A short introduction to the world of the linux terminal

This is a post on the terminal inside Linux(You should know that if you read the title). It is intended for beginners so I have tried to make it simple as possible. All the examples in this run on Ubuntu 10.04, some linux distrobutons may be difrent.

First of all, what is the Linux terminal for? well Wikipidia says that "The Linux console is intended to run usual text user interface applications, and also to show some kernel messages (considered as urgent or important)." Put simply it is a way to use the computer out side of the GUI pualy in text. In ubuntu you can find the terminal by going to "Applications" then to "Accessors " then "Terminal".

When you first start the terminal up you will be presented with a line of text in this format:

<user>@<node name>: <directory> $

To change directory you use the "cd" command followed by the directory path you want to go to for example:

cd  mydir/test

If you put in a directory that doesn't exist you will get a message like this one:

bash: cd: mydir/test: No such file or directory

to list all the con tense of the directory  you use the "ls" comand, this provides a list of all the files and folders in the curent directory.


That was a very brief introduction, i will be covering more on this later.

George out