Linux Basic Administration Concepts

Common commands

Below is a list of useful UNIX commands and what they do, so you can read their manual pages:

Command Usage
cd
Change directory
pwd
Print working directory
ls
Show directory contents
cp
Copy file or directory
mv
Move file or directory
rm
Delete file or directory
mkdir
Make directory
rmdir
Remove directory
ps
Show running processes (programs)
top
Show CPU usage interactively
kill
Terminate running process
df
Show free/used disk space
du
Show disk usage of specified directory
which
Locate programs via path
locate
Find stuff on harddisk
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