1 Unix/Linux Command List You Should Know (Weekly Cumulative)
This is a list of basic Unix/Linux command names used in this course and the week number in which they were first introduced and described. A missing week number means the command hasn’t been formally introduced yet. This page is updated weekly as new commands are introduced.
All these command names have manual pages. Command names that are built-in to the shell (e.g. cd, exit, pwd, history, etc.) are described somewhere in the man page for the bash shell and you can also use the BASH shell built-in help command to get information about built-in commands, e.g. help help and help pwd, etc.
This list only gives the names of the commands, not what the commands do or how to use them. As each command is introduced, you must keep your own notebook with these command names in it and a short description of what each command does; you will be required to learn and remember at least some of what each of these commands can do. Solutions to assignments use only these commands.
WK Command, feature, or technique introduced
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01 Recall terminal command line history using UpArrow key
01 Remote Login, CLS, File Transfer
02 Terminal Control Characters: ^C ^D ^L ^W ^U ^Z ^R
02 Setting the BASH shell prompt: PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '
02 Absolute and Relative pathnames
02 Finding files and basic commands
03 GLOB characters: * ? [...], aliases
04 I/O Redirection: < > | 2>&1, Pipes
04 Text Editors
05 Shell local and environment variables, start-up files
05 Midterm #1 review
05 Midterm #1
05 Search $PATH
06 Quoting, File System
06 Inodes and hard links, ln
07 Disk Usage, du, quota, symbolic links
09 Permissions: whoami, id, groups, chmod
09 Midterm #2 review
09 Midterm #2
10 Permissions: umask
10 Unix/Linux Software Package Management: yum, rpm, and tar
10 system logs, syslog, scheduling with crontab, at
10 Processes, Jobs, Background, Foreground, Kill, Signals
11 CentOS VM Installation
11 users and groups, su, sudo, chown, chsh, useradd, gpasswd, etc.
11 Partitions and File Systems - fdisk, mkfs, mount, swap
13 Boot Process, GRUB, Run Levels, services, telinit, chkconfig
13 Quoting for Remote Command Execution (ssh)
13 Data Mining - using Linux commands to do stuff
02 alias (shell built-in)
02 apropos (synonym for: man -k)
10 at
04 awk '{print $1}' (also $2, $NF, etc.)
02 bash
10 bg (shell built-in)
01 cal (9 1752)
01 cat
02 cd (shell built-in)
09 chmod ( -R ugo[-+=]rwx octal_number )
11 chown ( -R ) [owner][:[group]]
02 clear (see also ^L)
03 cp ( -a -r -p )
10 crontab
05 cut
01 date
12 df
10 diff
10 dmesg
07 du
01 echo (shell built-in and external)
01 exit (shell built-in)
06 export (shell built-in)
11 fdisk ( -l )
10 fg (shell built-in)
03 fgrep (see grep -F)
01 figlet
01 file ( -s -L )
03 find ( -name -user -inum -size -print -ls )
11 gpasswd
03 grep ( -i -v -w )
13 grub ( command line and stand-alone boot )
11 groupadd
11 groupdel
11 groupmod
09 groups
05 head
02 help (shell built-in)
03 history (shell built-in)
04 hostname
09 id
10 jobs (shell built-in)
11 kill (shell built-in)
11 killall
13 last
02 less (similar to "more"; used by "man")
07 ln ( -s )
07 locate
01 ls ( -l -i -a -d -L )
02 man ( -k )
13 md5sum
03 mkdir ( -p )
12 mkfs
12 mkswap
02 more (similar to "less")
12 mount
03 mv
04 nano [*** USE VIM INSTEAD ***]
11 newgrp
04 nl (same as "cat -n")
02 passwd ( username )
02 ps ( uaxww -efww )
10 pstree
02 pwd (shell built-in and also external)
07 quota -v
13 reboot (see also: shutdown -h now)
03 rm ( -r -f )
03 rmdir
10 rpm
13 service
06 set (shell built-in)
02 shopt (shell built-in)
13 shutdown -h now (see also: reboot)
03 sleep (60)
04 sort ( -f -n -r )
11 su ( - )
11 sudo
05 sum
12 swapoff
12 swapon
05 tail
10 tar
01 toilet
03 touch
05 tr
03 tree
10 umask ( octal_number ) (shell built-in)
12 umount
02 unalias ( -a ) (shell built-in)
13 uname
05 uniq ( -c )
01 users
11 useradd
11 userdel
11 usermod
04 vi / vim / vimtutor
03 wc ( -l -w -c )
01 who
04 whoami
02 whois (see the bottom of the week 2 notes)
10 yumKeep a notebook with these command names in it and a short description of what each command does; you will be required to learn and remember at least some of what each of these commands can do.
Remember
