List of Unix programs
This is a list of Unix programs. Some of these programs are standard utilities that will be found on any Unix or Unix-like operating system; indeed a system without such basic components as ls or sh could scarcely be described as truly Unix-like. Others are more special-purpose and may not be installed by default. Finally, some items on this list are simply separate applications which happen to have been written for Unix.
Many MS-DOS commands are similar to, or based on these commands. See List of DOS commands for more information.
Common utilities
- basename – Returns the final component of a path
- batch
- bc – Calculator program
- cal – Displays a calendar
- cat – Concatenate files to standard output
- chroot – Change the system root directory for all child processes
- cksum – Print the CRC checksum and bytecount of a file (see also MD5)
- continue – Skip the current iteration of a loop
- csplit – Split a file into sections determined by context lines
- cut – Remove sections from each line of a file or standard input
- date – Print or set the system date and/or time
- dc – the desktop calculator
- dd – Disk Dump
- dirname – Strip non–directory suffixes from a path
- echo – Print to standard output
- env – Show or change environment variables
- expr – Evaluates the expresion given to it
- fc
- file – Determine the type of a file
- find – Search for files through a directory hierarchy
- fold – Wrap each input line to fit within the given width
- fortune – Fortune cookie program that prints a random quote
- gencat
- getconf
- getopts
- hash
- head – Output the first parts of a file
- id – Print real/effective UIDs/GIDs
- ipcrm – Remove a message queue, semaphore set or shared memory id
- ipcs – Provide information on IPC facilities
- join – Join lines of two files on a common field
- less – Improved more–like text pager
- locale – Get locale specific information
- localedef – Compile locale definitions
- logger – Make entries in the system log
- logname – Print user's login name
- mailx – Email sending utility
- man – Manual browser
- mesg – Control write access to your terminal
- more – Pager
- newgrp – Log in to a new group
- nice – Alter priorities for processes
- nl – Number the lines of a file
- nohup – Run a command with immunity to hangups outputting to non–tty
- od – Dump files in various formats, e.g. octal
- passwd – User and group entries for daemons
- paste – Merge lines of files
- patch – Change files based on a patch file
- pathchk – Check the validity/portability of filenames
- ps – Report process status
- read – Read from a channel
- readonly
- renice – Alter the priorities of an already running process
- return – Return a value
- sed – Stream EDitor
- sh – The Bourne shell, the standard Unix shell
- shift
- sleep – Delay for specified time
- sort – Sort lines of text files
- split – Split a file into pieces
- strings – Print strings of printable characters found in a file
- strip – Discard symbols from object files
- stty – Change and print terminal line settings
- su – Start a new process (defaults to shell) as a different user (defaults to root)
- tac – The reverse of cat -- displays files to standard output in reverse order starting at the end of the file
- talk – Talk to another logged–in user
- tee – Read from standard input, write to standard output and files
- test – Test an expression
- time – Time a command
- times
- timex – time process shell execution, measure process data and system activity
- tput – Initialize a terminal/query terminfo database
- tsort – Perform a topological sort
- tty – Print filename of terminal connected to standard input
- type
- uname – Print assorted system statistics
- uncompress
- unexpand
- unget
- unset
- uptime – Print how long the system has been running
- uudecode
- uuencode
- uustat
- uux
- wait
- what
- who – Show who is logged on
- write – Send a message to another user
- xargs – Build and execute command lines from standard output
Archivers and compression
- ar – Maintain, modify, and extract from, archives. Now largely obsoleted by tar
- bzip2 – Block–sorting file compressor
- compress Compress files
- gzip – The gzip file compressor
- pax – POSIX archive tool that handles multiple formats.
