Linux commands
There is a wide range of commands available for systems running Linux. The overview of Linux commands make it easier to find relevant tools for system administration and includes a short description. For some commands there is a separate page available that describes a command more in detail, such as its purpose, how to install it, and examples of using the command.
Some commands have a cheat sheet available.
Looking for an article where a particular command is used? Have a look at the commands overview page.
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) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| » 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) |
| » 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 |
| 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 |
| » 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 |
| 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 |
| » 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 | 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 |