3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

AwkispowerfultoolinUnix.Awkisanexcellenttoolforprocessingthefileswhichhavedataarrangedin
rowsandcolumnsformat.Itisagoodfilterandreportwriter.
1.Howtorunawkcommandspecifiedinafile?
awkffilename
2.Writeacommandtoprintthesquaresofnumbersfrom1to10usingawkcommand
awk'BEGIN{for(i=1i<=10i++){print"squareof",i,"is",i*i}}'
3.Writeacommandtofindthesumofbytes(sizeoffile)ofallfilesinadirectory.
lsl|awk'BEGIN{sum=0}{sum=sum+$5}END{printsum}'
4.Inthetextfile,somelinesaredelimitedbycolonandsomearedelimitedbyspace.Writeacommandto
printthethirdfieldofeachline.
awk'{if($0~/:/){FS=":"}else{FS=""}print$3}'filename
5.Writeacommandtoprintthelinenumberbeforeeachline?
awk'{printNR,$0}'filename
6.WriteacommandtoprintthesecondandthirdlineofafilewithoutusingNR.
awk'BEGIN{RS=""FS="\n"}{print$2,$3}'filename
7.Writeacommandtoprintzerobytesizefiles?
lsl|awk'/^/{if($5!=0)print$9}'
8.Writeacommandtorenamethefilesinadirectorywith"_new"aspostfix?
lsF|awk'{print"mv"$1""$1".new"}'|sh
9.Writeacommandtoprintthefieldsinatextfileinreverseorder?
awk'BEGIN{ORS=""}{for(i=NFi>0i)print$i,""print"\n"}'filename
10.WriteacommandtofindthetotalnumberoflinesinafilewithoutusingNR
awk'BEGIN{sum=0}{sum=sum+1}END{printsum}'filename
AnotherwaytoprintthenumberoflinesisbyusingtheNR.Thecommandis
awk'END{printNR}'filename

UNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSONGREPCOMMAND

Thegrepisoneofthepowerfultoolsinunix.Grepstandsfor"globalsearchforregularexpressionsand
print".Thepowerofgrepliesinusingregularexpressionsmostly.

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

1/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Thegeneralsyntaxofgrepcommandis
grep[options]pattern[files]
1.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthathasthethepattern"july"inallthefilesinaparticulardirectory?
grepjuly*
Thiswillprintallthelinesinallfilesthatcontainthewordjulyalongwiththefilename.Ifanyofthefiles
containwordslike"JULY"or"July",theabovecommandwouldnotprintthoselines.
2.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthathastheword"july"inallthefilesinadirectoryandalso
suppressthefilenameintheoutput.
grephjuly*
3.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthathastheword"july"whileignoringthecase.
grepijuly*
Theoptionimakethegrepcommandtotreatthepatternascaseinsensitive.
4.Whenyouuseasinglefileasinputtothegrepcommandtosearchforapattern,itwon'tprintthe
filenameintheoutput.Nowwriteagrepcommandtoprintthefilenameintheoutputwithoutusingthe'H'
option.
greppatternfilename/dev/null
The/dev/nullornulldeviceisspecialfilethatdiscardsthedatawrittentoit.So,the/dev/nullisalwaysan
emptyfile.
Anotherwaytoprintthefilenameisusingthe'H'option.Thegrepcommandforthisis
grepHpatternfilename
5.WriteaUnixcommandtodisplaythelinesinafilethatdonotcontaintheword"july"?
grepvjulyfilename
The'v'optiontellsthegreptoprintthelinesthatdonotcontainthespecifiedpattern.
6.Writeacommandtoprintthefilenamesinadirectorythathastheword"july"?
grepljuly*
The'l'optionmakethegrepcommandtoprintonlythefilenamewithoutprintingthecontentofthefile.As
soonasthegrepcommandfindsthepatterninafile,itprintsthepatternandstopssearchingotherlines
inthefile.
7.Writeacommandtoprintthefilenamesinadirectorythatdoesnotcontaintheword"july"?
grepLjuly*
The'L'optionmakesthegrepcommandtoprintthefilenamesthatdonotcontainthespecifiedpattern.
8.Writeacommandtoprintthelinenumbersalongwiththelinethathastheword"july"?
grepnjulyfilename
The'n'optionisusedtoprintthelinenumbersinafile.Thelinenumbersstartfrom1
9.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthatstartswiththeword"start"?
grep'^start'filename
The'^'symbolspecifiesthegrepcommandtosearchforthepatternatthestartoftheline.

