50 Linux topics ranging from basic to advanced,

along with relevant commands and practical

scenarios. Each topic includes a brief explanation
and related commands. 📚

Follow – Krishan Bhatt👨‍💻✅

Basic Topics:

1. File Management
• Commands: ls, cp, mv, rm, touch
• Scenario: List all files in a directory, copy a file, move files between directories, and
delete files.
2. Directory Management
• Commands: mkdir, rmdir, cd, pwd
• Scenario: Create and navigate through directories, and remove empty directories.
3. File Permissions
• Commands: chmod, chown, chgrp
• Scenario: Change file permissions to control user access.
4. Viewing and Editing Files
• Commands: cat, less, more, vi, nano
• Scenario: View the contents of a file and edit it using text editors.
5. Managing Links
• Commands: ln, ln -s
• Scenario: Create hard and soft links to files.
6. Process Management
• Commands: ps, top, kill, htop, bg, fg, nice
• Scenario: Monitor running processes and terminate or change their priority.
7. Managing Users and Groups
• Commands: useradd, userdel, usermod, groupadd
• Scenario: Create, modify, and delete users and groups.
8. Package Management (Debian-based)
• Commands: apt-get, dpkg
• Scenario: Install, remove, and update packages on Debian-based systems.
9. Package Management (RHEL-based)
• Commands: yum, dnf, rpm
• Scenario: Install, update, and remove packages on Red Hat-based systems.
10. Disk Management
• Commands: df, du, fdisk, mount, umount
• Scenario: Check disk usage, partition a disk, and mount/unmount file systems.
11. Service Management
• Commands: systemctl, service, chkconfig
• Scenario: Start, stop, enable, and disable services on a system.
12. Networking Basics
• Commands: ip, ifconfig, ping, netstat, traceroute
• Scenario: Check network configuration, test connectivity, and display active
connections.
13. SSH and Remote Access
• Commands: ssh, scp, rsync
• Scenario: Securely connect to remote systems and transfer files between them.
14. Cron Jobs
• Commands: crontab
• Scenario: Schedule regular tasks to automate scripts or system commands.
15. System Logs
• Commands: journalctl, dmesg, tail, /var/log
• Scenario: View system logs for troubleshooting and auditing purposes.
16. Text Processing Tools
• Commands: grep, awk, sed, cut, sort
• Scenario: Search, filter, and modify text data from files or command output.
17. Archiving and Compression
• Commands: tar, gzip, gunzip, zip, unzip
• Scenario: Compress files into archives and extract them.
 18. File Search
• Commands: find, locate
• Scenario: Locate files based on name, type, or modification date.
19. Basic Shell Scripting
• Commands: bash, sh
• Scenario: Automate tasks using simple shell scripts.
20. Environment Variables
• Commands: export, env, set
• Scenario: Set and manage environment variables.

Intermediate Topics:

21. Advanced File Permissions: ACL

• Commands: getfacl, setfacl
• Scenario: Assign more granular file permissions using Access Control Lists.
22. LVM (Logical Volume Manager)
• Commands: pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, lvextend
• Scenario: Create and manage logical volumes for flexible disk space allocation.
23. Kernel Management
• Commands: uname, dmesg, modprobe, lsmod
• Scenario: View kernel information and manage kernel modules.
24. Networking Configuration
• Commands: ip, nmcli, /etc/network/interfaces
• Scenario: Set static IP addresses and configure network interfaces.
25. Firewall Management
• Commands: firewalld, iptables
• Scenario: Set up rules to control inbound and outbound traffic on the system.
26. SELinux
• Commands: getenforce, setenforce, semanage
• Scenario: Enable, disable, and troubleshoot SELinux for security policies.
27. Managing RAID
• Commands: mdadm
• Scenario: Create and manage software RAID for redundancy and performance.
28. Backup and Restore
• Commands: rsync, tar, dd
• Scenario: Perform system backups and restore from a backup image.
29. Swap Management
• Commands: swapon, swapoff, mkswap
• Scenario: Configure swap space for system memory management.
30. NFS (Network File System)
• Commands: mount, nfsstat, /etc/exports
• Scenario: Share directories over the network using NFS.
31. Samba (SMB)
• Commands: smbclient, smb.conf
• Scenario: Configure Samba for file sharing between Linux and Windows systems.
32. Advanced Shell Scripting
• Commands: bash, zsh, functions, loops
• Scenario: Create complex automation scripts with loops and conditional statements.
33. Scheduling with at
• Commands: at, atq, atrm
• Scenario: Schedule one-time tasks to run at specific times.
34. Basic Performance Monitoring
• Commands: top, iotop, vmstat, sar
• Scenario: Monitor CPU, memory, and disk I/O performance on the system.
35. System Boot Process
• Commands: systemd-analyze, grub2, /boot/
• Scenario: Analyze boot performance and troubleshoot boot issues.
36. Creating and Managing Partitions
• Commands: fdisk, parted, mkfs
• Scenario: Create, delete, and format disk partitions.
37. User Authentication with PAM
• Commands: pam-auth-update, /etc/pam.d/
• Scenario: Configure Pluggable Authentication Modules for security.
 38. Troubleshooting with strace and lsof
• Commands: strace, lsof
• Scenario: Debug program execution and identify open file descriptors.
39. Setting Up a Web Server (Apache/Nginx)
• Commands: apachectl, nginx, httpd
• Scenario: Set up and configure a web server for hosting websites.
40. Database Management (MySQL/PostgreSQL)
• Commands: mysql, psql
• Scenario: Install, configure, and manage a MySQL or PostgreSQL database server.

