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40 Unix Commands | Examples | Download
The Berkeley Utilities manual on-line
download the manual in pdf (396,100 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001)
The Berkeley Utilities (currently Version 2.0) are a set of

40 unix commands ported to DOS:

    awk string processing language download (46,283 bytes, May. 12, 1991) .
    basename extract base part from pathname of a file or directory download (16,712 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    cal display the calendar for a year or a month download (12,258 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    cat concatenate files download (16,985 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    cb C beautifier download (17,253 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .
    cmp binary file comparison download (17,549 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    comm look for common lines in 2 files download (13,080 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    cp copy files and directories download (23,913 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    cut cut out columns or fields from files download (17,544 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .
    df statistics on disk usage download (13,570 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    diff compare files and directories download (24,151 bytes, Sep. 11, 1993) .
    dtree display tree structure of directory download (17,725 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    du display space each directory takes download (18,434 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    ech echo arguments download (17,034 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    ed line editor download (29,820 bytes, Aug. 16, 1992) .
    expand expands tabs into blanks download (16,843 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    find find files with certain properties and execute commands on each download (21,058 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    grep search for patterns in files download (22,460 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    head display the beginning of one or several files download (16,883 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    join relational join of two files download (14,153 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .
    ls list files and directories download (21,677 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    make update files download (29,412 bytes, Aug. 19, 1992) .
    more text files browser download (39,581 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .
    mv move files and directories download (23,903 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    od octal (or hexadecimal) dump download (19,986 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    opts Set default options for the Berkeley Utilities download (31,997 bytes, Apr. 29, 1996) .
    paste merge files as columns of a single file download (17,482 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .
    rederr redirect error output of commands download (14,503 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    rm remove files and directories download (20,995 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    sed stream editor download (21,410 bytes, Aug. 16, 1992) .
    sort sort files download (23,193 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    split split a file into smaller pieces download (13,077 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    tail display the end of a file download (18,302 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    tee pipe connection and derivation download (16,749 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    touch update file timestamp download (19,222 bytes, Feb. 11, 2001) .
    tr translate standard in to standard out download (13,008 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    unexpand compress to tabs runs of blanks and tabs download (16,930 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .
    uniq weed out or find duplicate lines in a sorted file download (13,470 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    wc count words and lines download (17,124 bytes, Feb. 02, 2001) .
    which find which version of a program is active download (15,340 bytes, Feb. 11, 2001) .
    xstr extract character strings from C programs download (22,727 bytes, Feb. 11, 2001) .

The Berkeley Utilities follow rigorously the unix System V syntax and include all the options found on any unix system plus a few carefully chosen ones. They used to sell for $ 200 and are now free.

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Examples of situations you might face:
  • You wonder if all the "doc" files with a name starting with a letter between a and f and located below the current directory would fit on your somewhat filled diskette in the A: drive, so you just type

    ls .//[a-f]*.doc -Ua
ls output

The answer is yes, they will just fit because 74.18 percent is less than 79.55 percent.
  • You want to create a file called new with the first 200 lines, the last 40 lines, the first 7 columns of file abc.dat, so you just type:
    head -200 abc.dat > new
    tail -40 abc.dat > new
    cut -c 1-7 abc.dat > new
  • You want to take all the ``C'' files on your hard disk which are less than seven days old and pkzip them into your backup.zip file:
    find . -name *.c -mtime -7 -exec pkzip -a backup {} ;
    • find output

  • You want to delete your windows subdirectory or all the files in the current directory with a filename ending with the letter a
    (please don't try DOS's "DEL *a.*"), so you type:
    rm -r \windows
    rm *a.*
  • Where does the string xyz343 occur in my ``C'' code? Where does the string alarm, regardless of case, occur in my ``MSH'' files?
    grep xyz343 *.c
    grep -i alarm *.msh
    • grep output

  • I have almost finished writing the DELTA2 manual (in LaTeX, hence in ASCII form) and I want to know how many times I have used each english word:
    cat manual.tex | tr -cs A-Za-z \n | sort | uniq -c
    so that I now know that ``You'' appears 48 times while ``you'' appears 201 times! This list is hardly comprehensive, it just tries to convey the flavor of this powerful toolbox.
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    Download the Berkeley Utilities plus the .pdf reference manual as a single zip file:

     download (1,173,659 bytes, Feb. 12, 2001) .

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    Last updated on Feb. 2, 2001
    Please send any comments to Jean-Claude Chetrit