System information

Command Description
# arch show architecture of machine(1)
# cal 2007 show the timetable of 2007
# cat /proc/cpuinfo show information CPU info
# cat /proc/interrupts show interrupts
# cat /proc/meminfo verify memory use
# cat /proc/swaps show file(s) swap
# cat /proc/version show version of the kernel
# cat /proc/net/dev show network adpters and statistics
# cat /proc/mounts show mounted file system(s)
# clock -w save date changes on BIOS
# date show system date
# date 041217002007.00 set date and time - MonthDayhoursMinutesYear.Seconds
# dmidecode -q show hardware system components - (SMBIOS / DMI)
# hdparm -i /dev/hda displays the characteristics of a hard-disk
# hdparm -tT /dev/sda perform test reading on a hard-disk
# lspci -tv display PCI devices
# lsusb -tv show USB devices
# uname -m show architecture of machine(2)
# uname -r show used kernel version

Shutdown, Restart and Logout of a system

Command Description
# init 0 shutdown system(2)
# logout leaving session
# reboot reboot(2)
# shutdown -h now shutdown system(1)
# shutdown -h 16:30 & planned shutdown of the system at 16:30
# shutdown -c cancel a planned shutdown of the system
# shutdown -r now reboot(1)
# telinit 0 shutdown system(3)
 Files and Directory

Command Description
# cd /home enter to directory '/ home'
# cd .. go back one level
# cd ../.. go back two levels
# cd go to home directory
# cd ~user1 go to home directory
# cd - go to previous directory
# cp file1 file2 copying a file
# cp dir/* . copy all files of a directory within the current work directory
# cp -a /tmp/dir1 . copy a directory within the current work directory
# cp -a dir1 dir2 copy a directory
# cp file file1 outputs the mime type of the file as text
# iconv -l lists known encodings
# iconv -f fromEncoding -t toEncoding converting the coding of characters from one format to another
inputFile > outputFile
# find . -maxdepth 1 -name *.jpg -print batch resize files in the current directory and send them to a
-exec convert thumbnails directory (requires convert from Imagemagick)
# ln -s file1 lnk1 create a symbolic link to file or directory
# ln file1 lnk1 create a physical link to file or directory
# ls view files of directory
# ls -F view files of directory
# ls -l show details of files and directory
# ls -a show hidden files
# ls *[0-9]* show files and directory containing numbers
# lstree show files and directories in a tree starting from root(2)
# mkdir dir1 create a directory called 'dir1'
# mkdir dir1 dir2 create two directories simultaneously
# mkdir -p /tmp/dir1/dir2 create a directory tree
# mv dir1 new_dir rename / move a file or directory
# pwd show the path of work directory
# rm -f file1 delete file called 'file1'
# rm -rf dir1 remove a directory called 'dir1' and contents recursively
# rm -rf dir1 dir2 remove two directories and their contents recursively
# rmdir dir1 delete directory called 'dir1'
# touch -t 0712250000 file1 modify timestamp of a file or directory - (YYMMDDhhmm)
# tree show files and directories in a tree starting from root(1)

File search

Command Description
# find / -name file1 search file and directory into root filesystem from '/'
# find / -user user1
# find /home/user1 -name \*.bin
# find /usr/bin -type f -atime +100
# find /usr/bin -type f -mtime -10
# find / -name *.rpm -exec chmod 755
'{}' \;
# find / -xdev -name \*.rpm
# locate \*.ps
# whereis halt
# which halt
Command
# fuser -km /mnt/hda2
# mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2
# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
# mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrecorder
# mount /dev/hdb /mnt/cdrecorder
# mount -o loop file.iso /mnt/cdrom
# mount -t vfat /dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdisk
# mount -t smbfs -o
username=user,password=pass
//WinClient/share /mnt/share
# umount /dev/hda2
# umount -n /mnt/hda2
Command
# df -h
# dpkg-query -W -f='${Installed-Size;10}t$ show the used space by installed deb packages, sorting by size
{Package}n' | sort -k1,1n
# du -sh dir1
# du -sk * | sort -rn
# ls -lSr |more
# rpm -q -a --qf '%10{SIZE}t%{NAME}n' | show the used space by rpm packages installed sorted by size (fedora,
sort -k1,1n
Command
# chage -E 2005-12-31 user1
search files and directories belonging to 'user1'
search files with '. bin' extension within directory '/ home/user1'
search binary files are not used in the last 100 days
search files created or changed within 10 days
search files with '.rpm' extension and modify permits
search files with '.rpm' extension ignoring removable partitions as
cdrom, pen-drive, etc.…
find files with the '.ps' extension - first run 'updatedb' command
show location of a binary file, source or man
show full path to a binary / executable
Mounting a Filesystem
Description
force umount when the device is busy
mount disk called hda2 - verify existence of the directory '/ mnt/hda2'
mount a floppy disk
mount a cdrom / dvdrom
mount a cdrw / dvdrom
mount a cdrw / dvdrom
mount a file or iso image
mount a Windows FAT32 file system
mount a usb pen-drive or flash-drive
mount a windows network share
unmount disk called hda2 - exit from mount point '/ mnt/hda2' first
run umount without writing the file /etc/mtab - useful when the file is
read-only or the hard disk is full
Disk Space
Description
show list of partitions mounted
(debian, ubuntu and alike)
estimate space used by directory 'dir1'
show size of the files and directories sorted by size
show size of the files and directories ordered by size
redhat and alike)
Users and Groups
Description
set deadline for user password
# groupadd [group] create a new group
# groupdel [group] delete a group
# groupmod -n moon sun rename a group from moon to sun
# grpck check correct syntax and file format of '/etc/group' and groups
existence
# newgrp - [group] log into a new group to change default group of newly created files
# passwd change password
# passwd user1 change a user password (only by root)
# pwck check correct syntax and file format of '/etc/passwd' and users
existence
# useradd -c "User Linux" -g admin -d create a new user "user1" belongs "admin" group
/home/user1 -s /bin/bash user1
# useradd user1 create a new user
# userdel -r user1 delete a user ( '-r' eliminates home directory)
# usermod -c "User FTP" -g system -d change user attributes as description, group and other
/ftp/user1 -s /bin/nologin user1

