Help File Library: Basic Command Reference for UNIX/Linux

Linux/UNIX command	Description	MS-DOS equivalent
./foo	start foo (allocated in current dir.)	foo
­ / ¯	previous / next command	doskey
cd x (or cd /x)	go to directory x	cd
cd .. (or cd ../ or cd /..)	go down one directory	cd..
x then [tab] <beep> [tab]	view all commands starting with x	-
adduser	add a user to the system	/
ls (or dir)	list a directory	dir
cat	view a textfile on the terminal	type
mv x y	move or rename file x to file y	move
cp x y	copy file x to file y	copy
rm x	delete a file	del
mkdir x	make a directory	md
rmdir x	remove a directory	rd
rm -r x	remove directory x and all its underlying files	deltree
rm p	remove a package	-
df (or df x)	Show free space on device x	chkdsk ?
top	view memory status (q to quit)	mem
man x	get a manual page about command x	/
less x	view text file x (note that the more filter works under Linux too!)	type x |more
echo	print something on the screen	echo
mc	Norton Commander for UNIX	nc
mount	to couple a device (e.g. CD-ROM, umount to uncouple)	-
halt	to shutdown	-
reboot ([ctrl] + [alt] + [del])	to restart	[ctrl] + [alt] + [del]

Advanced commands

chmod <permissions> <file>	Change file permissions
ls -l x	Perform a detailed directory listing for file x
ln -s x y	Make a symbolic link from x to y
find x -name y -print	find file y, begin the search from within directory x and print the results to the screen
ps	to view all running processes
kill x	to terminate process x (x is PID from ps)
[alt] + F1 - F7	switch to terminal 1 - 7 (in text terminal; F7 = X-Windows (when started))
lilo	to make a boot disk

Terminology

symlink	Symbolic link to another file or directory. Like Win95's shortcuts
shell script	Like MS-DOS's batchfiles; perform a series of commands after another.

X-Windows

startx	to start X-windows
[ctrl] + [alt] + [backsp]	to quit X during trouble
[ctrl] + [alt] + F1 - F6	to switch to text terminal 1 - 6 (in X-windows)
xf86Config	most primitive setup/configurator for x (in text terminal)
Xconfigurator	another configurator for X in text terminal
xf86Setup	an X-Windows configurator for X
configX	to configure Metro-X server