Features of Unix

Multi-user - Support more than one user session, simultaneously, on the same system, at
a time.

Multiprogramming- Support more than one program, in memory, at a time. Amounts to

multiple user processes on the system.

Multitasking- A single process can initiate multiple threads of execution. Exploiting

concurrency in a process.

Supports virtual memory, programs larger than the physical RAM of the system, can be
executed.

Supports hierarchical file system to hold user data organised in the form of directories
and files.

Identifies a user with a userid and groupid and allows access permissions to resources to
be specified using these ids.

Supports a command language selectable on a per user basis. (Example: csh, sh, and ksh)

Supports a large number of tools, libraries and utilities to aid software development.

Bc
Calculator.
Cal
Calendar
Cd
Change directory.
Chdir
Change directory.
Chmod
Change the permission of a file.
Chown
Change the ownership of a file.
Clear
Clears screen.
cmp
Compare files.

Cls
Alias often used to clear a screen.
copy
Copy files.
Cp
Copy files.
date
Tells you the date and time in Unix.
echo
Displays text after echo to the terminal.
Exit
Exit from a program, shell or log you out of a Unix network.
gunzip
Expand compressed files.
Gzip
Compress files.
login
Signs into a new system.
logname
Returns users login name.
logout
Logs out of a system.
mailx
Mail interactive message processing system.
mail
One of the ways that allows you to read/send E-Mail.
man
Display a manual of a command.
mkdir
Create a directory.
More
Displays text one screen at a time.
mount
Creates a file systems and remote resources.
netstat
Shows network status.
passwd
Allows you to change your password.
pwd
Print the current working directory.
Rm
Deletes a file without confirmation (by default).
rmdir
Deletes a directory.
sendmail
Sends mail over the Internet

shutdown
Turn off the computer immediately or at a specified time.
Tar
Create tape archives and add or extract files.
Tee

Read from an input and write to a standard output or file.

Tput
Initialize a terminal or query terminfo database.
Tty
Print the file name of the terminal connected to standard input.
uname
Print name of current system.
unmount
Disconnects a file systems and remote resources.
unzip
List, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archive.
Vi
Screen-oriented (visual) display editor based on ex.
whoami
Print effective userid.
whois
Internet user name directory service.
Zcat
Zip

Compress files.
Compression and file packaging utility.

IMPORTANT UNIX COMMANDS IN DETAIL

date
Tells you the date and time in Unix.
Syntax
date [-a] [-u] [-s datestr]
-a

Slowly adjust the time by sss.fff seconds (fff represents fractions of a second). This
adjustment can be positive or negative. The system's clock will be sped up or slowed down
until it has drifted by the number of seconds specified. Only the super-user may adjust the
time.

-u

Display (or set) the date in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-universal time), bypassing the
normal conversion to (or from) local time.

-s datestr

Sets the time and date to the value specfied in the datestr. The datestr may contain the
month names, timezones, 'am', 'pm', etc. See examples for an example of how the date and
time can be set.

Examples
date
List the date and time of the server. Below is an example of the output.
Thu Feb 8 16:47:32 MST 2001
date -s "11/20/2003 12:48:00"
Set the date to the date and time shown.
date '+DATE: %m/%d/%y%nTIME:%H:%M:%S'
Would list the time and date in the below format.
DATE: 02/08/01
TIME:16:44:55

cal
Calendar for the month and the year.
Syntax
cal [month] [year]
month

Specifies the month for you want the calendar to be displayed. Must be the
numeric representation of the month. For example: January is 1 and December
is 12.

Year

Specifies the year that you want to be displayed.

Examples
cal
Give you the calendar for this month.
cal 12 2000
Give you the calendar for December of 2000.

echo
Echo's to the screen what you type after echo. Echo is useful for producing diagnostics in
command files, for sending known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of
environment variables.
Syntax
echo [-n] text
-n

On BSD and some variants derived from BSD does not begin a new line after the
echoed text.

Text

The text that you want to echo to the screen.

Examples
echo Hello world
The above example would return "Hello world" to the console
echo * | wc
The above example would list a count of all the files and directories in the current directory.

printf
Write formatted output.
Syntax
printf format [ argument]
format

A string describing the format to use to write the remaining operands.

argument

The strings to be written to standard output, under the control of format

Examples
printf "hello"
Returns hello to the screen.

bc
Calculator.
Syntax
bc [-c] [-l] [file]
-c

Compile only. The output is dc commands that are sent to the standard output.

