UNIX Commands Quick List

• COMMAND LISTS
  • Environmental Commands
  • File Manipulation
  • Directory Manipulation
  • Process Control
• System Security
• Typing Shortcuts
• Abbreviations Used in this Guide

chown u+r file.1   chown u+w file.1   chown u+x file.1
chown u-r file.1   chown u-w file.1   chown u-x file.1

chown g+r file.1   chown g+w file.1   chown g+x file.1
chown g-r file.1   chown g-w file.1   chown g-x file.1

chown o+r file.1   chown o+w file.1   chown o+x file.1
chown o-r file.1   chown o-w file.1   chown o-x file.1

B. file? specifies all files and sub-directories that start with "file" and have one extra character.

C. The current directory can be specified as ".", and the parent directory of the current directory can be specified as "..". For example, if the current directory is /usr/people/mpagel, I can copy the file /usr/people/huffman/Crambin.pdb to /usr/people/mpagel/pdb/ by typing:

cp  ../huffman/Crambin.pdb  ./pdb/

D. Text on the screen can be highlighted by sweeping the mouse cursor over the text while pressing and holding the left mouse button. This text can be inserted at the command line by clicking the center mouse button, regardless of the mouse cursor position (as long as the mouse cursor remains in the window).

E. If you type the first part of the name of a file or sub-directory in the current directory and then hit the <Esc> escape key, the workstation will complete the name for you. For example, if the current directory contains the files template.001 and temporary.stuff, then I can type:
more templ<Esc>
and the workstation will complete the name template.001. Note that if I type:
more temp<Esc>
then the workstation will NOT complete the file name, since I have not specified enough characters to unambiguously specify template.001 instead of temporary.stuff.

F.  history   shows list of last 100 commands
    !!        repeats last command
    !32       repeats command #32 in the history list
    !mor      repeats last command starting with "mor"

G. If I type mv file.1 dir.1 to move file.1 to dir.1, then I can move file.2 to dir.1 by typing ^1^2, which does the following command: mv file.2 dir.1. Note that the only the first "1" (in file.1) changes, and the "1" in dir.1 does NOT change.

H. Many commands have 'modifiers'. For example, ls -l has a modifier "-l" which specifies that the LONG listing of the directory contents should be printed. Many modifiers can be combined in any order in one command. For example ls -la specifies the LONG listing of ALL directory contents.

I. The "|" character is called the PIPE character. This character is located on the key just above the <Enter> key on the SGI keyboard (you mut also hold down the <shift> key). The pipe character is used to direct the output of one command into the input of a second command. For example,
ps -ef | grep biosym
first creates a list of processes (ps -ef) and then filters this list to show all lines that contain "biosym" (grep biosym).

<control-x>          type 'Ctrl' and 'x' keys at the same time
file.1, file.2       files named file.1 and file.2
dir.1, dir.2         directories named dir.1 and dir.2
command1, command2   commands named command1 and command2
pid1                 process ID, listed by typing ps -ef

Files, directories, and commands can be specified without ambiguity by using the full pathname, such as /usr/people/huffman/pdb/Crambin.pdb. If the file, subdirectory, or command exists in the current directory, it can be specified using ONLY it's name. For example, if the current directory is /usr/people/huffman/pdb/, then I can type Crambin.pdb to specify this file. Some special files and directories, and almost all commands, can also be specified using ONLY it's name regardless of your current directory, because they exist in special directories of the system.