Advanced Topics:

41. Kernel Tuning with sysctl

• Commands: sysctl
• Scenario: Modify kernel parameters at runtime for performance tuning.
42. Virtualization with KVM
• Commands: virsh, virt-install
• Scenario: Create and manage virtual machines on Linux with KVM.
43. Docker and Containerization
• Commands: docker, docker-compose
• Scenario: Set up, run, and manage containers on Linux.
44. Automation with Ansible
• Commands: ansible-playbook
• Scenario: Automate infrastructure provisioning using Ansible playbooks.
45. High Availability with Pacemaker and Corosync
• Commands: pcs, crm
• Scenario: Set up a highly available cluster for critical services.
46. Advanced Networking with iptables/nftables
• Commands: iptables, nft
• Scenario: Configure complex firewall rules for secure network management.
47. Load Balancing with HAProxy
• Commands: haproxy, systemctl
 • Scenario: Set up load balancing for web applications.
48. Email Server Setup (Postfix)
• Commands: postfix, mail
• Scenario: Configure a Postfix mail server for sending and receiving emails.
49. Advanced Monitoring with Nagios/Zabbix
• Commands: nagios, zabbix-server
• Scenario: Set up and configure monitoring tools to track system and service health.
50. Cloud Integration (AWS/GCP)
• Commands: aws-cli, `gcloud

Basic Topics with Examples:

1. File Management

• Commands: ls, cp, mv, rm, touch

• Example:

ls -l # List all files with details

cp file1.txt /tmp # Copy file1.txt to /tmp

mv file1.txt /tmp # Move file1.txt to /tmp

rm file1.txt # Delete file1.txt

touch file1.txt # Create an empty file named file1.txt

2. Directory Management

• Commands: mkdir, rmdir, cd, pwd

• Example:

mkdir /tmp/new_dir # Create a new directory in /tmp

cd /tmp/new_dir # Change directory to /tmp/new_dir

pwd # Print working directory

rmdir /tmp/new_dir # Remove an empty directory

3. File Permissions

• Commands: chmod, chown, chgrp

• Example:

chmod 755 file1.txt # Set file1.txt permissions to rwxr-xr-x

chown user1 file1.txt # Change ownership of file1.txt to user1

chgrp group1 file1.txt # Change the group of file1.txt to group1

4. Viewing and Editing Files

• Commands: cat, less, more, vi, nano

• Example:

cat file1.txt # Display the contents of file1.txt

less file1.txt # View large file with less command

vi file1.txt # Edit file1.txt with vi editor

nano file1.txt # Edit file1.txt with nano editor

5. Managing Links

• Commands: ln, ln -s

• Example:
ln file1.txt file1_link # Create a hard link to file1.txt

ln -s file1.txt file1_slink # Create a symbolic link to file1.txt

6. Process Management

• Commands: ps, top, kill, htop, bg, fg, nice

• Example:

ps aux # Show all running processes

top # Display real-time process info

kill -9 1234 # Forcefully terminate process with PID 1234

nice -n 10 myscript # Run myscript with lower priority

7. Managing Users and Groups

• Commands: useradd, userdel, usermod, groupadd

• Example:

