Linux unix-commands

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Some Useful Linux Commands
February 2013

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Shorthand at the Command Prompt
3 Typical Dot Files
4 Useful Files
5 Important Directories
6 Important Bash Shell Variables
7 Important Daemons and Startup Services
8 Window Managers
9 Alphabetical List of Principal Commands
10 Notes on Applications
10.1 Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs)
10.2 Mail User Agents (MUAs)
10.3 Editors
10.4 Other
11 Some Nifty Slogans
12 References

Copyright © 2012 Zeelogic (P) Ltd. All rights reserved.


1 Introduction
This is a comprehensive list of all the Linux/Unix Commands; it should give you a jumpstart on some of the
common and mostly used Linux commands. This is very useful for beginners, Programmers, Professionals.

Please note: Commands might vary somewhat in syntax and usage from one distribution of Linux to
another, and from one type of shell to another. The command libraries here are provided as general
references.

2 Shorthand at the Command Prompt
Some of these commands are specific to the bash shell. Most of the commands are common to all shells.

/ root directory
./ current directory
command_name - run a command in the current directory when the current directory is not
./ on the path
../ parent directory
~ home directory
$ typical prompt when logged in as ordinary user
# typical prompt when logged in as root or superuser
! repeat specified command
!! repeat previous command
^^ repeat previous command with substitution
& run a program in background mode
prints a list of all available commands. This is just an example of auto complete with no
[Tab][Tab] restriction on the first letter.
x[Tab][Tab] prints a list of all available completions for a command, where the beginning is ``x''
[Alt][Ctrl][F1] switch to the first virtual text console
[Alt][Ctrl][Fn] switch to the nth virtual text console. Typically, there are six on a Linux PC system.
switch to the first GUI console, if there is one running. If the graphical console freezes,
one can switch to a non graphical console, kill the process that is giving problems, and
[Alt][Ctrl][F7] switch back to the graphical console using this shortcut.
[ArrowUp] scroll through the command history (in bash)
scroll terminal output up. This also works at the login prompt, so you can scroll through
[Shift][PageUp] your boot messages.
[Shift][PageDown] scroll terminal output down
[Ctrl][Alt][+] switch to next X server resolution (if the server is set up for more than one resolution)
[Ctrl][Alt][-] change to previous X server resolution
[Ctrl][Alt][BkSpc] kill the current X server. Used when normal exit is not possible.
[Ctrl][Alt][Del] shut down the system and reboot
[Ctrl]c kill the current process
[Ctrl]d logout from the current terminal
[Ctrl]s stop transfer to current terminal


[Ctrl]q resume transfer to current terminal. This should be tried if the terminal stops responding.
[Ctrl]z send current process to the background
reset restore a terminal to its default settings
Hold down left mouse button and drag to highlight text. Releasing the button copies the
[Leftmousebutton] region to the text buffer under X and (if gpm is installed) in console mode.
Copies text from the text buffer and inserts it at the cursor location. With a two-button
mouse, click on both buttons simultaneously. It is necessary for three-button emulation to
[Middlemousebutton] be enabled, either under gpm or in XF86Config.

3 Typical Dot Files
There is some redundancy across these programs. For example, the look and behavior of emacs can be
customized by using the .emacs file, but also by adding the appropriate modifications to the .Xdefaults file.
Default versions of these files are often installed in users' home directories when the software packages that
use them are installed. If a program doesn't find its configuration file in the user's home directory, it will
often fall back on a system-wide default configuration file installed in one of the subdirectories that the
package lives in.

.bash_logout file executed by bash shell on logout
Initialization of bash shell run only on login. Bash looks first for a .bash_profile file
when started as a login shell or with the -login option. If it does not find .bash_profile, it
looks for .bash_login. If it doesn't find that, it looks for .profile. System-wide functions
.bash_profile and aliases go in /etc/bashrc and default environment variables go in /etc/profile.
.bashrc initialization command run when bash shell starts up as a non-login shell
initialization commands that are run automatically (like autoexec.bat) when C shell is
.cshrc initiated
.emacs configuration file for emacs editor
.fvwmrc configuration file for fvwm window manager
.fvwm2rc configuration file for fvwm2 window manager
.jedrc configuration file for the jed text editor
.lessrc typically contains key bindings for cursor movement with the less command
.login initialization file when user logs in
.logout commands run when user logs out
.wm_style gives choice of default window manager if one is not specified in startx
sets up X resources for individual user. The behavior of many different application
.Xdefaults programs can be changed by modifying this file.
Initialization file when running startx. Can be used to activate applications, run a given
.xinitrc window manager, and modify the appearance of the root window.
.xsession configuration file for xdm



4 Useful Files
Files Description
the typical location and name of the Linux kernel. In the Slackware distribution, the kernel
/boot/vmlinuz is located at /vmlinuz.
/dev/fd0 first floppy disk drive
driver for the first floppy drive in high density mode. Generally, this is invoked when
formatting a floppy drive for a particular density. Slackware comes with drivers that allow
for formatting a 3.5" diskette with up to 1.7MB of space. Red Hat and Mandrake do not
/dev/fd0H1440 contain these device driver files by default.
/dev/fd1 second floppy disk drive
/dev/hda first IDE hard drive
on many machines, the IDE cdrom drive. Most often, there is a symbolic link called
/dev/hdc /dev/cdrom which is just a link to the true cdrom driver file.
/dev/null used when you want to send output into oblivion
file containing aliases used by sendmail and other MTAs (mail transport agents). After
updating this file, it is necessary to run the newaliases utility for the changes to be passed to
/etc/aliases sendmail.
/etc/bashrc system-wide default functions and aliases for the bash shell
/etc/conf.modules aliases and options for configurable modules
/etc/crontab shell script to run different commands periodically (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
used to store colors for different file types when using ls command. The dircolors command
uses this file when there is not a .dir_colors file in the user's home directory. Used in
/etc/DIR_COLORS conjunction with the eval command (see below).
specifies hosts to which file systems can be exported using NFS. Man exports contains
/etc/exports information on how to set up this file for remote users.
contains information on partitions and filesystems used by system to mount different
/etc/fstab partitions and devices on the directory tree
/etc/HOSTNAME stores the name of the host computer
/etc/hosts contains a list of host names and absolute IP addresses.
/etc/hosts.allow hosts allowed (by the tcpd daemon) to access Internet services
/etc/hosts.deny hosts forbidden (by the tcpd daemon) to access Internet services
/etc/group similar to /etc/passwd but for groups
configures the inetd daemon to tell it what TCP/IP services to provide (which daemons to
load at boot time). A good start to securing a Linux box is to turn off these services unless
/etc/inetd.conf they are necessary.

runs different programs and processes on startup. This is typically the program which is
responsible for, among other things, setting the default runlevel, running the rc.sysinit script
contained in /etc/rc.d, setting up virtual login terminals, bringing down the system in an
orderly fashion in response to [Ctrl][Alt][Del], running the rc script in /etc/rc.d, and running
/etc/inittab xdm for a graphical login prompt (only if the default runlevel is set for a graphical login).
pre-login message. This is often overwritten by the /etc/rc.d/rc.S script (in Slackware) or by
the /etc/rc.d/rc.local script (in Mandrake and Red Hat, and perhaps other rpm-based
distributions). The relevant lines should be commented out (or changed) in these scripts if a
/etc/issue custom pre-login message is desired.


/etc/lilo.conf configuration file for lilo boot loader
message of the day file, printed immediately after login. This is often overwritten by
/etc/rc.d/rc.S (Slackware) or /etc/rc.d/rc.local (Mandrake/Red Hat) on startup. See the
/etc/motd remarks in connection with /etc/issue.
/etc/mtab shows currently mounted devices and partitions and their status

Contains passwords and other information concerning users who are registered to use the
system. For obvious security reasons, this is readable only by root. It can be modified by
root directly, but it is preferable to use a configuration utility such as passwd to make the
/etc/passwd changes. A corrupt /etc/passwd file can easily render a Linux box unusable.
/etc/printcap Shows the setup of printers
Sets system-wide defaults for bash shell. It is this file in Slackware that sets up the
DIR_COLORS environment variable for the color ls command. Also sets up other system-
/etc/profile wide environment variables.
/etc/resolv.conf contains a list of domain name servers used by the local machine
Contains a list of terminals on which root can login. For security reasons, this should not
/etc/securetty include dialup terminals.
ASCII database defining the capabilities and characteristics of different consoles, terminals,
/etc/termcap and printers
/etc/X11/XF86Config X configuration file. The location in Slackware is /etc/XF86Config.
/proc/cpuinfo CPU Information
/proc/filesystems prints file systems currently in use
/proc/interrupts prints interrupts currently in use
/proc/ioports contains a list of the i/o addresses used by various devices connected to the computer
The command ls -l /proc/kcore will give the amount of RAM on the computer. It's also
/proc/kcore possible to use the free command to get the same information (and more).
/proc/version prints Linux version and other info
/var/log/messages used by syslog daemon to store kernel boot-time messages
/var/log/lastlog used by system to store information about last boot
/var/log/wtmp contains binary data indicating login times and duration for each user on system

5 Important Directories
Different distributions have different directory structures, despite attempts at standardization such as the
Linux File system Hierarchy Standard (FHS) organization.

