Chapter 3. The UNIX Command Line

Table of Contents

3.1. The command prompt
3.2. Connecting via SSH
3.3. man pages
3.4. Changing your Password
3.5. Permissions

3.1. The command prompt

Each account is a full shell account. That means that you can connect via the SSH protocol and access the command line directly. The command line is the most powerful way of accessing the server. If you're familiar with a DOS prompt, it's somewhat similar (though much more powerful). From there, you can do pretty much anything tentacle.net supports.

When the command line is waiting for you to enter a command, it will appear something like this:

chaos[1] % 

This means that you can enter your commands; for example, mutt to check your mail, passwd to change your password, ls to see what's in your home directory, and so on. Examples of these commands are listed in the sections below, but if you really want to learn the UNIX command line, you should look at an online tutorial, or a beginning UNIX book.