This is a jumping-off reference point for new users who may be completely unfamiliar with Linux commands. It does not contain all the information you need about using the Linux console, but instead just gives you enough information to get started finding the information you need. Linux Commands To run a command, type the command at the prompt, followed by any necessary options, and then press the Enter or Return key. Most commands operate silently unless they are specifically asked to say what they are doing. If there is no error message, the command should have worked. The operation of most commands can be changed by putting command options immediately after the command name. There are several styles of options used, and you have to check the documentation for each command to know what options it can take, and what they do. Linux commands are case-sensitive, and almost always are all lower-case. ls is a valid command; LS is not. In most cases you can use the tab key to ask the command shell to auto-complete the command, directory or filename you have started to type. If a unique completion exists, the shell will type it. If not, you can press tab a second time to obtain a list of the possible auto-completions. Commands for Reading Documentation In the following command examples, the [ ] characters are not typed, they mean that whatever is enclosed is optional. For example, you can also start `info' without any subject at all. When a given keyboard shortcut is preceded by ctrl- or alt- , that means hold the control or alt key down, and type the given key while holding it down (the same way you use the shift key). A shorthand notation for ctrl- is ^ (^C means ctrl-C). man subject man shows the manual page on the command (use q or ctrl-C to get out of it if it doesn't terminate at the end of the text). info [subject] A lot of Debian Linux documentation is provided in info format. This is similar to a hypertext format, in that you can jump to other sections of the documentation by following links embedded in the text. An info tutorial is available within info, using ctrl-h followed by h. help [subject] Use help for on-line help about the shell's built-in commands. help by itself prints a list of subjects for which you can ask for help. pager filename pager displays a plain text file one screen at a time. Additional screens can be displayed by pressing the space bar, and previous screens can be displayed by pressing the b key. When finished viewing the help, press q to return to the prompt. Using -h --help with | pager Most commands offer very brief built-in help by typing the command followed by -h or --help If the help scrolls up beyond the top of the screen before you can read it, add | pager to the end of the command. zmore document.gz zmore is a document pager -- it displays the contents of compressed documentation on your disk, one screenful at a time. Compression is signified by filenames ending in .gz . lynx [document] or lynx [directory] or lynx [url] lynx is a text-based web browser. It can display documents (plain-text, compressed, or html), directory listings, and urls such as www.google.com. It does not display images. Commands for Navigating Directories pwd Displays your current working directory. The p stands for print, which is a carryover from when unix was designed, before the advent of computer screens. Interactive computer responses were printed on paper by a connected electric typewriter instead of being displayed electronically. cd [directory] Change your current directory to the named directory. If you don't specify directory, you will be returned to your home directory. The `root' directory is signified by / at the beginning of the directory path ( / also separates directory and file names within the path). Thus paths beginning with / are `absolute' paths; cd will take you to an absolute path no matter what your current directory is. Paths not beginning with / specify paths relative to your current directory. cd .. means change to the parent directory of your current working directory. ls [directory] ls lists the contents of directory. If you don't specify a directory name, the current working directory's list is displayed. find directory -name filename find tells you where filename is in the tree starting at directory. This command has many other useful options. Documentation Indices The standard doc-linux-text package installs compressed text linux HOWTOs in /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/ Particularly helpful HOWTOs for new users are /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO.gz /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/mini/INDEX.gz /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/Reading-List-HOWTO.gz /usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/META-FAQ.gz Individual package documentation is installed in /usr/share/doc/ New user website references include http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/gs.html Recording User Sessions script filename Use script to record everything that appears on the screen (until the next exit) in filename. This is useful if you need to record what's going on in order to include it in your message when you ask for help. Use exit, logout or ctrl-D to stop the recording session. Turning Echo On/Off To turn off echoing of characters to the screen, you can use ctrl-S. ctrl-Q starts the echo again. If your terminal suddenly seems to become unresponsive, try ctrl-Q; you may have accidentally typed ctrl-S which activated echo-off. Virtual Consoles By default, six virtual consoles are provided. If you want to execute another command without interrupting the operation of a command you previously started, you can switch to another virtual console (similar to a separate window). This is very handy for displaying the documentation for a command in one console while actually trying the command in another. Switch consoles 1 through 6 by using alt-F1 through alt-F6. Logging Out exit or logout Use exit or logout to terminate your session and log out. You should be returned to the log-in prompt. Turning Off the Computer Turning the computer on and off is really a system administration subject, but I include it here because it is something that every user who is his own administrator needs to know. halt or shutdown -t 0 -h now This command shuts the computer down safely. You can also use ctrl-alt-del if your system is set up for that. (If you are in X, ctrl-alt-del will be intercepted by X. Get out of X first by using ctrl-alt-backspace.) To display this file one screen at a time, type pager /usr/share/doc/doc-linux-text/README.commands