A great Unix tutorial suitable for beginners

By | May 6, 2020

More than once I have written my own tutorials for learning how to use the command line within the bash shell in the context of a Unix or Unix-like computer. Recently I found a very well done tutorial that, while titled “Unix for Neuroimagers”  provides a wonderfully well done, easy to understand set of small tutorials, with exercises, each with an accompanying video that should make it easier for beginners that want to learn Unix command line / bash.  The lessons are concise and very well articulated, both in text format and in speech (clear English.)

The Unix lessons are part of a larger document titled “Andy’s Brain Book” aimed at neuroscientists and their use of different software for MRI and fMRI. For most readers the Unix section would be the most useful. The term Unix here is used loosely, as I also do, to mean “command line using the bash shell.”

Unix tutorials (bash)

The lessons appear as entries on the left side menu under the subtitle “UNIX FOR NEUROIMAGERS.” At the bottom of each lesson are optional exercises and a link to a video on his well furnished youtube.com channel. To make is faster to navigate the lessons and videos I have combined both into a simple table:

Lessons Video
What is Unix? Introduction to Unix (for Neuroimagers)
#1: Navigating the directory tree #1: cd, ls, and pwd
#2: Copying and Removing Files #2: cp, mv, and rm
#3: Reading Text Files #3: head, tail, and redirection
#4: Shells and Path Variables #4: Shells, Paths, and Variables
#5: For-Loops #5: For-Loops
#6: Conditional Statements #6: Conditional Statements
#7: Scripting #7: Scripting
#8: The Sed Command #8: The Sed Command
#9: Automating The Analysis #9 fMRI Short Course & #6: Automating fMRI Analysis

Note:  I have also archived each of the lessons at the archive.orgWay back machine” web site. For example the first lesson was archived on April 30, 2020. Therefore, should the original links be unreachable, a duplicate copy should be available as an archive, most likely as a link within the left side menu.

Book source

The whole book project is also available as “raw” format on GitHub as “restructured” text, that is a similar idea as markdown as well as individual images. However, most casual users would benefit best by using “Andy’s Brain Book” web version.

The author

Andrew Jahn (Andy) also has a Blog: andysbrainblog.com and a youtube.com channel. One of the video is a brainstorming session out of which the whole project arose. Video: Andy’s Brain Book: First Meeting.

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