Introduction to Unix Commands

An operating system offering both Graphical User Interface (GUI)

and Command Line Interface (CLI) based interaction developed by

Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Brian Kernighan, Joe Ossanna and

Douglas Mcllroy at Bell laboratory in the year 1970 known as a

multi-tasking operating system allowing multiple users to work on the

operating system simultaneously and provides commands for the

users to interact with the application through Command Line Interface

(CLI) like ls command, clear command, mkdir command, rmdir

command, cat command, vi command, rm command, mv command,

su command, chmod command, sudo command etc. which can be

used to perform complex tasks.

What is Unix?
Unix is as an operating system which offers both the GUI and CLI

based interaction. It is developed in C language by Dennis Ritchie.

Unix is a multitasking operating system that also provides an

opportunity for multiple users to utilize its feature. In simple terms,

it’s also a multiuser operating system. Ubuntu operating system is a

version of Unix which let us do all the work that Unix is supposed to

do.

Though it is preferred by professionals who work with servers and all,

it is also preferred when it comes to learning how a command line

based OS works. There are several complex and large applications

that use Unix to run due to its feature to manage the processes in an

easy manner. When compared with the Windows OS, it is a bit fast

and offers good user experience as well.

1. Ls command
This Unix command is used to show all the files and folders at your

current location. The current location could be seen in the blue text

that is just previous to the dollar sign. Here the current location is

Desktop.
2. Clear Command
This command is used to clear the screen. It doesn’t delete anything

written on the screen but just makes the current line to look like it is
the first line. In the below picture shows the before and after images

while using clear command.

3. Mkdir command
This Unix command is used to make a new directory at your current

location. In the below image we are at the Desktop and using

the mkdir command to create a directory named “newdir” there. The

directory could be witnesses in blue color.

4. Rmdir command
This command will be used to remove the directory. In the below

image you can see that in the second line, the newdir is present, but

after we executed the rmdir command, it has deleted the newdir

folder.
5. Cat command
Cat command is used to read the data written on any file. It could also

be used to append the data in the file and can overwrite on it. We have
seen that in the desktop location we have a file names test.css. We

will see what is written on that file using cat command.

6. Vi Command
Vi command is the most useful command that is used to fetch the data

written on any file on the terminal and also let us make the changes at

the same time. Regardless of the size and type of the file, we can edit

those using the Vi command if they have text written on it. Here we

will add extra data in the test.css file.

7. Rm command
The rm command is used to delete the files at your current location. In

our case, we are at Desktop that has the test.css file, Now we will try
to delete that file using the rm command. In the second line, it shows

test.css present there but after running rm command, that file has been

removed
8. Mv command
The mv command can be used for two purposes, for renaming and for

moving file or folder. Here we will rename the page.html file to

newpage.html. Please note that if you will try to move the file in the

same folder, it will rename it and if you will try to move it to another

directory, it will get moved there.

9. Su command
Su command is used when we need to switch the user. In the below

picture, we will be able to see that the current user is Vishal and after
we used the su command to login as root, the user name will be

changed. The user name can be seen in the red text on the left side of

the dollar mark.

10. Chmod command
The chmod command is used when we have to change the permission

of any file. Here we have the newpage.html file. The file has read and
run permission to the owner, read permission to the group and read

permission to others. We will use the chmod command to give all

permission to everyone.
11. Sudo command
There are some commands that the only root is authorized to execute.

Here we will be executing a command that could lead to making some

changes in the system and hence it couldn’t be executed with other

users. We have to use Sudo command to make it work.

Tips and Tricks to Use Unix command
In the above sections, we went through the simple commands to some

sophisticated commands. Though the commands are very less in the

count, it could be used with several arguments to perform some of the

complex tasks. For instance, the ls command can be used to check

which file and directories are available at your current location but it

could be used as -an argument to uncover all the hidden files at the

same location.

Every command has some of the argument allocated to it that could

be used on with those particular commands. In order to check which

arguments are there for any specific command you can use –help the

argument. In the below image, we will see all the arguments that

could be used with chmod command. The keywords or arguments

have to be followed by — while writing in the command line.

Conclusion
Unix is an operating system popular for its command line interface. It

is comprised of numerous commands that facilitate users interaction

with the hardware. The command in Unix is actually the mean of

communication while working through the terminal. In addition to

CLI, it also offers the graphical user interface that adds more beauty

to the pre-existing features of Unix.