Lesson 1: Introducing the Shell

Questions

• What is a command shell and why would I use one?

Objectives

• Explain how the shell relates to the keyboard, the screen, the operating system, and users’ programs.
• Explain when and why command-line interfaces should be used instead of graphical interfaces.

Lesson 2: Navigating Files and Directories

Questions

• What is a filesystem and how is it organised?
• How can I move around on my computer?
• How can I see what files and directories I have?
• How can I specify the location of a file or directory on my computer?

Objectives

• Display the contents of a directory using the command line.
• Understand the concept of a working directory and know how to identify it.
• Explain the similarities and differences between a file and a directory.
• Translate an absolute path into a relative path and vice versa.
• Construct absolute and relative paths that identify specific files and directories.
• Explain the steps in the shell’s read-run-print cycle.
• Identify the actual command, flags, and filenames in a command-line call.
• Demonstrate the use of tab completion, and explain its advantages

Lesson 3: Working with Files and Directories

Questions

• How can I create, copy, move, and delete files and directories?
• How can I edit files?
• How do I read files?

Objectives

• Create a directory hierarchy that matches a given diagram.
• Create files in that hierarchy using an editor or by copying and renaming existing files.
• Delete specified files and/or directories.
• Know about case sensitivity and why certain characters are best avoided in filenames
• Use wildcards to select multiple files based on their names
• Know some common tools for inspecting file contents

Lesson 4: Pipes and Redirection

Questions

• How do I save the output from a command?
• How can I combine existing commands to do new things?

Objectives

• Redirect a command’s output to a file.
• Process a file instead of keyboard input using redirection.
• Construct command pipelines with two or more stages.
• Explain what usually happens if a program or pipeline isn’t given any input to process.
• Explain Unix’s ‘small pieces, loosely joined’ philosophy.

Lesson 5: Loops

Questions

• How can I perform the same actions on many different files?

Objectives

• Write a loop that applies one or more commands separately to each file in a set of files.
• Trace the values taken on by a loop variable during execution of the loop.
• Explain the difference between a variable’s name and its value.
• Explain why spaces and some punctuation characters shouldn’t be used in file names.
• Save the output from ls to a variable and refer to it in a loop
• Demonstrate how to see what commands have recently been executed.
• Re-run recently executed commands without retyping them.

Lesson 6: Shell Scripts

Questions

• How can I save and re-use commands?

Objectives

• Write a shell script that runs a command or series of commands for a fixed set of files.
• Run a shell script from the command line.
• Write a shell script that operates on a set of files defined by the user on the command line.
• Create pipelines that include shell scripts you, and others, have written.

Lesson 7: Finding Things

Questions

• How can I find files?
• How can I find things in files?

Objectives

• Use grep to select lines from text files that match simple patterns.
• Use find to find files whose names match simple patterns.
• Use the output of one command as the command-line parameters to another command.
• Explain what is meant by ‘text’ and ‘binary’ files, and why many common tools don’t handle the latter well.