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Command Example Description Cat

This document provides descriptions and examples for common Linux commands including cat, cd, cp, dd, df, less, ln, locate, logout, ls, more, mv, pwd, shutdown, and whereis. It explains what each command is used for and provides simple examples to demonstrate basic usage.

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Suresh Bharath
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58 views2 pages

Command Example Description Cat

This document provides descriptions and examples for common Linux commands including cat, cd, cp, dd, df, less, ln, locate, logout, ls, more, mv, pwd, shutdown, and whereis. It explains what each command is used for and provides simple examples to demonstrate basic usage.

Uploaded by

Suresh Bharath
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Command

cat

cd

cp

dd

df
less
ln

Example

Description
Sends file contents to standard output. This is a way to list
the contents of short files to the screen. It works well with
piping.
cat .bashrc
Sends the contents of the ".bashrc" file to the screen.
Change directory
cd /home
Change the current working directory to /home. The '/'
indicates relative to root, and no matter what directory you
are in when you execute this command, the directory will be
changed to "/home".
cd httpd
Change the current working directory to httpd, relative to the
current location which is "/home". The full path of the new
working directory is "/home/httpd".
cd ..
Move to the parent directory of the current directory. This
command will make the current working directory "/home.
cd ~
Move to the user's home directory which is
"/home/username". The '~' indicates the users home
directory.
Copy files
cp myfile yourfile
Copy the files "myfile" to the file "yourfile" in the current
working directory. This command will create the file
"yourfile" if it doesn't exist. It will normally overwrite it
without warning if it exists.
cp -i myfile yourfile With the "-i" option, if the file "yourfile" exists, you will be
prompted before it is overwritten.
cp -i /data/myfile .
Copy the file "/data/myfile" to the current working directory
and name it "myfile". Prompt before overwriting the file.
cp -dpr srcdir destdir Copy all files from the directory "srcdir" to the directory
"destdir" preserving links (-p option), file attributes (-p
option), and copy recursively (-r option). With these options,
a directory and all it contents can be copied to another
directory.
Disk duplicate. The man page says this command is to
dd if=/dev/hdb1
"Convert and copy a file", but although used by more
of=/backup/
advanced users, it can be a very handy command. The "if"
means input file, "of" means output file.
Show the amount of disk space used on each mounted
filesystem.
Similar to the more command, but the user can page up and
less textfile
down through the file. The example displays the contents of
textfile.
Creates a symbolic link to a file.
ln -s test symlink
Creates a symbolic link named symlink that points to the file
test Typing "ls -i test symlink" will show the two files are

different with different inodes. Typing "ls -l test symlink"


will show that symlink points to the file test.
locate
A fast database driven file locator.
slocate -u
This command builds the slocate database. It will take
several minutes to complete this command. This command
must be used before searching for files, however cron runs
this command periodically on most systems.
locate whereis
Lists all files whose names contain the string "whereis".
logout
Logs the current user off the system.
ls
List files
ls
List files in the current working directory except those
starting with . and only show the file name.
ls -al
List all files in the current working directory in long listing
format showing permissions, ownership, size, and time and
date stamp
more
Allows file contents or piped output to be sent to the screen
one page at a time.
more /etc/profile
Lists the contents of the "/etc/profile" file to the screen one
page at a time.
ls -al |more
Performs a directory listing of all files and pipes the output
of the listing through more. If the directory listing is longer
than a page, it will be listed one page at a time.
mv
Move or rename files
mv -i myfile yourfile Move the file from "myfile" to "yourfile". This effectively
changes the name of "myfile" to "yourfile".
mv -i /data/myfile . Move the file from "myfile" from the directory "/data" to the
current working directory.
pwd
Show the name of the current working directory
more /etc/profile
Lists the contents of the "/etc/profile" file to the screen one
page at a time.
shutdown
Shuts the system down.
shutdown -h now
Shuts the system down to halt immediately.
shutdown -r now
Shuts the system down immediately and the system reboots.
whereis
Show where the binary, source and manual page files are for
a command
whereis ls
Locates binaries and manual pages for the ls command.

Editors: emacs, vi, pico, jed, vim

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