Useful Linux commands

From Earlham CS Department
Revision as of 20:24, 22 March 2025 by Tdjones22 (talk | contribs) (Starting fresh; added some file and directory management commands.)
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The one-stop shop for all your Linux command needs. Most commands listed will work on our machines, though that can vary based on installed packages and/or operating systems.

File and Directory Management

ls

Lists all files and directories

  • ls -a - List all files, including hidden ones like .ssh, .bashrc, and so on.
  • ls -l - Include extra file information like permissions, owner, groups, modified date, and more.
  • ls -s - List size of files in blocks.
  • ls -S - List by size, largest first.

cd

Used to change the directory.

  • cd - When no path is specified, you will move to the user's home directory. As root, you will move to /root/. As your user, you will move to /eccs/home/<username>/.
  • cd /path/to/file - When changing directories, if you're not in the immediate parent directory, you need to specify the full path. For example, if my current working directory is /etc, I can cd jupyterhub since it's within /etc. However, if my current working directory is /bin, I would have to specify the full path for /etc/jupyterhub.