Linux commands may seem intimidating at first glance if you do not use the terminal often. we created a helpful Linux command line cheat sheet. The commands from the cheat sheet are listed below.
Hardware Commands
lscpu |
See CPU information. |
lsblk |
See information about block devices. |
lspci -tv |
Show PCI devices (graphics card, network card, etc.) in a tree-like diagram. |
lsusb -tv |
Display USB devices in a tree-like diagram. |
lshw |
List hardware configuration information. |
cat /proc/cpuinfo |
Show detailed CPU information. |
cat /proc/meminfo |
View detailed system memory information. |
cat /proc/mounts |
See mounted file systems. |
free -h |
Display free and used memory. |
sudo dmidecode |
Show hardware information from the BIOS. |
hdparm -i /dev/[device_name] |
Display disk data information. |
hdparm -tT /dev/[device_name] |
Conduct a read speed test on the device/disk. |
badblocks -s /dev/[device_name] |
Test for unreadable blocks on the device/disk. |
fsck /dev/[device_name] |
Run a disk check on an unmounted disk or partition. |
Directory Commands
ls |
List files and directories in the current directory. |
ls -a |
List all files and directories in the current directory (shows hidden files). |
ls -l |
List files and directories in long format. |
pwd |
Show the directory you are currently working in. |
cdcd ~ |
Change directory to $HOME. |
cd .. |
Move up one directory level. |
cd - |
Change to the previous directory. |
cd [directory_path] |
Change location to a specified directory. |
dirs |
Show current directory stack. |
Files Commands
mkdir [directory_name] |
Create a new directory. |
rm [file_name] |
Remove a file. |
rm -r [directory_name] |
Remove a directory recursively. |
rm -rf [directory_name] |
Recursively remove a directory without requiring confirmation. |
cp [source_file] [destination_file] |
Copy the contents of one file to another file using the cp command. |
cp -r [source_directory] [destination_directory] |
Recursively copy a directory to a second directory. |
mv [source_file] [destination_file] |
Move or rename files or directories. |
ln -s [path]/[file_name] [link_name] |
Create a symbolic link to a file. |
touch [file_name] |
Create a new file using touch. |
cat [file_name] |
Show the contents of a file. |
cat [source_file] >> [destination_file] |
Append file contents to another file. |
head [file_name] |
Show the first ten lines of a file. |
tail [file_name] |
Show the last ten lines of a file with the tail command. |
more [file_name] |
Display contents of a file page by page. |
less [file_name] |
Show the contents of a file with navigation using the less command. |
nano [file_name] |
Open or create a file using the nano text editor. |
vi [file_name]vim [file_name] |
Open or create a file using the Vi/Vim text editor. |
gpg -c [file_name] |
Encrypt a file. |
gpg [file_name].gpg |
Decrypt an encrypted .gpg file. |
wc -w [file_name] |
Show the number of words, lines, and bytes in a file using wc. |
ls | xargs wc |
List the number of lines/words/characters in each file in a directory with the xargs command. |
cut -d [delimiter] [file_name] |
Cut a section of a file and print the result to standard output. |
[data] | cut -d [delimiter] |
Cut a section of piped data and print the result to standard output. |
shred -u [file_name] |
Overwrite a file to prevent its recovery, then delete it. |
diff [first_file] [second_file] |
Compare two files and display differences. |
source [file_name] |
Read and execute the file content in the current shell. |
Files Compression Commands
tar cf [archive.tar] [file/directory] |
Archive an existing file or directory. |
tar xf [archive.tar] |
Extract an archived file. |
tar czf [archive.tar.gz] |
Create a .gz compressed tar archive. |
gzip [file_name]gunzip [file_name.gz] |
Compress or decompress .gz files. |
bzip2 [file_name]bunzip2 [file_name.bz2] |
Compress or decompress .bz2 files. |
Files Transfer Commands
scp [source_file] [user]@[remote_host]:[destination_path] |
Copy a file to a server directory securely using the Linux scp command. |
rsync -a [source_directory] [user]@[remote_host]:[destination_directory] |
Synchronize the contents of a directory with a backup directory using the rsync command. |
wget [link] |
Download files from FTP or web servers via the wget command. |
