Contents |
| command | purpose | example usage |
$ help |
display shell internal commands | |
$ man |
display manual for command | $ man cp
|
$ cd |
change directory | $ cd ~/tmp
|
$ ls |
dir | $ ls /var/log
|
$ ls -a |
dir all | $ ls -a ~
|
$ cp |
copy | $ cp /home/user/file.txt .
|
$ mv |
move / rename | $ mv oldname newname
|
$ rm |
delete | |
$ rm -r |
delete (also subdirectories) | |
$ nano |
simple editor | |
$ vim |
cool (though initially confusing) editor | $ vim ~/.bashrc
|
$ emacs |
big and annoying editor (Ctrl+x, Ctrl+c to quit) |
How do you get help for the syntax of a command in linux? It depends on the command. If it is an internal shell-command, 'help' is used. If not, 'man' or the '--help' option is used.
The internal commands are part of the shell you are using (e.g. bash). try these examples:
Display a list of the internal commands:
$ help
GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
These shell commands are defined internally. Type `help' to see this list.
Type `help name' to find out more about the function `name'.
...
$ help for display the syntax for using the 'for' command
for: for NAME [in WORDS ... ;] do COMMANDS; done
The `for' loop executes a sequence of commands for each member in a
list of items. If `in WORDS ...;' is not present, then `in "$@"' is
...
the rest of the commands are located as files on the computer.
$ man cp display the manpage for 'cp' ... $ cp --help display short information for 'cp' Usage: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE DEST or: cp [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY or: cp [OPTION]... --target-directory=DIRECTORY SOURCE... Copy SOURCE to DEST, or multiple SOURCE(s) to DIRECTORY.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
-a, --archive same as -dpR
--backup[=CONTROL] make a backup of each existing destination file
...
$ which cp show the location of the program 'cp'
/bin/cp