terminal

Frequently used shell commands for file navigation, permissions, networking and more.

Navigation

Moving around the file system.

pwd

Print working directory (shows your current location).

pwd

cd [directory]

Change directory.

cd Documents

ls

List files and directories.

ls

ls -l

List files and directories with details.

ls -l

ls -a

List all files and directories (including hidden ones).

ls -a

cd ..

Go up one directory.

cd ..

cd ~

Go to your home directory.

cd ~

File Manipulation

Creating, moving, and deleting files and directories.

touch [file]

Create an empty file.

touch myfile.txt

mkdir [directory]

Create a new directory.

mkdir mydirectory

cp [source] [destination]

Copy a file or directory.

cp myfile.txt mycopy.txt

mv [source] [destination]

Move or rename a file or directory.

mv myfile.txt newlocation/myfile.txt

rm [file]

Remove a file.

rm myfile.txt

rm -r [directory]

Remove a directory and its contents (recursive).

rm -r mydirectory

rm -f [file]

Force remove a file (use with caution!).

rm -f myfile.txt

rm -rf [directory]

Force remove a directory and its contents (use with extreme caution!).

rm -rf mydirectory

Viewing Files

Displaying the contents of files.

cat [file]

Display the contents of a file.

cat myfile.txt

less [file]

View a file one page at a time (use space to scroll, q to quit).

less myfile.txt

head [file]

Display the first few lines of a file.

head myfile.txt

tail [file]

Display the last few lines of a file.

tail myfile.txt

nano [file]

Open a file in the nano text editor.

nano myfile.txt

vi/vim [file]

Open a file in the vi/vim text editor.

vi myfile.txt

Searching

Finding files and content.

find [directory] [options] [expression]

Find files and directories.

find . -name "myfile.txt"

grep [pattern] [file]

Search for a pattern in a file.

grep "hello" myfile.txt

which [command]

Show the location of a command.

which ls

File Permissions and Ownership

Managing file access rights and ownership.

# chmod numeric permissions overview:
# Each digit represents permissions for: [Owner][Group][Others]
# Add values for read(4), write(2), execute(1)
#
# Examples:
# 7 = 4+2+1 = read, write, execute
# 6 = 4+2   = read, write
# 5 = 4+1   = read, execute
# 4 = 4     = read
# 3 = 2+1   = write, execute
# 2 = 2     = write
# 1 = 1     = execute
# 0 = none
#
# Common chmod values:
# 755 = rwx for owner, rx for group, rx for others
# 644 = rw for owner, r for group, r for others
# 700 = rwx for owner, none for group/others

chmod [mode] [file]

Change file permissions (numeric or symbolic).

chmod 644 myfile.txt

chmod +x [file]

Make a file executable.

chmod +x script.sh

chown [owner]:[group] [file]

Change file owner and group.

chown user:staff myfile.txt

ls -l

View file permissions and ownership.

ls -l

stat [file]

Show detailed file status including permissions and ownership.

stat myfile.txt

System Information

Getting information about the system.

uname -a

Display system information.

uname -a

df -h

Display disk space usage.

df -h

du -sh [directory]

Display directory size.

du -sh Documents

top

Display running processes.

top

ps aux

List all running processes.

ps aux

kill [pid]

Terminate a process by its PID.

kill 1234

kill -9 [pid]

Force kill a process by its PID.

kill -9 1234

pkill [name]

Kill processes by name.

pkill firefox

systemctl status [service]

Show status of a systemd service.

systemctl status nginx

systemctl restart [service]

Restart a systemd service.

systemctl restart nginx

Networking

Commands related to network operations.

ping [host]

Check network connectivity to a host.

ping google.com

ifconfig

Display network interface information (macOS/Linux).

ifconfig

ipconfig

Display network interface information (Windows).

ipconfig

netstat

Display network connections.

netstat

curl [url]

Transfer data from or to a server.

curl https://www.example.com

wget [url]

Download a file from a URL.

wget https://www.example.com/file.zip

Archiving and Compression

Creating and extracting tarballs and zip files.

# tar common flags overview:
# c = create new archive
# x = extract archive
# v = verbose (show files being processed)
# f = specify filename of archive
# z = compress with gzip (.tar.gz)
# j = compress with bzip2 (.tar.bz2)
# J = compress with xz (.tar.xz)
#
# Examples:
# tar -cvf archive.tar files/   -> create tar
# tar -xvf archive.tar          -> extract tar
# tar -czvf archive.tar.gz dir/ -> create gzipped tar
# tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz      -> extract gzipped tar

tar -cvf [archive.tar] [files]

Create a tar archive from files or directories.

tar -cvf archive.tar myfolder

tar -xvf [archive.tar]

Extract a tar archive.

tar -xvf archive.tar

tar -czvf [archive.tar.gz] [files]

Create a compressed tarball (gzip).

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz myfolder

tar -xzvf [archive.tar.gz]

Extract a gzipped tarball.

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

zip [archive.zip] [files]

Create a zip archive.

zip archive.zip myfile.txt myfolder/*

unzip [archive.zip]

Extract a zip archive.

unzip archive.zip