Music 824: Computer Applications in Music Research
Ohio State University
School of Music



Some Useful Unix Commands


CommandAction
ls list the files and subdirectories for the current directory
ls -l list the files and subdirectories for the current directory (long format)
cd X change directory to directory named X
cd .. go up one directory level
pwd Present Working Directory -- identify the name of the current directory
date display date and time
man X display manual pages for command X
more X display contents of file named X
mv X Y move a file; i.e., rename the file X (old) to the name Y (new)
cp X Y copy the file named X as the new file named Y
rm X remove a file; delete file named X
rmdir X remove a directory; delete directory named X
mkdir X make a directory; create directory named X
pico X invoke `pico' text editor for file named X

Useful information regarding UNIX can be found at innumerable web sites. Some useful sources are



This document is available at https://csml.som.ohio-state.edu/Music824/unix.html