Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

Using Basic Commands

It is impossible to know how many commands the average command-line citizen uses, but if we had to guess, we would place it at about 25. Some of these were introduced in Chapter 9, “Command-Line Quickstart,” but are covered here with greater depth. Others will be new to the reader. Still others are only mentioned in this list to give the reader ideas for further study. Here are some commands that every command-line user will want to learn:

• cat—Prints the contents of a file

• cd—Changes directories

• chmod—Changes file access permissions

• cp—Copies files

• du—Prints disk usage

• emacs—Edits text files

• find—Finds files by searching

• gcc—Compiles C/C++/Fortran programs

• grep—Searches for a string in input

• less—Filters ...