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Unix/Linux Command Reference

File Commands
1. ls Directory listing
2. ls -al Formatted listing with hidden files
3. ls -lt Sorting the Formatted listing by time modification
4. cd dir Change directory to dir

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5. cd Change to home directory
6. pwd Show current working directory

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7. mkdir dir Creating a directory dir
8. cat >file Places the standard input into the file
9. more file
10. head file
11. tail file
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Output the contents of the file
Output the first 10 lines of the file
Output the last 10 lines of the file
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12. tail -f file
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Output the contents of file as it grows,starting with

the last 10 lines
13. touch file Create or update file
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14. rm file Deleting the file

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15. rm -r dir Deleting the directory

16. rm -f file Force to remove the file
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17. rm -rf dir Force to remove the directory dir

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18. cp file1 file2 Copy the contents of file1 to file2

19. cp -r dir1 dir2 Copy dir1 to dir2;create dir2 if not present
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20. mv file1 file2 Rename or move file1 to file2,if file2 is an existing

directory
21. ln -s file link Create symbolic link link to file

Process management
1. ps To display the currently working processes
2. top Display all running process

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 3. kill pid Kill the process with given pid
4. killall proc Kill all the process named proc
5. pkill pattern Will kill all processes matching the pattern
6. bg List stopped or background jobs,resume a stopped
job in the background
7. fg Brings the most recent job to foreground
8. fg n Brings job n to the foreground

File permission
1. chmod octal file Change the permission of file to octal,which can
be found separately for user,group,world by

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adding,
• 4-read(r)

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• 2-write(w)
• 1-execute(x)

Searching
1. grep pattern file
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Search for pattern in file
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2. grep -r pattern dir Search recursively for pattern in dir
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3. command | grep Search pattern in the output of a command

pattern
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4. locate file Find all instances of file

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5. find . -name filename Searches in the current directory (represented by

a period) and below it, for files and directories with
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names starting with filename

6. pgrep pattern Searches for all the named processes , that
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matches with the pattern and, by default, returns

their ID
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System Info
1. date Show the current date and time
2. cal Show this month's calender
3. uptime Show current uptime
4. w Display who is on line
5. whoami Who you are logged in as

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 6. finger user Display information about user
7. uname -a Show kernel information
8. cat /proc/cpuinfo Cpu information
9. cat proc/meminfo Memory information
10. man command Show the manual for command
11. df Show the disk usage
12. du Show directory space usage
13. free Show memory and swap usage
14. whereis app Show possible locations of app
15. which app Show which applications will be run by default

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Compression

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1. tar cf file.tar file Create tar named file.tar containing file
2. tar xf file.tar Extract the files from file.tar
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tar czf file.tar.gz files
tar xzf file.tar.gz
tar cjf file.tar.bz2
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Create a tar with Gzip compression
Extract a tar using Gzip
Create tar with Bzip2 compression
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6. tar xjf file.tar.bz2 Extract a tar using Bzip2
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7. gzip file Compresses file and renames it to file.gz

8. gzip -d file.gz Decompresses file.gz back to file
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Network
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1. ping host Ping host and output results

2. whois domain Get whois information for domains
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3. dig domain Get DNS information for domain

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4. dig -x host Reverse lookup host

5. wget file Download file
6. wget -c file Continue a stopped download

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Shortcuts
1. ctrl+c Halts the current command
2. ctrl+z Stops the current command, resume with fg in the
foreground or bg in the background
3. ctrl+d Logout the current session, similar to exit
4. ctrl+w Erases one word in the current line
5. ctrl+u Erases the whole line
6. ctrl+r Type to bring up a recent command
7. !! Repeats the last command

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8. exit Logout the current session

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