Essential UNIX commands such as ls, etc. Should contain all binaries needed to boot
/bin the system or run it in single-user mode
/boot files used during booting and possibly the kernel itself are stored here
/dev contains device files for various devices on system
files used by subsystems such as networking, NFS, and mail. Includes tables of disks
/etc to mount, processes to run on startup, etc.
/etc/profile.d Contains scripts that are run by /etc/profile upon login.
contains a number of shell scripts that are run on bootup at different run levels. There
is also typically an rc.inet1 script to set up networking (in Slackwar), an rc.modules
/etc/rc.d script to load modular device drivers, and an rc.local script that can be edited to run


commands desired by the administrator, along the lines of autoexec.bat in DOS.

/etc/rc.d/init.d Contains most of the initialization scripts themselves on an rpm-based system.
where ``*'' is a number corresponding to the default run level. Contains files for
services to be started and stopped at that run level. On rpm-based systems, these files
/etc/rc.d/rc*.d are symbolic links to the initialization scripts themselves, which are in /etc/rc.d/init.d.
Directory containing several example or skeleton initialization shells. Often contains
/etc/skel subdirectories and files used to populate a new user's home directory.
/etc/X11 configuration files for the X Window system
/home home directories of individual users
/lib standard shared library files
/lib/modules modular device driver files, most with .o extensions
typical mount point for many user-mountable devices such as floppy drives, cd-rom
/mnt readers, etc. Each device is mounted on a subdirectory of /mnt.
/proc virtual file system that provides a number of system statistics
/root home directory for root
/sbin location of binaries used for system administration, configuration, and monitoring
/tmp Directory specifically designed for programs and users to store temporary files.
directory containing a number of subdirectory with programs, libraries,
/usr documentation, etc.
Contains most user commands. Should not contain binaries necessary for booting the
system, which go in /bin. The /bin directory is generally located on the same disk
partition as /, which is mounted in read-only mode during the boot process. Other
filesystems are only mounted at a later stage during startup, so putting binaries
/usr/bin essential for boot here is not a good idea.
most often a symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/bin, which contains executable binaries
/usr/bin/X11 related to the X Window system
location of miscellaneous documentation, and the main location of program
/usr/doc documentation files under Slackware
/usr/include standard location of include files used in C programs such as stdio.h
/usr/info primary location of the GNU info system files
Standard library files such as libc.a. Searched by the linker when programs are
/usr/lib compiled.
/usr/lib/X11 X Window system distribution
/usr/local/bin yet another place to look for common executables
/usr/man location of manual page files
/usr/sbin other commands used by super user for system administration
contains subdirectories where many installed programs have configuration, setup and
/usr/share auxiliary files
/usr/share/doc location of program documentation files under Mandrake and Red Hat
Location of source programs used to build system. Source code for programs of all
/usr/src types are often unpacked in this directory.
often a symbolic link to a subdirectory whose name corresponds to the exact version
/usr/src/linux of the Linux kernel that is running. Contains the kernel sources.
/var administrative files such as log files, used by various utilities


Contains files, each of which has detailed information on an installed package in
Slackware. The same file can also be found at /var/adm/packages, since the adm
subdirectory is a symbolic link to log. Each package file contains a short description
/var/log/packages plus a list of all installed files.
package installation scripts in Slackware are stored here. You can inspect these
/var/log/scripts scripts to see what special features are included in individual packages.
/var/spool temporary storage for files being printed, mail that has not yet been picked up, etc.

6 Important Bash Shell Variables
These variables are most often inherited or declared when a shell is started. A great reference for bash shell
variable, bash builtin commands, and bash in general is SSC (2000).

HOME home directory, abbreviated as ~
MAIL name of file that mail is stored in (mailbox)
MAILCHECK sets the frequency at which bash checks for mail
directory paths to search for executable files. According to A Practical Guide to
Linux, p.329, the PATH is set in /etc/profile. On my Linux box, /etc/profile adds
/usr/X11R6/bin to the path, which means that the path must be set before by another
configuration file. The .bash_profile file in my home directory adds
/home/ambler/bin to the path. On my Linux box, the first command to set the path
would seem to be in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, which is one of the shell scripts invoked by
the init process (inittab). Then, /etc/profile adds /usr/X11R6/bin. Finally,
PATH .bash_profile adds /home/ambler/bin.
prompt string. Things that can be put in the prompt string include h (hostname), u
(username), w (absolute pathname of working directory), W (name of working
directory w/o path), d (date), t (time). See p.331 of A Practical Guide to Linux for
more details. On my Red Hat boxes, the primary prompt string is set in the
/etc/bashrc file. The prompt is also set in /etc/profile, but the setting in bashrc seems
to take precedence. I also have a .bashrc file, which in turn runs /etc/bashrc, which
sets the prompt. This means that the same prompt is used by xterm and rxvt in X
sessions. On my Slackware box, the command line prompt is set in /etc/profile. The
xterm and rxvt prompts are different, since I don't have a .bash_profile file which is
run when an xterm is started. In fact, I don't know where the prompt is set in X
PS1 sessions. It is not set by /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/XTerm.
PS2 secondary prompt string.

7 Important Daemons and Startup Services
These are programs or processes which are run at boot time. Some remain in memory to execute various
tasks when required (daemons). Most are started and stopped with scripts in the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory (see
above). The exact contents of this directory will depend on which packages from a particular distribution are
installed. For example, installing the Apache package will cause an httpd script to be placed in
/etc/rc.d/init.d.
There are man pages on most of these. The Red Hat program tksysv (ntsysv is the non graphical version)
allows root to automatically configure which of these are started automatically at boot time. The linuxconf
program does the same thing, although I haven't tried it. The utility chkconfig is also designed to query and


configure runtime services for different runlevels. The www.mandrakeuser.org site has a good page on
common services/daemons, especially those included in recent versions of the Mandrake distribution.
A good source of information on daemons and services is the ``Linux Devices, Daemons, Services'' chapter
of the CTDP (2000a) document.

amd runs the automount daemon for remote file system mounting such as nfs
checks delayed `cron' tasks (see below) at boot time and executes them. Useful if you
anacron have cron jobs scheduled but don't run your machine all the time.
Advanced Power Management BIOS daemon. For use on machines, especially laptops,
that support apm. Monitors battery status and can shut down the system if power is too
apmd low.
arpwatch keeps watch for ethernet IP address pairings that are resolved using the ARP protocol.
atd runs jobs queued by `at'
control the operation of automount daemons, used to mount and unmount devices on
autofs demand
allows computers to boot from a Linux machine using the BOOTP network protocol. A
bootparamd server process that provides information to diskless clients necessary for booting
Automatic task scheduler. Manages the execution of tasks that are executed at regular
crond but infrequent intervals, such as rotating log files, cleaning up /tmp directories, etc.
daemon for print services under the Common Unix Printer System, a replacement for
cups lpd
Implements the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and the Internet
dhcpd Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP). Used to lease out IP addresses to remote machines.
drakfont font server in Mandrake
fetchmail daemon to fetch mail at regular intervals from mail servers
ftpd ftp server daemon
gated routing daemon that handles multiple routing protocols and replaces routed and egpup
gpm useful mouse server for applications running on the Linux console.
httpd the Apache webserver hypertext transfer protocol daemon
The identd server provides a means to determine the identity of a user of a particular
TCP connection. Given a TCP port number pair, it returns a character string which
identd identifies the owner of that connection on the server's system.
listens for service requests on network connections, particularly dial-in services. This
daemon can automatically load and unload other daemons (ftpd, telnetd, etc.), thereby
economizing on system resources. In the latest version of Red Hat (7.0 at the time of
writing), it has been replaced by xinetd. A partial list of services controlled by inetd is
listed below. Under many distributions, inetd will execute scripts in the file
inetd /etc/inetd.conf.
innd Usenet news server daemon
ipchains daemon for packet forwarding. Used for configuring a gateway/firewall.
isdn provides ISDN network interfacing services
isdn4linux for users of ISDN cards
kerneld automatically loads and unloads kernel modules
keytable loads the appropriate keyboard map from /etc/sysconfig/ keyboard
kheader
kudzu detects and configures new or changed hardware during boot


linuxconf ``startup hook'' needed for the linuxconf system configuration tool
lpd line printer and print spooler daemon
server program for the Midnight Commander networking file system. It provides access
to the host file system to clients running the Midnight file system (currently, only the
Midnight Commander file manager). If the program is run as root the program will try
to get a reserved port otherwise it will use 9876 as the port. If the system has a
portmapper running, then the port will be registered with the portmapper and thus
clients will automatically connect to the right port. If the system does not have a
mcserv portmapper, then a port should be manually specified with the -p option (see below).
mysql database server daemon
named provides DNS services
netfs network filesystem mounter. Used for mounting nfs, smb and ncp shares on boot.
activates all network interfaces at boot time by calling scripts in /etc/sysconfig/network-
network scripts
nfsd used for exporting nfs shares when requested by remote systems
nfslock starts and stops nfs file locking service
numlock locks numlock key at init runlevel change
pcmcia generic services for pcmcia cards in laptops
portmap needed for Remote Procedure Calls
mail transport agent which is a replacement for sendmail. Now the default on desktop
postfix installations of Mandrake.
postgresql database server daemon
random random number generating daemon, related to security and encryption
routed manages routing tables
kernel statistics server. Allows users on a network to get performance statistics for any
rstatd connected machine.
rusersd provides services that allow users to find one another over the network
rwalld allows users to use rwall to write messages on remote terminals
server which maintains the database used by the rwho(1) and ruptime(1) programs. Its
rwhod operation is predicated on the ability to broadcast messages on a network.
mail transfer agent. This is the agent that comes with Red Hat. Others, such as smtpd,
sendmail are not included.
smb needed for running SAMBA
snmpd provides Simple Network Management Protocol support
sound daemon for managing sound
squid web page proxy server daemon
syslogd manages system log files
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, designed for the exchange of electronic mail messages.
Several daemons that support SMTP are available, including sendmail, smtpd, rsmtpd,
smtpd qmail, zmail, etc.
from the tcp_wrappers package. Intercepts requests normally handled by inetd and
filters them through the files hosts.allow and hosts.deny files, which can restrict access
to services based on type of service, origin of request, destination, etc. Requests are
intercepted because calls to particular services are replaced with calls to tcpd in
tcpd /etc/inetd.conf.
telnetd telnet server daemon
usb daemon for devices on Universal Serial Bus


