Unix commands

Over 100 built-in commands for interacting with Unix/Linux systems. Each command parses terminal output into structured Python dictionaries.

Moler ships with more than 100 ready-made Unix command parsers. Every command class accepts a connection object, sends the underlying shell command, and returns a structured result dictionary when parsing is complete.

All Unix command classes inherit from GenericUnixCommand (module moler.cmd.unix.genericunix). The base class handles prompt detection and newline splitting; concrete classes implement build_command_string() and on_new_line() parsing.

Full command list

Class	Module	Shell command
AdbDevices	moler.cmd.unix.adb_devices	adb devices
AdbForward	moler.cmd.unix.adb_forward	adb forward
AdbRoot	moler.cmd.unix.adb_root	adb root
Bash	moler.cmd.unix.bash	bash
Bzip2	moler.cmd.unix.bzip2	bzip2
Cat	moler.cmd.unix.cat	cat
Cd	moler.cmd.unix.cd	cd
Chgrp	moler.cmd.unix.chgrp	chgrp
Chmod	moler.cmd.unix.chmod	chmod
Chown	moler.cmd.unix.chown	chown
Cp	moler.cmd.unix.cp	cp
CtrlC	moler.cmd.unix.ctrl_c	^C
CtrlZ	moler.cmd.unix.ctrl_z	^Z
Cut	moler.cmd.unix.cut	cut
Date	moler.cmd.unix.date	date
Devmem	moler.cmd.unix.devmem	devmem
Df	moler.cmd.unix.df	df
Dmesg	moler.cmd.unix.dmesg	dmesg
Du	moler.cmd.unix.du	du
Echo	moler.cmd.unix.echo	echo
Enter	moler.cmd.unix.enter	(newline)
Env	moler.cmd.unix.env	env
Ethtool	moler.cmd.unix.ethtool	ethtool
Exit	moler.cmd.unix.exit	exit
ExitTelnet	moler.cmd.unix.exit_telnet	exit (telnet)
Export	moler.cmd.unix.export	export
Find	moler.cmd.unix.find	find
Grep	moler.cmd.unix.grep	grep
Gunzip	moler.cmd.unix.gunzip	gunzip
Gzip	moler.cmd.unix.gzip	gzip
Hciconfig	moler.cmd.unix.hciconfig	hciconfig
Head	moler.cmd.unix.head	head
Hexdump	moler.cmd.unix.hexdump	hexdump
History	moler.cmd.unix.history	history
Hostname	moler.cmd.unix.hostname	hostname
Hostnamectl	moler.cmd.unix.hostnamectl	hostnamectl
Id	moler.cmd.unix.id	id
Ifconfig	moler.cmd.unix.ifconfig	ifconfig
IpAddr	moler.cmd.unix.ip_addr	ip addr
IpLink	moler.cmd.unix.ip_link	ip link
IpMaddr	moler.cmd.unix.ip_maddr	ip maddr
IpNeigh	moler.cmd.unix.ip_neigh	ip neigh
IpRoute	moler.cmd.unix.ip_route	ip route
Iperf	moler.cmd.unix.iperf	iperf
Iperf2	moler.cmd.unix.iperf2	iperf
Iperf3	moler.cmd.unix.iperf3	iperf3
Ipsec	moler.cmd.unix.ipsec	ipsec
Iptables	moler.cmd.unix.iptables	iptables
Kill	moler.cmd.unix.kill	kill
Killall	moler.cmd.unix.killall	killall
Ln	moler.cmd.unix.ln	ln
Logout	moler.cmd.unix.logout	logout
Ls	moler.cmd.unix.ls	ls
Lsof	moler.cmd.unix.lsof	lsof
LxcAttach	moler.cmd.unix.lxc_attach	lxc-attach
LxcInfo	moler.cmd.unix.lxc_info	lxc-info
LxcLs	moler.cmd.unix.lxc_ls	lxc-ls
Md5sum	moler.cmd.unix.md5sum	md5sum
Mkdir	moler.cmd.unix.mkdir	mkdir
Mount	moler.cmd.unix.mount	mount
Mpstat	moler.cmd.unix.mpstat	mpstat
Mv	moler.cmd.unix.mv	mv
Netstat	moler.cmd.unix.netstat	netstat
Nft	moler.cmd.unix.nft	nft
Nmap	moler.cmd.unix.nmap	nmap
Nping	moler.cmd.unix.nping	nping
Ntpq	moler.cmd.unix.ntpq	ntpq
OpensslSClient	moler.cmd.unix.openssl_s_client	openssl s_client
OpensslX509TextIn	moler.cmd.unix.openssl_x509_text_in	openssl x509
Passwd	moler.cmd.unix.passwd	passwd
Ping	moler.cmd.unix.ping	ping / ping6
Pkill	moler.cmd.unix.pkill	pkill
Ps	moler.cmd.unix.ps	ps
Pwd	moler.cmd.unix.pwd	pwd
Reboot	moler.cmd.unix.reboot	reboot
Rm	moler.cmd.unix.rm	rm
Route	moler.cmd.unix.route	route
RunScript	moler.cmd.unix.run_script	(script)
RunSerialProxy	moler.cmd.unix.run_serial_proxy	(proxy)
Scp	moler.cmd.unix.scp	scp
Sed	moler.cmd.unix.sed	sed
Service	moler.cmd.unix.service	service
SevenZ	moler.cmd.unix.seven_z	7z
Sftp	moler.cmd.unix.sftp	sftp
Shasum	moler.cmd.unix.shasum	shasum
Socat	moler.cmd.unix.socat	socat
Ss	moler.cmd.unix.ss	ss
Ssh	moler.cmd.unix.ssh	ssh
Sshkeygen	moler.cmd.unix.sshkeygen	ssh-keygen
Su	moler.cmd.unix.su	su
Sudo	moler.cmd.unix.sudo	sudo
Sync	moler.cmd.unix.sync	sync
Sysctl	moler.cmd.unix.sysctl	sysctl
Systemctl	moler.cmd.unix.systemctl	systemctl
Tail	moler.cmd.unix.tail	tail
TailLatestFile	moler.cmd.unix.tail_latest_file	tail (latest)
Tar	moler.cmd.unix.tar	tar
Tcpdump	moler.cmd.unix.tcpdump	tcpdump
Tee	moler.cmd.unix.tee	tee
Telnet	moler.cmd.unix.telnet	telnet
Top	moler.cmd.unix.top	top
Touch	moler.cmd.unix.touch	touch
Traceroute	moler.cmd.unix.traceroute	traceroute
Tshark	moler.cmd.unix.tshark	tshark
Uname	moler.cmd.unix.uname	uname
Unrar	moler.cmd.unix.unrar	unrar
Unxz	moler.cmd.unix.unxz	unxz
Unzip	moler.cmd.unix.unzip	unzip
Uptime	moler.cmd.unix.uptime	uptime
Useradd	moler.cmd.unix.useradd	useradd
Userdel	moler.cmd.unix.userdel	userdel
W	moler.cmd.unix.w	w
Wget	moler.cmd.unix.wget	wget
Which	moler.cmd.unix.which	which
Whoami	moler.cmd.unix.whoami	whoami
Zip	moler.cmd.unix.zip	zip

