Linux Commands

A variety of resources related to Unix and Linux, esp. command line tools

Linux is the operating system that is used on the machines in Phelps 3525 and the CSIL lab.

Linux is a particular variant of the Unix family of operating systems.

The Mac operating system from version 10 onward (i.e. MacOS X) is also a Unix derived system.

Most of what you will be using related to Unix/Linux actually pertains to command line tools that you access from the bash shell. This includes commands such as ls, cd, mkdir, cp, mv, etc. A great way to learn about these commands is to type another command man followed by the desired command. ie. man ls will provide the following manual plus more:

• ls -- list directory contents
• cd -- change the shell working directory
• pwd -- print name of current/working directory
• mkdir -- make directories
• cp -- copy files and directories
• mv -- move (rename) files
• rm -- remove files or directories
• grep -- print lines matching a pattern
• cat -- concatenate files and print on the standard output
• chmod -- change file mode bits
• ssh -- secure shell client (remote login program)

While these commands are associated with Unix, because they originally appeared on Unix systems, in fact, they have been ported to many other systems as well. Cygwin is a package for Windows that allows users to run many programs associated with Unix on Windows systems.

You can also get many of these tools by using a bash shell for Windows such as the git bash shell that comes with Git for Windows, or the bash shell that is being provided with Windows 10.