One of the challenges that new Linux users face is the using of bash command on the terminal. Even though some Linux distro (such as Ubuntu Gutsy) has improved the user interface a great extent and reduced the need to execute applications via command line, there will still be cases where using the command line terminal is required.

As a Linux newbie, there are some commands that you may want to acquaint with.

apt-get – Retrieve a Debian package from the Net. It is often used together with install and autoremove. For example:

sudo apt-get install vlc

retrieve the vlc package and install it on your system.

sudo apt-get autoremove vlc

will uninstall your vlc application and all dependencies package.

cd – change the current directory.

cd foldername

change the current directory to foldername

clear – clear the terminal screen.

chmod – change the permission of a file or folder.

sudo chmod 777 yourfile

allow everyone to read/write/execute yourfile

cp – copy a file/folder from one destination to another destination

cp yourfile /home /home/temp

copys yourfile from home to temp folder

mv – move a file/folder from one destination to another destination

mv yourfile /home /home/temp

move yourfile from home to temp folder

mount – mount an external device

sudo mount /media/sda1

chown – change the file owner and group

sudo chown root /u

change the owner of /u to root

tar – Untar (or uncompress) or tar (or compress) a file with the .tar extension

tar -xf compress.tar

dir – list the folders in the current directory.

eject – eject disc from optical device

grep - Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern.

grep -i ‘hello world’ menu.h

look for the statement with ‘hello world’ in the file menu.h

gzip – compress or uncompress a file in .gz format

To uncompress: gzip myfile.txt.gz

To compress: gzip myfile.txt

fsck – check the consistency of file system and repair it

make – recompile a group of program, or source code

mkdir – create new directory/folder

mkdir temp

passwd – modify a user password

wget – retrieve web pages or file via HTTP, HTTPS, FTP

wget -r ‘http://abc.com/yourfile.pdf’

retrieve yourfile.pdf from the web url

rm – remove a file from a folder.

rm filename

rmdir – remove a folder

rmdir /temp

shutdown – shutdown or restart linux

useradd – add a user account

sudo useradd –gid prison criminal

adds the user criminal to the group prison

usermod – modify a user account

users – list the current users

If there is anything that you are unsure of, you can always append --help to the end of the command to show usage instruction.