206 CHAPTER 13 INTRODUCING THE BASH SHELL (Web design rates)
206 CHAPTER 13 INTRODUCING THE BASH SHELL It s respected in the community. Using a shell earns you enormous brownie points when speaking to other Linux users. It separates the wheat from the chaff and the men from the boys (or women from the girls). If you intend to use Linux professionally, you will most certainly need to be a master at the shell. Seen in this light, learning at least a handful of shell commands is vital to truly mastering your PC. The drawback when using a command-line shell is that it s not entirely intuitive. Take for instance the command to change the network card s IP address: ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.15 up If you ve never used the shell before, it might as well be Sanskrit. What on earth does ifconfig mean? And why is there the word up at the end? Learning to use the shell involves learning terms like these. Hundreds of commands are available, but you really need to learn only around 10 or 20 for everyday use. The comparison with a new language is apt because, although you might think it daunting to learn new termi nology, with a bit of practice, it will all become second nature. Once you ve used a command a few times, you ll know how to use it in the future. The main thing to realize is that the shell is your friend. It s there to help you get stuff done as quickly as possible. When you become familiar with it, you ll see that it is a beautiful concept. The shell is simple, elegant, and powerful. When Should You Use the Shell? The amount of use the Linux shell sees is highly dependent on the user. Some Linux buffs couldn t manage without it. They use it to read and compose e-mail, and even to browse the Web (usually using the Mutt and Lynx programs, respectively). However, most people simply use it to manage files, view text files (like program docu mentation), and run programs. All kinds of programs including GUI and command-line can be started from the shell. As you ll learn in Chapter 29, unlike with Windows, installing a program on Ubuntu doesn t necessarily mean the program will automatically appear on the Applications menu. In fact, unless the installation routine is specifically made for the version of Linux you re running, this is unlikely. Therefore, using the shell is a necessity for most people. Note Unlike with DOS programs, Ubuntu programs that describe themselves as command-line are rarely designed to run solely via the command-line shell. All programs are like machines that take input at one end and output objects at the other. Where the input comes from and where the output goes to is by no means limited to the command line. Usually, with a command-line program, the input and output are provided via the shell, and the programmer makes special dispensation for this, but this way of working is why GUI programs often make use of what might be considered shell programs. You ll often find that a GUI program designed to, for example, burn CDs, will also require the installation of a command-line program that will actually do the hard work for it.