Common Commands

In most tutorials I’ll be using Backtrack Linux. You can easily download here.

You don’t have to use backtrack, you can do anything with any linux version.

In this first article I will show you some basic commands that you can use which are unique to Backtrack Linux.

Backtrack use “root” for the username and “toor” for the password.

You should provide it at the first time login.

Common apt commands                                                                                                                                                                                

• apt-get install <package name> downloads a file and all of its dependencies and installs (or upgrade);
• apt-get remove <package name>removes selected package and any packages that depend on it;
• apt-get update updates packages listings from the repo, should be run at least once a week;
• apt-get upgrade upgrades all currently installed packages;
• man apt give you info on these commands as well as many others.

Other basic commands

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• startx start graphic mode;
• ls list all files in the current directory;
• top show all processes and its PID (Process IDentification);
• wine allows you to run Windows programs under Linux;
• pwd show the name of current working directory;
• ifconfig show your IP
• shutdown shuts the system down;
  • shutdown -h now shuts the system down to halt immediately;
  • shutdown -r now shuts the system down immediately and the system reboots.
• kill processes can be killed by PID number: “kill <PID>”
  • If a process refuses to be killed, use “-9″ option: “kill -9 <PID>“