Nowadays, as soon as you get Linux installed, you get a nice
graphical interface and rarely if ever need to make use of the so-called
terminal mode (aka shell prompt).
However, in Linux the simple, modest terminal is not merely an afterthought, but an extremely powerful tool. While it may be true that you don’t need to use it, it’s not that difficult to learn, and very useful to know. Fortunately for yourself, with Linux’s users and security, you can create a new user for playing around, then you can experiment to your heart’s content without breaking anything.
This tutorial presents the Linux terminal and the "bash" shell to people who have never used a command line to give commands to an operating system before, or who have never done so in Linux/Unix. People who have already used a Unix shell before might find it a bit simple. Due to the popularity of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and the large number of ex-Windows-users who have discovered Linux, I have provided comparisons to equivalent or similar features and terminology in Windows’ MS-DOS prompt or Command prompt. These are provided as an additional help for Windows users, and are not necessary to follow this document.
A "shell" is a program which takes commands from the keyboard and gives them to the operating system to perform. In the old days, it was the only user interface available on a Unix-like system such as Linux. Nowadays, we have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in addition to command line interfaces (CLIs) such as the shell.
The equivalents in WindowsTM would be "command processor" for shell, "COMMAND.COM" or "CMD.EXE" instead of bash, and ".BAT files" instead of shell scripts. Linux has a variety of different shells, but certainly the most popular is "bash", so it is this one which will be described here (even though many of these instructions apply to all shells). Some of the others are retained simply because there are lots of people who got used to them and don’t wish to change, or because they are aimed at a specialised set of users.
However, in Linux the simple, modest terminal is not merely an afterthought, but an extremely powerful tool. While it may be true that you don’t need to use it, it’s not that difficult to learn, and very useful to know. Fortunately for yourself, with Linux’s users and security, you can create a new user for playing around, then you can experiment to your heart’s content without breaking anything.
This tutorial presents the Linux terminal and the "bash" shell to people who have never used a command line to give commands to an operating system before, or who have never done so in Linux/Unix. People who have already used a Unix shell before might find it a bit simple. Due to the popularity of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and the large number of ex-Windows-users who have discovered Linux, I have provided comparisons to equivalent or similar features and terminology in Windows’ MS-DOS prompt or Command prompt. These are provided as an additional help for Windows users, and are not necessary to follow this document.
A "shell" is a program which takes commands from the keyboard and gives them to the operating system to perform. In the old days, it was the only user interface available on a Unix-like system such as Linux. Nowadays, we have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in addition to command line interfaces (CLIs) such as the shell.
The equivalents in WindowsTM would be "command processor" for shell, "COMMAND.COM" or "CMD.EXE" instead of bash, and ".BAT files" instead of shell scripts. Linux has a variety of different shells, but certainly the most popular is "bash", so it is this one which will be described here (even though many of these instructions apply to all shells). Some of the others are retained simply because there are lots of people who got used to them and don’t wish to change, or because they are aimed at a specialised set of users.
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