Course : C Programming

Faculty : Harshit Garg

LIST OF LINUX COMMANDS

S.No. Command Name

Syntax

Example and Explanation

Print Working Directory pwd

(pwd)

pwd #lists the path of the current directory

or folder

List (ls) to display the

contents

ls # display the contents of current folder

ls /home/student/Desktop # display the
contents of Desktop folder

Make Directory (mkdir) mkdir foldername

mkdir songs # creeaates a folder or

directory with songs as name

Change Directory (cd) Cd (space)

to switch to a directory path_to _
foldername # you
move from one
folder to another

cd songs # you move from current folder to

songs folder

Gedit (opens the editor

for wrting)

gedit filename

gedit hello.c # creates a file called hello.c in

current folder
# it is equal to the double click on file
hello.c

Copy (cp) -

cp sourcefile
destination_folder

cp hello.c /home/student/Desktop # copies

the file hello.c to Desktop

Move (mv) to change mv sourcefile

the location from one
destination_folder
place to another

mv hello.c /home/student/Desktop # moves

the file hello.c to Desktop i.e. Deletes the
file from current folder to Desktop

History to display a
history
list of commands alreay
executed

history # displays a list of commands alreay

executed
Note : Use arrow keys on the terminal to
move up/down in the list

Contatenate (cat) to
cat filename
display the contents of a
file

cat hello.c # displays the name of the file

hello.c in terminal window

10

Gcc (GNU C Compiler gcc sourcefile

or GNU Compiler
Collection)
compiles the source
code to executable code

gcc hello.c # compiles the source file

hello.c

11

Man (Manual)

ls
or
ls path_to_folder

Man commandname man gcc # opens the manual of gcc

command
man ls # opens the manual of ls command

To test if a command works or not, just type that command. If command not found message
comes, then the command does not exist. Also, you can type the following
man commandname,
Eg. man gcc , to see if the command is installed. If it is, then its manual will open.
Steps to programming in C
1. Writing the code (using gedit command)
2. Compiling the code (using gcc command)
3. Executing the code ((using ./a.out ))
Writing the code
1.
2.
3.
4.

open the terminal

type gedit hello.c or type gedit hello.c &
type the source code
save the work

NOTE : Be sure of the location (folder) where you are saving your work
Compiling the code
1.
2.
3.
4.

type gcc hello.c

if there is an error, some message comes
otherwise, no message comes
by default, ./a.out file is created. To create an executable file of any other name, type gcc
hello.c -o hello or gcc -o hello hello.c. This creates an executable file hello instead of
a.out

NOTE : There are two types of errors. One are WARNINGS. Warnigns are just informative
messages, and can be ignored. Other is ERROR. Errors are mistakes in the C program, that need
to be removed before the program can be executed. So edit the program. The line number is
mentioned in the error message. Go to the line number and look for the error.
Executing the code
1. type ./a.out
2. the output is displayed on the screen
NOTE : If you have compiled using step 4 in compiling, then you should type ./filename, like
./hello in the example case.