Linux Terminal Command Reference

System Info

date – Show the current date and time
cal – Show this month’s calendar
uptime – Show current uptime
w – Display who is online
whoami – Who you are logged in as
finger user – Display information about user
uname -a – Show kernel information
cat /proc/cpuinfo – CPU information
cat /proc/meminfo – Memory information
df -h – Show disk usage
du – Show directory space usage
free – Show memory and swap usage

Keyboard Shortcuts

Enter – Run the command
Up Arrow – Show the previous command
Ctrl + R – Allows you to type a part of the command you’re looking for and finds it
Ctrl + Z – Stops the current command, resume with fg in the foreground or bg in the background
Ctrl + C – Halts the current command, cancel the current operation and/or start with a fresh new line
Ctrl + L – Clear the screen
command | less – Allows the scrolling of the bash command window using Shift + Up Arrow and Shift + Down Arrow
!! – Repeats the last command
command  !$ – Repeats the last argument of the previous command
Esc + . (a period) – Insert the last argument of the previous command on the fly, which enables you to edit it before executing the command
Ctrl + A – Return to the start of the command you’re typing
Ctrl + E – Go to the end of the command you’re typing
Ctrl + U – Cut everything before the cursor to a special clipboard, erases the whole line
Ctrl + K – Cut everything after the cursor to a special clipboard
Ctrl + Y – Paste from the special clipboard that Ctrl + U and Ctrl + K save their data to
Ctrl + T – Swap the two characters before the cursor
(you can actually use this to transport a character from the left to the
right, try it!)
Ctrl + W – Delete the word / argument left of the cursor in the current line
Ctrl + D – Log out of current session, similar to exit

Learn the Commands

apropos subject – List manual pages for subject
man -k keyword – Display man pages containing keyword
man command – Show the manual for command
man -t man | ps2pdf – > man.pdf  – Make a pdf of a manual page
which command – Show full path name of command
time command – See how long a command takes
whereis app – Show possible locations of app
which app – Show which app will be run by default; it shows the full path

Searching

grep pattern files – Search for pattern in files
grep -r pattern dir – Search recursively for pattern in dir
command | grep pattern – Search for pattern in the output of command
locate file – Find all instances of file
find / -name filename – Starting with the root directory, look for the file called filename
find / -name ”*filename*” – Starting with the root directory, look for the file containing the string filename
locate filename – Find a file called filename using the locate command; this assumes you have already used the command updatedb (see next)
updatedb – Create or update the database of files on all file systems attached to the Linux root directory
which filename – Show the subdirectory containing the executable file  called filename
grep TextStringToFind /dir – Starting with the directory called dir, look for and list all files containing TextStringToFind

File Permissions

chmod octal file – Change the permissions of file to octal, which can be found separately for user, group, and world by adding: 4 – read (r), 2 – write (w), 1 – execute (x)
Examples:
chmod 777 – read, write, execute for all
chmod 755 – rwx for owner, rx for group and world
For more options, see man chmod.

File Commands

ls – Directory listing
ls -l – List files in current directory using long format
ls -laC – List all files in current directory in long format and display in columns
ls -F – List files in current directory and indicate the file type
ls -al – Formatted listing with hidden files
cd dir – Change directory to dir
cd – Change to home
mkdir dir – Create a directory dir
pwd – Show current directory
rm name – Remove a file or directory called name
rm -r dir – Delete directory dir
rm -f file – Force remove file
rm -rf dir – Force remove an entire directory dir and all it’s included files and subdirectories (use with extreme caution)
cp file1 file2 – Copy file1 to file2
cp -r dir1 dir2 – Copy dir1 to dir2; create dir2 if it doesn’t exist
cp file /home/dirname – Copy the filename called file to the /home/dirname directory
mv file /home/dirname – Move the file called filename to the /home/dirname directory
mv file1 file2 – Rename or move file1 to file2; if file2 is an existing directory, moves file1 into directory file2
ln -s file link – Create symbolic link link to file
touch file – Create or update file
cat > file – Places standard input into file
cat file – Display the file called file
more file – Display the file called file one page at a time, proceed to next page using the spacebar
head file – Output the first 10 lines of file
head -20 file – Display the first 20 lines of the file called file
tail file – Output the last 10 lines of file
tail -20 file – Display the last 20 lines of the file called file
tail -f file – Output the contents of file as it grows, starting with the last 10 lines

