Top Most Common Used SSH Commands
For a newbies there are many questions when starting work on SSH common problem is you dont know how to connect what software etc etc. In this article i have put together Top Most Common Used SSH Commands used on linux shell, and organized them by name so you can easily find a command, their description and how to use it. This guide will continue to be updated and should not be considered a complete list of linux shell commands, but commands, I found, often used. If you would like to add to this guide, please post in comment below and i will add them in this post.
If you are really a newbie, then you should bookmark this page otherwise simply skip this post.
Requirements To SSH
- A working SSH client like Putty (Windows) or Terminal (Mac and Linux)
- A working Linux-based server with SSH enabled
- A cup of coffee if you wish
- A computer with stable Internet connection
Some Conventions
- Hit Enter or Return key on your keyboard after every each command / line
- Each line is a single raw of command unless specified otherwise
- Replace domain.com with your own domain name and TLD
- Replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with IP address of your own server
- Replace example paths and file names according to your server information
- If a path ends with slash “/” then its a directory
- A directory: “/path/to/directory/” will always end with slash “/”
- A file: “/path/to/file” won’t have slash “/” in the end
- A file is not always having extension in the end of the file name
OK, so lets start with the most common commands to SSH you should know..
Navigating
1. How to move into another directory
Use command below to change directory
cd [another directory]
example: move to directory “download”
cd download
2. How to go to home directory
cd ~
3. How go to the last directory you were in
cd -
4. How to go up a directory level
cd ..
5. How to show the full path of the current directory
Use this command to find out where are you currently in.
pwd
6. How to list files and/or directories in a directory
ls (just type ls and hit enter)
7. How to list all files and information
ls -al
8. How to list all files ending with certain extension
ls *.ext
example:
ls *.php
9. How to list all files and folders with detailed information including file size
ls -alh
OutPut
drwxr-xr-x 3 example.com example.com 15 Oct 21 10:01 . drwxr-xr-x 6 example.com example.com 6 Oct 21 09:13 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 example.com example.com 137 Oct 21 10:01 .htaccess drwxr-xr-x 2 example.com example.com 4 Jun 8 17:24 errors -rwxr-xr-x 1 example.com example.com 379 Jan 28 2010 hello.pl -rw-r--r-- 1 example.com example.com 45 Oct 30 2009 home.html -rw-r--r-- 1 example.com example.com 83 Oct 21 09:47 index.php -rw-r--r-- 1 example.com example.com 68 Jul 20 15:53 phpinfo.php
10. How to quit and exit SSH client
exit
File Management
11. How to copy and rename file
Use this command to copy and rename a file
cp [filename] [new filename]
example: we’ll rename banner.jpg to banner728px.jpg
cp banner.jpg banner728px.jpg
example: we’ll cope banner.jpg to a folder called “ads”
cp banner.jpg ads/banner.jpg
example: copying and renaming at once
cp banner.jpg ads/banner728px.jpg
ps: original file will remain, it is just copied.
12. How to move and rename file
Use this command to move and rename file
mv [old filename] [new filename]
example: moving a file to another directory
mv image1.jpg newlocation/image1.jpg
example: moving a file to another directory and renaming it at once
mv image1.jpg newlocation/image_new.jpg
ps: original file will be deleted as it was moved to another location
pps: you can also move a folder
example: moving “images” folder to “media” folder
mv images/ media
example: moving “images” folder to upper directory
mv images/ ..
13. How to delete / remove a file
rm [file name]
example:
rm image1.jpg
14. How to delete / remove all files in current directory
rm *
15. How to delete files with certain extension
rm *.extension
example: remove all files with .jpg extension
rm *.jpg
16. How to copy a folder with all files and folders in it
cp -r [directory] [new directory]
17. How to create new folder
mkdir [folder name]
example:
mkdir images
18. How to search for a file starting within current directory
find . -name [filename] -print
example: find a file called “image1.jpg” in current folder
find . -name image1.jpg -print
19. How to search for text within a file
grep [text] [filename]
example: find the word “include_once” in file index.php
grep include_once index.php
20. CHMOD – how to change file permission
chmod [permission type] [file/folder name]
example:
chmod 777 config.php
Available permission type: (below is not command)
First number is for the owner, second for the group, and third for everyone. 7 = Read + Write + Execute 6 = Read + Write 5 = Read + Execute 4 = Read 3 = Write + Execute 2 = Write 1 = Execute 0 = All access denied
21. SCP – how to to copy one or more local files up to a remote server
scp local_file(s) user@hostname:destination_directory
example of moving :
scp image1.jpg image2.jpg root@localhost:. root@localhost's password: <i>password</i> image1.jpg 100% 122 0.1KB/s 0.1KB/s 00:00 image2.jpg 100% 14 0.0KB/s 0.1KB/s 00:00
example of moving directory:
scp -r images root@localhost:. root@localhost's password: password bork.c 100% 388 0.4KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00 swap2.c 100% 199 0.2KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00 list.c 100% 1029 1.0KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00 array.c 100% 536 0.5KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00 foo.c 100% 122 0.1KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00 acid.c 100% 446 0.4KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00 blah.c 100% 112 0.1KB/s 22.0KB/s 00:00
About Author
abbasarif
Abbas Arif is a webmaster and blogger who has a love for creativity and enjoys experimenting with various techniques in web.
Warning: Use of undefined constant rand - assumed 'rand' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /var/www/bcstatic-com/wp-content/themes/ribbon/single.php on line 35
