USENET Unix FAQS - Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Perderabo · #1 (**permalink**) 02-03-2005

I have been working on another faq thread sites recommended by users and these Usenet FAQs really belong there. But I decided to give them their own thread and link in each faq. This overflowed the 10000 character limit per post so I had to break it into two posts. I reread all of the faqs as I tested the links. This document is showing it's age but it's still very useful. Beware though, for the most part it's over 10 years old. --- Perderabo

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (1/7) General questions.

News Headers
Who helped you put this list together?
When someone refers to 'rn(1)' ... the number in parentheses mean?
What does {some strange unix command name} stand for?
How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" ... work ?
What are some useful Unix or C books?
What happened to the pronunciation list ... ?

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (2/7) Relatively basic questions, likely to be asked by beginners.

News Headers
How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?
How do I remove a file with funny characters in the filename ?
How do I get a recursive directory listing?
How do I get the current directory into my prompt?
How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?
How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names to lowercase?
Why do I get [some strange error message] when I "rsh host command" ?
How do I ... and have that change affect my current shell?
How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
How do I tell inside .cshrc if I'm a login shell?
How do I construct a ... matches all files except "." and ".." ?
How do I find the last argument in a Bourne shell script?
What's wrong with having '.' in your $PATH ?
How do I ring the terminal bell during a shell script?
Why can't I use "talk" to talk with my friend on machine X?
Why does calendar produce the wrong output?

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (3/7) Intermediate questions.

News Headers
How do I find the creation time of a file?
How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around ... ?
How do I truncate a file?
Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
How do I "undelete" a file?
How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
Why doesn't redirecting a loop work as intended? (Bourne shell)
How do I run ... interactive programs from a shell script ... ?
How do I find the process ID of a program with a particular name ... ?
How do I check the exit status of a remote command executed via "rsh"?
Is it possible to pass shell variable settings into an awk program?
How do I get rid of zombie processes that persevere?
How do I get lines from a pipe ... instead of only in larger blocks?
How do I get the date into a filename?
Why do some scripts start with #! ... ?

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (4/7) Advanced questions, likely to be asked by people who thought they already knew all of the answers.

News Headers
How do I read characters ... without requiring the user to hit RETURN?
How do I check to see if there are characters to be read ... ?
How do I find the name of an open file?
How can an executing program determine its own pathname?
How do I use popen() to open a process for reading AND writing?
How do I sleep() in a C program for less than one second?
How can I get setuid shell scripts to work?
How can I find out which user or process has a file open ... ?
How do I keep track of people who are fingering me?
Is it possible to reconnect a process to a terminal ... ?
Is it possible to "spy" on a terminal ... ?

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (5/7) Questions pertaining to the various shells, and the differences.

News Headers
Can shells be classified into categories?
How do I "include" one shell script from within another shell script?
Do all shells have aliases? Is there something else that can be used?
How are shell variables assigned?
How can I tell if I am running an interactive shell?
What "dot" files do the various shells use?
I would like to know more about the differences ... ?

Perderabo · #2 (**permalink**) 02-03-2005

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (6/7) An overview of Unix variants.

News Headers
Disclaimer, introduction and acknowledgements.
A very brief look at Unix history.
Main Unix flavors.
Main Players and Unix Standards.
Identifying your Unix flavor.
Brief notes on some well-known (commercial/PD) Unices.
Real-time Unices.
Unix glossary

Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (7/7) An comparison of configuration management systems (RCS, SCCS).

News Headers
RCS vs SCCS: Introduction
RCS vs SCCS: How do the interfaces compare?
RCS vs SCCS: What's in a Revision File?
RCS vs SCCS: What are the keywords?
What's an RCS symbolic name?
RCS vs SCCS: How do they compare for performance?
RCS vs SCCS: Version Identification.
RCS vs SCCS: How do they handle problems?
RCS vs SCCS: How do they interact with make(1)?
RCS vs SCCS: Conversion.
RCS vs SCCS: Support
RCS vs SCCS: Command Comparison
RCS vs SCCS: Acknowledgements
Can I get more information on configuration management systems?

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