Linux Shortcuts

One thing that Linux is not so popular of is that it has quite a few keyboard shortcuts that every Linux user should know. Here are a few examples of Linux shortcuts that will help anyone who uses Linux.

<Ctrl><Alt><F1>
Switch to the first text terminal. Under Linux you can have several (6 in standard setup) terminals opened at the same time.

<Ctrl><Alt><Fn> (n=1..6)
Switch to the nth text terminal.

tty
Print the name of the terminal in which you are typing this command.

<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). By default, nothing is running on terminals 8 to 12, but you can run another server there.

<Tab>
(In a text terminal) Autocomplete the command  if there is only one option, or else show all the available options.

<ArrowUp>
Scroll and edit the command history. Press <Enter> to execute.

<Shift><PgUp>
Scroll terminal output up. Work also at the login prompt, so you can scroll through your bootup messages.

<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). For multiple resolutions on my standard SVGA card/monitor, I have the following line in the file /etc/X11/XF86Config (the first resolution starts on default, the largest determines the size of the "virtual screen"):
Modes "1024×768″ "800×600″ "640×480″ "512×384″ "480×300″ "400×300″ "1152×864″

<Ctrl><Alt><->
(in X-windows) Change to the previous X-server resolution.

<Ctrl><Alt><BkSpc>
(in X-windows) Kill the current X-windows server. Use if the X-windows server crushes and 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 (mostly in the text mode for small applications).

<Ctrl>d
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).