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Cheatography

linux file and directory commands by

Navigation

Utility
Purpose
pwd
Display current working directory
cd
Change directory
ls
List files and direct­ories
tree
Display directory tree

Delete

Utility
Purpose
rm
Remove files/­dir­ect­ories
rmdir
Remove empty direct­ories
shred
Securely overwrite and remove files

File Inform­ation

Utility
Purpose
stat
Detailed file inform­ation
file
Determine file type
ls -l
File permis­sions and ownership
du
Directory size
df
Directory size

Compare Files

Utility
Purpose
diff
Compare files line by line
cmp
Compare byte by byte
comm
Compare sorted files
 

Create

Utility
Purpose
touch
Create empty file/u­pdate timestamp
mkdir
Create directory

View Files

Utility
Purpose
cat
Display file contents
less
View large files
more
Simple pager
head
First lines
tail
Last lines
nl
Display line numbers

Links

Utility
Purpose
ln
Create hard links
ln -s
Create symbolic links
readlink
Display symbolic link target
realpath
Resolve absolute path

Archive & Compre­ssion

Utility
Purpose
tar
Archive
cpio
Archive
gzip
Compress
bzip2
Compress
xz
Compress
 

Copy & Move

Utility
Purpose
cp
Copy files/­dir­ect­ories
mv
Move or rename files/­dir­ect­ories

Search

Utility
Purpose
find
Search files/­dir­ect­ories
locate
Fast filename search
which
Locate executable
whereis
Locate binary, source, man page

Permis­sions & Ownership

Utility
Purpose
chmod
Change permis­sions
chown
Change owner
chgrp
Change group
umask
Set default permis­sions

File Synchr­oni­zation

Utility
Purpose
rsync
Synchr­onize files/­dir­ect­ories

Disk Usage

Utility
Purpose
du
Directory usage
df
Filesystem usage
 

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