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| author | Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> | 2004-11-03 13:51:07 +0000 |
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| committer | Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> | 2004-11-03 13:51:07 +0000 |
| commit | fea681dafb1363a154b7fc6d59baa83d2a9ebc5c (patch) | |
| tree | 8ea275c0f242af739617d0afc3e1b16c4eff3dc2 /man1/intro.1 | |
| download | man-pages-fea681dafb1363a154b7fc6d59baa83d2a9ebc5c.tar.gz | |
Import of man-pages 1.70man-pages-1.70
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diff --git a/man1/intro.1 b/man1/intro.1 new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..a4790c2f33 --- /dev/null +++ b/man1/intro.1 @@ -0,0 +1,258 @@ +.\" Copyright (c) 2002 Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl> +.\" +.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this +.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are +.\" preserved on all copies. +.\" +.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this +.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the +.\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a +.\" permission notice identical to this one. +.\" +.\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this +.\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no +.\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from +.\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not +.\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, +.\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working +.\" professionally. +.\" +.\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by +.\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. +.\" +.TH INTRO 1 2002-08-06 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" +.SH NAME +intro \- Introduction to user commands +.SH DESCRIPTION +Linux is a flavour of Unix, and as a first approximation +all user commands under Unix work precisely the same under +Linux (and FreeBSD and lots of other Unix-like systems). +.LP +Under Linux there are GUIs (graphical user interfaces), where you +can point and click and drag, and hopefully get work done without +first reading lots of documentation. The traditional Unix environment +is a CLI (command line interface), where you type commands to +tell the computer what to do. That is faster and more powerful, +but requires finding out what the commands are. +Below a bare minimum, to get started. +.SS "Login" +In order to start working, you probably first have to login, +that is, give your username and password. See also +.BR login (1). +The program +.I login +now starts a +.I shell +(command interpreter) for you. +In case of a graphical login, you get a screen with menus or icons +and a mouse click will start a shell in a window. See also +.BR xterm (1). +.SS "The shell" +One types commands to the +.IR shell , +the command interpreter. It is not built-in, but is just a program +and you can change your shell. Everybody has her own favourite one. +The standard one is called +.IR sh . +See also +.BR ash (1), +.BR bash (1), +.BR csh (1), +.BR zsh (1), +.BR chsh (1). +.LP +A session might go like + +.RS +.nf +.BI "knuth login: " aeb +.BI "Password: " ******** +.BI "% " date +Tue Aug 6 23:50:44 CEST 2002 +.BI "% " cal + August 2002 +Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa + 1 2 3 + 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 +11 12 13 14 15 16 17 +18 19 20 21 22 23 24 +25 26 27 28 29 30 31 + +.BI "% " ls +bin tel +.BI "% " "ls -l" +total 2 +drwxrwxr-x 2 aeb 1024 Aug 6 23:51 bin +-rw-rw-r-- 1 aeb 37 Aug 6 23:52 tel +.BI "% " "cat tel" +maja 0501-1136285 +peter 0136-7399214 +.BI "% " "cp tel tel2" +.BI "% " "ls -l" +total 3 +drwxr-xr-x 2 aeb 1024 Aug 6 23:51 bin +-rw-r--r-- 1 aeb 37 Aug 6 23:52 tel +-rw-r--r-- 1 aeb 37 Aug 6 23:53 tel2 +.BI "% " "mv tel tel1" +.BI "% " "ls -l" +total 3 +drwxr-xr-x 2 aeb 1024 Aug 6 23:51 bin +-rw-r--r-- 1 aeb 37 Aug 6 23:52 tel1 +-rw-r--r-- 1 aeb 37 Aug 6 23:53 tel2 +.BI "% " "diff tel1 tel2" +.BI "% " "rm tel1" +.BI "% " "grep maja tel2" +maja 0501-1136285 +.BI "% " +.fi +.RE +and here typing Control-D ended the session. +The +.B "% " +here was the command prompt - it is the shell's way of indicating +that it is ready for the next command. The prompt can be customized +in lots of ways, and one might include stuff like user name, +machine name, current directory, time, etc. +An assignment PS1="What next, master? " +would