Shell Basics

Home shortcut

    

~

Current directory shortcut

    

.

Parent directory shortcut

    

..

Print working directory

    

pwd

Print text

    

echo "Hello world"

Change directories

    

cd folder-name

Move into user directory

    

cd ~

Move up a directory

    

cd ..

Move up multiple directories

    

cd ../..


    
    

cd ../../..

List files and folders

Options:

  • -1: List in one column
  • -A: Include hidden folders
  • -F: Add slash to end of folders
  • -G: List with colors
  • -l: List in long format
    

ls


    
    

ls folder-name


    
    

ls folder-1 folder-2

Create file(s)

    

touch file-name.txt


    
    

touch file-name-1.txt file-name-2.txt

Create folder(s)

    

mkdir folder-name


    
    

mkdir folder-1 folder-2

Create intermediate folders

    

mkdir -p folder-1/folder-2


    
    

mkdir -p folder-1/folder-2/folder-3

View file contents

    

cat file-name.txt


    
    

less file-name.txt

View file contents (with line numbers)

    

cat -n file-name.txt


    
    

less -n file-name.txt

Learn more about a command

    

man command