-l

Define the math functions and initialize scale to 20, instead of the default zero.

file

Name of the file that contains the bc commands to be calculated this is not a necessary
command.

Usage
L

A letter a-z

An expression: a (mathematical or logical) value, an operand that takes a value, or a

combination of operands and operators that evaluates to a value.

Statement

/* and /*

Comment

sqrt ( E )

Square root

length ( E ) Number of significant decimal digits.

scale ( E )

Number of digits right of decimal point.

quit

Exits the bc command.

Available Operators
+-*/%^
(% is remainder; ^ is power)
++ -- (prefix and postfix; apply to names)
== <= >= != < > = =+ =- =* =/ =% =^

Examples
bc cal.txt
Would result in 3, see below notes.
Within the cal.txt file you could have a simple statement such as the example shown below.
/* Add the value 1+2 /*
1+2
quit
When running the above command you will receive the results of the cal.txt file. Which in this
case would be 3.

mailx
Mail interactive message processing system.
Syntax
mailx [-B] [-d] [-e] [-F] [-H] [-i] [-I] [-n] [-N] [-U] [-R] [-t] [-v] [-V] [-~] [-b bcc] [-c cc] [-h
number][ -f [file | +folder ] ] [ -T file ] [ -u user ]
-B

Do not buffer standard input or standard output.

-d

Turn on debugging output. (Neither particularly interesting nor recommended.)

-e

Test for the presence of mail. mailx prints nothing and exits with a successful return code if
there is mail to read.

-F

Record the message in a file named after the first recipient. Overrides the record variable, if
set.

-H

Print header summary only.

-i

Ignore interrupts.

-I

Include the newsgroup and article-id header lines when printing mail messages. This option
requires the -f option to be specified.

-m
-n

Do not initialize from the system default mailx.rc or Mail.rc file.

-N

Do not print initial header summary.

-U

Convert UUCP-style addresses to Internet standards. Overrides the conv environment

variable.

-R
-t

Scan the input for To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields. Any recipients on the command line will be
ignored.

-v

Pass the -v flag to sendmail.

-V

Print the mailx version number and exit.

-~

Interpret tilde escapes in the input even if not reading from a tty.

-b bcc

Set the blind carbon copy list to bcc. bcc should be enclosed in quotes if it contains more
than one name.

-c cc

Set the carbon copy list to cc. cc should be enclosed in quotes if it contains more than one
name.

-h number

The number of network "hops" made so far. This is provided for network software to avoid
infinite delivery loops. This option and its argument are passed to the delivery program.

-r address

Use address as the return address when invoking the delivery program. All tilde commands
are disabled. This option and its argument is passed to the delivery program.

-s subject

Set the Subject header field to subject. subject should be enclosed in quotes if it contains
embedded white space.

recipient

The recipient of the e-mail.

-f [file]

Read messages from file instead of mailbox. If no file is specified, the mbox is used.

-f [+folder]

Use the file folder in the folder directory (same as the fold er command). The name of this
directory is listed in the folder variable.

-T file

Message-id and article-id header lines are recorded in file after the message is read. This
option also sets the -I option.

-u user

Read user's mailbox. This is only effective if user's mailbox is not read protected.

Examples
mailx sarlesh@sarlesh.com
Start a new mail message to be sent to Sarlesh at domain sarlesh.com
passwd
Allows you to change your password.

Examples
passwd - entering just passwd would allow you to change the password. After entering passwd
you will receive the following three prompts:
Current Password:
New Password:
Confirm New Password:
Each of these prompts must be entered and entered correctly for the password to be successfully
changed.
passwd newperson
If you have just setup an account using the useradd command you would then type a command
similar to the above command to set the password for the "newperson" account. Only root users
have the ability to set passwords for other accounts.

who
Displays who is on the system.
Examples
who
The general format for output is: name [state] line time [idle] [pid] [comment] [exit]
where: name user's login name. state capability of writing to the terminal. line name of the line
found in /dev. time time since user's login. idle time elapsed since the user's last activity. pid
user's process id. comment comment line in inittab(4).
Below is an example of what this may look like
chope

pts/0

Apr 23 10:43

(shell.sarlesh.com)

mrhope

pts/1

May 6 18:19

(shell.sarlesh.com)

whoami
Print effective userid.
Syntax
whoami
Examples
whoami
Would display the name of the current userid. For example, may list root if you're logged in as
root.

