Linux commands
This is one of the most extensive overviews of commonly available Linux commands for system administration. The goal is to make it it easier to find relevant tools for your daily tasks. For each command there is a short description as a quick introduction how a particular Linux command might help or its main purpose. For some of the commands there is also a separate page available that describes a command more in detail, such as why it exists, how to install it, and examples of using the command.
Selection of commands
The commands that are listed on the overview are typically already installed, or pretty common so that they can be installed using a package. Modern alternatives may not always be available from the software repository in your Linux distribution, but externally available. In that case, it is worth checking out the project page.
Really new projects are typically not directly included, until it is easy enough for the average user to install the related package or deploy the tool as a single binary.
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Linux commands overview
| Command | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| » A | ||
| ab | system benchmarking | Performs HTTP benchmarking and stress testing |
| addgroup | authentication | Create new group |
| adduser | authentication | Creates a new user |
| alias | shell | Define an alias for another command |
| apropos | documentation | Find related man pages |
| apt | package management | Package manager |
| apt-file | package management | Search tool for files belonging to packages |
| arch | system information | Shows machine hardware name |
| arp | networking | Show or manipulate ARP entries |
| arping | networking | Sends a ARP REQUEST to a specified host |
| arptables | networking | Manages ARP table of system |
| auditctl | auditing | Set and control audit rules within the Linux Audit Framework |
| aureport | auditing | Show statistics about events created by the Linux Audit Framework |
| ausearch | auditing | Search in events created by the Linux Audit Framework |
| awk | data processing | Performs data extraction and reporting from files |
| » B | ||
| badblocks | storage | Tests a device for bad blocks |
| base64 | data processing | Encodes data to base64 or decodes back to its original form |
| basename | files | Strips directory and file name suffix from a given path |
| basenc | data processing | Encodes and decodes data (e.g. using base64) |
| bat | data processing | Modern alternative for cat, shows the content of a file with syntax highlighting |
| bc | data processing | Calculator for numeric expressions and operations |
| bg | tasks | Put a task (job) to the background |
| blkdiscard | storage | discards specified device sectors on solid-state drives (SSDs) and thinly-provisioned storage |
| blkid | storage | Shows block device information |
| blkzone | storage | Runs zone command on device, requires support for Zoned Block Commands (ZBC) or Zoned-device ATA Commands (ZAC) |
| blockdev | storage | Allows using block device ioctls to get or set specific settings and values |
| bootctl | boot loader | Manages the EFI firmware boot settings for the boot loader |
| bridge | networking | Shows or configures information of network interfaces related to bridge addresses |
| broot | shell | Optimized directory browser, file finder, and performing actions, such as opening the editor |
| btop | system resources | Monitors resources such as processor, memory, disks, network, and processes |
| busctl | message bus | Connects to D-Bus to query information |
| bwrap | sandboxing | Sandboxing tool |
| » C | ||
| cal | date and time | Shows calendar |
| capsh | capabilities | Linux capabilities testing and debugging tool |
| captest | capabilities | Capabilities and privilege escalation testing tool |
| cat | data processing | Shows contents of files |
| chacl | file permissions | Changes the access control list (ACL) of a file or directory |
| chattr | files | Changes file attributes |
| chfn | authentication | Changes user information |
| chmem | memory | Configures memory and allows to set it online or offline |
| chmod | file permissions | Sets file permissions |
| choom | memory | Show or configure the out-of-memory killer score |
| chown | file permissions | Sets file ownership |
| chrt | processes | Sets Linux scheduler policy and priority for a process or command |
| clear | shell | Clear the terminal |
| column | data processing | Formats output into neatly organized tables/columns |
| command | commands | Looks for the presence of a command by specified name |
| coredumpctl | processes | Lists and processes stored core dumps |
| cp | files | Copy a file or if defined a recursive directory structure |
| csplit | files | Split a file into multiple sections |
| curl | HTTP client | Performs HTTP requests |
| cut | data processing | Removes part of lines from a file |
| » D | ||
| date | date and time | Shows or sets system date and time |
