Chapter 3. Using Your Unix Account

Once you log in, you can use the many facilities that Unix provides. As an authorized system user, you have an account that gives you:

The Unix Filesystem

A file is the unit of storage in Unix, as in most other systems. A file can hold anything: text (a report you’re writing, a to-do list), a program, digitally encoded pictures or sound, and so on. All of those are just sequences of raw data until they’re interpreted by the right program.

In Unix, files are organized into directories. A directory is actually a special kind of file where the system stores information about other files. You can think of a directory as a place, so that files are said to be contained in directories and you are said to work inside a directory. (If you’ve used a Macintosh or Microsoft Windows computer, a Unix directory is similar to a folder.)

This section introduces the Unix filesystem. Later sections in this chapter show how you can look in files and protect them. Chapter 4 has more information.

Your Home Directory

When you log in to Unix, you’re placed in a directory called your home directory. This directory, a unique place in the Unix filesystem, contains the files you use almost every time you log in. In your home directory, you can make your own files. As you’ll see in a minute, you can also store your own directories within your home directory. Like folders in a file cabinet, this is a good way to organize your files.

Your working directory (also called your current directory) is the directory you’re currently working in. Every time you log in, your home directory is your working directory. You may change to another directory, in which case the directory you move to becomes your working directory.

Unless you tell Unix otherwise, all commands that you enter apply to the files in your working directory. In the same way, when you create files, they’re created in your working directory unless you specify another directory. For instance, if you type the command pico report, the Pico editor is started on a file named report in your working directory. But if you type a command such as pico /home/joan/report, a report file is edited in a different directory—without changing your working directory. You’ll learn more about this when we cover pathnames later in this chapter.

If you have more than one terminal window open, or you’re logged in on several terminals at the same time, each session has its own working directory. Changing the working directory in one session doesn’t affect others.

All directories on a Unix system are organized into a hierarchical structure that you can imagine as a family tree. The parent directory of the tree (the directory that contains all other directories) is known as the root directory and is written as a forward slash (/).

The root contains several directories. Figure 3-1 shows a visual representation of the top of a Unix filesystem tree: the root directory and some directories under the root.

Example of a directory tree
Figure 3-1. Example of a directory tree

bin, etc, users, tmp, and usr are some of the subdirectories (child directories) of the root directory. These subdirectories are fairly standard directories; they usually contain specific kinds of system files. For instance, bin contains many Unix programs. Not all systems have a directory named users. It may be called u or home, and/or it may be located in some other part of the filesystem.

In our example, the parent directory of users (one level above) is the root directory. It has two subdirectories (one level below), john and carol. On a Unix system, each directory has only one parent directory, but it may have one or more subdirectories.[7] A subdirectory (such as carol) can have its own subdirectories (such as work and play), up to a limitless depth for practical purposes.

To specify a file or directory location, write its pathname. A pathname is like the address of the directory or file in the Unix filesystem. We look at pathnames in a moment.

On a basic Unix system, all files in the filesystem are stored on disks connected to your computer. It isn’t always easy to use the files on someone else’s computer or for someone on another computer to use your files. Your system may have an easier way: a networked filesystem. Networked filesystems make a remote computer’s files appear as if they’re part of your computer’s directory tree. For instance, a computer in Los Angeles might have a directory named boston with some of the directory tree from a company’s computer in Boston. Or individual users’ home directories may come from various computers, but all be available on your computer as if they were local files. The system staff can help you understand and configure your computer’s filesystems to make your work easier.

As you saw earlier, the Unix filesystem organizes its files and directories in an inverted tree structure with the root directory at the top. An absolute pathname tells you the path of directories you must travel to get from the root to the directory or file you want. In a pathname, put slashes (/) between the directory names.

For example, /users/john is an absolute pathname. It locates one (only one!) directory. Here’s how:

Be sure that you do not type spaces anywhere in the pathname. Figure 3-2 shows this structure.

Absolute path of directory john
Figure 3-2. Absolute path of directory john

In Figure 3-2, you’ll see that the directory john has a subdirectory named work. Its absolute pathname is /users/john/work.

