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.
Compressing and backing up files and folders
zip -r foo.zip foo/
...compress the folder 'foo' and all of its contents into a zip file called 'foo.zip'.
zip foo.zip foo.html
...compress the file'foo.html' into a zip file called 'foo.zip'.
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'.
