Introduction

 

This is intended to be a beginning UNIX users manual, in particular for Linux. Concepts to be taught include:

• what is an operating system,
• an overview of UNIX,
• some common file and directory commands,
• online documentation,
• patterns for describing filenames,
• file types and file permissions,
• directory organisation,
• the vi editor,
• the emacs editor,
• I/O redirection,
• programs which operate on files,
• shells,
• and miscellaneous other topics.

This book is not to be considered a replacement for either the Getting Started book of the Linux Documentation Project, or for any book similar to ``An Unexperienced Person's Guide to Linux''.