Basic Linux Commands Cheat Sheet [Free PDF Download]

A Linux command is a set of instructions for carrying out a certain action in Linux. And basic Linux commands are those which are frequently used. In this article, I will illustrate a basic Linux commands cheat sheet to make your journey with the Linux command line easier. Type these commands into the terminal to handle everything from files and directories to processes and more.

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What is a Linux Command?

A Linux command is a text-based interface that allows you to communicate with the Linux operating system. The commands are inserted into a terminal which is then passed to a shell that tells the operating system what to do. Linux command is a great alternative to Graphical User Interface (GUI) as it is much faster and more efficient. You can perform all tasks with commands that can be done using the GUI.

Basic Linux Commands List

Here I have categorized all the basic commands in Linux. You can also find that some commands are mentioned with their necessary options. For your better understanding, the structure of a Linux command is

Command -options arguments parameters

File and Directory Management

In this category, you will find commands that can be used to copy, make, and remove files; create directories; and navigate through these.

Command	Description
cp	Copies files and directories
pwd	Prints the current working directory
cd	Changes current directory
cd..	Changes to the parent directory
cd –	Changes to the previous directory
cd ~	Changes to the home directory
ls	Lists contents of the current directory
ls -l	Lists the files and directories in the current working directory in long format
ls -a	Lists all files and directories including the hidden ones
ls -r	Lists files/directories in reverse
mkdir	Creates a new directory
rmdir	Removes an empty directory
mv	Moves or renames a file /directory
rm	Removes a file/directory
rm -i	Prompts system confirmation before deleting
rm -r	Deletes a file/directory recursively
rm -d	Deletes empty folders

File Manipulation

Under this section, you can find commands which will assist you in editing your files and show contents in your desired ways.

Command	Description
touch	Creates an empty file/modify timestamp
cat	Concatenates and prints file contents
cat -n	Displays the contents of a file along with line numbers
tac	Concatenates and prints file contents in reverse order
less	Shows contents in a scrollable manner
head	Displays the first ten lines of a file
tail	Displays the last ten lines of a file
grep	Searches for a specified pattern in one or more files
nano	Edits and creates files
diff	Compares two text files
sort	Sorts lines of a text file
sort -r	Sorts file reversely
sort -u	Removes duplicates and sorts unique values

Permissions

Here, you will get to know how you can change the permission of a file or directory.

Command	Description
chmod	Modifies a file or directory’s read, write, and execute permissions
chown	Changes the ownership of a file, directory, or symbolic link to a specified username.
chgrp	Changes the group ownership of a file or directory

Control System

This section consists of commands that can be used to control the operating system just by using the command line.

Command	Description
poweroff	Shuts down the system
reboot	Restarts the system
shutdown	Shuts down or reboots the system

System and Process Management

This part includes commands to get information about the system such as space usage and terminate a running process.

Command	Description
sudo	Allows a user to run a command with the privileges of another user
ps	Lists the running processes on a system
kill	Terminates running processes on a system
killall	Terminates all processes with a specified name
df	Displays the amount of disk space used and available on a file system
du	Estimates file space usage

Package Installation

Here, you can find commands that will be needed for package installation.

Command	Description
apt install [package]	Installs software packages from the Ubuntu package repository
apt-get	Performs package management tasks such as installing, upgrading, and removing packages

File Compression

Using these commands you can extract and compress files.

Command	Description
tar	Creates, views, and extracts files from an archive file
zip	Creates, views, and extracts files from a compressed archive file
unzip	Extracts files from a compressed archive file in the ZIP format
gzip	Compresses files or directories to reduce their size
bzip2	Compresses files or directories to reduce their size

Search

If you are searching for a pattern in a file content or want to locate files in your system these basic commands are here to help you.

Command	Description
grep ‘pattern’ files	Searches for a specified pattern or regular expression in one or more files and display the matching lines
grep -r pattern dir	Searches for a specified pattern or regular expression recursively in a directory and its subdirectories, and display the matching lines.
locate	Locates files and directories on the system
find	Locates files and directories on the system
find -empty	Searches for empty files

Help documentation

Linux has huge commands and options to offer. It’s ok if you can’t memorise all these. Use the built-in documentation command to get help.

Command	Description
man	Displays the manual page of a command or utility

System Information

You may want to know more about your system or maybe you want to check which user has logged in. Here are some useful commands to do so.

Command	Description
date	Displays and sets system date and time
cal or ncal	Displays the calendar of the current month
who	Displays information about currently logged-in user
whoami	Displays the user name of the current user logged in
uname	Displays information about the current system and operating system
hostname	Displays or set the hostname of the current system
hostnamectl	Queries or modifies the hostname and related settings of the current system
history	Displays a list of previously executed commands in the terminal
history -c	Clears the history list of previously executed commands
df	Shows information about both total and available space on a file system

User Management

You can easily add or remove a user in your system using the following commands.

Command	Description
useradd	Creates a new user account on the system
userdel	Deletes a user account from the system
passwd	Changes a user’s password
groupadd	Adds a new group to the system
groupdel	Deletes an existing group from the system
Id	Displays the user and group IDs associated with the current user
su	Switches to another user account

Miscellaneous

Finally, we have listed more commands that may help you in your Linux journey.

Command	Description
echo	Displays a line of text or a variable value on the command line
clear	Clears the terminal window
wc	Counts the number of lines, words, and characters in a file
vim	Texts editor for editing text files
ping	Checks the connectivity between two network devices
exit	Exits the current shell session
htop	Displays the system’s process real-time process activity
shred	Securely deletes the files by overwriting multiple times
w	Displays information about the currently logged-in users and their activities
ps	Displays the running processes
whatis	Displays a brief description of a command
wget	Downloads files from the internet

Conclusion

If you are just starting or are still in the learning phase with Linux, these are a few basic commands you will need to know. Furthermore, these commands were comprehensive enough to cover virtually every job performed from the Linux command line.

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