Well-capitalized Seattle start-up seeks Unix developers

Help Wanted, '94:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/mi.jobs/poXLCW8udK4

(Click on the name, Jeff Bezos, to expand the post.)

A Mother's Day story for Unix command-line hackers (& Toy Story fans ;-)

Here's a short story about how Toy Story 2 was almost erased before the film could be rendered for theaters.




From Kottke.org.

Unix Shell Skills for Scientists and CIT Students

The Unix Command Line Interface (a.k.a. Shell, or CLI) for Web Developers

1. Your CIT GTF will be your Unix Drill Instructor (DI) and run you through basic training: Unix for Web Developers, which is a Reader's Guide to the University of Surrey's Unix for Beginners tutorial, parts 1, 2, and 5.


2. For more practice:
   
   • The Command Line Crash Course: Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal.
   
   This free online mini-book teaches you Unix or Windows command line skills, in a few hours to a few days. It has little explanation and focuses more on doing a small set of commands until you remember them.
   
   • Software Carpentry Project's Video Lectures on the Unix Shell.
   
   The Software Carpentry project's mission is "to help scientists be more productive by teaching them basic computing skills", including the Unix shell. All of their content is available at the Software Carpentry website.

The Tilde (~) in Unix and URLs

Image via Wikipedia

UNIX

In the Unix shell, the tilde (~) is an abbreviation for the path to your home directory. (It has other expansions but this the meaning when the tilde is used as a separate word.)

Tilde expansion is the process of converting the abbreviation to the path to the user's home directory.

Example (not using ~)

/home4/susanQ/public_html/111/ is the Unix path to Susan Queue's 111 folder on shell.uoregon.edu.

Example (using ~)

~/public_html/111/ is the Unix path to Suzie's folder on shell.uoregon.edu

Example

$ pwd
/tmp

$ cd ~

$ pwd
/home4/susanQ/

$ echo $HOME
/home4/susanQ/

(~ is a synonym for the value of the shell's HOME variable)

URLs

In a URL, the tilde (~) has a related but different meaning: it stands for the path to your public_html folder on the web server.

Example: 

URL:
http://uoregon.edu/~susanQ/

Corresponding Unix path on the server:
/home4/susanQ/public_html/

Example: 

URL:
http://uoregon.edu/~susanQ/111/
Corresponding Unix path on the server:
/home4/susanQ/public_html/111/

SSH and the Unix Shell's Erase Key

SSH sometime uses the Delete key to erase characters, but I prefer to use the Backspace key. How do I set it up?

You have several options, as follows:

• Windows: Start SSH, select Edit > Settings > keyboard, then select Backspace sends Delete (or whichever key you want to use), then click OK.
  
  
• OS X: Start Applications > Utilities > Terminal, the select Terminal > Window Settings..., then select Keyboardin the drop-down list, then check Delete key sends backspace.
  
  
• Set your Unix shell's Erase key--
  
  Use Pico or Emacs to edit your login shell's startup file, .bash_profile:
  
  $ pico .bash_profile
  
  Add this line to the .bash_profile:
  
  stty erase '^h'
  
  save the file and exit pico.

Customizing your Unix Command Line Prompt

Image by p373 via FlickrHow can I get the path for the current directory displayed in my Unix prompt?

Read Generic UNIX Interactive Prompts