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Essential Unix Commands Guide

This document provides descriptions and examples of various Unix commands. It covers commands for navigating directories, viewing files and system information, manipulating files, searching, sorting, filtering output and more. Examples are provided for most commands.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
350 views15 pages

Essential Unix Commands Guide

This document provides descriptions and examples of various Unix commands. It covers commands for navigating directories, viewing files and system information, manipulating files, searching, sorting, filtering output and more. Examples are provided for most commands.

Uploaded by

sai.abinitio99
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Basic Commands
  • Advanced File Operations
  • File Permissions and Emailing
  • Search and Filter
  • String Manipulation
  • Data Handling
  • Text Editing and Scripting
  • Awk and Scripting Languages
  • History and Resources

Unix Commands

1. $pwd - Gives the Present working directory

2. mkdir - create a directory

Eg : mkdir dir1

Lets say you want to create more than one directory instead of invoking mkdir multiple(three) times-
like.

Eg :

mkdir dir2

mkdir dir2/dir3

mkdir dir2/dir3/dir4

rmdir: Remove a directory

3. cd : Change Directory

Eg : cd dir2

4. cal : to check calendar

5. date: Displays the system date and time.

Syntax: date [+format]

Example: Display the date in dd/mm/yy format

date +%d/%m/%y

6. Creating a file in unix :

a) Using cat Command

cat > [Link] -- Creates a file and press control d to exit.

b ) touch [Link] -- Creates an empty file name [Link]


touch File1_name File2_name File3_name -- Touch command can be used to create the
multiple numbers of emplty files at the same time

cat filename : Display Content of a File

cat -b filename : Display the line numbers by using the -b

[Link] : Listing Directories and Files

All data in Unix is organized into files. All files are organized into directories. These directories are
organized into a tree-like structure called the filesystem.

ls command to list out all the files or directories available in a directory.

Eg :

ls -l list with long format - show permissions

ls -a ist all files including hidden file starting with '.' (Hidden Files)

ls -R Recursive directory tree list

ls -t sort by time & date

ls -r list in reverse order

ls -ls list with long format with file size

ls -lrt

We use * to match 0 or more characters, a question mark (?) matches with a single character.

ls file* -- Displays all the files, the names of which start with file

ls *.txt -- display all the files ending with just .txt

8. whoami : Displays the user id of the currently logged-in user

9. who : Displays the list of users currently logged in

10. wc : Counting Words in a File

Eg : wc file_name

wc filename1 filename2 filename3 -- can give multiple files and get information about those files at a
time.
wc -l [Link] prints the number of lines present in a file

wc -l [Link] [Link] With more than one file name

wc -w [Link] prints the number of words present in a file

wc -c [Link] displays count of bytes present in a file

wc -m [Link] displays count of characters from a file.

wc -L demo_file to find the length of longest line in the file

11. cp -- Copying Files

syntax: cp source_file destination_file

Eg : cp filename1 filename2 : Copy the contents of filename1 to filename2

12. mv --Renaming Files

syntax: mv old_file new_file

Eg: mv filename newfile -- will rename the existing file filename to newfile.

13. rm -- Deleting Files

Eg : rm filename -- completely remove the existing file filename.

rm filename1 filename2 filename3 -- can remove multiple files at a time4


14. chmod --- (change mode) To change the file or the directory permissions,

d rwx rwx r-x mik mik EXAM


d- represents directory or File

first set three letters - Owner

second set three letters – User or Group

Third set of three letters - others

chmod u=rwx, g=rx, o=r myfile

4 stands for "read",

2 stands for "write",

1 stands for "execute", and

0 stands for "no permission."

chmod 777 testfile

15: Sending Email : mail [-s subject] [-c cc-addr] [-b bcc-addr] to-addr

mail -s "Test Message" admin@[Link] -- to send a test message to admin@[Link].

You can connect two commands together so that the output from one program becomes the input of
the next program. Two or more commands connected in this way form a pipe (|)

16 : ps -- display currently running processes.

17 : kill -- kill the current process.

18 : man: (Manual) - Interface for working with the online reference manuals. (HELP)

Syntax: man [-s section] item


Example: Show manual page for the ‘cat’ command

$ man cat

19. find: Used to search for files and directories as mentioned in the ‘expression’

Syntax: find [starting-point] [expression]

Eg :

$ find -- List all files found in the current directory and its hierarchy

$ find /usr -type c -name backup -- In ‘/usr’ folder, find character device files, of name ‘backup’

$ find ./GFG -name [Link] --It will search for [Link] in GFG directory.

