So you are new to Linux and you downloaded PuTTY (or some other client), connected to your server and you have no idea what to do now.

I will go through some of the most used commands and post screen shots of what it will look like. Before we start if you want to know more about a command you can run “command –help” and it will show the man page for the specific command.

This post is not meant to be a catch all for each commands this post is just to give you a general understanding of how to perform common tasks in a BASH session.

Using cd: Changing Directories:

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Changing directories is very simple, and probably the most common task you will preform in a BASH session.

cd (cd to the user’s home directory)

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cd

cd directory (change to a directory relative to where your at)

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cd TestDirectory

cd /home/connor/directory (change directory relative to the filesystem)

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cd /home/connor/directory

Using ls: Listing Contents:

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Another very common task is listing a directory’s contents.

ls (list current directory)

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ls

ls directory (list directory relative to where your at)

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ls Tutorials/TestDirectory/

ls /home/connor/directory (list directory relative to the filesystem)

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ls /home/connor/Tutorials

There are options you can add to your “ls” command

ls -a # (will list all the files in the directory)
ls -la # (will list all the files in the directory in long list format)

Using mkdir: Making Directories:

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Okay so you can change directories and list the contents and thats all fine and dandy but what about creating directories? Well yet again this is a simple process.

mkdir (make directory)

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mkdir TestDirectory

Using touch: Creating Files:

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Now you want to create a file inside that directory.

touch (create file)

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touch new_file

Using mv:

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So you want to rename or move a file or directory?

mv (move file / directory)

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mv TestDirectory NewTestDirectory

Using rm:

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Now you want to delete or remove a file

Note: This perminantly deletes the file and there is no recycle bin like in Windows!

rm (remove file)

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rm new_file

You can not use this method on directories.

rm -r (remove directory)

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rm -fr NewTestDirectory

You have to -r the rm command here so that it will recursively remove the contents of the directory.

Using chmod:

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To change file permissions you need to use a chmod command. I suggest you learn more about file permissions by reading this page before you attempt this command.

Note: I never suggest using 0777 I was just using this as an example.

chmod

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chmod 0777 TestDirectory

Using chown:

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If you want to change ownership of a file or directory you use use the chown command. To chown a file that doesn’t belong to you, you will need to be root (I don’t suggest) or you need to use sudo.

chown

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sudo chown root:root TestDirectory

As I stated earlier in this post, this is just a simple overview of some of the most commonly used BASH commands. If you have any questions please comment below or in our forums.