- pwd will show your current directory
- cd is used to change current directory, eg. cd directory-name
- ls - lists information about files and directories
- ls -a - all files (including hidden)
- ls -l - long form, gives more information about files
- ls -d - gives information about the directory itself, not contained files
- these options can be mixed and matched, eg. ls -ld
- mkdir - to create directories
- mkdir -p - to create a directory & any parent directories not already existing
- rmdir - to delete empty directories, eg. rmdir directory-list
- mv existing-file new-file - to rename or move files & directories
- cp source-file destination-file - to copy files (careful, overwrites destination with no warning)
- rm - to delete files, eg. rm file-list
- rm -r - to delete directories including files and subdirectories
- rm -ir - to delete directories including files and subdirectories, with prompt to confirm removal
- cat filename - display contents of file
- more or less - displays file contents one page at a time
- <space bar> - will go to next page
- b - will go to previous page
- /string - will search for string within document being viewed
- q - will quit
- touch - creates a new file, or updates stats on an existing file
- file filename - gives info about the contents of the file
- date - gives date and time
- man command - online help for command, uses more to display information
- man -k keyword - eg. man -k calendar - searches through all man sections for keyword
- diff file1 file2 - displays differences between 2 files
- echo text or $variable (eg. $USER)
- printf - similar to echo but can use C-style formatting
- allows escapes: eg. \n (newline) \t (tab)
- eg. printf "This is a menu\n\t1. Item 1\n\t2. Item2\n\t3. Item3\nEnter choice: "
- head -n filename - displays first n lines, 10 is default
- tail -n filename - displays last n lines, 10 is default
- grep 'string' file - print lines in file that contain the string
- grep will be revisited in the lecture about regular expressions
- whereis utility - lists all pathnames in standard libraries with this utility name
- which utility - lists pathname that would be used to access this utility
OS/Linux