Take a deep breath ... you're not the first and won't be the last to find yourself a bit confused.  There are a lot of great things about GUI environments.  Everything is visual.  But when you step into the Unix world, you usually don't get the pretty clickable interface.  Suddenly panic begins to rise and you think -- I can't do this.  Well, you can and it is actually easy.  Remember ... understand the concept.  It will come to you.

Why do I have to telnet?  Well, during your Web design projects, you will need to visit the server.  That is, you will need to set up directories, change permissions, and you may even use an online text editor.  FTP is handy, but sometimes, you need to work on the server.

First ... you do not have administrative access.  Therefore, you cannot do damage to anything.  And unless you type a sequence of letters in a specific order, you cannot damage things in your own home directory.  So relax.

Second, while Unix may not be 'pretty', it's directory is set up the same way as a Windows hierarchy with directories, subdirectories and files.  Instead of clicking on folders, you have to type in commands.  Remember, with telnet, you computer become a 'dummy' terminal and therefore we are back to command line typing.

Third, this will get easy.  I was in your shoes at one time and can now get around.  The more you use it, the more familiar you will be with it.

Here's my suggestion ... print this off and let's try the rest of this FAQ as a tutorial.

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1. Go ahead and log into DS9 through your telnet program.  Once you have logged in you will be at a line that looks like this - ds9{lburrow}1:  This is known as the command line or cursor.  Generally, the cursor is sitting in the space after the : and blinking.  (Note: instead of lburrow, your username will be there.)

2. Up until now you have been typing pine to get to your email.  Not only is pine a software program, but when you type it in and type return, this command (pine) tells the operating system to go out and open the program called pine.  This is similar to most command line OS.  

3. Huh?  Think of it this way.  When working with Unix, the pattern usually fits the following:
   command command-attribute

4. At the cursor, type pwd (stand for present working directory) and type enter.  What do you get.  It should come back with a path name.  This tells you where you are in the directory hierarchy.  It should read /home/lburrow/  This command is helpful when you are lost and need to find your way home.

5. New command at the cursor.  Type ls (think of this as list) and type enter.   This will give you a list of everything in the directory.  All directories are followed by a / and files usually have an extension after their name ... like index.html.  Type ls -l.  This gives you a long listing.  This is important.  You will need this to check your permissions.  See the permissions to the the files and directories? 

6. In order to make a directory ... like public_html, consult your Unix commands.  When working with commands and directories/filenames, the general syntax is:
   command command-attribute filename or directory
   It's as simple as:
   mkdir public_html ... note ... everything is case sensitive.  It must be in small.  

7. To change permissions, you need to add an attribute:
   chmod 755 public_html

8. To enter into the new directory you need to type the command.  What is the command for change directory?  The format is command directory_name.  Give it a try.

9. Review all of the basic Unix commands which were covered in the lecture.  Experiment with them to see what happens.  Remember ... practice increases familiarity.  

 

 

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