Comparison of Common DOS and Linux Commands

 

Command's Purpose	MS-DOS	Linux	Basic Linux Example
Copies files	copy	cp	cp thisfile.txt /home/thisdirectory
Moves files	move	mv	mv thisfile.txt /home/thisdirectory
Lists files	dir	ls	ls
Clears screen	cls	clear	clear
Closes shell prompt	exit	exit	exit
Displays or sets date	date	date	date
Deletes files	del	rm	rm thisfile.txt
"Echoes" output to the screen	echo	echo	echo this message
Edits text files	edit	gedit([a])	gedit thisfile.txt
Compares the contents of files	fc	diff	diff file1 file2
Finds a string of text in a file	find	grep	grep word or phrase thisfile.txt
Formats a diskette	format a: (if diskette is in A:)	mke2fs	/sbin/mke2fs /dev/fd0 (/dev/fd0 is the Linux equivalent of A:)
Displays command help	command /?	man or info	man command
Creates a directory	mkdir	mkdir	mkdir directory
Views contents of a file	more	less([b])	less thisfile.txt
Renames a file	ren	mv([c])	mv thisfile.txt thatfile.txt
Displays your location in the file system	chdir	pwd	pwd
Changes directories with a specified path (absolute path)	cd pathname	cd pathname	cd /directory/directory
Changes directories with a relative path	cd..	cd ..	cd ..
Displays the time	time	date	date
Shows amount of RAM in use	mem	free	free
Notes: a. Gedit is a graphical text editor; other editors you can use in place of Gedit include nano and vi. b. The more pager can also be used to page through a file one screen at a time. c. The mv command can both move a file and, if you want to rename a file in the same directory, "move" that file to the same directory with a new name.