10/6/2018 The Ultimate A To Z List of Linux Commands | Linux Command Line Reference

A-Z List of Linux Commands

So, In this post, I have tried to compile a list of commands used in various Linux distributions. This has
been possible with inputs from Ubuntu manual, SS64, and Linux Dev Center. As you might be knowing,
some or many of these commands may not work on your distribution. Running those commands may
require you to install additional packages or it’s just that the commands aren’t meant to work on your
system.

The descriptions of these Linux commands are based on their manual pages. To access the man page:

man command_name

For eg: man cat

If you find any discrepancy, please feel free to contact for any correction.

Linux Commands – A
Command Description
accept Accept or Reject jobs to a destination, such as a printer.
access Check a user’s RWX permission for a file.
aclocal GNU autoconf too
aconnect ALSA sequencer connection manager.
Show information about the Advanced Configuration
acpi
and Power Interface.
acpi_available Check if ACPI functionality exists on the system.
acpid Informs user-space programs about ACPI events.
Used to convert addresses into file names and line
addr2line
numbers.
addresses Formats for internet mail addresses.
agetty An alternative Linux Getty
alias Create an alias for Linux commands
alsactl Access advanced controls for ALSA soundcard driver.
Perform read/write operation for ALSA RawMIDI
amidi
ports.
amixer Access CLI-based mixer for ALSA soundcard driver.
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anacron Used to run commands periodically.

aplay Sound recorder and player for CLI.
aplaymidi CLI utility used to play MIDI files.
Show Advanced Power Management (APM) hardware
apm
info on older systems.
apmd Used to handle events reported by APM BIOS drivers.
Shows the list of all man pages containing a specific
apropos
keyword
Advanced Package Tool, a package management
apt
system for Debian and derivatives.
Command-line utility to install/remove/update
apt-get
packages based on APT system.
Another utility to add/remove/upgrade packages based
aptitude
on the APT system.
ar A utility to create/modify/extract from archives.
arch Display print machine hardware name.
Just like aplay, it’s a sound recorder and player for
arecord
ALSA soundcard driver.
arecordmidi Record standard MIDI files.
arp Used to make changes to the system’s ARP cache
as A portable GNU assembler.
aspell An interactive spell checker utility.
Used to schedule command execution at specified date
at
& time, reading commands from an input file.
atd Used to execute jobs queued by the at command.
atq List a user’s pending jobs for the at command.
atrm Delete jobs queued by the at command.
audiosend Used to send an audio recording as an email.
aumix An audio mixer utility.
Generate configuration scripts from a TEMPLATE-
autoconf
FILE and send the output to standard output.
autoheader Create a template header for configure.
Creates GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from
automake
template files
autoreconf Update generated configuration files.
autoscan Generate a preliminary configure.in
autoupdate Update a configure.in file to newer autoconf.
awk Used to find and replace text in a file(s).

Linux Commands – B
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Command Description
badblocks Search a disk partition for bad sectors.
banner Used to print characters as a poster.
basename Used to display filenames with directoy or suffix.
bash GNU Bourne-Again Shell.
batch Used to run commands entered on a standard input.
bc Access the GNU bc calculator utility.
bg Send processes to the background.
Notify about incoming mail and sender’s name on a
biff
system running comsat server.
bind Used to attach a name to a socket.
bison A GNU parser generator, compatible with yacc.
break Used to exit from a loop (eg: for, while, select).
Used to run shell builtin commands, make custom
builtin
functions for commands extending their functionality.
bzcmp Used to call the cmp program for bzip2 compressed files.
bzdiff Used to call the diff program for bzip2 compressed files.
bzgrep Used to call grep for bzip2 compressed files.
bzip2 A block-sorting file compressor used to shrink given files.
Used to apply ‘less’ (show info one page at a time) to
bzless
bzip2 compressed files.
Used to apply ‘more’ (an inferior version of less) to bzip2
bzmore
compressed files.

