Unix shell commands

The commands which are listed here are common unix commands. Some of them may not work on the Zaurus, or behave differently.

Help

man [command] Description of [command]
info [command] Displays the info-pages
whatis [command] Displays short reference of the command
apropos [word] Searches for [word] through all man-pages

Files and directories

find Searches for a file
whereis [command] Lists directory, source and man-page of [command]
cp [file1] [file2] Copies file1 onto file2
ln [file1] [file2] Creates file2 as a link to file1
mv [file1] [file2] Moves or renames file1 to file2
lpr [file] Prints [file]
chmod [file] Modifies access rights
chown [file] Changes the owner of [file]
chgrp [file] Changes the group for [file]
rm [file] Deletes file
mkdir [directory] Creates a directory
cd [directory] Changes the active directory
ls [directory] Lists the contents of the directory
rmdir [directory] Removes the directory
gzip Compresses files
gunzip Uncompresses files
tar Creates an archive of files

Users and groups

useradd [user] Creates a new user
passwd [user] Modifies the password for [user]
id [user] Lists the user ID and group ID
users Lists all users which are currently logged in
usermod [user] Modifies the properties of [user]
userdel [user] Removes [user]
groupadd [group] Adds a new user group
groups [user] Displays all groups of [user]
groupmod [group] Modifies the properties of [group]
groupdel [group] Deletes [group]

Processes

ps Lists running processes
kill [process] Kills the process with the given ID
reboot Shuts down and reboots the system
shutdown Shuts the system down
halt Shuts the system down

File contents

cat [file] Shows the contents of file
less [file] Shows the contents of file in pages
zless [file] Shows the contents of compressed files
more [file] Like less, but without paging backwards
head [file] Shows the first 10 lines of file
tail [file] Shows the last 10 lines of file
tac [file] Displays contents of file, starting with the last line
sort [file] Sorts the contents of file line by line
csplit [file] Splits [file]
grep [string] [files] Displays all lines of the given files which contain the string
recode Converts files between various character sets

Administration

fdisk Creates and formats disk partitions
mke2fs Creates an ext2 file system
e2fsck Checks and repairs an ext2 file system
df Displays free disk space on all mounted partitions
du [directory] Displays the size of directory
free Displays free space in RAM and the swap area
mkswap Creates a swap space
swapon Activates the swap space
swapoff Deactivates the swap space
sync Writes buffered data onto the hard disk
mount Mounts a file system
umount Unmounts a mounted file system
date Displays and modifies the system time
dmesg Displays kernel messages during the boot process

© 2003, last modified 06-Jan-2003

© 2003 by Rundel Datentechnik, Germany.
Please use our contact form for your comments, questions and suggestions.
Online
RPN Calculator