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Linux Cheat Sheet

Basic Commands​

  • pwd: Print the current working directory. 
    pwd
  • ls: List files and directories. 
    ls -la
  • cd: Change directory. 
    cd /path/to/directory
  • mkdir: Create a new directory. 
    mkdir myfolder
  • rmdir: Remove an empty directory. 
    rmdir myfolder
  • cp: Copy files or directories. 
    cp file.txt /path/to/destination/
    cp -r folder /path/to/destination/
  • mv: Move or rename files or directories. 
    mv file.txt /path/to/destination/
    mv oldname.txt newname.txt
  • rm: Remove files or directories. 
    rm file.txt
    rm -r folder
  • touch: Create a new, empty file. 
    touch newfile.txt
  • cat: Display the content of a file. 
    cat file.txt
  • nano/vim: Edit files with text editors. 
    nano file.txt
    vim file.txt

System Information​

  • uname -a: Display system information. 
    uname -a
  • top: Display running processes and system resource usage. 
    top
  • df -h: Display disk space usage. 
    df -h
  • free -h: Display memory usage. 
    free -h
  • uptime: Show how long the system has been running. 
    uptime
  • whoami: Display the current user. 
    whoami

File Permissions​

  • chmod: Change file permissions. 
    chmod 755 file.txt
    chmod u+x script.sh
  • chown: Change file owner and group. 
    sudo chown user:group file.txt

Process Management​

  • ps aux: List all running processes. 
    ps aux
  • kill: Terminate a process by PID. 
    kill 1234
  • killall: Terminate all processes by name. 
    killall firefox
  • bg: Resume a suspended job in the background. 
    bg
  • fg: Bring a background job to the foreground. 
    fg

Networking​

  • ifconfig: Display network interfaces and IP addresses. 
    ifconfig
  • ping: Check connectivity to a host. 
    ping google.com
  • curl: Fetch content from a URL. 
    curl http://example.com
  • wget: Download files from the web. 
    wget http://example.com/file.zip

Package Management (Debian/Ubuntu)​

  • apt-get update: Update package lists. 
    sudo apt-get update
  • apt-get upgrade: Upgrade all installed packages. 
    sudo apt-get upgrade
  • apt-get install: Install a package. 
    sudo apt-get install package_name
  • apt-get remove: Remove a package. 
    sudo apt-get remove package_name
  • apt-get autoremove: Remove unnecessary packages. 
    sudo apt-get autoremove

User Management​

  • adduser: Add a new user. 
    sudo adduser username
  • passwd: Change a user's password. 
    passwd username
  • deluser: Delete a user. 
    sudo deluser username
  • usermod: Modify a user's account. 
    sudo usermod -aG groupname username

Disk Management​

  • fdisk -l: List all partitions. 
    sudo fdisk -l
  • mount: Mount a filesystem. 
    sudo mount /dev/sdX /mnt
  • umount: Unmount a filesystem. 
    sudo umount /mnt
  • fsck: Check and repair a filesystem. 
    sudo fsck /dev/sdX

Searching and Finding Files​

  • find: Search for files in a directory hierarchy. 
    find /path -name filename
  • grep: Search for a pattern within files. 
    grep "pattern" file.txt
    grep -r "pattern" /path
  • locate: Find files by name quickly. 
    locate filename

Archiving and Compression​

  • tar: Create and extract tar archives. 
    tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory
    tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz
  • zip/unzip: Compress and decompress files. 
    zip archive.zip file1 file2
    unzip archive.zip