Unix Links
What do you do when you have questions about Unix, but your system
administrator isn't available to answer them for you?
Yes, it's considered old-fashioned and terribly quaint :-), but
it really is possible to learn about this stuff by reading.
Here are some good places to start reading online:
- Is Unix the right system for you? Check this
disclaimer
to find out
- If you're using Unix at
Concordia,
you might find the
IITS Help Line
to be of interest; also, don't forget to check out the
Alcor home page,
the
online help
page for Alcor, and our
other online documentation
- Probably the best single place to start is
UNIXhelp for Users, which is mirrored on
Alcor
- Another really wonderful resource is the
UNIX Reference Desk
-
Brian Kernighan's home page
contains links to home pages for
The C Programming Language
and
The Unix Programming Environment,
as well as his new book with
Rob Pike,
The Practice of Programming
- For orientation, you may be interested in
Nick Moffitt's
$7 History of Unix;
there's also a paper by
Dennis Ritchie
on
The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System,
and the
History
chapter of Eric S. Raymond's new book,
The Art of Unix Programming
-- and for real history buffs, check out the
home page for
Multics,
the system which at least partly inspired the design of the original
Unix system
- The classic paper which describes Unix is called simply
The UNIX Time-Sharing System
- Perhaps unsurprisingly,
Dennis Ritchie's
home page
contains stories about Unix history and folklore, among
other things, including this page about the
history of the C programming language
- Here's a set of frequently asked questions (with
answers :-) about
Unix
(from the "comp.unix.questions" newsgroup)
- Frequently asked questions about
DEC OSF/1
(also known as "DEC Unix" or "dUnix", taken from the "comp.unix.osf.osf1"
newsgroup)
[ editor's note: I'll start calling it "Digital Unix" just as soon as someone
tells me where to find a product called "Analog Unix" -- but not before :-) ]
[ updated editor's note: It will be a sub-zero day at the end of the road
paved with good intentions before I'll even think about
calling it "Tru64 UNIX" ]
- For
Alcor
users, some
DEC Unix manuals
are available online (NOTE: this link can only be viewed
from within the .Concordia.CA domain)
- The
Biologist's Survival Guide to Some Computer Somewhere,
a guide to using Unix at Concordia written by Dr. Carolyn Beckman of
Concordia's Biology department
- Other collections of
Frequently Asked Questions
- The
"
vi lovers' home page"
is a useful reference for those of us who actually like the vi
editor; of course, if you like vi, you should also check out the
vim home page
and
vim FAQ
- Anthony Thyssen's
Tower of Computational Sorcery
contains a number of useful documents on
Unix utilities,
shell scripts
and the
X Window system,
among other things
- Tom Christiansen's opinion about
why csh scripting is a bad idea
Additionally, here's a list of
books about Unix.
Please take the time to look through it -- you'll probably find something
useful.
Finally, you may also be interested in information about
Unix system administration.
Last Update: 2004/03/13
______________________________
[Steven's home page]