Technical Support Frequently Asked Questions

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FAQ's about Unix?

What is UNIX ?
What is shell ?
What are directories

Q. What is UNIX ?

A. UNIX is an operating system--something that sits between you and the hardware of your computer, and translates your commands to it and its responses back to you. There are many different operating systems, but UNIX is one of the most powerful and most widespread on the Internet.

While you can use all of the Internet programs with the menus we provide, you need to at least be familiar with how the UNIX shell arranges files and directories. The menu system helps you use UNIX without having to remember what all the commands are, but you need to know a few.

For information on basic UNIX commands, please see the Basic UNIX commands page.

Q. What is shell ?

A. The shell is called that because it "covers" the UNIX "kernel", the heart of the operating system. Inside, there are lots of different things happening--UNIX is multi-user and multi-tasking, which means that the system is constantly doing things for several people at once. The shell is your interface with UNIX. The menu system is another layer on top of the shell.

Q. What are directories ?

A. UNIX arranges files in directories. Directories in UNIX are like folders on a Macintosh or directories on a Windows or DOS machine. They can contain more directories, or files. The way, or "path", to a particular file is the list of directories to the file. For instance, the path to the file you're reading right now is

/home/www.accesscom.com/faq/unix/unix1.html

unix1.html is the name of this file; the other names are the directories and subdirectories that contain it. The top level directory, which holds all others, is called "root"; it's symbolized by the first "/" in a path name.

When you connect to Access, you are automatically in your home directory. This is the directory with your username that contains all your files. It can contain sub-directories as well. Your home directory may move around on our system as we change equipment; we always keep an "alias" called "home" on the system, just like aliases and "shortcuts" on your home computer, so that you can find your files wherever they physically may be.

You can move around among the directories on Access, copy files, create directories within your home directory, store web pages and perform many other tasks.

For information on basic UNIX commands, please see the Basic UNIX commands page.