| Command | Description | Example |
| cd | Change Directory Command | # cd testdirectory |
| clear | Clear screen/window | # clear |
| copy | Copy a group of files/directories | # copy test/ /etc/ |
| cp | similar to copy, only one file or directory at a time | # cp index.html /home/httpd/html/ |
| date | Shows the time and date. allows root to change either | # date |
| df | reports global filesystem utilization | # df |
| diff | Compares two files and outputs the differences | # diff file file.bak |
| diff3 | like diff, except for 3 files instead of 2 | # diff3 file1 file2 file3 |
| dircmp | like diff, except for directories instead | # dircmp /usr/local/sbin /usr/sbin |
| du | displays disk usage in Kbytes | # du file1 |
| echo | reports the text to standard output | # echo "Hello World" |
| file | reports the type of file | # file mydoc.txt |
| find | locates a certain file | # find [location to start search, usually /] [file/directory to search for] |
| finger | Reports user info, name, home dir, shell, logons, mail, and the users plan | # finger [user name] |
| grep | searches results for expression | # grep [expression] |
| head | displays the first few lines of a file, default 5 | # head /etc/inetd.conf |
| kill | kills the process | # kill [pid] |
| killall | kills the processes with name | # killall [name] |
| ln | Link to a file or directory, the -s option creates a soft link | # ln -s [target] [destination] |
| man | Displayes the manual page for a command | # man [command] |
| mkdir | Create a new directory | # mkdir [directory name] |
| mount | mount a file system or disk | # mount [device] [target] (mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy, mounts the floppy drive) |
| mv | move or rename a file or directory | # mv myfile.txt report.txt |
| umount | unmounts a file system or drive | # umount [device] (umount /dev/fd0, unmounts the floppy drive) |