RedHat Linux is a widely used operating system that offers many powerful tools and commands. This Linux distro is popular for its reliability, security and enterprise-level development environments. In this article, I will give you an extensive list of various RedHat Linux commands along with a cheat sheet in different formats.
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Red Hat Linux Commands
RedHat Linux is a distribution of Linux operating systems developed by RedHat. It provides commands and tools of various categories such as system configuration, security and identity, system information, software management, file and disk management and so on. The list of this article includes frequently used RedHat Linux commands of each category.
System Configuration Commands
System configuration commands in Linux are used to manage and configure various settings of the operating system, networking, storage devices etc. RedHat Linux provides a variety of tools and commands to configure the above aspects of the system.
| Commands |
Description |
| system -config -* |
Configure various system settings |
| system -confiq -*-tui |
Open text user interface version of system configuration tool |
| system -confiq -printer |
Configure printer settings |
| system -confiq -date |
Configure date and time settings |
| timedatectl |
View and modify system’s date and time |
| date |
Displays current date and time in the system’s default format |
| ntpdate |
Manually synchronize system’s clock with a specified NTP server |
| chronyc |
Monitor and manage system’s time synchronization |
| system -confiq -keyboard |
Configure keyboard settings |
| localectl |
Query and configure system’s locale and keyboard settings |
| ssh -keygen |
Generate, manage and convert authentication keys |
System Information Commands
The commands below help a user retrieve various information about the system such as system resources, running processes, connections, etc:
| Commands |
Description |
| subscription -manager identity |
Display the identity of the currently subscribed system in Red Hat’s subscription management system |
| rhn_register |
Register with Red Hat network Classic for software updates and support |
| sosreport |
Collect system diagnostic information for troubleshooting purposes |
| demidecode |
Display hardware information |
| lstopo |
Display the topology of the system’s hardware, such as CPU cores and caches |
| lscpu |
Display information about the system’s CPU architecture |
| cat /proc/cpuinfo |
Display detailed information about the system’s CPU |
Services Commands
Service commands are used to start, stop, enable, disable and check the status of system services. The following list contains a few of them.
| Commands |
Description |
| chkconfig –list |
Displays the current status of services |
| ls /etc/init.d/ |
Lists the available startup scripts |
| systemctl -at service |
Displays a list of all available services on the system |
| ls /etc/systemd/system/*.service |
Lists all systemd unit files ending in .service |
| service — status -all |
Displays the status of all available system services |
| systemctl -t service — state=active |
Displays a list of active services managed by systemd |
| service name start |
Starts the specified system service |
| service name stop |
Stops the specified system service |
| systemctl start name .service |
Starts the specified systemd service |
| systemctl stop name .service |
Stops the specified systemd service |
| chkconfig name on |
Enables the specified service to start automatically at boot time |
| chkconfig name off |
Disables the specified service from starting automatically at boot time |
| systemctl enable name.service |
Enables the specified systemd service to start automatically at boot time |
| systemctl disable name.service |
Disables the specified systemd service from starting automatically at boot time |
| service name status |
Displays the status of the specified system service |
File and Disk Management Commands
Every Linux distro has a lot of file and disk management commands. The RedHat distro is no exception. These types of commands allow users to create, modify, delete, and mount files and directories:
| Commands |
Description |
| xfs |
A file system format that supports large file sizes, high scalability and fast performance |
| gdisk |
Manage GPT partition tables |
| ssm_create |
Creates simple storage service volumes on AWS |
| fdisk |
Manage traditional MBR partition tables |
| parted |
Manage partition tables including support for GPT and MBR formats |
| ssm create |
Create and manage SSM volumes on AWS |
| mkswap |
Format a device or partition as swap space |
| mkfs.filesystem_type (ext4, xfs) |
Format a device or partition with a specified file system type, such as ext4 or xfs |
| xfs_fsr |
Defragment XFS file systems |
| ssm mount |
Mount SSM volumes on AWS |
| fsck (look for ‘non-contiguous inodes’) |
Check and repair the file system on a device or partition including checking for non-contiguous inodes |
| mount |
Mount a file system to a specific directory |
| swapon -a |
Activate all defined swap devices |
| lvdisplay |
Display information about logical volumes |
| lvs |
Display a summary of logical volumes |
| vgdisplay |
Display information about volume groups |
| vgs |
Display a summary of volume groups |
| pvdisplay |
Display information about physical volumes |
| pvs |
Display a summary of physical volumes |
| ssm create (if backend in lvm) |
Create an SSM volume using Logical Volume Manager as the backend on AWS |
| pvcreate |
Initialize a physical volume for use with LVM |
| vgcreate |
Create a new volume group using one or more physical volumes |
| lvcreate |
