The command line terminal in Linux is the operating system’s most powerful component. However, due to the sheer amount of commands available, it can be intimidating for newcomers. Even longtime users may forget a command every once in a while and that is why we have created this Linux cheat sheet commands guide.
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For times like these, it’s very handy to have a compiled list of Linux commands that have been sorted by category. That way, it only takes a few moments to reference the list whenever you forget the exact syntax of a command.

In this tutorial, we’ll present you with a curated list of the most handy Linux commands. These are some of the most useful commands, but they aren’t easy to remember for everyone. Next time your mind is blanking at a Linux terminal, take a look at the Linux commands cheat sheet below for some quick help.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• Linux commands cheat sheet

👁 Linux commands cheat sheet

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions

Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Any Linux distro
Software	N/A
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

File System Navigation

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Command	Description
ls	List all the files in a directory
ls -l	List all files and their details (owner, mtime, size, etc)
ls -a	List all the files in a directory (including hidden files)
pwd	Show the present working directory
cd	Change directory to some other location
file	View the type of any file

View, Create, Edit, and Delete Files and Directories

Command	Description
mkdir	Create a new directory
touch	Create a new, empty file, or update the modified time of an existing one
cat > file	Create a new file with the text you type after
cat file	View the contents of a file
grep	View the contents of a file that match a pattern
nano file	Open a file (or create new one) in nano text editor
vim file	Open a file (or create new one) in vim text editor
rm or rmdir	Remove a file or empty directory
rm -r	Remove a directory that isn’t empty
mv	Move or rename a file or directory
cp	Copy a file or directory
rsync	Synchronize the changes of one directory to another

Search for Files and Directories

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Command	Description
locate	Quickly find a file or directory that has been cached
find	Seach for a file or directory based on name and other parameters

Basic Administration Commands

Command	Description
whoami	See which user you are currently logged in as
sudo	Execute a command with root permissions
sudo apt install	Install a package on Debian based systems
sudo dnf install	Install a package on Red Hat based systems
sudo apt remove	Remove a package on Debian based systems
sudo dnf remove	Remove a package on Red Hat based systems
reboot	Reboot the system
poweroff	Shut down the system

Hard Drive and Storage Commands

Command	Description
df or df -h	See the current storage usage of mounted partitions
sudo fdisk -l	See information for all attached storage devices
du	See disk usage of a directory’s contents
tree	View the directory structure for a path
mount and umount	Mount and unmount a storage device or ISO file

Compression Commands

Command	Description
tar cf my_dir.tar my_dir	Create an uncompressed tar archive
tar cfz my_dir.tar my_dir	Create a tar archive with gzip compression
gzip file	Compress a file with gzip compression
tar xf file	Extract the contents of any type of tar archive
gunzip file.gz	Decompress a file that has gzip compression

Networking Commands

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Command	Description
ip a	Show IP address and other information for all active interfaces
ip r	Show IP address of default gateway
cat /etc/resolv.conf	See what DNS servers your system is configured to use
ping	Send a ping request to a network device
traceroute	Trace the network path taken to a device
ssh	Login to a remote device with SSH

File Permissions and Ownership

Command	Description
chmod	Change the file permissions for a file or directory
chown	Change the owner of a file or directory
chgrp	Change the group of a file or directory

User Management Commands

Command	Description
useradd	Low level utility for adding new user accounts
adduser	High level utility for adding new user accounts
deluser	Delete a user account
usermod	Modify a user account
groupadd	Create a new group
delgroup	Delete a group

System Resource Management Commands

Command	Description
free -m	See how much memory is in use and free
top	See a list of processes and their resource usage
htop	A more human readable and interactive version of top
nice	Start a new process with a specified priority
renice	Change the nice value of a currently running process
ps aux OR ps -ef	View all of the currently running processes
kill or killall	Terminate a process
kill -9 or killall -9	Terminate a process with SIGKILL signal
bg	Send a task to the background
fg	Bring a task to the foreground

Environment Variable Commands

Command	Description
printenv or printenv variable_name	List all environment variables on a Linux system, or a specific one
whereis and which	Find where a command in PATH is located
export MY_SITE="linuxconfig.org"	Set a temporary environment variable (just an example, but use the same syntax)
echo $VARIABLE	Display the value of a variable
unset	Remove a variable

Kernel Information and Module Management

Command	Description
uname -a	Output detailed information about your kernel version and architecture
lsmod	Find what modules are currently loaded
modinfo module_name	Get information about any particular module
modprobe --remove module_name	Remove a module
modprobe module_name	Load a module into the kernel

Hardware Information Commands

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Command	Description
lspci	See general information about host bridge, VGA controller, ethernet controller, USB controller, SATA controller, etc.
dmidecode	See some information about BIOS, motherboard, chassis, etc.
cat /proc/cpuinfo	Retrieve processor type, socket, speed, configured flags, etc.
x86info or x86info -a	See information about the CPU
cat /proc/meminfo	See detailed information about system RAM
lshw	List all hardware components and see their configuration details
lshw -C memory -short	Detect number of RAM slots used, speed, and size
hwinfo	List details for all hardware, including their device files and configuration options
biosdecode	Get some general information about your system’s BIOS
dmidecode -s bios-vendor	Retrieve the name of your BIOS vendor with this simple command
lsusb	Get a list of USB devices plugged into your system
ls -la /dev/disk/by-id/usb-*	Retrieve a list of USB device files
hdparm -I /dev/sdx	Get information about your hard drive’s make, model, serial number, firmware version, and configuration
hdparm -tT /dev/sdx	Show the speed of an installed hard drive – including cached reads and buffered disk reads
wodim --devices	Locate CD or DVD device file

Closing Thoughts

Feel free to reference this cheat sheet any time that you need a quick refresher. The goal here is to save you as much time as possible when trying to remember a certain command.

Two more commands that every user should know are the man command and apropos command. Knowing these two commands, which are very simple to use, will allow you to look up all the options that go with certain commands. apropos also works well as a manual search utility so you don’t need to leave your terminal very often.