Permits on Files

Command
# chgrp group1 file1
# chmod ugo+rwx directory1
# chmod go-rwx directory1
# chmod u+s /bin/file1
# chmod u-s /bin/file1
# chmod g+s /home/public
# chmod g-s /home/public
# chmod o+t /home/public
# chmod o-t /home/public
# chown user1 file1
# chown -R user1 directory1
# chown user1:group1 file1
# find / -perm -u+s
# ls -lh
# ls /tmp | pr -T5 -W$COLUMNS
Description
change group of files
set permissions reading (r), write (w) and (x) access to users owner
(u) group (g) and others (o)
remove permits reading (r), write (w) and (x) access to users group
(g) and others (or
set SUID bit on a binary file - the user that running that file gets same
privileges as owner
disable SUID bit on a binary file
set SGID bit on a directory - similar to SUID but for directory
disable SGID bit on a directory
set STIKY bit on a directory - allows files deletion only to legitimate
owners
disable STIKY bit on a directory
change owner of a file
change user owner of a directory and all the files and directories
contained inside
change user and group ownership of a file
view all files on the system with SUID configured
show permits on files
divide terminal into 5 columns

Special Attributes on files

Command Description
# chattr +a file1 allows write opening of a file only append mode
# chattr +c file1 allows that a file is compressed / decompressed automatically by the
kernel
# chattr +d file1 makes sure that the program ignores Dump the files during backup
# chattr +i file1 makes it an immutable file, which can not be removed, altered,
renamed or linked
# chattr +s file1 allows a file to be deleted safely
# chattr +S file1 makes sure that if a file is modified changes are written in
synchronous mode as with sync
# chattr +u file1 allows you to recover the contents of a file even if it is canceled
# lsattr show specials attributes

Archives and compressed files

Command Description
# bunzip2 file1.bz2 decompress a file called 'file1.bz2'
# bzip2 file1 compress a file called 'file1'
# gunzip file1.gz decompress a file called 'file1.gz'
# gzip file1 compress a file called 'file1'
# gzip -9 file1 compress with maximum compression
# rar a file1.rar test_file create an archive rar called 'file1.rar'
# rar a file1.rar file1 file2 dir1 compress 'file1', 'file2' and 'dir1' simultaneously
# rar x file1.rar decompress rar archive
# tar -cvf archive.tar file1 create a uncompressed tarball
# tar -cvf archive.tar file1 file2 dir1 create an archive containing 'file1', 'file2' and 'dir1'
# tar -tf archive.tar show contents of an archive
# tar -xvf archive.tar extract a tarball
# tar -xvf archive.tar -C /tmp extract a tarball into / tmp
# tar -cvfj archive.tar.bz2 dir1 create a tarball compressed into bzip2
# tar -xvfj archive.tar.bz2 decompress a compressed tar archive in bzip2
# tar -cvfz archive.tar.gz dir1 create a tarball compressed into gzip
# tar -xvfz archive.tar.gz decompress a compressed tar archive in gzip
# unrar x file1.rar decompress rar archive
# unzip file1.zip decompress a zip archive
# zip file1.zip file1 create an archive compressed in zip
# zip -r file1.zip file1 file2 dir1 compress in zip several files and directories simultaneously

RPM Packages (Fedora, Red Hat and like)

