Information Technology Services - Computing, Networking and Storage

Unix Commands and Utilities

Customizing Your Unix Environment

  • Aliases allow you to define a shortcut for a command or series of commands.

    Command(s): alias

  • Customization allows you to set parameters for your shell and sessions.

    Command(s): set setenv source

  • Finger allows you to check the user information for an account.

    Command(s): finger chfn

General Account Usage

  • Printing from your Unix account.

    Command(s): lpr lpq lprm enscript printers file

  • Process Control allows you to list and manage processes running under your account.

    Command(s): ps kill bg fg stop jobs

  • Quota manages the limits placed on the amount of disk space you can use. Commands allow you to check your current usage and quota.

    Command(s): quota ls du

File and Directory Commands

  • Directory commands allow you to create, remove, and navigate UNIX directories.

    Command(s): ls mkdir rmdir rm cd pwd cp mv pushd popd dirs

  • File commands allow you to create, remove, and view files in UNIX.

    Command(s): ls rm mv cp more less cat file diff

  • File and Directory Permissions allow you to add/remove access to files and directories in your account for other users.

    Command(s): chmod

  • Access Control Lists allow you to give specific users (one or more) access to a single file and/or directory in your account.

    Command(s): setfacl getfacl

File Compression and Transfer

  • Tar is a file archiving command that allows you to bundle a number of files and/or directories together into a single file that can be easily transferred between computers.

    Command(s): tar

  • File Compression allows you to reduce the size of a file for storage or transfer.

    Command(s): compress uncompress pack unpack zip unzip gzip gunzip zcat zmore zdiff zcmp gzexe zgrep

  • File Transfer commands allow you to move files between systems.

    Command(s): ftp kermit xyzmodem rcp

Text File Searching and Manipulation

  • Grep commands allow you to search text files for a particular expression (text string).

    Command(s): grep agrep egrep fgrep zgrep

  • Filtering Text Files can be used to retrieve, replace or remove certain text strings in a UNIX file or group of files.

    Command(s): awk sed grep

Online Help

  • Learn provides an interactive introduction/tutorial to the UNIX system.

    Command(s): learn

  • Man Pages provide descriptions and usage information for UNIX commands. Information about any command listed on this page can be found.

    Command(s): man apropos help whatis

Last Updated: Friday, June 02, 2006 at 12:07PM PDT