ACORN~ RISC iX USER GU DE 3027/21 3 81 Copyright © Acorn Computers Limited 1988 Neither the whole nor any part of the information contained in, nor the product described in this manual may be adapted or reproduced in any material form except with the prior written approval of Acorn Computers Limited. The product described in this manual and products for use with it are subject to continuous development and improvement. All information of a technical nature and particulars of the product and its use (including the information and particulars in this manual) are given by Acorn Computers Limited in good faith. However, Acorn Computers Limited cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any information or particulars in this manual. All correspondence should be addressed to: Customer Support and Service Acorn Computers Limited Fulbourn Road Cherry Hinton Cambridge CBl 4JN Within this publication, the term 'BBC' is used as an abbreviation for 'British Broadcasting Corporation'. ACORN, ARCHIMEDES, ARM, and ECONET are trademarks of Acorn Computers Limited. POSTSCRIPT is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T. DEC and VAX are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. MS-OOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. ETHERNET is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. X WINDOW SYSTEM is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Published December 1988: Issue 1 ISBN 1 85250 058 I Published by Acorn Computers Limited Part Number 0483,708 iii iv About this guide This guide is an introduction to the use of RISC iX - Acorn's own implementation of the UNIX operating system. Readership of this Early sections describe UNIX per se for people who have never used UNIX guide before, introducing the most popular commands, programs and tools of the UNIX operating system. Later sections contain more specialist information on text editing, networking, communication, the windowing environment plus information on where to find out more about your workstation. Overview Here is a summary of what you will find in this guide: Chapters Introducing RISC i.X - contains a brief description of the characteristics of RISC iX. Overview of UNIX - describes the basic concepts of the UNIX operating system, including the structure of the filing system and how it works. Using UNIX - introduces the basic commands of UNIX, including the shell and the commands that you can usc to create and manipulate files. Using the UNIX shell - describes how to use the shell to simplify existing commands and to create some of your own commands. Text editing - describes the text editors available on your system with a brief description of how to use a few of them. Networking and NFS - if your workstation is connected to a network, this chapter shows you how to access other workstations and file systems on the network. About this guide v Communicating with other systems and users - details the utilities available to transfer information to other users of your workstation and to users on other systems. Using the X Window System - describes what the X Window System is and how to use some of the facilities it provides. Further uses of RISC iX - introduces some of the other things that you can do with RISC iX that are beyond the scope of this guide, but which you may like to pursue. Likely sources of information for each of these uses are also provided. Reference sections The reference sections at the back of the guide contain supplementary information. Trouble-shooting - helps you to locate the source of your problem should you get into difficulty using your workstation. Command summaries - summarises all the commands available on your RISC iX workstation and their use. RISC iX manual pages -contains a selection of reference manual pages. An extensive bibliography is also included along with an index to help you find your way around the guide. vi About this guide Conventions used In The following typographical conventions are used throughout this guide: this guide Convention Meaning <DELETE> Press the key inJicateJ . <CTRL-D> Hold down the first key anJ press the seconJ. .J Press the RETURN key login : Text Jisplayed on the screen. cat Text that you type in. filename A variable, where you should substitute what the word represents. For example: l ogin : guest .J Another example: $ cat filename .J where filename is the name of the file; for example, readmel: $ cat readmel .J About this guide vii viii About this guide Contents Introducing RISC iX Overview of UNIX 3 Using UNIX 19 Using the UNIX shell 41 Text editing 63 Networking and NFS 109 Communicating with other systems and users 129 Using the X Window System 161 Funher uses of RISC iX 179 Bibliography 185 Reference Section A: Trouble-shooting 187 Reference Section B: Command summaries 195 Reference Section C: RISC iX manual pages 211 Index Contents ix X Content~ Introducing RISC iX What is RISC iX? RISC iX is a port to the ARM processor of the Berkeley 4.3 UNIX operating system (4.3BSD) wilh SVID extensions, Network File System (NFS) software, the X Window System and window managers. I Jere is a general list of the software supplied: • Berkeley BSD 4.3 Kernel with System V virtual memory extensions, compatible with the System V Interface Definition, SVID. • Device Jrivers for many peripherals. • Berkeley 4.3 toolkit. • Assorted User Contributed Software (UCS). • System Administration tools. • C Compiler with ANSI C and pee (Berkeley) compatibility considerations. • ARM Assembler. • Sun NFS Version 3.2. • XII Window System Release 2 with awm, t.wm and uwm window managers. • disc formatters for floppy discs and hard discs. • Data interchange tools: transfer to/from MS-DOS and ADFS floppy discs. AdJitional operating systems: • Acorn's RISC OS, with separate disc partition (standard). • MS-DOS emulation, using RISC OS (optional). This chapter has only given you a thumbnail sketch of RISC iX. The remaining chapters will help you to get further acquainted and to steer you through all the available software. Examples will be provided throughout the guide and pointers to other sources of information (documentation, system tutorials etc.) will also be given, to encourage you to learn more ahout RISC iX. Introducing RISC iX To get started, set up your system, switch on and log in as described in the Operations Guide. Then turn to the next chapter in this guide, Overview of UNIX; read through the text and try some of the examples on your workstation as you proceed. 2 Introducing RISC iX Overview of UNIX Introduction If you are a newcomer to UNIX, the next three chapters of this guide are for you - they provide enough information for you to start using your system by introducing: • the underlying concepts of the UNIX operating system (as succinctly as possible), • the basic UNIX commands, and • the uses of the UNIX shell. The remaining material in this guide assumes knowledge of these three chapters, so take your time reading them and where possible, try out the examples on your system as you proceed. The guest directory that you logged into in the Operations Guide should assist you in this respect as it contains many of the example files and directories that are used throughout this guide. So if you haven't done so already, log in to your system as guest and then begin reading this guide, stopping occasionally to try out the commands for yourself. What is UNIX? UNIX is an operating system consisting of a set of software programs that act as a link between your computer and you, the user. It controls the computer and gives you an efficient and flexible computing environment. In addition, UNIX also provides a whole host of very powerful commands that can help you in your work. UNIX is a multi-user operating system. This means that it can support more than one user (multiple users) at any one time. For example, if your workstation is on a network, you can be busy typing commands on your workstation and meanwhile another user from another workstation on the network can also log in to and use your workstation. The good thing is that you are unaware of this additional user, because UNIX looks after it all. Overview of UNIX 3 Even if your workstation is not connected to a network you can still take advantage of the multi-user concept. Just as UNIX can cope with more than one user, it can also cope with more than one task. For example, if you are doing something on your system that takes a long time, UNIX allows you to start doing another task while you are waiting for the first one to finish. This ability to run tasks concurrently is known as multi-tasking. The concept of a computer operating system, what it does and how it does it, is beyond the scope of this guide. If you would like more information, have a look at a suitable book - for example, Fundamentals of Operating Systems by AM Lister. The UNIX operating system can be split up into three parts: • The core 'operating system' - this controls the computer hardware and at its centre is the core of the UNIX system, the kernel. The kernel controls access to the computer hardware, manages the computer memory and allocates computer resources between the various tasks the computer is performing. • The commands - UNIX has many commands designed to help you with your work. There are commands for electronic communication, text editing and layout, system administration, and commands to help you with program development. A typical programming language, like C, can be used in combination with these commands to develop an application program suitable for running on a UNIX system.