Frequently used commands

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topic=/com.ibm.aix.cmds/doc/aixcmds1/cp.htm

Table of Contents
ls command ...............................................................................................................................................6
Open Last Edited File Using ls -t..........................................................................................................6
Display One File Per Line Using ls -1..................................................................................................6
Display All Information About Files/Directories Using ls -l................................................................6
Display File Size in Human Readable Format Using ls -lh..................................................................7
Display Directory Information Using ls -ld..........................................................................................7
Order Files Based on Last Modified Time Using ls -lt.........................................................................8
Order Files Based on Last Modified Time (In Reverse Order) Using ls -ltr.........................................8
Display Hidden Files Using ls -a (or) ls -A...........................................................................................8
Display Files Recursively Using ls -R..................................................................................................9
Display File Inode Number Using ls -i.................................................................................................9
Hide Control Characters Using ls -q.....................................................................................................9
Display File UID and GID Using ls -n..................................................................................................9
Visual Classification of Files With Special Characters Using ls -F....................................................10
Visual Classification of Files With Colors Using ls -F.......................................................................10
Useful ls Command Aliases................................................................................................................10
cd command examples.............................................................................................................................10
To change the current working directory to the login (home) directory.............................................11
To change to an arbitrary directory.....................................................................................................11
To go down one level of the directory tree ........................................................................................11
To go up one level of the directory tree..............................................................................................11
Use cd alias to navigate up the directory effectively...........................................................................11
Perform mkdir and cd using a single command..................................................................................13
Use cd - to toggle between the last two directories.........................................................................13
pwd command..........................................................................................................................................13
man command .........................................................................................................................................13
which command.......................................................................................................................................14
whereis command ...................................................................................................................................15
whatis command .....................................................................................................................................15
uname command .....................................................................................................................................15
mkdir command.......................................................................................................................................15
To create a new directory in the current working directory, ........................................................16
To create a new directory with permissions...................................................................................16
To create a new directory with default permissions in subdirectory.............................................16
rmdir command........................................................................................................................................17
To empty and remove a directory...................................................................................................17
To remove the subdirectory ...........................................................................................................17
touch command........................................................................................................................................17

To update the access and modification times of a file,...................................................................18

To avoid creating a new file...........................................................................................................18
To explicitly set the access and modification times.......................................................................18
To use the time stamp of another file instead of the current time..................................................19
To touch a file using a specified time other than the current time.................................................19
rm command ...........................................................................................................................................19
To delete a file................................................................................................................................19
To delete a file without first receiving a confirmation prompt.......................................................19
To delete files one by one...............................................................................................................19
cp command ............................................................................................................................................20
To make a copy of a file in the current directory,..........................................................................20
To copy a file in your current directory into another directory, ....................................................20
To copy a file to a new file and preserve the modification date, time, and access control list
associated with the source file........................................................................................................20
To copy all the files in a directory to a new directory,...................................................................20
To copy a directory, including all its files and subdirectories, to another directory, ....................21
To copy a specific set of files to another directory, .......................................................................21
To use pattern-matching characters to copy files, .........................................................................21
To copy a file to a new file and preserve the ACL and EA associated with the source file, ........21
mv command ...........................................................................................................................................21
Rename a file..................................................................................................................................21
To move a directory .......................................................................................................................21
To move a file to another directory and give it a new name..........................................................22
To move a file to another directory, keeping the same name.........................................................22
To move several files into another directory .................................................................................22
To use the mv command with pattern-matching characters...........................................................22
cat command ...........................................................................................................................................22
To display a file at the workstation.................................................................................................22
To concatenate several files............................................................................................................23
To suppress error messages about files that do not exist...........................................................23
To append one file to the end of another,..................................................................................23
To add text to the end of a file...................................................................................................23
To concatenate several files with text entered from the keyboard.............................................23
head command.........................................................................................................................................24
1. Print the first N number of lines.................................................................................................24
2. Print N number of lines by specifying N with -..........................................................................24
3. Print all but not the last N lines..................................................................................................24
4. Print the N number of bytes........................................................................................................24
5. Passing Output of Other command to Head Input......................................................................25
Display the first 5 lines of several files..........................................................................................25
tail command............................................................................................................................................25
1. Print the last N lines....................................................................................................................25
2. Print the appended lines as and when the file grows..................................................................25
3. Terminate the tail command once PID dies................................................................................26
4. Keep on trying to tail the file even if it is non-existent..............................................................26
less command...........................................................................................................................................26
Viewing a Text File: more or less...................................................................................................26
More Uses for less or more.............................................................................................................26
tar command ............................................................................................................................................27

a. Creating an archive using tar command..........................................................................................27

Creating an uncompressed tar archive using option cvf............................................................27
Creating a tar gzipped archive using option cvzf.......................................................................27
Creating a bzipped tar archive using option cvjf.......................................................................28
b. Extracting (untar) an archive using tar command...........................................................................28
Extract a *.tar file using option xvf...........................................................................................28
Extract a gzipped tar archive ( *.tar.gz ) using option xvzf.......................................................28
Extracting a bzipped tar archive ( *.tar.bz2 ) using option xvjf................................................28
c. Listing an archive using tar command.............................................................................................28
View the tar archive file content without extracting using option tvf.......................................28
View the *.tar.gz file content without extracting using option tvzf...........................................28
View the *.tar.bz2 file content without extracting using option tvjf.........................................29
d. Listing out the tar file content with less command.........................................................................29
e. Extract a single file from tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 file..............................................................................29
f. Extract a single directory from tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 file.....................................................................29
g. Extract group of files from tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2 archives using regular expression..........................29
h. Adding a file or directory to an existing archive using option -r....................................................30
i. Verify files available in tar using option -W....................................................................................30
j. Estimate the tar archive size.............................................................................................................31
locate command ......................................................................................................................................31
grep command examples..........................................................................................................................31
a. Search for the given string in a single file.......................................................................................31
b. Checking for the given string in multiple files................................................................................31
c. Case insensitive search using grep -i...............................................................................................32
d. Match regular expression in files....................................................................................................32
e. Checking for full words, not for sub-strings using grep -w.............................................................33
f. Displaying lines before/after/around the match using grep -A, -B and -C..................................33
f.1 Display N lines after match.......................................................................................................34
f.2 Display N lines before match....................................................................................................34
f.3 Display N lines around match...................................................................................................34
g. Highlighting the search using GREP_OPTIONS............................................................................34
h. Searching in all files recursively using grep -r................................................................................35
i. Invert match using grep -v...............................................................................................................35
j. display the lines which does not matches all the given pattern........................................................35
k. Counting the number of matches using grep -c...............................................................................36
l. Display only the file names which matches the given pattern using grep -l....................................36
m. Show only the matched string........................................................................................................36
n. Show the position of match in the line............................................................................................37
o. Show line number while displaying the output using grep -n.........................................................37
find command examples..........................................................................................................................37
1. Find Files Using Name....................................................................................................................37
2. Find Files Using Name and Ignoring Case.....................................................................................37
3. Limit Search To Specific Directory Level Using mindepth and maxdepth....................................38
4. Executing Commands on the Files Found by the Find Command..................................................38
5. Inverting the match..........................................................................................................................38
6. Finding Files by its inode Number..................................................................................................39
7. Find file based on the File-Permissions..........................................................................................40
8. Find all empty files (zero byte file) in your home directory and its subdirectory.........................41
9. Finding the Top 5 Big Files.............................................................................................................41

10. Finding the Top 5 Small Files.......................................................................................................41

11. Find Files Based on file-type using option -type..........................................................................41
12. Find files by comparing with the modification time of other file.................................................42
13. Find Files by Size..........................................................................................................................42
14. Create Alias for Frequent Find Operations...................................................................................43
15. Remove big archive files using find command.............................................................................43
Find Files Based on Access / Modification / Change Time................................................................43
Example 2: Find files which got accessed before 1 hour...............................................................44
Example 3: Find files which got changed exactly before 1 hour...................................................44
Example 4: Restricting the find output only to files. .....................................................................45
Example 5: Restricting the search only to unhidden files. ............................................................45
Finding Files Comparatively Using Find Command..........................................................................46
Example 6: Find files which are modified after modification of a particular FILE.......................46
Example 7: Find files which are accessed after modification of a specific FILE..........................46
Example 8: Find files whose status got changed after the modification of a specific FILE..........46
Perform Any Operation on Files Found From Find Command..........................................................46
Example 9: ls -l in find command output. .....................................................................................47
Example 10: Searching Only in the Current Filesystem................................................................47
Example 11: Using more than one { } in same command..............................................................47
Example 12: Using { } in more than one instance.........................................................................48
Example 13: Redirecting errors to /dev/null...................................................................................48
Example 14: Substitute space with underscore in the file name....................................................49
Example 15: Executing two find commands at the same time.......................................................49
ssh command ...........................................................................................................................................49
sed command ...........................................................................................................................................49
Sed regular expressions.......................................................................................................................49
Special Characters..........................................................................................................................50
How it Works: A Brief Introduction...................................................................................................50
Getting Started: Substitute and delete Commands..............................................................................51
The Substitute Command...............................................................................................................51
The Delete Command.....................................................................................................................52
Example 1..................................................................................................................................52
Example 2..................................................................................................................................52
Example 3..................................................................................................................................52
Example 4..................................................................................................................................53
Example 4a.................................................................................................................................53
Example 4b................................................................................................................................53
Example 4c.................................................................................................................................53
Example 4d................................................................................................................................53
Example 5..................................................................................................................................54
awk command .........................................................................................................................................54
diff command ..........................................................................................................................................55
sort command ..........................................................................................................................................55
To sort the file ................................................................................................................................55
To sort in dictionary order..............................................................................................................56
To group lines that contain uppercase and special characters with similar lowercase lines..........56
To sort, removing duplicate lines...................................................................................................56
To specify the character that separates fields.................................................................................57
To sort numbers..............................................................................................................................58

To sort more than one field.............................................................................................................58

To replace the original file with the sorted text..............................................................................58
Sort a file in descending order........................................................................................................58
export command ......................................................................................................................................59
gzip command .........................................................................................................................................59
bzip2 command........................................................................................................................................59
unzip command .......................................................................................................................................59
ps command ............................................................................................................................................60
top command ...........................................................................................................................................60
df command .............................................................................................................................................60
mount command ......................................................................................................................................61
chmod command .....................................................................................................................................61
1. Add single permission to a file/directory....................................................................................61
2. Add multiple permission to a file/directory................................................................................62
3. Remove permission from a file/directory...................................................................................62
4. Change permission for all roles on a file/directory....................................................................62
5. Make permission for a file same as another file (using reference).............................................62
6. Apply the permission to all the files under a directory recursively............................................62
7. Change execute permission only on the directories (files are not affected)...............................62
chown command .....................................................................................................................................62
passwd command ....................................................................................................................................63
su command examples.............................................................................................................................63
date command examples..........................................................................................................................63

ls command
OpenLastEditedFileUsinglst
Toopenthelasteditedfileinthecurrentdirectoryusethecombinationofls,headandvi
commandsasshownbelow.
lstsortsthefilebymodificationtime,showingthelasteditedfilefirst.head1picksupthis
firstfile.
$vifirstlongfile.txt
$visecondlongfile.txt
$vi`lst|head1`
[Note:Thiswillopenthelastfileyouedited(i.esecondlongfile.txt)]

DisplayOneFilePerLineUsingls1
Toshowsingleentryperline,use1optionasshownbelow.
$ls1
bin
boot
cdrom
dev
etc
home
initrd
initrd.img
lib

DisplayAllInformationAboutFiles/DirectoriesUsinglsl
Toshowlonglistinginformationaboutthefile/directory.
$lsl
rwr1rameshteamdev9275204Jun1315:27mthesaur.txt.gz

1stCharacterFileType:Firstcharacterspecifiesthetypeofthefile.
Intheexampleabovethehyphen()inthe1stcharacterindicatesthatthisisanormalfile.
Followingarethepossiblefiletypeoptionsinthe1stcharacterofthelsloutput.
Field Explanation
normalfile
ddirectory
ssocketfile
llinkfile

Field1FilePermissions:Next9characterspecifiesthefilespermission.Each3characters
referstotheread,write,executepermissionsforuser,groupandworldInthisexample,rwr
indicatesreadwritepermissionforuser,readpermissionforgroup,andnopermissionfor
others.
Field2Numberoflinks:Secondfieldspecifiesthenumberoflinksforthatfile.Inthis
example,1indicatesonlyonelinktothisfile.
Field3Owner:Thirdfieldspecifiesownerofthefile.Inthisexample,thisfileisownedby
usernameramesh.
Field4Group:Fourthfieldspecifiesthegroupofthefile.Inthisexample,thisfilebelongsto
teamdevgroup.
Field5Size:Fifthfieldspecifiesthesizeoffile.Inthisexample,9275204indicatesthefile
size.
Field6Lastmodifieddate&time:Sixthfieldspecifiesthedateandtimeofthelast
modificationofthefile.Inthisexample,Jun1315:27specifiesthelastmodificationtimeof
thefile.
Field7Filename:Thelastfieldisthenameofthefile.Inthisexample,thefilenameis
mthesaur.txt.gz.

