Common Unix/Linux Commands
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- awk/nawk [options] file
- scan for patterns in a file and process the results
- cat [options] file
- concatenate (list) a file
- cd [directory]
- change directory
- chgrp [options] group file
- change the group of the file
- chmod [options] file
- change file or directory access permissions
- chown [options] owner file
- change the ownership of a file; can only be done by the superuser
- cut (options) [file(s)]
- cut specified field(s)/character(s) from lines in file(s)
- date [options]
- report the current date and time
- dd [if=infile] [of=outfile] [operand=value]
- copy a file, converting between ASCII and EBCDIC or swapping byte order, as specified
- diff [options] file1 file2
- compare the two files and display the differences (text files only)
- df [options] [resource]
- report the summary of disk blocks and inodes free and in use
- du [options] [directory or file]
- report amount of disk space in use
- echo [text string]
- echo the text string to stdout
- ed or ex [options] file
- Unix line editors
- emacs [options] file
- full-screen editor
- expr arguments
- evaluate the arguments. Used to do arithmetic, etc. in the shell.
- file [options] file
- classify the file type
- find directory [options] [actions]
- find files matching a type or pattern
- ftp [options] host
- transfer file(s) using file transfer protocol
- gzip [options] file, gunzip [options] file, zcat [options] file
- compress or uncompress a file. Compressed files are stored with a .gz ending
- head [-number] file
- display the first 10 (or number of) lines of a file
- hostname
- display or set (super-user only) the name of the current machine
- kill [options] [-SIGNAL] [pid#] [%job]
- send a signal to the process with the process id number (pid#) or job control number (%n). The default signal is to kill the process.
- ln [options] source_file target
- link the source_file to the target
- lpq [options], lpstat [options]
- show the status of print jobs
- lpr [options] file, lp [options] file
- print to defined printer
- lprm [options], cancel [options]
- remove a print job from the print queue
- ls [options] [directory or file]
- list directory contents or file permissions
- mail [options] [user], mailx [options] [user], Mail [options] [user]
- simple email utility available on Unix systems. Type a period as the first character on a new line to send message out, question mark for help.
- man [options] command
- show the manual (man) page for a command
- mkdir [options] directory
- make a directory
- more [options] file, less [options] file, pg [options] file
- page through a text file
- mv [options] file1 file2
- move file1 into file2
- od [options] file
- octal dump a binary file, in octal, ASCII, hex, decimal, or character mode.
- passwd [options]
- set or change your password
- paste [options] file
- paste field(s) onto the lines in file
- pr [options] file
- filter the file and print it on the terminal
- ps [options]
- show status of active processes
- pwd
- print working (current) directory
- rcp [options] hostname
- remotely copy files from this machine to another machine
- rlogin [options] hostname
- login remotely to another machine
- rm [options] file
- remove (delete) a file or directory (-r recursively deletes the directory and its contents) (-i prompts before removing files)
- rmdir [options] directory
- remove a directory
- rsh [options] hostname
- remote shell to run on another machine
- script file
- saves everything that appears on the screen to file until exit is executed
- sed [options] file
- stream editor for editing files from a script or from the command line
- sort [options] file
- sort the lines of the file according to the options chosen
- source file
- read commands from the file and execute them in the current shell. source: C shell, .: Bourne shell.
- strings [options] file
- report any sequence of 4 or more printable characters ending in <NL> or <NULL>. Usually used to search binary files for ASCII strings.
- stty [options]
- set or display terminal control options
- tail [options] file
- display the last few lines (or parts) of a file
- tar key[options] [file(s)]
- tape archiver--refer to man pages for details on creating, listing, and retrieving from archive files. Tar files can be stored on tape or disk.
- tee [options] file
- copy stdout to one or more files
- telnet [host [port]]
- communicate with another host using telnet protocol
- touch [options] [date] file
- create an empty file, or update the access time of an existing file
- tr [options] string1 string2
- translate the characters in string1 from stdin into those in string2 in stdout
- uncompress file.Z
- uncompress file.Z and save it as a file
- uniq [options] file
- remove repeated lines in a file
- uudecode [file]
- decode a uuencoded file, recreating the original file
- uuencode [file] new_name
- encode binary file to 7-bit ASCII, useful when sending via email, to be decoded as new_name at destination
- vi [options] file
- visual, full-screen editor
- wc [options] [file(s)]
- display word (or character or line) count for file(s)
- whereis [options] command
- report the binary, source, and man page locations for the command named
- which command
- reports the path to the command or the shell alias in use
- who or w
- report who is logged in and what processes are running
- zcat file.Z
- concatenate (list) uncompressed file to screen, leaving file compressed on disk
- cp [options] file1 file2
- copy file1 into file2; file2 shouldn't already exist. This command creates or overwrites file2.
- chsh (passwd -e/-s) username login_shell
- change the user's login shell (often only by the superuser)
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grep [options] 'search string' argument
egrep [options] 'search string' argument
fgrep [options] 'search string' argument - search the argument (in this case probably a file) for all occurrences of the search string, and list them.