Linux Commands with Examples

The Linux command is a utility of the Linux operating system. All basic and
advanced tasks can be done by executing commands. The commands are executed
on the Linux terminal. The terminal is a command-line interface to interact with
the system, which is similar to the command prompt in the Windows OS. Commands
in Linux are case-sensitive.

Linux provides a powerful command-line interface compared to other operating

systems such as Windows and MacOS. We can do basic work and advanced work
through its terminal. We can do some basic tasks such as creating a file, deleting a
file, moving a file, and more. In addition, we can also perform advanced tasks such
as administrative tasks (including package installation, user management),
networking tasks (ssh connection), security tasks, and many more.

We have divided these commands into following sections so that you can easily
identify their usage:

o Linux Directory Commands

o Linux File Commands

o Linux File Content Commands

o Linux User Commands

o Linux Filter Commands

o Linux Utility Commands

o Linux Networking Command

Linux Directory Commands

1. pwd Command

The pwd command is used to display the location of the current working directory.

Syntax:

1. pwd

Output:

2. mkdir Command

The mkdir command is used to create a new directory under any directory.
Syntax:

1. mkdir <directory name>

Output:

3. rmdir Command

The rmdir command is used to delete a directory.

Syntax:

1. rmdir <directory name>

Output:

4. ls Command

The ls command is used to display a list of content of a directory.

Syntax:

1. ls

Output:

Note:

• Directories are denoted in blue color.

• Files are denoted in white.
• You will find similar color schemes in different flavors of Linux.
Suppose, your "Music" folder has following sub-directories and files.

•
• You can use 'ls -R' to shows all the files not only in directories but also
subdirectories

NOTE: The command is case-sensitive. If you enter, "ls - r" you will get an error.

'ls -al' gives detailed information of the files. The command provides
information in a columnar format. The columns contain the following
information:

1st Column File type and access permissions

2nd Column # of HardLinks to the File

3rd Column Owner and the creator of the file

4th Column Group of the owner

5th Column File size in Bytes

6th Column Date and Time

7th Column Directory or File name

Let's see an example -

Listing Hidden Files

Hidden items in UNIX/Linux begin with - at the

start, of the file or directory.

Any Directory/file starting with a '.' will not be seen unless you request for it. To view
hidden files, use the command.

ls -a

5. cd Command

The cd command is used to change the current directory.

Syntax:

1. cd <directory name>

Output:

cd.. command is used to navigate out of the current directory

Linux File commands
6. cat Command

The cat command is a multi-purpose utility in the Linux system. It can be used to
create a file, display content of the file, copy the content of one file to another file,
and more.

Syntax:

1. cat [OPTION]... [FILE]..

To create a file, execute it as follows:

1. cat > <file name>

2. // Enter file content

Press "CTRL+ D" keys to save the file. To display the content of the file, execute it
as follows:

1. cat <file name>

Output:

The 'cat' server command is used to display text files. It can also be used for
copying, combining and creating new text files. Let's see how it works.

To create a new file, use the command

1. cat > filename

2. Add content
3. Press 'ctrl + d' to return to command prompt.
To view a file, use the command -

cat filename

Let's see the file we just created -

Let's see another file sample2

The syntax to combine 2 files is -

cat file1 file2 > newfilename

Let's combine sample 1 and sample 2.

As soon as you insert this command and hit enter, the files are concatenated,
but you do not see a result. This is because Bash Shell (Terminal) is silent
type. Shell Commands will never give you a confirmation message like "OK" or
"Command Successfully Executed". It will only show a message when
something goes wrong or when an error has occurred.

To view the new combo file "sample" use the command

cat sample

Note: Only text files can be displayed and combined using this command.

7. touch Command

The touch command is used to create empty files. We can create multiple empty
files by executing it once.

Syntax:

1. touch <file name>

 2. touch <file1> <file2> ....

Output:

8. rm Command

The rm command is used to remove a file.

