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2025-2026 / INFO0960-2

Command-line interfaces and tools for biologists

Duration

10h Th, 10h Pr

Number of credits

 Master in bio-informatics and modelling, research focus2 crédits 

Lecturer

Pierre Tocquin

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

This course teaches the use of the Linux operating system and the command line interface (Shell), in the context of bioinformatics applications.
1. Linux

  • Linux (installation, configuration and customization, tour of the GUI)
  • Commande line (terminal, shell)
  • Interactive shell: commands for diagnostic, browsing, file search, file processing, file input/output, string processing and permission management
  • Advanced shell: process management, variables, loops, one-liners, scripts
  • How to keep a tidy bioinformatics log-book

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

At the end of this teaching unit, the student will be able to control a local or remote computer equipped with a UNIX-type operating system. He will be able to manage user accounts, the file system and the command line to perform basic data processing. He will be able to use the shell to set up more complex biological data analysis workflows that would implement other programs designed in different computer languages.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

This course requires no prior knowledge in computer programming.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

  • self-learning (textbooks and online tutorials)
  • On-demand remote or face-to-face learning sessions

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Blended learning


Further information:

This course is essentially self-study. Students are welcome to contact me to arrange face-to-face or distance learning sessions to address any questions they may have about the course and exercises.

Course materials and recommended or required readings

Other site(s) used for course materials
- Notes de cours sur Gitbal (https://ptocquin.gitlabpages.uliege.be/linux-command-line)


Further information:

Course materials are available online: https://ptocquin.gitlabpages.uliege.be/linux-command-line

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam AND oral exam

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

PLEASE NOTE: Each M-BIM student must have a laptop on which they must install a Linux system (such as Ubuntu 24.04). Virtual machines in VirtualBox are not a reliable solution. On recent Windows systems, it is possible to access a Linux environment using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/. If necessary, assistance with installing Linux can be provided during a session organised at the initiative of students who wish to do so. For this session, students should bring a USB stick with at least 12 GB of storage space on which they have burned a recent Ubuntu disk image following the installation instructions at: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop 

Contacts

Dr. Pierre Tocquin Institut de Botanique B22 (P70) ptocquin@uliege.be
04/366 38 32

Association of one or more MOOCs