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UNIX Land

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This is a list of UNIX commands most of them are included in most stundurds[fn:1], [fn:2], [fn:3] which is a part of the Single UNIX Specification (SUS). These commands can be found on UNIX operating systems and most UNIX-like operating systems.

CMD	DESCRIPTION	POSIX	UTIL-LINUX	COREUTILS	BUSYBOX	TOYBOX
addpart	simple wrapper around the “add partition” ioctl		+
admin	create and administer SCCS files	+
agetty	alternative Linux getty		+
alias	define or display aliases	+
ar	create and maintain library archives	+
arch	print machine hardware name (same as uname			+
asa	interpret carriage-control characters	+
at	execute commands at a later time	+
awk	pattern scanning and processing language	+
base64	base64 encode/decode data and print to standard output			+
basename	return non-directory portion of a pathname	+		+
batch	schedule commands to be executed in a batch queue	+
bc	arbitrary-precision arithmetic language	+
bg	run jobs in the background	+
blkid	locate/print block device attributes		+
blockdev	call block device ioctls from the command line		+
cal	print a calendar	+	+
cat	concatenate files and print on the standard output	+		+
cc	compile standard C programs	+
cd	change the working directory	+		+
cfdisk	display or manipulate disk partition table		+
cflow	generate a C-language flowgraph (DEVELOPMENT)	+
chcon	change file SELinux security context			+
chcpu	configure CPUs		+
chfn	change your finger information		+
chgrp	change group ownership	+		+
chmod	change file mode bits	+		+
chown	change file owner and group	+		+
chroot	run command or interactive shell with special root directory			+
chrt	manipulate the real-time attributes of a process		+
chsh	change your login shell		+
cksum	checksum and count the bytes in a file	+		+
cmp	compare two files	+
col	filter reverse line feeds from input		+
colcrt	filter nroff output for CRT previewing		+
colrm	remove columns from a file		+
column	columnate lists		+
comm	compare two sorted files line by line	+		+
command	execute a simple command	+
compress	compress data	+
cp	copy files and directories	+		+
crontab	schedule periodic background work	+
csplit	split a file into sections determined by context lines	+		+
ctags	create a tags file (DEVELOPMENT, FORTRAN)	+
ctrlaltdel	set the function of the Ctrl-Alt-Del combination		+
cu	utility for establishing a terminal connection to a remote system	+
cut	cut out selected fields of each line of a file	+		+
cxref	generate a C-language program cross-reference table (DEVELOPMENT)	+
date	print or set the system date and time	+		+
dd	convert copy a file	+		+
delpart	simple wrapper around the “del partition” ioctl		+
delta	Make a delta (change) to an SCCS file	+
df	report file system disk space usage	+		+
diff	compare two files	+
dir	list directory contents			+
dircolors	color setup for ls			+
dirname	strip last component from file name	+		+
dmesg	print or control the kernel ring buffer		+
du	estimate file space usage	+		+
echo	write arguments to standard output	+		+
ed	edit text	+
eject	eject removable media		+
env	run a program in a modified environment	+		+
ex	text editor	+
expand	convert tabs to spaces	+		+
expr	evaluate arguments as an expression	+		+
factor	factor numbers			+
fallocate	preallocate space to a file		+
false	do nothing, unsuccessfully	+		+
fc	process the command history list	+
fdformat	low-level format a floppy disk		+
fdisk	manipulate disk partition table		+
ff	lists the file names and statistics for a file system	+
fg	run jobs in the foreground	+
file	determine file type	+
find	find files	+
findfs	find a filesystem by label or UUID		+
findmnt	find a filesystem		+
flock	manage locks from shell scripts		+
fmt	simple optimal text formatter			+
fold	wrap each input line to fit in specified width	+		+
fort77	FORTRAN compiler (FORTRAN)	+
fsck	check and repair a Linux filesystem		+
fsfreeze	suspend access to a filesystem (Linux Ext3/4, ReiserFS, JFS, XFS)		+
fstab	static information about the filesystems		+
fstrim	discard unused blocks on a mounted filesystem		+
fuser	list process IDs of all processes that have one or more files open	+
gencat	generate a formatted message catalog	+
get	get a version of an SCCS file	+
getconf	get configuration values	+
getopt	Parse command-line options		+
getopts	parse utility options	+
getrlimit	get/set resource limits		+
grep	search a file for a pattern	+
groups	print the groups a user is in			+
hash	remember or report utility locations	+
head	copy the first part of files	+		+
hexdump	display file contents in ascii, decimal, hexadecimal, or octal		+
hostid	print the numeric identifier for the current host			+
hwclock	query or set the hardware clock (RTC)		+
iconv	codeset conversion	+
id	print real and effective user and group IDs	+		+
install	copy files and set attributes			+
ionice	set or get process I/O scheduling class and priority		+
ipcmk	create various ipc resources		+
