Linux - File Commands

This is Part 2 of the Linux Basic Commands series.

We’ll look into basic file commands in Linux.

👉 Previous: Linux - System Commands

👉 Next: Linux - Process Commands

File Commands

search files only in current directory

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f

ensures it won’t go into subdirectories (-maxdepth 1)

current directory (.)

only files (-type f)

ls -p | grep -v /

ls -p appends/to directory names

grep -v / excludes anything ending in /, leaving only files

ll -- long list file and directory

ls -- short list file and directory

ll -lrt -- file and directory are order by time

touch -- use to create a file

cat filename -- to read a files

cat > filename -- to create a file and also insert data

cat >> filename -- to append dates

mkdir -- use to create a directory

vi filename -- use to edit a file

yy -- to copy a single line

dd -- delete a single line

rmdir -- to remove a dir

rmdir -rf -- delete directory and inner files rf means recursive force

rm -- to delete a file

rm -rf -- if rm isn't work use rm -rf, rf means recursive fource

head filename -- show first 10 line

tail filename -- show last 10 line

Show line numbers (-n)

grep -n "failed" logfile.txt

grep -v "DEBUG" logfile.txt

Match whole words only (-w)

grep -w "root" /etc/passwd

nl filename -- show date with number line and skip the space in between lines

cat -n filname -- show all line with number

cp -- copy file

cp -R -- to copy a directory

diff file1 file2 -- to compare to files, output is only the different data

comm file1 file2 -- output with three column, fist col is file1 different data and second col is file2 different data and third col is common data col

wc filename -- list out the number of line, words, bites

pwd -- present working directory

cd -- change directory

cd .. -- previous directory

mv -- move or rename a file or directory

sort filename -- use sort a file in ascending order

sort -n filename -- use to sort numerical data

uniq filename -- remove duplicates

sort file.txt | uniq > output.txt

sort file.txt | uniq > temp.txt && mv temp.txt file.txt

split -3 filname -- splite a file into three

paste filename1 filename2 > filename3 -- file1 and file2 past or merge in file3

fmt filename -- convert column into a single row

strings filename -- use to read a file understandable format