- tar – Tape ARchiver, concatenates files
- zcat
Conversion
- iconv – Convert the encoding of the specified files
- nkf – convert Japanese characters
Cryptography
- gpg – GNU Privacy Guard, a complete and free replacement for PGP
- openssl – Secure Sockets Layer and general crypto library
- pinepgp – Filters which enable pine to use signed/encrypted email
Databases
Desktops/Graphical User Interfaces
Desktop Publishing
- Groff
- LaTeX – Popular macro package for TeX
- lp – Print a file (on a line printer)
- pr – Convert text files for printing
- printf – Format and print data
- Scribus
- TeX – High–quality macro–based typesetting system
Editors
- ed – Traditional Unix text editor
- emacs – Powerful Lisp–based text editor and general computing environment
- ex – Text editor, often a symbolic link to vi (or vim) which causes it to run in ex emulation mode
- NEdit – The multi-purpose X Windows editor
- nano – Clone of pico
- pico – PIne's message COmposition editor
- vi – Text editor
- vim – Vi IMproved, vi clone with syntax highlighting and other ehancements
- XEmacs – Popular version of emacs that is derived from GNU emacs
Filesystem Utilities
- chgrp – Change the group of a file or directory
- chmod – Change the permissions of a file or directory
- chown – Change the owner of a file or directory
- cp – Copy a file or directory to another location
- df – Report disk space
- du – Calculate used disk space
- fsck – File System ChecK
- ln – Link one file/directory to another
- ls – List directory contents
- mkdir – Make a directory
- mkfifo – Make a named pipe
- mount
- mv – Move/rename a file or directory
- pwd – Print the current working directory
- rm – Delete a file or directory
- rmdel
- rmdir – Delete a directory
- touch – Create a new file or update its modification time
- unlink
Internet
- anubis – Outgoing mail processor
- curl – Command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax
- dillo – Extremely light–weight web browser
- galeon – Light–weight GNOME web browser
- konqueror – KDE web browser
- links – Console based web browser
- elinks – Enhanced links
- lynx – Console based web browser
- mozilla – Graphical cross platform web browser
- mozilla firefox – Technology preview from mozilla
- opera (browser) – Web browser and e-mail client
- uucp – Unix to Unix CoPy
- uw–imapd–ssl – Remote mail folder access server
- vtun – Virtual Tunnel over TCP/IP
- w3m – Pager/text–based WWW browser
- wget – Automatic web site retreiver
- yafc – Enhanced ftp client, supporting ssh2 (sftp)
- zssh – Program for transferring files using SSH
Multimedia
- Audacity – Sound recording and editing program
- GIMP – Powerful image manipulation package
- GStreamer – Plugin-based multimedia framework
- ImageMagick – Image conversion library
- mpg123 – MP3 player
- MPlayer – Movie player
- sox – sound conversion tool
- totem – Movie player
- transcode – Flexible command-line media encoding tool
- xine – Video Player
- xmms – Winamp like multimedia player
Network Services
Network Utilities
- dhcpcd
- ifconfig
- ping
- pppd
Programming tools
- c99
- cc – C Compiler
- ctags – Generate tags file summarising location of objects in source files
- distcc – Tool for distributing compiles across multiple machines
- false – Return a value that evaluates as false
- fort77 – Fortran 77 compiler
- gcc – GNU Compiler Collection
- lex – Lexical scanner generator
- m4 – Macro language
- make – Automate builds
- nm – List symbols from object files
- true – Return a value that evaluates as true
- yacc – Parser generator
Science
- maxima – Symbol manipulation program
- units – Unit conversion program
script interpreters
Security
Shells
- bash – Bourne Again SHell, standard shell on linux systems
- csh – C shell
- ksh – Korn shell, standard shell on most proprietary Unix systems
- tcsh – TENEX C shell, standard shell on BSD systems
- zsh – Z shell
System Management
- admin – Administer SCCS files
- anacron – Periodic command scheduler
- at – Single–time command scheduler
- cron – Periodic command scheduler
- crontab – Crontab file editor
- daemonic – Interface to daemon init scripts
- fuser – Identify processes by files or sockets
- kill – Terminate a process
Text Processing
- awk – A pattern scanning and processing language
- cmp – Compare two files byte for byte
- comm – Sort two files and compare them line for line
- diff – Compare two files line by line
- expand – Convert tabs <–> spaces
- grep – Print lines matching a pattern (now largely superceded by egrep)
- merge - three way merge of files (see also paste)
- tail – Output the tail end of files
- tr – Translate characters
- uniq
- wc – Word/line/byte count
Linux specific programs
See also
