| Help on any Unix command. | ||
| 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 {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 | |
Long listings (ls -l) have this format:
- file d directory, * executable ^ symbolic links (?) file size (bytes) file name / directory ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ drwxr-xr-x 11 valerie 16296 Mar 7 23:25 public_html/ -rw-r--r-- 1 valerie 256 Mar 8 23:42 index.html ^ ^^^ user permission (rwx) date and time last modified ^^^ group permission (rwx) ^^^ world permission (rwx)
Credit: Valerie Summet, Emory University, 2010
Action DOS UNIX
change directory cd cd
change file protection attrib chmod
compare files comp diff
copy file copy cp
delete file del rm
delete directory rd rmdir
directory list dir ls
edit a file edit pico
environment set printenv
find string in file find grep
help help man
make directory md mkdir
move file move mv
rename file ren mv
show date and time date, time date
show disk space chkdsk df
show file type cat
show file by screens type filename | more more sort data sort sort