🐧💻

Linux Commands & Shell Basics

Complete Reference Guide

Structured for Learning • Commands • Examples

From Beginner to Professional

📋 Table of Contents
6. Viewing File Contents .......... 8
Fundamentals
Advanced Features
1. Getting Help & Documentation ..... 3
7. Shell Features & Commands ....... 9
2. Understanding the File System ..... 4
8. Special Files & Devices ........ 10
3. Basic Navigation ................ 5
Quick Reference
Core Operations
9. Essential Command Cheat Sheet .... 11
4. Working with Files ............. 6
10. Troubleshooting & Tips ......... 12
5. Working with Directories ........ 7
11. Glossary ....................... 13
1 Getting Help & Documentation

🎯 Start Here: Before using any command, learn how to get help. This is your most
important skill in Linux!

📖 Man Pages - Your Primary Reference

man <command> – View manual page for a command

man -k <keyword> – Search manual entries by keyword

man <section> <command> – View specific section (e.g., man 5 passwd )

apropos <keyword> – Same as man -k

whatis <command> – One-line description of command

man hier – Understand filesystem hierarchy

🔢 Man Page Sections

Section Content Example

1 User commands man 1 ls

5 File formats man 5 passwd

8 System admin commands man 8 mount

🔍 Finding Commands & Information

which <command> – Find location of executable

whereis <command> – Find binary, source, and man page

type <command> – Show how command would be interpreted

help <builtin> – Help for shell built-in commands

info <command> – GNU info documents (more detailed than man)

⌨️ Navigating Man Pages

Key Action

Space Next page

b Previous page

/text Search for "text"

n Next search result

q Quit

# Example: Get help workflow man ls # Read the manual ls --help # Quick usage summary
which ls # Find where ls is located type ls # Check if it's built-in or external
2 Understanding the File System

🧠 Core Concept: In Linux, "Everything is a File" - directories, devices, processes are

all represented as files.

🗂️ Linux Directory Structure (FHS - Filesystem Hierarchy

Standard)

Directory Purpose Examples

/ Root - top of filesystem Starting point for all paths

/bin Essential user binaries ls, cat, cp, mv, rm

/sbin System administration binaries mount, reboot, ifconfig

/usr/bin User programs Most application binaries

/usr/sbin Non-essential system binaries Network daemons, services

/etc Configuration files /etc/passwd, /etc/hosts

/home User home directories /home/username

/root Root user's home Separate from /home

/tmp Temporary files Cleared on reboot

/var Variable data Logs, mail, print spools

/var/log System log files System and application logs

/dev Device files Hardware interfaces

/proc Process & kernel info Virtual filesystem

/sys System information Hardware information

🔗 Path Types
Absolute Paths Relative Paths

Start with / (root) Relative to current directory

documents/file.txt ../parent-directory/
/home/user/documents/file.txt ./current-directory/
/etc/passwd /var/log/messages

📁 Special Directory Symbols

. – Current directory

.. – Parent directory

~ – Home directory

- – Previous directory (with cd)

💡 Memory Aid: /bin = basic commands everyone uses, /sbin = system/super-user

commands
3 Basic Navigation

🧭 Essential Navigation Commands

pwd – Print Working Directory (where am I?)

cd <directory> – Change Directory

ls – List directory contents

📂 Change Directory (cd) Options

Command Action Example

cd Go to home directory Same as cd ~

cd ~ Go to home directory Explicit home reference

cd .. Go up one level To parent directory

cd - Go to previous directory Toggle between two locations

cd / Go to root directory Top of filesystem

cd ../../ Go up two levels Navigate to parent's parent

📋 List Directory Contents (ls) Options

ls – Basic file listing

ls -l – Long format (detailed info)

ls -a – Show all files (including hidden)

ls -la – Detailed listing including hidden files

ls -lh – Human-readable file sizes

ls -lt – Sort by modification time

ls -lr – Reverse sort order

ls -R – Recursive listing (show subdirectories)

🔍 Understanding ls -l Output
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 1024 Mar 15 10:30 filename.txt | | | | | | | | | | | | | └─
filename | | | | | └─ modification date/time | | | | └─ file size in bytes | | | └─
group owner | | └─ user owner | └─ number of hard links └─ file permissions

⌨️ Navigation Shortcuts
Tab – Auto-complete paths and filenames

Tab Tab – Show all possible completions

Ctrl+L – Clear screen

history – Show command history

!! – Repeat last command

# Navigation example workflow pwd # Check current location ls -la # See what's here cd
documents/ # Go to documents folder pwd # Confirm location cd .. # Go back up cd - #
Return to documents

🚀 Pro Tip: Use Tab completion religiously - it prevents typos and speeds up navigation
significantly!
4 Working with Files

⚠️ Important: Linux is case-sensitive ! File.txt and file.txt are different files.

