The following is a basic that the terminal will pass to the operating system and perform the action. Commands can also use flags in the form of – followed by a letter. This extends the capability of the command. Enter the following command. $ ls This will list any files in the current directory. These commands can be extended by using flags. A flag is an additional option to the command which allows it to perform additional functions. For example enter the following. $ ls -F /Desktop /Downloads /Music MyTextFile.txt MyProgram.py The forward slash at the beginning of the file indicates that this is a folder. Desktop, Downloads & Music are all folders but MyTextFile.txt and MyProgram.py are files. Enter the following command. $ ls -l This flag will list the files in a longer format which include the permissions for the files, who owns the file and the date that it was created. Permissions are indicated by the drwxr-xr-x Permission will be explained later along with file ownership. You can also combine flags to give you additional results. Enter the following. $ ls -lF This will list the files in long format and will also display the forward slash / to indicate folders. You can use the following flags to display more information. -d list the name of the current directory -F show directories with a trailing ‘/’ -a List the hidden files. -g show group ownership of file in long listing -l Displays details in a long format about files and directories. -t Sort by time modified. -R Displays all subdirectories. -i print the inode number of each file
To expand on what you have already learned enter the following command. $ clear This command will clear the terminal window and the date command will display the current date. Enter the command. $ date Enter the following command to display some information about the system. $ uname -a Another great little feature of the terminal is its history. By pressing the up arrow key, it will allow you to browse the commands that you have previously entered.
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