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Zeshan
Zeshan

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A List of Linux Commands

#bash #linux #ubuntu #cli

Here's an easy-to-understand documentation for the listed Linux commands.

Directory Operations

1. ls - List directories

ls
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The most frequently used command in Linux to list the contents of a directory.

2. pwd - Print working directory

pwd
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Displays the current directory path.

3. cd - Change directory

cd directory-name
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Navigates to the specified directory.

4. mkdir - Make directory

mkdir directory-name
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Creates a new directory.

5. mv - Move or rename files or directories

mv source destination
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Moves or renames files or directories. If moving, it will transfer the file or directory to the new location. If renaming, it will change the name.

6. cp - Copy files or directories

cp -r source destination
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Copies files or directories. The -r option allows copying of directories recursively.

7. rm - Remove files or directories

rm file-name
rm -r directory-name
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Deletes files or directories. Use the -r option to remove directories recursively.

8. touch - Create empty files

touch file-name
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Creates a blank file if it does not already exist.

File Content and Display

9. cat - Concatenate and display file content

cat file-name
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Displays the contents of a file.

10. echo - Display message

echo "your message"
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Prints the provided message to the terminal.

11. less - View file contents one page at a time

less file-name
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Displays file content one page at a time, allowing for navigation.

12. head - Display the first few lines of a file

head -n number-of-lines file-name
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Shows the specified number of lines from the top of the file.

13. tail - Display the last few lines of a file

tail -n number-of-lines file-name
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Shows the specified number of lines from the bottom of the file.

System and User Information

14. uname - System information

uname -a
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Displays basic information about the operating system.

15. whoami - Current username

whoami
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Shows the active username.

Search and Compare

16. grep - Search for a string in files

grep "search-string" file-name
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Searches for a specified string within a file.

17. diff - Compare files line by line

diff file1 file2
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Displays the differences between two files.

18. cmp - Compare two files byte by byte

cmp file1 file2
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Checks if two files are identical.

19. comm - Compare two sorted files line by line

comm file1 file2
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Combines the functionalities of diff and cmp.

File Compression and Archiving

20. tar - Archive files

tar -cvf archive-name.tar directory-name
tar -xvf archive-name.tar
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Creates (-cvf) or extracts (-xvf) tar archives.

21. zip - Compress files

zip archive-name.zip file1 file2
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Compresses specified files into a zip archive.

22. unzip - Decompress files

unzip archive-name.zip
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Extracts files from a zip archive.

Process and System Management

23. ps - Display active processes

ps aux
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Lists all currently running processes.

24. kill and killall - Terminate processes

kill process-id
killall process-name
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Terminates processes by their ID or name.

25. df - Disk space usage

df -h
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Displays disk space usage in a human-readable format.

Network Commands

26. ifconfig - Network interface configuration

ifconfig
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Displays network interfaces and IP addresses.

27. traceroute - Trace network path

traceroute destination-address
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Traces all network hops to reach the destination.

28. wget - Download files from the internet

wget url
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Downloads files from the specified URL.

Security and Permissions

29. chmod - Change file permissions

chmod permissions file-name
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Changes the permissions of a file.

30. chown - Change file owner

chown owner:group file-name
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Changes the ownership of a file.

31. sudo - Execute command with superuser privileges

sudo command
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Runs the command with elevated (superuser) privileges.

System Utilities

32. clear - Clear terminal screen

clear
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Clears the terminal display.

33. man - Manual pages

man command
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Accesses the manual pages for the specified command.

34. alias - Create command shortcuts

alias new-command='existing-command'
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Creates a custom shortcut for a regularly used command.

35. cal - Display a calendar

cal
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Displays a simple calendar in the terminal.

36. top - Display active processes in real-time

top
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Shows a real-time view of active processes and their system usage.

User Management

37. useradd and usermod - User management

sudo useradd username
sudo usermod -aG groupname username
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Adds a new user or modifies an existing user.

38. passwd - Update user passwords

passwd username
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Creates or updates the password for a specified user.

Miscellaneous

39. ln - Create symbolic links

ln -s target link-name
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Creates a symbolic link to a target file or directory.

