Memory Exercise 1: Paths, basic commands

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and commands from Memory Exercise 1: Paths, basic commands.

Pathname

A route through the Unix file system tree to a directory or file.

Absolute pathname

Starts at the root directory.

Root directory

The starting point of the file system; symbol is /.

Slash

The symbol that represents the root directory in Unix.

Absolute path names start with

A forward slash (/) indicates an absolute path.

Relative path names start at

The working directory (current directory).

Working directory

The directory you are currently in.

Relative pathname

A path that does not start with /; it is relative to the current working directory.

Absolute path to Joe's music directory

/home/joe/music

The absolute path example

/home/joe/music (example value of an absolute path).

The relative path to Joe's music directory

music.

The relative path example

music (as a path from Joe's home directory).

Hidden files start with

A dot (.) at the start of the filename.

ls

List directory contents; by default, shows file names only.

ls -l

List directory contents in long format with permissions, size, timestamps, etc.

ls -A

List directory contents including hidden files.

touch file1

Create a new empty file named file1.

touch existing_file

Update the timestamp on an existing file named existing_file.

vi (vim) file1

Edit file1; creates it if it does not exist.

cat file1

Display the contents of file1 as a text stream.

cat file1 file2

Display the contents of file1 and file2 (concatenate and show).

more file1

Display file1 one page at a time (older pager).

less file1

Display file1 one page at a time (modern pager).

head file1

Show the first 10 lines of file1.

tail file1

Show the last 10 lines of file1.

pwd

Print the current working directory.

mkdir new_dir

Create a directory named new_dir.

cd new_dir

Change the working directory to new_dir.

rmdir empty_dir

Remove an empty directory named empty_dir.

rm -ri full_dir

Remove a directory that has files in it, with interactive prompts.

cp file1 file2

Copy file1 to file2.

mv file3 new_name

Rename file3 to new_name.

mv file4 diff_dir

Move file4 from the current directory to the directory named diff_dir.

rm file5

Delete file5.

man command

Look up the online manual page for a command.