Useful Linux Commands (Red Hat)

(http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~eisner/DLW)
Revised 3/1/2000

Getting information

man commandname

display the manual page for a particular command named commandname

man -S sectionnumber commandname

display the manual page under a specific section numbered sectionnumber for the command named commandname. Sometimes the same command will exist in more than one section. man alone will display the lowest-numbered section only. To see other sections, you’ll need to use the -s flag. The different sections are:

1 – user commands
2 – system calls
3 – libc calls
4 – devices
5 – file formats and protocols
6 – games
7 – conventions, macro packages, etc.
8 – system administration

man -l commandname

list all the man pages available for commandname

man -l intro

interesting reading– when you have the time

man -K keyword

searches all man pages for keywords

info

the other major way to find information about commands. Somewhat obscure to navigate, but quite useful. Basically, navigate using tab key to select a node, return key to enter a node, ‘l’ key to go back, ‘q’ to quit. Useful information available through info include:

libg++
iostream
gdb
make
tar
gzip

which commandname

find the path to a commandname

whatis commandname

tells you what a command is and does. works sometimes.

File Manipulation

Some file notations: . (current directory); ./myfile.txt (a file in current directory); ./mydirectory/myfile.txt (a file in a subdirectory of current directory); mydirectory/myfile.txt (same as above, a file in a subdirectory of current directory); .. (parent directory of current directory); ../otherdirectory (a sibling subdirectory of current directory [go back one level and down another directory]); / (the ultimate root directory); ~ (my home directory); ~/mydirectory (a subdirectory of my home directory); ~otheruser (another user’s home directory); filename*.txt (“*” is the wildcard character)
cp fromfilename tofilename: copy from fromfilename tofilename
mv fromfilename tofilename: Move from fromfilename to tofilename.
rm: remove a file (DANGER: this is permanent!)
rm -i: asks you before removing a file
rm -R: recursively remove a directory and every file in it (DANGER)
> filename: redirect output to a file named filename. Overwrites that file. Example: ls > directory.txt
>> filename: redirect output to a file named filename. Appends to the end of that file.
< redirect in: redirect input to a program. Example: myprogram < myfile.txt
| mycommand: pipe output so it goes through a certain command. Example: ls -l | less
| grep myword: pipe output through grep. grep searches for “myword” and displays only those lines containing that word. Example (to search for all files containing “.cc”: ls -l | grep .cc
find mydirectory -name “nametolookfor”: searches mydirectory and all its subdirectories for a file named “nametolookfor”
find . -name “proj3*”: searches the current directory and all its subdirectories for a file begining with “proj3”.

Moving Around

pwd: shows which directory you are currently in
cd newdirectory: changes to a new directory
cd ~: change to your home directory.
cd [tab key]: change to your home directory.
cd –: changes to the last directory you were in.
mkdir directoryname: Make a new directory.

Executing commands (some are tcsh-specific)

^Z (Control-Z): This suspends a currently running command. You can then use “bg” or “fg” on it.
bg: Sends your suspended command to run in the background.
fg: Resumes execution of your currently suspended command.
fg jobnumber: Resumes execution of your suspended command with job number jobnumber.. Use “sps” or “jobs” to see job numbers.
mycommand &: runs the command named mycommand in the background
!foo: repeats the last command you ran beginning with the word “foo”
jobs: shows background jobs that were spawned from this current shell.
nice +nicelevel commandname: runs a command with a lower priority. Priorities range from 0 to +19, +19 being the lowest priority available. If you are going to run a cpu-intensive command, it is nice to nice it.
renice +nicelevel jobnumber: resets a particular command to a different priority level
ps: shows your current processes attached to this terminal. Use “ps -aux” to see everything.
top: show the processes that are using the most resources
top -Uusername: show a user’s processes in order of resource usage.
kill jobnumber: kill off a particular process (BE CAREFUL)
kill -9 jobnumber: kill off a particularly troublesome process if the above doesn’t work (BE VERY CAREFUL)

Using Text Files

cat filename: outputs content of a file to the screen
cat filename1 filename2 > filename3: concatenates filename1 and filename2 into a new file named filename3
more filename: displays a file page by page
less filename: does the same thing as more, but a little cooler
head filename: shows the first 10 lines of a file.
head -numberoflines filename: shows the first specified number of lines of a file. Ex. tail -50 filename
tail filename: shows the last 10 lines of a file.
tail -numberoflines filename: shows the last specified number of lines of a file. Ex. tail -50 filename
nl filename: sticks line numbers in front of each line in your file and redirects output to the screen

Using Other Files

file filename: find out what type of file filename is
gzip filename: compress a file
gunzip filename: uncompress a file
tar cvf tarfilename file1 file2 file3 etc.: archive a bunch of files or directories into one tar file.
tar xvf tarfilename: un-archive a tar file into its constituent files
zcat filename: like gunzip, but sends output to stdout.
zcat filename | tar -xvf –: unzips a compressed, tar’ed file, and untars it directly without creating an intermediate file
eject: eject the cd tray
cdplay: play audio CD’s in the cdrom drive.
cat .au > /dev/audio: play an au sound file.
mpg123: play MP3 files.
xpdf: view pdf files
gv: view ps files
xdvi: view dvi files
xview: view gif, jpeg, png files

Spying and Surveillance on Other Users

finger: Check to see if someone is logged into your system.
.plan files: If you put text into a file named “.plan” in your home directory, people will see it when they finger you.
whoami: in case you forget.
rwho: who is on
who: who is on
w: who is on, and what they’re doing
/scratch/QUOT: this directory has files that show the biggest user of the /scratch directory
talk username: start chat session with another user
ytalk username: start chat session with multiple users

Learning about the Machine

xload: see the system load
quota -v: How much of your disk and file quota you are using up.
df: How much disk space is free on various drives.
du: How much space files are taking up in this current directory.

Miscellaneous Fun

clock: display a clock
ssh: log into a different machine securely. We recommend using “ssh” over telnet and rlogin. May interfere with Java Swing GUI stuff.
set autolist: Auto-suggest commands you type on the command line.
mesg n: Turns messages off so you won’t be disturbed.
from: Tells you who your new mail is from.
biff: A text-based program which will show a message when you receive new mail.
xbiff: shows a picture of a mailbox on your screen. The flag goes up and it beeps when you get new mail.
set nobeep = 1: Turns off that annoying beep.
lynx: text-based web browser

Administrative Commands

(most of these commands must be executed as root)

ifconfig: view and play with your ethernet and tcp/ip settings
su username: change your current shell to one owned by username
mount/umount: mount and unmount file systems
control-panel: brings up the Red Hat control panel
shutdown time: shuts down the system at time
route: manually edit routing table (warning: careful)
init #: manually tell init to go to runlevel #
fsck: check the hard disk for errors
hdparm: can greatly increase the performance of your hard disk (careful)
isapnp: utility to help configure Plug’N’Play devices

Red Hat Linux cheat sheet commands examples RHEL