40. dd - Data duplicator for creating bootable USBs

dd if=input-file of=/dev/sdX
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Used for low-level copying and conversion of raw data.

41. export - Set environment variables

export VARIABLE_NAME=value
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Sets or exports environment variables.

42. whereis - Locate binary, source, and manual pages for a command

whereis command
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Finds the location of the binary, source, and manual pages for the specified command.

43. whatis - Display a one-line description of a command

whatis command
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Directory and File Operations

44. basename - Extract the base name of a file or directory

basename /path/to/file
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Prints the file name without the directory path.

45. dirname - Extract the directory path of a file

dirname /path/to/file
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Prints the directory path without the file name.

46. find - Search for files in a directory hierarchy

find /path -name "filename"
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Searches for files and directories within a specified path.

File Content and Manipulation

47. awk - Pattern scanning and processing language

awk '{print $1}' file
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Processes and analyzes text files, often used for extracting specific fields from text.

48. sed - Stream editor for filtering and transforming text

sed 's/old-text/new-text/' file
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Performs basic text transformations on an input stream (file or input from a pipeline).

System and User Information

49. uptime - Show how long the system has been running

uptime
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Displays the current time, how long the system has been running, and system load averages.

50. who - Show who is logged on

who
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Displays a list of users currently logged into the system.

51. last - Show a listing of last logged-in users

last
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Displays a list of users logged in and out since the log file was created.

Network Commands

52. ping - Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts

ping host
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Sends packets to a network host to test connectivity.

53. netstat - Network statistics

netstat -tuln
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Displays network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships.

54. curl - Transfer data from or to a server

curl -O url
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Transfers data from or to a server using various protocols (HTTP, FTP, etc.).

System Management

55. htop - Interactive process viewer

htop
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Displays an interactive view of system processes and their resource usage.

56. systemctl - Control the systemd system and service manager

systemctl start|stop|restart|status service-name
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Manages services and the system state.

Package Management

57. apt - Package management for Debian-based distributions

sudo apt update
sudo apt install package-name
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Updates package lists and installs packages on Debian-based systems.

58. yum - Package management for Red Hat-based distributions

sudo yum update
sudo yum install package-name
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Updates package lists and installs packages on Red Hat-based systems.

59. pacman - Package management for Arch-based distributions

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S package-name
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Updates package lists and installs packages on Arch-based systems.

Miscellaneous

60. nc (netcat) - Network troubleshooting and debugging tool

nc -zv host port
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Checks the connectivity to a host on a specified port.

61. scp - Secure copy (remote file copy program)

scp source-file user@remote-host:/path/to/destination
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Copies files between hosts on a network.

62. rsync - Remote file and directory synchronization

rsync -avz source destination
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Synchronizes files and directories between two locations over a network.

63. crontab - Schedule periodic jobs

crontab -e
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Edits the crontab file to schedule periodic tasks.

64. at - Schedule commands to run at a specific time

at time
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Schedules a command to run at a specified time.

65. hostname - Show or set the system's hostname

hostname
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Displays or temporarily sets the system's hostname.

66. df - Disk space usage of file systems

df -h
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Shows the disk space usage of file systems in a human-readable format.

67. du - Disk usage of files and directories

du -sh directory-name
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Displays the disk usage of a specified directory.

68. history - Show command history

history
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Lists the command history for the current session.

69. watch - Execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen

watch -n interval command
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Runs a specified command at regular intervals and displays the output.

70. xargs - Build and execute command lines from standard input

echo 'arguments' | xargs command
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These commands further enhance your ability to manage and navigate a Linux system effectively.

Top comments (1)

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josephj11 profile image
Joe •

This is a nice start, but it could be better.

directory-path would be better than directory-name

touch modifies timestamps. Creating an empty file is a useful side effect

rm -r path only succeeds if path is empty (doesn't contain other files)

pkill should be included

find can use any starting path. It does not need to start at root. Starting at root takes a lot longer and often produces a lot of warning messages from trying to examine directories which do not have user level read access

dd is used for lots of things other than creating image files

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