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UsingTheTerminal

Why use the command-line? Contents

1. Why use the command-line?

"Under Linux there are GUIs (graphical user interfaces), where you can 2. Starting a Terminal
point and click and drag, and hopefully get work done without first reading 1. In Unity
lots of documentation. The traditional Unix environment is a CLI (command 2. In GNOME
line interface), where you type commands to tell the computer what to do. 3. In Xfce (Xubuntu)
That is faster and more powerful, but requires finding out what the 4. In KDE (Kubuntu)
commands are." 5. In LXDE (Lubuntu)
3. Commands
-- from man intro(1)
1. sudo: Executing Commands with
Elevated Privileges
There are many varieties of Linux, but almost all of them use similar
2. File & Directory Commands
commands that can be entered from a command-line interface terminal. 3. Running a File Within a Directory
4. System Information Commands
There are also many graphical user interfaces (GUIs), but each of them 5. Adding A New User
works differently and there is little standardization between them. 4. Options
Experienced users who work with many different Linux distributions 5. "Man" and getting help
therefore find it easier to learn commands that can be used in all varieties of 1. Searching for man files
Ubuntu and, indeed, in other Linux distributions as well. 6. Other Useful Things
1. Prettier Manual Pages
For the novice, commands-line interface commands can appear daunting: 2. Pasting in commands
3. Save on typing
4. Change the text
sudo gobbledegook blah_blah -w -t -h --long-switch aWkward/ComBinationOf/mixedCase/underscores_strokes/and.dots
7. More ways to run a terminal
However, it is important to note that even experienced users often cut and 8. An extremely handy tool :: Incremental history
paste commands (from a guide or manual) into the command-line terminal; searching
they do not memorize them. 9. How to create upsidedown and/or reverse text
with your terminal
It is important, of course, to know how to use the command-line terminal - 10. More Information
and anyone who can manage typing, backspacing, and cutting and pasting
can manage the command-line terminal (it is not more difficult than that).

This page will outline a few crafty shortcuts which can make using a command-line interface easier.

Starting a Terminal
In Unity
Unity is the default desktop environment used as of 11.04. Where systems are not ready for Unity they revert to GNOME which is
also used in previous releases such as Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid), see next sub-section.

The easiest way to open the Terminal is to use the 'search' function on the dash. Or you can click on the 'More Apps' button, click
on the 'See more results' by the installed section, and find it in that list of applications. A third way, available after you click on the
'More Apps' button, is to go to the search bar, and see that the far right end of it says 'All Applications'. You then click on that, and
you'll see the full list. Then you can go to Accessories -> Terminal after that. So, the methods in Unity are:

Dash -> Search for Terminal

Dash -> More Apps -> 'See More Results' -> Terminal

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Dash -> More Apps -> Accessories -> Terminal

Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T

In GNOME
GNOME is the classic desktop environment for Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) and is the default desktop environment in earlier releases,
such as Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid).

Applications menu -> Accessories -> Terminal.

Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T

In Xfce (Xubuntu)
Applications menu -> System -> Terminal.

Keyboard Shortcut: Super + T

Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T

In KDE (Kubuntu)
KMenu -> System -> Terminal Program (Konsole).

In LXDE (Lubuntu)
Menu -> Accessories -> LXTerminal.

Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T

Commands
sudo: Executing Commands with Elevated Privileges
Most of the following commands will need to be prefaced with the sudo command. This elevates privileges to the root-user
administrative level temporarily, which is necessary when working with directories or files not owned by your user account.
When using sudo you will be prompted for your password. Only users with sudo (administrative) privileges will be able to
use this command. You should never use normal sudo to start graphical applications as root. (Please see RootSudo for more
information on using sudo correctly.)

File & Directory Commands

The tilde (~) symbol stands for your home directory. If you are user, then the tilde (~) stands for /home/user

pwd: The pwd command will allow you to know in which directory you're located (pwd stands for "print working
directory"). Example: "pwd" in the Desktop directory will show "~/Desktop". Note that the GNOME Terminal also displays
this information in the title bar of its window. A useful gnemonic is "present working directory."

ls: The ls command will show you ('list') the files in your current directory. Used with certain options, you can see sizes of
files, when files were made, and permissions of files. Example: "ls ~" will show you the files that are in your home
directory.

cd: The cd command will allow you to change directories. When you open a terminal you will be in your home directory. To
move around the file system you will use cd. Examples:

To navigate into the root directory, use "cd /"

To navigate to your home directory, use "cd" or "cd ~"

To navigate up one directory level, use "cd .."

