The Basic Commands on LINUX that You Must Know

LINUX is one of the most widely used operating systems other than Windows and MacOS. Open Source based, this operating system has a variety of interesting features and easily modified so that became one of the reasons why hackers choose Linux than Windows.

In general, users who are used to using Windows or Mac will be a little confused when just starting to try Linux. In order not to get too blind when trying Linux, here alltutorials share some basic commands commonly used in Linux.

Basic Command on Linux

Here are all the basic Linux commands you should know when learning or trying Open Source Linux operating systems. Basic Commands Linux works on almost all versions of Linux, of course this will make it easier for you when trying Linux.

• mkdir - create a directory
  Usage: mkdir [OPTION] DIRECTORY ...
  Example: mkdir lhn

• ls - list directory list
  Usage: ls [OPTION] ... [FILE] ...
  Example: ls, ls l, ls lhn

• cd - change directory
  Usage: cd [DIRECTORY]
  Example: cd lhn

• pwd - print the current directory name
  Usage: pwd

• vim – Vi Improved, a programmers text editor
  Usage: vim [OPTION] [file]…
  Example: vim lhn.txt

• cp - copy files and directories
  Usage: cp [OPTION] ... SOURCE DEST
  Example: cp sample.txt sample_copy.txt
                cp sample_copy.txt target_dir

• mv - move (rename) the file
  Usage: mv [OPTION] ... SOURCE DEST
  Example: mv source.txt target_dir
                mv old.txt new.txt

• rm - delete files or directories
  Usage: rm [OPTION] ... FILE ...
  Example: rm file1.txt, rm rf some_dir

• find - looking for something
  Usage: find [OPTION] [path] [pattern]
  Example: find file1.txt, find name file1.txt

• history - prints recently used commands
  Usage: history

• cat - unifies files and displays in standard output
  Usage: cat [OPTION] [FILE] ...
  Example: cat file1.txt file2.txt
                cat n file1.txt

• echo - displays a line of text
  Usage: echo [OPTION] [string] ...
  Example: echo I love India
                echo $HOME 

• grep - displays the corresponding line pattern
  Usage: grep [OPTION] PATTERN [FILE] ...
  Example: grep i apple sample.txt

• wc - displays the number of lines, words and bytes of a file
  Usage: wc [OPTION] ... [FILE] ...
  Example: wc file1.txt
                wc L file1.txt

• sort - sorting
  Usage: sort [OPTION] ... [FILE] ...
  Example: sort file1.txt
                sort r file1.txt 

• tar - archives files
  Usage: tar [OPTION] DEST SOURCE
  Example: tar cvf /home/archive.tar /home/original
                tar xvf /home/archive.tar

• kill - turns off a process
  Usage: kill [OPTION] pid
  Example: kill 9 2275 

• ps - displays the current process snapshot
  Usage: ps [OPTION]
  Example: ps, ps el

• who - knows who is logged in
  Usage: who [OPTION]
  Example: who, who b, who q

• passwd - update password
  Usage: passwd [OPTION]
  Example: passwd

• su - replace USER ID or become super user
  Usage: su [OPTION] [LOGIN]
  Example: su remo, su

• chown - change the file or group owner
  Usage: chown [OPTION] ... OWNER [: [GROUP]] FILE ...
  Example: chown remo myfile.txt

• chmod - replace file permissions
  Usage: chmod [OPTION] [MODE] [FILE]
  Example: chmod 744 calculate.sh

• zip - archiving files
  Usage: zip [OPTION] DEST SOURSE
  Example: original original zip.zip

• unzip - opens ZIP archived files
  Usage: unzip filename
  Example: unzip original.zi

• ssh - SSH client (remote login program)
  "Ssh is a program for logging into a remote machine and for executing commands on a remote machine"
  Usage: ssh [options] [user] @hostname
  Example: ssh X guest@10.105.11.20

• scp - secure copy (remote file copy program)
  "Scp copies files between hosts on a network"
  Usage: scp [options][[user]@host1: file1][[user]@ost2:file2]
  Example: scp file1.txt guest@10.105.11.20:~/Desktop/

• fdisk - partition manipulator
  Example: sudo fdisk l

• mount - mount a file system
  Usage: mount t type device dir
  Example: mount /dev/sda5 /media/target

• umount - unmount file systems
  Usage: umount [OPTIONS] dir | device ...
  Example: umount /media/target

• du - view the storage capacity
  Usage: du [OPTION] ... [FILE] ...
  Example: du

• df - see the amount of storage usage
  Usage: df [OPTION] ... [FILE] ...
  Example: df

• quota - view usage and disk limits
  Usage: quota [OPTION]
  Example: quota v

• reboot - restart the system
  Usage: reboot [OPTION]
  Example: reboot

• poweroff - shut down system
  Usage: poweroff [OPTION]
  Example: poweroff

• kate - KDE Editor
  Usage: kate [options] [file (s)]
  Example: kate file1.txt file2.txt

• vim - Vi Improved, a programmers text editor
  Usage: vim [OPTION] [file] ...
  Example: vi hello.c

• gedit - Text editor to create and edit files
  Usage: gedit [OPTION] [FILE] ...
  Example: gedit

• bg - make the process in front running behind
  Usage: type 'ctrl+z' and then 'bg'

• fg - keeps the background process running in front
  Usage: fg [jobid]

• jobs - displays the ID and process name
  Usage: jobs

• sed - stream editor for sorting and transforming text
  Usage: sed [OPTION] [inputfile] ...
  Example: sed 's/love/hate/g' loveletter.txt

• awk - scan pattern and language processing
  Example: awk F: '{print $1}'sample_awk.txt

• find - search in one directory
  Usage: find [OPTION] [path] [pattern]
  Example: find name file1.txt

• locate - search
  Usage: locate [OPTION] ... FILE ...
  Example: locate file1.txt

Those are the basic Linux commands you must know to avoid being too blind when using Linux. If there are errors or things to say, do not forget to write them in the comments field. Good luck!

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