Currently, there are over 100 commands implemented by coreutils, with the commands listed below. Throughout this article and customary for Unix-based systems, the term
file refers to all
file system items including regular files and special files such as directories.
File utilities • chcon Changes file security context (
SELinux) •
chgrp Changes file group ownership •
chown Changes file user ownership •
chmod Changes file permissions •
cp Copies files •
dd Copies and converts file data •
df Reports file system free space •
dir Like ls -C -b; by default lists files in columns, sorted vertically • dircolors Configures colors used for ls output •
install Copies files and sets file attributes •
ln Creates a link to a file •
ls Lists files •
mkdir Creates directories •
mkfifo Creates
named pipes (FIFOs) •
mknod Creates
block or character special files •
mktemp Creates
temporary regular files or directories •
mv Moves and renames files • realpath Reports the absolute or relative path of a file •
rm Deletes files •
rmdir Deletes empty directories •
shred Overwrites a file to hide its contents and optionally deletes it •
sync Flushes file system buffers •
touch Changes file timestamps, creating files if they do not exist • truncate Sets the size of a file via truncation or extension •
vdir Like ls -l -b; by default lists files in long format
Text utilities • b2sum Computes and checks
BLAKE2b message digest • base32 Encodes or decodes
base32 • base64 Encodes or decodes
base64 • basenc Encodes or decodes various encodings including
hexadecimal,
base32,
base64, and Z85 •
cat Concatenates files •
cksum Report or compute the checksum of files •
comm Compares two sorted files line by line •
csplit Splits a file into sections determined by context lines •
cut Removes sections from each line of files •
expand Converts tabs to spaces •
fmt Formats text •
fold Wraps each input line to fit in specified width •
head Outputs the first part of files •
join Joins lines of two files on a common field •
md5sum Computes and checks
MD5 message digest •
nl Numbers lines of files • numfmt Formats numbers •
od Dumps files in octal and other formats •
paste Merges lines of files •
ptx Produces a
permuted index of file contents •
pr Paginates or columnates files •
sha1sum, sha224sum, sha256sum, sha384sum, sha512sum Computes and checks
SHA-1/
SHA-2 message digests •
shuf Generates random permutations •
sort Sorts lines of text files •
split Splits a file into pieces •
sum Checksums and counts the blocks in a file • tac Concatenates files in reverse order, line by line •
tail Outputs the last part of files •
tr Translates or deletes characters •
tsort Performs a
topological sort •
unexpand Converts spaces to tabs •
uniq Removes duplicate lines from a sorted file •
wc Reports the number of bytes, words, and lines in files
Shell utilities •
arch Reports machine hardware name (same as ) •
basename Removes the path prefix from a given pathname •
chroot Changes the root directory •
date Reports or sets the system date and time •
dirname Strips non-directory suffix from file name •
du Shows disk usage on file systems •
echo Outputs text •
env Reports and modifies
environment variables •
expr Evaluates expressions •
factor Factors numbers •
false Does nothing but exit with unsuccessful status •
groups Reports the
groups of which the user is a member • hostid Reports the numeric identifier for the current host •
id Reports the real or effective
UID and
GID •
link Creates a
link to a file •
logname Reports the user's login name •
nice Modifies
scheduling priority •
nohup Allows a command to continue running after logging out • nproc Queries the number of (active) processors • pathchk Checks whether file names are valid or portable • pinky A lightweight version of
finger •
printenv Reports
environment variables •
printf Formats text •
pwd Reports the
current working directory •
readlink Reports the value of a
symbolic link • runcon Run command with specified security context •
seq Reports a sequence of numbers •
sleep Blocks (delays, waits) for a specified amount of time •
stat Reports information about an
inode • stdbuf Runs a command with custom standard streams configuration •
stty Changes and reports terminal line settings •
tee Sends output to multiple files •
test Evaluates an expression • timeout Runs a command with a
time limit •
true Does nothing but exit with success status • tty Reports the
terminal name •
uname Reports system information •
unlink Removes files via unlink() function •
uptime Reports how long the system has been running •
users Reports the user names of users currently logged into the current host •
who Reports logged-in users •
whoami Reports the effective
userid •
yes Outputs a string repeatedly • [ Synonym for
test that enables expressions like [
expression ] == History ==