Basic Unix and Vim Commands

Basic Unix Commands

In this Git course some very basic Unix commands will be used. This document describes ALL commands needed below.

ls: list all files/folders in current directory
cd: change directory, e.g. cd test will go to folder 'test'. To go one directory up, type cd ..
cat: concatenate files, in our case we only use it to display the content of text file, e.g. cat my_file.txt prints the content of my_file.txt to the terminal
source: run script in the current shell, this means that all variables and functions defined in that file will be available in the current shell
echo: display a line of text
>: redirect ouput to file/device after >, overwrites already existing file
>>: redirect output to file/device after >>, appends and does not delete already existing file
mkdir: create directory/folder, e.g. mkdir test will create directory 'test'
touch my_file: creates the file "my_file"
rm my_file: remove file "my_file"

In some Git commands (e.g. writing commit messages), the editor vim may open by default. Here are the very basic commands you need to know: