PuTTY – 20 Useful Putty Commands

Useful SSH Putty Commands

1.) How to find out where you are, the pwd command shows you present working directory.

pwd

2.) Change directory

cd

The cd command is used to navigate into a specified directory on your server.

Example: cd /home (moves you into the home folder)

3.) The same directory

cd .

Using this command you will remain in the same directory you were.

4.) Move me up one directory

cd ..

Above command will navigate two steps back from current directory

5.) Go to the previous directory

cd –

Above command will navigate to the previous directory.

6.) Go to Home folder

cd ~

Above command will navigate to the home directory on your server.

7.) Go to root

cd /

Above command will navigate to root.

How to List Directories and Contents

8.) List files

ls

usage: ls [option] [file]

Using the ls command in a folder will display all it’s content.

Example: ls /home.

Will return all content of the folder /home.

9.) Show me all files in a directory

ls -a

10.) Show contents with file size

ls -h

If you wish to see a directory’s contents with file sizes just type ls -h

11.) How to see sub-directories recursively

ls -r

The ls -r command is used to see sub-directories recursively.

12.) How to see files by file size

ls -is

13.) List all folders in directory with details

ls -alh

How to Copy files/folders with Putty Commands

14.) Copying a file

cp

To copy a file just use the cp ssh command.

Example:

cp filename.php /home/filename.php

15.) Copy a folder with all files

cp -r

This one is used to copy the entire folder with all it’s contents.

16.) Copy and rename

cp filename.php /home/filename2.php

How to Move files to different locations

17.) Moving a file

mv

Example: mv page.php /home/page.php

18.) Move and rename

mv page.php /home/newpage.php

19.) Move file up one directory

mv filename ..

example: mv index.html/ ..

How to Create files/folders using Putty Commands

20.) Create a folder

mkdir

example: mkdir new-folder