| The Complete Linux Introduction -Part 1 |
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| Written by Cheyne | |
| Wednesday, 07 February 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 11
FilesystemIf you are comfortable at the DOS prompt, you should see a lot of similarities in Linux; if most of your experience has been in Windows, the command line may seem a little awkward at first. Remember that Linux has an hierarchical, unified filesystem (directories within directories; and files, directories, and device drivers are treated as files), supports 256-character filenames (avoid symbols and punctuation except for the dot (.) and note that you can have more than one nonadjacent dots in the filename - e.g. this.is.okay). All command line entries are case sensitive. Also note that Linux uses the slash (/) rather than the backslash (\) you've been using in DOS. There is extensive online help available on any command on your system called the man pages (or manual pages); type in man CommandInQuestion to get a summary of what the command does and a brief summary of the options. Unfortunately, using the man pages is not an efficient or effective way to learn Unix commands, but is often helpful with syntax. Linux, like all Unix, assumes you know what you're doing and that you do not make typographical errors. Linux, like all Unix, will execute whatever command you give it - all that matters is that it's a valid command. If it's not what you intended, that's your mistake, so don't blame it on the operating system! This operating system allows you to do your work without constantly nagging you. There are four types of file: ordinary files - text files (plain vanilla ASCII), data files (contain special characters not contained in the ASCII set you are familiar with), command text files (shell scripts), and executable files (binaries); directories; links (we'll get into this below); special device files (physical hardware) The main subdirectories (and contents) are: /bin - binary files; /boot - information need to boot the system; /cdrom - your CD-ROM drive; (/dos) - your DOS partition; /dev - device drivers; /etc - miscellaneous files (mostly system administration); /home - home directories for users; /lib - programming libraries; /tmp - temporary files; /usr - commands; /var - files that define the system. (There may be some slight differences between distributions.) Prompt If you login as root, the prompt will be machinename:~# and if you login as user, the prompt will be machinename:~$. The tilde character (~) represents the home directory; appended to the end of a filename, it means a backup of a file that has been edited (the file as it existed before it was last edited, and if your configuration is set up to make backups). Shell Accounts
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 14 May 2007 ) |
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