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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. Many other
organizations, institutes and various other individuals contributed significant additions to the system we
now know today.

See additional Unix information and variants and information on the Unix variants page.

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 easily or to find and eliminate programming bugs
quickly. Thereby drivers for new adapters (SCSI controller, graphics cards, etc.) can be integrated very
rapidly.

See additional Linux information and variants and information on the Linux variants page.

MS-DOS vs. Linux / Unix

If you are able to navigate using MS-DOS, 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 / Unix
counterpart.

MS-DOS Linux / Unix

attrib chmod

backup tar

dir ls

cls clear
copy cp

del rm

deltree rm -R

rmdir

edit vi

pico

format fdformat

mount

umount

move / rename mv

type less <file>

cd cd

chdir

more < file more file

md mkdir

win startx

Linux / Unix Commands

* See our our complete overview page for a brief description on each of the below commands.

A a2p | ac | alias | ar | arch | arp | as | 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 | chsh | cksum | clear | cls | cmp | col | comm | compress | continue | copy | cp | cpio |
crontab | csh | csplit | ctags | cu | curl | cut
D date | dc | df | deroff | dhclient | diff | dig | dircmp | dirname | dmesg | dos2unix | dpost | du

E echo | ed | edit | egrep | elm | emacs | enable | env | eqn | ex | exit | expand | expr

F fc | fg | fgrep | file | find | findsmb | finger | fmt | fold | for | foreach | fromdos | fsck | ftp

G getfacl | gprof | grep | groupadd | groupdel | groupmod | gunzip | gview | gvim | gzip

H halt | hash | hashstat | head | help | history | host | hostid | hostname

I id | ifconfig | ifdown | ifup | isalist

J jobs | join

K keylogin | kill | ksh

L last | ld | ldd | less | lex | link | ln | lo | locate | login | logname | logout | lp | lpadmin | lpc |
lpq | lpr | lprm | lpstat | ls

M mach | mail | mailcompat | mailx | make | man | merge | mesg | mii-tool | mkdir | mkfs |
more | mount | mt | mv | myisamchk | mysql

N nc | neqn | netstat | newalias | newform | newgrp | nice | niscat | nischmod | nischown |


nischttl | nisdefaults | nisgrep | nismatch | nispasswd | nistbladm | nmap | nohup | nroff | nslookup

O on | onintr | optisa

P pack | pagesize | passwd | paste | pax | pcat | perl | pg | pgrep | pico | pine | ping | pkill |
poweroff | pr | priocntl | printf | ps | pvs | pwd

Q quit

R rcp | reboot | red | rehash | remsh | repeat | rgview | rgvim | rlogin | rm | rmail | rmdir | rn |
route | rpcinfo | rsh | rsync | rview | rvim

S s2p | sag | sar | scp | script | sdiff | sed | sendmail | set | setenv | setfacl | settime | sftp | sh |
shred | shutdown | sleep | slogin | smbclient | sort | spell | split | stat | stop | strip | stty | su | sudo |
sysinfo | sysklogd

T tabs | tac | tail | talk | tar | tbl | tcopy | tcpdump | tee | telnet | time | timex | todos | top |
touch | tput | tr | traceroute | tree | troff

U ul | umask | unalias | uname | uncompress | unhash | uniq | unmount | unpack | untar | until
| uptime | useradd | userdel | usermod

V vacation | vedit | vgrind | vi | view | vim | vipw | vmstat

W w | wait | wc | wget | whereis | which | while| who | whois | write


X X | xargs | xfd | xlsfonts | xset | xterm | xrdb

Y yacc | yes | yppasswd

Z zcat

* 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.

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