Linux Commands – C
Command Description
cal Show calendar.
Used to control PCMCIA sockets and select configuration
cardctl
schemes.
Keeps an eye on the added/removes sockets for PCMCIA
cardmgr
devices.
case Execute a command conditionally by matching a pattern.
cat Used to concatenate files and print them on the screen.
cc GNU C and C++ compiler.
cd Used to change directory.
cdda2wav Used to rip a CD-ROM and make WAV file.
Record audio from CD more reliably using data-
cdparanoia
verification algorithms.
cdrdao Used to write all the content specified to a file to a CD all
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at once.
cdrecord Used to record data or audio compact discs.
cfdisk Show or change the disk partition table.
chage Used to change user password information.
chattr Used to change file attributes.
chdir Used to change active working directory.
chfn Used to change real user name and information.
chgrp Used to change group ownership for file.
chkconfig Manage execution of runlevel services.
chmod Change access permission for a file(s).
chown Change the owner or group for a file.
chpasswd Update password in a batch.
chroot Run a command with root privileges.
chrt Alter process attributed in real-time.
chsh Switch login shell.
chvt Change foreground virtual terminal.
cksum Perform a CRC checksum for files.
clear Used to clear the terminal window.
cmp Compare two files (byte by byte).
col Filter reverse (and half-reverse) line feeds from the input.
colcrt Filter nroff output for CRT previewing.
colrm Remove columns from the lines of a file.
column A utility that formats its input into columns.
comm Used to compare two sorted files line by line.
Used to execute a command with arguments ignoring shell
command
function named command.
Used to compress one or more file(s) and replacing the
compress
originals ones.
continue Resume the next iteration of a loop.
cp Copy contents of one file to another.
cpio Copy files from and to archives.
cpp GNU C language processor.
cron A daemon to execute scheduled commands.
crond Same work as cron.
Manage crontab files (containing schedules commands)
crontab
for users.
csplit Split a file into sections on the basis of context lines.
Make a list of functions and macro names defined in a
ctags
programming source file.
cupsd A scheduler for CUPS.
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curl Used to transfer data from or to a server using supported

protocols.
cut Used to remove sections from each line of a file(s).
Concurrent Versions System. Used to track file versions,
cvs allow storage/retrieval of previous versions, and enables
multiple users to work on the same file.

Linux Commands – D
Command Description
date Show system date and time.
dc Desk calculator utility.
Used to convert and copy a file, create disk clone,
dd
write disk headers, etc.
ddrescue Used to recover data from a crashed partition.
Deallocates kernel memory for unused virtual
deallocvt
consoles.
debugfs File system debugger for ext2/ext3/ext4
declare Used to declare variables and assign attributes.
depmod Generate modules.dep and map files.
Interactively displays the contents of device or file
devdump
system ISO.
df Show disk usage.
diff Used to compare files line by line.
diff3 Compare three files line by line.
dig Domain Information Groper, a DNS lookup utility.
dir List the contents of a directory.
Set colors for ‘ls’ by altering the LS_COLORS
dircolors
environment variable.
Display pathname after removing the last slash and
dirname
characters thereafter.
dirs Show the list of remembered directories.
disable Restrict access to a printer.
Interactive Desktop Link Protocol (DLP) shell for
dlpsh
PalmOS.
dmesg Examine and control the kernel ring buffer.
dnsdomainname Show the DNS domain name of the system.
Generate encrypted Secure DNS keys for a given
dnssec-keygen
domain name.
dnssec- Produce domain key set from one or more DNS
makekeyset security keys generated by dnssec-keygen.
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Sign a secure DNS keyset with key signatures

dnssec-signkey
specified in the list of key-identifiers.
Sign a secure DNS zonefile with the signatures in the
dnssec-signzone
specified list of key-identifiers.
Used to run an executable with an arbitrary argv list
doexec
provided.
Show or set the name of current NIS (Network
domainname
Information Services) domain.
dosfsck Check and repair MS-DOS file systems.
du Show disk usage summary for a file(s).
dump Backup utility for ext2/ext3 file systems.
dumpe2fs Dump ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems.
Show information about the keyboard driver’s
dumpkeys
current translation tables.

Linux Commands – E
Command Desription
e2fsck Used to check ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems.
Store important ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem metadata to a
e2image
file.
e2label Show or change the label on an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem.
Send input string(s) to standard output i.e. display text on
echo
the screen.
ed GNU Ed – a line-oriented text editor.
Used to edit filesystem quotas using a text editor, such as
edquota
vi.
egrep Search and display text matching a pattern.
eject Eject removable media.
Used to set latency in the elevator algorithm used to
elvtune
schedule I/O activities for specified block devices.
emacs Emacs text editor command line utility.
enable Used to enable/disable shell builtin commands.
Run a command in a modified environment.
env
Show/set/delete environment variables.
Substitute environment variable values in shell format
envsubst
strings.
Start the Enlightenment Sound Daemon (EsounD or esd).
esd Enables multiple applications to access the same audio
device simultaneously.
esd-config Manage EsounD configuration.
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esdcat Use EsounD to send audio data from a specified file.

esdctl EsounD control program.
Used to reroute non-esd audio data to esd and control all
esddsp
the audio using esd.
Used to copy the sound being sent to a device. Also, send
esdmon
it to a secondary device.
esdplay Use EsounD system to play a file.
esdrec Use EsounD to record audio to a specified file.
esdsample Sample audio using esd.
Used to create a list of functions and macros from a
etags programming source file. These etags are used by emacs.
For vi, use ctags.
Used to query and control network driver and hardware
ethtool
settings.
Used to evaluate multiple commands or arguments are
eval
once.
ex Interactive command
exec An interactive line-based text editor.
exit Exit from the terminal.
Convert tabs into spaces in a given file and show the
expand
output.
An extension to the Tcl script, it’s used to automate
expect interaction with other applications based on their expected
output.
export Used to set an environment variable.
expr Evaluate expressions and display them on standard output.

