100+ Linux commands - LinuxBlog.

io by Hayden James

Here I’ve listed over 100 Linux commands. There are even more commands if we include
downloadable software and scripts, such as btop (pictured below). However, we will only
cover Unix commands used on Linux by sysadmins and power users.

Pictured: btop – Also see: network command-line tools available.

1. ip – from Iproute2, a collection of utilities for controlling TCP/IP networking and

traffic control in Linux.
2. ls – list directory contents.
3. df – display disk space usage.
4. du – estimate file space usage.
5. free – display memory usage.
6. scp – securely Copy Files Using SCP, with examples.
7. find – locates files based on some user-specified criteria.
8. ncdu – a disk utility for Unix systems.
9. pstree – display a tree of processes.
10. last – show a listing of last logged-in users.
11. w – show a list of currently logged-in user sessions.
12. grep – Search a file for a pattern of characters, then display all matching lines.
13. uptime – shows system uptime and load average.
14. top – shows an overall system view.
15. vmstat – shows system memory, processes, interrupts, paging, block I/O, and CPU
info.
16. htop – interactive process viewer and manager.
17. dstat – view processes, memory, paging, I/O, CPU, etc., in real-time. All-in-one for
vmstat, iostat, netstat, and ifstat.
18. iftop – network traffic viewer.19. nethogs – network traffic analyzer.
19. nethogs – network traffic analyzer.
20. iotop – interactive I/O viewer. Get an overview of storage r/w activity.
21. iostat – for storage I/O statistics.
22. netstat – for network statistics.
23. ss – utility to investigate sockets.
24. atop – For Linux server performance analysis.
25. Glances and nmon – htop and top Alternatives:
26. ssh – secure command-line access to remote Linux systems.
27. sudo – execute commands with administrative privilege.
28. cd – directory navigation.
29. pwd – shows your current directory location.
30. [cp](https://linuxblog.io/cp-command-linux/) – copying files and folders.
31. mv – moving files and folders.
32. rm – removing files and folders.
33. mkdir – create or make new directories.
34. touch – used to update the access date and modification date of a computer file or
directory.
35. man – for reading system reference manuals.
36. apropos – Search man page names and descriptions.
37. rsync – remote file transfers and syncing.
38. tar – an archiving utility.
39. gzip – file compression and decompression.
40. bzip2 – similar to gzip. It uses a different compression algorithm.
41. zip – for packaging and compressing (to archive) files.
42. locate – search files in Linux.
43. ps – information about the currently running processes.
44. Making use of Bash scripts. Example: ./bashscript.sh
45. cron – set up scheduled tasks to run.
46. nmcli – command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager.
47. ping – send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts.
48. traceroute – check the route packets take to a specified host.
49. mtr – network diagnostic tool.
50. nslookup – query Internet name servers (NS) interactively.
51. host – perform DNS lookups in Linux.
52. dig – DNS lookup utility.
53. wget – retrieve files over HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and FTPS.
54. curl – transferring data using various network protocols. (supports more protocols
than wget)
55. [dd](https://linuxblog.io/web-host-doesnt-want-read-benchmark-vps/) –
convert and copy files.
56. fdisk – manipulate the disk partition table.
57. parted – for creating and manipulating partition tables.
58. blkid – command-line utility to locate/print block device attributes.
59. mkfs – build a Linux file system.
60. fsck – tool for checking the consistency of a file system.
61. whois – client for the whois directory service.
62. nc – command-line networking utility. (Also, see 60 Linux Networking commands
and scripts.)
63. umask – set file mode creation mask.
64. chmod – change the access permissions of file system objects.
65. chown – change file owner and group.
66. chroot – run command or interactive shell with a special root directory.
67. useradd – create a new user or update default new user information.
68. userdel – used to delete a user account and all related files.
69. usermod – used to modify or change any attributes of an existing user account.
70. vi – text editor.
71. cat – display file contents.
72. tac – output file contents, in reverse.
73. more – display file contents one screen/page at a time.
74. less – similar to the more command with additional features.
75. tail – used to display the tail end of a text file or piped data.
76. dmesg – prints the message buffer of the kernel ring.
77. journalctl – query the systemd journal.
78. kill – terminate a process.
79. killall – Sends a kill signal to all instances of a process by name.
80. sleep – suspends program execution for a specified time.
 81. wait – Suspend script execution until all jobs running in the background have been
terminated.
82. nohup – Run Commands in the Background.
83. screen – hold a session open on a remote server. (also a full-screen window
manager)
84. tmux – a terminal multiplexer.
85. passwd – change a user’s password.
86. chpassword – allows users to change the password for various user accounts.
87. mount / umount – provides access to an entire filesystem in one directory.
88. systemctl – central management tool for controlling the init system.
89. clear – clears the screen of the terminal.
90. env -Run a command in a modified environment.
91. cheat – allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command line.”
92. tldr – Collaborative cheatsheets for console commands.
93. bashtop – the ‘cool’ top alternative.
94. nload – a super simple, command-line network interface monitoring tool.
95. history – used to view the previously executed commands.
96. sar – collects, reports, and saves system activity information, including CPU,
memory, disk, and network usage.
97. lsof : List open files and the corresponding processes. This command is invaluable
for troubleshooting and understanding what files are used by processes.
98. awk : A powerful pattern scanning and processing language. It’s used to manipulate
data and generate reports.
99. sed : A stream editor used to perform basic text transformations on an input stream
(a file or input from a pipeline).
100. watch : Execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen. It’s useful for
monitoring commands or scripts that update regularly.
101. crontab : Schedule commands to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals
with the cron daemon.
102. alias : Create an alias for Linux commands. It’s a shorthand way to customize and
streamline your command-line experience.
103. lspci : List all PCI devices. This is particularly useful for diagnosing hardware and
system problems related to PCI devices.
104. lsusb : List USB devices. Similar to lspci , but for USB hardware connected to the
system.
105. ln : Make links between files. By creating a link, you can access the linked file by
more than one path.
106. diff : Compare files line by line. It’s particularly useful for comparing text files such
as scripts or configuration files to find differences.

PLUS: 60 Linux Networking commands and scripts. | Source: LinuxBlog.io

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