Unix, Linux, and variants

Unix ABCs

Unix, which is not an acronym, was developed by some of the members of the Multics team at the bell labs starting in the late 1960's by many of the same people who helped create the C programming language. The Unix today, however, is not just the work of a couple of programmers. Other organizations, institutes, and other individuals contributed significant additions to the system we now know today.

• See additional Unix information and variants and information on the Unix definition.

Linux ABCs

Developed by Linus Torvalds and further elaborated by a number of developers throughout the world, Linux (lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/,_not_/li:'nuhks) is a freely available multitasking and multiuser operating system. From the outset, Linux was placed under General Public License (GPL). The system can be distributed, used, and expanded free of charge. In this way, developers have access to all the source codes, thus being able to integrate new functions or to find and eliminate programming bugs quickly. Thereby drivers for new adapters (SCSIcontroller, graphics cards, etc.) can be integrated very rapidly.

• See additional Linux information and variants and information on the Linux definition.

MS-DOS vs. Linux and Unix

If you are able to navigate a computer using MS-DOS or the Windows command line, you should be able to quickly pick up on the navigation of Linux and Unix. In the below chart is a listing of common MS-DOS commands with their Linux and Unix counterpart.

MS-DOS	Linux and Unix
attrib	chmod
backup	tar
dir	ls
cls	clear
copy	cp
del	rm
deltree	rm -R rmdir
edit	vi pico
format	fdformat, mount, and umount
move and rename	mv
Type	less <file>
cd	cd chdir
more < file	more file
md	mkdir
win	startx

Linux and Unix Commands

	* See the Linux and Unix overview page for a brief description on all commands on one page.
A	a2p | ac | access | alias | agrep | apropos | apt-cache | apt-get | aptitude | ar | arch | arp | as |aspell | at | awk
B	basename | bash | bc | bdiff | bfs | bg | biff | break | bs | bye
C	cal | calendar | cancel | cat | cc | cd | chdir | checkeq | checknr | chfn | chgrp | chkey | chmod |chown | chroot chsh | cksum | clear | cls | cmp | col | comm | compress | continue | copy | cp| cpio | crontab | crypt | csh | csplit ctags | cu | curl | cut
D	date | dc | dd | df | depmod | deroff | dhclient | diff | dig | dircmp | dirname | dmesg | dos2unix| dpkg | dpost du
E	echo | ed | edit | egrep | eject | elm | emacs | enable | env | eqn | ex | exit | expand | expr
F	fc | fdisk | fg | fgrep | file | find | findsmb | finger | fmt | fold | for | foreach | fromdos | fsck |ftp | fuser
G	gawk | getfacl | gethostname | gpasswd | gprof | grep | groupadd | groupdel | groupmod |gunzip | gview | gvim gzip
H	halt | hash | hashstat | head | help | history | host | hostid | hostname
I	id | ifconfig | ifdown | ifup | ip | init | info | iostat | isalist | iwconfig
J	jobs | join
K	keylogin | kill | killall | ksh
L	last | ld | ldd | less | lex | link | ln | lo | locate | login | logname | logout | losetup | lp | lpadmin| lpc | lpq | lpr  lprm | lpstat | ls | lsof | lzcat | lzma
M	mach | mail | mailcompat | mailx | make | man | merge | mesg | mii-tool | mkdir | mkfs |modprobe | more mount | mt | mv | myisamchk | mysql
N	nc | neqn | netstat | newalias | newform | newgrp | nice | niscat | nischmod | nischown |nischttl | nisdefaults  nisgrep | nismatch | nispasswd | nistbladm | nl | nmap | nohup | nroff |nslookup
O	od | on | onintr | optisa
P	pack | pagesize | passwd | paste | pax | pcat | perl | pg | pgrep | pico | pine | ping | pkill |poweroff | pr | printenv | priocntl | printf | ps | pstree | pvs | pwd
Q	quit
R	rcp | readlink | reboot | red | rehash | remsh | renice | repeat | replace | rgview | rgvim | rlogin| rm | rmail | rmdir | rn | route | rpcinfo | rsh | rsync | rview | rvim
S	s2p | sag | sar | scp | screen | script | sdiff | sed | sendmail | service | set | setenv | setfacl |sethostname | settime | sftp | sh | shred | shutdown | signals | sleep | slogin | smbclient | sort |spell | split | stat | stop | strftime | strip | stty | su | sudo | sysinfo | sysklogd
T	tabs | tac | tail | talk | tar | tbl | tcopy | tcpdump | tee | telinit | telnet | test | time | timex |todos | top | touch | tput | tr | traceroute | tree | troff | tty
U	ul |  umask | unalias | uname | uncompress | unhash | uniq | unlzma | unmount | unpack |untar | until | unxz | unzip | uptime | useradd | userdel | usermod
V	vacation | vedit |  vgrind | vi | view | vim | vipw | vmstat
W	w | wait | wall | wc | wget | whereis | whatis | which  | while| who | whoami | whois | write
X	X | xargs | xfd | xhost | xlsfonts | xorg | xset | xterm | xrdb | xz | xzcat
Y	yacc | yes | yppasswd | yum
Z	zcat| zip | zipcloak | zipinfo | zipnote| zipsplit

* In addition to each of the above explanations, additional information about a specified command for your Unix or Linux variant can be found by using the man command.