HCC2D A10 Aixbasics Studenthints

V3.
cover
Front cover
AIX 6 Basics
(Course Code AU13)
Student Exercises
with Hints
ERC 10.0
IBM Certified Course Material
Student Exercises with Hints
Trademarks
The reader should recognize that the following terms, which appear in the content of this
training document, are official trademarks of IBM or other companies:
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
The following are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United
States, or other countries, or both:
AIX
MVS
System p
AIX 5L
OS/2
System p5
Common User Access

pSeries
400
PS/2 is a trademark or registered trademark of Lenovo in the United States, other

countries, or both.
Adobe is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in
the United States, and/or other countries.
Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the
United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other
countries.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or
both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
February 2008 Edition

The information contained in this document has not been submitted to any formal IBM test and is distributed on an as is basis without
any warranty either express or implied. The use of this information or the implementation of any of these techniques is a customer
responsibility and depends on the customers ability to evaluate and integrate them into the customers operational environment. While
each item may have been reviewed by IBM for accuracy in a specific situation, there is no guarantee that the same or similar results will
result elsewhere. Customers attempting to adapt these techniques to their own environments do so at their own risk.
Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1995, 2008. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of IBM.
Note to U.S. Government Users Documentation related to restricted rights Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to restrictions
set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
V3.1.0.1
TOC
Contents
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Exercises Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Exercise 1. Using the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
Exercise 2. AIX 6.1 Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
Exercise 3. Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
Exercise 4. Using Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Exercise 5. File Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
Exercise 6. vi Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
Exercise 7. Shell Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
Exercise 8. Using Shell Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1
Exercise 9. Controlling Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1
Exercise 10. Customizing the User Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
Exercise 11. AIX Utilities (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-1
Exercise 15. Additional Shell Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-1
Exercise 16. Using AIXwindows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-1
Exercise 17. Using the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-1
Appendix A. Customizing AIXwindows (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
Appendix B. Customizing AIXwindows (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1
Appendix C. Customizing CDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-1
Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part
without the prior written permission of IBM.
Contents
iii
iv
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
TMK
Trademarks
The reader should recognize that the following terms, which appear in the content of this
training document, are official trademarks of IBM or other companies:
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
The following are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United
States, or other countries, or both:
AIX
MVS
System p
AIX 5L
OS/2
System p5
Common User Access

pSeries
400
PS/2 is a trademark or registered trademark of Lenovo in the United States, other

countries, or both.
Adobe is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in
the United States, and/or other countries.
Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the
United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other
countries.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or
both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Trademarks
vi
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
pref
Exercises Description
None of the exercises, EXCEPT Exercises 4 and 5 are dependent on
the preceding exercise being successfully completed. It is assumed,
however, that you understand the commands and concepts from each
exercise as these commands and concepts are carried over to the
follow-on exercises.
Each exercise in this course is divided into sections as described
below. Select the section that best fits your method of performing
exercises. You may select to use a combination of these sections as
appropriate.
Exercise Instructions - This section contains what it is you are to
accomplish. There are no definitive details on how to perform the
tasks. You are given the opportunity to work through the exercise
given what you learned in the unit presentation, utilizing the unit
Student Notebook, your past experience, and maybe a little intuition.
Exercise Instructions with Hints - This section is an exact duplicate
of the Exercise Instructions section except that in addition, specific
details and hints are provided to help step you through the exercise.
Using the Exercise Instructions section along with the Exercise
Instructions with Hints section can make for a rewarding
combination providing you with no hints when you do not want them
and hints when you need them. When there is more than one way to
do a command, we show you both ways with an -OR- between
possible solutions.
Optional Exercises - This section provides additional practice on a
particular topic. Specific details and hints are provided to help step you
through the Optional Exercises, if needed. Not all exercises include
Optional Exercises.
Solutions - This section provides at least one solution to questions
strategically placed in some exercises. Where applicable the solutions
have been provided at the end of the Exercise Instructions with
Hints section. Note: These are NOT the solutions to the exercises as
those are provided in the Exercise Instructions with Hints.
Exercises Description

vii
Text highlighting
The following text highlighting conventions are used throughout this book:
viii
Bold
Identifies file names, file paths, directories, user names, and

principals.
Italics
Identifies links to Web sites, publication titles, and is used

where the word or phrase is meant to stand out from the
surrounding text.
Monospace
Identifies attributes, variables, file listings, SMIT menus, code

examples of text similar to what you might see displayed,
examples of portions of program code similar to what you might
write as a programmer, and messages from the system.
Monospace bold
Identifies commands, daemons, menu paths, and what the user

would enter in examples of commands and SMIT menus.
<text>
The text between the < and > symbols identifies information the
user must supply. The text may be normal highlighting, bold or
monospace, or monospace bold depending on the context.
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 1. Using the System

(with Hints)
What This Exercise Is About

The purpose of this exercise is to become familiar with AIX command
syntax and basic commands.
What You Should Be Able to Do

After completing this exercise, students should be able to:
Log in to an AIX system and change passwords
Execute basic commands
Use the wall and write commands to communicate with other
users
Use keyboard control keys to control command line output
Introduction
When executing commands on the command line, use the Enter key
on the graphics keyboard not the Ctrl/Act key. If using an ASCII
keyboard use the Return key not the Send key. Use of the Ctrl/Act or
Send keys can cause unpredictable results. When correcting a
typographical error on the command line, use the Backspace key not
the arrow keys.

1-1
Exercise Instructions with Hints

Preface
All exercises for this unit depend on the availability of specific equipment in your
classroom.
All hints are marked by a sign.
Logging In / Changing Passwords

__ 1. Log in to the system with the user name and password provided by your instructor. It
should be a user name such as teamxx where xx is a double digit number like 01,
02 and so forth.
The very first time you log in with your new user name, you will be prompted to
change your password. Keep the password the same as your login name. The
passwords you supply on the command line will not be displayed.
login: teamxx (at the login prompt)
Password: teamxx (default password same as user name)
You are required to change your password. Please choose
a new one.
teamxx's New password: teamxx (keep it the same for now)
Enter new password again: teamxx
__ 2. Verify that the password has been set by logging out and back in.
$ exit
login: teamxx
Password: (key in your new password)
Basic Commands
__ 3. Display the system's date.
$ date
__ 4. Display the whole calendar for the year 2007.
$ cal 2007
__ 5. Display the month of September for the year 1752. Notice anything peculiar about
September? __________
$ cal 9 1752
__ 6. Display the month of January for the years 1999 and 99. Are 1999 and 99 the
same? __________
1-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ cal 1 1999
$ cal 1 99
__ 7. There are two commands that will display information about all users currently on
the local system. Display who is currently logged in on your system. Check to see
when they logged in.
$ who
-OR
$ finger
__ 8. Display just your login name.
$ who am i
__ 9. Use banner to display Out to Lunch.
$ banner Out to Lunch
__ 10. Use the echo command to write the character string Out to Lunch to your display.
$ echo Out to Lunch
__ 11. Use the clear command to clear your screen.
$ clear
Send and Receive Mail

__ 12. Send a note to yourself using the mail command. Provide a subject but ignore the
carbon copy prompt.
$ mail teamxx (where teamxx is your login name)
Subject: A reminder to myself
The meeting starts at 10:00.
<Ctrl-d> (<Ctrl-d> must start on a new line)
Cc: (enter to bypass this option)
__ 13. Start the mail process and list the message in your mailbox. Read your message,
save it, and quit the mail program. To list a brief summary of mail subcommands,
type ? at the mail prompt.
$ mail
? t (you can also use 1 if preferred)
? s
/home/teamxx/mbox [New file] (You will see this message)
? q

1-3
__ 14. Access your mail and delete the message you saved in your personal mailbox. Exit
the mail program. If there is more than one person logged in on your system,
practice sending mail to each other.
$ mail -f
? d
? q
Communicating with Other Users

__ 15. Send a note to all users on the system indicating that you have almost completed
this exercise.
$ wall I have almost completed this exercise
__ 16. Pair up with someone on your system to coordinate this exercise. Open a line of
communication to send a message to your partner, teamyy. Let teamyy know that
you are waiting for a response. teamyy should then reply and let you know that they
have nothing else to say. End of conversation.
$ write teamyy
I need to see you
o
$ write teamxx
I am too busy at the moment
oo
<Ctrl-d>
Enter a <Ctrl-d> to end your conversation after seeing the oo from teamyy.
Keyboard Tips
To get some practice temporarily stopping, starting, and terminating the scrolling of
command output, use the banner command to banner the letters of the alphabet in order to
generate multiple lines of output.
__ 17. Using banner, display the alphabet separating each character with a space. As
output is scrolling to your display, temporarily stop the output. Resume the scrolling.
$ banner a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
<Ctrl-s> (temporarily stops scrolling)
<Ctrl-q> (resumes scrolling)
<Ctrl-c> (terminates the current command)
__ 18. Repeat the banner command used in the previous step, typing only the first five
letters of the alphabet, but DO NOT press Enter. Erase your input using <Ctrl-u>.
Now have the banner command display the phrase End of Exercise. This time if
you make a typing mistake while keying this command, use the Backspace key to
correct the command line.
1-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ banner a b c d e
$ <Ctrl-u>
$ banner End of Exercise
__ 19. Log off the system.
$ <Ctrl-d>
END OF EXERCISE

1-5
Exercise Solutions
__ 5. Display the month of September for the year 1752. Notice anything peculiar about
September? __________
Answer: This was an adjustment made by Pope Gregory to bring the
calendar back in sync with the Earth's rotation, causing much upheaval
among the population which felt that he had taken away eleven days of their
lives!
__ 6. Display the month of January for the years 1999 and 99. Are 1999 and 99 the
same? __________
Answer: No, they are not the same. The year is taken literally. You must be
specific as to the century as well.
1-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 2. AIX 6.1 Documentation

(with Hints)

The purpose of this exercise is to give the students the opportunity to
explore and experiment with the man command and with the AIX 6.1
online documentation.

Execute the man command
Start a Web browser to access the online documentation
Introduction
In this exercise, you will first use the man command from the command
line. This part of the exercise can be performed in either graphics
mode or ASCII mode.
In the second part of the exercise, you will use a Web browser to
access AIX 6.1 online documentation.

2-1

Preface
classroom.
man Pages
__ 1. Log in to the system with the user name and password provided by your instructor.
__ 2. Bring up the man pages for the man command. Read the text that follows to obtain a
better understanding of the functionality of the man command.
Remember to use the space bar to go forward one screen and the return key to
go forward one line. Press the b key to go back one screen. When you have read
enough, exit man using the q key or <Ctrl-c>.
$ man man
<Ctrl-c> or q
__ 3. Using the man command, search on the keyword calendar. From the list produced,
find the command that displays a calendar.
$ man -k calendar
__ 4. Having found the cal command from the previous step, use man without any options
to obtain the correct syntax of the command.
$ man cal
AIX Information Center

__ 5. Start up a Web browser and access the online documentation. Your instructor will
tell you whether to use the Internet site or a local AIX system configured as a
documentation server.
The URL for the Internet site is:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v6r1/index.jsp
__ 6. Click the AIX Information link in the left frame.
Click AIX Information
__ 7. In the right frame of your Web browser, click the link entitled Operating System and
Device Management.
Click Operating System and Device Management
__ 8. Select one or two of the topics displayed in the right frame.
On the page, you will see various topics and links to the appropriate HTML
pages. Click a few links to view the pages. Use the left and right arrow
2-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
buttons located in the upper right corner of the frame to navigate around your
pages.
__ 9. Now, suppose you do not know what document to look in for the information you
require. Use the search function in the Information Center to find information on the
wc command.
In the search box, enter the string wc command and press Enter or click Go.
In the right frame, you will see the results of your search. The words you
searched on will be highlighted in each document. Select one of the top
documents and scroll through it. Use the left arrow in the upper right corner to
go back to the search results and select another document.
__ 10. Use the Search Scope function to narrow your search. Change the search scope
for the previous search to only include the Commands Reference.
Click Search Scope: located next to the Search box.
A pop-up box will appear allowing you to define a custom search scope.
Select the radio button entitled Search only the following topics
and click the New button.
In the box entitled List Box, type an appropriate name for your new scope,
such as man pages. In the main window, click the + next to AIX
Information, and select the box next to Commands. A checkmark will
appear in the box. Click Ok to save your scope.
You should now have your new search scope highlighted. Click Ok to select it.
You will see that the text next to Search Scope: now says man pages.
Click Go next to the search box to rerun your search.
You will now see your results in the left frame. Select a few of the results and
browse the pages.
__ 11. Use any extra time you have to explore other documents available in the AIX
Information Center.
__ 12. Exit your Web browser.
Click File
Click Exit.
END OF EXERCISE

2-3
2-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 3. Files and Directories

(with Hints)

This exercise provides the students with the opportunity to begin
working with directories and the files they contain.

After completing this exercise, you should be able to:
Display the name of the current directory
Change directories
Use various options of the ls command to display information
about files and directories
Create and remove directories
Create zero-length files
Introduction
In this exercise, you will be using AIX commands to work with
directories and files.

3-1

Preface
classroom.
__ 1. If you are not already logged in, log in to the system
Login: teamxx
teamxx's Password: teamxx
__ 2. Using the pwd command, verify that you are in your home directory, /home/teamxx,
the directory where you are placed when you first log in.
$ pwd
__ 3. Change your current directory to the root directory (/).
$ cd /
__ 4. Verify that you are in the root directory and then execute both a simple and a long
listing of the files in that directory.
$ pwd
$ ls
$ ls -l
__ 5. Issue the ls command with the -a and the -R options. What is the effect of each
option?_______________ (Note: The ls -R will provide extensive output. Once you
have seen enough, enter the key sequence <Ctrl-c> to end the command.)
$ ls -a
$ ls -R
__ 6. Return to your home directory (/home/teamxx) and list its contents including hidden
files.
$ cd
$ ls -a
__ 7. Create a directory in your home directory called mydir. Then, issue commands to
view a long listing of both your /home/teamxx/mydir and /home/teamxx
directories. What are the sizes of each directory?________________________
$ mkdir mydir
$ ls -ld /home/teamxx/mydir
3-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ ls -ld /home/teamxx
__ 8. Change to the /home/teamxx/mydir directory. Use the touch command to create
two zero-length files called myfile1 and myfile2 in your mydir directory.
$ cd mydir
$ touch myfile1
$ touch myfile2
__ 9. Issue the command to view a long listing of the contents of your mydir directory.
What are the sizes of myfile1 and myfile2?__________________ View the long
listing again, this time also displaying the i-node numbers of the files. What are the
i-node numbers for the files? _____________________
$ ls -l
$ ls -li
__ 10. Change back to your home directory and issue the ls -R command to view your
directory tree.
$ cd
$ ls -R
__ 11. Use the istat command to view i-node information on your mydir directory.
Why may the Last Accessed date be more current than the other two dates?
$ istat mydir
__ 12. Use the rmdir command to remove the mydir directory. Does it work?
____________________ You will note that the rmdir command cannot remove a
non-empty directory. To do that, you will need to issue a command that we will learn
in the next unit, rm -r.
$ rmdir mydir
$ rm -r mydir
END OF EXERCISE

3-3
Exercise Solutions
__ 5. Issue the ls command with the -a and the -R options. What is the effect of each
option?_______________ (Note: The ls -R will provide extensive output. Once you
have seen enough, enter the key sequence <Ctrl-c> to end the command.)
The -a command option displays all hidden files (files that begin with a .).
The -R command option displays files recursively in a directory structure.
__ 7. Create a directory in your home directory called mydir. Then, issue commands to
view a long listing of both your /home/teamxx/mydir and /home/teamxx
directories. What are the sizes of each directory?________________________
The file size is the number just before the last modified date on the report
line. It is probably 512.
__ 9. Issue the command to view a long listing of the contents of your mydir directory.
What are the sizes of myfile1 and myfile2?__________________ View the long
listing again, this time also displaying the i-node numbers of the files. What are the
i-node numbers for the files? _____________________
The files sizes should be 0.
The i-nodes number is the first field on each ls -li report line. The numbers
will likely vary from system to system.
__ 11. Use the istat command to view i-node information on your mydir directory.
Why may the Last Accessed date be more current than the other two dates?
The Last Accessed date will be updated any time the directory is viewed.
The other dates are updated when the directory or its i-node structure is
changed.
__ 12. Use the rmdir command to remove the mydir directory. Does it work?
____________________ You will note that the rmdir command cannot remove a
non-empty directory. To do that, you will need to issue a command that we will learn
in the next unit, rm -r.
The rmdir fails with an error message: Directory mydir is not empty.
3-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 4. Using Files

(with Hints)

In this exercise, students use a number of AIX commands to
manipulate files.