ipcrm	remove an XSI message queue, semaphore set, or shared memory segment identifier	+	+
ipcs	report XSI interprocess communication facilities status	+	+
isosize	output the length of an iso9660 filesystem		+
jobs	display status of jobs in the current session	+
join	relational database operator	+
join	join lines of two files on a common field			+
kill	terminate or signal processes	+	+
last	show listing of last logged in users		+
ldattach	attach a line discipline to a serial line		+
lex	generate programs for lexical tasks (DEVELOPMENT)	+
link	call the link function to create a link to a file	+		+
ln	make links between files	+		+
locale	get locale-specific information	+
localedef	define locale environment	+
logger	log messages	+	+
login	begin session on the system		+
logname	return the user’s login name	+		+
look	display lines beginning with a given string		+
losetup	set up and control loop devices		+
lp	send files to a printer	+
ls	list directory contents	+		+
lsblk	list block devices		+
lscpu	display information about the CPU architecture		+
lslocks	list local system locks		+
lslogins	display information about known users in the system		+
m4	macro processor (DEVELOPMENT)	+
mailx	process messages	+
make	maintain, update, and regenerate groups of programs (DEVELOPMENT)	+
man	display system documentation	+
mcookie	generate magic cookies for xauth		+
md5sum	compute and check MD5 message digest			+
mesg	permit or deny messages	+
mesg	control write access to your terminal		+
mkdir	make directories	+		+
mkfifo	make FIFO special files	+		+
mkfs	build a Linux filesystem		+
mknod	make block or character special files			+
mkswap	set up a Linux swap area		+
mktemp	create a temporary file or directory			+
more	display files on a page-by-page basis	+	+
mount	mount a filesystem		+
mountpoint	see if a directory is a mountpoint		+
mv	move (rename) files	+		+
namei	follow a pathname until a terminal point is found		+
newgrp	log in to a new group	+	+
nice	run a program with modified scheduling priority	+		+
nl	line numbering filter	+		+
nm	write the name list of an object file (DEVELOPMENT)	+
nohup	run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty	+		+
nologin	prevent unprivileged users from logging into the system		+
nproc	print the number of processing units available			+
nsenter	run program with namespaces of other processes		+
numfmt	Convert numbers from/to huma-readable strings			+
od	dump files in octal and other formats	+		+
partx	tell kernel about the presence and numbering of on-disk partitions		+
paste	merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files	+		+
patch	apply changes to files	+
pathchk	check whether file names are valid or portable	+		+
pax	portable archive interchange	+
pinky	lightweight finger			+
pivot_root	change the root filesystem		+
pr	convert text files for printing	+		+
printenv	print all or part of environment			+
printf	format and print data	+		+
prlimit	get and set a process resource limits.		+
prs	print an SCCS file	+
ps	report process status	+
ptx	produce a permuted index of file contents			+
pwd	print name of current/working directory	+		+
qalter	alter batch job	+
qdel	delete batch jobs	+
qhold	hold batch jobs	+
qmove	move batch jobs	+
qmsg	send message to batch jobs	+
qrerun	rerun batch jobs	+
qrls	release batch jobs	+
qselect	select batch jobs	+
qsig	signal batch jobs	+
qstat	show status of batch jobs	+
qsub	submit a script	+
raw	Linux IPv4 raw sockets		+
raw	bind a Linux raw character device		+
read	read a line from standard input	+
readlink	print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names			+
readprofile	read kernel profiling information		+
realpath	print the resolved path			+
realpath	return the canonicalized absolute pathname			+
rename	rename files		+
rename	change the name or location of a file		+
rename	Rename or delete a command		+
renice	set nice values of running processes	+
renice	alter priority of running processes		+
reset	terminal initialization		+
resizepart	simple wrapper around the “resize partition” ioctl		+
rev	reverse lines of a file or files		+
rm	remove directory entries	+
rm	remove files or directories			+
rmdel	remove a delta from an SCCS file	+
rmdir	remove directories	+
rmdir	remove empty directories			+
rtcwake	enter a system sleep state until specified wakeup time		+
runcon	run command with specified SELinux security context			+
runuser	run a command with substitute user and group ID		+
sact	print current SCCS file-editing activity	+
sccs	front end for the SCCS subsystem	+
script	make typescript of terminal session		+
sed	stream editor	+
seq	print a sequence of numbers			+
setarch	change reported arch in new program env and set personality flags		+
setpriv	run a program with different Linux privilege settings		+
setsid	run a program in a new session		+
setsid	creates a session and sets the process group ID		+
setterm	set terminal attributes		+
sfdisk	partition table manipulator for Linux		+
sh	shell, the standard command language interpreter	+
sha1sum	compute and check SHA1 message digest			+
