Obscure Linux Commands

man somecommand | col -b | mail username@yourserver.com -s "Man Page for SomeCommand"
[Removes formatting from the man page and mails it to recipient]

Command 	Function 
cd 		returns you to your login directory 
cd ~ 		also returns you to your login directory 
cd / 		takes you to the entire system's root directory 
cd /root 	takes you to the home directory of the root, or superuser, 
		account created at installation  
cd /home 	takes you to the home directory, where user login 
		directories are usually stored 
cd .. 		moves you up one directory 
cd ~otheruser 	takes you to otheruser's login directory, if otheruser has given you permission 
cd /dir1/subdirfoo regardless of which directory you are in, this absolute path 
		   would take you straight to subdirfoo, a subdirectory of dir1 
cd ../../dir3/X11  this relative path would take you up two directories to root, 
		   then to dir3, then to the X11 directory. 


Here is a short list of some popular options with ls. Remember, you can view the full list by reading the ls man page (man ls). 


-a — all. Lists all the files in the directory, including the hidden files (.filename). The .. and . at the top of your list refer to the parent directory and the current directory, respectively. 

-l — long. Lists details about contents, including permissions (modes), owner, group, size, creation date, whether the file is a link to somewhere else on the system and where its link points. 

-F — file type. Adds a symbol to the end of each listing. These symbols include / to indicate a directory; @ to indicate a symbolic link to another file; and * to indicate an executable file. 

-r — reverse. Lists the contents of the directory from back to front. 

-R — recursive. This recursive option lists the contents of all directories (below the current directory) recursively. 

-S — size. Sorts files by their size.