Windows and Unix command line equivalents

This page is a list of equivalents or similar commands between the Windows command line and the Unix command line.

Links open in a separate window. The links on the Unix commands go to the online versions of the FreeBSD manual pages.

Windows commandUnix commandNotes
arp arp
at at, batch, cron
assoc file
attrib chown, chmod Sets ownership on files and directories
cd cd Same
cd pwd cd alone prints the current directory.
chkdsk fsck Checks filesystem and repairs filesystem corruption on hard drives.
copy cp
date date
del rm
deltree rm -r Recursively deletes entire directory tree
dir ls "dir" also works on some versions of Unix.
doskey /h, F7 key history
explorer nautilus, etc. The command explorer brings up the file browser on Windows.
fc diff
find grep
ftp ftp
help man "help" by itself prints all the commands
hostname hostname Same
ipconfig /all ifconfig -a The /all option lets you get the MAC address of the Windows PC
mkdir mkdir Same
mem top Shows system status
more more / less
move mv
net statistics uptime
nslookup nslookup
ping ping
regedit edit /etc/* The Unix equivalent of the Windows registry are the files under /etc and /usr/local/etc.
rmdir rmdir Same
rmdir /s rm -r Windows has a y/n prompt. To get the prompt with Unix, use the -i option with rm.
set env
shutdown shutdown Without an option, the Windows version produces a help message
shutdown -r shutdown -r The same
shutdown -s shutdown -h Also need -f option to Windows if logged in remotely
sort sort Same
systeminfo uname -a
tasklist ps "tasklist" is not available on some versions of Windows. See also this article on getting a list of processes in Windows using Perl
title ? In Unix this is possible but complicated. Search Google for "change title xterm".
tracert traceroute
tree find / ls -R Use tree | find "string"
type cat
xcopy cp -R Recursively copy a directory tree

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