Updated: 2014-04-14 06:18 EDT

1 Unix/Linux Command List You Should Know (Weekly Cumulative)Indexup to index

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.

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 you use each command, you must keep 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. Solutions to assignments use only these commands.

WK  Command, feature, or technique introduced
--  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
01  Recall terminal command line history using UpArrow key
01  Terminal Control Characters: ^C ^D ^L ^W ^U ^Z
01  Remote Login, CLS, File Transfer
02  Setting the BASH shell prompt:  PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '
02  Absolute and Relative pathnames
03  Finding files and basic commands
03  GLOB characters: * ? [...], aliases
04  I/O Redirection: < > | 2>&1, Pipes
04  Text Editors
06  Shell local and environment variables, start-up files
06  Midterm #1 review
06  Midterm #1
07  cp, search $PATH
07  Quoting, File System
07  Inodes and hard links, ln
08  Symbolic Links, Disk Usage, du, quota
09  Midterm #2 review
09  Midterm #2
09  CentOS VM Installation
10  Permissions: whoami, id, groups, umask, chmod
10  Unix/Linux Software Package Management: yum, rpm, and tar
10  system logs, syslog, scheduling with crontab, at
11  Processes, Jobs, Background, Foreground, Kill, Signals
11  users and groups, su, sudo, chown, chsh, useradd, gpasswd, etc.
12  Partitions and File Systems - fdisk, mkfs, mount, swap
13  Boot Process, GRUB, Run Levels, services, telinit, chkconfig
14  Data Mining - using Linux commands to do stuff

04  alias (shell built-in)
02  apropos (synonym for: man -k)
11  at
04  awk '{print $1}'  (also $2, $NF, etc.)
02  bash
11  bg (shell built-in)
01  cal (9 1752)
01  cat
02  cd (shell built-in)
10  chmod ( -R ugo[-+=]rwx octal_number )
11  chown ( -R ) [owner][:[group]]
02  clear  (see also ^L)
02  cp ( -a -r -p )
11  crontab
04  cut
01  date
11  df
14  diff
10  dmesg
08  du
01  echo (shell built-in and external)
01  exit (shell built-in)
06  export (shell built-in)
12  fdisk ( -l )
11  fg (shell built-in)
04  fgrep (see grep -F)
01  figlet
01  file ( -s -L )
02  find ( -name -user -inum -size -print -ls )
11  gpasswd
04  grep ( -i -v -w )
13  grub ( command line and stand-alone boot )
11  groupadd
11  groupdel
11  groupmod
10  groups
04  head
05  help (shell built-in)
03  history (shell built-in)
04  hostname
10  id
11  jobs (shell built-in)
11  kill (shell built-in)
11  killall
14  last
02  less (similar to "more"; used by "man")
08  ln ( -s )
04  locate
01  ls ( -l -i -a -d -L )
02  man ( -k )
09  md5sum
02  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 )
11  ps ( uaxww -efww )
11  pstree
02  pwd (shell built-in and also external)
08  quota -v
10  reboot (see also: shutdown -h now)
03  rm ( -r -f )
02  rmdir
10  rpm
13  service
06  set (shell built-in)
06  shopt (shell built-in)
10  shutdown -h now (see also: reboot)
03  sleep (60)
04  sort ( -f -n -r )
11  su ( - )
11  sudo
04  sum
12  swapoff
12  swapon
04  tail
10  tar
01  toilet
03  touch
04  tr
02  tree
10  umask ( octal_number ) (shell built-in)
12  umount
04  unalias  ( -a ) (shell built-in)
13  uname
04  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 (week 2 notes)
10  yum

Keep 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

Remember

Author: 
| Ian! D. Allen  -  idallen@idallen.ca  -  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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