Common
UNIX and Windows Commands
It might sound weird, but I do a lot of stuff on the
command
line, even on my Windows machines. There are times when it's just
quicker and easier to open a terminal and run a few commands than to
click on a bunch of stuff. If you're logged in remotely or you need to
setup or repair a system, a good knowledge of text commands is a
lifesaver. This is intended as a quick and handy reference guide to
anyone who
needs to do something, but isn't familiar with Unix and Windows
commands and
doesn't have time to wade through 600 pages of documentation.
Since
most of the important commands are similar or identical to DOS
commands, anyone should be able to learn these pretty quickly. Windows
takes flags in the form a forward slash followed by the flag, for
example, /i,
while Unix takes flags that are formatted as a dash followed by the
flag, for example, -i.
A lot
of the Unix commands mentioned have other flags and arguments, you can
learn more about them by typing man
followed by the name of the command in question. To learn more about a
Windows command type /? after
the command. Remember that Unix commands are case sensitive, rm is not
the same as RM.
Both Windows and Unix use * as a
wildcard operator.
File Operations
Unix
Command
|
Windows
Command
|
What
it Does
|
cd
|
cd
|
Change
the working directory
|
pwd
|
cd (no arguments)
|
Show
the name of the working directory
|
ls
|
dir
|
Show
the contents of a directory
|
ls
-R
|
tree
|
Show
the contents of the directory tree
(Note: don't ever do this in your root directory or /var)
|
cp
|
copy
|
Copy
a file
|
mv
|
move
|
Move
a file
|
mv
|
ren
|
Rename
a file
|
rm
|
del
|
Delete
a file
|
rm
-r
|
rd
|
Remove
a directory
|
mkdir
|
mkdir
|
Make
a new directory
|
ln
-s
|
mklink
|
Create
a symbolic link to a file
|
find
|
find
|
Search
for a file
|
chmod
|
cacls
|
Change
file permissions
|
chown
|
takeown
|
Change
file ownership
|
System Operations
Unix
Command
|
Windows
Command
|
What
it Does
|
shutdown
-h now
|
shutdown
|
Shuts
the system down in an orderly fashion
|
whoami
|
whoami
|
Show
the username of the logged-in user
|
date
|
date
and/or
time
|
Display
and/or set the date and time
|
top
|
tasklist
|
Display
a list of running programs
|
kill
|
taskkill
|
Stop
a running program
|
uname
-a
|
ver
|
Display
the system version
|
dmesg
|
systeminfo
|
Display
information about the system
|
fdisk
|
diskpart
|
Edit
disk partitions
|
newfs
|
format
|
Format
disk partitions
|
setenv
|
set
|
Change
environment variables
|
at
|
schtasks
|
Run
a program at the given time
|
Control
+ C
|
Control
+ C
|
Stops
the currently running program
|
Text Operations
Unix
Command
|
Windows
Command
|
What
it Does
|
cat
|
type
|
Show
the contents of a text file
|
more
|
more
|
Show
the contents of a text file, one page at a time
|
ed
|
edlin
|
Line
mode text editor
|
ee
|
edit
|
Screen
mode text editor (Note: this might
not work when logged in via
older versions of telnet, in that case, use vi, ex, or ed)
|
grep
|
findstr
|
Search
for a string in a file
|
diff
|
fc
|
Compare
two files
|
lpr
|
print
|
Print
a text file to the default printer
|
clear
|
cls
|
Clear
the screen
|
Networking
Unix
Command
|
Windows
Command
|
What
it Does
|
telnet
|
telnet
|
Telnet
client
|
ftp
|
ftp
|
File
transfer protocol client
|
ifconfig
|
ipconfig
|
View/configure
the system's network interfaces
|
ping
|
ping
|
Send
an ICMP echo request to a remote host
|
nslookup
|
nslookup
|
Lookup
the IP address for a domain
|
traceroute
|
tracert
|
Trace
the packet's route to a given host
|
netstat
|
netstat
|
View
active network connections
|
arp
|
arp
|
Show
MAC addresses for known hosts
|
|
