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The Official Ubuntu Book, 4e: Welcome to the Command Line

  • Dec 21, 2010
One of the most powerful parts of any Ubuntu system is the command line. It can also be one of the most daunting to dive into. There is often little help, and commands are not easy to find. But if you are willing to learn, the power of the command line will speed up your work and can be a great education.
This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Official Ubuntu Book, The, 4th EditionOfficial Ubuntu Book, The, 4th Edition

Learn More Buy

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Official Ubuntu Book, The, 4th EditionOfficial Ubuntu Book, The, 4th Edition

Learn More Buy

One of the most powerful parts of any Ubuntu system is the command line. It can also be one of the most daunting to dive into. It seems there is often little help, and that the commands are not easy to find or figure out. If you are willing to learn, the power of the command line will speed up your work and will be a great education that will serve you for years by increasing your ability to do exactly what you want to do with your computer with greater efficiency.

The terminal can be found under Accessories > Terminal. When it first launches, you will see something similar to what Figure A-1 shows.

Figure A-1 The terminal window

Getting Started

First have a look at the files in your home folder by running the following command:

username@computer:~$ ls
username@computer:~$ ls -al

TIP: To Dash or Not to Dash?

In many command-line tools, options are added after a dash (-). Some tools, however, don’t need the dash. It isn’t particularly consistent, so you must pay attention as you learn new commands.

username@computer:~$ cd Desktop
username@computer:~$ cat myfile.txt

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