Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 3rd Edition

Basic bash Shell Commands

IN THIS CHAPTER

Interacting with the shell

Using the bash manual

Traversing the filesystem

Listing files and directories

Managing files and directories

Viewing file contents

The default shell used in many Linux distributions is the GNU bash shell. This chapter describes the basic features available in the bash shell, such as the bash manual, tab auto-completion and how to display a file's contents. You will walk through how to work with Linux files and directories using the basic commands provided by the bash shell. If you're already comfortable with the basics in the Linux environment, feel free to skip this chapter and continue with Chapter 4 to see more advanced commands.

Starting the Shell

The GNU bash shell is a program that provides interactive access to the Linux system. It runs as a regular program and is normally started whenever a user logs in to a terminal. The shell that the system starts depends on your user ID configuration.

The /etc/passwd file contains a list of all the system user accounts, along with some basic configuration information about each user. Here's a sample entry from a /etc/passwd file:

christine:x:501:501:Christine Bresnahan:/home/christine:/bin/bash

Each entry has seven data fields, with fields separated by colons. The system uses the data in these fields to assign specific features for the user. Most of these entries ...