Basic Commands for New Users

To list the contents of a directory, open the terminal and type

ls

ls stands for list.

For more details, use

ls -l

-l stands for long.

To view all files, including hidden files use

ls -a

In Linux, hidden filenames start with a “.”

You can combine -l and -a, like this

ls -al

To change to a directory within the one you are in, use

cd directory-name

To change to a directory in the directory in one you are in, use

cd directory-name/directory-name

To change to the root directory, use

cd /

To change to a directory in root, use

cd /directory-name

To change to the home directory, use

cd ~/

To change to a directory within the home directory, use

cd ~/directory-name

To change up to the directory containing the one you are in, use

cd ..

To change up two levels, use

cd ../..

To display the contents of a file, use

cat filename

This may be used to read text files.

To have root or administrator permissions, use

sudo

before commands.

For example, to start the text editor as root or administrator, use

sudo editor

To stop an application, use

killall name-of-application