Linux Commands and Their Purpose
Navigating the File System
● pwd – Shows your current directory (Print Working Directory).
● ls – Lists files and folders in the current directory.
● cd /home – Changes directory to /home.
● cd ~ – Takes you to your home directory.
Working with Files and Directories
● mkdir test_directory – Creates a new folder called test_directory.
● cd test_directory – Enters the test_directory.
● touch test_file.txt – Creates an empty file named test_file.txt.
● echo "Hello, Linux!" > test_file.txt – Writes text into test_file.txt.
● cat test_file.txt – Displays contents of the file.
Managing Files
● mv test_file.txt new_file.txt – Renames the file.
● cp new_file.txt [Link] – Copies file to a new one.
● rm new_file.txt – Deletes the file.
● ls – Re-checks the directory contents.
Process Management
● ps – Lists currently running processes for the user.
● ps aux | grep bash – Searches for bash in all running processes.
● clear – Clears the terminal screen.
🔹 Getting Help
● man ls – Opens the manual/help page for the ls command.
User Management
● whoami – Displays the current username.
● cat /etc/passwd – Shows all system users.
● sudo useradd newuser – Adds a new user (replace newuser with actual name).
● sudo passwd newuser – Sets a password for the new user.
● su - newuser – Switches to the new user account.
● exit – Logs out of the current user session.
File Permissions
● touch [Link] – Creates a new file.
● ls -l [Link] – Shows file permissions and ownership.
● chmod +x [Link] – Makes the file executable.
● sudo chown newuser [Link] – Changes the file owner to newuser.
Networking
● ip a – Displays IP address and network interfaces.
● ping -c 4 [Link] – Pings Google to test connectivity (sends 4 packets).
● netstat -tulnp – Shows active network connections and listening ports.
● hostname – Displays the computer’s hostname.
Process Control
● pgrep bash – Gets the process ID (PID) of bash.
● sleep 1000 & – Starts a dummy background process that sleeps for 1000
seconds.
● pgrep sleep – Finds the PID of the sleep process.
● sudo kill [PID] – Stops the process with the given PID.
● sudo kill -9 [PID] – Forcefully stops a process.
User and Group Management
● sudo adduser advanceduser – Creates a user named advanceduser.
● sudo groupadd advancedgroup – Creates a group named advancedgroup.
● sudo usermod -aG advancedgroup advanceduser – Adds user to the group.
● groups advanceduser – Checks group memberships of the user.
Software Installation and Uninstallation
● sudo apt update – Updates the list of available packages.
● sudo apt install vlc – Installs VLC Media Player.
● vlc --version – Verifies that VLC was installed.
● sudo apt remove vlc – Uninstalls VLC (leaves config files).
● sudo apt purge vlc – Removes VLC including config files.
● sudo apt autoremove – Deletes unused packages to clean up space.
File and System Monitoring
● top – Shows live system usage (CPU, memory, processes).
● iostat – Displays disk I/O statistics (requires sysstat).
● sudo apt install sysstat – Installs the iostat tool.