[Link]

20. du: (disk usage) Estimate disk usage is blocks

syntax: du [options] [file]

Example: $ du - Show number of blocks occupied by files in the current directory

du -sh * - summary of directories (-s) in human-readable format (-h : Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte,
Gigabyte, Terabyte and Petabyte):

du -sk * -- summary of directories (-s) in kilobytes (-k)

[Link]

21: df: (disk free) Show number of free blocks for mounted file system

Syntax: df [options] [file]

Example: $ df -l -- Show number of free blocks in local file systems

[Link]

Unix Filter Commands :

grep: Find lines in stdin that match a pattern and print them to stdout.

sort: Sort the lines in stdin, and print the result to stdout.

uniq: Read from stdin and print unique (that are different from the adjacent line) to stdout.
cat: Read lines from stdin (and more files), and concatenate them to stdout.

more: Read lines from stdin, and provide a paginated view to stdout.

cut: Cut specified byte, character or field from each line of stdin and print to stdout.

paste: Read lines from stdin (and more files), and paste them together line-by-line to stdout.

head: Read the first few lines from stdin (and more files) and print them to stdout.

tail: Read the last few lines from stdin (and more files) and print them to stdout.

wc: Read from stdin, and print the number of newlines, words, and bytes to stdout.

tr: Translate or delete characters read from stdin and print to stdout.

22 . grep Command -- search for string in the file.

searches a file or files for lines that have a certain pattern .

g/re/p which means --Gobally search for a regular expression and print all lines containing it.

Eg :

grep "this" demo_file -- Search for the given string in a single file

grep "this" demo_* -- Checking for the given string in multiple files.

grep -i "the" demo_file -- Case insensitive search using grep -i ’ (Both upper and lower case)

grep -r "ramesh" * -- Searching in all files recursively using grep -r

(look for the string “ramesh” in all the files in the current directory and all it’s subdirectory.)

grep -l this demo_* -- Display only the file names which matches the given pattern using grep -l

grep -n "this" demo_file -- Show line number while displaying the output using grep -n

grep “[a-e]” file1 -- Match all lines that contain any of the letters ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’ or ‘e’.

grep “[^aeiou]” file1 -- Match all lines that do not contain a vowel

grep “^hello” file1 -- Match all lines that start with ‘hello’. E.g: “hello there”

grep “done$” file1 -- Match all lines that end with ‘done’. E.g: “well done”

$grep -e "Agarwal" –e "Aggarwal" –e "Agrawal" [Link]

^ -- exclude “[^aeiou]” or (start)

$ -- ending

[Link]
23 : sort -- command arranges lines of text alphabetically or numerically

Assume the below initial contents of [Link] for the following examples

01 Priya

04 Shreya

03 Tuhina

02 Tushar

$ sort [Link] -- Default ordering

01 Priya

02 Tushar

03Tuhina

04 Shreya

$ sort -r [Link] -- Sort in reverse ordering:

04 Shreya

03Tuhina

02 Tushar

01 Priya

$ sort -k 2 [Link] -- Sort by the second field:

01 Priya

04 Shreya

03 Tuhina

02 Tushar
24) uniq : command line utility that reports or filters out the repeated lines in a file.

( Displays the unique lines in the file)

Eg :

uniq [Link]

uniq -c [Link] -- It tells the number of times a line was repeated. (count)

uniq -d [Link] -- It only prints the repeated lines. ( -d dupliacate)

uniq -u [Link] -- only show lines that are not repeated ( unique)

delete duplicate lines : -- Important interview question

sort [Link] | uniq -u -- remove duplicate line in a file in unix

sort [Link] | uniq -u | cat [Link] -- remove and display the contents
of the file

[Link]

25) head Command : head by default, prints the first 10 lines of each FILE to
standard output

head [Link] -- displays first 10 lines in the [Link]

Check more options below.

[Link]

26) tail Command : tail by default last 10 lines of each FILE to standard
output

tail [Link] -- displays last 10 lines in the [Link]

[Link]
head -10 filename | tail -1 filename -- to display 10th line of the file

head -n filename | tail -1 -- to display nth line of the file

27) diff commad : This command is used to display the differences in the
files by comparing the files line by line. (Compare two or more files)

Eg : diff [Link] [Link]

28) tr command (translate) : tr command in UNIX is a command line utility


for translating or deleting characters.