Linux Commands – F
Command Description
factor Display prime factors of specified integer numbers.
Do nothing, unsuccessfully. Exit with a status code
false
indicating failure.
Make font information cache after scanning the
fc-cache
directories.
fc-list Show the list of available fonts.
fdformat Do a low-level format on a floppy disk.
fdisk Make changes to the disk partition table.
Fetch mail from mail servers and forward it to the local
fetchmail
mail delivery system.
fg Used to send a job to the foreground.
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fgconsole Display the number of the current virtual console.

Display lines from a file(s) that match a specified string. A
fgrep
variant of grep.
file Determine file type for a file.
find Do a file search in a directory hierarchy.
Display user data including the information listed
finger
in .plan and .project in each user’s home directory.
fingerd Provides a network interface for the finger program.
flex Generate programs that perform pattern-matching on text.
Used to convert text to a specified width by filling lines
fmt
and removing new lines, displaying the output.
fold Wrap input line to fit in a specified width.
Expand words and run commands for each one in the
for
resultant list.
formail Used to filter standard input into mailbox format.
format Used to format disks.
free Show free and used system memory.
fsck Check and repair a Linux file system
ftp File transfer protocol user interface.
ftpd FTP server process.
function Used to define function macros.
fuser Find and kill a process accessing a file.

Linux Commands – G
Command Description
g++ Run the g++ compiler.
Used for pattern scanning and language processing. A
gawk
GNU implementation of AWK language.
gcc A C and C++ compiler by GNU.
A utility to debug programs and know about where it
gdb
crashes.
Shows entries from Name Service Switch Libraries for
getent
specified keys.
getkeycodes Displays the kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table.
getopts A utility to parse positional parameters.
gpasswd Allows an administrator to change group passwords.
Enables encryption and signing services as per the
gpg
OpenPGP standard.
gpgsplit Used to split an OpenPGP message into packets.
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gpgv Used to verify OpenPGP signatures.

It enables cut and paste functionality and a mouse server
gpm
for the Linux console.
gprof Shows call graph profile data.
Searches input files for a given pattern and displays the
grep
relevant lines.
Serves as the front-end of the groff document formatting
groff
system.
groffer Displays groff files and man pages.
groupadd Used to add a new user group.
groupdel Used to remove a user group.
groupmod Used to modify a group definition.
groups Show the group(s) to which a user belongs.
grpck Verifies the integrity of group files.
Creates a gshadow file from a group or an already
grpconv
existing gshadow.
Invokes Ghostscript, and interpreter and previewer for
gs
Adobe’s PostScript and PDF languages.
gunzip A utility to compress/expand files.
Used compress executable files in place and have them
gzexe
automatically uncompress and run at a later stage.
gzip Same as gzip.

Linux Commands – H
Command Description
halt Command used to half the machine.
hash Shows the path for the commands executed in the shell.
hdparm Show/configure parameters for SATA/IDE devices.
head Shows first 10 lines from each specified file.
help Display’s help for a built-in command.
Shows specified file output in hexadecimal, octal, decimal,
hexdump
or ASCII format.
history Shows the command history.
host A utility to perform DNS lookups.
hostid Shows host’s numeric ID in hexadecimal format.
hostname Display/set the hostname of the system.
Manage the user authentication file used by the Apache
htdigest
web server.
htop An interactive process viewer for the command line.
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hwclock Show or configure the system’s hardware clock.

