Linux Commands Cheat Sheet | Using Linux Like a Pro

Linux is one of the popular operating systems, and since it is open source, it has a lot of versions built on it. However, one thing remains unchanged, using commands to do everything on Linux. For instance, using “mkdir” to create a directory or using cd to change the active working directory. There are so many helpful commands that, after some time, we just get used to them. And to make it easier for you to know and use most of the Linux commands, here I am with a Linux Commands Cheat Sheet.

Linux does have its own cheat sheet for all the commands, and you can access it by using the man page. It is a manual for each command, how to use it, descriptions, and examples. However, at times, they are weirdly scary, with a huge index and a little difficult to understand.

Also Read: 11 Best Linux Distro For Programmers

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet: Use Linux Like a Pro

In this Linux Commands Cheat Sheet, we group Linux commands based on their operations, such as file operations, networks, and more. This should make the Linux Commands Cheat Sheet easier for you to understand, and you can directly refer to commands based on your interests.

To start with, let’s look at some commands that come in handy to do basic tasks. For instance, changing directories, listing files, and more. Don’t worry if they repeat later.

Basic Linux Commands

Linux Command	Description
man	Displays the manual pages for a command
ls	Lists files and directories from the current working directory
cd	Changes the current working directory to new directory
pwd	Prints the current working directory
mkdir	Creates a new directory
touch	Moves or renames files and directories
cp	Copies, files, and directories
mv	Moves or renames file and directories
rm	Removes files and directories
cat	Displays the contents of a file
less	Displays the contents of a file one page at a time
head	Shows the first few lines of a file
tail	Displays the last few lines of a file
grep	Searches for a pattern in files
find	Searches for files and directories
tar	Creates or extracts compressed archives
chmod	Changes the permissions of a file or directory
chown	Changes the owner of a file or directory
chgrp	Changes the group of a file or directory
ssh	Connects to a remote server using the secure shell protocol
scp	Copies files between a local and remote server securely
wget	Downloads files from the internet
history	Shows the command history
ps	Displays the running processes
kill	Terminates a process
su	Switches to another user account
sudo	Executes a command with superuser privileges
df	Shows the disk space usage of file systems
du	Displays the disk usage of files and directories
ifconfig	Displays network interface configuration
ping	Sends ICMP echo requests to a network host
netstat	Shows network connections and statistics
ssh-keygen	Generates SSH key pairs for secure authentication
source	Executes commands from a file in the current shell

Also Read: Want to Change Your Linux User Password? Here is the Guide For You

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Linux Network Commands

Linux Network Commands	Description
ifconfig	Displays or configures network interfaces
ip	Shows or manipulates routing, devices, policy routing, and tunnels
ping	Sends ICMP echo requests to a network host to check connectivity
traceroute	Prints the route packets take to a destination host, showing each hop along the way
netstat	Shows network connections, routing tables, and network interface statistics
nslookup	Performs DNS lookups to retrieve domain name or IP address information
dig	Performs DNS queries and displays detailed information about DNS records
host	Performs DNS lookups and displays information about a particular host or domain
ssh	Connects to a remote server using the secure shell protocol
scp	Copies files between a local and remote server securely
ftp	Transfers files to and from a remote file server using the FTP protocol
curl	Sends HTTP requests and displays the response from a server
telnet	Connects to a remote host using the Telnet protocol
ifup	Brings a network interface up
ifdown	Brings a network interface down
route	Shows or manipulates the IP routing table
iptables	Manages firewall rules and network address translation (NAT)
tcpdump	Captures and analyzes network traffic
nmap	Scans network hosts and services to discover open ports and gather information
arp	Displays or modifies the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache
ss	Shows detailed information about network sockets and connections
route add	Adds a static route to the routing table
route del	Deletes a static route from the routing table
ethtool	Displays or modifies Ethernet device settings and statistics
iwconfig	Configures wireless network interfaces
hostname	Displays or sets the system’s hostname
tcpdump -i	Captures network traffic on a specific network interface
iftop	Displays real-time network bandwidth usage by individual connections
netcat	Establishes network connections, reads from and writes to network sockets

Also Read: Best & Free Network Monitoring Tools for Linux

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Linux File Commands

File Command	Description
ls	Lists files and directories in the current directory
cd	Changes the current directory
pwd	Prints the current working directory
mkdir	Creates a new directory
touch	Creates an empty file or updates the timestamp of an existing file
cp	Copies files and directories
mv	Moves or renames files and directories
rm	Removes files and directories
cat	Concatenates and displays the contents of files
less	Displays the contents of a file one page at a time
head	Displays the first few lines of a file
tail	Displays the last few lines of a file
file	Determines the file type
find	Searches for files and directories based on various criteria
locate	Finds files and directories using a pre-built database
grep	Searches for a pattern in files
wc	Counts the number of lines, words, and characters in a file
diff	Compares and displays the differences between two files
cmp	Compares two files byte by byte
ln	Creates a hard or symbolic link to a file or directory
chmod	Changes the permissions of a file or directory
chown	Changes the owner of a file or directory
chgrp	Changes the group ownership of a file or directory
gzip	Compresses files using the gzip compression algorithm
gunzip	Decompresses files compressed with gzip
tar	Creates or extracts compressed archives
zip	Compresses files into a zip archive
unzip	Extracts files from a zip archive
stat	Displays file or file system status
du	Shows the disk usage of files and directories
df	Shows the disk space usage of file systems
mount	Mounts a file system to a specified mount point
umount	Unmounts a mounted file system
sync	Flushes file system buffers

