LindOS Tutorial

Welcome to the City General Hospital LindOS Tutorial!

This tutorial is designed to help City General Hospital employees get comfortable using our computer systems. By the end, you’ll not only know how to use LindOS, our main operating system, but you’ll also learn the basics of how Linux works.

The part in red between the ':' and the '$' shows your current directory. This tells you where you are in the system. The name to the left of ':' indicates who is logged into this computer. In this example, the user is logged in as 'Researcher'.

• '/' is the root directory, the top-level folder that contains everything else.

• '/Documents/Tests' means:

• 1. You're inside the 'Tests' folder,

  2. which is inside the 'Documents' folder,

  3. which starts from the root folder '/'.

The following tree illustrates this concept.

Now that you understand where you are in the system, let’s learn how to move around and find the files or folders you need.

Take a look at the help menu below. It shows several terminal commands that are used to navigate directories. These commands are different from the ones you might use to move between rooms.

Each command listed here includes an example to show how it's commonly used, so you can see exactly how it works in practice.

The 'ls' command shows you what's inside a directory.

• If you just type 'ls' by itself, it lists all files and folders in your current location.

• You can also type a folder’s path after 'ls'

For example: 'ls /Documents/Reports'

This lists everything inside the 'Reports' folder instead.

Folders (also called directories) often end with a '/' to help you tell them apart from regular files. This is especially helpful when looking at output. If a name ends with '/', it means it’s a folder that may contain more items inside.

Here’s a preview of what that might look like in practice with folders within folders, like nesting boxes.

The 'cd' command (short for change directory) lets you move into a different folder in the system.

• To go into a folder, type its name after 'cd'. For example:

  • 'cd Documents'

  • This moves you into the `Documents` folder (if it exists in your current location).

• To go back to the root directory (the top level of the system), just type:

  • 'cd'

• To move up one level, use:

  • 'cd ..'

  • This takes you out of your current folder and into its parent folder.

The 'cat' command lets you read the contents of a file right in the terminal.

• To use it, just type 'cat' followed by the file’s name.

• It’s great for viewing non-executable files - meaning files that don’t end in '.exe'.

The run command is used to execute programs specifically, files that end in '.exe'.

• To launch a program, just type 'run' followed by the file name. 

• For example: 'run diagnostics.exe'

If everything works correctly, the command will finish without showing any errors. That usually means it ran successfully. If there's a problem, you might see an error message that tells you what went wrong.

LindOS is built around familiar Linux-style commands for moving through folders and working with files.

If you already have some Linux experience, you’ll appreciate this:

• You can enter full file paths directly instead of stepping through each folder.

  • For example: 'cd /Documents/Tests'

• To run executable files, you don’t always need the run command. 

  • Just type the path and filename: './diagnostics.exe'

And here’s a time-saver for everyone:

• Press Tab while typing a command or filename to autocomplete it. It’s a handy way to avoid typos and speed things up!

Thanks for taking the time to complete this tutorial. We hope it’s helped you feel more confident using LindOS and navigating our computer systems. If you ever need a refresher, feel free to revisit this guide anytime.

Your curiosity and willingness to learn make a difference—thanks for being part of the team!