change the prompt as indicated. +.LP +We see that there are commands +.I date +(that gives date and time), and +.I cal +(that gives a calendar). +.LP +The command +.I ls +lists the contents of the current directory - it tells you what +files you have. With a \-l option it gives a long listing, +that includes the owner and size and date of the file, and the +permissions people have for reading and/or changing the file. +For example, the file "tel" here is 37 bytes long, owned by aeb +and the owner can read and write it, others can only read it. +Owner and permissions can be changed by the commands +.I chown +and +.IR chmod . +.LP +The command +.I cat +will show the contents of a file. +(The name is from "concatenate and print": all files given as +parameters are concatenated and sent to "standard output", here +the terminal screen.) +.LP +The command +.I cp +(from "copy") will copy a file. +On the other hand, the command +.I mv +(from "move") only renames it. +.LP +The command +.I diff +lists the differences between two files. +Here there was no output because there were no differences. +.LP +The command +.I rm +(from "remove") deletes the file, and be careful! it is gone. +No wastepaper basket or anything. Deleted means lost. +.LP +The command +.I grep +(from "g/re/p") finds occurrences of a string in one or more files. +Here it finds Maja's telephone number. +.SS "Path names and the current directory" +Files live in a large tree, the file hierarchy. +Each has a +.I "path name" +describing the path from the root of the tree (which is called /) +to the file. For example, such a full path name might be /home/aeb/tel. +Always using full path names would be inconvenient, and the name +of a file in the current directory may be abbreviated by only giving +the last component. That is why "/home/aeb/tel" can be abbreviated +to "tel" when the current directory is "/home/aeb". +.LP +The command +.I pwd +prints the current directory. +.LP +The command +.I cd +changes the current directory. +Try "cd /" and "pwd" and "cd" and "pwd". +.SS "Directories" +The command +.I mkdir +makes a new directory. +.LP +The command +.I rmdir +removes a directory if it is empty, and complains otherwise. +.LP +The command +.I find +(with a rather baroque syntax) will find files with given name +or other properties. For example, "find . -name tel" would find +the file "tel" starting in the present directory (which is called "."). +And "find / -name tel" would do the same, but starting at the root +of the tree. Large searches on a multi-GB disk will be time-consuming, +and it may be better to use +.BR locate (1). +.SS "Disks and Filesystems" +The command +.I mount +will attach the filesystem found on some disk (or floppy, or CDROM or so) +to the big filesystem hierarchy. And +.I umount +detaches it again. +The command +.I df +will tell you how much of your disk is still free. +.SS "Processes" +On a Unix system many user and system processes run simultaneously. +The one you are talking to runs in the +.IR foreground , +the others in the +.IR background . +The command +.I ps +will show you which processes are active and what numbers these +processes have. +The command +.I kill +allows you to get rid of them. Without option this is a friendly +request: please go away. And "kill -9" followed by the number +of the process is an immediate kill. +Foreground processes can often be killed by typing Control-C. +.SS "Getting information" +There are thousands of commands, each with many options. +Traditionally commands are documented on +.IR "man pages" , +(like this one), so that the command "man kill" will document +the use of the command "kill" (and "man man" document the command "man"). +The program +.I man +sends the text through some +.IR pager , +usually +.IR less . +Hit the space bar to get the next page, hit q to quit. +.LP +In documentation it is custumary to refer to man pages +by giving the name and section number, as in +.BR man (1). +Man pages are terse, and allow you to find quickly some forgotten +detail. For newcomers an introductory text with more examples +and explanations is useful. +.LP +A lot of GNU/FSF software is provided with info files. Type "info info" +for an introduction on the use of the program "info". +.LP +Special topics are often treated in HOWTOs. Look in +.I /usr/share/doc/howto/en +and use a browser if you find HTML files there. +.\" +.\" Actual examples? Separate section for each of cat, cp, ...? +.\" gzip, bzip2, tar, rpm |