Syntax:

rm <file name>

Output:

To remove a directory, use the command -

rmdir directoryname

Example

rmdir mydirectory

will delete the directory mydirectory

Tip: Ensure that there is no file / sub-directory under the directory that you want to delete. Delete
the files/sub-directory first before deleting the parent directory.

9. cp Command

The cp command is used to copy a file or directory.

Syntax:

To copy in the same directory:

 1. cp <existing file name> <new file name>

To copy in a different directory:

Output:

10. mv Command

The mv command is used to move a file or a directory form one location to another
location.

Syntax:

1. mv <file name> <directory path>

Output:

11. rename Command

The rename command is used to rename files. It is useful for renaming a large
group of files.

Syntax:

1. rename 's/old-name/new-name/' files

For example, to convert all the text files into pdf files, execute the below command:

1. rename 's/\.txt$/\.pdf/' *.txt

Output:
Linux File Content Commands
12. head Command

The head command is used to display the content of a file. It displays the first 10
lines of a file.

Syntax:

1. head <file name>

Output:

13. tail Command

The tail command is similar to the head command. The difference between both
commands is that it displays the last ten lines of the file content. It is useful for
reading the error message.

Syntax:

1. tail <file name>

Output:
14. tac Command

The tac command is the reverse of cat command, as its name specified. It displays
the file content in reverse order (from the last line).

Syntax:

1. tac <file name>

Output:

15. more command

The more command is quite similar to the cat command, as it is used to display the
file content in the same way that the cat command does. The only difference
between both commands is that, in case of larger files, the more command displays
screenful output at a time.

In more command, the following keys are used to scroll the page:

ENTER key: To scroll down page by line.

Space bar: To move to the next page.

b key: To move to the previous page.

/ key: To search the string.

Syntax:

1. more <file name>

Output:
16. less Command

The less command is similar to the more command. It also includes some extra
features such as 'adjustment in width and height of the terminal.' Comparatively,
the more command cuts the output in the width of the terminal.

Syntax:

1. less <file name>

Output:
Linux User Commands
17. su Command

The su command provides administrative access to another user. In other words, it

allows access of the Linux shell to another user.

Syntax:

1. su <user name>

Output:

18. id Command

The id command is used to display the user ID (UID) and group ID (GID).

Syntax:

1. id

Output:

19. useradd Command

The useradd command is used to add or remove a user on a Linux server.

Syntax:

1. useradd username

Output:

20. passwd Command

The passwd command is used to create and change the password for a user.

Syntax:

1. passwd <username>

Output:

21. groupadd Command

The groupadd command is used to create a user group.

Syntax:

1. groupadd <group name>

Output:

Linux Filter Commands

22. cat Command

The cat command is also used as a filter. To filter a file, it is used inside pipes.

Syntax:

1. cat <fileName> | cat or tac | cat or tac |. . .

Output:
23. cut Command

The cut command is used to select a specific column of a file. The '-d' option is used
as a delimiter, and it can be a space (' '), a slash (/), a hyphen (-), or anything else.
And, the '-f' option is used to specify a column number.

Syntax:

1. cut -d(delimiter) -f(columnNumber) <fileName>

Output:

24. grep Command

The grep is the most powerful and used filter in a Linux system. The 'grep' stands
for "global regular expression print." It is useful for searching the content from a
file. Generally, it is used with the pipe.

Syntax:

1. command | grep <searchWord>

Output:

25. comm Command

The 'comm' command is used to compare two files or streams. By default, it displays
three columns, first displays non-matching items of the first file, second indicates
the non-matching item of the second file, and the third column displays the
matching items of both files.

Syntax:
 1. comm <file1> <file2>

Output:

26. sed command

The sed command is also known as stream editor. It is used to edit files using a
regular expression. It does not permanently edit files; instead, the edited content
remains only on display. It does not affect the actual file.

Syntax:

1. command | sed 's/<oldWord>/<newWord>/'

Output:

27. tee command

The tee command is quite similar to the cat command. The only difference between
both filters is that it puts standard input on standard output and also write them into
a file.