DisplayFileSizeinHumanReadableFormatUsinglslh
Uselslh(hstandsforhumanreadableform),todisplayfilesizeineasytoreadformat.i.eM
forMB,KforKB,GforGB.
$lsl
rwr1rameshteamdev9275204Jun1215:27archlinux.txt.gz*
$lslh
rwr1rameshteamdev8.9MJun1215:27archlinux.txt.gz

DisplayDirectoryInformationUsinglsld
Whenyouuselslyouwillgetthedetailsofdirectoriescontent.Butifyouwantthedetails
ofdirectorythenyoucanusedoptionas.,Forexample,ifyouuselsl/etcwilldisplayallthe
filesunderetcdirectory.But,ifyouwanttodisplaytheinformationaboutthe/etc/directory,
useldoptionasshownbelow.
$lsl/etc
total3344
rwrr1rootroot15276Oct52004a2ps.cfg
rwrr1rootroot2562Oct52004a2pssite.cfg
drwxrxrx4rootroot4096Feb22007acpi
rwrr1rootroot48Feb82008adjtime
drwxrxrx4rootroot4096Feb22007alchemist
$lsld/etc
drwxrxrx21rootroot4096Jun1507:02/etc

OrderFilesBasedonLastModifiedTimeUsinglslt
Tosortthefilenamesdisplayedintheorderoflastmodificationtimeusethetoption.You
willbefindingithandytouseitincombinationwithloption.
$lslt
total76
drwxrwxrwt14rootroot4096Jun2207:36tmp
drwxrxrx121rootroot4096Jun2207:05etc
drwxrxrx13rootroot13780Jun2207:04dev
drwxrxrx13rootroot4096Jun2023:12root
drwxrxrx12rootroot4096Jun1808:31home
drwxrxrx2rootroot4096May1721:21sbin
lrwxrwxrwx1rootroot11May1720:29cdrom>media/cdrom
drwx2rootroot16384May1720:29lost+found
drwxrxrx15rootroot4096Jul22008var

OrderFilesBasedonLastModifiedTime(InReverseOrder)Usinglsltr
Tosortthefilenamesinthelastmodificationtimeinreverseorder.Thiswillbeshowingthe
lasteditedfileinthelastlinewhichwillbehandywhenthelistinggoesbeyondapage.Thisis
mydefaultlsusage.AnytimeIdols,IalwaysuselsltrasIfindthisveryconvenient.
$lsltr
total76
drwxrxrx15rootroot4096Jul22008var
drwx2rootroot16384May1720:29lost+found
lrwxrwxrwx1rootroot11May1720:29cdrom>media/cdrom
drwxrxrx2rootroot4096May1721:21sbin
drwxrxrx12rootroot4096Jun1808:31home
drwxrxrx13rootroot4096Jun2023:12root
drwxrxrx13rootroot13780Jun2207:04dev
drwxrxrx121rootroot4096Jun2207:05etc
drwxrwxrwt14rootroot4096Jun2207:36tmp

DisplayHiddenFilesUsinglsa(or)lsA
Toshowallthehiddenfilesinthedirectory,useaoption.HiddenfilesinUnixstartswith.
initsfilename.
$lsa
[rnatarajan@aspdev~]$lsa
.DebianInfo.txt
..CentOSInfo.txt
.bash_historyFedoraInfo.txt
.bash_logout.lftp
.bash_profilelibiconv1.11.tar.tar
.bashrclibssh20.121.2.el4.rf.i386.rpm

Itwillshowallthefilesincludingthe.(currentdirectory)and..(parentdirectory).Toshow
thehiddenfiles,butnotthe.(currentdirectory)and..(parentdirectory),useoptionA.
$lsA

DebianInfo.txtFedoraInfo.txt
CentOSInfo.txtRedHatInfo.txt
.bash_historySUSEInfo.txt
.bash_logout.lftp
.bash_profilelibiconv1.11.tar.tar
.bashrclibssh20.121.2.el4.rf.i386.rpm
[Note:.and..arenotdisplayedhere]

DisplayFilesRecursivelyUsinglsR
$ls/etc/sysconfig/networking
devicesprofiles
$lsR/etc/sysconfig/networking
/etc/sysconfig/networking:
devicesprofiles
/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices:
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles:
default
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default:

Toshowallthefilesrecursively,useRoption.Whenyoudothisfrom/,itshowsallthe
unhiddenfilesinthewholefilesystemrecursively.

DisplayFileInodeNumberUsinglsi
Sometimesyoumaywanttoknowtheinonenumberofafileforinternalmaintenance.Usei
optionasshownbelowtodisplayinonenumber.Usinginodenumberyoucanremovefilesthat
hasspecialcharactersinitsnameasexplainedintheexample#6ofthefindcommandarticle.
$lsi/etc/xinetd.d/
279694chargen279724cupslpd279697daytimeudp
279695chargenudp279696daytime279698echo

HideControlCharactersUsinglsq
Toprintquestionmarkinsteadofthenongraphicscontrolcharactersusetheqoption.
lsq

DisplayFileUIDandGIDUsinglsn
Liststheoutputlikel,butshowstheuidandgidinnumericformatinsteadofnames.
$lsl~/.bash_profile
rwrr1rameshramesh909Feb811:48/home/ramesh/.bash_profile
$lsn~/.bash_profile
rwrr1511511909Feb811:48/home/ramesh/.bash_profile

[Note:Thisdisplay511foruidand511forgid]

VisualClassificationofFilesWithSpecialCharactersUsinglsF
Insteadofdoingthelslandthenthecheckingforthefirstcharactertodeterminethetypeof
file.YoucanuseFwhichclassifiesthefilewithdifferentspecialcharacterfordifferentkindof
files.
$lsF
Desktop/Documents/UbuntuApp@firstfileMusic/Public/Templates/

Thusintheaboveoutput,
/directory.
nothingnormalfile.
@linkfile.
*Executablefile

VisualClassificationofFilesWithColorsUsinglsF
Recognizingthefiletypebythecolorinwhichitgetsdisplayedisananotherkindin
classificationoffile.Intheaboveoutputdirectoriesgetdisplayedinblue,softlinksget
displayedingreen,andordinaryfilesgetsdisplayedindefaultcolor.
$lscolor=auto
DesktopDocumentsExamplesfirstfileMusicPicturesPublicTemplatesVideos

UsefullsCommandAliases
Youcantakesomerequiredlsoptionsintheabove,andmakeitasaliases.Wesuggestthe
following.
Longlistthefilewithsizeinhumanunderstandableform.
aliasll="lslh"

Classifythefiletypebyappendingspecialcharacters.
aliaslv="lsF"

Classifythefiletypebybothcolorandspecialcharacter.
aliasls="lsFcolor=auto"

cd command examples
Thecdcommandsetsthecurrentworkingdirectoryofaprocess.Theusermusthaveexecute
(search)permissioninthespecifieddirectory.

Tochangethecurrentworkingdirectorytothelogin(home)directory
cd

Tochangetoanarbitrarydirectory
cd/usr/include

Thischangesthecurrentdirectoryto/usr/include.

Togodownonelevelofthedirectorytree
cdsys

Ifthecurrentdirectoryis/usr/includeanditcontainsasubdirectorynamedsys,then/
usr/include/sysbecomesthecurrentdirectory.

Togouponelevelofthedirectorytree
cd..

Thespecialfilename,..(dotdot),referstothedirectoryimmediatelyabovethecurrent
directory.
Usecdtotogglebetweenthelasttwodirectories
Useshoptscdspelltoautomaticallycorrectmistypeddirectorynamesoncd

Usecdaliastonavigateupthedirectoryeffectively
Whenyouarenavigatingupaverylongdirectorystructure,youmaybeusingcd..\..\with
multiple..\sdependingonhowmanydirectoriesyouwanttogoupasshownbelow.
#mkdirp/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#cd/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#cd../../../../
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure

Insteadofexecutingcd../../../..tonavigatefourlevelsup,useoneofthefollowingalias
methods:
Navigateupthedirectoryusing..n:Intheexamplebelow,..4isusedtogoup4directory
level,..3togoup3directorylevel,..2togoup2directorylevel.Addthefollowingaliasto
the.bash_profileandrelogin.

alias..="cd.."
alias..2="cd../.."
alias..3="cd../../.."
alias..4="cd../../../.."
alias..5="cd../../../../.."
#cd/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#..4
[Note:use..4togoup4directorylevel]
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/

Navigateupthedirectoryusingonlydots:Intheexamplebelow,..(fivedots)isusedto
goup4directorylevel.Typing5dotstogoup4directorystructureisreallyeasytoremember,
aswhenyoutypethefirsttwodots,youarethinkinggoinguponedirectory,afterthatevery
additionaldot,istogoonelevelup.So,use.(fourdots)togoup3directoryleveland..
(twodots)togoup1directorylevel.Addthefollowingaliastothe.bash_profileandrelogin
forthe..(fivedots)toworkproperly.
alias..="cd.."
alias...="cd../.."
alias....="cd../../.."
alias.....="cd../../../.."
alias......="cd../../../../.."
#cd/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#.....
[Note:use.....(fivedots)togoup4directorylevel]
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/

Navigateupthedirectoryusingcdfollowedbyconsecutivedots:Intheexamplebelow,
cd..(cdfollowedbyfivedots)isusedtogoup4directorylevel.Makingit5dotstogoup4
directorystructureisreallyeasytoremember,aswhenyoutypethefirsttwodots,youare
thinkinggoinguponedirectory,afterthateveryadditionaldot,istogoonelevelup.So,use
cd.(cdfollowedbyfourdots)togoup3directorylevelandcd(cdfollowedbythree
dots)togoup2directorylevel.Addthefollowingaliastothe.bash_profileandreloginfor
theabovecd..(fivedots)toworkproperly.
aliascd..="cd.."
aliascd...="cd../.."
aliascd....="cd../../.."
aliascd.....="cd../../../.."
aliascd......="cd../../../../.."
#cd/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#cd.....
[Note:usecd.....togoup4directorylevel]
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure

Performmkdirandcdusingasinglecommand
Sometimeswhenyoucreateanewdirectory,youmaycdtothenewdirectoryimmediatelyto
performsomeworkasshownbelow.
#mkdirp/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3
#cd/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3
#pwd
/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3

Wouldntitbenicetocombinebothmkdirandcdinasinglecommand?Addthefollowingto
the.bash_profileandrelogin.
functionmkdircd(){mkdirp"$@"&&evalcd"\"\$$#\"";}

Now,performbothmkdirandcdatthesametimeusingasinglecommandasshownbelow:
#mkdircd/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3
[Note:Thiscreatesthedirectoryandcdtoitautomatically]
#pwd
/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3

Usecdtotogglebetweenthelasttwodirectories
Youcantogglebetweenthelasttwocurrentdirectoriesusingcdasshownbelow.
#cd/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#cd/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3
#cd
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep
#cd
#pwd
/tmp/subdir1/subdir2/subdir3
#cd
#pwd
/tmp/very/long/directory/structure/that/is/too/deep

pwd command
pwdisPresentworkingdirectory.Whatelsecanbesaidaboutthegoodoldpwdwhohasbeen
printingthecurrentdirectorynameforages.

man command
Displaythemanpageofaspecificcommand.
$mancrontab

Whenamanpageforacommandislocatedundermorethanonesection,youcanviewthe

manpageforthatcommandfromaspecificsectionasshownbelow.
$manSECTIONNUMBERcommandname

Following8sectionsareavailableinthemanpage.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Generalcommands
Systemcalls
Clibraryfunctions
Specialfiles(usuallydevices,thosefoundin/dev)anddrivers
Fileformatsandconventions
Gamesandscreensavers
Miscellaneous
Systemadministrationcommandsanddaemons

Forexample,whenyoudowhatiscrontab,youllnoticethatcrontabhastwomanpages
(section1andsection5).Toviewsection5ofcrontabmanpage,dothefollowing.
$whatiscrontab
crontab(1)maintaincrontabfilesforindividualusers(V3)
crontab(5)tablesfordrivingcron
$man5crontab

whichcommand
Tofindoutifacommandnameislocatedinyourcommandpath:
whichue
/usr/local/bin/ue

ThisreturnstheinformationthattheMicroEMACSeditor(ue)isavailableonthissystemas
thefile/usr/local/bin/ue.
TofindoutiftheKornshellisavailableonyoursystem:
whichksh
/bin/ksh

ThisreturnstheinformationthattheKornshellisavailableonyoursysteminthedirectory
/bin.
Tofindoutwhich(ifany)ofseveralcommandsareavailable:
whichdeletetalkps
Nodeletein/usr/local/utils/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:
/usr/local/ucb/bin:/usr/local/gnu/bin:
/usr/local/public/bin:/usr/bin/X11:.
/usr/bin/talk
/bin/ps

Thisreturnstheinformationthatthefileforthecommanddeletedoesnotexistinanyofthe
directoriesthatarespecifiedinthisuser'sPATHenvironmentvariable.
Pathnamesforthefilesofthecommandstalkandpsaredisplayed,sothesecommandsare

availableonthissystem.

whereis command
WhenyouwanttofindoutwhereaspecificUnixcommandexists(forexample,wheredoesls
commandexists?),youcanexecutethefollowingcommand.
$whereisls
ls:/bin/ls/usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz/usr/share/man/man1p/ls.1p.gz

Whenyouwanttosearchanexecutablefromapathotherthanthewhereisdefaultpath,you
canuseBoptionandgivepathasargumenttoit.Thissearchesfortheexecutablelsmkin
the/tmpdirectory,anddisplaysit,ifitisavailable.
$whereisuB/tmpflsmk
lsmk:/tmp/lsmk

whatis command
Whatiscommanddisplaysasinglelinedescriptionaboutacommand.
$whatisls
ls(1)listdirectorycontents
$whatisifconfig
ifconfig(8)configureanetworkinterface

unamecommand
UnamecommanddisplaysimportantinformationaboutthesystemsuchasKernelname,
Hostname,Kernelreleasenumber,
Processortype,etc.,
SampleunameoutputfromaUbuntulaptopisshownbelow.
$unamea
Linuxjohnlaptop2.6.3224generic#41UbuntuSMPThuAug1901:12:52UTC2010i686GNU/Linux

mkdir command
ThemkdircommandcreatesoneormorenewdirectoriesspecifiedbytheDirectoryparameter.
Eachnewdirectorycontainsthestandardentries.(dot)and..(dotdot).Youcanspecifythe
permissionsforthenewdirectorieswiththemModeflag.Youcanusetheumasksubroutine
tosetthedefaultmodeforthemkdircommand.
TheownerIDandgroupIDofthenewdirectoriesaresettotheprocess'seffectiveuserIDand
groupID,respectively.Thesetgidbitsettingisinheritedfromtheparentdirectory.Tochange
thesetgidbit,youcaneitherspecifythemModeflagorissuethechmodcommandafterthe
creationofthedirectory.

