How long will it take to learn Unix commands?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I have a placement test for grad school coming up on various topics from data structures, run-time analysis, algorithms, programming, languages, grammars, automata, probability and basic Unix commands. The only thing I'm not familiar with is Unix commands. I was wondering how long it should take to learn basic commands and a best way to practice. I have some links to tutorials and I have Ubuntu on a usb. I was thinking I could boot my laptop from the usb to practice the commands. Some people told me it should take a day or two to master the commands. Some websites said it would take years to learn it. I'm not trying to become an expert. Just trying to get the basic commands on the placement test. Any advice? 

[brahms]

A couple of days would be more than enough to find your way around. The best way would be to use something like INX, or Arch. You want something that forces you to use the command line, and stay away from x-window. They say only the basic UNIX commands, so you should be fine . I use a VM to try out new distros, so something like virtualbox would be a solution.

Edited April 25, 2014 by brahms

[bsharpe269]

Honestly, practice for a few days and you'll be fine. I doubt they expect you to come in on day one as an absolute computer master. They probably just want to see that you know the basics of navigating around. I'm no expert but since starting my masters in bioinformatics, I do use unix commands daily so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Thanks people. I was hoping to hear it would just take a few days. I know a little bit of DOS so hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to pick up. I was just gonna boot Ubuntu from a usb and open a terminal to practice commands. I have a nice tutorial but it would be easier actually being able to try the commands on my own. 

[TakeruK]

I agree with a couple of days. My suggestion is to actually read a little bit about UNIX systems. For me, understanding the logic behind UNIX made everything a lot more intuitive, instead of just a list of random commands. I bought this book as a reference/tutorial when I started using Linux and I think it is the best reference ever! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0131478230/qid=1112742397/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8?v=glance&s=books

 

The first chapter or so really make Linux/UNIX make a ton more sense. The remaining parts are great for tutorials into advanced topics or just a quick reference (although nowadays, the web has a lot more resources!)

 

Fun story: This book taught me how to write on my friends' terminal screens while logged into the same computer, which was a fun trick I have used for much amusement

Edited April 26, 2014 by TakeruK

[PhDerp]

I know I sent this to you already, but for reference on the forum:

 

I think it helps to keep in mind that UNIX commands are text-centric; that's kind of the philosophy (at least, to my knowledge). Many commands will be based around creating, editing, and searching through text files. You can look more into this independently. I'm sure a better explanation of the reasons behind, and consequences of, this property are discussed in any major reading on Linux!

 

I think you'll demonstrate basic proficiency if you learn some basic filesystem manipulation (cd, pwd, ls, mkdir, cp, rm), remote access (ssh, scp), output-chaining ( >, >>, | ), and text editing / searching (echo, cat, grep). Also, know man [COMMAND], which gets you whatever documentation is available for a given command.

 

There are a bunch of other helpful commands that you will learn as you use UNIX-based systems more... But you only really learn them because you need them! I've been using Linux for 7 years, and I don't know much more than my friends who've been using it for less time. We all just use what's necessary!

 

To practice, I'd spend some time navigating the file system using command-line. Then try to create, edit, and search through some text files. IMO, it doesn't take too long to get the basics down. I think you can do it in a day if you're vigilant. Like most things, repetition helps, so don't just do it once and say "got it", even when the commands are simple.

Oh, and learning the acronyms can help a lot; the names can be pretty self-explanatory! For example, pwd = "print working directory". Guess what that does?

 

Good luck!


EDIT: Whoawhoawhoa, sorry! I missed another big ticket topic in Linux: privileges. Understand what drwx-rw-rw- means, or -rwx-wx-wx, or any of those variants. Also learn about chmod (which you use to set privileges), su, and sudo. Know what root is. These are also incredibly important to understanding Linux commands.

 

Also useful are those universal directory calls:    ~ is home directory,   . is current directory, and    .. is parent directory.

It's also nice to know about variables and path (great examples of the text-centric nature of Linux). Try echo $SHELL.

 

Finally, if you want to just know about Linux, learn about the basic file structure (what's usually in /bin or /dev or /usr or /home, etc.)

 

Phew. Now I'm at least missing less.

Edited April 26, 2014 by PhDerp

[TakeruK]

Phew. Now I'm at least missing less.

 

That was a great post, except you did miss one of the commands I use the most: less! :P (Unless that was the point of this line and I'm just dense!) It's also one of my favourite commands because I learned that while cat will display the entire file at once, more will let you see one "page"/"screen" at a time with a prompt to show "more" at the bottom (hence the name, but less is an advanced version of more where you can scroll one line at a time and also backwards! The reason for the name? Because less is more!

Edited April 27, 2014 by TakeruK

[PhDerp]

That was a great post, except you did miss one of the commands I use the most: less! :P (Unless that was the point of this line and I'm just dense!) It's also one of my favourite commands because I learned that while cat will display the entire file at once, more will let you see one "page"/"screen" at a time with a prompt to show "more" at the bottom (hence the name, but less is an advanced version of more where you can scroll one line at a time and also backwards! The reason for the name? Because less is more!

 

Haha nice segue! I actually mean to implicitly include that under the section where I mention cat. You just made me realize I forgot to add "etc." - whoops!

 

Here is a cool little guide about UNIX commands for computational linguistics (that I found on accident): http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/mt/unix.txt

Go USC!

Edited April 27, 2014 by PhDerp