UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM

ASGHAR RAFIQUE KHATTAK

HEAD OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
 INTRODUCTION

 What is an OS and what is UNIX?

 Basic commands

 Getting help

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 WHAT IS AN OPERATING
SYSTEM?
UNIX is an Operating System

Software that manages (allocates and de-

allocates) system resources in an efficient
and secure manner

UNIX systems also have a graphical user

interface (GUI) similar to Microsoft
Windows which provides an easy to use
environment.
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 HISTORY OF
UNIX
 Invented by Ken Thompson at AT&T in 1969

CSCI 330 - The UNIX System

 First version written in assembly language

 Single user system, no network capability

 Thompson, Dennis Ritchie

 Rewrote Unix in C: processor

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 UNIX
 There are many different versions of UNIX, although they
share common similarities. The most popular varieties of
UNIX are Sun Solaris, Linux, and Mac OS X.
 In Europe in School they use Solaris on servers and
workstations, and Fedora Linux on the servers and
desktop PCs.

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 Characteristics of UNIX as (OS)
 Multi-user & Multi-tasking - Most versions of
UNIX are capable of allowing multiple users to log
onto the system, and have each run multiple tasks.
 Over 30 Years Old - UNIX is over 30 years old and
it's popularity and use is still high. Over these
years, many variations have spawned off and many
have died off, but most modern UNIX systems can
be traced back to the original versions.
 Large Number of Applications – There are an
enormous amount of applications available for
UNIX operating systems. They range from
commercial applications such as CAD, Maya,
WordPerfect, to many free applications.
 Free Applications - Of all of the applications
available under UNIX, many of them are free.
The compilers and interpreters that we use in
most of the programming courses here.
 Internet Development - Much of the
backbone of the Internet is run by UNIX
servers. Many of the more general web
servers run UNIX with the Apache web server
- another free application.

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UNIX GUI’s -Apple OS X 10.4
UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM
UNIX GUI’s -Apple OS X 10.4
CSCI 330 - The UNIX System
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CSCI 330 - The UNIX System
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 Parts of the UNIX OS
 The Kernel –
Handles memory management, input and
output requests, and program scheduling.
Technically speaking, the kernel is the OS. It
provides the basic software connection to the
hardware. The kernel is very complex and deals
with the inner workings of these things, and is
beyond the scope of this course. The kernel of
UNIX is the hub of the operating system: it
allocates time and memory to programs and
handles the file store and communications in
response to system calls.
 The Shell and Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) –
Basic UNIX shells provides a “command line”
interface which allows the user to type in
commands. These commands are translated by the
shell into something the kernel can understand, and
then executed by the kernel. The shell acts as an
interface between the user and the kernel. When a
user logs in, the login program checks the username
and password, and then starts another program
called the shell. We also have GUI Interface in UNIX
as we have in Windows.

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 The Built-in System Utilities - are programs that
allow a user to perform tasks which involve complex
actions. Utilities provide user interface functions that
are basic to an operating system, but which are too
complex to be built into the shell. Examples of
utilities are programs that let us see the contents of
a directory, move & copy files, remove files, etc...
 Application Software & Utilities – these are not
part of the operating system, per se. They are
additional programs that are bundled with the OS
distribution, or available separately. These can
range from additional or different versions of basic
utilities, to full scale commercial applications.

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 BAS IC COMMANDS
passwd - change password
Logout - logout from system
date - display date and time
who - display who is on the system
uname - print current OS detail (version etc.)
 cat -concatenate file contents
 file -show file type
 df - k -Display the amount of available
disk space in kilobytes

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 Basic Commands
• pwd - print working directory
• ls - list contents of directories
• mkdir - make (create) new directories
• cd - change the current directory
• cp - copy files or directories
• mv - move files or directories
• rm - remove (delete) files or
directories
• Chown - Change file owner.

Introduction to Unix 17
 diff

diff file1 file2

Display differences between text files

 rlogin

rlogin establishes a remote login session from

your terminal
to the remote machine named hostname.