1 This is a jumping-off reference point for new users who may be
2 completely unfamiliar with Linux commands. It does not contain all
3 the information you need about using the Linux console, but instead
4 just gives you enough information to get started finding the
9 To run a command, type the command at the prompt, followed by any
10 necessary options, and then press the Enter or Return key.
12 Most commands operate silently unless they are specifically asked to
13 say what they are doing. If there is no error message, the command
16 The operation of most commands can be changed by putting command
17 options immediately after the command name. There are several styles
18 of options used, and you have to check the documentation for each
19 command to know what options it can take, and what they do.
21 Linux commands are case-sensitive, and almost always are all
22 lower-case. ls is a valid command; LS is not.
24 In most cases you can use the tab key to ask the command shell to
25 auto-complete the command, directory or filename you have started
26 to type. If a unique completion exists, the shell will type it. If
27 not, you can press tab a second time to obtain a list of the
28 possible auto-completions.
30 Commands for Reading Documentation
32 In the following command examples, the [ ] characters are not
33 typed, they mean that whatever is enclosed is optional. For
34 example, you can also start `info' without any subject at all.
36 When a given keyboard shortcut is preceded by ctrl- or alt- , that
37 means hold the control or alt key down, and type the given key
38 while holding it down (the same way you use the shift key). A
39 shorthand notation for ctrl- is ^ (^C means ctrl-C).
42 man shows the manual page on the command (use q or ctrl-C to
43 get out of it if it doesn't terminate at the end of the
47 A lot of Debian Linux documentation is provided in info
48 format. This is similar to a hypertext format, in that you
49 can jump to other sections of the documentation by following
50 links embedded in the text. An info tutorial is available
51 within info, using ctrl-h followed by h.
54 Use help for on-line help about the shell's built-in commands.
55 help by itself prints a list of subjects for which you can
59 pager displays a plain text file one screen at a time.
60 Additional screens can be displayed by pressing the space
61 bar, and previous screens can be displayed by pressing the b
62 key. When finished viewing the help, press q to return to
65 Using -h --help with | pager
66 Most commands offer very brief built-in help by typing the
71 If the help scrolls up beyond the top of the screen before
76 to the end of the command.
79 zmore is a document pager -- it displays the contents of
80 compressed documentation on your disk, one screenful at a
81 time. Compression is signified by filenames ending in .gz .
83 lynx [document] or lynx [directory] or lynx [url]
84 lynx is a text-based web browser. It can display documents
85 (plain-text, compressed, or html), directory listings, and
86 urls such as www.google.com. It does not display images.
88 Commands for Navigating Directories
91 Displays your current working directory. The p stands for
92 print, which is a carryover from when unix was designed,
93 before the advent of computer screens. Interactive computer
94 responses were printed on paper by a connected electric
95 typewriter instead of being displayed electronically.
98 Change your current directory to the named directory. If you
99 don't specify directory, you will be returned to your home
100 directory. The `root' directory is signified by / at the
101 beginning of the directory path ( / also separates directory
102 and file names within the path). Thus paths beginning with /
103 are `absolute' paths; cd will take you to an absolute path
104 no matter what your current directory is. Paths not
105 beginning with / specify paths relative to your
106 current directory. cd .. means change to the parent
107 directory of your current working directory.
110 ls lists the contents of directory. If you don't specify a
111 directory name, the current working directory's list is
114 find directory -name filename
115 find tells you where filename is in the tree starting at
116 directory. This command has many other useful options.
118 Documentation Indices
120 The standard doc-linux-text package installs compressed text linux
123 /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/
125 Particularly helpful HOWTOs for new users are
127 /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO.gz
128 /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/mini/INDEX.gz
129 /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/Reading-List-HOWTO.gz
130 /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/META-FAQ.gz
132 Individual package documentation is installed in
134 /usr/share/doc/<package-name>
136 New user website references include
138 http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ
139 http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/gs.html
141 Recording User Sessions
144 Use script to record everything that appears on the screen
145 (until the next exit) in filename. This is useful if you
146 need to record what's going on in order to include it in
147 your message when you ask for help. Use exit, logout or
148 ctrl-D to stop the recording session.
152 To turn off echoing of characters to the screen, you can use
153 ctrl-S. ctrl-Q starts the echo again. If your terminal suddenly
154 seems to become unresponsive, try ctrl-Q; you may have accidentally
155 typed ctrl-S which activated echo-off.
159 By default, six virtual consoles are provided. If you want to
160 execute another command without interrupting the operation of a
161 command you previously started, you can switch to another virtual
162 console (similar to a separate window). This is very handy for
163 displaying the documentation for a command in one console while
164 actually trying the command in another. Switch consoles 1 through 6
165 by using alt-F1 through alt-F6.
171 Use exit or logout to terminate your session and log
172 out. You should be returned to the log-in prompt.
174 Turning Off the Computer
176 Turning the computer on and off is really a system administration
177 subject, but I include it here because it is something that every
178 user who is his own administrator needs to know.
180 halt or shutdown -t 0 -h now
181 This command shuts the computer down safely. You can also
182 use ctrl-alt-del if your system is set up for that. (If you
183 are in X, ctrl-alt-del will be intercepted by X. Get out of
184 X first by using ctrl-alt-backspace.)
187 To display this file one screen at a time, type
189 pager /usr/share/doc/doc-linux-text/README.commands