Unix : Java Glossary

A family of C-based multi-tasking operating systems. Linux is a part of the family. Code can be ported between different OS (Operating System) es by recompiling. You cannot in general run executables on different versions of the OS. It was designed in the days of the TTY and hence uses short, rather cryptic, commands. I comes with a large suite of command-line utilities that can be plugged together like LEGO.

A typical Unix file attribute looks like this: -rw-r--r-- The first char is - for a file or d for a directory. Then come the 3 attributes for each of the user, group and others. r grants read access, w grants write access, x means the file is executable.