Top 70 Linux Commands

By Paul M On 6 January 2023 In Linux

Top 70 Linux commands and what they do.

  1. ls – list the files in a directory
  2. pwd – display the current working directory
  3. cd – change the current working directory
  4. mkdir – create a new directory
  5. rmdir – remove an empty directory
  6. cp – copy a file or directory
  7. mv – move or rename a file or directory
  8. rm – delete a file or directory
  9. cat – display the contents of a file
  10. less – view a file a page at a time
  11. head – display the first few lines of a file
  12. tail – display the last few lines of a file
  13. grep – search a file for a pattern
  14. find – search for files in a directory tree
  15. which – locate a command
  16. whoami – display the current user
  17. who – display a list of users currently logged in
  18. finger – display information about a user
  19. w – display a list of users currently logged in and their processes
  20. ps – display a list of processes
  21. top – display real-time information about processes
  22. kill – terminate a process
  23. pkill – terminate a process by name
  24. shutdown – shut down the system
  25. reboot – reboot the system
  26. date – display the current date and time
  27. cal – display a calendar
  28. uptime – display the current uptime
  29. time – display the current time
  30. exit – exit the current command shell or program
  31. logout – log out of the current session
  32. clear – clear the terminal screen
  33. history – display the command history
  34. alias – create an alias for a command
  35. unalias – remove an alias
  36. chmod – change the permissions of a file or directory
  37. chown – change the owner of a file or directory
  38. chgrp – change the group of a file or directory
  39. df – display information about free disk space
  40. du – display the size of a directory
  41. free – display information about free memory
  42. vmstat – display information about virtual memory
  43. iostat – display I/O statistics
  44. netstat – display network statistics
  45. lsof – list open files
  46. strace – trace system calls and signals
  47. ltrace – trace library calls
  48. ping – send a ping to a host
  49. traceroute – display the route to a host
  50. telnet – connect to a remote host using Telnet
  51. ssh – secure shell client
  52. scp – secure copy a file or directory
  53. sftp – secure file transfer client
  54. ftp – file transfer client
  55. nc – network utility
  56. wget – retrieve a file from the web
  57. curl – retrieve data from the web
  58. tar – archiving utility
  59. gzip – compress or decompress a file
  60. bzip2 – compress or decompress a file
  61. unzip – decompress a zip archive
  62. zip – create a zip archive
  63. unrar – decompress a RAR archive
  64. rar – create a RAR archive
  65. mount – mount a file system
  66. umount – unmount a file system
  67. fdisk – partition a disk
  68. parted – partition a disk
  69. mkfs – create a file system
  70. fsck – check and repair a file