THE ONE PAGE LINUX MANUAL
A summary of useful Linux commands
Version 3.0 May 1999 [email protected]
Starting & Stopping
shutdown -h now Shutdown the system now and do not
reboot
halt Stop all processes - same as above
shutdown -r 5 Shutdown the system in 5 minutes and
reboot
shutdown -r now Shutdown the system now and reboot
reboot Stop all processes and then reboot - same
as above
startx Start the X system
Accessing & mounting file systems
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom
/mnt/cdrom
Mount the device cdrom
and call it cdrom under the
/mnt directory
mount -t msdos /dev/hdd
/mnt/ddrive
Mount hard disk “d” as a
msdos file system and call
it ddrive under the /mnt
directory
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1
/mnt/cdrive
Mount hard disk “a” as a
VFAT file system and call it
cdrive under the /mnt
directory
umount /mnt/cdrom Unmount the cdrom
Finding files and text within files
find / -name fname Starting with the root directory, look
for the file called fname
find / -name ”*fname*”Starting with the root directory, look
for the file containing the string fname
locate missingfilename Find a file called missingfilename
using the locate command - this
assumes you have already used the
command updatedb (see next)
updatedb Create or update the database of files
on all file systems attached to the linux
root directory
which missingfilename Show the subdirectory containing the
executable file called missingfilename
grep textstringtofind
/dir
Starting with the directory called dir ,
look for and list all files containing
textstringtofind
The X Window System
xvidtune Run the X graphics tuning utility
XF86Setup Run the X configuration menu with
automatic probing of graphics cards
Xconfigurator Run another X configuration menu with
automatic probing of graphics cards
xf86config Run a text based X configuration menu
Moving, copying, deleting & viewing files
ls -lList files in current directory using
long format
ls -FList files in current directory and
indicate the file type
ls -laC List all files in current directory in
long format and display in columns
rm name Remove a file or directory called
name
rm -rf name Kill off an entire directory and all it’s
includes files and subdirectories
cp filename
/home/dirname
Copy the file called filename to the
/home/dirname directory
mv filename
/home/dirname
Move the file called filename to the
/home/dirname directory
cat filetoview Display the file called filetoview
man -k keyword Display man pages containing
keyword
more filetoview Display the file called filetoview one
page at a time, proceed to next page
using the spacebar
head filetoview Display the first 10 lines of the file
called filetoview
head -20 filetoview Display the first 20 lines of the file
called filetoview
tail filetoview Display the last 10 lines of the file
called filetoview
tail -20 filetoview Display the last 20 lines of the file
called filetoview
Installing software for Linux
rpm -ihv name.rpm Install the rpm package called name
rpm -Uhv name.rpm Upgrade the rpm package called
name
rpm -e package Delete the rpm package called
package
rpm -l package List the files in the package called
package
rpm -ql package List the files and state the installed
version of the package called
package
rpm -i --force package Reinstall the rpm package called
name having deleted parts of it (not
deleting using rpm -e)
tar -zxvf archive.tar.gz or
tar -zxvf archive.tgz
Decompress the files contained in
the zipped and tarred archive called
archive
./configure Execute the script preparing the
installed files for compiling
User Administration
adduser accountname Create a new user call accountname
passwd accountname Give accountname a new password
su Log in as superuser from current login
exit Stop being superuser and revert to
normal user
Little known tips and tricks
ifconfig List ip addresses for all devices on
the machine
apropos subject List manual pages for subject
usermount Executes graphical application for
mounting and unmounting file
systems
