Chapter 3

Basic bash Shell Commands

In This Chapter

• Starting the shell
• The shell prompt
• The bash manual
• Filesystem navigation
• File and directory listing
• File handling
• Directory handling
• Viewing file contents

The default shell used in all Linux distributions is the GNU bash shell. This chapter describes the basic features available in the bash shell, and walks you through how to work with Linux files and directories using the basic commands provided by the bash shell. If you're already comfortable working with files and directories in the Linux environment, feel free to skip this chapter and continue with Chapter 4 to see more advanced commands.