The root is always indicated by the slash (/) at the start of the pathname. In other words, an absolute pathname always starts with a slash.

You can also locate a file or directory with a relative pathname. A relative pathname gives the location relative to your working directory.

Unless you use an absolute pathname (starting with a slash), Unix assumes that you’re using a relative pathname. Like absolute pathnames, relative pathnames can go through more than one directory level by naming the directories along the path.

For example, if you’re currently in the users directory (see Figure 3-2), the relative pathname to the carol directory below is simply carol. The relative pathname to the play directory below that is carol/play.

Notice that neither pathname in the previous paragraph starts with a slash. That’s what makes them relative pathnames! Relative pathnames start at the working directory, not the root directory. In other words, a relative pathname never starts with a slash.

Pathname puzzle

Here’s a short but important question. The previous example explains the relative pathname carol/play. What do you think Unix would say about the pathname /carol/play? (Look again at Figure 3-2.)

Unix would say “No such file or directory.” Why? (Please think about that before you read more. It’s very important and it’s one of the most common beginner’s mistakes.) Here’s the answer. Because it starts with a slash, the pathname /carol/play is an absolute pathname that starts from the root. It says to look in the root directory for a subdirectory named carol. But there is no subdirectory named carol one level directly below the root, so the pathname is wrong. The only absolute pathname to the play directory is /users/carol/play.

Relative pathnames up

You can go up the tree with the shorthand “..” (dot dot) for the parent directory. As you saw earlier, you can also go down the tree by using subdirectory names. In either case (up or down), separate each level by a slash (/).

Figure 3-3 shows part of Figure 3-1. If your working directory in the figure is work, then there are two pathnames for the play subdirectory of carol. You already know how to write the absolute pathname, /users/carol/play. You can also go up one level (with “..”) to carol, then go down the tree to play. Figure 3-3 illustrates this.

Relative pathname from work to play
Figure 3-3. Relative pathname from work to play

The relative pathname would be ../play. It would be wrong to give the relative address as carol/play. Using carol/play would say that carol is a subdirectory of your working directory instead of what it is in this case—the parent directory.

Absolute and relative pathnames are totally interchangeable. Unix programs simply follow whatever path you specify to wherever it leads. If you use an absolute pathname, the path starts from the root. If you use a relative pathname, the path starts from your working directory. Choose whichever is easier at the moment.

Once you know the absolute or relative pathname of a directory where you’d like to work, you can move up and down the Unix directory tree to reach it.

To find which directory you’re currently in, use pwd (print working directory). The pwd command takes no arguments. 

$ pwd
/users/john
$

pwd prints the absolute pathname of your working directory.

You can change your working directory to any directory (including another user’s directory—if you have permission) with the cd (change directory) command.

The cd command has the form:

cd pathname

The argument is an absolute or a relative pathname (whichever is easier) for the directory you want to change to: 

$ cd /users/carol
$ pwd
/users/carol
$ cd work
$ pwd
/users/carol/work
$

Note

Here’s a timesaver: the command cd, with no arguments, takes you to your home directory from wherever you are in the filesystem.

Note that you can only change to another directory. You cannot cd to a filename. If you try, your shell (in this example, bash) gives you an error message: 

$ cd /etc/passwd
bash: /etc/passwd: Not a directory
$

/etc/passwd is a file with information about users’ accounts.

A directory can hold subdirectories. And, of course, a directory can hold files. Figure 3-4 is a close-up of the filesystem around john’s home directory. The four files are shown along with the work subdirectory.

Files in the directory tree
Figure 3-4. Files in the directory tree

Pathnames to files are made the same way as pathnames to directories. As with directories, files’ pathnames can be absolute (starting from the root directory) or relative (starting from the working directory). For example, if your working directory is users, the relative pathname to the work directory below would be john/work. The relative pathname to the ch1 file would be john/ch1.

Unix filesystems can hold things that aren’t directories or files, such as symbolic links, FIFOs, and sockets (they have pathnames, too). You may see some of them as you explore the filesystem. We don’t cover those advanced topics in this little book.

