Grasping the basics of Bash

BASH Bootcamp

© Andrey Tsidvintsev, 123RF

© Andrey Tsidvintsev, 123RF

Article from Issue 107/2009
Author(s):

Even experts forget the fundamentals. Learn more about – or get a refresher on – the basics of Bash.

One disadvantage of the modern emphasis on the desktop is that people learn about the command line only when they need it. As a result, their knowledge of is often haphazard and full of gaps. For example, for years I've been using the su - command several times a day to log in as root from a virtual terminal on the desktop of my everyday account. I always thought that when you were finished as root, you couldn't return to the everyday account in the same terminal; instead, you had to close the window and open another one. Then I learned, purely by accident, that all I really needed to do was type exit.

Since then, I've discovered that, if pressed, even experts would confess to a similar gap in their knowledge at one time or the other.

Back to the Basics

In this article, I'll discuss a topic I should have covered months ago: the basics of Bash, the command line used by most GNU/Linux distributions. I'll discuss the basic tools and sources for information, as well as the basics of navigation. Even if you know some of this information, a systematic discussion might fill in gaps in your knowledge. If not, you can always pass on the information to a desktop user to further their education.

[...]

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