Introduction
	You don’t need to become a Unix guru to run your VPS — a few dozen commands cover almost everything you will do day to day. This page is a working reference to those commands, grouped by task and explained in plain language. It applies to both FreeBSD 15 and Rocky Linux 10; where the two systems use different commands for the same job (managing users, installing software, controlling services, configuring the firewall) the difference is noted inline. A few conventions used throughout: a line beginning with $ is run as your ordinary user, and one beginning with # is run as root; text in <angle brackets> is a placeholder you replace. Filenames are case-sensitive, and most commands take single-letter -options that can be combined (ls -la is ls -l -a). For the bigger picture see The Unix Shell and The Unix File System; every command below also has a manual page (see Documentation at the foot of this page).
	Files and Navigation
	These are the commands you will reach for constantly. pwd tells you where you are; cd moves you around (cd ~ jumps to your home directory, cd .. goes up one level); and ls lists what is there — add -l for details (permissions, owner, size, date), -a to include hidden dot-files, and -F to flag directories with a trailing slash. You create directories with mkdir (-p makes intermediate parents as needed), copy with cp (-r for a whole directory), rename or move with mv, and delete with rm (-r for a directory). There is no undo on rm — be sure before you press return.  Command   Effect   pwd   Print the current (working) directory   ls, ls -la   List files (all, including hidden, with details)   cd <dir>, cd .., cd ~   Change directory (up one level; to your home)   cp, cp -r   Copy a file (recursively, for a directory)   mv   Move or rename a file or directory   rm, rm -r   Remove a file (recursively, for a directory — careful!)   mkdir, mkdir -p   Make a directory (and parents as needed)   rmdir   Remove an empty directory
	Viewing and Searching File Contents
	To read a file, less <file> pages through it one screen at a time (press q to quit, / to search); cat <file> dumps the whole thing at once; and tail -f <file> follows a file as it grows — the standard way to watch a log live. To find text, grep <pattern> <file> prints every matching line (add -r to search a whole directory tree, -i to ignore case); to find files by name, use find.  Command   Effect   cat <file>   Print a file’s contents   less <file>   View a file one screen at a time (q to quit)   tail -f <file>   Follow a growing file (e.g. a log) in real time   grep <pattern> <file>   Search a file for lines matching a pattern (-r recursive, -i ignore case)   find <dir> -name <pattern>   Find files by name beneath a directory
	Archiving and Compression
	The classic way to bundle many files into one is tar: tar czf backup.tgz <dir> creates a gzip-compressed archive of a directory, and tar xzf backup.tgz extracts it (drop the z for an uncompressed .tar). To compress a single file in place use gzip <file> (undo with gunzip); for cross-platform Windows-compatible archives use zip and unzip. These work identically on FreeBSD 15 and Rocky Linux 10. (The old compress/uncompress and their .Z files still exist but gzip has long since replaced them.)  Command   Effect   tar czf <archive.tgz> <dir>   Create a gzip-compressed archive of a directory   tar xzf <archive.tgz>   Extract a compressed archive into the current directory   tar tzf <archive.tgz>   List an archive’s contents without extracting   gzip <file>, gunzip <file.gz>   Compress / decompress a single file in place   zip -r <archive.zip> <files>, unzip <archive.zip>   Create / extract a Windows-compatible zip archive
	Permissions and Ownership
	Every file has an owner, a group, and read/write/execute permissions. chmod sets the permissions numerically — read (4) + write (2) + execute (1) for each of owner / group / other — so 644 is the usual setting for a web page and 755 for a script or a directory. chown changes ownership and is root only. The file-system page explains all of this in depth.  Command   Effect   chmod 644 <file>   Owner read/write, others read-only (typical for a web page)   chmod 755 <file>   Owner read/write/execute, others read/execute (script or directory)   chmod -R <mode> <dir>   Apply permissions recursively   chown <user>:<group> <file>   Change owner and group (root only)   id <user>   Show a user’s UID, GID, and group memberships   ls -Z, restorecon -Rv <dir>   Rocky Linux only: show / reset SELinux file contexts
	Users and Privileges
	This is the first place the two systems part ways. On FreeBSD 15 you create accounts interactively with adduser (or scriptably with pw useradd), remove them with rmuser, and become root with su or run a single command as root with doas. On Rocky Linux 10 you use useradd / userdel / usermod, and privilege is granted through sudo rather than a root login. Either way, passwd changes a password. See the User Accounts page for the full treatment.  Task   FreeBSD 15   Rocky Linux 10   Create an account   adduser / pw useradd   useradd -m -s /bin/bash <user>   Remove an account   rmuser <user>   userdel -r <user>   Add to a group   pw groupmod <group> -m <user>   usermod -aG <group> <user>   Lock / unlock   pw lock / pw unlock <user>   usermod -L / -U <user>   Change a password   passwd [user]   passwd [user]   Run a command as root   su / doas <command>   sudo <command> / sudo -i
