Compression Command Action tar cf file.tar files create a tar named file.tar containing files tar xf file.tar extract the files from file.tar tar czf file.tar.gz files create a tar with Gzip compression tar xzf file.tar.gz extract a tar using Gzip tar cjf file.tar.bz2 create a tar with Bzip2 compression tar xjf file.tar.bz2 extract a tar using Bzip2 gzip file compresses file and renames it to file.gz gzip -d file.gz decompresses file.gz back to file Disk Quotas Command Action du -s -h ~ returns the disk size of your home directory (and all files/folder within it) File Commands Command Action ls directory listing ls -al formatted listing with hidden files cd change to home directory cd dir change directory to dir pwd show current directory mkdir dir create a directory dir rm file delete file rm -r dir delete directory dir rm -f file force remove file rm -rf dir force remove directory dir; – use with extreme caution – cp file1 file2 copy file1 to file2 cp -r dir1 dir2 copy dir1 to dir2; create dir2 if it doesn't exist mv file1 file2 rename or move file1 to file2 if file2 is an existing directory; moves file1 into directory file2 ln -s file link create symbolic link link to file touch file create or update file cat > file places standard input into file more file output the contents of file head file output the first 10 lines of file tail file output the last 10 lines of file tail -f file output the contents of file as it grows, starting with the last 10 lines File Permissions Command chmod octal file Change the permissions of file to octal, which can be found spearately for user, group, and world by adding: 4 - read (r) 2 - write (w) 1 - execute (x) Examples: chmod 777 - read, write, execute for all chmod 755 - rwx for owner, rx for group and world For more options, use command man chmod. For information on man see Linux Man (Manual) Pages. Installation Command Action ./configure make make install Install from source dpkg -i pkg.deb install a package (Debian) rpm -Uvh pkg.rpm install a package (RPM) Network Command Action ping host ping host and output results whois domain get whois information for domain dig domain get DNS information for domain dig -x host reverse lookup host wget file download file wget -c file continue a stopped download Printing Command Action lpr filename Print the specified file filename program | lpr -P printer Print output of the program program lpr -#num-copies filename Print multiple copies of file filename lpr -o sides-two-sided-long-edge filename Print file filename on both sides of paper lpr -o page-ranges=range filename Print page ranges range (ex: 1-4,7,9-12) from file filename lpr -o fit-to-page filename Print file filename so it scales to the page lpr -o outputorder=reverse filename Print file filename in reverse order Searching Command Action grep pattern files search for pattern in files grep -r pattern dir search recursively for pattern in dir command | grep pattern search for pattern in the output of command locate file find all instances of file Shortcuts A (k) next to the command donates a keyboard command, not a typed command. Command Action (k) Ctrl+C halts the current command (k) Ctrl+Z stops the current command, resume with fg in the foreground or bg in the background (k) Ctrl+D log out of current session, similar to exit (k) Ctrl+W erases one word in the current line (k) Ctrl+U erases the whole line (k) Ctrl+R !! repeats the last command exit log out of current session SSH Command Action ssh user@host connect to host as user ssh -p port user@host connect to host on port port as user ssh-copy-id user@host add your key to host for user to enable a keyed or passwordless login System Info Command Action date show the current date and time cal show this month's calendar uptime show current uptime w display who is online whoami who you are logged in as finger user display information about user uname -a show kernel information cat /proc/cpuinfo cpu information cat /proc/meminfo memory information man command shows the manual for command; see more @ Linux Man (Manual) Pages df show disk usage du show directory space usage free show memory and swap usage wheris app show possible locations of app which app show which app will be run by default