📄 File Creation
touch <filename> – Create empty file or update timestamp

touch file1 file2 file3 – Create multiple files

touch -t YYYYMMDDhhmm <file> – Set specific timestamp

📝 Creating Files with Content

# Method 1: Using cat cat > newfile.txt Type your content here Press Ctrl+D to save #
Method 2: Using echo echo "Hello World" > newfile.txt # Method 3: Using cat with here
document cat > newfile.txt << END Multiple lines of content END

🔍 File Information
file <filename> – Identify file type (ignores extension)

file * – Check all files in directory

file -s <device> – Check special files in /dev

stat <filename> – Detailed file information

📋 File Copying
cp <source> <destination> – Copy file

cp -i <source> <dest> – Interactive (confirm overwrites)

cp -r <dir> <dest> – Copy directories recursively

cp -p <source> <dest> – Preserve timestamps/permissions

cp *.txt backup/ – Copy all .txt files

🔄 File Moving/Renaming
mv <old> <new> – Move or rename file

mv -i <old> <new> – Interactive mode

mv file1 file2 dir/ – Move multiple files to directory

🗑️ File Deletion
rm <filename> – Remove file permanently

rm -i <filename> – Interactive deletion (confirm)

rm -f <filename> – Force deletion (no prompts)

rm *.tmp – Delete all .tmp files

🚨 Danger Zone: There's no "recycle bin" in Linux command line. Deleted files are gone
forever! Always use -i flag when learning.

🔄 Bulk File Operations

# Rename multiple files (Ubuntu/Debian) rename 's/.txt/.bak/' *.txt # Rename multiple
files (RHEL/CentOS) rename .txt .bak *.txt # Copy all .conf files to backup directory
cp *.conf backup/ # Move all log files to archive mv *.log archive/

💡 Best Practice: Always test with ls first to see what files match your pattern before
running destructive operations.
5 Working with Directories

🏗️ Directory Creation
mkdir <dirname> – Create single directory

mkdir dir1 dir2 dir3 – Create multiple directories

mkdir -p path/to/nested/dir – Create nested directories

mkdir -m 755 dirname – Create with specific permissions

🗑️ Directory Removal
rmdir <dirname> – Remove empty directory

rmdir -p nested/empty/dirs – Remove nested empty directories

rm -r <dirname> – Remove directory and contents

rm -rf <dirname> – Force remove (dangerous!)

rm -ri <dirname> – Interactive recursive removal

🚨 Extreme Caution: rm -rf will delete everything without confirmation. Double-check

your path!

📂 Directory Copying
cp -r <source_dir> <dest_dir> – Copy directory recursively

cp -rp <source> <dest> – Copy preserving attributes

cp -ri <source> <dest> – Interactive recursive copy

🔄 Directory Moving
mv <old_dir> <new_dir> – Rename directory

mv <dir> <parent_dir>/ – Move directory to new location

mv -i <dir> <dest> – Interactive move

📊 Directory Analysis
ls -la <dirname> – List directory contents in detail

ls -R <dirname> – Recursive listing

du -h <dirname> – Directory size (human readable)

du -sh <dirname> – Summary of directory size

find <dirname> -type f | wc -l – Count files in directory

🎯 Common Directory Patterns

# Create project structure mkdir -p project/{src,docs,tests,config} # Safe directory
removal ls -la dirname/ # Check contents first rm -ri dirname/ # Remove interactively #
Copy directory structure only (no files) find source/ -type d -exec mkdir -p dest/{} \;
# Backup directory with timestamp cp -r important_dir important_dir.backup.$(date
+%Y%m%d)

💡 Pro Tip: Use mkdir -p to create entire directory paths in one command - it won't fail
if directories already exist.
6 Viewing File Contents

📜 Complete File Display

cat <filename> – Display entire file

cat file1 file2 – Display multiple files

cat -n <filename> – Display with line numbers

tac <filename> – Display file in reverse (last line first)

📄 Paginated Viewing
less <filename> – View file page by page (recommended)

more <filename> – Basic page-by-page viewer

Less Navigation Commands

Key Action

Space Next page

b Previous page

/pattern Search forward

?pattern Search backward

n Next search result

N Previous search result

G Go to end of file

1G Go to beginning

q Quit

👁️ Partial File Viewing

Head (Beginning of File) Tail (End of File)

head <file> – First 10 lines tail <file> – Last 10 lines

head -n 20 <file> – First 20 lines tail -n 20 <file> – Last 20 lines

head -c 100 <file> – First 100 bytes tail -f <file> – Follow file updates

head -n -5 <file> – All except last 5 tail -n +5 <file> – From line 5 to end
lines

