Here is a list of basic linux commands. This list of linux commands is not complete as there are many more linux commands available. However, it should make a good start for a beginner or intermediate linux administrator / linux user. All linux commands in this list include examples to demonstrate how the actual linux command works. If you do not find an answer to your question on this page or you need extra help, feel free to ask us on our new Linux Forum. We will be more than happy to help you with your Linux questions there.

A

• alias - create names or abbreviations for commands
• apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions
• at [man page] - queue, examine or delete jobs for later execution

B

• bc [man page] - An arbitrary precision calculator language

C

• cal - displays a calendar
• cat [man page] - concatenate files and print on the standard output
• cd - change directory
• chgrp [man page] - change group ownership
• chmod [man page] - change file access permissions
• cksum [man page] - checksum and count the bytes in a file
• cp [man page] - copy files and directories
• csplit [man page] - split a file into sections determined by context lines

D

• date [man page] - print or set the system date and time
• dd [man page] - convert and copy a file
• du [man page] - estimate file space usage

E

• egrep [man page] - print lines matching a pattern
• export - set an environment variable

F

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• fgrep [man page] - print lines matching a pattern
• find [man page] - search for files in a directory hierarchy
• fold [man page] - wrap each input line to fit in specified width

G

• grep [man page] - print lines matching a pattern

H

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• head [man page] - output the first part of files

I

J

• join [man page] - join lines of two files on a common field

K

L

• logrotate [man page] - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
• ls [man page] - list directory contents

M

• mkdir [man page] - make directories
• mv [man page] - move (rename) files
• mount [man page] - mount a file system

N

• nl [man page] - number lines of files

O

• od [man page] - dump files in octal and other formats

P

• pwd [man page] - print name of current/working directory

Q

R

• rgrep [man page] - print lines matching a pattern
• rm [man page] - remove files or directories

S

• scp - secure copy (remote file copy program)
• ssh - OpenSSH SSH client (remote login program)

T

• tail [man page] - output the last part of files
• tar [man page] - The GNU version of the tar archiving utility
• tee [man page] - read from standard input and write to standard output and files
• time [man page] - run programs and summarize system resource usage
• touch [man page] - change file timestamps

V

• vim - Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor

W

• watch [man page] - execute a program periodically, showing output fullscreen
• wc [man page] - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file
• whoami [man page] - print effective userid

X

Y

• yes [man page] - output a string repeatedly until killed

Z