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.

acpi  Show information about the Advanced Configuration and Power

Interface.

acpi_available  Check if ACPI functionality exists on the system.

acpid  Informs user-space programs about ACPI events.

addr2line  Used to convert addresses into file names and line 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.

amidi  Perform read/write operation for ALSA RawMIDI ports.

amixer  Access CLI-based mixer for ALSA soundcard driver.

anacron  Used to run commands periodically.

aplay  Sound recorder and player for CLI.

aplaymidi  CLI utility used to play MIDI files.

apm  Show Advanced Power Management (APM) hardware info on

older systems.

apmd  Used to handle events reported by APM BIOS drivers.

apropos  Shows the list of all man pages containing a specific keyword
  Advanced Package Tool, a package management system for
apt
Debian and derivatives.

apt-get  Command-line utility to install/remove/update packages based

on APT system.

aptitude  Another utility to add/remove/upgrade packages based 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 ALSA
arecord
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.

at  Used to schedule command execution at specified date & 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-FILE and send

autoconf
the output to standard output.
autoheader  Create a template header for configure.

automake  Creates GNU standards-compliant Makefiles from 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

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 system
biff
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).

builtin  Used to run shell builtin commands, make custom 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.

bzless  Used to apply ‘less’ (show info one page at a time) to 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-verification
cdparanoia
algorithms.

 Used to write all the content specified to a file to a CD all at

cdrdao
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 originals

compress
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) for

crontab
users.

csplit  Split a file into sections on the basis of context lines.

ctags  Make a list of functions and macro names defined in a

programming source file.

cupsd  A scheduler for CUPS.

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, allow

cvs 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, write disk
dd
headers, etc.

ddrescue  Used to recover data from a crashed partition.

deallocvt  Deallocates kernel memory for unused virtual consoles.

debugfs  File system debugger for ext2/ext3/ext4

declare  Used to declare variables and assign attributes.

depmod  Generate modules.dep and map files.

devdump  Interactively displays the contents of device or file 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.

dircolors  Set colors for ‘ls’ by altering the LS_COLORS environment

variable.
  Display pathname after removing the last slash and characters
dirname
thereafter.

dirs  Show the list of remembered directories.

disable  Restrict access to a printer.

dlpsh  Interactive Desktop Link Protocol (DLP) shell for PalmOS.

dmesg  Examine and control the kernel ring buffer.

dnsdomainname  Show the DNS domain name of the system.

dnssec-keygen  Generate encrypted Secure DNS keys for a given domain name.

 Produce domain key set from one or more DNS security keys
dnssec-makekeyset
generated by dnssec-keygen.

dnssec-signkey  Sign a secure DNS keyset with key signatures specified in the list
of key-identifiers.

dnssec-signzone  Sign a secure DNS zonefile with the signatures in the specified
list of key-identifiers.
doexec  Used to run an executable with an arbitrary argv list provided.

 Show or set the name of current NIS (Network Information

domainname
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 current

dumpkeys
translation tables.
Linux Commands – E

Command Desription

e2fsck  Used to check ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems.

e2image  Store important ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem metadata to a 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 the

echo
screen.

ed  GNU Ed – a line-oriented text editor.

edquota  Used to edit filesystem quotas using a text editor, such as vi.

egrep  Search and display text matching a pattern.

eject  Eject removable media.

elvtune  Used to set latency in the elevator algorithm used to 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. Show/set/delete
env
environment variables.

envsubst  Substitute environment variable values in shell format 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.

esdcat  Use EsounD to send audio data from a specified file.

esdctl  EsounD control program.

esddsp  Used to reroute non-esd audio data to esd and control all the
audio using esd.

esdmon  Used to copy the sound being sent to a device. Also, send 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.

ethtool  Used to query and control network driver and hardware

settings.

eval  Used to evaluate multiple commands or arguments are once.

ex  Interactive command

exec  An interactive line-based text editor.

exit  Exit from the terminal.

expand  Convert tabs into spaces in a given file and show the output.

expect  An extension to the Tcl script, it’s used to automate 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 indicating

0
failure.

fc-cache  Make font information cache after scanning the 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 mail
fetchmail
delivery system.

fg  Used to send a job to the foreground.

fgconsole  Display the number of the current virtual console.

fgrep  Display lines from a file(s) that match a specified string. A

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 in .plan and
finger
.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.

fmt  Used to convert text to a specified width by filling lines 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 resultant
for
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.

gawk  Used for pattern scanning and language processing. A GNU

implementation of AWK language.

gcc  A C and C++ compiler by GNU.

gdb  A utility to debug programs and know about where it crashes.

