Do Some Basic UNIX
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Some basic unix commands
Want more? Try the excellent tutorials at FreeEngineer.org, Mayo, UnixGeeks.org or Idaho state and, of course, the bash manual
Command | Meaning |
---|---|
man function | show the manual page for a function |
id | list your personal user id, username, and the groups you belong to. |
id username | list username's id, username, and the groups they belong to. |
top | shows currently running processes - do not leave this running for more than 30sec (ctrl-c) |
ps | show the names of all running processes |
mkdir dir_name | create a sub-directory of the current directory |
rmdir dir_name | remove a directory. You must remove files in the directory first. |
cp source dest | copy a file or directory from source to dest |
rm file_name | remove a file (permanent!) |
chmod xxx file_name | change the file permissions:
Three numbers indicate the permissions for the owner, the group and the world.
|
chgrp groupname filename | change the group that has access to the file. For example: chgrp bookheimergroup myWork |
ls | list contents of current directory |
ls -l | list the contents of the directory (long form, showing sizes) |
ls dir_name | list the contents of the named directory |
cd dir_name | change to the named directory |
pwd | show the name of the current directory |
. | the current directory |
.. | the parent directory of this directory |
more file_name | print out the contents of the named (text) file |
df | show the free space on the present disk |
du | show the disk usage on the system |
* | unix wild card - matches all file names (except those beginning with '.')
e.g. rm * will remove all files from the current directory! You will absolutely never type 'rm *'. Ever. Always type something like "ls *" first to verify what such a wildcard will match |
xemacs file_name textedit file_name |
These are all text editors that are found commonly on unix systems. Most people seem to prefer xemacs, but each has its adherents. |
? | matches any single character |