Translations by Thomas Øverby

"Under Linux there are GUIs (graphical user interfaces), where you can point and click and drag, and hopefully get work done without first reading lots of documentation. The traditional Unix environment is a CLI (command line interface), where you type commands to tell the computer what to do. That is faster and more powerful, but requires finding out what the commands are." -- from <placeholder-1/>

This guide will make you familiar with basic GNU/Linux shell commands. It is not intended to be a complete guide to the command line, just an introduction to complement Xubuntu's graphical tools.

<emphasis role="strong">Note that your system is case sensitive.</emphasis> User, user, and USER are all different, be careful with your capitalization.

To open a <application>Terminal</application> do as follow:

Choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guisubmenu>Accessories</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Terminal</guimenuitem></menuchoice>;

Or press <keycombo><keycap>Alt</keycap><keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> and type <command>xfce4-terminal</command>.

To navigate to your home directory, type: <screen>cd</screen> or <screen>cd ~</screen>

To navigate to the previous directory (or back), type: <screen>cd -</screen>

To navigate through multiple levels of directory at once, specify the full directory path that you want to go to. For example, type: <screen>cd /var/www</screen> to go directly to the <filename class="directory">/www</filename> subdirectory of <filename class="directory">/var/</filename>. As another example, type: <screen>cd ~/Desktop</screen> to move you to the <filename class="directory">Desktop</filename> subdirectory inside your home directory.

pwd

The <application>Xfce4 Terminal</application> also displays this information in the title bar of its window.

ls

The <command>ls</command> command will allow you to see the files in the directory you are in (<acronym>ls</acronym> stands simply for "list"). Used with certain options, you can see sizes of files, when files where made, and permissions of files. For example, typing <screen>ls ~</screen> will show you the files that are in your home directory. Examples:

To list all the files (including hidden files), type: <screen>ls -a</screen>

To list your root patition, type: <screen>ls /</screen>

To list one time per line, type: <screen>ls -1</screen>

cp

The <command>cp</command> command will make a copy of a file for you (<acronym>cp</acronym> stands simply for "copy"). For example, type: <screen>cp file foo</screen> to make a exact copy of <filename>file</filename> and name it <filename>foo</filename>, but the file <filename>file</filename> will still be there.

mv

<command>mv</command>: The <command>mv</command> command will move a file to a different location or will rename a file (<acronym>mv</acronym> stands simply for "move"). Examples:

To rename a file named <filename>file</filename> to <filename>foo</filename>, type: <screen>mv file foo</screen>.

To move the file <filename>foo</filename> to your <filename class="directory">Desktop</filename>, type: <screen>mv foo ~/Desktop</screen>. This will move foo but will not rename it. You must specify a new file name to rename a file.

If you are using <command>mv</command> with <command>sudo</command> you will not be able to use the <emphasis role="strong">~</emphasis> shortcut, but will have to use the full pathnames to your files. This is because when you are working as root, <emphasis role="strong">~</emphasis> will refer to the root account's home directory, not your own.

rm

The <command>rm</command> will remove or delete a file in your directory (<acronym>rm</acronym> stands simply for "remove"). It will not work on directories which have files in them. To remove directories, you can use <command>rm -r</command>. The <emphasis>r</emphasis> stands for <emphasis>recursive</emphasis>. For example: <screen>rm -r foo</screen> will remove the directory named foo and all of its contents.

Using <command>rm -r</command> will delete a complete directory and everything in it without further questions, so be careful with this command.

mkdir

The <command>mkdir</command> command will allow you to create directories (<acronym>mkdir</acronym> stands simply for "make directory"). For example, typing: <screen>mkdir music</screen> will create a music directory in the current directory.

df

The <command>df</command> command displays filesystem disk space usage for all partitions (<acronym>df</acronym> stands simply for "disk free"). <screen>df -h</screen> will give information using megabytes (M) and gigabytes (G) instead of blocks (<emphasis role="strong">-h</emphasis> means "human-readable").

free

The <command>free</command> command displays the amount of free and used memory in the system. <screen>free -m</screen> will give the information using megabytes, which is probably most useful for current computers.

top

The <command>top</command> command displays information on your GNU/Linux system, running processes and system resources, including CPU, RAM &amp; swap usage and total number of tasks being run. To exit <application>top</application>, press <keycap>q</keycap>.

uname

The <command>uname</command> command with the <emphasis role="strong">-a</emphasis> option, prints all system information, including machine name, kernel name &amp; version, and a few other details. Most useful for checking which kernel you're using.

lsb_release

Adding a New Group

Options

"Man" and getting help

Scrolls through the commands you've entered previously.