Command Description
# rpm -ivh [package.rpm] install a rpm package
# rpm -ivh --nodeeps [package.rpm] install a rpm package ignoring dependencies requests
# rpm -U [package.rpm] upgrade a rpm package without changing configuration files
# rpm -F [package.rpm] upgrade a rpm package only if it is already installed
# rpm -e [package] remove a rpm package
# rpm -qa show all rpm packages installed on the system
# rpm -qa | grep httpd show all rpm packages with the name "httpd"
# rpm -qi [package] obtain information on a specific package installed
# rpm -qg "System Environment/Daemons" show rpm packages of a group software
# rpm -ql [package]
# rpm -qc [package]
# rpm -q [package] --whatrequires
# rpm -q [package] --whatprovides
# rpm -q [package] --scripts
# rpm -q [package] --changelog
# rpm -qf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
# rpm -qp [package.rpm] -l
# rpm --import /media/cdrom/RPM-GPG-KEY import public-key digital signature
# rpm --checksig [package.rpm]
# rpm -qa gpg-pubkey
# rpm -V [package]
# rpm -Va
# rpm -Vp [package.rpm]
# rpm -ivh
/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/`arch`/[package.rpm]
# rpm2cpio [package.rpm] | cpio --extract
--make-directories *bin*
# rpmbuild --rebuild [package.src.rpm]
YUM packages tool (Fedora, RedHat and alike)
Command
# yum -y install [package]
# yum localinstall [package.rpm]
# yum -y update
# yum update [package]
# yum remove [package]
# yum list
# yum search [package]
# yum clean [package]
# yum clean headers
# yum clean all
DEB packages (Debian, Ubuntu and like)
Command
# dpkg -i [package.deb]
# dpkg -r [package]
# dpkg -l
# dpkg -l | grep httpd
# dpkg -s [package]
# dpkg -L [package]
show list of files provided by a rpm package installed
show list of configuration files provided by a rpm package installed
show list of dependencies required for a rpm packet
show capability provided by a rpm package
show scripts started during installation / removal
show history of revisions of a rpm package
verify which rpm package belongs to a given file
show list of files provided by a rpm package not yet installed
verify the integrity of a rpm package
verify integrity of all rpm packages installed
check file size, permissions, type, owner, group, MD5 checksum and
last modification
check all rpm packages installed on the system - use with caution
verify a rpm package not yet installed
install a package built from a rpm source
extract executable file from a rpm package
build a rpm package from a rpm source
Description
download and install a rpm package
That will install an RPM, and try to resolve all the dependencies for you
using your repositories.
update all rpm packages installed on the system
upgrade a rpm package
remove a rpm package
list all packages installed on the system
find a package on rpm repository
clean up rpm cache erasing downloaded packages
remove all files headers that the system uses to resolve dependency
remove from the cache packages and headers files
Description
install / upgrade a deb package
remove a deb package from the system
show all deb packages installed on the system
show all deb packages with the name "httpd"
obtain information on a specific package installed on system
show list of files provided by a package installed on system
# dpkg --contents [package.deb] show list of files provided by a package not yet installed
# dpkg -S /bin/ping verify which package belongs to a given file

APT packages tool (Debian, Ubuntu and alike)

Command Description
# apt-cache search [package] returns list of packages which corresponds string "searched-packages"
# apt-cdrom install [package] install / upgrade a deb package from cdrom
# apt-get install [package] install / upgrade a deb package
# apt-get update update the package list
# apt-get upgrade upgrade all of the installed packages
# apt-get remove [package] remove a deb package from system
# apt-get check verify correct resolution of dependencies
# apt-get clean clean up cache from packages downloaded

Pacman packages tool (Arch, Frugalware and alike)

Command Description
# pacman -S name Install package 'name' with dependencies
# pacman -R name Delete package 'name' and all files of it

View file content

Command Description
# cat file1 view the contents of a file starting from the first row
# head -2 file1 view first two lines of a file
# less file1 similar to 'more' command but which allows backward movement in
the file as well as forward movement
# more file1 view content of a file along
# tac file1 view the contents of a file starting from the last line
# tail -2 file1 view last two lines of a file
# tail -f /var/log/messages view in real time what is added to a file