pwd
Short for print working directory the pwd command displays the name of the current working
directory.
Syntax
pwd
Examples
pwd
Typing pwd at the prompt would give you something similar to:
/home/computerhope/public_html
Users who are familiar with MS-DOS or the Windows command prompt may type cd alone to
print the working directory. However, typing cd alone in Linux and Unix will return you to the
home directory.

cd
Changes the directory.
Syntax
cd [directory]
directory

Name of the directory user wishes to enter.

cd ..

Used to go back one directory on the majority of all Unix shells. It is important that
the space be between the cd and the ..

cd -

When in a Korn shell to get back one directory used to go back one directory.

Examples
cd hope
The above example would go into the hope directory if it exists.
cd ../home/users/computerhope
The above example would go back one directory and then go into the home/users/computerhope
directory.
cd ../../
Next, the above example would go back two directories.
cd
Finally, typing just cd alone will move you into the home directory. If you're familiar with MSDOS and how typing cd alone prints the working directory. Linux and Unix users can print the
working directory by using the pwd command.

mkdir
Short for make directory this command is used to create a new directory.
Syntax
mkdir [option] directory
-m mode

Set permission mode (as in chmod), not rwxrwxrwx - umask.

-p

No error if existing, make parent directories as needed.

-v

Print a message for each created directory

-Z

(SELinux) set security context to CONTEXT

directory

The name of the directory that you wish to create.

Examples
mkdir mydir
The above command creates a new directory called mydir.
mkdir -m a=rwx mydir
This next example would use the -m option to not only create the mydir directory but also set the
permissions to all users having read, write, and execute permissions.

rmdir
Deletes a directory.
Syntax
rmdir [OPTION]... DIRECTORY...
--ignorefail-onnon-empty

ignore each failure that is solely because a directory is non-empty.

-p,
--parents

Remove DIRECTORY and its ancestors. E.g., `rmdir -p a/b/c' is similar to `rmdir a/b/c
a/b a'.

-v,
--verbose

output a diagnostic for every directory processed.

--version

output version information and exit.

Examples
rmdir mydir
Removes the directory mydir
rm -r directory
Remove a directory, even if files existed in that directory.

ls
Lists the contents of a directory.
Syntax
ls [-a] [-A] [-b] [-c] [-C] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-g] [-i] [-l] [-L] [-m] [-o] [-p] [-q] [-r] [-R] [-s] [-t] [u] [-x] [pathnames]
-a

Shows you all files, even files that are hidden (these files begin with a dot.)

-A

List all files including the hidden files. However, does not display the working directory (.)
or the parent directory (..).

-b

Force printing of non-printable characters to be in octal \ddd notation.

-c

Use time of last modification of the i-node (file created, mode changed, and so forth) for
sorting (-t) or printing (-l or -n).

-C

Multi-column output with entries sorted down the columns. Generally this is the default
option.

-d

If an argument is a directory it only lists its name not its contents.

-f

Force each argument to be interpreted as a directory and list the name found in each slot.
This option turns off -l, -t, -s, and -r, and turns on -a; the order is the order in which entries
appear in the directory.

-F

Mark directories with a trailing slash (/), doors with a trailing greater-than sign (>),
executable files with a trailing asterisk (*), FIFOs with a trailing vertical bar (|), symbolic
links with a trailing at-sign (@), and AF_Unix address family sockets with a trailing equals
sign (=).

-g

Same as -l except the owner is not printed.

-i

For each file, print the i-node number in the first column of the report.

-l

Shows you huge amounts of information (permissions, owners, size, and when last
modified.)

-L

If an argument is a symbolic link, list the file or directory the link references rather than the

link itself.
-m

Stream output format; files are listed across the page, separated by commas.

-n

The same as -l, except that the owner's UID and group's GID numbers are printed, rather
than the associated character strings.

-o

The same as -l, except that the group is not printed.

-p

Displays a slash ( / ) in front of all directories.

-q

Force printing of non-printable characters in file names as the character question mark (?).

-r

Reverses the order of how the files are displayed.

-R

Includes the contents of subdirectories.

-s

Give size in blocks, including indirect blocks, for each entry.

