The Unix Model Curriculum

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The Unix Model Curriculum:
Outline for a One-Semester Course

The Unix Model Curriculum is a detailed plan for teaching all the important concepts necessary for an introductory course in Unix and Linux. The Unix Model Curriculum was developed by Harley Hahn to help instructors decide which topics to teach and the order in which to teach them.

The following is an outline for a one-semester Unix/Linux course based on the Unix Model Curriculum. The outline contains a total of 78 teaching units, each of which takes about 25 minutes to teach. The intention is for you to teach 6 units per week.

Thus, if you have two 1½-hour classes a week, you should teach 3 units per class. If you have three 1-hour class a week, you should teach 2 units per class. In all, it should take you 13 weeks to teach the course (78/6 = 13).

The schedule is based on a 16-week semester, with the last week taken up by final exams, leaving 15 teaching weeks. I assume that, during these 15 weeks, two classes will be used for midterm exams, and two classes will be lost because of holidays.

Within the course outline below, the section numbers refer to the Unix Model Curriculum. The page references indicate the relevant pages to read in the print version of Harley Hahn's Guide to Unix.

Section 1: Introduction to Unix

Unit	Page References	Topics
1	1-3 3-4 4-5 5	The Unix family of operating systems The Unix culture Why do we use Unix? Who uses Unix?

Section 2: What is Unix? What is Linux?

Unit	Page References	Topics
2	9-10 11-12 12-13	What is an operating system? What is the kernel? Unix = Kernel + Utilities

Unit	Page References	Topics
3	18-19 22-28 28-29 35	The GPL (General Public License) and Open Source Software The development of Linux Linux Distributions What is Unix? What is Linux?

Section 3: The Unix Connection

Unit	Page References	Topics
4	38-41 37-38, +41-43 43-45 45-46	Multiprogramming, time-sharing Host and terminals paradigm Terminal rooms, terminal servers The console

Unit	Page References	Topics
5	46-48 48 49-50 50-51 52-52	Remote terminals, terminal emulation programs Hosts without consoles, headless systems Client/server relationship What happens when you press a key? Character terminals, graphics terminals

Section 4: Starting to Use Unix

Unit	Page References	Topics
6	55-56 56-57 57-59 59-61 61-62 62-63	System administrator Userids and passwords Logging in What happens after you log in? Shell prompt Logging out [logout, exit, login]

Unit	Page References	Topics
7	63-64 66-67 67-69 70 70-71, +838-840	Upper- and lowercase Changing your password [passwd] Choosing a password Userids and users The superuser userid [root] (Appendix E: What to Do If You Forget the Root Password)

Section 5: GUIs: Graphical User Interfaces

Unit	Page References	Topics
8	73-75 75-76 78 78-79	What is a GUI? X Window Layers of abstraction Window manager

Unit	Page References	Topics
9	79-81 82-85 87-90	Desktop environment KDE and Gnome Choosing a Desktop Environment

Section 6: The Unix Work Environment

Unit	Page References	Topics
10	96-97 97-98 98-101	The GUI and the CLI (command line interface) Logging in and logging out with a GUI Runlevels

Unit	Page References	Topics
11	108-110 110-112 113-116 116	Multiple desktops/workspaces Terminal windows Virtual consoles The console

Unit	Page References	Topics
12	118-122 124-125 125-126 126-127	Working as superuser [su] Configuration files [sudo] Shutting down; rebooting [init, reboot, shutdown] What happens when the system starts or stops? [dmesg]

Section 7: Using the Keyboard With Unix

Unit	Page References	Topics
13	131-134 137-138 138-139 139-142 145-146	Teletypes and the Unix Culture How does Unix know what type of terminal you are using? Modifier keys Unix keyboard signals [erase, werase, kill] Stopping a program [intr, quit]

Unit	Page References	Topics
14	147-148 148-149 149-151 153-155 155-157	Pausing the display [stop, start] End of file signal [eof] Shell: Trapping the eof signal Command line editing Return; linefeed; newline

