This session will introduce regular expressions and Linux command line tools, with an emphasis on the GNU flavored inflections of such common utilities as grep, find, sed, awk, as well as demo other well-known (and some less known) stand-bys of Bash pipelines and scripts. It will also present additional combinations of commands and tools that help perform complex tasks on the command line and otherwise streamline work. In a mixture of lecture, demos, and hands-on activities, participants will see various ways to expedite many day-to-day computing tasks, particularly tasks that involve handling structured text files (including data files and parameter files).
Participants will learn ways to improve their command-line workflow, how to read and compose regular expressions, how to use command-line tools that leverage regular expressions, and how to chain those tools together to create powerful file-processing pipelines. They will also leave with enough know-how to parse and understand the plethora of online resources that offer tips and tricks for these tools.
Basic facility with Linux and the Bash command-line. This session is not appropriate for novice or very inexperienced users.
Participants in any PICSciE virtual workshop need a Princeton Zoom account. For this session, users should also have an account on our Adroit cluster (another cluster like Tiger or Della is ok), and they should confirm that they can SSH into Adroit at least 48 hours beforehand.
We prefer that everyone do the session by making an SSH connection to Adroit in order to maintain a uniform environment. That said, users with a Linux or Unix command line on their own laptops are welcome to do the workshop like that. Note, however, that there can be some subtle differences in how certain commands work on, e.g., macOS vs. Linux. To minimize hiccups, Mac users are strongly encouraged to SSH into Adroit or install the GNU version of standard command line utilities using a package manager, such as homebrew.
Details on all of the above can be found in the advance setup guide for PICSciE virtual workshops. Those who need extra help setting up should attend the “setup assistance session” on Monday January 18. THERE WILL BE LITTLE TO NO TROUBLESHOOTING DURING THE SESSION ITSELF!
Presentation, demo, and hands-on
All presentation materials are in this Github repo.
This session was NOT recorded.