Книга: The Linux Command Line
Назад: Acknowledgments
Дальше: I. Learning the Shell

starts our exploration of the basic language of the command line, including such things as the structure of commands, filesystem navigation, command line editing, and finding help and documentation for commands.

  • covers editing configuration files that control the computer’s operation from the command line.

  • explores many of the ordinary tasks that are commonly performed from the command line. Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux, contain many “classic” commandline programs that are used to perform powerful operations on data.

  • introduces shell programming, an admittedly rudimentary, but easy to learn, technique for automating many common computing tasks. By learning shell programming, you will become familiar with concepts that can be applied to many other programming languages.

    • Start at the beginning of the book and follow it to the end. It isn’t written as a reference work; it’s really more like a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

    To use this book, all you will need is a working Linux installation. You can get this in one of two ways:

    Note

    Regardless of how you install Linux, you will need to have occasional superuser (i.e., administrative) privileges to carry out the lessons in this book.

    After you have a working installation, start reading and follow along with your own computer. Most of the material in this book is “hands on,” so sit down and get typing!

    Why I Don’t Call It “GNU/Linux”

    In some quarters, it’s politically correct to call the Linux operating system the “GNU/Linux operating system.” The problem with “Linux” is that there is no completely correct way to name it because it was written by many different people in a vast, distributed development effort. Technically speaking, Linux is the name of the operating system’s kernel, nothing more. The kernel is very important, of course, since it makes the operating system go, but it’s not enough to form a complete operating system.

    Enter Richard Stallman, the genius-philosopher who founded the Free Software movement, started the Free Software Foundation, formed the GNU Project, wrote the first version of the GNU C Compiler (GCC), created the GNU General Public License (the GPL), etc., etc. He insists that you call it “GNU/Linux” to properly reflect the contributions of the GNU Project. While the GNU Project predates the Linux kernel and the project’s contributions are extremely deserving of recognition, placing them in the name is unfair to everyone else who made significant contributions. Besides, I think “Linux/GNU” would be more technically accurate since the kernel boots first and everything else runs on top of it.

    In popular usage, “Linux” refers to the kernel and all the other free and open source software found in the typical Linux distribution—that is, the entire Linux ecosystem, not just the GNU components. The operating system marketplace seems to prefer one-word names such as DOS, Windows, Solaris, Irix, AIX. I have chosen to use the popular format. If, however, you prefer to use “GNU/Linux” instead, please perform a mental search and replace while reading this book. I won’t mind.

    Назад: Acknowledgments
    Дальше: I. Learning the Shell

    © RuTLib.com 2015-2018