Note:Tomakeanewdirectoryyoumusthavewritepermissionintheparent
directory.
Flags
eCreatesdirectorieswithencryptioninheritance.
mModeSetsthepermissionbitsforthenewlycreateddirectoriestothevaluespecifiedby
theModevariable.TheModevariabletakesthesamevaluesastheModeparameterforthe
chmodcommand,eitherinsymbolicornumericform.
Whenyouspecifythemflagusingsymbolicformat,theopcharacters+(plus)and(minus)
areinterpretedrelativetotheassumedpermissionsettinga=rwx.The+addspermissionsto
thedefaultmode,andthedeletespermissionsfromthedefaultmode.Refertothechmod
commandforacompletedescriptionofpermissionbitsandformats.
pCreatesmissingintermediatepathnamedirectories.Ifthepflagisnotspecified,theparent
directoryofeachnewlycreateddirectorymustalreadyexist.
Intermediatedirectoriesarecreatedthroughtheautomaticinvocationofthefollowingmkdir
commands:
mkdirpm$(umaskS),u+wx$(dirnameDirectory)&&
mkdir[mMode]Directory

wherethe[mMode]representsanyoptionsuppliedwithyouroriginalinvocationofthe
mkdircommand.
ThemkdircommandignoresanyDirectoryparameterthatnamesanexistingdirectory.No
errorisissued.
Tocreateanewdirectoryinthecurrentworkingdirectory,
mkdirTest

TheTestdirectoryiscreatedwithdefaultpermissions.
Tocreateanewdirectorywithpermissions
TocreateanewdirectorycalledTestwithrwxrxrxpermissionsinthepreviouslycreated
/home/demo/sub1directory
mkdirm755/home/demo/sub1/Test

Tocreateanewdirectorywithdefaultpermissionsinsubdirectory
TocreateanewdirectorycalledTestwithdefaultpermissionsinthe/home/demo/sub2
directory
mkdirp/home/demo/sub2/Test

Thepflagcreatesthe/home,/home/demo,and/home/demo/sub2directoriesiftheydonot
alreadyexist.

rmdir command
Toemptyandremoveadirectory
rmmydir/*mydir/.*
rmdirmydir

Thiscommandremovesthecontentsofthemydirfileandthenremovestheemptydirectory.
Thermcommanddisplaysanerrormessageabouttryingtoremovethedirectories.(dot)and
..(dot,dot),andthenthermdircommandremovesthem.
Notethatthermmydir/*mydir/.*commandfirstremovesfileswithnamesthatdonotbegin
withadot,andthenremovesthosewithnamesthatdobeginwithadot.Youmaynotrealize
thatthedirectorycontainsfilenamesthatbeginwithadotbecausethelscommanddoesnot
usuallylistthemunlessyouusetheaflag.
Toremovethesubdirectory
Toremovethe/home,/home/demo,and/home/demo/mydirdirectories,type:
rmdirp/home/demo/mydir

Thiscommandremovesfirstthe/mydirdirectoryandthenthe/demoand/homedirectories,
respectively.Ifadirectoryisnotemptyordoesnothavewritepermissionwhenitistobe
removed,thecommandterminates.

touch command
Thetouchcommandupdatestheaccessandmodificationtimesofeachfilespecifiedbythe
FileparameterofeachdirectoryspecifiedbytheDirectoryparameter.Ifyoudonotspecifya
valuefortheTimevariable,thetouchcommandusesthecurrenttime.Ifyouspecifyafilethat
doesnotexist,thetouchcommandcreatesthefileunlessyouspecifythecflag.
Thereturncodefromthetouchcommandisthenumberoffilesforwhichthetimescouldnot
besuccessfullymodified(includingfilesthatdidnotexistandwerenotcreated).
aChangestheaccesstimeofthefilespecifiedbytheFilevariable.Doesnotchangethe
modificationtimeunlessmisalsospecified.cDoesnotcreatethefileifitdoesnotalready
exist.Nodiagnosticmessagesarewrittenconcerningthiscondition.fAttemptstoforcethe
touchinspiteofreadandwritepermissionsonafile.mChangesthemodificationtimeofFile.
Doesnotchangetheaccesstimeunlessaisalsospecified.rRefFileUsesthecorresponding
timeofthefilespecifiedbytheRefFilevariableinsteadofthecurrenttime.TimeSpecifiesthe
dateandtimeofthenewtimestampintheformatMMDDhhmm[YY],where:
MM
DD

Specifiesthemonthoftheyear(01to12).
Specifiesthedayofthemonth(01to31).

hh
mm
YY

Specifiesthehouroftheday(00to23).
Specifiestheminuteofthehour(00to59).
Specifiesthelasttwodigitsoftheyear.IftheYYvariableisnotspecified,thedefault
valueisthecurrentyear.

tTimeUsesthespecifiedtimeinsteadofthecurrenttime.TheTimevariableisspecifiedinthe
decimalform[[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS]where:
CC

Specifiesthefirsttwodigitsoftheyear.

YY
MM

Specifiesthemonthoftheyear(01to12).

DD

Specifiesthedayofthemonth(01to31).

hh
mm
SS

Specifiesthelasttwodigitsoftheyear.

Specifiesthehouroftheday(00to23).
Specifiestheminuteofthehour(00to59).
Specifiesthesecondoftheminute(00to59).

Toupdatetheaccessandmodificationtimesofafile,
touchprogram.c

Thissetsthelastaccessandmodificationtimesoftheprogram.cfiletothecurrentdateand
time.Iftheprogram.cfiledoesnotexist,thetouchcommandcreatesanemptyfilewiththat
name.
Toavoidcreatinganewfile
touchc
program.c

Toupdateonlythemodificationtime,enter:

touchm*.o
Thisupdatesthelastmodificationtimes(nottheaccesstimes)ofthefilesthatendwitha.o
extensioninthecurrentdirectory.Thetouchcommandisoftenusedinthiswaytoalterthe
resultsofthemakecommand.
Toexplicitlysettheaccessandmodificationtimes
touchc
t
02171425program.c
Thissetstheaccessandmodificationdatesto14:25(2:25p.m.)February17ofthecurrent
year.

Tousethetimestampofanotherfileinsteadofthecurrenttime
touchr
file1program.c
Thisgivestheprogram.cfilethesametimestampasthefile1file.
Totouchafileusingaspecifiedtimeotherthanthecurrenttime
toucht
198503030303.55program.c
Thisgivestheprogram.cfileatimestampof3:03:55a.m.onMarch3,1985.

rm command
Todeleteafile
rmmyfile

Ifthereisanotherlinktothisfile,thenthefileremainsunderthatname,butthenamemyfile
isremoved.Ifmyfileistheonlylink,thefileitselfisdeleted.
Todeleteafilewithoutfirstreceivingaconfirmationprompt
rmf
core
Noconfirmationpromptisissuedbeforethermfcommandattemptstoremovethefile
namedcore.However,anerrormessagedisplaysifthecorefileiswriteprotectedandyouare
nottheownerofthefileoryoudonothaverootauthority.Noerrormessagedisplayswhen
thermfcommandattemptstoremovenonexistentfiles.
Todeletefilesonebyone
rmi
mydir/*
Aftereachfilenameisdisplayed,enterytodeletethefile,orpresstheEnterkeytokeepit.

Todeleteadirectorytree,enter:
rmirmanual

Thiscommandrecursivelyremovesthecontentsofallsubdirectoriesofthemanualdirectory,
promptingyouregardingtheremovalofeachfile,andthenremovesthemanualdirectory
itself,forexample:
You:rmirmanual
System:rm:Selectfilesindirectorymanual?Enteryforyes.
You:y
System:rm:Selectfilesindirectorymanual/draft1?Enteryforyes.
You:y
System:rm:Removemanual/draft1?
You:y
System:rm:Removemanual/draft1/chapter1?
You:y
System:rm:Removemanual/draft1/chapter2?
You:y
System:rm:Selectfilesindirectorymanual/draft2?Enteryforyes.
You:y
System:rm:Removemanual/draft2?

You:y
System:rm:Removemanual?
You:y

Here,thermcommandfirstasksifyouwantittosearchthemanualdirectory.Becausethe
manualdirectorycontainsdirectories,thermcommandnextasksforpermissiontosearch
manual/draft1forfilestodelete,andthenasksifyouwantittodeletethe
manual/draft1/chapter1andmanual/draft1/chapter2files.Thermcommandnextasksfor
permissiontosearchthemanual/draft2directory.Thenasksforpermissiontodeletethe
manual/draft1,manual/draft2,andmanualdirectories.
Ifyoudenypermissiontoremoveasubdirectory(forexample,manual/draft2),therm
commanddoesnotremovethemanualdirectory.Instead,youseethemessage:rm:Directory
manualnotempty.

cp command
Copyfile1tofile2preservingthemode,ownershipandtimestamp.
$cppfile1file2

Copyfile1tofile2.iffile2existspromptforconfirmationbeforeoverwrittingit.
$cpifile1file2

Tomakeacopyofafileinthecurrentdirectory,
cpprog.cprog.bak
Thiscopiesprog.ctoprog.bak.Iftheprog.bakfiledoesnotalreadyexist,thecpcommand
createsit.Ifitdoesexist,thecpcommandreplacesitwithacopyoftheprog.cfile.
Tocopyafileinyourcurrentdirectoryintoanotherdirectory,
cpjones/home/nick/clients

Thiscopiesthejonesfileto/home/nick/clients/jones.
Tocopyafiletoanewfileandpreservethemodificationdate,time,andaccesscontrol
listassociatedwiththesourcefile
cpp
smithsmith.jr
Thiscopiesthesmithfiletothesmith.jrfile.Insteadofcreatingthefilewiththecurrentdate
andtimestamp,thesystemgivesthesmith.jrfilethesamedateandtimeasthesmithfile.The
smith.jrfilealsoinheritsthesmithfile'saccesscontrolprotection.
Tocopyallthefilesinadirectorytoanewdirectory,
cp/home/janet/clients/*/home/nick/customers

Thiscopiesonlythefilesintheclientsdirectorytothecustomersdirectory.
Tocopyadirectory,includingallitsfilesandsubdirectories,toanotherdirectory
cpR
/home/nick/clients/home/nick/customers
Note:Adirectorycannotbecopiedintoitself.Thiscopiestheclientsdirectory,includingallits
files,subdirectories,andthefilesinthosesubdirectories,tothecustomers/clientsdirectory.
Tocopyaspecificsetoffilestoanotherdirectory
cpjoneslewissmith/home/nick/clients
Thiscopiesthejones,lewis,andsmithfilesinyourcurrentworkingdirectorytothe
/home/nick/clientsdirectory.
Tousepatternmatchingcharacterstocopyfiles,
cpprograms/*.c.

Thiscopiesthefilesintheprogramsdirectorythatendwith.ctothecurrentdirectory,
signifiedbythesingle.(dot).Youmusttypeaspacebetweenthecandthefinaldot.
TocopyafiletoanewfileandpreservetheACLandEAassociatedwiththesourcefile,
cpUsmithsmith.jr

mv command
Renameafile
Renamefile1tofile2.iffile2existspromptforconfirmationbeforeoverwrittingit.
$mvifile1file2
$mv/home/dir/file1/home/dir/file2

mvfisjusttheopposite,whichwilloverwritefile2withoutprompting.
Thiscommandrenamesfile1tofile2.Ifafilenamedfile2alreadyexists,itsoldcontentsare
replacedwiththoseofappendix.
mvvwillprintwhatishappeningduringfilerename,whichisusefulwhilespecifyingshell
metacharactersinthefilenameargument.
$mvvfile1file2

Tomoveadirectory
mvbookmanual

Thiscommandmovesallfilesanddirectoriesunderbooktothedirectorynamedmanual,if
manualexists.Otherwise,thedirectorybookisrenamedmanual.
Tomoveafiletoanotherdirectoryandgiveitanewname
mvintromanual/chap1

Thiscommandmovesintrotomanual/chap1.Thenameintroisremovedfromthe
currentdirectory,andthesamefileappearsaschap1inthedirectorymanual.
Tomoveafiletoanotherdirectory,keepingthesamename
mvchap3manual

Thiscommandmoveschap3tomanual/chap3
Note:Examples1and3nametwofiles,example2namestwoexisting
directories,andexample4namesafileandadirectory.
Tomoveseveralfilesintoanotherdirectory
mvchap4jim/chap5/home/manual

Thiscommandmovesthechap4filetothe/home/manual/chap4filedirectoryandthe
jim/chap5filetothe/home/manual/chap5file.
Tousethemvcommandwithpatternmatchingcharacters
mvmanual/*.

Thiscommandmovesallfilesinthemanualdirectoryintothecurrentdirectory.
(period),retainingthenamestheyhadinmanual.Thismovealsoemptiesmanual.You
musttypeaspacebetweentheasteriskandtheperiod.
Note:Patternmatchingcharactersexpandnamesofexistingfilesonly.For
example,thecommandmvintroman*/chap1doesnotworkifthefile
manual/chap1doesnotexist.

cat command
Todisplayafileattheworkstation
catnotes

Thiscommanddisplaysthedatainthenotesfile.Ifthefileismorethanonelessthan
thenumberofavailabledisplaylines,someofthefilescrollsoffthescreen.Tolistafile
onepageatatime,usethepgcommand.

