Quick Start Guide

word and press [Enter]. The prompt now changes and shows some useful information
as in the following example:
❶ ❷ ❸
tux@linux:~>
❶ Your login.
❷ The hostname of your computer.
❸ Path to the current directory. Directly after login, the current directory usually is
your home directory, indicated by the ~ symbol (tilde) .
When you are logged in at a remote computer the information provided by the prompt
always shows you which system you are currently working on.
When the cursor is located behind this prompt, you can pass commands directly to
your computer system. For example, you can now enter ls -l to list the contents of
the current directory in a detailed format. If this is enough for your rst encounter
with the shell and you want to go back to the graphical user interface, you should
log out from your shell session rst. To do so, type exit and press [Enter]. Then press
[Alt] + [F7] to switch back to the graphical user interface. You will nd your desktop
and the applications running on it unchanged.
When you are already logged in to the GNOME or the KDE desktop and want to start
a terminal window within the desktop, press [Alt] + [F2] and enter konsole (for KDE)
or gnome-terminal (for GNOME). This opens a terminal window on your desktop. As
you are already logged in to your desktop, the prompt shows information about your
system as described above. You can now enter commands and execute tasks just
like in any shell which runs parallel to your desktop. To switch to another application
on the desktop just click on the corresponding application window or select it from
the taskbar of your panel. To close the terminal window press [Alt] + [F4].
7.2 Entering Commands
As soon as the prompt appears on the shell it is ready to receive and execute com-
mands. A command can consist of several elements. The rst element is the actual
command, followed by parameters or options. You can type a command and edit it
by using the following keys: [←], [→], [Home], [End], [<—] (Backspace), [Del], and
[Space]. You can correct typing errors or add options. The command is not executed
until you press [Enter].
IMPORTANT: No News Is Good News
The shell is not verbose: in contrast to some graphical user interfaces, it usually
does not provide conrmation messages when commands have been executed.
Messages only appear in case of problems or errors —or if you explicitly ask for
them by executing a command with a certain option.
86 Start-Up