Create a new logical volume within a volume group |
| xfs_growfs |
Expand an XFS file system after resizing a logical volume or partition |
| ssm resize |
Resize an SSM volume on AWS |
| vgextend |
Add one or more physical volumes to an existing volume group |
| lvextend |
Expand the size of an existing logical volume |
| lvreduce |
Shrink the size of an existing logical volume |
| ssm check |
Check the health status of SSM volumes on AWS |
| showmount -e |
Display the NFS exports on a given NFS server |
| systemctl reload nfs.service |
Reload the configuration of the NFS service |
| chmod |
Change the permissions of a file or directory |
| chown |
Change the owner of a file or directory |
| chgrp |
Change the group ownership of a file or directory |
| umask |
Set the default file creation permissions |
| chattr |
Set or remove file attributes such as making a file immutable or undeletable |
| setfacl |
Modify file access control lists which allow fine-grained control over file permissions and access |
Software Management Commands
This section includes the software management commands of Red Hat Linux. These commands are super helpful to install, update and remove software packages from the system:
| Commands |
Description |
| yum install |
Install packages and dependencies from configured repositories |
| yum group install |
Install a group of related packages from configured repositories |
| yum info |
Display information about a specific package, including its version, size, and dependencies |
| yum group info |
Display information about a group of packages and their dependencies |
| yum update |
Update installed packages to the latest available versions |
| yum upgrade |
Upgrade all packages on the system to their latest available versions |
| subscription -manager repos |
Manage subscriptions and repositories |
| rpm -qf |
Display the package name that owns a specified file |
| yum provides filenames -glob |
Display which package provides a specific file or feature |
| rpm -q packagename |
Display information about a specified package, including its version and architecture |
| yum list installed |
Display a list of all installed packages |
| yum module install |
Install a specific module stream and its dependencies |
| yum module info |
Display information about a module, including its streams and profiles |
| yum module remove module_name:stream |
remove a specific module stream and its dependencies |
| yum module reset module:stream |
reset a specific module stream and remove all of its profiles |
| yum module list |
Display a list of all available modules and their streams |
| rpm –checksig |
Check RPM signature |
Resource Management Commands
There are a variety of commands in RedHat Linux to monitor and manage system resources. They provide information about the system’s resource allocation and performance issues:
| Commands |
Description |
| strace |
Traces system calls signals of a running program |
| ltrace |
Traces library calls of a running program |
| nice or renice |
Sets and modifies the priority of a running process |
| taskset |
Assigns a specific processor or a set of processors to a running process |
| kill |
Terminate a running process |
| pkill |
Terminate a process or processes by their name or other attribute |
| killall |
Terminate all processes with a specific name |
| ss |
Displays network connections statistics and information |
| tuna |
Tune system performance |
| pcp atop |
Monitors system resources and performance, including CPU usage, memory usage, and disk I/O |
| top |
Displays real-time information about the processes running on the system |
| ps |
Displays a snapshot of the processes running on the system, including process IDs, resource usage, and other attributes |
| sar |
Collects and reports system activity data, including CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, and network activity |
| iostat |
Reports input/output statistics for block devices, including CPU utilization, I/O operations per second |
| vmstat |
Displays virtual memory statistics, including systemwide statistics on CPU usage, memory usage, and disk I/O |
| mpstat |
Reports processor-related statistics, including utilization, idle time, and other metrics |
| numastat |
Reports non-uniform memory access allocation statistics for a system |
| pcp dstat |
Collects system performance data |
| pmiostat |
Reports input/output statistics for block devices with advanced features |
| df |
Reports disk usage statistics for a file system, including the amount of free and used space |
Archieve Commands
These types of commands are useful to create, manage, and extract files and directories from compressed archives. The below list contains only a few commands of this type:
| Commands |
Description |
| tar |
Create, extract and manage files in various archive formats |
| cpio |
Create or extract archives in the cpio format |
| zip |
Compress files and directories into a .zip archive format |
| xz |
Compress and decompress files using .xz compression format |
Network Commands
RedHat Linux offers a wide range of network commands. These commands are useful for checking network connectivity, testing DNS resolution, diagnosing network issues, and so on. The following commands are frequently used to manage and troubleshoot network-related problems:
| Commands |
Description |
| dig |
Queries DNS servers to get DNS details |
| nmcli |
Manage network connections |
| ip addr show |
Display IP addresses and network information of the system |
| nmcli con show |
Show the available network connections and their status |
| address |
Specifies the IP address to assign to a network interface |
| nmcli con up |
Bring up a network connection |
