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Brief overview of Unix and Linux commands

Below is a listing of each of the Unix and Linux commands currently listed on Computer Hope and a brief explanation of what each of the commands do. This is a full listing which means not all the below commands will work with your distribution and may also not work because of your privileges. Clicking on any of the commands will display additional help and information about that command.
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your question? Command a2p Description Creates a Perl script from an awk script. Prints statistics about users' connect time. Create a name for another command or long command string. Maintain portable archive or library. Display the architecture of the current host. Manipulate the system ARP cache. An assembler. Command scheduler. Awk script processing program.
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Yes

No

ac

alias

ar

arch

arp

as at awk
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basename

Deletes any specified prefix from a string. Command Bourne interpreter Calculator. Compare large files. Editor for large files. Continues a program running in the background. Enable and disable incoming mail notifications. Break out of while, for, foreach, or until loop. Battleship game. Alias often used for the exit command. Calendar.
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bash bc bdiff bfs bg

biff

break

bs bye

cal
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calendar

Display appointments and reminders. Cancels a print job. View or modify a file. C compiler. Change directory. Change directory. Language processors to assist in describing equations. Check nroff and troff files for any errors. Modify your own information or if super user or root modify another users information. Change a groups access to a file or directory.
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cancel cat cc cd chdir checkeq

checknr

chfn

chgrp

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chkey

Change the secure RPC key pair. Change the permission of a file. Change the ownership of a file. Change login shell. Display and calculate a CRC for files. Clears screen. Alias often used to clear a screen. Compare files. Reverse line-feeds filter. Compare files and select or reject lines that are common. Compress files on a
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chmod

chown

chsh cksum

clear cls

cmp col comm

compress
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computer. continue Break out of while, for, foreach, or until loop. Copy files. Copy files. Creates archived CPIO files. Create and list files that you wish to run on a regular schedule. Execute the C shell command interpreter Split files based on context. Create a tag file for use with ex and vi. Calls or connects to another Unix system, terminal or non-Unix system. Transfer a URL.
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copy cp cpio crontab

csh

csplit ctags

cu

curl
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cut

Cut out selected fields of each line of a file. Tells you the date and time in Unix. An arbitrary precision arithmetic package. Convert and copy a file. Display the available disk space for each mount. Removes nroff/troff, tbl, and eqn constructs. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client. Displays two files and prints the lines that are different. DNS lookup utility. Lists the different files when comparing directories.
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date

dc

dd df

deroff

dhclient

diff

dig dircmp
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dirname

Deliver portions of path names. Print or control the kernel ring buffer. Converts text files between DOS and Unix formats. Translates files created by troff into PostScript. Tells you how much space a file occupies. Displays text after echo to the terminal. Line oriented file editor. Text editor. Search a file for a pattern using full regular expressions. Program command used to
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dmesg

dos2unix

dpost

du

echo

ed edit egrep

elm
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send and receive e-mail. emacs enable Text editor. Enables and disables LP printers. Displays environment variables. Language processors to assist in describing equations. Line-editor mode of the vi text editor. Exit from a program, shell or log you out of a Unix network. Expand copies of file s. Evaluate arguments as an expression. The FC utility lists or edits and re-executes, commands
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env

eqn

ex

exit

expand expr

fc
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and re-executes, commands previously entered to an interactive sh. fg Continues a stopped job by running it in the foreground Search a file for a fixedcharacter string. Tells you if the object you are looking at is a file or if it is a directory. Finds one or more files assuming that you know their approximate filenames. List info about machines that respond to SMB name queries on a subnet. Lists information about the user. Simple text formatters. Filter for folding lines.
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fgrep

file

find

findsmb

finger

fmt fold
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for

Shell built-in functions to repeatedly execute action(s) for a selected number of times. Shell built-in functions to repeatedly execute action(s) for a selected number of times. Display amount of free and used memory in the system Converts text files between DOS and Unix formats. Check and repair a Linux file system. Enables ftp access to another terminal. Display discretionary file information. The gprof utility produces an execution profile of a
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foreach

free

fromdos

fsck

ftp

getfacl

gprof
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program. grep groupadd Finds text within a file. Creates a new group account. Enables a super user or root to remove a group. Enables a super user or root to modify a group. Expand compressed files. A programmers text editor. A programmers text editor. Compress files. Stop the computer. Remove internal hash table. Display the hash stats. Displays the first ten lines of
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groupdel

