Summary

Last updated on 2023-05-11 | Edit this page

Units and Language

A computer’s memory and disk are measured in units called Bytes (one Byte is 8 bits). As today’s files and memory have grown to be large given historic standards, volumes are noted using the SI prefixes. So 1000 Bytes is a Kilobyte (kB), 1000 Kilobytes is a Megabyte (MB), 1000 Megabytes is a Gigabyte (GB), etc.

History and common language have however mixed this notation with a different meaning. When people say “Kilobyte”, they mean 1024 Bytes instead. In that spirit, a Megabyte is 1024 Kilobytes.

To address this ambiguity, the International System of Quantities standardizes the binary prefixes (with base of 210=1024) by the prefixes Kibi (ki), Mebi (Mi), Gibi (Gi), etc. For more details, see here.

Useful Linux Commands

  • ls shows the contents of our directory
  • cd changes the current directory
  • pwd get current directory
  • cp <source> <destination> make a copy of a file in a new destination