Hints

• use * as a wildcard in situations where you want to effect multiple files all with the same characteristic. (e.g. rm ga* -- removes all files starting with ga in the directory)
  
• up and down arrows toggle through previously issued commands (saves typing)
  
• the {tab} key finishes unique file references (e.g. cat fr {tab} will generate cat frog.txt if it is the only file starting with fr in the directory (saves typing)

Miscellaneous

*man command           online manual for specified command
                        (use this command for more details about most of commands below)
*command &             trailing & (ampersand) causes commands to run in background mode
*finger user           gives info on user if name is found
 clear                 clears screen
 wc filename           counts lines, words, & characters in specified file
 cal month year        prints a calendar for given (numeric) month
 date                  gives today's date
 talk username         allows you to write to others on same server. ^C quits
 xcalc                 brings up calculator

Navigation

*ls                    lists files and directories (like dir in ms-dos)
 *ls -l                lists files and directories with more information
  ls -al               same as ls -l but also includes hidden files
*cd                    changes current directory to home directory
 *cd ..                changes current directory to parent directory
 *cd sub-directory     changes current directory to sub-directory 
  cd ~username         changes current directory to home of username
*mkdir dirname         makes a subdirectory
*rmdir dirname         removes subdirectory (only if it is empty)
 pwd                   shows working directory

File Manipulation

*cp file1 file2        copys the contents of file1 to file2
 mv file1 file2        renames file1 as file2
  mv file1 sub-dir     moves file1 into sub-dir
*rm file1              removes file1 (careful with wildcards!!)
*compress file1        compresses file1 into file1.Z
*uncompress file1.Z    uncompresses file1.Z into file1
 cat file1 file2       concatenates file2 to the end of file1
 grep 'string' file1   lists records in file1 containing string                 

*enscript file1        formats file1 in POSTSCRIPT and prints
  *enscript -2r file1  prints in landscaped orientation with 2 pages per sheet
*lpr file1             prints file1 to default printer

*less file1            displays file1 (q to quit out) in screenfuls
 more  file1           displays file1 (dumber than less) in screenfuls
 head file1            shows beginning 10 lines of file1
  head -n file1         shows beginning n lines of file1, where is a count
*tail file1            shows last 10 lines of file1

*emacs file1           editor of choice- an 
">
">emacs introduction
 pico                  simple but useful Wordstar-like editor (on acpub system)
 vi file1              a difficult but widely available and powerful editor

Process Control

*^C                    keystoke for interrupting a UNIX command
 ^Z                    suspends process and returns user to command line.
 ps                    shows processes currently associated with userid
 kill -9 PID           terminates process of given Process ID number

Mail and Connectivity

*elm                   e-mail reader on this system (using emacs as default editor)
 pine                  another mailer found on acpub system

*rlogin host.name      initiates terminal session to specified host
                        (no password is required if target machine is equivalent)
*telnet host.name      initiates terminal session to specified host
 ftp host.name         initiates file transfer protocol operation with specified host

Administration

 alias                 give new name to old command (check man page for details)
 yppasswd              changes your password
 df -k                 reports disk free space (rarely needed)
 du                    summary of disk usage
 w                     lists who else is currently logged on your workstation
 whoami                tells you who you are

Redirection

command > file1        puts command output into file1
command >> file1       appends output to end of file1
command1 | command2    the pipe command sends output of command1 to command2