UNIX Command Reference
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UNIX [1] command line reference links to explanations. The list below is an excerpt from the rich command line set and will be changed constantly.
A
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
ack | A better than grep implementation. See also UNIX ack | NCyg |
admin | Administer SCCS files. | NCyg |
apt | Package managing system | NCyg |
ar | Maintain, modify, and extract from archives. Now largely obsoleted by tar. | Cyg |
as | GNU assembler tool. Also known as Gas. | Cyg |
at | Single-time command scheduler | Cyg |
Pattern scanning and processing language. See also AWK. |
Cyg. |
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B
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
banner | Creates ascii art version of an input string for printing large banners | Cyg |
basename | Returns the final component of a path | Cyg |
batch | Runs jobs when the system load level permits | NCyg |
bc | An arbitrary precision calculator language with syntax similar to the C programming language. | Cyg |
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C
Command | Description | Extra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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cal | Displays a calendar | NC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cat | Concatenates files to standard output. Example:cat fileIn | sort -u > FileOut.uniq |
Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cc | C-compiler | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cd | Changes the directory | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
chmod | Change the permissions of a file or directory. See the table below for all combinations/settings.
The roles are:
So:
|
Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
chown | Change the owner of a file or directory | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cksum | Print the CRC checksum and bytecount of a file (see also MD5) | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
clear | Clears the content of the screen | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cmp | Compares two files byte for byte | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
comm | Sorts two files and compare them line for line | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cp | Copies a file or directory to another location. To copy directories recursive use: cp -r xxx yyy |
Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
crontab | Schedules commands to be executed periodically. | NC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
crypt | Crypts or decrypts a data | NC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
csh | C shell (csh) is a Unix shell developed by Bill Joy for the BSD Unix system. | NC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
csplit | csplit separates a file into sections and place the sections into files names xx00 through xx99. | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ctags | Generate tags file summarising location of objects in source files. | NC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
cut | cut extract a certain range of characters from a line, usually from a file. | Cyg |
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D
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
date | Print or set the system date and/or time | Cyg |
dbx | (System V and BSD) Symbolic debugger. | NC |
dc | Reverse-Polish desk calculator which supports unlimited precision arithmetic | Cyg |
dd | Converts and copies a file (Disk Dump). A powerful low-level tool for cloning hrd disks. |
Cyg |
df | Displays the amount of disk space used and available on the filesystems accessible to a user. | Cyg |
diff | Reports the line difference between 2 files. | Cyg |
diff3 | Compares three files and report the differences. | Cyg |
dircmp | Compares the contents of files between two directories | Cyg |
dirname | Strips non-directory suffixes from a path | Cyg |
du | estimate the file space usage | Cyg |
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E
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
echo | Print to standard output | Cyg |
ed | Standard text editor. See also ex. | NC |
env | Show environment variables; run a program with altered environment variables | Cyg |
eqn | Part of the troff suite of Unix document layout tools, eqn is a preprocessor that formats equations for printing. A similar program, neqn, accepted the same input as eqn, but produced output tuned to look better in nroff. eqn was created by Brian Kernighan and Lorinda Cherry. | Cyg |
ex | Advanced version of the standard Unix editor ed, | Cyg |
expr | Evaluates an expression | Cyg |
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F
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
factor (num) | Produce the prime factors of num. | Cyg |
fc | Processes the command history list | Cyg |
fgrep | Simplified pattern matching (synonym for "grep -F") | Cyg |
file | Determine the type of a file, (See also stat) | Cyg |
find | Search for files through a directory hierarchy. One of the most complicated UNIX commands, See also GNU Find. An alternative GUI find is SearchMonkey. See also xargs, and the Examples. |
Cyg |
finger | Displays data about one or more users, including information listed in the files. Also the shell you are currently using (finger -m <username>) | Cyg |
fit | fmt fills and joins text, producing lines of roughly the same length. | Cyg |
fold | Fold breaks the lines of the named files so that they are no wider than the specified width. | Cyg |
ftp | ftp transfers files to and from remote network site hostname. | Cyg |
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G
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
Gedit | gedit is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. Is also available for Windows, MacOS. | Ubuntu |
getopts | Retrieves options and option-arguments from a list of parameters. | Cyg |
gprof | Display call-graph profile data of C programs. | Cyg |
grep | grep takes a regular expression on the command line, reads standard input or a list of files, and outputs the lines containing matches for the regular expression. | Cyg |
groups | Show the groups that user belongs to (default is your groups). Groups are listed in /etc/passwd and /etc/group. | Cyg |
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H
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
head | Output the first parts of a file. | Cyg |
help | Display helpful information about builtin commands. | Cyg |
hostid | Print the hexadecimal ID number of the host machine. | Cyg |
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I
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
iconv | Convert the encoding of the specified files | Cyg |
id | Prints the UID of the account of which the program is executed by. | Cyg |
install | Install] copies files and set attributes | Cyg |
ipcrm | Removes a message queue, semaphore set or shared memory id. | Cyg |
ipcs | Provides information on IPC facilities | Cyg |
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J
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
join | Joins lines of two files on a common field | Cyg |
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K
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
kill | Sends a message normaly a termination signal (message) to a program | Cyg |
ksh | Korn shell, standard shell on many proprietary Unix systems, powerful successor to the Unix Bourne shell (sh), written by David Korn, | NC |
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L
Command | Description | Extra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ld | Program linker | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
less | Shows the content of a file on the terminal screen. | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ln | Creates symbolic links. | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
login | Logs in to the system | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
logname | Logname prints the user login name | Cyg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
lp | Prints a file (on a line printer) | NC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ls | Lists segments or lists files (directories). Examples:
The meaning of all fields of ls -Al common known as the alias la.
