Basic Terminal

Change the current working directory

cd path/to/directory

List files and directories in the current directory

ls

List files and directories in the current directory (Windows)

dir

List files and directories with detailed information

ls -la

Print the current working directory path

pwd

Print the current working directory path (Windows)

cd

Create a new directory

mkdir directory_name

Create nested directories (including parent directories)

mkdir -p parent/child/grandchild

Create nested directories (Windows)

mkdir parent\child\grandchild

Remove an empty directory

rmdir directory_name

Remove a directory and all its contents

rm -r directory_name

Remove a directory and all its contents (Windows)

rmdir /s /q directory_name

Copy a file to a new location

cp source_file destination_file

Copy a file to a new location (Windows)

copy source_file destination_file

Copy a directory and all its contents

cp -r source_directory destination_directory

Copy a directory and all its contents (Windows)

xcopy source_directory destination_directory /E /I /H

Move or rename a file

mv source_file destination_file

Move or rename a file (Windows)

move source_file destination_file

Remove a file

rm file_name

Remove a file (Windows)

del file_name

Display the contents of a file

cat file_name

Display the contents of a file (Windows)

type file_name

View file contents page by page (use q to quit)

less file_name

View file contents page by page (Windows)

more file_name

Search for files matching a pattern

find . -name "*.txt"

Search for files matching a pattern (Windows)

dir /s /b *.txt

Search for text within a file

grep "search_term" file_name

Search for text within a file (Windows)

findstr "search_term" file_name

Create a symbolic link to a file or directory

ln -s target_path link_name

Create a symbolic link to a file or directory (Windows)

mklink link_name target_path

Change file permissions (read, write, execute)

chmod 755 file_name

Change the owner and group of a file

chown user:group file_name

Create a compressed tar archive

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz file1 file2 directory1

Extract files from a compressed tar archive

tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz

Create a zip archive

zip -r archive.zip file1 file2 directory1

Extract files from a zip archive

unzip archive.zip

Display command history

history

Display command history (Windows)

doskey /history

Clear the terminal screen

clear

Clear the terminal screen (Windows)

cls

Display environment variables

env

Display environment variables (Windows)

set

Set an environment variable

export VARIABLE_NAME=value

Set an environment variable (Windows)

set VARIABLE_NAME=value

Run a command in the background

command &

Run a command in the background (Windows)

start command

Display running processes

ps aux

Display running processes (Windows)

tasklist

Terminate a process by ID

kill process_id

Terminate a process by ID (Windows)

taskkill /PID process_id /F

Terminate a process by name

pkill process_name

Terminate a process by name (Windows)

taskkill /IM process_name.exe /F