Navigating in UNIX
pwd Shows the full path of the current directory
ls Lists all the files in the current directory
ls -al Lists all files and information
ls –alR Lists all files and information in all subdirectories
ls -alR | more Same as ls –alR, pausing when screen becomes full
ls -alR > filename.txt Same as ls –alR, outputs the results to a file
ls *.html Lists all files ending with .html
cd [directory name] Changes to a new directory
cd .. Changes to directory above current one
clear Clears the screen
vdir Gives a more detailed listing than the "ls" command
exit Log off your shell
Moving, Copying and Deleting Files
mv [old filename] [new filename] Move/rename a file
cp [filename] [new filename] Copies a file
rm [filename] Deletes a file
rm * Deletes all files in current directory
rm *.html Deletes all files ending in .html
Creating, Moving, Copying and Deleting Directories
mkdir [directory name] Creates a new directory
ls -d */ Lists all directories within current directory
cp -r [directory] [new directory] Copies a directory and all files/directories in it
Searching Files and Directories
find . -name [filename] -print Searches for a file starting with current directory
grep [text] [filename] Searches for text within a file
File and Directory Permissions
There are three levels of file permissions: read, write and execute. In addition, there are three groups to which you can assign permissions: file owner, user group and everyone. The command chmod followed by three numbers is used to change permissions. The first number is the permission for the owner, the second for the group and the third for everyone. Here are how the levels of permission translate:
0 = --- No permission
1 = --X Execute only
2 = -W- Write only
3 = -WX Write and execute
4 = R-- Read-only
5 = R-X Read and execute
6 = RW- Read and write
7 = RWX Read, write and execute
It is preferred that the group always have the permission of 0. This prevents other users on the server from browsing files via Telnet and FTP. Here are the most common file permissions used:
chmod 604 [filename] Minimum permissions for HTML file
chmod 705 [directory name] Minimum permissions for directories
chmod 755 [filename] Minimum permissions for scripts & programs
chmod 606 [filename] Permissions for data files used by scripts
chmod 703 [directory name] Write-only permissions for public FTP uploading
