Unix cheatsheet

Here is a quick list of common unix commands. These will work from a terminal window on Linux or Mac, or from a terminal window once you have cygwin installed on Windows. (see Windows hints, tips, and tricks.)

• Changing directories (folders) from the root partition (absolute file structure). Note that the cd command is asking the computer to go to a location with a leading slash. What this means is "go from the root of the system." See also next item.

    cd /path/to/directory

• Changing directories (folders) from your current partition (relative file structure). Note that the cd command is asking the computer to go to a location withOUT a leading slash. What this means is "go from where I am now." See also previous item.

    cd relative/path/to/directory

• Figuring out where you are currently (pwd = Print Working Directory)

    pwd

• Getting a directory listing

    ls

• Getting a directory listing where the computer will add "/" to directories (folders) and "*" to executable programs, and leave plain text files unadorned:

    ls -F 

• Getting a directory listing of just one kind of file extension

    ls *txt

• Getting a directory listing in a plain text file

    ls *fits > listoffiles.txt

• Examining the contents of a file (works best on text files, but will also attempt it without complaint on binary files -- be careful!) ... To scroll down and see more of the file, hit the space bar; to quit out, hit "q".

    more listoffiles.txt

• Unzipping the files from Leopard -- the "\" is important!!

    unzip \*.zip

• Unzipping files with a *gz extension

    gunzip *.gz

• Uncompressing a tar file -- tar = Tape ARchive

    tar -xf foo.tar

• Uncompressing a compressed tar file (may not work on older systems) -- e.g., doing the previous two steps in just one step.

    tar -xzf foo.tar.gz

Useful links

There are lots of other unix cheatsheets on the web, such as this one. Google to find more.