Terminal Cheatsheet

Navigation

• pwd print working directory (where am I?)
• ls list files in current directory (what is here?)
• cd go to home directory.
• cd .. goes up a level in the directory hierarchy.
• cd ../.. go up two directories
• cd folder go into that folder

Making/Removing Files and Folders

• mkdir folder create a folder
• rmdir folder deletes an empty directory.
• rm -rf folder deletes folder and all files in that folder
• rm file-name deletes a file
• touch file-name creates a file

Moving and Copying

• mv file-name new-file-name rename a file
• mv file-name folder-name/file-name put a file into a subfolder
• cp file-name new-file-name copy a file
• cp -R folder new-folder copy a folder

Traversing the Filesystem using ..

• You can traverse the filesystem using .. to move to a parent folder.
• If I’m in ~/Documents, I can move to ~/Downloads using the following command: cd ../Downloads.
• Use tab-completion to feel your way around the terminal when using that.
• The / helps denote that you mean you’re moving into a parent folder.

Editing

• atom . in the folder that has the files you wish to edit

Get Out of There

• exit exit the terminal