Getting Started with Unix

Note: Throughout the document "computer science" is used to refer to the Rutgers University New Brunswick Computer Science Department. This document will probably be useful in other departments at Rutgers. But specific examples of computer names are taken from the computer science department.

CONTENTS

• Creating an account
• Changing your password; Forgotten Passwords
• Getting to the computer
• Logging out
• Other information

There are different computers or sets of computers for different groups of people. Here are the systems that New Brunswick computer science users are mostly likely to be interested in, as of the spring of 2002:

romulus, remus, rhea:

computer science undergraduates taking courses for majors. This includes 111 and 112. Accounts are created using the web-interface found at http://remus.rutgers.edu/newaccount.html. For computer science majors who are not current taking any computer science courses, send email to help@remus.

john, paul, george, and ringo:

computer science graduate students. Accounts for matriculated grad students are created automatically by the computer science department. Other students taking computer science graduate courses should send mail to help@paul.

aramis, athos, porthos:

computer science faculty. Accounts are created on authorization by the department chair.

eden:

any student at New Brunswick. Accounts are created using the instructions from the opaquely-named http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/newdocs/gen00301/gen00301.html#create URL.

rci:

any faculty or staff member at New Brunswick. Accounts are created using the instructions http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/newdocs/gen00301/gen00301.html#create URL.

For the larger computer systems, we allow you to create an account for yourself. For example, romulus has a list of students who are registered in computer science classes. If you're on the list, you can make your own account. To create your own account, you run the program reached at http://remus.rutgers.edu/newaccount.html, described below.

For systems that don't allow web-based account building, or if for some reason you can use those programs, you can send requests for accounts via email to help@NAME, where NAME is the name of the computer.

When creating an account, you'll need the following information:

• A computer science class you are enrolled in, if you are using the web-based account-building software.
• Your first and last names, in the form it appears in the "white pages". This is a University-wide electronic directory of addresses, phone numbers, etc. You can access it from the directory section of www.rutgers.edu. Your entry is based on data from Personnel or the Registrar, so you should use whatever spelling the University thinks is right. (If you've looked yourself up in the white pages, you can also use your IID, an identifer that looks like +AB123+. It's shown in the white pages.)
• Your Rutgers ID number. (This is normally your social security number. However Rutgers sometimes issues special numbers for students who do not yet have social security numbers.)
• Your birth date.
• A desired user name, if one has not already been selected (e.g. from building your eden account).
• A desired password.

The Rutgers ID number and birth date are used to verify who you are. Since you haven't chosen a password yet, we can't use a password.

You get to choose your own user name. This name should be 2 to 8 characters. The first must be a lower-case letter. The others can be lower-case letters or digits. The name has to be unique. That is, it has to be one that no one else has already chosen. If you choose a name that's already in use, the program will tell you that and let you try another one. If you've already chosed an Eden or RCI account username, DCIS account building software will pick the same one for you.

Please be careful about choosing your user name. This name will appear on all email, and will be the way in which you are known on the computer. We do not keep you from choosing obscene names. However you may end up sending email to prospective employers, and some staff will refuse to respond to obscene email. We recommend using your last or first name, or your initials. If your last name is taken, you might try putting your initials in front of it.

The most difficult part of the process is choosing a password. A password is 4 to 8 characters. In order to prevent other people from guessing it, a number of tests are made. The password

• Must contain at least 4 distinct characters with a minimum length of 6.
• May not contain: #, @, :, ^X, ^U, ^S, ^Q, DEL, BAK.
• Must contain both alphabetics (i.e. upper or lower case letters) and non-alphabetics.
• Must not contain any 3 characters in a row of your finger information. (Finger is a program for finding out information about people who have accounts on the computer. Initially your entry will just contain your name. However once you've logged in, you may add your phone number, address, etc.)

• May not contain 4 sequential characters that comprise a word.
• May not contain 5 sequential characters that comprise a substring of a word. NB: Physically sequential keys are considered to be words.
• For the purpose of the dictionary check, these mappings are made:

              0=O, 1=L, 1=I, 2=A, 3=E, 4=A, 4=H, $=S
  

• May not contain (sub)strings found in your .plan, .project, .signature, and .forward files. (These are files that you can create to add personal information to several different programs. Initially they do not exist.)
• May not contain common data formats such as xxx-xx-xxxx and dd/mm/yy.
• May not contain common date formats such as dd-mmm-yy and mmmyyyy.

If this process works, you'll have a user name and password that can be used for future logins.

If it fails, the most common problems are

• problems with registration
• incorrect SSN or birthdate

The database used by our web-based account building software comes from official registration information. One cause of problems is students who are not properly registered for courses. This doesn't necessarily mean you didn't register: it can be due to confusion over your bill or other paperwork problems. You have to fix this problem up with the registrar. Once you are shown as registered, then our database will be updated (with some delay).