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

2/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

10.Writeacommandtoprintthelineswhichendwiththeword"end"?
grep'end$'filename
The'$'symbolspecifiesthegrepcommandtosearchforthepatternattheendoftheline.
11.Writeacommandtoselectonlythoselinescontaining"july"asawholeword?
grepwjulyfilename
The'w'optionmakesthegrepcommandtosearchforexactwholewords.Ifthespecifiedpatternisfound
inastring,thenitisnotconsideredasawholeword.Forexample:Inthestring"mikejulymak",thepattern
"july"isfound.However"july"isnotawholewordinthatstring.

UNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSONSEDCOMMAND

SEDisaspecialeditorusedformodifyingfilesautomatically.
1.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"bad"with"good"infile?
seds/bad/good/<filename
2.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"bad"with"good"globallyinafile?
seds/bad/good/g<filename
3.Writeacommandtoreplacethecharacter'/'with','inafile?
sed's/\//,/'<filename
sed's|/|,|'<filename
4.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"apple"with"(apple)"inafile?
seds/apple/(&)/<filename
5.Writeacommandtoswitchthetwoconsecutivewords"apple"and"mango"inafile?
sed's/\(apple\)\(mango\)/\2\1/'<filename
6.Writeacommandtoreplacethesecondoccurrenceoftheword"bat"with"ball"inafile?
sed's/bat/ball/2'<filename
7.Writeacommandtoremovealltheoccurrencesoftheword"jhon"exceptthefirstonein
alinewithintheentirefile?
sed's/jhon//2g'<filename
8.Writeacommandtoremovethefirstnumberonline5infile?
sed'5s/[09][09]*//'<filename
9.Writeacommandtoremovethefirstnumberonalllinesthatstartwith"@"?
sed'\,^@,s/[09][09]*//'<filename
10.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"gum"with"drum"inthefirst100linesofafile?
sed'1,00s/gum/drum/'<filename
11.writeacommandtoreplacetheword"lite"with"light"from100thlinetolastlineina
file?
sed'100,$s/lite/light/'<filename

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

3/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

12.Writeacommandtoremovethefirst10linesfromafile?
sed'1,10d'<filename
13.Writeacommandtoduplicateeachlineinafile?
sed'p'<filename
14.Writeacommandtoduplicateemptylinesinafile?
sed'/^$/p'<filename
15.Writeasedcommandtoprintthelinesthatdonotcontaintheword"run"?
sedn'/run/!p'<filename

UNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSONCUTCOMMAND

Thecutcommandisusedtousedtodisplayselectedcolumnsorfieldsfromeachlineofa
file.Cutcommandworksintwomodes:
Delimitedselection:Thefieldsinthelinearedelimitedbyasinglecharacterlike
blank,commaetc.
Rangeselection:Eachfieldstartswithcertainfixedoffsetdefinedasrange.
1.Writeacommandtodisplaythethirdandfourthcharacterfromeachlineofafile?
cutc3,4filename
2.Writeacommandtodisplaythecharactersfrom10to20fromeachlineofafile?
cutc1020filename
3.Writeacommandtodisplaythefirst10charactersfromeachlineofafile?
cutc10filename
4.Writeacomamndtodisplayfromthe10thcharactertotheendoftheline?
cutc10filename
5.Thefieldsineachlinearedelimitedbycomma.Writeacommandtodisplaythirdfield
fromeachlineofafile?
cutd','f2filename
6.Writeacommandtoprintthefieldsfrom10to20fromeachlineofafile?
cutd','f1020filename
7.Writeacommandtoprintthefirst5fieldsfromeachline?
cutd','f5filename
8.Writeacommandtoprintthefieldsfrom10thtotheendoftheline?
cutd','f10filename
9.Bydefaultthecutcommanddisplaystheentirelineifthereisnodelimiterinit.Whichcut
optionisusedtosupressthesekindoflines?
Thesoptionisusedtosupressthelinesthatdonotcontainthedelimiter.
10.Writeacutcommandtoextracttheusernamefrom'whoami'comamnd?
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

