Some Linux Commands
Unix/Linux File System
NOTE: Unix file names
are CASE SENSITIVE!
/home/mary/
/home/john/portfolio/
The Path
Help!
Whenever you need help with a command
type “man” and the command name
Help!
Help!
Help!
Command: pwd
To find your current path use “pwd”
Command: cd
To change to a specific directory use “cd”
Command: cd
“~” is the location of your home directory
Command: cd
“..” is the location of the directory below
current one
Command: ls
To list the files in the current directory use
“ls”
Command: ls
ls has many options
-l long list (displays lots of info)
-t sort by modification time
-S sort by size
-h list file sizes in human readable format
-r reverse the order
-a for hidden file
“man ls” for more options
Options can be combined: “ls -altr”
Command: ls -ltr
List files by time in reverse order with long listing
Command: mkdir
To create a new directory use “mkdir”
Command: rmdir
To remove and empty directory use
“rmdir”
Displaying a file
Various ways to display a file in Unix
cat
less
head
tail
Command: cat
Dumps an entire file to standard output
Good for displaying short, simple files
Command: less
“less” displays a file, allowing
forward/backward movement within it
return scrolls forward one line, space one page
y scrolls back one line, b one page
use “/” to search for a string
Press q to quit
Command: head
“head” displays the top part of a file
By default it shows the first 10 lines
-n option allows you to change that
“head -n50 file.txt” displays the first 50
lines of file.txt
Command: head
Here’s an example of using “head”:
Command: tail
Same as head, but shows the last lines
File Commands
Copying a file: cp
Move or rename a file: mv
Remove a file: rm
Command: cp
To copy a file use “cp”
Command: mv
To move a file to a different location use “mv”
Command: mv
mv can also be used to rename a file
Command: rm
To remove a file use “rm”
Command: rm
To remove a file “recursively”: rm –r
Used to remove all files and directories
Be very careful, deletions are permanent
in Unix/Linux
File permissions
Each file in Unix/Linux has an associated
permission level
This allows the user to prevent others
from reading/writing/executing their files or
directories
Use “ls -l filename” to find the permission
level of that file
Permission levels
“r” means “read only” permission
“w” means “write” permission
“x” means “execute” permission
In case of directory, “x” grants permission to list
directory contents
File Permissions
User (you)
File Permissions
Group
File Permissions
“The World”
Command: chmod
If you own the file, you can change it’s permissions with
“chmod”
Syntax: chmod [user/group/others/all]+[permission] [file(s)]
Below we grant execute permission to all:
Command: ps
To view the processes that you’re running:
Command: top
To view the CPU usage of all processes:
Command: kill
To terminate a process use “kill”
Command: grep
To search files in a directory for a specific
string use “grep”
Command: diff
To compare to files for differences use “diff”
Short for difference, the diff command compares the contents of
two files line by line. After analyzing the files, it will output the
lines that do not match. Programmers often use this command
when they need to make program alterations instead of rewriting
the entire source code.
The simplest form of this command is diff file1.ext file2.ext
Same as diff “tkdiff” also be used.
tar command
The Linux ‘tar’ stands for tape archive, is used to create Archive
and extract the Archive files.
Syntax:
tar [options] [archive-file] [file or directory to
be archived]
1. Create tar Archive File in Linux
1. Create tar Archive File in Linux
Example:-
# tar -cvf tecmint-14-09-12.tar /home/tecmint/
/home/tecmint/
/home/tecmint/cleanfiles.sh
/home/tecmint/openvpn-2.1.4.tar.gz
/home/tecmint/tecmint-14-09-12.tar
/home/tecmint/phpmyadmin-2.11.11.3-1.el5.rf.noarch.rpm
/home/tecmint/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm
Let’s discuss each option used in the above command to create a tar archive
file.
c – Creates a new .tar archive file.
v – Verbosely show the .tar file progress.
f – File name type of the archive file.
2. Create tar.gz Archive File in Linux
To create a compressed gzip archive file we use the option as z.
For example,
# tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz /home/MyImages
OR
# tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tgz /home/MyImages
/home/MyImages/
/home/MyImages/Sara-Khan-and-model-Priyanka-Shah.jpg
/home/MyImages/RobertKristenviolent101201.jpg
/home/MyImages/Justintimerlake101125.jpg
/home/MyImages/Mileyphoto101203.jpg
Untar tar Archive File in Linux
To untar or extract a tar file, just issue the following command
using option x (extract)
## Untar files in Current Directory ##
# tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar
## Untar files in specified Directory ##
# tar -xvf public_html-14-09-12.tar -C /home/public_html/videos/
Uncompress tar.gz Archive File in Linux
Example:
# tar -xvf thumbnails-14-09-12.tar.gz
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/katdeepika231110.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/katrinabarbiedoll231110.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/onceuponatime101125.jpg
/home/public_html/videos/thumbnails/playbutton.png
wc - print newline count, word count and byte count for each file.
Options:-The options below may be used to select which counts are printed, always in the following
order: newline, word, character, byte, maximum line length.
-c, --bytes
print the byte counts
-m, --chars
print the character counts
-l, --lines
print the newline counts
-w, --words
print the word counts
Example: wc -l abc.txt
history command
When you’ve been using Linux for a certain period of time, you’ll quickly notice that you can run
hundreds of commands every day. As such, running history command is particularly useful if
you want to review the commands you’ve entered before.
sudo command
Short for “SuperUser Do”, this command enables you to perform tasks that require
administrative or root permissions. However, it is not advisable to use this command for daily
use because it might be easy for an error to occur if you did something wrong.
Uninstall in Linux
$ yum remove <package>
$ yum remove <package_1> <package_2>
$ yum list installed | grep <search_term>
$ yum list installed
$ yum list installed | less
Install
$ yum install <package>
To install an app:
$ sudo dnf install app_name
Removing unwanted applications is just as easy.
$ sudo dnf remove app_name
Updating apps:
$ sudo dnf upgrade –refresh
install an .rpm file.
$ sudo dnf install ./app_name.rpm
ifconfig
Display the IP and Mac Address of the system
history
Print a history list of all commands
clear
Clear the terminal
shutdown -h now
Shut down the system
reboot
Restart the system
ping host-ip
Check connectivity between two hosts
