Linux basics - Working with files and directories

In this article, I will list commands that help interact with files and directories on a Linux system, along with the most common use cases. I write them down here as a short note. This article may be updated over time.

Print working directory

pwd

Change working directory

• Use an absolute path.

cd /var/log

• Use a relative path.

cd apt

I'm already in /var/log directory, it goes inside /var/log/apt

• Go to the user home directory.

cd

cd ~

• Go back the previous directory.

cd -

List items

• List items in the current directory.

ls

• List items in a specific directory.

ls /etc/

• Add more options to the ls command.
  • -l: Use a long listing format.
  • -a: Display all items including one starts with dot (.)
  • -h: Display sizes in 1K, 2M, etc, which is easy to read.
  • --group-directories-first: Display directories first, then files.

ls -lah --group-directories-first /etc/

Create an empty file

If hello.txt doesn't exist, it'll be created. Otherwise, it's modified time will be changed.

touch hello.txt

Copy

• Copy 1.txt to one.txt in the current directory.

cp 1.txt one.txt

• Copy one.txt to the /tmp directory.

cp one.txt /tmp

• Copy /var/log directory to /tmp directory.

cp -r /var/log /tmp/

• Copy /var/log to /tmp, and change it's name to cp-log.

cp -r /var/log /tmp/cp-log

Move or rename

• Rename hello.txt to hello-world.txt. If hello-world.txt exists, it'll be override.

mv hello.txt hello-world.txt

• Move a directory or file to new location.

mv hello-world.txt /tmp/
mv example /tmp/

Make directories

• Use -p option to create nested directories or keep silent if directories already exist.

mkdir example
mkdir -p example/foo/bar/baz 

Remove directories or files

• Add -f option to force to remove without confirmation or raising errors if they does not exist.

rm hello.txt

rm -r greetings/

rmdir can only remove an empty directory, so I've never used it.