Basic Linux Commands

Then learn Basic linux shell command from below simple tutorials. Which will help you to understand Linux/Unix shell command better.

INDEX

 • File Handling
 • Text Processing
 • System Administration
 • Process Management
 • Archival
 • Network
 • File Systems
 • System Commands
 • Other Useful command

File Handling commands

mkdir — make directories
Usage: mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY…
eg.

#mkdir sudoadmin

ls — list directory contents
Usage: ls [OPTION]… [FILE]…

eg.

#ls sudoadmin

cd — changes directories
Usage: cd [DIRECTORY]

eg.

#cd sudoadmin

pwd — print name of current working directory
Usage: pwd

vim — Vi Improved, a programmers text editor
Usage: vim [OPTION] file]…
eg.

#vim file1.txt

​cp — copy files and directories
Usage: cp [OPTION]… SOURCE DEST
eg.

#cp sample.txt sample_copy.txt

cp sample_copy.txt target_dir
mv — move (rename) files
Usage: mv [OPTION]… SOURCE DEST
eg.

#mv source.txt target_dir                                                         
#mv old.txt new.txt

​rm ­– remove files or directories
Usage: rm [OPTION]… FILE…
eg.

#rm file1.txt
#rm ­rf some_dir

find — search for files in a directory hierarchy
Usage: find [OPTION] [path] [pattern] eg.

#find file1.txt
#find ­name file1.txt

history — prints recently used commands
Usage: history

Pattern

A Pattern is an expression that describes a set of strings which is used to give a concise description of a set, without having to list all elements.
eg. ab*cd matches anything that starts with ab and ends with cd etc.

eg. prints all text files

#ls *.txt

Text Processing

cat — concatenate files and print on the standard output.
Usage: cat [OPTION] [FILE]…
eg.

#cat file1.txt
#cat -­n file1.txt

echo — display a line of text Usage: echo [OPTION] [string] … eg.

#echo "I love India"
#echo $HOME

grep –­ print lines matching a pattern
Usage: grep [OPTION] PATTERN [FILE]…
eg.

grep -­i "apple" sample.txt                                                           

wc –­ print the number of newlines, words, and bytes in files
Usage: wc [OPTION]… [FILE]…
eg.

wc file1.txt                                                                             
wc -L file1.txt

sort — sort lines of text files
Usage: sort [OPTION]… [FILE]…
eg.

#sort file1.txt  
#sort -­r file1.txt

Linux File Permissions

3 types of file permissions — read, write, execute
10 bit format from ‘ls -l’ command
1 2 3 4      5 6 7      8 9 10
file type    owner      group      others
eg.
drwxrw­r­­ — means owner has all three permissions, group has read and write, others have only read permission
eg. read – 4, write – 2, execute ­1 rwxrw­r­­ = 764 rw­rwx­wx = 673

System Administration

chmod — change file access permissions Usage: chmod [OPTION] [MODE] [FILE] eg.

#chmod 744 calculate.sh                                                         

chown — change file owner and group
Usage: chown [OPTION]… OWNER[:[GROUP]] FILE…
eg.

#chown root:hitesh myfile.txt

su —  change user ID or become super­user
Usage: su [OPTION] [LOGIN] eg.

#su hitesh,

passwd — update  a user’s authentication tokens(s)
Usage: passwd [OPTION] eg.

passwd hitesh

who — show who is logged on
Usage: who [OPTION] eg.

#who
#who -­b
#who ­-q

Process Management

ps — report a snapshot of the current processes
Usage: ps [OPTION] eg.

#ps
#ps -el
#ps -ef

kill — to kill a process(using signal mechanism)
Usage: kill [OPTION] pid
eg.

#kill ­-9 2275

bg — make a foreground process to run in background
Usage: type ‘ctrl+z’  and then ‘bg ‘
eg.

#/usr/bin/php /home/hitesh/helloworld.php
//type "ctrl+z"  and then type "bg"

jobs — displays the names and ids of background jobs
Usage: jobs
eg.

#jobs
[1]-  Stopped     /usr/bin/php /home/hitesh/helloworld.php

fg — to make background process as foreground process
Usage: fg [job id] eg.

#fg 1

Archival

tar — to archive a file
Usage: tar [OPTION] DEST SOURCE
eg.

#tar -­cvf /home/archive.tar /home/original

eg. to extract tar file

#tar -­xvf /home/archive.tar

zip — package and compress (archive) files
Usage: zip [OPTION] DEST SOURSE
eg.

#zip original.zip original

unzip — list, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archive
Usage: unzip filename
eg.

#unzip original.zip

Network

ssh — SSH client (remote login program)
“ssh is a program for logging into a remote machine and for executing commands on a remote machine”
Usage: ssh [options] [user]@hostname
eg.

#ssh ­X guest@192.168.1.10

scp — secure copy (remote file copy program)
“scp copies files between hosts on a network”

Usage: scp [options] [[user]@host1:file1] [[user]@host2:file2] eg.

#scp file1.txt guest@192.168.1.10:/home/anki/

File Systems

fdisk — partition manipulator
eg.

sudo fdisk -­l

mount — mount a file system
Usage: mount ­t type device dir
eg.

mount /dev/sda5 /media/target

umount — unmount file systems
Usage: umount [OPTIONS] dir | device…
eg.

umount /media/target

du — estimate file space usage
Usage:  du [OPTION]… [FILE]…
eg.

#du

df — report filesystem disk space usage
Usage: df [OPTION]… [FILE]…
eg.

#df -hla

quota — display disk usage and limits
Usage: quota [OPTION] eg.

#quota ­-v

System Command

reboot — reboot the system
Usage: reboot [OPTION] eg.

#reboot

poweroff — power off the system
Usage: poweroff [OPTION] eg.

#poweroff

Editor commands

kate — KDE Advanced Text Editor
Usage:  kate [options][file(s)] eg.

#kate file1.txt

vim — Vi Improved, a programmers text editor
Usage: vim [OPTION] [file]…
eg.

#vi hello.c

gedit –­ A text Editor. Used to create and edit files.
Usage: gedit [OPTION] [FILE]…
eg.

#gedit

Other Useful command

sed — stream editor for filtering and transforming text
Usage: sed [OPTION] [input­file]…
eg.

#sed 's/love/hate/g' loveletter.txt

awk ­– pattern scanning and processing language
eg.

#awk ­F: '{ print $1 }' sample_awk.txt

find — search for files in a directory hierarchy
Usage: find [OPTION] [path] [pattern] eg.

#find ­name file1.txt

locate — find or locate a file
Usage: locate [OPTION]… FILE…
eg.

#locate file1.txt

man <command> — shows all information about the command
eg.

#man ls

<command> –­­help — shows the available options for that command
eg.

#ls --help

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Author: Hitesh Satarkar

Hitesh Satarkar currently working as a Linux/Unix administrator. But I also play Windows both in server and desktop area. Interested in information technology, information security and writing. View all posts by Hitesh Satarkar