DevOps Shack

LINUX CHEAT SHEET

1. Basic Commands

● pwd – Print current working directory

● ls – List files and directories

○ ls -l – Long format listing

○ ls -a – Show hidden files
○ ls -lh – Human-readable sizes

● cd <directory> – Change directory

○ cd .. – Move up one directory
○ cd - – Go to previous directory
● mkdir <dir> – Create a directory

● rmdir <dir> – Remove an empty directory

● rm -r <dir> – Remove a directory and its contents

● touch <file> – Create an empty file

● cp <source> <destination> – Copy files/directories

○ cp -r <dir1> <dir2> – Copy a directory recursively
● mv <old> <new> – Move/rename files or directories

● rm <file> – Delete a file

● cat <file> – View file contents

● less <file> – View file with navigation

 ● head <file> – Show the first 10 lines of a file

● tail <file> – Show the last 10 lines of a file

○ tail -f <file> – Live update file output

2. File Permissions & Ownership

● ls -l – View file permissions

● chmod 755 <file> – Change file permissions

○ chmod u+x <file> – Grant execute permission to user
○ chmod g-w <file> – Remove write permission from group
○ chmod o+r <file> – Add read permission to others
● chown <user>:<group> <file> – Change ownership

● chown -R <user>:<group> <dir> – Change ownership recursively

3. File Searching

● find <dir> -name "<pattern>" – Find files by name

● find <dir> -type d -name "<pattern>" – Find directories by name

● find <dir> -type f -size +100M – Find files larger than 100MB

● locate <file> – Find file using index

● updatedb – Update the locate database

4. File Compression & Archiving

● tar -cvf archive.tar <files> – Create a tar archive

 ● tar -xvf archive.tar – Extract a tar archive

● tar -czvf archive.tar.gz <files> – Create a compressed archive

● tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz – Extract a compressed archive

● zip archive.zip <files> – Create a zip archive

● unzip archive.zip – Extract a zip archive

5. Process Management

● ps aux – List running processes

● top – Show real-time system processes

● htop – Interactive process viewer (requires installation)

● kill <PID> – Terminate a process

● kill -9 <PID> – Force kill a process

● pkill <name> – Kill process by name

● nohup <command> & – Run process in background

● jobs – List background processes

● fg %1 – Bring background job to foreground

● bg %1 – Resume a background job

6. Disk Usage

● df -h – Show disk usage in human-readable format

● du -sh <dir> – Show directory size

● du -h --max-depth=1 <dir> – Show size of each subdirectory

● lsblk – Show block devices

● mount /dev/sdX /mnt – Mount a partition

● umount /dev/sdX – Unmount a partition

7. User Management

● whoami – Show current user

● who – Show logged-in users

● id – Show user ID (UID) and group ID (GID)

● adduser <username> – Add a user

● passwd <username> – Change password

● usermod -aG <group> <user> – Add user to group

● deluser <username> – Delete a user

● groups <user> – Show user groups

8. Network Commands

● ifconfig – Show network interfaces (deprecated)

● ip a – Show IP addresses

● ip r – Show routing table

● ping <host> – Check connectivity

● traceroute <host> – Trace route to a host

● netstat -tulnp – Show listening ports

● ss -tulnp – Alternative to netstat

● curl -I <url> – Fetch HTTP headers

● wget <url> – Download a file

9. Package Management

Debian/Ubuntu:

● apt update – Update package lists

● apt upgrade – Upgrade installed packages

● apt install <package> – Install a package

● apt remove <package> – Remove a package

● dpkg -i <package.deb> – Install a .deb package

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RHEL/CentOS:

● yum update – Update packages

● yum install <package> – Install a package

● yum remove <package> – Remove a package

● rpm -i <package.rpm> – Install an .rpm package

Arch Linux:

● pacman -Syu – Update system

● pacman -S <package> – Install package

● pacman -R <package> – Remove package

10. Log Management

● cat /var/log/syslog – View system logs

● cat /var/log/auth.log – View authentication logs

● dmesg – Show boot messages

● journalctl -xe – View systemd logs

● tail -f /var/log/syslog – Monitor logs live

11. SSH & Remote Access

● ssh user@host – Connect to a remote server

● ssh -i <key> user@host – Connect using an SSH key

● scp <file> user@host:/path – Copy file to a remote server

● scp user@host:/file . – Copy file from remote server

● rsync -av <src> <dest> – Sync files locally or remotely

12. Text Processing

● grep "pattern" <file> – Search for a pattern in a file

● grep -r "pattern" <dir> – Search recursively in a directory

● awk '{print $1}' <file> – Print the first column

● sed 's/old/new/g' <file> – Replace text in a file

● sort <file> – Sort lines in a file

uniq <file> – Remove duplicate lines

● cut -d':' -f1 /etc/passwd – Extract first field from file

13. Crontab (Task Scheduling)

● crontab -e – Edit crontab

● crontab -l – List crontab jobs

● Example cron job:
○ 0 * * * * /path/to/script.sh (Runs every hour)
○ @reboot /path/to/script.sh (Runs on startup)