Section 8: Programs to Use Right Away

Unit	Page References	Topics
15	161-164 164 164-165, +841-845 165-167 168-169	Finding a program on your system [which, type, whence] How do you stop a program? Displaying the time and date [date] (Appendix F: Time Zones and 24-Hour Time) Displaying a calendar [cal] Information about your system [uptime, hostname, uname]

Unit	Page References	Topics
16	169-170 170-172 175-182	Information about you [whoami, quota] Information about other users [users, who, w] Built-in calculator [bc, dc]

Section 9: Documentation

Unit	Page References	Topics
17	189-190 190-192 192-193 193	The Unix tradition of teaching yourself RTFM What is the Unix manual? [man] Man pages

Unit	Page References	Topics
18	193-196 199-201 202-203 203-204	Displaying man pages Organization Section numbers Referencing man pages

Unit	Page References	Topics
19	204-208 208 209-210 210-211	Format of a man page Finding out what a command does [whatis] Searching for a command [apropos] Foo, bar and foobar

Unit	Page References	Topics
20	211-213 213-214 214-215 215-216	The Info system [info] Info and trees Starting Info Learning about Info

Section 10: Command Syntax

Unit	Page References	Topics
21	223-224 224-225 225-226 226-227 227-229	Entering more than one command at a time What happens when you enter a command? Command syntax Options Dash options; dash-dash options

Unit	Page References	Topics
22	229-230 230-231 231-232 232-234 235 235-236	Arguments Whitespace One or more; zero or more Syntax: the formal description of a command Learning command syntax from the Unix manual Dealing with a lot of options

Section 11: The Shell

Unit	Page References	Topics
23	239-240 240-244 244-247	What is a shell? The Bourne shell family [sh, ksh, bash] The C-Shell family [csh, tcsh]

Unit	Page References	Topics
24	247-249 249-250 251-253	Which shell should you use? Changing your shell temporarily Changing your login shell [chsh]

Mid-term Exam #1

Section 12: Using the Shell: Variables and Options

Unit	Page References	Topics
25	256-257 257-258 259-262 262-264	Interactive shells; non-interactive shells Environment; processes; variables Environment variables; shell variables Displaying environment variables [env, printenv]

Unit	Page References	Topics
26	264 264-267, +846-850 267-269 269-271	Displaying shell variables [set] Displaying and using the value of a variable [echo, print] (Appendix G: Shell Options and Shell Variables) Bourne shell family: Using variables [export, unset] C-Shell family: Using variables [setenv, unsetenv, set, unset]

Unit	Page References	Topics
27	271-273, +846-850 273-274	Shell options [set -o, set +o] (Appendix G: Shell Options and Shell Variables) Displaying shell options

Section 13: Using the Shell: Commands and Customization

Unit	Page References	Topics
28	277-279 279-283 283-284	Metacharacters Quoting; escaping Strong quotes; weak quotes

Unit	Page References	Topics
29	284-287 287-289 289-291 292-294 294-296	Builtin commands [type] External commands Search path Shell prompt Using the value of a variable

Unit	Page References	Topics
30	296-297 297-299 299-301	Quoting variables Escape character Command substitution

Unit	Page References	Topics
31	301-302 302-308	Typing commands; making changes History list [fc, history]

Unit	Page References	Topics
33	309-314 316-322	Autocompletion Aliases [alias, unalias]

Section 14: Using the Shell: Initialization Files

Unit	Page References	Topics
33	327-329 329-330 330-331 331-332 332-333 333-334	Initialization files; logout files Names of initialization and logout files Dotfiles and rc files Using a simple text editor Login shells; non-login shells When are initialization files executed?

Unit	Page References	Topics
34	335 335-336 336-337 337-340 341-343	What to put in initialization files Displaying, creating and editing initialization files Comments in shell scripts Bourne shell family: sample initialization files C-Shell family: sample initialization files

Section 15: Standard I/O, Redirection, and Pipes

Unit	Page References	Topics
35	345-348 348-349 349-350 350-352	The Unix philosophy regarding tools (combining tools, small is beautiful) Standard input; standard output; standard error Redirecting standard output Preventing files from being replaced or created by redirection

Unit	Page References	Topics
36	352-353 353-354 354-355 355-357 358	Redirecting standard input File descriptors Redirecting standard error: Bourne Shell family Subshells Redirecting standard error: C-Shell family