Payments are not taken into account until about two weeks into the semester. At that point anyone who hasn't paid is deregistered. If you have been deregistered, you can't create a student computer account. However if you already had an account, you'll be OK until later in the semester. So if there's any chance of confusion about your payment, you should create an account during the first two weeks.

Another possible cause of problems is that your SSN or birthdate is wrong. In that case, you can go to the Verification Office, in room 200L ASB to get the information updated. Note that some RUCS staff can find out what the system thinks your birthdate and SSN is. You can probably get your account created by using whatever the system thinks is your information.

If you can't create an account, please see the following people:

Computer Science:

Send email (or have a friend send email, if you don't have an account) to help@remus). You'll need to describe exactly what you typed and what error messages you got back. "It didn't work" is not enough information for us to fix your problem.

Other New Brunswick students :

See the staff on duty at any of the New Brunswick hub sites.

New Brunswick faculty and staff:

See the Information Center.

Changing your password; Forgotten Passwords

If you forget your password, staff can reset it for you. They can't tell you what your password is. But they can set things up so that the next time you log in, you choose a new one.

For computer science and math computers, see the LCSR operator in room 235 CORE. (CORE is on Busch Campus, next to Hill Center.) You may want to call 732-445-2443 to verify that the operator is currently in.

For RUCS student systems (e.g. eden), see the staff at any of the New Brunswick hub sites.

For RUCS faculty/staff systems (e.g. rci), see the Information Center in 118 Hill, 732-445-2296.

In most cases you will need to come to the site and show identification.

Getting to the computer

Certain courses have access to the machines in the DCIS instructional labs (Hill Center 248, 250, 252). See http://cereal.rutgers.edu for these machines.

Grad students and faculty often have workstations in their office. They are connected directly to the grad or faculty computer systems, and can be used only if you have an account on them. When idle, these usually display a login screen that asks for your username and password.

Logging in

The "traditional" Unix login looks like this:

    Solaris 2.5 (terrapin.rutgers.edu) (pts/4)

    login: 

    login: hedrick
    Password:

If you're using an X terminal or workstation, you'll see a login screen that asks for the same basic information, but may display varying amounts of fancy decoration. Depending upon the particular software it may ask for your user name by saying either "login: " or "user name:". It may ask for user name and password on one screen, or ask for your user name on one screen and then bring up a different screen where it asks for your password.

Once the system has accepted your password, you'll see something like this:

    login: hedrick
    Password:
    Last login: Mon Jun 26 20:23:50 from geneva
    Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.5       BETA    May 1995

      We're going to have to reboot at 8pm to fix a disk

      If you have any questions, problems, or complaints,
      send mail to help@remus.

    You have mail.
    terrapin> 

Note the following elements, which you should look at each time you login:

Last login:

This is the date and time you last logged in, and what system you came from. This is intended primarily to help you see if someone else is using your account. If you see a login that you didn't do, someone else may know your password. You should change it. If the problem continues, you should consult the support staff (by sending email to "help").

Messages:

There will be a few lines of messages. These will often indicate times when the system is going to be taken down for maintenance, or changes that may affect you.

Mail notification:

This will tell you whether you have email waiting. It will say either nothing (no mail waiting), "You have mail" or "You have new mail". "You have new mail" means that there is mail waiting that you haven't seen yet. "You have mail" means there is mail waiting, but you may have seen it. Whether or not you have actually seen it depends upon the details of how you read your mail.

Prompt:

"terrapin>" is an example of a command prompt. Normally the prompt will be the name of the computer you're using. However you can set it up to include the directory you're in, the time, etc.

At this point you can type commands. However before you start, there are some more logistical deals to take care of.

Logging out

If you are using X to access DCIS machines, you will also need to end your X session. The details of this depend upon your X setup. Normally there is a logout or exit option on a main menu. In one common setup, this main menu appears when you push the right mouse button while the mouse is in the root window (i.e. not in any application.) If you have logged out correctly, your X terminal or workstation should return to the login window.

If you don't log out, the next person to walk up to your terminal or workstation may (accidentally or not) damage your files or other information.

If you find a terminal or workstation that has not been properly logged out, it is appropriate to send an email message to the person warning them that they should not do this, and then log them out. To find out who they are (which you need to know in order to send them email), use the command "whoami". As long as you send the email from their session, it will appear to come from them, so you need not worry about having your name involved. Our user community is historically fairly friendly, so it is not considered appropriate to do any permanent damage to someone else's files in this situation. (However clever people have managed to do various innovative things without actually violating this rule.)

Other information