4/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

whoami|cutf1d''

UNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSONFINDCOMMAND

Findutilityisusedforsearchingfilesusingthedirectoryinformation.
1.Writeacommandtosearchforthefile'test'inthecurrentdirectory?
findnametesttypef
2.Writeacommandtosearchforthefile'temp'in'/usr'directory?
find/usrnametemptypef
3.Writeacommandtosearchforzerobytesizefilesinthecurrentdirectory?
findsize0typef
4.Writeacommandtolistthefilesthatareaccessed5daysagointhecurrentdirectory?
findatime5typef
5.Writeacommandtolistthefilesthatweremodified5daysagointhecurrentdirectory?
findmtime5typef
6.Writeacommandtosearchforthefilesinthecurrentdirectorywhicharenotownedby
anyuserinthe/etc/passwdfile?
find.nousertypef
7.Writeacommandtosearchforthefilesin'/usr'directorythatstartwith'te'?
find/usrname'te*'typef
8.Writeacommandtosearchforthefilesthatstartwith'te'inthecurrentdirectoryand
thendisplaythecontentsofthefile?
find.name'te*'typefexeccat{}\
9.Writeacommandtolistthefileswhosestatusischanged5daysagointhecurrent
directory?
findctime5typef
10.Writeacommandtolistthefilesin'/usr'directorythatstartwith'ch'andthendisplaythe
numberoflinesineachfile?
find/usrname'ch*'typefexecwcl{}\

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART1

1.Howtodisplaythe10thlineofafile?
head -10 filename | tail -1

2.Howtoremovetheheaderfromafile?
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

5/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

sed -i '1 d' filename

3.Howtoremovethefooterfromafile?
sed -i '$ d' filename

4.Writeacommandtofindthelengthofalineinafile?
Thebelowcommandcanbeusedtogetalinefromafile.
sed n '<n> p' filename

Wewillseehowtofindthelengthof10thlineinafile
sed -n '10 p' filename|wc -c

5.HowtogetthenthwordofalineinUnix?
cut f<n> -d' '

6.Howtoreverseastringinunix?
echo "java" | rev

7.HowtogetthelastwordfromalineinUnixfile?
echo "unix is good" | rev | cut -f1 -d' ' | rev

8.HowtoreplacethenthlineinafilewithanewlineinUnix?
sed -i'' '10 d' filename
# d stands for delete
sed -i'' '10 i new inserted line' filename
# i stands for insert

9.HowtocheckifthelastcommandwassuccessfulinUnix?
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

6/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

echo $?

10.Writecommandtolistallthelinksfromadirectory?
ls -lrt | grep "^l"

11.HowwillyoufindwhichoperatingsystemyoursystemisrunningoninUNIX?
uname -a

12.Createareadonlyfileinyourhomedirectory?
touch file; chmod 400 file

13.HowdoyouseecommandlinehistoryinUNIX?
The'history'commandcanbeusedtogetthelistofcommandsthatweareexecuted.
14.Howtodisplaythefirst20linesofafile?
Bydefault,theheadcommanddisplaysthefirst10linesfromafile.Ifwechangetheoption
ofhead,thenwecandisplayasmanylinesaswewant.
head -20 filename

Analternativesolutionisusingthesedcommand
sed '21,$ d' filename

Thedoptionheredeletesthelinesfrom21totheendofthefile
15.Writeacommandtoprintthelastlineofafile?
Thetailcommandcanbeusedtodisplaythelastlinesfromafile.
tail -1 filename

Alternativesolutionsare:
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

7/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

sed -n '$ p' filename

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART2

1.Howdoyourenamethefilesinadirectorywith_newassuffix?
ls -lrt|grep '^-'| awk '{print "mv "$9" "$9".new"}' | sh

2.Writeacommandtoconvertastringfromlowercasetouppercase?
echo "apple" | tr [a-z] [A-Z]

3.WriteacommandtoconvertastringtoInitcap.
echo apple | awk '{print toupper(substr($1,1,1)) tolower(substr($1,2))}'

4.Writeacommandtoredirecttheoutputofdatecommandtomultiplefiles?
Theteecommandwritestheoutputtomultiplefilesandalsodisplaystheoutputonthe
terminal.
date | tee -a file1 file2 file3

5.Howdoyoulistthehiddenfilesincurrentdirectory?
ls -a | grep '^\.'

