Document ID: 1868_1
Subject: COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE
Last Modified: 03 October 1994
Author: Raghu Viswanathan
The purpose of this bulletin is to acquaint Unix users to
some of the commands 'often' used in conjunction with Oracle. You
will probably find yourself using these commands at some point in
time, especially if you are a database administrator. If you
currently work on Unix platforms, you will recognize many of the
commands. I have tried to keep this list as comprehensive as
possible to give everyone a good start.
The options mentioned with some of the commands are the
more common ones used when using oracle. In certain places you
will either see (ucb) or (att) to denote differences between the
Berkeley and System V universes. Please acquaint yourself with
equivalent commands on your unix box if needed.
A list of shell variables used with oracle is also provided
at the end of this document.
Disclaimer: This bulletin is not intended to replace any
documentation of any kind but is merely a 'guide'. Whenever in doubt,
please refer to the manual pages on your operating system.
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1. man - manual pages
options: man 1 ls (ucb)
man 6 hangman (ucb)
man ls (att or ucb)
2. passwd - changing passwords
3. date - system date
4. who - lists all users logged in
who am i - lists who you are (ucb)
5. cal - displays the calendar
examples: cal 1990
cal 6 1990
6. pwd - present working directory
7. cd - change directory
examples: cd (go to home directory)
cd .. (move to the parent directory)
cd . (stay in the current directory)
cd /usr/bin (changing to a different directory)
8. ls - list contents
options: ls -l (long listing)
ls -lg (long listing including group)
ls -ld (long listing of directory)
ls -a (list dot files)
ls -lt (sort files by timestamp -
useful for oracle trace files)
ls -L (listing soft links)
9. more - list a file a screenful at a time
example: more tempfile
Note: On many att machines you may have to use pg instead
10. cat - continuous listing
options: cat -b (ucb - lists line numbers)
cat -vt (lists hidden tabs as ^I and formfeeds as ^L)
11. mkdir - make a new directory
options: mkdir -p (create intermediate directories also)
12. mv - move a file
options: mv -i (prompt in case you are overwriting a file)
mv -f (override prompt)
13. cp - copy a file
options: cp -i (prompt in case you are overwriting a file)
cp -f (override prompt)
cp -r (recursive copy for directories)
14. rm - remove a file
options: rm -i (prompt before deletion)
rm -f (override prompt)
rm -r (remove files recursively -
useful to remove non-empty directories)
15. rmdir - remove an empty directory
16. chmod - change the permissions mode of a file.
examples: chmod +x tempfile (add execute permission)
chmod u+x tempfile (add execute for user only)
chmod 400 tempfile (change permissions explicitly)
chmod 4755 oracle (set the setuid bit on)
Note: By setting the setuid bit, other processes can run with
an effective uid to be that of the owner of the file.
17. grep - search a file for a string or expression.
options: grep -n (print line numbers)
grep -v (print lines that don't contain pattern)
grep -i (ignore case sensitivity)
18. find - find files by name or by other characteristics
example: find . -name sqlplus -print
(find the full pathname of sqlplus starting from the
current directory)
19. wc - word count
options: wc -l (line count)
wc -w (word count)
wc -c (character count)
20. id - print name, ID, group and group ID
21. ps - display process status
options: ps -aux (ucb)
ps -ef (att)
22. kill - send a signal to terminate a process.
options: kill -9 (signal will always be caught)
Note: /usr/include/signal.h contains list of legal signals.
23. df - disk space on file systems.
24. du - disk usage in blocks
options: du -s (prints total usage in blocks of directory)
du -a (prints usage for each file recursively)
Note: a directory itself occupies one block.
25. lpr - send a job to the printer
options: -Pprintername (printername is the name of the printer)
-h (suppress banner page)
-# (number of copies)
26. uname - prints release information
options: uname -a
27. nm - print name list
Note: T = text
U = undefined
example: nm libpls.a | grep pcidcl
(this is a symbol in libpls.a on some ports)
28. ar - create library archives, add or extract files
options: ar d (delete archive)
ar x (extract archive)
ar t (list contents of archive)
ar l (divert temp files to current directory instead
of /tmp)
example: ar x libpls.a plsima.o (extracts plsima.o from
libpls.a and places it in the current directory -
the .o file is still in the archive. To delete it, use
the d option)
29. ranlib - makes table of contents for an archive
30. ipcs - interprocess communication facilities status
options: ipcs -s (print semaphore information)
ipcs -m (print shared memory information)
ipcs -q (print message queue information)
ipcs -b (print size information)
Note: SEGSZ - max shared memory size
NSEMS - number of semaphores in set.
31. ipcrm - delete ipc facilities
options: ipcrm -s <semaphore id>
ipcrm -m <shared memory id>
32. logname - lists login id from env variable LOGNAME
33. hostname - lists host name (ucb)
34. chown - change ownership
examples: chown joe myfile
Note: In ucb, only root can run this command
In att, either root or owner of file can run it
Suns have chown -R (for recursive chown of directories)
35. chgrp - change group
examples: chgrp hisgroup myfile
36. newgrp - new group
Notes: Switch group to that specified. Password may be required.
Creates a new shell.
37. file - lists type of file
example: file sqlplus (run on a sun)
sqlplus: sparc demand paged executable not stripped
Note: the type of file may be misleading.
38. ln - links
options: ln -s (create a softlink - saves space)
39. su - super-user or switch user
40. dd - file conversion and copy utility
example: dd if=myfile of=newfile conv=ucase
This converts all lower case letters in myfile to uppercase
and puts the results into newfile.
Note: Useful with raw devices.
41. diff - file differences.
42. umask - sets default permissions for new files and directories
43. stty - terminal settings
options: stty -a (att)
stty all (ucb)
example: stty erase h (resets erase character to 'h')
44. tty - lists terminal
45. cpio - copy file archives
options: cpio -icBdvmu
(i = input,
c = file header information
B = blocking
d = create recursive directories
v = verbose
m = retain modification time
u = unconditional)
46. tar - tape archives
options: tar xvt
(x = extract
t = list contents
v = verbose)
47. telnet - use TELNET protocol to access another machine
48. rlogin - remote login
options: rlogin hostname -l accountname
49. echo - echo command
50. ulimit - (att) - defines the max size of files on some systems.
51. vmstat - report virtual memory statistics.
52. pstat - do determine resource such as swap etc ..
options: pstat -t
53. make - this is a command generator. All executables used in
oracle are generated from makefiles. Although an understanding
of make is not required, it would help to pick up some simple
information about makefiles.
54. env - list environment variables (printenv on some machines.)
The following list discusses some of the important ones.
Environment Variables
---------------------
HOME - home directory
USER - userid
TERM - terminal setting
PATH - search path for files
LOGNAME - login id
PWD - present directory
EDITOR - default editor
HOST - host name
SHELL - current shell (csh = C-shell, sh = Bourne shell, ksh = Korn sh
ell)
TZ - time zone variable
ORACLE_HOME - oracle home directory
ORACLE_SID - oracle system identifier
ORACLE_LPPROG - print command for oracle applications
ORACLE_LPARGS - options to above print command
ORAKITPATH - path for resource files.
Recall to reset an environment variable:
In C-shell: setenv TERM vt100
In Bourne shell: TERM=vt100; export TERM