That helps a little - I think! There is a local Linux user in this small village and I hope to be able to get some help from him.
> On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:54, Nick Rout wrote: > I recon Lindsay might need something a bit more explicit. > > > # represents the root prompt > by which he means the account for the privileged system administrator who can > write to files anywhere in the file-system. Don't use this account unless you > actually need the privileges. > > > $ represents an ordinary user prompt > who cannot change the system files. > > > thats if they are at the start of the line, you don't type them, if you > > look at a terminal (console or xterm) you will see them :-) > > > > > > > > if they are in the middle of a command you probably need to type them in. > If you see a '#' in the middle of a command line it means that the rest of the > line is a comment which will be ignored by the command interpreter. vis:- > > cp .bashrc /tmp # save your login environment file in case of accidents. > > in this case you don't have to type either the hash sign or anything to the > right of it. > > > but there are dangers in typing stuff you don't understand.... > Only as 'root'. While you can stuff your own files, you cannot ruin the system > as a whole while logged in as an unprivileged user. > > > >
