Linux is a type of operating system that works like Unix. All tasks in Linux are run in a terminal that the system gives you. The command prompt in Windows is a lot like this desktop. It is important to know that Linux and Unix programs care about capitalization. A Linux command is either a program or a list of steps that the user types into the console to do different things on the Linux operating system. It’s easy to use these commands to deal with the Linux operating system. They let you do many things, like manage files and directories, network, manage processes, and manage users.
These days, the Linux kernel and other operating systems that are like Unix share more than 80 Unix commands. Linux commands will be highly customized and offer advanced features for users with a lot of experience. The terminal that comes with Linux is where all of the Linux and Unix commands are run.
List of Linux Commands
It would be impossible to make a complete list of all the commands in Linux because they can be different depending on the distribution and packages that are installed. However, We can give you a complete list of the most important commands that are used in many areas, such as networking, user management, package management, file management, system administration, and more.
General Commands
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 1 | ls | List directory contents |
| 2 | cd | Change directory |
| 3 | pwd | Print working directory |
| 4 | echo | Display a line of text or variable value |
| 5 | cat | Concatenate and display file contents |
| 6 | more | View file contents one screen at a time |
| 7 | less | View file contents with backward navigation |
| 8 | head | Display the first few lines of a file |
| 9 | tail | Display the last few lines of a file |
| 10 | cp | Copy files and directories |
| 11 | mv | Move or rename files and directories |
| 12 | rm | Remove files or directories |
| 13 | mkdir | Create directories |
| 14 | rmdir | Remove empty directories |
| 15 | touch | Create an empty file or update the timestamp of an existing file |
| 16 | ln | Create hard and symbolic links |
System Administration
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 17 | sudo | Execute a command as another user, typically root |
| 18 | ps | Display process status |
| 19 | top | Real-time display of system resource usage |
| 20 | htop | Interactive process viewer |
| 21 | kill | Terminate processes |
| 22 | killall | Kill processes by name |
| 23 | df | Display disk space usage |
| 24 | du | Display file and directory disk usage |
| 25 | free | Display free and used memory |
| 26 | uptime | Show how long the system has been running |
| 27 | uname | Print system information |
| 28 | hostname | Display or set the system’s hostname |
| 29 | dmesg | Print or control the kernel ring buffer |
| 30 | whoami | Display current user |
| 31 | date | Display or set the system date and time |
| 32 | shutdown | Shutdown or restart the system |
| 33 | reboot | Reboot the system |
| 34 | systemctl | Manage systemd services |
| 35 | service | Start, stop, or restart services |
| 36 | cron | Manage scheduled tasks |
| 37 | crontab | Edit the cron jobs for a user |
File Permissions and Ownership
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 38 | chmod | Change file permissions |
| 39 | chown | Change file owner and group |
| 40 | chgrp | Change the group ownership of files |
| 41 | umask | Set the default file creation permissions |
Networking
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 42 | ifconfig | Configure or display network interfaces |
| 43 | ip | Show/manipulate routing, devices, and tunnels |
| 44 | ping | Send ICMP echo requests to test network connectivity |
| 45 | traceroute | Print the route packets take to a network host |
| 46 | netstat | Display network connections, routing tables, interface statistics |
| 47 | ss | Display socket statistics |
| 48 | nslookup | Query DNS to obtain domain name or IP address mappings |
| 49 | dig | DNS lookup utility |
| 50 | wget | Download files from the web |
| 51 | curl | Transfer data from or to a server |
| 52 | scp | Securely copy files over SSH |
| 53 | ssh | Securely log into a remote machine |
| 54 | ftp | Transfer files via FTP |
| 55 | iptables | Set up, maintain, and inspect the IP packet filter rules |
Package Management
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 56 | apt-get | Install, update, or remove packages on Debian-based systems |
| 57 | yum | Install, update, or remove packages on Red Hat-based systems |
| 58 | dnf | Next-generation package manager for Red Hat-based systems |
| 59 | pacman | Package manager for Arch Linux |
| 60 | rpm | Package management system for Red Hat-based distributions |
| 61 | snap | Manage Snap packages |
| 62 | flatpak | Manage Flatpak applications |
Disk Management
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 63 | fdisk | Partition table manipulator for Linux |
| 64 | mkfs | Create a filesystem |
| 65 | mount | Mount a filesystem |
| 66 | umount | Unmount a filesystem |
| 67 | fsck | File system consistency check and repair |
| 68 | blkid | Locate/print block device attributes |
| 69 | dd | Convert and copy files (low-level disk utility) |
User Management
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 70 | adduser | Add a user to the system |
| 71 | useradd | Add a user |
| 72 | userdel | Delete a user |
| 73 | passwd | Update a user’s password |
| 74 | su | Switch user |
| 75 | groups | Show group memberships for a user |
| 76 | usermod | Modify a user account |
Text Processing
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 77 | grep | Search for patterns within text |
| 78 | sed | Stream editor for filtering and transforming text |
| 79 | awk | Text processing and pattern scanning language |
| 80 | cut | Remove sections from each line of files |
| 81 | sort | Sort lines of text |
| 82 | uniq | Report or omit repeated lines |
| 83 | wc | Print newline, word, and byte counts for each file |
| 84 | diff | Compare files line by line |
| 85 | tr | Translate or delete characters |
Compression and Archiving
| Serial No. | Command | Description |
| 86 | tar | Archive files |
| 87 | gzip | Compress files |
| 88 | gunzip | Decompress files |
| 89 | zip | Package and compress files |
| 90 | unzip | Extract compressed files |
This list covers many of the essential commands you’ll encounter in Linux. For more advanced or specialized commands, you can use man <command> to view the manual pages for details on each command.