-t

Shows you the files in modification time.

-u

Use time of last access instead of last modification for sorting (with the -t option) or printing
(with the -l option).

-x

Displays files in columns.

-1

Print one entry per line of output.

pathnames File or directory to list.

Examples
ls -l
In the above example this command would list each of the files in the current directory and the
files permissions, the size of the file, date of the last modification, and the file name or directory.
Below is additional information about each of the fields this command lists.
Permissions

Directories

Group

Size

Date

Directory or file

drwx------

users

4096

Nov 2 19:51

mail/

drwxr-s---

35

www

32768

Jan 20 22:39

public_html/

-rw-------

users

Nov 25 02:58

test.txt

Below is a brief description of each of the above categories shown when using the ls -l
command.
Permissions - The permissions of the directory or file.
Directories - The amount of links or directories within the directory. The default amount of
directories is going to always be 2 because of the . and .. directories.
Group - The group assigned to the file or directory
Size - Size of the file or directory.
Date - Date of last modification.
Directory of file - The name of the file or file.
ls -laxo
Our favorite ls command, which lists files with permissions, shows hidden files, displays in a
column format, and doesn't show the group.
ls -1 | wc -l
Count how many files and directories are in the current directory. To prevent any confusion, the
above command reads ls <dash><the #1> <pipe> ls <dash><the letter l>. This command uses
the ls command to list files in a bare format and pipes the output into the wc command to count
how many files are listed. When done properly, the terminal should return a single number
indicating how many lines were counted and then return you to the prompt.
Keep in mind that this is also counting the ./ and ../ directories.
ls ~
List the contents of your home directory by adding a tilde after the ls command.
ls /
List the contents of your root directory.
ls ../
List the contents of the parent directory.
ls */

List the contents of all sub directories.

ls -d */
Only list the directories in the current directory.

cat
Allows you to look, modify or combine a file.
Syntax
cat filename [-n] [-b] [-u] [-s] [-v]
filename The name of the file or files that you wish to look at or perform tasks on.
-n

Precede each line output with its line number.

-b

Number the lines, as -n, but omit the line numbers from blank lines.

-u

The output is not buffered. (The default is buffered output.)

-s

cat is silent about non-existent files.

-v

Non-printing characters (with the exception of tabs, new-lines and form-feeds) are
printed visibly. ASCII control characters (octal 000 - 037) are printed as ^n, where n is
the corresponding ASCII character in the range octal 100 - 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X, Y,
Z, [, \, ], ^, and _); the DEL character (octal 0177) is printed ^?. Other non-printable
characters are printed as M-x, where x is the ASCII character specified by the low order
seven bits.

-e

A $ character will be printed at the end of each line (prior to the new-line).

-t

Tabs will be printed as ^I's and formfeeds to be printed as ^L's.

*If the -v is used -e and -t will be ignored.

Examples
cat file1.txt file2.txt > file3.txt
Reads file1.txt and file2.txt and combines those files to make file3.txt.

cp
Copies files from one location to another.
Syntax
cp [OPTION]... SOURCE DEST
cp [OPTION]... SOURCE... DIRECTORY
cp [OPTION]... --target-directory=DIRECTORY SOURCE...
-a, --archive

same as dpR

--backup[=CONTROL]

make a backup of each existing destination file

-b

like --backup but does not accept an argument

--copy-contents

copy contents of special files when recursive

-d

same as --no-dereference --preserve=link

--no-dereference

never follow symbolic links

-f, --force

if an existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try again

-i, --interactive

prompt before overwrite

-H

follow command-line symbolic links

-l, --link

link files instead of copying

-L, --dereference

always follow symbolic links

-p

same as --preserve=mode,ownership,timestamps

-preserve the specified attributes (default: mode,ownership,timestamps), if

preserve[=ATTR_LIST] possible additional attributes: links,
all
--nopreserve=ATTR_LIST

don't preserve the specified attributes

--parents

append source path to DIRECTORY

-P

same as '--no-dereference'

-R, -r, --recursive

copy directories recursively

--remove-destination

remove each existing destination file before attempting to open it (contrast

with --force)