To use the cd command, you must decide which entries in a directory are subdirectories and which are files. The ls command lists entries in the directory tree and can also show you which is which.

When you enter the ls command, you’ll get a listing of the files and subdirectories contained in your working directory. The syntax is:

ls option(s) directory-and-filename(s)

If you’ve just logged in for the first time, entering ls without any arguments may seem to do nothing. This isn’t surprising because you haven’t made any files in your working directory. If you have no files, nothing is displayed; you’ll simply get a new shell prompt: 

$ ls
$

But if you’ve already made some files or directories in your account, those names are displayed. The output depends on what’s in your directory. The screen should look something like this: 

$ ls
ch1    ch10    ch2    ch3   intro
$

(Some systems display filenames in a single column. If yours does, you can make a multicolumn display with the -C [uppercase “C"] option or the -x option.) ls has a lot of options that change the information and display format.

The -a option (for all) is guaranteed to show you some more files, as in the following example showing a directory like the one in Figure 3-4: 

$ ls -a
.      .exrc      ch1     ch2     intro
..     .profile   ch10    ch3 
$

When you use ls -a, you’ll always see at least two entries with the names “.” (dot) and “..” (dot dot). As mentioned earlier, .. is always the relative pathname to the parent directory. A single . always stands for its working directory; this is useful with commands like cp (see Section 4.4.2 in Chapter 4). There may also be other files, such as .profile or .exrc. Any entry whose name begins with a dot is hidden—it’s listed only if you use ls -a.

To get more information about each item that ls lists, add the -l option. (That’s a lowercase “L” for “long.”) This option can be used alone, or in combination with -a, as shown in Figure 3-5.

Output from ls -al
Figure 3-5. Output from ls -al

The long format provides the following information about each item:

Total n

n amount of storage used by everything in this directory. (This is measured in blocks. On many systems, but not all, a full block holds 1024 bytes. A block can also be partly full.)

Type

Tells whether the item is a directory (d) or a plain file (-). (There are other less common types that we don’t explain here.)

Access modes

Specifies three types of users (yourself, your group, all others) who are allowed to read (r), write (w), or execute (x) your files. We’ll say more about this in a moment.

Links

The number of files or directories linked to this one. (This isn’t the same sort of link as in a web page. We don’t discuss filesystem links in this little book.)

Owner

The user who created or owns this file or directory.

Group

The group that owns the file or directory. (If your version of Unix doesn’t show this column, add the -g option to see it.)

Size (in bytes)

The size of the file or directory. (A directory is actually a special type of file. Here, the “size” of a directory is of the directory file itself, not of all the files in that directory.)

Modification date

When the file was last modified, or the directory contents last changed (when something in the directory was added, renamed, or removed). If an entry was modified more than six months ago, ls shows the year instead of the time.

Name

The name of the file or directory.

Notice especially the columns that list the owner and group of the files, and the access modes (also called permissions). The person who creates a file is its owner; if you’ve created any files (or system staff did it for you), this column should show your username. You also belong to a group, set by the person who created your account. Files you create are either marked with the name of your group, or in some cases, the group that owns the directory.

The permissions show who can read, write, or execute the file or directory; we explain what that means in a moment. The permissions have ten characters. The first character shows the file type (d for directory or - for a plain file). The other characters come in groups of three. The first group, characters 2-4, show the permissions for the file’s owner, which is yourself if you created the file. The second group, characters 5-7, show permissions for other members of the file’s group. The third group, characters 8-10, show permissions for all other users.

For example, the permissions for .profile are -rw-r--r--, so it’s a plain file. The owner, john, has both read and write permissions. Other users who belong to the file’s group doc, as well as all other users of the system, can only read the file; they don’t have write permission, so they can’t change what’s in the file. No one has execute (x) permission, which should only be used for executable files (files that hold programs).

In the case of directories, x means the permission to access the directory—for example, to run a command that reads a file there or to use a subdirectory. Notice that the two directories shown in the example are executable (accessible) by john, by users in the doc group, and by everyone else on the system. A directory with w (write) permission allows deleting, renaming, or adding files within the directory. Read (r) permission allows listing the directory with ls.

