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Common Linux Commands

Getting Help

man [command] - manual pages
apropos [keyword] - Searches the manual pages for the keyword
Note: Many of the following commands require switches. Use the manual pages to determine the proper switch


Directory Movement

pwd - current directory path
cd - change directory


File/Directory Viewing

ls - list
cat - display entire file
more - page through file
less - page forward and backward through file
head - view first ten lines of file
tail - view last ten lines of file


File/Directory Control

cp - copy
mv - move/rename
rm - remove
mkdir - make directory
rmdir - remove directory
ln - create pseudonym (link)
chmod - change permissions
touch - update access time (or create blank file)


Searching

locate - list files in filename database
find - recursive file search
grep - search file (also see "egrep" & "fgrep")


Text Editors

vim - Highly recommended by Peter, Aaron, and Jerome. A tutorial can be found here.
emacs - another text editor
nano - and another text editor


Compression

tar - tape archiver
gzip - GNU compression utility
bzip2 - compression and package utility
unzip - uncompress zip files


Session and Terminal

history - command history
script - produce session transcript
clear - clear screen
screen - multiple terminal environment


User Information

yppasswd - change user password
finger - display user(s) data, includes full name
who - display user(s) data
w - display user(s) current activity


System Usage

ps - show processes
kill - kill process
uptime - system usage & uptime


Misc.

ftp - simple File Transfer Protocol client
sftp - Secure File Transfer Protocol client
ssh - Secure Shell
ispell - interactively check spelling against system dictionary
date - display date and time
cal - display calendar
wget - web content retriever (mirror)
 
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