List Of Top 100 Linux Commands You Should Know (2023)

ls – List directory contents
Example: ls -l (List files in long format)

cd – Change directory
Example: cd /path/to/directory (Change to a specific directory)

pwd – Print working directory
Example: pwd (Display the current directory path)

mkdir – Make directory
Example: mkdir new_directory (Create a new directory)

rm – Remove files or directories
Example: rm file.txt (Delete a file)

cp – Copy files and directories
Example: cp file.txt destination/ (Copy a file to a destination)

mv – Move or rename files and directories
Example: mv file.txt new_name.txt (Rename a file)

touch – Create an empty file
Example: touch file.txt (Create a new empty file)

cat – Concatenate and display file content
Example: cat file.txt (Display the content of a file)

grep – Search for patterns in files
Example: grep "pattern" file.txt (Search for a specific pattern in a file)

find – Search for files and directories
Example: find /path/to/directory -name "filename" (Find a specific file in a directory)

chmod – Change file permissions
Example: chmod 755 file.txt (Change the permissions of a file)

chown – Change file ownership
Example: chown user:group file.txt (Change the ownership of a file)

tar – Archive files and directories
Example: tar -czvf archive.tar.gz directory/ (Create a compressed archive of a directory)

unzip – Extract files from a ZIP archive
Example: unzip archive.zip (Extract files from a ZIP file)

ssh – Secure shell remote login
Example: ssh username@hostname (Connect to a remote server using SSH)

sudo – Execute a command with superuser privileges
Example: sudo apt update (Update package lists using sudo)

apt-get – Package handling utility for Debian-based systems
Example: apt-get install package_name (Install a package using apt-get)

man – Display the manual page of a command
Example: man ls (Display the manual for the “ls” command)

ps – Display running processes
Example: ps aux (Display all running processes)

top – Display system resource usage
Example: top (Monitor system resource utilization)

du – Estimate file and directory space usage
Example: du -sh directory/ (Show the total size of a directory)

df – Display disk space usage
Example: df -h (Display disk space usage in a human-readable format)

ping – Send ICMP echo requests to a network host
Example: ping google.com (Ping a website to check network connectivity)

ifconfig – Configure network interfaces
Example: ifconfig eth0 up (Bring up a network interface)

wget – Retrieve files from the web
Example: wget http://example.com/file.txt (Download a file from a URL)

curl – Transfer data to or from a server
Example: curl http://example.com (Retrieve the contents of a web page)

systemctl – Control the systemd system and service manager
Example: systemctl start service_name (Start a system service)

journalctl – Query the systemd journal
Example: journalctl -u service_name (View the logs of a specific service)

scp – Securely copy files between hosts
Example: scp file.txt user@host:/path/to/destination (Copy a file to a remote host)

grep -r – Search for text recursively in files and directories
Example: grep -r "pattern" directory/ (Search for a pattern recursively in a directory)

sed – Stream editor for filtering and transforming text
Example: sed 's/foo/bar/' file.txt (Replace occurrences of “foo” with “bar” in a file)

awk – Text processing and pattern scanning language
Example: awk '{ print $1 }' file.txt (Print the first column of a file)

ssh-keygen – Generate SSH key pairs Example: ssh-keygen -t rsa (Generate an RSA SSH key pair)

systemctl status – Display the status of a systemd unit
Example: systemctl status service_name (Check the status of a service)

diff – Compare files line by line
Example: diff file1.txt file2.txt (Compare two files and show the differences)

head – Output the first part of files
Example: head -n 10 file.txt (Display the first 10 lines of a file)

tail – Output the last part of files
Example: tail -n 5 file.txt (Display the last 5 lines of a file)

tar -xvf – Extract files from a tar archive
Example: tar -xvf archive.tar (Extract files from a tar archive)

history – Display the command history
Example: history (Show a list of previously executed commands)

ln – Create links between files
Example: ln -s file.txt link.txt (Create a symbolic link to a file)

mount – Mount a file system
Example: mount /dev/sda1 /mnt (Mount a partition to a mount point)

umount – Unmount a file system
Example: umount /mnt (Unmount a mounted file system)

chmod +x – Make a file executable
Example: chmod +x script.sh (Make a script executable)

grep -v – Invert match and exclude lines matching a pattern
Example: grep -v "pattern" file.txt (Print lines not containing the pattern)

kill – Terminate a process
Example: kill process_id (Terminate a process by its ID)

systemctl enable – Enable a systemd unit to start on boot
Example: systemctl enable service_name (Enable a service to start automatically)

chown -R – Change ownership recursively
Example: chown -R user:group directory/ (Change the ownership of a directory and its contents)

useradd – Create a user account
Example: useradd username (Create a new user account)

usermod – Modify user account properties
Example: usermod -aG groupname username (Add a user to a group)

passwd – Change user password
Example: passwd username (Change the password for a user)

systemctl restart – Restart a systemd unit
Example: systemctl restart service_name (Restart a service)

sort – Sort lines of text files
Example: sort file.txt (Sort the lines of a file alphabetically)

which – Locate the executable of a command
Example: which command (Find the location of a command’s executable)

crontab – Schedule periodic tasks
Example: crontab -e (Edit the user’s crontab file)

ssh-key-copy – Copy SSH public key to a remote server
Example: ssh-copy-id user@host (Copy SSH public key to a remote server)

ln -s – Create a symbolic link
Example: ln -s /path/to/file link_name (Create a symbolic link to a file)

history -c – Clear command history
Example: history -c (Clear the command history)

alias – Create an alias for a command
Example: alias l='ls -l' (Create an alias “l” for the “ls -l” command)

echo – Print a message
Example: echo "Hello, World!" (Print the message “Hello, World!”)