After completing this exercise, a student should be able to:
Copy, move, rename, link, and remove files
Display the contents of a file
Print a file
Introduction
In this exercise you will be using AIX commands to manipulate
ordinary files and directories using the commands discussed in
lecture.

4-1

Preface
classroom.
Checking Your Environment

__ 1. If not already logged in, log in to the system.
Login: teamxx
__ 2. Using pwd, verify that you are in your home directory, /home/teamxx, the directory
where you are placed when you first log in.
$ pwd
__ 3. List the contents of your home directory (/home/teamxx), including hidden files.
$ ls -a
Working with Files

__ 4. Look at the contents of the /etc/hosts and /etc/profile files. Use the commands
cat, pg, and more to see how each command handles the output.
$ cat /etc/hosts
$ cat /etc/profile
$ pg /etc/hosts
$ pg /etc/profile
$ more /etc/hosts
$ more /etc/profile
__ 5. Copy the file /usr/bin/cat into your current (home) directory.
$ cp /usr/bin/cat /home/teamxx
-OR $ cp /usr/bin/cat .
__ 6. Copy the file /usr/bin/cal into your current (home) directory.
$ cp /usr/bin/cal /home/teamxx
-OR $ cp /usr/bin/cal .
4-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 7. List the files in your current directory. You should see the two you just copied.
$ ls
Creating and Manipulating Directories

__ 8. Create a subdirectory in your home directory called myscripts.
$ mkdir myscripts
__ 9. Move and rename the two files that you just copied to your home directory (cat and
cal) into your new subdirectory. Name the new files mycat and mycal respectively.
$ mv cat myscripts/mycat
$ mv cal myscripts/mycal
__ 10. Make the new subdirectory, myscripts, your current directory.
$ cd myscripts
__ 11. List the contents of the directory to make sure that the files were copied.
$ ls
__ 12. Use the mycat command in your myscripts directory to look at the contents of the
.profile file in your home directory.
$ mycat ../.profile
-OR $ mycat /home/teamxx/.profile
__ 13. Make your home directory the current directory.
$ cd
__ 14. Create another subdirectory in your home directory called goodstuff.
$ mkdir goodstuff
__ 15. Copy a file called /etc/profile into the new directory, and name the new file
newprofile.
$ cp /etc/profile goodstuff/newprofile
__ 16. Use the cat command to look at the file. Hard to read? Try the pg command.
$ cat goodstuff/newprofile
$ pg goodstuff/newprofile
__ 17. The filename, newprofile, is too long to keep typing. Change its name to np. List
the contents of the goodstuff directory to make sure that you have accomplished
the task. Use the cat command to type out the renamed file.
$ mv goodstuff/newprofile goodstuff/np
$ ls goodstuff

4-3
$ cat goodstuff/np
__ 18. This is a good point to check everything out. Starting from your home directory and
working downwards, display a hierarchical tree of your files and subdirectories.
$ cd
$ ls -R
Remove a Directory
__ 19. Ensure you are in your home directory. Remove the goodstuff directory. Could you
do it? Why or why not?
$ pwd
$ rmdir goodstuff
__ 20. Change to the goodstuff directory. Do a listing on the contents of the goodstuff
directory including any hidden files. Remove the files. Do another listing on the
goodstuff directory including the hidden files. Notice the . and .. files are still there.
The directory is considered empty if these are the only two entries left in it.
Remove the directory.
$ cd goodstuff
$ ls -a
$ rm np
$ ls -a
$ cd ..
$ rmdir goodstuff
END OF EXERCISE
4-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Optional Exercises
__ 21. Using the mkdir command only once, create a directory under the myscripts
directory named sports that has three directories in it named tennis, basketball,
and baseball. Check to be sure the directories were created properly.
$ cd /home/teamxx/myscripts
$ mkdir -p sports/tennis sports/basketball sports/baseball
$ ls sports
__ 22. Copy the file /etc/motd into the tennis directory and create two files in the
basketball directory. Leave the baseball directory empty. Check to be sure the files
were created.
$ cp /etc/motd sports/tennis
$ touch sports/basketball/myteam
$ touch sports/basketball/myplayer
$ ls sports/tennis sports/basketball
__ 23. Use the rm command to remove the sports directory and everything in it.
$ rm -r sports
END OF OPTIONAL EXERCISES

4-5
Solutions
Following are the solutions for those instructions that included questions:
__ 20. Ensure you are in your home directory. Remove the goodstuff directory. Could you
do it?
Why not?
Answer: You should not be able to remove the goodstuff directory because it
has files in it.
4-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 5. File Permissions

(with Hints)

The purpose of this exercise is to give the student the opportunity to
work with file and directory permissions. A fundamental understanding of basic AIX file ownership and permissions should be a
result of performing these exercises.

Manipulate permissions on ordinary files and directories
Interpret file and directory permission bits
Display long listing information for files and directories
Introduction
In this exercise, you will be using AIX commands to manipulate AIX file
and directory permissions. Understanding the implications of file
permissions and ownership and using the commands to change file
permissions is necessary to doing additional exercises in this course.
Tips
Make sure you are aware of what directory you are in while performing
the various steps. If you lose track of where you are in the exercise,
some instructions will appear not to work. Use pwd frequently to check
your current directory.

5-1

Preface
classroom.
Listing Information on Files

__ 1. Log in to the system. Change to the myscripts directory. Display a long listing of the
files in the myscripts directory. Notice the owner and permissions for the files that
you copied in the previous exercise.
Record the permissions for mycat. __________________________
Record the permissions for mycal. __________________________
Login: teamxx
$ cd myscripts
$ ls -l
__ 2. Now, do a long list on the original cat and cal files in the /usr/bin directory and
compare the permissions to those in the myscripts directory. You own the copies
but not the originals.
$ ls -l /usr/bin/cat /usr/bin/cal
__ 3. Change the modification time of mycal and mycat in the myscripts directory.
Check to see that the time actually changed. What is another use for the touch
command? _______________________
$ touch mycal mycat
$ ls -l
__ 4. Make it so you can reference the mycal file in the myscripts directory by the name
of home_mycal in your home directory. Compare the detailed file information for
both files.
Is there any difference? ___________________
What is the link count? _________________
$ ln mycal /home/teamxx/home_mycal
-OR $ ln mycal ../home_mycal
$ ls -l mycal
5-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ ls -l /home/teamxx/home_mycal
-OR $ ls -l ../home_mycal
__ 5. Change the directory to your home directory. Execute home_mycal.
What does the output look like?
_______________________________________________________________
Now, change permissions on the home_mycal file so that you, the owner of the file,
have read only permission. Try running the mycal command.
Can you do it? _________________
Why or why not? _________________
$ cd
$ home_mycal
$ chmod 455 home_mycal
$ ls -l home_mycal
$ myscripts/mycal
__ 6. Remove home_mycal. Did that remove myscripts/mycal? _________________
Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________
$ rm home_mycal
$ ls -l myscripts/mycal
Working with File Permissions

__ 7. Change the directory to the myscripts directory. Using symbolic notation of the
chmod command, remove the read permission on the other permission bits from
the file mycat. Check the new permissions.
$ cd myscripts
$ chmod o-r mycat
$ ls -l mycat
__ 8. Using octal notation, change the permissions on mycat so that the owner
permission bits are set to read-only permission with no permission for anyone else.
Check the new permissions.
$ chmod 400 mycat
$ ls -l mycat
__ 9. Use the mycat command to display the contents of the .profile file. Did it work?

5-3
What happened?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
$ mycat ../.profile
-OR $ mycat /home/teamxx/.profile
__ 10. Make your home directory the current directory. Check to see if you are in your
home directory.
$ cd
$ pwd
Working with Directory Permissions

__ 11. Alter the permissions on the myscripts directory so that you have read-only access
to it.
$ chmod u-wx myscripts
-OR $ chmod u=r myscripts
-OR $ chmod 455 myscripts
__ 12. Use a long list to check that you have set the permissions correctly.
$ ls -l /home/teamxx
-OR $ ls -ld myscripts
__ 13. Try getting a simple list of the contents of the directory. Try a long list. Did they work?
Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
$ ls myscripts
$ ls -l myscripts
__ 14. Try to execute mycal. Did it work?
Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
5-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ myscripts/mycal
__ 15. Try to remove mycal. Did it work?
Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
$ rm myscripts/mycal
__ 16. Return the permissions of myscripts back to its original form of rwxr-xr-x and then
remove mycal.
$ chmod 755 myscripts
$ rm myscripts/mycal
__ 17. As time permits, experiment with other permission combinations. When you are
through, make sure to change the permissions back to rwx for the owner.
END OF EXERCISE

5-5
Solutions
Following are the solutions for those instructions that include questions:
__ 1. Log in to the system. Change to the myscripts directory. Display a long listing of the
files in the myscripts directory. Notice the owner and permissions for the files that
you copied in the previous exercise.
Record the permissions for mycat. __________
Record the permissions for mycal. __________
Answer:
-r-xr-xr-x mycat
-r-xr-xr-x mycal
__ 3. Change the modification time of mycal and mycat in the myscripts directory.
Check to see that the time actually changed. What is another use for the touch
command?
Answer: touch can also be used to create empty (zero length) files.
__ 4. Make it so you can reference the mycal file in the myscripts directory by the name
of home_mycal in your home directory. Compare the detailed file information for
both files. Is there any difference? What is the link count?
Answer: Only the name is different. The link count is 2 because there are two
names in the directory pointing to the same file.
__ 5. Change the directory to your home directory. Execute home_mycal. What does the
output look like? __________
Now, change permissions on the home_mycal file so that you, the owner of the file,
have read only permission. Try running the mycal command. Can you do it?
__________
Why or why not? __________
Answer: The output looks like the output from the mycal command. After
changing permissions on home_mycal to read only you will not be able to
execute mycal because the two files are linked and any changes made to
one will be reflected in the other one as well.
__ 6. Remove myscripts/home_mycal. Did that remove myscripts/mycal?
__________
Why or why not? __________
Answer: Removing home_mycal simply removes the directory entry in
myscripts that refers to home_mycal and changes the link count from 2 to
1. It does not remove the file itself. Thus, at this point the file is only known by
one name, mycal.
__ 9. Use the mycat command to display the contents of the .profile file. Did it work?
What happened?
5-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Answer: No. You should have received the message:

ksh: mycat: Execute permission denied
It cannot execute because the x permission was removed from the file.
__ 13. Try getting a simple list of the contents of the directory. Try a long list. Did they work?
Why or why not?
Answer: The simple list works. All that is needed is r permission on a
directory to read the name of the files. The long list does not work and
displays the message:
myscripts/mycat: no permission
myscripts/mycal: no permission
In order to get the information about a file, like ownership and permission,
you have to be able to get access to what is in the directory. If you do not
have permission to be in the directory, you will not be able to access the files
in that directory or access information about the files other than their name. x
permission is required on a directory to access the directory or be in the
directory.
__ 14. Try to execute mycal. Did it work? Why or why not?
Answer: No. You will get the message:
/usr/bin/ksh: myscripts/mycal: not found
The system cannot find mycal because you do not have x permission on the
directory. In order to access a file in a directory you have to have permission
to be in the directory. Without x permission on myscripts you cannot be in
the myscripts directory to get access to the files within that directory.
__ 15. Try to remove mycal. Did it work? Why or why not?
Answer: No. You need both x and w permission on the directory to remove a
file.

5-7
5-8
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 6. vi Editor
(with Hints)

The purpose of this exercise is to give the student the opportunity to
create and edit files using the most common UNIX editor, vi. A clear
understanding of the vi editor is critical to successfully complete the
rest of the exercises in this course.

Create a file
Save and exit a file and exit without saving
Manipulate a file using various cursor movement keys
Add, delete, and make changes to text within a file
Set options to customize the editing session
Invoke command line editing
Introduction
The vi editor is based on software developed by the University of
California at Berkeley, California, Computer Science Division. The vi
editor, pronounced vee-eye (short for visual), features commands to
create, change, append, or delete files. The following exercises will
familiarize you with some of the major features and functions of vi.
For your assistance, there is a vi Command Summary in the
Appendix of the Student Notebook.

6-1

(with Hints)
Creating a File
__ 1. Ensure that you are in your home directory. Create a file in your home directory
named vitest.
$ cd
$ pwd
$ vi vitest
__ 2. When you open a vi file, you are automatically placed in command mode. Press the
i key (insert) to switch to input (text) mode. You can also press the a key (append).
Use of i or a simply determines if typing starts before or after the cursor. There is no
indication to tell you that you are in input mode.
Switch from input mode to command mode by pressing the ESC key. Press ESC a
second time. Notice that if you press ESC twice, you will get a beep from the
terminal (some ASCII terminals do not beep). The beep indicates that you are in
command mode already. Now press i again to put you back in input mode. Continue
to the next step.
- i
- ESC
- ESC (did you hear a beep)
- i
__ 3. Input the following text exactly as it is presented line-by-line. Then key in the
alphabet, one character per line. Following will show a-d but continue on through z.
Adding the alphabet is an easy way to fill a couple of screens of information needed
for later use.
This is a training session about the usage of the vi editor. We need
some more lines to learn the most common commands of the editor. We are
now in the entry mode and we will switch right after this to the
command mode.
a
b
c
d
...
z
6-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 4. Return to command mode. Write and quit the file. Notice that as soon as you press
the : (colon), it appears below the last line of your input area. Once the buffer is
empty and the file is closed, you will see a message giving the number of lines and
characters in the file.
ESC (puts you in command mode)
:wq (<shift-ZZ> or :x is another way to write and quit)
Cursor Movement Keys

__ 5. Open vitest using vi. Notice the bottom line of the file indicates the name of the file
and number of characters.
$ vi vitest
__ 6. Using both the arrow keys and the h, j, k, l keys, practice moving the cursor down
one line, up one line, right a couple characters, and back a couple characters.
j (down a line)
k (up a line)
l (right a character)
h (left a character)
Repeat using the appropriate arrow keys.
__ 7. You may not want to cursor one character or one line at a time throughout an entire
file. Practice using cursor movement keys to work around by page or by line. Using
the cursor movement keys from the previous step, position your cursor at the first
line of the file. While in command mode, do the following:
i.
Move forward one page.
ii. Move back one page.

iii. Move cursor to last line in the file.
iv. Move cursor to first line in the file.
v. Move cursor to line 4 of the file.
vi. Move cursor to end of line.
vii. Move cursor to beginning of line.
<Ctrl-f> or press the Page Down (PgDn) key. (There is no Page Down key
on ASCII terminals and the key may not do this function on your terminal.)
<Ctrl-b> or press the Page Up (PgUp) key. (There is no Page Up key on
ASCII terminals and the key may not do this function on your terminal.)
<Ctrl-u>
<shift-G>

6-3
1<shift-G> or :1 Enter
4<shift-G> or :4 Enter
$
0 (this is a zero)
__ 8. Move your cursor to the top of the file. Search for the word entry. Your cursor
should be on the e. Switch to input mode and add the word text. Do not forget the
space after the word.
1<shift-G> or :1
/entry
i
text
__ 9. Move the cursor to the space after the word mode on the same line. Insert a comma.
Remember, you are still in input mode.
ESC
Position the cursor to the space after mode
i, (comma)
__ 10. Enter command mode. Position the cursor anywhere on the line beginning with
some more lines. Insert a blank line to form two paragraphs.
ESC
Position cursor on line starting some more lines
o (lower case o opens the line after the cursor)
__ 11. Opening a blank line as in the previous step, automatically puts you in input mode;
therefore, return to command mode. Now save the changes you have made so far,
but DO NOT exit the editor.
ESC
:w
__ 12. While still in command mode, remove the alphabetic characters c, e, g but leave
the blank lines in their place; in other words, do not delete the entire line, just the
character. Then go back and remove the blank lines. This will give you practice
using two of the delete functions.
Position cursor on c; Press x
Position cursor on e; Press x
Position cursor on g; Press x
Position cursor on each of the blank lines; Press dd
6-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 13. Now replace the alphabetic character h with a z.

