how do I use a command someone Gives me?

bo_akins · 10-03-2007, 05:40 PM

Greetings,

Ok, whenever someone gives me an answer to a question, the reply usually
is something like this "cat /etc/fstab " ok, do I use alt f2 to use that command? or do I goto the Konsole terminal Program?

Peace, Love, And Monkey Grease

syg00 · 10-03-2007, 06:04 PM

For things like that, just use a console - sometimes you'll need to be root.
It's always good to look at the manpage first - i.e. "man cat" (use "q" to quit).

"cat" is safe, but some commands are dangerous to your system, and it pays to know what you have been advised to do, before you issue the command.
The advice may be correct, but still potentially harmful. As I said, pays to check firfst.

XavierP · 10-03-2007, 06:08 PM

Open a terminal to run the command. For some commands you will need to be root, either by doing

Code:

su
#enter root password
cat /etc/fstab

or by

Code:

sudo cat /etc/fstab
#enter your user password

matthewg42 · 10-03-2007, 06:26 PM

It is very often possible to do the same thing as the terminal commands achieve using GUI tools, but most of the time giving people instructions on how to use GUI tools is a lot harder. The GUI tools tend to vary more between distros as well.

pixellany · 10-03-2007, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bo_akins

Greetings,

Ok, whenever someone gives me an answer to a question, the reply usually
is something like this "cat /etc/fstab " ok, do I use alt f2 to use that command? or do I goto the Konsole terminal Program?

Peace, Love, And Monkey Grease

ctrl-alt-F1 or ctrl-alt-F2 will take you to a text-mode (command-line) screen. The Konsole terminal program accomplishes the same thing.

Getting comfortable with the basic commands is highly recommended. You will discover that some tasks are easier in a terminal.