CS 1206: Assignment 1

Due Friday, January 23, 1998 by 5pm

100 Points

Figuring Out What and Where Files Are

Your assignment is to collect the following information about the files listed below:

• The absolute path name of where the file is located.
• The one-line summary entry from the command's man page.
• A short paragraph paraphrasing what the command does (3 sentences or so).

The ten files (each of which is a command) you must gather information on are:

1. sh
2. pkg_add
3. X
4. xman
5. grep
6. tr
7. crontab
8. fmt
9. ar
10. tail

While looking for files, please use the FreeBSD machines in McBryde 118. Since not all files are located in the same place on different versions of Unix (indeed, some files may not be on some machines at all!), this will ensure that all students use a consistent environment when answering the questions. You're welcome to do preliminary exploration on any machine you want (even dialed into one of the DEC Alphas from home), but you must double-check your answers on the FreeBSD machines in 118 before turning them in.

Finding Information

In searching for information about the commands listed above, you might find using the following resources helpful:

• UNIX utilities such as:
  • man
  • man -k
  • apropos (which is another name for man -k)
  • which
  • whereis
  • whatis
  • find
• Manual pages on relevant topics and programs (they often contain a FILES listing and other useful information).
• Your knowledge of where things ought to be based on information provided in lecture or in the text books.

You may not ask other students, lab consultants, your lab partner, or anyone else other than the instructor or your TA for information about the ten files listed above. You're welcome to discuss general information about how to use commands like "which", "find", "whatis", and the other resources listed in this section of the assignment with other people including your lab partner, however.

Submitting Your Answers

You are to hand in your assignment by sending an email message to the address cs1206@ei.cs.vt.edu. To receive credit, your mail message must be received by this account by the time and date listed above. It is your responsibility to successfully submit your assignment via email (remember that you will receive an auto-reply by the system when your message has been received successfully). Also, send yourself a copy for future reference. The messsage must be a plain ASCII text file, with no attachments, and in exactly the format defined below. Do not insert any extra notes or explanations.

The mail message must be a plain ASCII text file that contains the following:

• A subject line indicating your lab section, in the format described by your lab TA. Such a subject line contains "DHH HW1", where the D should be replaced by the day of your lab section (M for Monday, T for Tuesday, W for Wednesday, H for Thursday, and F for Friday), and HH should be replaced by the time of your lab section (8, 9, 10, or 11). If you do not include your lab section information in your subject line, you will lose points. The text body of your mail message must follow exactly the format below, one item per line, otherwise you will lose points.
• Your PID.
• Your name.
• Your student ID number.
• One empty line.
• 1. Absolute path name.
• One-line summary entry.
• Short paragraph summarizing the command.
• One empty line.
• 2. Absolute path name.
• One-line summary entry.
• Short paragraph summarizing the command.
• One empty line.
• . . .

An example of a valid submission is:

Subject: W8 HW1
ltw@vt.edu
L. T. Watson
111-22-3333

1. /usr/ucb/vi
Full-screen text editor
vi is a full-screen text editor built upon the command-line editor
ex.  vi is designed to optimize keystrokes, and has very powerful
pattern matching capabilities. It is a mode, rather than WYSIWYG, editor.

2. etc.