Unix Data Description

Trace files are copyrighted by:

    Saul Greenberg
    Dept of Computer Science
    University of Calgary
    Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Trace files should only be used after obtaining written permission by Saul Greenberg

OVERVIEW

The data set contains 168 trace files collected from 168 different users of Unix csh. The users are divided into four different user groups, each in a different directory:

	Number of subjects	Group name
		55		novice-programmers
		36		experienced-programmers
		52		computer-scientists
		25		non-programmers
	     =======
	       168

In addition, there is a directory called show-error-code which is a simple C program that will convert the error codes found in the trace file into more meaningful descriptions.

Further details, including the method of data collection, are described in the paper:

Greenberg, S. (1988). Using Unix: Collected traces of 168 users. Research Report 88/333/45, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. Available at http://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/papers/

TRACE FILES

Every non-empty line in the trace file is preceded with a one-letter code.

 S: The starting time of the current login session.
 E: The end time of the current login session (may be NIL)

 C: The command line entered by the user 
 D: The current working directory 
 A: The alias the command line invoked (may be nil)
 H: Indicates ifthe line was retrieved through history.
    T if it was, else NIL
 X: Indicates if an error has occurred, followed by a letter and
    number code. See the section on error codes.

EXAMPLE

This fragment from an imaginary trace file shows a single login session with two commands. All text from the ";" on are comments that do not appear in the trace file.

 S Fri Feb 20 23:39:46 1987	; Session starting time
 E NIL				; Session end time not available


 C who				; the line entered to csh 
 D /user/cpsc500/l01b91/xxxxxx	; the current directory
 A who | more			; "who" is an alias for "who | more"
 H NIL				; history was not used
 X NIL				; the line did not generate a csh error

 C cd ~cpsc500					; the line entered to csh
 D /user/cpsc500/l01b91/xxxxxx			; the current directory
 A cd ~cpsc500 ; set prompt = "[$cwd:t] =!==> "	; "cd" is an alias"
 H NIL						; history was not used
 X D  69				; a csh error was produced, classified as 
				; a directory error (code D). More
				; specifically, an unknown user (code 69) 
				; was given in the directory path.

 C who				; the line was recalled via history (see H)
 D /user/cpsc500/l01b91/xxxxxx	; the current directory
 A who | more			; "who" is an alias for "who | more"
 H T				; history used
 X NIL				; the line did not generate a csh error

 S Tue Feb 24 23:41:39 1987	; A new login session
 E NIL				;  and so on....

ERROR CODES

The letter describes the general kind of error, while the number describes the actual error. See the example above (X D 69) for its application.

The C program in the directory show-error-code will replace the letter and number equivalents with its textual equivalent.

The meanings of the codes are as follows.

   S	  syntax error
   M	  reg expression error
   N	  execution error
   D	  directory error
   A	  alias problem
   R	  redirection problem
   H	  history problem
   E	  expression error
   B	  built in problem
   C	  control error
   J	  job error
   Y	  system error

   0	unknown error
   1	*chdir didn't work
   2	No other directory
   3	Directory stack not that deep
   4	Bad directory
   5	Directory stack empty
   6	No home directory
   7	Can't change to home directory
   8	Usage: dirs [ -l ]
   9	No match
   10	Command not found
   11	Unmatched (something)
   12	Word too long
   13	Variable syntax
   14	Expansion buf ovflo
   15	Bad ! form
   16	No prev sub
   17	Bad substitute
   18	No prev lhs
   19	Rhs too long
   20	Bad ! modifier
   21	Modifier failed
   22	Subst buf ovflo
   23	Bad ! arg selector
   24	No prev search
   25	: Event not found
   26	Alias loop
   27	Too many )'s
   28	Too many ('s
   29	Badly placed (
   30	Missing name for redirect
   31	Ambiguous output redirect
   32	Can't << within ()'s
   33	Ambiguous input redirect
   34	Badly placed ()'s
   35	Invalid null command
   36	Ambiguous
   37	$< line too long
   38	No file for $0
   39	Subscript out of range
   40	Bad : mod in $
   41	<< terminator not found
   42	Line overflow
   43	Divide by 0
   44	Mod by 0
   45	Expression syntax
   46	Missing }
   47	Missing file name
   48	Too few arguments
   49	Too many arguments
   50	Too dangerous to alias that
   51	Empty if
   52	Improper then
   53	Syntax error
   54	Not in while/foreach
   55	Invalid variable
   56	Words not ()'d
   57	then/endif not found
   58	endif not found
   59	endsw not found
   60	end not found
   61	label not found
   62	Improper mask
   63	No such limit
   64	Improper or unknown scale factor
   65	Bad scaling; did you mean ?
   66	Can't suspend a login shell (yet)
   67	Can't from terminal
   68	Not login shell
   69	Unknown user:
   70	Path error
   71	Missing ]
   72	Arguments too long
   73	Pathname too long
   74	Unmatched `
   75	Too many words from
   76	Undefined variable
   77	Usage: jobs [ -l ]
   78	Bad signal number
   79	Unknown signal; kill -l lists signals
   80	Arguments should be jobs or process id's
   81	There are stopped jobs
   82	No current job
   83	No previous job
   84	No such job
   85	No job matches pattern
   86	No job control in this shell
   87	No job control in subshells
   88	No such file or directory
   89	Error 0
   90	Not super-user
   91	No such file or directory
   92	No such process
   93	Interrupted system call
   94	I/O error
   95	No such device or address
   96	Arguments too long
   97	Exec format error
   98	Bad file number
   99	No children
   100	No more processes
   101	Not enough core
   102	Permission denied
   103	Error 14
   104	Block device required
   105	Mount device busy
   106	File exists
   107	Cross-device link
   108	No such device
   109	Not a directory
   110	Is a directory
   111	Invalid argument
   112	File table overflow
   113	Too many open files
   114	Not a typewriter
   115	Text file busy
   116	File too large
   117	No space left on device
   118	Illegal seek
   119	Read-only file system
   120	Too many links
   121	Broken Pipe
   122	Disk quota exceeded

Modifications to original data