DEV Community

Basic UNIX commands

Jérémy Levron on September 12, 2017

Lately, I started learning commands lines. I mean, I used npm install or gulp, but no more. So I started using commands lines and I have to say th...

Read full post

David Woodward • Sep 13 '17 • Edited

If you're finding yourself attacking those annoying commands often, consider setting an alias for them!

Instead of typing ls -AbcClhoG, you could alias all that into ll.

First thing's first, assuming you're using bash/sh and not zsh or variants (use which $SHELL to figure that out!), run nano ~/.bashrc to start editing your config for the shell.

You'll then want to add an alias at the bottom now, using alias ll="ls -AbcClhoG". Easy!

Ctrl + C, Y, Y to save and exit nano, and you'll want to source ~/.bashrc or make a new tab in Terminal to reload your settings.

You can run any commands and name them however you want - even chaining them as you go.

command & command will run them concurrently, whilst command && command will run each individually assuming the last command succeeds. command & will leave the task running indefinitely, so be careful (you can always Ctrl + C out of it).

Can Nuhlar • Sep 14 '17 • Edited

Or you can press Ctrl + Z after you do command & to run it as a background job.

Ian Kirker • Sep 13 '17 • Edited

Using open like that is an OS X/macOS thing -- the FreeDesktop.org standard most Linux distributions adhere to is to use xdg-open.

On Linux, the open command handles virtual terminals.

Jérémy Levron • Sep 13 '17

Oh thank you, I didn't know. I note it

Philip Karlsson • Nov 25 '17

You mentioned the -p flag for rmdir. It can also be used with mkdir, as 'mkdir x/y/z'.

As a few people have mentioned, you can add aliases in your ~/.bashrc.

My favorite is:
mkdcd() {
mkdir $1
cd $1
}
Which makes creating and changing your cwd easy.

And also: cd.. for cd ..

Can Nuhlar • Sep 14 '17 • Edited

Nice post! Just a note though, open command is a little different between Mac OS and Linux distributions. Linux equivalent is xdg-open.

Edit: You guys already noticed it :(

Emily Cain • Dec 22 '17 • Edited

Great post Jérémy!

Some more:

ps aux will show you the running processes.

netstat will show you the open network ports.

Both of these will have a very large output, so combine with grep to filter for a specific string:

$ ps aux | grep mysql is a good way to see what process represents a MySQL instance, for example.

NOTE: the $ is conventionally used to represent the start of a command you type into your bash terminal and run with return or enter. You don't type out the $ character.

This is useful when your application is not running as expected and you want to check than any requried processes have been started.

You can use this to figure out what is running on a particular port (and kill it if desired):

stackoverflow.com/questions/115835...

I end up using these a lot when working with introductory web development students -- they don't know how to check what is running, end up starting 2 or more instances of a server process, and then get confused when they can't connect to their web application.

krishraghuram • Sep 28 '17

grep is awesome way to search for stuff.

Particularly when combined with | operator to chain stuff.

For example, ls | grep my_file.txt

Promise Akpan • Nov 24 '17 • Edited

Awesome start Jeremy. When I played with Unix terminal for the first time, I made a major mistake which was not going over the basics.

Add these especially if you are in a directory

cd .. takes you back
cd - takes you to the previous directory

ls -sh lists the files/directories with their sizes
ls -l lists the details including permissions.

There are lots more, but add these to yours

Have fun in your journey!

Moritz Schramm • Sep 12 '17

I really do love tar -xfv test.tar and ls -lisa

michaeltd • Sep 14 '17

If you find your self puzzled by the various archive extensions then this is for you. Linux CLI unpack unification script.

pastebin.com/wNCP166T

(Excuse the shameless plug btw)

Carl Schelin • Sep 13 '17

I typically use ls -lart :) (the a isn't necessary but it is appropriate ;) )

Ben Sinclair • Jun 25 '18

I understand why you do that and it spoils it a little to add a letter - but my only common use case apart from a normal ls is ls -larth.

Jérémy Levron • Sep 13 '17 • Edited

If I understand correctly, you can chain options? -xfv means -x, then -f, then -v, is it correct?

David Woodward • Sep 13 '17

This is correct (of most commands)! Some more complex ones can't be chained.

For example, you can't chain --this-is-an-arg and --this-too-is-an-arg but individual letters are usually fine.

David Pellegrini • Dec 25 '17

If you want to check a file quickly without having to deal with vim/emacs/nano and it's too long to use cat/echo, more is really useful but it only reads in one direction. For both directions check out less to read both directions

Philip Karlsson • Jan 24 '18

I'd like to recommend this NPM module: npmjs.com/package/tldr

It's basically like the 'man' command, but usually with a shorter description and example uses. For example, 'tldr tar' will tell you which flag combination you need to extract different types of compressed archives.

And I'll add another few commands that I use daily:
ls -a | Basically like ls, but also displays hidden files.
rm -rf

| When you want to delete a non-empty directory, use with caution!
mkdir dir/{subdir1,subdir2} | Use curly braces to create multiple subdirs at once.
cd | Just typing cd is the same as 'cd ~', which brings you to your home directory.
cat | Will print to contents of a file to the console, so you don't have to open the file just to view it.

Also, check out your .bashrc by typing cat ~/.bashrc, in there you'll find several bash aliases, as well as having the possibility to create your own.

And again, don't use rm -rf, if you're not 100% certain that you know what you're doing.

Aaron Santos • Nov 24 '17

Some time ago, I build a .sh where I put all my little scripts to semi-automitize some task: open certain programs with my configs, create my projects with git and makefile, update/upgrade my system, compress files... Other more complex to remember, like connecting to an external monitor via VGA/HDMI. 15 or 20 lil'scripts to make my life easier. Why? If there is a easiest way to do something, I will choose it.