	Processes and Resource Usage
	When the server feels slow, these tell you why. top is a live, self-updating view of processes and load (press q to quit); ps aux is a one-time snapshot of everything running; uptime shows the load averages; df -h shows free disk space per file system; and du -sh <dir> shows how much space a directory is using. To stop a misbehaving program, kill <pid> asks it to exit and kill -9 <pid> forces it. These are the same on both systems; Server Maintenance goes deeper.  Command   Effect   top   Live process / resource monitor (q to quit)   ps aux   List all running processes   kill <pid>, kill -9 <pid>   Terminate a process (forcefully)   uptime   Load averages and how long the server has been up   df -h, du -sh <dir>   Disk space per file system; space used by a directory   vmstat 1   Live memory / CPU statistics
	Networking
	You reach the server with ssh user@host for a shell and sftp user@host (or scp <src> <dst>) to transfer files; rsync -avz copies efficiently and is ideal for backups. For diagnostics, ping tests basic reachability and dig queries DNS. The one difference worth remembering: on FreeBSD 15 you inspect interfaces with ifconfig, while on Rocky Linux 10 the modern equivalents are ip addr (addresses) and ss -tulpn (listening ports). See Connecting with SSH for more.  Command   Effect   ssh user@host   Open a shell on a remote host   sftp user@host   Open an interactive file-transfer session   scp <src> <dst>   Copy a file over SSH   rsync -avz <src> <dst>   Efficiently sync files (transfers only the changes)   ifconfig  (FreeBSD)   Show network interfaces and addresses   ip addr, ss -tulpn  (Rocky)   Show addresses; show listening ports and their programs   dig <domain>, ping <host>   Query DNS records; test basic connectivity
	Packages and Services
	Installing software and controlling background services is the other big FreeBSD / Rocky difference. On FreeBSD 15 you install with pkg, control services with service, and enable them at boot with sysrc. On Rocky Linux 10 the package manager is dnf and services are managed by systemd through systemctl, with logs read via journalctl. The Installing Software page covers package management in full.  Task   FreeBSD 15   Rocky Linux 10   Install / remove software   pkg install / delete <name>   dnf install / remove <name>   Search / show info   pkg search / info <name>   dnf search / info <name>   Apply updates   pkg upgrade; pkg audit -F   dnf upgrade; dnf updateinfo list --security   Start / stop a service   service <name> start|stop|restart|status   systemctl start|stop|restart|status <name>   Enable at boot   sysrc <name>_enable=YES   systemctl enable --now <name>   Read a service’s logs   tail -f /var/log/<name>.log   journalctl -u <name>   Test Apache config   apachectl configtest   apachectl configtest
	Firewall and SELinux
	Both systems ship a firewall, configured differently. On FreeBSD 15 the packet filter is pf, edited in /etc/pf.conf and controlled with pfctl (pfctl -sr lists the active rules). On Rocky Linux 10 the firewall is firewalld, driven by firewall-cmd, and the system additionally enforces SELinux — mandatory access control that can deny an action even when ordinary permissions allow it. The commands below are the ones you will use most; Securing Your VPS explains both in depth.  Command   Effect   pfctl -sr  (FreeBSD)   Show the active pf firewall ruleset   firewall-cmd --list-all  (Rocky)   Show what the firewall currently allows   firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https  (Rocky)   Open a service (then --reload to apply)   getenforce  (Rocky)   Show the SELinux mode (Enforcing / Permissive / Disabled)   setsebool -P <boolean> on  (Rocky)   Turn an SELinux boolean on permanently   ausearch -m avc -ts recent  (Rocky)   Show recent SELinux denials when something is unexpectedly blocked
	Mail
	A few commands come up when running the mail server. After editing the aliases file, newaliases rebuilds its database; mailq shows messages waiting in the queue; and tail -f /var/log/maillog watches mail activity as it happens. These are the same on both systems — only the path to the aliases file differs (/etc/mail/aliases on FreeBSD, /etc/aliases on Rocky Linux).  Command   Effect   newaliases   Rebuild the mail aliases database after editing the aliases file   make -C /etc/mail   Rebuild Sendmail’s tables and configuration   mailq   List messages stuck in the mail queue   tail -f /var/log/maillog   Watch mail activity in real time
	Documentation
	To learn more about any command, read its manual page: man <command> on the VPS is always the authoritative copy for the exact version you have installed, and the same pages are published online at www.gsp.com/support/man/. Most commands also accept --help for a quick summary of their options.