), although you shouldn't start a file or directory name with a period, since, as noted in Section 3.2, “Navigating the file system”, doing so makes the file or directory hidden. In fact, it's best if the only characters that you use in file and directory names are letters, numbers, hyphens ( -), underscores ( _), and periods (.
Use underscores (the _ character, usually on the same key as -) in a file or directory name (such as Paper_due_tomorrow.doc) instead of spaces.
Rather, there will only be a message if there’s a problem, as in mkdir: cannot create directory `foo': File existsĪlthough you might use spaces in file and directory names in Windows or Mac OS X (such as Paper due tomorrow.doc), don't use spaces in file or directory names in Linux. When a command finishes running (say, if you create a directory foo using mkdir), there will be no confirmation message of something like directory ‘foo’ created When you're working with the CLI, you’ll soon discover what Eric Raymond calls the “Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.” Similarly, as you will see in Section 3.2, “Navigating the file system”, you type cd to change directories: typing CD or Cd instead will not work. This means that home, Home, and HOME would all be names for different directories.
Unlike Windows or Mac OS X, Linux has a case-sensitive file system. 1.5. Key differences between Windows/Mac OS X and Linuxīefore you start working with the Linux CLI, you should be aware of some important differences between Linux and operating systems with which you're more familiar.