Here's a table of some basic Linux commands along with their descriptions:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ls |
List files and directories in the current directory |
cd <dir> |
Change the current directory to <dir> |
pwd |
Print the current working directory |
mkdir <dir> |
Create a new directory named <dir> |
rmdir <dir> |
Remove an empty directory named <dir> |
rm <file> |
Remove a file named <file> |
cp <src> <dest> |
Copy a file or directory from <src> to <dest> |
mv <src> <dest> |
Move or rename a file or directory from <src> to <dest> |
touch <file> |
Create a new empty file named <file> or update the timestamp of an existing file |
cat <file> |
Display the contents of a file named <file> |
more <file> |
View the contents of a file one screen at a time |
less <file> |
View the contents of a file with backward navigation |
head <file> |
Display the first 10 lines of a file named <file> |
tail <file> |
Display the last 10 lines of a file named <file> |
echo <text> |
Print <text> to the terminal |
man <command> |
Show the manual page for <command> |
chmod <permissions> <file> |
Change the permissions of <file> |
chown <owner> <file> |
Change the owner of <file> |
ps |
Display information about running processes |
top |
Display running processes and system resource usage |
kill <pid> |
Terminate the process with the specified process ID <pid> |
df |
Display disk space usage for filesystems |
du <dir> |
Display disk usage for files and directories |
ifconfig |
Display network configuration (older versions) |
ip a |
Display network configuration (newer versions) |
ping <host> |
Send ICMP echo requests to network hosts |
grep <pattern> <file> |
Search for a pattern in a file |
find <dir> -name <name> |
Search for files and directories by name |
history |
Show command history |
sudo <command> |
Run a command with superuser (administrator) privileges |
exit |
Exit the terminal or shell session |
A cheat sheet for bash commands.
Command History
!! # Run the last command
touch foo.sh
chmod +x !$ # !$ is the last argument of the last command i.e. foo.sh
Navigating Directories
pwd # Print current directory path
ls # List directories
ls -a|--all # List directories including hidden
ls -l # List directories in long form
ls -l -h|--human-readable # List directories in long form with human readable sizes
ls -t # List directories by modification time, newest first
stat foo.txt # List size, created and modified timestamps for a file
stat foo # List size, created and modified timestamps for a directory
tree # List directory and file tree
tree -a # List directory and file tree including hidden
tree -d # List directory tree
cd foo # Go to foo sub-directory
cd # Go to home directory
cd ~ # Go to home directory
cd - # Go to last directory
pushd foo # Go to foo sub-directory and add previous directory to stack
popd # Go back to directory in stack saved by `pushd`
Creating Directories
mkdir foo # Create a directory
mkdir foo bar # Create multiple directories
mkdir -p|--parents foo/bar # Create nested directory
mkdir -p|--parents {foo,bar}/baz # Create multiple nested directories
mktemp -d|--directory # Create a temporary directory
Moving Directories
cp -R|--recursive foo bar # Copy directory
mv foo bar # Move directory
rsync -z|--compress -v|--verbose /foo /bar # Copy directory, overwrites destination
rsync -a|--archive -z|--compress -v|--verbose /foo /bar # Copy directory, without overwriting destination
rsync -avz /foo username@hostname:/bar # Copy local directory to remote directory
rsync -avz username@hostname:/foo /bar # Copy remote directory to local directory
Deleting Directories
rmdir foo # Delete empty directory
rm -r|--recursive foo # Delete directory including contents
rm -r|--recursive -f|--force foo # Delete directory including contents, ignore nonexistent files and never prompt
Creating Files