groupmod

gunzip gview gvim gzip halt hash hashstat head

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a file, unless otherwise stated. help If computer has online help documentation installed this command will display it. Display the history of commands typed. DNS lookup utility. Prints the numeric identifier for the current host. Set or print name of current host system. Shows you the numeric user and group ID on BSD. Sets up network interfaces. Take a network interface down. Bring a network interface up.
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history

host hostid

hostname

id

ifconfig ifdown

ifup
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info init ip

Read Info documents. Process control initialization. Show and manipulate routing, devices, policy routing and tunnels. Display the native instruction sets executable on this platform. List the jobs currently running in the background. Joins command forms together. Decrypt the user's secret key. Cancels a job. Korn shell command interpreter. Link-editor for object files.
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isalist

jobs

join

keylogin

kill ksh

ld
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ldd

List dynamic dependencies of executable files or shared objects. Opposite of the more command. Generate programs for lexical tasks. Calls the link function to create a link to a file. Creates a link to a file. Allows you to exit from a program, shell or log you out of a Unix network. List files in databases that match a pattern. Signs into a new system. Returns users login name. Logs out of a system.
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less

lex

link

ln lo

locate

login logname logout

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lp

Prints a file on System V systems. Configure the LP print service. Line printer control program. Lists the status of all the available printers. Submits print requests. Removes print requests from the print queue. Lists status of the LP print services. Lists the contents of a directory. Display the processor of the current host. One of the ways that allows you to read/send E-Mail.
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lpadmin

lpc lpq

lpr lprm

lpstat

ls

mach

mail

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mailcompat

Provide SunOS 4.x compatibility for the Solaris mailbox format. Mail interactive message processing system. Executes a list of shell commands associated with each target. Display a manual of a command. Control if non-root users can send text messages to you. View, manipulate mediaindependent interface status. Create a directory. Build a Linux file system, usually a hard disk partition. Displays text one screen at a
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mailx

make

man

mesg

mii-tool

mkdir mkfs

more
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time. mount Creates a file systems and remote resources. Magnetic tape control. Renames a file or moves it from one directory to another directory. TCP/IP swiss army knife. Language processors to assist in describing equations. Shows network status. Install new elm aliases for user or system. Change the format of a text file. Log into a new group. Invokes a command with an
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mt mv

nc neqn

netstat newalias

newform

newgrp nice
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altered scheduling priority. niscat Display NIS+ tables and objects. Change access rights on a NIS+ object. Change the owner of a NIS+ object. Change the time to live value of a NIS+ object. Display NIS+ default values. Utilities for searching NIS+ tables. Utilities for searching NIS+ tables. Change NIS+ password information. NIS+ table administration command.
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nischmod

nischown

nischttl

nisdefaults nisgrep

nismatch

nispasswd

nistbladm

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nmap

Network exploration tool and security port scanner. Runs a command even if the session is disconnected or the user logs out. Formats documents for display or line-printer. Queries a name server for a host or domain lookup. Execute a command on a remote system, but with the local environment. Shell built-in functions to respond to (hardware) signals. Determine which variant instruction set is optimal to use. Shrinks file into a compressed file.
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nohup

nroff

nslookup

on

onintr

optisa

pack

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pagesize

Display the size of a page of memory in bytes, as returned by getpagesize. Allows you to change your password. Merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files. Read/write and writes lists of the members of archive files and copy directory hierarchies. Compresses file. Perl is a programming language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files. Files perusal filters for CRTs. Examine the active processes on the system and
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passwd

paste

pax

pcat perl

pg pgrep
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reports the process IDs of the processes pico Simple and very easy to use text editor in the style of the Pine Composer. Command line program for Internet News and Email. Sends ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts. Examine the active processes on the system and reports the process IDs of the processes Stop the computer. Formats a file to make it look better when printed. Display's or set scheduling parameters of specified process(es)

pine

ping

pkill

poweroff pr

priocntl

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printf ps pvs

Write formatted output. Reports the process status. Display the internal version information of dynamic objects within an ELF file. Print the current working directory. Allows you to exit from a program, shell or log you out of a Unix network. Copies files from one computer to another computer. Stop the computer. Line oriented file editor. Recomputes the internal hash table of the contents of directories listed in the path. Runs a command on another
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pwd

