Uses more; q to Quit
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The GNU Bourne-Again SHell is a command-line interpreter which serves as the user's interface through a terminal window to the computer.
You can navigate through and investigate the file system. You can also run programs simply by typing in their names. If it is a program which uses X, add an ampersand, &, at the end of the line.
| Bash Command-Line Interpreter | |
|---|---|
| UP-ARROW | Display previous command |
| DELETE | Delete character under cursor |
| BACKSPACE | Delete character before cursor |
| HOME | Move cursor to start of line |
| END | Move cursor to end of line |
| TAB | Auto-completion of unique filename |
| TAB TAB | Display list of same-starting filenames |
Determining where you are located on the directory tree is done using the pwd program. ls is used to find out what is in one or more directories. Navigating the directory tree is accomplished with cd.
Looking for files is done with two programs: locate uses a data base of all files to provide a listing of all occurrences of a string in directory and file names; find does a search of a specified portion of the directory tree.
The floppy drive is accessible at /media/floppy.
| Directory Structure | |
|---|---|
| LiSt filenames | ls |
| hidden files | ls -a |
| file permissions | ls -l |
| Print Working Dir | pwd |
| Change to Home Dir | cd |
| Move Up a Dir | cd .. |
| Move Down into a Dir | cd dirname |
| Looking for Files | |
| Find | find dirname -name 'item' |
| Locate | locate item |
Linux/Unix do not ask if you are sure you want to do something when you issue commands from the Command Line. To be safe, you should probably use ls to check for whether the name you plan to use already exists.
| File & Directory Maintenance | |
|---|---|
| CoPy file | cp srcname dstname |
| CoPy file to directory | cp filename dirname |
| Rename (MoVe) | mv oldname newname |
| MoVe to Dir | mv filename dirname |
| ReMove (delete) file | rm filename |
| MaKe new DIR | mkdir dirname |
| ReMove DIR | rmdir dirname |
| Permissions & Ownership | |
| CHange File Access Permissions | chmod 777 filename |
| CHange OWNership | chown owner:group filename |
The Apache web server processes HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) requests. These can include requests for individual graphics files, perl or PHP scripts which are executed on the server, or just simply HTML files.
SuSE Linux provides several web browsers, including Firefox, Konqueror, and Lynx. Lynx was originally developed for Unix workstations which did not have graphics capabilities. Firefox is an open-source web browser descendent of Netscape, while Konqueror is an all-purpose browser and file manager/viewer.
| Server/Browser | |
|---|---|
| Apache | Web Server |
| Firefox | Web Browser |
| Konqueror | KDE file manager, web browser and file viewer |
| lynx | Text-only Web Browser |
At times, it is useful to determine information about who is using what system and what the IP address of a particular machine is.
| Naming & Addressing | ||
|---|---|---|
| uname | Linux/Unix system information E.g., uname -a | |
| who | show who is logged on E.g., who | |
| whoami | print userid E.g., whoami | |
| ifconfig | configure a network interface E.g., /sbin/ifconfig | |
| nslookup | query Internet name servers E.g., nslookup www.dfstermole.net | |
Communicating with other systems is what networking is all about. Ping lets you find out if a certain machine is currently online. Telnet and ftp are the original programs for logging in on another machine and for transferring data between machines, respectively. Ssh and scp are modern programs which do the same thing, but with encryption of the information transmitted. Talk allows users to communicate with each other in real time, as opposed to by time-delayed email.
| Communicating | |
|---|---|
| ping | send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts E.g., ping IPAddr |
| telnet | user interface to the TELNET protocol E.g., telnet -l userid IPAddr |
| ftp | user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol E.g., ftp IPAddr |
| ssh | Secure SHell: OpenSSH remote login program E.g., ssh -l userid IPAddr |
| scp | Secure CoPy: remote file copy program E.g., scp filename userid@IPAddr:public_html/ |
| talk | visual communication program |
Most system data files are saved as plain ASCII text. More was the original file lister; its name came about because all you had to do to see the next screenful was to tap the spacebar. Less came along as enhancement; the program doesn't terminate when it encounters the end-of-file. This gave rise to quips such as "less is more, more or less". Cat concatenates files; as default, they are outputted to the screen. Head and tail display only the beginning or end of a file, respectively.
| File Viewers | |
|---|---|
| more filename | Classic file lister SPACE or f -- Screen Forward; b -- Screen Back; ENTER -- Line Forward; q -- Quit; Exits at EOF |
| less filename | More versatile than more SPACE -- Screen Forward; b -- Screen Back; ENTER -- Line Forward; q -- Quit; Does NOT exit at EOF |
| cat filename | Writes whole file to screen |
| head [-n5] filename | Writes beginning of file to screen Default is the first 10 lines |
| tail [-n5] filename | Writes end of file to screen Default is the last 10 lines |
Linux comes with many text editors. Some, such as vi and joe, run in a terminal window from the Command Line. Vi is known as the programmer's editor and is found on all Linux/Unix systems. Others are GUI editors which run in X Window, such as OpenOffice and Kword.
| Text Editors | ||
|---|---|---|
| Command Line | vi | The classic Unix line editor |
| joe | Editor like WordStar | |
| X Window | OpenOffice | Suite like MSOffice |
| Kword | Simple Editor like MSWord | |
There are different image editors for different tasks. Xv, unlike kolourpaint and the Gimp, does not have a drawing mode. Besides the abilities listed in the table, you can grab windows or parts of graphics for later display or manipulation. Kolourpaint is a simple, easy to learn drawing program. The Gimp is the top of the line graphics program.
| Image Editors | ||
|---|---|---|
| xv | Classic Unix Editor for resizing, changing color depth, changing file formats | |
| kolourpaint | Simple pixel editor | |
| Gimp | Complex Editor like Adobe Photoshop | |
Linux comes with a variety of free programs for assembling, compiling and interpreting programming languages.
| Programming Languages | |
|---|---|
| Assembler | as |
| GNU C | gcc |
| GNU C++ | g++ |
| GNU Debugger | gdb |
| Java | java, javac, appletviewer |
| MySQL | mysql |
| perl | perl |
| PHP | php |
Thousands of programs are provided with the SuSE Linux distribution. The oldest programs have manual pages which can be read with man from the Command Line. Xman provides a GUI interface to those pages. The KDE Help Center icon in the panel at the bottom of the desktop opens a Help Center window.
| Online Documentation | |
|---|---|
| man progname | Original standard version Uses more; q to Quit |
| man -k keyword | Use man to search for keyword |
| xman | X Window version |
| SuSE KDE Help Center |