Linux commands

(1) alternative Linux commands to complete the same task, (2) The equivalent or similar commands between Windows and Linux system.

Help for command:

Linux or macOS : Type command_name --help or man command_name  ;

Win : Type command_name /? "Open Source tools Cygwin which provide functionality similar to a Linux distribution on Windows"

text file manipulation

display the first lines of text file

• head [options] filename (OS: Linux )
• vi [options] filename (and press gg) (Linux )
• vim [options] filename (and press gg) (Linux ); Open file and press gg for gVim (Win )

display the last few lines of text file

• tail [options] filename (Linux )
• vi [options] filename (and press G) (Linux )
• vim [options] filename (and press G) (Linux ); Open file and press G for gVim (Win )
• Tail for Win32 GUI interface (Win ) not support Unicode file for v.4.2.6

Display the content of text file

• vi [options] filename (Linux )
• cat <filename> (Linux )
• type <filename> (Win )
• tail - cat line X to line Y on a huge file - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

Display the partial content of large text file

• cat <filename> | less (Linux ) Chinese issue
• type <filename> | more (Win ) If the file was encoded in UTF-8, you need to key in chcp 65001 first .

newline count (count the number of lines of a file), word count

• wc -l <filename> for Linux ex: wc -l *.txt to print the newline count of txt files of the current folder
• wc -l "$(cygpath -u '<path to file>')" for cygwin on Win ex: wc -l "$(cygpath -u 'c:\Program Files\file.txt')"

Save a Unix manpage as plain text

• man man | col -b > man.txt Thanks! Save a Unix manpage as plain text

Search text in a file

• grep command for multiple files: grep -ir "string to search" /path/to/directory or grep keyword /path/to/file (Linux )
• vim: (1)vim [options] filename (2)press /keyword (Linux )
• cat & grep: cat /path/to/file | grep keyword (Linux ) keyword is case sensitive

Search text in a compressed text file

• zcat & grep: cat /path/to/compressed_text.gz | grep keyword (Linux )

Search text in files

Merger multiple plain text files

• copy *.txt > bundle.txt or copy file1.txt file2.txt > bundle.txt for Win
• cat *.txt > bundle.txt or cat file1.txt file2.txt > bundle.txt for Linux

file operation

Find a file by filename

• locate command (Linux ) ex: locate filename to locate the filename quickly.

• find command (Linux ) ex: sudo find / -iname filename Find the case-insensitive file name Under the path / (root folder)

• dir command (Win ) ex: dir /s filename I have no idea to specify the file path to find the file.

Copy & overwrite file

overwrite file without prompt (confirmation): cp command

• cp -f to_be_copy.file to_be_overwrote.file (Linux )
• /bin/cp -f to_be_copy.file to_be_overwrote.file (Linux )

Copy old directory to new directory

• cp -a old_dir new_dir/ (Linux )
  • If the folder new_dir exists already, system will create the folder old_dir and all files and sub folders under old_dir will copy to the path new_dir/old_dir.
  • If the folder new_dir NOT exists, all files and sub folders under old_dir will copy to the folder new_dir.
• cp -a old_dir/* new_dir/ (Linux ): All files and sub folders under old_dir will copy to the folder new_dir.
• copy /Y old_dir new_dir/ (Win )
• make new directory & copy all old files to new directory
  • mkdir new_dir
  • cp old_dir/* new_dir
• How to move all files in current folder to subfolder? - Ask Ubuntu

Rename (move) files or directory

• mv old_folder_name new_folder_name (Linux )
• mv /path/to/file /path/to/new_folder_name (Linux )
• rename old_folder_name new_folder_name (Win )

Delete files or directory

delete all files or directory

• rm -rf /Name_of_directory to delete all files under the 'Name_of_directory (Linux )
• del Name_of_directory (Win )
  • After executed del Name_of_directory but the empty directory directory_name will be left.
  • Command delete is not available in Win XP
• rsync
  • quick for many small files (1) create a empty folder ex: mkdit /path/to/source (2) To empty the target folder, keyin rsync -avP --delete /path/to/source/ /path/to/target/ (Linux )
  • rsync --delete-before -a -H -v --progress --stats /path/to/empty/folder/ /path/to/target_folder_will_be_deleted/ (Linux ) un-verified
• S/FTP to the server and delete selected files

delete the files with the naming rule

• find . -name 'naming_rule' -type f -delete

Download file from remote server

• FTP
• wget (with progress bar): wget http://path.to/file
• SVN update: svn up http://remote.svn.server/path/ /local/path/ --username=your_account and key in your SVN password
• more on File transfer methods

