CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

USEFULUNIXCOMMANDS
cancel

cancelprintrequestedwithlp

catfile

Displaythefile

catfile1file2>files Combinefile1andfile2intofiles
catfile1>>file2

Appendfile1attheendoffile2

chgrp[options]
newgroupfiles

changethegroupofoneormorefiles.NewgroupiseitheragroupIDnumber
oragroupnamelocatedin/etc/group.
fquiet(donotprinterrormessages)
hchangethegrouponsymboliclinks(Ifnotused,chgrpwillactinthefile
referencedbythesymboliclink)
Rrecursively(descentingthroughthedirectory,includingsubdirectoriesand
symboliclinks.

chmod[options]
modefiles

Changetheaccessmodeofoneormorefiles.Onlytheownerorprivilegeduser
maychangeitsmode.Createmodebyconcatenatingwho,opcodeand
permission.
who(uuser)(ggroup)(oother)(aall)
opcode(+addpermission)(removepermission)(=assignpermission,and
removefromthenotassigned)
permission(ror4read)(wor2write)(xor1execute)
Examples:
chmodu+xfile(addpermissiontotheusertoexecutethefile)
chmod751file(chmodu=rwx,g=rx,o=xfile)Theyarethesamecommand.
fquiet
Rrecursive

chown[options]
newownerfiles

Changetheownershipoffilestonewowner(eitherauserIDoraloginname
from/etc/passwd).
fquiet
hchangethesymboliclink,notthedeferencedfile.
Rrecursive
cprintinformationaboutthefileschanged.

clear

cleartheterminaldisplay

cmpfile1file2

Comparetwofiles(0identical)(1different)(2inaccessible)

comm[options]

Comparefile1andfile2.Outputsthreecolumns:linesuniquetofile1,lines
1

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

file1file2

uniquetofile2andlinescommontobothfile.
1suppressprintingcolumn1
13suppressprintingcolumns1and3

cp[options]file1
file2
cp[options]files
directory

Makeacopyoffile1withthenamefile2

df[[options]

Reportthenumberoffreediskblocksandinodesonallmountedfilesystems.
hhumanreadable
kkilobytes
mmegabytes

diff[options]file1
file2

Reportsthedifferencesbetweenfile1andfile2.Printsfile1textflagged(<)and
file2(>).

Copythefilesintodirectorywithsamenamefiles.
fforce(removeexistingfilesinthedestination)
iinteractively(prompforconfirmation)
ppreservetheoriginalfilepermissionsandownershipinthenewfile.
r,Rrecursively(copydirectoriesrecursively)
LusedwithR.ifsymboliclinkpointstoadirectory,recursivelytraverse
thedirectory.
LusedwithR.
smakesymboliclinkinsteadofcopying.

bignoreblankspaces.
eproduceascriptofcommandstorecreatefile2fromfile1,usingededitor.
Dmergefile1andfile2intoasinglefilecontainingconditionalC
preprocessors(#ifdef).Definingsymbolandthencompilingyeldsfile2.
Notdefiningsymbol,yieldsfile1.
du[options]

Printdiskusage.Optionslikedfcommand.

echo[options]
[string]

Echoargumentstostandardsoutputs.Oftenusedforproducingprompsfrom
shellscripts.
\aalert
\nnewline
\rcarriagereturn
\ttab

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

egrep[options]
[regexp][files]

Searchfilesthatmatcharegularexpression[regexp].Supportmetacharacters
+,?,(),etc.Butmustbeenclosedwithquotes.
nprintthelinematching.
vprintlinesthatdon'tmatch[regexp].
Example:egrep'(Victor|Victoria)'fileSeachVictororVictoriainfile.

fgrep[options]
[pattern][files]

Fastgrep.Seachfilesforlinesthatmatchaliteral.Optionsarethesameasfor
egrep.

find[options]
Findandlocateallthefilesinsidethepathnamespecifiedthatmatchessome
pathnamecondition
condition(name.type,size,user).
Examples:
find/homenamechapter1
find/home/usrname'memo*'userann
find/mtime2(findfilesmodifiedwithinthelasttwodays)
find/size10k(findfileswith10kB)
gcc

GNUCcompiler.
ccreateslinkableobjectfile(.o)foreachsourcefilebutdonotcallthelinker.
ofilespecifyoutputfileasfile.Defaultisa.out
Wallenablealmostallpossiblewarnings.
lmwhenusingthemath.hfunction.

gftp

Tranferfilestoandfromaremotenetworksitehostname.Belowispresentedan
exampleofgftpscreenandloginconfigurationnecessarytoaccessOMG

computers/homes/usernamedirectory.

gunzip[gzip
options][files]

Restorethefile.gz.