Position the cursor on the h
Press r (for replace)
z
__ 14. You just decided you really do not want to save the changes to the alphabetic
characters. Quit the editing session without saving the changes made since the last
save.
:q!
__ 15. Edit vitest one more time. First, copy the first paragraph (including the blank line)
one line at a time to the end of the file. When that is complete, copy the second
paragraph all at once to the end of the file.
$ vi vitest
Position cursor on line one; Press yy
<shift-G>; Press p
2<shift-G>; Press yy
<shift-G>; Press p
3<shift-G>; Press yy
<shift-G>; Press p
4<shift-G>; Press 2yy
<shift-G>; Press p
__ 16. You just decided that the lines you just added to the end of file do not look right.
Delete them all with one command.
Position the cursor on the first copied line at the bottom of the file to be
deleted
Count the number of lines to delete
5dd (your number may be different if you moved the blank line as well)
__ 17. Now, before you do anything else with this file, you decide you need to imbed the
current date and time as the first line of the file. Do this without leaving the vi editor.
:!date > datefile
Do not press enter when you see the message Press return to continue
:0r datefile
Press Enter twice to continue
Using Set to Customize the Editing Session

6-5
__ 18. Options can be set temporarily in an editing session using the set command. Go
back to the top of your file. Ensure you are in command mode and set the following
commands:
a. Set automatic word wrap 15 spaces before the right margin.
b. Display the INPUT MODE message when in input mode.
c. Turn line numbering on
1<shift-G>
ESC
:set wrapmargin=15 (no spaces around the =)
:set showmode
:set number
__ 19. Test each of the options set in the previous instruction.
Lines should be numbered.
Enter input mode using i or a. You should see an INPUT MODE message at
the bottom right of your display.
Key in a couple lines of miscellaneous text to test automatic word wrap.
Enter command mode by pressing ESC. The INPUT MODE message should
have disappeared from your display.
__ 20. Write the file and quit the editor.
:wq
Command Line Editing

__ 21. Now that you are familiar with vi modes and commands, practice command line
editing. To set up your session to use command line editing, use the set -o vi
command.
$ set -o vi
__ 22. Now you can recall previously executed commands, edit them, and resubmit them.
Let's build a command history to work with. List (simple, not long) the contents of the
directory /usr. Display the contents of the file /etc/filesystems. Echo hello.
$ ls /usr
$ cat /etc/filesystems
$ echo hello
__ 23. Suppose you want to edit one of the commands you just executed. Press the ESC
key to get to vi command mode. Try pressing the k key several times to go up the
list of commands. Try j to go down. This recall of commands is essentially looking
6-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
through a buffer of commands that you previously executed. The commands are
actually stored in your .sh_history file in your home directory.
ESC
k (go up list of commands in buffer)
j (go down list of commands in buffer)
__ 24. Retrieve the ls command. Use the l key to move your cursor to the / in /usr. (Note:
the arrow keys tend to wipe your line out. You have to use the l key for right and h
for left.) Use the i key to insert text and change this command to be a long list.
Execute it.
k (to the ls /usr command)
l (to get to the /)
i (to get into input mode. You could have used a to append if the cursor was
on the space before the /)
-l
Enter
__ 25. Recall the cat command. This time list the contents of the /etc/passwd file.
ESC
k (to get to the previous cat command)
l (to move the cursor to the f in filesystems)
D (to erase rest of line, or dw to erase the word)
a (to append text)
passwd
Enter
__ 26. Recall the cat command. Go to the end of the line (remember $). Add to the end of
the command to pipe the output to wc to count just the lines.
ESC
k (to get to the last cat command)
$
a
| wc -l
Enter
END OF EXERCISE

6-7
6-8
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 7. Shell Basics

(with Hints)

This exercise will familiarize the students with basic shell operations.

Use wildcards for file name expansion
Redirect standard in, standard out, and standard error
Use pipes to provide the output of one process as input to another
process
Perform command grouping and line continuation
Introduction
Understanding the use and manipulation of the shell is considered a
foundation for understanding AIX user interfaces. You will use
commands to experiment with the shell features discussed in the
Shell Basics lecture.

7-1

(with Hints)
Wildcards
__ 1. Type cd to get back to your home directory. (Your home directory is the one you use
when you log in.)
$ cd
$ pwd
__ 2. Execute a simple ls to list the non-hidden files in your home directory. Now use the
ls command with a wildcard character to list these files. What is the difference in
output of these two commands?
________________________________________________________________
Why?
________________________________________________________________
$ ls
$ ls *
__ 3. Change to the /usr/bin directory. List just those files starting with the letter a.
$ cd /usr/bin
$ ls a*
__ 4. List all two character file names.
$ ls ??
__ 5. List all file names starting with the letters a, b, c, or d.
$ ls [abcd]*
-OR $ ls [a-d]*
__ 6. List all files except those beginning with c through t. This will be a long list. You
might want to pipe the output to pg or more. Did you get any file names that you did
not expect? __________ If so, do you know why?
$ ls [!c-t]* | pg
__ 7. Return to your home directory.
$ cd
Redirection
7-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 8. Using the cat command and redirection, create a file called junk containing a few
lines of text. Use <Ctrl-d> at the beginning of a new line when you have finished
entering text and want to return the shell $ prompt. List the file contents to verify your
update.
$ cat > junk
Type in several lines of junk for your file
<Ctrl-d> on a new line to return to the shell prompt
$ cat junk
__ 9. Append more lines of text to the file you have created using the cat command and
redirection. List the file contents to verify your update.
$ cat >> junk (no spaces between the >>)
$ cat junk
__ 10. Mail the file junk to yourself. Wait a minute and open your mail, delete it, and quit
the program.
$ mail teamxx < junk
$ mail
?t
?d
?q
Pipes, Tees, and Filters

__ 11. Using the ls command, list the files in your current directory. Make a note of the
number of files:
$ ls
__ 12. List the files in your current directory, but this time redirect the output to the file
temp.
$ ls > temp
__ 13. Use the appropriate command to count the number of words in the temp file. Is this
the same count as in instruction 11? __________ If not, why not?
________________________________________________________________
Display the contents of temp. Remove the file.
$ wc -w temp
$ cat temp
$ rm temp

7-3
__ 14. This time use a pipe to count the number of files in your current directory. Was the
result what you expected this time? __________ Is it the same as in instruction 11?
________________________________________________________________
$ ls | wc -w
__ 15. Use the command you created in instruction 14, but this time insert a tee in the
middle trapping the result of the list in a file called junk2. Did you get the number
displayed on the screen? __________
Check the contents of junk2 to make sure that it contains what you expected.
$ ls | tee junk2 | wc -w
$ cat junk2
__ 16. List in reverse order the contents of your current directory. Send the results of the
reverse listing to a file named junk3, and to a program to count the number of words
in the reverse listing. Append the final count to junk3. Remember to use the append
version of redirection. In this particular case, you may get unexpected results if you
do not. It might not be a straight overwrite because the file is being used twice in the
same command. Experiment if you are curious.
$ ls -r | tee junk3 | wc -w >> junk3
$ cat junk3
__ 17. There is a special file in the /dev directory that represents your terminal. Display the
file name associated with your terminal. Output will be something like tty0, lft0, or
pts/x. Repeat the command from instruction 16 with two exceptions:
1) Rather than using junk3, tee the output to the special file that represents your
terminal (/dev/<your_terminal_name>).
2) Do not append the results of the wc command to junk3. Have the count
display to your terminal.
$ who am i
$ ls -r | tee /dev/lft0 | wc -w
Command Grouping and Line Continuation

__ 18. On the same command line, display the date, who is logged in, the name of your
current directory, and the names of the files in your current directory. Do these
commands have any relationship to each other?
$ date ; who ; pwd ; ls
__ 19. The primary purpose of this exercise instruction is to use line continuation with a
command that is too long to fit on one command line. The secondary purpose is to
7-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
test what you have learned so far by letting you create an incredibly long command
string.
You can choose to break the line anywhere you feel comfortable, but do not type
past the right edge of the screen. When completed, test your output by displaying
the contents of the files that were created. This should be one long command
connected by pipes and redirection.
1) Do a long listing of the files in your home directory including hidden files.
2) Capture the output to a file named reverse.listing and send the same output
to a program that will count only the number of words.
3) Capture the number of words and place the number in 4 files named file1
through file4.
4) Finally, send the output to a program to count the number of lines captured in
the previous instruction and redirect that number to a file named file5.
$ ls -al | tee reverse.listing | wc -w | tee file1 \<Enter>
> | tee file2 | tee file3 | tee file4 | wc -l > file5
(the > symbol at the start of the second line is the secondary prompt; you do
not type this)
END OF EXERCISE

7-5
Solutions
__ 2. Execute a simple ls to list the non-hidden files in your home directory. Now use the
ls command with a wildcard character to list these files. What is the difference in
output of these two commands?
Why? Answer: With ls * you got the contents of any subdirectories in your home
directory because the shell expanded the * before the ls command executed. The
shell expanded it to be the names of all the files (remember, directories are files) in
the directory. When you ask ls to list an ordinary file, it does, but when you ask it to
list a directory, it lists the contents of the directory, not the directory name itself. Use
the -d option of the ls command to have it list the directory itself instead of the
contents, if you want to see information on the directory only.
__ 6. List all files except those beginning with c through t. This will be a long list. You
might want to pipe the output to pg or more. Did you get any file names that you did
not expect? __________ If so, do you know why?
Answer: When you asked for all files except those beginning with c-t, you will only
execute lowercase entries. Uppercase entries like R and M will be displayed.
__ 13. Use the appropriate command to count the number of words in the temp file. Is this
the same count as in instruction 11? If not, why not?
Display the contents of temp. Remove the file.
Answer: The results of the wc -w command should be one greater than the original
count. The shell sets up the command line prior to executing the command; thus, the
temp file was created as an empty file prior to the execution of ls allowing temp to
be included in the count.
__ 14. This time use a pipe to count the number of files in your current directory. Was the
result what you expected this time? __________ Is it the same as in instruction 11?
__________
Answer: Yes. No temp file was created to capture the output for redirection.
__ 15. Use the command you created in instruction 14, but this time insert a tee in the
middle trapping the result of the list in a file called junk2. Did you get the number
displayed on the screen?
Check the contents of junk2 to make sure that it contains what you expected.
Answer: The number incremented by one because of the addition of the junk2 file.
Hint: There may be times when you may not get the results you thought. These are
independent processes communicating with each other. If the ls command finishes
processing before the shell has a chance to create the junk2 file, then junk2 would
not be included in the count.
7-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 18. On the same command line, display the date, who is logged in, the name of your
current directory, and the names of the files in your current directory. Do these
commands have any relationship to each other? __________
Answer: Command grouping is just a shortcut for executing non-related commands
from the same command line. They have NO relationship to each other.

7-7
7-8
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 8. Using Shell Variables

(with Hints)

The student will define and utilize variable and command substitution
to set the shell environment and utilize quoting to override the shell
interpretation of metacharacters.

List shell built-in variables
Set up variable substitution to define or alter the environment
Use command substitution to set variables equal to the output of a
command
Use the three methods of quoting to allow metacharacters to be
used literally instead of interpreted
Introduction
This exercise contains three sections: variable substitution, command
substitution, and quoting. Knowledge of the first two sections, variable
and command substitution, is required to perform the third section,
quoting.
Caution: Throughout this exercise, the single quotes and the back
quotes look very similar. The single quotes look like this ', and the
back quotes like this . The back quote may look different on the
keyboard than it does as printed in this exercise.

8-1

(with Hints)
Variable Substitution
__ 1. Display the shell built-in variables.
$ set
__ 2. Set a variable named lunch to pizza and a variable named dinner to ham. Display
the value of the variables using echo. Locate them in the list of variables.
$ lunch=pizza
$ dinner=ham
$ echo $lunch ; echo $dinner
$ set
__ 3. Using the variables you just defined, display the message, Lunch today is pizza
and dinner is ham.
$ echo Lunch today is $lunch and dinner is $dinner
__ 4. Using the variables you just defined, display the message, Lunch today is
hamburgers.
$ echo Lunch today is ${dinner}burgers
__ 5. Remove the value of both variables. Check to be sure they are no longer included in
your list of variables.
$ unset lunch
$ unset dinner
$ set
__ 6. Display the value of your primary and secondary prompt strings.
$ echo $PS1
$ echo $PS2
__ 7. Change the primary prompt string to "You Rang?". (Single quotes will also work)
Why is it necessary to use the quotes with "You Rang?"?
$ PS1="You Rang?"
__ 8. Change your secondary prompt string to "What Else?". Test it with the ls command
using line continuation. End the command. Reset both prompt strings back to their
original values. Why are quotes needed around the > when resetting the PS2
variable? __________
You Rang? PS2="What Else?"
8-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
You Rang? ls -l \
What Else?
<Ctrl-c>
You Rang? PS1="$ "
$ PS2="> "
__ 9. Check the value of the variable related to your home directory. Reset that variable to
change your home directory to /bin. Use the cd and pwd commands to test the
effects of this change.
$ echo $HOME (You could have checked the value using set)
$ HOME=/bin
$ cd ; pwd
__ 10. Log out and log back in. What is your home directory? __________ Why?
________________________________________________________________
Note: If you are working in an aixterm session, after keying exit, press the right
mouse button and select New Window to get back to an aixterm session.
$ exit
login: teamxx
teamxx's Password:
$ cd ; pwd
$ echo $HOME
Command Substitution
__ 11. Display your list of variables. Reissue the command but send the output to the wc
command to get the number of variables that are currently set.
$ set
$ set | wc -l
__ 12. Using command substitution, echo the following:
There are # variables currently set
where # is the number of variables.
$ echo There are set | wc -l variables set
OR
- $ echo There are $(set | wc -l) variables set
__ 13. Each user ID configured on the system is represented by one line in the
/etc/passwd file. Applying your knowledge of command substitution, echo a
message that displays:

8-3
There are # users created on the system

where # is the number of line entries in /etc/passwd.
$ echo There are cat /etc/passwd | wc -l users created on the
system
OR
$ echo There are $(cat /etc/passwd | wc -l) users created on the
system
Quoting
__ 14. Using all three methods of quoting, banner the literal symbol *. Why do all three
work?
________________________________________________________________
$ banner '*'
$ banner "*"
$ banner \*
__ 15. Ensure you are in your home directory. Create a directory in your home directory
named quoting.
$ cd
$ pwd
$ mkdir quoting
__ 16. Change to the quoting directory. Create a zero-length file in the quoting directory
named filea. Create a variable named n set to the value of hello. Test what you
have done by displaying the contents of quoting and the value of n.
$ cd quoting
$ touch filea
$ n=hello
$ ls
$ echo $n
__ 17. From the quoting directory, execute the following five commands. Record the
output. Check the Solutions section for the expected output.
i.
$ echo '* $n ls $(ls)'

________________________________________________________
ii. $ echo "* $n ls $(ls)"

________________________________________________________
8-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
iii. $ echo \* \$n \ls\ \$$ls$

________________________________________________________
iv. $ echo * $n ls $(ls)
________________________________________________________
v. $ echo * $n ls
________________________________________________________
END OF EXERCISE

8-5
Solutions
__ 7. Change the primary prompt string to "You Rang?". (Single quotes will also work)
Why is it necessary to use the quotes with "You Rang?" ?
Answer: Double quotes must be used because of the space between the words.
__ 8. Change your secondary prompt string to "What Else?". Test it with the ls command
using line continuation. End the command. Reset both prompt strings back to their
original values. Why are quotes needed around the > when resetting the PS2
variable? __________
Answer: By using quotes around the >, the symbol will not be interpreted as
redirection.
__ 10. Log out and log back in. What is your home directory? __________ Why?
Answer: Your home directory should be back to the default /home/teamxx.
Changing variables from the command line only sets the value for the length of the
login session. Once you log out, the variable is removed from your environment.
__ 14. Using all three methods of quoting, banner the literal symbol *. Why do all three
work?
Answer: All three work because the shell always negates wildcards no matter what
method of quoting is used.
__ 17. From the quoting directory, execute the following five commands. Record the
output. Check the Solutions section for the expected output.
Answers:
* $n ls $(ls)
Single quotes suppresses everything between them.
* hello filea filea
Double quotes do command and variable substitution only.
* $n ls $(ls)
Backslash negates the character following it. Note the use of a backslash in front
of each back quote.
filea hello filea filea
filea hello ls
8-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 9. Controlling Processes

(with Hints)

This exercise familiarizes the student with process manipulation and
process control.

