Translations by Heiki Nooremäe

<application>Konsole</application> also displays this information in both the tab and title bar of its window.

cd - change directory

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

To navigate to the current user's home directory, type: <screen>cd</screen> or <screen>cd ~</screen>

The <command>~</command> character represents the current user's home directory. As shown 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 to <filename class="directory">/root</filename>. When running a <command>cd</command> command with <command>sudo</command>, the full path to the home directory must be given.

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

To navigate up two directory levels, type: <screen>cd ../../</screen>

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

To navigate through multiple levels of directories at once, specify the full directory path. For example, type: <screen>cd /var/log</screen> to go directly to the <filename class="directory">/log</filename> subdirectory of <filename class="directory">/var/</filename>. For another example, typing: <screen>cd ~/Desktop</screen> moves to the <filename class="directory">Desktop</filename> subdirectory inside the current user's home directory.

ls - list files

Used with the <command>-l</command> option, <command>ls</command> outputs other information along with the filename, such as the permissions on the file, the file's owner, and more.

Used with the <command>-al</command> options, <command>ls</command> outputs the information associated with the <command>-l</command> option in addition to showing hidden files (<command>a</command> option).

touch - create empty file

mkdir - make directory

cp - copy files or directories

mv - move files or directories

rm - remove files or directories

System Information Commands

df - display amount of disk space

free - display amount of free and used memory

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 the most useful for current computers.

top - display top consuming processes

uname - print details about the current machine

lsb_release - print details about current Linux release

Executing Commands with Elevated Privileges

Adding a New Group

Adding a New User

Add or Change a User Password

Assign User to Group

Options

The default behavior for a command may usually be modified by adding <command>--option</command> to the command. For example, the <link linkend="ls"><command>ls</command></link> command has an <command>-s</command> option. The <command>ls -s</command> will include file sizes in the listing. There is also a <command>-h</command> option to display file sizes in a <quote>human readable</quote> format.

<quote>Man</quote> and Getting Help

Move up and down the man file with the arrow keys, and quit back to the command prompt with <keycap>q</keycap>.

<screen>man man</screen> brings up the manual entry for the <command>man</command> command, which is a good place to start.

There are also <command>info</command> pages, which generally go into more detail than <command>man</command> pages. Try: <screen>info info</screen> for the introduction to info pages.

Searching for man files

If you aren't sure which command or application you need to use, you can search the <command>man</command> files.

To search the <command>man</command> files for <command>konsole</command>, try: <screen>man -k konsole</screen>

This is the same as the <command>apropos</command> command.

To search only the titles of your system's <command>man</command> files, try: <screen>man -f kde</screen>

This is the same as the <command>whatis</command> command.

Cutting and Pasting

There are often situations that require text to be pasted into the terminal.

Text can also be copied by selecting (highlighting) the text to be copied. Clicking the <mousebutton>middle</mousebutton> button on the mouse (or both buttons simultaneously on a two-button mouse) in the terminal pastes the selected text.

These actions may work differently in other terminal emulators than <application>Konsole</application>. Consult your terminal emulator's documentation for details.

Tips

Save on Typing

<keycap>Up Arrow</keycap> or <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>p</keycap></keycombo>

<keycap>Down Arrow</keycap> or <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>n</keycap></keycombo>