The document provides an overview of command line basics, including X Windows, consoles and terminals, UNIX commands, the UNIX filesystem, and the vi editor. It describes the anatomy of commands, getting help with man pages, basic account and file management commands, viewing and editing files, and installing applications. It emphasizes that the command line is always available and more efficient than GUIs.

1. Command Line Basics

2. Section Overview
X Windows
Consoles and Terminals
UNIX Commands
UNIX Filesystem
vi Editor

3. X Windows
Familiar GUI interface
Virtual screens
Remote applications
X-Terminal Windows
 Multiple concurrent session
 Scroll bars
 Cut, Copy & Paste

4. X Managers &
Environments
X Window Managers
 Very configurable
 A lot of variety
 GUI login mode
X Window Environment
 Fully integrated environment
 Window manager runs within the
environment

5. Why use the command
line?
Always available
 GUI not installed/working
 Remote sessions
More efficient
More powerful
Better understanding of what is
happening

6. UNIX Terminals
Old Days
 Hardwired – serial connections
 Modems – remote connections
Network – telnet
Console
 Monitor/keyboard/mouse on system
 Boot/error messages display
 Headless servers

7. Virtual Consoles in Linux
Multiple sessions on one console
Special Consoles
 Console 1 – default console
 Console 7 – X Windows
Toggling between consoles
 Text mode - <Alt><Fn>
 X Windows - <Ctrl><Alt><Fn>
 <Fn>: Function Key (n = 1 .. 7)

8. Basic Philosophy
10% of work solves 90% of
problems
Smaller is better
Portability
Solve at right level
Be Creative!!!

9. Command Anatomy 101
command [-switches] [arg1] [arg2]…
Command: Name of the program
Switches: Modify command’s behaviour
Arg#: Arguments passed to command

10. Getting Help
Online manual available
Searchable
 Command/File name
 Type/Section
 Keyword
Not always easy to understand

11. Man Page Sections
Solaris Linux Contents
1 1 User commands
2 2 System calls
3 3 Library calls
4 5 File formats
5 7 Misc. files and documents
6 6 Games and demos
7 4 Devices/Network protocols
1m 8 Administration commands
9 9 Kernel specs/interfaces (?)

12. Using man
man command
 Look up command
man n intro
 Contents of section n
man –k string
 Search short descriptions (apropos)
man –K string
 Search all man pages for string

13. Account Related
Commands
login
 Start session
passwd
 Change Password
logout / exit
 Close session

14. File/Directory Commands
Files Directories
 cp – Copy  ls – List contents
 mv –  mv – Move/Rename
Move/Rename  cd – Change Dir
 rm – Remove  pwd – Current Dir
 cat – View all  mkdir – Create
 more – View page  rm/rmdir – Remove
 less – View page

15. Copies, moves, and
renaming
cp file1 file2|dir1
 Copy file1 to file2 or into directory dir1
cp –r[p] dir1 dir2
 Copy directory dir1 to dir2
mv file1 file2|dir2
 Moves file1 to file2 or into directory
dir1
 Renames file1 to file2 if both in same
directory

16. Viewing files
cat file1
 Display the contents of file1 to the
screen
more file1
 Display the contents of file1 one
screen at a time
less file1
 Same as more but more powerful

17. Removing files and
directories
rm file1 file2 ...
 Removes list of files
rmdir dir1
 Removes dir1 only (if it is empty)
rm -r dir1
 Removes dir1 and all
subdirectories/files
 VERY Dangerous!!!

18. Other directory commands
ls [-la] [file/dir list]
 Lists files in a directory
mkdir dir1
 Creates directory dir1
cd dir1
 Makes dir1 the current directory
pwd
 Displays the current directory path

19. UNIX Filesystem Hierarchy
/ (root)
bin sbin home etc boot root usr var dev lib
scott alice bob bin sbin local lib tmp
n321 mail public_ht bin man lib share src
ml

20. So many bins…
/ (root)
bin sbin usr
bin directories: User programs bin sbin local
sbin directories: System
programs
/bin & /sbin – Needed at boot
time
/usr/bin & /usr/sbin – available bin sbin
when system fully operating

21. Windows Files/Directories
UNIX/Linux Windows
/usr %SystemRoot% (C:Windows)
/bin & %SystemRoot%System32
/usr/bin
/dev %SystemRoot%System32Drivers
/etc %SystemRoot%System32Config
/tmp C:Temp
/var/spool %SystemRoot%System32Spool
Source: Principles of Network and System
Administration by Mark Burgess

22. Relative & Absolute Paths
Absolute Path
 Given from “root” directory
 Example: /usr/local/bin
Relative Path
 ‘.’ – Current Directory
 ‘..’ – Parent Directory
 ‘~’ – Home Directory
 Example: ~/.. = /home

23. Filter Commands
cat – View all sort – Sort by
more – View page field
less – View page uniq – Remove
dup
head – View first
cut – Get fields
tail – View last
wc – word count paste – Merge
Files
grep – Search
text
tr – Replace text

24. Heads or Tails
head -# file
 Displays the first # lines of file1
tail -# file
 Displays the last # lines of file1
wc [-cwl] file
 Counts number of characters, words,
or lines in file

25. Sorting
Lists the contents of a file based on
order
sort file
 Sorts file alphabetically by line
sort -r file
 Sorts file in reverse order by line
sort –t: -n +2 file
 Sorts file based on the 3rd field (+2)
 in numeric order (-n)
 with fields separated by ‘:’ (-t:)

26. Extracting info
cut –f# [-d%] file
 Displays # fields separated by %in
file
grep search-string file
 Displays all lines with search-
string in file
 Can create very sophisticated search
conditions

27. Changing file contents
paste file1 file2
 Merge contents of file1 and file2
line by line
tr c1 c2 < file
 Changes all occurrences of
character c1 to c2 in file

28. Misc. Commands
date
 Set system time/date
 View (formatted) system time/date
cal
 Displays calendar
echo
 Display strings & shell variables

29. Visual Editor (vi)
Very Powerful
3 modes
 Command
 Insert
 ex
Can be frustrating to learn initially
Important to have cheat sheet
handy 

30. emacs versus vi
Georgy says…
Slashdot (Asked by markhb):
vi or emacs?
Georgy:
I'm so glad you asked!! Both. vi for quick
editing, emacs (NOT xemacs) for coding
projects. :q!:q!:q!
Source: Slashdot.com, 8/20/2003

31. Why vi?!?!?!
Because it is always there!!!
©www.nicedog.com

32. Installing Applications
Source Code
 Typically requires a C compiler (gcc)
 GNU Configure – Builds Makefile
 Read README file first!!!
Precompiled Packages
 Solaris: pkgadd
 RedHat Linux: rpm

33. RedHat Package Manager
Command line: rpm
 Install/Upgrade/Remove software
 Distribution verification
 Powerful package/file queries
Network Installations
 yum
 up2date
 apt-get