I decided to write down a list of every day commands that I use in the the Bash command line in Linux. This is by no means a definitive list and it will grow as I remember or come across commands that make my life easier
ls
- list information about files in the directory
ls -la
- list information about files in the directory
- -l means long listing format
- -a means list all files including ones that start with .
cd [directory]
- change directory to the specified directory
ps
- snapshot of the current processes
ps -ef
- -e select all processes
- -f full format listing
ps -ef | grep [processname]
- grep for the details of a specific process
alias (usually used in the bash profile to be persisted)
- ll -> ls -la
- Aliases for shortcuts to frequently visited directories
- Aliases to bash scripts I've written to automate things like sync'ing a github pages branch with master and pushing to the cloud
source [filename]
- source is a bash shell built-in command that executes the content of the file passed as argument, in the current shell. It has a synonym in '.' (period).
source ~/.bash_profile
- this has the effect of reloading the bash_profile so you don't have to kill & open the terminal to see changes
&&
- used for tying consecutive commands together
- example $ cd Documents && ls -la
&
- Can be used to run two tasks in parallel, the first tasks gets backgrounded
top
- Provides a real time summary of the processes running on your system.
- Can be used to see what's chewing up memory
Ctrl + R
- Reverse search through your bash command history
sudo
- run command as the superuser
sudo -u [user]
- run command as a different user
sudo !!
- run the last command as super user
vi [file]
- edit the file with vi text editor