Linux Command Reference

File Commands System Info

ls – directory listing date – show the current date and time
ls -al – formatted listing with hidden fles cal – show this month's calendar
cd dir - change directory to dir uptime – show current uptime
cd – change to home w – display who is online
pwd – show current directory whoami – who you are logged in as
mkdir dir – create a directory dir finger user – display information about user
rm file – delete fle uname -a – show kernel information
rm -r dir – delete directory dir cat /proc/cpuinfo – cpu information
rm -f file – force remove fle cat /proc/meminfo – memory information
rm -rf dir – force remove directory dir * man command – show the manual for command
cp file1 file2 – copy fle1 to fle2 df – show disk usage
cp -r dir1 dir2 – copy dir1 to dir2; create dir2 if it du – show directory space usage
doesn't exist free – show memory and swap usage
mv file1 file2 – rename or move fle1 to fle2 whereis app – show possible locations of app
if fle2 is an existing directory, moves fle1 into which app – show which app will be run by default
directory fle2
ln -s file link – create symbolic link link to fle Compression
touch file – create or update fle tar cf file.tar files – create a tar named
cat > file – places standard input into fle fle.tar containing fles
more file – output the contents of fle tar xf file.tar – extract the fles from fle.tar
head file – output the frst 10 lines of fle tar czf file.tar.gz files – create a tar with
tail file – output the last 10 lines of fle Gzip compression
tail -f file – output the contents of fle as it tar xzf file.tar.gz – extract a tar using Gzip
grows, starting with the last 10 lines tar cjf file.tar.bz2 – create a tar with Bzip2
compression
Process Management tar xjf file.tar.bz2 – extract a tar using Bzip2
ps – display your currently active processes gzip file – compresses fle and renames it to
top – display all running processes fle.gz
kill pid – kill process id pid gzip -d file.gz – decompresses fle.gz back to
killall proc – kill all processes named proc * fle
bg – lists stopped or background jobs; resume a
stopped job in the background Network
fg – brings the most recent job to foreground ping host – ping host and output results
fg n – brings job n to the foreground whois domain – get whois information for domain
File Permissions dig domain – get DNS information for domain
dig -x host – reverse lookup host
chmod octal file – change the permissions of fle
wget file – download fle
to octal, which can be found separately for user,
wget -c file – continue a stopped download
group, and world by adding:
● 4 – read (r)
Installation
● 2 – write (w)
Install from source:
● 1 – execute (x)
./configure
Examples: make
chmod 777 – read, write, execute for all make install
chmod 755 – rwx for owner, rx for group and world dpkg -i pkg.deb – install a package (Debian)
For more options, see man chmod. rpm -Uvh pkg.rpm – install a package (RPM)
SSH
ssh user@host – connect to host as user Shortcuts
ssh -p port user@host – connect to host on port Ctrl+C – halts the current command
port as user Ctrl+Z – stops the current command, resume with
ssh-copy-id user@host – add your key to host for fg in the foreground or bg in the background
user to enable a keyed or passwordless login Ctrl+D – log out of current session, similar to exit
Ctrl+W – erases one word in the current line
Searching Ctrl+U – erases the whole line
grep pattern files – search for pattern in fles Ctrl+R – type to bring up a recent command
grep -r pattern dir – search recursively for !! - repeats the last command
pattern in dir exit – log out of current session
command | grep pattern – search for pattern in the
output of command
locate file – fnd all instances of fle * use with extreme caution.