The full signature of the la -Al can be: lrwxrwxrwx owner group 12345 Feb 26 07:08 file1 Meaning:
|
Cyg |
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M
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
Unix standard mail client. Examples Mail |
NC | |
mailx | Improved mail client | NC |
make | Automates builds. See the GNU Make Wiki page. |
Cyg. |
man | Displays extensive documentation on commands | Cyg |
mkdir | Makes a (sub)directory | Cyg |
more | Displays the named files on a terminal, one screenful at a time. | Cyg |
mv | Moves a file or directory from one place to another. | Cyg |
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N
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
nice | maps to a kernel call of the same name. | Cyg |
nl | Numbers the lines of a file. | Cyg |
nohup | Run a command with immunity to hangups outputting to non-tty | Cyg |
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O
Command | Description | Extra |
---|
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P
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
Runs periodic system functions
|
||
Process Status displays the currently-running processes. Example to show if cron is running:
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Q
Command | Description | Extra |
---|
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R
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
replace
|
KSH replaces characters/text in a string. This KSH option is a feature of the shell. See the kWh manual. Examples are:
|
KSH Only. |
rm | Removes a file (file list). | |
rsync | rsync synchronizes files and directories from one location o another while minimizing data transfer by using the delta encoding when appropriate. For examples look at Unix rsync |
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S
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
sh | Bourne shell, the standard Unix shell | |
scp | Secure Copy or SCP is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local and a remote host or between two remote hosts, using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol.
|
See also Secure copy for secure copy without Password. |
Sed reads text input, line by line, either from a file or a stream, into an internal buffer called the pattern space. Each line read starts a cycle. To the pattern space, sed applies one or more operations which have been specified via a sed script. sed implements a programming language with about 25 commands that specify the operations on the text. When the sed script ends, sed outputs the pattern space, and reads the next line into the pattern space, starting a new cycle. | ||
Split a large file into smaller parts. Examples:
In windows combine the file using:
|
||
strings | Shows all string in a binary dump.
|
|
su | The Unix command su, which stands for Substitute User is used by a computer user to execute commands with the privileges of another user account.
When executed it invokes a shell without changing the current working directory or the user environment. When the command is used without specifying the new user id as a command line argument, it defaults to using the superuser account (user id 0) of the system. An example: <syntaxhighlight lang="bash">$ su <username> -c ./Example.php</syntaxhighlight> |
|
sudo | The sudo command is a program for some UNIX and Unix-like computer operating systems that allows users to run programs with the security privileges of another user (normally the superuser, or root). See also: Sudo manpage, Ubuntu Karmic sudo manpage and SuDo Home Page [2]. |
|
sysv-rc-conf | sysv-rc-conf gives an easy to use interface for managing etc/rc{runlevel}.d/ symlinks. The interface comes in two different
flavors, one that simply allows turning services on or off and another that allows for more fine tuned management of the symlinks. It’s a
replacement for programs like ntsysv(8) or rcconf(8). |
Ubuntu |
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T
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
tail | Tails to see and follow (-f) the lines of a logfile. | Cyg |
Test | The test command in Unix evaluates the expression parameter. In some shells such as FreeBSD sh(1) it is a shell builtin, even though the external version still exists.
In the second form of the command, the [ ] (brackets) must be surrounded by blank spaces. This is because [ is a program and POSIX compatible shells require a space between the program name and its arguments. One must test explicitly for file names in the C shell. File-name substitution (globbing) causes the shell script to exit. | |
tr | Translate, squeeze, and/or delete characters from standard input, writing to standard output. Example: tr -cs "[:alpha:]" "[\n*]" < input > output |
Cyg |
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U
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
uptime | Print how long the system has been running |
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V
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
vi | vi is a family of screen-oriented text editors. See the internal wiki page on vi. | Cyg |
visudo | visudo edits the sudoers file in a safe fashion, analogous to vipw.
Visudo locks the sudoers file against multiple simultaneous edits, provides basic sanity checks, and checks for parse errors. If the sudoers file is currently being edited you will receive a message to try again later. |
Ubuntu |
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W
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
wc | Unix Word Count, showing the number of lines, words and bytes. Example:
wc foo bar |
Cygwin |
Whois | Who is gives the owner/user of an IP-address. See the Whois-wiki page for detailed information on whois and the available free and paid services. | Cygwin |
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X
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
xargs reads items from the standard input, delimited by blanks or newlines and executes the command one or more times. xargs is useful when passing large number of arguments to a command. See also Find and the examples. |
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Z
Command | Description | Extra |
---|---|---|
ZIP managess package and compress (archive) files |
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See also
- List of UNIX Programs
- Examples Find, One of the powerful UNIX commands is find. But there are a few people knowing every trick f it. Here some basic examples.
- Examples Mail, How to send a mail with attachment and more.
- UNIX Compendium, by Mark Burgess, Edition 2.2, August 2001, Edited by Harm Frielink
Reference
- ↑ UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. Today the term Unix is used to describe any operating system that conforms to Unix standards, meaning the core operating system operates the same as the original Unix operating system. (Wikipedia).
- ↑ Sudo Home Page contains information, documentation and downloads of the SuDo command and usage.