Basic UNIX Commands

/

File System root

\~

Home directory

.

current directory

..

parent directory

ls

list directory contents

find

search for files in a directory hierarchy

mkdir

make directory

rmdir

remove empty directories

cd

change working directories

pwd

print name of working directory

chmod

change permissions of directories

mv

move or rename files

rm

remove files or directories

echo

display a line of text

printf

format and print data

cat

concatenate files and print the standard output

tac

concatenate and print files in reverse

less

page through text one screenful at a time

head

output the first few lines of files

tail

output the last few lines of files

read

read a line from standard input

cal

display calendar

wc

print newline word and byte counts for each file

nl

number of lines of files

sort

sorts lines of text files

uniq

report or omit repeated lines

cut

remove sections from each line of files

paste

merge lines of files

join

join lines of two files on a common field

sed

stream editor for fildering and transforming text

date

print or set the system date and time

touch

change file timestamps

basename

stripa pathname from components

expr

evaluate expressions

ps

report a snapshot of the current processes

sleep

delay for a specified amount of time

exit

cause the shell to exit

>

redirect to standard output (wipe existing)

>>

redirect standard output (append to exisiting)

<

redirect standard input

|

combine commands

tee

read from standard input and write to standard output and files

man

an interface to the system reference manuals