UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am new to this unix thing. I have a macintosh with os X and want to learn how to use the unix terminal. What do I need to get started? Does anyone know some good command lines to get started with? Can I use the terminal to check email and get on the internet etc.....?

On some systems you can type 'man intro' to get the introductory man page. Not sure if OSX has that one available. You can type 'man <command>' to get help on any command. You might want to check out some of the book recommendations in the FAQ section. None of them are OSX specific, but any book which offers general Unix pointers should help you get started.

Most 'commands' are located in directories with bin in the path. Directories like:

You might enjoy exploring these directories. You machine will not all all of these, but you should have at least half of them.

A command I found useful when learning was:

man -k keyword

This command accesses man (the manual) using the -k option will search for entries that have your keyword in the description or command - and obviously keyword is where you put in the word.

For example - searching for commands that will let you copy a file....type

man -k copy

This will list heaps of commands and descriptions - then if you find a command in here that you want to use - or find more about type:

man command

Hope this helps.