Top 70 Linux Commands

Top 70 Linux commands and what they do.

1. ls – list the files in a directory
2. pwd – display the current working directory
3. cd – change the current working directory
4. mkdir – create a new directory
5. rmdir – remove an empty directory
6. cp – copy a file or directory
7. mv – move or rename a file or directory
8. rm – delete a file or directory
9. cat – display the contents of a file
10. less – view a file a page at a time
11. head – display the first few lines of a file
12. tail – display the last few lines of a file
13. grep – search a file for a pattern
14. find – search for files in a directory tree
15. which – locate a command
16. whoami – display the current user
17. who – display a list of users currently logged in
18. finger – display information about a user
19. w – display a list of users currently logged in and their processes
20. ps – display a list of processes
21. top – display real-time information about processes
22. kill – terminate a process
23. pkill – terminate a process by name
24. shutdown – shut down the system
25. reboot – reboot the system
26. date – display the current date and time
27. cal – display a calendar
28. uptime – display the current uptime
29. time – display the current time
30. exit – exit the current command shell or program
31. logout – log out of the current session
32. clear – clear the terminal screen
33. history – display the command history
34. alias – create an alias for a command
35. unalias – remove an alias
36. chmod – change the permissions of a file or directory
37. chown – change the owner of a file or directory
38. chgrp – change the group of a file or directory
39. df – display information about free disk space
40. du – display the size of a directory
41. free – display information about free memory
42. vmstat – display information about virtual memory
43. iostat – display I/O statistics
44. netstat – display network statistics
45. lsof – list open files
46. strace – trace system calls and signals
47. ltrace – trace library calls
48. ping – send a ping to a host
49. traceroute – display the route to a host
50. telnet – connect to a remote host using Telnet
51. ssh – secure shell client
52. scp – secure copy a file or directory
53. sftp – secure file transfer client
54. ftp – file transfer client
55. nc – network utility
56. wget – retrieve a file from the web
57. curl – retrieve data from the web
58. tar – archiving utility
59. gzip – compress or decompress a file
60. bzip2 – compress or decompress a file
61. unzip – decompress a zip archive
62. zip – create a zip archive
63. unrar – decompress a RAR archive
64. rar – create a RAR archive
65. mount – mount a file system
66. umount – unmount a file system
67. fdisk – partition a disk
68. parted – partition a disk
69. mkfs – create a file system
70. fsck – check and repair a file