âš¡ Day 2: Shortcuts & Basic Commands

Mastering shortcuts and core commands is the key to velocity in the terminal. Navigate like a pro! 🚀

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🎹 Keyboard Shortcuts

These shortcuts will save you hours of typing over your career.

Key Combo	Action	Mnemonic
Ctrl + L	Clear Screen	Same as clear command (Clean Slate).
Ctrl + A	Start of Line	Alpha (Beginning).
Ctrl + E	End of Line	End.
Ctrl + K	Delete to End	Kill from cursor to end.
Ctrl + U	Delete to Start	Undo entire line (cut).
Ctrl + Shift + T	New Tab	Tab.
Ctrl + Shift + R	Split Terminal	Right? (Maybe right split).
Ctrl + Shift + E	Close Split	Exit split.

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🛠️ Essential Commands

The bread and butter of Linux navigation and file manipulation.

📂 Navigation & Listing

Command	Description	Example
pwd	Print Working Directory - Where am I?	pwd
ls	List files and folders.	ls
ls -a	List all (including hidden . files).	ls -a
ls -l	List long format (permissions, size, owner).	ls -l

📁 File & Directory Management

Command	Description	Power User Tip
mkdir	Make Directory.	Use mkdir -p a/b/c to create nested folders at once.
touch	Create an empty file.	touch notes.txt
cp	Copy files usually.	cp file.txt backup.txt
cp -r	Copy directories (Recursive).	cp -r folder/ copy_folder/
mv	Move or Rename files/folders.	mv old.txt new.txt (Rename)
rm	Remove files.	rm junk.txt
rm -r	Remove directory (Recursive).	rm -rf dangerous_folder/ (Careful!)

📝 Reading & Editing

Command	Description	Usage
cat	Concatenate and display file content.	cat file.txt
head	Show first 10 lines.	head large_log.txt
tail	Show last 10 lines.	tail error_log.txt
less	Scroll through large files page by page.	less giant_file.txt (Press q to quit)
nano	Simple terminal text editor.	nano config.conf

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🔗 Chaining & Redirection

Combine commands to build powerful workflows.

1. The Pipe |

Take the output of the first command and feed it as input to the second.

ls -la | grep "txt"
# Lists all files, then filters only lines containing "txt"

2. The Chain &&

Run the second command only if the first succeeds.

mkdir project && cd project
# Creates directory "project" and enters it immediately

3. Output Redirection > & >>

echo "Hello World" > file.txt   # Overwrites file.txt
echo "New Line" >> file.txt     # Appends to file.txt

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