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Commonly used Unix commands

The following is a short list of Unix commands most users will need. For more information, try man command.

Starting and Ending

login: `Logging in'
ssh: Connect to another machine
logout: `Logging out'

File Management

emacs: `Using the emacs text editor'
mkdir: `Creating a directory'
cd: `Changing your current working directory'
ls: `Finding out what files you have'
cp: `Making a copy of a file'
mv: `Changing the name of a file'
rm: `Getting rid of unwanted files'
chmod: `Controlling access to your files'
cmp: Comparing two files
wc: Word, line, and character count
compress: Compress a file

Communication

e-mail: `Sending and receiving electronic mail'
talk: Talk to another user
write: Write messages to another user
sftp: Secure file transfer protocol

Information

man: Manual pages
quota -v: Finding out your available disk space quota
ical: `Using the Ical personal organizer'
finger: Getting information about a user
passwd: Changing your password
who: Finding out who's logged on

Printing

lpr: `Printing'
lprm: Removing a print job
lpq: Checking the print queues

Job control

ps: `Finding your processes'
kill: `Killing a process'
nohup: Continuing a job after logout
nice: Changing the priority of a job
&: `What is a background process?'
Cntrl-z: Suspending a process
fg: `Resuming a suspended process'

Next: Selecting a Unix shell
See also: Learning the basic Unix tools
Previous: Unix fundamentals
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R. G. Baer, gypsy@nmt.edu

Last updated: 2007/12/05 23:18:41 UT
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/unix/unix_cmd.html