Using the Pico Editor

Also, how to create a .forward file to forward mail, done as an example.

Pico is a text editor that exists on many Unix machines and is distributed with BDSI. It is generally a lot more convenient than VI and you will probably always prefer to use it if you have a choice. It is the Unix equivalent of simpletext or windows notepad. You usually use it for creating or modifying configuration files on one of the unix machines. You can also use it to fix web pages, or any other text file.

You must have file ownership or permission before you can edit or create a file. In general this means you must own a file or you must be logged in as system adminstrator. You own a file if you created it, you downloaded it through ftp using your username and password, or if ownership was assigned to you using the "chown" (change owner) command.

Lets suppose you want to create a .forward file. This is a good task for pico. Telnet into the main computer (brandx.net) and login with your username and password. Make sure you are in the right directory (your startup directory). For this example it will be /usr/home/test1. Here's my conversation with the computer:

        
     Brand X INTERNET

     login: test1
     Password:
     BSDI BSD/386 1.1 Kernel #16: Fri Dec  1 17:28:00 PST 1995

     You have new mail.
     Brand X: {1} % pwd
     /usr/home/test1

Looks good. Now type "pico .forward" to start a new file called ".forward", and we see the following:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   UW PICO(tm) 2.3                   File: .forward
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------