Access to Unix system
Students can access Unix systems from personal computers and workstations. Each user needs system account identified with logon name. Students at FIT obtain their logon name once they start their study and the logon name is valid during their stay at FIT for all computers they are granted access to (servers eva.fit.vutbr.cz, merlin.fit.vutbr.cz, computers in PC labs with Linux etc.). The list of accessible computers can be found at https://www.fit.vut.cz/units/cvt/pclab/. More information concerning Linux: https://www.fit.vut.cz/units/cvt/linux/.
Logon
Unix servers traditionally use text based UI. In the old days users were connected over serial lines or modems from teletype or CRT terminals. The approach has changed, terminals are either programs on remote computer connected over network or local keyboard and monitor. However text based UI is preserved.
Logon from Windows 7/10 over network
At FIT users may run Putty program.
This application emulates character-based terminal of Unix system connected
over encrypte protocol ssh (acronym for Secure SHell).
User can either select desired server from the list of stored profiles or type-in th server name directly.
ssh protocol is the default.
Once the connection is established user is asked for login name (login as:).
Username is lower case in the same form you have received the credentials.
Next you are asked for password, see below.
Logon from Unix/Linux over network
To logon use command ssh servername. By default ssh uses the logon name you have used in system you are connecting from. If you need logon under different username on the remote system just use the command ssh login@servername.
In the next step you are asked for password Password:.
The password is secret sequence of characters which protects your account from unauthorized use. When the password is typed in nothing is displayed so none can read it. The password must be typed exactly the same way it was assigned to you. Since nothing is displayed when typing the password you must take care of keyboard modifiers (CAPSlock, NumLock etc.). In case of an error you can use the <BS> (BACKSPACE) key. Note: the ley Left Arrow is not the same and cannot be used to correct typos. In case of incorrect login/password combination the message Login incorrect is shown and you are expected to try again:
| login as: novak | (logon name) |
| Password: | (type in password, nothing is displayed) |
| ... | (messages, please read it) |
| /homes/eva/xn/xnovak00> | (command prompt, now you can type your commands) |
To finish your work just type the command exit or on the empty line press the CTRL-D key.
Password Change
After the first logon at FIT you should change your password using command passwd. First you are prompted for current (old) password:
| Old password: |
As in logon procedure, when you type the password nothing is diplayed on your monitor. Then the program displays list of generated passwords and you are prompted for a new one:
| New password: |
Now you should type-in one of the offered passwords you have chosen. If you type something else no change is done. Otherwise you are asked to type the new password once again:
| Re-enter new password: |
The second entry of the new password is just for verification. You should remember the new password well since there is no way to decode it later. Even system administrator cannot do that.
You are responsible for protecting your own account. So keep the password secret. Don't save it in open form anywhere and don't disclose it to other person. Log out before you leave terminal for longer period of time. In case you find unknown strange files in your home directory or find out your account is used by someone else immediately report this event to system administrator (postmaster@fit.vutbr.cz).
Using unencrypted protocols (telnet, ftp, ...) may be snooped on and your credentials may be revealed. Therefore these protocols are blocked. You should use secure connection to access faculty servers, see https://www.fit.vut.cz/units/cvt/net/ssh.php.
Commands
If there is command prompt displayed you may enter a command. First type the name of a command. The command name may be followed by space and additional arguments. Following rules shoudl be followed:
Command name, options and parameters must be separated by at least one space (or TAB).
Commands and most of the parameters are lowercase.
Both in command names and parameters lower and upper case characters are distinguished.
Optional paramaters begin with minus (-) sign and may not be present at all. Optional parameters modify command operation and may be grouped together, e.g. ls -la.
The command is executed by pressing <Enter> key. While writing the command you may edit the text using <BS> (BACKSPACE) key or clear the line using <CTRL-U> key. <BS> key deletes character before the cursor. Note: the <BS> is not the same as left arrow key.
Special Characters
Some characters have special meaning and do not become part of command you type. Overview:
| <BS> | delete character before cursor. |
| <CTRL-U> | clears the whole line. |
| <CTRL-D> | end of input, on the beginning of the line it means end of file (EOF). |
| <DEL>, <CTRL-C> | generates signsl INTR - normal termination of running process. |
| <CTRL-\> | generates signal QUIT - forced termination (abortion) of running process. |
| <CTRL-S> | temporary halt (pause) output to terminal. |
| <CTRL-Q> | continue terminal output. |
Special characters setting may be shown by command:
| stty -a |
On-line manual
The description of all commands, programs, functions and file formats is available with man command. The description of man command itself:
| man man |
Working over network
All computers are connected to local network which is connected to academic network Cesnet and Internet. Users of campus network are obliged to follow BUT network use guidelines [PDF]. Available computers in local network:
| eva.fit.vutbr.cz | principal server for students FreeBSD |
| merlin.fit.vutbr.cz | student server CentOS/Linux |
| pc[a-z][0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9].fit.vutbr.cz | PC's in labs and library |
All information concerning computer network, operation, using network services and operational guides can be found at https://www.fit.vut.cz/units/cvt/net/
Home directory
Students' home directories reside on the server eva.fit.vutbr.cz. Home directory is accessible from all Unix systems over network file system (NFS). No matter where you log in you have access to your files on Eva. Disk space for your home directory may be limited. Actual size is displayed after log in on Eva. If permited disk space is exceeded user is given a message and asked to reduce the space used. Used disk space can be found using commands:| du | (directory usage) |
| df | (free space on disk) |
Home directories are backed up (usually every day). Even so you should make copies of important files, especially your projects. The lost of your files due to disk failure is not an accpetable excuse to miss a project deadline.
Disk volume is large enough (8 TB RAID-5) to keep all user's data so no disk quotas are engaged. However home directory is not intended to serve as storage for MP3s or video files. If your disk usage is beyond reasonable size disk quotas may be applied.
Electronic mail
Students may use e-mail for study and research purposes. Sending commercial information, unsolicited or annoying messages (spam) may be punished according to BUT Computer Network Operating Regulations [PDF]. Suggested reading: Internet and e-mail etiquette (https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt). Further usefull information may be found at Important Information and Guides.
Assigned student address at FIT looks like: login@stud.fit.vutbr.cz
Assigned staff address at FIT looks like: login@fit.vutbr.cz
E-mail is delivered to faculty student server eva.fit.vutbr.cz. On Unix you may use program alpine or mutt. Ther other option is any IMAP4 capable client program (Thunderbird, Outlook, Android/K9-Mail, etc.) or Web interface https://roundcube.fit.vutbr.cz/.
Reading mail
mutt program displays menu of offered commands on start. ? key shows brief description of commands. To read a mail just move using up/down arrows or type message number and hit Enter. To return back to message list pres i.
Basic commands overview
| number | go to message number |
| s | store a message to another mailbox |
| d | delete a message |
| m address | send a new mail |
| r | reply on current mail |
Incomming mail is delivered to system mailbox. The size of this mailbox may be limited so old messages should be either moved to some other mailbox or deleted.
Command interpreter (shell)
When logged in you communicate with command interpreter. Some usefull commands:
| input and output redirection: | command <input >output |
| commands connected through pipe: | command1 | command2 |
| previous command, next command | <CTRL>P, <CTRL>N |
| beginning, end of a command | <CTRL>A, <CTRL>E |
| file name completion: | <ESC><ESC>, <ESC>=, <TAB> |
| set working directory: | cd directory |
| name of working directory: | pwd |
| show contents of a directory: | ls, ls -l, ls -la |
| show contents of a file: | cat, more, less |
| copy of a file: | cp original copy |
| move or rename a file: | mv original new |
| delete file: | rm file ... |
| create directory: | mkdir directory |
| delete directory: | rmdir directory |
| list of connected users: | who |
| disk space usage: | df, du |
| list of running processes: | ps |
| terminate running process: | kill pid |
Editor vi
Editor vi operates in two modes: insert and command mode. In insert mode almost all characters are inserted without interpretation. In command mode almost any character represents a command. Any number before command indicates number of repetition of a command, e.g. 10a*<ESC> inserts 10 asterisks.
Switching between modes:
| i | start inserting before cursor |
| a | start inserting next to cursor |
| o | insert an empty line below cursor position and start inserting |
| <ESC> | finish inserting, switch to command mode |
Deleting commands:
| x | delete chracter on cursor position | |
| dw | delete word | |
| dd | delete line |
Moving in text:
| $ | jump to end of line |
| 0 | jum to start of line |
| fx | jump to the first occurence of character x on the line |
| <CTRL-D> | move left before automatic indent in :set ai mode |
| <CTRL-F> | next page |
| <CTRL-B> | previous page |
| numberG | jump to given line |
| /pattern | search for pattern (regular expressions are used) |
| n | search for next occurence of the pattern |
Line mode commands:
| :x | write changes and quit editor |
| :w | write changes |
| :q | quit without writing changes |
| :e file | finish editing and open another file |
| :n | edit next file if invoked with several file names (vi *.c) |
| :set | display and set editor parameters |
Web server
Student Web server runs on the server eva.fit.vutbr.cz. You may create your home page in directory $HOME/WWW, where $HOME is your home directory. Your home page is available on URL http://www.stud.fit.vutbr.cz/~login/. Main file should be named index.html or index.php. If you wish to create language specific pages, the file names for czech and english versions should be index.php.cz and index.php.en respectively. All czech pages should be in the code ISO-8859-2 (not Windows-1250)! Don't forget assign propper access rights for your files - chmod a+rX ...! Text encoding of your files may be changed using iconv program.
tar archive program
Command to use tar:
tar [key] [files]
Parameter key determines operation, files are archived files. Most commnoly used keys:
| c | create archive |
| x | extract files from archive |
| t | list contents of archive |
| f | archive name is specified in the next parameter |
Examples:
| tar cvf all.tar . | write all files of current directory into all.tar archive |
New file with archive may be compressed:
| gzip all.tar | all.tar.gz is created |
Compressed file is significantly smaller than original one. When extracting files it is possible to decompress archive and then extract files using tar. The other way is this:
| gzcat all.tar.gz | tar xvf - | |
| tar xvzf all.tar.gz | (alternative just for GNU and FreeBSD tar) |
In case of a problem
Any requests, comments and complaints should be sent by e-mail to postmaster@fit.vutbr.cz. In case you can't log in contact proper administrator in person:
- Microsoft Windows - Bohumil Michal
- FreeBSD systems - Rudolf Čejka
- Linux systems - Tomáš Kašpárek
Send comments to lampa@fit.vutbr.cz