Also Read: How to Delete Files and Directories in Linux – Simple Guide

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Linux User and Group Commands

User and Group Commands	Description
useradd	Adds a new user to the system
userdel	Deletes a user account from the system
usermod	Modifies user account properties such as username, home directory, or default shell
passwd	Sets or changes the password for a user account
su	Switches to another user account or becomes the superuser
sudo	Executes a command with superuser privileges
chown	Changes the owner of a file or directory
chgrp	Changes the group ownership of a file or directory
chmod	Changes the permissions of a file or directory
groups	Displays the groups a user belongs to
id	Displays the user and group information for a given username or current user
whoami	Prints the username of the current user
adduser	Interactive command for creating new user accounts
deluser	An interactive command for deleting user accounts
groupadd	Creates a new user group
groupdel	Deletes a user group
groupmod	Modifies group properties such as group name or GID
gpasswd	Manages the group password file, including adding or deleting members and managing group administrators
newgrp	Switches to a different group
passwd	Changes the password for a user or group
finger	Displays information about user accounts, such as login name, full name, and terminal
who	Shows the list of currently logged-in users
w	Displays information about currently logged-in users and their activities
last	Shows the list of last logged-in users and their login history
logname	Prints the login name of the current user
usermod -G	Adds or removes a user from a specific group
usermod -s	Changes the default shell for a user
usermod -l	Renames a user account
groupmod -n	Renames a group
pwck	Checks the integrity of password and shadow files
su -c	Executes a command as another user

Also Read: How to Rename Files and Directories in Linux?

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Linux Process Commands

Process Commands	Description
ps	Displays information about active processes
top	Shows real-time system resource usage and running processes
pgrep	Searches for processes based on specified criteria and prints their process IDs
pkill	Sends a signal to processes based on specified criteria to terminate them
killall	Sends a signal to all processes with a specified name to terminate them
pidof	Prints the process IDs of running processes based on their names
nice	Sets the priority of a process
renice	Changes the priority of running processes
pstree	Displays running processes in a tree-like structure
top	An Interactive command that shows real-time system resource usage and running processes
htop	An Interactive process viewer that shows real-time system resource usage and running processes with additional features
uptime	Shows the system uptime and load average
free	Displays the system’s memory usage
vmstat	Reports virtual memory statistics
lsof	Lists open files and the processes that opened them
iotop	Monitors and displays I/O usage by processes
sar	Collects and reports system activity information, including CPU, memory, disk, and network usage
at	Schedules commands or scripts to run at a specified time
cron	Schedules recurring commands or scripts to run at specified intervals
watch	Executes a command repeatedly and displays the output in real-time
jobs	Lists the active jobs and their statuses in the current shell session
fg	Brings a job to the foreground
bg	Resumes a job in the background
disown	Removes a job from the shell’s job control
sleep	Suspends execution for a specified time
time	Measures the time taken to execute a command
systemctl	Controls system services, including starting, stopping, and restarting
service	Controls system services, including starting, stopping, and restarting
systemd	System and service manager for Linux
shutdown	Shuts down or restarts the system

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VI Editor Commands

VI Editor Command	Description
i	Enters insert mode to start inserting text at the current cursor position
a	Enters insert mode to start inserting text after the current cursor position
o	Opens a new line below the current line and enters insert mode
O	Opens a new line above the current line and enters insert mode
dd	Deletes the current line
yy	Copies the current line
p	Pastes the copied or deleted text after the current line
u	Undoes the last command or action
/pattern	Searches forward for the specified pattern
?pattern	Searches backward for the specified pattern
n	Jumps to the next occurrence of the search pattern
N	Jumps to the previous occurrence of the search pattern
:w	Saves the changes made to the file
:q	Quits the VI editor
:q!	Quits the VI editor without saving changes
:wq	Saves the changes made to the file and quits the VI editor
: x	Saves the changes made to the file and exits the VI editor; no space between : and x
:set number	Displays line numbers in the left margin
:set nonumber	Hides line numbers in the left margin
:%s/old/new/gc	Replaces all occurrences of ‘old’ with ‘new’ in the entire file with a confirmation
:e filename	Replaces all occurrences of ‘old’ with ‘new’ in the entire file with a confirmation
:r filename	Inserts the contents of another file at the current cursor position
:w filename	Saves the current file with a different filename
:set tabstop=n	Sets the number of spaces for a tab character
:set autoindent	Enables automatic indentation
:set nowrap	Disables line wrapping
:set spell	Enables spell checking
:set ruler:	Displays a ruler at the bottom of the editor
:set background=dark	Sets the color scheme for dark backgrounds
:set background=light	Sets the color scheme for light backgrounds
:help	Displays the VI editor’s built-in help documentation