Syntax : $ tr [OPTION] SET1 [SET2] (Translate)

Eg : $cat greekfile | tr “[a-z]” “[A-Z]” --convert lower case to upper case

$cat greekfile | tr “[A-Z]” “[a-z]” --convert upper case to lower case

[Link]

29) cut command : which is used to extract sections from each line of input

(Cut the fileds from a file)

Syntax: cut OPTION... [FILE]...

Eg : cut -c 2,5,7 [Link] -- command prints second, fifth and seventh character from each line of
the file.

[Link]

30) zip command : a command-line utility that helps you create Zip archives.

Eg : zip [Link] filename1 filename2 filename3

31) unzip command : unzip command extracts all files from the specified ZIP archive to the current
directory.

eg: unzip [Link]


32) echo command : used to display line of text/string that are passed as an argument

eg : echo Hello world

[Link]

33) rev command : used to reverse the lines characterwise

eg : rev [Link] -- it reverse the contenets of the file.

[Link]

How to reverse a string in unix?

echo "java" | rev -- it will display avaj

34 ) sed command (stream Editor) : it can perform lot’s of function on file like, searching, find and
replace, insertion or deletion.

Syntax: sed OPTIONS... [SCRIPT] [INPUTFILE...]

Eg : sed 's/unix/linux/' [Link] -- replaces the word “unix” with “linux” in the file.

SED command in UNIX stands for stream editor and it can perform lots of functions on file like
searching, find and replace, insertion or deletion. Though most common use of SED command in UNIX
is for substitution or for find and replace. By using SED you can edit files even without opening them,
which is much quicker way to find and replace something in file, than first opening that file in VI Editor
and then changing it.

SED is a powerful text stream editor. Can do insertion, deletion, search and replace(substitution).

SED command in unix supports regular expression which allows it perform complex pattern matching.

Syntax:

sed OPTIONS... [SCRIPT] [INPUTFILE...]

Example: Consider the below text file as an input.

$sed 's/unix/linux/' [Link] :

Replacing or substituting string : Sed command is mostly used to replace the text in a file. The below
simple sed command replaces the word “unix” with “linux” in the file.
$sed 's/unix/linux/2' [Link] :

Replacing the nth occurrence of a pattern in a line : Use the /1, /2 etc flags to replace the first, second
occurrence of a pattern in a line. The below command replaces the second occurrence of the word
“unix” with “linux” in a line.

$sed 's/unix/linux/g' [Link] :

Replacing all the occurrence of the pattern in a line : The substitute flag /g (global replacement)
specifies the sed command to replace all the occurrences of the string in the line.

$sed 's/unix/linux/3g' [Link] :

Replacing from nth occurrence to all occurrences in a line : Use the combination of /1, /2 etc and /g to
replace all the patterns from the nth occurrence of a pattern in a line. The following sed command
replaces the third, fourth, fifth… “unix” word with “linux” word in a line.

$ echo "Welcome To The Geek Stuff" | sed 's/\(\b[A-Z]\)/\(\1\)/g' :

Parenthesize first character of each word : This sed example prints the first character of every word in
parenthesis.

$sed '3 s/unix/linux/' [Link] :

Replacing string on a specific line number : You can restrict the sed command to replace the string on a
specific line number. An example is

$sed 's/unix/linux/p' [Link] :

Duplicating the replaced line with /p flag : The /p print flag prints the replaced line twice on the
terminal. If a line does not have the search pattern and is not replaced, then the /p prints that line
only once.

$sed -n 's/unix/linux/p' [Link] :

Printing only the replaced lines : Use the -n option along with the /p print flag to display only the
replaced lines. Here the -n option suppresses the duplicate rows generated by the /p flag and prints
the replaced lines only one time.

If you use -n alone without /p, then the sed does not print anything.
$sed '1,3 s/unix/linux/' [Link] :

Replacing string on a range of lines : You can specify a range of line numbers to the sed command for
replacing a string.

Here the sed command replaces the lines with range from 1 to 3. Another example is

$sed '2,$ s/unix/linux/' [Link]

Here $ indicates the last line in the file. So the sed command replaces the text from second line to last
line in the file.

