UNIX Commands Grouped by Function

The following is a list of some commonly used UNIX Commands grouped by function. For more information on any of these commands, see the appropriate man page.

Programming Tools

awk

Pattern scanning and processing language

gcc

C compiler

Communication

elm

Send or receive mail among users

from

Print headers for any messages in the system mailbox

pine

Send or receive mail among users

rn

Read the USENET news

talk

Talk to another user

write

Send a message to another user

Device Files

df

Print amount of free disk space on the specified file system

du

Summarize disk usage

tar

Save/restore multiple files to a single archive file (usually on magnetic tape)

Directories

cd

Change working directory

chmod

Change protection mode of a file or directory

find

Search named directory for a file

ls

List contents of directory

mkdir

Make a directory

pwd

Print the name of the current (working) directory

quota -v

Display the user's disk usage and limits

rmdir

Remove a directory

Editors

emacs

Window-based, screen-oriented text editor

vi

Screen-oriented text editor based on ex

view

vi in read-only mode

General

411

Look up phone numbers in the campus directory

clear

Clear terminal screen

date

Print date and time

finger

Look up information on named user

fortune

Print a fortune

last

Indicate last login sessions of users

login

Sign onto the system or switch to a different account

passwd

Change login password

sleep

Suspend execution for an interval

users

Compact list of users who are on the system

w

Print a list of who is on the system and their idle time

which

Locate a program file

who

Print a list of users who are on the system

whoami

Print effective current user id

Information

groups

Show group membership

hostname

Print name of current host system

man

Display a UNIX manual page

uptime

Show how long the system has been running since the last reboot

Manipulating Files

cat

Displays the contents of a file

compress

Compress files

cp

Copy files

gunzip

Decompresses files compressed with gzip

gzcat

Compresses a groups of normal files

gzip

Compresses normal files

less

Like more but allows you to go backwards and forwards while viewing

more

Like cat, displays file by screenfulls, pauseing between "pages"

mv

Move or rename files and directories

rm

Remove files

touch

Update "last used" date of a file

uncompress

Expand files compressed with "compress"

zcat

Cat a compressed file

Remote Commands

ftp

Transfer a file over the Internet

rcp

Copy file to a remote machine

rlogin

Remote login

rsh

Remote shell

telnet

User interface to TELNET protocol for communication between computers

rx

Receive binaries using ZMODEM, YMODEM, or XMODEM

rz

Receive files using ZMODEM, YMODEM, or XMODEM

sx

Send binaries using ZMODEM, YMODEM, or XMODEM

sz

Send files using ZMODEM, YMODEM, or XMODEM

Searching and Sorting

cmp

Compare two files

comm

Select lines common to two files

diff

Tell how two files must be changed to make them identical

fgrep

Search for a string in a file (see also grep)

file

Determine file type

grep

Search a file for a pattern

sort

Sort or merge files

strings

Find the printable strings in a file

uniq

Report repeated lines in a file

wc

Count words in a file

Shell

at

Execute commands at a later time

csh

C-shell (command interpreter); the default shell at St. Olaf

echo

Print arguments on the screen

kill

Terminate a process

nice

Run a command at low priority

nohup

Run a command immune to hangups

printenv

Print environment variables

ps

Print process status information

set

Set UNIX environment variables

sh

Bourne shell; command interpreter

stty

Set terminal options

test

Evaluate an expression and report if it is true or false

xargs

Execute a command letting the standard input define the arguments for that command

Text Formatters

detex

Remove T_EX commands from a file

dviselect

Print selected pages of a T_EX .dvi file

fold

Fold long lines for narrow output device

latex

T_EX-based text formatter

tex

Text formatting program which simulates typesetting

UNIX to UNIX Commands

uudecode

Decode binary file transmitted by mail

uuencode

Encode binary file for transmission by mail