Before you type the command you see the prompt. The last character in the prompt is the greater than symbol. At the prompt you type UNIX commands. Files Files have represent more in the UNIX environment then they do in some other operating systems. For example, files are used to represent input and output devices such as the keyboard, mouse and printer.
Files can also be links to other files.
We will be concerned mainly with normal files and directories. If you look closely at the output from the ls command, each file has a 10-character string of letters and dashes. The first letter in this string specifies the type of file. The most common characters here are - for a plain file, d for directory, and l for a link to another file. Directories Directories are a special kind of file that are used to hold other files.