Essential Linux Commands
Prepared By: Aamir Pinger
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
Commands What it does
ls List down all the contents of a directory
cd /bin/ Changes directory and goes to bin directory
the tilde (~) sign signifies the user’s home dir – change dir
cd ~
to home directory
cd .. Means to change directory one level up
mkdir A command used to create directories
Short for present working directory. This command will
pwd
display the directory where you are currently in
Command to print all the contents of provided filename on
cat <filename>
the screen
cp /home/ /tmp/ Copy contents of /home/ to /tmp
mv Move the file file1.txt to the /newDirectoryName/ directory.
/directoryName/file1. You can also use this command to move the entire directory
txt to another
/newDirectoryName/ Directory
Delete the file file1.txt. Take extra precaution in using the rm
rm file1.txt
command, especially when you are logged in as root
The find command is a powerful tool that you can use when
searching using the command line. The command here will
find / -name “linux*”
search for any file or directory with a name that starts with
linux
This command displays information about the machine, the
uname -a
processor architecture, and the operating system details.
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
This command returns more information about the system
lscpu
such as the number of CPUs and the CPU speed
cat /proc/cpuinfo This is a file that contains more information than the one
displayed using the lscpu command
This command displays the disk space usage in all of the
mounted devices. The -h option presents the results in a
df -h
human readable output, using G for gigabytes or M for
megabytes sizes
This command displays all the files inside the specified
du ~/Downloads directory and their corresponding file sizes. You can also
specify a filename
The –s option provides the total file size of the specified
du ~/Downloads -sh
directory and -h makes it human readable form
Keys to
Purpose Example
Use
Shows online information about
info $ info uname
a command
Shows details (manual) of a
man $ man uname
command
Shows a short description of a
whatis $ whatis uname
specific keyword
Shows the location of a
type $ type uname
command file
Assign a command alias – $ alias t=type
alias
especially useful for long $ t uname
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
commands $ alias
unalias Remove command alias $ unalias t
pwd Displays the current directory $ pwd
$ ln -s [file]
Create links to files and
ln [soft-link-to-file]
directories
$ ln -s abc.txt newAbc.txt
To trigger a file stamp update
touch $ touch abc.txt
for a file
$ find [dir-path] -name
Search for a file based on the
find [filename]
name
$ find . -name ap.jpeg
whereis Search for executable files $ whereis uname
Search for files in the
which directories part of the PATH $ which uname
variable
$ dd conv=ucase
Type Hello world ctrl+d
$ echo “hello world > abc.txt
dd Copy lines of data
$ dd if=abc.txt of=newabc.txt
conv=ucase
$ cat newabc.txt
$ echo “hello world > abc.txt
$ echo “hello world > abc1.txt
Display the results of comparing
diff $ diff abc.txt abc1.txt -s
two files
$ echo “hello world123 > newabc.txt
$ diff abc.txt newabc.txt -s
Show a text file one page at a $ ls -R > abc.txt
more
time – display can only go $ more abc.txt
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
forward $ ls -R | more
Show a text file one page at a
$ less abc.txt
less time – display can only go
$ ls -R | less
forward and backwards
Display the count of the number
wc of characters, words, and $ wc abc.txt
lines in a file
$ cut -b 1 abc.txt
cut Get sections of text in a file $ cut -b 1-3 abc.txt
$ cut -b 1,3 abc.txt
$ cat abc.txt | grep Desktop
Display results of finding
grep $ cat abc.txt | grep -i desktop
expressions in a file
$ grep -i "desktop" abc.txt
First occurance in every line will be
changed
$ sed 's/Desktop/Dashboard/' abc.txt
Perform editing commands, 2nd occurance in every line will be
sed
then copy to a standard output changed
$ sed 's/Desktop/Dashboard/2' abc.txt
All occurances will be changed
$ sed 's/Desktop/Dashboard/g' abc.txt
$ split abc.txt
$ ls
Specify a size to break a file $ rm x*
split
into -l100 is 100 lines per file
$ split -l100 abc.txt
$ ls
sort Arrange the lines in a file $ sort abc.txt
Keep unique lines in a file and $ echo “Karachi
uniq
delete duplicates Karachi
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
Lahore
Islamabad
Islamabad
Lahore” > abc.txt
$ cat abc.txt
$ uniq abc.txt
$ uniq abc.txt -c
$ uniq abc.txt -d
Archive the file
Archive files with one or more $ tar -cf archive.tar file1 file2
tar
directories Extract the files
$ tar -xf archive.tar
$ cal
Show the calendar for the $ cal -3
cal
specified month or year $ cal -m 5
$ cal -y 2020
$ date
Show/Set the current date and Sets the system date and time to given
date
time date
$ date -s "11/20/2003 12:48:00"
Run a program or a process in
bg the background
$ bg %[PID]
free Check for the free memory $ free
kill Stop a process $ kill <PSID>
Run a program with a low
priority, niceness values range
$ nice -10 ls -R
nice from -20 to 19, with the former
$ nice --10 ls -R
being most favorable, while
latter being least
ps Show current running $ ps
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
processes
Show list of CPU and memory
top $ top
utilization of processes
reboot Restart the computer $ reboot
shutdo
Turn off computer $ shutdown
wn
Adding user from CLI need few steps/commands at CLI
First, login as root by using the command su
aamir@ap-linux:~$ su
Password:
root@ap-linux:/home/aamir#
● Add user by using following command syntax
root@ap-linux:/home/aamir# /usr/sbin/useradd -c "Test User" test
● Once done with above command type passwd
root@ap-linux:/home/aamir# passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root@ap-linux:/home/aamir#
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LINUX ESSENTIAL COMMANDS
● To modify an account, use the usermod command
● To delete the user account, use the / usr/sbin/userdel <username>
command
● To add a user group, you need to use the command groupadd
<groupname>
● For example, let’s create a group named office. To create this group,
root@ap-linux:/home/aamir# groupadd office
● To add test user which we create recently to above created office group
root@ap-linux:/home/aamir# usermod -G office test
● To delete the group, use the command groupdel office
● A user and group account owns a Linux file or directory. To see the owner
of a particular file
aamir@ap-linux:~$ ls -l <filename>
● To change the ownership of any file from one user to another user
aamir@ap-linux:~$ chown <newuser> <filename>
● To change the group owner of the file
aamir@ap-linux:~$ chgrp <newgroup> <filename>
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