Toconcatenateseveralfiles
catsection1.1section1.2section1.3>section1

Thiscommandcreatesafilenamedsection1thatisacopyofsection1.1followedby
section1.2andsection1.3.
Tosuppresserrormessagesaboutfilesthatdonotexist
catq
section2.1section2.2section2.3>section2
Ifsection2.1doesnotexist,thiscommandconcatenatessection2.2andsection2.3.The
resultisthesameifyoudonotusetheqflag,exceptthatthecatcommanddisplays
theerrormessage:
cat:cannotopensection2.1

Youmaywanttosuppressthismessagewiththeqflagwhenyouusethecatcommand
inshellprocedures.
Toappendonefiletotheendofanother,
catsection1.4>>section1

The>>(twocarets)appendsacopyofsection1.4totheendofsection1.Ifyouwantto
replacethefile,usethe>(caret).
Toaddtexttotheendofafile
cat>>notes
Getmilkonthewayhome
CtrlD

ThiscommandaddsGetmilkonthewayhometotheendofthefilecallednotes.The
catcommanddoesnotprompt;itwaitsforyoutoentertext.PresstheCtrlDkey
sequencetoindicateyouarefinished.
Toconcatenateseveralfileswithtextenteredfromthekeyboard
catsection3.1section3.3>section3

Thiscommandconcatenatesthefilesection3.1withtextfromthekeyboard(indicated
bytheminussign),andthefilesection3.3,thendirectstheoutputintothefilecalled
section3.
Youcanviewmultiplefilesatthesametime.Followingexampleprintsthecontentoffile1
followedbyfile2tostdout.
$catfile1file2

Whiledisplayingthefile,followingcatncommandwillprependthelinenumbertoeachline

oftheoutput.
$catn/etc/logrotate.conf
1/var/log/btmp{
2missingok
3monthly
4create0660rootutmp
5rotate1
6}

headcommand
1.PrintthefirstNnumberoflines
ToviewthefirstNnumberoflines,passthefilenameasanargumentwithnoptionasshown
below.
$headn5flavours.txt
Ubuntu
Debian
Redhat
Gentoo
Fedoracore

Note:Whenyousimplypassthefilenameasanargumenttohead,itprintsoutthefirst10
linesofthefile.
2.PrintNnumberoflinesbyspecifyingNwith
Youdontevenneedtopassthenoptionasanargument,simplyspecifytheNnumberoflines
followedbyasshownbelow.
$head4flavours.txt
Ubuntu
Debian
Redhat
Gentoo

3.PrintallbutnotthelastNlines
Byplacinginfrontofthenumberwithnoption,itprintsallthelinesofeachfilebutnotthe
lastNlinesasshownbelow,
$headn5flavours.txt
Ubuntu

4.PrinttheNnumberofbytes
YoucanusethecoptiontoprinttheNnumberofbytesfromtheinitialpartoffile.
$headc5flavours.txt
Ubuntu

Note:Aslikenoption,herealsoyoucanpassinfrontofnumbertoprintallbytesbutnot
thelastNbytes.
5.PassingOutputofOthercommandtoHeadInput
Youmaypasstheoutputofothercommandstotheheadcommandviapipeasshownbelow,
$ls|head
bin
boot
cdrom
dev
etc
home
initrd.img
lib
lost+found
media

Displaythefirst5linesofseveralfiles
head5*.xdh

Thisdisplays,oneaftertheother,thefirst5linesofeachfilewiththeextension.xdhinthe
currentdirectory.
Thefirstlineofeachfileisshownas:==>filename<==

tailcommand
TailprintsthelastNnumberoflinesfromgiveninput.Bydefault,itprintslast10linesofeach
givenfile.
1.PrintthelastNlines
ToviewthelastNnumberoflinesfromfile,justpassthefilenamewithnoptionasshown
below.
$tailn5flavours.txt
Debian
Redhat
Gentoo
Fedoracore

Note:Whenyousimplypassthefilename,itprintsoutthelast10linesofthefile.
2.Printtheappendedlinesasandwhenthefilegrows
Youcanusefoptiontooutputtheappendedlinesoffileinstantlyasshownbelow,
$tailf/var/log/messages

Note:Thisisveryusefultomonitorthelogfiles.

3.TerminatethetailcommandoncePIDdies
Usingpidwithfoption,youcanterminatethetailcommandwhenthespecificprocessgets
overorkilledasshownbelow.
$tailf/tmp/debug.logpid=2575

Intheabovetailgetsterminatedimmediatelywhenthepid2575vanishes.
4.Keepontryingtotailthefileevenifitisnonexistent
Sometimes,thefileintendedtotailmaynotbeavailablewhenyourunthetailcommandand
itmaygetcreatedlaterorthefilesbecomesinaccessible.Bythistime,youcanusetheretry
optiontokeepontryingtoopenthefileasshownbelow.
$tailf/tmp/debug.logretry
tail:warning:retryisusefulmainlywhenfollowingbyname
tail:cannotopen`/tmp/log'forreading:Nosuchfileordirectory

Aftergivingtheabovewarnings,itistryingtoopenthefile.

lesscommand
ViewingaTextFile:moreorless
Often,youwillwanttolookatatextfile,withoutbotheringtoloaditintoaneditoryoujust
wanttoreadit,perhapsbeforedeletingit,tomakesureitwaswhatyouthoughtitwas.UNIX
providesseveralwaysofdoingthis.Youmayseepeopleusethecommand"cat"butwe'renot
goingtorecommendthatherebecauseofitsrelativeuselessnessforthispurpose.Instead,
we'regoingtogiveyoutwoothercommands,moreorless...
No,really:thosearethecommands;moreandless.Pickeitherone;they'reverysimilar.We'll
discuss"less"here.
Theformatofthecommandis:
lessfilename
Thiswillcausethefiletobedisplayedtoyourscreen,onescreenfullatatime.Thereis
immediatehelpformore,accessibleviathehsubcommand(whenyou're"in"less).Pressing
the<Spacebar>movesyouforwardonescreenthroughthefile.Youcanusethe
subcommandbtomovebackwardonescreen.Whenyou'rereadytoquit,q(for"quit")exits
thefileandreturnsyoutotheUNIX$prompt.
Thereareothercommandstoletyoudothingslikemoveforwardorbackwardahalfscreen,
oraparticularnumberoflinesorscreens.Typeh(inlessormore)toseeacompletelist.
MoreUsesforlessormore
Thelessandmorecommandsarealsousefulforpagingthroughlongoutputofothertypes;
like,forexample,ifyourlslalistingrunsoffthescreen,andyouwanttobeabletoviewit
onescreenfullatatime.

Ingeneral,
command|less
...willinvokelesstohandleoutputsoyoucanpageforwardandbackwardthroughit.For
example,foralongdirectorylisting,
lsla|less
wouldletyouviewthelistingusinglesstocontrolpagingforwardandbackwardsthroughthe
listing.
The|symbol(calledthe"verticalbar,"or"pipe")isfoundas<Shift><backslash>onthe
rightsideofmostkeyboards,abovethe<Enter>key.Basically,itisaUNIXmechanismwhich
allowsyouto"stringtogether"multiplecommands,suchthattheoutputfromeachcommand
isfedtotheinputofthenextcommand,andsoon,allowingyoutocreatemorecomplex
"combinationcommands."Inthecaseoflsla|less,weare"piping"theoutputoflslathrough
less.

tarcommand
a.Creatinganarchiveusingtarcommand
Creatinganuncompressedtararchiveusingoptioncvf
Thisisthebasiccommandtocreateatararchive.
$tarcvfarchive_name.tardirname/

Intheabovecommand:
ccreateanewarchive
vverboselylistfileswhichareprocessed.
ffollowingisthearchivefilename
Creatingatargzippedarchiveusingoptioncvzf
Theabovetarcvfoption,doesnotprovideanycompression.Touseagzipcompressiononthe
tararchive,usethezoptionasshownbelow.
$tarcvzfarchive_name.tar.gzdirname/

zfilterthearchivethroughgzip
Note:.tgzissameas.tar.gz
Note:Iliketokeepthecvf(ortvf,orxvf)optionunchangedforallarchivecreation(orview,
orextract)andaddadditionaloptionattheend,whichiseasiertoremember.i.ecvffor
archivecreation,cvfzforcompressedgziparchivecreation,cvfjforcompressedbzip2archive
creationetc.,Forthismethodtoworkproperly,dontgiveinfrontoftheoptions.

Creatingabzippedtararchiveusingoptioncvjf
Createabzip2tararchiveasshownbelow:
$tarcvfjarchive_name.tar.bz2dirname/

jfilterthearchivethroughbzip2
gzipvsbzip2:bzip2takesmoretimetocompressanddecompressthangzip.bzip2archival
sizeislessthangzip.
Note:.tbzand.tb2issameas.tar.bz2

b.Extracting(untar)anarchiveusingtarcommand
Extracta*.tarfileusingoptionxvf
Extractatarfileusingoptionxasshownbelow:
$tarxvfarchive_name.tar

xextractfilesfromarchive
Extractagzippedtararchive(*.tar.gz)usingoptionxvzf
Usetheoptionzforuncompressingagziptararchive.
$tarxvfzarchive_name.tar.gz

Extractingabzippedtararchive(*.tar.bz2)usingoptionxvjf
Usetheoptionjforuncompressingabzip2tararchive.
$tarxvfjarchive_name.tar.bz2

Note:Inalltheabovecommandsvisoptional,whichliststhefilebeingprocessed.

c.Listinganarchiveusingtarcommand
Viewthetararchivefilecontentwithoutextractingusingoptiontvf
Youcanviewthe*.tarfilecontentbeforeextractingasshownbelow.
$tartvfarchive_name.tar

Viewthe*.tar.gzfilecontentwithoutextractingusingoptiontvzf
Youcanviewthe*.tar.gzfilecontentbeforeextractingasshownbelow.
$tartvfzarchive_name.tar.gz

Viewthe*.tar.bz2filecontentwithoutextractingusingoptiontvjf
Youcanviewthe*.tar.bz2filecontentbeforeextractingasshownbelow.
$tartvfjarchive_name.tar.bz2

d.Listingoutthetarfilecontentwithlesscommand
Whenthenumberoffilesinanarchiveismore,youmaypipetheoutputoftartoless.But,
youcanalsouselesscommanddirectlytoviewthetararchiveoutput.

e.Extractasinglefilefromtar,tar.gz,tar.bz2file
Toextractaspecificfilefromatararchive,specifythefilenameattheendofthetarxvf
commandasshownbelow.Thefollowingcommandextractsonlyaspecificfilefromalargetar
file.
$tarxvfarchive_file.tar/path/to/file

Usetherelevantoptionzorjaccordingtothecompressionmethodgziporbzip2respectively
asshownbelow.
$tarxvfzarchive_file.tar.gz/path/to/file
$tarxvfjarchive_file.tar.bz2/path/to/file

f.Extractasingledirectoryfromtar,tar.gz,tar.bz2file
Toextractasingledirectory(alongwithitssubdirectoryandfiles)fromatararchive,specify
thedirectorynameattheendofthetarxvfcommandasshownbelow.Thefollowingextracts
onlyaspecificdirectoryfromalargetarfile.
$tarxvfarchive_file.tar/path/to/dir/

Toextractmultipledirectoriesfromatararchive,specifythoseindividualdirectorynamesat
theendofthetarxvfcommandasshownbelow.
$tarxvfarchive_file.tar/path/to/dir1//path/to/dir2/

Usetherelevantoptionzorjaccordingtothecompressionmethodgziporbzip2respectively
asshownbelow.
$tarxvfzarchive_file.tar.gz/path/to/dir/
$tarxvfjarchive_file.tar.bz2/path/to/dir/

g.Extractgroupoffilesfromtar,tar.gz,tar.bz2archivesusingregular
expression
Youcanspecifyaregex,toextractfilesmatchingaspecifiedpattern.Forexample,following
tarcommandextractsallthefileswithplextension.

