Read an Error Message (Linux Essentials)

When a line fails, the reply is an error message. Read it from left to right.

catwho complained: note.txtthe argument it was using: No such file or directorywhat went wrong

The parts of an error message

The first word: who complained

The first word tells you which program wrote the error:

wcc -l servers.txt

Enter

Shellno program wcc

bash: wcc: command not found

The shell found no program. The error starts with bash:

cat note.txt

Enter

Shellstarts cat

catno file note.txt

cat: note.txt: No such file …

The program started, then found a problem. The error starts with its name

bash: The shell could not start the program. No program ran.
The name of a program, such as cat: or wc:. The program started, then it found a problem with your arguments.

Error	Who	What went wrong	What to do
`bash: wcc: command not found`	The shell	No program has the name `wcc`	Correct the command name. Use Tab.
`wc: invalid option -- 'z'`	`wc`	`wc` has no flag `-z`	Correct the flag. The next lesson shows how to find the flags.
`cat: note.txt: No such file or directory`	`cat`	There is no file with the name `note.txt`	Correct the file name. Use quotes if it has a space.

The words No such file or directory are the exact words that Linux programs use for "this name does not exist".

When the error has three parts, the middle part names the argument that failed. Compare it with what you wanted to type.