Manual

man command display the manual for command

Shell

Wildcards

* Any sequence of characters
? Any single character
[apfR] Any of a, f, p, or R

Redirection

command > file Send command standard output to file
command < file Get command standard input from file
command1 | command2 Send command1's standard output to command2's standard input

Commands

Various

pwd print working directory
echo something print stuff out
cd dir change directory to dir
cd change directory to $HOME
gzip file compress file
gzip -d file decompress file
grep pattern ... print lines from input that match pattern

Listing files

ls list files in current directory
ls dir list files in dir
ls -l long listing with sizes, permissions, etc
ls -t in order by last modified time
ls -s in order by size
ls -r reverse order
ls -F add filetype markers:
/ directory
* executable
@ symbolic link

Moving files

mv old new move or rename file
cp old new copy file
rm file remove file

emacs

To run

emacs new emacs
emacs file new emacs for file
emacs -nw new emacs without a new window

Key commands

C-x means hold the "control" key and press x.

M-x means hold the "meta" or "alt" key and press x. If you have no "meta" or "alt" key, you can also press the ESC key and then press x.

Basic
C-x C-c quit
C-h t Emacs tutorial
Files
C-x s save current buffer
C-x f open a new buffer for a file
C-x b Select a different buffer
C-x C-b Menu of all buffers
Moving around
arrows move up, down, left, right
C-a Beginning of the line
C-e End of the line
M-< Beginning of the file
M-> End of the file
C-v down a screenfull
M-v up a screenfull
Split screen
C-x 2 split window in two horizontally
C-x 1 unsplit window
C-o Move to the other frame