Getting to Know the Command Line
Christine Bresnahan, Richard Blum · 2012
This chapter offers information on the command-line operations. Linux command line, or shell as it's more properly called, is a program. Just like any other program, the shell must be launched. You can start a shell in a GUI window called a terminal program, or you can log into the computer locally via a text-mode console. In addition, a shell is started when you log into the computer remotely using a text-mode login protocol. The default shell in most Linux distributions is the Bourne Again Shell (Bash), which is based on an older shell called the Bourne Shell. Other shells are available. Most of these are similar to Bash in broad strokes, although some details differ. Each account specifies its own default shell, so individual users can change their shells if they like. Most Linux distributions allow you to install various GUI terminal programs. Typically, a desktop environment comes with its own terminal, so your terminal program choices also depend on the desktop environments that you install. Many terminal programs include the word terminal in their names, although some don't, such as the KDE Plasma's Konsole and generic XTerm. Most terminal programs provide common features of GUI programs-you can resize them, close them, select options from menus, and so on. Details depend on the program that you're using, though. You may want to peruse the options available on your terminal program's menus so that you can set the font to one you like, change the color scheme, and so on.