Get acquainted with the command line
Some common commands:
Unix Cheat Sheet
man {command} Type man rm to read the manual for the rm command. whatis {command} Give short description of command.
List a directory
ls {path} It's ok to combine attributes, eg ls -laF gets a long listing of all files with types. ls {path_1} {path_2} List both {path_1} and {path_2}. ls -l {path} Long listing, with date, size and permisions. ls -a {path} Show all files, including important .dot files that don't otherwise show. ls -F {path} Show type of each file. "/" = directory, "*" = executable. ls -R {path} Recursive listing, with all subdirs. ls {path} | more Show listing one screen at a time.
Change to directory
cd {dirname} There must be a space between. cd ~ Go back to home directory, useful if you're lost. cd .. Go back one directory.
Make a new directory
mkdir {dirname}
Remove a directory
rmdir {dirname} Only works if {dirname} is empty. rm -r {dirname} Remove all files and subdirs. Careful!
Print working directory
pwd Show where you are as full path. Useful if you're lost or exploring.
Copy a file or directory
cp {file1} {file2} cp -r {dir1} {dir2} Recursive, copy directory and all subdirs. cat {newfile} >> {oldfile} Append newfile to end of oldfile.
Move (or rename) a file
mv {oldfile} {newfile} Moving a file and renaming it are the same thing. mv {oldname} {newname}
Delete a file
rm {filespec} ? and * wildcards work like DOS should. "?" is any character; "*" is any string of characters. ls {filespec} rm {filespec} Good strategy: first list a group to make sure it's what's you think... then delete it all at once.
View a text file
more {filename} View file one screen at a time. less {filename} Like more, with extra features. cat {filename} View file, but it scrolls. cat {filename} | more View file one screen at a time.
Edit a text file.
gedit or nano {filename}Basic text editor
Create a text file.
cat > {filename} Enter your text (multiple lines with enter are ok) and press control-d to save. gedit {filename} Create some text and save it. Compare two files diff {file1} {file2} Show the differences. sdiff {file1} {file2} Show files side by side. Other text commands grep '{pattern}' {file} Find regular expression in file. spell {file} Display misspelled words. wc {file} Count words in file. wc -l {file} Count the number of lines in a file. Make an Alias alias {name}='{command}' Put the command in 'single quotes'. More useful in your .bashrc file. Wildcards and Shortcuts
- Match any string of characters, eg page* gets page1, page10, and page.txt.
? Match any single character, eg page? gets page1 and page2, but not page10. [...] Match any characters in a range, eg page[1-3] gets page1, page2, and page3. ~ Short for your home directory, eg cd ~ will take you home, and rm -r ~ will destroy it. . The current directory. .. One directory up the tree, eg ls ... Pipes and Redirection (You pipe a command to another command, and redirect it to a file.) {command} > {file} Redirect output to a file, eg ls > list.txt writes directory to file. {command} >> {file} Append output to an existing file, eg cat update >> archive adds update to end of archive. {command} < {file} Get input from a file, eg sort < file.txt {command} < {file1} > {file2} Get input from file1, and write to file2, eg sort < old.txt > new.txt sorts old.txt and saves as new.txt. {command} | {command} Pipe one command to another, eg ls | more gets directory and sends it to more to show it one page at a time. System info date Show date and time. df Check system disk capacity. du Check your disk usage and show bytes in each directory. du -h Check your disk usage in a human readable format printenv Show all environmental variables uptime Find out system load. w Who's online and what are they doing? top Real time processor and memory usage