Deleting lines from a particular file : SED command can also be used for deleting lines from a particular
file. SED command is used for performing deletion operation without even opening the file Examples:

1. To Delete a particular line say n in this example

Syntax:

$ sed 'nd' [Link]

Example:

$ sed '5d' [Link]

2. To Delete a last line

Syntax:

$ sed '$d' [Link]

3. To Delete line from range x to y

Syntax:

$ sed 'x,yd' [Link]

Example:

$ sed '3,6d' [Link]

4. To Delete from nth to last line

Syntax:

$ sed 'nth,$d' [Link]

Example:

$ sed '12,$d' [Link]

5. To Delete pattern matching line


Syntax:

$ sed '/pattern/d' [Link]

Example:

$ sed '/abc/d' [Link]

[Link]

35) awk command :

Awk is a scripting language used for manipulating data and generating [Link] awk command
programming language requires no compiling, and allows the user to use variables, numeric functions,
string functions, and logical operators.

1. AWK Operations:

(a) Scans a file line by line

(b) Splits each input line into fields

(c) Compares input line/fields to pattern

(d) Performs action(s) on matched lines

2. Useful For:

(a) Transform data files

(b) Produce formatted reports

3. Programming Constructs:

(a) Format output lines

(b) Arithmetic and string operations

(c) Conditionals and loops

eg : awk '{print}' [Link] -- prints every line of data from the specified file.

awk '/manager/ {print}' [Link] -- prints all the line which matches with the ‘manager’.

[Link]
36) history command : to give the enitre history of the comamnds which we have used.

Hisotry>[Link]

37) vi editor : [Link]

[Link]

important interview questions on unix and oracle

[Link]

[Link]
records-by-using-informatica-mapping-explain-with-an-example/

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

Common questions

Powered by AI

The 'find' command improves file location efficiency by allowing searches based on various criteria such as name, type, and modification time. For instance, `find /usr -type f -name '*.txt'` searches for text files in '/usr', making it an indispensable tool for users managing large file systems .

The 'uniq' command filters or reports unique lines in a file, and when used after 'sort', it removes duplicate lines, ensuring only unique entries remain. In data cleansing, one might apply `sort file.txt | uniq` to obtain a list of unique elements from 'file.txt', which is essential for eliminating redundant data in datasets .

The 'tr' command translates or deletes characters from input. For example, `tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' < file.txt` converts uppercase to lowercase characters. Its advantages in data processing include efficient cleanup and reformatting of data, streamlining transformations directly in command-line workflows .

The 'zip' command compresses files into a .zip archive, as in `zip archive.zip file1 file2`, while 'unzip' extracts them, as in `unzip archive.zip`. These commands offer benefits such as reduced storage space and simplified file distribution, ensuring efficient file archiving and retrieval .

The 'sed' command in UNIX is a stream editor that enables text replacement and manipulation without opening the file. To replace the second occurrence of a word, you would use a command like `sed 's/unix/linux/2' file.txt`, which replaces the second occurrence of 'unix' with 'linux' in each line of 'file.txt' .

The 'awk' command processes files by scanning file lines, splitting them into fields, and performing actions on lines that match specified patterns. It's used for transforming data files and generating reports. For instance, `awk '/manager/ {print $1, $3}' employees.txt` will print the first and third fields of lines containing 'manager' from 'employees.txt' .

The pipe ('|') command in UNIX combines two or more commands so that the output from one command becomes the input for the next. It is powerful in constructing complex command sequences. For example, a command like `ps aux | grep http | sort -k3n` could list processes, filter those related to 'http,' and sort them by CPU usage .

The 'grep' command uses the '-r' option to perform recursive searches, which examines every subdirectory. For example, `grep -r 'pattern' *` searches for 'pattern' in all files within the current directory and its subdirectories. This capability is crucial for efficiently managing files across a directory structure by locating specific content .

The 'diff' command compares files line-by-line and highlights differences, aiding version control and collaborative editing by clearly identifying changes between file versions, minimizing misunderstandings and merge conflicts. For instance, `diff file1.txt file2.txt` outputs differences between two text files .

The 'chmod' command changes file or directory permissions, crucial for setting access controls. For example, `chmod 755 file.txt` grants the owner read, write, and execute permissions, while others can read and execute. This setting allows sharing of executable scripts securely, ensuring only the owner can modify them .

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