File compression and decompression

compress

• pv big.file | gzip > big.file.gz(Linux ) keep the original file
• gzip -v big.file(Linux ) NOT keep the original file. File name after compressed: big.file.gz
• How do I Compress a Whole Linux or UNIX Directory? for Linux

decompress

• gunzip -c big.file.gz > big.file(Linux ) keep the gz file
• gzip -d big.file.gz(Linux ) NOT keep the gz file

ref

• Linux: tar Extract Files

List directory or files / list directory contents

• ls (Linux ) ls - list directory contents
  • List detailed information of files. e.g. ls -lh
  • List detailed information of files and sort by modification time. ls -lht
  • List top N files and sort by modification time. ls -lht | head -N e.g. ls -lht | head -10 First line is the total file size of specified folder.
• ll (Linux ) ll = ls -l
• Print the entire path of files and level-unlimited sub-directories in the current directory. On Win using dir/s/b, and on Linux using find /path/to/files/ -print .
• create ls command in Win command prompt: echo dir %1 > %systemroot%\system32\ls.bat Thanks, hmjd!
• List all files and directories including hidden ones in the current directory. On Win is dir /a, and on macOS or Linux is ls -a.

Verify if a file or a directory exists

• On Linux : ls /path/to/file or ls -d /path/to/directory/ e.g. ls -d ~/ to list your home directory.
• On Win :
  • dir C:\path\to\file or dir C:\path\to\directory\
  • IF EXIST

SET a=C:\path\to\file
REM -- If the directory was separated the \ symbol & the path NOT contains space
IF EXIST %a% (ECHO YES) ELSE (ECHO No)

SET a="C:\path\to\directory contains space\space"
REM -- If the directory was separated the \ symbol & the path contains space
IF EXIST %a% (ECHO YES) ELSE (ECHO No)

SET a=C:/path/to/file
REM -- If the directory was separated the / symbol, the next command replace / with \ symbol.
SET a=%a:/=\%
IF EXIST %a% (ECHO YES) ELSE (ECHO No)

troubleshooting

SET a = C:\path\to\file
REM -- Correct command: SET a=C:\path\to\file
IF EXIST %a% (ECHO YES) ELSE (ECHO No)
REM -- the returned result will not correct!

Print the current directory / where am i

• Linux : pwd print name of working directory. More on pwd.
• Win : echo %cd% current directory

Change directory to my home directory

• cd ~/ or cd $HOME (Linux ) will switch to my home directory ex: /Users/ACCOUNT
• cd %UserProfile% (Win ) will switch to my home directory ex: C:\Users\ACCOUNT more on MS_Windows_Explorer

network

show ip

• ifconfig (Linux )
• ipconfig/all (Win )

ping You may got no response if the server was disabled the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) response.

• ping domain_or_ip (Linux )
• ping domain_or_ip -t (Win )

whois: search the information of domain (related: Domain Name Register)

• whois domain (Linux or Win : require to install whois for windows)

TRACERT (trace route)

• traceroute domain_or_ip (Linux ) & macOS
• tracert domain_or_ip -t (Win )

apache operation

check apache servie is running or not

• service --status-all | grep -i httpd (Linux )
• netstat -npl | grep httpd for Linux
• netstat -an | find /i "listening" (Win ) find the local open ports & find local address TCP 0.0.0.0:80 is listening
• more on connection test...

Where is apache installed?

• cat /etc/rc.d/rc.local if the apache service is already launched

check which mpm (multi processing module) apache is running

• httpd -l (Linux & Win ) ex: Linux /usr/local/httpd/bin/httpd -l or Win x:\apache\bin>httpd -l where x:\apache is the installation folder of apache

mysql operation

MySQL commands: 1. Exporting data into MySql sql file & 2. Importing data from MySql sql file

install package

• Linux : ex: install the Pipe Viewer (pv) package
  1. How to Enable RPMForge Repository in RHEL/CentOS 7.x/6.x/5.x/4.x
  2. (1)yum install pv for RHEL / CentOS / SL / Fedora Linux; (2) apt-get install pv for Debian / Ubuntu;
• macOS
  1. install Homebrew "package manager for OS X"
  2. brew search PACKAGE_NAME ex: brew search wget
  3. if the package is available. brew install PACKAGE_NAME ex: brew install wget

system operation

show current time

• date (Linux ) output the system date: Thu Oct 25 15:05:10 CST 2012
• TZ=Asia/Taipei date (Linux ) output the time from the Taipei/CST timezone
• date/t (Win ) (parameter: /t will not ask you to change the current date)

output:
OS in English: Thu 05/03/2012
OS in Chinese (XP): 2012/05/03 星期四
OS in Chinese (Windows 8, 10): 2014/07/01 週二

• prompt $d $t $_$P$G (Win )

output:
OS in Chinese (Windows 10): 2017/02/03 週五 15:35:31.61

• related pages: Time server, timestamp in PHP and MySQL syntax

specify the location where Linux or MS-DOS looks when using a command

• echo $PATH (Linux )
• echo %PATH% (Win ) more on How to setup my system path

reboot the system/server

• reboot (Linux )
• shutdown -r (Win )

Shutdown system at a specific date time.