📊 Real-time File Monitoring

tail -f <logfile> – Follow file updates in real-time

tail -F <logfile> – Follow file, handle rotation

watch cat <file> – Refresh file display every 2 seconds

watch -n 1 tail <file> – Watch file updates every second

🔧 Specialized Content Commands

strings <binary_file> – Extract readable text from binary

hexdump -C <file> – View file in hexadecimal format

 od -c <file> – View file showing special characters

🎯 Practical Examples
# Monitor system log in real-time tail -f /var/log/syslog # View configuration file
safely less /etc/passwd # Check last 50 lines of log file tail -n 50 /var/log/messages
# View first 20 lines with line numbers head -n 20 script.sh | cat -n # Follow multiple
log files tail -f /var/log/apache2/*.log

📊 Log Analysis: Use tail -f to monitor log files during troubleshooting - it's essential
for system administration!
7 Shell Features & Commands

💬 Echo Command
echo "text" – Display text

echo -n "text" – No trailing newline

echo -e "text\twith\ttabs" – Enable escape sequences

echo $HOME – Display environment variable

🔤 Quoting and Escaping

Single Quotes Double Quotes

'literal text' # Preserves everything "allows variables" # Allows variable

exactly echo 'The $HOME directory' # expansion echo "The $HOME directory" #
Output: The $HOME directory Output: The /home/user directory

🔧 Control Operators
Operator Function Example

; Command separator ls; pwd; date

& Background process long_command &

&& Run if previous succeeds make && make install

|| Run if previous fails test -f file || touch file

# Comment # This is a comment

long_command \
\ Line continuation
--with-options

🧩 Command Types
type <command> – Show command type (builtin/external/alias)

which <command> – Find external command location

command -v <cmd> – Portable way to find command

Built-in vs External Commands

Built-in Commands External Commands

Part of the shell itself: Separate programs:

cd ls

echo cat

pwd grep

help find

🔗 Aliases
alias name='command' – Create alias

alias – List all aliases

unalias name – Remove alias

\command – Run command bypassing alias

# Useful aliases alias ll='ls -la' alias la='ls -A' alias l='ls -CF' alias ..='cd ..'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'

🧠 Exit Status and Debugging

$? – Exit status of last command (0 = success)

set -x – Show command expansion (debug mode)

set +x – Turn off debug mode

history – Show command history

!! – Repeat last command

# Testing command success ls /nonexistent echo $? # Shows non-zero (failure) ls /home

echo $? # Shows 0 (success) # Conditional execution based on success test -f myfile.txt
&& echo "File exists" || echo "File missing"

🔍 Debugging: Use set -x to see exactly how the shell expands your commands -
great for learning!
8 Special Files & Devices

🔌 Important Device Files (/dev)

Device File Purpose Common Use

/dev/null Data black hole command > /dev/null

/dev/zero Source of null bytes Create files of specific size

/dev/random True random numbers Cryptographic applications

/dev/urandom Pseudo-random numbers General random data

/dev/sda1 First partition of first disk Storage device access

/dev/tty Current terminal Direct terminal access

🗂️ Virtual Filesystems
/proc Directory /sys Directory

Process and kernel information: Hardware and kernel parameters:

/proc/cpuinfo – CPU details /sys/class/ – Device classes

/proc/meminfo – Memory info /sys/block/ – Block devices

/proc/version – Kernel version /sys/devices/ – Device tree

/proc/[PID]/ – Process info

📚 Additional Important Directories

Directory Purpose Key Contents

/lib Essential shared libraries Libraries for /bin and /sbin

/usr/lib Non-essential libraries Application libraries

/boot Boot loader files Kernel, initrd, GRUB config

/etc/init.d/ Service control scripts Start/stop daemon scripts

/var/cache Application cache data Package manager cache

/var/spool Queued data Mail, print jobs, cron

/opt Optional software Third-party applications

🎯 Practical Uses of Special Files

# Discard command output noisy_command > /dev/null 2>&1 # Create a file of specific
size (1MB) dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=1M count=1 # Generate random password tr -dc
A-Za-z0-9 < /dev/urandom | head -c 12 # Check system information cat /proc/cpuinfo cat
/proc/meminfo cat /proc/version # Check current terminal tty echo "Hello" > /dev/tty

🔒 Security Note: Use /dev/urandom for most random data needs. /dev/random can
block waiting for entropy.

