What follows is a list of "basic" and most commonly used Unix Commands. Pointers to where "exhaustive" lists can be found here.

Directory related commands

• cd - change working directory
• ls - list contents of a directory
• mkdir - create a new directory
• pwd - prints name of current working directory
• rmdir - remove an empty directory

File related commands

• cat - concatenate one or more files; display file without paging
• file - determine file type
• head - displays first 10 lines of a file
• more - displays contents of a file with paging (on SVR32 MPC use pg)
• tail - displays last 10 lines of a file
• view - allows "vi" capabilities in viewing a file

File manipulation commands

• cp - copy a file
• mv - move a file (rename)
• rm - remove a file (delete)
• chgrp - assign a file to a group
• chmod - change access mode of a file

Printer spooler commands

• enscript - convert text files to POSTSCRIPT format
• lpq - display printer queues
• lpr - spool a file to the printer
• lprm - remove a file from the print queue

Process related commands

• kill - terminate a process
• nice - start a process at a specified priority
• nohup - start a process to continue after logout
• ps - show a process status
• jobs - list the processes that are stopped or running in the background.

File system info

• df - show free space on mounted file system
• du - show space usage for an entire directory

Miscellaneous commands

• compress - compress a file
• grep - searches file for lines that match a pattern
• sort - sort a file
• diff - show differences between files
• find - locate a file if the full path is unknown
• spell - spell checker

This is how to tell if you are a real unix wizard.

last modified by Bill Poole on 4-Apr-97.
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