A UNIX Quick Reference Guide 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 University IT 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.

See also:
Using pico to Edit Files On-Line
Logging on to www.rochester.edu

University of Rochester