Syntax:

1. cat <fileName> | tee <newFile> | cat or tac |.....

Output:
28. tr Command

The tr command is used to translate the file content like from lower case to upper
case.

Syntax:

1. command | tr <'old'> <'new'>

Output:

29. uniq Command

The uniq command is used to form a sorted list in which every word will occur only
once.

Syntax:

1. command <fileName> | uniq

Output:
30. wc Command

The wc command is used to count the lines, words, and characters in a file.

Syntax:

1. wc <file name>

Output:

31. od Command

The od command is used to display the content of a file in different s, such as

hexadecimal, octal, and ASCII characters.

Syntax:

1. od -b <fileName> // Octal format

2. od -t x1 <fileName> // Hexa decimal format
3. od -c <fileName> // ASCII character format

Output:

32. sort Command

The sort command is used to sort files in alphabetical order.

Syntax:
 1. sort <file name>

Output:

33. gzip Command

The gzip command is used to truncate the file size. It is a compressing tool. It
replaces the original file by the compressed file having '.gz' extension.

Syntax:

1. gzip <file1> <file2> <file3>...

Output:

34. gunzip Command

The gunzip command is used to decompress a file. It is a reverse operation of gzip

command.

Syntax:

1. gunzip <file1> <file2> <file3>. .

Output:
Linux Utility Commands
35. find Command

The find command is used to find a particular file within a directory. It also supports
various options to find a file such as byname, by type, by date, and more.

The following symbols are used after the find command:

(.) : For current directory name

(/) : For root

Syntax:

1. find . -name "*.pdf"

Output:

36. locate Command

The locate command is used to search a file by file name. It is quite similar to find
command; the difference is that it is a background process. It searches the file in
the database, whereas the find command searches in the file system. It is faster
than the find command. To find the file with the locates command, keep your
database updated.
Syntax:

1. locate <file name>

Output:

37. date Command

The date command is used to display date, time, time zone, and more.

Syntax:

1. date

Output:

38. cal Command

The cal command is used to display the current month's calendar with the current
date highlighted.

Syntax:

1. cal<

Output:
39. sleep Command

The sleep command is used to hold the terminal by the specified amount of time. By
default, it takes time in seconds.

Syntax:

1. sleep <time>

Output:

40. time Command

The time command is used to display the time to execute a command.

Syntax:

1. time

Output:

41. zcat Command

The zcat command is used to display the compressed files.

Syntax:

1. zcat <file name>

Output:
42. df Command

The df command is used to display the disk space used in the file system. It displays
the output as in the number of used blocks, available blocks, and the mounted
directory.

Syntax:

1. df

Output:

43. mount Command

The mount command is used to connect an external device file system to the
system's file system.

Syntax:

1. mount -t type <device> <directory>

Output:
44. exit Command

Linux exit command is used to exit from the current shell. It takes a parameter as a
number and exits the shell with a return of status number.

Syntax:

1. exit

Output:

After pressing the ENTER key, it will exit the terminal.

45. clear Command

Linux clear command is used to clear the terminal screen.

Syntax:

1. clear

Output:

After pressing the ENTER key, it will clear the terminal screen.
Linux Networking Commands
46. ip Command

Linux ip command is an updated version of the ipconfig command. It is used to

assign an IP address, initialize an interface, disable an interface.

Syntax:

1. ip a or ip addr

Output:

47. ssh Command

Linux ssh command is used to create a remote connection through the ssh protocol.

Syntax:

1. ssh user_name@host(IP/Domain_name)</p>

48. mail Command

The mail command is used to send emails from the command line.

Syntax:

1. mail -s "Subject" <recipient address>

Output:
49. ping Command

The ping command is used to check the connectivity between two nodes, that is
whether the server is connected. It is a short form of "Packet Internet Groper."

Syntax:

1. ping <destination>

Output:

50. host Command

The host command is used to display the IP address for a given domain name and
vice versa. It performs the DNS lookups for the DNS Query.

Syntax:

1. host <domain name> or <ip address>

Output: