Glossary
&
(ampersand) Execute command in background.
>
Redirect standard output.
>>
Append standard output.
<
Redirect standard input.
|
Pipe, connecting the standard output of the preceding program with the standard input of the following program. You can break long program lines after pipe symbols without changing their effect.
.
(dot) In a file path, this refers to the current directory. Before a shell script name, this means to execute the script as if typed into the current shell, rather than starting a new shell and executing the command in its environment.
..
(double dot) Parent of the current directory. The parent of the root directory / is itself.
~
(tilde) Home directory.
/
(slash) By itself or at the beginning of a path, the root directory; in a path, the directory separator. Thus in /usr/bin, it serves both functions.
(backslash) At the end of a line, continues a long command on the next line. Before a special character, escapes that character, so that commands can deal with filenames that contain special characters. This allows users to search for text containing special characters, for example by using "\*" to search for "*".
#
(hash) Comment.
*
(splat) In file globbing, wildcard to match any string. In regular expressions, wildcard to match any number of occurrences of the previous element.
?
Wildcard to match any character.
^
(caret) Wildcard to match the beginning of a line.
!
(bang) On the command line, execute the last command that begins with the following characters. Thus !mv says to run the last mv command. This function has modifiers to allow editing the last command before running it, to search for strings within commands, to run commands by number, to run the most recent command and to run different commands with the same arguments.
In logical expressions, such as those inside if and while statements, negate the result of the following expression. For example,
$ if ! mkdir -p "$DST" ; then exit 1
attempts to create a new directory, and exits if the directory cannot be created.
{}
In a command following the -exec option of the find command, this is replaced by the name of a file that was found, so that the given command is applied to every found file.
` `
(backtick backtick) Execute command inline, and replace it with the result.
$( )
Execute command inline, and replace it with the result.
[$( )]
Execute a command within a prompt.
$
(dollar) In a command, indicates that the value of the following environment variable should be used, not the name. For example, echo $USER. In regular expressions, a wildcard to match the end of a line. Dollar is also usually the last character in a bash prompt.
#!
(hashbang) Marks the beginning of an executable script. Follow with the program to execute this file, as in #!/bin/bash.
absolute path
A file path starting from the root directory, such as /usr/share/doc. Contrast with relative path.
alias
The alias command gives a name to a command string. Aliases can be made permanent by putting them in a bash startup script such as ~/.profile.
apt-get
Advanced Packaging Tool, a user interface command for managing and installing gNewSense and Debian packages.
aptitude
Terminal-mode package manager for Debian-style packages.
archive
A file, usually compressed, containing multiple files.
argument
An input value required for a command to process. Also called "parameter". Contrast with option.
ash
aspell
awk
A scripting language for data extraction and analysis from structured text files.
auto completion
When the shell can determine that there is only one file starting with the latest text on the command line, pressing Tab will fill in the rest of the name. If there are several matches, the shell will fill in the part of the names (if any) that is unique, and let the user continue from there.
background
By adding an ampersand, "&", at the end of a command you tell the shell to run the program in the background, without terminal input, and to give you a prompt so that you can continue to give commands.
bash
bug
Program behavior other than expected or desired.
bug report
Usually an e-mail or an entry in a bug database asking for help with a specific bug. Good bug reports state what software was used (Linux distribution and version, application name and version), what the user tried to do and what was the expected result, what happened instead, and what the user tried in order to fix it. It is particularly helpful to explain how to reproduce the problem, if it is repeatable. Log files of the incident should be attached.
builtin
A command executed by the shell itself, not by calling a separate program. The bash command
$ man builtins
gives details on builtins for bash itself.
character set
A collection of abstract characters, independent of the shapes in any particular font, with a numbering and one or more encodings. The ASCII character set maps to the numbers 0-127, encoded in seven bits of an eight-bit byte. ISO-8859-1 and related character sets have the range 0-255, and are encoded in 8 bits. Unicode maps to the numbers 0-1,114,111 (17 16-bit code pages of 65,536 code points each), and has several encodings, of which the most commonly seen is the variable-length UTF-8.
clobber
Overwrite a file with new data. A common result of forgetting to append standard output with ">>" and instead writing a new file with ">".
command
Executable file or shell builtin.
command completion
In bash and other shells typing part of a command or file name that is on the path or in the current directory, and then pressing Tab, often fills in the rest of the name. If not, pressing Tab again gives a list of names beginning with the characters so far typed.
coreutils
cron job
A command to be executed automatically on a schedule set with the cron command or one of its variants, such as anacron.
default
In many commands, the value preset for a particular option if the command line does not specify something different. The user can specify a default value for unset environment variables, for example,
$ cat "${VARIABLE_FILE_NAME:=/home/user/file}"
dependency
Software required to run a particular piece of software. This can include other applications, library files, fonts, images, and other data.
directory
A special kind of file that lists specific information on the files it contains, including owner, group, and permissions.
directory stack
A place to store recently used directory paths for easy retrieval with the commands pushd and popd. The command dirs displays the directory stack.
emacs
environment variable
A string value assigned to a name in the environment of the current shell.
escape
A character that changes the interpretation of a character or sequence of characters that follow it. This is the original use of the Escape character. For example, in a text search the character "*" matches a wide range of text, while the string "\*" matches only an asterisk.
exit status
A value returned by a command to the shell, useful in scripting for deciding what to do next.
file
filesystem
filter
Command-line program that reads standard input and writes standard output so that it is suitable for use in a pipeline, where each command performs a specific transformation on the data.
findutils
FLOSS
Free/Libre Open Source Software, licensed so as to guarantee the essential freedoms of software users to source code and reuse. A combination of Free Software and Open Source Software, with Libre added in to emphasize that software freedom is essentially a matter of rights, not price.
folder
The name used in GUIs for directories.
fontconfig
ftp
function
In bash, the function builtin allows the user to create functions on the fly with the syntax
$ function name() {body}
gawk
The GNU version of the awk text processing utility. gawk is a program that you can use to select particular records in a file and perform operations upon them.
gedit
globbing
Referring to a group of files with an abbreviation, such as "*" for all of the files in a directory.
