Example 0:

Connecting remotely to your math account

1. If you are working from a Windows machine, you will need to download PuTTY, a free SSH client.
2. On a Mac, start Terminal. If your name were Evariste Galois, you would type something like "ssh egalois@round.math.ucdavis.edu" to connect.
3. SSH to round.math.ucdavis.edu, or one of the other math servers (As of Spring 2007, several Windows PuTTY users have reported trouble in trying to SSH to "math.ucdavis.edu". After entering your username and password, the PuTTY window reportedly disappears. Try logging in specifically to "round.math.ucdavis.edu" instead of "math.ucdavis.edu".) Provide your username and password when prompted. You will then get a terminal window to work from, just as if you were on campus.
4. You can launch any program remotely that you can launch at school, but some graphics-heavy programs may not transmit correctly, or may be too slow, or may need you to do special Windows configuration. But you will definitely be able to do everything that appears on this page.

Example 1:

Getting and sending a research paper

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Make a new directory for research papers.
3. Find a research paper and download it.
4. Verify where you saved the paper, using "ls."
5. Change directories to where the paper lives.
6. Make a copy of the paper and then use "mv" to rename the copy.
7. Attach the copy to an e-mail and send it to yourself.
8. Delete the copy you made in step 6 from your math account.
9. Receive the paper as an attachment (to the e-mail you sent yourself) and save it to your math account.
10. Delete the research papers directory.

Example 2:

Reformatting and zipping some images

1. Open a terminal window.
2. Make a new directory for an imaginary research project.
3. Find a couple different images (try the images tab on google) and download them.
4. Change directories to where the images live.
5. Convert the format and/or size of the images.
6. Create a short text document that describes the images, like a "readme" file so that you won't forget what you had mind.
7. Zip ("tar") the images and the text file together, and compare how big the tarred and untarred versions are.
8. Attach the tar file to an e-mail and send it to yourself.
9. Delete the tar file you made in the previous step.
10. Receive the tar file as an attachment (to the e-mail you sent yourself) and save it to your math account.
11. Untar the file and check whether it seems right.
12. Delete the imaginary project directory.