2. Basics

First let me tell you some things that aren't really technical. They are quite important to know though and might save you at times.

2.1. The samples

All command line examples in this document are preceded with either a dollar or a rhomb sign. You can find this style throughout all Unix literature.

If you see a dollar sign, this is input you can (or should, see section No experiments as root) do as normal user. For example listing the current directory isn't something you must be root for:

$ ls

A rhomb sign indicates that this command should be executed as root. This is especially common for administrative tasks for example adding a user.

# adduser

2.2. No experiments as root

If you're trying out something new, don't do it as root! You can create a new account specifically for testing purposes and then `su' to it. So if you do something wrong, you only trash the home directory of that user. If you do the same thing as root you might damage the whole system. If you have already created an account for you, you better use this one than creating a new one specifically for testing.

2.3. Get help