Common Linux terminal commands

This notebook lists common commands used on the Linux terminal.

Right-click

Jupyter’s terminals work with Shift + Right-click. This is important when you want to paste something copied earlier.

For sftp

  • If you are inside of sftp> prompt, the usual commands are executed on the remote machine and the ones in parentheses are executed on local machine.
  • The commands which are not succeeded by parentheses cannot be executed locally (with l as a prefix) from sftp> prompt.
  • To run any command from inside of the sftp> prompt, precede it with a !. You can do it for the ones that work with l as a prefix too.

Try out the commands on the following terminal:

from IPython.display import IFrame


your_gitlab_username = "mdrpanwar"  # change this to your username
IFrame(
    "https://hub.besos.uvic.ca/user/" + your_gitlab_username + "/terminals/3",
    width=1200,
    height=250,
)

pwd (or lpwd)

  • Usage: pwd
  • Used to get the current working directory(CWD). We will use the term CWD time and again. It means the directory your terminal is in right now. All commands are executed inside this directory.

ls (or lls)

  • Usage: ls
  • ‘lists’ out the directories and files in the CWD [Hidden directories/files are not shown.]
  • Use ls -a to list out even the hidden directories/files.

mkdir (or lmkdir)

  • Usage: mkdir dir_name
  • To make a directory named dir_name in the CWD.

cd (or lcd)

  • Usage: cd dir_name

  • ‘Changes CWD’ to the directory named dir_name. Here dir_name must be a directory residing inside the current working directory or a path starting within CWD.

  • Every directory in linux contains . and .., which refers to the current working directory and parent of current working directory respectively.

  • Use cd .. to navigate to the parent of the CWD.

  • Consider the following directory structure:

  • parent

    • inparent

      • inchild
        • simple.out
        • a.out
        • b.out
      • inchild1
        • incurrentdir
        • c.out

    • inparent2

  • Examples (from inside of parent/inparent/inchild1):

    • cd ../inparent/inchild
    • cd incurrentdir

rm

  • Usage: rm filename_1 filename_2 ... filename_n
  • To delete the files named filename_1, filename_2, …., filename_n from the CWD.
  • To delete a directory, use rm -r dir_name where dir_name is a directory residing in CWD or a path to a diretory.
  • Instead of being name of files in CWD, filename_ican also be a path to a file.
  • Examples (from inside of parent/inparent/inchild):
    • rm simple.out
    • rm a.out b.out
    • rm ../inchild1/c.out

mv

  • Usage: mv filename_1 filename_2 ... filename_n dir_name
  • To move filename_1, filename_2, …., filename_n to directory dir_name.
  • Instead of being name of file in CWD, filename_i can also be a path to a file.
  • Instead of being name of directory in CWD, dir_namecan also be a path to a directory.
  • Examples (from inside of parent/inparent/inchild1):
    • mv c.out incurrentdir
    • mv ../inchild/a.out ../../inparent2

cp

  • Usage: cp filename_1 filename_2 ... filename_n dir_name
  • To copy filename_1, filename_2, …., filename_n to dir_name directory.
  • To copy a directory dir_name1 into directory dir_name2, use cp -r dir_name1 dir_name2 where dir_name1 and dir_name2 are directories residing in CWD or paths to directories..
  • Instead of being name of file in CWD, filename_i can also be a path to a file.
  • Instead of being name of directory in CWD, dir_namecan also be a path to a directory.
  • Examples (from inside of parent/inparent/inchild1):
    • cp c.out incurrentdir
    • cp ../inchild/a.out ../../inparent2

top

  • Usage: top
  • Lists out all the running processes with the resourses being used by each process.
  • The output is similar to that of Task Manager on Windows.