This page provides a basic introduction to Unix commands to HPC users with no previous knowledge.
Log into the HPC
ssh userID@lyra.qut.edu.au
Brief basic Unix commands
Once you log into the HPC, you will land in your personal home space (i.e. /home/myStudentID/). This space is only accessible to you. To work in collaboration with others we use workspaces (i.e. /work/myProjectName/).
To go to a shared directory for your project named “kenna_team” type the following command and hit enter:
cd /work/trtp
Display list of files in a directory
ls -lh
Print working directory
pwd
Create a folder
mkdir myname
Enter new folder
cd myname
Move back to the previous folder
cd ..
Make a backup copy of the file
cp myfile.txt myfile_copy.txt
Move a copy of a file to a newly created folder - note it is recommended to make a copy of important files prior to modifying or executing commands on them.
mv myfile_copy.txt myfolder/
View the content of a file (note hashtags # at the start of a line is used to provide information of the code underneath it)
#hash tags are used to add comments on what a command line does
#several commands can be used including cat, less, more, head and tail
cat myfile_copy.txt
#example: less -S allows to visualise very large (wide) files
less -S myfile_copy.txt
#stop viewing a file using the above command
--> Type “Control” and “c” at the same time.
Or “Control” and “d” at the same time.
#print the first 50 lines of a file
head -50 myfile_copy.txt
#print the last 20 lines of a file
tail -20 myfile_coy.txt
Go back to my personal space. Type 'cd' and hit enter. This will move you to /home/mystudentID/
cd
Interactive session:
qsub -I -S /bin/bash -l walltime=10:00:00 -l select=1:ncpus=2:mem=4gb