Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

This document provides a detailed list of 100

commonly used Linux commands, including their
options and usage examples.

File and Directory Operations

1. ls - List directory contents.
Options:

-l: Long listing format.

-a: Show hidden files.

-h: Human-readable file sizes.

-R: Recursively list subdirectories.

Example: ls -lh /home

2. cd - Change directory.
Example: cd /var/log

3. pwd - Print working directory.

Example: pwd

4. mkdir - Create a directory.

Options:
-p: Create parent directories as needed.

Example: mkdir -p /home/user/newdir

5. rmdir - Remove an empty directory.

Example: rmdir /home/user/emptydir
6. rm - Remove files or directories.

Options:
-r: Recursively remove directories.
-f: Force removal without confirmation.

Example: rm -rf /home/user/olddir

7. cp - Copy files or directories.

Options:
-r: Recursively copy directories.
-v: Verbose output.

Example: cp -rv /home/user/source /home/user/destination

8. mv - Move or rename files or directories.

Example: mv /home/user/oldname /home/user/newname

9. touch - Create an empty file or update file timestamp.

Example: touch newfile.txt

10. cat - Display file contents.

Example: cat file.txt

11. more - View file contents one screen at a time.

Example: more largefile.txt

12. less - View file contents with backward navigation.

Example: less largefile.txt

13. head - Display the beginning of a file.

Options:
-n: Number of lines to display.

Example: head -n 10 file.txt

14. tail - Display the end of a file.

Options:
-n: Number of lines to display.
-f: Follow file changes in real-time.

Example: tail -f /var/log/syslog

15. ln - Create hard or symbolic links.

Options:
-s: Create a symbolic link.

Example: ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/link

16. find - Search for files and directories.

Options:
-name: Search by name.
-type: Search by type (e.g., f for files, d for directories).

Example: find /home -name "*.txt"

17. locate - Find files by name.

Example: locate myfile.txt

18. chmod - Change file permissions.

Options:
u+x: Add execute permission for the user.
755: Set permissions to rwxr-xr-x.

Example: chmod 755 script.sh

19.chown - Change file ownership.

Options:
user:group: Change owner and group.

Example: chown user:group file.txt

20. chgrp - Change file group ownership.

Example: chgrp groupname file.txt

Text Processing
21. grep - Search text using patterns.

Options:
-i: Case-insensitive search.
-r: Recursively search directories.

Example: grep -i "error" /var/log/syslog

22. awk - Pattern scanning and processing language.

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

23. sed - Stream editor for filtering and

transforming text.

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

24. cut - Remove sections from each line of files.

Options:
-d: Delimiter.
-f: Field number.

Example: cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd

25. tr - Translate or delete characters.

Example: echo "hello" | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'

26. sort - Sort lines of text files.

Options:
-r: Reverse sort.
-n: Numeric sort.

Example: sort -n file.txt

27. uniq - Report or omit repeated lines.

Options:
-c: Count occurrences.

Example: uniq -c file.txt

28. wc - Print line, word, and byte counts.

Options:
-l: Count lines.
-w: Count words.

Example: wc -l file.txt

29. diff - Compare files line by line.

Example: diff file1.txt file2.txt

30. patch - Apply changes to files.

Example: patch file.txt < patchfile

31. echo - Display a line of text.

Example: echo "Hello, World!"

32. printf - Format and print data.

Example: printf "Name: %s\n" "Alice"

33. tee - Redirect output to multiple files.

Example: echo "Hello" | tee file1.txt file2.txt

34. nl - Number lines of files.

Example: nl file.txt

35. fold - Wrap each input line to fit specified

width.

Example: fold -w 20 file.txt

System Information and Monitoring

36. uname - Print system information.

Options:
-a: Print all information.

Example: uname -a

37. hostname - Show or set the system’s host

name.

Example: hostname

38. uptime - Show how long the system has been

running.

Example: uptime

39. top - Display Linux processes.

Example: top

40. htop - Interactive process viewer (enhanced

top).

Example: htop
41. ps - Display information about running processes.

Options:
-e: Show all processes.
-f: Full-format listing.

Example: ps -ef

42. pstree - Display processes in a tree format.

Example: pstree

43. free - Display memory usage.

Options:
-h: Human-readable output.

