This is a list of topics we considered while writing midterm questions. Not every item is covered on the exam.

Topics

• Commands including: cd, echo, mkdir, rmdir, rm, mv, cp, echo, man, head, tail, dirname, basename, uniq (w/ and w/o -c), wc (w/ and w/o -l) shift
• Absolute and relative paths
• Printing to stdout and stderr
• Output redirection, for both stdout and stderr, and to /dev/null
• Variables, including arguments ($@, $1…) and $?
• Zero vs. non-zero return status
• And its relation to conditionals
• Basic loops and conditionals, and common unary and binary operators, as well as &&/||
• Pipelines of >= 4 parts
• Command substitution using $()
• Command separation with ;.
• Cutting arbitrary fields with cut, -d, -f. No ranges.
• Sort, both alphabetically, numerically, and in reverse
• Basic find with grep, and replace with sed
• Hashbangs, set -e and basic scripting bits and bobs
• Permissions; especially execute permission.
• Basic tar usage including extraction
• Symbolic links
• git, including commit, push/pull, blame, diff, checkout and .gitignore files.