Linux Shell Commands and Resources

These flashcards cover key commands and important resources related to the Linux shell.

The Unix Shell

A website that introduces you to Linux.

LinuxCommand.org

A website dedicated to learning the Linux command line, also provides a free PDF copy of William Shotts’s book The Linux Command Line.

explainshell.com

A site that explains what each argument of a command means when you type it in.

bzip2

A block-sorting file compressor that deletes the original file after compression.

bunzip2

A command that decompresses files, specifically requiring a .bz2 file extension.

cat

Command to concatenate files and print them on standard output.

cd

Command to change directory.

cp

Command to copy files and directories.

chmod

Command to change file mode bits, referring to user types and permissions.

cut

Command used to remove sections from each line of files.

file

Command used to determine the file type.

grep

Command to print lines matching a pattern.

head

Command to output the first part of files.

ls

Command to list directory contents.

less

File filter for scrolling on screen; allows backward scrolling unlike the original command more.

mkdir

Command to make directories.

mv

Command to move (or rename) files.

pwd

Command to print the name of the current/working directory.

rm

Command to remove files or directories.

rmdir

Command to remove empty directories.

sort

Command to sort lines of text files.

tail

Command to output the last part of files.

tar

Archive utility to save multiple files together and extract files from an archive.

uniq

Command to report or omit repeated lines in a file.

wc

Command to print newline, word, and byte counts for each file.