lfs-book/appendixa/coreutils-desc.xml

<sect2><title>&nbsp;</title><para>&nbsp;</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Descriptions</title>

<sect3><title>Program file descriptions</title>

<sect4><title>basename</title>
<para>basename strips directory and suffixes from filenames.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>cat</title>
<para>cat concatenates file(s) or standard input to 
standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>chgrp</title>
<para>chgrp changes the group ownership of each given file to the named group, 
which can be either a group name or a numeric group ID.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>chmod</title>
<para>chmod changes the permissions of each given file according to mode, which 
can be either a symbolic representation of changes to make or an octal 
number representing the bit pattern for the new permissions.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>chown</title>
<para>chown changes the user and/or group ownership of each 
given file.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>chroot</title>
<para>chroot runs a command or interactive shell with special 
root directory.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>cksum</title>
<para>cksum prints CRC checksum and byte counts of each specified
file.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>comm</title>
<para>comm compares two sorted files line by line.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>cp</title>
<para>cp copies files from one place to another.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>csplit</title>
<para>csplit outputs pieces of a file separated by (a) pattern(s) to files
xx01, xx02, ..., and outputs byte counts of each piece to standard 
output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>cut</title>
<para>cut prints selected parts of lines from specified files to standard 
output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>date</title>
<para>date displays the current time in a specified format, or sets 
the system date.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>dd</title>
<para>dd copies a file (from the standard input to the standard output, by 
default) with a user-selectable blocksize, while optionally performing 
conversions on it.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>df</title>
<para>df displays the amount of disk space available on the filesystem
containing each file name argument. If no file name is given, the space 
available on all currently mounted filesystems is shown.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>dir, ls and vdir</title>
<para>dir and vdir are versions of ls with different default output formats. 
These programs list each given file or directory name. Directory contents 
are sorted alphabetically. For ls, files are, by default, listed in columns 
sorted vertically if the standard output is a terminal; otherwise they 
are listed one per line. For dir, files are, by default, listed in columns
sorted vertically. For vdir, files are, by default, listed in 
long format.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>dircolors</title>
<para>dircolors outputs commands to set the LS_COLOR environment variable.
The LS_COLOR variable is use to change the default color scheme used by
ls and related utilities.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>dirname</title>
<para>dirname strips non-directory suffixes from file name.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>du</title>
<para>du displays the amount of disk space used by each file or directory
listed on the command-line and by each of their subdirectories.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>echo</title>
<para>echo displays a line of text.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>env</title>
<para>env runs a program in a modified environment.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>expand</title>
<para>expand converts tabs in files to spaces, writing to standard 
output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>expr</title>
<para>expr evaluates expressions.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>factor</title>
<para>factor prints the prime factors of all specified 
integer numbers.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>false</title>
<para>false always exits with a status code indicating failure.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>fmt</title>
<para>fmt reformats each paragraph in the specified file(s), writing to 
standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>fold</title>
<para>fold wraps input lines in each specified file (standard input by default),
writing to standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>groups</title>
<para>groups prints a user's group memberships.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>head</title>
<para>head prints the first xx (10 by default) lines of each specified file to
standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>hostid</title>
<para>hostid prints the numeric identifier (in hexadecimal) for the current 
host.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>hostname</title>
<para>hostname reports or sets the name of the current host.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>id</title>
<para>id prints the effective user and group IDs of the current
user or a given user.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>install</title>
<para>install copies files and sets their permission modes and, if possible, 
their owner and group.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>join</title>
<para>join joins lines of two files on a common field.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>kill</title>
<para>kill terminates the given process.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>ln</title>
<para>ln makes hard or soft (symbolic) links between files.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>logname</title>
<para>logname prints the current user's login name.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>md5sum</title>
<para>md5sum prints or checks MD5 checksums.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>mkdir</title>
<para>mkdir creates directories with a given name.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>mkfifo</title>
<para>mkfifo creates a FIFO with each given name.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>mknod</title>
<para>mknod creates a FIFO, character special file or block special file 
with the given file name.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>mv</title>
<para>mv moves files from one directory to another or renames files, depending
on the arguments given to mv.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>nice</title>
<para>nice runs a program with modified scheduling priority.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>nl</title>
<para>nl writes each specified file to standard output, with line numbers
added.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>nohup</title>
<para>nohup runs a command immune to hangups, with output to a 
log file.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>od</title>
<para>od writes an unambiguous representation, octal bytes by default, of a
specified file to standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>paste</title>
<para>paste writes lines consisting of the sequentially corresponding
lines from each specified file, separated by TABs, 
to standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>pathchk</title>
<para>pathchk checks whether file names are valid or portable.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>pinky</title>
<para>pinky is a lightweight finger utility which retrieves information about
a certain user.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>pr</title>
<para>pr paginates or columnates files for printing.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>printenv</title>
<para>printenv prints all or part of the environment.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>printf</title>
<para>printf formats and prints data (the same as the C printf 
function).</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>ptx</title>
<para>ptx produces a permuted index of file contents.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>pwd</title>
<para>pwd prints the name of the current/working directory.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>rm</title>
<para>rm removes files or directories.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>rmdir</title>
<para>rmdir removes directories, if they are empty.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>seq</title>
<para>seq prints numbers in a certain range with a certain 
increment.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>sha1sum</title>
<para>sha1sum prints or checks 160-bit SHA1checksums.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>shred</title>
<para>shred deletes a file securely, overwriting it first so that its 
contents can't be recovered.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>sleep</title>
<para>sleep delays for a specified amount of time.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>sort</title>
<para>sort writes sorted concatenation of files to standard 
output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>split</title>
<para>split outputs fixed-size pieces of an input file to 
PREFIXaa, PREFIXab, ...</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>stty</title>
<para>stty changes and prints terminal line settings.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>su</title>
<para>su runs a shell with substitute user and group IDs.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>sum</title>
<para>sum prints checksum and block counts for each specified 
file.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>sync</title>
<para>sync forces changed blocks to disk and updates the 
super block.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>tac</title>
<para>tac writes each specified file to standard output, last line
first.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>tail</title>
<para>tail print the last xx (10 by default) lines of each specified file to 
standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>tee</title>
<para>tee reads from standard input and writes to standard output and 
files.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>test</title>
<para>test checks file types and compares values.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>touch</title>
<para>touch changes the access and modification times of each given file to the 
current time. Files that do not exist are created empty.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>tr</title>
<para>tr translates, squeezes, and/or deletes characters from standard
input, writing to standard output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>true</title>
<para>true always exits with a status code indicating success.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>tsort</title>
<para>tsort writes totally ordered lists consistent with the partial ordering 
in specified files.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>tty</title>
<para>tty prints the file name of the terminal connected to standard 
input.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>uname</title>
<para>uname prints system information.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>unexpand</title>
<para>unexpand converts spaces in each file to tabs, writing to standard
output.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>uniq</title>
<para>uniq removes duplicate lines from a sorted file.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>uptime</title>
<para>uptime tells how long the system has been running.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>users</title>
<para>users prints the user names of users currently logged in to the 
current host.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>wc</title>
<para>wc prints line, word and byte counts for each specified file and a
total line, if more than one file is specified.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>who</title>
<para>who shows who is logged on.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>whoami</title>
<para>whoami prints the user name associated with the current
effective user ID.</para></sect4>

<sect4><title>yes</title>
<para>yes outputs 'y' or a given string repeatedly,
until killed.</para></sect4>

</sect3>

</sect2>