Basic Unix Commands

Knowing basic Unix commands should allow you to navigate your Unix system, confirm current system status and manage files or directories.

Getting help

• man – view manual pages for Unix commands

Unix users

• id – print user identity

Unix file operations

• ls – list files and directories
• cat – concatenate files and show contents to the standard output
• cp – copy
• rm – remove the file
• mv – move the file

Unix directory management commands

• cd – change directory
• pwd – confirm current directory
• ln – make links and symlinks to files and directories
• mkdir – make new directory
• rmdir – remove empty directories

Unix system status commands

• uptime – find out how long the system has been up
• who – find out who is logged into the system
• uname – print Unix system information

Process management

• ps – process information
• top – show tasks and system status