Some Useful UNIX Commands

passwd: Change your password. Do this regularly, and keep your password secret.

cp file1 file2: Copies file1 to file2.
mv file1 file2: Moves file1 to file2. If the arguments are in same directory, this command just renames file1 to file2. If file2 is a directory, file1 is moved to that directory
rm filename: Removes filename.
cat file1 file2: Concatenates file1 and file2 and prints the result to the screen.
cat file1 file2 > file3: Concatenates file1 and file2 and puts the result into file3.
more file1: Prints file1 to the screen, but pauses when the screen is full.
less file1: Another paginator, similar to more.
lp file1: Sends file1 to a printer.
cancel job-id: Cancel a printer request. You must use the job identification reported by the lp command when you ran it.
lpstat: Show the print queues. You can use this to show how many print requests are ahead of (or behind) yours in the queue. lpq will also report request ids, if you forget them.

ls: List the contents of the current directory.
ls dirname: List contents of the directory dirname.
ls -a: List all the files in a directory, including ones whose names begin with a period (.)
ls -l: Long listing. List the contents of a directory, with the protection, owner, size, modification date, and name of the files.
ll: Long listing. Synonym for ls -l.
pwd: Print working directory. Prints the name of the current directory.
cd dirname: Change directory. Changes the current directory to dirname.
cd ..: Change to parent directory. Moves up one level in the directory hierarchy.
cd: cd with no arguments will change the current directory to the home directory.
cd ~: ~ is shorthand for the home directory, so cd ~ will change the current directory to the home directory.
cd ~username: ~username is shorthand for username's home directory, so cd ~username will change the current directory to that user's home directory.
mkdir dirname: Make directory. Creates a new, empty directory named dirname.
rmdir dirname: Remove directory. A directory must be empty before it can be removed.
du: Disk usage. Summarizes the space taken up by all the files in a directory and its subdirectories.
quota -v: Report information about your disk quota.

latex file: Invokes the LaTeX typesetting program.
dvips file: dvips converts the output of LaTeX to postscript for the printers. The output is automatically sent to the printers unless the -o option is used.
ispell file: Spelling checker.
xfig: Drawing program.
xdvi file: DVI previewer. Displays a DVI file produced by LaTeX on the screen. You can use previewers to check how a document looks without wasting paper to print it.
ghostview file.ps: Postscript previewer. Displays a postscript file on the screen. Another good way to save paper.

man cmd: Bring up the on-line manual page for a command.
man man: Bring up the on-line manual page for the man command.
man -k keyword: Searches all the manual pages for ones relevant to the keyword.

exit: Exits an xterm window. If you are logged in remotely, this command will log you out of the system.