useradd user1 # Add a new user

userdel user1 # Delete a user

usermod -aG sudo user1 # Add user1 to the sudo group

groupadd group1 # Create a new group

8. Package Management (Debian-based)

• Commands: apt-get, dpkg

• Example:
apt-get update # Update package repository

apt-get install apache2 # Install Apache web server

dpkg -i package.deb # Install package using dpkg

9. Package Management (RHEL-based)

• Commands: yum, dnf, rpm

• Example:

yum install httpd # Install Apache on RHEL-based systems

dnf update # Update packages on RHEL-based systems

rpm -ivh package.rpm # Install package using rpm

10. Disk Management

• Commands: df, du, fdisk, mount, umount

• Example:

df -h # Show disk usage in human-readable format

du -sh /home/user1 # Show disk usage for a specific directory

fdisk /dev/sdb # Manage partitions on a disk

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt # Mount the disk /dev/sdb1 to /mnt

umount /mnt # Unmount the disk from /mnt

11. Service Management

• Commands: systemctl, service, chkconfig

• Example:
systemctl start httpd # Start Apache service

systemctl enable httpd # Enable Apache to start on boot

service apache2 restart # Restart Apache on Debian-based systems

chkconfig httpd on # Enable Apache on RHEL-based systems

12. Networking Basics

• Commands: ip, ifconfig, ping, netstat, traceroute

• Example:

ip addr show # Show IP address information

ifconfig eth0 # Show details of network interface eth0

ping google.com # Ping a remote host

netstat -tuln # Show open ports

traceroute google.com # Trace the network route to a remote host

13. SSH and Remote Access

• Commands: ssh, scp, rsync

• Example:

ssh user@remote_host # SSH into a remote system

scp file1.txt user@remote:/tmp # Copy file to a remote system

rsync -av /src/ /dest/ # Sync files between local and remote systems

14. Cron Jobs

 • Commands: crontab

• Example:

crontab -e # Edit cron jobs

# Example cron job: Run script every day at 5 AM

0 5 * * * /home/user/myscript.sh

15. System Logs

• Commands: journalctl, dmesg, tail, /var/log

• Example:

journalctl -xe # View detailed system logs

dmesg # View kernel log messages

tail -f /var/log/syslog # Follow system log in real-time

16. Text Processing Tools

• Commands: grep, awk, sed, cut, sort

• Example:

grep 'error' /var/log/syslog # Search for 'error' in syslog

awk '{print $1, $2}' file1.txt # Extract and print the first two columns

sed 's/foo/bar/g' file1.txt # Replace 'foo' with 'bar' in file1.txt

cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd # Extract the first field from /etc/passwd

sort file1.txt # Sort the contents of a file

 17. Archiving and Compression

• Commands: tar, gzip, gunzip, zip, unzip

• Example:

tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /dir # Create a compressed archive of /dir

gzip file1.txt # Compress file1.txt

gunzip file1.txt.gz # Decompress file1.txt.gz

zip archive.zip file1.txt # Create a ZIP archive

unzip archive.zip # Unzip the archive

18. File Search

• Commands: find, locate

• Example:

find / -name file1.txt # Search for file1.txt

locate file1.txt # Locate the file using the updatedb cache

19. Basic Shell Scripting

• Commands: bash, sh

• Example:

#!/bin/bash

echo "Hello, World!" # A basic shell script that prints a message

20. Environment Variables

 • Commands: export, env, set

• Example:

export VAR_NAME="value" # Set an environment variable

env # Display all environment variables

Intermediate Topics with Examples:

21. Advanced File Permissions: ACL

• Commands: getfacl, setfacl

• Example:

setfacl -m u:user1:rwx file1.txt # Add ACL for user1 to file1.txt

getfacl file1.txt # Display ACL of file1.txt

22. LVM (Logical Volume Manager)

• Commands: pvcreate, vgcreate, lvcreate, lvextend

• Example:

pvcreate /dev/sdb # Create a physical volume on /dev/sdb

vgcreate vg_data /dev/sdb # Create a volume group

lvcreate -L 10G -n lv_data vg_data # Create Lvm

Intermediate Topics with Examples (continued):

