Select Unix terminal commands
Below is a select list of Unix shell commands that you can use from the command line to navigate your local file system as well as create, delete, copy, and move directories and files. Additional commmands are included that list the location of the current working directory or the path to an executable, view the contents of a text file, and clear the terminal screen of content.
1.0 Location uncertain
If your terminal prompt provides no hint and you are unsure in which directory you currently
reside, use the built-in pwd command to print the current working directory.
1.1 macOS
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
1.2 Windows
pwd
/c/Users/arwhyte
2.0 List files in the current working directory
If you require basic info about subdirectories and files that reside in the current directory,
use the ls command along with command options to print out the details.
❗ the output below represents a subset of subdirectories and files found in a macOS home directory; certain items have been excluded for display purposes only.
2.1 macOS
ls
Applications Development Music
Downloads Documents Pictures
Dropbox Library Postman
Desktop Movies Public
2.2 Windows
ls
'3D Objects'/
AppData/
'Application Data'@
Contacts/
Cookies@
Desktop/
Documents/
Downloads/
Favorites/
Links/
'Local Settings'@
MicrosoftEdgeBackups/
Music/
'My Documents'@
OneDrive/
Pictures/
PrintHood@
Recent@
Searches/
SendTo@
'Start Menu'@
Templates@
Videos/
2.3 ls command options (select list)
| Option | Description | |
|---|---|---|
-a, |
--all |
List all files including hidden . files. |
-d, |
--directory |
List only directory information (not files). |
-l, |
--format=long |
Long format listing (permissions, owner, size, modification time, etc.). |
-R, |
--recursive |
Recursively list subdirectories as well as current directory |
❗ the output below represents a subset of subdirectories and files found in a macOS home directory; certain items have been excluded for display purposes only.
ls -al
total 2848520
drwx------+ 76 arwhyte staff 2432 Sep 3 07:56 .
drwxr-xr-x 11 root admin 352 Dec 5 2019 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 arwhyte staff 10244 Sep 3 07:28 .DS_Store
drwx------ 2 arwhyte staff 64 Sep 3 07:29 .Trash
-rw------- 1 arwhyte staff 33742 Mar 16 14:58 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--@ 1 arwhyte staff 1870 Apr 19 23:15 .bash_profile
drwx------ 4 arwhyte staff 128 Jan 14 2019 .config
drwx------ 3 arwhyte staff 96 Feb 13 2019 .cups
drwx------ 15 arwhyte staff 480 Oct 16 2019 .dropbox
-rw-r--r-- 1 arwhyte staff 767 Aug 20 15:01 .gitconfig
drwxr-xr-x 3 arwhyte staff 96 Oct 19 2019 .idlerc
drwxr-xr-x 3 arwhyte staff 96 Mar 27 13:03 .local
drwxr-xr-x 19 arwhyte staff 608 Aug 31 20:59 .oh-my-zsh
drwxr-xr-x 304 arwhyte staff 9728 Sep 1 13:54 .pylint.d
-rw------- 1 arwhyte staff 8730 Sep 1 17:02 .python_history
drwx------ 8 arwhyte staff 256 Jan 11 2019 .ssh
drwxr-xr-x 4 arwhyte staff 128 Dec 3 2019 .vscode
drwxr-xr-x 2 arwhyte staff 64 Aug 6 2019 .zoomus
-rw------- 1 arwhyte staff 660463 Sep 3 07:56 .zsh_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 arwhyte staff 281 Jul 2 17:04 .zshenv
-rw-r--r-- 1 arwhyte staff 4188 Aug 14 18:15 .zshrc
drwx------@ 4 arwhyte staff 128 Jun 16 14:20 Applications
drwx------@ 35 arwhyte staff 1120 Sep 2 14:47 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 10 arwhyte staff 320 Aug 23 19:55 Development
drwx------@ 5 arwhyte staff 160 Sep 3 07:28 Documents
drwx------@ 275 arwhyte staff 8800 Sep 2 18:13 Downloads
drwx------@ 12 arwhyte staff 384 Aug 22 08:27 Dropbox
drwx------@ 83 arwhyte staff 2656 Jun 11 20:22 Library
drwx------+ 8 arwhyte staff 256 Jul 20 21:38 Movies
drwx------+ 7 arwhyte staff 224 Dec 20 2019 Music
drwx------+ 87 arwhyte staff 2784 Aug 5 17:58 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 3 arwhyte staff 96 Jul 15 12:36 Postman
drwxr-xr-x+ 4 arwhyte staff 128 Nov 28 2018 Public
3.0 Change directory
If you need to change your current location, use the cd command to change your location to a
different working directory in your file system.