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14. System Monitoring

● uptime – Show system uptime

● free -h – Show memory usage

● vmstat – Show system performance

● iostat – Show CPU and disk I/O stats

● sar -u 5 10 – CPU usage every 5 sec for 10 times

15. Miscellaneous
alias ll='ls -lah' – Create a command alias

● unalias ll – Remove alias

● history – Show command history

● !! – Repeat last command

● !n – Run command from history (e.g., !100)

● echo $PATH – Show system PATH

● which <command> – Find command location

● man <command> – Show command manual

16. System Performance & Optimization

● top – Monitor system performance interactively

● htop – Advanced interactive process viewer (needs installation)

● vmstat 1 – Show system performance every second

● iostat -x 1 – Show disk I/O statistics
 ● sar -r 5 10 – Monitor memory usage every 5 seconds for 10 times

● free -m – Show memory usage in MB

● uptime – Show system uptime and load average

● watch -n 1 <command> – Run a command every second

17. Firewall & Security

● ufw status – Check firewall status (Ubuntu)

● ufw enable – Enable UFW firewall

● ufw allow <port> – Allow incoming traffic on a port

● ufw deny <port> – Deny traffic on a port

● iptables -L -v – List firewall rules (RHEL/CentOS)

● iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT – Allow SSH

● iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT – Allow HTTP

● iptables -D INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT – Remove rule

● fail2ban-client status – Check Fail2Ban status (if installed)

● passwd -l <user> – Lock a user account

● passwd -u <user> – Unlock a user account

18. Kernel & System Information

● uname -r – Show kernel version

● uname -a – Show full kernel details

 ● cat /etc/os-release – Show OS details

● hostnamectl – Show system hostname and details

● lsmod – List loaded kernel modules

● modinfo <module> – Show details of a kernel module

● dmesg | tail – View recent kernel messages

● sysctl -a – Show all system configurations

19. Mounting & Unmounting File Systems

● mount – Show mounted file systems

● mount /dev/sdX /mnt – Mount a device

● umount /mnt – Unmount a device

● df -h – Show available disk space

● du -sh /directory – Show directory size

● fsck /dev/sdX – Check and repair a filesystem

● mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX – Format a partition as ext4

20. System Shutdown & Restart

● shutdown -h now – Shutdown immediately

● shutdown -h +10 – Shutdown in 10 minutes

● shutdown -r now – Restart system immediately

● reboot – Reboot the system

 ● poweroff – Power off the system

● halt – Halt the system

21. Disk Partitioning

● fdisk -l – List all partitions

● fdisk /dev/sdX – Manage partitions on a disk

● parted /dev/sdX – Create and resize partitions

● mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1 – Format partition as ext4

● mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt – Mount a partition

22. Environment Variables

● echo $PATH – Show system PATH

● export VAR=value – Set an environment variable

● printenv VAR – Show variable value

● unset VAR – Remove a variable

● env – List all environment variables

23. Disk & Storage Management

● lsblk – List storage devices

● blkid – Show UUIDs of partitions

 ● mount -o loop file.iso /mnt – Mount an ISO file

● lsof /path/to/file – Show processes using a file

● tune2fs -m 5 /dev/sdX1 – Set reserved space on ext4

24. Service Management (Systemd & SysVinit)

Systemd (Ubuntu, CentOS 7+, RHEL 7+)

● systemctl start <service> – Start a service

● systemctl stop <service> – Stop a service

● systemctl restart <service> – Restart a service

● systemctl status <service> – Show service status

● systemctl enable <service> – Enable service at boot

● systemctl disable <service> – Disable service at boot

SysVinit (Older Systems)

● service <service> start – Start a service

● service <service> stop – Stop a service

● chkconfig <service> on – Enable service at boot

● chkconfig <service> off – Disable service at boot

25. File & Directory Permissions (Advanced)

● chmod 777 <file> – Full permissions (rwxrwxrwx)

 ● chmod 644 <file> – Read/write for owner, read-only for others

● chmod 700 <dir> – Full access for owner, no access for others

● chmod +x <file> – Add execute permission

● chmod -w <file> – Remove write permission

● chown user:group <file> – Change ownership

● chown -R user:group <dir> – Change ownership recursively

26. Advanced File Operations

● ls -lt – List files by modification time

● ls -S – List files by size

● find / -type f -name "file.txt" – Search for a file

● find . -type d -empty – Find empty directories

● find . -mtime -1 – Find files modified in the last 24 hours

● ln -s /path/to/original /path/to/link – Create a symbolic link

27. Backup & Restore

● tar -cvf backup.tar /path/to/dir – Create a tar backup

● tar -xvf backup.tar – Extract a tar archive

● rsync -av /source/ /destination/ – Sync files

● dd if=/dev/sdX of=backup.img – Create a disk image

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28. Performance Tuning

● nice -n 10 <command> – Run a command with lower priority

● renice -n 10 -p <PID> – Change priority of a

running process

● ulimit -n 65535 – Increase file descriptor limit

● sysctl vm.swappiness=10 – Reduce swap usage

29. Debugging & Troubleshooting

● dmesg | tail -20 – Show recent system messages

● journalctl -xe – View recent logs

● strace -p <PID> – Trace system calls of a process

● lsof -i :80 – Show processes using port 80

● tcpdump -i eth0 – Capture network packets

30. Kernel Module Management

● lsmod – List loaded modules

● modprobe <module> – Load a module

● rmmod <module> – Remove a module

● modinfo <module> – Show module details