Note to newbies on ls command!!
 

Just a note to newbies starting out. If you want to find files in you current working directory you must use the "ls" command and then an extension. If you are coming over from a windows/dos based environment be aware that, for instance if you're looking for directories starting with N, " ls N* " will NOT give you all files with N in the beginning.... it will list the files in any directory starting with N* in your present working directory. You have to type ls -d N* to get the directories in the current working directory. This perplexed me for quite some time... I know, I'm a bit slow on the uptake :-) but there you have it. So if you're getting loads of files listed, and they look like nothing that you're actually looking for you're getting the command wrong.

man ls
or info ls will give you loads of other options you could use.

Srichand