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comman_line_reference [2015/09/04 01:02]
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-Linux Terminal Command Reference 
-System Info 
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-date – Show the current date and time 
-cal – Show this month's calendar 
-uptime – Show current uptime 
-w – Display who is online 
-whoami – Who you are logged in as 
-finger user – Display information about user 
-uname -a – Show kernel information 
-cat /proc/cpuinfo – CPU information 
-cat /proc/meminfo – Memory information 
-df -h – Show disk usage 
-du – Show directory space usage 
-free – Show memory and swap usage 
-Keyboard Shortcuts 
  
-Enter – Run the command 
-Up Arrow – Show the previous command 
-Ctrl + R – Allows you to type a part of the command you're looking for and finds it 
- 
-Ctrl + Z – Stops the current command, resume with fg in the foreground or bg in the background 
-Ctrl + C – Halts the current command, cancel the current operation and/or start with a fresh new line 
-Ctrl + L – Clear the screen 
- 
-command | less – Allows the scrolling of the bash command window using Shift + Up Arrow and Shift + Down Arrow 
-!! – Repeats the last command 
-command  !$ – Repeats the last argument of the previous command 
-Esc + . (a period) – Insert the last argument of the previous command on the fly, which enables you to edit it before executing the command 
- 
-Ctrl + A – Return to the start of the command you're typing 
-Ctrl + E – Go to the end of the command you're typing 
-Ctrl + U – Cut everything before the cursor to a special clipboard, erases the whole line 
-Ctrl + K – Cut everything after the cursor to a special clipboard 
-Ctrl + Y – Paste from the special clipboard that Ctrl + U and Ctrl + K save their data to 
-Ctrl + T – Swap the two characters before the cursor (you can actually use this to transport a character from the left to the right, try it!) 
-Ctrl + W – Delete the word / argument left of the cursor in the current line 
- 
-Ctrl + D – Log out of current session, similar to exit 
-Learn the Commands 
- 
-apropos subject – List manual pages for subject 
-man -k keyword – Display man pages containing keyword 
-man command – Show the manual for command 
-man -t man | ps2pdf - > man.pdf  – Make a pdf of a manual page 
-which command – Show full path name of command 
-time command – See how long a command takes 
- 
-whereis app – Show possible locations of app 
-which app – Show which app will be run by default; it shows the full path 
-Searching 
- 
-grep pattern files – Search for pattern in files 
-grep -r pattern dir – Search recursively for pattern in dir 
-command | grep pattern – Search for pattern in the output of command 
-locate file – Find all instances of file 
-find / -name filename – Starting with the root directory, look for the file called filename 
-find / -name ”*filename*” – Starting with the root directory, look for the file containing the string filename 
-locate filename – Find a file called filename using the locate command; this assumes you have already used the command updatedb (see next) 
-updatedb – Create or update the database of files on all file systems attached to the Linux root directory 
-which filename – Show the subdirectory containing the executable file  called filename 
-grep TextStringToFind /dir – Starting with the directory called dir, look for and list all files containing TextStringToFind 
-File Permissions 
- 
-chmod octal file – Change the permissions of file to octal, which can be found separately for user, group, and world by adding: 4 – read (r), 2 – write (w), 1 – execute (x) 
-Examples: 
-chmod 777 – read, write, execute for all 
-chmod 755 – rwx for owner, rx for group and world 
-For more options, see man chmod. 