--reply={yes,no,query}

specify how to handle the prompt about an existing destination file

--sparse=WHEN

control creation of sparse files

--strip-trailing-slashes

remove any trailing slashes from each SOURCE argument

-s, --symbolic-link

make symbolic links instead of copying

-S, --suffix=SUFFIX

override the usual backup suffix

--targetmove all SOURCE arguments into DIRECTORY

directory=DIRECTORY
-u, --update

copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when
the destination file is missing

-v, --verbose

explain what is being done

-x, --one-file-system

stay on this file system

Examples
cp file1.txt newdir
Copies the file1.txt in the current directory to the newdir directory.
cp /home/public_html/mylog.txt /home/public_html/backup/mylog.bak
Copies the mylog.txt file in the public_html directory into the public_html/backup directory as
mylog.bak. The files are identical however have different names.
cp *.txt newdir
Copy all files ending in .txt into the newdir directory.

cp -r /home/hope/files/* /home/hope/backup
Copies all the files, directories, and subdirectories in the files directory into the backup directory.
yes | cp /home/hope/files/* /home/hope/files2
Copies all the files and subdirectories in files into the files2 directory. If files with the same name
exist or it's prompted to overwrite the file it answers yes.

rm
Deletes a file without confirmation (by default).
Syntax
rm [-f] [-i] [-R] [-r] [filenames | directory]
-f

Remove all files (whether write-protected or not) in a directory without prompting the user.
In a write-protected directory, however, files are never removed (whatever their permissions
are), but no messages are displayed. If the removal of a write-protected directory is
attempted, this option will not suppress an error message.

-i

Interactive. With this option, rm prompts for confirmation before removing any files. It overrides the -f option and remains in effect even if the standard input is not a terminal.

-R

Same as -r option.

-r

Recursively remove directories and subdirectories in the argument list. The directory will be
emptied of files and removed. The user is normally prompted for removal of any writeprotected files which the directory contains. The write-protected files are removed without
prompting, however, if the -f option is used, or if the standard input is not a terminal and the
-i option is not used. Symbolic links that are encountered with this option will not be
traversed. If the removal of a non-empty, write-protected directory is attempted, the utility
will always fail (even if the -f option is used), resulting in an error message.

filenames

A path of a filename to be removed.

Examples
rm myfile.txt
Remove the file myfile.txt without prompting the user.
rm -r directory
Remove a directory, even if files existed in that directory.
Note that if you use rm to remove a file, it is usually possible to recover the contents of that file.
If you want more assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred.

mv
Renames a file or moves it from one directory to another directory.
Syntax
mv [-f] [-i] oldname newname
-f

mv will move the file(s) without prompting even if it is writing over an existing target.
Note that this is the default if the standard input is not a terminal.

-i

Prompts before overwriting another file.

oldname

The oldname of the file renaming.

newname

The newname of the file renaming.

filename

The name of the file you want to move directory - The directory of were you want the
file to go.

Examples
mv myfile.txt newdirectory/
Moves the file myfile.txt to the directory newdirectory.
mv myfile.txt ../
Moves the file myfile.txt back one directory (if available).
mv computer\ hope.txt computer_hope.txt
Moves (renames) the file "computer hope.txt" to computer_hope.txt. When working with a file
or directory with a space you must escape that space with a backslash or surround the filename
or directory with quotes.

wc
Short for word count, wc displays a count of lines, words, and characters in a file.
Syntax
wc [-c | -m | -C ] [-l] [-w] [ file ... ]
-c

Count bytes.

-m

Count characters.

-C

Same as -m.

-l

Count lines.

-w

Count words delimited by white space characters or new line characters. Delimiting
characters are Extended Unix Code (EUC) characters from any code set defined by
iswspace()

file

Name of file to word count.

Examples
wc myfile.txt
Displays information about the file myfile.txt. Below is an example of the output.
5

13

57 myfile.txt

5 = Lines
13 = Words
57 = Characters
ls -1 | wc -l
Count how many files and directories are in the current directory. To prevent any confusion, the
above command reads ls <dash><the #1> <pipe> ls <dash><the letter l>. This command uses
the ls command to list files in a bare format and pipes the output into the wc command to count
how many files are listed. When done properly, the terminal should return a single number
indicating how many lines were counted and then return you to the prompt.

cmp
Compares two files and tells you what line numbers are different.
Syntax
cmp [-c] [-i N] [-l] [-s] [-v] firstfile secondfile
-c

Output differing bytes as characters.

-i N

Ignore differences in the first N bytes of input.

