Table of Contents
Part 1
Entries
Entry 1: Wednesday, August 29, 2012
I just wanted to record how I felt on the very first day of class…. Clueless! Totally Clueless! Before today, I would have described myself as computer literate and quick to catch on. However, today… I feel like I just stepped off the plane in a foreign country. Everyone is speaking a mile a minute, and I am lucky if I can catch a single word that I understand. Ahh… a challenge. Ok, time to pull out the pocket translator and get to work. Heck, I wouldn't be here if I already knew this stuff…. right…RIGHT.
Entry 2: Wednesday, August 31, 2012
Thus far, we have been working in a non GUI environment which is definitely a little intimidating. I feel a little confused…as in my C++ program class we are also using Unix (I think), but that version has a GUI interface. Today in class we set up Mecurial on our accounts. Mecurial is one type of version control software that we will be using to track changes to our projects. I am a little confused as to how and when we will be using Mecurial…. as there doesn't seem to be a user interface. We just type commands when we want to save, update and commit?
We also explored many different commands today: rm, cd, ls/dir, mkdir, rmdir, pwd, passwd, clear, man, cp, mv, wtf, pom who/ whoami, screen, irssi, exit/logout/CTRL +D
We explored the difference between absolute and relative paths. An absolute path gives you all the information needed to get you to a specific location. For example: cd/home/user/src Whereas a relative path only gives you directions to a specific location starting from your current location. Example: cd src
Entry 3: September 16, 2012
Remember on the first day of class, when it was highly suggested that we should read Unix for the Beginning Mage _? Well, like the “good” student I am.. I started to read it the first day of class… but then I put it down after the first couple of pages…. as the viewing screen on my phone… just wasn't cutting it. I will be honest, I didn't pick it back up until after I missed a couple of classes. WOW! It took about 5 hours to read and work through the entire book and exercises.. but let me tell you, I wish I had done this during week 1. With the background from the book, I was able to read through the missed class notes, and actually feel like I had at least a good basic working knowledge of the topics covered. To anyone who has yet to read it, and to all future class attendees…. read ASAP!
Entry 4: September 21, 2012
Today, I think I figured out the concept of the screen sessions within a terminal. Up until this point, I had been under the impression that every time I logged into lab 46, I had to reattach to a screen session, and then alternate between the bash sessions.. i.e. chat and command line. It was until we started playing with Ctrl + options in class today, did I realize the error of my ways. The Ctrl + options do not have the same command effects in a screen session that they do in the home terminal session. Therefore, for future use… screen sessions should be used for purposes of chat, or if there comes a time when it is necessary to leave the computer for a period of time (leave class), and then come back (perhaps from home) and pickup exactly where I left off.
Keywords
unix Keyword 1
File Archival
Definition
File archival, sometimes referred to as concatenating files, is used to join multiple files and data regarding those files into a single file which can then be compressed to reduce the amount of required storage space needed for files. Each computer platform or operating system has their own formats for concatenating files. Tar, ar, and shar are the file formats used by Unix operating system to join the files and gzip is the format of the compressed file. Each format is distinct in the treatment of the files. For example, the tar format is used for the creation of tape archives, and has replaced the ar format for most files other than static libraries. The shar format is for shell script archives.
References
List any sites, books, or sources utilized when researching information on this topic. (Remove any filler text).
unix Keyword 1 Phase 2
Data Streams (STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR)
Definition
Data Streams: Incoming and outgoing information between commands, files, programs and the computer.
Standard Input (STDIN)
Data being accepted as incoming information into another command, file or program.
Standard Output (STDOUT)
The information displayed or redirected from a command, file or program.
Standard Error (STDERR)
The message displayed when a problem occurs with a command, file or program. This message can be redirected like standard output as long as the file descriptor "2" is used before the redirect indicator.
References
1. Unix for the Beginning Mage A Tutorial by Joe Topjian
Demonstration
Demonstration of Data Streams.
In the example below, the STDOUT of the who command is being piped as STDIN to the wc-l command. The STDOUT of the wc -l command is the number 9, which in this example is simply displayed on screen.
lab46:~$ who | wc -l 9
In the first example below, the STDERR message is displayed on screen from a bad command. The second example shows the STDERR message being redirected to a file, and the cat command used to display contents of file.
lab46:~$ ls files ls: cannot access files: No such file or directory
lab46:~$ ls files 2> error.txt lab46:~$ cat error.txt ls: cannot access files: No such file or directory
Experiment 1
Question
Is it possible to import a google address book into the Alpine mail program?
Resources
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/pipermail/alpine-info/2010-July/003413.html
http://www.wijeyesakere.com/tech/alpine/
http://linux.die.net/man/1/alpine
It appears that there are a few different approaches for importing an existing email address book into the Alpine email client. The address book appears to work with the CSV format. Many have used a script to sync Google email address books with the Alpine address books while others have copied and pasted addresses from google into the .addressbook or appended a spreadsheet of data into alpine file. Upon further reading, it appears that it may even be possible to configure an outside email account to open within the Alpine environment instead of having to go out to a web browser.
Hypothesis
Based upon the reading I believe that it is most definitely possible to import an outside email address book from Google into the Alpine client, as there have been others who have achieved success.
Experiment
I am going to try copying the contacts from my Google account and pasting into my Alpine address book. Currently I do not have any contacts in my Alpine address book, so if my hypothesis is correct, after I finish my experiment, I should be able to open my address book with in Alpine and have contacts available.
- Locate the .addressbook file.
- Export my Google contacts into an Excel spreadsheet.
- Copy the names and addresses from the Excel spreadsheet.
- Open .addressbook in VI
- Paste into Vi
- Close and Save
- Open Alpine and view address book
Data
- The .addressbook file is located in the users home directory.
- Exporting contacts into CSV Outlook format, and opening in Excel worked well. I just had to deleted the extra columns.
- All contacts were available in the Alpine address book, and available when inserting in the To line of a message.
Analysis
Yes, my hypothesis was correct. You can import addresses from an outside account into the Alpine account. The downside of the way I imported the addressees is that it is a manual action. I would need to do this action occasionally in order to keep the accounts synced.
Conclusions
While exploring the possibility of being able to get outside contacts into Alpine, without having to manually re-type them, I learned more about the functionality of Alpine, and started to realize its functionality as a front end for other email accounts.