8.4 UNIX-compatible commands

This section explains how to use each of the UNIX-compatible commands. The following are general notes.

Regular expressions supported in UNIX-compatible commands

Basic regular expressions and extended regular expressions are both supported. Basic regular expressions can be used in the following commands:

• expr

• grep (when the -G option is specified)

• sed (when the -E option is not specified)

Extended regular expressions can be used in the following commands:

• awk

• egrep

• grep (when the -E option is specified)

• sed (when the -E option is specified)

Both types of regular expression support the use of metacharacters. The following table describes the metacharacters that can be used.

Table 8‒5: Differences in the metacharacters that can be used in regular expressions

Metacharacter	Meaning	Basic regular expressions	Extended regular expressions
*	Zero or more repetitions	Y	Y
\+	One or more repetitions	Y	N
+	One or more repetitions	N	Y
.	One character	Y	Y
\?	The preceding regular expression	Y	N
?	The preceding regular expression	N	Y
^	Beginning of the line	Y	Y
$	End of the line	Y	Y
\|	Or	Y	N
|	Or	N	Y
[char-list]	Range specification	Y	Y
\(regexp\)	Grouping	Y	N
(regexp)	Grouping	N	Y
\{n, m\}	Repeats at least n times but no more than m times	Y	N
{n, m}	Repeats at least n times but no more than m times	N	Y
\{n\}	n times	Y	N
{n}	n times	N	Y
\{n, \}	n or more times	Y	N
{n, }	n or more times	N	Y

Legend:

Y: Can be used.

N: Cannot be used.

About the command usage examples

• In the usage examples provided in the remainder of this chapter, the UNIX-compatible commands are executed on Windows, with a few exceptions.

• The path to the directory where the commands are installed is assumed to have been set in the ADSH_OSCMD_DIR environment variable.

Organization of this section

• awk command (performs text processing and pattern matching)

• basename command (extracts a file name from a path)

• cat command (outputs files to the standard output)

• cmp command (compares binary files)

• cp command (copies a file or directories)

• cut command (outputs selected parts of lines to the standard output)

• date command (displays the system date and time)

• diff command (compares two files)

• dirname command (retrieves character strings for directory path names from path names)

• egrep command (searches for characters in files)

• expand command (replaces tab characters with spaces)

• expr command (evaluates an expression)

• find command (searches for files in directories)

• getopt command (analyzes command line options)

• grep command (searches for characters in files)

• head command (displays the first part of files)

• hostname command (displays the host name)

• ls command (lists the contents of files or directories)

• mkdir command (creates directories)

• mv command (moves files or directories)

• paste command (concatenates multiple files in lines)

• rm command (removes files or directories)

• rmdir command (removes empty directories)

• sed command (replaces character strings in text)

• sleep command (stops for a specified period of time)

• sort command (sorts text files)

• split command (splits a file)

• stat command (outputs the statuses of files and directories to the standard output)

• tail command (displays the last part of files)

• touch command (changes a file's last access date and time or modification date and time)

• uname command (displays information about the OS or hardware)

• uniq command (removes duplicated lines from a sorted file)

• wc command (counts the number of bytes, lines, characters, and words in files)

• which command (obtains the paths of external commands)

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