HELP WITH TERMINAL COMMANDS

http://ss64.com/bash/ ?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

Hi,

This might also be useful:

http://www.junauza.com/2009/08/10-essential-unixlinux-command-cheat.html

Regards,

Mark

     ALL terminal commands, as you have probably seen, is daunting. They come down to the entire scripting language you have set up (usually Bash) plus programs you have installed on your computer. Commonly used commands to get started are:

cd change directory
ls list directory contents
pwd show which directory you are in
more list a text file one page at a time
man show the 'manual' page for a command
            (you can use this to read about Bash: 'man bash')
grep search files for a word or phrase
cp copy a file

and each of these (and the others you can learn) all have 'arguments' that can be added to them. As an example, 'ls' will list the directory (noted above). If you use 'ls -l' you'll get a 'long' listing of the directory (showing ownership, dates, etc. of each file). If you use 'ls -lt' you'll get a long listing in time order, and if you use 'ls -lrt' you'll get a listing in reverse time order. If you use 'ls -la' you'll get a long listing of the directory that includes "hidden" files (files whose name start with a period).
     Moreover, you can use a 'pipe' to send the output of one command to another. So if you use 'ls | grep .txt' you'll get a list of the directory that only includes files with '.txt' in the filename (so only text files). This can be redirected to a file itself using ">" or ">>", so if your directory listing is too long you can make a file out of the listing using "ls > direct.txt", thereby creating a file named "direct.txt" containing your directory listing.
     These open ended questions can have answers that go on forever; hopefully, this will give you most of what you want, but it's just a start. Did you have something more specific you wanted to ask?

Hi :)

2 really useful commands are "help" and "info". Also any command can give you a quick help cheat-sheet just by adding the argument " -h" or " --help". This works in all versions of linux and i think in other *nix's too. For example try

help -h

info --help

totem -h

also when typing in a command or pathname try tapping the "tab" key becuase it helps with autocompleting things in a "predictive ttxn" type of way but intelligently. A 'double click' but on the tab key will give you all the options that could follow from what you've already typed.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

The use of the Terminal in most cases is not needed as Ubuntu has the Synaptic Package Manager which allows you to easily install and remove software

Here is the Official Ubuntu Synaptic Package Manager Documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto

If you do need to use the Terminal

Here is the Official Ubuntu Terminal Documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

To install individually downloaded deb. files then Ubuntu has the GDebi Package Installer (already built in to Ubuntu) which automatically starts up when you try to open a deb.file
http://allmyapps.com/app/ubuntu-9.04/gdebi-gdebi-package-installer

Ubuntu Installing Software
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware

Guide to installing software on Ubuntu (includes tar.gz and tar.bz2 files)
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftware

UBUNTU USER GUIDE

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) User Guide
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Jaunty

LUg.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromWindows

http://www.computerhope.com/unix.htm

In the meantime, I have moved the user guide links to this location:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ExternalGuides