3.4. Running a GNU UtilityAs we saw in Chapter 1, "What Is Linux?," most of the utility commands that are part of a Linux distribution come from the Free Software Foundation's GNU Project. Therefore, they are strictly not Linux utilities but GNU utilities. People tend to use these descriptions interchangeably, however, since they come packaged in a Linux distribution. To run a utility, simply enter its name and press the Enter key. From now on, when I mention that you should enter a particular bit of text, I also implicitly mean that you should press the Enter key after the text. This tells the shell that you've entered the command and that you wish it to be executed. Not all systems have exactly the same utilities installed, so if a particular example doesn't work, don't be flustered. One utility that every system has is called date, which displays the current date and time: $ date ... run the date utility. Mon Sep 6 11:25:51 CDT 2004 $ _ Whenever I introduce a new utility, I'll write a small synopsis of its typical operation in the format shown in Figure 3-1. It's self-explanatory, as you can see. I use a modified-for-Linux BNF (Backus-Naur Form) notation for the syntax description, which is fully documented in the Appendix.
Please note that I do not list every different kind of option or present a particularly detailed descriptionthis is best left to the manual pages available on your Linux system. Another useful utility is clear, which clears your screen (Figure 3-2).
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