Translations by Jaro Can

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

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

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

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Ubuntu Documentation Project

Canonical Ltd. and members of the <placeholder-1/>

The Ubuntu Documentation Project

Using this Guide

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 Ubuntu'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>

<emphasis role="strong">Note that Linux is case sensitive.</emphasis> User, user, and USER are all different to Linux.

Starting a Terminal

File and Directory Commands

cd

The <command>cd</command> command changes directories. When you open a terminal you will be in your home directory. To move around the file system you will use <command>cd</command>.

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

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

The <command>~</command> character represents the current user's home directory. As seen above, <command>cd ~</command> is equivalent to <command>cd /home/username/</command>. However, when running a command as root (using <command>sudo</command>, for example), <command>~</command> points instead to <filename class="directory">/root</filename>. When running a command with <command>sudo</command>, the full path to your home directory must be given.

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

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

To navigate through multiple levels of directories 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

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

The <command>pwd</command> command outputs which directory you are currently located in (<acronym>pwd</acronym> stands for <quote>print working directory</quote>). For example, typing <screen>pwd</screen> in the <filename class="directory">Desktop</filename> directory, will show <computeroutput>/home/username/Desktop</computeroutput>. <placeholder-1/>

ls

The <command>ls</command> command outputs a list of the files in the current directory. For example, typing <screen>ls ~</screen> will show you the files that are in your home directory.

Used with the <command>-l</command> options, <command>ls</command> outputs various other information alongside the filename, such as the current permissions on the file, and the file's owner.

cp

The <command>cp</command> command makes a copy of a file. For example, type: <screen>cp foo bar</screen> to make an exact copy of <filename>foo</filename> and name it <filename>bar</filename>. <filename>foo</filename> will be unchanged.

mv

The <command>mv</command> command moves a file to a different location or will rename a file. Examples are as follows: <screen>mv foo bar</screen> will rename the file <filename>foo</filename> to <filename>bar</filename>. <screen>mv foo ~/Desktop</screen> will move the file <filename>foo</filename> to your <filename class="directory">Desktop</filename> directory but will not rename it.

rm

<command>rm</command> is used to delete files. <screen>rm foo</screen> deletes the file <filename>foo</filename> from the current directory.

By default, <command>rm</command> will not remove directories. To remove a directory, you must use the <command>-R</command> option. For example, <screen>rm -R foobar</screen> will remove the directory foobar, <emphasis role="strong">and all of its contents!</emphasis>

The <command>mkdir</command> command allows you to create directories. For example, typing: <screen>mkdir music</screen> will create a directory named <filename class="directory">music</filename> in the current directory.

System Information Commands

df

The <command>df</command> command displays filesystem disk space usage for all partitions. <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

uname

lsb_release

Adding a New Group

The <command>addgroup</command> command is used to create a new group on the system. To create a new group, type: <screen>addgroup newgroup</screen> The above command will create a new group called <emphasis role="strong">newgroup</emphasis>.

Adding A New User

The <command>adduser</command> is used to create new users on the system. To create a new user, type: <screen>adduser newuser</screen> The above command will create a new user called <emphasis role="strong">newuser</emphasis>.

To assign a password for the new user use the <command>passwd</command> command: <screen>passwd newuser</screen>

Finally, to assign the new user to the new group, type: <screen>adduser newuser newgroup</screen>