Commands
Obviously, there is an almost unlimited amount of commands out there. These are the ones that I find so useful that it is handy to have a quick reference for the most common options.
By "command", I mean bash builtins as well as actual binaries in /something/bin- if you just want to use them, that distinction is irrelevant most of the time.
Shortcut | Description |
---|---|
echo | Write the arguments on stdout, e.g.
echo "Hello world!". Handy options are:
$ echo "a\nb" a\nb $ echo -n "a\nb" a\nb$ echo -e "a\nb" a b $ echo -en "a\nb" a b$The above example is exactly the same whether " or ' are used. With ', shell expansion is disabled, see TODO. |
sudo | Allows you to run commands with root privileges, without actually logging in as root. The advantage over simply logging in as root is that for each command, you have to consciously, explicitly indicate that you want to run it as root. Also, since you can use sudo, the root account can be disabled by default. |
gksudo | sudo for GUI applications - better at ensuring that more complicated programs run correctly. |
shutdown | Brings the system down in a safe way. Typically: shutdown -h now. |
halt | Shut the system down. |
poweroff | Shut the system down. |
reboot | Reboot the system. |
ftp | Simple utility for copying files between systems. |
less | Inspect the contents of a text file in a comfortable way (
cat is quicker for short files). A couple
of handy navigation commands:
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