Eric Jankowski, Boise State Associate Professor of Physics, recently presented at the University’s Research Computing Days in March 2023. Jankowski’s workshop focused on using the Unix shell and began by introducing concepts like navigating directories, creating and editing files, using wildcards, sorting, redirecting output, and piping between commands.
Jankowski used examples like sorting the lengths of protein data files and analyzing experiment data files from a hypothetical graduate student to explain key concepts.
Towards the end, Jankowski gave an overview of loops and how they are used to do repetitive analyses on multiple data files to help avoid repetitive manual tasks.
Jankowski concluded by providing resources for learning more shell skills, mentioning related workshops like Software Carpentry, and encouraging the audience to connect with others in the community.