6.ListoutsomeoftheHotKeysavailableinbashshell?
Ctrl+lClearstheScreen.
Ctrl+rDoesasearchinpreviouslygivencommandsinshell.
Ctrl+uClearsthetypingbeforethehotkey.
Ctrl+aPlacescursoratthebeginningofthecommandatshell.
Ctrl+ePlacescursorattheendofthecommandatshell.
Ctrl+dKillstheshell.
Ctrl+zPlacesthecurrentlyrunningprocessintobackground.
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

8/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

7.Howdoyoumakeanexistingfileempty?
cat /dev/null > filename

8.Howdoyouremovethefirstnumberon10thlineinfile?
sed '10 s/[0-9][0-9]*//' < filename

9.Whatisthedifferencebetweenjoinvandjoina?

join -v : outputs only matched lines between two files.

10.Howdoyoudisplayfromthe5thcharactertotheendofthelinefromafile?
cut -c 5- filename

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART3

1.Displayallthefilesincurrentdirectorysortedbysize?
ls -l | grep '^-' | awk '{print $5,$9}' |sort -n|awk '{print $2}'

2.Writeacommandtosearchforthefile'map'inthecurrentdirectory?
find -name map -type f

3.Howtodisplaythefirst10charactersfromeachlineofafile?
cut -c -10 filename

4.Writeacommandtoremovethefirstnumberonalllinesthatstartwith"@"?
sed '\,^@, s/[0-9][0-9]*//' < filename
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outlin

9/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

5.Howtoprintthefilenamesinadirectorythathastheword"term"?
grep -l term *

The'l'optionmakethegrepcommandtoprintonlythefilenamewithoutprintingthe
contentofthefile.Assoonasthegrepcommandfindsthepatterninafile,itprintsthe
patternandstopssearchingotherlinesinthefile.
6.Howtorunawkcommandspecifiedinafile?
awk -f filename

7.Howdoyoudisplaythecalendarforthemonthmarchintheyear1985?
Thecalcommandcanbeusedtodisplaythecurrentmonthcalendar.Youcanpassthe
monthandyearasargumentstodisplaytherequiredyear,monthcombinationcalendar.
cal 03 1985

ThiswilldisplaythecalendarfortheMarchmonthandyear1985.
8.Writeacommandtofindthetotalnumberoflinesinafile?
wc -l filename

Otherwaystoprintthetotalnumberoflinesare
awk 'BEGIN {sum=0} {sum=sum+1} END {print sum}' filename
awk 'END{print NR}' filename

9.Howtoduplicateemptylinesinafile?
sed '/^$/ p' < filename

10.Explainiostat,vmstatandnetstat?
Iostat:reportsonterminal,diskandtapeI/Oactivity.
Vmstat:reportsonvirtualmemorystatisticsforprocesses,disk,tapeandCPU
activity.
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

10/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Netstat:reportsonthecontentsofnetworkdatastructures.

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART4

1.Howdoyouwritethecontentsof3filesintoasinglefile?
cat file1 file2 file3 > file

2.Howtodisplaythefieldsinatextfileinreverseorder?
awk 'BEGIN {ORS=""} { for(i=NF;i>0;i--) print $i," "; print "\n"}' filename

3.Writeacommandtofindthesumofbytes(sizeoffile)ofallfilesinadirectory.
ls -l | grep '^-'| awk 'BEGIN {sum=0} {sum = sum + $5} END {print sum}'

4.Writeacommandtoprintthelineswhichendwiththeword"end"?
grep 'end$' filename

The'$'symbolspecifiesthegrepcommandtosearchforthepatternattheendoftheline.
5.Writeacommandtoselectonlythoselinescontaining"july"asawholeword?
grep -w july filename

