Translations by Namhyung Kim

Basic Commands

Using this Guide

man intro(1)

"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.

All command names, file names or paths to directories will be shown using a <command>monospace font</command>.

All the commands on this guide are to be issued from a command prompt in a <application>Terminal</application> and will be shown as: <screen>command to type</screen>

Starting a Terminal

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>.

File and Directory Commands

cd

To navigate into the root directory, type: <screen>cd /</screen>

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

To navigate up one directory level, type: <screen>cd ..</screen>

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

pwd

ls

cp

mv

rm

mkdir

System Information Commands

df

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.