Linux Commands
Table
│ A │ B │ C │ D │ E │ F │ G │ H │ I │ J │ K │ L │ M │ N │ O │ P │ Q │ R │ S │ T │ U │ V │ W │ X │ Y │ Z │
Top 100 Linux Commands Cheat Sheet
I have prepared a help and manual for Linux, based on Ubuntu (cause other distribution are using same kernel the commands are mostly same). However, if you require specific guidance for a different Linux distribution, this resource can be helpful.
A
accept command
Accept or Reject jobs to a destination, such as a printer.
access command
Check a user’s RWX(read, write and execute) permission for a file.
accton command
Used to turn on or turn off the process for accounting or change info process accounting file.
aclocal command
Used to automatically generate aclocal.m4 files from configure.in file.
acpi command
acpid command
Show information about the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface.
addr2line command
Used to convert addresses into file names and line numbers.
addresses command
Formats for internet mail addresses.
agetty command
An alternative Linux Getty that manages physical or virtual terminals to allow multi-user access.
alias, unalias commands
Create an alias, a shortcut that references a command.
alsactl command
Access advanced controls for ALSA soundcard driver.
amidi command
Perform read/write operation for ALSA RawMIDI ports.
amixer command
Access CLI-based mixer for ALSA soundcard driver.
anacron command
Used to run commands periodically.
apachetop command
aplay command
Sound recorder and player for CLI.
aplaymidi command
CLI utility used to play MIDI files.
apm command
Show Advanced Power Management (APM) hardware info on older systems.
apmd command
Used to handle events reported by APM BIOS drivers.
apropos command
Shows the list of all man pages containing a specific keyword.
apt-get command
Command-line utility to install/remove/update packages based on APT system.
apt command
Advanced Package Tool, a package management system for Debian and derivatives.
aptitude command
Another utility to add/remove/upgrade packages based on the APT system.
ar command
A utility to create/modify/extract from archives.
arch command
Display print machine hardware name.
arecord command
Just like aplay, it’s a sound recorder and player for ALSA(Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) soundcard driver.
arecordmid command
Record standard MIDI files.
arecord command
arp command
Used to make changes to the system’s ARP cache.
aspell command
An interactive spell checker utility.
at command
Used to schedule command execution at specified date & time, reading commands from an input file.
atd command
Used to execute jobs queued by the at command.
atop command
atq command
List a user’s pending jobs for the at command.
aplay command
atrm command
Delete jobs queued by the at command.
aumix command
An audio mixer utility.
autoconf command
Generate configuration scripts from a TEMPLATE-FILE and send the output to standard output.
autoheader command
Create a template header for configure.
automake command
Creates GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from template files.
autoreconf command
Update generated configuration files.
autoscan command
Generate a preliminary configure.in file.
B
badblocks command
Search a disk partition for bad sectors.
banner command
Used to print the ASCII character string in large letter to standard output
basename command
It strips directory information and suffixes from file names ie it prints the file name NAME with any leading directory components removed
batch command
Used to read commands from standard input or a specified file and execute them when system load levels permit ie when the load average drops below
bc command
Used for command line calculator
bg command
Used to place foreground jobs in background
biff command
A mail notification system for unix that notifies the user at the command line when new mail arrives and tells from whom it is
bind command
Used to set Readline key bindings and variables
bison command
It is basically a parser generator similar to yacc
break command
Used to terminate the execution of for loop, while loop and until loop
builtin command
Used to run a shell builtin, passing it arguments(args), and also to get the exit status
bzcmp command
Used to invoke the cmp utility on bzip compressed files
bzdiff command
Used to compare the bzip compressed files
bzgrep command
Used to search for a pattern or an expression but inside a bzip-compressed file
bzip2 command
Used to compress and decompress the files
C
cal command
Used to see the calendar of a specific month or a whole year By default, it shows current month’s calendar as output.
cardctl command
Used to control PCMCIA sockets and select configuration schemes.
cardmgr command
Keeps an eye on the added/removes sockets for PCMCIA devices.
