Alpha1 - Website Support : Unix Commands & Examples

^ 1. What are the basic commands to move around my account?

pwd			Tells you your current directory (in full)
cd			Takes you to your HOME (starting directory)
cd ..			Moves you backwards one directory
cd /dir/dir			Moves you to a particular directory

^ 2. What are the basic commands to copy & move files?

cp file file2		Copies the file to file2
mv file newfile		Moves, or renames, the file
rm file		Removes the file permanently
rm -rf file		Forces a removal of a file
rm -rf dirname		Removes a directory, and all it's subdirectories


^ 3. How do I change my password?: At the Alpha1 Unix prompt, type passwd, it will guide you through the rest.


^ 4. How do I find out what processes am I running?: To see a FULL list of processes running on Alpha1 UNIX server, type ps-aux


^ 5. How do I kill a process?: Use the ps-x command to get a list of your processes, then you will type kill-9#### where #### is the number of that particular process to kill it.

^ 6. What are the commands archive (like zip) files?

gunzip file.tar.gz		Unzip's the file.tar.gz to file.tar
gzip file.tar.gz file.tar		Zip's the file.tar to file.tar.gz
tar -xvf file.tar		Untar's the file file.tar
tar -xvfp file.tar		Untar's the file file.tar with file permissions
tar -cvf mytar.tar file1 file2		Makes Tar mytar.tar with file1 & file2
tar -cvf mytar.tar /usr/home/bob		Makes tar mytar.tar from directory /usr/home/bob
tar -cvfp mytar.tar file1 file2		Makes Tar mytar.tar preserving file permissions

NOTE : When doing a tar archive, it's wise not to stand in the directory you are packaging.


^ 7. How can I view a file's text content?: To view a regular (non-compiled or binary) file, such as a text file, type catfilename or type catfilename|more to go page-by-page scrolling.


^ 8. What command tells me my space used, and what's left (Quota)?: Type quota at the command prompt. You will see different file systems listed, and your space used and space allowed on each one.


^ 9. How do I see the status of the server?: Type top at the command prompt. You can see the top 10 processes running on Alpha1, as well as CPU idle time, and memory free in the form of megabytes.
To leave top, simply hit Control-C.


^ 10. How can I tell how long server has been up since last reboot?: At the command prompt, type uptime


^ 11. I'm interested in a particular command? Are there online manuals?: Yes, we do have online manuals. The syntax is mancommand typed at the unix prompt, where command is the unix command you are interesting in looking up.


^ 12. How can I see who is currently online?: At the command prompt, type who