Linux Commands

Here is yet another Linux commands cheat sheet with a different flavor.

• It’s not a formal reference list but commands that I use regularly.
• It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list but more of the absolutely required ones to stay out of trouble.
• Knowing the command is often not sufficient. You have to figure out the right options. So I’ve also specified the relevant options.

For a man page explanation of the commands, use the link and copy/paste the command.

Commands

Terminal
CTRL c	Interrupt and kill a process
CTRL s CTRL q	Suspend/Lock the terminal Resume/Unlock the terminal
System Information
uname -a	Show basic system information
cat /etc/*release*	Show basic distribution information
hostname	Name of computer
whoami	Current logged in user name
Files and Directories Listing
pwd	Show current working directory
ls	List files in a directory
ls -a	Include files starting with . or “hidden” files
ls -la	Show date and size information of all files
ls -lS	Sort by file size, largest first
ls -lSr	Sort by file size, smallest first
ls -lt	Sort by modification time, newest first
ls -ltr	Sort by modification time, newest last
ls -lh	Show file sizes in Kilo, Mega, Giga
tree	List contents of directories in a tree-like format
tree -L N	List contents of directories in a tree-like format, limit to N levels
Directory Manipulation
cd path/to/directory	Change the current working directory
mkdir directory	Create a directory
mkdir -p /path/to/directory	Create a directory and the sub-directories
rmdir directory	Delete an empty directory
rm -rv directory	Delete a directory and all contents under it recursively
cp -rv directory destination-directory	Copy a directory to a new location
mv -r directory destination-directory	Move a directory to a new location
mv directory new-directory	Rename a directory
File Manipulation
rm file	Delete a file
cp file destination/directory	Copy a file to the destination directory
mv file destination/directory	Move a file to the destination directory
mv file new-file	Rename a file
Archives
tar -cf archive.tar file1 file2 file3	Create plain tar archive
tar -czf archive.tar.gz file1 file2 file3	Create gzip archive
tar -cjf archive.tar.bz file1 file2 file3	Create bzip tar archive
tar -xf archive.tar	Extract plain tar archive
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz	Extract gzip archive
tar -xjf archive.tar.bz	Extract bzip tar archive
zip -r archive.zip directory/ file1 file2 file3	Create zip archive
unzip archive.zip	Extract zip archive
Disk, directory and file disk usage/sizes
df -h	Show all file system disk space usage
du -hs /path/to/directory	Show size of directory
du -hd N /path/to/directory	Show sizes of sub-directories N levels deep
ls -lh /path/to/directory	Show file sizes in Kilo, Mega, Giga
Search
find path/to/directory -iname "*.jpg"	Find files in a directory and its sub-directories
grep -r "foo" /path/to/directory	Find files recursively which contains the string foo See grep explained for more options
Processes
ps -ef | grep process-name	Find process with process-name and get process-id for it
kill process-id	Terminate process with process-id
kill -9 process-id	Force terminate process with id process-id
top	List running processes like Windows Task Manager
Developer Tools
nm	List symbols in object file, equivalent of Windows dumpbin.exe
ldd	List shared library dependencies, equivalent of Windows depends.exe
Remote Operations
ssh user@host	Connect to a remote machine using secure shell ssh
scp path/to/local/file user@host:path/to/remote/directory	Copy local file to remote machine
scp user@host:path/to/remote/file path/to/local/directory	Copy remote file to local machine
scp -r path/to/local/directory user@host:path/to/remote/directory	Copy local directory recursively to remote machine
scp -r user@host:path/to/remote/directory path/to/local/directory	Copy remote directory recursively to local machine
Utilities
history	List recently run commands
man command	Help page for a command
clear or CTRL L	Clear the terminal screen

You might also find these basic Vi/Vim and Package Manager commands useful.
If there are other commonly used commands that you think are missing, do let me know.