Shell Lessons for Archivists: Reference

Key Points

What is the shell?	The shell is powerful Knowing where you are in your directory structure is key to working with the shell The shell can be used to copy, move, and combine multiple files
Counting and mining with the shell	The shell can be used to count elements of documents The shell can be used to search for patterns within files Command can be used to count and mine any number of files Commands and flags can be combined to build complex queries specific to your work
Working with free text	Shell tools can be combined to powerful effect

Shell Cheat Sheet

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Shell: Basics

pwd - print working directory

ls - list contents of a directory

• ls -l - list file information
• ls -lh - list human readable file information
• ls -F - list files and directories (directories will have a trailing /)
• ls -a - list all files, including hidden files
• ls *.txt - list all files that end with .txt

cd change directory

cd pathname - takes you to the directory specified by pathname

cd ~ - takes you to your home directory

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Shell: Interacting with Files

mkdir make a directory

cat print to shell or send file or files to output

head output first 10 lines of a file or files

tail output last 10 lines of a file or files

mv rename or move a file or files. Syntax for renaming a file: mv FILENAME NEWFILENAME

cp make a backup copy of a file or files. Syntax: cp FILENAME NEWFILENAME

> redirect output. Syntax with cat: cat FILENAME1 FILENAME2 > NEWFILENAME

>> redirect output by appending to the filename specified. Syntax with cat: cat FILENAME1 FILENAME2 >> NEWFILENAME

rm remove a file or files. NB: USE WITH EXTREME CAUTION!!!

rmdir -r will delete a directory, even if it is not empty.

rmdir -r-i will delete a directory, even if it is not empty, but will ask you to confirm each deletion.

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Shell: Wildcards

? a placeholder for one character or number

* a placeholder for zero or more characters or numbers

[] defines a class of characters

Examples

• foobar?: matches 7-character strings starting with foobar and ending with one character or number
• foobar*: matches strings that start with foobar and end with zero or more other characters or numbers
• foobar*txt: matches strings that start with foobar and end with txt
• [1-9]foobar?: matches 8-character strings that start that start with a number, have foobar after the number, and end with any character or number.

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Shell: Counting and Mining

wc word count

• -w: count words
• -l: count lines
• -c: count characters

sort sort input

grep global regular expression print

• -c: displays counts of matches for each file
• -i: match with case insensitivity
• -w: match whole words
• -v: exclude match
• --file=FILENAME.txt: use the file FILENAME.txt as the source of strings used in query
• |: (vertical bar character) send output from one command into another comma