A Linux command line is a text interface to your Synology NAS. Often referred to as the shell, terminal, console, prompt or various other names, it can give the appearance of being complex and confusing to use. This little guide will teach you some basic command lines for your DSM 7, to become familiar with SSH. Let’s assume there’s no prior knowledge, but by the end I hope youāll feel a bit more comfortable the next time you’re faced with some instructions that begin with “Open a terminal” and log into your NAS. Note: DSM is a Linux operating system for Synology DiskStation and RackStation products.
STEP 1
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STEP 2
Follow my step by step guide on How to SSH into a Synology NAS or you can use the Task Scheduler (Example here) after that, try some basic command lines below.
Note: Be careful! Use only the command lines you need.
To edit a text file (using vi)
vi /location_of_file/file_name
To go to a directory
cd /directoryName
To make a directory
mkdir /directoryName
List contents of directory
dir
Count the number of files in the current directory and its sub-directories
find . -type f | wc -l
Check size of directory and sub-directories
du -ah /path/to/dir
Find a file
find / -name fileName
Delete a file
rm fileName
Delete a directory and its content
rm -r directoryName
Move or Rename a file
mv /sourceDirectory/sourceFile /destination
Copy a file
cp /sourceDirectory/sourceFile /destination
Copy groups of files
cp /sourceDirectory/*.* /destination
Copy a directory and any sub-directories
cp -r -p /sourceDirectory /destinationpath
Create an uncompressed tar (.tar) archive
To create an uncompressed (.tar) archive of all files, directories and subdirectories in the current directory:
tar -cvf archivefilename.tar *
Create a compressed tar (.tgz) archive
To create a compressed (.tgz) archive of all files, directories and subdirectories in the current directory:
tar -cvzf archivefilename.tgz *
Unpack .tar archives
For uncompressed .tar archives
tar xvf file.tar
Unpack .tar.gz archives
For gzip compressed .tar.gz archives
tar xvzf file.tar.gz
Reboot your Synology NAS deviceĀ
reboot
Shutdown your Synology NAS device
poweroff
Stop a process on your Synology NAS
kill processID
Stop a program on your Synology NAS
killall programName
Display most current processes running on your Synology NAS
top
Report disk space usage on your Synology NAS
df
Show all current DSM processes
ps
Show currently open ports and their status on your Synology NAS
netstat -an
Change Logged in user on your Synology NAS
If you are logged in as root/admin you can open a new shell as if you just logged in as another user, substitute xxx with the user name. To return to root session use the command line “exit”.
su ā xxx
Install an IPKG program package
Note: Install IPKG.
ipkg install fileName
Uninstall an IPKG program package
ipkg remove filename
Apache
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S97apache-user.sh restart
Appletalk
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S81atalk.sh restart
Cron and Crond
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S04crond.sh stop
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S04crond.sh start
systemctl restart crond
systemctl restart synoscheduler
FTP
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S99ftpd.sh restart
Index
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S66synoindexd.sh restart
Itunes
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S99itunes.sh restart
MySQL
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S21mysql.sh restart
NFS
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S83nfsd.sh restart
Postgresql
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S20pgsql.sh restart
Samba
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S80samba.sh restart
SSH
/usr/syno/bin/synosystemctl restart sshd.service
SSH
/usr/syno/bin/synosystemctl stop sshd.service
SSH
/usr/syno/bin/synosystemctl disable sshd.service
SSH
/usr/syno/bin/synosystemctl enable sshd.service
SSH
/usr/syno/bin/synosystemctl start sshd.service
Check system memory info
cat /proc/meminfo
Check CPU Info
cat /proc/cpuinfo
Check Interrupts in use
cat /proc/interrupts
Check the current File Systems in use
cat /proc/filesystems
Comprehensive information on the file system format
tune2fs -l /dev/hda3
Check the Linux Version of your DSM
cat /proc/version
Check RAID Devices
cat /proc/mdstat
Check Environment Variables
env
Check what physical and logical disks/partitions you have in a multi-bay NAS
cat /proc/diskstats
or for all NAS types
cat /proc/partitions
or for similar, but different info
fdisk -l
Miscellaneous for DSM 7
Clear terminal screen
clear
Note: The command line above also works perfectly with DSM 6.2.4
This post was updated on Thursday / August 25th, 2022 at 11:57 PM