Detailed reference by category

Network

Ping — moler.cmd.unix.ping

Sends ICMP echo requests. Automatically uses ping6 when the destination contains : (IPv6 address).

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

destination · str · required

IPv4 or IPv6 address / hostname to ping.

options · str

Additional CLI options, e.g. "-c 5" or "-w 10".

prompt · str

Regex for the shell prompt. Defaults to generic prompt detection.

newline_chars · list

Characters used to split output lines.

runner · object

Runner used to execute the command.

Result dictionary keys

Key	Type	Description
packets_transmitted	int	Total packets sent
packets_received	int	Total packets received
packet_loss	float	Packet loss percentage
time	int	Total ping duration (in packets_time_unit)
time_seconds	float	Total ping duration in seconds
packets_time_unit	str	Time unit for total time, e.g. "ms"
time_min	float	Minimum RTT
time_avg	float	Average RTT
time_max	float	Maximum RTT
time_mdev	float	RTT standard deviation
time_min_seconds	float	Minimum RTT in seconds
time_avg_seconds	float	Average RTT in seconds
time_max_seconds	float	Maximum RTT in seconds
time_mdev_seconds	float	RTT standard deviation in seconds
time_unit	str	RTT time unit, e.g. "ms"
errors	int	Error count (only present when errors reported)
duplicates	int	Duplicate count (only present when duplicates reported)

Usage

from moler.cmd.unix.ping import Ping

cmd = Ping(connection=conn, destination="192.168.1.1", options="-c 5")
result = cmd()
# result = {
#   'packets_transmitted': 5, 'packets_received': 5,
#   'packet_loss': 0, 'time': 4010, 'time_seconds': 4.01,
#   'time_min': 0.5, 'time_avg': 0.6, 'time_max': 0.8,
#   ...
# }

---

Ifconfig — moler.cmd.unix.ifconfig

Retrieves network interface configuration. Keyed by interface name.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

options · str

Options passed directly to ifconfig, e.g. "eth0" to restrict to one interface.