xfs X font server
more modern replacement for inetd. It apparently allows for similar kinds of access
filters to the ones used by tcpd in conjunction with inetd. xinetd replaces inetd as the
xinetd default network services daemon in Red Hat 7.0.
xntpd Network Time Protocol daemon. Provides a means to syncronize time over the network.
webmin daemon for webmin web-based system administration program
ypbind NIS binder. Needed if computer is part of Network Information Service domain.

8 Window Managers
The ``Window Managers for X'' site is extremely useful for keeping track of new Linux window managers.
See http://winman.org.

Afterstep Based on Fvwm. Designed to give a similar look and feel to the NextStep interface.
AnotherLevel a custom configuration for fvwm2 which mimics the look and feel of Windows95.
a light, fast, window manager. It doesn't clutter the screen with too much junk, but it gets the job
Blackbox done efficiently.
Common Desktop Environment. This is the default window manager on many commercial Unix
CDE systems. There is no free version.
Very configurable, and probably the coolest looking window manager, but a bit of a resource
Enlightenment hog.
Flwm Fast, Light Window Manager. It has very few features, but is very small.
F (?) Virtual Window Manager. This, along with Fvwm2, are old standbies in the Linux world.
They are quite configurable, but configuration involves editing text files which are sometimes
Fvwm obscure.
Fvwm2 newer version of above.
Fvwm95 implementation of Fvwm2 configured to look and feel like Windows 95.
Gnome desktop environment. A them able collection of desktop utilities that can be used with
different window managers. The current default window manager for a gnome session is
Gnome Sawfish.
Ice Window Manager. Very small, very fast, quite configurable. On low memory/small hard
drive machines, this one is my favorite. Configuration involves editing text files, but the syntax is
extremely easy to understand. There are also a couple of third-party programs available which
Icewm allow the user to configure Icewm using a graphical interface.
K Desktop Environment. Many of the desktop utilities can be run under different window
managers. I may be wrong, but I believe kikbd is the only program out there that allows the user
to reconfigure the keyboard layout to different national keyboards on the fly, with one-click
KDE switching from one to the other. Unfortunately, this utility is no longer available under KDE 2.x.
Kwm the window manager that comes with the KDE desktop environment.
Mwm Motif window manager.
Olwm Open Look window manager.
a small, efficient, configurable window manager that is now the default window manager with
Sawfish Gnome.
Twm Tab window manager.
Unix Desktop Environment. In early development stages. An attempt to create a new type of
UDE desktop environment for Unix machines, including Linux.
Windowmaker One of the more popular window managers. Highly configurable and themable.


``Cholesterol-Free Desktop Environment''. Includes its own window manager, a toolbar, a sound
manager, a background manager, and a file manager. It has tearoff menus, up to twelve virtual
desktops, etc. It is completely configurable with menus. Its toolbar looks like the one in CDE. I
XFce find it easy to use and to configure, and easy on system resources.

9 Alphabetical List of Principal Commands
In the following command list, the distinction between upper case and lower case letters is important. Most
of the commands are utilities that are run by invoking their own executable files. In some cases, they are
commands which are internal to a shell such as bash (shell builtins). The shell builtins are indicated. There
are now many utilities that are included with either the Gnome or the KDE desktop environments, so many
that it would be difficult to include them all here. In many cases, they duplicate the functionality of one or
more of the programs listed below. I would suggest consulting the online documentation for these packages.
Another good source of information on commands is the CTDP (2000b) document. There are different
chapters which group commands in different categories.
On rpm-based systems, to find out which package owns the command foo (where foo is a standalone
executable), use the command rpm -q -f foo.

Web-based mail agent. Allows you to access your mail with any browser. Involves setting
Acmemail up a Perl CGI script on the server side.
Archimedes A successor program to XFmail (see below)
Arrow
Balsa the default Gnome mail program
Blitzmail
Elm
Web-based mail agent. Allows you to use any browser to check your POP mail account.
The Web site of the company that makes this one can be used to check your mail on a
Emumail Unix system without setting up any CGI script on the server side.
Evolution mail reader and contact manager/calendar designed for use under Gnome
Exmh graphical front end for Mh
Kmail mail reading program included with KDE
for ``Mahogany''. Seems similar to XFmail (see below). I haven't been able to figure out
from the description whether it runs independently of or in conjunction with sendmail and
M procmail.
Mh
Mumail
Mutt text based mail program, which is highly configurable.
mail handling system. This system includes a large number of binary commands that are
kept in /usr/bin. See the man page for nmh for details. Red Hat 5.1 and 5.2 come with
exmh and xmh, which are graphical front ends for nmh. The exmh front end is a separate
Nmh package, while xmh is owned by XFree86.


text based mail and news utility. Features now include: MIME support
ability to read and post network news
maintenance of an address book of mail recipients
spell checking during message composition
mouse support when using xterm on an X Window system
a highly configurable environment
Pine can be used to download mail from one or more POP3 mail servers. See Tip of the
Week (http://tipoftheweek.darkelf.net) for the fourth week of February 1999. First, set up
multiple configuration files (pine -p localmail, pine -p popserver 1, pine -p popserver 2,
etc.). Then, to configure Pine to use a POP3 server, use the Setup Config command. Set
something like this in the inbox-path:
{pop.server.com/pop3/user=myid}INBOX
When Pine is restarted, it should ask for your password, connect to the remote server, and
use it is if it were accessing local mail. The article is unclear on whether there is the option
Pine of leaving copies of the downloaded mail on the server.
Sylpheed
XCmail
This one seems very promising. It's a GUI-based mail tool that seems to offer most of the
features of Netscape's mail module. It runs without using sendmail and procmail, which is
XFmail a major advantage.

amd runs the automount daemon for remote filesystem mounting such as nfs
checks delayed `cron' tasks (see below) at boot time and executes them. Useful if you
anacron have cron jobs scheduled but don't run your machine all the time.
Advanced Power Management BIOS daemon. For use on machines, especially laptops,
that support apm. Monitors battery status and can shut down the system if power is too
apmd low.
arpwatch keeps watch for ethernet IP address pairings that are resolved using the ARP protocol.
atd runs jobs queued by `at'
control the operation of automount daemons, used to mount and unmount devices on
autofs demand
allows computers to boot from a Linux machine using the BOOTP network protocol. A
bootparamd server process that provides information to diskless clients necessary for booting
automatic task scheduler. Manages the execution of tasks that are executed at regular but
crond infrequent intervals, such as rotating log files, cleaning up /tmp directories, etc.
cups daemon for print services under the Common Unix Printer System, a replacement for lpd
implements the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and the Internet Bootstrap
dhcpd Protocol (BOOTP). Used to lease out IP addresses to remote machines.
drakfont font server in Mandrake
fetchmail daemon to fetch mail at regular intervals from mail servers
ftpd ftp server daemon
gated routing daemon that handles multiple routing protocols and replaces routed and egpup
gpm useful mouse server for applications running on the Linux console.
httpd the Apache webserver hypertext transfer protocol daemon