Text Manipulation

Command
# cat example.txt | awk 'NR%2==1'
# echo a b c | awk '{print $1}'
# echo a b c | awk '{print $1,$3}'
# cat -n file1
# comm -1 file1 file2
# comm -2 file1 file2
# comm -3 file1 file2
# diff file1 file2
# grep Aug /var/log/messages
# grep ^Aug /var/log/messages
Description
remove all even lines from example.txt
view the first column of a line
view the first and third column of a line
number row of a file
compare contents of two files by deleting only unique lines from 'file1'
compare contents of two files by deleting only unique lines from 'file2'
compare contents of two files by deleting only the lines that appear on
both files
find differences between two files
look up words "Aug" on file '/var/log/messages'
look up words that begin with "Aug" on file '/var/log/messages'
# grep [0-9] /var/log/messages
# grep Aug -R /var/log/*
# paste file1 file2
# paste -d '+' file1 file2
# sdiff file1 file2
# sed 's/string1/string2/g' example.txt
# sed '/^$/d' example.txt
# sed '/ *#/d; /^$/d' example.txt
# sed -e '1d' exampe.txt
# sed -n '/string1/p'
# sed -e 's/ *$//' example.txt
# sed -e 's/string1//g' example.txt
# sed -n '1,5p' example.txt
# sed -n '5p;5q' example.txt
# sed -e 's/00*/0/g' example.txt
# sort file1 file2
# sort file1 file2 | uniq
# sort file1 file2 | uniq -u
# sort file1 file2 | uniq -d
# echo 'word' | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'
Character set and Format file conversion
Command
# dos2unix filedos.txt fileunix.txt
# recode ..HTML < page.txt > page.html
# recode -l | more
# unix2dos fileunix.txt filedos.txt
Command
# badblocks -v /dev/hda1
# dosfsck /dev/hda1
# e2fsck /dev/hda1
# e2fsck -j /dev/hda1
# fsck /dev/hda1
# fsck.ext2 /dev/hda1
# fsck.ext3 /dev/hda1
# fsck.vfat /dev/hda1
# fsck.msdos /dev/hda1
select from file '/var/log/messages' all lines that contain numbers
search string "Aug" at directory '/var/log' and below
merging contents of two files for columns
merging contents of two files for columns with '+' delimiter on the
center
find differences between two files and merge interactively alike "diff"
replace "string1" with "string2" in example.txt
remove all blank lines from example.txt
remove comments and blank lines from example.txt
eliminates the first line from file example.txt
view only lines that contain the word "string1"
remove empty characters at the end of each row
remove only the word "string1" from text and leave intact all
print from 1th to 5th row of example.txt
print row number 5 of example.txt
replace more zeros with a single zero
sort contents of two files
sort contents of two files omitting lines repeated
sort contents of two files by viewing only unique line
sort contents of two files by viewing only duplicate line
convert from lower case in upper case
Description
convert a text file format from MSDOS to UNIX
convert a text file to html
show all available formats conversion
convert a text file format from UNIX to MSDOS
Filesystem Analysis
Description
check bad blocks on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of dos filesystems on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of ext2 filesystem on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of ext3 filesystem on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of linux filesystem on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of ext2 filesystem on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of ext3 filesystem on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of fat filesystem on disk hda1
repair / check integrity of dos filesystem on disk hda1
Format a Filesystem
Command Description
# fdformat -n /dev/fd0 format a floppy disk
# mke2fs /dev/hda1 create a filesystem type linux ext2 on hda1 partition
# mke2fs -j /dev/hda1 create a filesystem type linux ext3 (journal) on hda1 partition
# mkfs /dev/hda1 create a filesystem type linux on hda1 partition
# mkfs -t vfat 32 -F /dev/hda1 create a FAT32 filesystem
# mkswap /dev/hda3 create a swap filesystem

Filesystem SWAP

Command Description
# mkswap /dev/hda3 create a swap filesystem
# swapon /dev/hda3 activating a new swap partition
# swapon /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb3 activate two swap partitions

Backup

Command Description
# find /var/log -name '*.log' | tar cv --files- find all files with '.log' extention and make an bzip archive
from=- | bzip2 > log.tar.bz2
# find /home/user1 -name '*.txt' | xargs cp find and copy all files with '.txt' extention from a directory to another
-av --target-directory=/home/backup/
--parents
# dd bs=1M if=/dev/hda | gzip | ssh make a backup of a local hard disk on remote host via ssh
user@ip_addr 'dd of=hda.gz'
# dd if=/dev/sda of=/tmp/file1 backup content of the harddrive to a file
# dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 make a copy of MBR (Master Boot Record) to floppy
count=1
# dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/hda bs=512 restore MBR from backup copy saved to floppy
count=1
# dump -0aj -f /tmp/home0.bak /home make a full backup of directory '/home'
# dump -1aj -f /tmp/home0.bak /home make a incremental backup of directory '/home'
# restore -if /tmp/home0.bak restoring a backup interactively
# rsync -rogpav --delete /home /tmp synchronization between directories
# rsync -rogpav -e ssh --delete /home rsync via SSH tunnel
ip_address:/tmp
# rsync -az -e ssh --delete synchronize a local directory with a remote directory via ssh and
ip_addr:/home/public /home/local compression
# rsync -az -e ssh --delete /home/local synchronize a remote directory with a local directory via ssh and
ip_addr:/home/public compression
# tar -Puf backup.tar /home/user make a incremental backup of directory '/home/user'
# ( cd /tmp/local/ && tar c . ) | ssh -C copy content of a directory on remote directory via ssh
user@ip_addr 'cd /home/share/ && tar x -p'
# ( tar c /home ) | ssh -C user@ip_addr copy a local directory on remote directory via ssh
'cd /home/backup-home && tar x -p'
# tar cf - . | (cd /tmp/backup ; tar xf - ) local copy preserving permits and links from a directory to another

CDROM
Command
# cd-paranoia -B
# cd-paranoia --
# cdrecord -v gracetime=2 dev=/dev/cdrom clean a rewritable cdrom
-eject blank=fast -force
# cdrecord -v dev=/dev/cdrom cd.iso
# gzip -dc cd_iso.gz | cdrecord
dev=/dev/cdrom -
# cdrecord --scanbus
# dd if=/dev/hdc | md5sum
# mkisofs /dev/cdrom > cd.iso
# mkisofs /dev/cdrom | gzip > cd_iso.gz
# mkisofs -J -allow-leading-dots -R -V
# mount -o loop cd.iso /mnt/iso
Description
rip audio tracks from a CD to wav files
rip first three audio tracks from a CD to wav files
burn an ISO image
burn a compressed ISO image
scan bus to identify the channel scsi
perform an md5sum on a device, like a CD
create an iso image of cdrom on disk
create a compressed iso image of cdrom on disk
create an iso image of a directory
mount an ISO image

