Date: 2007dec20
Updated: 2011sep23
OS: Linux
Q. What are the two letter Linux/Unix commands?
A. Of course we use vi, rm, mv and ls daily but what are the others.
Surely they must be important if their names are so short.
So I did:
ls /bin/?? /usr/bin/?? /sbin/?? /usr/sbin/??
And looked them all up.
From /bin we get:
cp - copy files and directories
dd - convert and copy a file
df - report file system disk space usage
ex - start vim in ex mode
ln - make links between files
ls - list directory contents
mv - move (rename) files
ps - report a snapshot of the current processes.
rm - remove files or directories
sh - Bourne shell (linked to Bash for me)
su - run a shell with substitute user and group IDs
vi - I made this a link to vim
From /usr/bin we get:
ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool
ar - create, modify, and extract from archives
as - the portable GNU assembler.
cc - link to gcc on my box
du - estimate file space usage
ex - start vim in ex mode
gs - Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter and pre- viewer)
id - print user identity
ld - The GNU linker
lp - print files
m4 - macro processor
nl - number lines of files
nm - list symbols from object files
od - dump files in octal and other formats
pr - convert text files for printing
rb - receive with Ymodem
rx - receive with XModem
rz - receive with ZModem
sb - send with YModem
sg - execute command as different group ID (an alias for newgrp)
sm - Jabber IM session manager
sx - send with XModem
sz - send with ZModem
tr - translate or delete characters
ul - do underlining
wc - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file
From /sbin we get:
ip - show / manipulate routing, devices, policy routing and tunnels
iw - show / manipulate wireless devices and their configuration
tc - show / manipulate traffic control settings
From /usr/sbin we get:
ss - Show sockets
So now you know.
sg was a cool discovery for me.
Also don't forget the one character commands...
[ - test - check file types and compare values
w - Show who is logged on and what they are doing.
X - X Windows
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