Programming/Linux

Linux

Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on 1991.09.17 by Linux Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution.

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project.

Popular Linux distributions include Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu. Commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Getting started

Which Linux?

To find out which Linux distribution is running on your machine, you can use

$ hostnamectl
   Static hostname: ip-172-31-24-17
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: b54d0220fe634fa4a96fa3d0641ab3ea
           Boot ID: 5208456664c54b09b34be6b541fa7588
    Virtualization: xen
  Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
            Kernel: Linux 5.4.0-1029-aws
      Architecture: x86-64

More specifically, to find out the Kernel version, you can use

$ uname -r
5.4.0-1029-aws

What is the current directory?

To find out the current directory on a Linux system, use

$ pwd
/home/ubuntu

What is my system currently doing?

To find out what the system is currently doing, including things such as CPU and memory utilization, you can use glances.