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A Quick UNIX Reference for Web Authors

ls

list files in current directory

cp filename1 filename2

copies filename1 to filename2, without deleting

mv filename1 filename2

moves filename1 to filename2, deletes filename1. This is, in effect, renaming filename 1.

rm filename

deletes (removes) filename

cd ..

back up one directory

cd dirname

move down one directory into dirname

mkdir dirname

Create a subdirectory called dirname

rmdir dirname

Remove a subdirectory called dirname. Directory must be empty.

rm -r dirname

Deletes a directory and ALL ITS CONTENTS, including subdirectories and their contents. Be very careful: you cannot undelete anything.

Wildcard (*)

You can use the * symbol as a "wildcard" to match all files. For example, rm * deletes all files in the current directory (be careful!). joe index* is equivalent to joe index.html if there is only one file in the current directory beginning with index. If there is another one, say index.htm, you will get an error. Other commands will not give you an error, but will merely act on all matching files. In this case, mv index* morepages would move index.html and index.htm into the subdirectory morepages.