The Unix Shell: Instructor Notes

Overall

Many people have questioned whether we should still teach the shell. After all, anyone who wants to rename several thousand data files can easily do so interactively in the Python interpreter, and anyone who’s doing serious data analysis is probably going to do most of their work inside the IPython Notebook or R Studio. So why teach the shell?

The first answer is, “Because so much else depends on it.” Installing software, configuring your default editor, and controlling remote machines frequently assume a basic familiarity with the shell, and with related ideas like standard input and output. Many tools also use its terminology (for example, the %ls and %cd magic commands in IPython).

The second answer is, “Because it’s an easy way to introduce some fundamental ideas about how to use computers.” As we teach people how to use the Unix shell, we teach them that they should get the computer to repeat things (via tab completion, ! followed by a command number, and for loops) rather than repeating things themselves. We also teach them to take things they’ve discovered they do frequently and save them for later re-use (via shell scripts), to give things sensible names, and to write a little bit of documentation (like comment at the top of shell scripts) to make their future selves’ lives better.

The third answer is, “Because it enables use of many domain-specific tools and compute resources researchers cannot access otherwise.” Familiarity with the shell is very useful for remote accessing machines, using high-performance computing infrastructure, and running new specialist tools in many disciplines. We do not teach HPC or domain-specific skills here but lay the groundwork for further development of these skills. In particular, understanding the syntax of commands, flags, and help systems is useful for domain specific tools and understanding the file system (and how to navigate it) is useful for remote access.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, teaching people the shell lets us teach them to think about programming in terms of function composition. In the case of the shell, this takes the form of pipelines rather than nested function calls, but the core idea of “small pieces, loosely joined” is the same.

All of this material can be covered in three hours as long as learners using Windows do not run into roadblocks such as:

Preparing to Teach

Teaching Notes

Windows

Installing Bash and a reasonable set of Unix commands on Windows always involves some fiddling and frustration. Please see the latest set of installation guidelines for advice, and try it out yourself before teaching a class. Options we have explored include:

  1. msysGit (also called “Git Bash”),
  2. Cygwin,
  3. using a desktop virtual machine, and
  4. having learners connect to a remote Unix machine (typically a VM in the cloud).

Cygwin was the preferred option until mid-2013, but once we started teaching Git, msysGit proved to work better. Desktop virtual machines and cloud-based VMs work well for technically sophisticated learners, and can reduce installation and configuration at the start of the workshop, but:

  1. they don’t work well on underpowered machines,
  2. they’re confusing for novices (because simple things like copy and paste work differently),
  3. learners leave the workshop without a working environment on their operating system of choice, and
  4. learners may show up without having downloaded the VM or the wireless will go down (or become congested) during the lesson.

Whatever you use, please test it yourself on a Windows machine before your workshop: things may always have changed behind your back since your last workshop. And please also make use of our Software Carpentry Windows Installer.