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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-24 04:52:22 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-24 04:52:22 +0000
commit3d08cd331c1adcf0d917392f7e527b3f00511748 (patch)
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parentAdding debian version 6.7-2. (diff)
downloadmanpages-3d08cd331c1adcf0d917392f7e527b3f00511748.tar.xz
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Merging upstream version 6.8.
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+.\" Copyright (c) 2002 Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
+.\"
+.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
+.\"
+.TH intro 1 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages (unreleased)"
+.SH NAME
+intro \- introduction to user commands
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+Section 1 of the manual describes user commands and tools,
+for example, file manipulation tools, shells, compilers,
+web browsers, file and image viewers and editors, and so on.
+.SH NOTES
+Linux is a flavor 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).
+.P
+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 open a session by
+giving your username and password.
+The program
+.BR login (1)
+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 their own favorite one.
+The standard one is called
+.IR sh .
+See also
+.BR ash (1),
+.BR bash (1),
+.BR chsh (1),
+.BR csh (1),
+.BR dash (1),
+.BR ksh (1),
+.BR zsh (1).
+.P
+A session might go like:
+.P
+.in +4n
+.EX
+.RB "knuth login: " aeb
+.RB "Password: " ********
+.RB "$ " date
+Tue Aug 6 23:50:44 CEST 2002
+.RB "$ " 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
+\&
+.RB "$ " ls
+bin tel
+.RB "$ " "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
+.RB "$ " "cat tel"
+maja 0501\-1136285
+peter 0136\-7399214
+.RB "$ " "cp tel tel2"
+.RB "$ " "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
+.RB "$ " "mv tel tel1"
+.RB "$ " "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
+.RB "$ " "diff tel1 tel2"
+.RB "$ " "rm tel1"
+.RB "$ " "grep maja tel2"
+maja 0501\-1136285
+$
+.EE
+.in
+.P
+Here typing Control-D ended the session.
+.P
+The
+.B $
+here was the command prompt\[em]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 username,
+machine name, current directory, time, and so on.
+An assignment PS1="What next, master? "
+would change the prompt as indicated.
+.P
+We see that there are commands
+.I date
+(that gives date and time), and
+.I cal
+(that gives a calendar).
+.P
+The command
+.I ls
+lists the contents of the current directory\[em]it tells you what
+files you have.
+With a
+.I \-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 .
+.P
+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"
+(see
+.BR stdout (3)),
+here
+the terminal screen.)
+.P
+The command
+.I cp
+(from "copy") will copy a file.
+.P
+The command
+.I mv
+(from "move"), on the other hand, only renames it.
+.P
+The command
+.I diff
+lists the differences between two files.
+Here there was no output because there were no differences.
+.P
+The command
+.I rm
+(from "remove") deletes the file, and be careful! it is gone.
+No wastepaper basket or anything.
+Deleted means lost.
+.P
+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 Pathnames and the current directory
+Files live in a large tree, the file hierarchy.
+Each has a
+.I "pathname"
+describing the path from the root of the tree (which is called
+.IR / )
+to the file.
+For example, such a full pathname might be
+.IR /home/aeb/tel .
+Always using full pathnames would be inconvenient, and the name
+of a file in the current directory may be abbreviated by giving
+only the last component.
+That is why
+.I /home/aeb/tel
+can be abbreviated
+to
+.I tel
+when the current directory is
+.IR /home/aeb .
+.P
+The command
+.I pwd
+prints the current directory.
+.P
+The command
+.I cd
+changes the current directory.
+.P
+Try alternatively
+.I cd
+and
+.I pwd
+commands and explore
+.I cd
+usage: "cd", "cd .", "cd ..", "cd /", and "cd \[ti]".
+.SS Directories
+The command
+.I mkdir
+makes a new directory.
+.P
+The command
+.I rmdir
+removes a directory if it is empty, and complains otherwise.
+.P
+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
+.I tel
+starting in the present directory (which is called
+.IR . ).
+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.
+.P
+In documentation it is customary 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.
+.P
+A lot of GNU/FSF software is provided with info files.
+Type "info info"
+for an introduction on the use of the program
+.IR info .
+.P
+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
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR ash (1),
+.BR bash (1),
+.BR chsh (1),
+.BR csh (1),
+.BR dash (1),
+.BR ksh (1),
+.BR locate (1),
+.BR login (1),
+.BR man (1),
+.BR xterm (1),
+.BR zsh (1),
+.BR wait (2),
+.BR stdout (3),
+.BR man\-pages (7),
+.BR standards (7)