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Getting started with Linux

Red Hat and Caldera distribution and they are also used by other

distributions. To install rpm's type

rpm -i filename.rpm

If you are upgrading an existing software type

rpm -U filename.rpm

If your distribution does not support RPM's you can add that support

by installing the RedHat Packet Manager (RPM). Similarly there is

pkginstall under some distributions to manage .tar.gz files.

Man Man! What's man man ? These are help pages or manuals to get some

help on a specific command. To get help on man type "man man".

Similarly to get help on rpm type "man rpm". To get help on ls type

"man ls" and so on. You can get help on all the command using man. To

begin with get help on commonly used commands. These commands will

help you move around files and directories. Some commonly used

commands are:

cat To type the content of a file

cp Copy files

du To check the disk space used

pine Email client

find Find files on the linux system

grep Search for keywords on a file or a command

kill To kill any process, ps to see the process number

less If you cat a file you can pipe it to less for page by page viewing

ln Create or remove links between files or directories

lpr Print files or output to a printer

ls List files or directories

mkdir To create a new directory

more Similar to less but less is better than more!

mount See the mounted devices or mount additional devices

umount Unmount mounted volumes

mv Move or rename a file

passwd Change your password

ps To see the processes running

rm Remove files or directories

rmdir Remove directories

useradd Add a user to the linux system

userdel Delete a user on the linux system

usermod Modify a user on the linux system

which Find where a program is located

who Displays the users logged in

zless To see the content of a .gz file (compressed)

Some more tips for bash users. If you know that the first letter of a

command for example is a but don't know the rest type "a" and then

press TAB twice and bash will show the list of possibilities. You can

also press a single tab to complete a command if there is only one

possibility. This saves a lot of typing time. Example type "mou" and

then press TAB, bash will put mount on the command line.