Chapter 2: Creating the Perfect Linux Desktop

Question 1

Major reasons to learn how to use the shell

Answer 1

Learn to get around any Linux or other UNIX-like system
Special shell features enable you to gather data input and direct data output between commands and Linux filesystems.
You can gather commands into a file using programming constructs such as conditional
tests, loops, and case statements to perform complex operations quickly, which would
be difficult to retype over and over

Question 2

How to get to a shell interface in Linux

Answer 2

To start, boot up your Linux system.
On your screen, you should see either a graphical login
screen or a plain-text login prompt
you should log in with a regular user account
If you have a plain-text login
prompt, continue to the next section,

Question 3

The default prompt for a regular user

Answer 3

dollar sign:

$

Question 4

default prompt for the root user

Answer 4

a pound sign 
#

Question 5

Ways to launch a Terminal window

from a Linux desktop

Answer 5

Right-click the desktop
select it to start a Terminal window
Click the panel menu
Many Linux desktops include a panel at the top or bottom of
the screen
you can select Applications ➪ System Tools ➪ Terminal
to open a Terminal window.
In GNOME 3, click the Activities menu, type Terminal,
and press Enter.

Question 6

$ date

Answer 6

display the current day, month,

date, time, time zone, and year

Question 7

$ pwd

Answer 7

shows your current working directory.

Question 8

$ hostname

Answer 8

shows your

computer’s hostname.

Question 9

$ ls

Answer 9

lists the files and directories in your current directory.

Question 10

characters and words that you can type after a command

Answer 10

options and arguments.

Question 11

argument

Answer 11

extra piece of information

such as a filename,directory, username, device, or other item, that tells the command what to act on

Question 12

$date +’%d/%m/%y’