Linux Commands Defined

Posted September 26, 2004

Here are some very useful shortcuts I have learned when moving around and working in a Linux environment.

To type changes in a file once you navigate to it and pull it up, hit I. Then, when finished making changes, hit ESC.

To see all of the files in a directory you can do a couple of different commands.

LL = Long List

LS = List (In columns). I find this to not be as nice looking as ll, but if you don’t want the listings to go off screen, you can type this in.

If there are hidden files in the folder you are looking and you need to see them, type in ll -la

Another way to prevent listings from going off screen is to type in ll | more. This will list whatever is in a directory as tall as your terminal screen is, then stop. To advance entry by entry, hit the enter key, and to advance the list by page hit the spacebar.

A basic one is if you are trying to navigate to a different directory, you do a cd or “change directory”. So, the format looks like this cd documents/home.html

To see the processes for the server and all of CPU usage and other information, similar to a Windows processes list, type in top.

To get rid off all of the commands and all of the other stuff you have done on the screen, and start with a fresh terminal at the top of the screen, type clear.

And of course, if at any time you want to look up what a command actually does, type in man, (manual) and then the name of the command. This is the format man clear.

To save changes to a file, or “write” to it, type in :w.

To exit without changing a file type, or “quit”, type in :q.

To exit your connection to the server, type in exit.