“Your UNIX knowledge should evolve by grace and fascination, rather
than pressure.”
— Paul Sheer
This page has links to information specifically about linux. There is much useful information, that works for all unices, including linux, solaris, max osx, bsd, etc. These things, such as unix basics, the vi editor, etc., are covered in the Unix links page.
| account | Your account name and your files and directories on the unix system | More about account at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: password file, login |
uh-COUNT | ||
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| account name | The official one-word name by which the unix system knows you. Your login name on the unix system. | More about account name at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: password file, login |
uh-COUNT name | ||
| bash | One of the command-line shells available on unix. It was written for the GNU Project. The letters stand for the GNU "Born-Again SHell" a pun because it is based on the Bourne shell, sh – the original unix command interpreter. |
More about bash at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: csh, ksh |
bash | ||
| BSD unix | The version of unix developed by Berkeley Software Distribution and written at the University of California, Berkeley. It is one of the two lines of descent of modern unices. | More about BSD unix at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
BEE-ess-dee YOU-nix | ||
| command | 1. unix: Each program in unix is also known as a command. Same thing. 2. shell: Also, the name of a program along with any arguments you specifiy to it. The text you type in the command line 3. programming: A line of code which performs some action. |
More about command at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
kum-MAND | ||
| directory | A type of unix file that is used to group other files. Technically, “A node in a hierarchical filesystem which contains zero or more other nodes.” Files and directories can be associated with other directories, to build a hierarchical filesystem. It is what is displayed as a folder in a graphical interface such as Windows |
More about directory at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
duh-REK-to-ree | ||
| emacs | "A great operating system — it lacks a good editor, though." | More about emacs at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: www.splange.freeserve.co.uk/ misc/vi.html |
EE-macs | ||
| flavor | A different variety of a program or operating system. Many things may be the same, and details may be different. Not the same thing as a version | More about flavor at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
FLAY-vur | ||
| gnu | "Gnu's Not Unix". Most of the utilities in linux were written by Richard Stallman and friends. | More about gnu at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
gnu | ||
| home directory | This is the private directory for your unix account. It is also where you start out when you log in to the system. | My home directory on one system is /home/walker On another it is /export/sunsite/users/walker |
More about home directory at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
home duh-REK-tuh-ree | |
| kernel | The underlying core of the unix operating system itself. The part of the operating system that knows how to talk to the hardware. | More about kernel at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
KUR-nel | ||
| linux | A version of unix written for intel chip, by Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and others | Linux now has many flavors, or families, such as Ubuntu, Fedora Core, Debian, etc. | More about linux at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
LIH-nucks | |
| man page | Help for unix commands. Each standard unix command comes with some basic online documentation that describes its function. This online documentation for a commanmd is called a man page. Usually the man page lists the command-line flags and some error conditions |
If somebody says to you 'man ls' they are telling you to look up the help for the ls command, by using the man command |
More about man page at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
MAN page | |
| operating system | to come | More about operating system at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
OP-ur-ate-ing SYS-tum | ||
| shell | In any computer, the shell is the way that you communicate with the operating system - It is an inteface to the system. The shell receives the input from the user and executes programs. After the program is done, the ishell displays the output. In MSWindows you use a GUI, or graphical, shell called Windows. To interact with unix, you type commands to the command interpreter. Also known as the command shell. |
On unix, there are several different flavors of command shell. Some are bash, csh, tcsh, ksh There are also graphical shells such as (in linux) Nautilus and Konqueror.On MSwndws, the graphical shell is called "Windows", and the command-line shell is known as "command" or the "ms-dos prompt". On Macintosh, the graphical shell is (was?) called the "Finder". (Still "finder" in OSX?) Up to version 9, Macintosh did not have an easily available command shell. It now has a unix shell in OS X. |
More about shell at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia |
shell | |
| subdirectory | A directory that is contained within another directory | More about subdirectory at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: filesystem, hierarchy |
SUB duh-rek-to-ree | ||
| unix | An interactive time-sharing operating system invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson, and expanded to many versions, or "flavors", including linux. | Written in all-caps – UNIX – when referring to the trademark of The Open Group — but it is not an acronym or abbreviation for anything. | More about unix at foldoc.org techweb dictionary.com wikipedia See also: shell, linux |
YOU-nicks |