Building 3D Models for the Web

Summary of Unix Commands

The SGI workstations and the DECstations use variations of the Unix operating system. These are some of the most common commands that you can use on the SGIs.

Directory Structure

Fundamentals

Directory names are separated from subdirectory names and file names by the / character. For example, if I refer to the file

/usr/people/hedonley/public_html/index.html

then the file is named index.html. It is located in the public_html subdirectory of hedonley, which in turn is a subdirectory of people, which is a subdirectory of usr, which is a subdirectory of the top level directory, /. This top level directory is called "root".

Absolute and Relative Pathnames

If a reference to a file or directory starts with a /, like the example above, then this is called an absolute pathname. If it does not start with a /, then it is a relative pathname and the path starts relative to the current directory. For example, if I am already in /var/www/htdocs, then the relative path, courses/ls499/index.html, refers to the file /var/www/htdocs/courses/ls499/index.html.

Shortcut Names for Directories

As in DOS, . means the current directory, and .. means the parent directory--the one immediately above the current directory. ~ means the user's home directory and ~hedonley means hedonley's home directory, that is, /usr/people/hedonley.

Some Important Directories

Directory Name	Meaning
/usr/people/username	username's home directory
/usr/people/username/public_html	username's Web directory
/var/www/htdocs	main Web directory

Unix Commands

Working with Directories

Command	Usage	Meaning	Example
pwd	pwd	print working (current) directory	pwd
mkdir	mkdir dir	make a directory	mkdir public_html/pics
rmdir	rmdir dir	remove an empty directory	rmdir pics
cd	cd dir	change working directory to dir	cd /var/www/htdocs
ls	ls dir	list the filenames in dir. If dir is not specified, list contents of current directory	ls ../pics ls -l public_html
chmod	chmod mask dir	change access permissions specified in mask to dir	chmod 755 pics

Working with Files

Command	Usage	Meaning	Example
rm	rm file1 file2 ... filen	remove file or files	rm *.gif
cp	cp file1 file2	copy file1 to file2	cp index.html index.bak
cp	cp file dir	copy file to another directory, keeping the same filename	cp village.wrl /var/www/htdocs/jungle
mv	mv file1 file2	move or rename file1 to file2	mv ~/public_html/brick1.gif /var/www/htdocs/iupsouth/brick.gif
cat	cat file1 [file2]	display contents of file, or catenate contents of file to file2	cat village.wrl
lp	lp -dprinter file	print file on printer named printer, send to default printer if -d option is not specified	lp village.wrl
pico	pico file	edit existing file or create a new one	pico village.wrl
chmod	chmod mask file	change access permissions specified in mask to file	chmod 644 village.wrl

Getting Help

Command	Usage	Meaning	Example
man	man command	display manual page about command	man chmod

Maintained by H. Edward Donley <hedonley@grove.iup.edu>
Last Modified Monday, 13-Aug-2001 16:53:27 EDT