Compression

tar cf file.tar files – Create a tar named file.tar containing files
tar xf file.tar – Extract the files from file.tar
tar czf file.tar.gz files – Create a tar with Gzip compression
tar xzf file.tar.gz – Extract a tar using Gzip
tar cjf file.tar.bz2 – Create a tar with Bzip2 compression
tar xjf file.tar.bz2 – Extract a tar using Bzip2
gzip file – Compresses file and renames it to file.gz
gzip -d file.gz – Decompresses file.gz back to file

Printing

/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd start – Start the print daemon
/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd stop – Stop the print daemon
/etc/rc.d/init.d/lpd status – Display status of the print daemon
lpq – Display jobs in print queue
lprm – Remove jobs from queue
lpr – Print a file
lpc – Printer control tool
man subject | lpr – Print the manual page called subject as plain text
man -t subject | lpr – Print the manual page called subject as Postscript output
printtool – Start X printer setup interface

Network

ifconfig – List IP addresses for all devices on the local machine
iwconfig – Used to set the parameters of the network interface which are specific to the wireless operation (for example: the frequency)
iwlist – used to display some additional information from a wireless network interface that is not displayed by iwconfig
ping host – Ping host and output results
whois domain – Get whois information for domain
dig domain – Get DNS information for domain
dig -x host – Reverse lookup host
wget file – Download file
wget -c file – Continue a stopped download

SSH

ssh user@host – Connect to host as user
ssh -p port user@host – Connect to host on port port as user
ssh-copy-id user@host – Add your key to host for user to enable a keyed or passwordless login

User Administration

adduser accountname – Create a new user call accountname
passwd accountname – Give accountname a new password
su – Log in as superuser from current login
exit – Stop being superuser and revert to normal user

Process Management

ps – Display your currently active processes
top – Display all running processes
kill pid – Kill process id pid
killall proc – Kill all processes named proc (use with extreme caution)
bg – Lists stopped or background jobs; resume a stopped job in the background
fg – Brings the most recent job to foreground
fg n – Brings job n to the foreground

Installation from source

./configure
make
make install
dpkg -i pkg.deb – install a DEB package (Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint)
rpm -Uvh pkg.rpm – install a RPM package (Red Hat / Fedora)

Stopping & Starting

shutdown -h now – Shutdown the system now and do not reboot
halt – Stop all processes – same as above
shutdown -r 5 – Shutdown the system in 5 minutes and reboot
shutdown -r now – Shutdown the system now and reboot
reboot – Stop all processes and then reboot – same as above
startx – Start the X system
Recommended reading:

• Cheat-Sheets.org – All
  cheat sheets, round-ups, quick reference cards, quick reference guides
  and quick reference sheets in one page. The only one you need.
• Tutorial: The best tips & tricks for bash, explained – Linux Tutorial Blog / Quality Linux tutorials without clutter
• LinuxCommand.org – Learning the shell, Writing shell scripts, Script library, SuperMan pages, Who, What, Where, Why
• LinuxManPages.com
  – General commands, System calls, Subroutines, Special files, File
  formats, Games, Macros and conventions, Maintenence commands, Most Popular Man Pages
• Linux Man Pages from die.net –
  Man pages are grouped into sections, to see the full list of Linux man
  pages for a section, pick one. Or you can browse Linux man pages by
  name; choose the first letter of the name of the Linux command,
  function, or file you are interested in.
• Linux Newbie Guide: Shorcuts and Commands
  – Linux essential shortcuts and sanity commands; Common Linux commands –
  system info; Basic operations, network apps, file
  (de)compression; Process control; Basic administration commands,
  accessing drives/partitions; Network administration tools, music-related
  commands, graphics-related commands.
• Sudo Manual Pages –
  Sudo (su “do”) allows a system administrator to delegate authority to
  give certain users (or groups of users) the ability to run some (or all)
  commands as root or another user while providing an audit trail of the
  commands and their arguments. For more information, see the introduction to Sudo. Sudo is free software, distributed under an ISC-style license.
• LinOxide.com – Linux Commands Cheat Sheet in Black & White