Extended Linux Commands with

Examples
1. File and Directory Commands
 ls: Lists detailed contents of /home directory

Usage: ls -l /home

 cd: Changes current directory to /var/log

Usage: cd /var/log

 pwd: Displays the current directory path

Usage: pwd

 mkdir: Creates a directory named projects

Usage: mkdir projects

 rmdir: Removes the directory old_folder if empty

Usage: rmdir old_folder

 rm: Force deletes the temp directory and its contents

Usage: rm -rf temp

 touch: Creates an empty file named file.txt

Usage: touch file.txt

 cp: Copies file.txt to backup.txt

Usage: cp file.txt backup.txt

 mv: Moves data.csv to archive directory

Usage: mv data.csv archive/

 cat: Displays the content of notes.txt

 more: Views long files page-by-page

Usage: more longfile.txt

 less: Views content with navigation

Usage: less config.log

 head: Displays the first 5 lines of file.txt

Usage: head -n 5 file.txt

 tail: Displays the last 10 lines of file.txt

Usage: tail -n 10 file.txt

 find: Searches for all .sh files in /home

Usage: find /home -name "*.sh"

 grep: Finds lines with 'root' in /etc/passwd

Usage: grep 'root' /etc/passwd

 file: Shows the type of image.png

Usage: file image.png

 basename: Extracts the filename 'bash'

Usage: basename /usr/bin/bash

 dirname: Extracts the path '/usr/bin'

Usage: dirname /usr/bin/bash

2. Disk and Partition Commands

Usage: df -h
 du: Displays size of files/folders in current dir

Usage: du -sh *

 mount: Mounts sdb1 to /mnt/usb

Usage: mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb

 umount: Unmounts the USB drive

Usage: umount /mnt/usb

 lsblk: Lists block devices and mount points

Usage: lsblk

 blkid: Displays UUID and file system type of devices

Usage: blkid

 fdisk: Lists all available partitions

Usage: sudo fdisk -l

 mkfs: Formats /dev/sdb1 with ext4

Usage: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

 tune2fs: Shows file system parameters

Usage: tune2fs -l /dev/sda1

 e2label: Labels the partition as 'data'

Usage: e2label /dev/sda1 data

3. Network Commands
 ping: Sends 4 ping packets to google.com

Usage: ping -c 4 google.com

 ip a: Shows IP addresses of all interfaces

 ifconfig: Displays configuration of eth0

Usage: ifconfig eth0

 netstat: Lists open ports and listening services

Usage: netstat -tulnp

 ss: Shows socket stats like netstat

Usage: ss -tulwn

 curl: Fetches web page HTML

Usage: curl https://example.com

 wget: Downloads file.zip

Usage: wget https://file.com/file.zip

 scp: Copies file to remote machine

Usage: scp file.txt [email protected]:/home/user/

 rsync: Synchronizes source to backup

Usage: rsync -av source/ backup/

 ssh: Connects to host via SSH

Usage: ssh user@host

 hostname: Displays the system hostname

Usage: hostname

 dig: Performs DNS lookup for google.com

Usage: dig google.com

 nslookup: Queries DNS for example.com

 traceroute: Traces route to google.com

Usage: traceroute google.com

 nmap: Scans open TCP ports on 192.168.1.1

Usage: nmap -sT 192.168.1.1

4. System and Process Commands

Usage: top

 htop: Interactive process viewer

Usage: htop

 ps: Lists Apache processes

Usage: ps aux | grep apache

 kill: Sends SIGTERM to process ID 1234

Usage: kill 1234

 killall: Kills all Firefox processes

Usage: killall firefox

 shutdown: Shuts down system immediately

Usage: shutdown -h now

 reboot: Reboots the system

Usage: reboot

 uptime: Shows how long the system has been running

Usage: uptime
 whoami: Displays the current user

Usage: whoami

 id: Displays UID and GID of user

Usage: id user

 free: Displays memory usage in human-readable format

Usage: free -h

 vmstat: Displays system performance every second

Usage: vmstat 1

 dmesg: Views kernel messages

Usage: dmesg | less

 uname -a: Displays kernel and system information

Usage: uname -a

5. Package Management (Debian-based)

Usage: sudo apt update

 apt upgrade: Installs available upgrades

Usage: sudo apt upgrade

 apt install: Installs htop

Usage: sudo apt install htop

 apt remove: Uninstalls nano

Usage: sudo apt remove nano

 apt purge: Removes nginx with config files

 apt autoremove: Removes unnecessary dependencies

Usage: sudo apt autoremove

 dpkg -i: Installs local .deb package

Usage: sudo dpkg -i package.deb

 dpkg -r: Removes a package

Usage: sudo dpkg -r package_name

 dpkg -l: Lists installed SSH-related packages

Usage: dpkg -l | grep ssh

6. User Management
 adduser: Creates a user john

Usage: sudo adduser john

 passwd: Sets or changes password for john

Usage: sudo passwd john

 deluser: Deletes user john

Usage: sudo deluser john

 usermod: Adds john to sudo group

Usage: sudo usermod -aG sudo john

 groupadd: Creates a group named devs

Usage: sudo groupadd devs

 groups: Lists groups john belongs to

Usage: groups john

Usage: tar -czvf archive.tar.gz folder

 gzip: Compresses file.txt to file.txt.gz

Usage: gzip file.txt

 gunzip: Decompresses .gz file

Usage: gunzip file.txt.gz

 zip: Creates a zip file

Usage: zip archive.zip file.txt

 unzip: Extracts a zip archive

Usage: unzip archive.zip

8. Miscellaneous Tools
 alias: Creates a shortcut command for listing

Usage: alias ll='ls -alF'

 history: Searches shell history for ssh

Usage: history | grep ssh

 date: Displays current date in format

Usage: date '+%Y-%m-%d'

 cal: Displays calendar for 2025

Usage: cal 2025

 uptime: Shows how long system has been running

Usage: uptime

 bc: Performs simple math in terminal