After completing this exercise students should be able to:
Monitor processes by using the ps or jobs command
Control processes by using the kill or jobs command
Display current process ID
Introduction
In this exercise you will use commands to experiment with process
control to get a better understanding of your process environment. You
will identify the processes associated with your terminal session, work
with variables in parent and child processes and terminate processes
you have started.

9-1

Preface
classroom.
Structure
__ 1. Log in to the system and display your current process ID(PID).
$ echo $$
__ 2. Create a subshell by entering ksh. What is the process ID of the subshell?
Is it different from your login process?
$ ksh
$ echo $$
__ 3. Enter the command ls -lR / > outfile 2> errfile & and then execute the
command which displays all of your running processes. The ls command will
terminate when it finishes listing all the files in the directory tree.
$ ls -lR / > outfile 2> errfile &
$ ps -f
__ 4. Terminate your child shell. What happens if you type exit from your login shell?
$ exit
Process Environment
__ 5. Display all your variables that are in your current process environment.
$ set
__ 6. Create a variable x and set its value to 10. Check the value of the variable. Again,
display all your current variables.
$ x=10
$ echo $x
$ set
__ 7. Create a subshell with ksh. Check to see what value variable x holds in the subshell.
What is the value of x? __________ List the subshell current variables. Do you see
a listing for x? __________
9-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ ksh
$ echo $x
$ set
__ 8. Return to your parent process. Set the value of variable x so that its value will be
inherited by your child processes. Verify this by creating a subshell and checking on
the value of variable x.
$ exit
$ export x=10
$ ksh
$ echo $x
__ 9. Change the value of x to 200 in the subshell. Check that the value was changed.
$ x=200
$ echo $x
__ 10. Go back to the parent process. Check on the value of x in this environment. Was the
change in the subshell exported back to the parent?
$ exit
$ echo $x
__ 11. Create a shell script and name it sc1. It should read:
pwd; cd /; pwd
$ vi sc1
pwd
cd /
pwd
Press the ESC key followed by :wq to save the file.
__ 12. Make the file sc1 executable and run the program. What directory are you in now?
Why?
$ chmod 700 sc1
$ sc1
$ pwd
__ 13. Create another shell script and name it sc2. Have it read:
var1=hello; var2=$LOGNAME; export var1 var2

9-3
$ vi sc2
var1=hello
var2=$LOGNAME
export var1 var2
Press the ESC key followed by :wq to save the file.
__ 14. Make sc2 executable and run the program. When it is finished, examine the values
of the variables var1 and var2. What values do var1 and var2 have?
Why?
$ chmod 700 sc2
$ sc2
$ echo $var1 $var2
__ 15. Run the sc2 program again, this time by forcing it to run in the current shell. When it
is finished, check the values for var1 and var2. What values do var1 and var2 have
now?
Why?
$ . sc2
$ echo $var1 $var2
Job Control
__ 16. Create a shell script and name it sc3. It should read:
sleep 120
ls -lR / > outfile 2> errfile &
Make it executable. Start the script with the command:
$ ./sc3 > outfile 2> errfile
in the foreground.
$ vi sc3
(press i to insert text)
sleep 120
(press the ESC key followed by :wq to save the file)
chmod 700 sc3
$ ./sc3 > outfile 2> errfile
9-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 17. Suspend the job you just started.

$ <Ctrl-z>
__ 18. List all the jobs that you are running on the system and restart the above job in the
background.
$ jobs
$ bg %jobno
__ 19. Bring the job back to the foreground.
$ fg %jobno
__ 20. Once the command finishes executing, restart it again in the background, display
the process ID, and log off.
$ ./sc3 > outfile 2> errfile &
$ jobs -l
$ exit (you will get a message that says you have jobs running)
$ exit
__ 21. Log in. Check to see if the process is still running.
Login: teamxx
$ ps -ef
__ 22. Start the sc3 script with the nohup command, reference it using an explicit path and
put it in the background. Do not forget to redirect the output from sc3, note its
process ID and job number and then log off.
$ vi sc3
(press i to insert text)
sleep 120
(press the ESC key followed by :wq to save the file)
chmod 700 sc3
$ nohup ./sc3 > sc3.out 2> sc3err &
$ jobs -l
$ exit
__ 23. Log in. Check to see if the process is still running. Hint: search for its process ID.
Login: teamxx

9-5
$ ps -ef
__ 24. When the process is complete, display the file that contains your output. (Hint: if you
did not specify an output file, nohup will send the output to nohup.out.)
$ pg /home/teamxx/outfile
__ 25. Rerun the sc3 script you just created placing it into the background but not using the
nohup command. Note its process id and job number. Apply the nohup to the
process ID of the background process sc3 and then log off.
Log back into the system and verify that the process is still running.
$ ./sc3 > sc3.out 2> sc3err &
$ jobs -l (note the PID of the job you just started in the background)
$ nohup -p <PID>
$ exit
Login: teamxx
$ ps -ef
Terminating a Process
__ 26. Use the ls -lR / command we have been using to start a long running job in the
background. Note the process ID that is provided when you begin the background
process. __________
__ 27. If you did not record the process ID when you first started the command in the
background, how would you find it? __________
Once you know the process ID, kill the process. Check to be sure it was killed.
$ ps -f
$ kill <pid>
$ ps -f
__ 28. Repeat instruction 26 above. Kill the process using the job number rather than the
process ID. Check to be sure the job was killed.
$ jobs
$ kill %jobno
9-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ jobs
-OR $ ps -f
END OF EXERCISE

9-7
Solutions
__ 2. Create a subshell by entering ksh. What is the process ID of the subshell?
Is it different from your login process?
Answer: Your child process ID will always be different from the parent and is unique
on the system.
__ 4. Terminate your child shell. What happens if you type exit from your login shell?
Answer: You will log off the system.
__ 7. Create a subshell with ksh. Check to see what value variable x holds in the subshell.
What is the value of x? __________ List the subshell current variables. Do you see
a listing for x? __________
Answer: The value of x is null. In the output from the set command, x is not shown.
__ 10. Go back to the parent process. Check on the value of x in this environment. Was the
change in the subshell exported back to the parent?
Answer: No because the subshell runs in a different process than the parent.
__ 12. Make the file sc1 executable and run the program. What directory are you in now?
Why?
Answer: Your original directory because the cd command executed in a subshell.
When the child terminates, the parent resumes with its original environment.
__ 14. Make sc2 executable and run the program. When it is finished, examine the values
of the variables var1 and var2. What values do var1 and var2 have?
Why?
Answer: The values of both var1 and var2 are null. The sc2 script runs in a
subshell. When it completes, control is returned to the parent process. Variables set
in child processes are not available to parent processes.
__ 15. Run the sc2 program again, this time by forcing it to run in the current shell. When it
is finished, check the values for var1 and var2. What values do var1 and var2 have
now?
Why?
Answer: var1 is hello and var2 is your logname. By starting the sc2 script with the .
you are forcing it to run in the current process. Therefore, a new process is not
spawned and the variable is set and stays in the current process' environment.
__ 26. If you did not record the process ID when you first started the command in the
background, how would you find it? __________
Answer: Use ps -f.
9-8
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty

9-9
9-10 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 10. Customizing the User Environment

(with Hints)

When users log in, they generally prefer their environment to be
customized to meet their specific needs. In this exercise, the student
will customize their environment with some very useful functions that
are invoked every time they log in.

Customize .profile and .kshrc files
Set alias definitions
Introduction
Half way through the exercise, you will change your primary prompt
from a $ to the name of your current directory. This changed prompt
string will be reflected from that point on in the exercises. This will look
different from what you are use to seeing in previous exercises.
If you are working in an X Windows session, when instructed to log
out, execute one of the following commands: $ su - or $ login.

10-1

Preface
classroom.
Customizing .profile and .kshrc

__ 1. To customize your environment and have it take effect every time you log in, you
must incorporate the changes in a file that is read at login. Ensure you are in your
home directory. Edit your .profile file to add the following functions:
1) Change the primary prompt string to reflect the current directory.
2) Display a message at login which contains your login name and the time you
logged in.
3) Define an alias named dir that invokes the ls -l command.
4) Automatically set up the command line editing facility.
$ cd
$ pwd
$ vi .profile
PS1='$PWD => ' (no space between = and >)
echo User $LOGNAME logged in at $(date)
alias dir='ls -l'
set -o vi
:wq
__ 2. Test your customization by re-executing your .profile. You can choose to log out and
back in, or simply rerun it using the dot notation. Once you have done that, execute
and answer the following:
1) Did your message display? _______
2) Is your prompt the name of your home directory? _______
3) Change to the /etc directory. Did your prompt change? _____
4) Using dir do you get a long listing of your current directory? _____
5) Invoke dir using command line editing.
If you answered NO to any question, edit your .profile and fix it.
$ logout
Login: teamxx
teamxx Password: teamxx
10-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
-OR-
EXempty
$ . .profile
__ 3. Once you have your customized .profile setup and functioning, open a subshell.
Answer the following questions:
i.
Is your prompt the name of the current directory? _____
ii. Does the value of the alias dir still work? _____
iii. Can you invoke command line editing? _____
/home/teamxx=> ksh
__ 4. Exit from the subshell and return to your home directory. Most settings, with the
exception of system variables, only apply to the current environment and are not
passed to subshells (child processes). To pass alias or set customized settings
down to subshells, the ENV variable must be set in your .profile file along with the
existence of a customized .kshrc file.
Revise your .profile and create the appropriate .kshrc file to support the alias and
set customization you did in instruction 1.
In the .profile file, remove the 'alias dir' and 'set -o vi' customizations. Add the
ENV variable assignment. Export both PS1 and ENV.
Add the alias and set customizations (you just removed from .profile) to .kshrc.
<Ctrl-d>
/home/teamxx=> cd
/home/teamxx=> vi .profile
PS1='$PWD=> '
ENV=/home/teamxx/.kshrc
export PATH PS1 ENV
echo User $LOGNAME logged in at $(date)
(or whatever worked for you)
:wq
/home/teamxx=> vi .kshrc
set -o vi
alias dir='ls -l'
:wq
__ 5. Test your customization by re-executing your .profile file. Open a subshell and
answer the following questions:
i.
ii. Is the value of the alias dir still working? _____


10-3
$ . .profile
/home/teamxx=> ksh
__ 6. Exit the subshell and return to your login shell. Display a listing of all currently set
alias names and locate the dir alias.
/home/teamxx=><Ctrl-d>
/home/teamxx=> cd
/home/teamxx=> alias
__ 7. Temporarily unalias dir without editing the .kshrc file. Then display the list of alias
settings again and ensure that it is no longer defined. Try executing dir.
/home/teamxx=> unalias dir
/home/teamxx=> alias
/home/teamxx=> dir
__ 8. The dir alias is still in your .kshrc file but is not set. The unalias command
removed it from the list of current alias names. Invoke .kshrc to automatically add
dir back in the alias list. Execute dir.
/home/teamxx=> . .kshrc
-OR Log out and log back in to reactivate .kshrc
/home/teamxx=> dir
END OF EXERCISE
10-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Solutions
__ 2. Test your customization by re-executing your .profile. You can choose to log out and
back in, or simply rerun it using the dot notation. Once you have done that, execute
and answer the following:
1) Did your message display? _______
2) Is your prompt the name of your home directory? _______
3) Change to the /etc directory. Did your prompt change? _____
4) Using dir do you get a long listing of your current directory? _____
5) Invoke dir using command line editing.
If you answered NO to any question, edit your .profile and fix it.
Answers:
1) A message similar to the following should be displayed:
User teamxx logged in at Thu Apr 19 14:34:26 CST 2001
2) Your primary prompt string should be similar to:
/home/teamxx=>
3) /home/teamxx=> cd /etc
4) /etc=> dir
You should see a long listing of the current directory.
5) ESC
k
/etc=> dir
__ 3. Once you have your customized .profile setup and functioning, open a subshell.
Answer the following questions:
i.
ii. Does the value of the alias dir still work? _____
The answer to all three questions should have been NO and output that looks similar
to the following:
a) $ (Unless you thought ahead and exported PS1 as well in .profile)
b) $ dir
ksh: dir: not found.
c) $ ESC k (you should see a square bracket and letter k)

10-5
__ 5. Test your customization by re-executing your .profile file. Open a subshell and
answer the following questions:
i.
ii. Is the value of the alias dir still working? _____

The answers should be YES in all cases since the PS1 variable was exported in
.profile making it available to subshells. The ENV variable was added to .profile and
exported allowing .kshrc and its contents to be executed and passed to all
subshells. You should see something similar to the following:
i.
Your primary prompt string should be similar to:

/home/teamxx=>
ii. /home/teamxx=> dir

You should see a long listing of the current directory.
iii.ESC
k
/home/teamxx=> dir
10-6 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 11. AIX Utilities (1)

(with Hints)

The purpose of this exercise is to become familiar with some of the
most helpful data tools available with AIX.

After completing this exercise, students should be able to execute
recursive searches on directories for files that meet specific criteria.
Introduction
This exercise is designed to give you experience using the find
command.
Using the command line editing feature will be very helpful during this
exercise as some of the commands can get quite lengthy and will be
repeated in many instructions.
This exercise shows the $ prompt; however, unless you reset the PS1
variable from the prior exercise, you will see your current directory as
your prompt.

11-1

Preface
classroom.
The find Command

__ 1. Find and display all the files in the /tmp directory.
$ find /tmp
__ 2. Find all files in your home directory that begin with the letter s and have ls -l
automatically execute on each file name found as a result of the search operation.
$ find . -name 's*' -exec ls -l {} \;
OR
$ find . -name "s*" -ls
__ 3. Repeat the search in the previous step, but interactively prompt the user to display
the long list on each file.
$ find . -name 's*' -ok ls -l {} \;
__ 4. Find all files starting from the /usr directory that are owned by the userid uucp.
Modify the command line to count the number of files owned by uucp. There may be
some directories that you do not have permission to read. This will cause a
permission denied message to be displayed. Redirect all error messages to a file
called errfile.
$ find /usr -user uucp 2> errfile | wc -l
__ 5. Display the file errfile from the previous instruction to see if any errors messages
were encountered.
$ pg errfile
__ 6. To demonstrate that find recursively searches all directories and subdirectories
from the search path down, do the following:
a. Ensure you are in your home directory.
b. Make a subdirectory called level1.
c. Create a zero-length file named letter1 in the subdirectory level1.
d. Change to the level1 subdirectory.
e. Make a subdirectory under level1 called level2.
f. Create a zero-length file named letter2 in the subdirectory level2.
11-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
g. Change to your home directory.

h. From your home directory issue the command to list all files starting with the letter l.
Record the names displayed.
i.
From your home directory issue the command to find only files starting with the
letter l. Record the names displayed.
$ cd
$ mkdir level1
$ touch level1/letter1
$ cd level1
$ mkdir level2
$ touch level2/letter2
$ cd
$ ls l*
$ find . -name 'l*' -type f
END OF EXERCISE

11-3
Solutions
__ 6. To demonstrate that find recursively searches all directories and subdirectories
from the search path down, do the following:
a. Ensure you are in your home directory.
b. Make a subdirectory called level1.
c. Create a zero-length file named letter1 in the subdirectory level1.
d. Change to the level1 subdirectory.
e. Make a subdirectory under level1 called level2.
f. Create a zero-length file named letter2 in the subdirectory level2.
g. Change to your home directory.
h. From your home directory issue the command to list all files starting with the letter l.
Record the names displayed.
i.
From your home directory issue the command to find only files starting with the
letter l. Record the names displayed.
Answer: The output is predictable. find goes to the end of the tree and will display
the path names of files meeting the selection criteria. In our example, we used a
relative path name as the starting directory for our find. As a result, find's output
is presented as relative pathnames as well.
11-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty

(with Hints)

The purpose of this exercise is to become familiar with some of the
most helpful data tools available with AIX.

