Welcome to the Linux Commands Cheat Sheet! This handy guide is perfect for anyone who's looking to navigate through Linux's commands more easily.
uname Displays system information: kernel version, machine type, and more. uname -rDisplays the running Linux kernel's release version. uptimeShows current time, system uptime, users, and load averages. hostnameShows the system hostname. hostname -iDisplays the IP address of the current host. last rebootShows last reboot times and durations in logs. dateDisplays the current date and time information. timedatectlDisplays detailed system clock and time zone information. calDisplays a simple calendar of the current month. wShows who is logged on and their activity .whoamiDisplays the username of the current user. finger usernameDisplays information about a user named 'username'.
dmesgDisplays messages from the kernel's ring buffer. cat /proc/cpuinfoDisplays detailed information about the CPU. cat /proc/meminfoDisplays detailed system memory usage information. lscpuLists information about the CPU. lshwLists detailed hardware configuration of the system. lsblkLists information about all available block devices. free -mShows system memory usage in megabytes .lspci -tvDisplays PCI devices in tree format, verbosely. lsusb -tvShows USB devices as a tree, verbosely. dmidecodeDisplays hardware information from system BIOS hdparm -i /dev/sdaDisplays information of disk /dev/sda. badblocks -s /dev/sdaChecks /dev/sda for bad blocks, showing progress .
idDisplays the user's UID, GID, and groups. lastShows list of last logged-in users. whoDisplays who is currently logged in. groupadd admin Creates a new user group named admin. adduser SamCreates a new user account named Sam. userdel SamDeletes the user account named Sam. usermodModifies properties of an existing user account.
ls -alLists all files, detailed information, in long format. pwdDisplays the present working directory's path. mkdir dir1Creates a new directory named dir1. rm file1 Deletes the file named file1. rm -f file2Forcefully deletes the file named file2. rm -r dir1Recursively removes directory dir1 and its contents. rm -rf dir1Forcefully deletes directory dir1 and its contents. cp file1 file2Copies file1, creating or overwriting file2. cp -r dir1 dir2Copies dir1 to dir2, including subdirectories. mv file1 file2Renames or moves file1 to file2. ln -s /path/to/file_name link_nameCreates symbolic link named link_name to file_name. touch file1Creates an empty file named file1. cat > file1Creates/overwrites file1, awaiting standard input .more file1Displays file1 content, paginating through output. head file1Displays the first ten lines of file1. tail file1 Displays the last ten lines of file1. gpg -c file1Encrypts file1 with symmetric cipher using passphrase. gpg file2.gpgDecrypts file2.gpg, prompting for the passphrase. wcCounts words, lines, and characters in files. xargsExecutes commands with piped or file-provided arguments .
psDisplays a snapshot of current processes. ps aux | grep telnetDisplays running telnet processes with details. pmapShows memory map of a process. topDisplays dynamic real-time view of running tasks. kill 1234Terminates the process with PID 1234. killall procKills all processes named 'proc'. pkill process-nameTerminates processes with the name. bgResumes suspended jobs in the background fgBrings a suspended job to foreground fg nBrings job number 'n' to foreground. lsofLists all open files and processes. renice 19 PIDChanges priority of process with given PID .pgrep firefoxDisplays Process ID(s) for firefox processes. pstreeDisplays a tree of running processes.
chmod 644 /data/test.c Sets the permissions of the file /data/test.c to be read/write for the owner, and read-only for the group and others. chmod 755 /dir1 Assigns read, write, and execute permissions to the owner, and read and execute permissions to the group and others for the directory /dir1. chown bob:devops filename Changes file 'filename' ownership to 'bob' and 'devops'. chown ownername:groupname directory Change owner and group of the directory.
ip addr show Displays all network interfaces and their information. ip address add 192.168.0.1/24 dev eth0 Assigns IP address 192.168.0.1 to interface eth0. ifconfig Shows network interfaces and their configuration. ping host Sends ICMP packets, measures round-trip time to "host". whois domain Retrieves and displays domain's registration information. dig domain Queries DNS, provides domain's DNS information. dig -x host Resolves IP address to hostname, shows DNS information. host google.com Performs an IP lookup for the domain name wget file_path Downloads file from specified path. netstat Displays various network-related information and statistics. ss Display information about network sockets.
tar -cf backup.tar /home/ubuntuCreates a tar archive of /home/ubuntu directory. tar -xf backup.tar Extracts files from "backup.tar" archive. tar -zcvf backup.tar.gz /home/ubuntu Creates compressed "backup.tar.gz" archive of "/home/ubuntu" gzip file1 Compresses "file1" into "file1.gz", original is removed.
rpm -i pkg_name.rpm Installs the package "pkg_name.rpm" using RPM Package Manager. rpm -e pkg_name Uninstalls the specified RPM package. dnf install pkg_nameInstalls the specified package using DNF. pacman -S pkg_name Installs the specified package using Pacman.
./configureChecks system compatibility and generates makefile for software installation. makeCompiles code by following instructions in the Makefile. make installInstalls compiled code into specified system locations.
grep pattern file Search for a given pattern within the file. grep -r pattern dir1 Recursively searches for the specified "pattern" within the "dir1" directory and its subdirectories locate fileFinds files named "file" using prebuilt database .find /home -name index Searches "/home" directory for files named "index" recursively. find /home -size +10000kFinds files over 10000k size in /home directory.
ssh user@hostname Initiates SSH connection to specified hostname. ssh -p port_number user@hostname Initiates SSH connection using specific port. Connect to the host via telnet default port 23 Securely connect to the system via SSH default port 22 telnet host Connect to the host via telnet default port 23.
scp file.txt remoteuser@remote_host:/remote/directoryCopies file.txt to remote host's specified directory .rsync -a /home/ubuntu /backup/ Synchronizes content from source directory to destination directory,preserving attributes .rsync -a /var/www/web/ user@remote_host:/backup/web_backup/Synchronizes local directory to remote, preserving attributes .
df -h Displays human-readable disk space usage for all mounted filesystems. df -i Displays inode usage information for all mounted filesystems. fdisk -l Lists all partitions and their information on all drives. du -sh /dir1 Displays summary of total disk usage size of /dir1, human-readable. findmnt Displays a list of all mounted filesystems and their properties. mount device-path mount-pointMounts the device at the specified filesystem mount point.
cd .. Navigate to the parent directory .cd Changes the current directory to the user's home. cd /mnt Changes the current directory to "/mnt".
Download your free Linux commands cheat sheet in pdf format and print on A4 size paper .
If this resource helped you, let us know your care by a Thanks Tweet.
Did you find this article helpful?
We are glad you liked the article. Share with your friends.
"]
About The Author
Bobbin Zachariah
Bobbin Zachariah is an experienced Linux engineer who has been supporting infrastructure for many companies. He specializes in Shell scripting, AWS Cloud, JavaScript, and Nodejs. He has qualified Master’s degree in computer science. He holds Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification and RedHat Enable Sysadmin .
Comments