7.12 Important Linux Commands
This section gives insight into the most important commands. There are many more
commands than listed in this chapter. Along with the individual commands, parame-
ters are listed and, where appropriate, a typical sample application is introduced. To
learn more about the various commands, use the manual pages, accessed with man
followed by the name of the command, for example, man ls.
Man pages are displayed directly in the shell. To navigate them, move up and down
with [Page ↑] and [Page ↓]. Move between the beginning and the end of a document
with [Home] and [End]. End this viewing mode by pressing [Q]. Learn more about
the man command itself with man man.
In the following overview, the individual command elements are written in dierent
typefaces. The actual command and its mandatory options are always printed as
command option. Specications or parameters that are not required are placed in
[square brackets].
Adjust the settings to your needs. It makes no sense to write ls file if no le named
file actually exists. You can usually combine several parameters, for example, by
writing ls -la instead of ls -l -a.
7.12.1 File Commands
The following section lists the most important commands for le management. It
covers everything from general le administration to the manipulation of le system
ACLs.
7.12.1.1 File Administration
ls [options] [files]
If you run ls without any additional parameters, the program lists the contents
of the current directory in short form.
-l
Detailed list
-a
Displays hidden les
cp [options] source target
Copies source to target.
-i
Waits for conrmation, if necessary, before an existing target is overwritten
-r
Copies recursively (includes subdirectories)
106 Start-Up
