Learn Linux in a Month of Lunches

Chapter 11. Working with common command-line applications, part 1

Doug McIlroy, a programmer who worked on UNIX, is credited with coining what is considered the UNIX philosophy: “Do one thing and do it well.” For UNIX, that meant programs that did only one thing, like moving or copying files but not both. This approach is very different from most software programs, where one tool might serve multiple functions. Programs that only do one thing: that is where Linux shines.

Think back to our file manager: It displays files, it moves files, it copies files, and it deletes files. And that model works for us because it does all of those things perfectly fine. In the previous chapter, you learned some basic-but-essential commands that do very simple ...