A gentle introduction to
LINUX
at the command
prompt
Overview

UNIX components
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
Characteristics
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Kernel: the managing processes
file system: the file management processes
Shell: command-line interpreter
 Korn, Bourne, Bash and C shells
multiuser
multitask, multithread
concurrency
built-in networking (NFS)
32/64 - bit OS
X-Windows and UNIX
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mwm (Motif)
olwm (Open Look)
Linux: XFree86
Some
basics
You need to open a terminal
 System prompts

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Korn, Bash and Bourne Shells:
C Shell: % (root #)
Linux: uses the bash shell
$
Commands
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login, logout
news, passwd, cal, who, finger, talk
man (basic help)
to interrupt Ctrl-C
cat, more
pico (text editor in Linux)

File and directory
basics
File concepts
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
filenames: up to 14 digits, one word including _ and .
 e.g.: test_program and sales.report.1
 case sensitive bold is not BOLD
types: ordinary, directories, special devices and links
pathnames: /home/abento/select.html
 common names: usr, users, bin, etc
 full and relative
Basic file commands in UNIX
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How to obtain a directory listing: ls and ls -al
How to create, remove, change to, and present working
directory.
 mkdir , rmdir , cd , pwd.
How to copy, move, delete, type.
Use cp , mv , rm -i , cat
Reading the DIR output
total 3043
size in blocks (4k) of the directory
permis links Owner
-rwxr-xr-x
-rw------lrwxr-xr-x
-rwx-----drwx--x--x
drwxr-xr-x
drwxr-xr-x
-rwx--x--x
-rw------drwx------rw------drwxr--r-drwx------rw-------
1
1
1
1
3
2
3
1
1
2
1
8
9
1
abento
abento
root
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
abento
Group
faculty
faculty
sys
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
faculty
size date
95
4294
42
32802
512
512
512
1179748
312652
512
957
512
512
2162
Aug
Mar
Aug
Oct
Aug
Aug
Sep
Aug
Jun
Aug
Jun
Aug
Aug
Oct
time
2
2
3
16
21
3
18
23
21
3
16
3
3
18
14:13
1995
09:11
17:56
12:20
09:11
14:54
14:00
16:05
09:11
17:00
09:11
09:11
17:09
fname
UBmail*
Wp60
SoftWindows
Xdefaults.swin*
ais.dir/
axhome/
dumpster/
hcl95.hlp*
lviewp1b.zip
mail/
osref.books
pub/
root/
select.html
File type: - ordinary, d directory, l symbolic link, b block, c special
character, p piped.
Permissions: r read, w write, x execute (O, G,W)
First glance at X-Windows

File system: open the file manager icon
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explore the file hierarchy
see usr, users, bin, x11, etc
Copy, move, delete, etc
 Creating and renaming directories
 Learning to use help
 Commands in the toolbar
 Cutting and pasting
 Using Kedit, Netscape and WP
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