Other Information - Basic Linux Commands

Page / - last modified by COARE Admin on Thu, 02/13/2020, 5:31 PM

Basic Linux Commands

last modified by COARE Admin

on Thu, 02/13/2020, 5:31 PM

Table of Contents

Command Prompt Basics

Manipulating Directories

Listing Files

Moving Files

Removing Files

Copying Files

Viewing Files

Text Editor

Extract and Compress Files

Downloading Files from the Internet

Transferring of Files from Local Machine to Server (Vice Versa)

Multiplexer for Terminal Sessions on One Window

Table of Contents

Command Prompt Basics

Manipulating Directories

Listing Files

Moving Files

Removing Files

Copying Files

Viewing Files

Text Editor

Extract and Compress Files

Downloading Files from the Internet

Transferring of Files from Local Machine to Server (Vice Versa)

Multiplexer for Terminal Sessions on One Window

The following are some of the Linux commands and their purposes:

Command Prompt Basics

Command	Description
pwd	show current working directory
man man	displays manual information on the manual command
man <command>	displays manual information on <command>
clear	clears the screen
exit	exits the command interpreter
history	show which commands you ran

Manipulating Directories

Command	Description
cd	go to home directory
cd ..	go to the previous/parent directory
cd <directory>	go to specific directory
mkdir <directory>	create directory
rmdir <directory>	remove empty directory

Listing Files

Command	Description
ls	list files and sub directories in the current directory excluding hidden files
ls -a	list all files and sub directories, including hidden files
ls -l	long list of files and sub directories displaying the permissions, owner, group, size, date, time, name
ls -lh	long list of files and subdirectories with human-readable size
ls -lt	long list of files and sub directories sorted by time
ls -lr	long list of files and sub directories in reverse order
ls -ltrh	long list of files and sub directories sorted by time, in reverse order, with human readable size

Moving Files

Command	Description
mv <source> <dest>	move file/directory <source> to a file/directory <dest>
mv -i <source> <dest>	move file/directory <source> to a file/directory <dest> prompt before overwriting if it exists
mv -f <source> <dest>	move file/directory <source> to a file/directory <dest> overwrite <dest> if it exists
mv <file-old> <file-new>	change file/directory name to a new file/directory name

Removing Files

Command	Description
rm <file>	remove file <file>
rm -i <file>	remove file <file> prompt before removing
rm -r <directory>	remove directory <directory>
rm –rf <directory>	remove all sub directories and files

Copying Files

Command	Description
cp <source> <dest>	copy file <source> to file <dest>
cp -i <source> <dest>	copy file <source> to file <dest> prompt before overwriting <dest> if it exists
cp -r <source> <dest>	copy directory <source> to directory <dest> copy all sub directories and files

Viewing Files

Command	Description
cat <file>	concatenate file/s and print on screen
more <file>	view single page at a time
less <file>	view single page at a time with scrolling
head <file>	print top of file on screen
tail <file>	print bottom of file on screen
tailf	Print bottom of file on screen then follows new input appended to the file

Text Editor

Command	Description
nano <file>	edit file using nano
Ctrl+O	write out
Ctrl+X	exit editor
vim <file>	edit file using vim/vi
i	insert text
Esc u	undo the last change
Ctrl+R	redo the last change
Esc dd	delete current line
Esc :x	exit, saving changes
Esc :q	exit as long as there have been no changes
Esc :q!	exit and ignore any changes
Esc :set nu	show line numbers
Esc /<text>	search

Extract and Compress Files

Command	Description
tar -xvzf <file.tar.gz>	extract gzip files verbosely
tar -xvjf <file.tar.bz>	extract bzip2 files verbosely
tar -xvJf <file.tar.xz>	extract xz/lzip files verbosely
tar -cvf <file.tar> <file/folder-to-compress>	compress tar file verbosely
unzip <file.zip>	unzip zip file

Downloading Files from the Internet

Command	Description
wget <URL>	download
wget -c <URL>	resume download
wget -i <filename>	download multiple files Note: Filename should contain all URLS for the files

Transferring of Files from Local Machine to Server (Vice Versa)

Command	Description
rsync	remote and file synchronization tool
rsync -avhP <user@ip-address:/src/path> <dst-path>	copying files from a remote server to a local machine -a archive -v verbose mode -h human-readable -P progress
rsync -avhP <src-path> <user@ip-address:dst-path>	copying files from local to remote server
rsync -avhP -partial <src-path> <dst-path>	ensuring copy won’t start again after disconnection
scp	secure copy (remote file copy program)
scp –rv <user@ip-address:src-path> <dst-path>	copying files from a remote server to a local machine -r recursively copy entire directories -v verbose mode
scp -rv <src-path> <user@ip-address:dst-path>	copying files from local to remote server

Multiplexer for Terminal Sessions on One Window

Command	Description
screen –S <name>	create screen session
screen -ls	list active screen sessions
screen –dr <id/name>	reattach to screen
screen -S <id> -X quit	kill complete screen session
Once inside screen shell, this will now be controlled by keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl+\+c	add a session
Ctrl+\+k	kill a session
Ctrl+\+n	move to next session
Ctrl+\+p	go back to previous session
Ctrl+\+d	detach screen session
Ctrl+\+[	copy/scroll mode
Ctrl+\+]	paste buffer

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