 Shows entries from Name Service Switch Libraries for specified

getent
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.

gpg  Enables encryption and signing services as per the OpenPGP

standard.

gpgsplit  Used to split an OpenPGP message into packets.

gpgv  Used to verify OpenPGP signatures.

  It enables cut and paste functionality and a mouse server for the
gpm
Linux console.

gprof  Shows call graph profile data.

grep  Searches input files for a given pattern and displays the relevant
lines.

groff  Serves as the front-end of the groff document formatting

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.

grpconv  Creates a gshadow file from a group or an already existing

gshadow.

gs  Invokes Ghostscript, and interpreter and previewer for 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, or

hexdump
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 web

htdigest
server.
htop  An interactive process viewer for the command line.

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.

imapd  An IMAP (Interactive Mail Access Protocol) server daemon.

import  Capture an X server screen and saves it as an image.

inetd  Extended internet services daemon, it starts the programs 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 attributions
install
during the install process.

 Shows statistics for CPU, I/O devices, partitions, network

iostat
filesystems.

ip  Display/manipulate routing, devices, policy, routing and tunnels.

 Used to remove System V interprocess communication (IPC)

ipcrm
objects and associated data structures.
  Show information on IPC facilities for which calling process has
ipcs
read access.

iptables  Administration tool for IPv4 packet filtering and NAT.

iptables-restore  Used to restore IP tables from data specified in the input or a

file.

iptables-save  Used to dump IP table contents to standard output.

 A utility that shows the content iso9660 images to verify the

isodump
integrity of directory contents.
isoinfo  A utility to perform directory like listings of iso9660 images.

 Show the length of an iso9660 filesystem contained in a

isosize
specified file.

isovfy  Verifies the integrity of an iso9660 image.

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 field
join
and display on standard output.

Linux Commands – K

Command Description

 Set a keyboard mode. Without arguments, shows the current

kbd_mode
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 excluding the

killall5
ones which it depends on.

klogd  Control and prioritize the kernel messages to be displayed on

the console, and log them through syslogd.
  Used to detect new and enhanced hardware by comparing it
kudzu
with existing database. Only for RHEL and derivates.

Linux Commands – L

Command Description

 Shows a list of recent logins on the system by fetching data from

last
/var/log/wtmp file.

 Shows the list of bad login attempts by fetching data from

lastb
/var/log/btmp file.
  Displays information about the most recent login of all users or
lastlog
a specified user.

ld  The Unix linker, it combines archives and object files. It then

puts them into one output file, resolving external references.

ldconfig  Configure dynamic linker run-time bindings.

ldd  Shows shared object dependencies.

  Displays contents of a file one page at a time. It’s advanced than
less
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 URLs

lftpget
supported by lftp.
link  Create links between two files. Similar to ln command.

 Create links between files. Links can be hard (two names for the
ln
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 to a
lockfile
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.

logout  Performs the logout operation by making changes to the utmp

and wtmp files.

 Used for automatic rotation, compression, removal, and mailing

logrotate
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.

lpadmin  Used to configure printer and class queues provided by CUPS

(Common UNIX Printing System).

lpc  Line printer control program, it provides limited control over

CUPS printer and class queues.

 Shows the list of avaiable devices and drivers known to the

lpinfo
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, and

lpstat
printers.

ls  Shows the list of files in the current directory.

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.

mail  Utility to compose, receive, send, forward, and reply to emails.

mailq  Shows to list all emails queued for delivery (sendmail queue).

mailstats  Shows current mail statistics.

mailto  Used to send mail with multimedia content in MIME format.

make  Utility to maintain groups of programs, recompile them if

needed.

makedbm  Creates an NIS (Network Information Services) database map.

 Creates database maps used by the keyed map lookups in

makemap
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.

  Used to delete MS-DOS file. mdeltree recursively deletes MS-
mdel, mdeltree
DOS directory and its contents.

mdir  Used to display an MS-DOS directory.

mdu  Used to display the amount of space occupied by an MS-DOS

directory.

merge  Three-way file merge. Includes all changes from file2 and file3 to
file1.

mesg  Allow/disallow osends to sedn write messages to your terminal.

