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Basic UNIX Commands
Some Basic UNIX Commands
by Donald Hyatt
The UNIX operating system has for many years formed the backbone of the Internet, especially for large
servers and most major university campuses. However, a free version of UNIX called Linux has been
making significant gains against Macintosh and the Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT environments, so
often associated with personal computers. Developed by a number of volunteers on the Internet such as
the Linux group and the GNU project, much of the open-source software is copyrighted, but available for
free. This is especially valuable for those in educational environments where budgets are often limited.
UNIX commands can often be grouped together to make even more powerful commands with
capabilities known as I/O redirection ( < for getting input from a file input and > for outputing to a file )
and piping using | to feed the output of one command as input to the next. Please investigate manuals in
the lab for more examples than the few offered here.
The following charts offer a summary of some simple UNIX commands. These are certainly not all of
the commands available in this robust operating system, but these will help you get started.
Ten ESSENTIAL UNIX Commands
These are ten commands that you really need to know in order to get started with UNIX. They are
probably similar to commands you already know for another operating system.
Command
Example
Description
1.
ls
ls
ls -alF
Lists files in current directory
List in long format
2.
cd
cd tempdir
cd ..
cd ~dhyatt/web-docs
Change directory to tempdir
Move back one directory
Move into dhyatt's web-docs directory
3.
mkdir
mkdir graphics
Make a directory called graphics
4.
rmdir
rmdir emptydir
Remove directory (must be empty)
5.
cp
cp file1 web-docs
cp file1 [Link]
Copy file into directory
Make backup of file1
6.
rm
rm [Link]
rm *.tmp
Remove or delete file
Remove all file
7.
mv
mv [Link] [Link]
Move or rename files
[Link]
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8.
more
more [Link]
Look at file, one page at a time
9.
lpr
lpr [Link]
Send file to printer
man ls
Online manual (help) about command
10. man
Ten VALUABLE UNIX Commands
Once you have mastered the basic UNIX commands, these will be quite valuable in managing your own
account.
Command
Example
Description
1. grep <str>
<files>
grep "bad word" *
Find which files contain a certain word
2. chmod <opt>
<file>
chmod 644 *.html
chmod 755 [Link]
Change file permissions read only
Change file permissions to executable
3.
passwd
passwd
Change passwd
4.
ps <opt>
ps aux
ps aux | grep dhyatt
List all running processes by #ID
List process #ID's running by dhyatt
5. kill <opt>
<ID>
kill -9 8453
Kill process with ID #8453
6. gcc (g++)
<source>
gcc file.c -o file
g++ [Link] -o fil2
Compile a program written in C
Compile a program written in C++
7.
gzip <file>
gzip bigfile
gunzip [Link]
Compress file
Uncompress file
8.
mail
(pine)
mail me@[Link] <
file1
pine
Send file1 by email to someone
Read mail using pine
9.
telnet <host>
ssh <host>
telnet [Link]
ssh -l dhyatt
[Link]
Open a connection to vortex
Open a secure connection to jazz as
user dhyatt
ftp [Link]
ncftp [Link]
Upload or Download files to station1
Connect to archives at UNC
10. ftp <host>
ncftp
[Link]
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<host/directory>
Ten FUN UNIX Commands
These are ten commands that you might find interesting or amusing. They are actually quite helpful at
times, and should not be considered idle entertainment.
Command
Example
Description
1.
who
who
Lists who is logged on your machine
2.
finger
finger
Lists who is on computers in the lab
3. ytalk
<user@place>
ytalk
dhyatt@threat
Talk online with dhyatt who is on threat
4.
history
history
Lists commands you've done recently
5.
fortune
fortune
Print random humerous message
6.
date
date
Print out current date
7. cal <mo>
<yr>
cal 9 2000
Print calendar for September 2000
8.
xeyes
xeyes &
Keep track of cursor (in "background")
9.
xcalc
xcalc &
Calculator ("background" process)
mpage -8
file1 | lpr
Print 8 pages on a single sheet and send to printer
(the font will be small!)
10. mpage
<opt> <file>
Ten HELPFUL UNIX Commands
These ten commands are very helpful, especially with graphics and word processing type applications.
Command
Example
Description
1.
netscape &
Run Netscape browser
netscape
[Link]
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2.
xv
xv &
Run graphics file converter
3.
xfig / xpaint
xfig & (xpaint
&)
Run drawing program
4.
gimp
gimp &
Run photoshop type program
5.
ispell <fname>
ispell file1
Spell check file1
6.
latex <fname>
latex [Link]
Run LaTeX, a scientific document
tool
7.
xemacs / pico
xemacs (or pico)
Different editors
8.
soffice
soffice &
Run StarOffice, a full word processor
9. m-tools (mdir,
mcopy,
mdel, mformat, etc. )
mdir a:
mcopy file1 a:
DOS commands from UNIX (dir A:)
Copy file1 to A:
10. gnuplot
gnuplot
Plot data graphically
Ten USEFUL UNIX Commands:
These ten commands are useful for monitoring system access, or simplifying your own environment.
Command
Example
Description
1.
df
df
See how much free disk space
2.
du
du -b subdir
Estimate disk usage of directory in Bytes
3.
alias
alias lls="ls -alF"
Create new command "lls" for long format of ls
4.
xhost
xhost +
[Link]
xhost -
Permit window to display from x-window
program from threat
Allow no x-window access from other systems
5.
fold
fold -s file1 | lpr
Fold or break long lines at 60 characters and
send to printer
[Link]
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6.
tar
tar -cf [Link]
subdir
tar -xvf [Link]
Create an archive called [Link] of a
directory
Extract files from an archive file
7.
ghostview
(gv)
gv [Link]
View a Postscript file
8.
ping
[Link]
traceroute
[Link]
See if machine is alive
Print data path to a machine
top
Print system usage and top resource hogs
logout or exit
How to quit a UNIX shell.
ping
(traceroute)
9.
top
10. logout
(exit)
Some Other Useful Pages
Some Useful Files and UNIX Commands: pipe, fork, system(), etc.
Getting Started with vi
The Basics of HTML
Making a Web Page
Using LaTeX
Generating Graphs with GNU Plot
[Link]
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