This is a list of Plan 9 programs. Many of these programs are very similar to the UNIX programs with the same name, others are to be found only on Plan 9. Others again share only the name, but have a different behaviour.

System software System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. An example of system software is an operating system (OS) (like macOS, Linux, Android, and Microsoft Windows). Application software is software that allows users to d ...

General user

* dd – convert and copy a file * date – date and time *

echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

– print arguments * file – determine file type * ns – display namespace * plumb – send message to plumber *

plumber A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, hot-water production, sewage and drainage in plumbing systems.

– interprocess messaging * rc – rc is the Plan 9 shell * rio – the new Plan 9 windowing system *

8½ ''8½'' ( ) is a 1963 Italian avant-garde arthouse comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. The metafictional narrative centers on famous Italian film director Guido Anselmi ( Marcello Mastroianni) who suffers from writer ...

– the old Plan 9 windowing syste

*

uptime Uptime is a Measurement, measure of system reliability, expressed as the period of system time, time a machine, typically a computer, has been continuously working and available. Uptime is the opposite of downtime. It is often used as a measure ...

– show how long the system has been running

System management

Processes and tasks management

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

– time a command * kill, slay, broke – print commands to kill processes *

sleep Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain Sensory nervous system, sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with th ...

– suspend execution for an interval * ps – process status * psu – process status information about processes started by a specific user

User management and support

passwd passwd is a command on Unix, Plan 9, Inferno, and most 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, whi ...

, netkey, iam – change user password *

who The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

– who is using the machine *

man A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

, lookman – print or find pages of this manual

File system and server

* /boot/boot – connect to the root file server * fossil/

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

, 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 may refer to: * Venti (software), a network storage system * Venti, a character in 2020 video game '' Genshin Impact'' *A coffee cup size at Starbucks *The Roman equivalent of the Greek Anemoi In ancient Greek religion and Greek mytho ...

, venti/sync – an archival block storage server * yesterday, diffy – print file names from the dump

Hardware devices

* setrtc – set real time clock (RTC) on PC hardware

Files and text

Filesystem utilities

chgrp , short for change group, is a shell command for changing the group associated with a Unix-based file system file including special files such as directories. Changing the group of a file is restricted to a super-user (such as via ) or to ...

– change file group *

chmod is a shell command for changing access permissions and special mode flags of files (including special files such as directories). The name is short for ''change mode'' where ''mode'' refers to the permissions and flags collectively. The co ...

– change mode * cp, fcp, mv – copy, move files * du – disk usage * ls, lc – list contents of directory *

mkdir (make directory) command (computing), command in the Unix, DOS, Digital Research, DR FlexOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS operating systems is used to make a new directory (file systems), directory. It is also available in the Unified ...

– make a directory * bind, mount, umount – change name space * pwd, pbd – working directory * rm – remove files *

touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

– set modification date of a file

Archivers and compression

* ar – archive and library maintainer *

gzip gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and ...

, gunzip,

bzip2 bzip2 is a free and open-source file compression program that uses the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It only compresses single files and is not a file archiver. It relies on separate external utilities such as tar for tasks such as handli ...

, bunzip2, compress, uncompress, zip, unzip – compress and expand data * tar – archiver

Text processing

* awk – pattern-directed scanning and processing language *

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

, read – catenate files * cmp – compare two files *

diff In computing, the utility diff is a data comparison tool that computes and displays the differences between the contents of files. Unlike edit distance notions used for other purposes, diff is line-oriented rather than character-oriented, but i ...

– 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 is a command-line utility for searching plaintext datasets for lines that match a regular expression. Its name comes from the ed command g/re/p (global regular expression search and print), which has the same effect. grep was originally de ...

– search a file for a pattern * idiff – interactive diff * mc – multicolumn print * p – paginate * pr – print file * sed – stream editor * spell, sprog – find spelling errors *

split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

– split a file into pieces *

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

– deliver the last part of a file * tcs – translate character sets * tr – translate characters * wc – word count * xd – hex, octal, decimal or ASCII dump of file

Editors

acme Acme is Ancient Greek (ἀκμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts, entertainment and games * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fic ...

– interactive text editor and shell * ed – text editor * sam – screen editor with structural regular expressions

Communication, networking and remote access

* con,

telnet Telnet (sometimes stylized TELNET) is a client-server application protocol that provides access to virtual terminals of remote systems on local area networks or the Internet. It is a protocol for bidirectional 8-bit communications. Its main ...

, 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 In computing, netstat is a command-line network utility that displays open network sockets, routing tables, and a number of network interface (network interface controller or software-defined network interface) and network protocol statistic ...

– summarize network connections * replica/changes, replica/pull, replica/push, replica/scan – client–server replica management * ssh, 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, 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, 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, ip/gping, ip/

traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are diagnostic command-line interface commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The command reports the round-trip times of ...

, 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, auth/fgui – authentication agent * auth/secstored, auth/secuser – secstore commands * delkey – delete keys from factotum

Programming tools

Compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...
s and
programming tools A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that is used to software development, develop another computer program, usually by helping the developer manage computer files. For example, a programmer may use a tool called ...

* 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 An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

, truss, trump – debugger * bc – arbitrary–precision arithmetic language * cb – C program beautifier * cpp – C language preprocessor * ktrace – interpret kernel stack dumps *

leak A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a Water tank, tank or a Ship, ship's Hull (watercraft), hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can e ...

, kmem – help find memory leaks * mk, membername – maintain (make) related files * patch – simple patch creation and tracking system * pcc –

APE Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

C compiler driver *

strip Strip, Strips or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Nami ...

– remove symbols from binary files * syscall – test a system call *

yacc Yacc (Yet Another Compiler-Compiler) is a computer program for the Unix operating system developed by Stephen C. Johnson. It is a lookahead left-to-right rightmost derivation (LALR) parser generator, generating a LALR parser (the part of a co ...

– yet another compiler-compiler

Application software Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not operating, administering or programming the computer. An application (app, application program, software application) is any program that can be categorized as ...

Web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...
s

* abaco – a "lame" text-based and graphical web browser * i – rough web browser, based on charon * links – a text-based and graphical web browser * mothra – a very basic web browser *

netsurf NetSurf is an open-source web browser which uses its own layout engine. Its design goal is to be lightweight and portable. NetSurf provides features including tabbed browsing, bookmarks, and page thumbnailing. In recent years, NetSurf has mai ...

- an open-source browser with html, javascript, and css support

Desktop publishing

* deroff, delatex – remove formatting requests * eqn – typeset mathematics * gs – Aladdin Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter) * htmlroff – HTML formatting and typesetting * lp – printer output * ms2html, html2ms – convert between troff's ms macros and html * page – view FAX, image, graphic PostScript PDF, and typesetter output files * pic, tpic – troff and tex preprocessors for drawing pictures * pr – print file * ps2pdf, pdf2ps – convert between PostScript and PDF * tbl – format tables for nroff or troff *

troff troff (), short for "typesetter roff", is the major component of a document processing system developed by Bell Labs for the Unix operating system. troff and the related nroff were both developed from the original roff (software), roff. Whil ...

, nroff – text formatting and typesetting * troff2html – convert troff output into HTML

Graphics and multimedia

* getmap, colors – display color map * jpg, gif, png, ppm, bmp, v210, yuv, ico, togif, toppm, topng, toico – view and convert pictures

Various utilities and games

* astro – print astronomical information *

cal Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

– print calendar * calendar – print upcoming events * clock – draws a simple analog clock * dict – dictionary browser *

fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...

– 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

References

{{Reflist, 33em Plan 9 applications Plan 9 applications Plan 9 applications Plan 9 from Bell Labs