curl -O [link] |
Transfer data to or from a server with various protocols using the curl command. |
ftp [remote_host] |
Transfer files between local and remote systems interactively using FTP. |
sftp [user]@[remote_host] |
Securely transfer between local and remote hosts using SFTP. |
File Permission Commands
chmod 777 [file_name] |
Assign read, write, and execute file permission to everyone (rwxrwxrwx). |
chmod 755 [file_name] |
Give read, write, and execute permission to owner, and read and execute permission to group and others (rwxr-xr-x). |
chmod 766 [file_name] |
Assign full permission to the owner, and read and write permission to the group and others (rwxrw-rw-). |
chown [user_name] [file_name] |
Change the ownership of a file with chown command. |
chown [user_name]:[group_name] [file_name] |
Change the owner and group ownership of a file. |
SSH Commands
ssh [user_name]@[remote_host] |
Connect to a remote host as a user via SSH. |
ssh [host] |
Securely connect to a host via SSH default port 22. |
ssh -p [port] [user_name]@[remote_host] |
Connect to the host using a particular port. |
ssh-keygen |
Generate SSH key pairs. |
sudo service sshd start |
Start SSH server daemon. |
scp [file_name] [user_name]@[remote_host]:[remote_path] |
Securely copy files between local and remote systems via SSH. |
sftp [user_name]@[remote_host] |
Interactive file transfer over encrypted SSH session using SFTP protocol. |
telnet [host] |
Connect to the host via Telnet default port 23. |
User and Group Commands
id |
See details about the active users. |
last |
Show the last system logins. |
who |
Display who is currently logged into the system with the who command. |
w |
Show which users are logged in and their activity with the w command. |
finger [user_name] |
Show user information. |
sudo useradd [user_name] |
Create a new user account. |
sudo adduser [user_name] |
Create a new user account through the adduser command interface. |
sudo userdel [user_name] |
Delete a user account. |
sudo usermod -aG [group_name] [user_name] |
Modify user information (add a user to a group). |
passwdsudo passwd [user_name] |
Change the current user’s password or another user’s password with the passwd command. |
sudo groupadd [group_name] |
Add a new group. |
sudo groupdel [group_name] |
Delete a group. |
sudo groupmod -n [new_name] [old_name] |
Modify a user group (change group name). |
sudo [command] |
Temporarily elevate user privileges to superuser or root using the sudo command. |
su - [user_name] |
Switch the user account or become a superuser. |
chgrp [group_name] [file/directory] |
Change file or directory group. |
Package Installation Debian and Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install [package_name] |
Install an APT package using the apt-get package utility. |
sudo apt install [package_name] |
Install an APT package using a newer APT package manager. |
apt search [keyword] |
Search for a package in the APT repositories. |
apt list |
List packages installed with APT. |
apt show [package_name] |
Show information about a package. |
sudo dpkg -i [package_name.deb] |
Install a .deb package with the Debian package manager (dpkg command). |
sudo dpkg -l |
List packages installed with dpkg. |
Searching Commands
find [path] -name [search_pattern] |
Find files and directories that match the specified pattern in a specified location. |
find [path] -size [+100M] |
See files and directories larger than a specified size in a directory. |
grep [search_pattern] [file_name] |
Search for a specific pattern in a file with grep. |
grep -r [search_pattern] [directory_name] |
Recursively search for a pattern in a directory. |
locate [name] |
Locate all files and directories related to a particular name. |
which [command] |
Search the command path in the $PATH environment variable. |
whereis [command] |
Use the whereis command to find the source, binary, and manual page for a command. |
awk '[search_pattern] {print $0}' [file_name] |
Print all lines matching a pattern in a file. See also the gawk command, the GNU version of awk. |
sed 's/[old_text]/[new_text]/' [file_name] |
Find and replace text in a specified file. |
Process Commands
ps |
List active processes. |
pstree |
Show processes in a tree-like diagram. |
pmap |
Display a memory usage map of processes. |