$tarxvfarchive_file.tarwildcards'*.pl'

Optionsexplanation:
wildcards*.plfileswithplextension

h.Addingafileordirectorytoanexistingarchiveusingoptionr
Youcanaddadditionalfilestoanexistingtararchiveasshownbelow.Forexample,toappend
afileto*.tarfiledothefollowing:
$tarrvfarchive_name.tarnewfile

Thisnewfilewillbeaddedtotheexistingarchive_name.tar.Addingadirectorytothetaris
alsosimilar,
$tarrvfarchive_name.tarnewdir/

Note:Youcannotaddfileordirectorytoacompressedarchive.Ifyoutrytodoso,youwillget
tar:Cannotupdatecompressedarchiveserrorasshownbelow.
$tarrvfzarchive_name.tgznewfile
tar:Cannotupdatecompressedarchives
Try`tarhelp'or`tarusage'formoreinformation.

i.VerifyfilesavailableintarusingoptionW
Aspartofcreatingatarfile,youcanverifythearchivefilethatgotcreatedusingtheoptionW
asshownbelow.
$tarcvfWfile_name.tardir/

Ifyouareplanningtoremoveadirectory/filefromanarchivefileorfromthefilesystem,you
mightwanttoverifythearchivefilebeforedoingitasshownbelow.
$tartvfWfile_name.tar
Verify1/file1
1/file1:Modtimediffers
1/file1:Sizediffers
Verify1/file2
Verify1/file3

IfanoutputlinestartswithVerify,andthereisnodifferslinethenthefile/directoryisOk.If
not,youshouldinvestigatetheissue.
Note:foracompressedarchivefile(*.tar.gz,*.tar.bz2)youcannotdotheverification.
Findingthedifferencebetweenanarchiveandfilesystemcanbedoneevenforacompressed
archive.ItalsoshowsthesameoutputasaboveexcludingthelineswithVerify.
Findingthedifferencebetweengziparchivefileandfilesystem
$tardfzfile_name.tgz

Findingthedifferencebetweenbzip2archivefileandfilesystem

$tardfjfile_name.tar.bz2

j.Estimatethetararchivesize
Thefollowingcommand,estimatesthetarfilesize(inKB)beforeyoucreatethetarfile.
$tarcf/directory/to/archive/|wcc
20480

Thefollowingcommand,estimatesthecompressedtarfilesize(inKB)beforeyoucreatethe
tar.gz,tar.bz2files.
$tarczf/directory/to/archive/|wcc
508
$tarcjf/directory/to/archive/|wcc
428

locate command
Usinglocatecommandyoucanquicklysearchforthelocationofaspecificfile(orgroupof
files).Locatecommandusesthedatabasecreatedbyupdatedb.
Theexamplebelowshowsallfilesinthesystemthatcontainsthewordcrontabinit.
$locatecrontab
/etc/anacrontab
/etc/crontab
/usr/bin/crontab
/usr/share/doc/cron/examples/crontab2english.pl.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/crontab.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/anacrontab.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/crontab.5.gz
/usr/share/vim/vim72/syntax/crontab.vim

grepcommandexamples
a.Searchforthegivenstringinasinglefile
Thebasicusageofgrepcommandistosearchforaspecificstringinthespecifiedfileasshown
below.
Syntax:grep"literal_string"filename
$grep"this"demo_file
thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
Twolinesabovethislineisempty.

b.Checkingforthegivenstringinmultiplefiles.
Syntax:grep"string"FILE_PATTERN

Thisisalsoabasicusageofgrepcommand.Forthisexample,letuscopythedemo_fileto
demo_file1.Thegrepoutputwillalsoincludethefilenameinfrontofthelinethatmatched
thespecificpatternasshownbelow.WhentheLinuxshellseesthemetacharacter,itdoesthe
expansionandgivesallthefilesasinputtogrep.
$cpdemo_filedemo_file1
$grep"this"demo_*
demo_file:thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
demo_file:Twolinesabovethislineisempty.
demo_file:Andthisisthelastline.
demo_file1:thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
demo_file1:Twolinesabovethislineisempty.
demo_file1:Andthisisthelastline.

c.Caseinsensitivesearchusinggrepi
Syntax:grepi"string"FILE

Thisisalsoabasicusageofthegrep.Thissearchesforthegivenstring/patterncase
insensitively.Soitmatchesallthewordssuchasthe,THEandThecaseinsensitivelyas
shownbelow.
$grepi"the"demo_file
THISLINEISTHE1STUPPERCASELINEINTHISFILE.
thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
ThisLineHasAllItsFirstCharacterOfTheWordWithUpperCase.
Andthisisthelastline.

d.Matchregularexpressioninfiles
Syntax:grep"REGEX"filename

Thisisaverypowerfulfeature,ifyoucanuseuseregularexpressioneffectively.Inthe
followingexample,itsearchesforallthepatternthatstartswithlinesandendswithempty
withanythinginbetween.i.eTosearchlines[anythinginbetween]emptyinthedemo_file.
$grep"lines.*empty"demo_file
Twolinesabovethislineisempty.

Fromdocumentationofgrep:Aregularexpressionmaybefollowedbyoneofseveral
repetitionoperators:
?Theprecedingitemisoptionalandmatchedatmostonce.
*Theprecedingitemwillbematchedzeroormoretimes.
+Theprecedingitemwillbematchedoneormoretimes.
{n}Theprecedingitemismatchedexactlyntimes.
{n,}Theprecedingitemismatchednormoretimes.
{,m}Theprecedingitemismatchedatmostmtimes.
{n,m}Theprecedingitemismatchedatleastntimes,butnotmorethanmtimes.

e.Checkingforfullwords,notforsubstringsusinggrepw
Ifyouwanttosearchforaword,andtoavoidittomatchthesubstringsusewoption.Just
doingoutanormalsearchwillshowoutallthelines.
Thefollowingexampleistheregulargrepwhereitissearchingforis.Whenyousearchfor
is,withoutanyoptionitwillshowoutis,his,thisandeverythingwhichhasthe
substringis.
$grepi"is"demo_file
THISLINEISTHE1STUPPERCASELINEINTHISFILE.
thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
ThisLineHasAllItsFirstCharacterOfTheWordWithUpperCase.
Twolinesabovethislineisempty.
Andthisisthelastline.

ThefollowingexampleistheWORDgrepwhereitissearchingonlyforthewordis.Please
notethatthisoutputdoesnotcontainthelineThisLineHasAllItsFirstCharacterOfThe
WordWithUpperCase,eventhoughisisthereintheThis,asthefollowingislookingonly
forthewordisandnotforthis.
$grepiw"is"demo_file
THISLINEISTHE1STUPPERCASELINEINTHISFILE.
thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
Twolinesabovethislineisempty.
Andthisisthelastline.

f.Displayinglinesbefore/after/aroundthematchusinggrepA,BandC
Whendoingagreponahugefile,itmaybeusefultoseesomelinesafterthematch.You
mightfeelhandyifgrepcanshowyounotonlythematchinglinesbutalsothelines
after/before/aroundthematch.
Pleasecreatethefollowingdemo_textfileforthisexample.
$catdemo_text
4.VimWordNavigation
Youmaywanttodoseveralnavigationinrelationtothewords,suchas:
*egototheendofthecurrentword.
*EgototheendofthecurrentWORD.
*bgototheprevious(before)word.
*Bgototheprevious(before)WORD.
*wgotothenextword.
*WgotothenextWORD.
WORDWORDconsistsofasequenceofnonblankcharacters,separatedwithwhitespace.
wordwordconsistsofasequenceofletters,digitsandunderscores.
ExampletoshowthedifferencebetweenWORDandword

*192.168.1.1singleWORD
*192.168.1.1sevenwords.

f.1DisplayNlinesaftermatch
AistheoptionwhichprintsthespecifiedNlinesafterthematchasshownbelow.
Syntax:
grepA<N>"string"FILENAME

Thefollowingexampleprintsthematchedline,alongwiththe3linesafterit.
$grepA3i"example"demo_text
ExampletoshowthedifferencebetweenWORDandword
*192.168.1.1singleWORD
*192.168.1.1sevenwords.

f.2DisplayNlinesbeforematch
BistheoptionwhichprintsthespecifiedNlinesbeforethematch.
Syntax:
grepB<N>"string"FILENAME

WhenyouhadoptiontoshowtheNlinesaftermatch,youhavetheBoptionfortheopposite.
$grepB2"singleWORD"demo_text
ExampletoshowthedifferencebetweenWORDandword
*192.168.1.1singleWORD

f.3DisplayNlinesaroundmatch
CistheoptionwhichprintsthespecifiedNlinesbeforethematch.Insomeoccasionyou
mightwantthematchtobeappearedwiththelinesfromboththeside.ThisoptionsshowsN
linesinboththeside(before&after)ofmatch.
$grepC2"Example"demo_text
wordwordconsistsofasequenceofletters,digitsandunderscores.
ExampletoshowthedifferencebetweenWORDandword
*192.168.1.1singleWORD

g.HighlightingthesearchusingGREP_OPTIONS
Asgrepprintsoutlinesfromthefilebythepattern/stringyouhadgiven,ifyouwanteditto
highlightwhichpartmatchestheline,thenyouneedtofollowthefollowingway.

Whenyoudothefollowingexportyouwillgetthehighlightingofthematchedsearches.Inthe
followingexample,itwillhighlightallthethiswhenyousettheGREP_OPTIONSenvironment
variableasshownbelow.
$exportGREP_OPTIONS='color=auto'GREP_COLOR='100;8'
$grepthisdemo_file
thislineisthe1stlowercaselineinthisfile.
Twolinesabovethislineisempty.
Andthisisthelastline.

h.Searchinginallfilesrecursivelyusinggrepr
Whenyouwanttosearchinallthefilesunderthecurrentdirectoryanditssubdirectory.r
optionistheonewhichyouneedtouse.Thefollowingexamplewilllookforthestring
rameshinallthefilesinthecurrentdirectoryandallitssubdirectory.
$grepr"ramesh"*

i.Invertmatchusinggrepv
Youhaddifferentoptionstoshowthelinesmatched,toshowthelinesbeforematch,andto
showthelinesaftermatch,andtohighlightmatch.SodefinitelyYoudalsowanttheoptionv
todoinvertmatch.
Whenyouwanttodisplaythelineswhichdoesnotmatchesthegivenstring/pattern,usethe
optionvasshownbelow.Thisexamplewilldisplayallthelinesthatdidnotmatchtheword
go.
$grepv"go"demo_text
4.VimWordNavigation
Youmaywanttodoseveralnavigationinrelationtothewords,suchas:
WORDWORDconsistsofasequenceofnonblankcharacters,separatedwithwhitespace.
wordwordconsistsofasequenceofletters,digitsandunderscores.
ExampletoshowthedifferencebetweenWORDandword
*192.168.1.1singleWORD
*192.168.1.1sevenwords.

j.displaythelineswhichdoesnotmatchesallthegivenpattern.
Syntax:
grepve"pattern"e"pattern"
$cattestfile.txt
a
b
c
d

$grepve"a"e"b"e"c"testfile.txt
d

k.Countingthenumberofmatchesusinggrepc
Whenyouwanttocountthathowmanylinesmatchesthegivenpattern/string,thenusethe
optionc.
Syntax:
grepc"pattern"filename
$grepc"go"demo_text
6

Whenyouwantdofindouthowmanylinesmatchesthepattern
$grepcthisdemo_file
3

Whenyouwantdofindouthowmanylinesthatdoesnotmatchthepattern
$grepvcthisdemo_file
4

l.Displayonlythefilenameswhichmatchesthegivenpatternusinggrepl
Ifyouwantthegreptoshowoutonlythefilenameswhichmatchedthegivenpattern,usethe
l(lowercaseL)option.
Whenyougivemultiplefilestothegrepasinput,itdisplaysthenamesoffilewhichcontains
thetextthatmatchesthepattern,willbeveryhandywhenyoutrytofindsomenotesinyour
wholedirectorystructure.
$greplthisdemo_*
demo_file
demo_file1

m.Showonlythematchedstring
Bydefaultgrepwillshowthelinewhichmatchesthegivenpattern/string,butifyouwantthe
greptoshowoutonlythematchedstringofthepatternthenusetheooption.
Itmightnotbethatmuchusefulwhenyougivethestringstraightforward.Butitbecomes
veryusefulwhenyougivearegexpatternandtryingtoseewhatitmatchesas
$grepo"is.*line"demo_file
islineisthe1stlowercaseline
isline
isisthelastline

n.Showthepositionofmatchintheline
Whenyouwantgreptoshowthepositionwhereitmatchesthepatterninthefile,usethe
followingoptionsas
Syntax:
grepob"pattern"file
$cattempfile.txt
12345
12345
$grepob"3"tempfile.txt
2:3
8:3

Note:Theoutputofthegrepcommandaboveisnotthepositionintheline,itisbyteoffsetof
thewholefile.

o.Showlinenumberwhiledisplayingtheoutputusinggrepn
Toshowthelinenumberoffilewiththelinematched.Itdoes1basedlinenumberingforeach
file.Usenoptiontoutilizethisfeature.
$grepn"go"demo_text
5:*egototheendofthecurrentword.
6:*EgototheendofthecurrentWORD.
7:*bgototheprevious(before)word.
8:*Bgototheprevious(before)WORD.
9:*wgotothenextword.
10:*WgotothenextWORD.

find command examples

1.FindFilesUsingName
Thisisabasicusageofthefindcommand.Thisexamplefindsallfileswithname
MyCProgram.cinthecurrentdirectoryandallitssubdirectories.
#findname"MyCProgram.c"
./backup/MyCProgram.c
./MyCProgram.c

2.FindFilesUsingNameandIgnoringCase
Thisisabasicusageofthefindcommand.Thisexamplefindsallfileswithname
MyCProgram.c(ignoringthecase)inthecurrentdirectoryandallitssubdirectories.
#findiname"MyCProgram.c"
./mycprogram.c
./backup/mycprogram.c

./backup/MyCProgram.c
./MyCProgram.c

3.LimitSearchToSpecificDirectoryLevelUsingmindepthandmaxdepth
Findthepasswdfileunderallsubdirectoriesstartingfromrootdirectory.
#find/namepasswd
./usr/share/doc/nss_ldap253/pam.d/passwd
./usr/bin/passwd
./etc/pam.d/passwd
./etc/passwd

Findthepasswdfileunderrootandoneleveldown.(i.erootlevel1,andonesubdirectory
level2)
#findmaxdepth2namepasswd
./etc/passwd

Findthepasswdfileunderrootandtwolevelsdown.(i.erootlevel1,andtwosub
directorieslevel2and3)
#find/maxdepth3namepasswd
./usr/bin/passwd
./etc/pam.d/passwd
./etc/passwd

Findthepasswordfilebetweensubdirectorylevel2and4.
#findmindepth3maxdepth5namepasswd
./usr/bin/passwd
./etc/pam.d/passwd

