Working with the Console utility

The Console utility lets you work directly at the shell command line in the Console window. The shell is an integral part of the Linux system. It interprets and communicates commands to the operating system, or kernel. At the shell command line, the user can provide instructions, or commands, to the shell that tell the kernel which programs to run. For more information about shells and how to use them, see "Working with a shell." For information about commands, see the Manual pages (man). Manual pages contain detailed information about specific Linux commands and topics. You can access the Manual pages by typing man [command] at the command line. For example, typing man cd opens the Manual page for the Change Directory command.

You can customize the Console window by changing the font size, window size, or window color. Console also lets you multitask by running multiple shell sessions simultaneously.

Using the Console utility, you can also access the visual shell, Midnight Commander. Midnight Commander lets you access the command line, browse directories, and manipulate files. For more information about Midnight Commander, see "Working with Midnight Commander."