Linux Commands – I
Command Description
iconv Convert text file from one encoding to another.
id Show user and group information for a specified user.
if Execute a command conditionally.
ifconfig Used to configure network interfaces.
ifdown Stops a network interface.
ifup Starts a network interface.
An IMAP (Interactive Mail Access Protocol) server
imapd
daemon.
import Capture an X server screen and saves it as an image.
Extended internet services daemon, it starts the programs
inetd
that provide internet services.
info Used to read the documentation in Info format.
init Systemd system and service manager.
insmod A program that inserts a module into the Linux kernel.
Used to copy files to specified locations and set
install
attributions during the install process.
Shows statistics for CPU, I/O devices, partitions, network
iostat
filesystems.
Display/manipulate routing, devices, policy, routing and
ip
tunnels.
Used to remove System V interprocess communication
ipcrm
(IPC) objects and associated data structures.
Show information on IPC facilities for which calling
ipcs
process has read access.
iptables Administration tool for IPv4 packet filtering and NAT.
iptables- Used to restore IP tables from data specified in the input or
restore a file.
iptables-
Used to dump IP table contents to standard output.
save
A utility that shows the content iso9660 images to verify
isodump
the integrity of directory contents.
A utility to perform directory like listings of iso9660
isoinfo
images.
Show the length of an iso9660 filesystem contained in a
isosize
specified file.
isovfy Verifies the integrity of an iso9660 image.
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ispell A CLI-based spell-check utility.

Linux Commands – J
Command Description
jobs Show the list of active jobs and their status.
For each pair of input lines, join them using a command
join
field and display on standard output.

Linux Commands – K
Command Description
Set a keyboard mode. Without arguments, shows the
kbd_mode
current keyboard mode.
kbdrate Reset keyboard repeat rate and delay time.
kill Send a kill (termination) signal to one more processes.
killall Kills a process(es) running a specified command.
A SystemV killall command. Kills all the processes
killall5
excluding the ones which it depends on.
Control and prioritize the kernel messages to be displayed
klogd
on the console, and log them through syslogd.
Used to detect new and enhanced hardware by comparing
kudzu
it with existing database. Only for RHEL and derivates.

Linux Commands – L
Command Description
Shows a list of recent logins on the system by fetching
last
data from /var/log/wtmp file.
Shows the list of bad login attempts by fetching data
lastb
from /var/log/btmp file.
Displays information about the most recent login of all
lastlog
users or a specified user.
The Unix linker, it combines archives and object files. It
ld then puts them into one output file, resolving external
references.
ldconfig Configure dynamic linker run-time bindings.
ldd Shows shared object dependencies.
less Displays contents of a file one page at a time. It’s

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advanced than more command.

lesskey Used to specify key bindings for less command.
let Used to perform integer artithmetic on shell variables.
lftp An FTP utility with extra features.
Uses lftop to retrieve HTTP, FTP, and other protocol
lftpget
URLs supported by lftp.
link Create links between two files. Similar to ln command.
Create links between files. Links can be hard (two names
ln
for the same file) or soft (a shortcut of the first file).
loadkeys Load keyboard translation tables.
local Used to create function variables.
locale Shows information about current or all locales.
locate Used to find files by their name.
Create semaphore file(s) which can be used to limit access
lockfile
to a file.
logger Make entries in the system log.
login Create a new session on the system.
logname Shows the login name of the current user.
Performs the logout operation by making changes to the
logout
utmp and wtmp files.
Used for automatic rotation, compression, removal, and
logrotate
mailing of system log files.
Shows any lines in a file containing a given string in the
look
beginning.
losetup Set up and control loop devices.
Used to configure printer and class queues provided by
lpadmin
CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System).
Line printer control program, it provides limited control
lpc
over CUPS printer and class queues.
Shows the list of avaiable devices and drivers known to
lpinfo
the CUPS server.
lpmove Move on or more printing jobs to a new destination.
lpq Shows current print queue status for a specified printer.
lpr Used to submit files for printing.
lprint Used to print a file.
lprintd Used to abort a print job.
lprintq List the print queue.
lprm Cancel print jobs.
Displays status information about current classes, jobs,
lpstat
and printers.
ls Shows the list of files in the current directory.
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lsattr Shows file attributes on a Linux ext2 file system.

Lists information about all available or the specified block
lsblk
devices.
lsmod Show the status of modules in the Linux kernel.
lsof List open files.
lspci List all PCI devices.
lsusb List USB devices.

Linux Commands – M
Command Description
m4 Macro processor.
Utility to compose, receive, send, forward, and reply to
mail
emails.
Shows to list all emails queued for delivery (sendmail
mailq
queue).
mailstats Shows current mail statistics.
Used to send mail with multimedia content in MIME
mailto
format.
Utility to maintain groups of programs, recompile them
make
if needed.
Creates an NIS (Network Information Services)
makedbm
database map.
Creates database maps used by the keyed map lookups
makemap
in sendmail.
man Shows manual pages for Linux commands.
manpath Determine search path for manual pages.
mattrib Used to change MS-DOS file attribute flags.
mbadblocks Checks MD-DOS filesystems for bad blocks.
mcat Dump raw disk image.
mcd Used to change MS-DOS directory.
mcopy Used to copy MS-DOS files from or to Unix.
md5sum Used to check MD5 checksum for a file.
mdel, Used to delete MS-DOS file. mdeltree recursively
mdeltree deletes MS-DOS directory and its contents.
mdir Used to display an MS-DOS directory.
Used to display the amount of space occupied by an
mdu
MS-DOS directory.
Three-way file merge. Includes all changes from file2
merge
and file3 to file1.

