•Crucial Linux Commands for Daily Use•

-> Common commands-

whoami: displays the username of currently logged-in user.

history: list all your previously executed commands

systemctl: used to control the system and service manager.

sudo systemctl start service_name
sudo systemctl stop service_name
sudo systemctl restart service_name

sudo: permitted user to execute a command as the superuser (root)

Ex- sudo “ command “

Switch to root user

Ex- sudo -i

id: used to display user and group information for the current user or a specified username
Ex- id
id username

Install something:
For Debian based system-
Ex- sudo apt-get install package_name –y
-y so you don't have to manually type yes

For Red hat based system-

Cents os 7 and earlier fedora
Ex- sudo yum install package_name

Cents os 8 and later fedora

Ex- sudo dnf install package_name

ssh: securely connect to a remote host over a network

Ex- ssh user@remote_host
ssh -p port_number user@remote_host
ssh -i /path/to/private_key user@remote_host

echo: displays line os text or variable value

Ex- echo "Hello, World!"
variable_name="Hello!!"
echo $variable_name

clear: to clear the terminal screen

Ex- clear

useradd- to add new user

Ex- sudo useradd -m username
sudo useradd -m -d /home/username -s /bin/bash username
sudo useradd -m -c "Avatr roku" -G sudo,docker username
-d /home/username: Specify the user's home directory.
-m: Create the home directory if it does not exist.
-c "Full Name": Add a comment (typically the full name).

Set password for it

Ex- sudo passwd username

userdel: to delete a user

Ex- userdel username

exit: to terminate current shell session

Ex- exit

free –m: shows you the memory utilization

df –h: hard disk partition utilization

For help use --help

-> File and Directory Management

ls: List directory contents.

Ex- ls
ls -l
ls -l /path/to/directory

For detailed view of list

ls –lrth or ls -lrt

pwd: displays your present working directory

cd: Change directory

Ex- cd /path/to/directory

One previous dir

Ex- cd ..

Jump to second previous dir

Ex- cd ../../..

mkdir: Create a new directory.

Ex- mkdir new_directory

rmdir: Remove any directory.

Ex- rmdir my_directory

rm: Remove files or directories.

Ex- rm -rf /path/to/directory_or_file

cp: Copy files or directories.

Ex- cp source_file destination target_destination
mv: Move or rename files or directories.
Ex- mv old_name new_name

mv source_file_destination target_destination

touch: Create an empty file or update the timestamp of an existing file.

Ex- touch new_file

-> Viewing and Editing Files

cat: Concatenate and display file content.

Ex- cat file.txt

Note- you can also create single immutable file with cat command

Ex- cat > file.txt

Add your content
Ctrl+ d to exit

Add comment to existing file

Ex- cat >> file.txt
Add...
Ctrl + d to exit

Move data from one file to another

cat file1.txt > file2.txt

" more "," less ": View file content one page at a time.
Ex- less file.txt

" head " , " tail ": View the beginning or end of a file.
Ex- tail -n 10 file.txt

nano, vi, vim: Text editors.

Ex- nano file.txt
vi file.txt
vim file.txt

touch: creates empty file

Ex- touch file.txt
(File extension can be of your interest)

Can create multiple file as well

Ex- touch file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

-> File Permissions and Ownership

Types of Permissions-

Read (r): Permission to read the contents of the file.

Write (w): Permission to modify the file.

Execute (x): Permission to execute the file as a program/script.

Permission Levels
Owner: The user who owns the file.
Group: The group that owns the file.
Others: All other users.

Permissions are displayed as a string of 10 characters. The first character indicates the file type
(e.g., - for a regular file, d for a directory), and the next nine characters represent the permissions
for the owner, group, and others in sets of three.

Ex: -rwxr-xr--

' - ': Regular file.

' rwx ': Owner has read, write, and execute permissions.
' r-x ': Group has read and execute permissions.
' r-- ': Others have read permission.

Permissions are represented by octal numbers:

r=4
w=2
x=1

Combine these values to set permissions. For example:

7 (4+2+1) = rwx
6 (4+2) = rw-
5 (4+1) = r-x

Example: Set read, write, and execute permissions for the owner, and read and execute for group
and others on file.txt:

chmod 755 file.txt

chmod: Change file permissions.

Ex- chmod 755 file.txt

chown: Change file owner and group.

Ex- chown user:group file.txt

chgrp: Change group ownership.

Ex- chgrp group file.txt

Grant execute permission to the owner of file.txt:

chmod u+x file.txt

-> Process Management

ps: Display current processes.

Ex- ps aux
ps -ef

Search for a Process with Specific Options.

To search for processes containing java and display only those processes:

ps -ef | grep java

top, htop: Real-time system monitoring.

Ex- htop

kill, pkill: Terminate processes.

Ex- kill -9 PID

nohup: Run a command immune to hangups.

Ex- nohup command &

-> Networking

ifconfig, ip: Configure network interfaces.

Ex- ip a

ping: Check network connectivity.

Ex- ping google.com

netstat, ss: Network statistics.

Ex- ss -tuln

scp: Secure copy files between hosts.

Ex- scp local_file user@remote_host:/path/to/destination

ssh: Securely connect to remote hosts.

Ex- ssh user@remote_host

Intermediate Commands

-> Archiving and Compression

tar: Archive files.

Ex- tar -cvf archive.tar /path/to/directory
tar -xvf archive.tar

gzip, gunzip: Compress and decompress files.

Ex- gzip file.txt
gunzip file.txt.gz

zip, unzip: Compress and decompress ZIP files.

Ex- zip archive.zip file.txt
unzip archive.zip

-> File Searching and Text Processing

find: Search for files in a directory hierarchy.
Ex- find /path/to/search -name "*.txt"

grep: Search text using patterns.

Ex- grep "pattern" file.txt

Use Grep with Pipe

Use grep with the output of another command

ps aux | grep "process_name

awk: Pattern scanning and processing language.

Ex- awk '{print $1}' file.txt

sed: Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.

Ex- sed 's/old/new/g' file.txt

-> System Monitoring and Performance

df: Report filesystem disk space usage.

Ex- df -h

du: Estimate file space usage.

Ex- du -sh /path/to/directory

vmstat: Report virtual memory statistics.

Ex- vmstat 5

iostat: Report CPU and I/O statistics.

Ex- iostat -x 5