Appendix A: Shell Commands

Here I provide some useful commands and executables in shell which is portable on Linux or Unix based systems (Ubuntu, Debian, MacOS, Cygwin, …). For detailed description on how to use these commands, use <command> --help, man <command>, info coreutils <command>, or google them.

Some of the executables (such as gcc) does not come with some systems themselves. You might need to install them first. Just google <OS> how to install <package>.

Executable / Command Stand For Short Description
bash Bourne-Again shell The most used shell
bg background Make a process run in background
cat concatenate Show contents of a file or stdin
cd change directory Change directory
chmod change mode Change access permissions of files
chown change owner Change the owner of files
cp copy Copy a file to another path
diff difference Check the difference between files
echo echo Print something
fg foreground Bring a background job to foreground
gcc GNU compiler collection The compiler collection for C, C++, and Fortran
grep g/re/p: global regular expression print Search in files or streams for lines that match a regular expression
id identity Print user and group information
jobs jobs Check status of jobs running in current terminal
kill kill Send a signal to a process (not necessarily SIGKILL!)
ls list contents List contents in a directory
man manual Manual for commands
mv move Move a file or directory to another path
ps process Check processes running in the system
pwd print working directory Print the full path of current directory to stdout
rm remove Delete a file
scp secure copy Copy or transfer files to a remote endpoint
sed stream editor Edit a file or stream with command-line
sh shell The most basic shell with few features
sleep sleep Suspends program execution for a specified time
ssh secure shell A remote login interface and shell
su switch user Switch to and login as another user
sudo super user do Execute a command in elevated privilege (root)
tar tape archive Pack files and have the ability to compress
top table of processes A real-time process monitor
touch touch Create a file, or change and modify timestamps of a file
tr translate Substitute contents, or select or delete contents from input
vi visual instrument A visual editor
vim vi improved A better visual editor
which which Identify the location of a given executable in PATH
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