This is for the most part just some basic commands for moving through the

file system, and some file modification commands. The command is show on

the left with a colon after it, then a description and example usage(for

some of the more "complicated" commands).

NOTE: Some DOS commands have an equivalent for deleting/modifying

directories, most UNIX commands on the other hand simply use a flag or

option. Most programs accept options by typing "programname -options"

Many commands use the "-r" or "-R" option to delete directories or copy

them. This -R/-r means recursive, try dictionary.com for that one.

Second NOTE: UNIX commands are CASE sensitive, meaning "ls" is not the

same thing as "lS". Meaning when you type a command, type it as you see

it, without the quotes.

ls: Show files in directory, the equivalent of the ms-dos "dir"

command.

cd: Change directory. Same as the ms-dos "cd" command, for example:

"cd /xspace" will move you into the /xspace directory.

mv: Move, move directories or files, also the equivalent of the

rename command in DOS. For example "mv blah .." will move blah

one directory up. Or "mv blah black" will rename blah as black.

rm: Remark, or also known as remove/delete, the equivalent of the

dos del/deltree command. To delete a directory, use the -R flag.

"rm blah" would delete the file blah, to delete a directory, "rm

-r somedir" will recursively delete the directory and all it

contents.

cp: Copy, to copy files/directories. "cp blah blah1" would make a

copy of the file blah with the name of blah1. "cp -r blah blah1"

would be if blah was a directory. Again notice the -r option for

directories. -r in these commands means "recursive" look it up.

cat: concatenate or print files. cat will basically print the

contents of a file, whether it is binary or text. Shows the data

in the file, "cat blah" would show me the contents of blah, if it

were a program, I would most likely see lots of extended ASCII

chars and hear lots of beeps.

man: Manual page, most decent programs/commands will have a man page

type "man command" to view the manual page for that command.

Linux tends to have Poor, spotty, inconsistent man pages. OpenBSD

tends to have the best.(I am a OpenBSD user so I am biased).

du: Shows file size, on OpenBSD at least, du -k will show the amount

of kilobytes the file uses.