Most Used Linux Commands (Categorized & Detailed)
File and Directory Management
ls - List directory contents with options like -l (long listing), -a (all files including hidden)
cd - Change the current directory (e.g., cd /home/user)
pwd - Print the current working directory
cp - Copy files and directories (e.g., cp source.txt dest.txt)
mv - Move or rename files or directories
rm - Remove files or directories (use -r for recursive deletion)
mkdir - Create new directories (e.g., mkdir new_folder)
rmdir - Remove empty directories
touch - Create an empty file or update the timestamp
stat - Display detailed information about a file
tree - Display directory structure in a tree-like format
File Viewing and Manipulation
cat - Display contents of a file
less - View file contents one screen at a time
more - Similar to less, but older
head - Show first N lines of a file
tail - Show last N lines of a file
cut - Remove sections from each line of files
sort - Sort lines of a file
uniq - Filter out repeated lines
wc - Count lines, words, and characters
split - Split a file into pieces
diff - Compare two files line by line
cmp - Compare two files byte by byte
File Permissions and Ownership
chmod - Change file access permissions
chown - Change file owner and group
chgrp - Change group ownership
Searching and Finding
find - Search for files in a directory hierarchy
locate - Find files using a prebuilt database
grep - Search text using patterns
which - Locate the executable of a command
whereis - Locate the binary, source, and man page for a command
type - Show how a command would be interpreted
Process Management
ps - Display currently running processes
top - Show real-time system processes
htop - Interactive process viewer (better version of top)
kill - Send signals to processes
killall - Kill processes by name
nice - Run a program with a given priority
renice - Change priority of a running process
jobs - List active jobs
fg - Bring a job to the foreground
bg - Resume a job in the background
Disk and File System Management
df - Report disk space usage
du - Estimate file space usage
mount - Mount a file system
umount - Unmount a file system
fsck - Check and repair a filesystem
blkid - Show block device attributes
lsblk - List information about block devices
fdisk - Partition a disk (for MBR)
parted - Partition a disk (for GPT)
Networking
ip - Show/manipulate routing, devices, policy routing
ifconfig - Configure network interfaces (deprecated, use ip)
ping - Send ICMP echo requests to test connectivity
netstat - Network statistics (deprecated)
ss - Dump socket statistics
traceroute - Show route to a host
nslookup - Query Internet name servers
dig - DNS lookup utility
hostname - Display or set the system's hostname
wget - Non-interactive network downloader
curl - Transfer data from or to a server
scp - Secure copy over SSH
rsync - Remote file and directory synchronization
Archiving and Compression
tar - Archive files
zip - Package and compress (e.g., zip archive.zip file)
unzip - Extract zip archives
gzip - Compress files
gunzip - Decompress files compressed with gzip
bzip2 - Compress files (better compression)
xz - Compress files (high ratio)
7z - 7-Zip compression tool
User Management
whoami - Print current user ID
id - Show user and group IDs
useradd - Add a new user
usermod - Modify a user account
userdel - Delete a user
passwd - Change user password
groupadd - Create a new group
groupdel - Delete a group
groups - Show groups of current user
su - Switch user
sudo - Run command as another user (usually root)
Package Management
apt - Package manager for Debian/Ubuntu
dpkg - Debian package manager
yum - Package manager for RHEL/CentOS
dnf - Fedora/RHEL package manager
zypper - SUSE package manager
snap - Universal package manager for Linux
flatpak - Another universal package manager
System Monitoring and Performance
uptime - Show how long the system has been running
vmstat - Report virtual memory statistics
iostat - Report CPU and I/O statistics
free - Display memory usage
sar - Collect, report, or save system activity information
dstat - Versatile resource statistics
iotop - I/O usage by processes
System Information
uname - System information
hostnamectl - View or set the hostname and related info
lsb_release - Print distribution-specific information
uptime - Show system uptime
who - Show who is logged on
dmesg - Print system boot and kernel messages
lscpu - CPU architecture information
lsmem - List memory information
lsusb - List USB devices
lspci - List PCI devices
dmidecode - Dump system's hardware info from BIOS
Others and Shortcuts
echo - Print text or variable values
date - Display or set the system date and time
cal - Display a calendar
clear - Clear terminal screen
alias - Create command shortcuts
history - Show command history
man - Display command manual
exit - Close terminal session
