Unix environment

Working in the UNIX™ environment

Editor

The most important tool will most likely be your editor. It doesn't matter what you want to use, but whatever it is, learn it well. vi and emacs are the most common editors used in the unix environment. Your choice of editor will become critical when you use your shell command line in its editing mode. There are very good tutorials on the internet for your editor. There is a VI quick start command listing in genomewiki. See also: Editor War.

Shell

There are two shells in common use on unix: bash and tcsh. Next to your editor, your shell command line is going to be a critical element of your efficiency using unix. You will want the command line editing features turned on for your command line to recognize your favorite editor commands. Learn how to use your command line editing feature. Understand what stdout, stderr and stdin are and how to control their input and output in compound shell commands. There are very good bash and tcsh tutorials on the internet.

Regular Expressions

You will be using regular expressions in your editor, your shell and in other commands. Just about everything. You will need to know how to use them. You can get pretty far with a minimal familiarity of the basics. Keep a reference handy for the odd cases where you need to use the more extensive operations.