Richard Castera

Having some basic knowledge of SSH and Unix commands is very useful. Developed in 1995, SSH (Secure Shell) was created as a secure alternative to Telnet. Telnet is a protocol allowing for command line access to a Unix, Linux or FreeBSD based remote computer. I’ve listed some basic commands to get you familiar with them.

The cd command is used to move to a specific directory.

Command: cd
Format: cd /directory/to/browse

The cp command will copy the file or folder from the source, to the destination.

Command: cp
Format: cp /directory/source /directory/destination

mkdir creates a directory.

Command: mkdir
Format: mkdir /directory_to_create

The rmdir command deletes a directory.

Command: rmdir
Format: rmdir /directory/to/delete

The rm command deletes a file.

Command: rm -f
Format: rm -f filename

The mv command will rename or move a file stated in the first portion to the name or location stated in the second portion.

Command: mv
Format: mv /directory/you/want/to/rename/or/move /new/directory/name/or/location

This command will tar zip the files in the directory specified in the second portion into a tar file specified in the first portion.

Command: tar cvf
Format: tar cvf filename.tar.gz /directory/you/wish/to/archive

The tar -xvf will extract all files from the tarball specified into the directory you are currently in.

Command: tar -xvf
Format: tar -xvf filename.tar.gz

This will create a zip file, with the name specified in the first portion from the file or directory listed in the second portion.

Command: zip
Format: zip filename.zip /file/or/folder/you/want/to/zip

This command will unzip or un pack the named zip file, into the directory you’re currently in.

Command: unzip
Format: unzip filename.zip

The Ls command lists files, and folders within the directory you specify

Command: ls
Format: ls /directory/you/wish/to/list/files/

This will add a forward slash to the directory names within the directory you specify

Command: ls -f
Format: ls -f /directory/you/wish/to/list/files/

This will show “hidden” files in the directory you specify

Command: ls -a
Format: ls -a /directory/you/wish/to/list/files/

This command shows detailed info about each file in the directory you specify.

Command: ls -l
Format: ls -l /directory/you/wish/to/list/files/

Also, a lightweight, freeware application which supports SSH commands that I use is, PuTTY.