Web Site Promotion | About | Contact | Web Design News |
Chicago Animation : Chicago Web Design - Go Back

Quick Summary of Basic and Common Linux Commands

 

Search Engine Specialist

search engine expert Free Internet Marketing consultings from ChicagoAnimation.
To use this free service please fill out the form below and we will call you to offer you free tips.

* First Name: * Last Name:
* Email Address: * Phone Number:
Street Address: City:
ZipCode: Your State (2 Letters):
URL (if available): Your Cell Phone #:
Company Name:
How long has your website been live?
What services or packages can we help you with?

How may we help you?
My current budget is. . .



There are many commands that are used in linux on a daily basis, ones that everyone should know just to get by. Like back in the days of DOS, you had to know how to work with the command line and how to navigate around. Learning new commands is always hard, especially when there are so many new ones that don't always seem to make sense in their names.

cd

Change directory - this command is essential for traversing folders and moving about your linux computer. Its quite straight forward, cd /where/you/want/togo or cd .. to go up a level. It's pretty basic, but be aware of absolute and relative paths. If you are currently in the folder /home/puppy/pictures then you can type cd .. to move up to /home/puppy/ or you could type cd /home/puppy/ not to mention cd ~/puppy/. You must learn how to traverse folders effectively before you can use the operating system.

ls

The ls command gives you a directory listing. This command has many options, but basically provides you with the same information as the "dir" command in DOS. The most common use of ls is probably "ls -la" infact many people have an alias setup, so whenever they type "ls" it actually runs "ls -la".

du

The disk usage command gives you a summary of how much space a program or some piece of data is using. Normally this command uses the -h feature, which simply means it will tell you if the number it gives you is in bytes, kilobytes, etc. -h gives you the human readable output.

mv

Move! The mv command is the move command, but it is far more powerful than the old DOS commands. You must be very careful when using the mv command, if you tell it to move a program to a new location, it will overwrite the stuff that was there, if the same file name exists. In addition the mv command is also the rename command! If I type: mv file1 file2 I just moved or effectively renamed file1 to file2!

date

The date command displays the current date and time of your server to the screen, and can be formatted in many ways, but date by itself will display something similar to: Sat Apr 30 23:58:41 EDT 2005

cp

The copy command is a great program, and is very powerful. Often used with the -R (recursive) option, it can be used to copy single files, or entire paths around with ease.

rmdir

Remove directory is a command that I personally don't use very often. To remove a directory it must be empty, rarely do I take the time to empty a directory before I delete it. Instead I use a variation of the rm command.

rm

This is the mother of all linux commands. Remove. You must always be very careful when you use this program. There aren't too many options with this program, its quite straight forward, you use it to delete things. -R is recursive and -f is force. If you want to clear a big folder and you are 100% sure you want it gone in a hurry, type: rm -Rf /directoryname

chgrp

Change group - this command is used to change the group ownership on a file. For the most part this is more of an administrative thing, and end users don't typically have to worry too often about this. You must know about the design of the linux file system before you worry about the chgrp command.

chown

Change owner - this command very similar to the chgrp command, and changes the owner instead of the group. Again you must really understand the design of the linux file system before this becomes really important. File ownership is an important part of security and permissions in linux.

mkdir

Make directory - this is a very straight forward command in linux, easy to use, just mkdir newfoldername

vi

This is a text editor in linux, its extremely powerful, but not exactly user friendly. I highly suggest that you take the time to learn this program, or at least the most common features. If you want to play with this program, you might get stuck inside it, remember these words. Escape, Colon, q, ! ( escape key, :q! ) That gets you out of interactive or insert mode, then gets you to the menu, then quit without saving!

su

Switch user - the su command lets you login from your account to another account. If you are root, you can type su - username and jump to any account without a password. If you are a normal user account and want to go to root then type su - root. If you do not put the hyphen then you will not use that users environment. Generally if you are logging in as a user it's a good idea to be in their working environment!

pwd

Print working directory - this command gives you the current directory you are working in.

$ pwd - me running command

/home/username/my_pics - this is the output from that command

As I mentioned earlier, there are so many different commands to learn, it really just takes time and effort to play with them and learn their options. The manual (MAN) pages in linux are really great and full of information. Many of the most common commands are located in the /bin folder, check it out!

