Unix Commands (Work in progress...this list will be updated/filtered with the most common used commands)

UnixCommands.md

Unix Commands

Documentation

• find - locate file (i.e. find . -name *.tex -print)
• info - start the info explorer program
• man - find manual information about commands
• whatis - describe what a command is
• whereis - locate source, binary, or man page for a program

Access Control

• exit - terminate a shell (see "man sh" or "man csh")
• logout - sign off; end session (C shell and bash shell only;)
• passwd - change login password
• rlogin - log in remotely to another UNIX system
• ssh - secure shell
• slogin - secure version of rlogin
• yppasswd - change login password in yellow pages

Communication

• mail - send and receive mail
• mesg - permit or deny terminal messages and talk requests
• pine - send and receive mail
• talk - talk to another logged-in user
• write - write to another logged-in user

Programming Tools

• as - assembler, specific to each machine architecture
• awk - pattern scanning and processing language
• bc - online calculator
• csh - C shell command interpreter
• kill - kill a process(do no apply to daemons)(required PID of the app)
• killall - kill all the process(do no apply to daemons)(required PID of the app)
• make - maintain large programs
• nice - run a command at low priority (see "man nice" or "man csh")
• perl - Popular script interpreter

Editors

• emacs - screen-oriented text editor
• pico - screen-oriented text editor (renamed called nano)
• sed - stream-oriented text editor
• vi - full-screen text editor
• vim - full-screen text editor ("vi-improved")
• nano - Nano text Editor

File and Direcotory management

• mount/unmount - mount/unmount removable media
• cd - change working directory
• chmod - change the protection of a file or directory
• chown - change owner (or group) of a file or directory
• chgrp - change group of a file or directory
• cmp - compare two files
• comm - select/reject lines common to two sorted files
• cp - copy files
• crypt - encrypt/decrypt files (CCWF only)
• diff - compare the contents of two ASCII files
• file - determine file type
• grep - search a file for a pattern
• gzip - compress or expand files
• ln - make a link to a file
• ls - list the contents of a directory
• ls -1 - list the contents of a directory one by line
• lsof - list of open files
• open -a - Open file with the specific applicatiob
• mkdir - create a directory
• mv - move or rename files and directories
• pwd - show the full pathname of your working directory
• quota - display disk usage and limits
• rm - delete (remove) files
• rmdir - delete (remove) directories
• stat - status of file (i.e. last access)
• sync - flush filesystem buffers
• sort - sort or merge files
• tar - create or extract archives
• tee - copy input to standard output and other files
• tr - translate characters
• umask - change default file protections
• uncompress - restore compressed file
• uniq - report (or delete) repeated lines in a file
• wc - count lines, words, and characters in a file

File Display & Printing

• cat - show the contents of a file; catenate files
• fold - fold long lines to fit output device
• head - show first few lines of a file
• lpq - examine the printer spooling queue
• lpr - print a file
• lprm - remove jobs from the printer spooling queue
• more - display a file, one screen at a time
• less - like more with more features
• page - like "more", but prints screens top to bottom
• pr - paginate a file for printing
• tail - show the last part of a file
• zcat - display a compressed file
• xv - show print, manipulate images
• gv - show ps and pdf files

File Transfer

• ftp - transfer files between network hosts
• rsync - fast and flexible sync between computers
• scp - secure version of rcp
• curl - transfer data from or to a server

Miscellaneous

• alias - define synonym commands
• chquota - change disk quota on ACITS UNIX systems
• chsh - change default login shell
• clear - clear terminal screen
• echo - echo arguments
• pbm - portable bitmap manipulation programs
• popd - pop the directory stack (C shell only)
• pushd - push directory on stack (C shell only)
• script - make typescript of terminal session
• setenv - set an environment variable (C shell only)
• stty - set terminal options

Network

• netstat - show network status
• rsh - run shell or command on another UNIX system
• ssh - secure-shell version of rsh

Process Control

• bg - put suspended process into background
• fg - bring process into foreground
• jobs - list processes
• ^y - suspend process at next input request
• ^z - suspend current process

Status Information

• ps aux|grep {path of the app} - show the PID of the app(use with top)
• dmesg - Display the messages from the kernel buffer
• clock - determine processor time
• date - show date and time
• df - summarize free disk space
• du - summarize disk space used
• env - display environment
• finger - look up user information
• history - list previously issued commands
• last - indicate last login of users
• lpq - examine spool queue
• manpath - show search path for man pages
• printenv - print out environment
• ps - show process status
• pwd - print full pathname of working directory
• set - set shell variables (C shell, bash, or ksh)
• spend - lists year-to-date ACITS UNIX charges
• stty - set terminal options
• time - timing programs
• top - list top cpu processes
• uptime - show system load, how long system has been up
• w - show who is on system, what command each job is executing
• who - show who is logged onto the system
• whois - Internet user name directory service
• whoami - who owns the shell