For each command, its syntax and a very
brief description of what it does are given.
The commands are divided into three sections.
For more details, check
manuals, or for on-line help, type to the UNIX prompt
This section contains a list of the most interesting, most basic UNIX
commands. "Most interesting" is measured in the subjective opinion
of the author. Anyone wishing to suggest additions to this document
is welcome to do so. Some commands are specific to WPI.
Mathematical Sciences WWW Server
UNIX Commands
by Joseph D. Fehribach
< bach@wpi.edu >
man <command>
with <command> replaced by the individual commmand name.
Most Basic Commands
cp oldfile newfile . . . CoPy OLDFILE to NEWFILE cp oldfile newdir . . . CoPy OLDFILE to NEWDIRectory mv oldfile newfile . . . MoVe OLDFILE to NEWFILE (renames OLDFILE) mv oldfile newdir . . . MoVe OLDFILE to NEWDIRectory ls . . . LiSt contents of present working directory ls -la . . . LiSt, Long-format, All contents (dots included) ls directory . . . LiSt contents of DIRECTORY pwd . . . identifies Present Working Directory cd . . . Change Directory to home directory cd dirname . . . Change Directory to directory DIRNAME cd - . . . Change Directory to previous directory mkdir dirname . . . MaKe DIRectory DIRNAME rm oldfile . . . ReMove OLDFILE rm -r dirname . . . ReMove DIRNAME (and everything in it) rmdir dirname . . . ReMove DIRectory DIRNAME (but only if empty) pine . . . read your mail with PINE (an easy mail reader) mail . . . enter MAIL to read your own mail mail user@address . . . enter MAIL to send a message to USER at ADDRESS more filename . . . display file FILENAME using MORE paging format command | more . . . "pipe" COMMAND through the MORE paging format less filename . . . display file FILENAME using LESS paging format command | less . . . "pipe" COMMAND through the LESS paging format Note: The command "more" is designed to keep long displays from scrolling off the screen before they can be read. Inside "more". . . down one line . . . down one screen q . . . Quit h . . . Help (displays all command options) "less" works in much the same way, but allows additional options (basically those of the vi editor). Most people prefer "less" to "more." vi filename . . . edit FILENAME with VI editor view oldfile . . . VIEW an existing OLDFILE with vi editor emacs filename . . . edit FILENAME with EMACS editor pico filename . . . edit FILENAME with PICO editor dxnotepad filename . . . edit FILENAME with DXNOTEPAD editor tex paper.tex . . . create a dvi-file from the TeX file PAPER.TEX latex paper.tex . . . create a dvi-file from the LaTeX file PAPER.TEX lpr -Pprntr file . . . send ascii/postscrpt FILE to LaserPRinter PRNTR lpq -Pprinter . . . check the LaserPrinter Queue for PRINTER lprm -Pprinter XXX . . . ReMove entry number XXX from queue for PRINTER dvips -Pprinter file.dvi . . send DVI FILE to PRINTER man command . . . display MANual page for COMMAND telnet computername . . . TELNET to any internet COMPUTERNAME rlogin computername . . . Remote LOGIN to any internet COMPUTERNAME computername . . . remote login to a wpi COMPUTERNAME exit . . . EXIT current shell, return to previous shell logout . . . LOGOUT (only from login shell)
Commands in this list are more advanced than those on the first list, but in some cases (e.g. "mail"), these may no longer be the optimal commands to choose for many users.
who . . . WHO is currently on your workstation w . . . similar to "who" but different format finger . . . what users are currently logged-in at WPI finger username . . . display info on user USERNAME last | more . . . display all recent logins last -n . . . display LAST "N" logins last . . . a very silly command to enter from a terminal mail . . . enter MAIL to read your own mail mail user@address . . . enter MAIL to send a message to USER at ADDRESS write user . . . enter WRITE to send message to a logged-in USER talk user . . . enter TALK to open two-way channel with USER pine . . . read your mail with PINE (an easy mail reader) elm . . . read your mail with ELM (more powerful reader) df . . . Display Filesystem status du . . . Display sizes of files/subdir in current dir du dirname . . . Display sizes of files/subdir in DIRNAME du -s . . . Display total size of current DIRNAME ps . . . display information on current users ProceSses ps -aux | more . . . display much info on all ProceSses on sun diff file1 file2 . . . compare DIFFerences between ascii FILE1 & FILE2 passwd . . . set PASSWorD chmod XXX file . . . CHange MODe (permissions) on FILE using XXX chown newowner file . . . CHange OWNer of FILE to NEWOWNER chgrp newgroup file . . . CHange GRouP of FILE to NEWGROUP cat file . . . display FILE ("more" and "less" are superior) cat file1 > file2 . . . same as "cp file1 file2" cat file1 >> file2 . . . append FILE1 to the end of FILE2 cat > file . . . create FILE and open it to typed terminal input cat >> file . . . append typed terminal input to FILE cal XXXX . . . display CALendar for year XXXX cal n XXXX . . . display CALendar for Nth month of year XXXX date . . . display current DATE and time spell file . . . check SPELLing in an ascii FILE ispell file . . . check spelling in an ascii FILE with ISPELL alias name 'string' . . . make NAME equivalent to STRING (often in .cshrc) unalias name . . . UNdo an ALIAS compress file . . . replace FILE by smaller file.Z to save diskspace uncompress file.Z . . . return FILE.z to original state, i.e., file gzip file . . . replace FILE by smaller file.gz gunzip file.gz . . . return FILE.gz to original state, i.e., file grep express file . . . display all lines of FILE containing EXPRESSion (from "Get Regular Expression Please" maybe) chfn . . . CHange FiNger information gred . . . GRoup file EDitor
Wild Cards: * . . . wild card for an arbitrary number of characters ? . . . wild card for a single character Example: mv *file newdir --- MoVe every file ending in FILE to NEWDIR mv ? newdir --- MoVe files with single-character names to NEWDIR Control Characters: ^D . . . depending on context, end-of-file, exit, or logout ^C . . . kill current process ^Z . . . stop current process ( % will restart) ^S . . . freeze the display ( "more" is often superior) ^Q . . . unfreeze the display ^U . . . clear command line (delete everything since last return) % . . . restart most recently stopped process in foreground fg %n . . . restart process N (bring process N to ForeGround) %n . . . same as "fg %n" % & . . . restart most recently stopped process in background bg %n . . . restart process N (put process N in the BackGround) %n & . . . same as "bg %n&" command & . . . execute COMMAND in the "background" !! . . . re-execute the last command !-n . . . re-execute the Nth previous command (relative) !n . . . re-execute the Nth command from history (absolute) !xyz . . . re-execute the last command which begins XYZ ^xxxx^yyy^ . . . re-execute last command, replacing XXXX by YYY !$ . . . repeat last word of last command Note: additional words may be added to each of the above five; e.g. if the last command is "cd" then "man !!" is equivalent to "man cd" ~ . . . home directory . . . . present working directory .. . . . parent of present working directory string > file . . . direct the output of STRING to FILE instead of screen string >! file . . . direct output of STRING to FILE even if noclobber is set string >& file . . . direct stardard output & stardard error to FILE string >> file . . . append the output of STRING to FILE string < file . . . use contents of FILE as input for STRING