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mesg Allow/disallow osends to sedn write messages to your

terminal.
For sending and showing rich text or multimedia email
metamail
using MIME typing metadata.
metasend An interface for sending non-text mail.
Used to add an MS-DOS filesystem to a low-level
mformat
formatted floppy disk.
Translate to/from MIME multimedia mail encoding
mimencode
formats.
minfo Display parameters of an MS-DOS filesystem.
mkdir Used to create directories.
mkdosfs Used to create an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux.
mke2fs Used create an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem.
Used to create named pipes (FIFOs) with the given
mkfifo
names.
Used to build a Linux filesystem on a hard disk
mkfs
partition.
mkfs.ext3 Same as mke2fs, create an ext3 Linux filesystem.
Used to create an ISO9660/JOLIET/HFS hybrid
mkisofs
filesystem.
Create a lost+found directory on a mounted ext2
mklost+found
filesystem.
mkmanifest Makes a list of file names and their DOS 8.3 equivalent.
Create a FIFO, block (buffered) special file, character
mknod
(unbuffered) special file with the specified name.
mkraid Used to setup RAID device arrays.
mkswap Set up a Linux swap area.
mktemp Create a temporary file or directory.
mlabel Make an MD-DOS volume label.
mmd Make an MS-DOS subdirectory.
mmount Mount an MS-DOS disk.
mmove Move or rename an MS-DOS file or subdirectory.
mmv Mass move and rename files.
modinfo Show information about a Linux kernel module.
modprobe Add or remove modules from the Linux kernel.
more Display content of a file page-by-page.
most Browse or page through a text file.
mount Mount a filesystem.
mountd NFS mount daemon.
mpartition Partition an MS-DOS disk.
mpg123 Command-line mp3 player.
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mpg321 Similar to mpg123.

mrd Remove an MS-DOS subdirectory.
mren Rename an existing MS-DOS file.
mshowfat Show FTA clusters allocated to a file.
mt Control magnetic tape drive operation.
mtools Utilities to access MS-DOS disks.
mtoolstest Tests and displays the mtools configuration files.
mtr A network diagnostic tool.
mtype Display contents of an MS-DOS file.
mv Move/rename files or directories.
Change protection mode and eject disk on Zip/Jaz
mzip
drive.

Linux Commands – N
Command Description
named Internet domain name server.
namei Follow a pathname until a terminal point is found.
nameif Name network interfaces based on MAC addresses.
Netcat utility. Arbitrary TCP and UDP connections and
nc
listens.
netstat Show network information.
newaliases Rebuilds mail alias database.
newgrp Log-in to a new group.
newusers Update/create new users in batch.
nfsd Special filesystem for controlling Linux NFS server.
nfsstat List NFS statistics.
nice Run a program with modified scheduling priority.
Show numbered line while displaying the contents of a
nl
file.
nm List symbols from object files.
nohup Run a command immune to hangups.
notify-
A program to send desktop notifications.
send
Used performs DNS queries. Read this article for more
nslookup
info.
nsupdate Dynamic DNS update utility.

Linux Commands – O
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Command Description
objcopy Copy and translate object files.
objdump Display information from object files.
od Dump files in octal and other formats.
Operator access, allows system administrators to grant
op users access to certain root operations that require
superuser privileges.
open Open a file using its default application.
openvt Start a program on a new virtual terminal (VT).

Linux Commands – P
Command Description
passwd Change user password.
Merge lines of files. Write to standard output, TAB-
paste separated lines consisting of sqentially correspnding lines
from each file.
Apply a patchfile (containing differences listing by diff
patch
program) to an original file.
pathchk Check if file names are valid or portable.
perl Perl 5 language interpreter.
List process IDs matching the specified criteria among all
pgrep
the running processes.
pidof Find process ID of a running program.
ping Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts.
pinky Lightweight finger.
Send kill signal to processes based on name and other
pkill
attributes.
pmap Report memory map of a process.
Removes directory on the head of the directory stack and
popd
takes you to the new directory on the head.
portmap Converts RPC program numbers to IP port numbers.
poweroff Shuts down the machine.
pppd Point-to-point protocol daemon.
pr Convert (column or paginate) text files for printing.
praliases Prints the current system mail aliases.
printcap Printer capability database.
printenv Show values of all or specified environment variables.
Show arguments formatted according to a specified
printf
format.
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ps Report a snapshot of the current processes.

