MacOS X UNIX Terminal Commands

note: all commands are case sensitive!!!

list information on a command ('man' is short for 'manual')

man command

---------

full directory listing [including hidden files]

ls -alF

---------

same as above, but for large directories

ls -alF | more

---------

when you use the

-l

flag w/

ls

, there will be a string of characters on the left for each file,

which may look something like

-rwxr-xr-x

the first character describes what the item is:

-

= regular file

d

= directory

b

= special block file

c

= special character file

l = symbolic link
p

= named pipe special file

example:

lrwxr-xr-x

would be a symbolic link

the next 9 characters are 3 groups of 3 characters each, which tell the
read/write/execute permissions for user, group, and other respectively:

r = read
w = write
x = execute
using the above example of

lrwxr-xr-x

, you would have symbolic link file, where the

user

can

read, write and execute

(

rwx

), and the

group

and

others

can

read

and

execute

(

r-x

)

change the permissions for a file

chmod flags filename
description of flags:
u = user
g = group
o = other
a = all of the above
example:

chmod u=rwx,go=rx

filename

this would make the file

readable

,

writable

, and

executable

by the owner (

u

), and

readable/writable

by everybody else (

go

)

---------

wildcard for any # of characters

*

wildcard for a single character

?

---------

current directory

.

parent directory

..

home directory

~

---------

list command history

history

re-run previously typed command (number can be found in

history

list)

!number

---------

run a program in the background

program

&

---------

clear the screen in the terminal

clear

---------

see what directory you are currently in

pwd

---------

information on available disk space for all mounted volumes

df -k

summarize disk usage (list all files) from current directory on down

du

---------

list of commands to control apache (web server)

apachectl man

---------

list of running processes

ps aux | more

kill running process (PID=# from the

ps -aux | more

list)

kill

PID

list heap allocation for process

heap

PID

put a program in the background

bg PID

bring a program to the foreground

fg PID

---------

list commands to use w/ Java

java -help

list commands to use w/ Java compiler

javac -help

---------

change aqua windows to nextstep & vice versa

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSInterfaceStyle nextstep
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSInterfaceStyle aqua

---------

change the arrow for the foreground app in the dock from black to blue

defaults write com.apple.dock showforeground -boolean YES

---------

dim (make translucent) the icons of hidden apps in the dock

defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -boolean YES

---------

list of commands to use w/ gnutar

gnutar -help | more

---------

change the owner of a file

chown

newowner fileordirectory

---------

rename a file

mv

filename newfilename

move a file

mv sourcefile destination/

copy a file

cp

sourcefile destination/

delete a file

rm

delete a file w/o asking for verification

rm -f

delete a directory, and all the files in it

rm -r

or

rmdir

create a directory

mkdir

---------

diplay the first few lines of a file (default=10 lines)

head filename

display the last few lines of a file (default=10 lines)

tail filename

---------

break (kill almost any running program or process)

control c

pause screen output

control s

resume screen output

control q

erase entire line that was just typed

control u

suspend running process

control z

---------

gnu zip a file [zipped file will end w/

.gz

]

gzip filename

gnu unzip a file

gunzip filename

---------

display a calendar

cal

---------

list information on a server

whois servername.com

list information on current user

whoami