To navigate to the previous directory (or back), use "cd -"

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To navigate through multiple levels of directory at once, specify the full directory path that you want to go to. For
example, use, "cd /var/www" to go directly to the /www subdirectory of /var/. As another example, "cd ~/Desktop"
will move you to the Desktop subdirectory inside your home directory.

cp: The cp command will make a copy of a file for you. Example: "cp file foo" will make an exact copy of "file" and name
it "foo", but the file "file" will still be there. If you are copying a directory, you must use "cp -r directory foo" (copy
recursively). (To understand what "recursively" means, think of it this way: to copy the directory and all its files and
subdirectories and all their files and subdirectories of the subdirectories and all their files, and on and on, "recursively")

mv: The mv command will move a file to a different location or will rename a file. Examples are as follows: "mv file foo"
will rename the file "file" to "foo". "mv foo ~/Desktop" will move the file "foo" to your Desktop directory, but it will not
rename it. You must specify a new file name to rename a file.

To save on typing, you can substitute '~' in place of the home directory.

Note that if you are using mv with sudo you can use the ~ shortcut, because the terminal expands the ~ to your home
directory. However, when you open a root shell with sudo -i or sudo -s, ~ will refer to the root account's home
directory, not your own.

rm: Use this command to remove or delete a file in your directory.

rmdir: The rmdir command will delete an empty directory. To delete a directory and all of its contents recursively, use rm
-r instead.

mkdir: The mkdir command will allow you to create directories. Example: "mkdir music" will create a directory called
"music".

man: The man command is used to show you the manual of other commands. Try "man man" to get the man page for man
itself. See the "Man & Getting Help" section down the page for more information.

sudo: The sudo command is used to perform file operations on files that the Root User would only be allowed to change.
An example would be trying to move one of your documents that another user accidentally moved to / back to your
documents directory. Normally, to move the file, you would type mv /mydoc.odt ~/Documents/mydoc.odt, but you are not
allowed to modify files outside of your home directory. To get around this, you would type sudo mv /mydoc.odt
~/Documents/mydoc.odt. This will successfully move the file back to its correct location, provided that you are not a
standard user, who has less (administrative) ability than an administrator. Be aware, though, that by using the sudo
command, you need to be extra careful. It is easier to damage your system by using the sudo command. For more
information about the sudo command, click here.

Running a File Within a Directory

So you've decided to run a file using the command-line? Well... there's a command for that too!

./filename.extension

After navigating to the file's directory, this command will enable any Ubuntu user to run files compiled via GCC or any other
programming language. Although the example above indicates a file name extension, please notice that, differently from some
other operating systems, Ubuntu (and other Linux-based systems) do not care about file extensions (they can be anything, or
nothing). Keep in mind that the 'extension' will vary depending upon the language the source code is written in. Also, it is
not possible, for compiled languages (like C and C++) to run the source code directly -- the file must be compiled first,
which means it will be translated from a human-readable programming language to something the computer can
understand. Some possible extensions: ".c" for C source, ".cpp" for C++, ".rb" for Ruby, ".py" for Python, etc. Also, remember
that (in the case of interpreted languages like Ruby & Python) you must have a version of that language installed on Ubuntu
before trying to run files written with it.

Finally, the file will only be executed if the file permissions are correct -- please see the FilePermissions help page for details.

System Information Commands

df: The df command displays filesystem disk space usage for all mounted partitions. "df -h" is probably the most useful - it
uses megabytes (M) and gigabytes (G) instead of blocks to report. (-h means "human-readable")

du: The du command displays the disk usage for a directory. It can either display the space used for all subdirectories or the
total for the directory you run it on. Example:

user@users-desktop:~$ du /media/floppy

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1032 /media/floppy/files
1036 /media/floppy/
user@users-desktop:~$ du -sh /media/floppy
1.1M /media/floppy/

-s means "Summary" and -h means "Human Readable"

free: The free command displays the amount of free and used memory in the system. "free -m" will give the information
using megabytes, which is probably most useful for current computers.

top: The top ('table of processes') command displays information on your Linux system, running processes and system
resources, including CPU, RAM & swap usage and total number of tasks being run. To exit top, press "q".

uname -a: The uname command with the -a option prints all system information, including machine name, kernel name &
version, and a few other details. Most useful for checking which kernel you're using.

lsb_release -a: The lsb_release command with the -a option prints version information for the Linux release you're running,
for example:

user@computer:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric

ip addr reports on your system's network interfaces.

Adding A New User

"adduser newuser" command will create a new general user called "newuser" on your system, and to assign a password for
the newuser account use "passwd newuser".

Options
The default behaviour for a command may usually be modified by adding a --option to the command. The ls command for
example has an -s option so that "ls -s" will include file sizes in the listing. There is also a -h option to get those sizes in a "human
readable" format.

Options can be grouped in clusters so "ls -sh" is exactly the same command as "ls -s -h". Most options have a long version,
prefixed with two dashes instead of one, so even "ls --size --human-readable" is the same command.