quit

rcp

reboot red rehash

remsh
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remsh

Runs a command on another computer. Shell built-in functions to repeatedly execute action(s) for a selected number of times. A string-replacement utility. A programmers text editor. A programmers text editor. Establish a remote connection from your terminal to a remote machine. Deletes a file without confirmation (by default). One of the ways that allows you to read/send E-Mail. Deletes a directory. Reads newsgroups.
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repeat

replace rgview rgvim rlogin

rm

rmail

rmdir rn
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route

Show and manipulate the IP routing table. Report RPC information. Runs a command on another computer. Faster, flexible replacement for rcp. A programmers text editor. A programmers text editor. Convert a sed script into a Perl script. Graphically displays the system activity data stored in a binary data file by a previous sar run. Displays the activity for the CPU. Screen manager with VT100/ANSI terminal
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rpcinfo rsh

rsync

rview rvim s2p

sag

sar

screen
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VT100/ANSI terminal emulation. script Records everything printed on your screen. Compares two files, side-byside. Allows you to use prerecorded commands to make changes to text. Sends mail over the Internet. Set the value of an environment variable. Set the value of an environment variable. Modify the Access Control List (ACL) for a file or files. Change file access and modification time. Secure file transfer program.
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sdiff

sed

sendmail set

setenv

setfacl

settime

sftp
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sh

Runs or processes jobs through the Bourne shell. Delete a file securely, first overwriting it to hide its contents. Turn off the computer immediately or at a specified time. Waits a x amount of seconds. OpenSSH SSH client (remote login program). An ftp-like client to access SMB/CIFS resources on servers. Sorts the lines in a text file. Looks through a text file and reports any words that it finds in the text file that are not in the dictionary.
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shred

shutdown

sleep

slogin

smbclient

sort spell

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split stat

Split a file into pieces. Display file or filesystem status. Control process execution. Discard symbols from object files. Sets options for your terminal. Become super user or another user. Get and set system information strings. Linux system logging utilities. Set tabs on a terminal. Delivers the last part of the file.

stop strip

stty

su

sysinfo

sysklogd

tabs tail

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talk

Talk with other logged in users. Concatenate and print files in reverse. Create tape archives and add or extract files. Preprocessor for formatting tables for nroff or troff. Copy a magnetic tape. Dump traffic on a network. Read from an input and write to a standard output or file. Process control initialization. Uses the telnet protocol to connect to another remote computer. Check file types and compare values.
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tac

tar

tbl

tcopy tcpdump tee

telinit telnet

test

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time

Used to time a simple command. The timex command times a command; reports process data and system activity. Converts text files between DOS and Unix formats. Display Linux tasks. Change file access and modification time. Initialize a terminal or query terminfo database. Translate characters. Print the route packets take to network host. Typeset or format documents. Print the file name of the terminal connected to
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timex

todos

top touch

tput

tr traceroute

troff

tty
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terminal connected to standard input. ul Reads the named filenames or terminal and does underlining. Get or set the file mode creation mask. Remove an alias. Remove internal hash table. Print name of current system. Uncompressed compressed files. Report or filter out repeated lines in a file. Call the unlink function to remove the specified file. Disconnects a file systems and remote resources.
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umask

unalias unhash uname

uncompress

uniq

unlink

unmount

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unpack untar

Expands a compressed file. Create tape archives and add or extract files. Execute a set of actions while/until conditions are evaluated TRUE. List, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archive. Create a new user or updates default new user information. Remove a users account. Modify a users account. Reply to mail automatically. Screen-oriented (visual) display editor based on ex. Grind nice program listings
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until

unzip

useradd

userdel usermod vacation vedit

vgrind
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vi

Screen-oriented (visual) display editor based on ex. A programmers text editor. A programmers text editor. Show who is logged on and what they are doing. Await process completion. Displays a count of lines, words, and characters in a file Locate a binary, source, and manual page files for a command. Repetitively execute a set of actions while/until conditions are evaluated TRUE. Locate a command. Displays who is on the system.
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vim view w

wait wc

whereis

while

which who
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system. whoami whois Print effective userid. Internet user name directory service. Send a message to another user. Execute the X windows system. Display all the characters in an X font. Server font list displayer for X. User preference utility for X. Terminal emulator for X. X server resource database utility. Short for yet another compiler-compiler, yacc is a compiler.
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write

xfd

xlsfonts

xset xterm xrdb

yacc

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yes

Repeatedly output a line with all specified STRING(s), or 'y'. Changes network password in the NIS database. Compress files. Compression and file packaging utility. Back to Linux and Unix home

yppasswd

zcat zip

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