1.

Uptime Command
In Linux uptime command shows since how long your system is running and the number of users
are currently logged in and also displays load average for 1,5 and 15 minutes intervals.
# uptime

08:16:26 up 22 min,
0.22

1 user,

load average: 0.00, 0.03,

Check Uptime Version

Uptime command dont have other options other than uptime and version. It gives information only
in hours:mins if it less than 1 day.

[tecmint@tecmint ~]$ uptime -V

procps version 3.2.8

2. W Command
It will displays users currently logged in and their process along-with shows load averages. also
shows the login name, tty name, remote host, login time, idle time, JCPU, PCPU, command and
processes.
# w

08:27:44 up 34 min, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00,

0.08
USER
TTY
FROM
LOGIN@
IDLE
JCPU
PCPU WHAT
tecmint pts/0
192.168.50.1
07:59
0.00s 0.29s
0.09s w

Available options
o
o
o
o

-h : displays no header entries.

-s : without JCPU and PCPU.
-f : Removes from field.
-V : (upper letter) Shows versions.

3. Users Command
Users command displays currently logged in users. This command dont have other parameters other than help
and version.
# users

tecmint

4. Who Command

who command simply return user name, date, time and host information. who command is similar
to w command. Unlike w command who doesnt print what users are doing. Lets illustrate and see the different
between who and w commands.
# who

tecmint

pts/0

2012-09-18 07:59 (192.168.50.1)

# w

08:43:58 up 50 min, 1 user, load average: 0.64, 0.18,

0.06
USER
TTY
FROM
LOGIN@
IDLE
JCPU
PCPU WHAT
tecmint pts/0
192.168.50.1
07:59
0.00s 0.43s
0.10s w

Who command Options

o
o
o

-b : Displays last system reboot date and time.

-r : Shows current runlet.
-a, all : Displays all information in cumulatively.

5. Whoami Command
whoami command print the name of current user. You can also use who am i command to display the
current user. If you are logged in as a root using sudo command whoami command return root as current
user. Use who am i command if you want to know the exact user logged in.
# whoami

tecmint

6. ls Command
ls command display list of files in human readable format.
# ls -l

total 114
dr-xr-xr-x.
dr-xr-xr-x.

2 root root
5 root root

4096 Sep 18 08:46 bin

1024 Sep 8 15:49 boot

Sort file as per last modified time.

# ls -ltr

total 40
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 6546 Sep 17 18:42
install.log.syslog
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 22435 Sep 17 18:45 install.log
-rw-------. 1 root root 1003 Sep 17 18:45 anaconda-ks.cfg
For more examples of ls command, please check out our article on 15 Basic ls Command Examples in
Linux.

7. Crontab Command
List schedule jobs for current user with crontab command and -l option.
# crontab -l

00 10 * * * /bin/ls >/ls.txt
Edit your crontab with -e option. In the below example will open schedule jobs in VI editor. Make a
necessary changes and quit pressing :wq keys which saves the setting automatically.
# crontab -e

For more examples of Linux Cron Command, please read our earlier article on 11 Cron Scheduling Task
Examples in Linux.

8. Less Command
less command allows quickly view file. You can page up and down. Press q to quit from less window.
# less install.log

Installing setup-2.8.14-10.el6.noarch
warning: setup-2.8.14-10.el6.noarch: Header V3 RSA/SHA256
Signature, key ID c105b9de: NOKEY
Installing filesystem-2.4.30-2.1.el6.i686
Installing ca-certificates-2010.63-3.el6.noarch
Installing xml-common-0.6.3-32.el6.noarch
Installing tzdata-2010l-1.el6.noarch
Installing iso-codes-3.16-2.el6.noarch

9. More Command
more command allows quickly view file and shows details in percentage. You can page up and down. Press
q to quit out from more window.
# more install.log

Installing setup-2.8.14-10.el6.noarch
warning: setup-2.8.14-10.el6.noarch: Header V3 RSA/SHA256
Signature, key ID c105b9de: NOKEY
Installing filesystem-2.4.30-2.1.el6.i686
Installing ca-certificates-2010.63-3.el6.noarch
Installing xml-common-0.6.3-32.el6.noarch
Installing tzdata-2010l-1.el6.noarch
Installing iso-codes-3.16-2.el6.noarch
--More--(10%)

10. CP Command
Copy file from source to destination preserving same mode.
# cp -p fileA fileB

You will be prompted before overwrite to file.

