General user

• dd
  Dd (Unix)
  In computing, dd is a common Unix program whose primary purpose is the low-level copying and conversion of raw data. According to the manual page for Version 7 Unix, it will "convert and copy a file". It is used to copy a specified number of bytes or blocks, performing on-the-fly byte order...
  
   - convert and copy a file
• date
  Date (Unix)
  The Unix date command displays the time and date. The super-user can use it to set the system clock.- Usage :With no options, the date command displays the current date and time, including the abbreviated day name, abbreviated month name, day of the month, the time separated by colons, the timezone...
  
   - date and time
• echo - print arguments
• file - determine file type
• ns - display namespace
• plumb - send message to plumber
• plumber - interprocess messaging
• rc
  Rc
  rc is the command line interpreter for Version 10 Unix and Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating systems. It resembles the Bourne shell, but its syntax is somewhat simpler. It was created by Tom Duff, who is better known for an unusual C programming language construct called Duff's device.A port of the...
  
   - rc is the Plan 9 shell
• rio - the new Plan 9 windowing system
• 8½
  8½ (Plan 9)
  8½ is a window system developed for the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system by Rob Pike. According to its documentation, the system has little graphical fanciness, a fixed user interface, and depends on a three-button mouse...
  
   - the old Plan 9 windowing system http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/8%C2%BD.html
• uptime
  Uptime
  Uptime is a measure of the time a machine has been up without any downtime.It is often used as a measure of computer operating system reliability or stability, in that this time represents the time a computer can be left unattended without crashing, or needing to be rebooted for administrative or...
  
   - show how long the system has been running

Processes

Process (computing)

In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system , a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently.A computer program is a...

 and tasks management

• time
  Time (Unix)
  time is a command in the Unix operating systems. It is used to determine the duration of execution of a particular command.-Usage:To use the command, simply precede any command by the word time, such as:time ls...
  
   - time a command
• kill
  Kill (Unix)
  In computing, kill is a command that is used in several popular operating systems to send signals to running processes, for example to request the termination of this process.-Unix and Unix-like:...
  
  , slay, broke – print commands to kill processes
• sleep
  Sleep (Unix)
  sleep is a Unix command line program that suspends program execution for a specified period of time.The sleep instruction suspends the calling process for at least the specified number of seconds , minutes, hours or days.-Usage:...
  
   – suspend execution for an interval
• ps
  Ps (Unix)
  In most Unix-like operating systems, the ps program displays the currently-running processes. A related Unix utility named top provides a real-time view of the running processes....
  
   – process status
• psu
  Ps (Unix)
  In most Unix-like operating systems, the ps program displays the currently-running processes. A related Unix utility named top provides a real-time view of the running processes....
  
   - process status information about processes started by a specific user

User management and support

• passwd
  Passwd (command)
  passwd is a tool on most Unix and Unix-like operating systems used to change a user's password. The password entered by the user is run through a key derivation function to create a hashed version of the new password, which is saved...
  
  , netkey, iam - change user password
• who
  Who (Unix)
  The standard Unix command who displays a list of users who are currently logged into a computer.The who command is related to the command w, which provides the same information but also displays additional data and statistics.- Specification :...
  
   - who is using the machine
• man, lookman - print or find pages of this manual

File system and server

• /boot/boot – connect to the root file server
• fossil/fossil
  Fossil (file system)
  Fossil is the default file system in Plan 9 from Bell Labs. It serves the network protocol 9P and runs as a user space daemon, like most Plan 9 file servers. Fossil is different from most other file systems due to its snapshot/archival feature. It can take snapshots of the entire file system on...
  
  , fossil/flchk, fossil/flfmt, fossil/conf, fossil/last – archival file server
• history – print file names from the dump
• users – file server user list format
• vac – create a vac archive on Venti
• venti/buildindex, venti/checkarenas, venti/checkindex, venti/conf, venti/copy, venti/fmtarenas, venti/fmtindex, venti/fmtisect, venti/rdarena, venti/rdarenablocks, venti/read, venti/wrarenablocks, venti/write – Venti maintenance and debugging commands
• venti/venti
  Venti
  Venti is a network storage system that permanently stores data blocks. A 160-bit SHA-1 hash of the data acts as the address of the data...
  
  , venti/sync – an archival block storage server
• yesterday, diffy – print file names from the dump

Filesystem Utilities

• chgrp
  Chgrp
  The chgrp command is used by unprivileged users on Unix-like systems to change the group associated with a computer file...
  
   - change file group
• chmod
  Chmod
  The chmod command is a Unix command that lets a user tell the system how much access it should permit to a file. It changes the file system modes of files and directories. The modes include permissions and special modes...
  