ptx Produce a permuted index of file contents.
Appends a given directory name to the head of the stack
pushd
and then cd to the given directory.
pv Monitor progress of data through a pipe.
pwck Verify integrity of password files.
Creates shadow from passwd and an optionally existing
pwconv
shadow.
pwd Show current directory.
python

Linux Commands – Q
Command Description
Shows disk usage, and space limits for a user or group.
quota
Without arguments, only shows user quotas.
quotacheck Used to scan a file system for disk usage.
quotactl Make changes to disk quotas.
quotaoff Enable enforcement of filesystem quotas.
quotaon Disable enforcement of filesystem quotas.
Shows the report of quota system statistics gathered from
quotastats
the kernel.

Linux Commands – R
Command Description
raidstart Start/stop RAID devices.
RAM disk device used to access the RAM disk in raw
ram
mode.
ramsize Show usage information for the RAM disk.
Generate index to the contents of an archive and store it in
ranlib
the archive.
rar Create and manage RAR file in Linux.
Respond to Reverse Address Resoultion Protocol (RARP)
rarpd
requests.
Remote copy command to copy files between remote
rcp
computers.
Set system date and time by fetching information from a
rdate
remote machine.
rdev Set or query RAM disk size, image root device, or video
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mode.
Remote file distribution client, maintains identical file
rdist
copies over multiple hosts.
rdistd Start the rdist server.
read Read from a file descriptor.
readarray Read lines from a file into an array variable.
readcd Read/write compact disks.
Shows information about ELF (Executable and Linkable
readelf
fomrat) files.
readlink Display value of a symbolic link or canonical file name.
readonly Mark functions and variables as read-only.
reboot Restart the machine.
reject Accept/reject print jobs sent to a specified destination.
remsync Synchronize remote files over email.
rename Rename one or more files.
renice Change priority of active processes.
repquota Report disk usage and quotas for a specified filesystem.
reset Reinitialize the terminal.
resize2fs Used to resize ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems.
restore Restore files from a backup created using dump.
return Exit a shell function.
Show contents of a file, reversing the order of characters
rev
in every line.
rexec Remote execution client for exec server.
rexecd Remote execution server.
richtext View “richtext” on an ACSII terminal.
rlogin Used to connect a local host system with a remote host.
Acts as the server for rlogin. It facilitates remote login, and
rlogind authentication based on privileged port numbers from
trusted hosts.
rm Removes specified files and directories (not by default).
rmail Handle remote mail received via uucp.
rmdir Used to remove empty directories.
rmmod A program to remove modules from Linux kernel.
Name server control utility. Send command to a BIND
rndc
DNS server over a TCP connection.
rootflags Show/set flags for the kernel image.
route Show/change IP routing table.
A daemon, invoked at boot time, to manage internet
routed
routing tables.

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rpcgen An RPC protocol compiler. Parse a file written in the RPC

language.
Shows RPC information. Makes an RPC call to an RPC
rpcinfo
server and reports the findings.
A package manager for linux distributions. Originally
rpm
developed for RedHat Linux.
Remote shell. Connects to a specified host and executes
rsh
commands.
rshd A daemon that acts as a server for rsh and rcp commands.
rsync A versitile to for copying files remotely and locally.
runlevel Shows previous and current SysV runlevel.
Remote status display. Shows current system status for all
rup
or specified hosts on the local network.
Shows uptime and login details of the machines on the
ruptime
local network.
Shows the list of the users logged-in to the host or on all
rusers
machines on the local network.
The rsuerd daemon acts as a server that responds to the
rusersd
queries from rsuers command.
rwall Sends messages to all users on the local network.
rwho Reports who is logged-in to the hosts on the local network.
rwhod Acts as a server for rwho and ruptime commands.

Linux Commands – S
Command Description
sane-find- Find SCSI and USB scanner and determine their device
scanner files.
Retrieve multiple images from a scanner equipped with
scanadf
an automatic document feeder (ADF).
Read images from image aquistion devices (scanner or
scanimage camera) and display on standard output in PNM (Portable
aNyMap) format.
Copy files between hosts on a network securely using
scp
SSH.
A window manager that enables multiple pseudo-
screen terminals with the help of ANSI/VT100 terminal
emulation.
Used to make a typescript of everything displayed on the
script
screen during a terminal session.
Shows two files side-by-side and highlights the
sdiff
differences.
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sed Stream editor for filtering and transforming text (from a