| dd | data processing | Converts and copies file data |
| devlink | devices | Show or adjust device information and resources that are available via devlink API |
| df | storage | Shows used and free disk space |
| diff | data processing | Compares two files |
| diff3 | data processing | Compares three files |
| dig | DNS | Performs DNS requests |
| dir | file system | Shows contents of a directory |
| dirname | data processing | Strips last part of a path to return the directory name |
| dmesg | logging | Shows kernel log messages |
| dmidecode | hardware | Shows hardware information |
| dmstats | file system | Shows statistics for devices managed by device-mapper |
| dnf | software | Install and remove packages, including querying information |
| dnscap | networking | Performs capture of DNS traffic |
| dnsdomainname | networking | Shows the configured domain name |
| dnstop | networking | Shows DNS traffic on the network |
| dpkg | software | Install and remove packages, including querying information |
| du | file system | Shows disk size usage for paths |
| duf | storage | Modern alternative to df command, which shows used and free disk space |
| dust | storage | Modern alternative to du command, shows disk space used by directory |
| » E | ||
| e4crypt | file system | Performs encryption management for ext4 file systems |
| ebtables | networking | Manages ebtables (Ethernet Bridge tables), transparent network-traffic filtering |
| echo | data handling | Shows text on screen |
| eject | storage | Ejects removable storage such as a USB disk |
| env | processes | Run a command in a different environment |
| expiry | authentication | Checks and enforces the defined password expiration policy |
| expr | data processing | Evaluates expressions (e.g. A > B) |
| eza | files | Modern replacement for ls that shows files within a defined directory with additional features |
| » F | ||
| fallocate | files | Reserve file space for a specified file instead of filling it with zeroes |
| false | shell | Exits with a "bad" status code indicating success |
| fd | shell | User-friendly alternative to find command, to search for directories and files |
| fdisk | storage | Makes changes to disk partition table |
| fg | tasks | Returns a task (job) from the background back to foreground and making it active |
| file | files | Shows the file type of a specified file |
| filecap | capabilities | Display of Linux capabilities set on binaries in paths |
| find | file system | Searches specified paths or its meta-data |
| finger | authentication | Shows information about other users on the system |
| firejail | sandboxing | Sandboxing tool for Linux |
| free | memory | Shows used and free memory |
| fsadm | storage | Resizes a filesystem on a device |
| fsck | filesystem | Check a filesystem for consistency |
| fstrim | storage | Discards blocks (trim) that are no longer in use by the filesystem and is typically used for SSD drives and thinly-provisioned storage |
| fuser | files and sockets | Show processes using a file or socket |
| fzf | files | Short for fuzzy finder, which searches for paths such as files |
| » G | ||
| getcap | capabilities | Show file capabilities |
| getconf | system information | Shows values of system variables with miscellaneous kinds of information |
| getent | authentication | Retrieves entries from NSS (Name Service Switch) libraries |
| getfacl | file permissions | Shows file access control lists |
| getfattr | filesystem | Shows extended attributes |
| getpcaps | capabilities | Show process capabilities |
| gping | networking | Like ping command it tests if another system is reachable with text-based graphical display |
| groupadd | authentication | Creates a new group |
| groupdel | authentication | Deletes an existing group |
| groupmems | authentication | Allows users to do management for their primary group (unless having superuser permissions) |
| groupmod | authentication | Modifies an existing group |
| groups | authentication | Shows the groups where the specified user is a member |
| grub-install | boot loader | Installs GRUB boot loader on the specified device |
| » H | ||
| hdparm | storage | Get or set device parameters for IDE and SATA devices |
| head | data processing | Show the first number of lines from a file |
| history | shell | Shows shell history of executed commands |
| host | networking | Performs DNS lookup |
| hostid | system information | Shows host identifier of system |
| hostname | system information | Shows or sets hostname of system |
| hostnamectl | system information | Shows basic information about the system |
| » I | ||
| id | authentication | Shows your real and effective user and group IDs |
| ifconfig | networking | Configures a network interface |
| iftop | network | Bandwidth usage monitor |
| info | documentation | Shows Info documents, similar to man pages |
| insmod | kernel modules | Loads a kernel module |
| iostat | system administration | Shows system statistics about CPU and disk IO |