case command
It is the best alternative when we had to use multiple if/elif on a single variable
cat command
cat - create, view and concatenate files
cc command
GNU C and C++ compiler.
cp command
cp - copy files and directories
cat command
cat - create, view and concatenate files
ccrypt command
Used for encryption and decryption of data.
cd command
cd - change director
cd / ----> change to the root directory
cd ~ ----> change to your home directory
cd ----> change to your home directory
cd ----> change to the directory above your current ie parent directory
cd ----> change to the directory you currently in
cd - ----> change to the last visited path
cdparanoia command
Record audio from CD more reliably using data-verification algorithms.
cdrdao command
Used to write all the content specified to a file to a CD all at once.
cfdisk command
Show or change the disk partition table.
chage command
Used to view and change the user password expiry information
chattr command
It is a file system command which is used for changing the attributes of a file in a directory
chdir command
Used to change active working directory.
chfn command
It allows you to change a user’s name and other details easily chfn stands for Change finger
chgrp command
Used to change the group ownership of a file or directory
chkconfig command
Used to list all available services and view or update their run level settings
chmod command
Change access permission for a file(s).
chown command
Change the owner or group for a file.
chpasswd command
Update password in a batch.
chroot command
Run a command with root directory.
chrt command
Alter process attributed in real-time.
chsh command
Used to change the user’s login shell(currently login shell)
chvt command
Used to switch between the different TTY (TeleTYpewriter) terminals available
cksum command
Used to display a CRC(Cyclic Redundancy Check) value, the byte size of the file and the name of the file to standard output
cmp command
Used to compare the two files byte by byte and helps you to find out whether the two files are identical or not
colcrt command
Used to format the text processor output so that it can be viewed on Cathode Ray Tube displays
clorm command
Remove columns from the lines of a file.
column command
Used to display the contents of a file in columns
comm command
Compares two sorted files line by line and write to standard output; the lines that are common and the lines that are unique
compress command
Used to reduce the file size After compression, the file will be available with an added Z extension
continue command
Used to skip the current iteration in for, while and until loop
cp command
Copy contents of one file to another.
cpio command
cpio stands for “copy in, copy out“ It is used for processing the archive files like *cpio or *tar This command can copy files to and from archives
cron command
A software utility, offered by Linux-like operating system which automates the scheduled task at a predetermined time
crond command
Same work as cron.
crontab command
A list of commands that you want to run on a regular schedule, and also the name of the command used to manage that list.
csplit command
Used to split any file into many parts as required by the user.
ctags command
It allows quick access across the files (For example quickly seeing definition of a function)
cupsd command
It is a type of scheduler for CUPS (Common Unit Printing System) It implements the printing system on the basis of the Internet Printing Protocol
curl command
A tool to transfer data to or from a server, using any of the supported protocols
cut command
For cutting out the sections from each line of files and writing the result to standard output
cvs command
Used to store the history of a file Whenever a file gets corrupted or anything goes wrong “cvs” help us to go back to the previous version and restore our file
D
date command
Used to display the system date and time It is also used to set date and time of the system
dd command
debugfs command
declare command
Used to declare shell variables and functions, set their attributes and display their values
depmod command
Used to generate a list of dependency description of kernel modules and its associated map files
ddrescue command
du command
diff command
dmesg command
dd command
It is a command-line utility for Unix and Unix-like operating systems whose primary purpose is to convert and copy files
diff command
Used to display the differences in the files by comparing the files line by line
dirname command
Used to remove the trailing forward slahes “/” from the NAME and prints the remaining portion
dirs command
Used to display the list of currently remembered directories
disable command
Used to stop the printers or classes
dmesg command
Used to examine the kernel ring buffer and print the message buffer of kernel
domainname command
Used to return the Network Information System (NIS) domain name of the host
dstat command
Used to retrieve information or statistics form components of the system such as network connections, IO devices, or CPU, etc
dump command
Used to backup the filesystem to some storage device
dumpkeys command
Used for the dump keyboard translation tables
E
echo command
eject command
It allows ejecting a removable media (typically a CD-ROM, floppy disk, tape, or JAZ or ZIP disk) using the software
emacs command
It is a editor having simple user interface Also, there is no insert mode in this editor It only have editing mode
enable command
Used to start the printers or classes
env command