You can use the chmod command to change the permissions of your files and directories. See Section 3.3, later in this chapter.

If you need to know only which files are directories and which are executable files, you can use the -F option.

If you give the pathname to a directory, ls lists the directory but it does not change your working directory. The pwd command in the following example shows this: 

$ ls -F /users/andy
calendar    goals    ideas/
ch2         guide/   testpgm*
$ pwd
/etc
$

ls -F puts a / (slash) at the end of each directory name. (The directory name doesn’t really have a slash in it; that’s just the shortcut ls -F uses to identify a directory.) In our example, guide and ideas are directories. You can verify this by using ls -l and noting the “d” in the first field of the output. Files with an execute status (x), such as programs, are marked with an * (asterisk). The file testpgm is an executable file. Files that aren’t marked are not executable.

ls -R (“recursive”) lists a directory and all its subdirectories. This can make a very long list—especially when you list a directory near the root! (Piping the output of ls to a pager program solves this problem. There’s an example in Section 5.2.3 in Chapter 5.) You can combine other options with -R: for instance, ls -RF marks each directory and file type.

On Linux and other systems with the GNU version of ls, you may be able to see names in color. For instance, directories could be green and program files could be yellow. Like almost everything on Unix, of course, this is configurable. The details are more than we can cover in an introductory book. Try typing ls --color and see what happens. (It’s time for our familiar mantra: check your documentation. See Chapter 8—especially the man command for reading a command’s online manual page.)

You’re now equipped to explore the filesystem with cd, ls, and pwd. Take a tour of the directory system, hopping one or many levels at a time, with a mixture of cd and pwd commands.

Go to your home directory.

Enter cd

Find your working directory.

Enter pwd

Change to new working directory with its absolute pathname.

Enter cd /etc

List files in new working directory.

Enter ls

Change directory to root and list it in one step. (Use the command separator, a semicolon.)

Enter cd /; ls

Find your working directory.

Enter pwd

Change to a subdirectory; use its relative pathname.

Enter cd usr

Find your working directory.

Enter pwd

Change to a subdirectory.

Enter cd bin

Find your working directory.

Enter pwd

Give a wrong pathname.

Enter cd xqk

List files in another directory.

Enter ls /bin

Find your working directory (notice that ls didn’t change it).

Enter pwd

Return to your home directory.

Enter cd

Looking Inside Files with less

By now, you’re probably tired of looking at files from the outside. It’s kind of like going to a bookstore and looking at the covers, but never getting to read a word. Let’s look at a program for reading files.

If you want to “read” a long file on the screen, your system may have the less command to display one “page” (a terminal filled from top to bottom) of text at a time.

If you don’t have less, you’ll probably have similar programs named more or pg. (In fact, the name less is a play on the name of more, which came first.) The syntax is:

less option(s) file(s)

less lets you move forward or backward in the files by any number of pages or lines; you can also move back and forth between two or more files specified on the command line. When you invoke less, the first “page” of the file appears. A prompt appears at the bottom of the terminal (or terminal window), as in the following example: 

$ less ch03
A file is the unit of storage in Unix, as in most other systems.
A file can hold anything: text (a report you're writing,
	.
	.
	.
:

The basic less prompt is just a colon (:)—although, for the first screenful, less displays the file’s name as a prompt. The cursor sits to the right of this prompt as a signal for you to enter a less command to tell less what to do.

Like almost everything about less, the prompt can be customized. For example, using the less -M option on the less command line makes the prompt show the filename and your position in the file. (If you want this to happen every time you use less, you can set the LESS environment variable to M (without a dash) in your shell setup file. See Section 3.7, later in this chapter.)

You can set or unset most options temporarily from the less prompt. For instance, if you have the short less prompt (a colon), you can enter -M while less is running. less responds “Long prompt (press RETURN),” and for the rest of the session, less prompts with the filename, line number, and percentage of the file viewed.

To display the less commands and options available on your system, press “h” (for “help”) while less is running. Table 3-1 lists some simple (but still quite useful) commands.

Table 3-1. Useful less commands

Command

Description

Command

Description

SPACE

Display next page.

v

v

RETURN

Display next line.

