The-Online-Quest: Basic Linux Commands

Here are some basic Linux commands. Some are well known and some aren't.Share some with other newbies so they to can get more familiar with the terminal command line. These commands work on Mandrake 8.1 system.

xkill      - Kills a running program

exit       - Exits the terminal

reboot     - Reboots the system

halt       - Shutsdown the computer

startx     - Starts xwindows from terminal

man        - man(command)shows help files

info       - info(command) shows help files

--help     - (command)--help shows help files

su         - Allow you to login as Super User

ls         - "Lists" the contents of the directory

pwd        - Displays "present working directory"

cd         - cd (name) change directory TO:(name)

mkdir      - mkdir (name) Makes new directory

rmdir      - rmdir (name) Removes directory

clear      - Clears the terminal window

date       - Displays current date and time

cal        - Displays a calander

uptime     - Displays time since last reboot

df         - Displays the disk usage on partitions

du         - Displays disk usage of directory

id         - Displays your identification to system

groups     - Displays groups of current user

ulimit -a  - Displays users limits

uname      - Displays name of machine logged into

who        - Displays "who" is logged on the system

w          - Similar to "who"

wall       - Sends message to all logged in users

top        - Displays cpu processes memory etc

ps         - Displays current running processes

RPM's Mandrake and RedHat

rpm -q 
Check if installed already

rpm -ih 
To Install the rpm

rpm -Uvh
To Update a program using an rpm

Bored try this:

apropos file 
List tons of file commands

Many of the commands listed above have options that can be added to change the
output of that command. To see what they are do a : man (command) and it will show you the options.

The command line is hard to learn to use at first. Really hard for us converted MS$
users :) but it is worth the effort.

To start a program "like Opera" type the name at the command prompt: $ opera

There are many file commands that I didn't list due to the complexity of them. Read up on them and you can harness the power of your computer from the command line!