Linux File and User Management - Beginner Guide
1. File Management Commands
These commands help you work with files and view their contents:
No. Command Description
1 ls List files and directories in the current folder. Like "see what's here."
2 cat filename Show all the content of a file at once.
3 less filename View file page by page (use arrow keys). Quit with q.
4 more filename Like less, shows one screen at a time. Quit with q.
5 head filename Show first 10 lines of the file.
6 tail filename Show last 10 lines of the file.
7 page filename View file page by page (similar to less). Not always pre-installed.
2. File & Directory Management (Part 2)
These are for copying, moving, searching files:
No. Command Description
1 cp source dest Copy a file from source to destination.
2 mv source dest Move or rename a file.
3 find /path -name name Find a file by name under a directory.
4 grep 'word' filename Search a word inside a file (shows matching lines).
5 cd foldername Change directory to the given folder.
6 diff file1 file2 Compare two files and show the differences.
7 sed 's/old/new/' file Find and replace text in a file. (Only shows result, doesn't change file)
8 chmod 755 file Change file permissions (who can read/write/execute).
9 chown user file Change the owner of the file.
10 file filename Shows the type of file (text, binary, etc).
3. User Management
There are 3 types of users in Linux:
1. Super (Root) User
The most powerful user in Linux.
Can do anything in the system.
Home directory: /root
Shell: /bin/bash
2. System User
Created by software or applications (like Apache, SSH, FTP).
Not for normal login.
Home directory: /var/... or similar.
Shell: /sbin/nologin
3. Normal User
Created by root/superuser.
Example: ec2-user in Amazon EC2 Linux.
Home directory: /home/username
Shell: /bin/bash
4. Login to Linux EC2 Instance
To log in to your EC2 instance:
ssh -i keypair.pem username@public-ip
Example:
Use ubuntu instead of ec2-user if it's an Ubuntu instance.
You can practice these commands in your EC2 Linux instance or any Linux terminal.
Note: If any command gives an error like "command not found," it might not be installed. You can
install using:
sudo yum install packagename # on Amazon Linux
sudo apt install packagename # on Ubuntu
Let me know if you want practical step-by-step exercises to try each command!