CTRL-L

Redisplay current page.

nf

Move forward n lines.

Help.

Move backward one page.

:n

Go to next file on command line.

n b

Move backward n lines.

:p

Go back to previous file on command line.

/word

Search forward for word.

q

Quit less.

?word

Search backward for word.

  

Protecting and Sharing Files

Unix makes it easy for users to share files and directories. For instance, everyone in a group can read documents stored in one of their manager’s directories without needing to make their own copies—if the manager has allowed access. There might be no need to fill peoples’ email inboxes with file attachments if everyone can access those files directly through the Unix filesystem.

Here’s a brief introduction to file security and sharing. Networked systems with multiple users, such as Unix, have complex security issues that take tens or hundreds of pages to explain. If you have critical security needs or you just want more information, talk to your system staff or see an up-to-date book on Unix security.

Warning

Note that the system’s superuser (the system administrator and possibly other users) can do anything to any file at any time, no matter what its permissions are. So, access permissions won’t keep your private information safe from everyone—although let’s hope that you can trust your system staff!

Your system staff should also keep backup copies of users’ files. These backup copies may be readable by anyone who has physical access to them. That is, anyone who can take the backup out of a cabinet (or wherever) and mount it on a computer system may be able to read the file copies. The same is true for files stored on floppy disks and any other removable media. (Once you take a file off of a Unix system, that system can’t control access to it anymore.)

A directory’s access permissions help to control access to the files and subdirectories in that directory:

The access permissions on a file control what can be done to the file’s contents. The access permissions on the directory where the file is kept control whether the file can be renamed or removed. (If this seems confusing, think of it this way: the directory is actually a list of files. Adding, renaming, or removing a file changes the contents of the directory. If the directory isn’t writable, you can’t change that list.)

Read permission controls whether you can read a file’s contents. Write permission lets you change a file’s contents. A file shouldn’t have execute permission unless it’s a program.

Once you know what permissions a file or directory needs—and if you’re the owner (listed in the third column of ls -l output)—you can change the permissions with the chmod program.

There are two ways to change permissions: by specifying the permissions to add or delete, or by specifying the exact permissions.[8] For instance, if a directory’s permissions are almost correct, but you also need to make it writable by its group, tell chmod to add group-write permission. But if you need to make more than one change to the permissions—for instance, you want to add read and execute permission, but delete write permission—it’s easier to set all permissions explicitly instead of changing them one-by-one. The syntax is:

chmod permissions file(s)

Let’s start with the rules; we see examples next. The permissions argument has three parts, which you must give in order with no space between.

  1. The category of permission you want to change. There are three: the owner’s permission (which chmod calls “user,” abbreviated u), the group’s permission (g), or others’ permission (o). To change more than one category, string the letters together, such as go for “group and others,” or simply use a to mean “all” (same as ugo).

  2. Whether you want to add (+) the permission, delete (-) it, or specify it exactly (=).

  3. What permissions you want to affect: read (r), write (w), or execute (x). To change more than one permission, string the letters together—for example, rw for “read and write.”

Some examples should make this clearer! In the following command lines, you can replace dirname or filename with the pathname (absolute or relative) of the directory or file. An easy way to change permissions on the working directory is by using its relative pathname, . (dot), as in "chmod a-w .“. You can combine two permission changes in the same chmod command by separating them with a comma (,), as shown in the final example.

After you change permissions, it’s a good idea to check your work at first with "ls -l filename" or "ls -ld dirname“.

More Protection Under Linux

Most Linux systems have a program named chattr that gives you more choices on file and directory protection. chattr is being developed, and your version may not have all the features that it will have in later Linux versions. For instance, chattr can make a Linux file append-only (so it can’t be overwritten, only added to), compressed (to save disk space automatically), immutable (so it can’t be changed at all), undeletable, and more. Check your online documentation (type man chattr—see Chapter 8).

Problem checklist

I get the message “chmod: Not owner.”

Only the owner of a file or directory—or the superuser—can set its permissions. Use ls -l to find the owner, or ask a system staff person to change the permissions.

