Starting & Stopping

shutdown -h now Shutdown the system now and do not
reboot
halt Stop all processes – same as above

shutdown -r 5 Shutdown the system in 5 minutes and
reboot

shutdown -r now Shutdown the system now and reboot
reboot Stop all processes and then reboot – same
as above

startx Start the X system

Accessing & mounting file systems

mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom/mnt/cdrom Mount the device cdrom and call it cdrom under the /mnt directory
mount -t msdos /dev/hdd/mnt/ddrive Mount hard disk “d” as a msdos file system and call it ddrive under the /mnt directory

mount -t vfat /dev/hda1/mnt/cdrive Mount hard disk “a” as a VFAT file system and call it cdrive under the /mnt directory

umount /mnt/cdrom Unmount the cdrom

Finding files and text within files

find / -name fname Starting with the root directory, look for the file called fname

find / -name ”*fname*” Starting with the root directory, look for the file containing the string fname

locate missingfilename Find a file called missingfilename using the locate command – this assumes you have already used the command updatedb

updatedb Create or update the database of files on all file systems attached to the linux root directory

which missingfilename Show the subdirectory containing the executable file called missingfilename

grep textstringtofind/dir Starting with the directory called dir , look for and list all files containing textstringtofind

The X Window System

xvidtune Run the X graphics tuning utility
XF86Setup Run the X configuration menu with automatic probing of graphics cards
Xconfigurator Run another X configuration menu with automatic probing of graphics cards
xf86config Run a text based X configuration menu

Moving, copying, deleting & viewing files

ls -l List files in current directory using long format
ls -F List files in current directory and indicate the file type
ls -laC List all files in current directory in long format and display in columns

rm name Remove a file or directory called name
rm -rf name Kill off an entire directory and all it’s includes files and subdirectories
cp filename/home/dirname Copy the file called filename to the /home/dirname directory
mv filename/home/dirname Move the file called filename to the /home/dirname directory
cat filetoview Display the file called filetoview
man -k keyword Display man pages containing keyword
morefiletoview Display the file called filetoview one page at a time, proceed to next page using the spacebar
head filetoview Display the first 10 lines of the file called filetoview
head -20 filetoview Display the first 20 lines of the file called filetoview
tail filetoview Display the last 10 lines of the file called filetoview
tail -20 filetoview Display the last 20 lines of the file called filetoview

Installing software

rpm -ihv name.rpm Install the rpm package called name
rpm -Uhv name.rpm Upgrade the rpm package called name
rpm -e package Delete the rpm package called package
rpm -l package List the files in the package called package
rpm -ql package List the files and state the installed version of the package called package
rpm -i –force package Reinstall the rpm package called name having deleted parts of it (not deleting using rpm -e)
tar -zxvf archive.tar.gz or tar -zxvf archive.tgz Decompress the files contained in the zipped and tarred archive called archive
./configure Execute the script preparing the installed files for compiling

User Administration

adduser accountname Create a new user call accountname
passwd accountname Give accountname a new password

su Log in as superuser from current login
exit Stop being superuser and revert tonormal user

X Shortcuts – (mainly for Redhat)

Control|Alt + or - Increase or decrease the screen resolution. eg. from 640×480 to 800×600
Alt | escape Display list of active windows
Shift|Control F8 Resize the selected window
Right click on desktop background Display menu
Shift|Control Altr Refresh the screen
Shift|Control Altx Start an xterm session
Printing

/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd start Start the print daemon
/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd stop Stop the print daemon
/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd status Display status of the print daemon
lpq Display jobs in print queue
lprm Remove jobs from queue
lpr Print a file
lpc Printer control tool
man subject | lpr Print the manual page called subject as plain text
man -t subject | lpr Print the manual page called subject as Postscript output
printtool Start X printer setup interface

Some More

ifconfig List ip addresses for all devices on the machine
apropos subject List manual pages for subject
usermount Executes graphical application for mounting and unmounting file systems