UNIX REFERENCE SHEET
TERMINAL COMMANDS
HELP
man get information on a command
whatis display brief description of command
which find command in user’s path
whereis search for command
MISCELLANEOUS
alias make nickname for a command
passwd set or change login password
clear clear screen
logout exit login shell
exit exit non-login shell
ps report on active processes
top display processes
FILE MANAGEMENT
ls list files and directories
cd dir change directory to dir
pwd dir print “working” (i.e., current) directory
mkdir dir create directory dir
rmdir dir remove (empty) directory dir
cp file dir copy file(s)
mv file dir move file(s)
rm file dir remove file(s)
file file determine file-type
cat file concatenate or display file
more file display file one screen at a time
less file search-able version of more
head file display first lines of file
tail file display last lines of file
wc file count lines, words, characters in file
gzip file compress file
gunzip file uncompress file
grep str file search file for lines containing str
PRINTING
lpr file print file
lpq check status of print jobs
lprm num remove print job number num
REMOTE ACCESS AND COMMUNICATION
ssh secure login to remote machine
scp secure copy file(s) to/from remote machine
pine email reader
TERMINAL: SPECIAL CHARACTERS & STRINGS
<tab> ’tab-completion’
~home directory
.current directory
.. up one directory
?match any single character
*match any characters
!str redo command beginning with str
<Pg-up> scroll up through commands
<Drag left mouse button> select region (also Emacs)
<Click left, click right> select region (also Emacs)
<Click middle> paste region (also Emacs)
LINUX PROGRAMS
xterm command-line terminal
emacs text editor
gv (or ghostview) viewer for postscript files
xpdf (or acroread) viewer for PDF files
xv viewer for images files
netscape web browser
xcalc scientific calculator
EMACS COMMANDS
<Ctrl> x 2 split window into two buffers
<Ctrl> x 1 keep only current buffer
<Ctrl> x <Ctrl> f open file into buffer
<Ctrl> x <Ctrl> s save
<Ctrl> k delete current line
<Ctrl> w delete selected region
<Ctrl> y insert line or region
<Ctrl> s search for string
<Ctrl> r search backward for string
<Alt> x replace-string search and replace string
<Ctrl> g abort mini-buffer command
<Ctrl> x ( begin macro definition
<Ctrl> x ) end macro
<Ctrl> x e execute macro
<Esc> num execute next action num times
<Ctrl> <Shift> - undo last action