The identd server provides a means to determine the identity of a user of a particular TCP
connection. Given a TCP port number pair, it returns a character string which identifies the
identd owner of that connection on the server's system.
listens for service requests on network connections, particularly dial-in services. This
daemon can automatically load and unload other daemons (ftpd, telnetd, etc.), thereby
economizing on system resources. In the latest version of Red Hat (7.0 at the time of
writing), it has been replaced by xinetd. A partial list of services controlled by inetd is
inetd listed below. Under many distributions, inetd will execute scripts in the file /etc/inetd.conf.
innd Usenet news server daemon
ipchains daemon for packet forwarding. Used for configuring a gateway/firewall.
isdn provides ISDN network interfacing services
isdn4linux for users of ISDN cards
kerneld automatically loads and unloads kernel modules
keytable loads the appropriate keyboard map from /etc/sysconfig/ keyboard
kheader
kudzu detects and configures new or changed hardware during boot
linuxconf ``startup hook'' needed for the linuxconf system configuration tool
lpd line printer and print spooler daemon
server program for the Midnight Commander networking file system. It provides access to
the host file system to clients running the Midnight file system (currently, only the
Midnight Commander file manager). If the program is run as root the program will try to
get a reserved port otherwise it will use 9876 as the port. If the system has a portmapper
running, then the port will be registered with the portmapper and thus clients will
automatically connect to the right port. If the system does not have a portmapper, then a
mcserv port should be manually specified with the -p option (see below).
mysql database server daemon
named provides DNS services
netfs network filesystem mounter. Used for mounting nfs, smb and ncp shares on boot.
activates all network interfaces at boot time by calling scripts in /etc/sysconfig/network-
network scripts
nfsd used for exporting nfs shares when requested by remote systems
nfslock starts and stops nfs file locking service
numlock locks numlock key at init runlevel change
pcmcia generic services for pcmcia cards in laptops
portmap needed for Remote Procedure Calls
mail transport agent which is a replacement for sendmail. Now the default on desktop
postfix installations of Mandrake.
postgresql database server daemon
random random number generating daemon, related to security and encryption
routed manages routing tables
kernel statistics server. Allows users on a network to get performance statistics for any
rstatd connected machine.
rusersd provides services that allow users to find one another over the network
rwalld allows users to use rwall to write messages on remote terminals


server which maintains the database used by the rwho(1) and ruptime(1) programs. Its
rwhod operation is predicated on the ability to broadcast messages on a network.
mail transfer agent. This is the agent that comes with Red Hat. Others, such as smtpd, are
sendmail not included.
smb needed for running SAMBA
snmpd provides Simple Network Management Protocol support
sound daemon for managing sound
squid web page proxy server daemon
syslogd manages system log files
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, designed for the exchange of electronic mail messages.
Several daemons that support SMTP are available, including sendmail, smtpd, rsmtpd,
smtpd qmail, zmail, etc.
from the tcp_wrappers package. Intercepts requests normally handled by inetd and filters
them through the files hosts.allow and hosts.deny files, which can restrict access to
services based on type of service, origin of request, destination, etc. Requests are
intercepted because calls to particular services are replaced with calls to tcpd in
tcpd /etc/inetd.conf.
telnetd telnet server daemon
usb daemon for devices on Universal Serial Bus
xfs X font server
more modern replacement for inetd. It apparently allows for similar kinds of access filters
to the ones used by tcpd in conjunction with inetd. xinetd replaces inetd as the default
xinetd network services daemon in Red Hat 7.0.
xntpd Network Time Protocol daemon. Provides a means to syncronize time over the network.
webmin daemon for webmin web-based system administration program
ypbind NIS binder. Needed if computer is part of Network Information Service domain.

HOME home directory, abbreviated as ~
MAIL name of file that mail is stored in (mailbox)
MAILCHECK sets the frequency at which bash checks for mail
directory paths to search for executable files. According to A Practical Guide to
Linux, p.329, the PATH is set in /etc/profile. On my Linux box, /etc/profile adds
/usr/X11R6/bin to the path, which means that the path must be set before by
another configuration file. The .bash_profile file in my home directory adds
/home/ambler/bin to the path. On my Linux box, the first command to set the path
would seem to be in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, which is one of the shell scripts invoked by
the init process (inittab). Then, /etc/profile adds /usr/X11R6/bin. Finally,
PATH .bash_profile adds /home/ambler/bin.


prompt string. Things that can be put in the prompt string include h (hostname), u
(username), w (absolute pathname of working directory), W (name of working
directory w/o path), d (date), t (time). See p.331 of A Practical Guide to Linux for
more details. On my Red Hat boxes, the primary prompt string is set in the
/etc/bashrc file. The prompt is also set in /etc/profile, but the setting in bashrc
seems to take precedence. I also have a .bashrc file, which in turn runs /etc/bashrc,
which sets the prompt. This means that the same prompt is used by xterm and rxvt
in X sessions. On my Slackware box, the command line prompt is set in
/etc/profile. The xterm and rxvt prompts are different, since I don't have a
.bash_profile file which is run when an xterm is started. In fact, I don't know where
the prompt is set in X sessions. It is not set by /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-
PS1 defaults/XTerm.
PS2 secondary prompt string.

a2p translation utility from awk to Perl
a2ps translation utility from ``any'' to Postscript
ac print statistics concerning user connect time
access determine whether a file can be accessed
acroread Adobe utility for viewing pdf files
adduser used by root to add user to system usage: adduser userid
utility to copy or restore files to an archive file. This utility is not part of the basic
internal and external programs under Red Hat Linux. It is available as an rpm on
afio the rpmfind.net site.
agetty enables login on terminals. See getty, mgetty, and uugetty.
ali list mail aliases
assign name to specified command list. This is actually a shell builtin. On my Red
Hat system, I have global alias commands in my /etc/bashrc file and in my /.bashrc
file. On my Slackware box, I have made the rm command a little bit safer with o
alias rm='rm -i'
so that you can't recursively delete your /dev directory without telling the system
alias you're sure you want to do it.
utility to convert to and from different Linux package formats. Can handle Debian
alien (deb), Stampede (stp), Red Hat (rpm) and Slackware (tgz) packages.
apropos display command names based on keyword search usage: apropos keyword
printer filter called by lpd to deal with printing different types of files. This is a
fairly sophisticated print filter. It is not set up by default in Slackware. It used to be
available on the second cd of a Slackware distribution. Since 4.0, it is available as
one of the main packages in the ap set. Read the mail that the installation program
apsfilter sends to the root user. I believe that Red Hat uses its own printer filters.
ar create, modify and extract from archives
arch print machine architecture type
as the portable GNU assembler
asapm AfterStep laptop advanced power management utility
ash a shell, a very simple shell program sometimes used on boot diskettes since it takes


up much less space than bash, tcsh, zsh, etc.
asload AfterStep cpu load monitor
asmail AfterStep mail checking utility
asmodem AfterStep utility to monitor modem status
aspell a spell checking program along the lines of ispell
aspostit X Window postit note utility
executes a shell script at specified time. Use atq to show pending jobs, and atrm to
at remove jobs from the queue. usage: at time or: at -f file time
atq shows pending jobs queued by at. If run by root, shows everybody's pending jobs.
removes pending jobs queued by at. Use atq to determine the identities of various
atrm jobs. usage: atrm job
awk searches for and process patterns in a file
banner print banner to standard output. Syntax is banner [option] [characters]
bash Bourne again shell. This is the default shell in the Red Hat installation.
batch queue, examine, or delete jobs for later execution. See at.
bc a language (compiler) similar to C, with unlimited precision arithmetic
send process with pid ``PID'' to the background. This is the same as executing
bg PID [Ctrl]z while interacting with the running process. This is a shell builtin.
bh puts a job in the background. This is a shell builtin.
biff mail notification utility. Notifies user of mail arrival and sender's name.
bind displays or redefines key bindings. This is a shell builtin.
bison parser generator similar to yacc
a powerful backup utility program. Commercial. Demonstration versions are often
bru included with Linux distributions such as Red Hat.
bsh equivalent to ash
bunzip2 used to uncompress files compressed with bzip2
byacc parser generator
bzip2 compresses with algorithm different from gzip
bzless view bzipped files
c++ invokes GNU C and C++ compiler
displays a 12-month calendar for the given year or a one-month calendar of the
cal given month usage: cal month year
cat combine, copy standard input to standard output. Used to join or display files.
cd change working directory. This is a shell builtin in bash, tcsh and zsh.
cdplay command line utility for playing audio cds
cfdisk similar to fdisk, but menu-driven
chat used to interact with a modem via a chat script
changes group associated with file. Can be used to change the group associated
with subdirectories and files of a directory. usage: chgrp group files or: chgrp -R
chgrp group files


Query or update system services/daemons for different runlevels. Manipulates the
various symbolic links in /etc/rc.d. This utility is included with many rpm-based
distributions such as RedHat and Mandrake. It is designed to work with System V
initialization scripts. Graphical tools for configuring system services include
chkconfig ntsysv, tksysv and ksysv (the latter is a KDE utility).
set permissions (modes) of files or directories. A value of 4 is used for read
permission. A value of 2 is used for write permission. A value of 1 is used for
execute permission. See umask for default file permissions upon file creation.
Chmod can also be used to change the suid bit on files. The syntax for the symbolic
version is chmod [options] who operation permission file-list The syntax for the
absolute version is chmod [options] mode file-list To set the uid to the owner's
permissions, use chmod u +s file-name To set the uid to the group's permissions,
use chmod g +s file-name There are lots of security issues related to allowing a
program to have root's permissions when run by an ordinary user. I don't pretend to
chmod understand all of these issues.
changes ownership of a file. Can be used recursively. usage: chown userid files or:
chown chown -R userid files
chsh change default shell
ci creates or records changes in an RCS file
clear clear screen command
cmp compares two files for differences usage: cmp file1 file2
co retrieves an unencoded version of an RCS file
comm compares sorted files
configure automatically configures software source code
color-xterm color xterm program. Under Red Hat, this is just a link to xterm-color.
control-panel graphical system configuration tool under Red Hat.
copies on or more files. Recursive copying is one simple way of archiving part of a
directory structure. Use the command as follows: cp -r /sourcedirectory
cp /targetdirectory

direct copy of files to an output device. Allows creation of archive file spanning
multiple diskettes. Allows one directory structure to be mirrored elsewhere on the
partition or on another partition. In order to back up an entire directory structure on
diskettes, cd to the directory and use the following command:
o find . -depth -print | cpio -ov > /dev/fd0
To restore from diskettes, use:
o cpio -iv < /dev/fd0
The cpio command will prompt the user to insert more diskettes as they are needed.
The command for mirroring a directory structure is the following:
o find . -depth -print | cpio -pv /destinationdirectory
This copies the working directory and its contents, including subdirectories, into
/destinationdirectory. In order to copy an individual file which is larger than a
floppy, use:
cpio o find . -name nameoffile -print | cpio -iv > /dev/fd0
Slackware tool to install, uninstall and query packages. Front end to installpkg,
cpkgtool removepkg, makepkg. This is the graphical version that uses ncurses.


