| Display the current working directory | pwd |
| Change to my home directory | cd |
| Change directory up a level | cd .. |
| Change directory down a level into dir | cd dir |
| Create a new subdirectory dir | mkdir dir |
| Remove an empty subdirectory dir | rmdir dir |
| List all the files in the current directory | ls |
| List only the files here with names starting with 'a' | ls a* |
| List only the files here with names ending with '.c' | ls *.c |
| List all the files in directory dir | ls dir |
| Make a copy of file source and name it dest | cp source dest |
| Change the name of file source to dest | mv source dest |
| Change the name of directory source to dest | mv source dest |
| Move the file file to directory dir | mv file dir |
| Remove the file file | rm file |
| Remove all the files ending in '.txt' in interactive mode | rm -i *.txt |
| Remove all the files in the current directory in interactive mode | rm -i * |
| Display all the command line arguments | echo |
| Show what type of file file is | file file |
| Show how many lines, words and characters there are in file | wc file |
| Display all the text in file file | cat file |
| Concatenate all the text in files file1, file2, file3 | cat file1 file2 file3 |
| Interactively browse through the text in file file | less file |
| Display the top several lines in file file | head file |
| Display the bottom several lines in file file | tail file |
| Display the lines of file file that contain word | grep word file |
| Show the current date and time | date |
| Browse the manual for command name | man name |
| Run shell commands from file file | source file |
| List the files packed in a tar archive file | tar -tf file |
| Unpack all files in a tar archive file into the current directory | tar -xf file |
| Start an interactive gnuplot process | gnuplot |
| Compile C source file file.c into executable file file | gcc file.c -o file |
| Terminate shell and close terminal | exit |