 For sending and showing rich text or multimedia email using
metamail
MIME typing metadata.

metasend   An interface for sending non-text mail.

mformat  Used to add an MS-DOS filesystem to a low-level formatted

floppy disk.

mimencode  Translate to/from MIME multimedia mail encoding 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.

mkfifo  Used to create named pipes (FIFOs) with the given names.

mkfs  Used to build a Linux filesystem on a hard disk partition.

mkfs.ext3  Same as mke2fs, create an ext3 Linux filesystem.

mkisofs  Used to create an ISO9660/JOLIET/HFS hybrid filesystem.

mklost+found  Create a lost+found directory on a mounted ext2 filesystem.

mkmanifest  Makes a list of file names and their DOS 8.3 equivalent.

mknod  Create a FIFO, block (buffered) special file, character

(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.

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.

mzip  Change protection mode and eject disk on Zip/Jaz 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.

nc  Netcat utility. Arbitrary TCP and UDP connections and 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.

nl  Show numbered line while displaying the contents of a file.

nm  List symbols from object files.

nohup  Run a command immune to hangups.

notify-send  A program to send desktop notifications.

nslookup  Used performs DNS queries. Read this article for more info.

nsupdate  Dynamic DNS update utility.

Linux Commands – O

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 users

op 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-separated
paste
lines consisting of sqentially correspnding lines from each file.

patch  Apply a patchfile (containing differences listing by diff 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 the
pgrep
running processes.

pidof  Find process ID of a running program.

ping  Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts.

pinky  Lightweight finger.

pkill  Send kill signal to processes based on name and other

attributes.

pmap  Report memory map of a process.

  Removes directory on the head of the directory stack and takes
popd
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.

printf  Show arguments formatted according to a specified format.

ps  Report a snapshot of the current processes.

ptx  Produce a permuted index of file contents.

pushd  Appends a given directory name to the head of the stack and
then cd to the given directory.

pv  Monitor progress of data through a pipe.

pwck  Verify integrity of password files.

pwconv  Creates shadow from passwd and an optionally existing shadow.

pwd  Show current directory.

python

Linux Commands – Q

Command Description

 Shows disk usage, and space limits for a user or group. Without
quota
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.

quotastats  Shows the report of quota system statistics gathered from the
kernel.

Linux Commands – R

Command Description

raidstart  Start/stop RAID devices.

ram  RAM disk device used to access the RAM disk in raw mode.

ramsize  Show usage information for the RAM disk.

  Generate index to the contents of an archive and store it in the
ranlib
archive.

rar  Create and manage RAR file in Linux.

rarpd  Respond to Reverse Address Resoultion Protocol (RARP)

requests.

rcp  Remote copy command to copy files between remote

computers.

 Set system date and time by fetching information from a remote

rdate
machine.
rdev  Set or query RAM disk size, image root device, or video mode.

 Remote file distribution client, maintains identical file copies

rdist
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 fomrat)

readelf
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.

rev  Show contents of a file, reversing the order of characters 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 DNS
rndc
server over a TCP connection.

rootflags  Show/set flags for the kernel image.

route  Show/change IP routing table.

routed  A daemon, invoked at boot time, to manage internet routing

tables.

rpcgen  An RPC protocol compiler. Parse a file written in the RPC
language.
  Shows RPC information. Makes an RPC call to an RPC server and
rpcinfo
reports the findings.

rpm  A package manager for linux distributions. Originally developed

for RedHat Linux.

rsh  Remote shell. Connects to a specified host and executes

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.

rup  Remote status display. Shows current system status for all or
specified hosts on the local network.

ruptime  Shows uptime and login details of the machines on the 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 queries
rusersd
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-scanner  Find SCSI and USB scanner and determine their device files.
  Retrieve multiple images from a scanner equipped with an
scanadf
automatic document feeder (ADF).

 Read images from image aquistion devices (scanner or camera)

scanimage and display on standard output in PNM (Portable aNyMap)
format.

scp  Copy files between hosts on a network securely using SSH.

