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Command Line Cheat Sheet

·2 mins

Anyone writing computer programs should be familiar with the command line interface for their computer. Here’s a quick review of the absolute basics.

Windows CMD.EXE #

The default command line interface is CMD.EXE, descended from the old MS DOS interface.

When you open a CMD window, you’ll see something like this:

C:\Users\nt1171>

There are three parts to that prompt:

  • “C:” means this cmd window is currently looking at the C drive.
  • “\Users\nt1171” means it’s looking at that directory (a user home directory).
  • “>” is the end of the prompt, telling us to type a command.

Basic commands:

  • help - List available commands
  • help (command) - List usage info for (command)
  • dir - List files in current directory.
  • cd (path) - Change directory to path.
  • move (name) (path) - Move (or rename) file (name) to (path).
  • copy (name) (path) - Copy file (name) to (path).
  • python script.py arg1 arg2 ... - Run a python script.

Path examples:

  • move apple.txt orange.txt - Both files are in current directory.
  • move apple.txt \users\nt1171 - Desination is absolute path to directory.
  • move apple.txt ..\fruit - “..” is the parent directory.

Example of some cd commands:

C:\Users\nt1171> cd Documents
C:\Users\nt1171\Documents> cd ..
C:\Users\nt1171> cd \
C:\>

Linux Shell (Mac is basically the same) #

When you open a shell window you’ll see something like:

nat@mint:/home/nat$

Four parts to that prompt:

  • Current user (nat)
  • Current machine name (mint)
  • Current path (/home/nat)
  • $ prompt (% on Mac) tells you you can type a command. If this is an root (admin user) prompt, the last character will be ‘#’.

Linux and Mac use a traditional UNIX style set of commands.

  • man (command) - View documentation for a command.
  • ls - List current directory.
  • cd (path) - Change directory to path.
  • mv (name) (path) - Move or rename item.
  • cp (name) (path) - Copy item.
  • python script.py arg1 arg2 ... - Run a python script.

Example of some cd commands:

nat@mint:/home/nat$ cd Documents
nat@mint:/home/nat/Documents$ 
nat@mint:/home/nat$ cd /
nat@mint:/$