Ferrari collection

Quick list of unix shell commands

Some Unix or Linux shell commands.

Cancel a command

Ctrl+U, Ctrl+X, or @

Change the working directory to /usr

cd /usr

Change the working directory back to your home directory

cd

Copy a file

cp oldfile newfile

Copy a file to another directory

cp oldfile dirname

Copy a bunch of files (e.g. filename1, filename2, ...) to another directory

cp filename* dirname

Copy all the files in this directory and in all its subdirectories

cp -r * newdir

Erase a file

rm filename

Rename a file

mv oldname newname

Move a file to another directory

mv oldfile dirname

List filenames

ls

List filenames with sizes and dates

ls -l

List hidden files too

ls -al

List files and pause when screen is full

ls | more

Look at a text file

cat filename

Look at a long text file

more filename

Make a new link (name) for a file

ln oldname newname

Make new links (names) for files in a directory

ln dirname/* newdir

Combine two files

cat file1 file2 > newfile

Compare two files

diff file1 file2

Look at the manual page for the ls command

man ls

Change your password

passwd