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DevOps Shack
200 Linux Commands

📘Introduction
Linux is the backbone of modern computing. From powering over 90% of cloud
infrastructure and web servers to enabling embedded systems, mobile devices,
and supercomputers — Linux is everywhere. And at the heart of Linux is the
command line — a powerful interface that gives users complete control over
the operating system.

Whether you're a system administrator, DevOps engineer, developer,

cybersecurity analyst, or a beginner learning Linux for the first time, mastering
the command line is non-negotiable. The terminal isn't just a tool; it’s a
superpower that allows you to automate tasks, monitor systems, manage files,
install software, troubleshoot issues, and interact with every layer of a
Linux-based system — all at lightning speed.

🎯 What This Document Offers

This document is your ultimate companion to learning Linux. It contains the Top
200 most important and widely-used Linux commands, explained in plain
English with clear syntax, use cases, examples, outputs, and pro tips for
real-world usage.
Each command is grouped into logical categories such as:

● File management

● Process monitoring

● System information

● Networking

● Disk operations

● User & group management

● Package management

● Text processing (awk, sed, grep, etc.)

● Scripting

● Permissions & ownership

● System services

● Security and troubleshooting

Basic Linux Commands
1. pwd – Prints the current working directory you're in.

2. ls – Lists the files and directories in the current folder.

.

3. cd – Changes the directory you're working in.

4. clear – Clears the terminal screen.

5. echo – Displays a line of text or variable value.

6. exit – Closes the terminal session.

7. history – Displays a list of previously used commands.

.

8. man – Opens the manual page for a command.

9. whoami – Prints the current logged-in username.

10.hostname – Shows the system’s hostname.

File and Directory Operations
11.touch – Creates a new empty file.

12.mkdir – Creates a new directory.

13.rmdir – Removes empty directories.

14.rm – Removes files or directories.

15.cp – Copies files or directories.

16.mv – Moves or renames files.

17.stat – Displays detailed file information.

18.file – Identifies the type of file (text, binary, image,

etc.). 19.basename – Returns the file name from a full path.

20. dirname – Returns the directory path from a full file path.
 File Permissions & Ownership
21. chmod – Changes file or directory permissions.

22. chown – Changes file ownership (user and/or group).

23. chgrp – Changes the group ownership of a file.

24. umask – Sets default permissions for newly created files.

25. lsattr – Lists file attributes on a Linux file system.

26. chattr – Changes file attributes on a Linux file system.

27. getfacl – Displays Access Control List (ACL) of a file.

28. setfacl – Sets ACL permissions on files or directories.

User & Group Management

29. adduser – Adds a new user to the system.

30. useradd – Low-level utility to add a user.

31. passwd – Changes user password.

32. usermod – Modifies a user account.

33. userdel – Deletes a user account.

34.groupadd – Creates a new

group. 35.groupdel – Deletes a

group.
 36. groupmod – Modifies an existing group.

37. id – Displays user ID and group ID.

38. who – Shows who is logged in.

39. w – Shows logged-in users and what they are doing.

40. groups – Displays groups a user belongs to.

41. su – Switches to another user account.

42. sudo – Executes a command with elevated privileges.

Process Management
43. ps – Shows running processes.

44. top – Displays real-time system processes and usage.

45. htop – Interactive process viewer (enhanced top).

46. kill – Sends signals to processes (usually to terminate).

47. killall – Sends signals to all processes by name.

48. nice – Starts a process with a given priority.

49. renice – Changes priority of a running process.

50. bg – Resumes a job in the background.

 51. fg – Brings a background job to the foreground.

52. jobs – Lists active jobs in the shell.

53. pidof – Finds the process ID of a running program.

54. watch – Repeats a command periodically and shows output.

Disk & Filesystem Commands

55. df – Reports file system disk space usage.

56. du – Estimates file or directory space usage.

57. mount – Mounts a file system.

58. umount – Unmounts a file system.

59. fsck – Checks and repairs file systems.

60. blkid – Displays block device information.

61. lsblk – Lists block devices in a tree-like structure.

62. parted – Manages disk partitions interactively.

63. fdisk – Partition table manipulator for Linux.

64. mkfs – Creates a new file system.

65. tune2fs – Tunes file system parameters.

66. e2label – Changes the label of an ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem.

 Archiving & Compression
67. tar – Archives files into .tar format.

68. gzip – Compresses files using .gz format.

69. gunzip – Decompresses .gz files.

70. bzip2 – Compresses files using .bz2 format.

71. bunzip2 – Decompresses .bz2 files.

72. xz – Compresses files using .xz format.

73. unxz – Decompresses .xz files.

74. zip – Compresses files into .zip archive.

75. unzip – Extracts files from .zip archives.

76.7z – High-compression archiver for .7z files.

77. zcat – Views contents of a compressed file.

Networking Commands
78. ip – Configures and displays IP networking.

79. ifconfig – Displays or configures network interfaces (deprecated but

still used).
 80. ip a – Displays all network addresses (modern alternative to ifconfig).

81. ping – Checks connectivity to another host.

82.traceroute – Traces the route packets take to a

host.

83. netstat – Displays network connections, routing tables, and stats

(older tool).

84. ss – Displays detailed socket statistics (modern replacement for

netstat).

85. dig – Queries DNS name servers.

86. nslookup – Performs DNS lookups (older tool).

87. host – Simple DNS query tool.

88. curl – Transfers data from or to a server using supported protocols.

89. wget – Non-interactive network downloader.

