I've lost an important file

When you can't find an important file, but know that it's somewhere in your home filespace, you can ask the computer to search for you using the ``find'' command. The ``grep'' command is also useful if you don't know the name of the file but can remember some of the contents. Go to your home directory (``cd'') and do one of the following:

• If you know the exact name of the file (say ``thesis.tex''),
  find . -name thesis.tex -print
• If you know part of the name of the file (say ``thesis''),
  find . -name "*thesis*" -print
• To find which files in the current directory contain the word ``Internet'',
  grep Internet *
• To find which files in the current directory and all of its subdirectories contain the word ``Internet'',
  find . -type f -print | xargs grep Internet

If you have accidentally deleted an important file, you will have to ask me to restore it from backup, as Unix has no ``undelete'' command. For extra security, you could back up some of your own files. There are several ways to do this. You can copy the files to a subdirectory of /usr/local/work on your office computer. You can copy them to another system over the Internet (e.g., by scp), or you can burn them to a CD-ROM. This is done by inserting a blank writable CD or DVD and using the graphical program that pops up.