It is quite simple and intuitive to know the most useful commands of the Linux operating system. Like any other Linux user, these commands will be really useful for you and will let you know how to respond and on what. And if you are worried about how and up to what extent you have to remember the shortcuts in order to get completely functional with Linux? Relax! This write-up is written to help Linux users whether new or existing.
Below is a list of a few important commands with brief overviews:
Commands for Newbie
cd – Changes directory
clear – While working on Linux, there are chances that you try loads of commands. In this case to perform the desired task you need to clean up the screen. You need to type ‘clear’ over the command prompt to view the clean screen.
ls – It contains many choices to see different type of files of a specified directory. It displays a list of directories and files, and also supports wild cards.
kill – Terminate the current session.
exit – Used to exit out of the running program, end the current command line process of the terminal.
man – Used to explore more options incorporated by a command that means it can be used to read details about how to use any command.
cp – Used to copy data file or entire directory from one location to another
mkdir – Allow to create one or more directories
mv – It is used for renaming a folder or directory.
pwd – Shows the current directory in the command line terminal and helpful in case users have lost the track where they were in their system.
reboot – Instantly stops all the processes of the system, closes the system completely and then reboots.
shutdown – Terminates all the running programs and shuts down the computer. But the parameters specify the issue of a shut down at particular time or delayed shut down.
sudo – This command runs commands as root.
System Information Commands
date – It is used to see the current time and date or reset it in one of the available formats.
df – It notifies the user about the space usage of the device which means you can check available space on the disc.
du – Shows the space occupied by each file available in the system.
hostname – Shows the current host system’s name
uptime – It is actually very useful for servers because it shows how long it has been the system is running since last boot.
ps – Presents the details about all the existing running processes of the system.
quota – It shows the disc capacity and currently occupied space of specific users. It is beneficial in case the system is assigned to more than one user.
top – Shows all the top processes in the system in the order sorted by the CPU storage.
uname – Displays the details about version and operating system.
File Functions Commands
bzip2 – Compresses specified documents into a .bz2 format or extract it from this archive.
tail – Shows last lines of a file and beneficial to see the latest updates in the content on log file.
gunzip – Used to uncompress the gzip files.
cp – Copies files and directories at a new location with new name depending on the parameter.
scp – Copy a file to and from a remote system.
chmod/chown – ‘chmod’ is used to alter the file permission of one or multiple files whereas ‘chown’ is used to change the ownership of that.
gzip – It will compress the document in gzip format.
find/locate – Use to find a file or directory on the system.
install – This command is used in conjunction with Makefiles to copy files from one place to the system.
Cat – Used to copy the content of a folder on console without opening it in a editor.
grep – It searches the string of words which matches with the searched string in a file saved at specific locations.
mkdir/rmdir – ‘mkdir’ creates and ‘rmdir’ deletes a particular directory which you have permission in.
Open – It opens a file using a default application.
mv – Moves directories and files from one location to another
tar – Creates and extracts to and from .tar archive.
rm – Used to remove files and directories in a batch or single from the system.
zip/unzip – Creates and extracts to and from a .zip archive decided by the specific parameters.
more – Used to display the content of a file on the system with the option to find that particular portion in case of too large content.
Other Important Commands
emac – It is a text editor for Unix-like OS.
ftp/sftp – It is used for transferring or downloading files using secure ftp protocol to and from remote servers.
nano – It is a new command-line text editor which makes the use of keyboard shortcuts to simulate menus.
apt-get – This advance tool is used to install, remove and configure software applications on the computer.
vim – It is a command line editor to make the text changes.
wget – Downloads files from the Internet at specific URL.
yum – It is an open source package manager which helps to easily install the software packages from repositories.
logout – This command will be helpful to log out from the Linux based system.
passwd – It is used for changing the password as it is a good practice to keep your data secure in your computer.
kill -9 – It is used to bring the process to an end by the process id. It is useful at the point when a particular Linux application is not responding. In that case, you can abort the session just by typing the kill command.
(|) pipe operator – It is used to combine two commands together and with this command it is possible to use the output of one command as the input of another.
exit – To close the command line shell on a computer.
“>”- operator for redirecting output – It is used for directing the output on the display screen of the computer. Often it is used in conjunction with the pipe operator.
history – Used to rerun commands.
Commands are of great importance in every operating system. They improve the efficiency and performance of the system as well as users while working on a PC. They empower the functionality of the device up to a great extent.
This article is written by Medison Thomas. She is a tech enthusiast and work for an onsite computer service providing company. Readers can track her write-ups about other specific computer repair services in Penrith, Parramatta & Western Sydney on her Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus profiles.
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