Used to either print environment variables It is also used to run a utility or command in a custom environment
eval command
Built-in command used to execute arguments as a shell command
exit command
Used to exit the shell where it is currently running
expand command
Allows you to convert tabs into spaces in a file and when no file is specified it reads from standard input
expect command
This command or scripting language works with scripts that expect user inputs It automates the task by providing inputs
export command
It is bash shell BUILTINS commands, which means it is part of the shell It marks an environment variables to be exported to child-processes
expr command
It evaluates a given expression and displays its corresponding output
F
factor command
Used to print the prime factors of the given numbers, either given from command line or read from standard input
fc command
Used to list, edit or re-execute the commands previously entered into an interactive shell
fc-list command
It is used to list the available fonts and font styles Using the format option, the list of all fonts can be filtered and sorted out
fg command
Used to put a background job in foreground
file command
Used to determine the type of a file file type may be of human-readable(eg ‘ASCII text’) or MIME type(eg ‘text/plain; charset=us-ascii’)
find command
Used to find files and directories and perform subsequent operations on them
finger command
It is a user information lookup command which gives details of all the users logged in
fmt command
Works as a formatter for simplifying and optimizing text files
fold command
It wraps each line in an input file to fit a specified width and prints it to the standard output
for command
Used to repeatedly execute a set of command for every element present in the list
find command
fdisk command
find command
fun command
Used to draw various type of patterns on the terminal
function command
Used to create functions or methods
G
gawk command
Used for pattern scanning and processing language
gdb command
GNU Debugger tool helps to debug the programs written in C, C++, Ada, Fortran, etc
getent command
Used to get the entries in a number of important text files called databases
gpasswd command
Used to administer the /etc/group and /etc/gshadow
groupdel command
Used to create a new user group
groupdel command
Used to delete a existing group
groupmod command
Used to modify or change the existing group on Linux system
groups command
Groups are the collection of users Groups make it easy to manage users with the same security and access privileges
grpck command
It verifies the integrity of the groups information It checks that all entries in /etc/group and /etc/gshadow have the proper format and contain valid data
grpconv command
It is used to convert to shadow groups The grpconv command creates a gshadow from the group and an optionally existing gshadow
gs command
This command invokes Ghostscript, which is an interpreter of Adobe Systems PostScript and Portable Document Format(PDF) languages
gunzip command
Used to compress or expand a file or a list of files in Linux
gzexe command
Used to compress executable files and also used to automatically uncompress and execute the files
grep command
GoAccess command
gzip command
This command compresses files Each single file is compressed into a single file
H
halt command
Used to instruct the hardware to stop all the CPU functions Basically, it reboots or stops the system
head command
hash command
Used to maintain a hash table of recently executed programs
hdparm command
Used to get statistics about the hard disk, alter writing intervals, acoustic management, and DMA settings
hexdump command
Used to filter and display the specified files, or standard input in a human readable specified format
history command
Used to view the previously executed command
hostid command
Used to displays the Host’s ID in hexadecimal format
hostname command
Used to obtain the DNS(Domain Name System) name and set the system’s hostname or NIS(Network Information System) domain name
hostnamectl command
Provides a proper API used to control Linux system hostname and change its related settings
hwclock command
Utility for accessing the hardware clock, also called Real Time Clock (RTC)
I
iconv command
Used to convert some text in one encoding into another encoding
id command
Used to find out user and group names and numeric ID’s (UID or group ID) of the current user or any other user in the server
info command
if command
Used to execute commands based on conditions
ifconfig command
Used to configure the kernel-resident network interfaces
iftop command
It is a network analyzing tool used by system administrators to view the bandwidth related stats
ifup command
It basically brings the network interface up, allowing it to transmit and receive dat
import command
Used for capturing a screenshot for any of the active pages we have and it gives the output as an image file
insmod command
Used to insert modules into the kernel
install command
Used to copy files and set attributes
iostat command
Used for monitoring system input/output statistics for devices and partitions
iotop command
Used to display and monitor the disk IO usage details and even gets a table of existing IO utilization by the process
ipcrm command
Used to remove some IPC(Inter-Process Communication) resources It eliminates the IPC objects and their associated data structure form the system
iwconfig command
Used to display the parameters, and the wireless statistics which are extracted from /proc/net/wireless
J
jobs command
Show the list of active jobs and their status.