  A window manager that enables multiple pseudo-terminals with
screen
the help of ANSI/VT100 terminal emulation.

script  Used to make a typescript of everything displayed on the screen

during a terminal session.

sdiff  Shows two files side-by-side and highlights the differences.

 Stream editor for filtering and transforming text (from a file or a

sed
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.

seq  Displays an incremental sequence of numbers from first 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.

setmetamode  Define keyboard meta key handling. Without arguments, 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 file

sha1sum
integrity.

shift  Shift positional parameters.

shopt  Shell options.

showkey  Examines codes sent by the keyboard displays them in printable

form.

showmount  Shows information about NFS server mount on the host.

  Overwrite a file to hide its content (optionally delete it), making
shred
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.

sleep  Suspend execution for a specified amount of time (in 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.

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 provides
ssh
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.

ssh-keygen  It generates, manages, converts authentication keys for 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 hosts,

statd 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 with at
strings
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.

sysklogd  Linux system logging utilities. Provides syslogd and klogd

functionalities.
  Read and log system messages to the system console and log
syslogd
files.

Linux Commands – T

Command Description

 Concatenate and print files in reverse order. Opposite of cat

tac
command.

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 allows
talk
two user to exchange messages simulateneously.

talkd  A remote user communication server for talk.

tar  GNU version of the tar archiving utility. Used to store and
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 contents
tcpdump of packets on a network interface that match the boolean
expression.

tcpslice  Extract pieces of tcpdump files or merge them.

tee  Read from standard input and write to standard output and
files.

telinit  Change SysV runlevel.

 Telnet protocol user interface. Used to interact with another

telnet
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.

times  Shows accumulated user and system times for the shell and it’s
child processes.
  Shows a graph of the current system load average to the
tload
specified tty.

tmpwatch  Recursively remove files and directories which haven’t been

accessed for the specified period of time.

top  Displays real-time view of processes running on the system.

touch  Change file access and modification times.

tput  Modify terminal-dependent capabilities, color, etc.

  Translate, squeeze, or delete characters from standard input
tr
and display on standard output.

tracepath  Traces path to a network host discovering MTU (Maximum

Transmission Unit) along this path.

traceroute  Traces the route taken by the packets to reach the network
host.
  Trap function responds to hardware signals. It defines and
trap
creates handlers to run when the shell receives signals.

troff  The troff processor of the groff text formatting system.

1  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 Uncompress the files compressed with the compress 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.

uuencode  Encode a binary file.

uuidgen  Created a new UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) 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 mode
vidmode
value without arguments. Alternative: rdev -v

vim  Vi Improved, a text-based editor which is a successor to vi.

vmstat Shows information about processes, memory, paging, block IO,

traps, disks, and CPU activity.

volname  Returns volume name for a device formatted with an ISO-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 the

wait
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 soft
warnquota
limit.
  Runs commands repeatedly until interrupted and shows their
watch
output and errors.

wc  Print newline, word, and byte count for each of the specified
files.

wget  A non-interactive file download utility.

whatis  Display one line manual page descriptions.

whereis  Locate the binary, source, and man page files for a 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.

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.

xdg-open  Used to open a file or URL in an application preferred by the

user.

xinetd  Extended internet services daemon. Works similar to inetd.

xz  Compress/ Decompress .xz and .lzma files.

Linux Commands – Y

Command Description
yacc  Yet Another Compiler Compiler, a GNU Project parser generator.

yes  Repeatedly output a line with a specified string(s) until killed.

ypbind  A daemon that helps client processes to connect to an NIS

server.

 Shows the NIS map (or database) for the specified MapName
ypcat
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.

yppasswdd  Acts as a server for the yppasswd command. Receives and

executes requests.

yppoll  Shows the ID number or version of NIS map currently used on

the NIS server.

yppush  Forces slave NIS servers to copy updated NIS maps.

  A daemon activated at system startup. It looks for information in
ypserv
local NIS maps.

 Point a client (running ypbind) to a specifc server (running

ypset
ypserv).

yptest  Calls various functions to check the configuration of NIS services.

ypwhich  Shows the hostname for NIS server or master server for a 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 specified

zic
input files.
zip  A file compression and packaging utility.

 Displays information of a compressed file (using less command)

zless
on the terminal one screen at a time.

zmore  Displays output of a compressed file (using more command) on

the terminal one page at a time.

znew  Recompress .z files to .gz. files.