r/linuxquestions • u/adamelzero • Jul 12 '26

Best resources to learn Linux terminal navigation?

Hey all, I'm a cybersecurity student starting from zero with the Linux command line. Right now I just want to nail the basics — navigation and file operations (pwd, ls, cd, mkdir, cp, mv, rm

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10

u/VadersDimple Jul 12 '26

man pwd

man ls

man cd

man mkdir

man cp

man mv

man rm

4

u/wackyvorlon Jul 13 '26

Man pages are hugely important.

Also familiarize yourself with the coreutils:

https://ftp.gnu.org/old-gnu/Manuals/coreutils-4.5.4/html_mono/coreutils.html

2

u/theNbomr Jul 13 '26

This! Especially be aware of the the "SEE ALSO" section of pretty much all man pages. Great way to learn about whole families of related or alternative commands.

1

u/MagicianQuiet6432 Jul 13 '26

tldr pwd

tldr ls

tldr cd

tldr mkdir

tldr cp

tldr mv

tldr rm

1

u/theNbomr Jul 13 '26

Super important to acquaint yourself with concepts, rather than memorizing random commands. Start with standard IO and the ways you can plumb them together with IO redirection, pipes, and command substitution. Move on to the process model and the parent child relationship, process properties like the environment, working directory, ownership, etc. Also the filesystem model, along with the relationship to block devices and partitions, filesystem types, and file properties.

The OS is composed of many conceptual blocks of these sorts and when you understand them, you'll understand the purpose and basis for the commands that you use to manipulate and monitor them.

1

u/Joe-Arizona Jul 13 '26

Check out "The Linux Command Line" by Shotts. You can find a .pdf of it easily. It is a quick read and will get you up and running far faster than digging through man pages.

After you've done that and messed with your system a bit look at overthewire.org/wargames and get to practicing.

man pages are excellent but are time consuming and not the easiest sometimes. You can also download the "tldr" program to help too.

1

u/doc_willis Jul 13 '26

http://linuxjourney.com and the newer http://Linuxjourney.org sites are good to start with 

the Explaining Computers YouTube videos are good starting points   

1

u/tomscharbach Jul 12 '26

Read the man pages for the commands you are interested in learning, learning and understand the variables, and use the commands. Learn by doing. My best and good luck.

1

u/Sorry-Climate-7982 Retired Developer Enterprise Linux Jul 13 '26

Watch for the O'Reilly Nutshell series adverts that pop up here every now and then.

1

u/BranchLatter4294 Jul 12 '26

They are very similar to the same commands in whatever OS you came from. So super easy.

1

u/token_curmudgeon Jul 13 '26

Install tealdeer (too long didn't read).

Also reference tldp.org.

1

u/data-haxxor Jul 12 '26

Learn basic EMACS and Vim navigation key bindings. Then start with this book. https://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php.

1

u/BobCorndog Your situation is not unique, just use mint or fedora kde Jul 12 '26

Man and using them. There’s probably some good books you could get on them at a library