Basic Commands

pwd - print current working directory
cd - change directory
mkdir - make directory
ls - list
cp - copy
mv - move (a.k.a. rename)
rm - remove
less - page back and forth through a file without opening up a text editor
cat - concatenates files and prints them
man - view the man pages for a command
which - locates a command on your path
touch - change the timestamp of a file (or creates it if it doesn’t already exist)
grep - find a string within directory/files
echo - print something out
history - prints out your command history
exit - exits the terminal

up arrow - recall a previous command
!123 - recall command number 123
tab key - auto-complete a command or file name; hit tab twice to show options
clear - command to clear the screen
CTRL-a - go to the beginning of the line
CTRL-e - go to the end of the line
CTRL-_ - undo last change
CTRL-u - put everything back to the beginning of the line in your shell's copy buffer
CTRL-y - bring back everything from the shell's copy buffer and add it your commands
CTRL-k - kill/delete to the end of the line
q - quit commands like less or man to return to the command line
CTRL-c - stop running commands

Let’s play around with these commands and keystrokes and see what they output. Remember to use man to figure out the format of the command.

Experiment!

Try this now:

BabyMac:~ jennapederson$