New User Tutorial: Basic Shell Commands

Linux & Open Source » New User Tutorial: Basic Shell Commands

Linux and all version of unix (including MacOS) have a very rich command line that can be used in many different ways to form very powerful commands. These commands can be joined together to do complex jobs in a very simple way. These are some of the basic commands to get you started.

ls – List Directory Contents

ls

List files in the current directory

ls -l

Display directory contents in a “long list” format.

ls -lah

Display all files, including hidden, with a human-readable file size.

cd – Change Directories

cd /var/log

Changes location to /var/log

cd ~

Changes to your user’s home directory.

cd –

Returns you to the previous directory you were working in.

cd ..

Moves you one directory up/back in the directory structure.

cp – Copy a File

The cp command copies a file from one place to another, or can create a new copy of a file in the same location with a different name.

cp file.txt newfile.txt

Copy file.txt to newfile.txt

cp -r /home/user/pics /home/user2/

Recursively (meaning the directory and all of its contents) copy the pics directory from /home/user/ to /home/user2/

mv – Move and Rename Files

mv file.txt /home/user/newuser/

Moves the file called file.txt to the directory /home/user/newuser/

mv oldfile.txt newfile.txt

Renames the file oldfile.txt to newfile.txt

mkdir - Make Directory

mkdir files

Makes a new directory called files

rm – Remove a File (Delete)

rm file.txt

Deletes the file called file.txt

rm -r files

Deletes the directory called files along with everything in it

rmdir - Remove Directory (Delete)

rmdir files

Deletes an empty directory called files

cat – Display File Contents

cat file.txt

Displays the entire contents of the file file.txt

locate - Locate a file

The locate - a.k.a. find - command is meant to find a file within the filesystem. If you don't know the name of a certain file or you aren't sure where the file is saved and stored, the locate command comes in handy.

locate -i filename

Searches the filesystem for filename ignoring case

Ping

ping - send a packet of data to another network device and time the reply

ping 8.8.8.8

Sends a packet to 8.8.8.8 (Google's public DNS server) and waits for the reply

Man

Get instructions for a particular command

man man

Get help with the man command

man ls

Get help on ls

w – List Active System Users

Displays a list of users who are logged in to the system through a remote shell or local terminal, what they are doing, and other relevant information.

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