Linux commands, from your first prompt onward.
In-depth, beginner-friendly guides to the Linux command line — with syntax, options, worked examples, and practical tips for every command.
- awkText Processing
Pattern-scanning and text-processing language for field-based data
text-processingscriptingfields - bcppDevelopment
Legacy C/C++ source code beautifier (mostly superseded)
developmentformattinglegacy - bgProcesses
Resume a stopped job and run it in the background
shelljobsprocesses - calSystem
Display a text calendar in the terminal
system-infocalendartime - catFiles
Concatenate and print file contents
filestextoutput - cdDirectories
Change the shell's current working directory
directoriesshellnavigation - chgrpPermissions
Change the group ownership of a file or directory
permissionsgroupsownership - chmodPermissions
Change file and directory permissions
permissionssecurityfiles - cmpText Processing
Compare two files byte by byte
text-processingcomparisonfiles - cpFiles
Copy files and directories
filesdirectoriescopying - ctraceDevelopment
Historical C program execution tracer (obsolete, superseded by gdb/strace/ltrace)
developmentdebugginglegacy - curlNetworking
Transfer data to/from a URL over many protocols
networkinghttpapi - cutText Processing
Extract columns or fields from each line of input
text-processingfieldscolumns - cxrefDevelopment
Generate a cross-reference listing of a C program (legacy tool)
developmentdocumentationlegacy - dateSystem
Display or set the system date and time
system-infotimesystem - dfDisk
Report free and used disk space on mounted filesystems
diskfilesystemstorage - diffText Processing
Compare files line by line and show differences
text-processingcomparisonpatch - digNetworking
Query DNS servers and display detailed DNS records
networkingdnsdiagnostics - dmidecodeSystem
Read hardware info from DMI/SMBIOS tables
hardwaresystembios - duDisk
Show disk usage of files and directories
diskstoragefiles - ethtoolNetworking
Query and change network interface driver and hardware settings
networkinginterfaceshardware - expandText Processing
Convert tabs in input to spaces
text-processingwhitespaceformatting - fdiskDisk
View or modify a disk's partition table
diskpartitionsstorage - fgProcesses
Bring a background or stopped job to the foreground
processesshelljob-control - fileFiles
Determine a file's type by inspecting its contents
filesinspectionmetadata - findFiles
Search a directory tree for files matching criteria
filessearchfilesystem - freeSystem
Display system memory usage: RAM and swap
system-infomemorymonitoring - ftpNetworking
Interactive File Transfer Protocol client
networkingfile-transferlegacy - g++Development
GNU C++ compiler front end
developmentcompilationc++ - gccDevelopment
GNU C compiler front end
developmentcompilationc - geditDevelopment
GNOME's simple graphical text editor
developmenteditorgui - grepText Processing
Search text using patterns
searchregextext-processing - groupaddGroups
Create a new group
groupsuserssystem administration - gunzipCompression
Decompress .gz files
compressiongziparchiving - gzipCompression
Compress files using the DEFLATE algorithm
compressionarchivingfiles - hdparmDisk
Get/set SATA and IDE disk drive parameters
diskhardwareperformance - headFiles
Print the first lines of a file
filestextoutput - hostNetworking
Simple DNS lookup utility
networkingdnsdiagnostics - hostnameSystem
Show or set the system's hostname and IP addresses
networkingsystem-infohostname - htopProcesses
Interactive, colorized process viewer with tree view and mouse support
processesmonitoringperformance - idUsers
Show user and group IDs for the current or named user
userspermissionsidentity - ifconfigNetworking
Display and configure network interfaces
networkinginterfaceslegacy - indentDevelopment
Reformat C source code according to configurable style rules
developmentformattingc - iostatMonitoring
Report CPU and device/partition I/O statistics
monitoringdiskio - joinText Processing
Join lines of two sorted files on a common field
text-processingjoinfields - killProcesses
Send a signal to a process by PID
processessignalssystem - killallProcesses
Send a signal to all processes matching a name
processessignalssystem - lastSystem
Show login history and system reboot records
system-infologsusers - lessFiles
Page through text interactively, one screen at a time
filespagertext - lnFiles
Create hard or symbolic links between files
fileslinksfilesystem - locateFiles
Find files by name using a prebuilt index, fast but can be stale
filessearchfilesystem - lookText Processing
Display lines in a sorted file starting with a given string
text-processingsearchlegacy - lprFiles
Submit a file to the print queue
filesprintinglegacy - lsFiles
List directory contents
filesdirectorieslisting - lsb_releaseSystem
Show Linux Standard Base and distribution information
system-infodistrosystem - lsofMonitoring
List open files and the processes holding them open
monitoringprocessesnetworking - lspciSystem
List PCI devices and hardware attached to the system
hardwaresystem-infopci - lsusbSystem
List USB devices and controllers attached to the system
hardwaresystem-infousb - makeDevelopment
Build automation tool that runs rules from a Makefile