A file is writable, but my program says it can’t be written.

First, check the file permissions with ls -l and be sure you’re in the category (user, group, or others) that has write permission.

The problem may also be in the permissions of the file’s directory. Some programs need permission to write more files into the same directory (for example, temporary files), or to rename files (for instance, making a file into a backup) while editing. If it’s safe to add write permission to the directory (if other files in the directory don’t need protection from removal or renaming) try that. Otherwise, copy the file to a writable directory (with cp), edit it there, then copy it back to the original directory.

Group ownership lets a certain group of users have access to a file or directory. You might need to let a different group have access. The chgrp program sets the group owner of a file or directory. You can set the group to any of the groups you belong to. (The system staff control the list of groups you’re in.) On most versions of Unix, the groups program lists your groups.

For example, if you’re an instructor creating a directory named csc303 for students in a course, the directory’s original group owner might be faculty. You’d like the students, all of whom are in the group named csstudnt, to access the directory; members of other groups should have no access. Use commands such as these:[9] 

$ groups
faculty csstudnt wheel research
$ mkdir csc303
$ ls -ld csc303
drwxr-xr-x    2 roberts  faculty      4096 Aug 25 13:35 csc303
$ chgrp csstudnt csc303
$ chmod o= csc303
$ ls -ld csc303
drwxr-x---    2 roberts  csstudnt     4096 Aug 25 13:35 csc303

The chown program changes the owner of a file or directory. On most Unix systems, only the superuser can use chown.[10]

Graphical Filesystem Browsers

Most Unix window systems give you a graphical way to do some of the things you can do with files from the command line. A filesystem browser, such as the GNOME File Manager or KDE’s Konqueror, lets you see a graphical representation of the filesystem and do a limited number of operations on it. Figure 3-6 shows the GNOME filesystem browser. The left pane has a directory tree. The right pane shows the contents of the directory that’s selected (open) in the left pane; here, this is the directory /home/mpeek. The titlebar shows the pathname of the selected directory.

GNOME filesystem browser
Figure 3-6. GNOME filesystem browser

A filesystem browser can be handy for seeing what’s in the filesystem. Unfortunately, because a filesystem browser takes you away from the shell you’re using for other work, it can limit what you’re able to do with Unix. (You’ll see additional information about why this is true when we cover more advanced features such as input-output redirection in Chapter 5.) We recommend learning about your filesystem browser but also learning what you can do at the more powerful Unix command line.

Completing File and Directory Names

Most Unix shells can complete a partly typed file or directory name for you. Different shells have different methods. In many shells, you type the first few letters of the name, then press TAB. If the shell can find just one way to finish the name, it will; your cursor will move to the end of the new name, where you can type more or press RETURN to run the command. (You also can edit or erase the completed name.)

What happens if more than one file or directory name matches what you’ve typed so far? Again, that depends on the shell you’re using. The cursor will probably stay where it is, and the terminal may beep. At this point, the easiest answer could be to type more characters of the name (to make the name unique) and press TAB again to complete the rest of the name. You may also be able to get a list of all possible completions; after the first beep, try pressing TAB again (or CTRL-D, depending on your shell) and you may see a list of all names starting with the characters you’ve typed so far. Here’s an example from the bash shell: 

$ cp /etc/pa
               TAB
               (beep)
               TAB
pam.d         paper.config  passwd        passwd-       passwd.OLD
$ cp /etc/pa

At this point, I could type another character or two—an s, for example—and then press TAB once more to make /etc/passwd.

Changing Your Password

On most Unix systems, everyone knows (or can find) your username. When you log in, how does the system decide that you really own your account and aren’t an intruder trying to break in? Unix uses your password. If anyone knows both your username and password, they can use your account—including sending email that looks as if you wrote it.[11] So you should keep your password a secret! Never write it down and leave it anywhere near your terminal.

If you think that someone knows your password, you should probably change it right away—although, if you suspect a computer “cracker” (or “hacker”) is using your account to break into your system, ask your system administrator for advice first, if possible! You should also change your password periodically; every few months is recommended.