Unit	Page References	Topics
37	359-360 360-361 362-365 365-367 367-369 370-371	Combining standard output and standard error Throwing away output (/dev/null) Redirection summary Pipelines Splitting a pipeline [tee] Conditional execution

Section 16: Filters: Introduction and Basic Operations

Unit	Page References	Topics
38	373-374 374-375 375-376 376-377 377-380	Variations of commands and options Filters Creating filters The problem solving process The simplest possible filter [cat]

Unit	Page References	Topics
39	380-382 382-383 382-385 391-392 392-393	Increasing the power of filters The most useful filters Combining files [cat] Selecting lines from the beginning or end of data [head, tail] Deleting columns of data [colrm]

Section 17: Filters: Comparing and Extracting
Section 18: Filters: Counting and Formatting

Unit	Page References	Topics
40	395-396 396-397 397-399 399-408 424-426	Comparing files Comparing any two files [cmp] Comparing sorted text files [comm] Comparing unsorted text files [diff] Counting lines, words, characters [wc]

Section 19: Filters: Selecting, Sorting, Combining, and Changing

Unit	Page References	Topics
41	447-450 450-454 455-458	Selecting lines that contain a specified pattern [grep] The most important grep options [grep] Selecting lines beginning with a specific pattern [look]

Unit	Page References	Topics
42	459-461 461-462 463	Sorting data [sort] Controlling the order in which data is sorted [sort -dfn] Checking if data is sorted [sort -c]

Unit	Page References	Topics
43	464-465, +833-837 465-466 466-471	ASCII code (Appendix D: The ASCII Code) Collating sequences Locales

Unit	Page References	Topics
44	471-473 473-478 482-484 484-486	Finding duplicate lines [uniq] Merging sorted data from two files [join] Translating characters [tr] Translating unprintable characters

Unit	Page References	Topics
45	488-490 490-492 492-493 493-494	Using sed for non-interactive text editing [sed] sed: Substitutions sed: Specific lines only sed: Very long commands

Section 20: Regular Expressions

Unit	Page References	Topics
46	497-498 502-504 504-505 505 505-506 506-507	Introduction to regular expressions Matching lines Matching words Matching characters Character classes Predefined character classes

Unit	Page References	Topics
47	506-507 507-511 511-514 514-517	Ranges Locales and collating sequences Repetition operators Understanding complex regular expressions

Mid-term Exam #2

Section 21: Displaying Files

Unit	Page References	Topics
48	521-524 524-526 525-526 527-529	Survey of programs used to display files Using less for paging [less] less: Starting, stopping, help less: Most common commands

Unit	Page References	Topics
49	529-530 534-535 541 541-542 542-544	less: Searching within a file Comparing less to cat Displaying the beginning of a file [head] Displaying the end of a file [tail] Watching the end of a growing file [tail -f]

Unit	Page References	Topics
50	544-550 550-551 551-555	Binary, octal, hexadecimal Why we use hexadecimal rather than octal Displaying binary files [hexdump, od]

Section 22: The vi Text Editor

Special references:
Summary of vi Commands (Appendix C, pages 827-823)
Quick Index for the vi Text Editor (pages 891-893)

Unit	Page References	Topics
51	559-560 565-566 568-570 570-571	Introduction to the vi text editor [vi] Starting vi Command mode; input mode Knowing what mode you are in

Unit	Page References	Topics
52	571 571 572-573 573-574 574-575 575-576	Starting vi as a read-only editor: [view, vi -r] Recovering data after a system failure Stopping vi How vi uses the screen Using vi and ex commands How to learn vi commands

Unit	Page References	Topics
53	577 577-581 581-582 582-583	Creating a practice file Moving the cursor Moving through the editing buffer Jumping to a previous location

Unit	Page References	Topics
54	584-586 586-587 587-589 590-592 592-594 594-597	Searching for a pattern Using line numbers Inserting text Changing text Replacing text Deleting text

Unit	Page References	Topics
55	597-598 598-599 599-601 601-602 608 609	Undoing or repeating a change Recovering deletions Moving text Copying text Copying lines Moving lines

