UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hey all. I'm brand spankin' new here to the board. I'm also a novice at Unix. I've been using it for about 1 year now but I haven't really expanded my abilities since I learned the basics. I am in school and I mainly just use Unix to submit stuff to assignment directories and use it to compile my programs.

Some weeks ago I logged in remotely (SSH) and after every command I typed it came with some comments, like if I did
% cd somedirectory
there would be a comment afterwards like
% changed directory to somedirectory

if I would do
% tcsh
it would say
% Now running stupid shell tcsh

Ok, I totally understand that there is a whole Unix feud out there amongst Unix users...people make fun of each other for using emacs or worst yet pico or whatever... and also for running certain shells like tcsh. Whatever, tcsh is all I really know and I wish I could learn other things but at the moment it gets the job done. So the comments started I thought it was odd but the last comment convinced me I was being spyed on and some how whomever it was doing that was sending me these messages.

Can anyone care to explain to this newb how someone would go about doing that? And how can I safeguard against being watched like that!?!

Look through your files:
/etc/.cshrc , ~/.tcshrc, ~/.cshrc
These are the files being processed by tcsh when starting up (this is because you are running tcsh and this is a non-login shell). The ~ stands for your home directory.

These files might have been changed by someone that knows your password or the admins, and since you mention that this is in a school setting, it is likely a joke.

I couldnt find those files.
Here are the files in my home directory
drwx--x--x 17 54283 4096 Nov 14 14:59 .
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 77824 Oct 12 22:58 ..
-rw------- 1 user 884 Nov 14 14:59 .TTauthority
-rw------- 1 user 350 Nov 14 11:26 .Xauthority
drwxr-xr-x 2 user 2048 Oct 2 12:59 .acrobat
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 237 Oct 2 14:43 .acrosrch
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 0 Jun 9 18:05 .addressbook
-rw------- 1 user 2285 Jun 9 18:05 .addressbook.lu
drwx------ 2 user 2048 Oct 2 12:59 .adobe
-rw------- 1 user 26 Nov 12 08:17 .bash_history
drwxr-xr-x 12 user 2048 Nov 14 14:59 .dt
drwxr-xr-x 2 user 2048 Feb 21 2006 .gnome-desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 519 Nov 16 19:10 .history
drwxr-xr-x 3 user 2048 Nov 28 2005 .java
drwxr-xr-x 4 user 2048 May 10 2006 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x 3 user 2048 Jun 9 11:48 .nautilus
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 233 May 29 22:27 .newsrc
-rw------- 1 user 14148 Nov 14 11:35 .pine-debug1
-rw------- 1 user 14772 Nov 11 00:04 .pine-debug2
-rw------- 1 user 16305 Nov 10 23:59 .pine-debug3
-rw------- 1 user 21303 Nov 11 01:22 .pine-debug4
-rw------- 1 user 5759 Nov 11 01:58 .pine-interrupted-mail
-rw------- 1 user 15757 Nov 2 19:12 .pinerc
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 54 Apr 19 2006 .rnlast
drwx------ 2 user 2048 Nov 14 14:59 .solregis
drwx------ 2 user 2048 Sep 28 2005 .ssh
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 766 Feb 2 2006 :: -----------------
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 14835 Nov 8 14:48 Logic2_1.lgi
drwxr-xr-x 2 user 2048 Apr 19 2006 Mail
drwxr-xr-x 2 user 2048 Apr 19 2006 News
drwx--x--x 17 54283 4096 Nov 14 14:59 OldFiles
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 67499 Nov 8 14:48 Proj2Part1.lgi
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 19413 Nov 8 14:48 Proj2Part2.lgi
drwxr-xr-x 2 user 2048 Jan 9 2006 RCS
-rw-r--r-- 1 user 236 Nov 8 14:56 README
-rwx------ 1 user 2223 Apr 11 2006 cid
-rw------- 1 user 0 Sep 28 13:37 core
-rw------- 1 user 335 Nov 7 20:54 dead.letter
drwx------ 2 user 2048 Nov 14 11:34 mail
drwxr-xr-x 7 user 2048 Nov 11 01:25 private
drwxr-xr-x 2 54283 2048 Oct 10 10:31 public_html

One thing I dont know is what the heck is :: -----------------

What is in the "-----------------" file? Try

Code:

cat -- -----------------