The Shell

The Shell is the system administrators best friend. Unfortunately, it is also often the regular users worst enemy. As system administrator it is important to not only know the shell, but also to use it so that you are better able to manage the system. The shell enables many things that are not possible in the ever changing world of the GUI. The shell stays fairly constant and is extremely powerful. Sometimes in a system recovery the shell is all that you have to work with.

Chapter 4 will go into some of the many possibilities available with the aid of the shell.