developmentbuildcompilation - mkdirDirectories
Create new directories
directoriesfilesnavigation - moreFiles
Page through text one screen at a time, forward only
filespagertext - mpstatMonitoring
Report per-processor CPU usage statistics
monitoringcpuperformance - mvFiles
Move or rename files and directories
filesdirectoriesrenaming - netstatNetworking
Display network connections, routing tables, and listening ports
networkingdiagnosticsmonitoring - nmDevelopment
List symbols from object files and executables
developmentbinutilslinking - pasteText Processing
Merge corresponding lines of files side by side into columns
text-processingcolumnsfiles - perlDevelopment
General-purpose scripting language, historically a sysadmin staple for text processing
developmentscriptingtext-processing - pingNetworking
Test host reachability and measure latency with ICMP echo
networkingdiagnosticsicmp - psProcesses
Show a snapshot of currently running processes
processesmonitoringsystem - pwdDirectories
Print the full path of the current working directory
directoriesshellnavigation - rcpNetworking
Legacy remote file copy (unencrypted, obsolete)
networkingfile-transferlegacy - rloginNetworking
Legacy remote login protocol (unencrypted, obsolete)
networkinglegacysecurity - rmFiles
Remove files and directories
filescleanupdeletion - rmdirDirectories
Remove empty directories
directoriesfilescleanup - rpmPackage Management
Low-level tool to install, query, and verify RPM packages
package-managementrpmredhat - rshNetworking
Legacy remote shell/command execution (unencrypted, obsolete)
networkinglegacysecurity - rsyncNetworking
Efficiently synchronize files and directories
networkingfile-transferbackup - scpNetworking
Securely copy files to/from a remote host over SSH
networkingfile-transferssh - sedText Processing
Stream editor for filtering and transforming text
text-processingregexediting - sftpNetworking
Secure interactive file transfer over SSH
networkingfile-transferssh - sizeDevelopment
Print the size of code, data, and BSS sections in an object file
developmentbinutilscompilation - sortText Processing
Sort lines of text files
text-processingsortingfields - splitText Processing
Split a file into smaller pieces
text-processingfileschunking - sshNetworking
Secure encrypted remote login and command execution
networkingsshsecurity - stripDevelopment
Remove symbol table and debugging information from a binary
developmentbinutilscompilation - tailFiles
Print the last lines of a file, and follow it as it grows
filestextlogs - tarCompression
Archive files into a single .tar file, optionally compressed
compressionarchivebackup - tcpdumpNetworking
Capture and display network packets on an interface
networkingpacketsdebugging - telnetNetworking
Connect to a remote host/port over unencrypted Telnet
networkinglegacysecurity - tftpNetworking
Trivial File Transfer Protocol client for minimal, unauthenticated transfers
networkingfile-transferlegacy - topProcesses
Interactive live view of top resource-consuming processes
processesmonitoringperformance - touchFiles
Create empty files or update file timestamps
filestimestampsfilesystem - trText Processing
Translate, squeeze, or delete characters from input
text-processingcharactersstdin - unameSystem
Display Linux kernel and system information
system-infokernelsystem - uncompressCompression
Restore files compressed with the legacy .Z format
compressionlegacyarchiving - unexpandText Processing
Convert runs of spaces back into tabs
text-processingwhitespaceformatting - uniqText Processing
Report or filter out repeated adjacent lines
text-processingdeduplicationsorting - uptimeSystem
Show how long the system has been running and load averages
system-infomonitoringsystem - useraddUsers
Create a new user account
usersaccountssystem administration - userdelUsers
Delete a user account
usersaccountssystem administration - usermodUsers
Modify an existing user account
usersaccountssystem administration - viDevelopment
Modal terminal text editor
developmenteditorterminal - vmstatMonitoring
Report virtual memory, process, CPU, and IO statistics
monitoringmemorycpu - wSystem
Show who is logged in and what they are running
system-infousersmonitoring - watchShell
Repeatedly run a command and show periodic full-screen updates
shellmonitoringautomation - wcText Processing
Count lines, words, and bytes or characters
text-processingcountingfiles - wgetNetworking
Non-interactive command-line downloader
networkingdownloadhttp - whoUsers
List users currently logged into the system
userssystem-infomonitoring - whoamiSystem
Print the current effective username
system-infousersidentity - whoisNetworking
Look up domain registration information
networkingdnsdiagnostics - yumPackage Management
RPM-based package manager for RHEL/CentOS and older Fedora
package-managementrpmredhat - zcatCompression
Print gzip-compressed file contents to stdout
compressiongziptext-processing - zcmpCompression
Compare compressed files without decompressing to disk
compressiongziptext-processing - zdiffCompression
Show line-level differences between compressed files
compressiongziptext-processing - zmoreCompression
Page through a compressed file without decompressing it to disk
compressionpaginglegacy