Common UNIX commands and utilities
Program listings are organized by general subject categories. Keys preceded by a ^ character are CONTROL key combinations. Access the online manual with the man program to get more information on these programs, for example,
man cp
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 find all on-line manual entries that refer to programs that work with tapes.
Terminal control characters for C-shell (csh)
^h, backspace | erase previously typed character |
^u | erase entire line of input so far typed |
^d | end-of-input for programs reading from terminal |
^s | suspend writing to terminal (freezes terminal) |
^q | continue writing to terminal |
^z | suspend currently running job; restart with bg or fg |
^c | kill currently running program and allow clean-up before exiting |
^\ | emergency kill of currently running program with no chance of cleanup |
Login and authentication
login | access computer; start interactive session |
logout | disconnect terminal session |
passwd | change local login password; you must set a strong password that is not easily guessed |
kinit | obtain kerberos ticket for connections to other kerberized computers |
kdestroy | destroy kerberos tickets (authorizations) |
Information
date | show date and time |
history | list of previously executed commands |
man | show online documentation by program name |
info | online documentation for GNU programs |
w, who | who is on the system and what they are doing |
whoami | who is logged onto this terminal |
top | show system stats and top CPU using processes |
uptime | show one line summary of system status |
File management
cat | combine files |
cp | copy files |
ls | list files in a directory and their attributes |
mv | change file name or directory location |
rm | remove files |
ln | create another link (name) to a file |
chmod | set file permissions |
crypt | encode/decode a file with a private key |
gzip, gunzip | compress/decompress a file |
find | find files that match specific criteria |
Display contents of files
cat | copy files to display device |
more | show text file on display terminal with paging control |
head | show first few lines of a file(s) |
tail | show last few lines of a file; or reverse line order |
vi | full-featured screen editor for modifying text files |
pico | simple screen editor for modifying text files |
grep | display lines that match a pattern |
lpr | send file to printer |
pr | format file with page headers, multiple columns, etc. |
diff | compare two files and show differences |
cmp | compare two binary files and report if different |
comm | compare two files; show common or unique lines |
od | display binary files as eqivalent octal/hex codes |
strings | show printable text embedded in binary files |
file | examine file(s) and guess type: text, data, program, etc. |
wc | count characters, words, and lines in a file |
Directories
cd | change to new directory |
mkdir | create new directory |
rmdir | remove empty directory (you must remove files first) |
mv | change name of directory |
pwd | show current directory |
Disks
df | summarize free space on disk filesystems |
du | show disk space used by files or directories |
Special character handling for C-shell (See man csh)
* | match any characters in a file name |
~user | shorthand for home directory of user |
$name | substitute value of variable name |
\ | turn off special meaning of character that follows |
' | in pairs, quote string with special chars, except ! |
" | in pairs, quote string with special chars, except !, $ |
` | in pairs, substitute output from enclosed command |
Controlling program execution for C-shell (See man csh)
& | run job in background |
^c | kill job in foreground |
^z | suspend job in foreground |
fg | restart suspended job in foreground |
bg | run suspended job in background |
; | delimit commands on same line |
() | group commands on same line |
! | re-run earlier commands from history list |
jobs | list current jobs |
ps | show process information |
kill | kill background job or previous process |
nice | run program at lower priority |
at | run program at a later time |
crontab | run program at specified intervals |
limit | see or set resource limits for programs |
alias | create alias name for program (normally used in .login file) |
sh, csh | execute command file |
Controlling program input/output for C-shell (See man csh)
| | pipe output to input |
> | redirect output to a storage file |
< | redirect input from a storage file |
>> | append redirected output to a storage file |
tee | copy input to both file and next program in pipe |
script | make file record of all terminal activity |
Email and communication
msgs | read system bulletin board messages |
mailx | send/read email; can be run by other programs to send exisiting files via email |
uuencode
uudecode | encode/decode a binary file for transmission via email |
rn | read USENET news groups |
Editors and formatting utilities
sed | programmable text editor for data streams |
vi | full-featured editor for character terminals |
emacs | GNU emacs editor for character terminals |
xemacs | GNU emacs editor for X Window terminals |
pico | very simple text editor |
fmt | fill and break lines to make all same length |
fold | break long lines to specified length |
X Window client programs (output to X terminal or server)
xterm | provide login shell window |
xauth | manipulate authorization files |
xload | show system load |
xman | full screen online manual viewer |
xemacs | GNU emacs editor |
gv | interface to contol gs to display PostScript or PDF files on screen |
xdvi | display DVI files on X Window (screen preview) |
gnuplot | interactive data plotting on screen |
TeX typesetting system
tex | process TeX files to DVI (device independent) output |
latex | process LaTeX files to DVI |
dvips | print DVI files on Postscript laser printer |
xdvi | display DVI files on X Window (screen preview) |
latex2html | translate LaTeX files to HTML (for web pages) |
Printing (BSD based)
lpr | send file to print queue |
lpq | examine status of files in print queue |
lprm | remove a file from print queue |
enscript | convert text files to PostScript format for printing |
Interpreted languages and data manipulation utilities
sed | programmable text editor for data streams |
awk | pattern scanning and processing language |
perl | Practical Extraction and Report Language |
sort | sort or merge lines in a file(s) by specified fields |
tr | translate characters |
cut | cut out columns from a file |
paste | paste columns into a file |
dd | copy data between devices; reblock; convert EBCDIC |
Graphics and mapping
gnuplot | interactive data plotting; outputs to PostScript or X Window |
gs | "ghostscript" converter displays PostScript files on X Window displays or other devices |
Networking/communications
ssh | remote login/command execution; encrypted |
scp | remote non-interactive file copy; encrypted |
sftp | remote interactive file copy; encrypted |
telnet | remote network login; plain text password - not recommended |
ftp | network file transfer program; plain text password - not recommended |
host | find IP address for given host name, or vice versa |
lynx | web browser for character based (text-only) terminals |
gzip, gunzip | compress/decompress a file |
tar | combine multiple files/dirs into single archive |
uuencode
uudecode | encode/decode a binary file for transmission via email |
Compilers, interpreters and programming tools
csh | command language interpreter (C-shell scripts) |
ksh | command language interpreter (Korn-shell scripts) |
sh | command language interpreter (Borne-shell scripts) |
f77 | Fortran 77 compiler |
f2c | convert fortran source code to C source code |
gcc | GNU C compiler |
g++ | GNU C++ compiler |
dbx | command-line symbolic debugger for compiled C or Fortran |
make | recompile programs from modified source |
cflow | generate C flow graph |
Programming libraries (see man library_name)
lapack | Fortran 77 routines for numerical linear algebra (supersedes LINPACK and EISPACK) |
X | routines to interface with X window system (no man page -- get the X Toolkit book) |
dbm | database routines |
xdr | library routines for external data representation |
netcdf | routines for machine independent data representation |
Tape manipulation and archiving
mt | manipulate tape drive and position tape |
dd | unformatted tape read and write; file conversion |
tar | archive disk files on tape or disk |
ltf | read/write ANSI standard label tapes |