Getting started

Introduction

This section outlines what you need to get started using these resources and introduces the format and focuses of the self-guided course.

You will need access to a computer with a UNIX command line interface to perform the vast majority of the tutorials on this site. You can learn more about this in the Setting up a bioinformatics machine pages. If you are a participant in the Theory and practice in metabarcoding for biodiversity workshop 7th - 13th January 2021, you can completely skip this section.

If your bioinformatics machine is a remote server, we provide some general instructions on how to communicate with this server in the Accessing linux servers page.

The How to use these resources page gives an overview of the format we will use in all of the tutorials in these resources, so it is important to make sure you read this carefully before you start on the tutorials.

You might want to read a short discussion about The bioinformatics toolbox about our philosophy when it comes to pipelines, packages and choosing software.

Finally, the Command line bioinformatics pages give a introduction to using the UNIX command line interface for bioinformatics if you’re completely new to the terminal. This includes some useful commands and a little discussion about how to keep your data organised which might be of interest even if you’re familiar with the command line.

Once you’re happily set up with a suitable bioinformatics machine and ready to get going, you should head over to the Example data section.