top |
See all running processes. |
htop |
Interactive and colorful process viewer. |
kill [process_id] |
Terminate a Linux process under a given ID. |
pkill [process_name] |
Terminate a process under a specific name. |
killall [label] |
Terminate all processes with a given label. |
prgrep [keyword] |
List processes based on the provided keyword. |
pidof [process_name] |
Show the PID of a process. |
bg |
List and resume stopped jobs in the background. |
fg |
Bring the most recently suspended job to the foreground. |
fg [job] |
Bring a particular job to the foreground. |
lsof |
List files opened by running processes with lsof command. |
trap "[commands]" [signal] |
Catch a system error signal in a shell script. Executes provided commands when the signal is caught. |
wait |
Pause the terminal or a Bash script until a running process is completed. |
nohup [command] & |
Run a Linux process in the background. |
System Management Commands
uname -r |
Show system information via uname command. |
uname -a |
See kernel release information. |
uptime |
Display system uptime, including the load average. |
hostname |
View system hostname. |
hostname -i |
Show the IP address of the system. |
last reboot |
List system reboot history. |
date |
See current time and date. |
timedatectl |
Query and change the system clock. |
cal |
Show current calendar (month and day). |
w |
List logged-in users. |
whoami |
See which user you are using. |
finger [user_name] |
Show information about a particular user. |
ulimit [flags] [limit] |
View or limit system resource amounts. |
shutdown [hh:mm] |
Schedule a system shutdown. |
shutdown now |
Shut down the system immediately. |
modprobe [module_name] |
Add a new kernel module. |
dmesg |
Show bootup messages. |
Disk Commands
df -h |
Check free and used space on mounted systems. |
df -i |
Show free inodes on mounted file systems. |
fdisk -l |
Display disk partitions, sizes, and types with the command. |
du -ah |
See disk usage for all files and directories. |
du -sh |
Show disk usage of the current directory. |
mount |
Show currently mounted file systems. |
findmnt |
Display target mount point for all file systems. |
mount [device_path] [mount_point] |
Mount a device. |
Network Commands
ip addr show |
List IP addresses and network interfaces. |
ip address add [IP_address] |
Assign an IP address to interface eth0. |
ifconfig |
Display IP addresses of all network interfaces. |
ping [remote_host] |
Ping remote host. |
netstat -pnltu |
See active (listening) ports with the netstat command. |
netstat -tuln |
Show TCP and UDP ports and their programs. |
whois [domain_name] |
Display more information about a domain. |
dig [domain_name] |
Show DNS information about a domain using the dig command. |
dig -x [domain_name] |
Do a reverse DNS lookup on the domain. |
dig -x [IP_address] |
Do a reverse DNS lookup of an IP address. |
host [domain_name] |
Perform an IP lookup for a domain. |
hostname -I |
Show the local IP address. |
nslookup [domain_name] |
Receive information about an internet domain. |
Shell Command Management Commands
alias [alias-name]='[command]' |
Create an alias for a command. |
watch -n [interval-in-seconds] [command] |
Set a custom interval to run a user-defined command. |
sleep [time-interval] && [command] |
Postpone the execution of a command. |
at [hh:mm] |
Create a job to be executed at a certain time. |
man [command] |
Display a built-in manual for a command. |
history |
Print the command history used in the terminal. |
Keyboard Shortcuts Commands
| Ctrl + C | Kill process running in the terminal. |
| Ctrl + Z | Stop the current process. The process can be resumed in the foreground with fg or in the background with bg. |
| Ctrl + W | Cut one word before the cursor and add it to the clipboard. |
| Ctrl + U | Cut part of the line before the cursor and add it to the clipboard. |
| Ctrl + K | Cut part of the line after the cursor and add it to the clipboard. |
| Ctrl + Y | Paste from clipboard. |
| Ctrl + R | Recall the last command that matches the provided characters. |
| Ctrl + O | Run the previously recalled command. |
| Ctrl + G | Exit command history without running a command. |
clear |
Clear the terminal screen. |
!! |
Run the last command again. |
exit |
Log out of the current session. |