sha224sum	compute and check SHA224 message digest			+
sha256sum	compute and check SHA256 message digest			+
sha384sum	compute and check SHA384 message digest			+
sha512sum	compute and check SHA512 message digest			+
shred	overwrite a file to hide its contents, and optionally delete it			+
shuf	generate random permutations			+
sleep	suspend execution for an interval	+
sleep	delay for a specified amount of time			+
sort	sort, merge, or sequence check text files	+
sort	sort lines of text files			+
spawn	fork and exec process, not part of POSIX standart	+
split	split files into pieces	+
split	split a file into pieces			+
stat	display file or file system status			+
stdbuf	Run COMMAND, with modified buffering operations for its standard streams.			+
strings	find printable strings in files	+
strip	remove unnecessary information from executable files (DEVELOPMENT)	+
stty	set the options for a terminal	+
stty	change and print terminal line settings			+
su	run a command with substitute user and group ID		+
sulogin	Single-user login		+
sum	checksum and count the blocks in a file			+
swaplabel	print or change the label or UUID of a swap area		+
swapoff	start/stop swapping to file/device		+
swapoff	enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping		+
swapon	start/stop swapping to file/device		+
swapon	enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping		+
switch_root	switch to another filesystem as the root of the mount tree		+
sync	flush file system buffers			+
tabs	set terminal tabs	+
tac	concatenate and print files in reverse			+
tail	copy the last part of a file	+
tail	output the last part of files			+
tailf	follow the growth of a log file		+
talk	talk to another user	+
taskset	retrieve or set a process’s CPU affinity		+
tee	duplicate standard input	+
tee	read from standard input and write to standard output and files			+
terminfo		+
test	evaluate expression	+
test	check file types and compare values			+
time	time a simple command	+
timeout	run a command with a time limit			+
touch	change file access and modification times	+
touch	change file timestamps			+
tput	change terminal characteristics	+
tr	translate characters	+
tr	translate or delete characters			+
true	return true value	+
true	do nothing, successfully			+
truncate	shrink or extend the size of a file to the specified size			+
tsort	topological sort	+
tsort	perform topological sort			+
tty	return user’s terminal name	+
tty	print the file name of the terminal connected to standard input			+
type	write a description of command type	+
ul	do underlining		+
ulimit	set or report file size limit	+
umask	get or set the file mode creation mask	+
umount	unmount file system		+
umount	unmount file systems		+
unalias	remove alias definitions	+
uname	return system name	+
uname	print system information			+
uncompress	expand compressed data	+
unexpand	convert spaces to tabs	+
unexpand	convert spaces to tabs			+
unget	undo a previous get of an SCCS file	+
uniq	report or filter out repeated lines in a file	+
uniq	report or omit repeated lines			+
unlink	call the unlink function	+
unlink	call the unlink function to remove the specified file			+
unshare	run program with some namespaces unshared from parent		+
unshare	disassociate parts of the process execution context		+
uptime	Tell how long the system has been running.			+
users	print the user names of users currently logged in to the current host			+
utmpdump	dump UTMP and WTMP files in raw format		+
uucp	system-to-system copy	+
uudecode	decode a binary file	+
uuencode	encode a binary file	+
uuidgen	create a new UUID value		+
uustat	uucp status inquiry and job control	+
uux	remote command execution	+
val	validate SCCS files	+
vdir	list directory contents			+
vi	screen-oriented (visual) display editor	+
vipw	edit the password, group, shadow-password or shadow-group file		+
vipw	edit the password, group, shadow-password or shadow-group file		+
vlimit	get/set resource limits		+
wait	await process completion	+
wall	send a message to everybody’s terminal.		+
wall	send a message to everybody’s terminal.		+
wc	word, line, and byte or character count	+
wc	print newline, word, and byte counts for each file			+
wdctl	show hardware watchdog status		+
what	identify SCCS files	+
whereis	locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command		+
who	display who is on the system	+
who	show who is logged on			+
whoami	print effective userid			+
wipefs	wipe a signature from a device		+
write	write to another user	+
write	send a message to another user		+
write	write to a file descriptor		+
xargs	construct argument lists and invoke utility	+
yacc	yet another compiler compiler (DEVELOPMENT)	+
yes	output a string repeatedly until killed			+
zcat	expand and concatenate data	+

Footnotes

[fn:1] IEEE Std 1003.1™-2008 - IEEE Standard for Information Technology - Portable Operating System Interface, [fn:2] ISO/IEC 23360-1:2006 - Linux Standard Base (LSB) core specification 3.1 – Part 1: Generic specification [fn:3] POSIX-1.20080