From the Linux prompt you can move your files around, check on your jobs, manage your disk space, and run programs. Below are some brief introductions to basic commands. For more info, this is a reasonably good tutorial. Note that most of the the Linux shell functionality is the same as a UNIX shell (the shell that you get when you open a Mac terminal). There are many resources online to help you learn how to use the Unix shell.

The ls command lists the files in a particular directory. To use it, type ls at the prompt and press enter:

[username@econ1 ~ ]$ ls

You can use wildcards with ls to list only files matching a particular expression. That is, the command

[username@econ1 ~ ]$ ls *.do

will list only your .do files in the current directory.

The mv command allows you to move files or directories from one directory to another

mv [file] [directory]

The mkdir command creates a new directory. It's usage is

mkdir [new directory name]

The rm command deletes the files specified after the command. The following code would delete all .do files in your current directory.

rm *.do

You can delete an entire non-empty directory with:

rm -r [directory]

The command rmdir deletes an empty directory:

rmdir [directory to delete]

To get help about a command, you can view it's “man page,” which describes how the command works. It describes the syntax and usage for the command. To view a man page, type:

man [command]

You can move up and down the man page with the arrows. Typing q quits.

You can change your password by using the command:

passwd

at the command prompt. You will be prompted for your current password. Type this password and press enter. Note that when you type your password, no characters will appear. This is for security purposes and is normal.

Next you will be prompted to enter your new password twice. Do so, and your password will be successfully changed!

Sometimes you use a certain command so many times that you just can't type it anymore. That's where the aliases come helpful. Just as the name suggests, you can tell the cluster to use some new (shorter) command in place of the one you use often. As an example, every time I log in to the cluster, I go to cd ~/files/pics/cute_pics/cats and I want to change it to just cats.

First, I start editing my bash profile with any text editor. For example

nano ~/.bash_profile

Then I go to the space below # User specific environment and startup programs and type

alias cats="cd ~/files/pics/cute_pics/cats"

I save the file and refresh the changes by typing

source ~/.bash_profile

Now typing

cats

sends me directly to the folder I need.