   - change mode
• cp
  Cp (Unix)
  cp is a UNIX command used to copy a file. Files can be copied either to the same directory or to a completely different directory, possibly on a different file system or hard disk drive. If the file is copied to the same directory, the new file must have a different name to the original; in all...
  
  , fcp, mv
  Mv
  mv is a Unix command that moves one or more files or directories from one place to another. Since it can "move" files from one filename to another, it is also used to rename files. Using mv requires the user to have write permission for the directories which the file will move between...
  
   – copy, move files
• du
  Du (Unix)
  du is a standard Unix program used to estimate file space usage—space used under a particular directory or files on a file system.- Specification :...
  
   – disk usage
• ls
  Ls
  In computing, ls is a command to list files in Unix and Unix-like operating systems. ls is specified by POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification.- History :An ls utility appeared in the original version of AT&T UNIX...
  
  , lc – list contents of directory
• mkdir
  Mkdir
  The mkdir command in the Unix, DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems is used to make a new directory. In DOS, OS/2 and Windows the command is often abbreviated to md.-Usage:Normal usage is as straightforward as follows:...
  
   - make a directory
• bind, mount, unmount – change name space
• pwd
  Pwd
  In Unix-like and some other operating systems, the pwd command is used to output the path of the current working directory.The command is a shell builtin in certain Unix shells such as sh, and bash...
  
  , pbd – working directory
• rm
  Rm (Unix)
  rm is a basic UNIX command used to remove objects such as files, directories, device nodes, symbolic links, and so on from the filesystem...
  
   - remove files
• touch
  Touch (Unix)
  touch is a standard Unix program used to change a file's access and modification timestamps. It is also used to create a new empty file.- History :A touch utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX...
  
   - set modification date of a file

Archivers and compression

• ar
  Ar (Unix)
  The archiver is a Unix utility that maintains groups of files as a single archive file. Today, ar is generally used only to create and update static library files that the link editor or linker uses; it can be used to create archives for any purpose, but has been largely replaced by tar for...
  
   - archive and library maintainer
• gzip
  Gzip
  Gzip is any of several software applications used for file compression and decompression. The term usually refers to the GNU Project's implementation, "gzip" standing for GNU zip. It is based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which is a combination of Lempel-Ziv and Huffman coding...
  
  , gunzip, bzip2
  Bzip2
  bzip2 is a free and open source implementation of the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It is developed and maintained by Julian Seward. Seward made the first public release of bzip2, version 0.15, in July 1996.-Compression efficiency:...
  
  , bunzip2, zip
  ZIP (file format)
  Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
  
  , unzip – compress and expand data
• tar
  Tar (file format)
  In computing, tar is both a file format and the name of a program used to handle such files...
  
   - archiver

Text Processing

• awk - pattern-directed scanning and processing language
• cat
  Cat (Unix)
  The cat command is a standard Unix program used to concatenate and display files. The name is from catenate, a synonym of concatenate.- Specification :...
  
  , read – catenate files
• cmp - compare two files
• diff
  Diff
  In computing, diff is a file comparison utility that outputs the differences between two files. It is typically used to show the changes between one version of a file and a former version of the same file. Diff displays the changes made per line for text files. Modern implementations also...
  
   - differential file comparator
• doc2txt, xls2txt - extract printable strings from Microsoft Office documents
• doctype - intuit command line for formatting a document
• fmt, htmlfmt – simple text formatters
• freq - print histogram of character frequencies
• grep
  Grep
  grep is a command-line text-search utility originally written for Unix. The name comes from the ed command g/re/p...
  
   - search a file for a pattern
• idiff - interactive diff
• p - paginate
• pr - print file
• sed
  Sed
  sed is a Unix utility that parses text and implements a programming language which can apply transformations to such text. It reads input line by line , applying the operation which has been specified via the command line , and then outputs the line. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 as a Unix...
  
   - stream editor
• spell, sprog – find spelling errors
• split
  Split (Unix)
  split is a Unix utility most commonly used to split a file into two or more smaller files.-Usage:The command-syntax is: split [OPTION] [INPUT [PREFIX]]...
  
   - split a file into pieces
• tail
  Tail (Unix)
  tail is a program on Unix and Unix-like systems used to display the last few lines of a text file or piped data.-Syntax:The command-syntax is: tail [options]...
  
   - deliver the last part of a file
• tcs
  TCS
  TCS may stand for:* Tata Consultancy Services* The Cleveland Show* TCS Courier* TCS Daily* Tactical Control System* Taking Children Seriously* Taxpayers for Common Sense* Teaching Company Scheme or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships...
  
   - translate character sets
• tr - translate characters
• wc
  Wc (Unix)
  wc is a command in Unix-like operating systems.The program reads either standard input or a list of files and generates one or more of the following statistics: number of bytes, number of words, and number of lines...
  