4.ExecutingCommandsontheFilesFoundbytheFindCommand.
Intheexamplebelow,thefindcommandcalculatesthemd5sumofallthefileswiththename
MyCProgram.c(ignoringcase).{}isreplacedbythecurrentfilename.
#findiname"MyCProgram.c"execmd5sum{}\;
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e./mycprogram.c
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e./backup/mycprogram.c
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e./backup/MyCProgram.c
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e./MyCProgram.c

5.Invertingthematch.
ShowsthefilesordirectorieswhosenamearenotMyCProgram.c.Sincethemaxdepthis1,
thiswilllookonlyundercurrentdirectory.
#findmaxdepth1notiname"MyCProgram.c"
.
./MybashProgram.sh
./create_sample_files.sh

./backup
./Program.c

6.FindingFilesbyitsinodeNumber.
Everyfilehasanuniqueinodenumber,usingthatwecanidentifythatfile.Createtwofiles
withsimilarname.i.eonefilewithaspaceattheend.
#touch"testfilename"
#touch"testfilename"
[Note:Thereisaspaceattheend]
#ls1test*
testfilename
testfilename

Fromthelsoutput,youcannotidentifywhichfilehasthespaceattheend.Usingoptioni,
youcanviewtheinodenumberofthefile,whichwillbedifferentforthesetwofiles.
#lsi1test*
16187429testfilename
16187430testfilename

Youcanspecifyinodenumberonafindcommandasshownbelow.Inthisexample,find
commandrenamesafileusingtheinodenumber.
#findinum16187430execmv{}newtestfilename\;
#lsi1*test*
16187430newtestfilename
16187429testfilename

Youcanusethistechniquewhenyouwanttodosomeoperationwiththefileswhichare
namedpoorlyasshownintheexamplebelow.Forexample,thefilewithnamefile?.txthas
aspecialcharacterinit.Ifyoutrytoexecutermfile?.txt,allthefollowingthreefileswillget
removed.So,followthestepsbelowtodeleteonlythefile?.txtfile.
#ls
file1.txtfile2.txtfile?.txt

Findtheinodenumbersofeachfile.
#lsi1
804178file1.txt
804179file2.txt
804180file?.txt

Usetheinodenumbertoremovethefilethathadspecialcharacterinitasshownbelow.
#findinum804180execrm{}\;
#ls
file1.txtfile2.txt
[Note:Thefilewithname"file?.txt"isnowremoved]

7.FindfilebasedontheFilePermissions
Followingoperationsarepossible.
Findfilesthatmatchexactpermission
Checkwhetherthegivenpermissionmatches,irrespectiveofotherpermissionbits
Searchbygivingoctal/symbolicrepresentation
Forthisexample,letusassumethatthedirectorycontainsthefollowingfiles.Pleasenotethat
thefilepermissionsonthesefilesaredifferent.
#lsl
total0
rwxrwxrwx1rootroot02009021920:31all_for_all
rwrr1rootroot02009021920:30everybody_read
1rootroot02009021920:31no_for_all
rw1rootroot02009021920:29ordinary_file
rwr1rootroot02009021920:27others_can_also_read
r1rootroot02009021920:27others_can_only_read

Findfileswhichhasreadpermissiontogroup.Usethefollowingcommandtofindallfilesthat
arereadablebytheworldinyourhomedirectory,irrespectiveofotherpermissionsforthatfile.
#find.permg=rtypefexeclsl{}\;
rwrr1rootroot02009021920:30./everybody_read
rwxrwxrwx1rootroot02009021920:31./all_for_all
r1rootroot02009021920:27./others_can_only_read
rwr1rootroot02009021920:27./others_can_also_read

Findfileswhichhasreadpermissiononlytogroup.
#find.permg=rtypefexeclsl{}\;
r1rootroot02009021920:27./others_can_only_read

Findfileswhichhasreadpermissiononlytogroup[searchbyoctal]
#find.perm040typefexeclsl{}\;
r1rootroot02009021920:27./others_can_only_read

8.Findallemptyfiles(zerobytefile)inyourhomedirectoryandits
subdirectory
Mostfilesofthefollowingcommandoutputwillbelockfilesandplaceholderscreatedby
otherapplications.
#find~empty

Listalltheemptyfilesonlyinyourhomedirectory.
#find.maxdepth1empty

Listonlythenonhiddenemptyfilesonlyinthecurrentdirectory.
#find.maxdepth1emptynotname".*"

9.FindingtheTop5BigFiles
Thefollowingcommandwilldisplaythetop5largestfileinthecurrentdirectoryandits
subdirectory.Thismaytakeawhiletoexecutedependingonthetotalnumberoffilesthe
commandhastoprocess.
#find.typefexeclss{}\;|sortnr|head5

10.FindingtheTop5SmallFiles
Techniqueissameasfindingthebiggerfiles,buttheonlydifferencethesortisascending
order.
#find.typefexeclss{}\;|sortn|head5

Intheabovecommand,mostprobablyyouwillgettoseeonlytheZERObytefiles(emptyfiles
).So,youcanusethefollowingcommandtolistthesmallerfilesotherthantheZERObyte
files.
#find.notemptytypefexeclss{}\;|sortn|head5

11.FindFilesBasedonfiletypeusingoptiontype
Findonlythesocketfiles.
#find.types

Findalldirectories
#find.typed

Findonlythenormalfiles
#find.typef

Findallthehiddenfiles
#find.typefname".*"

Findallthehiddendirectories
#findtypedname".*"

12.Findfilesbycomparingwiththemodificationtimeofotherfile.
Showfileswhicharemodifiedafterthespecifiedfile.Thefollowingfindcommanddisplaysall
thefilesthatarecreated/modifiedafterordinary_file.
#lslrt
total0
rwr1rootroot02009021920:27others_can_also_read
r1rootroot02009021920:27others_can_only_read
rw1rootroot02009021920:29ordinary_file
rwrr1rootroot02009021920:30everybody_read
rwxrwxrwx1rootroot02009021920:31all_for_all
1rootroot02009021920:31no_for_all
#findnewerordinary_file
.
./everybody_read
./all_for_all
./no_for_all

13.FindFilesbySize
Usingthesizeoptionyoucanfindfilesbysize.
Findfilesbiggerthanthegivensize
#find~size+100M

Findfilessmallerthanthegivensize
#find~size100M

Findfilesthatmatchestheexactgivensize
#find~size100M

Note:meanslessthanthegivesize,+meansmorethanthegivensize,andnosymbolmeans

exactgivensize.

14.CreateAliasforFrequentFindOperations
Ifyoufindsomethingasprettyuseful,thenyoucanmakeitasanalias.Andexecuteit
wheneveryouwant.
Removethefilesnameda.outfrequently.
#aliasrmao="find.inamea.outexecrm{}\;"
#rmao

Removethecorefilesgeneratedbycprogram.
#aliasrmc="find.inamecoreexecrm{}\;"
#rmc

15.Removebigarchivefilesusingfindcommand
Thefollowingcommandremoves*.zipfilesthatareover100M.
#find/typefname*.zipsize+100Mexecrmi{}\;"

Removeall*.tarfilethatareover100Musingthealiasrm100m(Remove100M).Usethe
similarconceptsandcreatealiaslikerm1g,rm2g,rm5gtoremovefilesizegreaterthan1G,2G
and5Grespectively.
#aliasrm100m="find/typefname*.tarsize+100Mexecrmi{}\;"
#aliasrm1g="find/typefname*.tarsize+1Gexecrmi{}\;"
#aliasrm2g="find/typefname*.tarsize+2Gexecrmi{}\;"
#aliasrm5g="find/typefname*.tarsize+5Gexecrmi{}\;"
#rm100m
#rm1g
#rm2g
#rm5g

FindFilesBasedonAccess/Modification/ChangeTime
You can find files based on following three file time attribute.
1. Accesstimeofthefile.Accesstimegetsupdatedwhenthefileaccessed.
2. Modificationtimeofthefile.Modificationtimegetsupdatedwhenthefilecontent
modified.
3. Changetimeofthefile.Changetimegetsupdatedwhentheinodedatachanges.
Inthefollowingexamples,thedifferencebetweentheminoptionandthetimeoptionisthe
argument.
minargumenttreatsitsargumentasminutes.Forexample,min60=60minutes(1hour).

timeargumenttreatsitsargumentas24hours.Forexample,time2=2*24hours(2days).
Whiledoingthe24hourscalculation,thefractionalpartsareignoredso25hoursistakenas
24hours,and47hoursisalsotakenas24hours,only48hoursistakenas48hours.Toget
moreclarityrefertheatimesectionofthefindcommandmanpage.

Example1:Findfileswhosecontentgotupdatedwithinlast1hour
Tofindthefilesbaseduponthecontentmodificationtime,theoptionmmin,andmtimeis
used.Followingisthedefinitionofmminandmtimefrommanpage.
mminnFilesdatawaslastmodifiednminutesago.
mtimenFilesdatawaslastmodifiedn*24hoursago.
Followingexamplewillfindfilesinthecurrentdirectoryandsubdirectories,whosecontent
gotupdatedwithinlast1hour(60minutes)
#find.mmin60

Inthesameway,followingexamplefindsallthefiles(underrootfilesystem/)thatgot
updatedwithinthelast24hours(1day).
#find/mtime1

Example2:Findfileswhichgotaccessedbefore1hour
Tofindthefilesbaseduponthefileaccesstime,theoptionamin,andatimeisused.
Followingisthedefinitionofaminandatimefromfindmanpage.
aminnFilewaslastaccessednminutesago
atimenFilewaslastaccessedn*24hoursago
Followingexamplewillfindfilesinthecurrentdirectoryandsubdirectories,whichgot
accessedwithinlast1hour(60minutes)
#findamin60

Inthesameway,followingexamplefindsallthefiles(underrootfilesystem/)thatgot
accessedwithinthelast24hours(1day).
#find/atime1

Example3:Findfileswhichgotchangedexactlybefore1hour
Tofindthefilesbaseduponthefileinodechangetime,theoptioncmin,andctimeisused.
Followingisthedefinitionofcminandctimefromfindmanpage.
cminnFilesstatuswaslastchangednminutesago.
ctimenFilesstatuswaslastchangedn*24hoursago.

Followingexamplewillfindfilesinthecurrentdirectoryandsubdirectories,whichchanged
withinlast1hour(60minutes)
#find.cmin60

Inthesameway,followingexamplefindsallthefiles(underrootfilesystem/)thatgot
changedwithinthelast24hours(1day).
#find/ctime1

Example4:Restrictingthefindoutputonlytofiles.
(Display only files as find command results)
Theabovefindcommandswillalsoshowthedirectoriesbecausedirectoriesgetsaccessed
whenthefileinsideitgetsaccessed.Butifyouwantonlythefilestobedisplayedthengive
typefinthefindcommandas
Thefollowingfindcommanddisplaysfilesthatareaccessedinthelast30minutes.
#find/etc/sysconfigamin30
.
./console
./networkscripts
./i18n
./rhn
./rhn/clientCaps.d
./networking
./networking/profiles
./networking/profiles/default
./networking/profiles/default/resolv.conf
./networking/profiles/default/hosts
./networking/devices
./apmscripts
[Note:Theaboveoutputcontainsbothfilesanddirectories]
#find/etc/sysconfigamin30typef
./i18n
./networking/profiles/default/resolv.conf
./networking/profiles/default/hosts
[Note:Theaboveoutputcontainsonlyfiles]

Example5:Restrictingthesearchonlytounhiddenfiles.
(Donotdisplayhiddenfilesinfindoutput)
Whenwedontwantthehiddenfilestobelistedinthefindoutput,wecanusethefollowing
regex.
Thebelowfinddisplaysthefileswhicharemodifiedinthelast15minutes.Anditlistsonlythe
unhiddenfiles.i.ehiddenfilesthatstartswitha.(period)arenotdisplayedinthefindoutput.
#find.mmin15\(!regex".*/\..*"\)

FindingFilesComparativelyUsingFindCommand
Humanmindcanrememberthingsbetterbyreferencesuchas,iwanttofindfileswhichi
editedaftereditingthefiletest.Youcanfindfilesbyreferringtotheotherfilesmodification
aslikethefollowing.
Example6:FindfileswhicharemodifiedaftermodificationofaparticularFILE
Syntax:findnewerFILE

Followingexampledisplaysallthefileswhicharemodifiedafterthe/etc/passwdfileswas
modified.Thisishelpful,ifyouwanttotrackalltheactivitiesyouvedoneafteraddinganew
user.
#findnewer/etc/passwd

Example7:FindfileswhichareaccessedaftermodificationofaspecificFILE
Syntax:findanewerFILE

Followingexampledisplaysallthefileswhichareaccessedaftermodifying/etc/hosts.Ifyou
rememberaddinganentrytothe/etc/hostsandwouldliketoseeallthefilesthatyouve
accessedsincethen,usethefollowingcommand.
#findanewer/etc/hosts

Example8:FindfileswhosestatusgotchangedafterthemodificationofaspecificFILE.
Syntax:findcnewerFILE

Followingexampledisplaysallthefileswhosestatusgotchangedaftermodifyingthe
/etc/fstab.Ifyourememberaddingamountpointinthe/etc/fstabandwouldliketoknowall
thefileswhostatusgotchangedsincethen,usethefollowingcommand.
findcnewer/etc/fstab

PerformAnyOperationonFilesFoundFromFindCommand
Wehavelookedatmanydifferentwaysoffindingfilesusingfindcommandinthisarticleand
alsoinourpreviousarticle.Ifyouarenotfamiliarinfindingfilesindifferentways,istrongly
recommendyoutoreadthepart1.

Thissectionexplainsabouthowtododifferentoperationonthefilesfromthefindcommand.
i.ehowtomanipulatethefilesreturnedbythefindcommandoutput.

