Linux Commands for Developers

File and Directory Management

ls - Lists files and directories in the current directory. Example: ls -l shows

details.

cd - Changes the current directory. Example: cd /home navigates to the /home

directory.

pwd - Displays the current working directory.

mkdir - Creates a new directory. Example: mkdir project creates a folder named

'project'.

rm - Deletes files or directories. Example: rm [Link] deletes '[Link]'. Use rm -r for

directories.

cp - Copies files or directories. Example: cp [Link] [Link] copies [Link] to

[Link].

mv - Moves or renames files and directories. Example: mv [Link] [Link] renames

[Link] to [Link].

touch - Creates an empty file. Example: touch [Link] creates a blank '[Link]'.

find - Searches files and directories. Example: find / -name [Link] looks for '[Link]'.

locate - Finds files quickly using an indexed database. Example: locate [Link].

Text Processing

cat - Displays file contents. Example: cat [Link] shows the content of '[Link]'.

less - Views file content page by page. Example: less [Link].

grep - Searches for patterns in files. Example: grep 'error' [Link] finds 'error' in
 [Link].

awk - Processes and analyzes text data. Example: awk '{print $1}' [Link] prints the

first column.

sed - Performs text substitution and manipulation. Example: sed 's/old/new/g'

[Link] replaces 'old' with 'new'.

Networking

ping - Tests connectivity to a host. Example: ping [Link].

curl - Fetches data from URLs. Example: curl [Link] downloads the

page content.

wget - Downloads files from the internet. Example: wget [Link]

netstat - Displays network connections, routing tables, etc.

ss - Shows detailed network statistics. Example: ss -tuln displays listening ports.

scp - Securely copies files between servers. Example: scp [Link] user@host:/path

transfers [Link].

ftp - Transfers files using the FTP protocol. Example: ftp hostname.

Process Management

ps - Displays current running processes. Example: ps aux shows all processes

with details.

top - Displays real-time system resource usage and running processes.

htop - An interactive process viewer (similar to top).

kill - Terminates a process by its PID. Example: kill 1234 kills the process with

PID 1234.
killall - Kills processes by name. Example: killall firefox ends all Firefox processes.

bg - Resumes a suspended job in the background.

fg - Resumes a job in the foreground.

Version Control (Git)

git init - Initializes a new Git repository.

git clone - Clones an existing repository. Example: git clone <repo_url>.

git add - Stages changes for commit. Example: git add [Link].

git commit - Commits staged changes. Example: git commit -m 'message'.

git push - Pushes changes to a remote repository. Example: git push origin main.

git pull - Fetches and merges changes from a remote repository.

git status - Displays the status of the working directory.

git log - Shows the commit history.

git branch - Lists, creates, or deletes branches.

git merge - Merges branches together.

System Monitoring and Disk Usage

df - Displays disk space usage. Example: df -h shows human-readable disk

usage.

du - Shows directory size. Example: du -sh /home gives the size of /home.

free - Displays memory usage. Example: free -h shows human-readable memory

usage.

uptime - Shows how long the system has been running.

uname - Displays system information. Example: uname -a shows all details.

dmesg - Displays kernel log messages.

Archive and Compression

tar - Archives files. Example: tar -cvf [Link] [Link] creates an archive.

gzip - Compresses files. Example: gzip [Link] compresses '[Link]'.

gunzip - Decompresses files. Example: gunzip [Link] decompresses '[Link]'.

zip - Creates zip archives. Example: zip [Link] [Link].

unzip - Extracts zip archives. Example: unzip [Link].

Package Management

apt-get - Installs or removes packages on Debian-based systems. Example: apt-get

install git.

yum - Installs or removes packages on RHEL-based systems. Example: yum install

git.

dnf - A newer package manager for RHEL-based systems. Example: dnf install

git.

pip - Installs Python packages. Example: pip install flask.

Development Utilities

gcc - Compiles C/C++ code. Example: gcc main.c -o main compiles 'main.c'.

make - Builds projects using Makefiles. Example: make all builds all targets.

vim - Edits text files in the terminal. Example: vim [Link] opens '[Link]' for editing.

nano - A simple text editor. Example: nano [Link] opens '[Link]' for editing.

ssh - Connects to remote servers securely. Example: ssh user@host.