# cp -i fileA fileB

11. MV Command

Rename fileA to fileB. -i options prompt before overwrite. Ask for confirmation if exist already.
# mv -i fileA fileB

12. Cat Command

cat command used to view multiple file at the same time.
# cat fileA fileB

You combine more and less command with cat command to view file contain if that doesnt fit in single screen
/ page.
# cat install.log | less
# cat install.log | more

For more examples of Linux cat command read our article on 13 Basic Cat Command Examples in Linux.

13. Cd command (change directory)

with cd command (change directory) it will goes to fileA directory.
# cd /fileA

14. pwd command (print working directory)

pwd command return with present working directory.
# pwd

/root

15. Sort command

Sorting lines of text files in ascending order. with -r options will sort in descending order.
#sort fileA.txt
#sort -r fileA.txt

16. VI Command
Vi is a most popular text editor available most of the UNIX-like OS. Below examples open file in read only
with -R option. Press :q to quit from vi window.
# vi -R /etc/shadows

17. SSH Command (Secure Shell)

SSH command is used to login into remote host. For example the below ssh command will connect to remote
host (192.168.50.2) using user as narad.
# ssh narad@192.168.50.2

To check the version of ssh use option -V (uppercase) shows version of ssh.
# ssh -V

OpenSSH_5.3p1, OpenSSL 1.0.0-fips 29 Mar 2010

18. Ftp or sftp Command

ftp or sftp command is used to connect to remote ftp host. ftp is (file transfer protocol) and sftp is (secure
file transfer protocol). For example the below commands will connect to ftp host (192.168.50.2).
# ftp 192.168.50.2
# sftp 192.168.50.2

Putting multiple files in remote host with mput similarly we can do mget to download multiple files from
remote host.
# ftp > mput *.txt
# ftp > mget *.txt

19. Service Command

Service command call script located at /etc/init.d/ directory and execute the script. There are two ways to start
the any service. For example we start the service called httpd with service command.
# service httpd start

OR
# /etc/init.d/httpd start

20. Free command

Free command shows free, total and swap memory information in bytes.
# free

total
buffers
cached
Mem:
1030800
51648
547696
-/+ buffers/cache:
Swap:
2064376

used

free

shared

735944

294856

136600
0

894200
2064376

Free with -t options shows total memory used and available to use in bytes.
# free -t

total
buffers
cached
Mem:
1030800
51720
547704
-/+ buffers/cache:
Swap:
2064376
Total:
3095176

used

free

shared

736096

294704

136672
0
736096

894128
2064376
2359080

21. Top Command

top command displays processor activity of your system and also displays tasks managed by kernel in realtime. Itll show processor and memory are being used. Use top command withu option this will display
specific User process details as shown below. Press O (uppercase letter) to sort as per desired by you. Press
q to quit from top screen.
# top -u tecmint

top - 11:13:11 up 3:19, 2 users, load average: 0.00,

0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 116 total,
1 running, 115 sleeping,
0 stopped,
0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 0.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.7%id, 0.0%wa,
0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem:
1030800k total,
736188k used,
294612k free,
51760k buffers

Swap: 2064376k total,

547704k cached
PID USER
COMMAND
1889 tecmint
sshd
1890 tecmint
bash
6698 tecmint
sshd
6699 tecmint
bash

PR

NI

0k used,
VIRT

RES

20

0 11468 1648

20

20

0 11600 1668

20

2064376k free,

SHR S %CPU %MEM

TIME+

920 S

0.0

0.2

0:00.59

5124 1668 1416 S

0.0

0.2

0:00.44

924 S

0.0

0.2

0:01.19

5124 1596 1352 S

0.0

0.2

0:00.11

For more about top command weve already compiled a list of 12 TOP Command Examples in Linux.

22. Tar Command

tar command is used to compress files and folders in Linux. For example the below command will create a
archive for /home directory with file name as archive-name.tar.
# tar -cvf archive-name.tar /home

To extract tar archive file use the option as follows.

