Common SSH Commands

Common SSH Commands

Move into another directory

Use this command to move into a directory:
cd

You can specify the full path from the root of the server:
cd /home/00000/domains/

You can type the path from where you are now (leave out the beginning /):
cd downloads/
You can go up a directory level:
cd ..

You can go to your home directory:
cd ~

Where am I?

Working with your server without graphics can take a little getting used to. If you ever need to see exactly which folder you're in, use the following command:
pwd

It stands for print working directory. You'll see output like this:
/home/00000/data/

What's here?
Next, we want to see a list of files and folders in our current directory:
ls -alh

ls is the list command, and -alh modifies the standard list in three ways. a means that all files, even hidden files, should be shown. l means that the long format is used - it shows things like file size and the date every file was last modified. h makes the sizes display in convenient units. Here's some sample output:
drwxr-xr-x  3 example.com example.com   15 Oct 21 10:01 .
drwxr-xr-x  6 example.com example.com    6 Oct 21 09:13 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 example.com example.com  137 Oct 21 10:01 .htaccess
drwxr-xr-x  2 example.com example.com    4 Jun  8 17:24 errors
-rwxr-xr-x  1 example.com example.com  379 Jan 28  2010 hello.pl
-rw-r--r--  1 example.com example.com   45 Oct 30  2009 home.html
-rw-r--r--  1 example.com example.com   83 Oct 21 09:47 index.php
-rw-r--r--  1 example.com example.com   68 Jul 20 15:53 phpinfo.php

Change permissions

This section shows basic commands for changing the access settings on a file. It is highly recommended that you read File Permissions before making any changes, so you'll know what kinds of changes are good and what might be a security risk.

To change permissions:
chmod 755 index.php

Quick permissions guide:
7 = Read + Write + Execute
6 = Read + Write
5 = Read + Execute
4 = Read
3 = Write + Execute
2 = Write
1 = Execute
0 = All access denied

First number is for the owner, second for the group, and third for everyone.
Copy file

Use this command to copy a file to a different location (first example), or to the same folder but with a new name (second example):
cp logo.png image/logo.png
cp index.php index.php_old

You can also copy an entire folder (along with all subfolders) using -R:
cp -R image/ image2
Move or rename file

The format for the move command is very similar to that for the copy command. Here's an example:
mv logo.png image/logo.png

mv is the basic command. This moves logo.png into the image/ subdirectory.
You can also use it to rename a file:
mv index.php index.php_old
This renames index.php to index.php_old.

Finally, you can move a folder just as easily as a single file. This example shows how to move the folder image/ up one level (..means "up one level"):

mv image/ ..

Delete file

You can also delete a file using SSH. Be sure you don't need it any more before you delete it.
rm index.php_old

Create or edit a file:

vi file.html
Read or search within a file

If you need to look through a file, the quickest way to get all the contents on your screen is cat:
cat index.html

Delete file

You can also delete a file using SSH. Be sure you don't need it any more before you delete it.
rm index.php_old