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: Type command --help or man command (Linux )

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 full text file

• vi [options] filename (Linux )
• {{kbd | key=cat ''filename''}} ({{Linux}}) Search text in a file * (1)[http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/vimcheat.html vim] <nowiki>[options] filename (2)press /keyword (Linux )
• grep: grep -ir "string to search" /path/to/directory or grep keyword /path/to/file (Linux )
• cat & grep: cat /path/to/file | grep keyword (Linux ) keyword is case sensitive

Search text in files

file operation

find a file

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

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

copy old directory to new directory

• cp -a old_dir new_dir/ (Linux )
• 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

download file from remote server

• FTP
• wget: 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

delete files or directory

• rm -rf /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

rename (move) files or directory

• mv old_folder_name new_folder_name (Linux )
• rename old_folder_name new_folder_name (Win )

list directory or files / list directory contents

• ls (Linux ) ex: ls -lh List detailed information of files
• dir (Win ) ex: dir/s/b is equal to Linux find /path/to/files/ -print

show the current directory

• pwd(Linux )
• echo %cd%(Win )

file compression

• gzip -v big.file(Linux )
• pv big.file | gzip > big.file.gz(Linux )

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)

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

import MySql sql dump file

Notice: existing database will be overwritten

• Import *.sql file:
  1. (optional if the .sql file was compressed) unzip data.zip or gzip -d data.gz if the file was compressed by gzip
  2. mysql -u username -p -h localhost DATA-BASE-NAME < data.sql and press Enter
  3. enter password and press Enter

• Import the *.sql file (especially for BIG sql file). It will show a progress bar and estimate time to complete the mysql command:
  1. (optional if the pv was not installed) yum install pv for RHEL / CentOS / SL / Fedora Linux
  2. pv data.sql | mysql -u username -p -h localhost DATA-BASE-NAME and press Enter
  3. enter password and press Enter

• Import ZIP file to MySql directly:
  1. 7za x -so data.zip | mysql -u username -p -h localhost DATA-BASE-NAME and press Enter
  2. enter password and press Enter

export MySql sql dump file

• export the *.sql file
  1. mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p DATA-BASE-NAME > /path/to/database.sql

• export the *.sql file (especially for BIG sql file). It will show a progress bar and estimate time to complete the mysqldump:
  1. (optional if the pv was not installed) yum install pv for RHEL / CentOS / SL / Fedora Linux
  2. (for InnoDB tables)mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p --single-transaction DATA-BASE-NAME | pv | gzip -c > database.sql.gz and press Enter
  3. enter password and press Enter

system operation

show current time

• date (Linux ) output: Thu Oct 25 15:05:10 CST 2012
• date/t (Win )

output:
OS in English: Thu 05/03/2012
OS in Chinese: 2012/05/03 星期四

• related: TIME (command), 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 )

reboot the system/server

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

OS version

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

Search text of command output

• linux command | grep string (Linux ) ex: keyin yum list installed | grep tar to search the installed package naming tar.
• Windows command | find "string" (Win ) ex: netstat -a | find "3306" (note: enclose string in double quotation marks)

help for command

view the documentation for this command

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

emergency exit

• ctrl+c or ctrl+break (Linux & Win )
• 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]