Help me, got some questions.

Hi guys, I am totally new to Linux and I am using Knoppix to find my way around using Linux. Now there are some basic questions I would like to know. I hope you guys can help me out.

(Important note! This is info I need for school work. And I am working in the console. So I'm just working with commands and not with a GUI.)


1) I found some basic commands and I was wondering how to use them, what different options there are and what you use them for etc.
they are:

man ls, ls -la, ls /etc | less, ps -aux, grep '#!/bin/sh' /usr/bin/*,


2) I was looking at the directory structure. What kind of files are where, and what do they do. My question is how (for instance) do I mount the floppydrive, or how do I format one? How do I put my "home"directory on a USB stick?

3) How do I create users and groups? If for instance I wanted to make a group called "Student" (with the ID "2222") for two users.

4) I have to create 4 text files that can be read by both users, only user 1, only user 2, and none of them (root). How can I do this?

5) How can I execute and stop a program or command in the background?

6) I wanna figure out how VI works, and for instance how to get line numbers on screen.

7) How can I simply write, compile and execute a c++ program with keyboard as input, screen as output and command lines as parameters)

If even you have only an answer on 1 of these questions, I would be happy. If you have more answers it is of course, always better.

I really hope you can help me out. Tnx in advance!

ps. I do need to know most of it by wednesday. After that you don't really have to bother posting cause then I am supposed to know anyway.

1) To access the manual page for ls:

Code:

---

man ls

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This also covers ls -la.
/etc is the directory containing all your system-wide configuration files. The pipe character connects the output of the command on the left to the input of the command on the right. So in ls /etc | less, the input to the less program is the list of files and folders in /etc.
grep is a GNU tool, for which info may give more useful information than man:

Code:

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info grep

---

2) For the directory structure see http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html.
To mount a floppy disk try:

Code:

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mount /floppy

---

For formatting any kind of disk, look up mkfs. I think the last part of this question is answered all over the forum (meaning I don't know).

3) For both users and groups, look up adduser:

Code:

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man adduser

---

4) Use touch to create files, and chown and chmod to change their attributes for access control. The su command will make you root and exit will drop you back to a normal user again.

5) To start the command sleep 100 in the background:

Code:

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sleep 100 &

---

Its PID (process ID) will pop up, let's say it's 4567. To terminate sleep 100 do this:

Code:

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kill 4567

---

6) Read the manual for vi. You might want to try vim. I don't know how line numbers are done.

7) You can use g++ directly to compile a simple C++ program.

You can find the answer in the following URL for line numbering in VI.

http://kb.indiana.edu/data/afcx.html...41541.91687.30

Basically it's escape :set number to turn it on
and
escape :set nonumber to turn it off.

For compiling, just try typing

cc program.c

One more thing to add. You are asking some really general questions about linux. A very good general information documentation about linux is Rute: http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz
You will find answers to many of your questions there.

Thanks you guys! :D

Even though gruntbuggly did such an excellent job of responses, I only have one addition,

to #4 -=- you can use chown and chmod, which was given, but also chgrp for changing the group -=- even though, if you look at the man pages for chown, there is an option for changing the owner and the group, the chgrp utility will just change the group for you.