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Linux Basics

Linux is an open-source Unix-like Operating System (OS) based on the Linux kernel, an OS kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution. Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Linux is one of the very few open source OS, where the kernel acts as the central unit of operation for establishing the communication between the computer hardware and the system software.

The Linux command line is a text interface to your computer. Often referred to as the shell (bash), terminal, console, or command prompt, this is the interface for navigating through Linux. This is what a terminal looks like. This is how you will be navigating through the HPC cluster.

 

text inside terminal

This may sound complicated and confusing, but with a little practice and some basic commands, you will be able to navigate with ease. Here are a few basic commands to navigate through UHD's HPC cluster.

 

Command Description
man <command Shows the manual pages for the command entered “ex. $man ls"
pwd Print Working Directory, pwd will print the full path of current/working directory
ls List directory contents
ls -a List all the content, including hidden files
ls -l List the content and its information
mkdir <foldername> Creates a new directory labeled “foldername" inside the current working directory
cd <path/foldername> Change Directory, this changes the current directory to the path given
cd Return to $HOME directory
cd .. Go up a directory
nano, vim Text editors
cp <source destination> Copy source to destination
cp -r <source destination> Copy a directory recursively from source to destination
mv <source destination> Move (or rename) a file from source to destination
rm <file> Remove file
rm -r <folder>  Remove a directory and its contents recursively
cat <file> Print contents of file on the screen
less <file>  View file and navigate through file
head <file>  Show first 10 lines of file
tail <file>  Show last 10 lines of file
diff <file1.txt> <file2.txt> Command to compare the contents of two files and displays the differences
df -h Reports file system disk space usage in human readable form.

 

This may sound complicated and confusing, but with a little practice and some basic commands, you will be able to navigate with ease. Here are a few basic commands to navigate through UHD's HPC cluster. 

 

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