"Man" and getting help

man command, info command and command --help are the most important tools at the command line.

Nearly every command and application in Linux will have a man (manual) file, so finding them is as simple as typing "man
"command"" to bring up a longer manual entry for the specified command. For example, "man mv" will bring up the mv
(move) manual.

Move up and down the man file with the arrow keys, and quit back to the command prompt with "q".

"man man" will bring up the manual entry for the man command, which is a good place to start!

"man intro" is especially useful - it displays the "Introduction to user commands" which is a well-written, fairly brief introduction
to the Linux command line.

There are also info pages, which are generally more in-depth than man pages. Try "info info" for the introduction to info pages.

Some software developers prefer info to man (for instance, GNU developers), so if you find a very widely used command or app
that doesn't have a man page, it's worth checking for an info page.

Virtually all commands understand the -h (or --help) option which will produce a short usage description of the command and it's
options, then exit back to the command prompt. Try "man -h" or "man --help" to see this in action.

Caveat: It's possible (but rare) that a program doesn't understand the -h option to mean help. For this reason, check for a man or
info page first, and try the long option --help before -h.

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Searching for man files

If you aren't sure which command or application you need to use, you can try searching the man files.

man -k foo will search the man files for foo. Try "man -k nautilus" to see how this works.

Note that this is the same as doing apropos command.

man -f foo searches only the titles of your system's man files. Try "man -f gnome", for example.

Note that this is the same as doing whatis command.

Other Useful Things

Prettier Manual Pages
Users who have Konqueror installed will be pleased to find they can read and search man pages in a web browser context,
prettified with their chosen desktop fonts and a little colour, by visiting man:/command in Konqueror's address bar. Some people
might find this lightens the load if there's lots of documentation to read/search.

Pasting in commands
Often, you will be referred to instructions that require commands to be pasted into the terminal. You might be wondering why the
text you've copied from a web page using Ctrl + C won't paste in with ctrl+V. Surely you don't have to type in all those nasty
commands and filenames? Relax. ctrl+shift+V pastes into a GNOME terminal; you can also do middle button click on your
mouse (both buttons simultaneously on a two-button mouse) or right click and select Paste from the menu. However, if you want
to avoid the mouse and yet paste it, use "Shift + Insert", to paste the command. If you have to copy it from another terminal /
webpage, you can use "Ctrl + Insert" to copy.

Save on typing

Up Arrow or
Scrolls through the commands you've entered previously.
Ctrl + P

Down Arrow
Takes you back to a more recent command.
or Ctrl + N

Enter When you have the command you want.

A very useful feature. It autocompletes any commands or filenames, if there's only one option, or else gives you a
tab
list of options.

Searches for commands you've already typed. When you have entered a very long, complex command and need to
Ctrl + R repeat it, using this key combination and then typing a portion of the command will search through your command
history. When you find it, simply press Enter.

The history command shows a very long list of commands that you have typed. Each command is displayed next
History to a number. You can type !x to execute a previously typed command from the list (replace the X with a number).
If you history output is too long, then use history | less for a scrollable list.

Example: you ran history and found you want to use command 1967. Simply enter

!1967

Change the text

The mouse won't work. Use the left/right arrow keys to move around the line.

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When the cursor is where you want it in the line, typing inserts text - ie it doesn't overtype what's already there.

Ctrl + A or Home Moves the cursor to the start of a line.

Ctrl+ E or End Moves the cursor to the end of a line.

Esc + B Moves to the beginning of the previous or current word.

Ctrl + K Deletes from the current cursor position to the end of the line.

Ctrl + U Deletes from the start of the line to the current cursor position.

Ctrl + W Deletes the word before the cursor.

Alt + B Goes back one word at a time.

Alt + F Moves forward one word at a time.

Alt + C Capitalizes letter where cursor is and moves to end of word.

More ways to run a terminal

You can also get it with a function key

You can run more than one - in tabs or separate windows.

You can also install guake (GNOME), tilda (XFCE / LXDE) or yakuake (KDE) and have a terminal which appears and hides on
shortcut key. This can be particularly useful if you use terminal a lot

An extremely handy tool :: Incremental history searching

In terminal enter:

gedit ~/.inputrc

Then copy paste and save:

"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward
"\e[C": forward-char
"\e[D": backward-char

From now on, and many agree this is the most useful terminal tool, it saves you a lot of writing/memorizing...

All you need to do to find a previous command is to enter say the first two or three letters and upward arrow will take you there
quickly:

Say I want:

for f in *.mid ; do timidity "$f"; done

All I need to do is enter:

fo

And hit upward arrow command will soon appear.

How to create upsidedown and/or reverse text with your

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terminal
If you wish or need to ever flip text upside down [vertical flip] "uʍop ǝpısdn ʇxǝʇ dıʃɟ" or/and create reverse text here is a terminal
way to achieve this.

