File and directory management

The following are common or important commands for finding and managing files and directories in Linux.

1 File and directory management

Command	Function
cat file	Display contents of file on screen
cat file1 file2 > file3	Concatenate file_1 and file_2 and sends combined contents to new file_3
cat file1 >> file2	Append the content of file1 to the end of file2
cat > file	Create new empty file
cd	Move to home directory
cd -	Move back to previous directory
cd ..	Move up to parent directory
cd “dir	Navigate to the specified directory
cd /	Move to root directory
cd or cd ~	Move to the home ($HOME) directory
cp -a -R -i	Copy directories or files from an active directory instance.
cp -r dir1 dir2	Recursively copy the contents of directory1 to directory2
cp -r source_dir destination	Copy the source_directory recursively to the destination (if the destination exists, the source_directory is copied into the destination, or otherwise the destination is created with the contents of source_directory .
cp -r /source_dir*/*.* /dest_dir	Recursively copy a number of files from multiple subdirectories to a new directory)
cp -t /dest_dir */*.png	Recursively copy a number of files from multiple subdirectories (of a certain type) to a new directory)
cp file1 file2	Create a copy of file1, named file2
file -L file	Follow a symbolic link for a file to determine its type
file file	Determine what type of file the file name is; file -z for compressed files
xargs mv –target-directory=’’dir’’	Search through a large directory to move all files (of a certain type) to a new directory (useful when a regular mv, cp or other command yields error messages like “argument list too long” for an extremely large number of files or subdirectories)
gpg -c file	Encrypt a specified file.
gpg file.gpg	Decrypt a specified file with a .gpg extension.
head file	Display the first ten lines of a file
less file	Browse through the contents of a text file; like more, but with the ability to page back and forth
ln -s path-to-file	Create a symbolic link to a specified file
ls	List directories and files in current directory
ls -a	Lists all files including hidden files
ls -al	List all files and directories with full information, e.g., size, permission, and owner.
ls -hl	Display file sizes in human readable format (e.g.,. MB, GB)
ls -l	List all files in detailed format
ls -l file	Show file information of a specified file
ls -R	Displays files in current directory and all subdirectories
ls -rt	List files in reverse chronological order (according to when they were modified)
ls -t	List and sort files chronologically (according to when modified)
mkdir “dir'	# Create a directory
more file	Open and display contents of a file
mv	Move or rename a file
mv -f	Forcibly move or rename a file
mv -t /dest_dir */*.png	Recursively move a number of files from multiple subdirectories (of a certain type) to a new directory)
mv file newname	Renames file to new name
mv file "dir"	Moves file to specified path (directory)
mv file” newname	Rename a file
mv file1 file2	# Rename or move file1 to file2 . If file2 is an existing directory, move file1 into directory file2
pwd	Display the current directory
rm -f file	Forcefully delete a file without prompting for confirmation
rm -r dir	Remove the directory and its contents recursively
rm -r “dir'	Delete a directory
rm -rf “dir'	Recursively and forcefully delete a directory
.bar|*.baz)	Delete all files in a directory that do not match a certain file extension
rm file	Delete a file
rm file	Delete file
rmdir dir	Delete directory
rmdir-r dir	Remove a directory and its contents recursively
stat -f device	Display status of a filesystem (e.g., /dev/sda)
tail -f file	Display the last ten lines of a file (and view it as contents added to the file)
tail file	Display the last ten lines of file
touch file	Create a new (and empty) file
wc file	Outputs number of bytes, lines, and words of a specified file name.

2 File Utilities

Command	Function
aspel	Intera­ctive spell checker
awk -F "­," '{print $[‘’col#’’]­>}'	Print only column #n of a file
cat -s	Concatenate, i.e., combine files into a new file
comm	Compare two sorted files line by line
comm -3	After two files are sorted, sort them line by line.
convert "*.png" output.pdf	Convert multiple PNG files into one single multi-page PDF file (via ImageMagick)
convert file.pdf file-%04d.png	Convert PDF file into multiple PNG files (or other file formats), with enumerated file names (via ImageMagick)
cut -c 7-10	Cut characters 7-10 from a file
cut -f 3 file	Cut column 3 from a file
cut -s	Remove or delete a section from a file
dd	Read bytes from a location
diff	Compare files
diff -q	Compare files line by line.
head -n	Output the first few contents of a specified file
join -i	For two files with a common field, join the lines of these files
less	View contents of a file one page at a time (with the ability to go forwards and backwards)
more	View file contents, one page at a time
paste	Merge lines of files
patch	Apply a diff file to original
pr -h	Add a header to a target file.
pr -n	Uses line numbers to denote a target file.
pr -x	Divide or split a file to x specified columns.
sed	Stream editor for modifying strings in files
sed ‘/abc/xyz/’ file	Replace all all instances of a string (abc) with another (xyz) in a file
sort -n	Sort the lines within a text file.
split -l	Split a file into separate files
tail -1	Display the last line of a file
tail -f	Output the last portion of a file.
tr	Truncate a file
tr -d	Truncate or deleting a character.
uniq -c	Count unique lines in a file
uniq -c -u	Report or omit repeated lines.
uniq -u	Omit repeated lines in a file
wc -l	Print number of lines in a file
wc -w	Print the number of bytes, words, and newlines on a specified file.

3 File search

Command	Function
find path -name pattern	Trace a specific system directory location then queries the names of its files and folders based on a character match
find path -size +100M	Find files larger than 100MB in /home
find /home/user -name 'prefix*'	Traces a specified system path for files with a matching prefix
pattern2’ dir’	Search recursively through a directory for two patterns or strings
grep -i	Case insensitive search
pattern2’ dir’	Search recursively through a directory for two patterns or strings
grep -r pattern dir	Search recursively for a pattern in a directory
grep -v pattern	Inverted search: exclude files with specified string
grep pattern file	Search for a pattern in a file
grep, egrep, fgrep -i -v	Find keywords in files with a matching pattern.
locate -i	Uses updateddb to track and find files on your system.
locate [name]	Find files and directories by name (searches the system’s indexed file database)
ls -a -C -h	Lists or displays the content of an active directory.
updatedb	Update the filesystem database used by the locate command

4 Grep options

Command	Function
c	Print number of matches
h	For multiple outputs suppress outputting the filename
i	Ignore case
l	Print the name of each file that contain matches
L	Print only the names of files that do not match
n	Print match line with line number
o	Show only matching part of file
r	Search recursively
v	Invert match

5 See also

▼ Linux

  Command line interface

  Disk management

  File and directory management

  File archiving

  File permissions

  KVM

  Networking & remote access

  Package management

  Process management

  Regular expressions

  System information

  Text editors

  User management