Unix Command Reference

 
Default Terminal Keys
Rubout previous character             <BackSpace>
Erase this line 		      C-u
Stop console output 		      C-s
Resume console output 		      C-q

Listing File Names:   ls
List file names (alphabetical order)  ls
Show hidden files 		      ls -a
Show permissions 		      ls -l
List in chronological order 	      ls -t

Displaying file contents
Print on console 	              cat filename
Print on printer 		      lpr filename
Print first n lines                   head [-n] filename
Print last  n lines                   tail [-n] filename
Print one screenful at a time 	      more filename
   Next page within more 	      <Space>
   Previous page within more 	      b
   Searching within more 	      /pattern
Print line(s) containing string       grep string filename


Mail
Read your new mail 		      mail
Read your old mail 		      mail -f
Send from console to another user     mail username
Send file to another user 	      mail [-s "subject"] username  < filename


File Maintenance
Copy a file 		              cp currentfilename copyfilename
Delete a file 		              rm filename
Rename a file 		              mv oldname newname
Show differences between files 	      diff leftfile rightfile
In which directory is your file?      find . -name filename  -print


Directories
Show the current directory 	      pwd
Switch to a directory 		      cd directoryname
Back up one level in the tree 	      cd ..
Create a directory 		      mkdir directoryname
Remove a directory 		      rmdir directoryname
Moving a file to a directory 	      mv filename directoryname (both must exist)
Moving a directory to new location    mv directoryname newparentdirectory
        		                (both must exist)

Date and Calendar
Date and time of day 		      date
Calendar 		              cal [[mm] yyyy]


Users
Seeing who is logged in		      who or  finger
Getting a username 		      finger lastname
Changing identities 		      su username
Seeing who you are 		      whoami
                   		      who am i

Changing machines
Logging on to another machine 	      rsh hostname
Logging out from any machine 	      logout
Which machine is this? 		      hostname


Information about a command
Man pages		              man command
Starting Infoexplorer		      info


Filename substitution
Wild card symbols	              ? *
Your home directory 		      ~ 
Home directory of another user 	      ~username


I/O redirection and pipes
Standard output 		      >
Standard input  		      <
Append to standard output 	      >>
Pipes/pipelines 		      |

Sorting
Sort alphabetically on first word     sort
Sort in numeric order 		      sort -n
Sort on n+1 st field 	              sort +n


tcsh command history
List previous commands 		      history
Repeat previous command               !!
Move up in history list 	      Ctrl-p (previous)
Move down in history 		      Ctrl-n (next)
Cursor left to edit command 	      Ctrl-b (backwards)
Cursor right to edit command 	      Ctrl-f (forwards)
Delete character in command 	      Ctrl-d
Repeat nth command in history         !n
Repeat command beginning with str     !str


tcsh, csh job control
Run command in the background 	      command &
Stop foreground job 		      C-z
Run stopped job in foreground 	      fg
Run stopped job in background 	      bg
List background jobs 		      jobs
Bring job foreward 		      %[n]
Run command at lower priority 	      nice command


tcsh miscellaneous
Filename, command name completion     <Tab>
List possible completions 	      Ctrl-d
Spelling correction 		      ESC s
Define alias 		              alias name 'definition'


csh environment
List current settings 		      env
Change setting 		              setenv VARIABLE value


Process control
List your processes 		      ps
Tell a process to die		      kill PID
Kill without mercy 		      kill -9 PID
Timing 		                      time command

• References
• About this document ...