Unix User Tips

Below is a list of commonly used commands that you will need to know to navigate around the a Unix file system. These are command line statements that you type into a Unix shell.

Change Directory	cd directoryname cd .. (takes you up one level) cd (takes you to your home directory)
File Listing	ls ls -l (details) ls -al (more details)
Create a Directory	mkdir directoryname
Copying and renaming files	cp original_file copy_of_file mv original_filename new_filename
Path and finding programs	printenv (shows PATH and other env variables) which program_name (searches for a program)
Process control	ps (show your running processes) kill -9 <processID> where processID is listed in the output of the ps command ps -ef (shows ALL running processes)
Display Files on Screen	more filename (lists one screen-full at a time) cat filename (lists entire file at one time)
Re-directing screen output the " \| " pipe symbol	Use to redirect the output command1 \| command2 Takes output from command1 and passes it to command2!!! Example to control, limit the ammount of information displayed on the screen to a page at a time cat filename \| more This will cat the file so see one screen-full at a time
Searching for a String in a File	grep "string" filename This will look for string in the file filename.
Change File Mode	chmod a+X filename (see man or help of chmod for options) chmod 755 filename (this makes it rwxr_xr_x , see man or hgelp of chmod for more details on numerically specifying permission)
FTP	ftp hostname then use put and get protocols to transfer files