90. telnet – Connects to remote machines using Telnet protocol.

91. ssh – Connects to remote machines securely.

92. scp – Securely copies files between systems.

93. rsync – Efficiently syncs files and directories between systems.

94. ftp – Transfers files over FTP (less secure, older protocol).

95. nmcli – Command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager.

 96. nmap – Network scanner for hosts and open ports.

97. tcpdump – Captures and analyzes network

packets. 98.iptables – Manages firewall rules.

Package Management (Debian/Ubuntu)

99. apt – Modern package management tool for Debian-based systems.

100. apt-get – Legacy tool for package operations.

101. apt-cache – Queries package information.

102. dpkg – Low-level Debian package management tool.

103. snap – Manages snap packages (universal packages).

104. update-alternatives – Manages default system applications.

Package Management (RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)

105. yum – Package manager for RPM-based systems (older systems).

106. dnf – Modern replacement for yum.

107. rpm – Low-level RPM package management.

108. repoquery – Queries repository information.

109. dnf info – Retrieves package info from DNF repos.

 110. dnf clean – Clears metadata cache.

System Information
111. uname – Displays system information like kernel version.

112. hostnamectl – Controls system hostname and related settings.

113. uptime – Shows how long the system has been running.

114. whoami – Displays the current username.

115. id – Shows user ID and group ID.

116. top – Displays dynamic real-time view of running processes.

117. vmstat – Reports memory, CPU, and I/O stats.

118. free – Shows memory usage.

119. lscpu – Displays CPU architecture info.

120. lsblk – Lists block storage devices.

121. lspci – Lists PCI devices.

122. lsusb – Lists USB devices.

123. dmesg – Displays kernel-related messages.

124. uptime – Shows system running time.

 125. arch – Displays system architecture.

126. env – Shows all environment variables.

Text Processing
127. cat – Displays the contents of a file.

128. tac – Displays contents of a file in reverse order.

129. nl – Numbers the lines of a file.

130. more – Views files one page at a time (forward only).

131. less – Advanced pager to view files forward and backward.

132. head – Displays the beginning lines of a file.

133. tail – Displays the ending lines of a file.

134. cut – Removes sections from each line of input.

135. split – Splits a file into pieces.

136. paste – Merges lines of files horizontally.

137. sort – Sorts lines in a file.

138. uniq – Removes duplicate lines from sorted data.

139. wc – Counts lines, words, characters.

140. tr – Translates or deletes characters.

 141. col – Filters control characters.

142. fmt – Formats text for readability.

143. fold – Wraps text at a specified width.

144. strings – Extracts printable strings from binary files.

145. grep – Searches text using patterns.

146. egrep – Extended version of grep with more regex support.

147. fgrep – Searches fixed strings (no regex).

148. awk – Pattern scanning and text processing language.

149. sed – Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.

150. xargs – Builds and executes command lines from standard input.

151. tee – Reads from standard input and writes to file and stdout.

152. rev – Reverses lines character-wise.

153. cut – Cuts sections from each line (by delimiter or byte).

154. yes – Outputs a string repeatedly until stopped.

Shell Scripting & Variables

155. bash – GNU Bourne Again SHell, standard shell on most systems.

156. sh – Original Bourne shell.

 157. alias – Creates shortcuts for commands.

158. unalias – Removes defined aliases.

159. export – Sets environment variables.

160. source – Executes a script within the current shell.

161. read – Reads input from user into a variable.

162. set – Sets shell options and positional parameters.

163. unset – Removes a variable or function definition.

164. declare – Declares variables with attributes.

165. trap – Catches signals and executes commands.

166. shift – Shifts positional parameters in scripts.

167. test – Evaluates conditional expressions.

168. [ ] – Alternative syntax for test.

Job Scheduling
169. cron – Time-based job scheduler.

170. crontab – Installs, lists, and removes cron jobs.

171. at – Schedules a one-time task.

 172. batch – Schedules tasks to run when system load allows.

173. anacron – Runs scheduled jobs missed due to downtime.

174. systemctl list-timers – Lists all scheduled timers in systemd.

System Services (Systemd)

175. systemctl – Manages services and the systemd system.

176. service – Legacy tool to manage services.

177. journalctl – Views logs managed by systemd.

178. loginctl – Manages user logins in a systemd environment.

179. hostnamectl – Configures hostname and related settings.

180. timedatectl – Configures date and time.

181. localectl – Configures system locale settings.

Log Management
182. logrotate – Rotates and compresses log files.

183. tail -f – Follows a file (commonly used for real-time log viewing).

184. less /var/log/syslog – Views system logs page by page.

185. journalctl -xe – Views system logs with error details.

Monitoring & Performance
186. iostat – Shows CPU and I/O statistics.

187. vmstat – Reports on memory, swap, I/O, system activity.

188. sar – Collects, reports system activity.

189. uptime – Shows system load averages.

190. free -h – Displays human-readable memory usage.

191. watch – Repeats and displays output of a command periodically.

192. top -n 1 – Captures system processes snapshot once.

193. iotop – Monitors I/O usage by processes.

194. dstat – Versatile resource statistics viewer.

195. glances – Cross-platform monitoring tool.

196. nmon – Performance monitoring for CPU, memory, network, and

more.

197. mpstat – Shows CPU usage for each processor.

198. tload – Shows a graph of system load average.

199. uptime -p – Shows pretty uptime format.

200. hostname -I – Shows all IP addresses assigned to the host.