Common Linux Commands

Common Linux Commands

Here is a list of 50 commonly used Linux commands along with brief descriptions and example usages:

  1. pwd (Print Working Directory):

    • Displays the current working directory.

    • Example: pwd

  2. ls (List Directory Contents):

    • Lists files and directories in the current directory.

    • Example: ls

  3. cd (Change Directory):

    • Changes the current directory.

    • Example: cd /path/to/directory

  4. touch (Create Empty File):

    • Creates an empty file.

    • Example: touch filename.txt

  5. mkdir (Make Directory):

    • Creates a new directory.

    • Example: mkdir new_directory

  6. rm (Remove):

    • Removes files and directories.

    • Example: rm filename.txt or rm -r directory

  7. cp (Copy):

    • Copies files and directories.

    • Example: cp file.txt newfile.txt or cp -r dir1 dir2

  8. mv (Move/Rename):

    • Moves or renames files and directories.

    • Example: mv file.txt new_directory/ or mv oldname.txt newname.txt

  9. cat (Concatenate and Display):

    • Displays the content of a file.

    • Example: cat file.txt

  10. more/less (View Text File):

    • Displays the content of a text file page by page.

    • Example: more file.txt or less file.txt

  11. head (Display Beginning of a File):

    • Shows the first few lines of a file.

    • Example: head -n 10 file.txt (displays the first 10 lines)

  12. tail (Display End of a File):

    • Shows the last few lines of a file.

    • Example: tail -n 10 file.txt (displays the last 10 lines)

  13. grep (Global Regular Expression Print):

    • Searches for text patterns in files.

    • Example: grep "pattern" file.txt

  14. find (Find Files and Directories):

    • Searches for files and directories in a directory hierarchy.

    • Example: find /path/to/search -name "*.txt"

  15. chmod (Change File Permissions):

    • Modifies file permissions.

    • Example: chmod 644 file.txt (sets read and write for owner, read for group and others)

  16. chown (Change File Owner):

    • Changes the owner of a file.

    • Example: chown user:group file.txt

  17. ps (Process Status):

    • Displays information about running processes.

    • Example: ps aux

  18. top (Monitor System Activity):

    • Provides real-time system resource usage statistics.

    • Example: top

  19. kill (Terminate a Process):

    • Terminates a running process by process ID.

    • Example: kill PID

  20. tar (Tape Archive):

    • Archives and extracts files.

    • Example: tar -cvf archive.tar files/ (create archive), tar -xvf archive.tar (extract archive)

  21. df (Disk Free):

    • Displays disk space usage.

    • Example: df -h

  22. du (Disk Usage):

    • Shows disk usage of files and directories.

    • Example: du -sh /path/to/directory

  23. free (Memory Usage):

    • Displays system memory usage.

    • Example: free -h

  24. ifconfig (Network Configuration):

    • Displays and configures network interfaces.

    • Example: ifconfig

  25. ping (Network Ping):

    • Tests network connectivity to a host.

    • Example: ping google.com

  26. ssh (Secure Shell):

    • Connects to remote servers securely.

    • Example: ssh user@hostname

  27. scp (Secure Copy):

    • Copies files securely between hosts.

    • Example: scp file.txt user@hostname:/path/

  28. wget (Web Get):

    • Downloads files from the internet.

    • Example: wget URL

  29. curl (Client for URLs):

    • Transfers data from or to a server.

    • Example: curl URL

  30. nano (Text Editor):

    • Opens a terminal-based text editor.

    • Example: nano filename.txt

  31. vim (Text Editor):

    • Opens the Vim text editor.

    • Example: vim filename.txt

  32. grep (Global Regular Expression Print):

    • Searches for text patterns in files.

    • Example: grep "pattern" file.txt

  33. sort (Sort Lines of Text):

    • Sorts lines of text files.

    • Example: sort file.txt

  34. uniq (Unique Lines):

    • Filters out duplicate lines in a sorted file.

    • Example: sort file.txt | uniq

  35. sed (Stream Editor):

    • Performs text transformations on an input stream.

    • Example: sed 's/old/new/' file.txt

  36. awk (Text Processing Tool):

    • Processes text data and generates reports.

    • Example: awk '{print $1}' file.txt

  37. date (Display or Set Date and Time):

    • Displays or sets the system date and time.

    • Example: date

  38. cal (Display Calendar):

    • Displays a calendar.

    • Example: cal

  39. shutdown (Shutdown/Reboot System):

    • Shuts down or reboots the system.

    • Example: shutdown -h now (shut down immediately)

  40. useradd (Add User):

    • Adds a new user to the system.

    • Example: sudo useradd newuser

  41. passwd (Change Password):

    • Changes a user's password.

    • Example: passwd username

  42. groups (List Groups):

    • Lists groups a user belongs to.

    • Example: groups username

  43. who (Show Who is Logged On):

    • Displays information about users currently logged in.

    • Example: who

  44. uptime (System Uptime):

    • Shows how long the system has been running.

    • Example: uptime

  45. hostname (Display or Set Hostname):

    • Displays or sets the system's hostname.

    • Example: hostname

  46. history (Command History):

    • Shows the command history for the current user.

    • Example: history

  47. chmod (Change File Permissions):

    • Modifies file permissions.

    • Example: chmod 644 file.txt

  48. chown (Change File Owner):

    • Changes the owner of a file.

    • Example: chown user:group file.txt

  49. alias (Create Command Aliases):

    • Creates shortcuts for frequently used commands.

    • Example: `alias ll ='ls -l'` (creates an alias "ll" for "ls -l")

  50. history (Command History):

    • Displays the command history for the current user.

    • Example: history

Please note that these are just basic examples, and many of these commands have additional options and capabilities that can be explored by using the man command to access the manual pages (e.g., man ls, man grep). Additionally, some commands may require superuser privileges and should be used with caution.

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