Directory Navigation

Move around your file system quickly without taking your hands off the keyboard.

File Management

# Create a new empty file
touch filename.txt

# Create a new directory
mkdir new_folder

# Remove a file
rm filename.txt

# Remove a directory and its contents recursively
rm -rf folder_name/

# Copy a file
cp source.txt destination.txt

# Copy a directory recursively
cp -r source_dir/ dest_dir/

# Move or rename a file
mv old_name.txt new_name.txt

File Permissions

[!IMPORTANT] The chmod command uses numbers to represent permissions: Read (4), Write (2), Execute (1).

# Give owner read/write/execute (7), group and others read/execute (5)
chmod 755 filename.sh

# Give owner read/write (6), everyone else read-only (4)
chmod 644 document.txt

# Make a script executable for the owner
chmod u+x script.sh

Process Management

# View all currently running processes
top

# View a snapshot of running processes
ps aux

# Kill a process by its PID (Process ID)
kill 1234

# Force kill a process
kill -9 1234

# Kill a process by its name
pkill node

Text Processing

# View the contents of a file
cat file.txt

# View file contents interactively (scrollable)
less file.txt

# Search for a pattern inside a file
grep "search_term" file.txt

# Search for a pattern recursively in a directory
grep -r "search_term" src/

# View the last 10 lines of a file
tail file.txt

# Follow a file in real-time (useful for logs)
tail -f app.log