A Comparison Of Common Dos And Linux Commands - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 4 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual

A Comparison of Common DOS and Linux
Commands
Many Linux commands typed at a shell prompt are similar to the commands you would type in DOS.
In fact, some commands are identical.
This appendix provides common commands used at the DOS prompt in Windows and their coun-
terparts in Linux. Basic examples of how the command are used at the Linux shell prompt are also
provided. Note that these commands usually have a number of options. To learn more about each
command, read its associated man page (for example, type
the command).
ls
Command's
Purpose
Copies files
Moves files
Lists files
Clears screen
Closes shell
prompt
Displays or sets
date
Deletes files
"Echoes" output to
the screen
Edits text files
Compares the
contents of files
Finds a string of
text in a file
Formats a diskette
Displays command
help
Creates a directory
Views contents of a
file
Renames a file
MS-DOS Linux
copy cp
move mv
dir ls
cls clear
exit exit
date date
del rm
echo echo
edit gedit
fc diff
find grep
format a: mke2fs
(if diskette
is in )
A:
or
command
man
/? info
mkdir mkdir
more less
( )
ren mv
c
man ls
Basic Linux Example
cp thisfile.txt /home/thisdirectory
mv thisfile.txt /home/thisdirectory
ls
clear
exit
date
rm thisfile.txt
echo this message
( )
gedit thisfile.txt
a
diff file1 file2
grep word or phrase
/sbin/mke2fs /dev/fd0
Linux equivalent of
man command
mkdir directory
( )
less thisfile.txt
b
mv thisfile.txt thatfile.txt
Appendix D.
at the shell prompt to read about
thisfile.txt
(
/dev/fd0
)
A:
is the