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02

Week 2 focuses on UNIX/Linux origins and the terminal, command-line interface and basic file system navigation. You should be comfortable installing and removing and reinstalling Linux Ubuntu Server VMs and any apt packages before next week.

  • Primary responsibilities of any mentor
  • Help you know what to learn
  • Help you know where to learn it (curate resources)

  • Help you when you get stuck

  • What is a "shell" and why do I care?

  • What is the difference between "terminal", "CLI", and "shell"?
  • What is a REPL? (Read, Evaluate, Print, Loop)
  • Install and configure terminal software (MS Terminal, iTerm2)
  • What is UNIX and Linux?
  • What is GNU? Who invented Linux?
  • Basic system update and package management and installation
  • When to use apt vs apt-get? use apt-get when writing a script
  • What is a "package"?
  • How do I install software?
  • Really simple and essential shell commands
  • What do the character's in the prompt mean?
  • What is an "inode"? Why everything is "just a file"?
  • What are UNIX/Linux permissions?
  • What does . and .. mean?
  • How do I know that apt packages are safe?
  • What is a shell "history"?

Commands Used

  • man - show manual information about a command
  • sudo - do it as root (superuser)
  • apt - use interactively only (use apt-get in scripts)
  • sudo apt update - update all the sources for packages
  • sudo apt upgrade - upgrade all packages to latest version
  • apt search ^neo - search for all package starting with neo
  • sudo apt install neofetch - install neofetch and dependencies
  • sudo apt remove neofetch - remove neofetch
  • sudo apt autoremove - automatically remove unused packages
  • ls - list the files in the (current) directory
  • ls -al - list all the files including hidden (begin with .)
  • hostname - display name of host computer
  • pwd - print working directory
  • cd foo - change into the foo directory
  • cd, cd ~ - change back to the home directory
  • cd .. - change into the relative parent directory
  • cd ../.. - change into the relative parent of the parent directory
  • cd - - change to previous directory
  • cd / change to the root directory

Related:

  • https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases (no app store needed)
  • https://youtu.be/crtZHNclndQ (cool retro terminal)
  • https://www.linuxcommand.org
  • https://replit.org
  • https://medium.com/@rwxrob/problem-with-repl-it-415f885164f
  • "AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System" https://youtu.be/tc4ROCJYbm0
  • "It's a UNIX system" https://youtu.be/dxIPcbmo1_U
  • "Is it time to rewrite the OS in Rust" https://youtu.be/HgtRAbE1nBM
  • https://youtu.be/ctGpRWCi8QU
  • https://git-scm.org