{"id":293,"date":"2011-01-05T07:04:15","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T07:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scmgalaxy.com\/tutorials\/2011\/01\/05\/common-unix-commands-and-utilities\/"},"modified":"2018-09-25T09:40:53","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T09:40:53","slug":"common-unix-commands-and-utilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/common-unix-commands-and-utilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Common unix commands and utilities | unix commands and utilities Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"unix-commands-and-utilities\"<\/p>\n

To find a program not on this list (and there are hundreds), try the man program with the -k option followed by a keyword, for example,
\nman -k tape
\nto find all on-line manual entries that refer to programs that work with tapes.<\/p>\n

Terminal control characters for C-shell (csh)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
^h, backspace<\/td>\nerase previously typed character<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^u<\/td>\nerase entire line of input so far typed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^d<\/td>\nend-of-input for programs reading from terminal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^s<\/td>\nsuspend writing to terminal (freezes terminal)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^q<\/td>\ncontinue writing to terminal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^z<\/td>\nsuspend currently running job; restart with bg or fg<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^c<\/td>\nkill currently running program and allow clean-up before exiting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^\\<\/td>\nemergency kill of currently running program with no chance of cleanup<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Also see a list of special characters<\/a> that should not be used in filenames.<\/p>\n

Login and authentication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
login<\/td>\naccess computer; start interactive session<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
logout<\/td>\ndisconnect terminal session<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
passwd<\/td>\nchange local login password; you must<\/strong> set a strong password<\/a> that is not easily guessed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
kinit<\/td>\nobtain kerberos ticket for connections to other kerberized computers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
kdestroy<\/td>\ndestroy kerberos tickets (authorizations)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
date<\/td>\nshow date and time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
history<\/td>\nlist of previously executed commands<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
man<\/td>\nshow online documentation by program name<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
info<\/td>\nonline documentation for GNU programs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
w, who<\/td>\nwho is on the system and what they are doing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
whoami<\/td>\nwho is logged onto this terminal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
top<\/td>\nshow system stats and top CPU using processes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uptime<\/td>\nshow one line summary of system status<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

File management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
cat<\/td>\ncombine files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cp<\/td>\ncopy files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ls<\/td>\nlist files in a directory and their attributes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mv<\/td>\nchange file name or directory location<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rm<\/td>\nremove files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ln<\/td>\ncreate another link (name) to a file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
chmod<\/td>\nset file permissions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
crypt<\/td>\nencode\/decode a file with a private key<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gzip, gunzip<\/td>\ncompress\/decompress a file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
find<\/td>\nfind files that match specific criteria<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Display contents of files<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
cat<\/td>\ncopy files to display device<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
more<\/td>\nshow text file on display terminal with paging control<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
head<\/td>\nshow first few lines of a file(s)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tail<\/td>\nshow last few lines of a file; or reverse line order<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi<\/td>\nfull-featured screen editor for modifying text files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
pico<\/td>\nsimple screen editor for modifying text files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
grep<\/td>\ndisplay lines that match a pattern<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
lpr<\/td>\nsend file to printer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
pr<\/td>\nformat file with page headers, multiple columns, etc.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
diff<\/td>\ncompare two files and show differences<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cmp<\/td>\ncompare two binary files and report if different<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
comm<\/td>\ncompare two files; show common or unique lines<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
od<\/td>\ndisplay binary files as eqivalent octal\/hex codes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
strings<\/td>\nshow printable text embedded in binary files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
file<\/td>\nexamine file(s) and guess type: text, data, program, etc.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wc<\/td>\ncount characters, words, and lines in a file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Directories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
cd<\/td>\nchange to new directory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mkdir<\/td>\ncreate new directory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rmdir<\/td>\nremove empty directory (you must remove files first)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mv<\/td>\nchange name of directory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
pwd<\/td>\nshow current directory<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Disks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n
df<\/td>\nsummarize free space on disk filesystems<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
du<\/td>\nshow disk space used by files or directories<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Special character handling for C-shell (See man csh)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
*<\/td>\nmatch any characters in a file name<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
~user<\/td>\nshorthand for home directory of user<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
$name<\/td>\nsubstitute value of variable name<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\\<\/td>\nturn off special meaning of character that follows<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
‘<\/td>\nin pairs, quote string with special chars, except !<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“<\/td>\nin pairs, quote string with special chars, except !, $<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
`<\/td>\nin pairs, substitute output from enclosed command<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Controlling program execution for C-shell (See man csh)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
&<\/td>\nrun job in background<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^c<\/td>\nkill job in foreground<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
^z<\/td>\nsuspend job in foreground<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
fg<\/td>\nrestart suspended job in foreground<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
bg<\/td>\nrun suspended job in background<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
;<\/td>\ndelimit commands on same line<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
()<\/td>\ngroup commands on same line<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
!<\/td>\nre-run earlier commands from history list<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
jobs<\/td>\nlist current jobs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ps<\/td>\nshow process information<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
kill<\/td>\nkill background job or previous process<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
nice<\/td>\nrun program at lower priority<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
at<\/td>\nrun program at a later time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
crontab<\/td>\nrun program at specified intervals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
limit<\/td>\nsee or set resource limits for programs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
alias<\/td>\ncreate alias name for program (normally used in .login file)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sh, csh<\/td>\nexecute command file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Controlling program input\/output for C-shell (See man csh)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
|<\/td>\npipe output to input<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
><\/td>\nredirect output to a storage file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<<\/td>\nredirect input from a storage file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
>><\/td>\nappend redirected output to a storage file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tee<\/td>\ncopy input to both file and next program in pipe<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
script<\/td>\nmake file record of all terminal activity<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Email and communication<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
msgs<\/td>\nread system bulletin board messages<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mailx<\/td>\nsend\/read email; can be run by other programs to send exisiting files via email<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uuencode
\nuudecode<\/td>\n		encode\/decode a binary file for transmission via email<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rn<\/td>\nread USENET news groups<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Editors and formatting utilities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
sed<\/td>\nprogrammable text editor for data streams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi<\/td>\nfull-featured editor for character terminals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
emacs<\/td>\nGNU emacs editor for character terminals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xemacs<\/td>\nGNU emacs editor for X Window terminals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
pico<\/td>\nvery simple text editor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
fmt<\/td>\nfill and break lines to make all same length<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
fold<\/td>\nbreak long lines to specified length<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