 23. Kernel Management

• Commands: uname, dmesg, modprobe, lsmod

• Example:

uname -r # Display the running kernel version

dmesg | grep -i error # View kernel log messages for errors

modprobe -r module_name # Remove a kernel module

lsmod # List all loaded kernel modules

24. Networking Configuration

• Commands: ip, nmcli, /etc/network/interfaces

• Example:

ip addr add 192.168.1.100/24 dev eth0 # Assign IP address to eth0

nmcli device show # Show network device details

nmcli con up "Wired connection 1" # Bring up a specific network connection

25. Firewall Management

• Commands: firewalld, iptables

• Example:
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp --permanent # Open HTTP port 80

firewall-cmd --reload # Reload firewalld rules

iptables -L # List all iptables rules

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT # Allow SSH access

26. SELinux

• Commands: getenforce, setenforce, semanage

• Example:

getenforce # Check if SELinux is enforcing or permissive

setenforce 0 # Temporarily set SELinux to permissive mode

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/web(/.*)?" # Allow HTTP access to

custom web directory

27. Managing RAID

• Commands: mdadm

• Example:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda /dev/sdb # Create RAID1

with 2 devices

mdadm --detail /dev/md0 # Show RAID array details

 28. Backup and Restore

• Commands: rsync, tar, dd

• Example:

rsync -av /source/ /destination/ # Sync files between directories

tar -czf backup.tar.gz /mydata # Create a compressed backup

dd if=/dev/sda of=/backup.img bs=4M # Create a raw disk backup

29. Swap Management

• Commands: swapon, swapoff, mkswap

• Example:

mkswap /dev/sdb1 # Create a swap space on /dev/sdb1

swapon /dev/sdb1 # Enable swap space

swapoff /dev/sdb1 # Disable swap space

30. NFS (Network File System)

• Commands: mount, nfsstat, /etc/exports

• Example:
echo "/shared_dir 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_root_squash)" >> /etc/exports # Export a
directory over NFS

exportfs -r # Apply NFS export changes

mount -t nfs 192.168.1.100:/shared_dir /mnt/nfs_mount # Mount the NFS

share

nfsstat # Show NFS statistics

31. Samba (SMB)

• Commands: smbclient, smb.conf

• Example:

smbclient -L //localhost # List shared directories on a local Samba server

smb.conf: [shared] # Example Samba configuration

path = /srv/samba/shared

read only = no

browsable = yes

systemctl restart smb # Restart the Samba service to apply changes

32. Advanced Shell Scripting

• Commands: bash, zsh, functions, loops

• Example:

#!/bin/bash
function greet {

echo "Hello, $1"

for user in Alice Bob; do

greet $user

done

33. Scheduling with at

• Commands: at, atq, atrm

• Example:

at 02:00 # Schedule a task at 2 AM

at> echo "Backup completed" >> /var/log/backup.log

atq # View the queue of scheduled jobs

atrm 1 # Remove job number 1 from the queue

34. Basic Performance Monitoring

• Commands: top, iotop, vmstat, sar

• Example:

top # Monitor system processes in real-time

iotop # Monitor disk I/O usage

vmstat 5 # Display system memory and CPU usage every 5 seconds

sar -u 1 3 # Show CPU usage every 1 second for 3 intervals

35. System Boot Process

• Commands: systemd-analyze, grub2, /boot/

• Example:

systemd-analyze blame # Show time taken for each service during boot

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg # Regenerate GRUB configuration

ls /boot # View contents of the /boot directory

36. Creating and Managing Partitions

• Commands: fdisk, parted, mkfs

• Example:

fdisk /dev/sdb # Create partitions on /dev/sdb

parted /dev/sdb mklabel gpt # Create a GPT partition table

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 # Format the partition with ext4 filesystem

37. User Authentication with PAM

 • Commands: pam-auth-update, /etc/pam.d/

• Example:

pam-auth-update # Update PAM authentication modules

vi /etc/pam.d/sshd # Edit SSH PAM configuration to restrict root access

38. Troubleshooting with strace and lsof

• Commands: strace, lsof

• Example:

strace -p 1234 # Trace system calls made by process 1234

lsof -i :80 # List all processes using port 80

39. Setting Up a Web Server (Apache/Nginx)

• Commands: apachectl, nginx, httpd

• Example:

apachectl start # Start Apache web server

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf # Edit Apache configuration file

systemctl restart nginx # Restart Nginx service after making changes

 40. Database Management (MySQL/PostgreSQL)

• Commands: mysql, psql

• Example:

mysql -u root -p # Log in to MySQL

CREATE DATABASE mydb; # Create a new MySQL database

psql -U postgres # Log in to PostgreSQL

CREATE DATABASE mydb; # Create a new PostgreSQL database

Advanced Topics with Examples:

