WWW Hostinger Co Uk Tutorials Linux Commands
WWW Hostinger Co Uk Tutorials Linux Commands
Linux is a family of opensource Unix operating systems based on the Linux Kernel. They include
Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, and Red Hat. Using Linux to manage a Virtual Private Server
(VPS) is common practice.
When operating Linux, you need to use a shell – a program that gives you access to the operating
system’s services. Most Linux distributions use a graphical user interface (GUI), making them beginner
friendly.
However, we recommend utilizing the commandline interface (CLI) because it’s quicker and offers more
control. Tasks that require multiple steps on the GUI can be done in a matter of seconds by entering
commands into the CLI.
So if you want to use Linux, learning the common utilities or commands will go a long way. This article
will discuss the 40 basic commands to help you use your Linux distro effectively.
What Is a Linux Command?
Linux commands are executed on Terminal by pressing Enter at the end of the line. You can run
commands to perform various tasks, from package installation to user management and file
manipulation.
Although the steps may differ depending on your Linux distribution, the Terminal application is usually
found in the Utilities section.
1. sudo command
Short for superuser do, sudo is one of the most popular basic Linux commands that lets you perform
tasks that require administrative or root permissions.
When using sudo, the system will prompt users to authenticate themselves with a password. Then, the
Linux system will log a timestamp as a tracker. By default, every root user can run sudo commands for
15 minutes/session.
If you try to run sudo in the command line without authenticating yourself, the system will log the activity
as a security event.
2. pwd command
Use the pwd command to find the path of your current working directory. Simply entering pwd will
return the full current path – a path of all the directories that starts with a forward slash (/). For example,
/home/username.
pwd [option]
3. cd command
To navigate through the Linux files and directories, use the cd command. Depending on your current
working directory, it requires either the full path or the directory name.
Running this command without an option will take you to the home folder. Keep in mind that only users
with sudo privileges can execute it.
cd Photos.
If you want to switch to a completely new directory, for example, /home/username/Movies, you have to
enter cd followed by the directory’s absolute path:
cd /home/username/Movies
To see other directories’ content, type ls followed by the desired path. For example, to view files in the
Documents folder, enter:
ls /home/username/Documents
Here are some options you can use with the ls command:
5. cat command
Concatenate, or cat, is one of the most frequently used Linux commands. It lists, combines, and writes
file content to the standard output. To run the cat command, type cat followed by the file name and its
extension. For instance:
cat filename.txt.
6. cp command
Use the cp command to copy files or directories and their content. Take a look at the following use
cases.
To copy one file from the current directory to another, enter cp followed by the file name and the
destination directory. For example:
cp filename.txt /home/username/Documents
To copy files to a directory, enter the file names followed by the destination directory:
To copy the content of a file to a new file in the same directory, enter cp followed by the source file and
the destination file:
cp filename1.txt filename2.txt
To copy an entire directory, pass the R flag before typing the source directory, followed by the
destination directory:
cp R /home/username/Documents /home/username/Documents_backup
7. mv command
The primary use of the mv command is to move and rename files and directories. Additionally, it
doesn’t produce an output upon execution.
Simply type mv followed by the filename and the destination directory. For example, you want to move
filename.txt to the /home/username/Documents directory:
mv filename.txt /home/username/Documents.
mv old_filename.txt new_filename.txt
8. mkdir command
Use the mkdir command to create one or multiple directories at once and set permissions for each of
them. The user executing this command must have the privilege to make a new folder in the parent
directory, or they may receive a permission denied error.
mkdir Music
To make a new directory called Songs inside Music, use this command:
mkdir Music/Songs
p or –parents create a directory between two existing folders. For example, mkdir p
Music/2020/Songs will make the new “2020” directory.
m sets the file permissions. For instance, to create a directory with full read, write, and execute
permissions for all users, enter mkdir m777 directory_name.
v prints a message for each created directory.
9. rmdir command
To permanently delete an empty directory, use the rmdir command. Remember that the user running
this command should have sudo privileges in the parent directory.
For example, you want to remove an empty subdirectory named personal1 and its main folder mydir:
rmdir p mydir/personal1
10. rm command
The rm command is used to delete files within a directory. Make sure that the user performing this
command has write permissions.
