Package:Coreutils

Coreutils

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The core utils package provides many essential Linux binaries: (Note that in some other distros, all these binaries exist in /usr/bin and /bin itself is a symlink to /usr/bin)

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Binary name	Binary function	Common Usage
/bin/basename	Remove leading directory components from a given directory listing.
/bin/cat	Used to concatenate files and print them to stdout.	cat file1 file2... cat file
/bin/chgrp	Used to change group ownership	chgroup group /path/filename
/bin/chmod	change file mode bits
/bin/chown	Change file ownership and group membership	chown user:group filename chown -R user:group dirname
/bin/chroot	Temporarily changes the current root to the specified path	chroot /newrootpath/
/bin/cp	copy files and directories	cp /path/file1 /path/file2
/bin/cut	remove sections from each line of files
/bin/date	print or set the system date and time
/bin/dd	convert and copy a file
/bin/df	report file system space usage	df -h mountpoint
/bin/dir	strip last component from file name
/bin/dirname	strip last component from file name
/bin/du	estimate file space usage	du /path/ du -h /path/
/bin/echo	display a line of text	echo "hello world"
/bin/env	run a program in a modified environment
/bin/expr	evaluate expressions
/bin/false	do nothing, unsuccessfully
/bin/head	output the first part of files
/bin/ln	Create hard and symbolic links between different files.
/bin/ls	List files and directories on the filesystem	ls -alh /home/username/
/bin/mkdir	Create a new, empty directory	mkdir /path/dirname mkdir -p /path/all/these/dirs/are/new
/bin/mkfifo	make FIFOs (named pipes)
/bin/mknod	make block or character special files
/bin/mktemp	create a temporary file or directory
/bin/mv	Move a file to a different location on the filesystem.
/bin/pwd	Output the Present Working Directory.	mv /path/oldfile /newpath/newfile
/bin/readlink	print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names
/bin/rm	Remove a file, directory, etc. from the filesystem.	rm /path/filename
/bin/rmdir	Remove a directory from the filesystem.	rmdir /path/dirname
/bin/seq	print a sequence of numbers
/bin/sleep	delay for a specified amount of time	sleep 10
/bin/sort	sort lines of text files
/bin/stty	change and print terminal line settings
/bin/sync	Synchronize cached writes to persistent storage
/bin/tail	output the last part of files	tail /var/log/messages
/bin/touch	Create an empty file on the filesystem.	touch /path/filename
/bin/tr	translate or delete characters
/bin/true	do nothing, successfully
/bin/tty	print the file name of the terminal connected to standard input
/bin/uname	print system information	uname -a
/bin/vdir	list directory contents
/bin/wc	print newline, word, and byte counts for each file
/bin/yes	output a string repeatedly until killed
/usr/bin/[	tests the subsequent expression for truth
/usr/bin/arch	prints the machine architecture, alias for /bin/uname -m
/usr/bin/b2sum	calculates the BLAKE2 checksum of the input
/usr/bin/base32	Base32 encodes/decodes the given file or input
/usr/bin/base64	Base64 encodes/decodes the given file or input
/usr/bin/basenc	encodes/decodes the given file or input using the specific encoding
/usr/bin/chcon	change the SELINUX security context of the given file
/usr/bin/cksum	calculates the checksum of the given file using the specified algorithm
/usr/bin/comm	compare two sorted files line by line
/usr/bin/csplit	use patterns to split a file's content
/usr/bin/dircolors	outputs commands to set colours used in ls output
/usr/bin/expand	converts tab characters to blocks of multiple space characters
/usr/bin/factor	Print the prime factors of the specified integer number
/usr/bin/fmt	Simple text paragraph formatter
/usr/bin/fold	Wraps long lines in given file to specified width
/usr/bin/hostid	Prints the numeric(hexdecimal) ID of the current machine
/usr/bin/id	Prints the user and group IDs of the specified or current user
/usr/bin/install	Copies files and sets attributes
/usr/bin/join	Joins lines of two files on a common field
/usr/bin/link	Creates hard links to files, no error checking
/usr/bin/logname	Print login name of current user
/usr/bin/md5sum	Calculates the MD5 hash of the given file or input
/usr/bin/nice	Makes a CPU heavy program yield to other processes
/usr/bin/nl	Add line numbers to a file
/usr/bin/nohup	Prevents a process from terminating when the parent terminal exits
/usr/bin/nproc	prints the number of processors
/usr/bin/numfmt	convert number formats
/usr/bin/od
/usr/bin/paste
/usr/bin/pathchk	check whether filenames are valid and/or portable between OSes
/usr/bin/pinky	lightweight client for the finger protocol
/usr/bin/pr	Converts the given file for printing to a printer
/usr/bin/printenv	prints environment variables
/usr/bin/printf	Formats data for output
/usr/bin/ptx
/usr/bin/realpath	print full resolved path (i.e follows symlinks)
/usr/bin/runcon	Run given command with specified SELINUX security context
/usr/bin/sha1sum	Calculates the SHA1 hash of the given file or input
/usr/bin/sha224sum	Calculates the SHA224 hash of the given file or input
/usr/bin/sha256sum	Calculates the SHA256 hash of the given file or input
/usr/bin/sha384sum	Calculates the SHA384 hash of the given file or input
/usr/bin/sha512sum	Calculates the SHA512 hash of the given file or input
/usr/bin/shred	Irreversibly destroy the given file(s)
/usr/bin/shuf	Generate random permutations of input lines/files
/usr/bin/split	split a file into parts
/usr/bin/stat	display file or file system statistics
/usr/bin/stdbuf	run command with modified buffers
/usr/bin/sum	calculates BSD checksum for given file
/usr/bin/tac/td>	similar to /bin/cat, but works backwards
/usr/bin/tee
/usr/bin/test	tests the subsequent expression for truth
/usr/bin/timeout	sets a timeout on the given command
/usr/bin/truncate	shrink or enlarge the given file (can be destructive)
/usr/bin/tsort	topological sort the given file
/usr/bin/unexpand	converts blocks of multiple space characters to tabs
/usr/bin/uniq	remove adjacent duplicate lines from given file or input
/usr/bin/unlink	removes given file from the filesystem
/usr/bin/users	print a list of logged-in users
/usr/bin/who	prints a list of logged-in users
/usr/bin/whoami	prints effective username of the current user

The following core utils in /usr/bin are symlinks to their counterpart in /bin:

basename

chroot

cut

dir

dirname

du

env

expr

head

mkfifo

mktmp

readlink

seq

sleep

sort

tail

touch

tr

tty

uname

vdir

wc

yes