Terminal and text commands are the main way to control the Linux operating system, especially when it comes to the server. Although the word “terminal” scares beginners, believe me, everything is much simpler. Today we have prepared a cheat sheet with basic commands for you – bookmark it and increase your productivity hundreds of times. A command is the name of a program that a user enters in the terminal to perform a specific task. Commands can have additional data and parameters.
Sometimes it is difficult to recall some Linux terminal commands, and it is a good practice to save them on your computer or on paper as a cheat sheet. This list is not exhaustive, but it contains the most commonly used commands. Linux commands can seem intimidating at first glance if you are not used to using a terminal. There are many commands to perform operations and processes on a Linux system. Whether you’re new to Linux or an experienced user, having a list of common commands at your fingertips will be helpful.This guide will provide you with commonly used Linux commands with syntax and examples.
You can keep this Linux command cheat sheet on your desk. We are confident that you will quickly master these commands if you have just recently started learning them, and you will soon become a Linux expert. Commands are divided into different sections depending on their use. Links to the PDF and PNG versions of this cheat sheet are at the end of the post. We’ve grouped the Linux commands in the following sections for easier understanding. At first glance, the list may seem very difficult to memorize, but memorization comes with practice! The more often you use certain commands, the faster you will memorize them.
ls
Lists with all files in the current directory
ls -R
Also shows files in subdirectories
ls -a
Also displays hidden files
ls -al
Lists files and directories with detailed information
cd or cd ~
Go to the HOME directory
cd ..
Move up a level
cd
To navigate to a specific directory
cd /
Switch to the root directory
cat > filename
Create a new file
cat filename
Displays the contents of the file
cat file1 file2 > file3
Combines two files and saves the result
mv file “new file path”
Moves files to a new location
new_file_name
Renames a file to a new name
sudo
Allows users to run programs with root
rm filename
Delete a file
man
Provides background information about the team
history
Provides a list of all previous commands
clear
Cleaning the terminal
mkdir directoryname
Creates a new directory in the current
rmdir
Delete a catalog
mv
Rename the catalog
pr -x
Splits a file into x columns
pr -h
Assigns a file header
pr -n
Marks the file with line numbers
lp -nc , lpr c
Prints “c” copies of a file
lp-d lp-P
Specifies the name of the printer
apt-get
Command to install and update packages
mail -s ‘subject’
Command to send an email
mail -s “Subject”
Command to send an email with an attachment
ls -l
To show the file type and access rights
r
Permission to view
w
Permission to record
x
Execute the authorization
-=
No authorization
Chown user
To change the ownership of a file/directories
Chown user:group filename
change the user and group for a file or directory
echo $VARIABLE
To display the change value
env
Displays all environmental variables
VARIABLE_NAME= variable_value
Create a new variable
Unset
Deleting a variable
export Variable=value
Set the value of the environment variable
sudo adduser username
Add a new user
sudo passwd -l ‘username’
Change user password
sudo userdel -r ‘username’
Change user password
sudo usermod -a -G GROUPNAME USERNAME
Add a user to a group
sudo deluser USER GROUPNAME
Change the directory to “dirname”
finger
Shows information about all users
finger username
Provides information about a specific user
SSH username@ip-address or hostname
Log in to a remote Linux machine via SSH
Ping hostname=”” or =””
Ping and analyze network
dir
Display files in the current directory r
cd “dirname”
Change the directory to “dirname”
put file
Download a “file” from a local to a remote computer
get file
Download a “file” from a remote
quit
Log out of the system
bg
Switching a process to the background
fg
Starting a stopped process in the foreground
top
Detailed information about all active processes
ps
Display the status of processes
ps PID
Provides status to a specific process
pidof
Gives the process identifier (PID) of the process
kill PID
Killing the process
nice
Starts a process with a specified priority
renice
Changes the priority of an already running process
df
Provides free hard disk space on your system
free
Provides free RAM on your system
i
Paste with cursor
a
Write after the cursor
A
Write at the end of the line
ESC
End insert mode
u
Undo the last change
U
Undo all changes for the entire row
o
Open a new line (switches to insert mode)
dd
Delete a line
3dd
Delete 3 lines
D
Delete the contents of a string after the cursor
C
Delete the contents of the line after the cursor
dw
Delete the word
4dw
Delete 4 words
cw
Change the word
x
Delete a character near the cursor
r
Replace a character
R
Overwrite characters starting with the cursor
s
Replace one character under the cursor
S
Replace the entire line and start inserting
~
Change the case of a single character