Remember the directory’s location as this will remove the file(s) and you can’t undo it.
rm filename
For example, enter the following command to create an HTML file named Web in the Documents
directory:
touch /home/username/Documents/Web.html
Moreover, adding the i argument will turn off case sensitivity, so you can search for a file even if you
don’t remember its exact name.
To look for content that contains two or more words, use an asterisk (*). For example:
locate i school*note
The command will search for files that contain the words school and note, whether they use uppercase
or lowercase letters.
For example, you want to look for a file called notes.txt within the home directory and its subfolders:
Once the grep command finds a match, it prints all lines that contain the specific pattern. This
command helps filter through large log files.
For example, you want to search for the word blue in the notepad.txt file:
15. df command
Use the df command to report the system’s disk space usage, shown in percentage and kilobyte (KB).
Here’s the general syntax:
df [options] [file]
For example, enter the following command if you want to see the current directory’s system disk space
usage in a humanreadable format:
df h
16. du command
If you want to check how much space a file or a directory takes up, use the du command. You can run
this command to identify which part of the system uses the storage excessively.
Remember, you must specify the directory path when using the du command. For example, to check
/home/user/Documents enter:
du /home/user/Documents
Adding a flag to the du command will modify the operation, such as:
For instance, you want to view the first ten lines of note.txt, located in the current directory:
head note.txt
n or –lines prints the first customized number of lines. For example, enter head n 5
filename.txt to show the first five lines of filename.txt.
c or –bytes prints the first customized number of bytes of each file.
q or –quiet will not print headers specifying the file name.
For example, you want to show the last ten lines of the colors.txt file:
tail n colors.txt
Programmers often use the diff command to alter a program instead of rewriting the entire source
code.
For example, you want to compare two text files – note.txt and note_update.txt:
For instance, you want to create a new TAR archive named newarchive.tar in the
/home/user/Documents directory:
Check out the more practical examples to know more about the other functions.
For example, the owner is currently the only one with full permissions to change note.txt. To allow
group members and others to read, write, and execute the file, change it to the rwxrwxrwx permission
type, whose numeric value is 777:
To check the status of jobs in the current shell, simply enter jobs to the CLI.
To kill a program, you must know its process identification number (PID). If you don’t know the PID, run
the following command:
ps ux
After knowing what signal to use and the program’s PID, enter the following syntax:
There are 64 signals that you can use, but these two are among the most commonly used:
SIGTERM requests a program to stop running and gives it some time to save all of its progress.
The system will use this by default if you don’t specify the signal when entering the kill command.
SIGKILL forces programs to stop, and you will lose unsaved progress.
For example, the program’s PID is 63773, and you want to force it to stop:
For example, you want to know whether you can connect to Google and measure its response time:
ping google.com
26. wget command
The Linux command line lets you download files from the internet using the wget command. It works in
the background without hindering other running processes.
The wget command retrieves files using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols. It can perform recursive
downloads, which transfer website parts by following directory structures and links, creating local
versions of the web pages.
For example, enter the following command to download the latest version of WordPress:
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
uname [option]
The top command can also help you identify and terminate a process that may use too many system
resources.
history [option]
man [command_name]
For example, you want to access the manual for the ls command:
man ls
For example, you can display the text Hostinger Tutorials by entering:
The zip command is also useful for archiving files and directories and reducing disk usage.
For example, you have a file named note.txt that you want to compress into archive.zip in the current
directory:
On the other hand, the unzip command extracts the zipped files from an archive. Here’s the general
format:
unzip archive.zip
33. hostname command
Run the hostname command to know the system’s hostname. You can execute it with or without an
option. Here’s the general syntax:
hostname [option]
For example, enter the following command to know your computer’s IP address:
hostname i
When you use the useradd command, it performs some major changes:
Edits the /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, and /etc/gshadow files for the newly created
accounts.
Creates and populates a home directory for the user.
Sets file permissions and ownerships to the home directory.
passwd the_password_combination
For example, to add a new person named John, enter the following command simultaneously:
useradd John
passwd 123456789
Running the aptget command requires you to use sudo or root privileges.
