How to Work With a Unix Kernel
The Unix operating system contains three parts: the kernel, the shell and the programs. The kernel is the core of the operating system and allocates time and memory for programs while also dealing with the files and communications. Here are some useful bits of information when you work with a Unix kernel.
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Instructions
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Remember that Unix commands are case sensitive.
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Learn more details about a command by seeing the man page. The command man is the abbreviation for manual. For example, for the command rm, enter man rm.
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Display a list of commands related to a topic by typing in man -k and then the topic name.
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See all available help notes by entering the command help -l. If you need to see a specific help note, enter help and then the name of the topic, such as "files."
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Type in the following commands to gain information: date, show date and time; history, list of previously executed commands; pine, read or send email messages or networks news groups; msgs, display system messages; man, show online documentation by program name; info, online documentation for GNU programs; w or who, who is on the system and what they are doing; whoami, who is logged onto this terminal; top, show system stats and top CPU using processes; uptime, show one line summary of system status; finger, find out info about a user@system.
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Manage files with the following commands: cat, combine files; cp, copy files; ls, list files in a directory and their attributes; mv, change file name or directory location; rm, remove files; ln, create another link (name) to a file; chmod, set file permissions; crypt, encode/decode a file with a private key; gzip or gunzip, compress/decompress a file; find, find files that match specific criteria.
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Display contents of files with these commands: cat, copy files to display device; more, show text file on display terminal with paging control; head, show first few lines of a file; tail, show last few lines of a file or reverse line order; vi, full-featured screen editor for modifying text files; pico, simple screen editor for modifying text files; lpr send file to line printer; pr, format file with page headers, multiple columns, etc.; diff, compare two files and show differences; strings, show printable text embedded in binary files.
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Tips & Warnings
You'll work with the Unix kernel through the shell, which acts as an interface between the user and the kernel.
