Hello this is my first blog entry. I have had a request for help for beginning command line help. There is probably too much to learn for one blog, so I will try, and write several beginner blogs.

Definitions:
The shell is a way to interface with your operating system. It is popular because it is a quick way to make changes. It is powerful, and you can get a lot of info quickly through the shell. Other names for a shell are: BASH, Terminal, or Console (sometimes cli (comand line)).

Username: user account on the PC
Hostname: the name of your PC
ls equals list -there are many options for ls. To see them you can type “man ls”

Lets get started:
Open a shell -The shell by default should give you a prompt. Preceding the curser you should see your username@hostname:$ . It should be waiting for some input.

By default you are in your default home directory /home/

Mine looks like this:
adrenaline@system76:~$

Now type something: ls
This will give you a list of all fo the cotents in your home directory.
One of the directories should be “Desktop”.

Now type: cd Desktop
then: ls
Now you should be in /home//Desktop.
To know for sure type: pwd (pwd is present working directory)
Mine looks like this.
adrenaline@system76:~/Desktop$ pwd
/home/adrenaline/Desktop

Now type:ls
You should see all of the files on your deskop here in a list format.

Now to go back one directory type: cd ..

If you get lost changing directories, you can simply type “cd” with no options and it will take you back your your home directory.

One thing to note: Linux/Unix is case sensitive on the command line.
azloco and Azloco are two different words in Linux.

This is all for now. If anybody has any beginning tutorial questions, you can email me at adrenaline@azloco.com or catch me in IRC irc.freenode.org #ubuntu-us-az.

adrenaline