CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 5: The Linux Operating System

Linux Distributions 1 The Major Components and Interfaces of Linux and Their Functions

It after reading this chapter, you want additional information about Linux you can start at http://www.Linux.org or the Linux documentation project⁸³. These sites have a wide range of information about Linux including a number of electronic books describing beginning Linux administration, networking, and a set of How to do’s that can help you with virtually any problem you may encounter. In addition, sites such as http://www.freshmeat.net have a wide range of resources for the newbie.

The intention of this chapter is to give an overview and therefore not all the details of Linux can possibly be covered. A limited number of commands for both accessing and modifying files and performing administrative functions have been selected to be discussed. On a typical system, one may find several thousand potential commands that could be used to perform various tasks. It would clearly take several books to thoroughly deal with all them. If one wants become proficient using the command line in Linux it will take many hours of practice and research.

To aid in understanding how each command should be formed, the following conventions are used. All commands that can be used on the command line are shown indented and in proportional font, as follow:

command options

This would imply that one should type “command options” and then hit the Return key. Pressing the return key will cause the command line interpreter to accept the command and start processing it. Additionally when the general form of the command is given, it will be given of the type:

command [options] [arguments]

Here, it is important note that any items shown between the [] square brackets would be considered optional and not necessarily needed for the command to execute properly.

Linux Distributions 1 The Major Components and Interfaces of Linux and Their Functions