[NTLUG:Discuss] Canadian Resource

[LEROY TENNISON]

Something which may help you is to know that "An Introduction to the Linux Command Shell" is probably equivalent to "An Introduction to BASH" because BASH (Bourne Again SHell - yes, it's cutsy time) is a common Linux shell.  You may want to Google for "BASH tutorial".  However, before you do, you first may want to Google for

Linux Commands by Category

because a significant part of using the command shell is knowing what program to use to accomplish a given task.  The "finer points" of the command shell provide a structure for the automation of using the programs.  Here's a list of some common shell programs

cat - show the contents of a file
ls - list files in a directory ("folder" in Windoze terminology)
dir - similar to ls
more - show a file's contents a sreen at a time
less - similar to 'more' but provides page up/down, scrolling, etc.
grep - find a string in a file
rm - delete (remove) a file

mkdir - create a directory
rmdir - delete a directory
pwd - "print working directiry
cd - change directory

If you type

man <command>

at a shell prompt it should show you how to use the command, most commands have lots of options (welcome to Linux).

I did a quick search and found the following which may be helpful:

http://cs.clark.edu/~clug/commands.htm
http://www.linuxlots.com/~jam/guide4.html
http://members.tripod.com/~earthen/linuxcom.htm
http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/commands/index.html

The last link is particularly thorough.

The below link relates more to scripting, the good news is that it is short.

http://bashcurescancer.com/shell_programming_beginners_class_lesson_1_motivation.html

WARNINGS: 

Many things can be accomplished by more than one program and not all Linux distributions provide all programs.  If "man <program name>" doesn't return anything it may not be installed on your system.  Also, the same program may not have the same options on different Linux systems because they aren't really the same program - they are variants of a class of program.  The "beauty and beast" of Linux is that it is open source so people can (and do) customize it which leads to variation.

You will see references to 'vi' in some lists, don't be fooled into thinking that this is an easy editor to use.  Try almost anything else such as medit (installed with the midnight commander package), pico or nano.  I'm sure others on this list can provide additional editors to consider.

You are at the start of a LONG journey, don't get discouraged.  Learn what you need the most and begin to use it then add as time goes by.  If you don't know what program does what you want then Google for

Linux command <what you want to do>

if that fails then ask here or elsewhere, you'll probably get several answers.

Allen Meyers <chef11994 at sbcglobal.net> wrote: Watching some of the training reported on Canadian conference (Most over my head) led me to a search which resulted in  An Introduction to the Linux Command Shell for Beginners dated 2006
I would dearly love to purchase this if its on CD and why would it not as thorough as linux folk are.
It was reported on by flora.org and my attempt thus far to join merely to obtain said resource have failed.
Any help appreciated

Allen
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