Understand Linux absolute pathname.

   What is Linux absolute pathnames all about? The absolute pathname is where you always specify full path name to execute command or program that start from the system root directory ( / ).  To understand Linux absolute pathname, see command example below that use absolute pathname in their example.

Linux pwd command show absolute pathname to user home directory.

UNIX History

   In order to understand the popularity of Linux, we need to travel back in time, about 30 years ago... imagine computers as big as houses, even stadiums. While the sizes of those computers posed substantial problems, there was one thing that made this even worse: every computer had a different operating system. Software was always customized to serve a specific purpose, and software for one given system didn't run on another system. Being able to work with one system didn't automatically mean that you could work with another. It was difficult, both for the users and the system administrators.

What is Linux the Introduction

   We will start with an overview of how Linux became the operating system it is today. We will discuss past and future development and take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of this system. We will talk about Linux distributions, about Open Source in general and try to explain a little something about GNU.

This chapter answers questions like:

• What is Linux?

• Where and how did Linux start?

  
  

Organization of this document

   This guide is part of the Linux Documentation Project and aims to be the foundation for all other materials that you can get from the Project. As such, it provides you with the fundamental knowledge needed by anyone who wants to start working with a Linux system, while at the same time it tries to consciously avoid re-inventing the hot water. Thus, you can expect this book to be incomplete and full of links to sources of additional information on your system, on the Internet and in your system documentation.

Conventions used in this Introduction to Linux book

The following typographic and usage conventions occur in this Introduction to Linux book:

Table 1. Typographic and usage conventions

Start using Linux, What do you need?

To start using Introduction to Linux (this Linux book)... You will require a computer and a medium containing a Linux distribution. Most of this guide applies to all Linux distributions - and UNIX in general. Apart from time, there are no further specific requirements.

Introduction to Linux Copyright Information

The copyright information on this Introduction to Linux.

* Copyright (c) 2002-2007, Machtelt Garrels

* All rights reserved.

* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without

Feedback on Introduction to Linux book

   Missing information, missing links, missing characters? Mail feedback on Introduction to Linux book to the maintainer of this document:

<tille wants no spam _at_ garrels dot be>

Contributions to Introduction to Linux book

   Many thanks to all the people who shared their experiences. And especially to the Belgian Linux users for hearing me out every day and always being generous in their comments.

   Also a special thought for Tabatha Marshall for doing a really thorough revision, spell check and styling, and to Eugene Crosser for spotting the errors that we two overlooked.

Introduction to Linux Revision History

   Introduction to Linux book revision history.

Revision History

Revision 1.28     20090710          MG

Typos corrected, updates, note about ctime in inodes.