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Bash Terminal commands

In this document, I will be listing some of the most common terminal commands used in bash terminal.

  • Ways to go to home directory.

    • cd - Go to home directory.
    • cd ~ - Go to home directory.
    • cd /home/username - Go to home directory.
    • cd $HOME - Go to home directory.
    • cd ../../ - Go two directories back and so on.

  • Some general commands

    • ls - List all files in the current directory.
    • ls -l - List all files in the current directory in long format including permissions, owner, group, size, and date.
    • ls -a - List all files in the current directory including hidden files.
    • ls -la - List all files in the current directory in long format including permissions, owner, group, size, and date including hidden files.
    • pwd - Print working directory.
    • file filename - Get the type of file.
    • cd some\ file\ name - Go to a directory with spaces in the name.

  • Saving the current directory and going to another directory.

    • pushd directory - Save the current directory and go to the directory which is given.
    • popd - Go back to the directory which is saved by pushd.

  • locate filename - Best way to find the any filename in system, you can either provide the exact filename or part of the filename, it will show you all matching paths. It uses a database which is updated by updatedb command as follows sudo updatedb.

  • which filename - Check if any such tool is installed in the system or not.

  • cal - Show the calendar of the current month.

  • cal 2021 - Show the calendar of the year 2021.

  • cal 10 2021 - Show calender of 10th month of 2021.

  • date - Show the current date and time.

  • Command history

    • history - Show the history of commands.
    • !! - Run the last command.
    • !n - Run the nth command from the history.
    • !-n - Run the nth command from the last.
    • Or use up arrow key.

  • Knowing about commands

    • whatis command - Get a one-line description of the command.
    • apropos keyword - Search command related to keyword you have provided.
    • man command - Get the manual of the command. It is like documentation of some command. Some commands may not have manual.
    • info command - Get the info of the command. It is like documentation of some command. Some commands may not have info. Works same as man command.

  • Working with files and directories

    • mkdir directoryname1 directoryname2 - Create directories, you can provide multiple directories, or you can create directories one by one.
    • touch filename - Create a file, if file already exists then it will update the timestamp of the file, more files can be created at once also like mkdir command.
    • cp filename1 filename2 - Copy the file from filename1 to filename2. If filename2 is a directory then it will copy the file to that directory.
      • Example - cp —/.bashrc bashrc - Copy the file .bashrc to the file bashrc.
    • Note - If you press tab to auto-complete the filename, then if it does it means file exists.. so inclusively it is working like ls command.
    • mv filename1 filename2 - Move the file from filename1 to filename2. If filename2 is a directory then it will move the file to that directory. Also it can be used to rename the file. In this case filename2 is the new name of the filename1.
    • rm filename - It removes the filename file, and their is no way you can get back it to your system.
    • rm * - It removes all files in the current directory.
    • rm file* - It removes all files starting with file in the current directory. For example rm cat* will remove all files starting with cat.
    • rm -r directory - It removes the directory and all files and directories inside it.
    • rm -rf directory - It removes the directory and all files and directories inside it forcefully.
    • rmdir directory - It removes the directory if it is empty.
    • rmdir * - It removes all removes all empty directories in the current directory, it is very useful.

  • Working with files content

    • cat filename - Show the content of the file.
    • cat >> filename - Append the content to the file, if file does not exist then it will create the file and write content in it. So basically you're saving effor to create a file through touch, and editing it through nano or vim.
    • cat file1 file2 - Show the content of file1 and file2 combined in terminal.
    • cat file1 file2 > file3 - Combine the content of file1 and file2 and save it in file3.