The following is a brief description of commonly used Unix commands. The list is a small subset of the available commands and utilities. Some are in alias (i.e., abbreviated DOS-like) form defined by the Department of Mathematical Sciences. A command in alias form allows the entering of shorter or easy-to-remember names to execute longer or hard-to-remember command strings and eases the transition to Unix for the MS-DOS users. For a complete list of aliases, type alias from the Unix command line.
alias List all the aliases cat List contents of a file cd Change directory cp copy files d List file and directories exit Terminate the current Unix shell h History of Unix commands used in the window help Help history History of the unix commands used in the window lpr Print a file ls List files and directories man Help mkdir Make directory more To scroll long files mv Move files pwd Print working directory rlogin Remote login rm Remove file rmdir Remove empty directory scan Look for a file or directory
NOTE: Unlike DOS, Unix distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase letters. Thus, ls is not the same as LS. This is true for filenames as well as for commands.