Befor e you can use Unix, a system staff person has to set up a Unix account for you. The account is identified by your user name, which is usually a single word or an abbreviation. Think of this account as your of fice—it’s your place in the Unix environment. Other users may also be at work on the same system. At many sites, there will be a whole network of Unix computers. So in addition to knowing your username, you may also need to know the hostname (name) of the computer that has your account. Alternatively, your account may be shared between all computers on the local. | In this chapter Working in the Unix Environment Syntax of Unix Command Lines Types of Commands The Unresponsive Terminal 1 Getting Started Before you can use Unix a system staff person has to set up a Unix account for you. The account is identified by your username which is usually a single word or an abbreviation. Think of this account as your office it s your place in the Unix environment. Other users may also be at work on the same system. At many sites there will be a whole network of Unix computers. So in addition to knowing your username you may also need to know the hostname name of the computer that has your account. Alternatively your account may be shared between all computers on the local network and you may be able to log into any of them. Once you ve logged in to your account you ll interact with your system by typing commands at a command line to a program called a shell. You ll get acquainted with the shell enter a few commands and see how to handle common problems. To finish your Unix session you ll log out. Working in the Unix Environment Each user communicates with the computer from a terminal. To get into the Unix environment you first connect to the Unix computer. Your terminal is probably already connected to a computer. But Unix systems also let you log into other computers across a network. In this case log into your local computer first then use a remote login command to connect to the remote computer. See the section Remote Logins in Chapter 6. Some terminals can connect to many computers through a kind of switchboard called a port contender or data switch. On these terminals start by telling the port contender which computer you want to connect to. 1 7January 2002 13 10 2 Chapter 1 Getting Started After connecting your terminal if needed you start a session by logging in to your Unix account. To log in you need your username and a password. Logging in does two things it identifies which user is in a session and it tells the computer that .
