Linux Crash Course

This is a quick and very basic crash course for someone new to Linux administration. The following commands should get you through navigating files and simply finding your way around the operating system.

Help!

One option that might be useful if you are stuck is to follow a command with –help. This will display the help page for that command if you have the correct command.

It’ll show you any requirements when running that command, or show you extra options.

Change Directory

List Directory

This page has a full list of options.

Move, Copy or Rename a file

For the above, and some instructions below, you only need to put in the full path name if you are not currently in the directory that the file is in.

What Directory Am I In?

Delete File

Be aware of deleting files, there is no recycle bin. Sometimes it may be best to just rename a file, and only delete it when you are 100% sure.

Super User

Sometimes you may need Administrator rights to do things. To trigger this option, providing your user account has privileges, start your command with sudo. This will first prompt for your password, but will only do this the first time.

Using VI!

You may need to edit text files, and one software that people love to hate is Vi. To open a text file in Vi simply call it.

Using vi can be frustrating. But in time you’ll learn to love it.

There are lots of commands, and will take you ages to remember them all. Just remember the basics, or quickly google them if needed.

That’s my quick guide. This should get you started. Maybe in time, I will make a more advanced command list, or pick a few and go into more details. I hope this helps.