A is for Awk, which runs like a snail, and

B is for Biff, which reads all your mail.

C is for CC, as hackers recall, while

D is for DD, the command that does all.

E is for Emacs, which rebinds your keys, and

F is for Fsck, which rebuilds your trees.

G is for Grep, a clever detective, while

H is for Halt, which may seem defective.

I is for Indent, which rarely amuses, and

J is for Join, which nobody uses.

K is for Kill, which makes you the boss, while

L is for Lex, which is missing from DOS.

M is for More, from which Less was begot, and

N is for Nice, which it really is not.

O is for Od, which prints out things nice, while

P is for Passwd, which reads in strings twice.

Q is for Quota, a Berkeley-type fable, and

R is for Ranlib, for sorting ar [sic] table.

S is for Spell, which attempts to belittle, while

T is for True, which does very little.

U is for Uniq, which is used after Sort, and

V is for Vi, which is hard to abort.

W is for Whoami, which tells you your name, while

X is, well, X, of dubious fame.

Y is for Yes, which makes an impression, and

Z is for Zcat, which handles compression.