Basic Unix Terminal Commands

Unix-like operating systems, including Linux, provide a powerful command-line interface (CLI) for managing and interacting with your system. Here are some basic terminal commands:

Navigation

pwd

  • Print the current working directory.

ls

  • List the contents of a directory.

  • ls -l: Detailed list with file permissions.

  • ls -a: Show hidden files.

cd

  • Change directory.

  • cd <directory>: Navigate to a specific directory.

  • cd ..: Move up one level.

File Operations

touch

  • Create an empty file.

  • touch <filename>: Create a file.

mkdir

  • Create a new directory.

  • mkdir <directoryname>: Create a directory.

cp

  • Copy files or directories.

  • cp <source> <destination>: Copy a file or directory.

mv

  • Move or rename files or directories.

  • mv <source> <destination>: Move or rename a file or directory.

rm

  • Remove files or directories.

  • rm <filename>: Remove a file.

  • rm -r <directoryname>: Remove a directory and its contents.

Viewing and Editing Files

cat

  • View the contents of a file.

  • cat <filename>: Display the contents of a file.

less and more

  • View the contents of a file page by page.

  • less <filename>: Use the arrow keys to navigate.

nano or vim

  • Text editors for creating and editing files.

  • nano <filename> or vim <filename>: Open a file for editing.

File Permissions

chmod

  • Change file permissions.

  • chmod <permissions> <filename>: Modify file permissions.

Searching and Finding

find

  • Search for files and directories.

  • find <directory> -name <filename>: Search for a specific file.

grep

  • Search for text within files.

  • grep <pattern> <filename>: Search for a specific pattern in a file.

Process Management

ps

  • List running processes.

top or htop

  • Monitor system processes in real-time.

kill

  • Terminate processes.

  • kill <processID>: Terminate a process.

System and Network

lsof

  • List open files and processes.

curl

  • Transfer data with URLs.

    • curl https://example.com: Make a simple GET request.

    • curl -O https://example.com/somefile.txt: Download a file.

    • curl -d "key1=value1&key2=value2" -X POST https://example.com/api: Send POST data.

    • curl -i https://example.com: View response headers.

    • curl -H "User-Agent: MyUserAgent" https://example.com: Add custom headers.

wget

  • Download files from the web.

tail

  • Display the last few lines of a text file.

head

  • Display the first few lines of a text file.

dig

  • Query DNS servers for domain information.

    • dig example.com: Basic domain query.

    • dig example.com MX: Query for specific DNS record type.

    • dig example.com @8.8.8.8: Query a specific DNS server.

sed

  • SED stands for Stream Editor.

  • Used for text manipulation and substitutions.

  • Example: Replace "old" with "new" in a file:

    sed 's/old/new/g' filename.txt

awk

  • AWK is a versatile text processing tool.

  • Named after its creators: Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.

  • Useful for data extraction, manipulation, and reporting.

  • Example: Calculate the sum of the third column in a file:

    awk '{sum+=$3} END {print sum}' datafile.txt

These are some of the fundamental Unix terminal commands. To get more information on any of these commands, you can use the man command followed by the command name. For example, man ls will display the manual page for the ls command, explaining its usage and options in detail.

ssh -i <ssh key> <user>@<ip address>

#

su <user>


cat /etc/passwd
**-/
# See all users
Previouslinux-directoriesNextothers

Last updated