Helpful Commands

Change Directory (cd)

• cd directory

cd  		Change directory to your home directory 
cd .. 		Change directory to the parent directory 
cd bob 		Change directory to the directory bob
cd ~child 	Change to a user home directory 

Copy (cp)

• cp source_filename destination_filename
• cp file1 file2 file3 fileN destination_directory
• cp -r source_directory destination_directory

cp bob fred	Copy the file bob to fred 
cp *.bob .. 	Copy all files *.bob into the directory above 
cp -r bob /tmp 	Copy the directory bob and all of it's contents 
		into /tmp 
cp ../bob . 	Copy the file bob from the directory above to the 
		current directory.

List Files (ls)

• ls [-algtr] filename

ls -ltr license.*	Display all license.* files in order of time 
			modified
ls -lg 			Display the long listing for the directory 
			plus group ownership
ls -a 			Display all files including .files (hidden)

Move Files (mv)

• mv source destination

mv bob fred 	Move the file bob to fred 	
mv bob .. 	Move the directory bob up one directory 

Remove Files (rm)

• rm file
• rm file1 file2 file3 fileN
• rm -r directory
• rm -i file

rm bob fred 	Remove the files bob and fred 	
rm -r bob 	Remove the directory bob and all of the files in it 
rm -i *.bob 	Prompt to remove all of the .bob files 

rm -r * 	Delete all of the files and directories from here down. 
rm -rf .* 	Delete all of the files that you own on the current disk. 

Remove Directory (rmdir)

• rmdir directory1 directory2

rmdir bob fred 	Remove the directories bob and fred 	

Make Directory (mkdir)

• mkdir directory

mkdir bob 	Make a subdirectory bob in the current directory 

File type (file)

• file filename

file bob 	Find out what type of file bob is 

View files (more)

• more filename

more bob 	View a file if it is text, page by page 
more *.bob 	View all files that match *.bob 

• Space: moves to the next page.
• "b": moves back one page.
• "v": invokes the vi editor.
• "n:": moves to the next document

Display File (cat)

• cat filename

cat bob 	Display the entire file bob to the screen with no 
		control 

Display the end of a file (tail)

• tail [-number] filename

tail -20 bob 	Display the last 20 lines of bob to the screen 

Display the beginning of a file (head)

• head [-number] filename

head -33 bob 	Display the first 33 lines of bob to the screen 

Print File (lpr)

• lpr [-Pprintername] filename

lpr bob 	Print the file bob to the default printer 
lpr -Pqms1 bob 	Print the file bob to the printer named qms1 

Check print queue (lpq)

• lpq [-Pprintername]

lpq  		See what files are being printed to the default printer 
lpq -Pqms1 	See what files are being printed to qms1 

Remove a file from print queue (lprm)

• lpr [-Pprintername] job_number

lprm 10 	Remove job #10 from the default print queue 
lprm -Pqms1 20 	Remove job #20 from the print queue for qms1 

Jobs running (subprocess) (jobs)

• jobs

jobs  	Show current subprocesses 

Kill a job (kill)

• kill %job_number
• kill process_id
• kill -9 process_id

kill %1		Kill the first subprocess (as reported by jobs) 
kill 2014 	Kill process number 2014 
kill -9 2014	Really kill process 2014 (messy) 

Put a job in the background (bg)

• bg %job_number
• command &

bg %1 	Put the first subprocess (as reported by jobs) in the background
pts & 	Run pts in the background 

Bring a job into the foreground (fg)

• fg %job_number

fg %1 	Bring the first subprocess (as reported by jobs) into the foreground

Changing directory with a memory (pushd)

• pushd [+n] directory_name

pushd /tmp 	Add /tmp to the directory stack and go there 
pushd +2 /tmp  Swap /tmp with the 2nd element in the stack and go there. 

Show the directory stack (dirs)

• dirs [-l]

dirs 	Show the directory stack.

Changing directory with a memory (popd)

• popd [+n]

popd 	Remove the top element from the stack and go to the top element 
popd +2 Remove the 2nd element from the stack.