2. Unix Commands

This chapter presents the Unix commands of interest to users and programmers. Most of these commands appear in the "Commands" section of the User's Reference Manual and Programmer's Reference Manual for Unix System V Release 4 (SVR4). This chapter describes additional commands from the compatibility packages; these commands are prefixed with /usr/ucb, the name of the directory in which they reside. Also included here are commands specific to Solaris 7, such as those for using Java and the occasional absolutely essential program available from the Internet.

Particularly on Solaris, useful commands are spread across a number of different "bin" directories, such as /usr/ccs/bin, /usr/dt/bin, /usr/java/bin, and /usr/openwin/bin, and not just /usr/bin and /usr/ucb. In such cases, this book provides the full pathname, e.g., /usr/ccs/bin/make. In some instances, a symbolic link for a command exists in /usr/bin to the actual command elsewhere.

Each entry is labeled with the command name on the outer edge of the page. The syntax line is followed by a brief description and a list of all available options. Many commands come with examples at the end of the entry. If you need only a quick reminder or suggestion about a command, you can skip directly to the examples.

Some options can be invoked only by a user with special system privileges. Such a person is often called a "superuser." This book uses the term privileged user instead.

Typographic conventions for describing command syntax are listed in the Preface. For additional help in locating commands, see the Index.