| iotop | system monitoring | Monitors IO like the 'top' command |
| ip | networking | Shows network configuration and information |
| iperf | networking | Performs network testing using network sockets |
| » J | ||
| jobs | tasks | Shows available running tasks (jobs) |
| join | data processing | Joins data from two files by using a common field |
| journalctl | logging | Logging facility for Linux systems using systemd |
| jq | data processing | Processes JSON data including filtering and formatting |
| » K | ||
| kill | processes | Sending signals to processes |
| killall | processes | Kills processes by their name |
| » L | ||
| last | authentication | Shows who is logged in other other important events like system reboot |
| lastlog | authentication | Shows the last time user were logged in |
| ldd | binaries | Shows the shared libraries of a binary file |
| less | data processing | Filter tool to scroll through files or output, similar to more |
| ln | files | Links one file to another one |
| lnstat | networking | Shows network statistics |
| locate | files | Locate a file |
| logger | logging | Create a message and send it to the system log facility |
| login | authentication | Begin a new session |
| logout | authentication | Close or exit from a session where you are logged in |
| logrotate | logging | Archives older log files and creates a new one, optionally restart a related service |
| ls | files | Shows files within a defined directory |
| lsattr | filesystem | Shows file attributes |
| lsblk | system information | Shows information about block devices such as hard disks |
| lscpu | memory | CPU information, virtualization features, CPU vulnerabilities |
| lsd | files | Modern replacement for ls (and backwards compatible) that shows files within a defined directory with colors and icons |
| lsfd | files | Shows open file descriptors for processes |
| lshw | system information | Shows hardware information |
| lsipc | processes | Shows information about IPC (inter-process communication) resources |
| lslocks | files | Shows file locks including OFD (Open File Description) locks |
| lslogins | authentication | Shows list of users and last login |
| lsmem | memory | Shows available memory range and online status of those ranges |
| lsmod | kernel modules | Shows load kernel modules |
| lsns | namespaces | Shows used namespaces |
| lsof | files | Shows open files and sockets |
| lsusb | capabilities | Show USB devices |
| ltrace | processes | Tracks calls to libraries |
| lvchange | storage | Changes attributes of a logical volume |
| lvconvert | storage | Converts a logical volume type from linear to a mirror or snapshot |
| lvcreate | storage | Create a logical volume in existing volume group |
| lvdisplay | storage | Display information about a logical volume |
| lvextend | storage | Increase the size of a logical volume |
| lvmconfig | storage | Display the LVM configuration |
| lvmdiskscan | storage | Scans and shows devices that are visible to LVM |
| lvmdump | storage | Creates lvm2 information dumps for analysis |
| lvreduce | storage | Reduces the size of a logical volume |
| lvremove | storage | Removes a logical volume |
| lvrename | storage | Renames a logical volume |
| lvresize | storage | Resizes a logical volume |
| lvs | storage | Reports information about logical volumes |
| lvscan | storage | Scans disks for presence of logical volumes |
| lynis | auditing | Performs a Linux security audit and configuration check |
| » M | ||
| man | documentation | Shows man page, usually documentation about a command or system function |
| mkdir | directories | Creates a new directory |
| mkfifo | files | Creates a named pipe of type FIFO (first in, first out) |
| mknod | files | Creates block or character special files |
| mkswap | memory | Creates Linux swap on a device or as a file |
| mktemp | files | Creates a temporary directory |
| mmv | files | Rename multiple files by wildcard pattern |
| modinfo | kernel modules | Shows information about kernel modules |
| modprobe | kernel modules | Loads or unloads a kernel module |
| more | data processing | Filter tool to scroll through files or output |
| mount | filesystem | Makes a filesystem available to the system for data storage |
| mtr | networking | Performs network diagnostics |
| mv | filesystem | Renames a file or directory |
| » N | ||
| nc | networking | Connects and listens to TCP and UDP connections |
| ncal | date and time | Shows calendar |
| netcap | capabilities | Display available capabilities for running processes using network sockets |
| nft | networking | Administers nftables firewall |
| nice | processes | Runs commands with specified priority |
| niceload | processes | Slows down a program based on the system load, or disk IO, memory, or swap usage |
| nl | data processing | Shows a file with line numbers |
| nmap | networking | Performs network scanning tasks |
| nslookup | networking | Performs lookup for DNS entries |
