16. About System Commands

16. About System Commands

There are also shell commands that can quickly provide you with information related to your computer system. For example, you can use the df command to view statistics related to your hard drive including the total amount of disk space and the free space available. Other system shell commands can list information related to your computer's memory and swap space and provide a list of processes (programs) that are currently running. Table 3.2 provides a list of some of the shell system commands.

Table 3.2. System Commands

17. Use System Commands

A number of system commands are available to the end- user such as df and and du that allow you to view the disk space currently used and the amount of disk space occupied by a particular folder, respectively. These system commands do not require you to be be logged on as root (the superuser administrator account).

Use the df Command

In the GNOME Terminal window, type df at the command line and then press Enter . This shows you the amount of disk space used (and the percentage used) and the amount of free space on the drive (drive meaning volume).

Use the du Command

Use the ls and cd commands to locate one of your folders. Type du and then press Enter . This shows the amount of disk space used in that folder.

Use the free Command

Type free at the command prompt and then press Enter . This shows you memory use and swap file statistics.

17. Use System Commands

Use the ps Command

To view currently running processes, type ps at the command line and press Enter . The number of processes listed depends on what you were running on the NLD desktop before initiating the ps command. Note that a pid or process id is supplied for each running process (process really being synonymous with program). You would use the pid with the kill command to terminate an errant process.

After you have worked with some of the system commands, you can close the terminal window. Type exit and then press Enter to return to the NLD desktop.

Note

The root account (the administrator account) has been mentioned in this chapter and the fact that some NLD settings can be changed only when you know the root password. You can also administer NLD from the command shell, and there are a large number of commands and command utilities available to root. To access the root account at the command line, type su and then press Enter . Type the root password and then press Enter again. If you are really interested in more of the administrative possibilities related to NLD, you may want to check out the book Novell Linux Desktop 9 Administrator's Handbook by Emmett Dulaney.