apropos  

Searches the man pages for a keyword you specify. The name of the man page is in the first column.

systemname.domain.pdx.edu> apropos floppy
eject  eject (1) - eject media such as CD-ROM and floppy from drive
fd     fd (7d)   - drivers for floppy disks and floppy disk controllers
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.
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cat

This command will display the contents of a file.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> cat filename

cd

Use cd to Change Directories. NOTE: If directoryname is not in the current directory you must include the path.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> cd directoryname
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> cd path/directoryname

chgrp

CHanges the GRouP a file belongs to.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> chgrp groupname filename

chmod

This command allows either the owner of the file or the owner of the directory to CHange MODes (file permissions).
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> chmod go+rx filename

Modes:

• u ~ user's permissions
• g ~ group's permissions
• o ~ other's permissions
• a ~ all permissions (user, group, and other)
• + ~ add permissions
• - ~ remove permissions

clear

This command clears the screen.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> clear

cp

Use cp to CoPy files.
 systemname.domain.pdx.edu> cp source_filename target_filename

diff

This command can be used to look for DIFFerences between two files.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> diff fileA fileB

exit

If you initialize a new shell with a command like csh you can use the built-in shell function exit to quit the new shell.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> exit

find

This command will recursively descend the directory you specify to locate files.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> find directory -name filename -print

grep

Use this command to search a file or standard out for a pattern (string) you specify.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> grep pattern filename

groups

Use this command to show the groups a user belongs to.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> groups username

gunzip

Use this command to uncompress a zipped file (zipped files have a .gz suffix).
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> gunzip filename.gz

gzip

Use this command to compress (zip) a file (when a file is zipped the .gz suffix is added automatically).
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> gzip filename

kill

Use this command to terminate runaway processes that you own (type the command ps to find your active processes and their PIDs - process identity numbers).
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> kill -9 PID#

ln

Use this command to create a link, which allows a file to be accessed by a different name. Links may be removed with the rm command.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> ln sourcefile linkname

logout  

Use this built-in shell function to logout of your current login shell.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> logout

lpq

Shows the print queue of the printer you specify.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> lpq -Pprintername

lpr

Use this command to print a file.
 systemname.domain.pdx.edu> lpr -Pprintername filename

lprm

This command is used to remove a jop from the print queue (use lpq to find the job number).

systemname.domain.pdx.edu> lprm -Pprintername job#
Printer printername@speedracer:
  checking perms 'username@hostname+job#'
  dequeued 'username@hostname+job#'

ls

This command ListS the contents of the directory. Add the -l option to view the "Long format," which shows the mode (permissions), number of links, owner, group, size in bytes, time of last modification, and file or directory name.

systemname.domain.pdx.edu> ls -l 
total 12
drwxr-xr-x   2 user     group         512 Oct 23  2000 Directoryname1
-rw-------   1 user     group        1802 Dec 20  1999 Filename1
drw-------   7 user     group        1024 May 15 11:40 directoryname2
-rw-------   1 user     group          64 Mar  5 12:20 filename2

man

Use the man command to view the complete MANual page or "man page" that you select by name.

 systemname.domain.pdx.edu> man ls
Reformatting page. Wait...

mkdir

Use this command to MaKe a DIRectory.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> mkdir directoryname

more

Displays the contents of a file or standard out one page at a time. Press ‹Space› to go to the next page.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> more filename

systemname.domain.pdx.edu> ls | more
Directoryname1
Filename1
directoryname2
filename2
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--More--

mv

Use this command to rename or MoVe a file to another directory.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> mv source_filename target_filename

ps

Shows information about processes. You can use the command shown below to see the full listing of every processes you have running, or just type ps to see the short listing of your active processes.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> ps -ef | grep username

pwd

This command shows the full path of your Present Working Directory.

systemname.domain.pdx.edu> pwd
/u/username/directoryname

rm

Use rm to ReMove files from a directory. You will not be able to recover a file that has been deleted!
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> rm filename

rmdir

Use rmdir to ReMove an empty DIRectory. You will not be able to recover a directory that has been deleted!
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> rmdir directoryname

source

Reads commands from a file. For example, if you make changes to your .cshrc file and you don't want to logout and then log back in for the changes to take effect, just source the file:
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> source ~/.cshrc

ssh

This program is a Secure SHell client. Use ssh to login to remote computers.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> ssh username@hostname.domain.pdx.edu

tar

Use this command to archive files or directories.

This example will archive the directory directory_to_tar and all of it's files and subdirectories to an archive called new_archive.tar :
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> tar cvf new_archive.tar directory_to_tar

This example will extract all of the files (and directories) from the archive named tarfile.tar into the directory called target_directory :
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> tar xvf tarfile.tar target_directory

touch

Use this command to set the access and modification times of a file, or if the file named doesn't exist, touch will create an new, empty file.
systemname.domain.pdx.edu> touch filename

which

This built-in shell function shows you where a command or binary (executable), is located (i.e. "WHICH one" you are using).

systemname.domain.pdx.edu> which netscape
/usr/local/bin/X11/netscape