The'w'optionmakesthegrepcommandtosearchforexactwholewords.Ifthespecifiedpatternisfound
inastring,thenitisnotconsideredasawholeword.Forexample:Inthestring"mikejulymak",thepattern
"july"isfound.However"july"isnotawholewordinthatstring.
6.Howtoremovethefirst10linesfromafile?
sed '1,10 d' < filename

7.Writeacommandtoduplicateeachlineinafile?
sed 'p' < filename
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

11/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

8.Howtoextracttheusernamefrom'whoami'comamnd?
who am i | cut -f1 -d' '

9.Writeacommandtolistthefilesin'/usr'directorythatstartwith'ch'andthendisplaythenumberof
linesineachfile?
wc -l /usr/ch*

Anotherwayis
find /usr -name 'ch*' -type f -exec wc -l {} \;

10.Howtoremoveblanklinesinafile?
grep -v ^$ filename > new_filename

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART5

1.Howtodisplaytheprocessesthatwererunbyyourusername?
ps -aef | grep <user_name>

2.Writeacommandtodisplayallthefilesrecursivelywithpathundercurrentdirectory?
find . -depth -print

3.Displayzerobytesizefilesinthecurrentdirectory?
find -size 0 -type f

4.Writeacommandtodisplaythethirdandfifthcharacterfromeachlineofafile?
cut -c 3,5 filename
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

12/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

5.Writeacommandtoprintthefieldsfrom10thtotheendoftheline.Thefieldsinthelinearedelimited
byacomma?
cut -d',' -f10- filename

6.Howtoreplacetheword"Gun"with"Pen"inthefirst100linesofafile?
sed '1,00 s/Gun/Pen/' < filename

7.WriteaUnixcommandtodisplaythelinesinafilethatdonotcontaintheword"RAM"?
grep -v RAM filename

The'v'optiontellsthegreptoprintthelinesthatdonotcontainthespecifiedpattern.
8.Howtoprintthesquaresofnumbersfrom1to10usingawkcommand
awk 'BEGIN { for(i=1;i<=10;i++) {print "square of",i,"is",i*i;}}'

9.Writeacommandtodisplaythefilesinthedirectorybyfilesize?
ls -l | grep '^-' |sort -nr -k 5

10.HowtofindouttheusageoftheCPUbytheprocesses?
ThetoputilitycanbeusedtodisplaytheCPUusagebytheprocesses.
TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART6

1.Writeacommandtoremovetheprefixofthestringendingwith'/'.
Thebasenameutilitydeletesanyprefixendingin/.Theusageismentionedbelow:
basename /usr/local/bin/file

Thiswilldisplayonlyfile
2.Howtodisplayzerobytesizefiles?
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

13/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

ls -l | grep '^-' | awk '/^-/ {if ($5 !=0 ) print $9 }'

3.Howtoreplacethesecondoccurrenceoftheword"bat"with"ball"inafile?
sed 's/bat/ball/2' < filename

4.Howtoremovealltheoccurrencesoftheword"jhon"exceptthefirstoneinalinewithin
theentirefile?
sed 's/jhon//2g' < filename

5.Howtoreplacetheword"lite"with"light"from100thlinetolastlineinafile?
sed '100,$ s/lite/light/' < filename

6.Howtolistthefilesthatareaccessed5daysagointhecurrentdirectory?
find -atime 5 -type f

7.Howtolistthefilesthatweremodified5daysagointhecurrentdirectory?
find -mtime 5 -type f

8.Howtolistthefileswhosestatusischanged5daysagointhecurrentdirectory?
find -ctime 5 -type f

9.Howtoreplacethecharacter'/'with','inafile?
sed 's/\//,/' < filename
sed 's|/|,|' < filename

10.Writeacommandtofindthenumberoffilesinadirectory.
ls -l|grep '^-'|wc -l
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

14/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART7

1.Writeacommandtodisplayyourname100times.
TheYesutilitycanbeusedtorepeatedlyoutputalinewiththespecifiedstringor'y'.
yes <your_name> | head -100

2.Writeacommandtodisplaythefirst10charactersfromeachlineofafile?
cut -c -10 filename

3.Thefieldsineachlinearedelimitedbycomma.Writeacommandtodisplaythirdfield
fromeachlineofafile?
cut -d',' -f2 filename