cpp GNU C-compatible compiler preprocessor
crontab schedules command to run at regularly specified time
csh run C shell
csplit separate files into sections. See also split.
manages concurrent acces to files in a hierarchy. Stands for concurrent version
system. Is built on RCS. It stores successive revisions of files efficiently and
ensures that access to files by multiple developers is done in a controlled manner.
cvs Useful when many developers are working on the same project.
selects characters or TAB-separated fields from lines of input and writes them to
cut standard output

displays or sets date and time
o usage: date
date o or: date date
direct copy of file from one device to another. Can be used to make copies of boot
or root diskettes for installing Linux. It can be used, for example, to make and
exact copy of a floppy disk, as follows. First, place the diskette to be copied in the
floppy drive. Then,
o dd if=/dev/fd0 ibs=512 > floppy.copy
o Replace the diskette with a fresh diskette.
dd o dd if=floppy.copy bs=512 of=/dev/fd0
declare declares attributes for a variable (same as typeset). This is a shell builtin.
displays capacity and free capacity on different physical devices such as hard drive
partitions and floppy drives that are mounted on the file system. Gives free space in
blocks. With the (undocumented) option -h, the program gives free space in Mb or
Gb. This is useful for those accustomed to thinking of the capacity of a high-
df density 3.5 inch diskette as 1440k.
diff displays differences between two files o usage: diff file1 file2
diff3 compares three files and reports on differences
used to set up a SLIP or PPP connection. It can be used to set up an outgoing SLIP
dip connection or an incoming connection.
diplogin used for setting up incoming dip connections. See the man page for dip.
dir a variation of the GNU ls command that defaults to printing file names in columns
set colors for GNU ls command. In Slackware, this command is run by the
/etc/profile script. Then, whenever xterm is run with the -ls (login shell) option, ls
displays different colors for different types of files. Typical usage is eval `dircolors
-b`. In Red Hat and Mandrake, I get color directories by aliasing the ls command
dircolors (see below).
set display for output of programms under X Windows. Can be used to run a
program on a remote machine while displaying the output on a local machine. The
remote machine must have permission to send output to the local machine. This is
actually an environment variable. See the more detailed discussion in connection
display with the xhost command below.
dmesg displays messages from /var/log relative to the most recent boot
dos invoke the DOSEMU DOS emulator



displays information on disk usage. The command
o du / -bh | less
will display detailed disk usage for each subdirectory starting at root, giving files
du sizes in bytes.
dumpkeys print information about the keyboard driver's translation tables to standard output
send a dvi file to a Laserjet printer. There are specialized versions for individual
dvilj models of Laserjet printer.
dvilj2p specialized version of dvilj for the IIp series of printers. See above.
send a dvi file to a Postscript printer, to a Postscript capable Laserjet printer, or to a
file (with the -o option). There is a switch to print only a subset of the pages, and
another switch to print in landscape mode. Use -t landscape, which is one of the
arguments to the paper type switch. If you have one page of a document that is a
wide table, and you wish to print this in landscape mode, use
dvips o dvips filename -pp pagenumber -t landscape
check an ext2 filesystem. The syntax is
o e2fsck /dev/devicename
where the filesystem is on /dev/devicename. The device should not be mounted,
e2fsck and this program must be run as root.

write arguments to standard output. One use is to print out information about
environment variables, as in
o echo $PATH - list paths to search
o echo $HOME or echo ~ - list name of home directory
echo This is a shell builtin.
a dynamic resource editor for X Toolkit applications. Allows the user to change X
editres resources for individual applications.
efax fax program
efix convert between fax, text, bit-map and gray-scale formats
search files for lines that match regular expressions. Runs faster than grep and
egrep fgrep.
elm an interactive mail system
elvis a version of the vi text editor
emacs screen oriented text editor
env desplay the current environment or set a variable equal to a new value
scans and evaluates the command line. See dircolors command. This is a shell
eval builtin.
interactive command-based editor. The man page lists it as being the same as vim,
ex an improved version of vi.
system call which creates a subshell to execute a binary or a script. This is a shell
exec builtin.
execve A variation of the exec command.
exit exit a shell. This is a shell builtin.
expand convert tabs in files to spaces and write to standard output


a program that ``talks'' to other interactive programs according to a script.
Following the script, Expect knows what can be expected from a program and what
the correct response should be. An interpreted language provides branching and
high-level control structures to direct the dialogue. In addition, the user can take
expect control and interact directly when desired, afterward returning control to the script.
place the value of a variable in the calling environment (makes it global). This is a
export shell built-in.
expr utility evaluates an expression and displays the result
f2c FORTRAN to C translator
f77 FORTRAN 77 compiler
false null command that returns an unsuccessful exit status
fax simple user interface to efax and efix programs
fc views, edits, and executes commands for the history list. This is a shell builtin.
fdformat low level format of a floppy device
retrieve mail from a remote mail server and pass it to local SMTP agents on the
fetchmail local machine
fdisk used to partition hard drives usage: fdisk device
bring a background or stopped process with pid ``PID'' to the foreground. This is a
shell built-in. If only one process is running in background mode, fg with no
fg PID argument is sufficient to bring it to the foreground
fgrep search for patterns in files
file displays classification of a file or files according to the type of data they contain

find files according to a large variety of search criteria. The find command that I
use the most is
o find . -name filename -print
in order to find files matching a particular name on the working directory and all
find subdirectories. Find can be incredibly powerful, but it is incredibly obscure.
finger display information about a specified userid or userids
simple text formatting utility. Tries to make all nonblank lines nearly the same
fmt length.
fold break lines of specified files so they are no wider than a specified lengths
available in the bsdgames package in Slackware and other distributions. Put a call
to fortune in /etc/profile and get something inspirational or amusing every time you
fortune fire up an xterm as a login shell.
free gives used and free memory on system along with other useful information
fromdos takes a DOS text file from stdin and sends a UNIX file to stdout.
fsck file system check and repair
ftp file transfer over network
g++ C++ compiler
g77 GNU Fortran 77 compiler
gawk GNU awk, mostly for processing delimited text files
gcc invoke C, C++ compiler
getipts parses arguments to a shell script. This is a shell builtin.


getkeycodes print kernel's scancode-to-keycode mapping table
set of printing utilities. It seems to be obligatory to have this if a TEX installation
such as teTEX is installed. How they communicate with one another is somewhat
ghostscript obscure.
ghostview Aladdin ghostscript interpreter/previewer
gimp image manipulation and paint program
glint Red Hat graphical front end for the rpm package installer and manager.

used to find a string within a file. The -i option returns matches without regard to
case. The -n option means that each line of output is preceded by file name and line
number. The -v option causes non-matched lines to be printed.
o usage: grep pattern files
o or: grep -i pattern files
o or: grep -n pattern files
grep o or: grep -v pattern files
groupadd create a new group on the system
groups shows which groups you are in
Gnu grand unified bootloader. Can be used instead of lilo to boot multiple
operating systems. I encountered a couple of snafus trying to install grub on my
home machine after installing Mandrake 8.0 and choosing the lilo bootloader
during the initial install. The Mandrake installation program set up /boot/vmlinuz
as a symlink to the actual kernel, vmlinuz-2.4.3-20mdk. It took me a while to
figure out that grub doesn't understand symbolic links. The documentation suggests
installing grub on a diskette using the ``dd'' command. This refused to work, but o
grub-install '(fd0)' did work. The single quotes are necessary. The files necessary to
run grub are normally located in /boot/grub. Once the file menu.lst has been edited
and appropriated entries added to boot the different operating systems on one's
hard disk(s), the following sequence of commands can be used to install grub in the
master boot record (MBR) sector of the hard disk:
o root (hd0,x)
o setup (hd0) Here, the x should be replaced by the partition where the /boot/grub
directory is located, which is probably the root partition of the Linux system. Note
that grub has its own conventions for naming devices and numbering partitions, so
that for example a partition which is called hda6 under Linux will be called (hd0,5)
grub by grub.
grub-install command to install grub on the hard drive (or floppy drive).
gunzip used to uncompress files compressed with gzip
gv PostScript and PDF previewer, based on ghostview
gvim see vi
gzexe compresses executables
gzip used to compress or decompress files
halt shut down system as root, without reboot, immediately
hash remembers the location of commands in the search path. This is a shell builtin.
head displays first part of a file


history command for viewing and manipulating the shell command history list
host look up host names using domain server
used to get or set hostname. Typically, the host name is stored in the file
hostname /etc/HOSTNAME.
hwclock used to query and set the hardware clock
hylafax commercial fax program
id display userid and groupid
inetd daemon which starts up other daemons on demand. Configured in /etc/inetd.conf.
display (as root) information on network interfaces that are currently active. First
ethernet interface should be listed as eth0, second as eth1, etc. First modem ppp
ifconfig connection should be listed as ppp0, etc. The ``lo'' connection is ``loopback'' only.
ifdown shut down the network interface
ifup
[interface_name] start up the interface
info display system information. This is the GNU hypertext reader.

