GETTING STARTED WITH OITUNIX

Now that we're connected to OITUNIX, let's get familiar with the environment.

UNIX is a command-line based operating system (OS), which means it has
no grpahical user interface (it is much like the operating system DOS,
which is what many PC's ran before the Windows OS existed).

In a command-line environment, you interact with the system by typing
commands.  Each command ends with an [enter] or [return] keystroke.  You
type commands at the command prompt, which looks something like
"user@shell1:~$".  If you see the prompt and then the cursor waiting, then
OITUNIX is ready to accept your commands.

A list of basic UNIX commands for the OIT system is available at
	http://www.oit.umass.edu/oitunix/commands.html and I also handed out
	a OITUNIX cheat sheet with lots of helpful information in class on June
	9.  The cheat sheet is also available on the class webpage.

Follow the instructions at 
	http://www.oit.umass.edu/web_hosting/personal/set_up.html
to set up your personal web space.  (We did this in class on June 9.)

WHAT'S ACTUALLY GOING ON

In OITUNIX, you store your webpages in a directory called "public_html".
All the files inside this directory are visible to anyone on the web.
Try creating a file (use pico, refer to the cheat sheet) called hobbies.
Put a list of your hobbies in the file.  Then browse to your homepage at

	http://people.umass.edu/username

but replace "username" with your own username.

When you visit this URL's, you will (likely) see a list of all the files
in your public_html.  Whenever you change a file in the public_html
directory, it will change on the web.  Try clicking on the filename for
the file you just created.  It appears on screen -- your first webpage!

Try creating other files in the public_html directory with different
names. Don't forget to "refresh" or "reload" your webpage in your
browser after you change something in public_html.

A WORD ABOUT INDEX.HTML

Recall how a URL has four parts: protocol, host, path, and filename.
Currently, we access our webpages using URLs like

	http://people.umass.edu/username/summervacation

However, when we visit 

	http://people.umass.edu/username

we get a directory listing.  We see this because the URL above does not
have a filename, so the web browser doesn't know which file to give us. 
So it displays a list of *all* files.  However, we usually don't want
everyone on the web to see a list of our files.

There is a special filename, index.html, that if used, will be displayed
when no filename is specified in the URL.  That is, if you create an
index.html file and leave off the filename in the URL to your website,
index.html will be used as a default file people see when they visit
your site.

To illustrate, visit the website for this course:

	http://courses.umass.edu/cmpsc120

Now visit 

	http://courses.umass.edu/cmpsc120/index.html

Notice that the webpages look the same.  They are *exactly* the same.
In the first URL, we did not specify a filename.  So the webserver gave
us back index.html by default.  In the second URL, we specified index.html
manually, which is also fine.  So the two above URLs take you to exactly
the same place on the web.

Try it out: create an index.html file (using pico) in your public_html
directory. Then visit

	http://people.umass.edu/username/index.html

and visit

	http://people.umass.edu/username

You should see the same thing both times.