LAB 2

Using the Terminal/Command Line

PART 1 Command retrieval and line editing

1) Enter those command as shown below:-

route

uptime 

ls

date

sync

After that the result be shown as the picture:-

2) By pressing up arrow one time, command sync will appear in your terminal:-

3) Press the up arrow two time again, command date and ls will appear in your terminal:-

PART 2 Using history

1) Enter command as shown below:-

History 

After that the result be shown as the picture:-

Command 'history' show all the command that you have enter before.

2) By enter the command you want as example '!(number of command)' then you can run the command again.

The picture shown below is the example of how 'history' can be used.

*Remember to add on exclamation point(!) before writing number*

PART 3 Filename auto-completion

1) Create a file in Desktop

        OR

     Enter command as shown below:-

cd Desktop

mkdir Linuxbook

*cd is to change your current working directory

*mkdir is to create a file

You may find your file in your Desktop as the picture shown below:-

2) Next, create 5 text document in Linuxbook.

     You may create file in your folder

        OR

     Enter command as shown below:-

cd Linuxbook

ls > file2.txt

ls > file3.txt

ls > file4.txt

ls > unique1.txt

ls > file1.txt

You will get the the result as shown in the picture below:-

3) Follow on enter command as shown below:- 

ls -la [Tab]

By pressing [Tab] you will find all the find text document from unique1.txt , as the example shown in the picture below:

Type file4 and [Tab] again then enter it and you will run the command. ls -la file4.txt

*[Tab] can be use to save time and effort without typing the full name of the file and reduce error.

PART 4 The shell prompt

A standard terminal usually has a rather cryptic command line prompt. This should be changed by modifying the PSI environment variable.

1) Enter command as shown below:-

export PS1="\u \h \w \$"

*\u command means to show the current user of this shell.

*\h command shows the hostname of this machine.

*\w command menas to show the full path of the current dicrectory.

*\$ means to display a $ or # depending on the effective UID.

The picture in below show my username, hostname, current directory and $.

Each colour of square represent the output for each command input.

PART 5 Other environment variables

1) Enter command as shown below:-

echo $PATH

The result will list of directories that will be searched for anything that you type on the command line. If you type in a built-in command like ls, it will look for a specified list of directories.

Your result should be shows approximately like this:

2) Enter command as shown below:-

export PATH=".:$PATH"

echo $PATH

Prepending a dot to the PATH means the program will be looked for in the current directory first, before searching the rest of the path. This is very useful during the code development for example.

Your result should be shows approximately like this:

3) The EDITOR variable can be set to your favourite text editor. Most people use vi; however ,you can point it to the one you want, if you change this, be sure to use the full path. 

To change the EDITOR variable follow the command below:

export EDITOR=/lewis/bin64/kw

5) Lastly, to remove an export by setting it to nothing can be done easily.

Enter command as shown below:-

export EDITOR=

Your result should be shows approximately like this:

PART 6 Using Aliases

An alias is for making your own commands!

That means that you can make a long command to a command to your liking.

1) Enter command as shown below:-

tput clear

After you press Enter, your terminal should be empty and blank.

2) Next, enter command as shown below:-

alias jj="tput clear"

Now when you run jj it will do the same thing.

3) To create a long directory listing enter the command as shown below:-

alias la="ls-la"

la

Your result should be shows approximately like this:

4) To show a long listing with the most current files last enter the command as shown below:-

alias lt="ls -latr"

Your result should be shows approximately like this:

5) You can easily delete alias that you don't want by tying the command as below:

unalias jj

If you try enter the alias the again, it will show this:-

You can also use aliases to move around the filesystem efficiently. This is very handy and will save you an incredible amount of typing. Try these examples out:-

6) Enter command as shown below:-

mkdir /home/linuxmint/linuxbook

alias lbook="cd /home/linuxmint/linuxbook"

lbook

Your result will be shown as in the example below:-

To make it more quicker, you may try this out!

7) Enter command as shown below:-

export LBOOK="/home/linuxmint/linuxbook"

alias lbook="cd $LBOOK"

lbook

Eventually it will show the same directory.

As you can see, running lbook will take you to the directory as shown above. However, you can also use the LBOOK variable to copy files to that directory:

cd /tmp

touch f1.txt

cp f1.txt $LBOOK

The file f1.txt will now exist in the /home/linuxmint/linuxbook directory. This becomes even more handy when extremely long filenames are used.

Lab 1 will end right here, if you have any problems don't hesitate to let me know, just comment below and I will try to help you out!

LET'S MAKE A LITTLE BIT PROGRESS EVERY DAY AND YOU SEE 

THE POWER OF SMALL CHANGES