Stringing Commands Together

Linux allows you to enter multiple commands at one time. The only requirement is that you separate the commands with a semicolon (you can see an example in Figure 10-10).

Want to see how long you have been online? Just combine the date command with Mozilla's command.

date; mozilla; date

Remember that commands are case sensitive, so the command to start Mozilla must be in lowercase to start the browser.

You will see something like this:

[newuser@localhost newuser]$ date; mozilla; date
Mon Feb 7 13:26:27 EST 2000

A second date entry appears when you close out of Mozilla. Then, the screen will look like this:

[newuser@localhost newuser]$ date; mozilla; date
Mon Feb 7 13:26:27 EST 2000
Mon Feb 7 14:28:32 EST 2000
[newuser@localhost newuser]$

And the prompt will return. The discrepancy between the two results from the date command shows that you were using Mozilla for just over an hour.