Linux Command Cheatsheet For Beginners

In this tutorial you’ll learn basic and the most used Linux commands. This Linux Command Cheatsheet For Beginners will help you gain the necessary understanding of daily task execution through the terminal.

Linux is the preferred Operating system among professional developers because it makes very efficient use of the system’s resources.

The commands discussed below may not help you become a pro in a day, but practicing all and learning new things along with implementing everything in a positive manner will make you an efficient Linux user.

1. File Management

ls	Lists all the files in the current directory
ls -l	Shows files along with permissions
ls -al	Shows a list of all the files including hidden Files
ls -lt	Sorting the listing by time modification
pwd	Shows the Present Working Directory
cd	Prints Current Directory
cd ..	Change the directory to the parent directory
cd –	change to the previous directory
cd dir_name	Change the directory to “dir_name”
mkdir dir_name	Make a directory with “dir_name”
cat > filename	Creates a new file with ‘filename’
cat filename	Displays file content
cat file1 file2 > file3	Concatenate or joins two files in one
touch filename	Create a new file with ‘filename’
rm filename	Removes the file
rm -r dir	Removes a directory named ‘dir’
cp file1 file2	Copy file1 and call it file2
cp -r dir1 dir2	Copy contents of directory ‘dir1’ to ‘dir2’
mv file1 file2	Move file1 to file2
echo ‘Hi’ > data.txt	Enters content to a file
echo ‘There!’ >> data.txt	Append text to existing file in Linux
nano filename	Opens file in an editor
vim filename	Enables efficient text editor
tar -cvf archived.tar /indgeek	Compress files and folders in Linux
tar -xvf archived.tar	Extracts the tar archive file

2. Management Commands

sudo	Allows regular users to run with Superuser privileges
apt-get	Command used to install and update packages
ps	Displays the current working processes
man	Opens the help manual of a command
pidof	Gives the Process ID (PID) of a process
kill PID	Kill the process with the given PID
top -u igeek	Display specific User process details
nice	Starts a process with a given priority
renice	Changes priority of an already running process
df	Gives free hard disk space on your system
free	Gives free RAM on your system
bg	To send a process to the background
fg	To run a stopped process in the foreground

3. Permissions

Linux permissions grating is a tricky task that you may memorize with simple syntaxes.

Remember providing ‘Read Permission‘ to any user would only allow them to read the file, that specific user won’t be able to write/ modify or execute that file or application.

Users:

Every file and directory on a Linux system can be assigned 3 types of Owners,

• Owner: The Owner is the creator of a specific file or Directory
• Group: A Group can contain multiple users
• Others: A person who has neither created the file nor belongs to a user group who owns the file.

u	user/ owner
g	group
o	other
a	all

+	Adds permission
–	Removes permission
=	Assigns the permission

r	Read Permission
w	Write Permission
x	Executing permission
0	– No permissions
1	-x
2	-w-
3	-wx
4	r-
5	r-x
6	rw-
7	rwx
chmod +rwx filename	Adds all permission to an user
chmod -rwx filename	Removes all permission from an user
chmod +w filename	Allows users to modify the file
chmod +r-x filename	Allows a user to read and execute
chmod 777	Completely permits Owner, Groups, others
chown user	Changs the ownership of a file/directory

4. System

users	Shows the username of users currently logged in
w	Displays who is online
whoami	Displays current logged in user to this system
finger user	Shows information about the user
sudo adduser username	Adds a user with a username
sudo userdel -r ‘username’	Removes ‘username’ user
sudo passwd -l ‘username’	To change the password of a user
sudo usermod -a -G Gname Uname	Add user to a Group
uname -a	Shows Kernal information
uname -m	Shows Architecture information
cat /proc/cpuinfo	Display CPU information
cat proc/meminfo	Display memory information
free -t	Shows total memory used & available

Also Read: Advantages of using Linux

5. Searching

grep pattern filename	Search for “pattern” in the file
grep -i “indgeek” geeks.txt	Enables to search for a string case-insensitively
grep -c “igeek” geeks.txt	Displaying the count or number of matches
grep -r pattern dir	Search recursively for patterns in dir
locate filename	Find all instances of file
grep -v “igeek” geeks.txt	Display the unmatched lines with the searched pattern
find . -name geeks.txt	Find all the files whose name is geeks.txt in PWD
find / -type d -name IndGeek	Find directories whose name is IndGeek in / directory

6. Networking

ssh igeek@192.168.10.3	Log into the Remote host at a specific address as user ‘igeek’
ftp 192.168.10.3	Connects to remote FTP host
ping indgeek.com	To ping and analyze network and host connections
ifconfig -a	Display network information
netstat	Shows active or listening ports
whois domain	Get whois information for a domain
dig domain	Grabs DNS information of a domain
dig -x host	Reverse lookup host
wget filename	Downloads file
wget url	Downloads file from a specific URL
put file	Upload ‘file’ from local to the remote computer
get file	Download ‘file’ from remote to local computer
quit	Logout as a user