Search text files for pattern matching
Extract specific fields within a file
Sort lines in a file
Display the first or last few lines of a file.
Log in to a remote system
Transfer files between systems
Save and restore files using the tar command
Introduction
This exercise is designed to give you experience using some AIX data
tools.

12-1

Preface
classroom.
The grep Command

__ 1. Find all lines in the /etc/passwd file for user names that start with team.
$ grep team /etc/passwd
__ 2. Find all lines in the /etc/passwd file that begin with the letter t.
$ grep '^t' /etc/passwd
__ 3. Find all lines in /etc/passwd that contain a digit 0-9.
$ grep '[0-9]' /etc/passwd
__ 4. Repeat the search in the previous instruction, but this time display only the number
of lines that contain the pattern.
$ grep -c '[0-9]' /etc/passwd
__ 5. Use the ps and grep commands to display the processes initiated by users other
than yourself, and pipe the output to the more command.
$ ps -ef | grep -v teamxx | more
where teamxx is your login name.
The sort Command

__ 6. Display the content of the /etc/passwd file in alphabetic order. Next, display the
contents of the file in reverse order.
$ sort /etc/passwd
$ sort -r /etc/passwd
The head and tail Command

__ 7. Display the first 10 lines of /etc/passwd.
$ head /etc/passwd
__ 8. Display the first 5 lines of /etc/passwd.
$ head -5 /etc/passwd
__ 9. Display the last 10 lines of /etc/passwd.
$ tail /etc/passwd
12-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 10. The tail command is also handy for stripping out header information from the
output of a command. First, list all processes currently running on your system.
Notice the headings. Next, display all processes running on your system excluding
the header information.
$ ps -ef | more
$ ps -ef | tail +2 | more
The tn, ftp and tar Commands

__ 11. Log in to any remote system in your classroom. If you are not sure about the name
of the remote system ask your instructor. Use one of the teamxx user IDs that have
been supplied by your instructor.
$ tn sysx
__ 12. Execute the hostname command and verify that you really work on the remote
system.
$ hostname
__ 13. Change to the /tmp directory and create a new file testfile1.
$ cd /tmp
$ vi testfile1
__ 14. Log out from the remote system.
$ exit
__ 15. On your local system create a new directory remote_files.
$ mkdir remote_files
__ 16. Transfer the remote file /tmp/testfile1 to your local system. The file should be stored
in the subdirectory remote_files.
$ ftp sysx
ftp> get /tmp/testfile1 remote_files/testfile1
ftp> quit
__ 17. Verify that the file has been copied to your local system.
$ cd remote_files
$ ls
__ 18. Stay in the remote_dir subdirectory and use the tar command to save all files in
this directory. Create an archive file /tmp/archive.tar and save all files relatively.
$ tar -cvf /tmp/archive.tar *
__ 19. Verify the content of the archive file.
$ tar -tvf /tmp/archive.tar

12-3
__ 20. Restore all files from your archive into the /tmp-directory.
$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xvf archive.tar
END OF EXERCISE
12-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty

(with Hints)

This exercise allows you to experiment with additional helpful utilities
that can be used in the AIX environment.

After completing this exercise, students should be able to use find,
xargs, and file to manipulate files.
Introduction
You will be manipulating ordinary files and directories using
commands discussed in lecture. Where there is more than one way to
invoke a command, you will see an -OR- between the possible
solutions in the Exercise Instructions with Hints section.

13-1

Preface
classroom.
Using find, xargs, and file

__ 1. Verify that you are in your $HOME directory. Create a subdirectory called newdir.
Change to this directory and create five empty files in this directory with the names
of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
$ pwd
$ mkdir newdir
$ cd newdir
$ touch 1 2 3 4 5
__ 2. Show a simple list of the contents of the newdir directory. Now, list the contents of
the newdir directory and pass the output to xargs to copy the files and rename
them with the prefix file so the resulting copied file's name is file1, and so forth.
Verify that the files were copied and the names assigned accordingly.
$ ls
$ ls | xargs -t -I {} mv {} file{}
$ ls
__ 3. Using find, xargs, and grep, display the names of the files under your home
directory which contain the string AIX.
$ cd
$ pwd
$ find . -type f | xargs grep AIX
__ 4. Find out in which directory the find command is located. Determine the type of file
(executable, ASCII, dir, etc) of the find command.
$ which find
-OR $ whereis find
-OR $ whence find
$ file /usr/bin/find
13-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
-OR $ file `whence find` (note the back quotes)

__ 5. Using the find command to recursively list the file under your home directory,
determine the type of each file. This may be accomplished in two ways. You might
first creating a file, named myfiles and then determine the file types of the files listed
in myfiles. Alternatively you might do the entire task in a pipe, thus eliminating the
need to create the file, myfiles.
$ find $HOME > myfiles; file -f myfiles | pg
-OR $ find $HOME | xargs file | pg
END OF EXERCISE

13-3
13-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty

(with Hints)

This exercise allows you to experiment with additional helpful utilities
that can be used in the AIX environment.

Use diff, cmp, and dircmp to compare files and directories
Use compress, zcat, and uncompress
Use cat to display non-printable characters
Introduction
You will be manipulating ordinary files and directories using
commands discussed in lecture. Where there is more than one way to
invoke a command, you will see an -OR- between the possible
solutions in the Exercise Instructions with Hints section.

14-1

Preface
classroom.
Using diff, cmp, dircmp

__ 1. Create a file called list1. In list1, list the names of several people you know, one line
per name. Copy list1 to a file called list2. Edit list2 and make the following
changes:
Change the spelling of one of the names.
Remove one of the names.
Add a new name.
$ vi list1
(Add several names)
$ cp list1 list2
$ vi list2
(Make the changes listed in a-c above)
__ 2. Using diff, compare the contents of list1 and list2.
$ diff list1 list2
__ 3. Using cmp, compare the contents of list1 and list2. Then invoke a complete or long
comparison of the contents of both files.
$ cmp list1 list2
$ cmp -l list1 list2
__ 4. Using dircmp -d, compare your home directory with the home directory of another
user account on your system (teamyy).
$ dircmp -d /home/teamxx /home/teamyy | pg
Using compress, uncompress, zcat

__ 5. Copy the file /etc/magic to a file in your home directory named mymagic. Do a long
listing on mymagic and record the number of bytes in the file: ________
$ cp /etc/magic mymagic
$ ls -l mymagic
__ 6. Using the verbose option with compress, compress mymagic. Record the
percentage of compression, ______________, and the name of the compressed
14-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
file, __________________. Do a long listing on the file and record the number of
bytes. _____________ Compare the number to the number in the previous
instruction.
$ compress -v mymagic
$ ls -l mymagic.Z
__ 7. Using zcat, expand and view the contents of mymagic.Z. You may want to page it
as it is a large file.
$ zcat mymagic.Z | pg
__ 8. Using uncompress, restore the compressed file back to its original file. Invoke a long
listing and record the number of bytes. ____________ The number should be the
same as the number in Step 5.
$ uncompress mymagic.Z
$ ls -l mymagic
Displaying Non-Printable Characters

__ 9. In your home directory, create a file named invis and type a few lines that include
random tabs, spaces, Ctrl-G's, and so forth, between the words. Display the file.
$ vi invis
$ cat invis
__ 10. Notice in the instruction above that when you displayed the contents of invis it did
not look quite right. Display and locate all the non-printable characters to determine
where you used spaces, tabs, control characters, and so forth.
$ cat -vte invis
__ 11. Create a directory named invisdir but insert an accidental <Ctrl-g> somewhere in
the name.
$ mkdir invisdir^G
__ 12. Invoke the following four commands. When asked to key in the invisdir name, do
NOT enter the <Ctrl-g> you originally included as part of the name.
1) Invoke a listing of files and directories in your home directory (invisdir should
be included as part of the output).
2) Try to invoke a long listing on the invisdir directory.
3) Try to remove the invisdir directory.
4) Repeat instruction a. above to see if there are any non-printable characters in
the invisdir directory name that made instructions 2 and 3 fail.
$ ls
$ ls -ld invisdir (This should fail)

14-3
$ rmdir invisdir (This should fail)

$ ls | cat -vt
__ 13. Using a method of your choice, successfully remove the invisdir directory.
$ rmdir invisdir^G (include the <Ctrl-g> in the name where it appears in
your listing)
-OR $ mv invisdir^G invisdir
$ rmdir invisdir
-OR $ ls -i
$ find . -inum <i-node #> | xargs rmdir
END OF EXERCISE
14-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 15. Additional Shell Features

(with Hints)

After you have been using AIX for a while, you will find certain
characteristics of your environment that you would like to customize
along with some tasks that you execute regularly that you would like to
automate.
This exercise will introduce you to some of the more common
constructs used to help you write shell scripts in order to customize
and automate your computing environment.

List common constructs used in writing shell scripts
Create and execute simple shell scripts
Introduction
You need not have any programming experience to perform this
exercise. Refer to the unit in the Student Notebook for help with the
syntax of constructs when creating the shell scripts in this exercise.

15-1

Preface
classroom.
Writing shell scripts

__ 1. Create a shell script named parameters that will echo the five lines that follow using
predefined special variables set by the shell to fill in the blanks. Execute the script
using the positional parameters 10 100 1000.
The name of this shell script is ________.
The first parameter passed is number ____.
The second parameter passed is number ____.
The third parameter pass is number ____.
Altogether there were _____ parameters passed.
$ vi parameters
echo The name of this shell script is $0.
echo The first parameter passed is number $1.
echo The second parameter passed is number $2.
echo The third parameter passed is number $3.
echo Altogether there were $# parameters passed.
$ chmod +x parameters
$ parameters 10 100 1000
__ 2. Using conditional execution, create a shell script named checkfile that will check to
see if the file named parameters exists in your directory, and if it does, use a
command to show the contents of the file. Execute the script.
$ vi checkfile
ls parameters && cat parameters
$ chmod +x checkfile
$ checkfile
__ 3. Modify the checkfile script and change the name of the file from parameters to
noname (check to ensure that you do NOT have a file by this name in your current
directory). Also, using conditional execution, if the ls command was NOT
successful, display the error message, The file was not found. Execute the
script. What else got displayed?
15-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
$ vi checkfile
ls noname && cat noname || echo The file was not found
$ checkfile
__ 4. Modify the checkfile script so that error messages from the ls command do not
appear on the screen. Execute the script.
$ vi checkfile
ls noname 2> /dev/null && cat noname || echo The file was not
found
$ checkfile
__ 5. Modify the checkfile script to accept a single parameter from the command line as
input to the ls and cat commands. Execute the script twice, once using the file
named parameters and again using the file named noname.
$ vi checkfile
ls $1 2> /dev/null && cat $1 || echo The file was not found
$ checkfile parameters
$ checkfile noname
Using for, test, and if

__ 6. Using the for loop, modify the checkfile script to accept multiple files as input from
the command line instead of just one. If the files are found, display all of them. If the
files are not found, display the error showing all file names that were not found. Look
in your directory and jot down a few valid file names that you can use as input.
Execute the script using valid and invalid file names.
$ vi checkfile
for x in $*
do
ls $x 2> /dev/null && cat $x || echo $x was not found
done
$ ls
$ checkfile filename filename filename
(Where filename is replaced by valid and invalid file names from your
directory)
__ 7. Change the checkfile script to use an if statement and test command rather
than conditional execution to check if the ls command was successful. Execute the
script as you did in the previous step. (Hint: Return codes play a part in this script.)
$ vi checkfile
for x in $*
do
ls $x 2> /dev/null

15-3
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]
then cat $x
else echo $x was not found
fi
done
$ checkfile filename filename filename
Using while and expr

__ 8. Create an endless while loop that will echo Out to Lunch every 5 seconds in a
script named lunch. Execute the script. When you have seen enough, break the
loop.
$ vi lunch
while true
do
echo Out to Lunch
sleep 5
done
$ chmod +x lunch
$ lunch
<Ctrl-c>
__ 9. From the command line, display the results of multiplying 5 and 6.
$ expr 5 \* 6
__ 10. Now using expr, create a shell script named math to multiply any two numbers when
entered as input from the command line. Execute the script multiplying 5 times 6.
Experiment with any other two numbers.
$ vi math
expr $1 \* $2
$ chmod +x math
$ math 5 6
END OF EXERCISE
15-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Solutions
__ 3. Modify the checkfile script and change the name of the file from parameters to
noname (check to ensure that you do NOT have a file by this name in your current
directory). Also, using conditional execution, if the ls command was NOT
successful, display the error message, The file was not found. Execute the
script. What else got displayed?
Answer: An error message from the ls command.

15-5
15-6 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 16. Using AIXwindows

(with Hints)

This exercise provides an opportunity to use AIXwindows.

At the end of the lab, students should be able to:
Start AIXwindows
Manipulate screen windows using AIXwindows
Open a new aixterm window
Customize motif application on launch (optional)
(optional) Use the xhost command and DISPLAY environment
variable to execute an X Client on a remote system
Introduction
It will be necessary to perform this machine exercise through a VNC
session. Be sure to check with your instructor if you have any
questions regarding the terminal you should use.
While in the AIXwindows environment, you may wish to minimize or
close any windows not needed to prevent the terminal screen from
becoming too cluttered.
This exercise also includes an optional exercise. Verify with your
instructor that the machine setup will support the optional exercise.

16-1

Preface
classroom.
Starting AIXWindows
__ 1. Start your terminal emulator application, connect to the AIX system, and log in.
login: teamxx
password <your password>
__ 2. Before we can start the VNC server application, you will need to set a VNC
password for your remote session. Run the vncpasswd program, and when
prompted, enter a password. Set your password to the same as your username (for
example, if your userid was team01, set the password to team01).
vncpasswd
__ 3. Start the VNC server application. Make note of the hostname/IP address and
session number for the VNC server that is started.
Hostname: ______________________________
IP Address: ______________________________
Session number: __________________________
$ vncserver
New X desktop is <hostname>:<session number>
Starting applications specified in
/home/team01/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/team01/.vnc/<hostname>:<session
number>.log
$ host <hostname>
__ 4. Switch back to your lab workstation or lab portal facility and launch a VNC viewer.
Enter in the IPaddress:session where appropriate, and the password. If all is
correct, a window should appear with the AIXWindows environment in it, running
under your assigned userid.
Start a VNC viewer on your lab workstation (this will be either your classroom
workstation or a lab portal facility, depending on the lab configuration), and
specify the hostname or IP address and session number. When asked,
16-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
supply the password you set in Step 3. The AIXWindows environment should
appear within the VNC client window.
Working with Windows

__ 5. Verify that the aixterm is the active window.
Move the mouse pointer to the aixterm and click with the left mouse button.
If it is not already the active window, the window frame will change color to
indicate that this is now the active window.
__ 6. Using the aixterm, try typing some AIX commands such as ls, date, cal, and
whoami.
__ 7. Resize the width of the window.
Move the mouse pointer to the window frame on the right edge of the
aixterm window. Note that the pointer shape changes. Press the left mouse
button down and keeping the button pressed, move the mouse.
An outline should appear showing you the new size of the window. A
feedback window should also appear indicating the size of the new window in
rows and columns.
__ 8. Change the height and width of the window, simultaneously.
Move the pointer to one of the window frame corners. Then resize the
window with the mouse as above.
__ 9. Drag the aixterm from one side of the screen to the other.
To move a window on the screen, move the mouse pointer to the title area of
the window.
Using the left mouse button, press and hold while moving the mouse. An
outline of the window should appear indicating the new position of the
window. Release the left mouse button.
The window is now at a new location.
A feedback window shows you information about window position. That
information can be used with the -geometry keyword used to position
windows initially.
__ 10. Use the options in the window menu to move and resize the window.
Click with the left mouse button on the window menu button (the button to the
left of the title area). A menu should appear.
Select the Size and Move options and move the mouse. They should perform
the same functions as above. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard cursor
control keys instead of moving the mouse.