# tar -xvf archive-name.tar

To understand more about tar command weve created a complete how-to guide on tar command at 18 Tar
Command Examples in Linux.

23. Grep Command

grep search for a given string in a file. Only tecmint user displays from /etc/passwd file. we can use -i option
for ignoring case sensitive.
# grep tecmint /etc/passwd

tecmint:x:500:500::/home/tecmint:/bin/bash

24. Find Command

Find command used to search files, strings and directories. The below example of find command
search tecmint word in / partition and return the output.
# find / -name tecmint

/var/spool/mail/tecmint
/home/tecmint
/root/home/tecmint
For complete guide on Linux find command examples fount at 35 Practical Examples of Linux Find
Command.

25. lsof Command

lsof mean List of all open files. Below lsof command list of all opened files by user tecmint.
# lsof -u tecmint

COMMAND PID
USER
FD
TYPE
NAME
sshd
1889 tecmint cwd
DIR
/
sshd
1889 tecmint txt
REG
/usr/sbin/sshd
sshd
1889 tecmint DEL
REG
/lib/libcom_err.so.2.1
sshd
1889 tecmint DEL
REG
/lib/ld-2.12.so
sshd
1889 tecmint DEL
REG
/usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0
sshd
1889 tecmint DEL
REG
/lib/libnsl-2.12.so
sshd
1889 tecmint DEL
REG
/lib/libkrb5support.so.0.1
sshd
1889 tecmint DEL
REG
/lib/libplc4.so

DEVICE SIZE/OFF
253,0

NODE

4096

253,0

532336 298069

253,0

412940

253,0

393156

253,0

298643

253,0

393173

253,0

412937

253,0

412961

For more lsof command examples visit 10 lsof Command Examples in Linux.

26. last command

With last command we can watch users activity in the system. This command can execute normal user also. It
will display complete users info like terminal, time, date, system reboot or boot and kernel version. Useful
command to troubleshoot.
# last

tecmint pts/1
still logged in
tecmint pts/0
still logged in
reboot
system boot
11:38 (03:43)
root
pts/1
down
(03:53)
root
pts/0
13:09 (02:32)
root
tty1
down
(04:26)
reboot
system boot
14:33 (04:35)
narad
pts/2
down
(01:15)

192.168.50.1

Tue Sep 18 08:50

192.168.50.1

Tue Sep 18 07:59

2.6.32-279.el6.i Tue Sep 18 07:54 192.168.50.1

Sun Sep 16 10:40 -

:0.0

Sun Sep 16 10:36 -

:0

Sun Sep 16 10:07 -

2.6.32-279.el6.i Sun Sep 16 09:57 192.168.50.1

Thu Sep 13 08:07 -

You can use last with username to know for specific users activity as shown below.
# last tecmint

tecmint pts/1
still logged in
tecmint pts/0
still logged in
tecmint pts/1
down
(01:15)
tecmint pts/4
12:29 (02:17)

192.168.50.1

Tue Sep 18 08:50

192.168.50.1

Tue Sep 18 07:59

192.168.50.1

Thu Sep 13 08:07 -

192.168.50.1

Wed Sep 12 10:12 -

27. ps command
ps command displays about processes running in the system. Below example show initprocess only.
# ps -ef | grep init

root
root

1
7508

0
6825

0 07:53 ?
0 11:48 pts/1

00:00:04 /sbin/init
00:00:00 grep init

28. kill command

Use kill command to terminate process. First find process id with ps command as shown below and kill
process with kill -9 command.
# ps -ef | grep init

root
root

1
7508

0
6825

0 07:53 ?
0 11:48 pts/1

00:00:04 /sbin/init
00:00:00 grep init

# kill- 9 7508

29. rm command
rm command used to remove or delete a file without prompting for confirmation.
# rm filename

Using -i option to get confirmation before removing it. Using options -r and -f will remove the file
forcefully without confirmation.
# rm -i test.txt

rm: remove regular file `test.txt'?

30. mkdir command example.

mkdir command is used to create directories under Linux.
# mkdir directoryname