5. Basic Linux Commands

In order to effectively to use the more advanced features of the accelerator control system, the user should be familiar with the process of logging into the system as well as the commands provided by the Linux operating system.

The concepts of pathnames, current directory, and i/o redirection are very important to a good understanding of how the Linux environment works.

Look in the Linux manual pages for descriptions of how these and other commands work.

This is a list of basic commands:

cat

Copy and concatenate files. Used most often to print the contents of a file on the screen. Example: "cat <filename>"

cd

Change directories. Example: "cd <new directory>"

cp

Copy a file. Example: "cp <source> <target>"

ls

List the contents of a directory. Example: "ls -l"

lpr

Print files. Example: "lpr <file>"

mkdir

Make a new directory. Example: "mkdir <directory name>"

pwd

List the current working directory. Example: "pwd"

rm

Remove a file. Example: "rm <file>"

This is a list of more advanced and administrative commands:

tar

File archiving program. (used to copy to and from tape)

fsck

File system check (used when Linux is started).

mkfs

Create a Linux file system.

mount

Mount a disk partition, cd, floppy disk, etc. to be accessed as a Linux file system.

set

List the environment variables (see the sh manual pages).

sh

The shell.

umount

Unmount a file system.

vi

Text editor.