Networking (LAN / WiFi)

Command Description
# dhclient eth0 active interface 'eth0' in dhcp mode
# ethtool eth0 show network statistics of eth0
# host www.example.com lookup hostname to resolve name to ip address and vice versa
# hostname show hostname of system
# ifconfig eth0 show configuration of an ethernet network card
# ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1 netmask configure IP Address
255.255.255.0
# ifconfig eth0 promisc configure 'eth0' in promiscuous mode to gather packets (sniffing)
# ifdown eth0 disable an interface 'eth0'
# ifup eth0 activate an interface 'eth0'
# ip link show show link status of all network interfaces
# iwconfig eth1 show wireless networks
# iwlist scan wifi scanning to display the wireless connections available
# mii-tool eth0 show link status of 'eth0'
# netstat -tup show all active network connections and their PID
# netstat -tupl show all network services listening on the system and their PID
# netstat -rn show routing table alike "route -n"
# nslookup www.example.com lookup hostname to resolve name to IP address and vice versa
# route -n show routing table
# route add -net 0/0 gw IP_Gateway configure default gateway
# route add -net 192.168.0.0 netmask configure static route to reach network '192.168.0.0/16'
255.255.0.0 gw 192.168.1.1
# route del 0/0 gw IP_gateway remove static route
# echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward activate ip routing temporarily
# tcpdump tcp port 80 show all HTTP traffic
# whois www.example.com lookup on Whois database

Microsoft Windows networks (samba)

Command
# mount -t smbfs -o
username=user,password=pass
//WinClient/share /mnt/share
# nbtscan ip_addr
# nmblookup -A ip_addr
# smbclient -L ip_addr/hostname
# smbget -Rr smb://ip_addr/share
Description
mount a windows network share
netbios name resolution
netbios name resolution
show remote shares of a windows host
like wget can download files from a host windows via smb

IPTABLES (firewall)

Command Description
# iptables -t filter -L show all chains of filtering table
# iptables -t nat -L show all chains of nat table
# iptables -t filter -F clear all rules from filtering table
# iptables -t nat -F clear all rules from table nat
# iptables -t filter -X delete any chains created by user
# iptables -t filter -A INPUT -p tcp --dport allow telnet connections to input
telnet -j ACCEPT
# iptables -t filter -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport block HTTP connections to output
http -j DROP
# iptables -t filter -A FORWARD -p tcp allow POP3 connections to forward chain
--dport pop3 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -t filter -A INPUT -j LOG --log- Logging on input chain
prefix
# iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j configure a PAT (Port Address Traslation) on eth0 masking outbound
MASQUERADE packets
# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -d redirect packets addressed to a host to another host
192.168.0.1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 -j
DNAT --to-destination 10.0.0.2:22

Monitoring and debugging

Command Description
# free -m displays status of RAM in megabytes
# kill -9 process_id force closure of the process and finish it
# kill -1 process_id force a process to reload configuration
# last reboot show history reboot
# lsmod display kernel loaded
# lsof -p process_id display a list of files opened by processes
# lsof /home/user1 displays a list of open files in a given path system
# ps -eafw displays linux tasks
# ps -e -o pid,args --forest displays linux tasks in a hierarchical mode
# pstree
# smartctl -A /dev/hda
# smartctl -i /dev/hda
# strace -c ls >/dev/null
# strace -f -e open ls >/dev/null
# tail /var/log/dmesg
# tail /var/log/messages
# top
# watch -n1 'cat /proc/interrupts'
Shows a tree system processes
monitoring reliability of a hard-disk through SMART
check if SMART is active on a hard-disk
display system calls made and received by a process
display library calls
show events inherent to the process of booting kernel
show system events
display linux tasks using most cpu
display interrupts in real-time

Others useful commands

Command Description
# alias hh='history' set an alias for a command - hh = history
# apropos ...keyword display a list of commands that pertain to keywords of a program ,
useful when you know what your program does, but you don't know
the name of the command
# chsh change shell command
# chsh --list-shells nice command to know if you have to remote into another box
# gpg -c file1 encrypt a file with GNU Privacy Guard
# gpg file1.gpg decrypt a file with GNU Privacy Guard
# ldd /usr/bin/ssh show shared libraries required by ssh program
# man ping display the on-line manual pages for example on ping command - use
'-k' option to find any related commands
# mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 `uname -r` create a boot floppy
# wget -r www.example.com download an entire web site
# wget -c www.example.com/file.iso download a file with the ability to stop the download and resume later
# echo 'wget -c www.example.com/files.iso' start a download at any given time
| at 09:00
# whatis ...keyword displays description of what a program does
# who -a show who is logged on, and print: time of last system boot, dead
processes, system login processes, active processes spawned by init,
current runlevel, last system clock change

An Introduction to the
Linux Command Shell
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide the reader with a fast and simple introduction to using the Linux
command shell and some of its basic utilities. It is assumed that the reader has zero or very limited exposure to
the Linux command prompt. This document is designed to accompany an instructor-led tutorial on this subject,
and therefore some details have been left out. Explanations, practical examples, and references to DOS
commands are made, where appropriate.

