50 Linux command line that every developer needs to know

Learning essential Linux command line can give you extra power! you have more control over your system. you can get to the root of everything! without any further due, here are 50 Linux command line that every developer should know. (post is in progress!)

1- pwd command

Stands for: Print work directory

wanna know your current path of the working directory? Try pwd command. using this command will give you the absolute path that you are currently in.

how to use it:

pwd 

what you will get:

here is what I will get if I print this command in my terminal from desktop: /Users/Sourena

2- cd command

Stands for: Change directory

Do you want to change your directory from your terminal? use cd command!

how to use it

There are four possible ways to use this command line

• typing cd followed by directory name you want to go to
• cd Downloads 
• typing cd followed by 2 dots to go back one directly

cd.. 

• typing cd followed by a hyphen to move to previous directly

cd-

• typing cd to go back to your home folder

cd

3- ls command

stands for: List

this command line will give you a list of contents in your current directory

ls

to list all subdirectories

ls -R

to list hidden files

ls -a

to list documents with detailed information

ls -al 

4- cat command

stands for: concatenate

Do you want to see the content of your document on the standard output (sdout)? use cat command followed by your file’s name and its extension

cat helloworld.txt

create a file

cat newFile.txt

Join two documents’ content together and create a new document

cat fileOne.txt fileTwo.txt > fileThree.txt

convert your documents content to lower case put them into a new file

cat fileOne.txt | tr A-Z a-z > newFile.txt

convert your documents content to the uppercase case put them into a new file

cat fileOne.txt | tr a-z A-Z > newFile.txt

5- cp command

Stands for: Copy

use this command line to copy a document to another directory

cp newFile.txt /newFolder

6- mv command

stands for: Move

use this command to move a document into another directory

mv selfMadeCoders.txt /CodersFolder

you can also use this command to rename a file

mv selfMadeDeveloper.txt selfMadeCoders.txt

7- mkdir command

stands for: make directory

use this command to create a new directory!

mkdir codersFolder

8- rmdir command

stands for: remove directory

do you want to remove an empty directory? use this command!

rmdir FolderToRemoverm 

9- rm command

stands for: remove

use this command to remove documents

rm fileToRemove.txt

and for removing directories

rm -r folderToRemove

10- touch command

just like the “cat > fileName” command, you can use touch to create a new document!

touch newFileToCreate.txt

touch helloWorld.html

11- locate command

you can use this command to search for a file. but you can use arguments to make it more powerful!

to make your search case sensitive

locate -i helloWorld

to make your search fined results with two or more words

locate self*Made*Coders