• Linux : (1) Enter date to verify the server timezone. (2) Enter sudo shutdown -h 20:02
• Win : Schedule Shutdown or Restarts in Windows using the Task Scheduler

OS version

• lsb_release -a (Linux )
• ver (Win )

Show the process list & kill the process

Show the process list & kill the high-resource-consumption process

1. display the process list
   • top "display Linux tasks" for Linux or
   • top -a or ps aux --sort -rss | more "Sort by memory usage" for Linux
2. keyin q to leave the process list
3. find which process to be killed. And then keyin:
   • kill <PID> or kill -<PID> PID. To kill the process with PID number: 101, enter kill 101.
   • kill -9 <PID>. Force to kill the process with PID number: 101, enter kill -9 101.

Search matched text of command output

• linux command | awk '/string/' (Linux ) ex:
  • keyin dpkg --get-selections | awk '/tar/' to search the installed package naming tar for Ubuntu.
  • keyin dpkg --get-selections | awk '/zip|unzip/' to search the installed package naming zip or unzip for Ubuntu.
• linux command | grep string (Linux ) ex: keyin yum list installed | grep tar to search the installed package naming tar for CentOS.
• Windows command | find "string" (Win ) ex: netstat -a | find "3306" (note: enclose string in double quotation marks)

system CPU, memory and disk space usage

CPU usage / system load average

• Win :
  • namespace: ROOT\CIMV2
  • WQL query: SELECT LoadPercentage FROM Win32_Processor; No need to divid by CPU cores number for Win8
  • output example: 24 (UInt16, 16 bit Unsigned Integer) unit: %
  • CPU usage = LoadPercentage; unit: %
• freebsd, Linux & macOS :
  • PHP function sys_getloadavg() unit: %; Need to divid by CPU cores number

Memory usage

• Win :
  • namespace: ROOT\CIMV2
  • WQL query: SELECT FreePhysicalMemory, TotalVisibleMemorySize FROM Win32_OperatingSystem
  • output example: 21683460 (UInt64, 64 bit Unsigned Integer) unit: KB
  • memory usage = (FreePhysicalMemory * 100) / TotalVisibleMemorySize; unit: %

• freebsd & Linux :
  • command: free
  • output example:

                               total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
                    Mem:       8060416    7922496     137920        120     183608     526180
                    -/+ buffers/cache:    7212708     847708
                    Swap:      4194300    1219364    2974936

• • memory usage = 7922496 / 8060416; unit: %

• macOS (known as Darwin):
  • command: top -l 1
  • output example: PhysMem: 8017M used (1486M wired), 172M unused.
  • memory usage: 172 / (8017+172); unit: %

hard disk usage

• df command "disk space usage" for Linux df -h
• du command "estimate file space usage" of specific folder for Linux du --max-depth=1 -B M /path/to/folder/ | sort -gOutput example:

0M      /sys
1M      /tmp
9M      /run
27M     /etc
36M     /root
165M    /boot
1647M   /usr
49287M  /var
51379M  /home
102547M /

Scan the disk

• GUI: How to Perform Scandisk in Windows Win
• Command: shutdown -rF now Force fsck when rebooting a Linux server (Linux )

Clean the screen/console

• Win : cls
• Linux & macOS : clear

help for command

view the documentation for this command

• command --help or man command (Linux )
• command /? (Win )

find the path of an executable

• which command for Linux & macOS ex: which wc will return the path '/usr/bin/wc'
• where command for Win version 2003 or 8. ex: where nslookup will return the path 'C:\Windows\System32\nslookup.EXE' not all DOS command will return the information ex: where cd, where dir

emergency exit

• ctrl+c or ctrl+break (Linux , Win & macOS )
• Pause/Break (Linux ) ex: I pressed the key to leave from the warning message "Vim: Warning: Output is not to a terminal".

further reading

• ÆtherDev - Windows | Linux Equivalent Commands[Last visited: 2012-09-07]
• Windows Command Prompt LS Equivalent Dir [Last visited: 2014-05-27]
• Unix 與 MS-DOS 指令對照表

related pages:

• Windows keyboard equivalents on Mac
• Open command window here