

Printing the contents of files is by far the more frequent use of this command. The cat command is important as a basic command because it serves two very important functions: concatenating (merging) files (as the name suggests) and printing the contents of a file to the screen. As an example, look at the man page for the ls command. Use the Enter key to advance one line at a time, the ' b' key to go back, the Space bar to advance a full-screen page, and the ' q' key to exit the man page. The abbreviated command for referencing this documentation is, man and a screen-full of information appears before you. They're referred to as manual pages, as in read the manual. Linux has an extensive set of online documentation for your reference. The -a switch-or option, as it's called-shows you all files, even hidden ones. You now see several files beginning with a period. Hidden files in Linux begin with a period (.

In your home directory, where you are now, you probably have hidden files. You've successfully listed the contents of the /etc directory, but you can actually list files in several different ways. The /etc ( et-see) directory is where a Linux system's configuration files live.Ī large number of files (over 200) appear on your screen. The ls command won't show you much in your home directory on a new system, so let's explore a directory that contains a lot of files and directories: /etc. If you simply type ls at a prompt ( $), you'll see all non-hidden files in your current directory, which is your home directory when you first log into a Linux system. The list ( ls) command is equivalent to the DOS DIR command, in that it lists files and directories. How well do you know Linux? Take a quiz and get a badge.Linux system administration skills assessment.A guide to installing applications on Linux.

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