Introduction to the Command Line

The command line is a powerful on computers as it allows a knowledgable user to execute and automate complex tasks one or more computers. Below is a quick introduction to some basic command line operations using Ubuntu Linux as the example operating systems. Most, if not all of the commands will also work on other Unix-based operating systems including different Linux distributions (RedHat, Gentoo), Unix OS's (e.g. Solaris) and BSD variants including MAC OS X and FreeBSD. Microsoft Windows also has a command line (the program cmd.exe and the more powerful PowerShell) but it has a significantly different syntax and capability when compare to Unix-based systems.

The commands listed here are enough to get students started in most of my courses. There are much better, more detailed introductions available. I recommend the Free Software Foundations Introduction to the Command Line.

Moving Around the Filesystem

TODO: explain users and filesystem

To view the current directory you are in, i.e. your present working directory, run pwd:

$ pwd

To list the set of files and directories in the current directory run ls:

filesystem pwd ls cd TAB home . .. ~ mkdir rmdir man

Managing and Editing Files

ls -l echo HISTORY redirect > >> cat ls -l cp mv rm less

Searching for Stuff

wc nano find grep |

Processes and Jobs

ps & Ctrl-C Ctrl-Z bg fg

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