Copy/paste and save the following as flip.pl in your home folder (thanks to Lars Noodén for script).

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use utf8;

binmode(STDOUT, ":utf8");

my %flipTable = (
"a" => "\x{0250}",
"b" => "q",
"c" => "\x{0254}",
"d" => "p",
"e" => "\x{01DD}",
"f" => "\x{025F}",
"g" => "\x{0183}",
"h" => "\x{0265}",
"i" => "\x{0131}",
"j" => "\x{027E}",
"k" => "\x{029E}",
"l" => "|",
"m" => "\x{026F}",
"n" => "u",
"o" => "o",
"p" => "d",
"q" => "b",
"r" => "\x{0279}",
"s" => "s",
"t" => "\x{0287}",
"u" => "n",
"v" => "\x{028C}",
"w" => "\x{028D}",
"x" => "x",
"y" => "\x{028E}",
"z" => "z",
"A" => "\x{0250}",
"B" => "q",
"C" => "\x{0254}",
"D" => "p",
"E" => "\x{01DD}",
"F" => "\x{025F}",
"G" => "\x{0183}",
"H" => "\x{0265}",
"I" => "\x{0131}",
"J" => "\x{027E}",
"K" => "\x{029E}",
"L" => "|",
"M" => "\x{026F}",
"N" => "u",
"O" => "o",
"P" => "d",
"Q" => "b",
"R" => "\x{0279}",
"S" => "s",
"T" => "\x{0287}",
"U" => "n",
"V" => "\x{028C}",
"W" => "\x{028D}",
"X" => "x",
"Y" => "\x{028E}",
"Z" => "z",
"." => "\x{02D9}",
"[" => "]",
"'" => ",",
"," => "'",
"(" => ")",
"{" => "}",
"?" => "\x{00BF}",
"!" => "\x{00A1}",
"\"" => ",",
"<" => ">",

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"_" => "\x{203E}",

";" => "\x{061B}",
"\x{203F}" => "\x{2040}",
"\x{2045}" => "\x{2046}",
"\x{2234}" => "\x{2235}",
"\r" => "\n",
" " => " "
);

while ( <> ) {
my $string = reverse( $_ );
while ($string =~ /(.)/g) {
print $flipTable{$1};
}
print qq(\n);
}

Then to set it up:

sudo mv flip.pl /bin/

cd /bin/
sudo chown yourusername flip.pl && sudo chmod +x flip.pl

Then open terminal and enter:

flip.pl

else

perl /bin/flip.pl

Write what you want and hit return

Copy and paste wherever you want text document or Internet forum, etc...

ɹǝʇuǝ puɐ ʇuɐʍ noʎ ʇɐɥʍ ǝʇıɹʍ ˙˙˙ɔʇǝ ɯnɹoɟ ʇǝuɹǝʇuı ɹo ʇuǝɯnɔop ʇxǝʇ ʇuɐʍ noʎ ɹǝʌǝɹǝɥʍ ǝʇsɐd puɐ ʎdoɔ

==================

If you want to reverse back to front, write your text in a text editor and save as mytext to the home folder.

Then enter:

rev mytext

Copy and paste the result, tluser eht etsap dna ypoc.

And of course you can combine both for truly cryptic results, ɔodʎ ɐup dɐsʇǝ ʇɥǝ ɹǝsnʃʇ

More Information
AptGetHowto - using apt-get to install packages from the command line.

Commandline Repository Editing - adding the Universe/Multiverse repositories through the command line.

grep Howto - grep is a powerful command line search tool.

find Howto - locate files on the command line.

CommandlineHowto - longer and more complete than this basic guide, but still unfinished.

HowToReadline - information on some more advanced customization for the command line.

For more detailed tutorials on the Linux command line, please see:

http://linuxtutorial.todolistme.net - A beginners guide to effective use of the command line.

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide - Bash guide suitable for beginners. One of the few to also teach good practice.

http://linuxcommand.org/ - Basic Bash tutorials, including Bash scripting.

http://linuxsurvival.com/index.php - Java-based tutorials.

http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz - A massive online book about system administration, almost all from the command

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line.

http://www.ss64.com/bash/ - A good list a commands.

http://tinyurl.com/ycyg4mk - Listing of three helpful sites from beginner to advanced scripting.

Ubuntuguide -- concise and up-to-date information for both command-line and GUI users of Ubuntu.

Kubuntuguide -- concise and up-to-date information for both command-line and GUI users of Kubuntu

Head back to UserDocumentation

CategoryCommandLine

UsingTheTerminal (last edited 2015-01-07 08:47:51 by wwijsman @ snow137.customer.bit.nl[213.154.248.137]:wwijsman)

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