Use the online manual pages to find out more about the following Unix commands.

Getting Around in Unix
Managing Your Own Account
Obtaining System and User Information
Monitoring System Access
 

Getting Around in Unix

Here is a set of commands that you really need to know in order to get started with UNIX.
 
Command 
Example 
Description 
1.   man   man ls  Online manual (help) about command. Use this command to find out more about other commands listed in this tutorial.
2.     ls  ls 
 

ls –a 
 

ls dirname

ls -al

 List files in the current directory (except those starting with a dot . ) 

List all files in the current directory (including those starting with a dot . ) 

List files in the specified directory 

List all files with details (permissions, group, ownership, date, etc)

3.     cd  cd dirname 
cd .. 
cd ~guy/web 		 Change directory to dirname
Move back one directory 
Move into guy's web directory 
4.     mkdir  mkdir graphics  Make a directory called graphics 
5.     rmdir  rmdir emptydir 
rm -r somedir  		Remove emptydir (must be empty) 
Remove somedir recursively (need not be empty)
6.     cp  cp file web 
cp file file.bak 
cp abc ADIR/def 
cp –r ADIR BDIR		 Copy file into directory web 
Create a copy of file into file.bak  
Copy abc into def in directory ADIR 
copy the entire contents of directory ADIR into directory BDIR (-r means recursive) 
7.     rm  rm file.bak 
rm *.tmp 		 Remove or delete file 
Remove all files with names ending in .tmp 
8.     mv  mv old.html new.html  Move or rename files 
9.     more  more index.html  Look at the file index.html, one page at a time 
10.     pico  pico newfile.txt  Invoke the pico editor to create a new file named newfile.txt. Use the bottom menu on the editor window to learn how to edit and save the file 

 Managing Your Own Account

Once you have mastered the basic UNIX commands, these will be quite valuable in managing your own account.
 
Command 
Example 
Description 
1.     grep  grep "bad word" *  Find which files contain bad word 
2.     find  find / -name test -print  Search for the file named test starting from the root directory / and print its path 
3.     passwd  passwd  Change your password.
4.     ps  ps 
ps -ef  |   grep mdamian 		 List all running processes by #ID 
List process #ID's run by mdamian 
5.     kill  kill -9 8453  Kill process with ID# 8453 
6.     telnet  telnet renoir.csc.vill.edu  Open a connection to renoir 
7.     ftp  ftp renoir.csc.vill.edu  Upload or download files to or from renoir 

 

Obtaining System and User Information

Command 
Example 
Description 
1.     whoami  whoami  List your own username.
2.     who  who  List who is logged on your machine. 
3.     hostname  hostname List the name of the computer you are logged in..
4.     finger  finger Damian
(or finger mdamian) 		List information on user Damian.. .
finger renoir.csc.vill.edu List who is on logged on renoir.

Monitoring System Access

These commands are useful for monitoring system access, or simplifying your own environment.
 
Command 
Example 
Description 
1.     ping ping renoir.csc.vill.edu See if machine renoir is alive
2.     traceroute traceroute www.ibm.com Find intermediate computers along a path from your machine to the remote machine www.ibm.com
3.     df  df See how much free disk space 
4.     du  du -b subdir  Estimate disk usage of directory in bytes 
6.     top  top  Print system usage 
7.    logout
       exit 		 logout
exit 		 How to quit a UNIX shell. 
8.     date date Print out current date
9.     history history List commands you've done recently