Basic SHELL commands (for Putty)

Overview of the most common basic SHELL commands. I typically use PuTTY, a free telnet and SSH Client for Windows and Unix platforms. It is lightweight and easy to use and doesn't need installing (can run from a flash disk).

Navigating directories

cd

...change directory, method used for moving from one folder to another.

cd foldername/foldername2

...would take you to foldername2.

cd .. 

...moves up one directory.

cd / 

...moves you to root.

pwd 

...prints to console your present working directory - where you currently are.

List contents

ls 

...list contents of current directory.

ls -l 

...shows long format inc. group owner, size, date modified, permissions.

ls -a

...shows ALL files inc. hidden files.

ls -R 

...lists contents of sub directories recursively.

ls -la

...the above options can be used at the same time.

ls foldername/foldername 

...list items in folder without actually moving to it.

Creating files and directories/folders

touch file.html 

...use the touch command to create files.

rm file.html 

...use the rm command to remove a file.

mkdir myfolder 

...use the mkdir command to create a new directory/folder.

rmdir myfolder 

...use the rmdir command to remove a directory/folder, folder must be empty.

mv folder1/file.html folder2/file.html 

...use the mv command to move a file. Can also be used to rename a file.

File and directory/folder permissions and ownership

chmod 755 file.html 

...changes the file.html file permissions, same for a folder.

chmod -r 755 myfolder 

...changes permissions for that folder and all folders and files inside it recursively.

Here are the chmod octal numeric values

• 700: only owner can read
• 755: everyone can read but not write
• 775: only group can read and write
• 770: no-one but group can read
• 666: everyone can read and write
• 1777: everyone can read,write,execute

 

chown user:myself file.html 

...changes the ownership of file.html to the user called 'myself'.