Unit	Page References	Topics
56	608-609 612-613 613-614 619-621	Entering shell commands Using a program to process data [fmt] Writing data to a file Initialization files: [.exrc, .vimrc]

Section 23: The Unix Filesystem

Unit	Page References	Topics
57	627-628 628-629 630 631 632 632-633 633-634	What is a file? Types of files Directories; subdirectories Introduction to special files Special files: hardware Special files: terminals [tty] Special files: pseudo-devices

Unit	Page References	Topics
58	638-639 639-640 640-641 642 643-647	Tree-structured filesystem Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) Root directory and subdirectories Mounting a filesystem [mount, umount] Contents: root directory

Unit	Page References	Topics
59	647-649 649-650 650-652 653-655	Contents: /usr directory Directories that hold programs Home directories Virtual file system

Section 24: Working With Directories

Unit	Page References	Topics
60	659-663 660 663-666 666-669	Pathnames: absolute, relative Working directory Pathname abbreviations ( .. . ~ ) Moving around the directory tree [cd, pwd]

Unit	Page References	Topics
61	669-672 672-675 675-676 682-683	Making a new directory [mkdir] Removing a directory [rmdir] Moving or renaming a directory [mv] Using ls to list files [ls]

Unit	Page References	Topics
62	683-686 686-687 687 688-690	Directory listings [ls -CrR1] Collating sequences, locales and ls Checking file types I [ls -f] Checking file types II [ls --color]

Unit	Page References	Topics
63	690-691 697-720 702-703 703-707	Checking file types III [file] Globbing; wildcards Dot files (hidden files) [ls -a] Long directory listings [ls -dhltu]

Section 25: Working With Files

Unit	Page References	Topics
64	715-717 717-720 720-721 721-722 722-723	Creating a file [touch] Rules and conventions for naming a file Copying a file [cp] Copying files to a different directory [cp] Copying a directory to another directory [cp -r]

Unit	Page References	Topics
65	723 723-724 724-725 725-727 727-729	Moving a file [mv] Renaming a file or directory [mv] Deleting a file [rm] How to keep from deleting the wrong files [rm -if] Deleting an entire directory tree [rm -r]

Unit	Page References	Topics
66	729-731 731-732 732-735 735-737	File permissions Setuid How Unix Maintains File permissions [id, groups, ls -l] File modes

Unit	Page References	Topics
67	737-738 738-739 740-741 741-742	Changing file permissions [chmod] Permissions for new files [umask] Introduction to links [stat, ls -i] Multiple links to the same file

Unit	Page References	Topics
68	742-743 744-745 745-747	Creating a new link [ln] Symbolic links [ln -s] Using symbolic links with directories

Unit	Page References	Topics
69	747-748 748-750 750-751	Finding files: Associated with a Unix command [whereis] Finding files: Searching a system database [locate] Finding files: Searching a directory tree [find]

Unit	Page References	Topics
70	751-752 752-755 755-756 756	The find program: paths The find program: tests The find program: negating a test The find program: file permission error messages

Unit	Page References	Topics
71	757-760 760-763	The find program: actions Processing files that have been found [xargs]

Section 26: Processes and Job Control

Unit	Page References	Topics
72	767-768 768-770	How the kernel manages processes Forking

Unit	Page References	Topics
73	771 771-772 772-773	Orphans; abandoned processes Distinguishing between parent and child The very first process [init]

Unit	Page References	Topics
74	773-774 774-776 777-779	Foreground and background processes Creating a delay [sleep] Job control

Unit	Page References	Topics
75	779-780 780-782 782-783	Running a job in the background Suspending a job [fg] Suspending a shell [suspend]

Unit	Page References	Topics
76	783 784 785-787 787-788	Job control vs. multiple windows Displaying a list of jobs [jobs] Moving a job to the foreground [fg] Moving a job to the background [bg]

Unit	Page References	Topics
77	788-789 789-793 793-794 794-797	Using ps to display process information [ps] The ps program: Basic skills The ps program: Choosing options The ps program: States

Unit	Page References	Topics
78	798-800 804-806 806-808 812-814	Monitoring system processes [top, prstat] Killing a process [kill] Sending a signal to a process [kill] Daemons

Final Exam

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