-l

Write the byte number (decimal) and the differing bytes (octal) for each difference.

-s

Write nothing for differing files; return exit statuses only.

-v

Output version info.

firstfile

First file that you wish to compare.

secondfile

Second file that you wish to compare to.

Examples
cmp file1.txt file2.txt
Compares file1 to file2 and outputs results. Below is example of how these results may look.
file.txt file2.txt differ: char 1011, line 112

comm
Select or reject lines common to two files.
Syntax
comm [-1] [-2] [-3 ] file1 file2
-1

Suppress the output column of lines unique to file1.

-2

Suppress the output column of lines unique to file2.

-3

Suppress the output column of lines duplicated in file1 and file2.

file1

Name of the first file to compare.

file2

Name of the second file to compare.

Examples
comm myfile1.txt myfile2.txt
The above example would compare the two files myfile1.txt and myfile2.txt

gzip, gunzip and zcat

Compress or expand files.
Syntax
gzip [ -acdfhlLnNrtvV19 ] [-S suffix] [ name ... ]
gunzip [ -acfhlLnNrtvV ] [-S suffix] [ name ... ]
zcat [ -fhLV ] [ name ... ]
-a --ansii

Ascii text mode: convert end-of-lines using local conventions. This option is supported
only on some non-Unix systems. For MSDOS, CR LF is converted to LF when
compressing, and LF is converted to CR LF when decompressing.

-c --stdout
--to-stdout

Write output on standard output; keep original files unchanged. If there are several input
files, the output consists of a sequence of independently compressed members. To obtain
better compression, concatenate all input files before compressing them.

-d
Decompress.
--decompre
ss
--uncompre
ss
-f --force

Force compression or decompression even if the file has multiple links or the
corresponding file already exists, or if the compressed data is read from or written to a
terminal. If the input data is not in a format recognized by gzip, and if the option --stdout is
also given, copy the input data without change to the standard ouput: let zcat behave as cat.
If -f is not given, and when not running in the background, gzip prompts to verify whether
an existing file should be overwritten.

-h --help

Display a help screen and quit.

-l --list

For each compressed file, list the following fields:

compressed size: size of the compressed file
uncompressed size: size of the uncompressed file
ratio: compression ratio (0.0% if unknown)
uncompressed_name: name of the uncompressed file
The uncompressed size is given as -1 for files not in gzip format, such as compressed .Z
files. To get the uncompressed size for such a file, you can use:

zcat file.Z | wc -c
In combination with the --verbose option, the following fields are also displayed:
method: compression method
crc: the 32-bit CRC of the uncompressed data
date & time: time stamp for the uncompressed file
The compression methods currently supported are deflate, compress, lzh (SCO compress
-H) and pack. The
crc is given as ffffffff for a file not in gzip format.
With --name, the uncompressed name, date and time are those stored within the compress
file if present.
With --verbose, the size totals and compression ratio for all files is also displayed, unless
some sizes are unknown. With --quiet, the title and totals lines are not displayed.
-L --license Display the gzip license and quit.
-n --noname

When compressing, do not save the original file name and time stamp by default. (The
original name is always saved if the name had to be truncated.) When decompressing, do
not restore the original file name if present (remove only the gzip suffix from the
compressed file name) and do not restore the original time stamp if present (copy it from
the compressed file). This option is the default when decompressing.

-N --name

When compressing, always save the original file name and time stamp; this is the default.
When decompressing, restore the original file name and time stamp if present. This option
is useful on systems which have a limit on file name length or when the time stamp has
been lost after a file transfer.

-q --quiet

Suppress all warnings.

-r
--recursive

Travel the directory structure recursively. If any of the file names specified on the
command line are directories, gzip will descend into the directory and compress all the files
it finds there (or decompress them in the case of gunzip ).

-S .suf
Use suffix .suf instead of .gz. Any suffix can be given, but suffixes other than .z and .gz
--suffix .suf should be avoided to avoid confusion when files are transferred to other systems. A null
suffix forces gunzip to try decompression on all given files regardless of suffix, as in:
gunzip -S "" * (*.* for MSDOS)

Previous versions of gzip used the .z suffix. This was changed to avoid a conflict with pack.

-t --test

Test. Check the compressed file integrity.

