By Joe Gardiner Thursday, 3rd March 2011
This is guide is set out to provide SSH beginners with the most commonly used commands to get them started. Of course if you’re an old hand at SSH but have a bad memory then this may be the place for you too!
Simple navigation commands
| Command |
Result |
| pwd |
Displays the full directory path of the current directory |
| ls |
Displays all the files in the current directory that are not hidden |
| ls -al |
Displays all the files in the current directory and file information |
| ls *.txt |
Displays all files in the current directory ending with .txt |
| cd Directory Name |
Change to a different directory |
| cd .. |
Moves up one directory |
| clear |
Clears all the content on the terminal screen |
| exit |
Logs off your shell and clears the terminal |
File Management
| Command |
Result |
| mv [Old filename] [New Filename] |
Use to move or rename a file |
| cp [Filename] [New Filename] |
Makes a copy of the file with a new filename |
| rm |
Deletes a file |
| rm -f |
Deletes a file without a confirmation prompt |
Directory Management
| Command |
Result |
| mkdir [Directory name] |
Creates a directory with the chosen name |
| ls -d * / |
Displays all the directories that exist inside your current directory |
| cp -r [Current directory] [New directory] |
Copies a directory and all of its contents to a new directory with the chosen name |
| rm -r -f [Directory] |
Deletes a directory and all of its contents without asking for confirmation |
Posted in Guides, SSH |
1 Comment » 
Thanks for posting just the basics. It was exactly what I was looking for!