So you, a Windows veteran, find yourself staring at a text window that says only ">". For some reason, you've gone through the trouble of getting yourself an account on a Linux box. You're probably getting to it remotely, via Windows telnet, or more likely an SSH client like PuTTy. Or maybe you're on the console itself, marveling at the the server's window manager that looks more or less like Explorer, and now need to use its terminal.

Congratulations! You have entered the brave new and ancient world of the Linux command-line interface. It may seem archaic at first, like a relic of a time gone past. That feeling will probably never really go away, but within this very command-line lies great power. The code you author into a command is a lot more reusable than clicking in a GUI. So over time you can generate thousands of them, and what they lack in ease of use they make up for in capability.

To get the most out of this series, you only need to know the most basic of Linux commands, like ls and cd. This series will introduce you to ten other Linux commands that you should find useful. Most will work the same in all flavors of Linux, while one or two are used specifically in Red Hat Linux. While Linux and UNIX are sometimes considered distinct from each other, for the sake of these command-line tips may can accomplish the same actions on either OS.

The first command for this series is man, the first Linux command most admins ever learn. Man is the command you use to bring up a "man"ual page for virtually any command. It also has info on library calls, file formats, and many other aspects of the system.

"man man" is the key to unlocking the secrets of all other Linux commands. This command tells you how to use the man command itself, a command even Linux masters never stop using. At the end of most "man pages" is a section titled "See Also" which will lead you to other commands you may find useful or interesting.

You've probably used Windows Help before, and you may have found that help is hit-or-miss on usefulness. Linux man pages are no different. They are infamous for being cryptic and difficult to decipher, but they have improved over time, so it's worth the effort to get familiar with them.

Type "man man" at your Linux command prompt, and you'll see the command itself has many options, including keyword searches, searching non-standard paths, and converting to other outputs for printing. You can even type "man intro" for a brief introduction to Linux.

man automatically uses something called a pager that provides the mechanism for easily navigating its pages. The default pager is usually more and is available on every type of Linux. When using more to read a file, hit the space key to see the next page, "b" to go back a page, and "q" to quit. There are often alternative pagers with more capabilities than more, such as the pager called...well...less. Linux is not without a sense of humor.
Next up is the invisible Linux command, the shell itself.