X Window client programs (output to X terminal or server)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
xterm<\/td>\nprovide login shell window<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xauth<\/td>\nmanipulate authorization files<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xload<\/td>\nshow system load<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xman<\/td>\nfull screen online manual viewer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xemacs<\/td>\nGNU emacs editor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gv<\/td>\ninterface to contol gs to display PostScript or PDF files on screen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xdvi<\/td>\ndisplay DVI files on X Window (screen preview)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gnuplot<\/td>\ninteractive data plotting on screen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

TeX typesetting system<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
tex<\/td>\nprocess TeX files to DVI (device independent) output<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
latex<\/td>\nprocess LaTeX files to DVI<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dvips<\/td>\nprint DVI files on Postscript laser printer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xdvi<\/td>\ndisplay DVI files on X Window (screen preview)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
latex2html<\/td>\ntranslate LaTeX files to HTML (for web pages)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Printing (BSD based)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
lpr<\/td>\nsend file to print queue<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
lpq<\/td>\nexamine status of files in print queue<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
lprm<\/td>\nremove a file from print queue<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
enscript<\/td>\nconvert text files to PostScript format for printing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Interpreted languages and data manipulation utilities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
sed<\/td>\nprogrammable text editor for data streams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
awk<\/td>\npattern scanning and processing language<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
perl<\/td>\nPractical Extraction and Report Language<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sort<\/td>\nsort or merge lines in a file(s) by specified fields<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tr<\/td>\ntranslate characters<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cut<\/td>\ncut out columns from a file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
paste<\/td>\npaste columns into a file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dd<\/td>\ncopy data between devices; reblock; convert EBCDIC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Graphics and mapping<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n
gnuplot<\/td>\ninteractive data plotting; outputs to PostScript or X Window<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gs<\/td>\n“ghostscript” converter displays PostScript files on X Window displays or other devices<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Networking\/communications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
ssh<\/td>\nremote login\/command execution; encrypted<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
scp<\/td>\nremote non-interactive file copy; encrypted<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sftp<\/td>\nremote interactive file copy; encrypted<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
telnet<\/td>\nremote network login; plain text password – not recommended<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ftp<\/td>\nnetwork file transfer program; plain text password – not recommended<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
host<\/td>\nfind IP address for given host name, or vice versa<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
lynx<\/td>\nweb browser for character based (text-only) terminals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gzip, gunzip<\/td>\ncompress\/decompress a file<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tar<\/td>\ncombine multiple files\/dirs into single archive<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uuencode
\nuudecode<\/td>\n		encode\/decode a binary file for transmission via email<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Compilers, interpreters and programming tools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
csh<\/td>\ncommand language interpreter (C-shell scripts)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ksh<\/td>\ncommand language interpreter (Korn-shell scripts)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sh<\/td>\ncommand language interpreter (Borne-shell scripts)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
f77<\/td>\nFortran 77 compiler<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
f2c<\/td>\nconvert fortran source code to C source code<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gcc<\/td>\nGNU C compiler<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
g++<\/td>\nGNU C++ compiler<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dbx<\/td>\ncommand-line symbolic debugger for compiled C or Fortran<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
make<\/td>\nrecompile programs from modified source<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
cflow<\/td>\ngenerate C flow graph<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Programming libraries (see man library_name)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
lapack<\/td>\nFortran 77 routines for numerical linear algebra (supersedes LINPACK and EISPACK)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
X<\/td>\nroutines to interface with X window system (no man page — get the X Toolkit book)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dbm<\/td>\ndatabase routines<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
xdr<\/td>\nlibrary routines for external data representation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
netcdf<\/td>\nroutines for machine independent data representation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Tape manipulation and archiving<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
mt<\/td>\nmanipulate tape drive and position tape<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dd<\/td>\nunformatted tape read and write; file conversion<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
tar<\/td>\narchive disk files on tape or disk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ltf<\/td>\nread\/write ANSI standard label tapes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To find a program not on this list (and there are hundreds), try the man program with the -k option followed by a keyword, for example, man -k tape to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4957],"tags":[378,1979,2731,2735,169,2733,2734,2742,2740,2741,2739,2744,2743,2736,2737,2738,2732],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","tag-commands","tag-common","tag-general","tag-list-of-unix-commands","tag-unix","tag-unix-commands","tag-unix-commands-and-utilities","tag-unix-commands-and-utilities-cheatsheet","tag-unix-commands-and-utilities-guide","tag-unix-commands-and-utilities-references","tag-unix-commands-and-utilities-tutorials","tag-unix-commands-guide","tag-unix-commands-tutorials","tag-useful-unix-commands","tag-useful-unix-commands-cheatsheet","tag-useful-unix-commands-references","tag-utilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3898,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/3898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}