   - word count

Editors

• acme
  Acme (text editor)
  Acme is a text editor and graphical shell from the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system, designed and implemented by Rob Pike. It can use the sam command language. The design of the interface was influenced by Oberon. It is different from other editing environments in that it acts as a 9P server...
  
   - interactive text editor and shell
• ed - text editor
• sam - screen editor with structural regular expressions

Communication, networking and remote access

• con, telnet
  TELNET
  Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
  
  , rx, xms, xmr – remote login, execution, and XMODEM file transfer
• cpu - connection to CPU server
• dial/at, dial/drain, dial/expect, dial/pass – dialer scripting tools
• netstat
  Netstat
  netstat is a command-line tool that displays network connections , routing tables, and a number of network interface statistics...
  
   - summarize network connections
• replica/changes, replica/pull, replica/push, replica/scan – client–server replica management
• ssh
  Secure Shell
  Secure Shell is a network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution and other secure network services between two networked computers that it connects via a secure channel over an insecure network: a server and a client...
  
  , sshnet, scp, aux/sshserve – secure login and file copy from/to Unix or Plan 9
• tel, iwhois – look in phone book
• vncs, vncv – remote frame buffer server and viewer for Virtual Network Computing (VNC)

Email and News programs

• faces, seemail, vwhois – mailbox interface
• mail - mail and mailboxes
• news - print news items
• upas/filter
  Filter (Unix)
  In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, a filter is a program that gets most of its data from its standard input and writes its main results to its standard output . Unix filters are often used as elements of pipelines...
  
  , upas/list, upas/deliver, upas/token, upas/vf – filtering mail
• upas/fs - mail file server
• upas/marshal - formatting and sending mail
• upas/ml, upas/mlmgr, upas/mlowner – unmoderated mailing lists
• upas/nedmail - reading mail
• upas/scanmail, upas/testscan – spam filters
• upas/send – mail routing and delivery
• upas/smtp, upas/smtpd – mail transport

Network system services

• ip/dhcpd
  Dhcpd
  dhcpd is a common name for the daemon that allows a server to provide a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol service to a network....
  
  , ip/dhcpleases, ip/rarpd, ip/tftpd – Internet booting
• aux/listen - listen for calls on a network device
• ndb/query, ndb/mkhash, ndb/mkdb, ndb/cs, ndb/csquery, ndb/dns, ndb/dnsquery, ndb/ipquery, ndb/dnsdebug, ndb/mkhosts – network database
• upas/pop3, ip/imap4d – mail servers
• aux/timesync – NTP client

Network utilities

• aan – always available network
• ip/ipconfig, ip/rip – Internet configuration and routing
• ip/telnetd, ip/rlogind, ip/rexexec, ip/ftpd – Internet remote access daemons
• ip/ping
  Ping
  Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer...
  
  , ip/gping, ip/traceroute
  Traceroute
  traceroute is a computer network diagnostic tool for displaying the route and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol network. Traceroute is available on most operating systems....
  
  , ip/hogports – probe the Internet
• snoopy – spy on network packets
• ip/udpecho – echo UDP packets

Security

• auth/aescbc, ipso, auth/secstore – secstore commands
• auth/changeuser, auth/wrkey, auth/convkeys, auth/convkeys2, auth/printnetkey, auth/status, auth/authsrv, auth/guard.srv, auth/login, auth/disable, auth/enable – maintain authentication databases
• auth/factotum
  Factotum (software)
  factotum is a password management and authentication protocol negotiation virtual file system for Plan 9 from Bell Labs. When a program wants to authenticate to a service, it requests a key from factotum. If factotum does not have the key, it requests it from the users either via the terminal...
  
  , auth/fgui – authentication agent
• auth/secstored, auth/secuser – secstore commands
• delkey - delete keys from factotum

Compilers and Programming tools

• 0a, 1a, 2a, 5a, 7a, 8a, ka, qa, va – assemblers
• 0c, 1c, 2c, 5c, 7c, 8c, kc, qc, vc – C compilers
• 0l, 1l, 2l, 5l, 7l, 8l, kl, ql, vl – loaders
• acid, truss, trump – debugger
• bc – arbitrary–precision arithmetic language
• cb – C program beautifier
• cpp
  C preprocessor
  The C preprocessor is the preprocessor for the C and C++ computer programming languages. The preprocessor handles directives for source file inclusion , macro definitions , and conditional inclusion ....
  
   - C language preprocessor
• ktrace
  Ktrace
  ktrace is a utility included with certain versions of BSD Unix and Mac OS X that traces kernel interaction with a program and dumps it to disk for debugging and analysis...
  
   – interpret kernel stack dumps
• leak
  Memory leak
  A memory leak, in computer science , occurs when a computer program consumes memory but is unable to release it back to the operating system. In object-oriented programming, a memory leak happens when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code...
  