Result structure — keys are interface names (e.g. "eth0", "br0"). Each interface dict contains:

Key	Type	Description
IPV4	list[dict]	IPv4 addresses with IP, BRD, MASK
IPV6	list[dict]	IPv6 addresses with IP, MASK, SCOPE
LINK	list[dict]	Link layer info with ENCAP, MAC
CONTENT	list[str]	Raw content lines
RX	dict	RX packet/byte counters
TX	dict	TX packet/byte counters

from moler.cmd.unix.ifconfig import Ifconfig

cmd = Ifconfig(connection=conn)
result = cmd()
print(result['eth0']['IPV4'][0]['IP'])  # e.g. '10.0.0.1'
print(result['eth0']['LINK'][0]['MAC'])  # e.g. '60:a8:fe:74:f8:a9'

---

IpRoute — moler.cmd.unix.ip_route

Runs ip route (or ip -6 route) and parses the routing table.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

is_ipv6 · bool

Set True to run ip -6 route. Default False.

addr_get · str

Address for ip route get <addr>.

addr_from · str

Source address filter with from keyword.

Result dictionary keys

Key	Type	Description
VIA	dict	Default gateway information
ALL	list	All route entries
ADDRESS	dict	Per-prefix route details

---

Ssh — moler.cmd.unix.ssh

Establishes an SSH connection. Handles host-key prompts, password prompts, known-hosts failures, and terminal resize sequences automatically.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

host · str · required

Remote hostname or IP address.

login · str

SSH username (passed via -l).

password · str | list

Password or list of passwords for multi-step authentication.

port · int

Remote port. Default 0 (SSH default port 22).

expected_prompt · str

Regex for the prompt on the remote host. Default ">".

known_hosts_on_failure · str

How to handle unknown host: "keygen" (run ssh-keygen -R) or "rm". Default "keygen".

options · str

Extra SSH options injected before the hostname. Default -o ServerAliveInterval=7 -o ServerAliveCountMax=2.

encrypt_password · bool

Replace password characters with * in logs. Default True.

Basic SSH

from moler.cmd.unix.ssh import Ssh

cmd = Ssh(
    connection=conn,
    host="192.168.1.10",
    login="admin",
    password="secret",
    expected_prompt=r'admin@host:~\$',
)
cmd()

---

Netstat — moler.cmd.unix.netstat

Runs netstat and parses socket/connection listings.

Traceroute — moler.cmd.unix.traceroute

Runs traceroute and parses hop-by-hop routing output.

Nmap — moler.cmd.unix.nmap

Runs nmap network scanner and parses open port results.

Wget — moler.cmd.unix.wget

Downloads URLs via wget. Reports download completion records and optionally logs progress.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

options · str · required

Options passed to wget, typically including the URL.

log_progress_bar · bool

Set True to collect progress bar lines into PROGRESS_LOG. Default False.

Result dictionary keys

Key	Type	Description
RESULT	list[str]	Completion lines: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (X.X MB/s) - 'file' saved"
PROGRESS_LOG	list[str]	Progress bar lines (only when log_progress_bar=True)

from moler.cmd.unix.wget import Wget

cmd = Wget(connection=conn, options="http://example.com/file.tar.gz")
result = cmd()
print(result['RESULT'])  # ['2023-01-01 10:00:00 (1.5 MB/s) - file.tar.gz saved [446966]']

Filesystem

Ls — moler.cmd.unix.ls

Runs ls and parses file/directory listings. Supports plain, long (-l), and human-readable (-lh) formats.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

options · str

Options passed to ls, e.g. "-l", "-lh", "-la".

path · str

Path to list. Omit to list the current directory.

Result dictionary keys

Key	Type	Description
files	dict	Mapping from filename to file-info dict
total	dict	{"raw": "8", "bytes": 8} — only present with -l flag

Each entry in files (long listing) contains:

Key	Type	Description
name	str	Filename
permissions	str	Permission string, e.g. "-rwxr-xr-x"
hard_links_count	int	Number of hard links
owner	str	File owner
group	str	File group
size_raw	str	Raw size string
size_bytes	int	Size in bytes (human suffixes expanded)
date	str	Modification date string
link	str	Link target (only for symlinks)

The get_dirs(), get_files(), and get_links() helper methods filter results by type.

Long listing

from moler.cmd.unix.ls import Ls

cmd = Ls(connection=conn, options="-l", path="/var/log")
result = cmd()
for name, info in result['files'].items():
    print(name, info['permissions'], info['size_bytes'])

---

Find — moler.cmd.unix.find

Runs find and parses path results.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

options · str

Full options string for find, e.g. "/var/log -name '*.log' -mtime +7".

---

Cat — moler.cmd.unix.cat

Runs cat and returns file contents as a list of lines.

Result: {"LINES": ["line1", "line2", ...]}

---

Tail — moler.cmd.unix.tail

Runs tail on a file. Inherits from Cat.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

path · str · required

Path to the file to tail.

options · str

Options, e.g. "-n 20" or "-f" (follow mode).

