Here's a tonne of terminal commands that all web developers should be familiar with...

Permissions

//To run a command
sudo 
// then type in password for the computer

//To access a directory
sudo su
// then type in password for the computer

Show/hide hidden files (on a mac)

//Show
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;
killall Finder

//Hide
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

Browsing

cd
//to change a directory

ls
//lists out all the stuff in the directory

ls -l
//does the same thing as the previous but with more details (dates etc.)

pwd
//gives you the path of where you are 

//Note - hit ctrl -X 
//To exit or cancel

Reading files

//Find how much disk space is left
sudo df -h 
sudo du -sh *

DNS records

whois markendley.co
//Will give you all the details of the domain name including details of registrar and name-servers

Editing files

less hello.txt
//open the txt file hello.txt so you can edit it!

q
//quit

nano hello.txt
//open the txt file hello.txt so you can edit it!

//Note - hit ctrl -X 

Deleting files

rm -rf hannapak
//deletes the directory hannapak

mv hello.txt    hi.txt
//rename the file

mv hello.txt    documents/
//move the file to documents

mv hello.txt    .
//move the file to the directory that I’m currently in

mkdir   
//make directory

cp   
//copy file

Users

whoami
//tells you what user your are logged in as

adduser 
//add a new user (this command is specifically for ubuntu linux)

su mike
//switch user to “mike”

Permissions

Understanding how it works

//First we have the privileges are abbreviated as rwx
//Read - read the file
//Write - make changes
//Execute - programs can run

//Then we have the groups
//1. User
//2. Group
//3. Other

//And each group has their own set of priveages

u	g	o
rwx	rwx	rwx

//So....
rwxrwxrx
//Means everybody (users, groups and other) can read, write and execute

rwx------
//This means only the user can read, write and execute, groups and other can't do nothing

drwxrwxr
//d stands for directory

//Then we have octal numbers
0 - - -
1 - - x
2 - w -
3 - w x
4 r - -
5 r - x
6 r w - 
7 r w x

//First column represents User, the second is group and the 3rd if other

//And the rwx is represented by a number r = 4, w = 2, x = 1

//and the numbers add up

//So if you do the math...
//777  means User, Groups and Everybody hence EVERYBODY can read write and execute
//755  means EVERYBODY can READ, but only the USER can change!
//644 means use can read and writre, everygody else can only read.

Change a file’s permissions

chmod u-r  hello.txt
//turn off the READ permission for the user

chmod ug-r  hello.txt
//turn off the READ permission for the user and group

chmod 777 hello.txt
//Change the permissions of a file to 777

Archiving files

//Compress a directory
tar -zcvf archive_name.tar.gz directory_to_compress

Last modified: November 12, 2018