  , kmem
  KMEM
  KMEM may refer to:* the ICAO code for Memphis International Airport, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States* KMEM-FM, a radio station licensed to Memphis, Missouri, United States...
  
   – help find memory leaks
• mk, membername – maintain (make) related files
• patch
  Patch (Unix)
  patch is a Unix program that updates text files according to instructions contained in a separate file, called a patch file. The patch file is a text file that consists of a list of differences and is produced by running the related diff program with the original and updated file as arguments...
  
   - simple patch creation and tracking system
• pcc
  Portable C Compiler
  The Portable C Compiler is an early compiler for the C programming language written by Stephen C...
  
   - APE
  ANSI/POSIX Environment
  The ANSI/POSIX Environment is a compatibility subsystem for the Plan 9 operating system, that implements an interface close to ANSI C and POSIX, with some common extensions...
  
   C compiler driver
• strip
  Strip (Unix)
  In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the strip program removes unnecessary information from executable binary programs and object files, thus potentially resulting in better performance and sometimes significantly less disk space usage...
  
   - remove symbols from binary files
• syscall - test a system call
• yacc
  Yacc
  The computer program yacc is a parser generator developed by Stephen C. Johnson at AT&T for the Unix operating system. The name is an acronym for "Yet Another Compiler Compiler." It generates a parser based on an analytic grammar written in a notation similar to BNF.Yacc used to be available as...
  
   - yet another compiler-compiler

Web browsers

• abaco
  Abaco (web browser)
  Abaco is a web browser for the Plan 9 operating system. It is a graphical web browser with support for inline images, tables and frames. It has a true multiple document interface inspired by acme's interface...
  
   - a "lame" text-based and graphical web browser
• i - rough web browser, based on charon
  Charon (web browser)
  Charon is a web browser for the Inferno operating system. It is a basic graphical browser with support for JavaScript, HTTPS, and basic support for FTP.- History:...
  
  
• links
  Links (web browser)
  Links is an open source text and graphic web browser with a pull-down menu system. It renders complex pages, has partial HTML 4.0 support , supports color and monochrome terminals and allows horizontal scrolling.It is oriented toward visual users who want to retain many typical elements of...
  
   - a text-based and graphical web browser
• mothra
  Mothra (web browser)
  Mothra is a web browser and Internet Gopher client for the Plan 9 operating system. It is a very basic graphical browser and does not support FTP, Java, Javascript or CSS.- History :Mothra was written by Tom Duff for the Second Edition of Plan 9...
  
   - a very basic web browser

Desktop Publishing

• deroff, delatex – remove formatting requests
• eqn
  Eqn
  Part of the troff suite of Unix document layout tools, eqn is a preprocessor that formats equations for printing. A similar program, neqn, accepted the same input as eqn, but produced output tuned to look better in nroff...
  
   – typeset mathematics
• gs
  Ghostscript
  Ghostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format page description languages.- Features :...
  
   - Aladdin Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter)
• htmlroff - HTML formatting and typesetting
• lp
  Lp (Unix)
  The lp command is used on many Unix-like systems to assign jobs to printer queues. The name derives from "lineprinter", though it has become the commonly used command for any sort of printer...
  
   – printer output
• ms2html, html2ms – convert between troff's ms macros and html
• pic, tpic – troff and tex preprocessors for drawing pictures
• pr - print file
• ps2pdf, pdf2ps – convert between PostScript and PDF
• tbl
  Tbl
  Part of the troff suite of Unix document layout tools, tbl is a preprocessor that formats tables.Like the main troff program, tbl uses command lines interspersed with data to be printed...
  
   - format tables for nroff or troff
• troff
  Troff
  troff is a document processing system developed by AT&T for the Unix operating system.-History:troff can trace its origins back to a text formatting program called RUNOFF, written by Jerome H. Saltzer for MIT's CTSS operating system in the mid-1960s...
  
  , nroff
  Nroff
  nroff is a Unix text-formatting program; it produces output suitable for simple fixed-width printers and terminal windows...
  
   - text formatting and typesetting
• troff2html - convert troff output into HTML

Graphics and multimedia

• getmap, colors – display color map
• jpg, gif, png, ppm, bmp, yuv, ico, togif, toppm, topng, toico – view and convert pictures

Various utilities and games

• astro – print astronomical information
• cal - print calendar
• calendar - print upcoming events
• dict – dictionary browser
• fortune
  Fortune (program)
  fortune is a simple program that displays a pseudorandom message from a database of quotations that first appeared in Version 7 Unix. The most common version on modern systems is the BSD fortune, originally written by Ken Arnold...
  
  - sample lines from a file
• juke, games/jukebox, games/jukefs – music jukebox
• lens - interactive screen magnifier
• map, mapdemo – draw maps on various projections
• games/playlistfs – playlist file system
• thesaurus - search online thesaurus
• scat – sky catalogue