Several Linux commands

1. Use 'cd –' to toggle between the last two directories:

# cd /tmp/data/calibration
# cd /root/usr/

# cd -
# pwd
/tmp/data/calibration

# cd -
# pwd
cd /root/usr/



2. history 10
   
   use Control-R to search the history (same as Emacs C-r, C-s). Press Left/Right arrow key to edit the command before executing.
   C-p to display previous command (!! enter)
   history –c, clear all
   command, this command will not show in history [this line updated on 10/23/09]
   


3. tar [options] [tar-archive-name] [other-file-name]:
   
   [option c] stands for create an archive
   [option v] stands for verbose mode, displays additional info while executing the command
   [option f] indicates the archive file name mentioned in the command
   [option t] display all the files from the tar archive
   [option z] when dealing with tar.gz compressed file
   [option j] when dealing with tar.bz2 compressed file
   


tar cvf /tmp/myfile.tar /home/peter
tar tvf /tmp/myfile.tar
tar xvf /tmp/myfile.tar

tar cvfz /tmp/myfile.tar /home/peter
tar xvfz /tmp/myfile.tar


4. in ~/.bash_profile, separating them with :,
   


export CDPATH=/etc
export CDPATH=/var:/home:~:/home


5. list the files in the ascending/descending order of file size
   



ls -al | sort +4n
ls -al | sort +4nr