➢ Linux Directory Commands
1. pwd Command
The pwd command is used to display the location of the current working directory.
2. mkdir Command
The mkdir command is used to create a new directory under any directory.
mkdir <directory name>
3. rmdir Command
The rmdir command is used to delete a directory.
rmdir <directory name>
4. ls Command
The ls command is used to display a list of content of a directory.
5. cd Command
The cd command is used to change the current directory.
cd <directory name>
➢ Linux File commands
6. touch Command
The touch command is used to create empty files. We can create multiple empty files by
executing it once.
7. cat Command
The cat command is a multi-purpose utility in the Linux system. It can be used to create a file,
display content of the file, copy the content of one file to another file, and more.
To create a file, execute it as follows:
cat > <file name>
// Enter file content
Press "CTRL+ D" keys to save the file. To display the content of the file, execute it as follows:
cat <file name>
8. rm Command
The rm command is used to remove a file.
9. cp Command
The cp command is used to copy a file or directory.
10. mv Command
The mv command is used to move a file or a directory form one location to another location.
mv <file name> <directory path>
11. rename Command
The rename command is used to rename files. It is useful for renaming a large group of files.
rename 's/old-name/new-name/' files
➢ Linux File Content Commands
12. head Command
The head command is used to display the content of a file. It displays the first 10 lines of a
file.
head <file name>
13. tail Command
The tail command is similar to the head command. The difference between both commands
is that it displays the last ten lines of the file content. It is useful for reading the error
message.
tail <file name>
14. tac Command
The tac command is the reverse of cat command, as its name specified. It displays the file
content in reverse order (from the last line).
tac <file name>
15. more command
The more command is quite similar to the cat command, as it is used to display the file
content in the same way that the cat command does. The only difference between both
commands is that, in case of larger files, the more command displays screenful output at a
time.
ENTER key: To scroll down page by line.
Space bar: To move to the next page.
b key: To move to the previous page.
/ key: To search the string.
more <file name>
16. less Command
The less command is similar to the more command. It also includes some extra features such
as 'adjustment in width and height of the terminal.' Comparatively, the more command cuts
the output in the width of the terminal.
less <file name>
➢ Linux User Commands
17. su Command
The su command provides administrative access to another user. In other words, it allows
access of the Linux shell to another user.
su <user name>
18. id Command
The id command is used to display the user ID (UID) and group ID (GID).
19. useradd Command
The useradd command is used to add or remove a user on a Linux server.
useradd username
20. passwd Command
The passwd command is used to create and change the password for a user.
passwd <username>
21. groupadd Command
The groupadd command is used to create a user group.
groupadd <group name>
➢ Linux Filter Commands
22. cat Command
The cat command is also used as a filter. To filter a file, it is used inside pipes.
cat <fileName> | cat or tac | cat or tac |. . .
23. cut Command
The cut command is used to select a specific column of a file. The '-d' option is used as a
delimiter, and it can be a space (' '), a slash (/), a hyphen (-), or anything else. And, the '-f'
option is used to specify a column number.
cut -d(delimiter) -f(columnNumber) <fileName>
24. grep Command
The grep is the most powerful and used filter in a Linux system. The 'grep' stands for "global
regular expression print." It is useful for searching the content from a file. Generally, it is
used with the pipe.
25. comm Command
The 'comm' command is used to compare two files or streams. By default, it displays three
columns, first displays non-matching items of the first file, second indicates the non-
matching item of the second file, and the third column displays the matching items of both
files.
comm <file1> <file2>
26. sed command
The sed command is also known as stream editor. It is used to edit files using a regular
expression. It does not permanently edit files; instead, the edited content remains only on
display. It does not affect the actual file.
command | sed 's/<oldWord>/<newWord>/'
27. tee command
The tee command is quite similar to the cat command. The only difference between both
filters is that it puts standard input on standard output and also write them into a file.
cat <fileName> | tee <newFile> | cat or tac |.....
28. tr Command
The tr command is used to translate the file content like from lower case to upper case.
command | tr <'old'> <'new'>
29. uniq Command
The uniq command is used to form a sorted list in which every word will occur only once.
30. wc Command
The wc command is used to count the lines, words, and characters in a file.
wc <file name>
31. sort Command
The sort command is used to sort files in alphabetical order.
sort <file name>
32. gzip Command
The gzip command is used to truncate the file size. It is a compressing tool. It replaces the
original file by the compressed file having '.gz' extension.
gzip <file1> <file2> <file3>...
33. gunzip Command
The gunzip command is used to decompress a file. It is a reverse operation of gzip command.
gunzip <file1> <file2> <file3>. .
➢ Linux Utility Commands
34. find Command
The find command is used to find a particular file within a directory. It also supports various
options to find a file such as byname, by type, by date, and more.
The following symbols are used after the find command:
(.) : For current directory name
(/) : For root
find . -name "*.pdf"
35. locate Command
The locate command is used to search a file by file name. It is quite similar to find command;
the difference is that it is a background process. It searches the file in the database, whereas
the find command searches in the file system. It is faster than the find command. To find the
file with the locates command, keep your database updated.
locate <file name>
36. date Command
The date command is used to display date, time, time zone, and more.
37. cal Command
The cal command is used to display the current month's calendar with the current date
highlighted.
cal<
38. sleep Command
The sleep command is used to hold the terminal by the specified amount of time. By
default, it takes time in seconds.
sleep <time>
40. time Command
The time command is used to display the time to execute a command.
41. zcat Command
The zcat command is used to display the compressed files.
48. mail Command
The mail command is used to send emails from the command line.
mail -s "Subject" <recipient address>
uname command in Linux
The uname command is used to check the complete OS information of the system.
ln command in Linux
The ln command is used to create a shortcut link to another file. This is among the most
important Linux commands to know if you want to operate as a Linux administrator.
15. ps command in Linux
ps command in Linux is used to check the active processes in the terminal.
man command in Linux
The man command displays a user manual for any commands or utilities available in the Terminal,
including their name, description, and options.
man <command name>
echo command in Linux
echo command in Linux is specially used to print something in the terminal
wget command in Linux
The wget command in the Linux command line allows you to download files from the
internet. It runs in the background and does not interfere with other processes.
wget http://sample.com/sample-menu.php
whoami command in Linux
The whoami command provides basic information that is extremely useful when working on
multiple systems. In general, if you are working with a single computer, you will not require it
as frequently as a network administrator.