What is a command shell?

 A program that interprets commands.
 Allows a user to execute commands by typing them manually at a terminal, or automatically in
programs called shell scripts.
 A shell is not an operating system. It is a way to interface with the operating system and run commands.

What is BASH?
 BASH = Bourne Again Shell
 Bash is a shell written as a free replacement to the standard Bourne Shell (/bin/sh) originally written by
Steve Bourne for UNIX systems.
 It has all of the features of the original Bourne Shell, plus additions that make it easier to program with
and use from the command line.
 Since it is Free Software, it has been adopted as the default shell on most Linux systems.

How is BASH different from the DOS command prompt?

Case Sensitivity: In Linux/UNIX, commands and filenames are case sensitive, meaning that typing
“EXIT” instead of the proper “exit” is a mistake.

“\” vs. “/”: In DOS, the forward-slash “/” is the command argument delimiter, while the
backslash “\” is a directory separator. In Linux/UNIX, the “/” is the directory
separator, and the “\” is an escape character. More about these special characters
in a minute!

Filenames: The DOS world uses the “eight dot three” filename convention, meaning that all
files followed a format that allowed up to 8 characters in the filename, followed
by a period (“dot”), followed by an option extension, up to 3 characters long (e.g.
FILENAME.TXT). In UNIX/Linux, there is no such thing as a file extension.
Periods can be placed at any part of the filename, and “extensions” may be
interpreted differently by all programs, or not at all.
Special Characters
Before we continue to learn about Linux shell commands, it is important to know that there are many symbols
and characters that the shell interprets in special ways. This means that certain typed characters: a) cannot be
used in certain situations, b) may be used to perform special operations, or, c) must be “escaped” if you want to
use them in a normal way.

Character Description
Escape character. If you want to reference a special character, you must “escape” it with a
\ backslash first.
Example: touch /tmp/filename\*
Directory separator, used to separate a string of directory names.
/
Example: /usr/src/linux
. Current directory. Can also “hide” files when it is the first character in a filename.
.. Parent directory
~ User's home directory

Represents 0 or more characters in a filename, or by itself, all files in a directory.

*
Example: pic*2002 can represent the files pic2002, picJanuary2002, picFeb292002, etc.

Represents a single character in a filename.

?
Example: hello?.txt can represent hello1.txt, helloz.txt, but not hello22.txt

Can be used to represent a range of values, e.g. [0-9], [A-Z], etc.

[]
Example: hello[0-2].txt represents the names hello0.txt, hello1.txt, and hello2.txt

“Pipe”. Redirect the output of one command into another command.

|
Example: ls | more
Redirect output of a command into a new file. If the file already exists, over-write it.
>
Example: ls > myfiles.txt
Redirect the output of a command onto the end of an existing file.
>>
Example: echo .Mary 555-1234. >> phonenumbers.txt
Redirect a file as input to a program.
<
Example: more < phonenumbers.txt
Command separator. Allows you to execute multiple commands on a single line.
;
Example: cd /var/log ; less messages
Command separator as above, but only runs the second command if the first one finished
&& without errors.
Example: cd /var/logs && less messages
Execute a command in the background, and immediately get your shell back.
&
Example: find / -name core > /tmp/corefiles.txt &
 Executing Commands
The Command PATH:
 Most common commands are located in your shell's “PATH”, meaning that you can just type the name
of the program to execute it.
Example: Typing “ ls” will execute the “ ls” command.
 Your shell's “PATH” variable includes the most common program locations, such as /bin, /usr/bin,
/usr/X11R6/bin, and others.
 To execute commands that are not in your current PATH, you have to give the complete location of the
command.
Examples: /home/bob/myprogram
./program (Execute a program in the current directory)
~/bin/program (Execute program from a personal bin directory)

Command Syntax
 Commands can be run by themselves, or you can pass in additional arguments to make them do different
things. Typical command syntax can look something like this:
command [-argument] [-argument] [--argument] [file]
 Examples: ls List files in current directory
ls -l Lists files in “long” format
ls -l --color As above, with colourized output
cat filename Show contents of a file
cat -n filename Show contents of a file, with line numbers

Using a Command's Built-In Help

Many commands have simple “help” screens that can be invoked with special command flags. These flags
usually look like “-h” or “--help”.
Example: grep --help

Online Manuals: “Man Pages”

The best source of information for most commands can be found in the online manual pages, known as “man
pages” for short. To read a command's man page, type “man command”.
Examples: man ls Get help on the “ls” command.
man man A manual about how to use the manual!

To search for a particular word within a man page, type “/word”. To quit from a man page, just type the “Q”
key.
Sometimes, you might not remember the name of Linux command and you need to search for it. For example, if
you want to know how to change a file's permissions, you can search the man page descriptions for the word
“permission” like this:
man -k permission
If you look at the output of this command, you will find a line that looks something like:
chmod (1) - change file access permissions
Now you know that “chmod” is the command you were looking for. Typing “man chmod” will show you the
chmod command's manual page!