the mother of all processes, run at bootup, executes commands in /etc/inittab. Can
be used (with root privileges) to change the system run level.
init o usage: init run_level
insmod used (by root) to install modular device drivers
installpkg Slackware command to install one of the packages from the program sets
intr interrupt key, usually [Ctrl-C]

checks files for spelling errors
ispell o usage: ispell files
programmer's file editor. Behaves like emacs. Has modes for TEX, FORTRAN, C,
jed etc.
jobs displays list of current jobs in the background. This is a shell builtin.
simple WordStar-like text editor. It can be invoked in emacs emulation mode with
joe jemacs and in WordStar emulation mode with jstar.
jove Joseph's Own Version of Emacs. A simple emacs clone.
kbd_mode print current keyboard mode
kernelcfg GUI to add/remove kernel modules (as root in X terminal).
kernel daemon, a process that stays in memory and does all sorts of useful stuff,
kerneld like automatic loading of device driver modules
a utility program that comes with KDE that allows users to switch on the fly
among different international keyboards. It can be used under different window
kikbd managers than kfm.
sends a signal to (especially to terminate) a job or process. This is a shell builtin in
kill bash, tcsh and zsh.
kill processes by name. Kill all processes which are instances of the speciffied
killall program. Also used to send signals to processes or restart them.
killall5 kill all processes except the ones on which it depends
last generate a listing of user logins


lastlog prints the last login times of all users
latex compile a LATEX file
creates the necessary links and cache (for use by the run-time linker, ld.so) to the
most recent shared libraries found in the directories specified on the command line,
in the file /etc/ld.so.conf, and in the trusted directories (/usr/lib and /lib). Ldconfig
checks the header and file names of the libraries it encounters when determining
which versions should have their links updated. Ldconfig ignores symbolic links
ldconfig when scanning for libraries.
list the shared libraries on which a given executable depends, and where they are
ldd located
leave display reminder at specified time
Linux alternative to ``more'' command. Displays text files, one screenful at a time.
When less pauses, there is a large number of available commands to tell it what to
less do next. One can scroll both forwards and backwards.
let evaluates a numeric expression. This is a shell builtin.

installs boot loader on the boot sector of a hard drive, of a diskette, or in another
location. My 486 has a hard drive that is too large for the machine's BIOS, so I
have to boot from a floppy. To create a boot diskette, I do the following (as root):
o /sbin/fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
o /sbin/mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0
o mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
o cp -dp /boot/* /mnt/floppy
o /sbin/lilo -C /etc/lilo.flop
lilo The -C option to lilo has lilo use the lilo.flop file instead of the default lilo.conf.
interactive tool for configuring Linux system. Uses X if loaded. This is a Gnome
tool. It comes with my Red Hat distribution, and is not included with Slackware. It
would seem to be the easiest way to configure Linux under Slackware. Version
1.15 is available for Slackware. There is a pretty good introduction to the use of
linuxconf in the Red Hat 5.2 installation manual, which is available online at their
linuxconf web site.

creates a link to a file. Used to create hard links and, with the -s option, symbolic
links which can link files on different disk partitions. The syntax is
ln o ln [options] source [dest]
find the file name which contains the string ``filename''. The syntax is easier than
locate filename the find command.
lock temporarily lock terminal
lockfile create semaphore file(s), used to limit access to a file - log in to system
logname consult /etc/utmp for user's login name
logout execute logout as individual user and bring up login: prompt
look look for strings in files
lpq show print jobs that are waiting
lpr send file to be printed
lprm cancel a job from print queue


list directory contents. To get colored directory listings under Red Hat, Mandrake,
etc., use
o ls -color
To get this all the time, add
o alias ls='ls -color=auto'
to .bashrc. The following command
o alias ls='ls -Fskb -color=auto'
will give directory listings in color, with file sizes in kilobytes, and append a
ls character to the file to indicate its type.
lsattr list attributes of files in ext2 file system
lsmod used (by root) to show kernel modules currently loaded
utility to display information on pci buses and hardware devices attached to them.
lspci Part of the pciutils package that comes with many Linux distributions.
utility to display information about pnp devices. Part of the pcmcia or kernel-
lspnp pcmcia package, depending on the distribution.
an implementation of the traditional UNIX macro processor. It can be used with
the sendmail configuration package in Red Hat (and Slackware) to generate a
sendmail.conf configuration file without having to edit the configuration file
m4 directly.
general purpose printer filter. See apsfilter above. apsfilter is the printer filter that
magicfilter comes with the Red Hat and Slackware distributions.
mail sends or reads electronic mail
keeps a set of programs current. This is a utility that helps when developing a set
of programs. It works by executing a script called makefile, Makefile or
GNUmakefile in the working directory. It is very often used in combination with
make configure when compiling and installing noncompiled software packages.
makebootdisk command in Slackware to do just what the name says
MAKEDEV executable script to make device files on /dev
makeswap configures swap space
man displays information from online Unix reference manual
manpath attempt to determine path to manual pages
mc Midnight Commander file manager and visual shell
mesg enables/disables reception of messages
minicom terminal program
mkdir create a directory
create a file system (format) on a device or partition. Should be invoked after
lowlevel formatting of the disk using fdformat. It has several versions which are all
mkfs links to the basic program, such as mkfs.ext2 and mkfs.msdos.
creates a Linux swap space on the specified hard disk parition (root privileges
neede)
mkswap o usage: mkswap device
more list file contents, stopping after each full screen
t [fstype] [device] [mountpoint] - mount device using filesystem of type [fstype]
with device name [device] at the location [mountpoint] in the filesystem directory
mount tree


mount a - mount all filesystems according to the specifications in /etc/fstab
mouseconfig mouse configuration utility under Red Hat. Located in /usr/sbin.
print multiple pages per sheet on a Postscript printer. Can also be used to print a
mpage page in landscape mode.
Mtools package of MS-DOS utilities. Includes the following commands.
mcd changes working directory on DOS disk
mcopy copies DOS files from one directory to another
mdel deletes DOS files
mdir lists contents of DOS directories
mformat adds DOS formatting information to a disk
displays contents of a DOS file The default device for execution of these
mtype commands is /dev/fd0 and can be referred to as ``a:''.
mv moves (renames) files
netconf used (as root) to set up network
rebuilds the /etc/aliases database used by sendmail. Must be rerun every time
newaliases /etc/aliases is modified for the changes to take effect.
newgrp similar to login. Changes user's identification
nice
program_name sets the priority of the program ``program_name''.
lists the symbols from object files objfile. If no object files are given as arguments,
nm nm assumes `a.out'.
runs a command that keeps running after logout. The command is in principle
immune to hangups, and must have output to a non tty. According to Linux in a
Nutshell, this is necessary only in the Bourne shell, since modern shells preserve
nohup background processes by default.
run level editor under Red Hat. This is the equivalent of tksysv, but does not
ntsysv require a graphical interface.
color xterm program. The man page for nxterm under Red Hat brings up the same
nxterm page as xterm.
od dumps contents of a file
passwd change login password
paste joins corresponding lines from files
updates source code. Attempts to update a file from a file of change information,
patch or pathces, created by diff.
pathchk determine validity and portability of filenames
pdflatex part of the pdftex program suite. Produces pdf output from a LATEX file.
produces pdf output from a TeX file. See also pdflatex. This program is part of the
tetex 0.9 distribution that is included with Red Hat 5.2 and above, and with
pdftex Slackware 4.0 and above. It is also available as a separate program.
perl practical extraction and report language
pg display data one screenful at a time
pico simple screen oriented text editor. It is included as part of the Pine program.
check if Internet computer is responding. Can also measure the time it takes the
ping queried computer to respond.


Slackware tool to install, uninstall and query packages. Front end to installpkg,
removepkg, makepkg. The cpkgtool is the ncurses graphical version of this
pkgtool program.
popclient retrieve mail via the Post Office Protocol. Supports POP2 and POP3.
pops the top directory of the directory stack and uses cd to change to that
popd directory. This is a shell builtin.
pr paginates files for printing
printenv display list of environment variables
printtool run (as root) in an X terminal to configure your printer(s)
displays status of processes. Use the -a option for processes for all users. Use the -
ps x option to include processes not attached to a terminal.
display processes in the form of a tree structure. Killing a parent process will also
pstree kill all the children and their descendants.
pushes the argument onto the top of the directory stack and uses cd to change to
pushd that directory. This is a shell builtin.
pwd print absolute path of working directory. This is a shell builtin.
pwchk checks the integrity of password and shadow files
pwconv converts passwords to the shadow password format
unconverts passwords from the shadow password format. Generates a standard
pwunconv Unix password file.
python interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language

