Just because you may need them some day, below is a list of a few commands that you can give UNIX (usually while you are in a Telnet session). One of the most important commands that you need to know is man. This command gives you the manual page for the command you want to know more about. For instance, if you need to know how to use the "ls" command, type "man ls" and you will have more information than you know what to do with all about the "ls" command. An extensive list of UNIX commands can be retrieved with the command "man intro". For help on the "man" command try "man man"!

Below is a form that will return a man page for any UNIX command. Just enter the command you want in the field below. You can ignore the section selection if you don't know where your command is. It will search for you.



A Short List of Useful UNIX Commands

cal display a calendar
cd change working directory
cp copy files
date display or set the date
df report free disk space on file systems
finger display information about users
ftp file transfer program
kill send a signal to a process, or terminate a process
logout logs you out and closes the terminal
ls list the contents of a directory
man display reference manual pages
mkdir make a directory
more browse or page through a text file
mv move or rename files
passwd change password information
ps display the status of current processes
pwd display the pathname of the current working directory
rm remove files or directories
rmdir remove directories
telnet open a telnet session to another system
users display a compact list of users logged in
w who is logged in, and what are they doing
whatis display a one-line summary about a keyword
who who is logged in on the system

There are many good references on UNIX. Some of the best are published by O'Reilly and Associates.

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