The following is a list of the most common UNIX commands. You can use
these either in an Xterm window, or through telnet.
wildcard expansion
Instead of specifing filenames, you can also specify lists of files that
have certain characters in common using wildcards. ?
represents one character and * represents zero or more
characters. For example, report? refers to filnames like
reports, report1, report2, etc. and
h* refers to all files beginning with h.
tab completion
When you are typing filenames at the UNIX prompt, if you type the first
few letters and hit the tab key, an attempt will be made to fill in the
entire filename for you. If there are multiple matches then only the
characters that both matches have in common will be filled in.
ls
The ls command displays a list of files. The most common
usage is ls -la, which specifies that detailed information
about each file should be given, and that all files, including hidden
files, should be listed. If the list scrolls by too fast, then you can
type ls -la | more to view the output one page at a time.
cd
The cd command lets you change the current working directory.
You can either specify the full path or a directory relative to the
current directory. For exmaple if the current directory is dir1
and you want to change to /dir1/sub1, you can either use
cd sub1 or cd /dir1/sub1. cd ..
changes to the parent directory and cd ~ changes to your home
directory.
mkdir
The mkdir command is used to make new directories. Similar
to cd, the name of the directory can use relative or absolute
paths.
rmdir
The rmdir command is used to delete directories.
cp
The cp command is used to copy files. You must specify the
source file to be copied and its destination. The destination of the file
can either be specified by filename or by the directory that the file
should be copied to. For example, you would type cp temp.txt ..
if you wanted to copy a file called temp.txt to the parent
directory.
mv
The mv is used to move files. As with the cp
command, both the source and destination must be specified.
rm
The rm command is used to remove files. The only thing that
must be specified is the filename to be removed.
chmod
The chmod command is used to change permissions of a specified
file. You must specify the new permissions before the filename.
passwd
The passwd command is used to change your password. You will
first be promted for your current password and then twice for the new
password, to make sure that you did not mistype it. For security reasons
the password will not be displayed on the screen as you type it.
man
Arguably the most important command is the man command. This
command will display an instruction manual about any unix command. All the
details are covered in a concise format. For example, if you wanted to
learn exactly what all the options the ls command has, you
can type man ls. Use the space bar to advance page by page
or use q to quit.
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