-File Commands 
- 
-ls – Directory listing 
-ls -l – List files in current directory using long format 
-ls -laC – List all files in current directory in long format and display in columns 
-ls -F – List files in current directory and indicate the file type 
-ls -al – Formatted listing with hidden files 
- 
-cd dir – Change directory to dir 
-cd – Change to home 
-mkdir dir – Create a directory dir 
-pwd – Show current directory 
- 
-rm name – Remove a file or directory called name 
-rm -r dir – Delete directory dir 
-rm -f file – Force remove file 
-rm -rf dir – Force remove an entire directory dir and all it’s included files and subdirectories (use with extreme caution) 
- 
-cp file1 file2 – Copy file1 to file2 
-cp -r dir1 dir2 – Copy dir1 to dir2; create dir2 if it doesn't exist 
-cp file /home/dirname – Copy the filename called file to the /home/dirname directory 
- 
-mv file /home/dirname – Move the file called filename to the /home/dirname directory 
-mv file1 file2 – Rename or move file1 to file2; if file2 is an existing directory, moves file1 into directory file2 
- 
-ln -s file link – Create symbolic link link to file 
-touch file – Create or update file 
-cat > file – Places standard input into file 
-cat file – Display the file called file 
- 
-more file – Display the file called file one page at a time, proceed to next page using the spacebar 
-head file – Output the first 10 lines of file 
-head -20 file – Display the first 20 lines of the file called file 
-tail file – Output the last 10 lines of file 
-tail -20 file – Display the last 20 lines of the file called file 
-tail -f file – Output the contents of file as it grows, starting with the last 10 lines 
-Compression 
- 
-tar cf file.tar files – Create a tar named file.tar containing files 
-tar xf file.tar – Extract the files from file.tar 
- 
-tar czf file.tar.gz files – Create a tar with Gzip compression 
-tar xzf file.tar.gz – Extract a tar using Gzip 
- 
-tar cjf file.tar.bz2 – Create a tar with Bzip2 compression 
-tar xjf file.tar.bz2 – Extract a tar using Bzip2 
- 
-gzip file – Compresses file and renames it to file.gz 
-gzip -d file.gz – Decompresses file.gz back to file 
-Printing 
- 
-/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd start – Start the print daemon 
-/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd stop – Stop the print daemon 
-/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd status – Display status of the print daemon 
-lpq – Display jobs in print queue 
-lprm – Remove jobs from queue 
-lpr – Print a file 
-lpc – Printer control tool 
-man subject | lpr – Print the manual page called subject as plain text 
-man -t subject | lpr – Print the manual page called subject as Postscript output 
-printtool – Start X printer setup interface 
-Network 
- 
-ifconfig – List IP addresses for all devices on the local machine 
-iwconfig – Used to set the parameters of the network interface which are specific to the wireless operation (for example: the frequency) 
-iwlist – used to display some additional information from a wireless network interface that is not displayed by iwconfig 
-ping host – Ping host and output results 
-whois domain – Get whois information for domain 
-dig domain – Get DNS information for domain 
-dig -x host – Reverse lookup host 
-wget file – Download file 
-wget -c file – Continue a stopped download 
-SSH 
- 
-ssh user@host – Connect to host as user 
-ssh -p port user@host – Connect to host on port port as user 
-ssh-copy-id user@host – Add your key to host for user to enable a keyed or passwordless login 
-User Administration 
- 
-adduser accountname – Create a new user call accountname 
-passwd accountname – Give accountname a new password 
-su – Log in as superuser from current login 
-exit – Stop being superuser and revert to normal user 
-Process Management 
- 
-ps – Display your currently active processes 
-top – Display all running processes 
-kill pid – Kill process id pid 
-killall proc – Kill all processes named proc (use with extreme caution) 
-bg – Lists stopped or background jobs; resume a stopped job in the background 
-fg – Brings the most recent job to foreground 
-fg n – Brings job n to the foreground 
-Installation from source 
- 
-./configure 
-make 
-make install 
-dpkg -i pkg.deb – install a DEB package (Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint) 
-rpm -Uvh pkg.rpm – install a RPM package (Red Hat / Fedora) 
-Stopping & Starting 
- 
-shutdown -h now – Shutdown the system now and do not reboot 
-halt – Stop all processes - same as above 
-shutdown -r 5 – Shutdown the system in 5 minutes and reboot 
-shutdown -r now – Shutdown the system now and reboot 
-reboot – Stop all processes and then reboot - same as above 
-startx – Start the X system