file or a pipe input).
select Synchronous I/O multiplexing.
It’s a mail router or an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent).
sendmail sendmail support can send a mail to one or more
recepients using necessary protocols.
sensors Shows the current readings of all sensor chips.
Displays an incremental sequence of numbers from first
seq
to last.
set Used to manipulate shell variables and functions.
setfdprm Sets floppy disk parameters as provided by the user.
setkeycodes Load kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries.
setleds Show/change LED light settings of the keyboard.
Define keyboard meta key handling. Without arguments,
setmetamode
shows current meta key mode.
setquota Set disk quotas for users and groups.
setsid Run a program in a new session.
setterm Set terminal attributes.
sftp Secure File Transfer program.
sh Command interpreter (shell) utility.
Compute and check 160-bit SHA1 checksum to verify
sha1sum
file integrity.
shift Shift positional parameters.
shopt Shell options.
Examines codes sent by the keyboard displays them in
showkey
printable form.
showmount Shows information about NFS server mount on the host.
Overwrite a file to hide its content (optionally delete it),
shred
making it harder to recover it.
shutdown Power-off the machine.
size Lists section size and the total size of a specified file.
skill Send a signal to processes.
slabtop Show kernel slab cache information in real-time.
slattach Attack a network interface to a serial line.
Suspend execution for a specified amount of time (in
sleep
seconds).
Display matches by searching filename databases. Takes
slocate
ownership and file permission into consideration.
snice Reset priority for processes.
sort Sort lines of text files.
source Run commands from a specified file.
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split Split a file into pieces of fixed size.

ss Display socket statistics, similar to netstat.
An SSH client for logging in to a remote machine. It
ssh
provides encrypted communication between the hosts.
ssh-add Adds private key identities to the authentication agent.
ssh-agent It holds private keys used for public key authentication.
It generates, manages, converts authentication keys for
ssh-keygen
ssh.
ssh-keyscan Gather ssh public keys.
sshd Server for the ssh program.
stat Display file or filesystem status.
A daemon that listens for reboot notifications from other
statd hosts, and manages the list of hosts to be notified when
the local system reboots.
strace Trace system calls and signals.
strfile Create a random access file for storing strings.
Search a specified file and prints any printable strings
strings with at least four characters and followed by an
unprintable character.
strip Discard symbols from object files.
stty Change and print terminal line settings.
su Change user ID or become superuser.
sudo Execute a command as superuser.
sum Checksum and count the block in a file.
suspend Suspend the execution of the current shell.
swapoff Disable devices for paging and swapping.
swapon Enable devices for paging and swapping.
symlink Create a symbolic link to a file.
sync Synchronize cached writes to persistent storage.
sysctl Configure kernel parameters at runtime.
Linux system logging utilities. Provides syslogd and
sysklogd
klogd functionalities.
Read and log system messages to the system console and
syslogd
log files.

Linux Commands – T
Command Description
Concatenate and print files in reverse order. Opposite of
tac
cat command.

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tail Show the last 10 lines of each specified file(s).

tailf Follow the growth of a log file. (Deprecated command)
A two-way screen-oriented communication utility that
talk
allows two user to exchange messages simulateneously.
talkd A remote user communication server for talk.
GNU version of the tar archiving utility. Used to store and
tar
extract multiple files from a single archive.
taskset Set/retrieve a process’s CPU affinity.
tcpd Access control utility for internet services.
Dump traffic on network. Displays a description of the
tcpdump contents of packets on a network interface that match the
boolean expression.
tcpslice Extract pieces of tcpdump files or merge them.
Read from standard input and write to standard output and
tee
files.
telinit Change SysV runlevel.
Telnet protocol user interface. Used to interact with
telnet
another host using telnet.
telnetd A server for the telnet protocol.
test Check file type and compare values.
User interface to the internet TFTP (Trivial File Transfer
tftp
Protocol).
tftpd TFTP server.
time Run programs and summarize system resource usage.
timeout Execute a command with a time limit.
Shows accumulated user and system times for the shell
times
and it’s child processes.
Shows a graph of the current system load average to the
tload
specified tty.
Recursively remove files and directories which haven’t
tmpwatch
been accessed for the specified period of time.
Displays real-time view of processes running on the
top
system.
touch Change file access and modification times.
tput Modify terminal-dependent capabilities, color, etc.
Translate, squeeze, or delete characters from standard
tr
input and display on standard output.
Traces path to a network host discovering MTU
tracepath
(Maximum Transmission Unit) along this path.
Traces the route taken by the packets to reach the network
traceroute
host.
trap Trap function responds to hardware signals. It defines and
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creates handlers to run when the shell receives signals.

troff The troff processor of the groff text formatting system.
TRUE Exit with a status code indicating success.
tset Initialize terminal.
tsort Perform topological sort.
Display the filename of the terminal connected to standard
tty
input.
Adjust tunable filesystem parameters on ext2/ext3/ext4
tune2fs
filesystems.
tunelp Set various parameters for the line printer devices.
type Write a description for a command type.