❗ Note that directory names and file names are case sensitive.
3.1 Change to a child directory
You can change to child directory using a relative path (i.e., relative to the current working directory).
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
cd Documents
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
💡 the current working directory is denoted by a single dot (.).
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
cd ./Documents
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
💡 If you need to traverse n-levels deep you can do so by extending the relative path with
additional directory names separated by a slash (/).
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
cd Documents/umsi
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi
3.2 Change to a parent directory
Two dots (..) represent the parent directory or the directory one level up.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
cd ..
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
💡 You can concatenate the two dot parent directory notation using a slash as a separator
(e.g., ../../) n-times in order to traverse the directory tree n-levels up.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
cd ../../
pwd
/Users
3.3 Change to an adjacent or sibling directory
You can switch to an adjacent or sibling directory by using the two dot notation (..) together
with the directory name separated by a slash (/). In the following example the Documents
directory contains two child directories: umsi and umpy.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi
cd ../umpy
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umpy
3.4 Change directory using an absolute path
You can also change directories using an absolute path.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
cd /Users/arwhyte/Documents
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
3.5 Change to user’s home directory
You can change to your home directory by using the tilde (~) character.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi
cd ~
pwd
/Users/arwhyte
3.6 Directory names with spaces
If you need to change to a directory that includes spaces in its name you must either surround the
name with a pair of single or double quotation marks or escape the spaces with the backslash
(\) character.
💡 I recommend avoiding the use of spaces when naming directories or files in order to avoid
having to add quotation marks or escape characters to your paths. Instead consider using
underscores (_) if you want to separate characters in a directory or filename (e.g., si_506
not si 506).
While on the subject of filenames, the Python community’s naming convention for filenames or modules as they are called is as follows:
Modules should have short, all-lowercase names. Underscores can be used in the module name if it improves readability.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi
➜ umsi ls
si 506
cd 'si 506'
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi/si 506
cd ..
cd "si 506"
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi/si 506
cd ..
cd si\ 506
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi/si 506
4.0 Create a directory
To create a new director use the mkdir command passing the name of the new directory as an
argument.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
mkdir umich
ls
umich umpy umsi
💡 You can create multiple directories at the same time by passing multiple names each separated by a space.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
mkdir msu osu
ls
msu osu umich umpy umsi
5.0 Delete a directory
5.1 Delete an empty directory
To delete an empty directory use the rmdir command passing the name of the directory you wish
to delete as an argument.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
rmdir osu
ls
msu umich umpy umsi
5.2 Delete a directory with content
To delete a directory that contains content (i.e., subdirectories and/or files) use the rm command
together with the -r recursive command option and either the -f force option or i interactive
command option.
5.2.1 rm command options (select list)
| Option | Description | |
|---|---|---|
-f, |
--force |
Remove write protected files without prompting. |
-i, |
--interactive |
Prompt for y (yes) or n (no) before removing a file. Overrides -f. |
-r, |
--recursive |
Remove all subdirectories and content recursively. |
rmdir msu
rmdir: msu: Directory not empty
cd msu
ls
spartans.txt
cd ..
rm -rf msu
ls
umich umpy umsi
6.0 Create a file
You can use the touch command to create an empty file by passing the new filename as an
argument.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umich
touch wolverines.txt
ls
wolverines.txt
7.0 View the contents of a text file
To view the contents of a text file use the cat command.
cat wolverines.txt
Go Blue!
8.0 Delete a file
You can use the rm command to delete a file.
rm delete_me.txt
9.0 Move a directory or file to another location
You can use the mv command to move a directory or file from one location to another. Specify the
source directory or file (i.e., the directory or file you wish to move) and the target location
as arguments.