Wecanspecifyanyoperationonthefilesfoundfromfindcommand.
find<CONDITIONtoFindfiles>exec<OPERATION>\;

TheOPERATIONcanbeanythingsuchas:
rmcommandtoremovethefilesfoundbyfindcommand.
mvcommandtorenamethefilesfound.
lslcommandtogetdetailsofthefindcommandoutputfiles.
md5sumonfindcommandoutputfiles
wccommandtocountthetotalnumberofwordsonfindcommandoutputfiles.
ExecuteanyUnixshellcommandonfindcommandoutputfiles.
orExecuteyourowncustomshellscript/commandonfindcommandoutputfiles.
Example9:lslinfindcommandoutput.
Long list the files which are edited within the last 1 hour.
#findmmin60
./cron
./secure
#findmmin60execlsl{}\;
rw1rootroot1028Jun2115:01./cron
rw1rootroot831752Jun2115:42./secure

Example10:SearchingOnlyintheCurrentFilesystem
Systemadministratorswouldwanttosearchintherootfilesystem,butnotintheother
mountedpartitions.Whenyouhavemultiplepartitionsmounted,andifyouwanttosearch
in/.Youcandothefollowing.

Followingcommandwillsearchfor*.logfilesstartingfrom/.i.eIfyouhavemultiple
partitionsmountedunder/(root),thefollowingcommandwillsearchallthosemounted
partitions.
#find/name"*.log"

Thiswillsearchforthefileonlyinthecurrentfilesystem.Followingisthexdevdefinition
fromfindmanpage:
xdevDontdescenddirectoriesonotherfilesystems.
Followingcommandwillsearchfor*.logfilesstartingfrom/(root)andonlyinthecurrentfile
system.i.eIfyouhavemultiplepartitionsmountedunder/(root),thefollowingcommand
willNOTsearchallthosemountedpartitions.
#find/xdevname"*.log"

Example11:Usingmorethanone{}insamecommand
Manualsaysonlyoneinstanceofthe{}ispossible.Butyoucanusemorethanone{}inthe
samecommandasshownbelow.
#findname"*.txt"cp{}{}.bkup\;

Usingthis{}inthesamecommandispossiblebutusingitindifferentcommanditisnot
possible,sayyouwanttorenamethefilesasfollowing,whichwillnotgivetheexpectedresult.
findname"*.txt"execmv{}`basename{}.htm`.html\;

Example12:Using{}inmorethanoneinstance.
Youcansimulateitbywritingashellscriptasshownbelow.
#mv"$1""`basename"$1".htm`.html"

Thesedoublequotesaretohandlespacesinfilename.Andthencallthatshellscriptfromthe
findcommandasshownbelow.
findname"*.html"exec./mv.sh'{}'\;

Soforanyreasonifyouwantthesamefilenametobeusedmorethanoncethenwritingthe
simpleshellscriptandpassingthefilenamesasargumentisthesimplestwaytodoit.
Example13:Redirectingerrorsto/dev/null
Redirectingtheerrorsisnotagoodpractice.Anexperienceduserunderstandstheimportance
ofgettingtheerrorprintedonterminalandfixit.
Particularlyinfindcommandredirectingtheerrorsisnotagoodpractice.Butifyoudont
wanttoseetheerrorsandwouldliketoredirectittonulldoitasshownbelow.
findname"*.txt"2>>/dev/null

Sometimesthismaybehelpful.Forexample,ifyouaretryingtofindallthe*.conffileunder/
(root)fromyouraccount,youmaygetlotofPermissiondeniederrormessageasshown
below.
$find/name"*.conf"
/sbin/generatemodprobe.conf
find:/tmp/orbitroot:Permissiondenied
find:/tmp/sshgccBMp5019:Permissiondenied
find:/tmp/keyring5iqiGo:Permissiondenied
find:/var/log/httpd:Permissiondenied
find:/var/log/ppp:Permissiondenied
/boot/grub/grub.conf
find:/var/log/audit:Permissiondenied
find:/var/log/squid:Permissiondenied
find:/var/log/samba:Permissiondenied
find:/var/cache/alchemist/printconf.rpm/wm:Permissiondenied
[Note:Therearetwovalid*.conffilesburnedinthe"Permissiondenied"messages]

So,ifyouwanttojustviewtherealoutputofthefindcommandandnotthePermission
deniederrormessageyoucanredirecttheerrormessageto/dev/nullasshownbelow.
$find/name"*.conf"2>>/dev/null
/sbin/generatemodprobe.conf
/boot/grub/grub.conf
[Note:Allthe"Permissiondenied"messagesarenotdisplayed]

Example14:Substitutespacewithunderscoreinthefilename.
Audiofilesyoudownloadfrominternetmostlycomewiththespacesinit.Buthavingspacein
thefilenameisnotsogoodforLinuxkindofsystems.Youcanusethefindandrename
commandcombinationasshownbelowtorenamethefiles,bysubstitutingthespacewith
underscore.

Thefollowingreplacesspaceinallthe*.mp3fileswith_
$find.typefiname*.mp3execrenames//_/g{}\;

Example15:Executingtwofindcommandsatthesametime
Asshownintheexamplesofthefindcommandinitsmanualpage,thefollowingisthesyntax
whichcanbeusedtoexecutetwocommandsinsingletraversal.

Thefollowingfindcommandexample,traversethefilesystemjustonce,listingsetuidfilesand
directoriesinto/root/suid.txtandlargefilesinto/root/big.txt.
#find/\(perm4000fprintf/root/suid.txt'%#m%u%p\n'\),\
\(size+100Mfprintf/root/big.txt'%10s%p\n'\)

ssh command
Logintoremotehost
sshljsmithremotehost.example.com

Debugsshclient
sshvljsmithremotehost.example.com

Displaysshclientversion
$sshV
OpenSSH_3.9p1,OpenSSL0.9.7aFeb192003

sed command
Sedregularexpressions
Thesedregularexpressionsareessentiallythesameasthegrepregularexpressions.Theyare
summarizedbelow.
^
matchesthebeginningoftheline
$
matchestheendoftheline
.
Matchesanysinglecharacter
(character)*
matcharbitrarilymanyoccurencesof(character)
(character)?
Match0or1instanceof(character)

[abcdef]

[^abcdef]
(character)\{m,n\}
(character)\{m,\}
(character)\{,n\}
(character)\{n\}
\(expression\)
\n
expression1\|
expression2

Matchanycharacterenclosedin[](inthisinstance,abcdeorf)
rangesofcharacterssuchas[az]arepermitted.Thebehaviourofthis
deservesmoredescription.Seethepageongrepformoredetailsabout
thesyntaxoflists.
MatchanycharacterNOTenclosedin[](inthisinstance,anycharacter
otherthanabcdeorf)
Matchmnrepetitionsof(character)
Matchmormorerepetitionsof(character)
Matchnorless(possibly0)repetitionsof(character)
Matchexactlynrepetitionsof(character)
Groupoperator.
Backreferencematchesnthgroup
Matchesexpression1orexpression2.WorkswithGNUsed,butthis
featuremightnotworkwithotherformsofsed.

SpecialCharacters
Thespecialcharacterinsedarethesameasthoseingrep,withonekeydifference:theforward
slash/isaspecialcharacterinsed.Thereasonforthiswillbecomeveryclearwhenstudying
sedcommands.

HowitWorks:ABriefIntroduction
Sedworksasfollows:itreadsfromthestandardinput,onelineatatime.foreachline,it
executesaseriesofeditingcommands,thenthelineiswrittentoSTDOUT.Anexamplewhich
showshowitworks:weusethessommand.smeans"substitute"orsearchandreplace.The
formatis
s/regularexpression/replacementtext/{flags}
Wewon'tdiscussalltheflagsyet.Theoneweusebelowisgwhichmeans"replaceall
matches"
>catfile
Ihavethreedogsandtwocats
>sede's/dog/cat/g'e's/cat/elephant/g'file
Ihavethreeelephantsandtwoelephants
>
OK.Sowhathappened?Firstly,sedreadinthelineofthefileandexecuted
s/dog/cat/g
whichproducedthefollowingtext:
Ihavethreecatsandtwocats
andthenthesecondcommandwasperformedontheeditedlineandtheresultwas

Ihavethreeelephantsandtwoelephants
Weactuallyhaveanameforthe"currenttext":itiscalledthepatternspace.Soaprecise
definitionofwhatseddoesisasfollows:
sedreadsthestandardinputintothepatternspace,performsasequenceofediting
commandsonthepatternspace,thenwritesthepatternspacetoSTDOUT.

GettingStarted:SubstituteanddeleteCommands
Firstly,thewayyouusuallyusesedisasfollows:
>sede'command1'e'command2'e'command3'file
>{shellcommand}|sede'command1'e'command2'
>sedfsedscript.sedfile
>{shellcommand}|sedfsedscript.sed
sosedcanreadfromafileorSTDIN,andthecommandscanbespecifiedinafileoronthe
commandline.Notethefollowing:
thatifthecommandsarereadfromafile,trailingwhitespacecanbefatal,in
particular,itwillcausescriptstofailfornoapparentreason.Irecommendediting
sedscriptswithaneditorsuchasvimwhichcanshowendoflinecharacterssothat
youcan"see"trailingwhitespaceattheendofline.
TheSubstituteCommand
Theformatforthesubstitutecommandisasfollows:
[address1[,address2]]s/pattern/replacement/[flags]
Theflagscanbeanyofthefollowing:
n
replacenthinstanceofpatternwithreplacement
g
replaceallinstancesofpatternwithreplacement
writepatternspacetoSTDOUTifasuccessfulsubstitutiontakes
p
place
w
Writethepatternspacetofileifasuccessfulsubstitutiontakes
file place
Ifnoflagsarespecifiedthefirstmatchonthelineisreplaced.notethatwewillalmostalways
usethescommandwitheitherthegflagornoflagatall.
Ifoneaddressisgiven,thenthesubstitutionisappliedtolinescontainingthataddress.An
addresscanbeeitheraregularexpressionenclosedbyforwardslashes/regex/,oraline
number.The$symbolcanbeusedinplaceofalinenumbertodenotethelastline.
Iftwoaddressesaregivenseparatedbyacomma,thenthesubstitutionisappliedtoalllines
betweenthetwolinesthatmatchthepattern.
Thisrequiressomeclarificationinthecasewherebothaddressesarepatterns,asthereissome

ambiguityhere.moreprecisely,thesubstitutionisappliedtoalllinesfromthefirstmatchof
address1tothefirstmatchofaddress2andalllinesfromthefirstmatchofaddress1following
thefirstmatchofaddress2tothenextmatchofaddress1Don'tworryifthisseemsvery
confusing(itis),theexampleswillclarifythis.
TheDeleteCommand
Thedeletecommandisverysimpleinitssyntax:itgoeslikethis
[address1,address2]]d
Anditdeletesthecontentofthepatternspace.Allfollowingcommandsareskipped(afterall,
there'sverylittleyoucandowithanemptypatternspace),andanewlineisreadintothe
patternspace.
Example1
>catfile
http://www.foo.com/mypage.html
>sede's@http://www.foo.com@http://www.bar.net@'file
http://www.bar.net/mypage.html
Notethatweusedadifferentdelimiter,@forthesubstitutioncommand.Sedpermitsseveral
delimitersforthescommandincluding@%,;:thesealternativedelimitersaregoodfor
substitutionswhichincludestringssuchasfilenames,asitmakesyoursedcodemuchmore
readable.
Example2
>catfile
theblackcatwaschasedbythebrowndog
>sede's/black/white/g'file
thewhitecatwaschasedbythebrowndog
Thatwasprettystraightforward.Nowwemoveontosomethingmoreinteresting.
Example3
>catfile
theblackcatwaschasedbythebrowndog.
theblackcatwasnotchasedbythebrowndog

>sede'/not/s/black/white/g'file
theblackcatwaschasedbythebrowndog.
thewhitecatwasnotchasedbythebrowndog.
Inthisinstance,thesubstitutionisonlyappliedtolinesmatchingtheregularexpressionnot.
Henceitisnotappliedtothefirstline.
Example4
>catfile
line1(one)
line2(two)
line3(three)
Example4a
>sede'1,2d'file
line3(three)
Example4b
>sede'3d'file
line1(one)
line2(two)
Example4c
>sede'1,2s/line/LINE/'file
LINE1(one)
LINE2(two)
line3(three)
Example4d
>sede'/^line.*one/s/line/LINE/'e'/line/d'file
LINE1(one)
3a:Thiswasprettysimple:wejustdeletedlines1to2.
3b:Thiswasalsoprettysimple.Wedeletedline3.
3c:Inthisexample,weperformedasubstitutiononlines12.
3d:nowthisismoreinteresting,anddeservessomeexplanation.Firstly,itisclearthatline2

and3getdeleted.Butlet'slookcloselyatwhathappenstoline1.
First,line1isreadintothepatternspace.Itmatchestheregularexpression^line.*oneSothe
substitutioniscarriedout,andtheresultingpatternspacelookslikethis:
LINE1(one)
Sonowthesecondcommandisexecuted,butsincethepatternspacedoesnotmatchthe
regularexpressionline,thedeletecommandisnotexecuted.
Example5
>catfile
hello
thistextiswipedout
Wipedout
hello(alsowipedout)
WiPedoutTOO!
goodbye
(1)Thistextisnotdeleted
(2)neitheristhis...(goodbye)
(3)neitheristhis
hello
butthisis
andsoisthis
andunlesswefindanotherg**dbye
everylinetotheendofthefilegetsdeleted
>sede'/hello/,/goodbye/d'file
(1)Thistextisnotdeleted
(2)neitheristhis...(goodbye)
(3)neitheristhis
Thisillustrateshowtheaddressingworkswhentwopatternaddressesarespecified.sedfinds
thefirstmatchoftheexpression"hello",deletingeverylinereadintothepatternspaceuntilit
getstothefirstlineaftertheexpression"goodbye".Itdoesn'tapplythedeletecommandtoany
moreaddressesuntilitcomesacrosstheexpression"hello"again.Sincetheexpression
"goodbye"isnotonanysubsequentline,thedeletecommandisappliedtoallremaininglines.