16-3
Notice that with the Size option, the edge or corner that is moved to resize the
window is the first of them that the mouse pointer comes into contact with.
Click the left mouse button or press enter when you have finished resizing.
__ 11. View the window menu again. Why do you think some items may be greyed out?
__ 12. Open the window menu on the aixterm, but now type the letter m rather than clicking
move. Note that this is another way to move a window.
Click the window menu button with the left mouse button.
The window menu will appear.
Notice that the menu items have letters underlined (for example, the m in
move).
Press m on the keyboard. These functions are not case sensitive. What
happens?
These defined keys are known as mnemonics.Try the mnemonics for some of
the other functions.
__ 13. The window menu also contains key sequence definitions (for example Alt+F7).
These key bindings are known as accelerators.
What happens when you try pressing the Alt+F7 key when the menu is posted?
What happens if you try a mnemonic when the menu is not posted?
__ 14. Iconify (minimize) the aixterm window. Once it is an icon, restore it back to the
screen.
Use the left mouse button to click the small square button just to the right of
the title area. This should turn the window into an icon.
To restore the window, click the icon with the left mouse button. (When
working in VNC, you ma need to scroll the VNC window to locate the icon.)
The window menu is again displayed, with certain options activated. Using
the left mouse button, click restore. This will restore the window with its
previous location and size. Double-clicking an icon will also restore that
window.
16-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
__ 15. Maximize the aixterm window. What happens? Once it is maximized, resize the
window to a smaller size.
Using the left mouse button, click the large square button to the right of the
title area. The aixterm window should fill the screen.
Make the window smaller using any of the techniques you have learned
previously.
Using the root Window

__ 16. Use the root menu to open another aixterm window.
Move the mouse pointer to the grey or root window that fills the screen.
Click the right mouse button. The root menu will be displayed.
From the root menu, point to the option New Window. When the right mouse
button is released, a new aixterm or dtterm will be displayed.
__ 17. Start another xclock from the root menu.
Use the right mouse button to click in the root window. The root menu will be
displayed.
Note that Clients shows an arrow indicating that a sub-menu will be
displayed.
While holding down the right mouse button, move the mouse pointer to the
Clients option. A sub-menu will be displayed.
Move the mouse to the Clock option and release the right mouse button.
Cut and Paste Functions

__ 18. Within a window, use the vi editor to create a file called tempfile. Add a few lines of
text to this file, but do not exit.
vi tempfile
Add a few lines of text
__ 19. Within a second aixterm window, use the vi editor to create another file called
tempfile.new. Go into insert mode but do not add any text to this file at this time.
vi tempfile.new
i to access insert mode
__ 20. Copy a few lines of text from tempfile in the first window to tempfile.new in the
second window. When you have completed this step, exit vi in both windows.

16-5
To cut text from tempfile, move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the line
you wish to copy. Press the left mouse button and drag the pointer to where
you wish the selection to end. The selected text should be in reverse video.
When the left mouse button is released, the text will be placed into a buffer.
Move the mouse pointer to tempfile.new and left click to bring it to the
foreground. Then press the shift key and click the right mouse button. The
text will be placed beginning at the cursor location. (On a locally attached
graphics terminal and 3-button mouse, the middle button would normally be
used here)
<Esc> and :q!
__ 21. You have now completed this machine exercise. You may either try the optional
steps that follow, end AIXwindows or lock your terminal.
Continue with the optional steps.
-OR Move the mouse pointer to the root menu and press the right mouse button.
On the root menu choose Clients.
From the Clients menu choose Screen Lock.
To unlock the screen, attempt some action (such as clicking the mouse or
pressing enter) and, in response to the prompt, type your AIX user password.
__ 22. When you are done with working on this AIXWindows exercise, whether at this point
or somewhere in the optional steps), be sure to go to the last step (step 28) and
terminate the vncserver on your system.
Command Line Options for aixterm (optional)_

__ 23. The aixterm command has many command line options. View these options using
the aixterm -help command. You will need to pipe the output to pg or more as
there is a lot of information.
aixterm -help | pg
If a printer is available, you may wish to print this information.
aixterm -help | qprt
__ 24. Start an aixterm from the command line. Give the window the following
characteristics:
background color
lightskyblue
foreground color
forestgreen
font
rom10.iso1
title
My Window
16-6 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
full cursor
scrollbar
aixterm -bg lightskyblue -fg forestgreen -fn rom10.iso1 -T My
Window -fullcursor -sb &
Why do you think this window is smaller than the others?
__ 25. Start an xclock from the command line within one of the windows. Give the clock
the following characteristics:
background color
white
foreground color
red
hands on the dial
blue
second hand
update every second
xclock -bg white -fg red -hd blue -update 1 &
The Client-Server Model (optional)

__ 26. Use the xhost command to enable all other clients to access your X server.
xhost +
You should see the message Access control disabled, clients can
connect from any host.
__ 27. Have another user (if possible, on a different server) try and start an aixterm and
display it to your AIXWindows session. They will need to change the value of their
DISPLAY variable to the hostname and X server number (which is the same as the
VNC session number).
export DISPLAY=<hostname>:X.0 (Where X is the VNC session number)
aixterm &
__ 28. In the new window that appeared, use the id command to verify that the window
was started from the other user. Check the value of the DISPLAY variable. It should
indicate the name of your host.
id (should show other user)
hostname (should show the other teams host, if different)
echo $DISPLAY (should show your system name)
__ 29. From the remote system's window, execute the xcalc & command. From which
system is the calculator being executed? You can verify this with the ps command.
When you have completed this step, close the remote system's window.

16-7
xcalc &
ps
exit
__ 30. You have now completed the optional machine exercise. Shut down the VNC
AIXWindows session from your original terminal emulator session.
vncserver -kill :X (Where X is the VNC session number)
END OF EXERCISE
16-8 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Solutions
__ 11. View the window menu again. Why do you think some items may be greyed out?
Answer: The greyed out options are not active for this window.
__ 13. The window menu also contains key sequence definitions (for example Alt+F7).
These key bindings are known as accelerators. What happens when you try
pressing the Alt+F7 key when the menu is posted? What happens if you try a
mnemonic when the menu is not posted?
Answer: The Alt+F7 key combination is yet another way to move a window. Note
that the other window menu options also have accelerators.
The accelerators can be used even if the window menu is not an option. The
mnemonics can only be used if the window menu is open.
__ 23. Start an aixterm from the command line. Give the window the following
characteristics: ...
Why do you think this window is smaller than the others?
Answer: This window is smaller than the others because of the font. The window is
still 80 characters wide by 25 characters high, but appears smaller due to a small
font. To list all available fonts use xlsfonts command.
__ 28. From the remote system's window, execute the xcalc & command. From which
system is the calculator being executed? You can verify this with the ps command.
When you have completed this step, close the remote system's window.
Answer: The xcalc command should be executing on the remote system, but
displayed on your system.

16-9
16-10 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Exercise 17. Using the Common Desktop

Environment (CDE)
(with Hints)

This exercise introduces you to the features of CDE.

Recognize the various CDE controls on the Front Panel
Use the Help Manager
Start both an aixterm and dtterm terminal window
Use the File Manager to navigate the directory structure, create
new files (using the CDE text editor) and directories (folders), and
place a file icon in the workspace backdrop
Optionally, use the Calendar control to view the calendar, set
appointments, and create reminders
Introduction
This exercise is designed to provide an introduction to the features of
CDE. You will use the Help Manager to obtain information as needed.
Much of your work in this exercise will be with the File Manager, which
is one of the most useful CDE functions.
If time permits, an optional exercise is included on the CDE calendar
functions. Feel free to explore the other functions of CDE. In the next
unit and exercise, you will learn to customize your CDE environment.
Exercise 17. Using the Common Desktop Environment (CDE)

17-1

Preface
classroom.
Exploring the Front Panel

__ 1. Be sure that you have terminated the vncserver that was started for the Using
AIXwindows exercise. The instructions for this were in the last step of that exercise
__ 2. If you are logging in on a locally connected graphics terminal, then enter your user
information at the Login Manager panel.
If you are using VNC to create the CDE session, then connect to the AIX system
using the ASCII terminal application and log in with your userid. Rename the
existing xstartup file in the $HOME/.vnc directory to xstartup.bak.
Connect and log in as your userid.
$ cd .vnc
$ mv xstartup xstartup.bak
__ 3. Ensure that your present working directory is your home directory. Start the VNC
server application. Make note of the hostname/IP address and session number for
the VNC server that is started.
Hostname: ______________________________
IP Address: ______________________________
Session number: __________________________
$ cd
$ vncserver
New X desktop is <hostname>:<session number>
Starting applications specified in
/home/team01/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/team01/.vnc/<hostname>:<session
number>.log
$ host <hostname>
__ 4. Switch back to your lab workstation or lab portal facility and launch a VNC viewer.
Enter in the IPaddress:session where appropriate, and the password. If all is
17-2 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
correct, a window should appear with the AIXWindows environment in it, running
under your assigned userid.
Start a VNC viewer on your lab workstation (this will be either your classroom
workstation or a lab portal facility, depending on the lab configuration), and
specify the hostname or IP address and session number. When asked,
supply the password you set in Step 3. The AIXWindows environment should
appear within the VNC client window.
__ 5. The CDE environment, by default, launches the Application Manager and File
Manager. Close those two windows (we will restart them later).
In the upper left corner of each window click on the file menu and then click
on the click on Close at the bottom of that menu.
__ 6. Locate the CDE Front Panel; you may need to scroll the desktop window to find it at
the bottom of the window. Find the following components of the CDE Front Panel
(do not click on them, just locate them):
Workspace Switch Buttons
The four push buttons in the middle of the panel.
Style Manager
The icon with the mouse and color palette.
File Manager
The icon that looks like a file cabinet drawer next to the calendar.
Application Manager
The icon that looks like a file cabinet drawer with a pencil (next to help).
Personal Application Manager
The icon that looks like a piece of paper and a pencil.
Clock, Calendar
Note the time and date.
Mail
The envelope icon.
Trash Can
Icon on the right end of the panel.
Exit Icon
The small icon to the right of the Workspace Switch buttons.
Move Handles
Left and right ends of the panel.

17-3
Menu and Iconify Buttons

The menu button is in the top left corner of the panel.
The iconify button is in the top right corner.
__ 7. Move the Front Panel to the top of the screen.
Click the Move Handle at the right or left end, hold the button down and drag
the panel by moving the mouse.
__ 8. Iconify the Front Panel and then restore it.
To iconify, click the top right corner of the panel.
To restore the Front Panel: click the icon and select Restore.
Work with the Help Manager

__ 9. From the Help subpanel note how options exist so that you can access AIX online
documentation. The infocenter menu item will not work unless the infocenter facility
has been configured on the lab system and has connectivity to an infocenter server.
When you have reviewed the various Help functions, close the Help windows.
Click the arrow above the Help Manger icon and examine the resulting
subpanel. Use the File menu Close item to close each window. When
finished, click on the arrow above the Help Manager icon a second time in
order to close the menu.
Starting a Terminal Window

__ 10. Start an aixterm Terminal Window.
Select the Application Manager control (the file cabinet icon next to Help).
Double-click the Desktop Tools icon with the left button of the mouse to
display the tools available. One of them is aixterm .
Double-click the aixterm icon with the left mouse button.
Now you have a terminal window where commands can be entered.
__ 11. Run some command line commands.
Enter one or more of these: xcalc & ; ls ; ps
__ 12. Start the Desktop Terminal dtterm, using the Personal Applications Front Panel
pop-up menu (the control that looks like a piece of paper and a pencil).
Click the arrow above the Personal Applications Front Panel control.
The Personal Applications control is on the left side of the control panel, between
the File Manager and Mail controls.
Click the Terminal menu item. This will display a dtterm.
__ 13. Run some command line commands.
17-4 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Enter one or more of these: xcalc & ; ls ; ps .

__ 14. Compare the aixterm and the dtterm windows. What differences do you see?
dtterm has a window menu, edit menu, options menu, help menu and scroll
bar.
There is hyperlinked Help for dtterm.
aixterm will be on IBM AIX systems with X Windows installed, while dtterm
should be on any UNIX platform with CDE installed.
__ 15. In the dtterm session, use the Edit menu bar option to copy and paste text.
At the dtterm window shell prompt, enter: ls -a.
Place your mouse pointer just before .profile and, while pressing the left
mouse button, drag across the file name. Once the file name is reverse
highlighted, release the mouse button. It should remain highlighted.
Click on the Edit menu and then click Copy in the drop-down menu.
At the command prompt, type in "cat " (followed by a space - do NOT press
Enter).
Click the Edit menu and then click Paste in the drop-down menu.
You will see that the file name has been placed on your command line. Press
Enter.
__ 16. Now close all open windows, except the Front Panel, and we will work with the File
Manager.
Working with the File Manager

__ 17. Select the File Manager control from the Front Panel to access the File Manager.
Click the icon that looks like the open drawer of a filing cabinet with a file
folder tilted on its side, to the right of the calendar.
__ 18. Make sure that you are in your Home Directory: called /home/teamxx. The current
directory is displayed at the top of the window.
If you are not in that directory, you will need to navigate to that point:
To navigate up the structure, either double-click (with the left mouse button)
on the go up .. icon or double-click the directory name that you want to go
to in the directory path shown in the window below the menu bar.
When you navigate up and down the directory structure the content of the
current directory is displayed.
When you want to navigate down the structure, double-click the directory
(folder) that you want to go to. Choose from the folders of those displayed in
the window representing the contents of the current directory.

17-5
__ 19. View several of the files.

Point at the icon representing the file, and then double-click with the left
mouse button. Close any windows displaying the file contents.
__ 20. So that you have a few items to work with, the first thing you'll need to do is create a
few new files.
To create a new file entry in the current directory, click the File menu bar
option. Then, click New File.
Type in the name of the new file in the window presented and click OK. This
creates a new empty file in the directory.
Do this several times to create several new files. You can use any names that
you like as long as they don't conflict with anything that already exists. After
you have done this you'll see several new entries in the current directory.
__ 21. Click on one of your new files and then click Selected in the menu bar. Click Open to
edit the file. This will invoke the CDE Text Editor.
__ 22. Enter several lines of text in each file. Play with using the mouse pointer and/or
cursor control keys to place your cursor in various locations in the text. Play with
changing the text, using the insert and delete keyboard functions. You will notice that
the CDE Text Editor is not the vi editor.
Content is immaterial, but for at least one of the files, create a small shell script.
When you have finished editing a file, save the file by clicking the File option in the
menu bar, then selecting Close. Confirm that you want to save the file when that
window is presented.
If you cannot think of anything for a shell script then make it contain:
print Executing $0; date; print End of $0
The Text Editor is much easier to use than vi. Use the Help System as
needed.
__ 23. Add execute permission to the shell script you just created. Once this is complete,
execute the shell script.
Right click on the files icon.
Choose the Change Permissions option from the pull down menu displayed.
You can see what the current properties are - including File permissions.
Click Execute permission for the owner. Click OK to commit the changes. The
icon will change to a lightening bolt indicating the file can be executed.
__ 24. To execute the Shell Script, be sure its icon shows as a lightening bolt. Double-click
the Shell Script icon. On the Action:Run window click OK. A window will appear
showing the results of the Shell Script. Once you have reviewed the results, close
the Run window.
Now you have a number of files that you can use in some drag and drop operations.
17-6 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Drag and Drop Operations

You will need to be working with the files in your Home directory, so these should be
displayed in the File Manager window.
If you are not at the correct directory, navigate up and down the structure until you
get to where you want/ought/need to be.
__ 25. Use the mouse to move one of the files in your $HOME directory to the workspace
backdrop. This will create a shortcut to access the file.
The file icon has been dropped onto the backdrop and will stay there for fast and
convenient access. Now, if the file is executable, use the left mouse button and
double-click the file icon to make it run.
Select a file by clicking it once with the left mouse button.
Press and hold the left mouse button with the pointer on the selected file.
Move the mouse around; the file icon outline will follow.
Choose a free spot on the backdrop where you want to put the file icon.
When you are there, release the mouse button.
__ 26. With the pointer on the file icon on the backdrop, press the right button on the
mouse.
What actions can you take on the file?
A menu pops up.
Depending whether the file is a directory, text file or a executable binary, you
can edit, execute, rename, open another view, or remove it from the desktop.
You can drag a selected file from the Directory display presented by the File
Manager or from the desktop and place it somewhere else. You cannot place the
same file more than once on the desktop backdrop. You cannot drop a file on itself.
__ 27. While dragging a file, take it across the controls on the desktop.
What do you see?
You will see that some of the icons will highlight indicating that they will
accept the file, for example, the printer and the trash can.
Some will not highlight. For example, the Style Manager or the Workspace
switches.
__ 28. Drop the file on the Clock control. What happens?
If you try to drop an item to a control that will not accept it, it flies back home.
File Manager - Finding, Copying and Deleting Files

The Desktop File Manager is one of the most useful and powerful tools in CDE. This
section explores more of the File Manager capabilities.