GNOME
A desktop, set of libraries, and application suite for X.
GNU
Recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix. It is the Free Software Foundation project to create a freely-licensed replacement for the proprietary Unix operating system.
GNU/Linux
Operating system combining the Linux kernel with GNU software tools.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
User interface offering windows, icons, mouse control, multiple fonts, and so on.
grep
group
To simplify security, Unix systems organize users into groups, and assign a group owner as well as an individual owner to every file. In this way, system operators, for example, can be given control over certain system resources all at once, or everybody working on a project can gain access to all project files by joining the project group. Each user has a group with the same name for that user's files.
gzip
history
Record of previously executed commands that can be recalled and executed again with the up arrow key.
intltool
Utility for internationalizing various kinds of data files.
kernel
The Linux kernel, core of the GNU/Linux operating system. kernel.org
kernel-utils
less
more, but better as it can move back and forth through the file.
locale
Values of a set of environment variables that store information on the user's language, country, and character encoding, and options for date and time formatting, money, measurements, and other such information. Also the name of the command to display all of these environment variables.
log
A file, often in the /var/log directory, that contains notes made by running programs about their progress and about any problems they encounter. Vital information whenever something goes wrong.
lsof
lynx
make
An essential program for installing much unpackaged source code software. The developers can write down all of the complex information about how to configure, compile, and install their work in make files that you usually won't have to read. Just check the README or INSTALL files that come with the source code to see whether it uses this system, or has different instructions. Another program with similar functions is jhbuild.
man
mc
more
A utility for displaying text files one screenful at a time. See also less.
openssh
option
A value specified to a command using the form --option (long option) or -o (short option). Contrast with argument, which is a required input.
package manager
Software to install, remove, and otherwise manage applications as packaged by a particular distribution, particularly making sure that dependencies and compatibilities between software components are observed. The two main varieties are Red Hat/Yellow Dog yum and Debian apt-get.
parameter
Argument.
passwd
PATH
Environment variable specifying where the current shell should look for command files.
Perl
Practical Extraction and Report Language, or jocularly, Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. Perl is a dynamic programming language particularly suitable for text processing and manipulation.
pipe
A connection between two commands, so that the standard output of the first becomes the input of the second. Indicated with the character "|".
plain text
A message or file represented as a sequence of characters in a specific character encoding, with no extra formatting information. Contrast with rich text. HTML files are plain text, but contain markup tags so that they represent rich text.
process
A running program. Each process has a process ID, a number that you can use to identify the process in a command.
prompt
The text string displayed by a shell when waiting for command input.
recursive command execution
With the -r or -R options, many commands will act on the current directory and any subdirectories. Check command documentation to determine the precise syntax.
redirection
Sending a file or standard output from a command to standard input of a command, or sending standard output or error output of a command to standard input of another command, or to a file.
regular expression
A string such as "*.png" that defines a pattern for matching text or filenames using special characters to indicate which alternatives to include.
relative path
A file path starting from the current directory, such as docs or ../Pictures. Contrast with absolute path.
rich text
Text with formatting, including fonts, multiple type sizes, positioning, color, and much more. HTML and word processing files are forms of rich text. Contrast with plain text.
root
- root user, or superuser, a required account with permission to do anything on a GNU/Linux system.
- The starting point of the directory tree, written "/". All other directories are specified by paths from this root directory.
script
An executable text file.
sed
shell
A command interpreter such as sh or bash.
stack
A way to keep track of tasks and other information so that the last item saved (pushed) on the stack is the first item retrieved (popped) from the top of the stack. An example is the bash history stack.
standard input, standard output, and standard error
Communication channels provided to every running command. If not otherwise specified at the command line, they connect to the user's terminal, but they can be redirected to files or through pipes to other programs.
string
A string is a sequence of characters in a particular character set. Examples in ASCII include the sentence "Hello, World", the URL "http://www.flossmanuals.net/"
sudo
/etc/sudoers contains the specifications. The command sudoedit is provided for editing this file. It checks whether the edited file is in the correct format.
superuser
The root account, which has all permissions.
syntax highlighting
Displaying the text of various elements of a program, such as function names, variable names, strings, and keywords, in distinctive colors appropriate to the programming language (bash, Perl, Python, etc.) or markup format (HTML, XML, etc.) used. The colors are not stored with the file, but computed by the text editor when loading a file and during editing.
telnet
terminal
Originally, a printing terminal such as a Teletype, or a video terminal. Now a virtual terminal in a text or graphics window. In all cases, a device or program for typing input and displaying output.
time
Unicode
The universal character set, meant to replace the jumble of more than a hundred other character set standards for 30 modern writing systems and dozens of others.
unzip
UTC
Coordinated Universal Time, or Temps Universel Coordonné, which has replaced Greenwich Mean Time as the world standard. The abbreviation UTC is a compromise between the English and French names.
vi
Visual editor, a powerful terminal-mode editor.
vim
wget
which
wildcard
A character that can match more than one string in file globbing or regular expression matching.
X
The standard windowing system for GNU/Linux.
yum