Date: 2007dec20 Updated: 2011sep23 OS: Linux Q. Linux: The two letter Linux commands A. Of course we use vi, rm, mv and ls daily but what are the others? Surely they must be important if their names are so short. So I did:

ls /bin/?? /usr/bin/?? /sbin/?? /usr/sbin/??

And looked them all up. From /bin we get: cp - copy files and directories dd - convert and copy a file df - report file system disk space usage ex - start vim in ex mode ln - make links between files ls - list directory contents mv - move (rename) files ps - report a snapshot of the current processes. rm - remove files or directories sh - Bourne shell (linked to Bash for me) su - run a shell with substitute user and group IDs vi - I made this a link to vim From /usr/bin we get: ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool ar - create, modify, and extract from archives as - the portable GNU assembler. cc - link to gcc on my box du - estimate file space usage ex - start vim in ex mode gs - Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter and pre- viewer) id - print user identity ld - The GNU linker lp - print files m4 - macro processor nl - number lines of files nm - list symbols from object files od - dump files in octal and other formats pr - convert text files for printing rb - receive with Ymodem rx - receive with XModem rz - receive with ZModem sb - send with YModem sg - execute command as different group ID (an alias for newgrp) sm - Jabber IM session manager sx - send with XModem sz - send with ZModem tr - translate or delete characters ul - do underlining wc - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file From /sbin we get: ip - show / manipulate routing, devices, policy routing and tunnels iw - show / manipulate wireless devices and their configuration tc - show / manipulate traffic control settings From /usr/sbin we get: ss - Show sockets So now you know. sg was a cool discovery for me. Also don't forget the one character commands... [ - test - check file types and compare values w - Show who is logged on and what they are doing. X - X Windows