" to move to edit mode, you can see that the cursor moves one place forward to "l" and whatever we enter is appended after the letter "l" and press escape, you see cursor moves one space back.