UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone, first day on the job.

I'm attempting to learn Unix from the 'Unix® for Mac®' book. On page 11 there are instructions to enter certain commands but for me they don't work.

[darwin:~] user% which w is supposed to result in: -/usr/bin/w -I get a "command not found"

darwin:~] user% which which " " " " " which: shell built-in command. -I get a "command not found"

Still on page 11 I read. "You can get a full list of the built-in shell commands by typing the command builtins at the shell prompt. I entered "builtins" also "command builtins" these also returned a "command not found"

On some entries the cursor becomes a >. Why and how do I return to the regular cursor.

I'm sorry if these items have been dealt with in the past but I couldn't find them.

Thanks

Welcome Frank. Please read the rules so you know what to do and what not to do.

Try /usr/bin/which or /usr/sbin/which instead of just which (I would guess it isn't built-in as they stated in your book).

% /usr/bin/which w

If the cursor becomes a > sign, then it was usually because a full command line wasn't typed - and it's waiting for you to finish the command sequence. Pushing the Control key and C at the same time should get you out of it.

Use the man pages for assistance also. They are sometimes hard to understand, but no one said it would be easy!

% man which

If you can't get these examples to work, look at the PATH variable and MANPATH variable

% env | more

env will give you all the environment variables, | is the pipe sign, and more is to let you look at it all a screen at a time.

Thank you RTM, I guess too many authors take things for granted.