Chapter 4. Useful Unix Utilities
Unix’s flexibility arises from its large collection of tools and the ease of combining different tools to accomplish tasks. This is a key part of the Unix culture of computing.
When we say “utility” here, we mean a command or other software that is commonly used in a variety of situations and is frequently combined with other commands to perform a useful task. For example, the sort command is usually used to sort the output of other commands. Unix utilities have been designed to be combined easily.
You’ve seen in Chapter 2, “Using the Command Line,” how the output of a command can be piped into the input of another command. This allows you to create an almost infinite variety of command lines using different commands, ...
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