-v --verbose Verbose. Display the name and percentage reduction for each file compressed or
decompressed.
-V --version Version. Display the version number and compilation options then quit.
-# --fast
--best

Regulate the speed of compression using the specified digit #, where -1 or --fast indicates
the fastest compression method (less compression) and -9 or --best indicates the slowest
compression method (best compression). The default compression level is -6 (that is, biased
towards high compression at expense of speed).

Examples
gzip myfile
Compresses the file myfile, making it myfile.gz. Note. When doing this the original file will no
longer exist on the drive.
gunzip -f myfile.gz
Uncompress the file myfile.gz and if the uncompressed file(s) already exist force an overwrite.
When doing this the file myfile.gz will no longer be on the drive.
zcat myfile
Uncompress the file myfile.

tar
Create tape archives and add or extract files.
Examples
Note: A ".tar" file is not a compressed files, it is a collection of files within a single file
uncompressed. If the file is a .tar.gz ("tarball") or ".tgz" file it is a collection of files that is
compressed. If you are looking to compress a file you would create the tar file then gzip the file.
Creating a tar file:
tar -cvwf file.tar myfile.txt
In the above example the system would create a tar named file.tar in the directory you currently
are in.Wildcards could also be used in this command, for example: tar -cvwf file.tar *.txt would
compress all txt files in the current directory.
tar -cvwf home.tar home/
In the above example command the system would create a tar file named home.tar in the
directory you currently are in of the home directory.
Extracting the files from a tar file:
tar -xvwf myfile.tar
In the above example command the system would uncompress (untar) the myfile.tar file in the
current directory.
tar -xvwzf myfile.tar.gz
In the above example command the system would uncompress (untar) the myfile.tar.gz file in the
current directory.
Note: There is no "untar" Linux and Unix command.
Creating a tarred file that is compressed with bzip
tar -cjvf test.tbz home/
Adding the j option to the tar command enables tar to compress files and directories using bzip.
In the above example the home directory and all its subdirectories are added to the compressed
test.tbz file.

zip
zip is a compression and file packaging utility for Unix, VMS, MSDOS, OS/2, Windows NT,
Minix, Atari and Macintosh, Amiga and Acorn RISC OS.
It is analogous to a combination of the UNIX commands tar and compress and is compatible
with PKZIP (Phil Katz's ZIP for MSDOS systems).
A companion program (unzip), unpacks zip archives. The zip and unzip programs can work with
archives produced by PKZIP, and PKZIP and PKUNZIP can work with archives produced by
zip. zip version 2.31 is compatible with PKZIP 2.04. Note that PKUNZIP 1.10 cannot extract
files produced by PKZIP 2.04 or zip 2.31. You must use PKUNZIP 2.04g or unzip 5.0p1 (or later
versions) to extract them.

Examples
zip stuff *
Creates the archive stuff.zip (assuming it doesn't already exist) and puts all the current files in the
current directory into it, in the compressed form.
Because of the way the shell does filename substitution, files starting with "." are not included; to
include these as well: zip stuff .* *
zip logfiles file.log file2.log
Next, this command zips the file.log and file2.log into the logfiles.zip archive.
zip -r hope hope
Zip up the entire hope directory as the archive hope.zip.
zip -rm foo foo/tom
Zip the tom subdirectory in foo into the foo.zip archive while removing the files at the same
time. This can be useful if you need to create a zip file but are running low on disk space.

unzip
unzip will list, test, or extract files from a ZIP archive, commonly found on MS-DOS systems.
The default behavior (with no options) is to extract into the current directory (and subdirectories
below it) all files from the specified ZIP archive. A companion program, zip, creates ZIP
archives; both programs are compatible with archives created by PKWAREE'sPKZIP and
PKUNZIP for MS-DOS, but in many cases the program options or default behaviors
differ.PKZIP and PKUNZIP for MS-DOS, but in many cases the program options or default
behaviors differ.
Examples
unzip hope
Unzip the hope.zip archive into the current directory.

chmod
Changes the permission of a file.
Syntax
chmod [OPTION]... MODE[,MODE]... FILE...
chmod [OPTION]... OCTAL-MODE FILE...
chmod [OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...
-c, --changes

like verbose but report only when a change is made

--no-preserveroot

do not treat `/' specially (the default)

--preserve-root

fail to operate recursively on `/'

