Linux Commands for Beginners
ls - Lists files and directories in the current directory. Example: ls -l shows
details.
cd - Changes the current directory. Example: cd /home navigates to the /home
directory.
pwd - Displays the current working directory.
mkdir - Creates a new directory. Example: mkdir project creates a folder named
'project'.
rm - Deletes files or directories. Example: rm file.txt deletes 'file.txt'. Use rm -r for
directories.
cp - Copies files or directories. Example: cp file1.txt file2.txt copies file1.txt to
file2.txt.
mv - Moves or renames files and directories. Example: mv old.txt new.txt renames
old.txt to new.txt.
touch - Creates an empty file. Example: touch file.txt creates a blank 'file.txt'.
cat - Displays file contents. Example: cat file.txt shows the content of 'file.txt'.
echo - Displays a line of text. Example: echo 'Hello World!' outputs 'Hello World!'.
grep - Searches for patterns in files. Example: grep 'error' log.txt finds 'error' in
log.txt.
find - Searches files and directories. Example: find / -name file.txt looks for 'file.txt'.
chmod - Changes file permissions. Example: chmod 755 script.sh sets the file
permission.
ps - Displays current running processes. Example: ps aux shows all processes
with details.
top - Displays real-time system resource usage and running processes.
df - Displays disk space usage. Example: df -h shows human-readable disk
usage.
du - Shows directory size. Example: du -sh /home gives the size of /home.
tar - Archives files. Example: tar -cvf archive.tar file.txt creates an archive.
curl - Fetches data from URLs. Example: curl http://example.com downloads the
page content.
scp - Securely copies files between servers. Example: scp file.txt user@host:/path
transfers file.txt.