17-7
__ 29. Set the File Manager preferences to display a Directory Tree diagram, starting at the
root directory.
On the File Manager window, double-click the root directory icon.
Click View.
Click Set View Options.
In Headers, select Iconic Path, Text Path, and Message Line
In Show, select By Tree and Folders Only
In Representation select By Small Icons
Click Apply.
__ 30. Navigate to the root directory in the File Manager window.
Double click (left mouse button) on the root directory in the iconic path near
the top of the window.
__ 31. Expand the /usr/dt directory.
Click the + in front of the /usr icon (you may have to scroll).
Click the + in front of the dt icon (again, you may have to scroll to see the file
names listed).
The /usr/dt directory contains CDE executables and default configurations.
__ 32. Set your viewing options to see a single folder at a time (rather than a tree structure)
and using small icons. Also request display of the full path using icons near the top
of the window.
In the Set View options window:
Select only Iconic Path in Headers;
Select By Single Folder in Show;
Select By Small Icons in Representation.
Click Apply.
__ 33. Set your viewing options to display by properties (such as modify date, permissions,
owner etc). This output will look similar to the output of the ls -la command.
In the Set View Options window:
Unselect all choices in Headers
Select By Tree and Folders Only in Show;
Select by Name, date, size... in Representation.
Click Apply.
__ 34. Close the File Manager and any windows that it opened.
__ 35. Use the File Manager to execute the date command. This command is found in the
/bin directory.
Click the File Manager icon.
17-8 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Double-click the root directory icon.

Double-click the bin directory icon.
Scroll and find date.
Double-click date.
From the Action:Run panel, click OK.
After date executes, close the Run Panel.
Close the File Manager.
__ 36. Use the File Manager to create the directory cdelab in your $HOME directory.
Verify that the icon path shows /home/teamxx (if not, click File and choose
Go Home).
Click File.
Click New Folder... (a folder is like a directory to the CDE File Manager).
Enter new folder name: cdelab
Click OK.
Close the File Manager.
__ 37. The File Manager can also be used to execute a find operation. Use the File
Manager to find all pixmap files (files with an extension of .pm) in the CDE /usr/dt
directory.
Click File.
Click Find.
Enter File or Folder Name: *.pm
Enter Search Folder: /usr/dt
Click Start.
__ 38. Copy two or more of the pixmap files to the cdelab subdirectory.
Select a .pm file by clicking it.
Click Put in Workspace.
Drag the pixmap icon from the workspace to the cdelab icon by holding down
the Ctrl key and the left mouse button. (Dragging the icon without using the
Ctrl key is like doing a move.)
When the pixmap is over the cdelab icon, release the mouse button and
Ctrl key to drop the pixmap.
Repeat these steps to copy two more pixmaps.

17-9
__ 39. Rename one of the files to myicon.pm.

Double-click the cdelab icon.
Click the filename of one of the pixmap icons.
When the mouse moves, the name of the file displays in reverse video. It is
possible to type over the name to enter a new name. Enter myicon.pm
Press Enter.
__ 40. Delete the myicon.pm file using the mouse and the Front Panel trash can.
Click the myicon.pm file icon to select it.
While pressing the left mouse button, drag it to the Trash Can on the Front
Panel. Release the mouse button.
Click OK on the Trash Can Warning to delete the file.
__ 41. Delete a second pixmap file using the File Manager Menu Bar.
Click a pixmap file icon in your directory.
Click Selected.
Click Put In Trash.
Click OK on the Trash Can Warning.
__ 42. With CDE it is possible to retrieve a deleted file. Restore myicon.pm.
Note that the Trash Can icon looks like it contains something. Click the Trash
Can icon. This displays the Trash Can window.
Click the myicon.pm icon.
Click File.
Choose Put Back to retrieve a deleted file.
__ 43. Empty the trash can.
Select File on the Trash Can window.
Select Select All.
Select File.
Select Shred.
Click OK when the shred warning is displayed. The files will be deleted.
Close the Trash Can window.
__ 44. Change the Owner and Group permissions of the restored file to read/write.
Click the myicon.pm icon in the File Manager window.
Click Selected.
Click Change Permissions.
17-10 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Click Write for Owner.

Click Write for Group.
Click OK.
__ 45. Close the File Manager.
__ 46. At this point, you may continue with the optional exercise or exit out of CDE. If you
are in a VNC environment, do not use the Exit icon, but instead just lock the session.
If completely done with using the CDE interface go to the last step in this exercise
and close down the interface.
Skip this step to perform the optional steps.
If in a VNC environment, click on the Lock icon.
Click Exit on the Front Panel.
Click Continue Logout on the confirmation panel.
Optional Exercise Steps

__ 47. Click the Calendar control on the Front Panel. Add an appointment in the next week.
Click the Calendar control on the Front Panel; it is just to the right of the
clock.
Click the Appointment Editor on the Calendar Toolbar. The Appointment
Editor is the first icon on the left.
In the Date window type a date for next week.
In the Start time window, click the rectangle button to view the various start
times. Click a start time. Click AM or PM as necessary.
In the End time window, click the rectangle button to view the various end
times. Click an end time. Click AM or PM as necessary.
In the What window type what the appointment is for.
Click Insert.
Click Cancel to close the Appointment Editor window.
Your appointment should now be displayed on the month-view calendar. If the
appointment is made for the next month, click the > to the right of Today on
the Calendar Toolbar to view the next month.
__ 48. Change the view to Day View to view the appointment you have scheduled.
Use the left mouse button to click the day (on the month view calendar) that
the appointment has been scheduled.
Click the Day View icon on the Calendar Toolbar. The Day View icon is the
fourth icon from the right.
__ 49. Change the view to Week View to view the appointment you have scheduled.

17-11
Click the Week View icon on the Calendar Toolbar. The Week View icon is
the third icon from the right.
__ 50. Set a reminder to yourself for the appointment. Make the appointment private so that
others cannot view it on your calendar.
Click the Appointment Editor icon. Again, this icon is the first icon on the
Calendar Toolbar.
Be sure your appointment shows in the Time What window. If it does not,
cancel the Appointment Editor and then click the day your appointment is
scheduled. Once this day is highlighted, click the Appointment Editor.
Select your appointment in the Time What window
On the Appointment Editor, click More. An extended appointment window
will be displayed.
Under Reminders, choose how you would like to receive the reminder; by
beep, flash, popup or mail.
Click Privacy and choose a preferred privacy option.
Once the reminder is complete, click Change. Then click Cancel.
__ 51. Return to the month view icon on the calendar menu bar.
Click the Month View icon on the calendar menu bar. It is the second from the
right.
__ 52. Close the Calendar window
Click the upper left of the window to display the menu window. Click Close.
__ 53. Exit out of the vnc session.
If using a VNC session, close the desktop window. Then switch to your ASCII
terminal session and type vncserver -kill :X where X is the session number
you previously created.
END OF EXERCISE
17-12 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Appendix A. Customizing AIXwindows (1)

(with Hints)

This exercise shows the students how they can customize their
AIXwindows environment.

At the end of the lab, you should be able to:
Customize the .xinitrc file
Customize the .Xdefaults file
Introduction
In this exercise, students will learn how to edit files to customize their

A-1

Preface
classroom.
If VNC is used to provide the AIXWindows environment, then the file that controls the
AIXWindows session initialization is called xstartup, and is located in .vnc subdirectory
of the users home directory.
If the lab exercises is being done on a local attached graphics console (LFT), then
follow the instructions marked (LFT). If a VNC server session is being used to display
AIXWindows, then follow the instructions marked (VNC).
Customizing the .xinitrc File

The .xinitrc file is used by the startx shell script to initialize the AIXwindows session.
(Actually, startx executes xinit, which reads the .xinitrc file.) If VNC is used to provide
the AIXWindows environment, then the file that controls the AIXWindows session
initialization is called xstartup, and is located in .vnc subdirectory of the users home
directory.
__ 1. Log in to your AIX system, either locally or through a terminal emulator.
login: teamxx
passwd: <your password>
__ 2. If using a local graphics display (LFT), copy the file /usr/lpp/X11/defaults/xinitrc
into your $HOME directory and call the file .xinitrc. If using a VNC session, there is no
need to copy the file; the xstartup file is already present in $HOME/.vnc.
(LFT) cp /usr/lpp/X11/defaults/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
__ 3. Edit the file and make the following changes:
Add a second hand to the xclock.
Make the root window solid black.
Add, on a new line before the exec mwm line, the following:
aixterm -T "Bills Window" &
(LFT) vi .xinitrc
(VNC) vi xstartup
Update the xclock command to include the option -update 1
Update the xsetroot command to look like this: xsetroot -solid black
Add the following: aixterm -T "Bills Window" &
A-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Save the file using <Esc> :wq

__ 4. Start the AIXwindows session. If you are accessing AIXWindows through a VNC
client, then start the VNC server with vncserver, and connect to the specified
session with the client. Does the AIXwindows environment look different? It should!
(LFT) startx
(VNC) vncserver
Customizing the .Xdefaults File

__ 5. Execute the command aixterm -keywords | pg to view all the resources that can
be customized for an aixterm window.
aixterm -keywords | pg
__ 6. Create the .Xdefaults file in your $HOME directory and add the following resource
definitions:
Aixterm*foreground:
Aixterm*background:
Aixterm*geometry:
Aixterm*font:
DarkSlateGrey
wheat
80x30
rom10.iso1
vi .Xdefaults
Add the above lines into the file. Be sure there are no trailing blanks after any
of the entries. Save the file using <Esc> :wq
__ 7. Restart AIXwindows. This will cause your new .Xdefaults file to be read and used
for any new aixterm windows you create. Now, open a new aixterm window. Does
it have the characteristics specified in the .Xdefaults file?
Move the mouse to the root window and press the right mouse button. This
will display the root menu.
Keeping the right mouse button depressed, move the mouse pointer to
Restart... and release the mouse button.
When asked if you want to Restart Mwm, use the left mouse button to click
OK.
Using the left mouse button, click one of your aixterm windows so that it
becomes the active window.
On the command line enter: aixterm &. This new window should use the
characteristics you entered into the .Xdefaults file.
__ 8. Now, end the AIXwindows session and then restart it. If using a VNC environment,
switch to your ASCII terminal session and issue vncserver -kill :session where

A-3
session is the VNC session ID. Restart the session by running vncserver. What do
the two original windows look like? Why?
(LFT) <Ctrl> <Alt> <Backspace> to end AIXwindows

(LFT) $ startx
(VNC) vncserver -kill :X (where X is the session ID)
(VNC) vncserver
__ 9. Edit the .Xdefaults file and update the following lines for new colors:
Aixterm*foreground:
Aixterm*background:
grey
navy
vi .Xdefaults
Edit the file to change the colors for your aixterm windows. Save the
changes.
__ 10. Restart the mwm and then create a new aixterm window from the command line.
Does it use your new color specifications? It should!
Move the mouse to the root window and press the right mouse button. This
will display the root menu.
Keeping the right mouse button depressed, move the mouse pointer to
Restart... and release the mouse button.
When asked if you want to Restart Mwm, use the left mouse button to click
OK.
Using the left mouse button, click one of your aixterm windows so that it
becomes the active window.
On the command line enter: aixterm &
__ 11. Exit your AIXwindows environment and log out from your system. If using VNC,
switch to your ASCII terminal session and kill the VNC server.
(LFT) Press <CTRL><ALT><BACKSPACE>.
(VNC) $ vncserver -kill :X (where X is the VNC session ID)
END OF EXERCISE
A-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Appendix B. Customizing AIXwindows (2)

(with Hints)

This exercise shows the students how they can customize their

At the end of the lab, you should be able to:
Use the custom tool to tailor colors and fonts
Use the custom tool to tailor size, location, icons, and the scrollbar
Customize the Motif window manager (mwm)
Use the xsetroot command to customize the root window
Introduction
In this exercise, students will learn how to use the AIXwindows custom
tool to customize their AIXwindows environment.

B-1

Preface
classroom.
If the lab exercises is being done on a local attached graphics console (LFT), then
follow the instructions marked (LFT). If a VNC server session is being used to display
AIXWindows, then follow the instructions marked (VNC).
Using the Custom Tool: Color and Fonts

__ 1. Log in to your system and start AIXwindows. If the AIXWindows session is being
accessed through VNC, start the VNC server, and access it from your VNC client.
(LFT) $ startx
(VNC) $ vncserver
__ 2. Make sure you have two aixterm windows open as well as the xclock. Also, start
the scientific calculator.
xcalc &
__ 3. Start the AIXwindows customization tool.
Move the mouse pointer to the root window and press the right mouse button.
While still holding down the right mouse button, point to the Custom option
and release the mouse button. The Customizing Tool will appear.
__ 4. On the Customizing Tool window, choose xcalc.
With the left mouse button, point and click xcalc. The line should be
highlighted.
Use the left mouse button to click OK.
__ 5. View the different resource categories that can be changed for the xcalc
application. What sorts of resources can be changed? Choose Colors, which is the
default resource category.
Use the left mouse button to click the small rectangle in the Colors box. This
will display the other resource categories that can be customized for this
application.
Use the left mouse button to click Colors.
__ 6. Change the background color for xcalc to the color of your choice.
Move the mouse to the line titled window interior background and use the
left mouse button to click the Colors... box. The Colors browser will be
displayed.
B-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
There are two ways to select a color. One way is to use the left mouse button
to scroll through the various colors. When you find one that looks interesting,
click the color with the left mouse button. The color will be displayed. Note the
red, green, and blue sliders in the window will change based on the color
chosen.
Another way to choose a color is to use the left mouse button to slide the red,
green and blue bars to whatever color mixture you want. The color will be
displayed. Once you decide on a color, click Match RGB to Closest Color
Name, and review the results.
Click Apply. The background color of the xcalc should change.
Click OK to close the window.
__ 7. Switch focus to an aixterm window and display the contents of .Xdefaults. Has it
been updated? It should not have been!
Use the left mouse button to click the aixterm window.
cat .Xdefaults
__ 8. So, to have your values saved in .Xdefaults, change your focus back to the xcalc
customizing window. Save the values you have chosen.
Use the left mouse button to click back to the xcalc Customizing Window.
Click File, which is located in the upper left of the window.
Click Save As....
On the Save As... window, you are given the opportunity to choose which
file you wish to save the values in. The default is $HOME/.Xdefaults. Click
OK.
__ 9. Now, review the .Xdefaults file again. Your resource change should now be there.
Use the left mouse button to click the aixterm window.
cat .Xdefaults
__ 10. Return to the xcalc Customizing window and now choose the resource category of
Fonts.
Use the left mouse button to click the Customizing Tool window.
Click the small rectangle in the Colors box. Keep the left mouse button
pressed.
Point to Fonts and release the mouse button.
__ 11. View the various fonts that can be used for the window interior.
Click the Fonts... button which corresponds to the window interior option.
The Fonts browser will appear.