| nmcli con mod |
Modify a network connection |
| hostnamectl set-hostname |
Set the system’s hostname |
| netstat -rn |
Display the system’s routing table |
| route -n |
Show the routing table of the system |
| tcpdump -i |
Capture and analyze network traffic |
| tcpdump |
Capture and analyze network packets |
| ping |
Test connectivity between two network hosts |
| telnet |
Connect to a remote host using the Telnet protocol |
| nslookup |
Query DNS servers to get information about domain names and IP addresses |
| netstat |
Display network connections and routing tables |
Kernel, Boot and Hardware Management Commands
Commands of this section are crucial to update the kernel, configure boot options and manage hardware resources etc. The brief list below may help a user quickly recall important commands to perform the above tasks:
| Commands |
Description |
| append 1 or s or rd.break |
Adds kernel boot parameters to modify the default behavior during boot process |
| init=/bin/bash |
Tells the init process to start a bash shell |
| shutdown |
Stops the system and powers it off |
| systemctl poweroff |
Shuts down the system and turns off the power |
| poweroff |
Shuts down the system and turns off the power |
| systemctl halt |
Halts the system and leaves it powered on |
| halt |
Halts the system and leaves it powered on |
| systemctl reboot |
Reboots the system |
| reboot |
Reboots the system |
| systemctl set -default |
Sets the default for the system at the boot time |
| grub2 -mkconfig |
Regenerate GRUB configuration file |
| grub -set -default |
Sets the default GRUB entry |
| lshw |
Displays detailed information about the system’s hardware configuration |
| modprobe |
Add or remove kernel modules from the Linux kernel |
| udev |
Dynamic device management system for Linux |
| sysctl -a |
Displays kernel parameters and their values |
| modprobe -r |
Remove kernel modules from the Linux kernel |
| rpm -q kernel uname -r |
Display information about the installed kernel version |
User Management Commands
Use RedHat user management commands to create, modify, and delete users and groups, as well as to manage user privileges. Frequently used commands of this type are listed below:
| Commands |
Description |
| system -config -user |
Manage user and group accounts |
| gnome -control -center |
Manage system settings |
| useradd |
Create a new user |
| userdel |
Delete a user account |
| usermod |
Modify an existing user account |
| vipw |
Edit /etc/passwd file |
| id |
Display user and group ID information |
| groupadd |
Create a new group |
| groupdel |
Delete a group |
| groupmod |
Modify an existing group |
| /etc/group |
Stores group information |
| passwd |
Change a user’s password |
| visudo |
Edit /etc/sudoers file |
| chage |
Manage password expiration and aging policies |
| w |
Display information about logged-in users |
Security and Identity Commands
Commands of this section are used to monitor system activity, configure security settings and protect against unauthorized access. The following brief list of commands will help a user to perform the above tasks quite easily:
| Commands |
Description |
| semanage |
Manage SELinux policy modules and configuration |
| setsebool |
Modify SElinux boolean values |
| system -config -selinux |
Manage SELinux policy settings |
| restorecon |
Restore default SELinux security contexts on files and directories |
| chcon |
Modify SELinux security contexts on files and directories |
| sealert |
Analyze SELinux audit logs and provide recommendations for policy changes |
| authconfig |
Configure various system authentication settings, including LDAP and Kerberos |
| authconfiq -tui |
Launch the text-based user interface version of the authconfig tool |
| authconfiq -gtk |
Launch the graphical user interface version of the authconfig tool |
| authselect |
Configure authentication settings for local users and services |
| getend |
Retrieve system account information, including user and group information |
Conclusion
In conclusion, the RedHat Linux commands cheat sheet provides a quick reference for accessing various commands of different categories. It can be handy for any users to execute necessary commands in the quickest amount of time.
People Also Ask
What is the top command in redhat?
The top command is a tool in Red Hat Linux that shows you real-time info about how many resources are being used, how many processes are running, and other important system info. It works on a bunch of different Unix-like systems.
How to check system information in redhat Linux?
To check system information in Red Hat Linux, you can use multiple commands like hostnamectl, uname, df, free, uptime etc.
How to check server model in redhat Linux?
To check server model in Red Hat Linux, you can run sudo dmidecode command in your redhat terminal.
What are the red hat Linux commands?
Red hat Linux commands are the useful commands used in red hat based Linux distributions. They are:
- system -config -*: Configure various system settings.
- system -confiq -*-tui: Open text user interface version of system configuration tool.
- system -confiq -printer: Configure printer settings.
- system -confiq -date: Configure date and time settings.
- timedatectl: View and modify system’s date and time.
- date: Displays current date and time in the system’s default format.
- ntpdate: Manually synchronize system’s clock with a specified NTP server.
- xfs: A file system format that supports large file sizes, high scalability and fast performance.
- gdisk: Manage GPT partition tables.
- ssm_create: Creates simple storage service volumes on AWS.
- fdisk: Manage traditional MBR partition tables.
Thanks dear, those commands are very useful for me