2.3 Info Pages

Some programs, particularly those released by the Free Software Foundation, use info pages as their main
source of online documentation. Info pages are similar to man page, but instead of being displayed on one long
scrolling screen, they are presented in shorter segments with links to other pieces of information. Info pages are
accessed with the “info” command, or on some Linux distributions, “pinfo” (a nicer info browser).
For example: info df Loads the “df” info page.
Navigating the Linux Filesystem
The Linux filesystem is a tree-like hierarchy hierarchy of directories and files. At the base of the filesystem is
the “/” directory, otherwise known as the “root” (not to be confused with the root user). Unlike DOS or
Windows filesystems that have multiple “roots”, one for each disk drive, the Linux filesystem mounts all disks
somewhere underneath the / filesystem. The following table describes many of the most common Linux
directories.

The Linux Directory Layout

Directory Description
The nameless base of the filesystem. All other directories, files, drives, and devices are attached
to this root. Commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as the “slash” or “/” directory. The “/” is
just a directory separator, not a directory itself.
/bin Essential command binaries (programs) are stored here (bash, ls, mount, tar, etc.)
/boot Static files of the boot loader.
Device files. In Linux, hardware devices are acceessd just like other files, and they are kept
/dev
under this directory.
/etc Host-specific system configuration files.
/home Location of users' personal home directories (e.g. /home/susan).
/lib Essential shared libraries and kernel modules.
/proc Process information pseudo-filesystem. An interface to kernel data structures.
/root The root (superuser) home directory.
/sbin Essential system binaries (fdisk, fsck, init, etc).
/tmp Temporary files. All users have permission to place temporary files here.
The base directory for most shareable, read-only data (programs, libraries, documentation, and
/usr
much more).
/usr/bin Most user programs are kept here (cc, find, du, etc.).
/usr/include Header files for compiling C programs.
/usr/lib Libraries for most binary programs.
“Locally” installed files. This directory only really matters in environments where files are
stored on the network (locally-installed files go in to /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, etc.). Also
/usr/local
often used for software packages installed from source, or software not officially shipped with
the distribution.
/usr/sbin Non-vital system binaries (lpd, useradd, etc.)
/usr/share Architecture-independent data (icons, backgrounds, documentation, terminfo, man pages, etc.).
/usr/src Program source code. E.g. The Linux Kernel, source RPMs, etc.
/usr/X11R6 The X Window System.
/var Variable data: mail and printer spools, log files, lock files, etc.
Commands for Navigating the Linux Filesystems
The first thing you usually want to do when learning about the Linux filesystem is take some time to look
around and see what's there! These next few commands will tell you: a) where you are, b) take you somewhere
else, and c) show you what's there. The following table describes the basic operation of the pwd, cd, and ls
commands, and compares them to certain DOS commands that you might already be familiar with.

Linux Command DOS Command Description

“Print Working Directory”. Shows the current location in the
pwd cd
directory tree.
“Change Directory”. When typed all by itself, it returns you to your
cd cd, chdir
home directory.
Change into the specified directory name.
cd directory cd directory
Example: cd /usr/src/linux
“~” is an alias for your home directory. It can be used as a shortcut to
cd ~
your “home”, or other directories relative to your home.
Move up one directory. For example, if you are in /home/vic and you
cd .. cd..
type “cd ..”, you will end up in /home.
Return to previous directory. An easy way to get back to your
cd -
previous location!
ls dir /w List all files in the current directory, in column format.
List the files in the specified directory.
ls directory dir directory
Example: ls /var/log
List files in “long” format, one file per line. This also shows you
ls -l dir additional info about the file, such as ownership, permissions, date,
and size.
List all files, including “hidden” files. Hidden files are those files
ls -a dir /a that begin with a “.”, e.g. The .bash_history file in your home
directory.
A “long” list of “directory”, but instead of showing the directory
contents, show the directory's detailed information. For example,
ls -ld
compare the output of the following two commands:
directory
ls -l /usr/bin
ls -ld /usr/bin
List all files whose names begin with the letter “d” in the /usr/bin
ls /usr/bin/d* dir d*.*
directory.

Piping and Re-Direction

Before we move on to learning even more commands, let's side-track to the topics of piping and re-direction.
The basic UNIX philosophy, therefore by extension the Linux philosophy, is to have many small programs and
utilities that do a particular job very well. It is the responsibility of the programmer or user to combine these
utilities to make more useful command sequences.

4.1 Piping Commands Together

The pipe character, “|”, is used to chain two or more commands together. The output of the first command is
“piped” into the next program, and if there is a second pipe, the output is sent to the third program, etc.
For example: ls -la /usr/bin | less
In this example, we run the command “ls -la /usr/bin”, which gives us a long listing of all of the files in /usr/bin.
Because the output of this command is typically very long, we pipe the output to a program called “less”, which
displays the output for us one screen at a time.
Redirecting Program Output to Files
There are times when it is useful to save the output of a command to a file, instead of displaying it to the screen.
For example, if we want to create a file that lists all of the MP3 files in a directory, we can do something like
this, using the “>” redirection character:
ls -l /home/vic/MP3/*.mp3 > mp3files.txt
A similar command can be written so that instead of creating a new file called mp3files.txt, we can append to
the end of the original file:
ls -l /home/vic/extraMP3s/*.mp3 >> mp3files.txt

Other Linux Commands

The following sections describe many other commands that you will find on most Linux systems. I can't
possibly cover the details of all of these commands in this document, so don't forget that you can check the
“man pages” for additional information. Not all of the listed commands will be available on all Linux or UNIX
distributions.

