CECS 274 - Basic Unix Command

CSU Long Beach
CECS 274
Programming and Problem Solving II

Syllabus
Schedule
Grading
Project 1
Project 2
Solution to Project 2
Project 3
Solution to Project 3
Project 4
Solution to Project 4
Project 5
Set Solution to Project 5
Map Solution to Project 5
Lecture Notes
Basic Unix Commands
Basic vi Commands
More vi Commands
Using Eclipse
Compiling and Running Java on Unix

Mimi Opkins Home

Basic Unix Commands

We will be working on the Unix operating system. Here are some basic commands (and hints) to help you get started.

When you login to your account you are located in your home directory. You can always specify your home directory by the symbol ~. All files and directories within Unix are uniquely defined by their path. Imagine the following structure of files and directories:

Suppose we are interested in using an Ada program that is stored in a file test.a located in directory ada_files. The full pathname which uniquely describes test.a from the home directory is: ~/ada_files/test.a. If we are already located in ~, we could specify the file as: ada_files/test.a. If we are located in ada_files, we need only specify test.a.

For the commands listed below, the <dir> and <file> arguments are expected to be pathnames describing directories or files, respectively.

What	Command	Description
list contents of a directory	ls <dir>	List the contents of the specified directory; if none is specified, list the contents of the current directory.
change directory	cd <dir>	Move to the specified directory; if none is specified, go to the home directory.
copy	cp <file1> <file2>	Copy the contents of file1 into file2. (Note: the contents of file2 are overwritten.)
rename	mv <file1> <file2>	Rename file1 as file2.
logout	logout	Exit your account.
change password	passwd	Allows you to change your password. This should be done the first time you login.
display file on screen	cat <file>	Display the contents of the specified file on the screen.
display file on screen	more <file>	Display the contents of the specified file on the screen one page at a time.
create a directory	mkdir <dir>	Create a new directory called name. A path may be specified for the location of the directory; if not, name is created within the current directory.
remove a file	rm <file>	Remove the file specified.