Linux Keyboard Shortcuts

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Shortcut	Description
<Ctrl><Alt><F1>	Switch to the first text terminal. Under Linux there can be several (6 in standard setup) terminals opened at the same time. This is a keyboard shortcut, which means: press the control key and the alt key, hold them. Now press <F1>. Release all keys.
<Ctrl><Alt><Fn> (n=1..6)	Switch to the nth text terminal.
tty	Print the name of the terminal in the command is being typed. The number of the active terminal can be printed using the command fgconsole.
<Ctrl><Alt><F7>	Switch to the first GUI terminal (if X-windows is running on this terminal).
<Ctrl><Alt><Fn> (n=7..12)	Switch to the nth GUI terminal (if a GUI terminal is running on screen n-1). On default, the first X server is running on terminal 7. On default, nothing is running on terminals 8 to 12--you can start subsequent X server there.
<Tab>	(In a text terminal) Auto-completes the command if there is only one option, or else shows all the available options. It even works at LILO prompt!
<ArrowUp>	(In a text terminal) Scroll and edit the command history. Press <Enter> to execute.
<Shift><PgUp>	Scroll terminal output up. This works also at the login prompt, so you can scroll through your bootup messages. The amount/usage of your video memory determines how far back you can scroll the display.
<Shift><PgDown>	Scroll terminal output down.
<Ctrl><Alt><+>	(In X-windows) Change to the next X-server resolution (if you set up the X-server to more than one resolution).
<Ctrl><Alt><->	(in X-windows) Change to the previous X-server resolution.
<Ctrl><Alt><Esc>	(In X-windows, KDE) Kill the window I am going to click with my mouse pointer (the pointer changes to something like a death symbol). Similar result can be obtained with the command xkill (typed in X-terminal). Useful when an X-window program does not want to close (hangs?).
<Ctrl><Alt><BkSpc>	(in X-windows) Kill the current X-windows server. Use if the X-windows server cannot be exited normally.
<Ctrl><Alt>< Del>	Shut down the system and reboot. This is the normal shutdown command for a user at the text-mode console. Don’t just press the "reset" button for shutdown!
<Ctrl>c	Kill the current process (works mostly a small text-mode applications).
<Ctrl>d	(Pressed at the beginning of an empty line) Log out from the current terminal. See also the next command.
<Ctrl>d	Send [End-of-File] to the current process. Don’t press it twice else you also log out (see the previous command).
<Ctrl>s	Stop the transfer to the terminal.
<Ctrl>q	Resume the transfer to the terminal. Try if your terminal mysteriously stops responding.
<Ctrl>z	Send the current process to the background.
exit	Logout. I can also use logout for the same effect. (If you have started a second shell, e.g., using bash, the second shell will be exited and you will be back in the first shell, not logged out.)
reset	Restore a junk terminal (a terminal showing funny characters) to default setting. Use if you tried to "cat" a binary file. You may not be able to see the command as you type it.
<MiddleMouseButton>	Paste the text which is currently highlighted somewhere else. This is the normal "copy-paste" operation in Linux. (It doesn’t work with Netscape and WordPerfect which use the MS Windows-style "copy-paste". It does work in the text terminal if you enabled "gpm" service using "setup"). Best used with a Linux-ready 3-button mouse (Logitech or similar) or else set "3-mouse button emulation").
~	(tilde) My home directory (normally the directory /home/my_login_name). For example, the command cd ~/my_dir will change my working directory to the subdirectory "my_dir" under my home directory. Typing just "cd" alone is an equivalent of the command "cd ~".
.	(dot) Current directory. For example, ./my_program will attempt to execute the file "my_program" located in your current working directory.
..	(two dots) Directory parent to the current one. For example, the command cd .. will change my current working directory one one level up.