Quick Reference Table

Topic

Command

Purpose

Current directory

Pwd

Show where you are

List files

ls, ls -l, ls -a, ls -lh

View files and folders

Change directory

Cd

Navigate between folders

Create folder

Mkdir

Make a new directory

Create file

Touch

Create an empty file

Remove file

Rm

Delete files

Remove folder

rmdir, rm -r

Delete directories

Copy

Cp

Copy files/folders

Move/Rename

Mv

Move or rename files

View file

Cat

Display file contents

View long file

Less

Scroll through files

First lines

Head

Show beginning of a file

Last lines

Tail

Show end of a file

Search text

Grep

Find text inside files

Find files

Find

Search for files/directories

Search command

Which

Locate a command

Clear terminal

Clear

Clear the screen

Command history

History

View previous commands

Execute program

./program

Run executable files

Permissions

Chmod

Change file permissions

Owner

Chown

Change ownership

Superuser

Sudo

Run commands as administrator

Download

curl, wget

Download files or call APIs

Processes

ps, top

View running processes

Kill process

kill, killall

Stop programs

Disk usage

df -h

Check disk space

Folder size

du -sh

Check directory size

Manual

Man

Read command documentation

Help

–help

Get command usage