From the NannyMUD documentation

LAST CHANGE

2000-12-27

TOPIC

NAME

        basics - 

DESCRIPTION

                            LPC Basics

                   Written by Descartes of Borg
                   first edition: 23 april 1993
                   second edition: 25 may 1993
 
 CHAPTER 1: Introduction to the Coding Environment
 
 1.1 UNIX file structure
 LPMuds use basic UNIX commands and its file structure.  If you know
 UNIX commands already, then note (with a few exceptions) options are
 not available to the commands.  Like DOS, UNIX is heirarchical.  The
 root directory of which all directories are sub-directories is called
 root(/).  And from those sub-directories you may have further
 sub-directories.  A directory may be referred to in two different ways:
 1) by its full name, or absolute name, or 2) by its relative name.
 Absolute name refers to the directory's full path starting from / winding
 down the directory tree until you name the directory in question.  For
 example:
 
     /players/descartes/obj/monster
 
 refers to the directory monster which is a sub-directory of obj which
 is a sub-directory of descartes which is a sub-directory of players
 which is a sudirectory of /.
 
 The relative name refers to the name relative to another directory.
 The above example is called monster relative to /players/descartes/obj,
 but it is also called obj/monster relative to /players/descartes,
 descartes/obj/monster relative to /players, and finally
 players/descartes/obj/monster relative to /.  You can tell the
 difference between absolute names and relative names because absolute
 names always start with /.  In order to know exactly which directory
 is being named by a relative name, you naturally must know what
 directory it is relative to.
 
 A directory contains sub-directories and files.  LPMuds only use text files
 inside the mudlib.  Like directories, files have both absolute and
 relative names.  The most basic relative name is often referred to as the file
 name, with the rest of the absolute name being referred to as the path.  So,
 for the file: /players/descartes/castle.c, castle.c is the file name, and
 /players/descartes is the path.
 
 On some muds, a file with a file name beginning with a . (like .plan) is
 not visible when you list files with the regular file listing command.
 
 1.2 UNIX Commands
 Along with the UNIX file structure, LPMuds use many UNIX commands.  Typical
 UNIX commands on most muds are:
 pwd, cd, ls, rm, mv, cp, mkdir, rmdir, more, head, cat, ed
 If you have never before seen UNIX commands, you probably are thinking this
 is all nonsense.  Well, it is, but you got to use them.  Before getting
 into what they mean though, first a discussion of current directory.
 If you know DOS, then you know what a current working directory is.
 At any given point, you are considered to be "in" some directory.  This
 means that any relative file or directory names you give in UNIX commands
 are relative to that directory.  For example, if my current directory is
 /players/descartes and I type "ed castle.c" (ed is the command to edit),
 then it assumes I mean the file /players/descartes/castle.c
 
 pwd: shows you your current working directory
 cd: changes your current working directory.  You may give either relative
     or absolute path names.  With no arguments, it changes to your home
     directory.
 ls: lists all files in the directory named.  If no directory is named,
     it lists the files of the current working directory
 rm: deletes the file named
 mv: renames the file named
 cp: copies the file named
 mkdir: makes a new directory
 rmdir: deletes a directory.  All files must have been first removed.
 more: pages the file named so that the file appears on your screen one
     page at a time.
 cat: shows the whole file to you at once
 head: shows you the first several lines of a file
 tail: shows you the last several lines of a file
 ed: allows you to edit a file using the mud editor
 
 1.3 Chapter Summary
 UNIX uses a heirarchical file structure with the root of the tree being
 named /.  Other directories branch off from that root directory and
 in turn have their own sub-directories.  All directories may contain
 directories and files.  Directories and files are referred to either
 by their absolute name, which always begins with /, or by their relative
 name which gives the file's name relative to a particular directory.
 In order to get around in the UNIX files structure, you have the
 typical UNIX commands for listing files, your current directory, etc.
 On your mud, all of the above commands should have detailed help commands
 to help you explore exactly what they do.  In addition, there should
 be a very detailed file on your mud's editor.  If you are unfamiliar
 with ed, you should go over this convoluted file.