UNIX Commands and Shells
All UNIX commands, processes, etc., operate under control of a shell, the user interface with the UNIX system, which interprets commands and passes them to the operating system, and then returns operating system information to the user. There are three principal shells: sh - The Bourne Shell, csh - The C Shell, and ksh - The Korn Shell. Each shell provides a set of commands it recognizes. While most commands are common to all shells, there are special features unique to each shell. Specifics of the different shells will not be covered here.
Command prompts vary with the active shell. The Bourne and Korn shells have a $ prompt. The C shell has a % prompt.
When Grinder accounts are created, the user is given the Korn Shell as the default shell. Most applications present on Grinder require the user to have either the Bourne Shell (sh) or Korn Shell as the active shell. Since the Korn Shell is backwardly compatible with the Bourne Shell, users running the Korn Shell do not have to invoke the Bourne Shell to use applications which require the Bourne Shell.
Some applications covered in this document require the user to invoke a different shell, such as the C Shell. Where this is a requirement, this document provides instructions for invoking the correct shell.
There are syntax differences between the C Shell and the Bourne / Korn Shells. Unless a user is performing UNIX shell commands beyond basic application launching, these differences typically will not affect the usage of Grinder applications.
UNIX commands, options, paths, and filenames are case sensitive.Some common commands are listed below.
| Command Description | Command |
|---|---|
| Listing your files |
ls -e ls -e | more lf |
| Making a subdirectory | mkdir directoryname |
| Re-executing a command | r |
| Directory information | s -or- pwd |
| Renaming files | mv oldname newname |
| Copying files | cp originalname newname |
| Removing files | rm originalname |
| Disk Space |
quota (note: 1block = 1K bytes) |
| Help |
man commandname or man -k string | more |
| Exiting UNIX | exit |
A more comprehensive list of commands is in the on-line handout, UNIX - An Overview.