Example: free -h

44. df - Report disk space usage.

Options:
-h: Human-readable output.

Example: df -h

45. du - Estimate file space usage.

Options:
-h: Human-readable output.
-s: Summary of total usage.

Example: du -sh /home

46. vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics.

Example: vmstat 1 5

47. iostat - Report CPU and I/O statistics.

Example: iostat

48. lscpu - Display CPU architecture information.

Example: lscpu

49. lsblk - List block devices.

Example: lsblk

50. lsusb - List USB devices.

Example: lsusb

51. lspci - List PCI devices.

Example: lspci

52. dmesg - Print or control the kernel ring buffer.

Example: dmesg | grep "error"

53. journalctl - Query and display systemd logs.

Example: journalctl -xe

Networking
54. ping - Test network connectivity.

Example: ping google.com

55. ifconfig - Configure or display network interfaces.

Example: ifconfig eth0

56. ip - Show or manipulate routing, devices, and tunnels.

Example: ip addr show

57. netstat - Display network connections.

Example: netstat -tuln

58. ss - Investigate sockets.

Example: ss -tuln

59. dig - DNS lookup utility.

Example: dig google.com

60. nslookup - Query Internet name servers.

Example: nslookup google.com

61. host - DNS lookup utility.

Example: host google.com

62. traceroute - Trace the route packets take to a network

host.
Example: traceroute google.com
63. wget - Non-interactive network downloader.

Example: wget https://example.com/file.zip

64. curl - Transfer data from or to a server.

Example: curl -O https://example.com/file.zip

65. scp - Securely copy files between hosts.

Example: scp file.txt user@remote:/path/to/destination

66. rsync - Synchronize files and directories.

Example: rsync -avz /source/ user@remote:/destination/

67. ssh - Secure shell client.

Example: ssh user@remote

68. ftp - File Transfer Protocol client.

Example: ftp ftp.example.com

69. sftp - Secure File Transfer Protocol client.

Example: sftp user@remote

70. nc (netcat) - Arbitrary TCP and UDP

connections and listens.
Example: nc -zv google.com 80
Package Management

71. apt - Package handling utility (Debian/Ubuntu).

Example: apt install vim

72. yum - Package manager (RHEL/CentOS).

Example: yum install httpd

73. dnf - Next-generation package manager

(Fedora/RHEL).

Example: dnf install nginx

74. rpm - RPM package manager.

Example: rpm -ivh package.rpm

75. dpkg - Debian package manager.

Example: dpkg -i package.deb

76. pacman - Package manager (Arch Linux).

Example: pacman -S vim

77. zypper - Package manager (openSUSE).

Example: zypper install vim

78. snap - Manage snap packages.

Example: snap install vscode

79. flatpak - Manage flatpak applications.

Example: flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Gedit

User and Permission Management

80. useradd - Create a new user.

Example: useradd alice

81. userdel - Delete a user.

Example: userdel alice

82. usermod - Modify a user account.

Example: usermod -aG sudo alice

83. passwd - Change user password.

Example: passwd alice

84. groupadd - Create a new group.

Example: groupadd developers

85. groupdel - Delete a group.

Example: groupdel developers

86. groups - Display group membership.

Example: groups alice

87. id - Print user and group information.

Example: id alice

88. su - Switch user.

Example: su - alice

89. sudo - Execute a command as another user.

Example: sudo apt update

90. visudo - Edit the sudoers file.

Example: visudo
Compression and Archiving
91. tar - Archive files.
Options:
-c: Create archive.
-x: Extract archive.
-v: Verbose output.
-f: Specify archive file.

Example: tar -cvf archive.tar /home/user

92. gzip - Compress files.

Example: gzip file.txt

93. gunzip - Decompress files.

Example: gunzip file.txt.gz

94. bzip2 - Compress files with bzip2.

Example: bzip2 file.txt

95. xz - Compress files with xz.

Example: xz file.txt
96. zip - Package and compress files.

Example: zip archive.zip file.txt

97. unzip - Extract compressed files.

Example: unzip archive.zip

Miscellaneous
98. man - Display the manual page for a
command.

Example: man ls

99. alias - Create command shortcuts.

Example: alias ll='ls -la'

100. history - Display command history.

- Example:history