Useful Shell Commands

Files and directories

pwdPrint working directory
cdChange directory
mkdirMake a new directory
rmdirRemove directory
lsList the contents of a directory
cpCopy files and directories
mvMove (rename) files and directories
rmRemove files or directories
catConcatenate files
moreView a file in the terminal
lessLike more but can go backwards
lpPrint a text file on the lineprinter

Miscellaneous commands

manDisplay an on-line manual page
infoRead info documents
odOctal dump
chmodChange file access permissions
wcWord count
grepPrint lines matching a pattern
findSearch for files in a directory hierarchy
psReport process status
killTerminate a process

Redirection and pipes

p1 | p2Pipe: connect output from p1 to input of p2
< fileRedirect standard input from file
> fileRedirect standard output to file
2> fileRedirect standard error to file
>> fileAppend standard output to file
2>> fileAppend standard error to file