💡 System Info: The /proc filesystem is your window into system status - great for
monitoring and troubleshooting!
9 Essential Command Cheat Sheet

🚀 Must-Know Commands 📁 Directory Operations

# Navigation pwd # Where am I? ls -la # # Directory Management mkdir dir #
Show all files cd ~ # Go home cd - # Create directory mkdir -p path/dir #
Previous directory # Help & Information Create nested dirs rmdir dir # Remove
man command # Manual page which command empty dir rm -r dir # Remove with
# Find executable type command # contents cp -r dir newdir # Copy
Command type file filename # File type directory # Content Viewing head file #
# Basic File Operations touch file # First 10 lines tail file # Last 10
Create empty file cat file # Display lines tail -f file # Follow changes
file cp file newfile # Copy file mv less file # Page through file cat -n
file newname # Move/rename rm file # file # With line numbers
Delete file

⚡ Power User Shortcuts

# Keyboard Shortcuts Tab # Auto-complete Ctrl+C # Cancel command Ctrl+D # End
input/logout Ctrl+L # Clear screen !! # Last command # File Operations with
Confirmation cp -i source dest # Copy with prompt mv -i old new # Move with prompt rm -
i file # Delete with prompt # Quick File Creation echo "content" > file # Create file
with content cat > file # Type content, Ctrl+D to save cat >> file # Append to file #
System Information df -h # Disk space du -sh directory # Directory size ps aux #
Running processes top # System monitor

🎯 Common Patterns
# Safe Operations ls -la directory/ # Check before operations test -f file && echo
"exists" # Test file existence command1 && command2 # Run command2 if command1 succeeds
command1 || echo "failed" # Show message if command1 fails # Backup Patterns cp
important.txt important.txt.backup mkdir backup.$(date +%Y%m%d) tar -czf backup.tar.gz
directory/ # Log Monitoring tail -f /var/log/syslog # Follow system log tail -n 100
logfile # Last 100 lines grep "ERROR" logfile # Find errors

📊 File Listing Formats

# Understanding ls -l output: # -rw-r--r-- 1 user group 1024 Mar 15 10:30 filename #
||||||||| | | | | | | # ||||||||| | | | | | └─ filename # ||||||||| | | | | └─
date/time modified # ||||||||| | | | └─ size in bytes # ||||||||| | | └─ group owner #
||||||||| | └─ user owner # ||||||||| └─ number of links # └─────────── permissions
(user/group/other)

🏆 Exam Success: Practice these commands until they're automatic. Focus on the
patterns and logical combinations!
10 Troubleshooting & Tips

🚨 Common Mistakes to Avoid:

Forgetting Linux is case-sensitive

Using rm -rf without double-checking paths

Not using Tab completion (leads to typos)

Forgetting to check current directory with pwd

🔧 Problem-Solving Workflow
1. Understand the problem: What are you trying to do?

2. Check current state: pwd , ls -la

3. Verify command syntax: man command

4. Test safely: Use echo to preview, -i flags

5. Check results: echo $? for exit status

🎯 Best Practices
Always use Tab completion - prevents typos and speeds you up

Check before destructive operations: Use ls to verify what you're affecting

Use interactive flags when learning: -i with cp, mv, rm

Read error messages carefully - they usually tell you exactly what's wrong
Practice regularly - muscle memory is crucial for exams

🔍 When Commands Don't Work

# Command not found? which commandname # Is it installed? echo $PATH # Is it in PATH?
type commandname # Check command type # Permission denied? ls -la filename # Check file
permissions pwd # Am I in the right directory? id # Check my user/group # File not
found? ls -la # Is the file really there? pwd # Am I in the right directory? file
filename # What type of file is it?

📚 Quick Reference for Errors

Error Message Common Cause Solution

command not found Typo or not installed Check spelling, use which

Permission denied No read/write/execute access Check with ls -la

No such file or directory Wrong path or filename Check pwd , use Tab completion

Directory not empty Trying to rmdir non-empty dir Use rm -r or empty first

File exists Trying to create existing file Use different name or -f flag

🧠 Memory Aids
pwd: "Print Working Directory" - where am I?
ls: "List" - what's here?
cd: "Change Directory" - go somewhere
man: "Manual" - how do I use this?
cat: "Concatenate" - show me the content
less is more: less is better than more for viewing files

⌨️ Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action When to Use
Tab Auto-complete Always! Prevents typos

Ctrl+C Cancel command Stop running process

Ctrl+D End input Exit cat input, logout

Ctrl+L Clear screen Clean up terminal

q Quit Exit less, more, man pages

🏆 Exam Strategy: Stay calm, read questions carefully, and remember that Tab
completion is your friend. Practice these commands until they're second nature!
11 Glossary

FHS (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard):

Absolute Path: Complete file path starting from Standard that defines the directory structure and
root directory (/). Example: organization of Unix-like systems
/home/user/documents/file.txt
Hidden Files: Files whose names start with a dot
Alias: A shortcut name for a command. Created
(.). Shown with ls -a
with alias name='command'

Interactive Mode: Commands that prompt for

Built-in Command: Command that's part of the user confirmation before acting (using -i flag)
shell itself (like cd, echo, pwd)
Man Pages: Manual pages providing detailed
Device File: Special file in /dev that represents documentation for commands and system
hardware devices or kernel interfaces components
External Command: Separate program with its
own binary file (like ls, cat, grep)