Basic Concepts
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Basic Concepts

Credits and License

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This chapter introduces you to basic concepts which are useful when getting started with a Kubuntu system.


Table of Contents

Directories and File Systems
Permissions
Root And Sudo
Start a Program Manually with Root Privileges
User Management
Terminal
Starting the Terminal
Common Commands
Switching to Console mode
Disabling the beep sound in Terminal mode
Restart Kubuntu without rebooting
Text Editing

Directories and File Systems

In Linux and Unix everything is a file. Directories are files, files are files, and devices are files. Devices are usually referred to as nodes; however, they are still files.

Linux and Unix file systems are organized in a hierarchical, tree-like structure. The highest level of the file system is the / or root directory. All other files and directories exist under the root directory. For example, /home/konqi/kubuntu.odt shows the correct full path, or absolute path, to the kubuntu.odt file that exists in the konqi directory, which is under the home directory, which in turn is under the root (/) directory.

Underneath the root (/) directory is a set of important directories common to most Linux distributions. The following is a listing of common directories that are directly under the root (/) directory:

/bin

Important commands, which historically have been binary, but may also be shell scripts.

/boot

Boot configuration files, kernels, and other files needed at boot time.

/dev

The device files.

/etc

Configuration files, startup scripts, etc.

/home

Home directories for different users.

/initrd

Used when creating a customized initial RAM Disk.

/lib

System libraries.

/lost+found

Provides a lost+found system for files that exist under the root (/) directory.

/media

Automatically mounted (loaded) removable media such as CDs, digital cameras, etc.

/mnt

Manually mounted filesystems on your hard drive.

/opt

Provides a location for optional (3rd party) applications to be installed; these are usually statically compiled and can be used in other versions or Linux distributions.

/proc

Special dynamic directory that maintains information about the state of the system, including currently running processes.

/root

Root user's home directory, pronounced "slash-root".

/sbin

Important system binaries and scripts, usually intended to be run as the root user.

/srv

Can contain files that are served to other systems.

/sys

Similar to the /proc filesystem, but contains system information not related to running processes.

/tmp

temporary files.

/usr

Applications and read-only files that are mostly available for all users to access.

/var

variable files such as logs and databases.

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