Linux Commands – U
Command Description
ul Underline text.
ulimit Get and set user limits for the calling process.
umask Set file mode creation mask.
umount Unmount specified file systems.
unalias Remove alias definitions for specified alias names.
uname Show system information.
Uncompress the files compressed with the compress
uncompress
command.
unexpand Convert spaces to tabs for a specified file.
unicode_start Put keyboard and console in Unicode mode.
unicode_stop Revert keyboard and console from Unicode mode.
uniq Report or omit repeating lines.
units Convert units from one scalar to another.
unrar Extract files from a RAR archive.
unset Remove variable or function names.
unshar Unpack shell archive scripts.
until Execute command until a given condition is true.
uptime Tell how long the system has been running.
useradd Create a new user or update default user information.
userdel Delete a user account and related files.
usermod Modify a user account.
users Show the list of active users on the machine.
usleep Suspend execution for microsecond intervals.
uudecode Decode a binary file.
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uuencode Encode a binary file.

Created a new UUID (Universally Unique Identifier)
uuidgen
table.

Linux Commands – V
Command Description
vdir Same as ls -l -b. Verbosely list directory contents.
vi A text editor utility.
Set the video mode for a kernel image. Displays current
vidmode
mode value without arguments. Alternative: rdev -v
Vi Improved, a text-based editor which is a successor to
vim
vi.
Shows information about processes, memory, paging,
vmstat
block IO, traps, disks, and CPU activity.
Returns volume name for a device formatted with an ISO-
volname
9660 filesystem. For example, CD-ROM.

Linux Commands – W
Command Description
w Show who is logged-on and what they’re doing.
Waits for a specified process ID(s) to terminate and returns
wait
the termination status.
Display a message on the terminals all the users who are
wall
currently logged-in.
Send mail to the users who’ve exceeded their disk quota
warnquota
soft limit.
Runs commands repeatedly until interrupted and shows
watch
their output and errors.
Print newline, word, and byte count for each of the
wc
specified files.
wget A non-interactive file download utility.
whatis Display one line manual page descriptions.
Locate the binary, source, and man page files for a
whereis
command.
For a given command, lists the pathnames for the files
which
which would be executed when the command runs.
while Conditionally execute commands (while loop).
who Shows who is logged on.

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whoami Displays the username tied to the current effective user ID.
whois Looks for an object in a WHOIS database
write Display a message on other user’s terminal.

Linux Commands – X
Command Description
Runs a command using initial arguments and then reads
xargs
remaining arguments from standard input.
Used to open a file or URL in an application preferred by
xdg-open
the user.
xinetd Extended internet services daemon. Works similar to inetd.
xz Compress/ Decompress .xz and .lzma files.

Linux Commands – Y
Command Description
Yet Another Compiler Compiler, a GNU Project parser
yacc
generator.
Repeatedly output a line with a specified string(s) until
yes
killed.
A daemon that helps client processes to connect to an NIS
ypbind
server.
Shows the NIS map (or database) for the specified
ypcat
MapName parameter.
ypinit Sets up NIS maps on an NIS server.
ypmatch Shows values for specified keys from an NIS map.
yppasswd Change NIS login password.
Acts as a server for the yppasswd command. Receives and
yppasswdd
executes requests.
Shows the ID number or version of NIS map currently
yppoll
used on the NIS server.
yppush Forces slave NIS servers to copy updated NIS maps.
A daemon activated at system startup. It looks for
ypserv
information in local NIS maps.
Point a client (running ypbind) to a specifc server (running
ypset
ypserv).
Calls various functions to check the configuration of NIS
yptest
services.
ypwhich Shows the hostname for NIS server or master server for a
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given map.
ypxfr Transfers NIS server map from server to a local host.

Linux Commands – Z
Command Description
zcat Used to compress/uncompress files. Similar to gzip
zcmp Compare compressed files.
zdiff Compare compressed files line by line.
zdump Displays time for the timezone mentioned.
zforce Adds .gz extension to all gzipped files.
zgrep Performs grep on compressed files.
Creates time conversion information files using the
zic
specified input files.
zip A file compression and packaging utility.
Displays information of a compressed file (using less
zless
command) on the terminal one screen at a time.
Displays output of a compressed file (using more
zmore
command) on the terminal one page at a time.
znew Recompress .z files to .gz. files.

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