jnettop command
join command
It is a command line utility for joining lines of two files based on a key field present in both the files
journalctl command
Used to view systemd, kernel and journal logs
K
kill command
Used to terminate processes manually kill command sends a signal to a process which terminates the process
L
last command
Used to display the list of all the users logged in and out since the file /var/log/wtmp was created
Logwatch command
locate command
less command
let command
Used to evaluate arithmetic expressions on shell variables
ls command
ls - listing files and directories
ln command
Used to create links between files
locate command
Used to find the files by name
look command
Shows the lines beginning with a given string
lsblk command
Used to display details about block devices and these block devices(Except ram disk) are basically those files that represent devices connected to the pc
lshw command
Used to generate the detailed information of the system’s hardware configuration from various files in the /proc directory
lsusb command
Used to display the information about USB buses and the devices connected to them
M
man command
mailq command
This command in Linux prints the mail queue ie the list of messages that are there in the mail queue
mv command
mkdir command
mkdir - create directories
modinfo command
Used to display the information about a Linux Kernel module
mount command
Used to mount the filesystem found on a device to big tree structure(Linux filesystem) rooted at ‘/‘
mpstat command
Used to report processor related statistics
N
nc(netcat) command
It is one of the powerful networking tool, security tool or network monitoring tool
netstat command
Displays various network related information such as network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, multicast memberships, etc
nmcli command
Used for controlling NetworkManager nmcli command can also be used to display network device status, create, edit, activate/deactivate, and delete network connections
nslookup command
It is a network administration tool for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain domain name or IP address mapping or any other specific DNS record
P
paste command
Used to join files horizontally (parallel merging) by outputting lines consisting of lines from each file specified, separated by tab as delimiter, to the standard output
pidof command
Used to find out the process IDs of a specific running program
ping command
Used to check the network connectivity between host and server/host
pmap command
ps command
poweroff command
ping command
pwd command
pwd - print current working directory (= at what path the user currently located)
printf command
Used to display the given string, number or any other format specifier on the terminal window
ranlib command
Used to generate index to archive
R
rcp command
Used to copy files from one computer to another computer
read command
Reads up the total number of bytes from the specified file descriptor into the buffer
rmdir command
rm command
rm - remove files and directories
readelf command
Used to get information of ELF(Executable and Linkable Format) Files
readlink command
Used to print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names
reboot command
Instructs the system to rest or reboot
reset command
Used to initialize the terminal This is useful once a program dies leaving a terminal in an abnormal state
restore command
Used for restoring files from a backup created using dump
return command
Used to exit from a shell function
rev command
Used to reverse the lines characterwise
rmmod command
Used to remove a module from the kernel
route command
Used when you want to work with the IP/kernel routing table
S
sar command
screen command
Provides the ability to launch and use multiple shell sessions from a single ssh session
sudo command
script command
Used to make typescript or record all the terminal activities
sdiff command
Used to compare two files and then writes the results to standard output in a side-by-side format
sed command
Used for finding, filtering, text substitution, replacement and text manipulations like insertion, deletion search etc
select command
Used to create a numbered menu from which a user can select an option
seq command
Used to generate numbers from FIRST to LAST in steps of INCREMENT
setsid command
Used to run a program in a new session
su command
shift command
Shifts/moves the command line arguments to one position left
showkey command
prints to standard output either the scan codes or the key code or the `ascii’ code of each key pressed
shred command
Used in order to delete a file completely from hard disk
shutdown command
Used to shutdown the system in a safe way
sleep command
Used to create a dummy job A dummy job helps in delaying the execution
source command
