What Is Putty?
Putty is an open source SSH client used to connect to a remote server. Putty is basically a terminal for windows based operating systems. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. PuTTY was originally written for Microsoft Windows, but it has been ported to various other operating systems. To work with Putty you need to know few basic Putty Commands.
Say you have a Linux Server set up.
To connect to your server from your PC you can use Putty and type simple SSH commands to perform different basic actions such as creating folders, copying them and so on.
What you will need to use Putty
1. A Linux based server
2. Putty installed on your computer
3. The server’s IP address
4. Username
5. Password
2. Putty installed on your computer
3. The server’s IP address
4. Username
5. Password
Download Putty and save it on your desktop. You don’t have to install it just click on it and it will run out of the box.
When you open putty you will see something similar to the below image
Out of all those options we are interested in well…just one and that’s the Host Name field(the IP address).
Here you need to input your own server’s IP address in order to connect to it.
Just enter the IP address making sure the connection type SSH is checked and port is 22.
Hit open. You will be presented with a black screen like this.
Useful SSH Putty Commands
1) How to find out where you are, the pwd command shows you present working directory.
pwd
2) Change directory
cd
The cd command is used to navigate into a specified directory on your server.
Example: cd /home (moves you into the home folder)
3) The same directory
cd .
Using this command you will remain in the same directory you were.
4) Move me up one directory
cd ..
Above command will navigate two steps back from current directory
5) Go to the previous directory
cd –
Above command will navigate to the previous directory.
6) Go to Home folder
cd ~
Above command will navigate to the home directory on your server.
7) Go to root
cd /
Above command will navigate to root.
How to List Directories and Contents
8) List files
ls usage: ls [option] [file]
Using the ls command in a folder will display all it’s content.
Example: ls /home.
Will return all content of the folder /home.
9) Show me all files in a directory
ls -a
10) Show contents with file size
ls -h
If you wish to see a directory’s contents with file sizes just type ls -h
11) How to see sub-directories recursively
ls -r
The ls -r command is used to see sub-directories recursively.
12) How to see files by file size
ls -is
13) List all folders in directory with details
ls -alh
How to Copy files/folders with Putty Commands
14) Copying a file
cp
To copy a file just use the cp ssh command.
Example:
cp filename.php /home/filename.php
15) Copy a folder with all files
cp -r
This one is used to copy the entire folder with all it’s contents.
16) Copy and rename
cp filename.php /home/filename2.php
How to Move files to different locations
17) Moving a file
mv
Example: mv page.php /home/page.php
18) Move and rename
mv page.php /home/newpage.php
19) Move file up one directory
mv filename ..
example: mv index.html/ ..
How to Create files/folders using Putty Commands
20) Create a folder
mkdir
example: mkdir new-folder
21) Create a file
touch
Use the touch command to create different files and file extensions
Example: touch index.php
How to Compress/Uncompress files?
22) Compressing folders
zip -r foldername.zip foldername
Example: zip -r newfolder.zip newfolder
23) uncompressing folders
unzip
Example: unzip newfolder.zip
24) Compressing folders using tar -czvf
tar -czvf foldername.tar.gz foldername
Example: tar -czvf wp-content.tar.gz wp-content
25) uncompressing folders using tar -czvf
tar -xvf foldername.tar.gz
Example: tar -xvf wp-content.tar.gz
How to Delete/Remove files?
26) Delete a file
rm
To delete a file on your server just use the rm command.
Example: rm index.php
27) Delete all files from a directory
rm *
This command is used to delete all contents from a directory.
Example: rm * foldername
28) Delete a folder/directory
rmdir
Use this command to remove directories.
How to change File permissions?
29) Change file permissions
chmod
Example: chmod 775 newfolder
30) Change permissions of folder and all files inside
chmod 755 folder name -R
Thanks for reading our article and we will keep updating the same articles with more useful commands in coming days. Keep checking this space for more Putty commands.
