1.5 Basic Usage and Syntax

Basic commands consist of the command, followed by arguments separated by spaces. Commands should be separated by either a semicolon ; or a new line.

$ date
Mo 14 Okt 2024 17:50:04 CEST

$ echo "Grüessech World"
Grüessech World

Here, dateprints the current date and echo prints anything that follows. We will see more about echo later.

1.5.1 Getting help

Through the program man, BASH offers access to the manual pages of all tools for which manuals have been installed on the system.

$ man
$ man ls

Note: you need to press q(for quit) to exit the man pages.

Also: man is only helpful if you know the name of the command… Google will likely be your best friend for help!