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

gzip[options][files] Reducethesizeofoneormorefilesandmovetofile.gz.
fforce
qquite(suppresswarnings)
rrecursivelywalkthecurrentdirectorytreeandcompressallfilesfound.
vdisplaythenameandpercantageofreduction.
head[options]
[files]

Printthefirstfewlinesoffiles(defaultis10lines).

hostname[option]

Printnameofcurrenthostsystem.

n50printthefirst50lines.

idisplaytheiIPaddressofthehost.
id[options]
[username]

displayinformationaboutyourselforanotheruser:usedID,groupID,etc.

kill[options]IDs

TerminateoneormoreprocessesIDs.Youmustowntheprocessorbea
privilegeduser.
llistthetypesofsignals.
s9sendsignal9(completekill).

locate[pattern]

Searchfilesmatchingthepattern.

lp[options][files]

Sendfilestoapriner.

ls[options][names] Listthefilesinthecurrentdirectory.Withnamesisspecified,listthefiles
insidethedirectorynamesorthatmatchafilenames.
alistallfiles,includingthehidden.files.
dlistonlydirectoryinformation,notitscontents.Usedwithl.
hhumanreadable,usingabbreviationsforkilobyte,megabyte,etc.
ksizeinkilobytes
llongformatlist(includespermissions,owner,size,modificationtime,etc).
rlistfilesinreverseorder(bynameorbytime).
Rrecursivelylistsubdirectories.
slistsizeinblocks(1block=512KB)
tlistfilesaccordingtomodificationtime(newestfirst)
ulistfilesaccordingtothefileaccesstime.
make[options]
[targets]

Updateoneormoretargetsaccordingtodependencyinstructionsina
descriptionfile(makefile)inthecurrentdirectoty.

mansubject

Displayinformationaboutasubject(nameofacommand).

mkdir[options]

Createoneormoredirectories.Youmusthavewritepermissionintheparent
4

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

directories

directoryinordertocreateadirectory.
msettheaccessmode(ex.mkdirmfile1)(toreadexecuteonlydirectory).

more[options][file] Displayfilecontentonaterminal.Onescreenfulatatime.Tochangethenext
screenfuluseSPACEBARandtoscrollthelinesuseENTER.hforhelp,/
tosearch,or:ntogotothenextfile.
mount[options]
[[device]
directories]

Thefilestructureondeviceismountedondirectory.Ifnodevicespecified,
mountlooksforanentryin/etc/fstabtofindwhatdeviceisassociated
withthegivendirectory.Directorywhichmustexistandshouldbeempty,
becometherootofthenewlymountedfilestructure.Ifmountisinvoked
withnoarguments,itdisplaysthenameofeachmounteddevice,the
directoryonwhichitismounted,itsfilesystemtype,andanymount
optionsassociatedwiththedevice.
amountallfilesystemslistedin/etc/fstab.Usettolimitthistoall
filesystemsofaparticulartype.

mv[options]
sourcestargets

Movefilesanddirectoriesaroundonthesystemandtorenamethem.
Source

Target

Result

file

name

renamefileasname

file

existingfile

overwriteexistingfilewithsourcefile

directory

name

renamedirectoryasname

directory

existingdirectory movedirectorytobeasubdirectoryof
existingdirectory

oneormorefiles

existingdirectory movefilestodirectory

fforce(forcethemoveeveniftargetfileexists)
iinteractive(promptforay(yes)responsebeforeoverwritinganexisting
target.
uDonotremoveafileorlinkifitsmodificationdateisthesameasornewer
thanthatofitsreplacement.
passwd[options]
[user]

createorchangeapasswordassociatedwithausername.Onlytheownerora
privilegedusermaychangeapassword.

