## Unix for Bioinformatics Beginners
by Joe Wu, PhD (BTEP)
Background on Unix
A computer operating system like Windows and MacOS.
Interact with computer through a terminal and by issuing commands in the terminal (so no graphical user interface or GUI).
There are many Unix like operating system such as Linux. Even MacOS is based on Unix.
Why learn Unix
Efficiently process large datasets.
Bioinformatics/NGS analysis software are written to work on Unix and Unix-like systems.
Bioinformatics analyses often require researchers to work on high performance computing systems such as Biowulf at NIH, which requires command line knowledge.
Write scripts to ensure reproducibility and reusability.
Background on Biowulf
Biowulf is the Unix-based high performance computing system at NIH.
Has around 1000 scientific applications (including those for NGS analysis) installed.
Biowulf staff maintain the system and updates software.
Learning objectives
This class is meant for the novices.
Will not make participants experts but materials learn form the basis for learning advanced Unix skills.
After this class, participants should be familiar with Unix commands needed to get started with bioinformatics including: