Using relative pathnames is more desirable because it allows a directory containing symbolic links to be renamed and/or moved without breaking the links. %% highlight_id: 209449831 %%

Most commands use options consisting of a single character preceded by a dash, such as -l. But many commands, including those from the GNU Project, also support long options, consisting of a word preceded by two dashes. %% highlight_id: 209449832 %%

If the last character of the prompt is a hash mark (#) rather than a dollar sign, the terminal session has superuser privileges. This means that either we are logged in as the root user or we’ve selected a terminal emulator that provides superuser (administrative) privileges. %% highlight_id: 209449833 %%

Symbolic links were created to overcome the two disadvantages of hard links: Hard links cannot span physical devices, and hard links cannot reference directories, only files. %% highlight_id: 209449834 %%

Let’s say that we wanted to create a file called lazy_dog.txt containing the text in our example. We would do this: [me@linuxbox ˜]$ cat > lazy_dog.txt The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. %% highlight_id: 209449835 %%

Note that unlike Windows, which has a separate filesystem tree for each storage device, Unix-like systems such as Linux always have a single filesystem tree, regardless of how many drives or storage devices are attached to the computer. %% highlight_id: 209449836 %%

Linux has no concept of a “file extension” like some other operating systems. %% highlight_id: 209449837 %%

Commands are often followed by one or more options that modify their behavior and, further, by one or more arguments, the items upon which the command acts. %% highlight_id: 209449838 %%

An absolute pathname begins with the root directory and follows the tree branch by branch until the path to the desired directory or file is completed. %% highlight_id: 209449839 %%

The less command is a program to view text files. %% highlight_id: 209449840 %%