Result: {"LINES": ["last line 1", "last line 2", ...]}

from moler.cmd.unix.tail import Tail

cmd = Tail(connection=conn, path="/proc/meminfo")
result = cmd()
for line in result['LINES']:
    print(line)

---

Grep — moler.cmd.unix.grep

Runs grep and parses matched lines, optionally with file paths, line numbers, and byte offsets.

connection · object · required

Moler connection to the device.

options · str · required

Full grep options including pattern and filename, e.g. "-n 'error' /var/log/syslog".

Result: {"LINES": [...]}

Each item in LINES is a dict with a subset of:

Key	Description
LINE	The matched line content
PATH	File path (when grepping multiple files)
NUMBER	Line number (with -n)
BYTES	Byte offset (with -b)

from moler.cmd.unix.grep import Grep

cmd = Grep(connection=conn, options="-n 'ERROR' /var/log/app.log")
result = cmd()
for match in result['LINES']:
    print(match['NUMBER'], match['LINE'])

---

Cp / Mv / Rm / Mkdir / Touch

Standard filesystem manipulation commands. All accept connection, options, and runner.

Tar / Gzip / Gunzip / Bzip2 / Zip / Unzip / Unrar / Unxz / SevenZ

Archive and compression commands.

Mount — moler.cmd.unix.mount

Runs mount and parses mount point information.

Df — moler.cmd.unix.df

Runs df and parses disk usage per filesystem.

Du — moler.cmd.unix.du

Runs du and parses disk usage per directory.

Process

Ps — moler.cmd.unix.ps

Runs ps and parses the process list. Returns a list of dicts (one per process row). Column names are derived dynamically from the header line, so the result adapts to the options used.

connection · object

Moler connection to the device.

options · str

Options string, e.g. "-ef" or "-o user,pid,vsz,cmd -e". Default "".

Result: List of dicts. Keys match the column header names from ps output. Numeric fields are converted to int or float automatically.

# ps -ef produces dicts with: UID, PID, PPID, C, STIME, TTY, TIME, CMD
# ps -aux produces dicts with: USER, PID, %CPU, %MEM, VSZ, RSS, TTY, STAT, START, TIME, COMMAND

ps -ef

from moler.cmd.unix.ps import Ps

cmd = Ps(connection=conn, options="-ef")
result = cmd()
for proc in result:
    print(proc['PID'], proc['CMD'])

When there are no running processes matching the filter, result is an empty list [].

---

Kill / Killall / Pkill — signal sending

Send signals to processes by PID or name.

from moler.cmd.unix.kill import Kill
cmd = Kill(connection=conn, options="-9 1234")
cmd()

---

Top — moler.cmd.unix.top

Runs top (typically in batch mode) and parses live process stats.

System

Uname — moler.cmd.unix.uname

Runs uname and returns kernel/OS information.

Hostname / Hostnamectl — moler.cmd.unix.hostname

Retrieves the system hostname.

Uptime — moler.cmd.unix.uptime

Parses uptime output into load averages and system up-time duration.

Date — moler.cmd.unix.date

Parses current system date and time.

Dmesg — moler.cmd.unix.dmesg

Captures kernel ring buffer messages.

Sysctl — moler.cmd.unix.sysctl

Reads or writes kernel parameters.

Systemctl — moler.cmd.unix.systemctl

Manages systemd services.

Service — moler.cmd.unix.service

Controls SysV init services.

Reboot — moler.cmd.unix.reboot

Sends the reboot command.

Env / Export — moler.cmd.unix.env

Reads and sets environment variables.

Sync — moler.cmd.unix.sync

Flushes filesystem buffers.

Security / Auth

Su — moler.cmd.unix.su

Switches user identity, handles password prompts.

Sudo — moler.cmd.unix.sudo

Runs a command with elevated privileges.

Passwd — moler.cmd.unix.passwd

Changes a user’s password interactively.

Useradd / Userdel — moler.cmd.unix.useradd

Adds and removes user accounts.

Id — moler.cmd.unix.id

Prints the current user and group IDs.

Whoami — moler.cmd.unix.whoami

Prints the effective username.

Chmod / Chown / Chgrp

File permission and ownership management.

Sshkeygen — moler.cmd.unix.sshkeygen

Runs ssh-keygen to manage SSH keys.

Iptables / Nft — moler.cmd.unix.iptables

Network packet filtering rule management.

Transfer

Scp — moler.cmd.unix.scp

Secure file copy over SSH. Handles password prompts and host-key verification.

Sftp — moler.cmd.unix.sftp

Interactive SFTP session.

Telnet — moler.cmd.unix.telnet

Establishes a Telnet connection, handling login/password prompts.

Wget — moler.cmd.unix.wget

See the Network section above.

Socat — moler.cmd.unix.socat

Multipurpose relay — connects two data streams.

Tcpdump / Tshark — packet capture

Capture and parse network traffic.