Linux Commands

As you have discovered, Linux is somewhat different than Windows. The paths to files are much different, for example in Windows you have a path like:

    C:\Documents and Settings\jlevy\My Documents

However in Linux, there are no drive letters and the slashes go a different direction:

    /home/faculty/jlevy

Everything in the file system is mounted after the root directory, which is just a forward slash - /

We also learned that there are several users on the same Linux server and that each user has his/her own home directory (folder) that has the same name as the username. You can see above that I have my home directory with the same name as my username: jlevy. It is inside that folder that I have permission to create and use new files.

We also learned that when we log in, we can see who we are and which directory we are in by looking at the prompt:

    [jlevy@cs12 ~]$

You can see my username and the tilde ~ which indicates that I am in my home directory. After you log in, the commandline is simply waiting there for you to issue it a command.

Basic Commands

In the last class we covered some basic Linux commands such as:

   passwd                    changes your password

   clear                     clears the screen
   pwd                       print working directory
   tree                      print out a tree of all 
                             files from location

   mkdir                     create (or make) a new directory   
   rmdir [directory]         remove directory

   rm [file]                 remove file
   rm -Rf [dir]              remove directory and all files 
                             inside DANGEROUS!

   touch [file]              create (or update) a file 

   ls                        list out files
   ls -a                     list out all files including 
                             hidden files 

   ls -l                     list out files with permissions
   ls -al                    list out all files with permissions

   cd [path]                 change directory to [path]

   cp [oldfile] [newfile]    copy the oldfile to the newfile 
                             or location

   mv [oldfile] [newfile]    move the oldfile to the newfile 
                             or location

   chmod [perms] [file]      change the mode (permissions) 
                             to perms for file

   pico [file]               open file for editing with pico 
                             text editor

   exit                      end session (logout)

One thing to note about Linux: Commands ARE case sensitive so you have to type them in all lower case!