UNIX Tutorial for Beginners

A beginners guide to the Unix and Linux operating system. Five simple tutorials which cover the basics of UNIX / Linux commands.

---

Introduction to the UNIX Operating System

• What is UNIX?
• Files
• The Directory Structure

Tutorial One

• Listing files and directories
• Making Directories
• Changing to a different Directory
• The directories . and ..
• Pathnames
• More about home directories and pathnames

Tutorial Two

• Copying Files
• Moving Files
• Removing Files and directories
• Displaying the contents of a file on the screen
• Searching the contents of a file

Tutorial Three

• Redirection
• Redirecting the Output
• Redirecting the Input
• Pipes

Tutorial Four

• Wildcards
• Filename Conventions
• Getting Help

Tutorial Five

• File system security (access rights)
• Changing access rights
• Processes and Jobs
• Listing suspended and background processes
• Killing a process

---

Note: This is a trimmed-down and modified version of the UNIX Tutorial for Beginners originally developed by Michael Stonebank at the University of Surrey. This version also includes some material developed by Michael Norton.

M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, 19 October 2001