3.3. Basic shell commands

Unix shell

Unix shell is a command-line interpreter [...] that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command language and a scripting language, and is used by the operating system to control the execution of the system using shell scripts.

Users typically interact with a Unix shell using a terminal emulator;

If that does not mean much to you, this is what a terminal and shell commands look like:

ohmyzsh
Figure from Oh My Zsh.

Some basic Unix shell commands

Change the working directory.

cd ~/tmp

List the contents of the working directory.

$ ls

Create an empty file.

$ touch file.txt

Create a copy of the file.

$ cp file.txt copy-of-file.txt

Move the file (and/or rename it).

$ mv file.txt file2.txt

Create a new folder.

$ mkdir tmp

Delete a file.

$ rm file.txt

Delete a directory.

$ rm -r ~/tmp

Write to a file overwriting its contents.

$ echo Hello world > file.txt

Write to a file by appending to its contents.

$ echo Hello again world >> file.txt

Print the contents of the file on the terminal.

$ cat file.txt

Display the contents of the file on the terminal page-by-page.

$ less file.txt

If you are using windows...

On Windows, many of these commands are different.

Check the table below for a list of Windows equivalent commands.

Windows	Linux	Description
`dir`	`ls -l`	List the contents of the current directory.
`copy`	`cp`	Copy a file.
`ren`	`mv`	Rename a file.
`move`	`mv`	Move a file.
`cls`	`clear`	Clear the screen.
`del`	`rm`	Delete files.
`fc`	`diff`	Compare contents of files.
`find`	`grep`	Search for a string in a file.
`cd`	`cd`	Change the current directory.
`chdir`	`pwd`	Return your current directory location.
`md`	`mkdir`	Create a new directory/folder.
`echo`	`echo`	Print something on the screen.
`edit`	`vim` (depends on editor)	Write into file.
`exit`	`exit`	Leave the terminal/command window.
`rmdir`	`rm -rf` / `rmdir`	Delete a directory.
`tree`	`ls -R`	List a directory recursively.
`type`	`cat`	Print the contents of a file.

This table was adapted from this source.

Windows Subsystem for Linux

Alternatively, Windows users can install the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) lets developers run a GNU/Linux environment -- including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications -- directly on Windows, unmodified, without the overhead of a traditional virtual machine or dual-boot setup.