⚠️ if you move a file to a directory that contains a file with the same name you will overwrite the existing file.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents
mv umpy umich/
mv umsi umich/
cd umich
ls
umpy umsi wolverines.txt
To move directories or files up one level employ the two dot notation with a trailing slash to
construct a relative path. You can also employ an absolute path (e.g., /Users/arwhyte/Documents/)
for the target location.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/umsi/
ls
umpy umsi wolverines.txt
mv umpy ../
mv umsi ../
ls
wolverines.txt
cd ../
ls
umich umpy umsi
When you move a directory or file you can also change the name by specifying a new name in the target path.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/
cd umich
ls
wolverines.txt
mv wolverines.txt ../go_blue.txt
cd ../
ls
go_blue.txt umich umpy umsi
💡 If you possess the requisite permissions and construct the correct target path you can move directories and files to any target location in your file system.
10.0 Copy a directory or file to another location
You can use the cp command to copy a directory or file to another location. Specify the
source directory or file (i.e., the directory or file you wish to copy) and the target location
as arguments.
💡 You can change the name of the directory or file you copy by specifying the new directory name or filename as part of the target path.
10.1 cp command options (select list)
| Option | Description | |
|---|---|---|
-f, |
--force |
Remove existing files in target directory. |
-i, |
--interactive |
Prompt for y (yes) or n (no) before overwriting an existing file. |
-R, |
--recursive |
Copy directories recursively. |
10.2 Copy a directory to another location
When you use the cp command to copy a directory to another location you must also specify the command option -R in order to create a copy of the directory recursively. Otherwise, the copy
operation will fail.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/
mkdir program_01 program_02
cp -R program_01 umsi/msi
cp -R program_02 umsi/mhi
cd umsi
ls
mhi msi
10.3 Copy a file to another location
Copying a file does not require use of the -R command option. Specify the source directory or file (i.e., the directory or file you wish to copy) and the target location
as arguments.
pwd
/Users/arwhyte/Documents/
cp go_blue.txt umich/victors.txt
cd umich
ls
victors.txt
💡 you can copy multiple files to the same target path by passing the names as arguments before specifying the target path.
cp go_blue.txt go_green.txt cheers/
Alternatively, you can employ a pattern matching wildcard (*).
cp *.txt cheers/
11.0 Clear the terminal screen
There are times when clearing the terminal screen of output makes sense. Use the clear command to
do so.
clear
12.0 which
The which command comes in handy when you need to identify the location of an executable that is
associated with a given command. For example, to return the executable path for Python 3.x pass the
command alias as the argument (Windows users pass python).
which python3
/usr/local/bin/python3
13.0 Start the Python interactive console
You can run the Python interactive console (a.k.a the Python shell) from the terminal. Once the
console is started the prompt will change. The new prompt comprises three greater than symbols
(>>>).
13.1 macOS
python3
Python 3.10.6 (main, Aug 11 2022, 13:36:31) [Clang 13.1.6 (clang-1316.0.21.2.5)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
13.2 Windows Git Bash
❗ When using Git Bash you must include the -i interactive command option or the
Python interactive console. If you fail to specify the -i option Git Bash will hang (terminate the
application and restart it).
python -i
Python 3.10.6 (tags/v3.10.6:9c7b4bd, Aug 1 2022, 21:53:49) [MSC v.1932 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
You can also start the Python interactive console from Git Bash by first invoking winpty, a
Windows software package that provides an interface for running Windows console programs.
winpty python
Python 3.10.6 (tags/v3.10.6:9c7b4bd, Aug 1 2022, 21:53:49) [MSC v.1932 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
13.3 Windows Command Prompt
You can also start the Python Interactive console using the the Command Prompt (cmd). The -i
command option is not required.
python
Python 3.10.6 (tags/v3.10.6:9c7b4bd, Aug 1 2022, 21:53:49) [MSC v.1932 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
13.4 Quitting the console session
To exit the Python interactive console type quit() and then press enter.
>>> quit()
Sources
A. Robbins, Unix in a Nutshell, 4th edition (O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2005).