Used to read and execute the content of a file(generally set of commands), passed as an argument in the current shell script
sort command
Used to sort a file, arranging the records in a particular order
split command
Used to split large files into smaller files
ssh command
Protocol used to securely connect to a remote server/system
strace command
It is one of the most powerful process monitoring, diagnostic, instructional tool of Linux
stty command
Used to change and print terminal line settings
sum command
Used to find checksum and count the blocks in a file
sync command
Used to synchronize cached writes to persistent storage
T
tac command
Used to concatenate and print files in reverse
tail command
Prints the last N number of data of the given input
tailf command
talkd command
tar command
Used to create Archive and extract the Archive files
taskset command
tcpdump command
tcpslice command
tcpslice command
tee command
telnet command
terminator command
tftp command
tftpd command
tmpwatch command
top command
touch command
touch - update file's timestamp More commonly used for creating files
tput command
tr command
It is a command line utility for translating or deleting characters
tracepath command
Used to traces path to destination discovering MTU along this path
traceroute command
Prints the route that a packet takes to reach the host
trep command
tree command
tset command
tty command
It displays the information related to terminal It basically prints the file name of the terminal connected to standard input
tune2fs command
tunelp command
type command
U
ul command
unalias command
uname command
Displays the information about the system
uncompress command
unexpand command
Converts each spaces into tabs writing the produced output to the standard output
unicode_start command
unicode_stop command
uniq command
It is a command line utility that reports or filters out the repeated lines in a file
units command
unix2dos command
unshar command
until command
Used to execute a set of commands as long as the final command in the ‘until’ Commands has an exit status which is not zero
uptime command
Used to find out how long the system is active (running)
useradd, userdel commands
usermod command
usleep command
uudecode command
uuencode command
uuidgen command
V
vi command
A text editor utility.
vidmode command
Set the video mode for a kernel image. Displays current mode value without arguments.
vim command
Vi Improved, a text-based editor which is a successor to vi.
vmstat command
It is a performance monitoring command of the system as it gives the information about processes, memory, paging, block IO, disk and CPU scheduling
vnstat command
Used by system administrators in order to monitor network parameters such as bandwidth consumption or maybe some traffic flowing in or out
W
w command
Used to show who is logged on and what they are doing
wall command
Displays a message, or the contents of a file, or otherwise its standard input, on the terminals of all currently logged in users
wc command
Used to find out number of lines, word count, byte and characters count in the files specified in the file arguments
wget command
Used to download files from the server even when the user has not logged on to the system and it can work in background without hindering the current process
whatch command
Used to execute a program periodically, showing output in fullscreen
whatis command
which command
Used to locate the executable file associated with the given command by searching it in the path environment variable
while command
Used to repeatedly execute a set of command as long as the COMMAND returns true
who command
Used to get information about currently logged in user on to system
whoami command
Displays the username of the current user when this command is invoked
write command
Allows a user to communicate with other users, by copying lines from one user’s terminal to others
X
xargs command
Used to build and execute commands from standard input It converts input received from standard input into arguments of a command
xdg-open command
xinetd command
xz command
Y
yacc command
yes command
ypbind command
ypcat command
ypinit command
ypmatch command
yppasswd command
yppasswdd command
yppoll command
yppush command
ypserv command
ypset command
yptest command
ypwhich command
ypxfr command
Z
zcat command
zcmp command
zdiff command
Used to invoke the diff program on files compressed via gzip
zdump command
Used to print the current time in the specified zone or you can say prints the current time in each zonename named on the command line
zforce command
zgrep command
Used to search out expressions from a given a file even if it is compressed
zic command
zip command
It is a compression and file packaging utility for Unix Each file is stored in single zip {zip-filename} file with the extension zip
zmore command
znew command
get help source: geeksforgeeks
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