COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE

http://www.fors.com/orasupp/unix/1868_1.HTM

Document ID: Subject: Last Modified: Author:

1868_1 COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE 03 October 1994 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------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) (changing to a different directory)

cd /usr/bin 8. ls - list contents options: ls -l

(long listing)

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

1 of 6

2/23/2008 12:45 PM

COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE

http://www.fors.com/orasupp/unix/1868_1.HTM

ls -lg ls -ld ls -a ls -lt ls -L

(long listing including group) (long listing of directory) (list dot files) (sort files by timestamp useful for oracle trace files) (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 12. mv - move a file options: mv -i mv -f 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) (prompt in case you are overwriting a file) (override prompt) (create intermediate directories also)

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.

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

2 of 6

2/23/2008 12:45 PM

COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE

http://www.fors.com/orasupp/unix/1868_1.HTM

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

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

3 of 6

2/23/2008 12:45 PM

COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE

http://www.fors.com/orasupp/unix/1868_1.HTM

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: sqlplus: file sqlplus (run on a sun) sparc demand paged executable not stripped

Note: the type of file may be misleading. 38. ln - links

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

4 of 6

2/23/2008 12:45 PM

COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE

http://www.fors.com/orasupp/unix/1868_1.HTM

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 c B d v m u = = = = = = = input, file header information blocking create recursive directories verbose retain modification time 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.

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

5 of 6

2/23/2008 12:45 PM

COMMON UNIX COMMANDS WITH ORACLE

http://www.fors.com/orasupp/unix/1868_1.HTM

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

PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com

6 of 6

2/23/2008 12:45 PM