100+ Linux commands and their explanation

100+ Linux commands and their explanation

1. cut - allows you to cut out sections of a specified file or piped data and print the result to standard output. 

2. sort - used to sort files 

3. uniq - used to extract uniq occurences 

4. tr - utility for translating or deleting characters.

5 grep - searches a file for a pattern of characters and displays all lines that match. 

6. awk - a scripting language used for text processing. 

7. sed - stream editor used to perform lots of functions on files, like searching, find and replace, insertion, or deletion.

8. pstree - used to show running processes in a tree (data structure). 

9. latest - displays a list of the most recently logged-in people. 

10. w – display a list of the currently logged-in user sessions.

11. free - use to get a detailed report on the system's memory usage. 

12. scp - securely copy files or directories over ssh. 

13. find - locates files using user-defined criteria. 

14. ncdu - provides a useful and convenient way to view disk usage.

15. ip - used to show or manipulate routing, devices, and tunnels. 

16. ls - list the contents of a directory. 

17. df - Displays the amount of disk space used. 

18. du - display a list of all the files along with their respective sizes.

19. diff - used to display differences in files by comparing line by line. 

20. uptime – displays the system uptime as well as the load average. 

21. top/btop++ – shows a real-time view of running processes in Linux.

22. dstat - allows you to view all of your system resources instantly. All-in-one vmstat, iostat, netstat, and ifstat utility. 

23. Iftop is a network traffic viewer. 

24. nethogs - is a network traffic analyzer.

26. vmstat - used to obtain information about memory, system processes, paging, interrupts, block I/O, disk, and CPU scheduling. 

27. iotop - is an interactive I/O viewer. Get a snapshot of storage r/w activity.

28. iostat - provides statistics on storage I/O. 

29. netstat -used to show network statistics. 

30. ss - ss command is a simpler and faster version of the now obsolete netstat command.

31. atop – a tool for monitoring system resources in Linux. 

32. ssh – secure protocol used as the primary means of connecting to Linux servers remotely. 

33. sudo - run commands with administrative privileges. 

34. cd – navigate between directories.

35. touch – used to create, update a computer file or directory's access and modification dates. 

36. man – used to read system reference manuals. 

37. apropos – searches manual page names and descriptions for a user-supplied keyword.

38. pwd – displays the current directory path. 

39. cp - copy files and directories. 

40. mv – move file or directories. 

41. rm – deletes files and directories. 

42. mkdir - create new directories. 

43. rsync - remote file transfer and synchronization.

44. tar - is an archive utility. 

45. gzip - use for compression and decompression of files. 

46. b2zip - a compression utility comparable to gzip. It employs a distinct compression algorithm. 

47. zip – used for file packaging and compression (archiving).

48. locate – in Linux, search for files. 

49. ps – allows you to list the status of processes running on your system easily. 

50. cron - execute scheduled tasks. 

51. mtr - is a network diagnostic tool, a combination of ping and traceroute commands.

52. nslookup - interactively query Internet name servers (NS). 

53. host –used for DNS (Domain Name System) lookup operations. 

54. dig – DNS lookup tool. 

55. nmcli - sused to display network device status, create, edit, activate/deactivate, and delete network connections.

56. ping - sends an ICMP ECHO REQUEST to network hosts. 

57. traceroute - examine the path packets follow to reach a specific host. 

58. wget - download files through HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and FTPS.

59. curl – data transport via several network protocols. (Can handle more protocols than wget) 

60. dd - used to convert and copy files. 

61. fdisk - Modify the disk partition table. 

62. parted – used to create and manipulate partition tables.

63. blkid - a command-line utility for finding and printing block device attributes. 

64. mkfs - create a Linux file system. 

65. fsck - an utility for determining the consistency of a file system. 

66. nc - used for just about anything under the sun involving TCP or UDP.

67. umask - returns, or sets, the value of the system's file mode creation mask. 

68. chmod – alters the access rights of file system objects. 

69. chown – alter the owner and group of a file. 

70. chroot - used to change the root directory.

71. useradd - create a new user or alter the default information for a new user. 

72. userdel - used to delete a user account and all associated files. 

73. usermod – used to edit or change any existing user account's properties. 

74. vi is a text editor.

75. cat – displays the contents of a file. 

76. tac – reverse output file contents. 

77. more - show file contents one screen/page at a time. 

78. less – identical to more, but with more features 

79. tail – used to show the last few lines of a text file or piped data.

80. head - used to show the first few lines of a text file or piped data. 

81. dmesg – displays the kernel ring's message buffer. 

82. journalctl - Tused to view systemd, kernel and journal logs. 

83. kill - terminates a process.

84. killall - sends a kill signal to all instances of a specific process. 

85. sleep – pauses program execution for a given amount of time. 

86. wait – suspend script execution until all background jobs have been completed.

87. nohup - short for no hang up is a command in Linux systems that keep processes running even after exiting the shell or terminal. 

88. screen – keep a remote server session open. (It also functions as a full-screen window manager.) 

89. tmux is a terminal multiplexer.

90. passwd — Change the password of a user. 

91. clear – clears the terminal's screen. 

92. env - run a command in an altered environment 

91. mount - used to mount the filesystem found on a device to big tree structure(Linux filesystem) rooted at '/'.

92 - umount - unmounts a previously mounted device, directory, file, or file system. 

93. systemctl - used to control and manage systemd and services. 

94. alias - defines an alias for the specified command. 

95. at - runs a specified script or command at a set later time.

96. atq - shows jobs in the at utility queue. 

97. atrm - deletes the specified job from the at utility queue.

98. bash - uses the Bourne Again Shell command language to interpret commands from standard input or a file, or to launch a subshell. 

99. bc - Performs calculations via its programming language.

100. bash - uses the Bourne Again Shell command language to interpret commands from standard input or a file, or to launch a subshell. 

101. bc - Performs calculations via its programming language. 

102. chfn - changes the specified user account's current information.

103. chgrp - changes the default group of the specified file or directory. 

104. chmod - changes system security permissions for the specified file or directory 

105. chown - changes the default owner of the specified file or directory.