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Linux Command-Line Interface

SCINet HPC resources can be used via ssh-ing to a cluster and using Command Line Interface (CLI). If you’re not familiar with CLI, check out the following resources:

  1. Introduction to Unix
  2. Unix Tutorials

Below is a list of basic CLI commands

man command - Show manual for command

pwd - Output the current directory that you are in

ls - List the content of the current directory

ls -a - List all the content, including hidden files

ls -l - List the content and its information

mkdir foldername – Create a new folder foldername

cd foldername – Change the working directory to foldername

cd - Return to $Home directory

cd .. - Go up a directory

cd - - Return to the previous directory

my_quotas - reports storage usage and quota information for home and project directories

emacs, nano, vi – Editors

cp source destination – Copy source to destination

cp -r source destination – Copy a folder recursively from source to destination

mv source destination - Move (or rename) a file from source to destination

rm file - Remove file

rm -r folder - Remove folder and its contents recursively

cat file – Print contents of file on the screen

less file - View and paginate file

head file - Show first 10 lines of file

tail file - Show last 10 lines of file

history – Show list of commands issued earlier

!commandnumber – Reissue command number commandnumber

which command – Shows the full path of command


module avail or module spider – Show all available software modules

module avail swname – Show all modules that have swname in the name

module load modulename – Load module modulename in your environment

module unload modulename - Unload module modulename from your environment

module list – List all modules currently loaded in your environment

module help modulename – Show information about module modulename

module purge – Unload all modules from your environment

module use path – Add path where to search for available modules


salloc -p debug -N 1 -n 2 –mem=7G -t 2:00:00 – Request 2 cores and 7 GB of memory in debug partition for 2 hours

exit – Close session (should be used to close interactive session)

sbatch jobscript – Submit jobscript into queue

squeue – Show all jobs currently running or waiting in the queue

sinfo – Show available partitions (queues)

scancel jobnumber – Cancel job jobnumber

seff jobnumber – Get resource usage information for job jobnumber (use it for jobs that have already finished)