Linux Shell Commands

Linux Shell Commands - Tutorial 1

Check your current directory:

pwd

Change to the root directory of the file system:

	cd /

Verify your current directory:

pwd

List directories at the filesystem root:

ls

List all the system configuration files in the 'etc' directory:

	ls etc

List directories under the 'usr' directory:

	ls usr

List system include files in /usr/include:

	ls usr/include

List system command files in /usr/bin:

	ls usr/bin

List home directories under /users:

	ls users

Move to your home directory:

	cd ~

Verify your current directory:

pwd

List the files already here, if any:

ls

Create a subdirectory to temporarily test some commands in:

	mkdir test

Change down a level into the test subdirectory:

	cd test

List the files here, empty since we just created it:

ls

The 'echo' command just sends its command line arguments to standard output:

	echo Dedman Fondren Heroy Dallas

Redirect the output of the 'echo' command into a file:

	echo Dedman Fondren Heroy Dallas > test1

See that the file was created in the current directory:

ls

Show the type of the file just created:

	file test1

Display the file contents:

	cat test1

Copy the contents to another file, 'test2':

	cp test1 test2

List the files now in the current directory:

ls

Display the contents of the new copied file:

	cat test2

Concatenate the two files and display the result:

	cat test1 test2

Use the 'mv' command to change the name of 'test2' to 'test3':

	mv test2 test3

List the files now present:

ls

Verify the contents of the renamed file:

	cat test3

Display the current date and time:

	date

Redirect the output of the 'date' command into a file

	date > test4

List the files now present:

ls

Display the contents of the new file:

	cat test4

Generate some more words of text:

	echo McFarlin Daniel Airline Dyer

Now redirect the 'echo' command output and append it to an existing file:

	echo McFarlin Daniel Airline Dyer >> test1

Check the contents of the file:

	cat test1

Append some other words to another file:

	echo Bishop Ownby Binkley >> test4

Append the name of the current working directory to the file as well:

	pwd >> test4

Check the contents of the file:

	cat test4

Check the expansion of a file "globbing" wildcard character:

	echo test?

Check the expansion of another file "globbing" wildcard character:

	echo t*

Concatenate the contents of all the files:

	cat t*

Display the line, word and character count in a file:

	wc test4

Display the file listing in long format:

	ls -l test4

Total the word count in all the files:

	wc test?

Concatenate the contents of all the files and count the resulting words:

	cat test? | wc

Create another subdirectory:

	mkdir junk1

Make it the current working directory:

	cd junk1

Verify the current directory:

pwd

Generate some text in a file by copying a system configuration file:

	cp /etc/services test1.txt

Check the history of commands entered in this shell:

	history

Generate another text file by redirecting the output of 'history':

	history > test2.txt

Redirect some keyboard input into the 'cat' command, into its standard input and through its standard output, to a third text file, control-D key will terminate:

	cat > test3.txt

Display the contents of the third text file:

	cat test3.txt

Check the files created in the current directory, and list their sizes:

	ls -l

Get total word counts for the files:

	wc *.txt

Browse through the first large text file:

	less test1.txt

Browse through the second large text file:

	less test2.txt

Display all lines in the first file containing the text 'http':

	grep http test1.txt

Display all lines in the first file containing the text 'server':

	grep server test1.txt

Browse through all lines in the first file containing the text 'server':

	grep server test1.txt | less

Display the top of the first text file:

	head test1.txt

Display the bottom of the first text file:

	tail test1.txt

Display all the 'echo' commands previously entered:

	grep echo test2.txt

Count the number of 'echo' commands previously entered:

	grep echo test2.txt | wc

Another way to count the number of 'echo' commands previously entered:

	grep -c echo test2.txt

Change directory to one level up:

	cd ..

Verify what the current directory is:

pwd

List the contents here:

ls

Create an archive file junk1.tar that bundles together the subdirectory junk1 and all its contents:

	tar -cf junk1.tar junk1

Display the contents of the archive file junk1.tar:

	tar -tf junk1.tar

Create another temporary subdirectory:

	mkdir junk2

Show the new subdirectory was created:

ls

List the text files one level down in the first subdirectory:

	ls junk1

Use the 'mv' command to move the text files from the first to the second subdirectory:

	mv junk1/*.txt junk2

Verify the files are in the second subdirectory:

	ls junk2

Show the first subdirectory is now empty:

	ls junk1

Remove the first subdirectory:

	rmdir junk1

Check the result status of the 'rmdir' command:

	echo $?

Try removing the second subdirectory:

	rmdir junk2

Check the result status of this 'rmdir' command:

	echo $?

Delete all the files in the second subdirectory:

	rm junk2/*

Now remove the second subdirectory:

	rmdir junk2

Check the result status of this 'rmdir' command:

	echo $?

See what is left in the current directory:

ls

Move one directory level up to your home directory:

	cd ..

Use the 'mv' command to rename the temporary subdirectory:

	mv test work

Check the results of the directory rename:

ls

Try removing the temporary subdirectory:

	rmdir work

Delete all the files in the temporary subdirectory:

	rm work/*

Now remove the temporary subdirectory:

	rmdir work