| nstat | network | Network statistics and counters |
| numactl | processes | Controls NUMA policy for processes and shared memory |
| numastat | memory | Shows information about NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) |
| » O | ||
| od | data processing | Shows files or text in octal and other formats |
| on_ac_power | system state | Shows if system is on AC power or not |
| openssl | cryptography | Provides toolkit with cryptography functions |
| » P | ||
| pacman | package management | Package manager |
| passwd | authentication | Change password |
| paste | data processing | Merges data |
| pax | archiving | Read and write file archives and copy directory hierarchies |
| peekfd | processes | Tracks a process and show file descriptor activity |
| perl | programming languages | Perl programming language |
| pgrep | processes | Search processes by name |
| pidof | processes | Returns process IDs for a process name |
| pidstat | monitoring | Monitoring CPU, memory, and disk activity |
| pidwait | processes | Wait for process to stop |
| ping | networking | Tests if another system on the network is reachable |
| pinky | authentication | Shows information about other users on the system, similar to finger command |
| pkill | processes | Kills processes by their name |
| pmap | processes | Shows memory mapping of process |
| postconf | mail and messaging | Postfix configuration tool |
| postqueue | mail and messaging | Performs tasks on the mail queue |
| printf | data handling | Shows text on screen with formatting options |
| procs | processes | Modern alternative to ps command, shows processes with easy selection |
| prtstat | processes | Shows process details for selected process like state, CPU and memory usage |
| ps | processes | Shows active processes |
| pscap | capabilities | Display available capabilities for running processes |
| pslog | logging | Shows which log files a process has opened |
| pstree | processes | Show active processes and children like a tree |
| pwck | authentication | Checks password file for errors |
| pwd | shell | Shows the current directory |
| pwdx | processes | Shows current working directory of a process |
| pwscore | authentication | Checks password quality |
| » R | ||
| readlink | files | Determines if a file is a link to another file |
| reboot | system management | Reboots the system |
| rename | files | Rename multiple files |
| renice | processes | Changes the priority of running processes |
| reset | shell | Initializes the terminal, useful when it is acting strangely |
| resolvectl | network | Name resolution information from resolve daemon |
| rev | data | Shows text in reverse order |
| rg | files | Alternative for grep command, which performs recursive search for lines matching specified pattern |
| rm | files | Removes a file or if defined a recursive directory structure |
| rmdir | directories | Removes an empty directory |
| rmmod | kernel modules | Unloads a kernel module |
| route | networking | Show or changes the network route |
| rpm | software | Queries and install RPM packages |
| rpmbuild | software | Creates a RPM file from a .spec file |
| rsync | system administration | Synchronizes two directories on local or with remote system |
| run0 | privileged commands | Executes commands with additional privileges |
| runcon | processes | Run a command within a different SELinux security context |
| runlevel | system state | Show current runlevel |
| » S | ||
| scp | system administration | Copies a file using secure file copy |
| screen | shell | Creates and controls multiple terminals from a single screen |
| script | system administration | Stores executed commands and their output in a file |
| sdiff | files | Shows a side-by-side comparison of files |
| sed | data processing | Filtering and transforming text |
| sensors | system resources | Reports about system sensors such as CPU temperature |
| seq | data | Show a sequence of numbers |
| setcap | capabilities | Add or remove Linux capabilities to a file |
| setfacl | file permissions | Defines file access control lists |
| sha1sum | files | Computes or compares a SHA1 message digest to check file integrity |
| sha256sum | files | Computes or compares a SHA256 message digest to check file integrity |
| sha512sum | files | Computes or compares a SHA512 message digest to check file integrity |
| shasum | files | Computes or compares message digest to check file integrity |
| shred | files | Overwrites content of file with optional file deletion |
| shuf | data processing | Shuffles data, randomizing it |
| shutdown | system management | Gives shutdown command to the system |
| slabtop | memory | Shows slab usage of kernel |
| sleep | automation | Performs a sleep where the command waits |
| smem | memory | Show memory usage including swap |
| socat | networking | Establishes connection between hosts for data transfers |
| sort | data processing | Sorts data |
| split | files | Splits a file into smaller files |