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

ps[options]

Reportonactiveprocesses.Whenneededtoforceoneprocesstofinish,ps
showstheprocessesandkillallowstofinishit.
u[user]dispalyprocessesrunningbyuser.Ifnotspecifiedtheuser,displays
fortheactualuser.
rshowprocessescurrentlyrunning.

pwd

PrintingWorkingDirectory(pwd).Printthefullpathnameofthecurrent
directory

rm[options]files

Deleteoneormorefiles.Toremoveafile,youmusthavewritepermissionon
thedirectorythatcontainsthefile,butyouneednothavepermissionon
thefileitself.Ifyoudonothavewritepermissiononthefile,youare
prompted(yorn)tooverwrite.
fForceremovingwriteprotectedfileswithoutprompting.
iPrompforyorntoremovethefile.

rmdir[options]files Deletethenameddirectories(thedirectoryitself,notthecontents).Directories
aredeletedfromtheparentdirectoryandmustbeempty.
rremovedirectoriesandthefilesinside.

script[options]
[file]

Createarecordofyourloginsession,storinginfileeverythingthatdisplayson
thescreen.
aappendthescriptrecordtofile.

sed[options][files] Streameditor.Editoneormorefileswithoutuserinteraction.
eapplytheinstructionstothefiles.
fapplythesetofinstructionsfromtheeditingscript.
sortfile

Sortthelinesoffileinalphabeticalorder.

ssh[options]
hostname
[command]

Securalylogauserintoaremotesystemandruncommandsonthatsystem.
HOSTANME:user@hostname(ex.aluizio@peel.omg.unb.ca).
XenableX11forwarding.

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

stty[options]
[modes]

SetterminalI/Ooptionstothecurrentdevice.
Asaprivilegeduser,youcansetorreadsettingsfromanotherdeviceusingthe
syntax:stty[options][modes]<device
Fdevicereadorchangesettingsofdeviceterminalinsteadofthecurrent
terminal.
controlmodes(n(setterminalbaudrateton(e.g.19200)),inputmodes,output
modes,etc.

su[options][user]
[shellargs]
sudo(usefulto
install).

Loginasuser.Ifnouserspecified,becomesuperuser.EnterEOFtoterminate.

tail[options]file

Printthelast10linesofafile.

changetheuser(eg.suuser)

n20showthelast20lines.
Eg.grep'<title>'file|tailn20(showthelast20linescontaininginstancesof
title).
tar[options][files]

Copyfilesorrestorefilesfromtape(tapearchive).Ifanyfilesaredirectories,tar
actsontheentiresubtree.Veryused(cvftoarchiveandxvftoextract).
ccreateanewarchive.
xextractfilesfromarchive.
vprintfunctionletter(xforextractionandaforarchive)
farchstorefilesinorextractfilesfromarchivearch.
tlistthecontentslikelsl.
Examples:
tarcvf/dev/rmt/0/bin/usr/bin(Createanarchiveof/binand/usr/bin,show
thecommandworkungandwritethetapein/dev/rmt/0).
tartvf/dev/rmt/0(listthearchivescontentinaformatlikelsl).
tarxvf/dev/rmt/0/bin(Extractthe/bindirectory)

tty[options]

Printthedevicenameofyourterminal.

CompiledbyAluiziousingthebookUNIXINANUTSHELL,ArnoldRobbins,O'ReillyEd.,4thedition,2005,ISBN0596100299.

stty[options]
[modes]

SetterminalI/Ooptionstothecurrentdevice.
Asaprivilegeduser,youcansetorreadsettingsfromanotherdeviceusingthe
syntax:stty[options][modes]<device
Fdevicereadorchangesettingsofdeviceterminalinsteadofthecurrent
terminal.
controlmodes(n(setterminalbaudrateton(e.g.19200)),inputmodes,output
modes,etc.

umount[options]
[arguments]

Unmountafilesystem.Announcestothesystemthaaremovablefilestructure
previouslymountedonthespecifieddirectoryistoberemoved.Abusy
filesystem(withopenfilesorwithadirectorythatissomeprocesses's
currentlydirectory)cannotbeunmounted.
aummountallfilesystemsspecifiedin/etc/mtab.
fforcetheummount.

users[file]

Displaythecurrentlyloggedinusersasaspacedseparatedlist.

which[options]
[files]

Listwhichfilesareexecutedifthenamedcommandsarerunasacommand.
whichreadstheuser's.cshrcfile(usingthesourcebuiltincommand),
checkingaliasesandsearchingthepathvariable.
aprintallmatches,notjustthefirst
example:$whichfilels
/usr/bin/file
:lsaliasedtolssFC

who[options][file] Withnooptions,listthenamesofuserscurrentlyloggedintothesystem.
amiprintusernameoftheinvokinguser(similartoid)
ureportterminalusage.Presentidletime(HOURS:MINUTES,.(dotless
thanoneminute),orold(morethan24h).
Hprintheadings.