Useful Unix commands for DBAs Here are some useful Unix/Linux commands which you will find handy in your day-to-day life as an Oracle DBA. Most of these commands are just query commands and will not change / alter anything on the operating system. Commands whch can change / alter anything at operating system level are denoted with sign. However please use due diligence in using these commands. Please also note that the output may differ depending on the version and flavor of Unix that you are using. Do give your feedback, suggestions and contribution to improve this page.
Memory Display total RAM (Memory) on the server Tru64 Unix uerf –r 300 | grep –i mem Solaris prtconf | grep –i mem Linux free HP-UX swapinfo –tm AIX lsdev –C | grep mem lsattr –El
$ lsdev -C | grep mem Output on AIX mem0 Output on AIX app_prd 6504490 app_prd 6512660 app_prd 6516842 app_prd 6520950 app_prd 6533186 app_prd 6541388 app_prd 6557804 app_prd 6562028 app_prd 6570158 app_prd 6574202 app_prd 6582450 app_prd 6586452 For details on a specific volumne group, you can use lsvg –l, passing the volume group name as a parameter $ lsvg -l rootvg Output on AIX rootvg: LV NAME hd5 hd6 hd8 hd4 hd2 hd9var hd3 hd1 pridumplv softwarelv scriptslv You can use the physical volume command lspv to display disk mount points in IBM AIX. $ lspv -l hdisk0 Output on AIX hdisk0: LV NAME hd5 hd6 pridumplv Remarks: This command is indispensable when killing stubborn UNIX tasks. Go top 2 5 sar –b sar –u sar –w sar –d or file * e.g. $file sqlnet.log sqlnet.log: ASCII text {} \; | tee | compress - > e.g. /usr/bin/tar cpf - ./u01/stage/rapidinstall | compress - > /backup/rapidinstall.Z | compress - > .Z e.g. cat ./u01/stage/rapidinstall | compress - > /tmp/stage_rapidinstall.Z Go top[email protected] < mailmsg.file For HP-UX mailx –s “Meeting today at 1100 Hrs” [email protected] < mailmsg.file The above command will send the contents of the file mailmsg.file to [email protected] with the subject line as “Meeting today at 1100 Hrs”. Sending file as attachment uuencode ashish.test ashish.test | mail [email protected] You can’t specify the subject with mail. Using mailx instead of mail will send the file as body of the mail and not as an attachment. Go top To uninstall (erase) a package rpm -e To upgrade a package rpm -Uvh To test a package to see how it would install (without installing, also checks dependencies) rpm -Uvh --test To query whether a package has been installed or not rpm -qa | grep CTRL-F move ahead full screens CTRL-B move back full screens Modifying Text rn rn Rstring ESC characters with ‘n’ replaces current characters with ‘string until ESC is pressedcw 3c$ Deleting Text words will change next three linesx dw dw d$ D d$ d) d} d]] dd dd dENTER dG characgters delete from cursor to end of the word delete words delete to the end of line deletes to end of line (Same as d$) deletes till end of n lines ahead deletes to beg of next line deletes to beg of next paragraph deletes to be of next section deletes current line deletes n lines deletes 2 lines Deletes from Cursor to End of File /ENTER ? nyw y$ y) y} y]] yy or Y Y p P words yanks to the end of line yanks to the end of sentence yanks to the end of paragraph yanks to the end of section yanks the current line yanks lines paste to the right of the cursor paste to the left of the cursor Go top 