| ss | sockets | Shows information about sockets |
| ssh | system administration | Connects to a remote system |
| ssh-add | system administration | Adds authentication keys to the OpenSSH agent |
| ssh-agent | system administration | OpenSSH agent that holds authentication keys used for public key authentication |
| ssh-copy-id | system administration | Copies SSH keys to a remote system |
| ssh-keygen | system administration | Manages SSH keys including creation |
| stat | files | Shows information about files |
| strace | process inspection | Inspects running process |
| strings | files | Shows text strings in a (binary) file |
| su | authentication | Switches to another user |
| sudo | authentication | Runs a command with more privileges |
| sysctl | kernel | Show or set kernel settings |
| systemctl | system management | Interfaces with systemd components |
| systemd-analyze | performance | Performance and security analyzer of systemd components |
| » T | ||
| tac | data processing | Shows a file in reverse |
| tail | data processing | Shows the last part of files, opposite of 'head' |
| tar | archiving | Creates or unpacks file archives |
| tcpdump | network sniffing | Monitors network traffic on specified interface |
| tee | data processing | Shows file contents while also redirecting it to a file |
| time | performance | Time how long it takes for a command to complete |
| timedatectl | date and time | Shows information about clock sources and synchronization state |
| timeout | processes | Runs a command with a defined time limit |
| tload | system performance | Shows load of system in graphical representation |
| tmux | shell | Creates and controls multiple terminals from a single screen |
| top | processes | Shows and monitors running processes |
| touch | files | Changes file timestamps |
| tr | data processing | Translate or delete characters from a string |
| tracepath | networking | Tracking path of packets for network diagnostics |
| traceroute | networking | Performs network diagnostics by tracking path of packets |
| tree | files | Show the contents of directories in a tree-like format |
| true | shell | Exits with a "good" status code indicating success |
| truncate | files | Decrease or increase the size of a file, useful for reserving space |
| tshark | networking | Network traffic capturing and analysis |
| » U | ||
| umask | files | Set default file permissions |
| umount | files | Disables a filesystem currently available to the system |
| unalias | shell | Removes a defined alias |
| uname | system information | Shows basic system information |
| uniq | data processing | Take input data and make it unique |
| units | data conversion | Converts a unit into another one, like from Celcius to Fahrenheit |
| unshare | processes | Creates a new namespace and then runs specified command |
| unzip | data processing | Uncompresses a ZIP archive |
| uptime | system status | Shows uptime of system |
| useradd | authentication | Creates a new user |
| userdel | authentication | Deletes an existing user |
| usermod | authentication | Modifies user account details |
| users | authentication | Shows who is logged in |
| uuidgen | data processing | Generates an universally unique identifier (UUID) |
| » V | ||
| vdir | file system | Shows contents of a directory |
| vgremove | storage | Removes a volume group |
| vgrename | storage | Renames a volume group |
| vgs | storage | Reports information about volume groups |
| vgscan | storage | Scans all disks for presence of volume groups |
| vgsplit | storage | Splits a volume group |
| vigr | authentication | Editor for group file |
| vipw | authentication | Editor for password file |
| vmstat | memory | Shows virtual memory information, disk IO, CPU activity |
| » W | ||
| w | authentication | Shows uptime, system load, who is logged in and what they have running |
| watch | processes | Monitors changes in output of specified command |
| wc | data processing | Count lines or characters of a file or standard input |
| wget | HTTP client | Performs HTTP requests such as downloading files |
| whatis | documentation | Shows small description of matched entries in man pages |
| which | files | Locate a command or file |
| whiptail | shell scripting | Displays a dialog box from within a shell script |
| who | authentication | Shows who is logged in |
| whoami | authentication | Shows your identity |
| write | users | Writes a message to another user on the system |
| » X | ||
| xargs | data processing | Reads standard input and uses it to execute commands |
| xattr | filesystem | Shows or sets extended attributes |
| xxd | data processing | Shows hexdump from data or its reverse |
| » Y | ||
| yes | data processing | Say 'yes' to prompts |
| » Z | ||
| zcat | data processing | View gzipped files like 'cat' |
| zstd | archiving | Fast lossless compression algorithm and data compression tool |
| zypper | software | Install and remove packages, including querying information |