Week 1: Intro / Unix Basics / Editors

Question 1

What is a “system”

Answer 1

What is controlling the computer, in most cases the operating system

Question 2

What is programming?

Answer 2

Giving the computer instructions, what to do

Question 3

What is a computer? What is it aware of?

Answer 3

A computer is simply an electronic device that is aware of only the presence and absence of a charge

Question 4

What is machine language?

Answer 4

Series of 1’s and 0’s that the computer understands

Question 5

What is a computer at its core?

Answer 5

An IPOS (Input Processing Output Storage)

Question 6

What does IPOS stand for

Answer 6

Input Processing Output Storage

Question 7

Without an OS what is a computer?

Answer 7

A computer is simply a program and hardware where the program handles everything

Question 8

What does memory store?

Answer 8

The presence or absence of a charge in a specific place in the computer

Question 9

What can computers do in essence?

Answer 9

Add numbers together

Question 10

What is an Operating System?

Answer 10

The operating system is a buffer between the program and the hardware

Question 11

What are the benefits of an OS?

Answer 11

• Manages the computer so programming and using it is easier
• “Hides” the hardware (hides how the hardware is utilized)
• The OS facilitates resource sharing so multiple people can use the same computer at once

Question 12

What is time sharing?

Answer 12

Different processes are run for some small amount of time in turns in the computer. Facilitated by the OS.

Question 13

With time sharing, each program believes what?

Answer 13

That it has the whole computer to itself

Question 14

What does SVR4 stand for?

Answer 14

System V Release 4 (UNIX)

Question 15

Was Unix designed to be user-friendly or user-helpful?

Answer 15

User-helpful

Question 16

In Unix, more complex tasks can be accomplished by…

Answer 16

Combining tools together

Question 17

What are Unix utilities?

Answer 17

Standard tools/applications that are used so often that they become a part of Unix

Question 18

What is a Shell?

Answer 18

An interface between users and the kernel

A command line interpreter (CLI)

Question 19

What is a Kernel?

Answer 19

Manages the processes and resources

Controls and hides the hardware

Question 20

Who was the original Unix writer and when?

Answer 20

Linus Torvalds in 1991

Question 21

What is the command to login to Unix?

Answer 21

ssh compute.gaul.csd.uwo.ca

Question 22

What is the name for the super user account?

Answer 22

“root”

Question 23

The “root” user has

Answer 23

Absolute control over the system

Question 24

What are the two commands to logout of Unix?

Answer 24

“exit” or “logout”

Question 25

What does the command “who” return?

Answer 25

Who is using the system at that time

Question 26

What does the command “who am i” return?

Answer 26

What your personal account information is

Question 27

What does “pwd” do?

Answer 27

Prints the current working directory

Question 28

Files in Unix form a what?

Answer 28

An upside-down tree

Question 29

When logging into Unix, what directory are you put into?

Answer 29

Your personal “home directory”

Question 30

What does the command “ls” return?

Answer 30

List what is in your current directory including all files/directories

Question 31

What does the command “cd” do?

Answer 31

Changes directory with either an absolute or relative pathname

Question 32

What Unix commands display the contents of a file?

Answer 32

“more” , “cat” , and “less”

Question 33

Which of the display commands displays the contents of a file page by page?

Answer 33

“more” and “less”

Question 34

What does the command “mkdir” do?

Answer 34

Makes a directory in the current directory

Question 35

What does the command “mv” do? What is the syntax?

Answer 35

Move files from one directory to another

Syntax: { mv fileToMove destinationDirectory }

Question 36

What does the command “cp” do? What is the syntax?

Answer 36

Copy files from one directory to another

Syntax: { cp fileToCopy destination }

Question 37

What does the command “rm” do?

Answer 37

Removes files or directories

Question 38

What does the command “rm -i” do?

Answer 38

Removes files or directories, but asks for confirmation first

Question 39

What does the command “rmdir” do?

Answer 39

Removes a directory

Question 40

What does the command “Ctrl-c” do?

Answer 40

Interrupts the current task

Question 41

What does the command “man” do?

Answer 41

Shows the manual page of a command

Question 42

What does SFTP stand for and what is it used for?

Answer 42

Secure File Transfer Protocol - used to transfer files between your computer and your gaul account

Question 43

What is the difference between a “modal” and “modeless” editor?

Answer 43

“modal” editors have modes which are generally input mode and command mode (examples: vi and ed)

“modeless” editors have only one mode where positioning and text manipulation have special key sequences (examples: emacs or pico)

Question 44

What are the three modes of vi?

Answer 44

Input mode, Command mode, and Colon command mode

Question 45

In vi, what is the Command mode used for versus the Colon command mode?

Answer 45

The command mode is used for editing, cursor placement, deleting multiple lines etc., and Colon command mode is used for saving, exiting, and quitting

Question 46

What is the difference between Ctrl-c and Ctrl-z?

Answer 46

Ctrl + C is used to kill a process. Ctrl + Z is used to suspend a process