Most Useful Commands for the Ubuntu Terminal

When using the terminal, the following commands are really useful in order to work locally and with remote servers.

 

Figure 1

1. cd

cd .. – go back from a directory

2. sudo

To login as root –

sudo bash

When in root user, exit command will exit to the normal user mode.

3. df 

Figure 2

Gives disks related information.

4. top

Gives process related information with memory usage. To exit enter q.

5. clear 

6. To find a process id of a program

ps aux | grep firefox 

 7. cat

cat /home/pubudu/wso2carbon.log | grep “Search Keyword”

Figure 3

8. Vi Editor

vi /home/pubudu/ubuntu.xml – open to edit the xml file

:/Keyword and hit enter

:35,56d 

10. scp

• scp -i Key_Location File_Name HostName@IP_Address: /home/remote_directory

Used to copy files from localhost to remote host. eg:

scp -i /home/pubudu/key.pem /home/carbon.xml ubuntu@192.168.32.6: /remote/directory

• scp -i Key_Location HostName@IP_Address:File_Name /home/pubudu

Used to copy files from remote host to localhost. eg:

scp -i /home/pubudu/key.pem ubuntu@192.168.32.6:conf.xml /home/pubudu/