awk command
Removeduplicatelinesusingawk
$awk'!($0inarray){array[$0];print}'temp

Printalllinesfrom/etc/passwdthathasthesameuidandgid
$awkF':''$3==$4'passwd.txt

Printonlyspecificfieldfromafile.
$awk'{print$2,$5;}'employee.txt

diff command
Tocomparethecontentsoftwofiles:
diffemailaddresses
2a3,4
>[email protected]
>Jimjim@frolix8

Thisdisplaysalinebylinedifferencebetweenthefileemailandaddresses.
Tomakethesefilesmatchyouneedtoadd(a)lines3and4(3,4)ofthefileaddresses(>)
afterline2inthefileemail.
Herearethecontentsoffilesemailandaddressesusedinthisexample.Linenumbersare
shownatthebeginningofeachlinetohelpyoufollowthisexample.
emailaddresses
1Johnerpl08@ed1Johnerpl08@ed
[email protected]@cern.ch
[email protected]@pollux.ucs.co
4Keithkeith@festival4Jimjim@frolix8
[email protected]
6Keithkeith@festival

sort command
Tosortthefile
TosortthefruitsfilewiththeLC_ALL,LC_COLLATE,orLANGenvironmentvariablesetto
En_US,enter:
LANG=En_USsortfruits

Thiscommandsequencedisplaysthecontentsofthefruitsfilesortedinascending
lexicographicorder.Thecharactersineachcolumnarecomparedonebyone,including
spaces,digits,andspecialcharacters.Forinstance,ifthefruitsfilecontainsthetext:
banana
orange
Persimmon
apple
%%banana
apple
ORANGE

thesortcommanddisplays:

%%banana
ORANGE
Persimmon
apple
apple
banana
orange

IntheASCIIcollatingsequence,the%(percentsign)precedesuppercaseletters,which
precedelowercaseletters.Ifyourcurrentlocalespecifiesacharactersetotherthan
ASCII,yourresultsmaybedifferent.
Tosortindictionaryorder
sortdfruits
Thiscommandsequencesortsanddisplaysthecontentsofthefruitsfile,comparing
onlyletters,digits,andspaces.Ifthefruitsfileisthesameasinexample1,thenthe
sortcommanddisplays:
ORANGE
Persimmon
apple
apple
%%banana
banana
orange

Thedflagignoresthe%(percentsign)characterbecauseitisnotaletter,digit,or
space,placing%%bananawithbanana.
Togrouplinesthatcontainuppercaseandspecialcharacterswithsimilarlowercaselines
sortd
f
fruits
Thedflagignoresspecialcharactersandthefflagignoresdifferencesincase.With
theLC_ALL,LC_COLLATE,orLANGenvironmentvariablesettoC,theoutputforthe
fruitsfilebecomes:
apple
apple
%%banana
banana
ORANGE
orange
Persimmon

Tosort,removingduplicatelines
sortdfufruits
Theuflagtellsthesortcommandtoremoveduplicatelines,makingeachlineofthe
fileunique.Thiscommandsequencedisplays:
apple
%%banana

ORANGE
Persimmon

Notonlyistheduplicateappleremoved,butbananaandORANGEaswell.Theseare
removedbecausethedflagignoresthe%%specialcharactersandthefflagignores
differencesincase.
1. Tosortasinexample4,removingduplicateinstancesunlesscapitalizedorpunctuated
differently,enter:
sortu+0d
f
+0fruits
Enteringthe+0dfdoesthesametypeofsortthatisdonewithdfinexample3.
Thenthe+0performsanothercomparisontodistinguishlinesthatarenotidentical.
Thispreventstheuflagfromremovingthem.
Giventhefruitsfileshowninexample1,theadded+0distinguishes%%bananafrom
bananaandORANGEfromorange.However,thetwoinstancesofappleareidentical,so
oneofthemisdeleted.
apple
%%banana
banana
ORANGE
orange
Persimmon

Tospecifythecharacterthatseparatesfields
sortt:+1vegetables
Thiscommandsequencesortsthevegetablesfile,comparingthetextthatfollowsthe
firstcolononeachline.The+1tellsthesortcommandtoignorethefirstfieldandto
comparefromthestartofthesecondfieldtotheendoftheline.Thet:flagtellsthe
sortcommandthatcolonsseparatefields.Ifvegetablescontains:
yams:104
turnips:8
potatoes:15
carrots:104
greenbeans:32
radishes:5
lettuce:15

Then,withtheLC_ALL,LC_COLLATE,orLANGenvironmentvariablesettoC,thesort
commanddisplays:
carrots:104
yams:104
lettuce:15
potatoes:15
greenbeans:32
radishes:5
turnips:8

Notethatthenumbersarenotinnumericorder.Thishappenedwhenalexicographic

sortcompareseachcharacterfromlefttoright.Inotherwords,3comesbefore5,so32
comesbefore5.
Tosortnumbers
sortt:+1nvegetables
Thiscommandsequencesortsthevegetablesfilenumericallyonthesecondfield.Ifthe
vegetablesfileisthesameasinexample6,thenthesortcommanddisplays:
radishes:5
turnips:8
lettuce:15
potatoes:15
greenbeans:32
carrots:104
yams:104

Tosortmorethanonefield
sortt:+12n+01rvegetables
OR
sortt:k2,2n
k
1,1rvegetables
Thiscommandsequenceperformsanumericsortonthesecondfield(+12n).Within
thatordering,itsortsthefirstfieldinreversealphabeticorder(+01r).Withthe
LC_ALL,LC_COLLATE,orLANGenvironmentvariablesettoC,theoutputlookslike
this:
radishes:5
turnips:8
potatoes:15
lettuce:15
greenbeans:32
yams:104
carrots:104

Thecommandsortsthelinesinnumericorder.Whentwolineshavethesamenumber,
theyappearinreversealphabeticorder.
Toreplacetheoriginalfilewiththesortedtext
sortovegetablesvegetables
Thiscommandsequencestoresthesortedoutputintothevegetablesfile(o
vegetables).
Sortafileindescendingorder
$sortrnames.txt

export command
Tovieworaclerelatedenvironmentvariables.
$export|grepORACLE
declarexORACLE_BASE="/u01/app/oracle"
declarexORACLE_HOME="/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0"
declarexORACLE_SID="med"
declarexORACLE_TERM="xterm"

Toexportanenvironmentvariable:
$exportORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0

gzipcommand
Tocreatea*.gzcompressedfile:
$gziptest.txt

Touncompressa*.gzfile:
$gzipdtest.txt.gz

Displaycompressionratioofthecompressedfileusinggzipl
$gzipl*.gz
compresseduncompressedratiouncompressed_name
237099797575.8%asppatchrpms.txt

bzip2 command
Tocreatea*.bz2compressedfile:
$bzip2test.txt

Touncompressa*.bz2file:
bzip2dtest.txt.bz2

unzip command
Toextracta*.zipcompressedfile:
$unziptest.zip

Viewthecontentsof*.zipfile(Withoutunzippingit):
$unzipljasper.zip
Archive:jasper.zip
LengthDateTimeName

4099511309823:50METAINF/MANIFEST.MF
3216908259821:07classes_

1596408259821:07classes_names
1054208259821:07classes_ncomp

ps command
pscommandisusedtodisplayinformationabouttheprocessesthatarerunninginthesystem.
Whiletherearelotofargumentsthatcouldbepassedtoapscommand,followingaresomeof
thecommonones.
Toviewcurrentrunningprocesses.
$psef|more

Toviewcurrentrunningprocessesinatreestructure.Hoptionstandsforprocesshierarchy.
$psefH|more

top command
topcommanddisplaysthetopprocessesinthesystem(bydefaultsortedbycpuusage).To
sorttopoutputbyanycolumn,PressO(uppercaseO),whichwilldisplayallthepossible
columnsthatyoucansortbyasshownbelow.
CurrentSortField:Pforwindow1:Def
Selectsortfieldviafieldletter,typeanyotherkeytoreturn
a:PID=ProcessIdv:nDRT=DirtyPagescount
d:UID=UserIdy:WCHAN=SleepinginFunction
e:USER=UserNamez:Flags=TaskFlags

Todisplaysonlytheprocessesthatbelongtoaparticularuseruseuoption.Thefollowingwill
showonlythetopprocessesthatbelongstooracleuser.
$topuoracle

dfcommand
Displaysthefilesystemdiskspaceusage.Bydefaultdfkdisplaysoutputinbytes.
$dfk
Filesystem1KblocksUsedAvailableUse%Mountedon
/dev/sda12953040032331042479723212%/
/dev/sda2120367992501715966408206044%/home

dfhdisplaysoutputinhumanreadableform.i.esizewillbedisplayedinGBs.
ramesh@rameshlaptop:~$dfh
FilesystemSizeUsedAvailUse%Mountedon
/dev/sda129G3.1G24G12%/
/dev/sda2115G48G62G44%/home

UseToptiontodisplaywhattypeoffilesystem.
ramesh@rameshlaptop:~$dfT

FilesystemType1KblocksUsedAvailableUse%Mountedon
/dev/sda1ext42953040032331202479721612%/
/dev/sda2ext4120367992501715966408206044%/home

mountcommand
Tomountafilesystem,youshouldfirstcreateadirectoryandmountitasshownbelow.
#mkdir/u01
#mount/dev/sdb1/u01

Youcanalsoaddthistothefstabforautomaticmounting.i.eAnytimesystemisrestarted,the
filesystemwillbemounted.
/dev/sdb1/u01ext2defaults02

chmod command
chmodcommandisusedtochangethepermissionsforafileordirectory.
Givefullaccesstouserandgroup(i.eread,writeandexecute)onaspecificfile.
$chmodug+rwxfile.txt

Revokeallaccessforthegroup(i.eread,writeandexecute)onaspecificfile.
$chmodgrwxfile.txt

Applythefilepermissionsrecursivelytoallthefilesinthesubdirectories.
$chmodRug+rwxfile.txt

Followingarethesymbolicrepresentationofthreedifferentroles:
uisforuser,
gisforgroup,
andoisforothers.
Followingarethesymbolicrepresentationofthreedifferentpermissions:
risforreadpermission,
wisforwritepermission,
xisforexecutepermission.
Followingarefewexamplesonhowtousethesymbolicrepresentationonchmod.
1.Addsinglepermissiontoafile/directory
Changingpermissiontoasingleset.+symbolmeansaddingpermission.Forexample,dothe
followingtogiveexecutepermissionfortheuserirrespectiveofanythingelse:
$chmodu+xfilename

2.Addmultiplepermissiontoafile/directory
Usecommatoseparatethemultiplepermissionsetsasshownbelow.
$chmodu+r,g+xfilename

3.Removepermissionfromafile/directory
Followingexampleremovesreadandwritepermissionfortheuser.
$chmodurxfilename

4.Changepermissionforallrolesonafile/directory
Followingexampleassignsexecuteprivilegetouser,groupandothers(basicallyanybodycan
executethisfile).
$chmoda+xfilename

5.Makepermissionforafilesameasanotherfile(usingreference)
Ifyouwanttochangeafilepermissionsameasanotherfile,usethereferenceoptionasshown
below.Inthisexample,file2spermissionwillbesetexactlysameasfile1spermission.
$chmodreference=file1file2

6.Applythepermissiontoallthefilesunderadirectoryrecursively
UseoptionRtochangethepermissionrecursivelyasshownbelow.
$chmodR755directoryname/

7.Changeexecutepermissiononlyonthedirectories(filesarenotaffected)
Onaparticulardirectoryifyouhavemultiplesubdirectoriesandfiles,thefollowingcommand
willassignexecutepermissiononlytoallthesubdirectoriesinthecurrentdirectory(notthe
filesinthecurrentdirectory).
$chmodu+X*

chowncommand
chowncommandisusedtochangetheownerandgroupofafile.\
Tochangeownertooracleandgrouptodbonafile.i.eChangebothownerandgroupatthe
sametime.
$chownoracle:dbadbora.sh

UseRtochangetheownershiprecursively.
$chownRoracle:dba/home/oracle

passwd command
Changeyourpasswordfromcommandlineusingpasswd.Thiswillpromptfortheold
passwordfollowedbythenewpassword.
$passwd

Superusercanusepasswdcommandtoresetotherspassword.Thiswillnotpromptfor
currentpasswordoftheuser.
#passwdUSERNAME

Removepasswordforaspecificuser.Rootusercandisablepasswordforaspecificuser.Once
thepasswordisdisabled,theusercanloginwithoutenteringthepassword.
#passwddUSERNAME

su command examples
Switchtoadifferentuseraccountusingsucommand.Superusercanswitchtoanyotheruser
withoutenteringtheirpassword.
$suUSERNAME

Executeasinglecommandfromadifferentaccountname.Inthefollowingexample,johncan
executethelscommandasrajusername.Oncethecommandisexecuted,itwillcomebackto
johnsaccount.
[john@devserver]$surajc'ls'
[john@devserver]$

Logintoaspecifieduseraccount,andexecutethespecifiedshellinsteadofthedefaultshell.
$sus'SHELLNAME'USERNAME

date command examples

Setthesystemdate:
#dates"01/31/201023:59:53"

Onceyouvechangedthesystemdate,youshouldsyncronizethehardwareclockwiththe
systemdateasshownbelow.
#hwclocksystohc
hwclocksystohcutc