Linux Command Line Cheat Sheet

Published 10 months ago 7 min read 48 comments 7 min read Ubuntu

Command	Description
`ls`	List all the files in a directory
`ls -l`	List all files and their details (owner, mtime, size, etc)
`ls -a`	List all the files in a directory (including hidden files)
`pwd`	Show the present working directory
`cd`	Change directory to some other location
`file`	View the type of any file

View, Create, Edit, and Delete Files and Directories

Command	Description
`mkdir`	Create a new directory
`touch`	Create a new, empty file, or update the modified time of an existing one
`cat > file`	Create a new file with the text you type after
`cat file`	View the contents of a file
`grep`	View the contents of a file that match a pattern
`nano file`	Open a file (or create new one) in nano text editor
`vim file`	Open a file (or create new one) in vim text editor
`rm or rmdir`	Remove a file or empty directory
`rm -r`	Remove a directory that isn’t empty
`mv`	Move or rename a file or directory
`cp`	Copy a file or directory
`rsync`	Synchronize the changes of one directory to another

Command	Description
`locate`	Quickly find a file or directory that has been cached
`find`	Seach for a file or directory based on name and other parameters

Command	Description
`whoami`	See which user you are currently logged in as
`sudo`	Execute a command with root permissions
`sudo apt install`	Install a package on Debian based systems
`sudo dnf install`	Install a package on Red Hat based systems
`sudo apt remove`	Remove a package on Debian based systems
`sudo dnf remove`	Remove a package on Red Hat based systems
`reboot`	Reboot the system
`poweroff`	Shut down the system

Command	Description
`df or df -h`	See the current storage usage of mounted partitions
`sudo fdisk -l`	See information for all attached storage devices
`du`	See disk usage of a directory’s contents
`tree`	View the directory structure for a path
`mount and umount`	Mount and unmount a storage device or ISO file

Command	Description
`tar cf my_dir.tar my_dir`	Create an uncompressed tar archive
`tar cfz my_dir.tar my_dir`	Create a tar archive with gzip compression
`gzip file`	Compress a file with gzip compression
`tar xf file`	Extract the contents of any type of tar archive
`gunzip file.gz`	Decompress a file that has gzip compression

Command	Description
`ip a`	Show IP address and other information for all active interfaces
`ip r`	Show IP address of default gateway
`cat /etc/resolv.conf`	See what DNS servers your system is configured to use
`ping`	Send a ping request to a network device
`traceroute`	Trace the network path taken to a device
`ssh`	Login to a remote device with SSH

Command	Description
`chmod`	Change the file permissions for a file or directory
`chown`	Change the owner of a file or directory
`chgrp`	Change the group of a file or directory

Command	Description
`useradd`	Low level utility for adding new user accounts
`adduser`	High level utility for adding new user accounts
`deluser`	Delete a user account
`usermod`	Modify a user account
`groupadd`	Create a new group
`delgroup`	Delete a group

Command	Description
`free -m`	See how much memory is in use and free
`top`	See a list of processes and their resource usage
`htop`	A more human readable and interactive version of top
`nice`	Start a new process with a specified priority
`renice`	Change the nice value of a currently running process
`ps aux OR ps -ef`	View all of the currently running processes
`kill or killall`	Terminate a process
`kill -9 or killall -9`	Terminate a process with SIGKILL signal
`bg`	Send a task to the background
`fg`	Bring a task to the foreground