B-3
__ 12. The List of Fonts window is used to display all the possible fonts. Feel free to
scroll through them, but be aware that there are LOTS of fonts in the list! You can
narrow down the list of fonts by choosing Family, Weight, Slant, Style, Spacing,
and Size in the respective selection windows. Below these windows will be
feedback indicating how many fonts match the selection criteria.
Click a font from the List of Fonts that appears interesting. It will be displayed in
the Sample box (some fonts will not display). If you have trouble finding a font you
like, try the following to narrow down the search:
Family: Helvetica
Weight: Bold
Slant: All
Style: All
Spacing: All
Size: 14
Choose a font to be used for the xcalc window and save your choice as you did for
the background color. Verify they change has been added to your .Xdefaults file.
Close the Customizing windows.
Use the left mouse button to make your font choice. Once you select a font, it
will be displayed in the Sample box.
Once you have decided on the font to use, be sure it is highlighted and then
click Apply. xcalc should now use the new font.
Click OK.
On the xcalc customizing window, click File.
Click Save As...
Click OK to save your changes to the .Xdefaults file.
Click the upper left of the xcalc Customizing Tool window to open the
window menu and then click Close.
Run cat .Xdefaults to verify the font information has been updated in the
file.
__ 13. Use the customizing tool to change the background color for an aixterm. When you
choose Apply will the color of your existing aixterm windows change like it did for
the xcalc window? Will the new color be updated in the .Xdefaults file? Verify that
your change updated .Xdefaults and affects the appearance of a new aixterm.
Move the mouse point to the root window and hold down the right mouse
button. While still holding down the button, point to Custom and release the
button.
On the Customizing Tool window click aixterm and then OK.
Click the Colors... box for window interior background.
B-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
On the Colors window, choose any color and then click OK.
On the aixterm Customizing window, click File. Then, click Save as....
On the Save As... window, click OK. Your changes have now been added to
the .Xdefaults file.
Close the aixterm Customizing window by clicking in the upper left corner to
open the window menu and then click Close.
cat .Xdefaults
aixterm &
Customizing the root Window with the xsetroot Command

We will next change the root menu. This is done using the xsetroot command from the
command line of one of your aixterm windows.
__ 14. Change the root window to solid blue.
xsetroot -solid blue
__ 15. Change the cursor pointer to a skull and crossbones (called pirate), to a shuttle, or
to gumby. Move the cursor to the root window to view the new cursor shape.
xsetroot -cursor_name pirate
Move the cursor to the root window to view the new cursor shape.
xsetroot -cursor_name shuttle
xsetroot -cursor_name gumby
__ 16. Have the root window display xsnow (snowflakes) or escherknots - take your
pick. These bitmap images are found in the directory /usr/include/X11/bitmaps.
You may wish to view the file names in this directory for other bitmaps of interest.
The bitmaps themselves are black and white images, so you may want to set other
colors for the background and foreground.
xsetroot -bg white -fg pink -bitmap
/usr/include/X11/bitmaps/xsnow
xsetroot -bg lightblue -fg navy -bitmap \
/usr/include/X11/bitmaps/escherknot
__ 17. If you decide you like any of these root window options, how would you make your
customization permanent, that is, available every time you start AIXwindows?
Change the xsetroot command in .xinitrc

B-5
Optional Exercises
Using the Custom Tool: Size and Location, Icons and Scrollbar
__ 18. Make sure you have a running Calculator Tool. If not, start one.
In your aixterm window enter: xcalc &
__ 19. Start the AIXwindows Custom Tool and choose xcalc again.
While still holding the button down, point to Custom and release the mouse
button.
On the Customizing Tool window, click xcalc and then OK.
__ 20. Choose the Size and Location resource category and customize the size of the
xcalc.
On the xcalc Customizing window, use the left mouse button to click the
small rectangle in the Colors box. Click Size and Location.
On the Size and Location window, try using different pixel values for height
and width. As a suggestion, start with a size of 300x400. Press Enter after
choosing the sizes you want. Notice the change in the calculator tool.
Save the size values if you want by clicking File. Then, click Save as.... On
the Save As... window, click OK. Your changes have now been added to the
.Xdefaults file.
__ 21. Suppose you wish to update the icon used for a particular AIXwindows application.
To demonstrate how this is done, we will change the icon used for xcalc. You may
first want to iconify and then restore the xcalc window to view the icon that is used.
Then, use the xcalc Customizing window, and choose the icon resource category.
On the xcalc Customizing window, click the small rectangle in the Colors
box and then click Icon.
__ 22. Choose a new icon for the xcalc window: have the icon look like a terminal. Once
you have completed this task, review the .Xdefaults file to verify that your entry has
been added. Test the new icon to verify that it is being used.
Click Pictures which corresponds to the icon picture * line.
The window under Files lists all the available pictures that can be used as
an icon. Scroll through the list to see what the options are. To view any of
them, click the file name and then on View Picture. The escherknot is an
interesting icon to view.
Under Files, click the icon file named terminal and then View Picture.
Once you approve of this choice, choose Cancel to remove the picture.
Click OK to save your choice.
B-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
On the xcalc Customizing window, use the left mouse button to click File,
then Save As..., then OK to save your values in the .Xdefaults file.
Close the Customizing Tool window by choosing Close from the window
menu.
Now, from an aixterm window, view the .Xdefaults file using the cat
.Xdefaults command to make sure your change has been added.
In order for the new icon to be used, MWM must be restarted. Move the
mouse pointer to the root window and press the right mouse button. Choose
Restart and then OK to restart the Motif window manager.
Now, iconify the xcalc window. It should use the new icon you have chosen.
__ 23. Now, add a scroll bar to the aixterm windows. Verify that the .Xdefaults file has
been updated and test to verify that the scroll bar works.
Holding down on the button, point to Custom and release the button.
On the Customizing Tool window, click aixterm and then OK.
Click the small rectangle in the Colors box and then click Scroll Bar.
Click the box for visible scroll bar and choose true.
Click File, Save As... and then OK.
Close the Customizing Tool window by choosing Close from the window
menu.
View the .Xdefaults file using the cat .Xdefaults command. The scrollbar
resource should be listed.
Start an aixterm window using the aixterm & command. The new window
should display a scrollbar.
__ 24. In your new aixterm window, list the files in /usr/bin and then use the scrollbar to go
back and forth in the listing.
In the aixterm window run: ls /usr/bin
In the scrollbar area click your right mouse button to scroll up
In the scrollbar area click your left mouse button to scroll down
Customizing the Motif Window Manager (MWM)

__ 25. Use the AIXwindows custom tool to update the MWM with the following
characteristics:
window manager background: red
window manager foreground: blue
Verify that .Xdefaults has been updated.

B-7
On the root menu, click Custom.
On the Customizing Tool window click mwm and then on OK.
From the Mwm Customizing window, view the various resource categories by
moving the left mouse button to the small rectangle in the Colors box and
clicking. You will see that there are many resources that can be tailored.
Choose Colors, which is the default.
For the window manager background type in red.
For the window manager foreground type in blue.
Click File, Save As... and then OK to save the new resource values in the
.Xdefaults file.
Change the focus to an aixterm and view the .Xdefaults file using the cat
.Xdefaults command to verify the changes have been stored.
Move the mouse pointer to the root window and click the right mouse button.
Choose Restart from the root menu and then OK to restart the mwm. What
happens?
Now, view both the root menu and the window menu. The colors should have
changed!
__ 26. Some users prefer to use the pointer focus policy so they dont have to click a
window to make it the active window. The pointer focus policy allows you to merely
move the pointer to a window to make it the active window. If you are interested,
change your focus policy to pointer. Verify that .Xdefaults has been updated and
that the new focus policy works.
From the Mwm Customizing window, click the small rectangle in the Colors
box. Then, click Focus.
Move the pointer to the box that corresponds to the keyboard focus policy
and click the small rectangle.
The default is explicit, meaning that you need to click a window to make it the
active window. If you wish to change the focus policy, click pointer.
To save this change, click File, Save As... and OK.
Use the cat .Xdefaults command the verify the changes have been made
to the .Xdefaults file.
Now, restart the mwm by moving the mouse pointer to the root window and
using the right mouse button, point to Restart.... Click OK to restart the
Motif Window Manager.
You will notice now that when you move the mouse around, the different
windows will be highlighted. The highlighted window is the active window.
B-8
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
The pointer focus policy seems to work best if the windows are not
overlapped.
End the customizing tool when you have finished. You may also want to
iconify or close some windows if your screen is looking cluttered.
END OF EXERCISE

B-9
B-10 AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Appendix C. Customizing CDE

(with Hints)

This exercise provides an opportunity to customize the CDE Desktop.

Customize CDE using the Style Manager
Customize the Front Panel
Introduction
Students will work as teams using a graphics terminal to customize
their CDE environment. This machine exercise will focus on using the
interactive customization features of CDE. First, the CDE environment
will be customized using the Style Manager. Then, the Front Panel will
be customized.

C-1

Preface
classroom.
Customizing the Front Panel

__ 1. If logging in through a VNC client, first connect to the AIX machine via an ASCII
terminal session and log in as your user. Start the VNC server session by typing
vncserver. Switch back to your desktop, and start the VNC client application,
specifying the hostname and VNC session number.
If logging in on a graphics console (LFT), log in as your userid.
Connect and log in as your userid.
$ vncserver
Switch back to your desktop, and launch the VNC client application. Enter the
machines name and VNC session number and password when required.
The VNC client window should appear with the CDE environment running
within.
__ 2. Customize your Workspaces as follows:
Rename each Workspace.
Single-click a Workspace Switch button to select that Workspace.
Double-click this same Workspace Switch Button to change its name.
Type in a new name and press Enter to complete the change.
Change the Backdrop of each Workspace.
Click the Style Manager icon.
Click the Backdrop icon.
Select your choice of backdrop and click Apply.
Click Close.
Select another workspace and repeat.
Turn on the screen saver and screen lock.
While in the Style Manager, click the Screen icon.
Make your choices and click OK.
Set the window behavior.
C-2
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
While in the Style Manager, click the Window icon.

Make your choices and click OK.
Select a different palette for the workspaces.
In the Style Manager, click the Color icon.
Select a palette and click OK.
__ 3. Add a fifth workspace and customize its style using the Style Manager.
Click a workspace button with the right mouse button and select Add
Workspace.
Use the Style Manager to make any changes that you want.
__ 4. Set the new session as your Home session, and set Startup to return to your Home
session at login.
Note: This is not supported in a VNC session. If using VNC, skip to step 6.
Click the New Workspace Button.
In the Style Manager, select the StartUp icon.
Select Set Home Session...
Click OK to replace.
Select At login, Return to Home Session.
Click OK.
__ 5. Log out and log in again. Check to see that the state of your session matches what
you set in the previous steps.
Click Exit.
Click Continue logout when asked to confirm.
At the Login Manager panel, log back in.
__ 6. Add the same dtterm session to all workspaces.
An application can be assigned to one or more workspaces by using the Window
button menu.
If you do not have a dtterm session started, raise the Personal
Applications subpanel and click Terminal.
Click the dtterm's window menu button at the top left of the window frame
(the dash).
Note the options on the window menu. Click Occupy All Workspaces to
place the application in all workspaces. (If you had wished to remove an
application from a workspace, you could have chosen Unoccupy Workspace.)
__ 7. Use the ls command in the dtterm to list the current directory.

C-3
Check each of the workspaces to see if the same application session is available.
__ 8. Now, remove a Workspace application from one or more Workspaces.
If you want to remove an application, which you previously occupied into
multiple Workspaces, from a Workspace you can see that there is an
Unoccupy Workspace menu item in the pull down Window menu for just that
purpose.
__ 9. Have the dtterm application appear on the Front Panel as the default application
associated with the Personal Applications control.
Click the arrow above the Personal Applications control to display the
subpanel.
Point at Terminal, the item you want to have on the Front Panel.
Press the right mouse button.
Choose Copy to Main Panel.
The icon for the terminal should now appear on the Front Panel.
Click the arrow above the Personal Applications control to close the
subpanel.
__ 10. Tear off the Personal Applications subpanel menu, and place it on the workspace.
Click the arrow above the Personal Applications control to raise its
subpanel.
With the subpanel now raised, point at its title bar.
Press and hold the left button on the mouse and drag the whole menu to a
convenient location on the backdrop.
Release the mouse buttons to drop the menu at that location.
The menu will stay displayed after an item has been selected. Normally, it will
close after one of its items has been selected.
__ 11. Create a new subpanel for the Style Manager control and add the Icon Editor and
the aixterm applications to it.
Point at the Style Manager control. Notice that it does not have a subpanel
since there is no arrow above its control.
Press the right mouse button to get a pop-up menu.
Select the Add Subpanel option.
If the control already had a subpanel present, there would have also been an
option to delete the subpanel.
Click the subpanel. Note that it contains two items: Install Icon, which
enables you to add more items to this subpanel, and a function related to the
control itself.
C-4
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
EXempty
Click the Application Manager control on the Front Panel.

Select Desktop_Apps.
Click with the right mouse button to display a pull-down menu.
Select Open In Place.
Point at the scrollbar at the right, press and hold the left mouse button, pull
down until the Icon Editor entry shows in the window. Release the mouse
button.
Click the Icon Editor.
Point at the Icon Editor again and drag the outline to the popped up
subpanel. Drop the icon onto the Install Icon control.
The Icon Editor is added to the subpanel.
Close the Application Manager window.
The aixterm icon is in the Desktop_Tools directory of the Application
Manager. Click the Application Manager control.
Click Desktop_Tools.
While pointing at Desktop_Tools, press the right mouse button to display a
pull-down menu.
On the menu, choose Open in Place.
Use the scrollbar to locate aixterm and then use the left mouse button to
drag it to the Install Icon control on the subpanel.
Now, there should be two new items on the Style Manager's subpanel.
__ 12. Now, remove the Icon Editor from the new subpanel.
On the Style Manager's subpanel, point to the item you wish to remove (the
Icon Editor).
Press the right mouse button.
Select Delete.
Select OK to confirm.
Adding a New Control to the Front Panel

__ 13. Start the Application Manager.
Click the Application Manager icon.
__ 14. Open the Personal Applications subpanel.
Click the arrow in the Front Panel to open the subpanel.
__ 15. Drag the icon for Firefox from the Application Manager window on to the Install
Icon from the Personal Applications subpanel.

C-5
Select the Firefox icon, and drag it with the left mouse button on to the Install
Icon.
__ 16. Close the Personal Applications subpanel.
Click the arrow in the subpanel.
__ 17. Find out the name of the definition file in directory $HOME/.dt/types/fp_dynamic.
Write down the file name:
$ ls $HOME/.dt/types/fp_dynamic
The file name should be Firefox1.fp
__ 18. Copy this definition file to directory $HOME/.dt/types and specify a new file name.
$ cd $HOME/.dt/types
$ cp fp_dynamic/firefox1.fp browser.fp
__ 19. Anchor the application control in the Front Panel by editing the copied definition file.
Use your student notes to find out which lines must be changed.
$ vi browser.fp
CONTAINER_TYPE
CONTAINER_NAME
POSITION_HINTS
BOX
Top
last
__ 20. Restart the CDE. After restarting CDE, you should see the application icon on the
Front Panel.
END OF EXERCISE
C-6
AIX 6 Basics

V3.1
backpg
Back page

HCC2D A10 Aixbasics Studenthints

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

HCC2D A10 Aixbasics Studenthints

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

HCC2D A10 Aixbasics Studenthints

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

V3.

IBM Certified Course Material

Student Exercises with Hints

Common User Access

PS/2 is a trademark or registered trademark of Lenovo in the United States, other

February 2008 Edition

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Student Exercises with Hints

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Common User Access

PS/2 is a trademark or registered trademark of Lenovo in the United States, other

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Student Exercises with Hints

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part

Student Exercises with Hints

Identifies file names, file paths, directories, user names, and

Identifies links to Web sites, publication titles, and is used

Identifies attributes, variables, file listings, SMIT menus, code

Identifies commands, daemons, menu paths, and what the user

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 1. Using the System

What This Exercise Is About

What You Should Be Able to Do

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 1. Using the System

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part

Student Exercises with Hints

Exercise Instructions with Hints

Logging In / Changing Passwords

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Send and Receive Mail

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 1. Using the System

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part

Student Exercises with Hints

Communicating with Other Users

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 1. Using the System

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part

Student Exercises with Hints

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 2. AIX 6.1 Documentation

What This Exercise Is About

What You Should Be Able to Do

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 2. AIX 6.1 Documentation

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part

Student Exercises with Hints

Exercise Instructions with Hints

AIX Information Center

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008

Exercise 2. AIX 6.1 Documentation

Course materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part

Student Exercises with Hints

Copyright IBM Corp. 1995, 2008