-f, --silent,
--quiet

suppress most error messages

-v, verbose

output a diagnostic for every file processed

-use RFILE's mode instead of MODE values

reference=RFILE
-R, --recursive

change files and directories recursively

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Permissions
u - User who owns the file.
g - Group that owns the file.
o - Other.
a - All.
r - Read the file.
w - Write or edit the file.
x - Execute or run the file as a program.
Numeric Permissions:
CHMOD can also to attributed by using Numeric Permissions:

400 read by owner

040 read by group
004 read by anybody (other)
200 write by owner
020 write by group
002 write by anybody
100 execute by owner
010 execute by group
001 execute by anybody
Examples
The above numeric permissions can be added to set a certain permission, for example, a common
HTML file on a Unix server to be only viewed over the Internet would be:
chmod 644 file.htm
This gives the file read/write by the owner and only read by everyone else (-rw-r--r--).Files such
as scripts that need to be executed need more permissions. Below is another example of a
common permission given to scripts.
chmod 755 file.cgi
This would be the following 400+040+004+200+100+010+001 = 755 where you are giving all
the rights except the capability for anyone to write to the file.cgi file(-rwxr-xr-x).
chmod 666 file.txt
Finally, another common CHMOD permission is 666, as shown below, which is read and write
by everyone.
Additional information
Below is an example of how a file may be listed when typing ( ls -l ) at the prompt as well as
information on how to interpret it.
-rw-rw-r-- 1 hope 123 Feb 03 15:36 file.txt
-

rw

rw-

r--

hope

123

Feb 03 15:36

file.txt

File

owner

group

everyone else

links

owner

size

mod date

file name

VI Editor
The default editor that comes with the UNIX operating system is called vi (visual editor).
[Alternate editors for UNIX environments include pico and emacs, a product of GNU.]
The UNIX vi editor is a full screen editor and has two modes of operation:
1. Command mode commands which cause action to be taken on the file, and
2. Insert mode in which entered text is inserted into the file.
In the command mode, every character typed is a command that does something to the text file
being edited; a character typed in the command mode may even cause the vi editor to enter the
insert mode. In the insert mode, every character typed is added to the text in the file; pressing
the <Esc> (Escape) key turns off the Insert mode.
While there are a number of vi commands, just a handful of these is usually sufficient for
beginning vi users. To assist such users, this Web page contains a sampling of
basic vi commands. The most basic and useful commands are marked with an asterisk (* or star)
in the tables below. With practice, these commands should become automatic.
NOTE: Both UNIX and vi are case-sensitive. Be sure not to use a capital letter in place of a
lowercase letter; the results will not be what you expect.
Command

Result

vi filename

opens file (vi with no argument opens new file)

Two modes in vi editor: insert and command (default is command mode when file is opened)
I

change to insert mode - in this mode you can add text

Esc

return to command mode

in command mode
:q

quit file

:q!

quit file without saving any changes

:w

save file (write)

:wq

save and quit file (write and quit)

delete character

/string

search forward for string (n key finds next)

?string

search backwards for string (n key finds previous)

:g/string/s//string2/g

substitute string with string2 globally

:line#

jump to line# in file

:$

jump to last line of file

:.,$d

delete from current line to end of file

:.,.+20d

delete from current line through next 20

Creating Files: You can use vi editor to create ordinary files on any Unix system. You
simply need to give following command: $ vi filename Above command would open
a file with the given filename. You would need to press key i to come into edit mode.
Once you are in edit mode you can start writing your content in the file as below:

This is unix file....I created it for the first time..... I'm going to save this content in
this file. Once you are done, do the following steps: Press key esc to come out of
edit mode. Press two keys Shift + ZZ together to come out of the file completely.
Now you would have a file created with filemame in the current directory
Editing Files: You can edit an existing file using vi editor. We would cover this in
detail in a separate tutorial. But in short, you can open existing file as follows: $ vi
filename Once file is opened, you can come in edit mode by pressing key i and then
you can edit file as you like. If you want to move here and there inside a file then
first you need to come out of edit mode by pressing key esc and then you can use
following keys to move inside a file: l key to move to the right side. h key to move
to the left side. k key to move up side in the file. j key to move down side in the
file. So using above keys you can position your cursor where ever you want to edit.
Once you are positioned then you can use i key to come in edit mode. Edit the file,
once you are done press esc and finally two keys Shift + ZZ together to come out of
the file completely.