systemctl stop – Stop a systemd unit
Example: systemctl stop service_name (Stop a service)

gzip – Compress files
Example: gzip file.txt (Compress a file using gzip)

gunzip – Decompress files compressed with gzip
Example: gunzip file.txt.gz (Decompress a file compressed with gzip)

tar -cvf – Create a tar archive
Example: tar -cvf archive.tar directory/ (Create a tar archive of a directory)

tar -tvf – View the contents of a tar archive
Example: tar -tvf archive.tar (List the files in a tar archive)

df -h – Display disk space usage in a human-readable format
Example: df -h (Show disk space usage in a human-readable format)

df -i – Display inode usage
Example: df -i (Display inode usage)

ifconfig -a – Display all network interfaces
Example: ifconfig -a (Display all network interfaces)

netstat -tuln – Display listening ports
Example: netstat -tuln (Show listening ports)

systemctl reload – Reload a systemd unit configuration
Example: systemctl reload service_name (Reload a service configuration)

systemctl disable – Disable a systemd unit from starting on boot
Example: systemctl disable service_name (Disable a service from starting automatically)

free -m – Display memory usage in megabytes
Example: free -m (Show memory usage in megabytes)

ps -ef – Display a snapshot of the current processes
Example: ps -ef (Display all running processes)

ssh-keygen -p – Change passphrase of an SSH private key
Example: ssh-keygen -p (Change the passphrase of an SSH private key)

history -w – Write the current history to the history file
Example: history -w (Write the current history to the history file)

find -type f -name – Search for files with a specific name
Example: find /path/to/directory -type f -name "filename" (Search for a file by name)

locate – Find files by name
Example: locate file.txt (Find the path of a file by name)

systemctl list-units – List all systemd units
Example: systemctl list-units (List all active systemd units)

cat file1.txt file2.txt – Concatenate multiple files and display the content
Example: cat file1.txt file2.txt (Concatenate the content of two files)

grep -i – Perform a case-insensitive pattern search
Example: grep -i "pattern" file.txt (Search for a pattern case-insensitively)

chmod -R – Change permissions recursively
Example: chmod -R 755 directory/ (Change the permissions of a directory and its contents recursively)

wc -l – Count the number of lines in a file
Example: wc -l file.txt (Count the number of lines in a file)

tail -f – Output the last part of a file and follow its changes
Example: tail -f file.txt (Display the last part of a file and follow new lines as they are appended)

chgrp – Change group ownership
Example: chgrp groupname file.txt (Change the group ownership of a file)

gzip -d – Decompress files compressed with gzip
Example: gzip -d file.txt.gz (Decompress a file compressed with gzip)

tar -xvf – Extract files from a tar archive
Example: tar -xvf archive.tar (Extract files from a tar archive)

awk ‘{print $NF}’ – Print the last field of each line
Example: awk '{print $NF}' file.txt (Print the last field of each line in a file)

sort -r – Sort lines of text files in reverse order
Example: sort -r file.txt (Sort the lines of a file in reverse order)

sed ‘s/foo/bar/g’ – Replace all occurrences of a string with another string
Example: sed 's/foo/bar/g' file.txt (Replace all occurrences of “foo” with “bar” in a file)

tail -n +2 – Display all lines of a file except the first line
Example: tail -n +2 file.txt (Display all lines of a file except the first line)

tee – Read from standard input and write to standard output and files
Example: command | tee file.txt (Execute a command and write its output to a file)

df -h -T – Display disk space usage with file system type
Example: df -h -T (Show disk space usage with file system type)

ps aux | grep process_name – Display information about a specific process
Example: ps aux | grep sshd (Display information about the SSH daemon process)

mount -t – Mount a specific file system type
Example: mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt (Mount an ext4 file system to a mount point)

df -h – Display disk space usage in a human-readable format
Example: df -h (Show disk space usage in a human-readable format)

tar -xvf – Extract files from a tar archive
Example: tar -xvf archive.tar (Extract files from a tar archive)

tar -tvf – View the contents of a tar archive
Example: tar -tvf archive.tar (List the files in a tar archive)

df -h – Display disk space usage in a human-readable format
Example: df -h (Show disk space usage in a human-readable format)

df -i – Display inode usage
Example: df -i (Display inode usage)

ifconfig -a – Display all network interfaces
Example: ifconfig -a (Display all network interfaces)