ln (redirecting file access)
Type ln -s fred.html index.html to redirect all file accesses from index.html to the file fred.html.
passwd (changing your password)
Type passwd to change your password. You may also use Brain to change your password.
zip/unzip
Type zip to zip files and unzip to unzip files. This program is compatible with the zip program for DOS. For example:
zip myzip file1 file2 file3
This puts the files file1, file2, and file3 into a new zip archive called myzip.zip. On the other hand, if you had the archive myzip.zip and wanted to get back the files:
unzip myzip
Typing zip or unzip by itself will give you a usage summary, showing nearly all the options availible.
du (disk usage)
The Unix command
du -s directory
shows how much disk space is used by a directory and everything below it. While we work on creating the complicated command needed to automatically check all the directories you are associated with, you can find out how much space is in use by the WWW files for a domain with
du -s /home/domain/www
If you don’t have anything much in your home directory or mail spool, this comes close to the total space you have in use. (You would know if you did have other things in your home directory, and could use du -s $HOME to check on that.)
locate (find files)
The normal Unix methods of locating files have one thing in common, they are slower than molasses on a winter night in Alaska. So instead, we use a powerful program called locate. Type locate file_name and the server will immediately locate all files that contain the file_name. (Provided such files have been on the machine at least one day.)
lynx (browsing WWW)
If you, for one reason or another, don’t have a better WWW browser available and want to see a page (maybe you just edited it, or you want to check this manual while on-line) type lynx URL to view the URL. (For example, lynx http://www.GracefulWeb.com/.) This simple browser of course can’t show you graphics, and is bewildered by tables, but otherwise will show you what you need to see.
Some commands that you will need are printed at the bottom of the screen. The keys to press are presented as ‘^X’. This long-standing shorthand in the computer world means the same as Control-X, in other words, hold down the Control or Ctrl key on your keyboard and type an ‘x’.