Typing Commands
Once you've seen the prompt character,
you can type commands, which are requests that the system do something.
Commands are practically always typed in lower-case. Typing "date"
followed by the [RETURN] key will produce something like
Fri Sep 4 13:57:55 PDT 1992
After any system command, you must press [RETURN]. The [RETURN] key
won't be mentioned again, but it has to be there at the end of each
line.
If you make a mistake typing the
command name, and refer to a non-existent command, you will be told.
For example, if you type "daze" you will be told
daze: Command not found.
Of course, if you inadvertently type the name of some other command, it
will run, with more or less mysterious results.
Unix commands usually take the form:
- command -options filename
where "-options" is a list of the options as shown on the
manual page,
and 'filename' is the name of the file upon
which you want the command to act. The list of options is usually
preceded by a "-". You will not have to specify options or file names
with all commands. Options are usually single letters which will change
the default behavior of a program.
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