Summary

This is a collection of commands and facilities which occasional Unix users (eg Web site owners) use and need.

In the formal descriptions of commands, bold type means the keyword or value described is compulsory; normal type means it is optional; and slanted type means that the mnemonic must be replaced by an appropriate value. Ellipsis (…) means the preceding item is repeatable.

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Whole document

  1. Using Unix
  2. Getting access
  3. Navigation
    1.  Finding out where you are
    2.  Seeing what files are there
    3.  Changing directory
    4.  Creating a new directory
    5.  Creating a soft link (shortcut or alias)
  4. File management
  5. Account management
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ToC3. Navigation: How to move around

Up to start of section3.1. Finding out where you are

To find out the name of the directory you are currently in, type the  pwd  command: 

$ pwd
/usr/local/lib/xml

The  pwd  command displays the name of the current working directory.

Up to start of section3.2. Seeing what files are there

To see a list of files in the current directory, type the  ls  command. This displays the names of files (in two or more columns, if they'll fit). 

$ ls
backup                                         office
bin                                            restore.odf
Desktop                                        styles.tex
holding                                        ucc.png
lib                                            vehicle.dat
menus                                          word.log
n800
$

Unless you specify otherwise, it lists the names from the current directory. See the pwd command for how to find out what your current working directory is.

You can specify a different directory to list by following the  ls  command with the name of that directory. See section 1.2, ‘The Unix file system’ for details of how to refer to your own and other directories on the computer. 

$ ls /usr/local/share/texmf/bibtex/bst/
abstyles      computational-complexity  IEEEtran    oxford
achemso       dinat                     ifacmtg     perception
     [lots more left out here to save space]
bibhtml       harvard                   natbib
camel         hc                        nature
chem-journal  ieeepes                   opcit
$

To see a list with all the file details (the ‘long’ format), type  ls -l  (The l option stands for ‘long’.) This shows the permissions, links, owner, group, size, date, time, and name of each file and directory (folder).

The first letter on each line shows the type of file: d for a directory; l for a link (shortcut or alias), and - (dash) for a normal file. 

$ ls -l
total 15
drwxr--r--  3 ontology  webster        14 Dec 28 14:22 images
drwxr--r--  2 ontology  ontology      256 Feb 15 22:37 Mail
-rwxr--r--  1 ontology  ontology   123847 Jan 22 15:35 thesis.pdf
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root      root           31 Feb 27  2005 web -> /var/www/html/ontology
$

In this example, the user has subdirectories called images and Mail, a file called thesis.pdf, and a soft link (alias or shortcut) called web which goes to their web site.

You can see the directory entry for a single file by following the  ls  command and the l option with the filename you're interested in: 

$ ls -l thesis.pdf
-rwxr--r--  1 ontology  ontology   123847 Jan 22 15:35 thesis.pdf

Up to start of section3.3. Changing directory

To change your current working directory, type  cd dirname  (replacing dirname with the name of the directory you want to change into.

When you want to do some work in another directory, you need to change to it: 

$ cd staff

See the ls command for how to find out what directories you have got. See section 1.2, ‘The Unix file system’ for details of how to refer to your own and other directories on the computer.

Some systems display the name of the current directory before the dollar prompt. If not, to find out what directory you are in, use the pwd command.

Up to start of section3.4. Creating a new directory

To create a new directory, type  mkdir dirname  (replacing dirname with the name of the new directory you want to create). 

$ mkdir reports

You can then use the cd command to change into the new directory.

If you need to create a directory and a subdirectory within it (and maybe a subsubdirectory within that), you can do so all in one command by adding the option p before the new path. 

$ mkdir -p reports/management/2009/financial

See section 1.2, ‘The Unix file system’ for details of how to refer to your own and other directories on the computer.

Up to start of section3.5. Creating a soft link (shortcut or alias)

If you want to provide a shortcut to a directory or file, the  ln -s  command links a new name to an existing one. It lets you create an alias or alternative name for a file or directory. The s option creates a ‘soft’ link; there are other types but this is the one you want.

Suppose you have created homepage.htm but it ought to have been called index.html; but you have already publicised the existence of homepage.htm and people are using it, so you can't just rename the file or you'll break their existing links. You create an alias: 

$ cd web
$ ln -s homepage.htm index.html

Now people can refer to either name, and they'll get the same file.

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Electronic Publishing Unit • 2008-11-19 • (other)