Useful UNIX Utilities for Shell Programmers

Useful UNIX Utilities for Shell Programmers
at—at, batch—execute commands at a later time
awk—pattern scanning and processing language
banner—make posters
basename—with a directory name delivers portions of the pathname
bc—processes precision arithmetic
bdiff—compares two big files
cal—displays a calendar
cat—concatenates and displays files
chmod—change the permissions mode of a file
chown—changes owner of file
clear—clears the terminal screen
cmp—compares two files
compress—compress, uncompress, zcat compress, uncompress files, or display expanded files
cp—copies files
cpio—copy file archives in and out
cron—the clock daemon
crypt—encodes or decodes a file
cut—removes selected fields or characters from each line of a file
date—displays the date and time or sets the date
diff—compares two files for differences diff [–bitw] [–c | –Cn
du—summarizes disk usage
echo—echoes arguments
egrep—searches a file for a pattern using full regular expressions
expr—evaluates arguments as an expression
fgrep—search a file for a character string
file—determines the type of a file by looking at its contents
find—finds files
finger—displays information about local and remote users
fmt—simple text formatters
fold—folds long lines
ftp—file transfer program
getopt(s)—parses command line options
grep—searches a file for a pattern
groups—prints group membership of user
id—prints the username, user ID, group name and group ID
jsh—the standard, job control shell
line—reads one line
logname—gets the name of the user running the process
lp—sends output to a printer (AT&T)
lpr—sends output to a printer (UCB)
lpstat—print information about the status of the LP print service (AT&T)
lpq—print information about the status of the printer (UCB)
ls—lists contents of directory
mail—mail, rmail—read mail or send mail to users
mailx—interactive message processing system
make—maintains, updates, and regenerates groups of related programs and files
mesg—permits or denies messages resulting from the write command
mkdir—creates a directory
more—browse or page through a text file
mv—move or rename files
nawk—pattern scanning and processing language
newgrp—log in to a new group
news—prints news items
nice—runs a command at low priority
nohup—makes commands immune to hangups and quits
od—octal dump
pack—pack, pcat, unpack—compresses and expands files
passwd—changes the login password and password attributes
paste—merges same lines of several files or subsequent lines of one file
pcat—(see pack)
pg—displays files a page at a time
pr—prints files
ps—reports process status
pwd—displays the present working directory name
rcp—remote file copy
rlogin—remote login
rm—removes files from directories
rmdir—removes a directory
rsh—starts a remote shell
ruptime—shows the host status of local machines
rwho—who is logged in on local machines
script—creates a typescript of a terminal session
sed—streamlined editor
size—prints section sizes in bytes of object files
sleep—suspends execution for some number of seconds
sort—sort and/or merge files
spell—finds spelling errors
split—splits a file into pieces
strings—finds any printable strings in an object or binary file
stty—sets the options for a terminal
su—become superuser or another user
sum—calculates a checksum for a file
sync—updates the superblock and sends changed blocks to disk
tabs—set tab stops on a terminal
tail—displays the tail end of a file.
talk—allows you to talk to another user
tar—stores and retrieves files from an archive file, normally a tape device
tee—replicates the standard output
telnet—communicates with a remote host
test—evaluates an expression
time—displays a summary of time used by this shell and its children
timex—times a command; reports process data and system activity
touch—updates access time and/or modification time of a file
tput—initializes a terminal or queries the terminfo database
tr—translates characters
true—provide successful exit status
tsort —topological sort
tty—gets the name of the terminal
umask—sets file-creation mode mask for permissions
uname—prints name of current machine
uncompress—restores files to their original state after they have been compressed using the
compress command
uniq—reports on duplicate lines in a file
units—converts quantities expressed in standard scales to other scales
unpack—expands files created by pack
uucp—copy files to another system, UNIX-to-UNIX system copy
uuencode—uuencode, uudecode—encode a binary file into ASCII text in order to send it through email,or convert it back into its original form
wc—counts lines, words, and characters
what—extracts SCCS version information from a file by printing information found after the @(#)
pattern
which—locates a command and displays its pathname or alias (UCB)
whereis—locates the binary, source, and manual page files for a command (UCB)
who—displays who is logged on the system
write—writes a message to another user
xargs—constructs an argument list(s) and executes a command
zcat—uncompress a compressed file to standard output. Same as uncompress –c