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Even though all of the newer operating
systems including Microsoft Windows 9x, Millennium Edition (ME), Windows NT/2000 and Solaris have graphical user interfaces, they all
still have a command prompt available. Knowledge of the command
line and command syntax for any operating system is still quite valuable
in today's Information Technology world. Graphical User Environments are
nice but sometimes the command line is all that is available for
performing critical system tasks and troubleshooting. You may be at
home, for example, and need to access your system at school or work.
Bringing up a GUI over a modem would be extremely slow so command line
access is a nice option.
Command line capabilities are generally
more powerful and flexible than GUI interfaces, especially in the UNIX
environment. In addition, system administrators frequently construct
scripts (similar to batch files in DOS, NT and other operating systems)
containing commands to support end users, perform system administration functions, and
automate routine tasks.
Some users who are new to the UNIX
operating system may have a background in DOS which will make learning
UNIX commands easier. The table shown lists some of the more common DOS
commands and their UNIX equivalent. Since UNIX predated DOS, most DOS
commands are based on those found in UNIX. In general, UNIX commands can
do everything DOS commands can do and more. For instance, the DOS DIR
command will list the files in a directory. The UNIX ls
list
command will do the same but has many more options available. There are
also UNIX commands that DOS does not have an equivalent for such as the
mv
(move) command. The following table will help you transition from the
DOS to the UNIX world. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of
all the commands in either operating system. As usual, the 80/20 rule
applies. You can do 80 percent of what you normally need to do on a
daily basis with 20 percent of the tools or commands available.
Note: All UNIX commands are lower case as shown in Figure.
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