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Environment Variable Commands

Environmental Variable	Description
export	Sets an environmental variable
echo	Displays the value of an environmental variable
env	Displays all environmental variables
set	Displays all variables, including environmental variables
unset	Removes an environmental variable
$PATH	Represents the search path for executable files
$HOME	Represents the home directory of the current user
$USER	Represents the username of the current user
$PWD	Represents the present working directory
$SHELL	Represents the current shell
$LANG	Represents the current language setting
$EDITOR	Represents the default text editor
$TERM	Represents the terminal type
$DISPLAY	Represents the display server
$LOGNAME	Represents the login name of the current user
$MAIL	Represents the location of the user’s mailbox
$HOSTNAME	Represents the hostname of the system
$PS1	Represents the primary prompt string
$PS2	Represents the secondary prompt string
$PS3	Represents the select prompt string
$PS4	Represents the selected prompt string
$IFS	Represents the internal field separator
$OLDPWD	Represents the previous working directory
$UID	Represents the user ID of the current user
$EUID	Represents the effective user ID of the current user
$GROUPS	Represents the groups the current user belongs to
$BASH_VERSION	Represents the version of the Bash shell
$PWD	Represents the present working directory
$OSTYPE	Represents the operating system type
$HISTSIZE	Represents the maximum number of commands stored in the command history
$HOSTNAME	Represents the hostname of the system
$RANDOM	Represents a random number
$SECONDS	Represents the number of seconds the script has been running
$TZ	Represents the current time zone

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Package Management Linux Commands

Command	Description
apt-get install	Installs a package and its dependencies from the repository
apt-get remove	Removes a package from the system
apt-get update	Updates the package lists from the repositories
apt-get upgrade	Upgrades all installed packages to the latest available versions
apt-get dist-upgrade	Upgrades the system to the latest available version, including package dependencies
apt-get autoremove	Removes automatically installed packages that are no longer needed
apt-get clean	Clears the local repository of retrieved package files
apt-cache search	Searches for packages based on keywords
apt-cache show	Displays detailed information about a specific package
apt-cache depends	Shows the dependencies of a package
dpkg -i	Installs a .deb package file
dpkg -r	Removes a package from the system
dpkg -l	Lists all installed packages
dpkg -L	Lists the files installed by a package
dpkg -S	Searches for packages owning a specific file
dpkg-reconfigure	Reconfigures an installed package
yum install	Installs a package and its dependencies from the repository (used in CentOS/RHEL systems)
yum remove	Removes a package from the system (used in CentOS/RHEL systems)
yum update	Updates all installed packages to the latest available versions (used in CentOS/RHEL systems)
yum search	Searches for packages based on keywords (used in CentOS/RHEL systems)
dnf install	Installs a package and its dependencies from the repository (used in Fedora systems)

Also Read: Best & Free Network Monitoring Tools for Linux

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System Information Commands

Command	Description
uname	Displays system information such as kernel name, hostname, kernel release, etc
hostname	Shows the name of the current host system
lsb_release	Displays information about the Linux Standard Base and distribution-specific information
cat /etc/os-release	Prints detailed information about the Linux distribution
cat /proc/version	Shows the Linux kernel version and build information
date	Displays the current date and time
uptime	Shows the system uptime, load average, and number of users logged in
whoami	Prints the username of the current user
who	Displays information about currently logged-in users
df	Shows disk space usage of file systems
free	Displays memory usage and information
top	Provides real-time information about system resource usage and processes
ps	Shows information about active processes
htop	Interactive process viewer that displays system resource usage and running processes with additional features
iostat	Reports CPU, disk, and input/output statistics
ifconfig	Displays network interface configuration
netstat	Shows network statistics and active network connections
route	Displays or manipulates the IP routing table
lspci	Lists PCI devices connected to the system
lsusb	Lists USB devices connected to the system

Also Read: 10 Best & Free Screen Recorders for Linux/Ubuntu

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Wrapping Up: Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

This sums up our handy Linux Commands Cheat Sheet for using Linux like a pro. However, this is not all. There are several more advanced commands which are more application related and need some more advancement in how you use Linux. Let’s try covering them up in our future blog post; let me know in the comment section if you need a more advanced Linux Commands Cheat Sheet. 

I hope this Linux Commands Cheat Sheet came in handy to you. If I have missed out on a common Linux command, do let me know in the comment section. If you like this article, do give this a quick share on your social media handles, and do tag us. Also, join our Telegram channel, Facebook page, and Twitter to never miss a quick update.