EECS2031 W 2026 Lecture 2 Software Tools

These flashcards cover key concepts and commands discussed in the lecture on software tools used in UNIX.

UNIX

An operating system that is known for its multitasking and multiuser capabilities.

File System

The method and data structure that an operating system uses to manage files on a disk or storage.

Absolute Pathname

A complete path from the root of the file system to a specific file.

Relative Pathname

A path that starts from the current directory and does not begin with a root directory.

Process Exit Code

A numeric code returned by a process to indicate how it finished (e.g., success or error).

IPC

Inter-Process Communication, methods that allow processes to communicate with each other.

UNIX Philosophy

The principles that guide the design and implementation of UNIX software.

Shell

A command-line interface that allows users to interact with the operating system.

Basic Utilities

Essential commands such as pwd, ls, mkdir, etc., used in UNIX.

man Command

A command that displays the online manual for other commands in UNIX.

chmod

A command used to change file permissions in UNIX.

wc

A command that counts lines, words, and characters in a file.

grep

A command-line utility for searching plain-text data for lines matching a regular expression.

mkdir

A command used to create new directories.

rmdir

A command used to remove empty directories.

cat

A command that concatenates and displays file content.

cp

A command used to copy files or directories.

mv

A command used to move or rename files or directories.

rm

A command used to remove files or directories.

File Permissions

Settings that define who can read, write, or execute a file.

Pipes

A method in UNIX to send the output of one command as input to another command.

sort

A command that sorts lines of text files.

find

A command that searches for files in a directory hierarchy.