This chapter is taken from the (formerly NACS, currently OIT) Unix Guide, previously at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/help/manuals/uci.unix.guide/ but is no longer available.
It was originally written for c-shell (csh), which is the default shell on SunOS and Berkeley-style Unix. The commands are mostly the same for other shells such as bash (Bourne-again shell), which is now the default shell for Cygwin, MacOS X (now macOS), Gnu/Linux, and many recent systems. Their differences are notes in this document.
The following conventions will be used for the text in this manual: The names of commands and programs, and text that you type, will be in “double quotes.” Sometimes, when the quotes could be confused with something you’re supposed to type, other formats may be used. File names will be in ‘single quotes.’ Text that you see on the screen will appear in typewriter type.
This is an example of typewriter type.
Keys on your keyboard are displayed capitalized such as Return and P. Control keys, such as CTRL-D, are typed by holding down the key marked Ctrl, pressing the D key, and then releasing the Ctrl key. (The Ctrl key acts much like a Shift key.)
The chapter “Getting Started” is based on “Beginning Unix” by Brian W. Kernighan, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1978, with modifications by Cathy Smith, Andy Hall and Steve Franklin.