41. Kernel Tuning with sysctl

• Commands: sysctl

• Example:

sysctl -a # List all kernel parameters

sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 # Enable IP forwarding

sysctl -p # Apply changes from sysctl.conf

42. Virtualization with KVM

 • Commands: virsh, virt-install

• Example:

virt-install --name myvm --ram 2048 --disk

path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/myvm.img,size=10 --vcpus 2 --os-type linux --os-variant
ubuntu20.04 --network bridge=virbr0 --graphics none --console pty,target_type=serial --
cdrom /var/lib/libvirt/boot/ubuntu.iso

virsh start myvm # Start the virtual machine

virsh list # List running virtual machines

43. Docker and Containerization

• Commands: docker, docker-compose

• Example:

docker run -d -p 80:80 nginx # Run an Nginx container in detached mode

docker ps # List running containers

docker-compose up -d # Start containers defined in a docker-compose.yml

44. Automation with Ansible

• Commands: ansible, ansible-playbook, ansible-inventory

• Example:

# Check the connectivity of the hosts using Ansible ping module

ansible all -m ping -i inventory

# Example of running a playbook

ansible-playbook -i inventory deploy_web.yml

# deploy_web.yml (sample playbook)

---

- hosts: webservers

become: yes

tasks:

- name: Install Nginx

yum:

name: nginx

state: present

- name: Start Nginx service

service:

name: nginx

state: started

Scenario: Automate the deployment of Nginx on multiple servers using an Ansible

playbook, ensuring installation and service startup.

45. Container Orchestration with Kubernetes

• Commands: kubectl, minikube, kubeadm

• Example:

kubectl get pods # List all running pods

kubectl apply -f deployment.yml # Apply a Kubernetes configuration (Deployment)

minikube start # Start a local Kubernetes cluster

# Example of a basic deployment configuration (deployment.yml)

---

apiVersion: apps/v1

kind: Deployment

metadata:

name: nginx-deployment

spec:

replicas: 3

selector:

matchLabels:

app: nginx

template:

metadata:

labels:

app: nginx

spec:

containers:

- name: nginx

image: nginx:1.14.2

ports:

- containerPort: 80

Scenario: Deploy a containerized Nginx application with 3 replicas using Kubernetes.

46. Configuring Load Balancing

 • Commands: haproxy, nginx, keepalived

• Example:

# Nginx as a load balancer example

vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

# Add the following in the config file

http {

upstream backend {

server backend1.example.com;

server backend2.example.com;

server {

listen 80;

location / {

proxy_pass http://backend;

systemctl restart nginx # Restart Nginx to apply changes

Scenario: Set up load balancing with Nginx to distribute traffic across multiple backend
servers.

47. CI/CD Pipelines (Jenkins/GitLab CI)

 • Commands: jenkins-cli, gitlab-runner

• Example:

# Running Jenkins jobs from the command line

java -jar jenkins-cli.jar -s http://localhost:8080/ build my_job

# GitLab CI pipeline example (.gitlab-ci.yml)

stages:

- build

- deploy

build_job:

stage: build

script:

- echo "Building the project"

- make build

deploy_job:

stage: deploy

script:

- echo "Deploying the project"

- scp build artifact user@server:/path/to/deploy

Scenario: Automate project build and deployment using Jenkins or GitLab CI pipelines.

48. Log Management and Centralization (ELK Stack)

• Commands: logstash, elasticsearch, kibana, filebeat

 • Example:

# Filebeat configuration example (/etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml)

filebeat.inputs:

- type: log

paths:

- /var/log/syslog

output.logstash:

hosts: ["localhost:5044"]

# Starting Filebeat to ship logs

systemctl start filebeat

Scenario: Centralize and analyze logs using the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, and
Kibana) with Filebeat for log collection.

49. High Availability with Pacemaker/Corosync

• Commands: pcs, crm, corosync

• Example:

# Authenticate cluster nodes

pcs cluster auth node1.example.com node2.example.com

# Create and start the cluster

pcs cluster setup --name mycluster node1.example.com node2.example.com

pcs cluster start --all

# View cluster status

pcs status

# Add a resource to the cluster (e.g., an IP address resource)

pcs resource create VirtualIP ocf:heartbeat:IPaddr2 ip=192.168.1.100 cidr_netmask=24

op monitor interval=30s

Scenario: Set up a highly available cluster with Pacemaker and Corosync for failover of
critical resources like IP addresses or services.

50. Linux Security Auditing (Lynis/AIDE)

• Commands: lynis, aide, /etc/aide.conf

• Example:

# Run a Lynis security audit

lynis audit system