A password should be easy for you to remember but hard for other people (or password-guessing programs!) to guess. Your system should have guidelines for secure passwords. If it doesn’t, here are some suggestions. A password should be between six and eight characters long. It should not be a word in any language, your phone number, your address, or anything anyone else might know or guess that you’d use as a password. It’s best to mix upper- and lowercase letters, punctuation, and numbers.

To change your password, you’ll probably use either the passwd or yppasswd program from a shell prompt. After you enter the command, it prompts you to enter your password (“old password”). If the password is correct, it asks you to enter your new password—twice, to be sure there is no typing mistake. For security, neither the old nor new passwords appear as you type them.

On some systems, your password change won’t take effect for some time. The change may require between a few minutes to a day.

Customizing Your Account

As we saw earlier, your home directory may have a hidden file called .profile. If it doesn’t, there’ll probably be one or more files named .login, .cshrc, .tcshrc, .bashrc, .bash_profile, or .bash_login. These files are shell setup files, and are the key to customizing your account. Shell setup files contain commands that are automatically executed when a new shell starts—especially when you log in.

Let’s take a look at these files. Go to your home directory, then use less to display the file. Your .profile might look something like this: 

PATH='/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:'
LESS='eMq'
export PATH LESS
/usr/games/fortune
date
umask 002

A .login file could look like this: 

set path = (/bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin .)
setenv LESS 'eMq'
/usr/games/fortune
date
umask 002

As you can see, these sample setup files contain commands to print a “fortune” and the date—just what happened earlier when we logged in! (/usr/games/fortune is a useless but entertaining program that prints a randomly selected saying from its collection. fortune isn’t available on all systems.)

But what are these other commands?

You can change these files with a text editor, such as pico -w (see Section 4.3.2 in Chapter 4). Don’t use a word processor that breaks long lines or puts special nontext codes into the file. Any changes you make to those files will take effect the next time you log in (or, in some cases, when you start a new shell—such as opening a new terminal window in your window system). Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to know which shell setup file you should change.[13] And an editing mistake in your shell setup file can keep you from logging in to your account! We suggest that beginners get help from experienced users—and not make changes to these files at all if you’re about to do some critical work with your account, unless there’s some reason you have to make the changes immediately.

You can execute any of these programs from the command line, as well. In this case, the changes are in effect only until you close that window or log out. If your shell prompt has a $ character in it, you’ll probably use the syntax shown earlier in the .profile; if your shell prompt has a % or > instead, the syntax in the .login is probably right.

For example, to change the default options for less so it will clear the terminal screen before it shows each new page of text, you’ll want to add the -c option to the LESS environment variable. The command you’d type at a shell prompt would look something like this: 

$ LESS='eMqc'
$ export LESS

or like this: 

% setenv LESS 'eMqc'

(If you don’t want some of the less options we’ve shown, you could leave those letters out.) Unix has many other configuration commands to learn about; the sources listed in Section 8.1 of Chapter 8 can help.

Just as you can execute the setup commands from the command line, the converse is true: any command that you can execute from the command line can be executed automatically when you log in by placing it in your setup file. (Running interactive commands such as pine from your setup file isn’t a good idea, though.)


[7] On most Unix systems, the root directory, at the top of the tree, is its own parent. Some systems have another directory above the root.

[8] Early versions of chmod can’t add or delete particular permissions. Instead, you have to give an exact permission as three digits between 0 and 7. If you need to use chmod that way, please see a more detailed Unix reference.

[9] Many Unix systems also let you set a directory’s group ownership so that any files you later create in that directory will be owned by the same group as the directory. Try the command "chmod g+s dirname“. If this works, the permissions listing from ls -ld should show an s in place of the second x, such as drwxr-s---.

[11] Unfortunately, it’s easy to forge email, without using your computer account at all, so that no one but an expert can tell it was forged.

[12] Some shells that read the .profile let you set a variable’s value on the same line as the export command, but not all do. Our two-step method for setting PATH works in all cases.

[13] Some files are read by login shells, and others by nonlogin shells. Some are read by subshells; others aren’t. Some terminal windows open login shells; others don’t.