Basic Linux Commands for Beginners

GNU/Linux is slowly but steadily on the path to becoming everyone’s choice of Operating System. Whether it’s for being a fully Free (as in freedom) and Open Source option, or for generally being a more robust and secure option, people are switching to Linux. Maybe this year (2025, as of writing) might turn out to be “The Year of Desktop Linux”.

If you just installed Linux or are planning to start using Linux, This guide will come in handy. Below are the basic commands everyone should know how to use. Let’s dive deeper.

1. pwd
2. cd
3. ls
4. mkdir
5. rmdir
6. touch
7. rm
8. cp
9. mv

One common thing worth noting about all of these commands (and probably every single Linux command) is different parts of the command. Almost every command will have the following structure:

command [options] [arguments]

• command: The actual command we want to run, usually represents a binary located somewhere
• options: AKA flags, options are a way to customize the command’s behaviour
• arguments: Usually the things we want to perform the command on.

A popular option to use for most commands is “–help”. It returns some info about the usage of the command, for example:

user@ubuntu:~$ cd --help
cd: cd [-L|[-P [-e]] [-@]] [dir]
    Change the shell working directory.
    
    Change the current directory to DIR.  The default DIR is the value of the
    HOME shell variable. If DIR is "-", it is converted to $OLDPWD.
    
    The variable CDPATH defines the search path for the directory containing
    DIR.  Alternative directory names in CDPATH are separated by a colon (:).
    A null directory name is the same as the current directory.  If DIR begins
    with a slash (/), then CDPATH is not used.
    
    If the directory is not found, and the shell option `cdable_vars' is set,
    the word is assumed to be  a variable name.  If that variable has a value,
    its value is used for DIR.
    
    Options:
      -L	force symbolic links to be followed: resolve symbolic
    		links in DIR after processing instances of `..'
      -P	use the physical directory structure without following
    		symbolic links: resolve symbolic links in DIR before
    		processing instances of `..'
      -e	if the -P option is supplied, and the current working
    		directory cannot be determined successfully, exit with
    		a non-zero status
      -@	on systems that support it, present a file with extended
    		attributes as a directory containing the file attributes
    
    The default is to follow symbolic links, as if `-L' were specified.
    `..' is processed by removing the immediately previous pathname component
    back to a slash or the beginning of DIR.
    
    Exit Status:
    Returns 0 if the directory is changed, and if $PWD is set successfully when
    -P is used; non-zero otherwise.

Frankly speaking, whatever “–help” returns and trying everything mentioned in it is a much better source of learning. The developers have already done a much better job explaining what their commands do than I can ever do here. This article is written only to get your feet wet.

1. pwd

Running pwd simply returns the current working directory.

user@ubuntu:~$ pwd
/home/user

2. cd

cd stands for “Change Directory”. As the name suggests, it is used to change the current working directory. Basic usage would be:

cd [target directory]

For example, if I want to go to the “/home/user” directory, I would run:

cd /home/user

3. ls

The ls command is for listing files. simply running ‘ls’ in the terminal outputs a list of files in the working directory.

user@ubuntu:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8

Popular options:

• -a returns all items, including hidden items
• -l returns contents in a long list format
• -h is used with ‘-l’ to convert filesizes into human readable format

These options can also be used together as ‘-alh’ which would give such an output:

user@ubuntu:~/directory$ ls -alh
total 40K
drwxr-xr-x 10 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:59 .
drwx------ 43 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:55 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-1
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-2
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-3
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-4
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-5
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-6
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-7
drwxr-xr-x  2 user user 4.0K Feb 12 16:56 dir-8

4. mkdir

mkdir is used to create a directory, the name is simply passed as an argument to create the directory.

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ mkdir dir-9
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8  dir-9

5. rmdir

rmdir is used to delete an empty directory, the name is simply passed as an argument to delete the directory.

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8  dir-9
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ rmdir dir-9
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8

6. touch

touch creates an empty file, the name is simply passed as an argument to create a file.

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ touch file
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8  file

7. rm

Often known as the most dangerous command (IYKYK) deletes a file, the name is simply passed as an argument to delete a file.

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8  file
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ rm file 
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  dir-8

It can also be used to delete a non-empty directory [USE CAREFULLY]

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls dir-8/
another-folder  file
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ rmdir dir-8/
rmdir: failed to remove 'dir-8/': Directory not empty
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ rm -r dir-8/
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7

The “-r” option tells the rm command to delete recursively.

8. cp

The cp command is used to create a copy of a folder or a file. It requires at least two arguments:

• Source: to be copied
• Target: where to be copied

cp command can be very handy as the name of the resulting copy can be changed to anything.

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  file
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ cp file file-copy
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  file  file-copy

To copy directories, ‘-r’ flag is used.

9. mv

The mv command is used to move a folder or a file. It requires at least two arguments:

• Source: to be moved
• Target: where to be moved

mv command can be very handy as the name of the target can be changed to anything. Hence, it can also be used to rename something.

user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls
dir-1  dir-2  dir-3  dir-4  dir-5  dir-6  dir-7  file  file-copy
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ mv file-copy dir-7/
user@ubuntu-2:~/directory$ ls dir-7/
file-copy

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, this article is only meant to wet your feet. There’s so much more to these commands and there’s certainly so much more to GNU/Linux. Best of luck and keep learning!