Essential Terminal Commands
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In the realm of Unix-like operating systems, mastery of the command-line interface (CLI) is a fundamental skill for system administrators, developers, and power users alike. The terminal serves as a gateway to interact directly with the underlying system, offering a myriad of commands to query system information, manipulate files and directories, manage processes, and more. Among these commands, a handful stand out as essential tools for navigating and understanding the system’s environment. From querying system information with commands like uname and df, to monitoring system processes with top, this article serves as a comprehensive guide to mastering the essential terminal commands required for efficient system administration and troubleshooting.
Navigation Commands
List Directory Contents
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ ls
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ ls -lt
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ ls -ls
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ ls -la
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ ls -d */
Change directory
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cd
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cd ..
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cd directory_name
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cd ~username
Print working directory
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ pwd
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cd echo $PWD
Make directory
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ mkdir directory_name
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ mkdir directory1 directory2 directory3
Remove directory
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ rmdir directory_name
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ rmdir directory1 directory2 directory3
File Management Commands
Create an empty file
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ touch filename
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ touch file1 file2 file3
Copy files and directories
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cp source_file destination_file
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cp file1 file2 file3 directory/
Move or rename files and directories
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ mv old_name new_name
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ mv file1 file2 file3 directory/
Concatenate and display file content
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cat filename
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ cat file1 file2 file3
System Information Commands
Print system/kernel information
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ uname -a
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ uname -s
Display system processes
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ top -a
Display disk usage
amitabhadey@amitabhadey:~$ df -h