copy one or more files to or from remote computer. The syntax is poorly explained
in the documentation that I have, including the man pages. Usage is:
o rcp filename username@remotehost:path
The user's home directory on the remote system must contain the file .rhosts with a
list of users (preceded by the full domain name or exact IP address of their
machine) with access privileges.
rcp o localhostname username
creates or changes the attributes of an RCS file. Stands for Revision Control
rcs System.
rdev query/set image root device, swap device, RAM disk size, or video mode in kernel
read reads line from standard input. This is a shell builtin.
readonly declares a variable to be read only. This is a shell builtin.
in Slackware, reboots the system. Seems to be equivalent to shutdown -r now in
reboot generic Linux.
renice
program_name resets the priority of process ``program_name''.
used to reset the screen characteristics. This is useful if the screen gets messed up
reset from, for example, trying to display a binary file in an xterm.
return exits from a function. This is a shell builtin.
rlog prints a summary of the history of an RCS file



log in to remote computer. The general syntax is as follows, using the UQAM
Nobel machine as an example:
o rlogin -l userid nobel.si.uqam.ca
The remote computer must recognize the local user and the local machine. See the
rlogin rcp command for how to set up the .rhosts file on the remote machine.
remove files or directories. With the -r (recursive) option (very dangerous!), can
rm be used to remove the contents of a specified directory including all subdirectories.
rmail interpret and handle remote mail received via uucp
rmdir remove empty directories
rmmod used to remove modular device drivers
-n - show routing table. The n option returns numerical addresses rather than
route names.
invokes the Red Hat package manager in command line mode. I often use this
command in query mode to query packages about what files they contain and to
find out which package owns a particular file. Examples are
o rpm -qil foo. Gives package information and a file list for the package foo.
o rpm -qfil foo. Gives package information and a file list for the package that owns
the file foo. Foo must be in the working directory, or the full path to foo must be
specified.
We need to find out about installing the rpm package on a Slackware box. It's
rpm probably better to use a package converter such as alien.
an extremely useful utility on Slackware systems that converts rpm packages to
rpm2tgz tgz format. They can then be installed using the installpkg command (or pkgtool).
rsh execute shell command on a remote computer. See rcp and rlogin.
rstat summarize host's status: uptime, load averages, and current time
ruptime show host status of local machines
rusers list who is logged on local machines
rwall write to all users over a network
show who is logged in on a LAN. The rwho service must be enabled for this
command to run. If it isn't, run ``setup'' as root. I don't understand this last remark,
rwho which comes from ``Linux Newbie Administrator Guide''.
a terminal program similar to xterm, but which has less features and uses less
rxvt memory
sed edits a file (not interactively). Also a tool for processing text files.
set set or display value of shell variables. This is a shell builtin. The command o
setenv set or display value of environment variables
setserial used by root to configure a serial port
setterm set terminal attributes for a virtual console
set the id of a program when it is run. Used, for example, to give root privileges to
a program run by an ordinary user. This is actually done by running the chmod
setuid program as root. See the chmod command for the syntax.
Slackware program to set up program sets and configure system. Setup devices
setup and file systems, mount root file system
sh standard UNIX shell. On Linux, just another name for bash.


shift promotes each command-line argument. This is a shell builtin.
showmount show information about an nfs server
reboot or shut down system as root, after specified amount of time. With the -r
option, reboot. With the -h option, halt the system.
shutdown o usage: shutdown -r minutes
sleep creates process that sleeps for specified interval
sliplogin attaches a SLIP interface to standard input. Used to allow dialin SLIP connections.
sort sorts and/or merge files
split split file into specified number of segments
secure shell. Apparently has many of the same functionalities as rlogin, telnet, ftp,
rsh, etc., with better security and encryption features. We may want to learn how to
ssh set this up and use it.
front end to xinit in Linux. This is a script which starts up X clients and shuts
startx down the X server on exit from the window manager.
:1 - start the next X window session on the display 1 (the default is opened on
display 0). One can switch between different graphical displays using
startx [Ctrl][Alt][F7], [Ctrl][Alt][F8], etc.
stty sets or displays operating options for terminal
su log in as another user, including root
sudo allows individual users to have root permission to perform specified tasks
swapoff disables swap disk
swapon enables swap disk
symlinks provide list of and information about symbolic links
sync writes memory buffers to physical devices
systat query host for system information
tac print file in reverse
tail displays the last part of a file
visual communication program that copies lines from one terminal to that of
talk another user


file compression and archiving utility. I find the syntax of this command to be
frustratingly opaque. The following works for me. To use this command to unzip
gzipped tarballs in verbose mode, use o tar -xvzf filename.tgz To create a tarball
from files in a given directory and its subdirectories, use
o tar -cvzf filename.tgz sourcename Sourcename can be the name of a single file, a
wildcard such as *, or the name of a subdirectory. There seem to be two different
conventions concerning gzipped tarballs. One often encounters .tar.gz. The other
popular choice is .tgz. Slackware packages use the latter convention. The command
can also be used to archive a file, a group of files, or a directory (with its
subdirectories) on tape or onto floppies. If the material to be archived exceeds the
capacity of the backup medium, the program will prompt the user to insert a new
tape or diskette. Use the following command to back up to floppies:
o tar -cvf /dev/fd0 filename(s) or directoryname(s) The backup can be restored
with
o tar -xvf /dev/fd0 Tar can be used for other things. To mirror all the files and
subdirectories in from-stuff to to-stuff, use the commands
o cd from-stuff
o tar cf - . | (cd ../to-stuff; tar xvf -) No tar file is ever written to disk. The data is
sent by pipe from one tar process to another. This example is taken from Running
Linux, p.177. To list the table of contents of a tar archive, use
o tar tvf tarfile To extract individual files from a tar archive, use
o tar xvf tarfile files where files is the list of files to extract. When extracting files,
tar creates missing subdirectories underneath the current directory in which the
tar cammand is invoked.
tcl scripting language
tcsh extended version of the C shell
tee copy standard input to standard output and one or more files
used to change run level. Exact run level that corresponds to single-user, multi-
telinit user, and X levels depends on distribution.
telnet remote login over network
evaluates an expression or compares arguments. This is a shell builtin in bash, tcsh
test and zsh.
tftp user interface to TFTP protocol
displays times for the current shell and its children. This is a shell builtin. Strange,
time because there is also a /usr/bin/time program on my Red Hat system.
tin Netnews reader
tkdesk graphical desktop file manager for X
graphical runlevel editor under Red Hat. Allows root to configure the services that
tksysv are started at each run level.
tload display system load average in graph format
top dynamically displays process status
update access and modification times of a file. If the file does not exist on disk, an
touch empty file is created.
translation utility that can be used, for example, to replace specified characters in a
tr text file
trap traps a signal. This is a shell builtin.


true null command that returns a successful exit status
tset initializes terminal
tty shows special file that represents your terminal. Displays the terminal pathname.
displays how each argument would be interpreted as a command. This is a shell
type builtin.
typeset declares attributes for a variaable (same as declare). This is a shell builtin.
ul translate underscores to underlining

establishes the file-creation permissions mask. Usage is
o umask xyz
The system subtracts x, y and z from the owner, group and other file permissions
umask that it would otherwise assign to new files. This is a shell builtin.
finish writing to the device and remove it from the active filesystem. The
umount [device] command umount -a will (re)mount all file systems listed in /etc/fstab.
unalias remove name previously defined by alias. This is a shell builtin.
displays information about the system. With no arguments, it displays the name of
the operating system. With the -a option, it displays information about the
operating system, the host name, and hardware.
uname • uniq - displays lines of a file that are unique
uniq displays lines of a file that are unique
unset removes a variable or function. This is a shell builtin.
unzip uncompress files compressed with the zip utility, compatible with DOS PKzip
updatedb update file database used by locate command
shows the time, how long the system has been up, the number of users, and
uptime average load.
useradd same as adduser
remove an account (as root). The user's home directory and undelivered mail must
userdel be dealt with separately.
users prints list of users on the system
variant of the GNU version of the ls command. Defaults to printing out the long
vdir version of directory entries.
vi standard screen oriented Unix editor
view vi in read-only mode
vim improved vi editor
vrfy query remote host to verify the accuracy of an email address
w display info about userids and active processes
wait waits for a background process to terminate. This is a shell builtin.
wc displays number of lines, characters and words in a file
Wharf the AfterStep application dock module
whatis display one-line summary of specified command
whereis use to find utilities in standard locations
which used to find utilities in search path. Will return the absolute directory path of the


named utility program.
who display information about currently logged in userids
whoami display information about userid that is currently logged in
wish front end to tk, an X window extension of tcl
workbone console based cd player
workman graphical cd player program
write send messages to another local user
starts up the X server. Can be invoked with
o X -quiet -query remotemachineaddress
in order to get a graphical login screen on the remote machine. See the discussion
X in connection with xdm below.
xadm display advanced power management BIOS information
converts standard output of one command into arguments for another. This is one
of those powerful but obscure commands. Xargs reads arguments from the
standard input, delimited by blanks (which can be protected with double or single
quotes or a backslash) or newlines, and executes the command (default is
/bin/echo) one or more times with any initial-arguments followed by arguments
xargs read from standard input. Blank lines on the standard input are ignored
xbiff graphical mail delivery notification utility
xcalc simple calculator program
xclipboard name says it all
Xconfigurator Red Hat utility for configuring settings for X
used to start an X login session. This can be used to start a login session on a
remote system. See the discussion on the following site:
o http://www.menet.umn.edu/~kaszeta/unix/xterminal/index.html
See the man pages for X, xdm, and Xserver. As usual, the man pages are pretty
obscure. The best single source seems to be the Xserver man pages. After X is
configured, X needs to be started at bootup with the command (in
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xterm):
o X -quiet -query remotemachineaddress
If the address of a nameserver is not configured, then the numeric address of the
remote machine rather than its name should be entered. If the machines are
connected through ethernet cards and the net, then obviously basic networking has
to be set up. Gnome and KDE come with their own versions of X display/login
xdm managers, called respectively gdm and kdm.
xdvi view a dvi file compiled under LATEX
xedit a simple text editor for X
xf86config graphical configuration tool for X
XF86Setup graphical configuration tool for X
display an available font in X. Creates a grid in an x-term with one character per
xfd rectangle.
xfig utility for interactive generation of figures
xfm graphical file manager for X


