Introduction
What is Linux ?
Basic commands
cd command
ls command
Introduction:-
Everybody has at least one friend who is this pro “Linux” guy, who often looks down on Windows and Mac users. If you are frustrated about your “Linux” friend’s rants and wanted to see what all the fuss about Linux is or you just wanted to try a Linux flavor out of curiosity, then you might have come across the term “Linux Commands”.
In this Beginner's Linux Commands, we will try to help you understand a little bit about Linux in general and how to get started with an ocean of Linux Commands. It just means that there are a lot of commands. So, let’s get started.
what is Linux ?
Linux is an operating system’s kernel. You might have heard of UNIX. Well, Linux is a UNIX clone. But it was actually created by Linus Torvalds from Scratch. Linux is free and open-source, which means that you can simply change anything in Linux and redistribute it in your own name! There are several Linux Distributions, commonly called “Distros”.
Some of the common Linux Distributions are Debian, Kali Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, openSUSE, Arch Linux, Manjaro Linux, Gentoo etc.
Basic Commands:-
pwd command-
Thepwd
is short for Present Working Directory. It's a command-line utility tool that returns the path to the directory you're in at that moment. The output contains the full system path of the current working directory. By default,pwd
ignores the symbolic links but with a proper option, you can look at the full physical path of the current working directory.
$ cd /home/dd/Pictures
$ pwd
/home/dd/Pictures
cd command-
Thecd
command stands for “change directory,” and it allows you to navigate from one directory to another. To navigate to a particular folder withcd
command, pass the folder path as the parameter, like so
$ cd /home/dd/Documents
$ pwd
/home/dd/Documents
With no options, thecd
command changes the working directory to the user’s home directory.
$ cd
$ pwd
/home/dd
Another way of doing the same i.e to navigate to the home directory quickly is to use the~
switch.
$ cd ~
$ pwd
/home/dd
You may want to navigate to the previous working directory without typing the entire folder path again.cd
-
does exactly that.
$ cd /home/dd/Documents
$ pwd
/home/dd/Documents
$ cd -
$ pwd
/home/dd
mv Command-
Themv
command is a utility command thatmoves files and folders from one location to another. Themv
command can move a single file, multiple files, and directories. To move a single file usingmv
, pass the name of the file that needs to be moved as a first parameter and the new file name as a second parameter. In this casemv
commandsrenamesthe filename.
$ mv a.txt b.txt
// renames the file a.txt to b.txt
$ mv some_directory new_directory
// renames the folder some_directory to new_directory
To move a group of files to a folder, pass the name of the files followed by the destination folder name withcd
command.
$ mv a.txt b.txt c.txt some_directory
OR
$ mv *.txt some_directory
By default themv
command overwrites the destination file. To prompt before overwriting the destination file, use the-i
option.
$ mv -i a.txt b.txt
mv: overwrite 'b.txt' ?
rm Command-
Therm
command is short for "remove." It's used to delete files and directories.Be cautious when you use therm
command because once a file or directory is deleted, you cannot recover it later.To delete a single file, just pass the name of the file along with therm
command.
$ rm file.txt
It is also possible to delete multiple files at one go.
$ rm file1.txt file2.txt image.png
To delete a directory, use the-r
switch, which means to delete all files and folders recursively.
$ rm -r some_directory
To perform deletion safely and interactively, use the-i
switch, which prompts before each delete action is performed.
$ rm -i file.txt
rm: remove regular file ‘file.txt’? y
mkdir command-
mkdir
command is "make a directory." To create a directory, pass the name of the directory along withmkdir
command.
$ mkdir test_directory
Sometimes, you need to create a nested directory structure. Rather than creating directories one by one, use the-p
option to create an entire directory structure.
$ mkdir -p dir1/dir2/dir3
$ tree dir1
dir1
└── dir2
└── dir3
If you wantmkdir
to give details of what operation it is performing in the process of creating directories, use the-v
switch.
$ mkdir -v -p dir_1/dir_2/dir_3
mkdir: created directory 'dir_1'
mkdir: created directory 'dir_1/dir_2'
mkdir: created directory 'dir_1/dir_2/dir_3'
ls-Listing commands
ls option_flag arguments
--> list the sub directories and files avaiable in the present directory
ls option_flag arguments
ls -l
--> list the files and directories in long list format with extra informationls -a
--> list all including hidden files and directoryls *.sh
--> list all the files having .sh extension.ls -i
--> list the files and directories with index numbers inodesls -d */
--> list only directories.(we can also specify a pattern)