Some Basic Linux Commands

Just some for the command line (terminal):
Create, Copy, & Delete

• cp [from] [to]
  Copy files/directories from one location to another.[/*:m:210npecg]
• mv [from] [to]
  Move files/directories from one location to another. Can also be used for renaming.[/*:m:210npecg]
• rm [options] [file]
  Remove files/directories. Wildcards supported for [file].[/*:m:210npecg]
• mkdir [name]
  Create a directory.[/*:m:210npecg]
• rmdir [name]
  Remove an empty directory.[/*:m:210npecg]
• touch [name]
  Creates the [name] if it does not exist or updates the time stamp.[/*:m:210npecg]

Display

• ls [options]
  List files/directories. Commonly used options:
  -l = full information
  -a = show files who's name begins with . (aka hidden files)[/*:m:210npecg]
• find [dir_to_start_in] -name [file_to_find] -print
  Seach for a file. Wildcards accepted.[/*:m:210npecg]
• pwd
  Print the current directory path you are in.[/*:m:210npecg]
• df [options]
  Show space available on disk. Without options shows for all mounted file systems. Use the -h option for sizes displayed in a nice format/units.[/*:m:210npecg]
• du
  Show space used by current directory and sub-directories.[/*:m:210npecg]
• free
  Display memory usage.[/*:m:210npecg]

Compressed Files

• tar -xvf [file].tar
  Extract a tar archive (aka tarball) that is not compressed.[/*:m:210npecg]
• tar -xzvf [name].tar.gz
  Extract a tar archive that is compressed with gzip. Note the file extension might also be shown as ".tgz".[/*:m:210npecg]
• tar -xjvf [name].tar.bz2
  Extract a tar archive that is compressed with bzip2.[/*:m:210npecg]
• gunzip [name].gz
  Uncompress a gziped file.[/*:m:210npecg]
• bunzip2 [name].bz2
  Uncompress a bziped file.[/*:m:210npecg]
• unzip [name].zip
  Uncompress a zipped file.[/*:m:210npecg]

Misc

• cd [location]
  Change to a new directory. The location can be specified in full ( /[top]/[sub]/[etc] ) or relative to the current directory ( [sub_of_current]/[next]/[etc] ). A shortcut to go up one directory is "cd ..".[/*:m:210npecg]
• ln [options] [target] [linkname]
  Makes links to selected [target]s. Default is hard links. Typically you use -s, an option, for symbolic links.[/*:m:210npecg]
• top
  Display process information real-time. Use h for help and q to quit.[/*:m:210npecg]
• sudo [command]
  Run the command with root/administrator privileges.[/*:m:210npecg]
• su -
  Switch to the root/administrator user. All commands that are run after this are run with root/administrator privileges. Type "exit" to go back to running as your normal user.[/*:m:210npecg]

 

• cd -
  will take you to the directory you were in before you last changed directory. This can be useful for 'flipping' between directories if you're working on something which involves two directories. [/*:m:1a9ovmqt]
• cd (on its own)
  will take you back to your home directory[/*:m:1a9ovmqt]

 

Also you can refer to this useful list: http://www.ss64.com/bash/