Unix Tutorial for Beginners

Typographical conventions

In what follows, we shall use the following typographical conventions:

• Characters written in bold typewriter font are commands to be typed into the computer as they stand.
• Characters written in italic typewriter font indicate non-specific file or directory names.
• Words inserted within square brackets [Ctrl] indicate keys to be pressed.

So, for example,

% ls anydirectory [Enter]

means "at the UNIX prompt %, type ls followed by the name of some directory, then press the key marked Enter"

Don't forget to press the [Enter] key: commands are not sent to the computer until this is done.

Note: UNIX is case-sensitve, so LS is not the same as ls.

The same applies to filenames, so myfile.txt, MyFile.txt and MYFILE.TXT are three seperate files. Beware if copying files to a PC, since DOS and Windows do not make this distinction.