4.Writeacommandtoprintthefieldsfrom10to20fromeachlineofafile?
cut -d',' -f10-20 filename

5.Writeacommandtoprintthefirst5fieldsfromeachline?
cut -d',' -f-5 filename

6.Bydefaultthecutcommanddisplaystheentirelineifthereisnodelimiterinit.Whichcut
optionisusedtosuppressthesekindoflines?
Thesoptionisusedtosuppressthelinesthatdonotcontainthedelimiter.
7.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"bad"with"good"infile?
sed s/bad/good/ < filename

8.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"bad"with"good"globallyinafile?
sed s/bad/good/g < filename

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

15/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

9.Writeacommandtoreplacetheword"apple"with"(apple)"inafile?
sed s/apple/(&)/ < filename

10.Writeacommandtoswitchthetwoconsecutivewords"apple"and"mango"inafile?
sed 's/\(apple\) \(mango\)/\2 \1/' < filename

11.Writeacommandtodisplaythecharactersfrom10to20fromeachlineofafile?
cut -c 10-20 filename

TOPUNIXINTERVIEWQUESTIONSPART8

1.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthathasthethepattern"july"inallthefilesina
particulardirectory?
grep july *

Thiswillprintallthelinesinallfilesthatcontainthewordjulyalongwiththefilename.If
anyofthefilescontainwordslike"JULY"or"July",theabovecommandwouldnotprint
thoselines.
2.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthathastheword"july"inallthefilesinadirectory
andalsosuppressthefilenameintheoutput.
grep -h july *

3.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthathastheword"july"whileignoringthecase.
grep -i july *

Theoptionimakethegrepcommandtotreatthepatternascaseinsensitive.
4.Whenyouuseasinglefileasinputtothegrepcommandtosearchforapattern,itwon't
printthefilenameintheoutput.Nowwriteagrepcommandtoprintthefilenameinthe
outputwithoutusingthe'H'option.
grep pattern file name /dev/null
data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

16/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

The/dev/nullornulldeviceisspecialfilethatdiscardsthedatawrittentoit.So,the/dev/null
isalwaysanemptyfile.
Anotherwaytoprintthefilenameisusingthe'H'option.Thegrepcommandforthisis
grep -H pattern filename

5.Writeacommandtoprintthefilenamesinadirectorythatdoesnotcontaintheword
"july"?
grep -L july *

The'L'optionmakesthegrepcommandtoprintthefilenamesthatdonotcontainthe
specifiedpattern.
6.Writeacommandtoprintthelinenumbersalongwiththelinethathastheword"july"?
grep -n july filename

The'n'optionisusedtoprintthelinenumbersinafile.Thelinenumbersstartfrom1
7.Writeacommandtoprintthelinesthatstartswiththeword"start"?
grep '^start' filename

The'^'symbolspecifiesthegrepcommandtosearchforthepatternatthestartoftheline.
8.Inthetextfile,somelinesaredelimitedbycolonandsomearedelimitedbyspace.Write
acommandtoprintthethirdfieldofeachline.
awk '{ if( $0 ~ /:/ ) { FS=":"; } else { FS =" "; } print $3 }' filename

9.Writeacommandtoprintthelinenumberbeforeeachline?
awk '{print NR, $0}' filename

10.WriteacommandtoprintthesecondandthirdlineofafilewithoutusingNR.

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

17/18

3/26/2015

UNIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

awk 'BEGIN {RS="";FS="\n"} {print $2,$3}' filename

11.Howtocreateanaliasforthecomplexcommandandremovethealias?
Thealiasutilityisusedtocreatethealiasforacommand.Thebelowcommandcreates
aliasforpsaefcommand.
alias pg='ps -aef'

Ifyouusepg,itwillworkthesamewayaspsaef.
Toremovethealiassimplyusetheunaliascommandas
unalias pg

12.Writeacommandtodisplaytoday'sdateintheformatof'yyyymmdd'?
Thedatecommandcanbeusedtodisplaytoday'sdatewithtime
date '+%Y-%m-%d'

data:text/html;charset=utf-8,%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22article-header%22%20style%3D%22margin%3A%200px%3B%20outli

18/18