There are thousands of commands that you can learn to use on a Linux system, but most users will find themselves executing the same few commands over and over. For users looking for a way to get started, we have compiled 20 of the most important Linux commands you need to know. These commands are some of the most useful, common, and essential tools that you will need in order to administer your Linux system or perform everyday tasks.
Commands
How to backup gpg keys on paper
Having a reliable backup of our GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard) secret key is not optional: the key represents our identity, and loosing it could potentially be a disaster. Creating a backup of our keys and sub-keys is quite a simple thing to do using gpg, and the resulting files can be easily backed up on one or more devices. Electronic devices such USB drives or hard disks, however, tend to fail, and usually in the most inappropriate times; therefore as an extreme resort, we may want to print our keys to paper.
How to manage git repositories with Python
Neither Python nor Git need presentations: the former is one of the most used general-purpose programming language; the latter is probably the most used version control system in the world, created by Linus Torvalds himself. Normally, we interact with git repositories using the git binary; when we need to work with them using Python, instead, we can use the GitPython library.
Linux epoch time
Epoch time is a convention used on Unix and Linux systems that many applications rely on for calculating time between dates and other similar functions. Some Linux commands like date and perl have an epoch option built in. An epoch denotes the number of seconds that have passed since the date January 1st, 1970.
Linux Cheat Sheet
In this tutorial, we will list various practical Linux commands to be used only as a reference guide and by experienced Linux users. Not all Linux commands will be available on your system by default so consider installing the relevant package before use.
Pax command examples on Linux
pax is an archive utility somewhere between cpio and tar. This is just because it is independent of the specific archive format, and supports a wide variety of different archive formats. It can perform simple tasks as creating a compressed archive of a selected directory or it can as much easily create a daily incremental backup.
Introduction to terminal multiplexer Tmux
Tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it let us run and manage multiple terminal sessions from a single screen. This is specially useful when connecting to remote machines using ssh, since, among the other things, it allows us to keep processes started from those terminals running in the background when we disconnect from the session (or logout and close the remote secure shell altogether), letting us re-attach to it at a later time.
How to export repositories with the git-daemon
Git is probably the most used version control software in the world. Free and open source, it was created by Linus Torvalds, and it is the base of services provided by web platforms like Github and Gitlab. In a previous article we discussed the git workflow basics,
Locate vs find: What is the difference
If you need to search for one or more particular files, Linux systems have a few powerful methods for locating them, such as the find and locate commands. Both of these commands have the same purpose, but they use a different methodology to find files. Searching for a file with a specific name can be done, but you can also search for files that follow certain naming patterns.
How to install and use snaps on Fedora
Developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, and originally meant to be used on the latter, the Snappy package manager is a free and open source software used to install and manage snap packages. The purpose of Snap packages, just like flatpaks, is to distribute sandboxed and self-contained applications (applications are packaged together with their dependencies).
How to manage WiFi interfaces with rfkill command on Linux
Rfkill is an utility available in the vast majority of Linux distributions, and often installed by default. The utility allows us to list, enable or disable various types of wireless interfaces like WIFI or Bluetooth on Linux.
How to create loop devices on Linux
A loop device is a pseudo-device which doesn’t correspond to a real, physical block device, but can be used to make a file appear and be treated like one. To manage loop devices on Linux, we can use the losetup command: the utility let us create new loop devices, detach them and retrieve information about existing ones.