- What are all the startup files?
- .cshrc is the startup script for csh (the C shell) and tcsh (an
improved version). This gets run frequently when logging in or when a
csh or tcsh starts (which is much more often than just logging in).
Typical things to go in .cshrc are the path, aliases and variables (setf
and setenv).
.login is run during login (i.e. once). Typical entries are
things like calendar and other reminder programs, biff, messages.
.profile is like .login but for the Bourne Shell (sh) and
clones.
/etc/csh.cshrc is like the .cshrc for everyone (gets run before
your personal one)
/etc/csh.login is like the .login for everyone (gets run before
your personal one)
/etc/profile is like the .profile for everyone (gets run before
your personal one)
- How do I get VMS-like keys for editing with EDT?
- See the fvwm BUN
- Why can't I make a window active?
- There is a probable fvwm bug which
causes fvwm focus to go wrong. Just restart fvwm.
- How do I stop my window manager from flipping to another part of the
virtual desktop when I move the mouse off the edge of the screen?
- Find the the "Edgescroll" line in your ~/.fvwmrc file and change the "100 100" after it to "0 0".
- How do I copy stuff onto floppy?
- See the ftp BUN
- Why does the screen flash when I use X-Windows?
- See the fvwm BUN
- My mouse is too fast
- See the fvwm
BUN
- My Makefile doesn't work?
- Remember to use TABs and don't use tildes (~) in paths
And don't put backslashes at the end of comment lines because this will
continue them onto the next line.
Make sure you are running the proper makefile. make first searches for
makefile in the current directory then Makefile - but check with man
make. Use gnu make if possible (this is the default on Linux).
- How do I make TAB in tcsh complete whole filenames instead of
completing as much as possible?
- Put the line
bindkey "\t" complete-word-fwd
in your ~/.cshrc file
- How do I make xhost permanent?
- See the fvwm
BUN
- The mouse isn't working
- Check the switch on the bottom
of the mouse. For X-Windoes it should be set to `3'. For some SVGA
programs it may need to be set to `2'. Check the mouse is plugged in.
- How do I ftp something?
- Read the BUN about Transferring files.
- I've got an encoded mail message. What do I do with it?
- If it has a `begin' and an `end' and `M's up the left hand side it
is uuencoded so extract it and use uuencode file.
If it has `PGP' at the top use PGP (man PGP for help or see http://msslag/localhelp/pgp).
If it is more messy it is probably base64 encoded so extract it
and use base64_decode < file_in > file_out
- How do I find something on the Net?
- Try nngrab subject to search netnews;
use Lycos
on the WWW and
use archie file (a Unix command) to search for a file or package.
- My file didn't ftp properly. Why? My file is a few bytes too large or
small. Why?
- You probably transferred it as ascii instead of binary.
| ascii | binary |
|---|
| text files | compressed files (.zip .gz .tgz .arc .Z .z) |
| postscript (.ps) | executables |
| uuencoded (.uue) | images (.gif .jpeg .tif .pic .bmp) |
| binhex | |
- Some commands don't have man pages
- The commands built into the shell (normally tcsh) don't have their own
man pages - you have to read the man page for the shell. So if you want
help on the setenv command of the tcsh shell you have to do
man tcsh
- How do I unset a variable?
- Use
unset variable
if you have previously used
set variable
or
unsetenv variable
if you have previously used
setenv variable
- I can't log on with xdm on a X-Windows login screen but I can on a
console login screen. Everyone else can login OK.
- You are over quota and should delete something.
- Mouse/keys don't work properly with fvwm.
- Turn off Num Lock.
- `cron' doesn't work for me
- Cron normally used the Bourne shell (sh) so don't use tilde (~) for
your home directory (this only works for C
shells - cshm tcsh). Use the full path to the
executable because your
path for the Bourne shell might be different to that for the C shell.
Make sure any shell scripts are executable (chmod +x file).
- `at' doesn't work
- I think it does now.
- Backspace doesn't work properly in Netscape
- Read this for a
n explanation and fix it by appending ~pjs1/public_html/backspace.txt
to your .Xdefaults file.
cat ~pjs1/public_html/backspace.txt >> ~/.Xdefaults
(Make sure this will not interfere with anything you have put in your
.Xdefaults file. If it doesn't exist yet, then there's no problem.)
If it complains that you don't have a .Xdefaults file (probably
because you have `noclobber' set, then `unset noclobber' or use:
cp ~pjs1/public_html/backspace.txt ~/.Xdefaults
- What does ./xxx mean? What does ~/yyyy mean?
- Read a Unix manual. ./ is just the path to xxx and is often used if the
current directory is not in the path or if you want to be sure you are
running the program in the current directory and not the program with
the same name elsewhere in the path.
The path is a list of directories that the computer looks in (in order)
to find executables.
~/yyyy is the full path to yyyy if it is in your home directory. This
is the same as /home/your_name/yyyy on msslag, for example.
- How do I read netnews?
- Run
nn
answer yes to a few questions and then quit with
Q
This
will make you a ~/.newsrc file containing all the newsgroups. You can
either use nn to unsubscribe from the unwanted groups (this takes a
LONG time) or just edit the .newsrc file. A colon `:' after a group
means read it and an exclamation mark `!' means don't read it so it is
probably easiest to convert all `:' to `!' and then change a few
back.
Netscape can also be used to read news but it doesn't have as many
features as nn.
To decode encoded posts, highlight them in nn and then type
:decode
- How do I edit my elm (mail) aliases?
- Edit ~/.elm/aliases.text and then run elmalias to update.
- How do I run a program with data in the background?
- You can redirect standard input and output
sort < file_in > file_out
where file_in is a text file containing the data and file_out is where
the output should go.
You can also include the data in the script itself
sort << END_OF_DATA
10
20
30
END_OF_DATA
This will read the data from the script. END_OF_DATA is just a unique string and can be just about anything.
Remember to make the script executable
chmod +x script_name
You can run the script later with the `at' command or with `cron' (use
crontab -e
to edit your crontab file.)
- How do I copy a directory structure?
- Could use cp -R but better to use tar:
example% cd fromdir; tar cf - . | (cd todir; tar xfp -)
- Why does my script/tcl program say command not found?
- Scripts including shell, perl and tcl scripts have a first line like
#!/bin/shell-name
to tell the shell which shell to use when running the script. If this
file does not exist you will get a
Command not found
error as if the script was not there.
Another reason might be that the script does not have the executable
bit set in its permissions. Do
chmod +x script-name
Yet another reason a shell script might not work is if it has DOS-like
new-lines.
- How do I get an Angstrom symbol in IDL?
- Use:
xtitle='!3Wavelength ('+string(197B)+')',$
- How do I convert files from DOS-like newlines to Unix-like newlines and vice versa?
- For DOS-like to Unix-like, use:
tr -d '\015' < in > out
For Unix-like to DOS-like, use:
awk '{/\n$/; printf "%s\015\012", $0}' < in > out
- How do I convert files from mac-like newlines to Unix-like newlines and vice versa?
- For mac-like to Unix-like, use:
tr '\015' '\012' < in > out
For Unix-like to mac-like, use:
tr '\012' '\015' < in > out
- What do I do with mime-encoded messages?
- See http://home.netscape.com/assist/helper_apps/mime.html for more help.
Otherwise, extract the mail to a file and do
uudeview file
See
man uudeview
for more details.
- What is recursion?
- See recursion
- Windows password caching
- From the Win Networking FAQ