Working With Files and Directories

These commands can be used to: find out information about files, display files, and manipulate them in other
ways (copy, move, delete).

Linux Command DOS Command Description

Find out what kind of file it is.
file For example, “file /bin/ls” tells us that it is a Linux executable
file.
Display the contents of a text file on the screen. For example: cat
cat type mp3files.txt would display the file we created in the previous
section.
Display the first few lines of a text file.
head
Example: head /etc/services
Display the last few lines of a text file.
tail
Example: tail /etc/services
Display the last few lines of a text file, and then output appended
tail -f data as the file grows (very useful for following log files!).
Example: tail -f /var/log/messages
Copies a file from one location to another.
cp copy Example: cp mp3files.txt /tmp (copies the mp3files.txt file to
the /tmp directory)
Moves a file to a new location, or renames it.
rename, ren,
mv For example: mv mp3files.txt /tmp (copy the file to /tmp, and
move
delete it from the original location)
rm del Delete a file. Example: rm /tmp/mp3files.txt
mkdir md Make Directory. Example: mkdir /tmp/myfiles/
rmdir rd, rmdir Remove Directory. Example: rmdir /tmp/myfiles/
Finding Things
The following commands are used to find files. “ls” is good for finding files if you already know approximately
where they are, but sometimes you need more powerful tools such as these:

Linux Command Description

Shows the full path of shell commands found in your path. For example, if you want to
which know exactly where the “grep” command is located on the filesystem, you can type
“which grep”. The output should be something like: /bin/grep
Locates the program, source code, and manual page for a command (if all information is
available). For example, to find out where “ls” and its man page are, type: “whereis ls”
whereis
The output will look something like:
ls: /bin/ls /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz
A quick way to search for files anywhere on the filesystem. For example, you can find all
locate files and directories that contain the name “mozilla” by typing:
locate mozilla
A very powerful command, but sometimes tricky to use. It can be used to search for files
matching certain patterns, as well as many other types of searches. A simple example is:
find find . -name \*mp3
This example starts searching in the current directory “.” and all subdirectories, looking
for files with “mp3” at the end of their names.

Informational Commands
The following commands are used to find out some information about the user or the system.

Linux Command Description

ps Lists currently running process (programs).
w Show who is logged on and what they are doing.
id Print your user-id and group id's
df Report filesystem disk space usage (“Disk Free” is how I remember it)
Disk Usage in a particular directory. “du -s” provides a summary for the current
du
directory.
Displays CPU processes in a full-screen GUI. A great way to see the activity on your
top
computer in real-time. Type “Q” to quit.
free Displays amount of free and used memory in the system.
cat /proc/cpuinfo Displays information about your CPU.
cat /proc/meminfo Display lots of information about current memory usage.
uname -a Prints system information to the screen (kernel version, machine type, etc.)
Other Utilities
Here are some other commands that are useful to know.

Linux Command Description

clear Clear the screen
Display text on the screen. Mostly useful when writing shell scripts. For
echo
example: echo “Hello World”
Display a file, or program output one page at a time. Examples:
more more mp3files.txt
ls -la | more
An improved replacement for the “more” command. Allows you to scroll
less
backwards as well as forwards.
Search for a pattern in a file or program output. For example, to find out
which TCP network port is used by the “nfs” service, you can do this:
grep grep .nfs. /etc/services
This looks for any line that contains the string “nfs” in the file “/etc/services”
and displays only those lines.
Print a file or program output. Examples:
lpr lpr mp3files.txt - Print the mp3files.txt file
ls -la | lpr - Print the output of the “ls -la” command.
sort Sort a file or program output. Example: sort mp3files.txt
“Switch User”. Allows you to switch to another user's account temporarily.
The default account to switch to is the root/superuser account. Examples:
su su - Switch the root account
su - - Switch to root, and log in with root's environment
su larry - Switch to Larry's account

Some Shortcuts to Make it all Easier!

Shortcut Description
Up/Down Arrow Scroll through your most recent commands. You can scroll back to an old command, hit
Keys ENTER, and execute the command without having to re-type it.
“history”command Show your complete command history.
If you type a partial command or filename that the shell recognizes, you can have it
automatically completed for you if you press the TAB key. Try typing the first few
TAB Completion
characters of your favourite Linux command, then hit TAB a couple of times to see what
happens.
Complete recent Try this: Type “!” followed by the first couple of letters of a recent command and press
commands with ENTER! For example, type:
“!” find /usr/bin -type f -name m\* ...and now type: !fi
Search your
Press CTRL-R and then type any portion of a recent command. It will search the
command history
commands for you, and once you find the command you want, just press ENTER.
with CTRL-R
Scrolling the
screen with Shift-
Scroll back and forward through your terminal.
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