# System Tools and Applications

***Copyright © Quectel Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.***

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# Archive and Extraction Tools

In a **Linux** system, the **tar** command is usually included by default and does not need to be installed separately. It is one of the core tools and is preinstalled in almost all Linux distributions, such as **Ubuntu**, **CentOS**, and other **Linux** distributions.

Install **tar** if needed:

```bash
sudo apt update && sudo apt install tar
```

By default, **tar** supports archive creation and extraction. Compression and decompression depend on other tools such as **gzip**, **bzip2**, and **xz**, which are usually also preinstalled.

| **Tool** | **Function** | **Example Command** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `tar` | Create or extract a regular tar archive. | `tar -cvf file.tar dir/`  <br>`tar -xvf file.tar` |
| `tar` + `gzip` | Create or extract a gzip-compressed tar archive. | `tar -czvf file.tar.gz dir/`  <br>`tar -xzvf file.tar.gz` |
| `tar` + `bzip2` | Create or extract a bzip2-compressed tar archive. | `tar -cjvf file.tar.bz2 dir/`  <br>`tar -xjvf file.tar.bz2` |
| `unzip` | Extract zip files. The current board lacks `zip`, so only extraction capability was verified. | `unzip file.zip` |

# File System and Disk Tools Verified

| **Tool** | **Function** | **Example Command** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `df` | View capacity, used space, and remaining space of each filesystem mount point. | `df -h` |
| `du` | Calculate directory or file space usage, suitable for checking the size of a specific directory. | `du -sh /tmp /etc /var/log` |
| `fdisk` | Read-only view of disk and partition table information. This test successfully listed the eMMC GPT partitions. | `fdisk -l` |
| `parted` | Read-only view of disk partition tables and partition names. | `parted -l` |
| `partprobe` | Notify the system to reread the partition table. This test only viewed help and did not refresh real devices. | `partprobe --help` |
| `mount` / `umount` | View mount points or mount/unmount filesystems. This test only read the current mount status. | `mount` |
| `dd` | Block-level data copy tool. This test only performed a safe smoke test writing to the null device. | `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null bs=1K count=1` |

# Process Management and Monitoring Tools Verified

| **Tool** | **Function** | **Example Command** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `ps` | View the current process list. | `ps aux` |
| `top` | View CPU, memory, and process usage in real time or batch mode. | `top -b -n 1` |
| `kill` / `pkill` / `killall` | Terminate specified processes. This test only verified that the commands exist and did not terminate business processes. | `kill -9 `<PID>``  <br>`pkill `<process_name>`` |
| `nohup` | Run a command in the background and keep it running after the terminal exits. | `nohup sh -c "sleep 1; echo nohup-ok" &` |
| `nice` / `renice` | Set or adjust process priority. | `nice -n 19 sh -c "echo nice-ok"` |
| `vmstat` | View memory, swap, I/O, scheduler, and CPU overview. | `vmstat 1 2` |
| `systemctl` | View or manage systemd service status. | `systemctl status bluetooth --no-pager` |
| `journalctl` | View systemd logs. | `journalctl -n 20 --no-pager` |