These are the most common commands you can add to aptget:
The nano command denotes keywords and can work with most languages. To use it, enter the
following command:
nano [filename]
vi uses two operating modes to work – insert and command. insert is used to edit and create a text
file. On the other hand, the command performs operations, such as saving, opening, copying, and
pasting a file.
vi [filename]
jed has a dropdown menu interface that allows users to perform actions without entering keyboard
combinations or commands. Like vi, it has modes to load modules or plugins to write specific texts.
alias Name=String
For example, you want to make k the alias for the kill command:
alias k=’kill’
unalias [alias_name]
38. su command
The switch user or su command allows you to run a program as a different user. It changes the
administrative account in the current login session. This command is especially beneficial for accessing
the system through SSH or using the GUI display manager when the root user is unavailable.
When executed without any option or argument, the su command runs through root privileges. It will
prompt you to authenticate and use the sudo privileges temporarily.
Compared to the top command, htop has many improvements and additional features, such as mouse
operation and visual indicators.
40. ps command
The process status or ps command produces a snapshot of all running processes in your system. The
static results are taken from the virtual files in the /proc file system.
Executing the ps command without an option or argument will list the running processes in the shell
along with:
Paulius M.
Web Hosting Monitoring Tech Lead
Conclusion
Linux commands let you perform basic and administrative tasks quickly and effectively from the
Terminal. With it, you’ll have more flexibility over your system and the ability to access features that are
not always available through a graphical user interface.
Learning basic Linux commands is essential to interact with your machine, primarily if you use a Virtual
Private Server (VPS). In most cases, each utility consists of three parts – a command name, a flag or
option, and a parameter or argument.
This article has discussed 40 common commands, such as aptget to install a package, nano to
manipulate a file, htop to monitor current processes, and ls to view a directory.
We hope this article has helped you learn the basic Linux commands. If you have any questions or
suggestions, please leave them in the comments section below.
Other Useful Linux Commands to Learn
How to Use Sed Command to Read Files
How to Use Curl Command for Data Transfer
How to Perform DNS Lookup With Dig Command
How to Use Time Command in Linux
How to Use Scp Command for File Transfer
How to Use Linux Watch Command
How to Use Shutdown Command
How to Use Tee Command to Write and Display to a File
How to Find File Type With File Command in Linux
How to List Services in Linux
How to Use Rsync for File Transfer and Synchronization
How to Change a User Password in Linux
How to Create a Symbolic Link With ln Command
T H E AU T H O R
Artūras B.
Artūras is a Technical Content Writer with years of experience in the field. He has a vast
amount of knowledge about WordPress and web hosting, and he uses this expertise to
write pristine content about any ITrelated subject. In his spare time, Artūras loves
spending time with his dogs.
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Thanks
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thanks
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Very helpful
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Vakarė
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Happy to help!
dhruv
November 23 2020 REPLY
Vakarė
February 09 2021
Happy it helped!
ugesh
December 12 2020 REPLY
kamyogi
December 23 2020 REPLY
Thank you very much Art. Very useful. It has changed a bit my
attitude towards Linux.
Nizor
January 11 2021 REPLY
ajay
January 27 2021 REPLY
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r
August 27 2021 REPLY
for a guy starting to learn linux this is very very very helpful.
Vakarė
September 20 2021
G. Williams
August 27 2021 REPLY
Awesome tips, been too long with MS...school was a while ago
now Linux PC my gift to me, using a new OS after 40 yrs isn't easy.
I know I can swing it.
Vakarė
September 20 2021
gayle williams
September 15 2021 REPLY
Akash Jaiwal
December 11 2021 REPLY
the kid
December 20 2021 REPLY
Thank you for this guild it was very useful !
Mark
January 06 2022 REPLY
Tamanna yadav
February 06 2022 REPLY
Hassan Raza
March 17 2022 REPLY
rotke
April 06 2022 REPLY
Thanks, there were few commands I didn't know : locate and jobs,
I used find and ps. I will tray them out, thanks.
Bill Zaffos
May 20 2022 REPLY
This is very good for me because, I don't live in Linux but only
frequent it. I catch myself thinking 'What is that command?'
However, may I suggest some very important commands (in my
opinion) that you missed. They are aptget update & aptget
upgrade. I was told to always include these when ever I'm in
terminal mode. If in the terminal, mount & unmount comes in
handy when deeding information from a USB drive, but then, you
would need the blkid, or maybe not.
Vakarė
May 24 2022
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