What is Linux?[edit]
Linux is an UNIX compatible operating system *kernel*.
A kernel is but one (very important) part of an operating system.
This kernel was written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.
Combined with the GNU utilities you get GNU/Linux which is the correct term for an complete OS.
It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and TCP/IP networking.
Linux was first developed for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher). These days it also runs on (at least) the Compaq AlphaAXP, SunSPARC and UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64 and CRIS architectures.
Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the GNU C compiler (gcc).
Some basic commands[edit]
These Unix compatible 'commands' are not part of the Linux kernel. The are all separate programs that are used on many other operating systems. The unifying property of these commands is that they are all FreeSoftware, and most all are CopyLeft.
| GNU/Linux/Unix commands A-Z | ||
|---|---|---|
| command | description | examples |
| bc | binary calculator | bc |
| cat | concatenate files and print on standard output | cat >test , cat file1 file2 >file3 |
| cd | change working directory | cd ~ |
| chmod | change file access permissions | chown guest.users filename |
| chown | change owner and group of a file | chmod u+x filename, chmod 770 filename |
| cmp | compare two files byte by byte | cmp file1 file2 |
| cp | copy a file or directory | cp -d -p -R |
| date | show system date | date |
| df | show free disk space | df -h |
| diff | find differences between two files | diff -u file1 file2 |
| du | show disk use of file(s) or directory | du -s |
| echo | display a line of text | echo "Hello world" |
| fg | bring a process to the foreground | fg [jobnr] |
| find | find files on name, date, owner, permissions etc | find ./ -name *.kdelnk |
| ftp | File transfer protocol | ftp ftp.nluug.nl |
| grep | print lines matching a pattern | ls -alR |grep txt |
| head | show first lines of text file | head textfile |
| irc | Internet Relay Chat | irc -c #squat fnord irc.xs4all.nl |
| jobs | show running or stopped jobs | jobs |
| kill | kill a process | kill -9 PID |
| killall | kill process by name | killall -9 netscape, killall -HUP daemon |
| less | a better version of more | less textfile |
| ls | list files in directory | ls -a -l -R |
| lynx | A text browser | lynx http://squat.net/ascii |
| Basic mail implementation | echo "Test" | mail -s "Test" guest | |
| man | show manual page on command | man command |
| mkdir | make directory | mkdir newdir |
| more | view text file screen by screen | more textfile |
| mv | move file or directory to another place | mv file1 file2 |
| ncftp | A better ftp client | ncftp -u username ftp.nluug.nl |
| netstat | Show network statistics | netstat -r |
| pico | edit a text file | pico filename |
| pine | A mail client | pine |
| ping | Send small package to check if a machine is up & reaction time | ping localhost |
| ps | show currently running processes | ps aux |
| pwd | print working directory | pwd |
| rm | remove a file or directory | rm -r -f |
| rmdir | remove directory | rmdir newdir |
| sort | sort a file | sort filename |
| ssh | A more secure version of telnet | ssh -l username host.domain |
| tail | show last lines of text file | tail -f textfile |
| telnet | Remote login | telnet dds.dds.nl |
| top | display top CPU processes | top |
| touch | change file timestamps | touch -t 10210000 filename |
| tr | translete or delete characters | echo "test" | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] |
| uniq | show only the diffenent lines from a text file | uniq filename |
| uptime | show the time the system is running (and system load) | uptime |
| vi | the unix text editor | vi filename |
| wc | count bytes, words and lines in files | wc -l filename |
| who | show who is logged on | who |
| whoami | print effective userid | whoami |
| yes | output a string repeatedly until killed | yes hello |
The best way to find information on how to use a command is the man command. This command tells you a lot of specific information on a command. Try man man for a start.
Some handy function keys[edit]
| Linux Function keys | |
|---|---|
| [CTRL]-z | Bring a program to the background |
| [CTRL]-c | Stop a program |
| [CTRL]-d | End of input file |
| [ALT]-[F1]..[F6] | Switch to terminal TTY1..6 (depends on configuration) |
| [ALT]-[F7] | Switch to X (if running) |
| [CTRL]-[ALT]-[F1..6] | Switch from X to text terminal |
| [CTRL]-[ALT]-[BACKSP] | Kill X-window (in mode 5, X will restart) |
| [CTRL]-[ALT]-[DEL] | Reboot or halt (depends on configuration) |
copied and extended from: PUSCII - # http://www.puscii.nl/
Related[edit]
--> Debian,GNU,[[::Category:Linux Distributions]],Linus Torvalds,FSF,Unix
deutsch[edit]
Deutschsprachige Linux Study Guides als PDF
How to pronounce Linux?[edit]
Jargon[edit]
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