tell X server that remote computer has access to your machine and that you will
use the remote computer. This can be used to set up remote X sessions. To set up a
remote X session on the UQAM Nobel machine, run the following command on
the local machine (one doesn't have to be root to do this)
o xhost +nobel.si.uqam.ca Then, log onto the remote machine using rlogin (see
above) or telnet. Once logged in, use the following command to get the remote X
server to open an X terminal on the local machine:
o setenv DISPLAY localhostname:0 ; xterm & This is valid for csh, which is the
default login shell on Nobel. For ksh, (and I think bash) replace with
o DISPLAY=localhostname:0
o export DISPLAY ; xterm
O ther X-based programs such as Netscape or Gauss (graphical version) can also
be run on a remote machine with display on the local machine with little trouble.
The local X server is the program that has all of the information concerning the
properties of the graphics card and terminal, so it must be necessary to have X
running on the local machine. The following should also work. After using xhost to
give permission to the remote machine to display on the local machine, use
o netscape -display localhostname:0.0 Question: can one start the X session on the
xhost local machine and then run a remote copy of a window manager?
start X Window. The command startx is a front end to xinit in Linux, including
xinit Slackware.
xload displays a graphic of the system load
graphical interface to print manager. This is included on one of the XFCE menus,
xlpq but does not seem to be a part of the base Red Hat distribution.
xlsfonts list fonts available under the X Window system.
xman browsable command reference. Displays manual pages under X.
graphical front end under X to the nmh mail handling system. This program is part
xmh of the XFree86 package in Red Hat.

utility for modifying keymaps and pointer button mappings in X. Can be used to
install a French Canadian keyboard. Download the Xmodmap.cf file from
www.linux-quebec.org, and insert the command
o xmodmap /etc/X11/Xmodmap.cf &
xmodmap into the .xession (with xdm) or the .xinitrc (with startx) file.
xosview displays bar graphs of system load, load average, memory usage, and swap usage
xpaint simple paint program for X
GPL'd utility for previewing dvi files. Doesn't seem to work too well on texts with
xpdf a lot of math.
xplaycd X Window audio cd player utility
xsetroot utility to configure root window of an X terminal
xsysinfo graphical display of load and memory usage
xterm start an X Window terminal session
xterm-color color version of xterm
utility for viewing and manipulating many types of image files. This is a shareware
xv program.
xvidtune utility for fine tuning of monitor settings under X


yacc parser generator
ytalk multi-user program similar to talk
read one or more files that have been compressed with gzip or compress and write
zcat to standard output
zcmp read compressed files and pass them to cmp
zdiff read compressed files and pass them to diff
zgrep read compressed files and pass them to grep
Zharf AfterStep button panel module
zip zip utility compatible with DOS PKzip
zless view zipped files
zmore print contents of compressed files one screen at a time
znew uncompress Z files and recompress in .gz format

10.2 Mail User Agents (MUAs)

Web-based mail agent. Allows you to access your mail with any browser. Involves setting up a
Acmemail Perl CGI script on the server side.
Archimedes A successor program to XFmail (see below)
Arrow
Balsa the default Gnome mail program
Blitzmail
Elm
Web-based mail agent. Allows you to use any browser to check your POP mail account. The Web
site of the company that makes this one can be used to check your mail on a Unix system without
Emumail setting up any CGI script on the server side.
Evolution mail reader and contact manager/calendar designed for use under Gnome
Exmh graphical front end for Mh
Kmail mail reading program included with KDE
for ``Mahogany''. Seems similar to XFmail (see below). I haven't been able to figure out from the
M description whether it runs independently of or in conjunction with sendmail and procmail.
Mh
Mumail
Mutt text based mail program, which is highly configurable.
mail handling system. This system includes a large number of binary commands that are kept in
/usr/bin. See the man page for nmh for details. Red Hat 5.1 and 5.2 come with exmh and xmh,
which are graphical front ends for nmh. The exmh front end is a separate package, while xmh is
Nmh owned by XFree86.


text based mail and news utility. Features now include: MIME support
ability to read and post network news
maintenance of an address book of mail recipients
spell checking during message composition
mouse support when using xterm on an X Window system
a highly configurable environment
Pine can be used to download mail from one or more POP3 mail servers. See Tip of the Week
(http://tipoftheweek.darkelf.net) for the fourth week of February 1999. First, set up multiple
configuration files (pine -p localmail, pine -p popserver 1, pine -p popserver 2, etc.). Then, to
configure Pine to use a POP3 server, use the Setup Config command. Set something like this in the
inbox-path:
{pop.server.com/pop3/user=myid}INBOX
When Pine is restarted, it should ask for your password, connect to the remote server, and use it is
if it were accessing local mail. The article is unclear on whether there is the option of leaving
Pine copies of the downloaded mail on the server.
Sylpheed
XCmail
This one seems very promising. It's a GUI-based mail tool that seems to offer most of the features
of Netscape's mail module. It runs without using sendmail and procmail, which is a major
XFmail advantage.

10.3 Editors
cooledit a pretty powerful GUI text editor
powerful text editor that includes modules for reading and sending mail and postings to
newsgroups, and a browser module. For editing TEX and LATEX files, the AucTEX addon
emacs package is invaluable, and makes emacs pretty hard to beat as an editor with LATEX.
has pretty good emacs emulation (it can even read mail like emacs!). It does simple syntax
highlighting for TeX files, including giving positioning of parentheses. It would seem to be
pretty configurable and takes up much less disk space than emacs, although more than joe and
muemacs. It works well in console mode, and still manages to use colors for menu bars and
syntax highlighting. The program xjed which comes with some versions starts up its own X
jed terminal when invoked.
Joe's Own Editor, a fairly powerful editor with a compact binary and an ability to emulate
joe Wordstar, Emacs, Pico, and a few other editors.
Joe's Own Version of Emacs. I tried this out a couple of times and managed to crash it when
jove making some minor errors in command syntax.
microemacs spinoff of muemacs. Pretty powerful and configurable, while not taking up too much disk
(JASSPA) space or memory.
muemacs a fairly powerful emacs clone whose binary is actually smaller than that of the Joe editor.
an X Window based text editor. Of all text editors for Linux that I've seen, it has commands
which are closest to Windows text editors, for cursor movement, highlighting, marking text,
nedit etc. It has very good syntax highlighting for both LATEX and HTML.
pico simple text editor. It often comes packaged with the Pine mail user agent.
included with most Linux distributions. If you're not used to the syntax, it can be pretty hard to
vi understand.
vim Improved version of vi
xedit Simple text editor included with many Linux distributions



10.4 Other
dfm Desktop File Manager. Allows the user to place program icons on the desktop.
Gnome Midnight Commander. Gnome version of Midnight Commander. Includes a graphical
gmc interface and allows the user to place icons on the desktop.
mc Midnight Commander file manager. Runs in console mode and in an xterm.
scilab a free matrix programming language. May be a good substitute for GAUSS and/or MATLAB.

11 Some Nifty Slogans
Linux: the choice of a GNU generation.
Windows: where do you want to go today? Linux: where do you want to go tomorrow?
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down: please reboot using Linux.
``When you say `I wrote a program that crashed Windows', people just stare at you blankly and say `Hey, I
got those with the system, for free'.'' - Linus Torvalds
Windows 2000, from the company that brought you EDLIN!
Linux: because rebooting is for adding new hardware.
Your mouse has moved. Windows NT must be restarted for the change to take effect. Reboot now [OK]?
Linux: transforms your microcomputer into a workstation. Windows NT: transforms your workstation into a
microcomputer.

Send suggested changes and corrections to info@zeelogic.com

O'Reilly has just published online an alphabetical list of commands from Linux in a Nutshell. It is available
here. It contains more detailed explanations of many of the commands listed here.



12 References
 Computer Technology Documentation Project (CTDP) (2000a), ``How Linux Works'',
http://ctdp.tripod.com/os/linux/howlinuxworks/index.html
 Computer Technology Documentation Project (CTDP) (2000b), ``Linux Files and Command
Reference'', http://ctdp.tripod.com/os/linux/commands/index.html
Klimas, Piotr et. al. (1999), ``Linux Newbie Administrator Guide'', http://sunsite.dk/linux-newbie/
Siever, Ellen, Stephen Spainhour, Jessica P. Hekman, and Stephen Figgins (2000), Linux in a Nutshell. third
edition, O'Reilly
Sobell, Mark G. (1998), A Practical Guide to Linux. Addison-Wesley
SSC (2000), ``Bash Reference Card'', http://www.ssc.com/ssc/bash/ bash.pdf
Welsh, Matt, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Lar Kaufman (1999), Running Linux. third edition, O'Reilly and
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