Ken Dennishttp://KenDennis-RSS.homeip.net/

 

MORE RESOURCES:

TEXADA Software Inc. Announces Financial Results for Second ...
FOXBusiness - 4 hours ago
Texada Software Inc. is the premier provider of enterprise software solutions for mobile equipment and rental management. Texada's solutions are fully ...
TEXADA Software Inc. Announces Financial Results for Second ... eMediaWorld.com Newswire Press Release Distribution Service (press release)
all 11 news articles


Ontario Now

Security flaw in latest iPhone software
KARE, MN - 12 hours ago
A security flaw in the iphone's latest software could let others read your email, even when the device is locked. Internet technology sites "Mac Rumors" and ...
Upcoming iPhone Software Update to Address Security Flaws bMighty.com
Apple To Fix iPhone Security Flaw CRN
Apple Working on IPhone Update to Fix Security Flaw (Update2) Bloomberg
Macworld
all 125 news articles


Converge Network Digest

Cisco Acquires PostPath to Supplement WebEx Connect Collaboration ...
Teleclick.ca, Canada - 12 hours ago
... announced on Wednesday that it is acquiring PostPath, a firm that competes with Microsoft Exchange in the email and calendaring software market, ...
Cisco to acquire e-mail software provider Postpath Telecom Paper (subscription)
Cisco strengthens UC story with PostPath buy NetworkWorld.com
Cisco to Buy PostPath for $215 Million for Software (Update3) Bloomberg
TheStreet.com - Computer Business Review
all 111 news articles


Achievo adds Chinese software development center
Bizjournals.com, NC - 8 hours ago
Achievo Corp. of San Ramon has opened a software development center in Wuxi, China, the company said Friday. “Wuxi’s proximity to Shanghai offers an ...


"Insurge" software enables open repository of community data ...
Library Journal, NY - 1 hour ago
SOPAC 2.0 (“Social OPAC”) focuses on community for both users and library software developers. The roughly 20000 residents of Darien will be the first to ...


Webroot Software AntiVirus with AntiSpyware and Firewall - 5 User ...
Corporate Media News, CA - 36 minutes ago
AntiVirus with AntiSpyware and Firewall from Webroot offers you complete protection from dangerous threats on the Internet like spyware and viruses with a ...
Rob B's Telephone Cord Broadcast Newsroom
Company Profile for Hot Neuron LLC IT Business Net
Disney announces the next Platinum Blu-Ray's DVD Studio Pro
all 15 news articles


RE: Software rights and wrongs.
OS News - 2 hours ago
Now the typical commercial EULA gives you a right to ~use~ the software in question, but not a right to a COPY of it. But if this is the case, ...
RE[6]: Broader issue ... Newmobilecomputing.com
Comment by apoclypse Newmobilecomputing.com
RE[5]: Broader issue ... OS News
OS News
all 16 news articles


INTRAWARE, INC Signs Contract Renewal Agreement With MENTOR ...
FOXBusiness - 10 hours ago
SubscribeNet is well-known for enabling technology companies to improve efficiencies and reduce the costs of software and license delivery across all sales ...


Legal : Does Software Solve Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Issues?
SkyNewswire.com (press release), Netherlands - 12 hours ago
(SkyNewswire.com)---Sarbanes Oxley software has been aptly designed for the corporate world to introduce it to the Sarbanes Oxley act. ...
Technology Briefs Computerworld
Building a Compliance Framework Computerworld
all 3 news articles


CNET News

Power-control software blamed for iPhone 3G reception issues
CNET News, CA - Aug 28, 2008
RoughlyDrafted reported Thursday that a source with AT&T blamed "faulty" power-control software inside the iPhone 3G for the dropped calls and poor ...
Insider: iPhone's 3G Problems 'Fixed,' Require Software Update Wired News
Details of iPhone 2.0.2 Firmware 3G Connectivity Improvements? Mac Rumors
Updates solve iPhones problems? evertiq.se
iTWire - DailyTech
all 11 news articles

Software - Google News

ChicagoAnimation's Acquisitions: Market Polls - 1pennyStock.com
Sponsors: Paving | VTL's | Religious Statues