| Operation | Command | Usage Example |
| Find out where you are ... your present working directory | pwd | pwd (displays the full pathname of your current directory) |
| List the files in the current directory | ls OR ls -l OR ls -a |
ls lists just the names of the files in the current directory; ls -l gives a long listing that includes the file name, permissions, the owner, the size, and the date; ls -a lists all files in the directory, including some system files whose names start with a period; ls -la gives a long listing of all files; ls -l s* gives a long listing of all files whose name starts with s. (There are lots of other variations!) |
| Create (make) a new subdirectory of your current working directory | mkdir directory_name | mkdir lab1 (creates a directory named lab1 within your current directory) |
| Change to another directory | cd pathname | cd lab1 (Changes to the lab1 subdirectory of your current directory) (Changes to user jdoe's lab1 directory) |
| Copy a file | cp originalFile newFile
cp originalFile newDirectory |
cp myProgram.java ~prof/cs120/assignments (copies a file named myProgram.java into the assignments subdirectory of user "prof") (copies a file named myProgram.java into a file named newTry.java (in the same directory); WARNING: if there was already a file named newTry.java it would be wiped out!) (copies a file named example.java in the cpsc home directory to the present directory (that is what the dot means)) |
| Rename a file (same as moving it to a file with a different name) | mv oldName newName | mv myProg.java hello.java renames the file myProg.java; the new name is hello.java WARNING: If there was already a file named hello.java it would be erased by this command. |
| Print a file | nenscript -2rG filename | nenscript -2rG myProgram.java (prints the file myProgram.java in a nice format (that saves paper!) to the lab printer) |
| View a file on the screen | more filename OR less filename |
(displays the contents of the file myProgram.java on the monitor one page at a time. Press the space bar to go to the next page; type b to go back to the previous page; type q to quit. less is similar.) |
| Delete (remove) a file | rm filename | rm myProgram.java (deletes the file myProgram.java in the current directory) |
| Delete (remove) a directory | rmdir directoryName | rmdir lab1 (removes the directory lab1 from the current directory. The directory must be empty to remove it.) |